Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. For the text given here, see 'Horticultural notes', Leader, 30 April 1881, p. 9, col. a, where the text is introduced by:

One cannot but feel grieved, when one hears of the great success attending the cultivation of the Cinchona in India, Ceylon and other countries, that so valuable and profitable a plant, yielding a drug of so much importance and in such demand in every part of the world, should have been so sadly neglected in Victoria, where, as has been proved, it thrives, even in situations that are not the most suitable in the colony. Several different kinds are now in cultivation, and it appears that the most valuable of all — Cinchona Ledgeriana — has been recently proved. The finding and introduction of this rare variety are detailed in a most interesting narrative in a letter recently received by a gentleman in Melbourne from Mr. Ledger himself, and from which we have been permitted to make the following extracts:—.

See also W. Elliott to M, 20 April 1881 (in this edition as 81-04-20a), which reveals that the 'gentleman in Melbourne' was M, and which provides the basis for dating Ledger's letter to earlier in 1881. (Ledger was living in South America at the time.)

[Mr. Ledger's name is well known throughout the world in connection with the introduction of the Alpaca to Australia. He relates that in 1856, while on his journey in Bolivia, he heard of the mission sent out by the British Government in charge of Mr. Clements Markham in search of plants and seeds of Cinchona.

2

Ledger's account cannot be entirely correct since the India Office's plans for the British expedition were not developed until 1859; not until April 1859 did Markham offer to lead the expedition, and he was in Peru in 1860 (see Williamson (1962)), when Ledger was in Australia (ADB). Ledger evidently misremembered some details. Having been living in Peru for many years, he had journeyed across Bolivia when, in order to evade a Peruvian export embargo, he drove a flock of alpacas for 'nearly 1,700 miles' from Peru through Bolivia to Argentina and then across the Andes to Chile, before shipping them successfully to Sydney. Commencing from Peru in 1853, he crossed from Bolivia to Argentina in May 1855, and crossed the Andes to Chile in 'March and April 1858' (Ledger (1864)). The 'mission' he heard about was probably that of Justus Charles Hasskarl, who in 1854 obtained Cinchona plants for the Dutch, to enable them to establish plantations in Java (see n. 5 below).

A Bolivian Indian, named Manuel Tuera Mamani, a bark-cutter, and his two sons, were then, and had been since 1843, in the service of Mr. Ledger, who had found Manuel perfectly trustworthy, and of great use to him in the purchasing of bark

3

i.e. 'Peruvian bark', from which quinine was extracted.

and alpaca wool. Having mentioned, while sitting around the camp-fire, what he had read of Mr. Markham's journey, Manuel greatly surprised him by saying:— "The gentleman will not leave the Yungas

4

A richly forested transition zone between the Andean highlands and the eastern forests, a principal source at the time for quinine derived from the bark of Cinchona trees.

in good health if he really obtains the Rojo plants and seeds."

5

Hasskarl (see n. 2 above) had used an agent, Clemente Henriquez, who obtained the Cinchona plants for him, but 'an outcry was afterwards raised against Henriquez, by the people inhabiting villages bordering on the chinchona forests, who considered that their interests would be injured by the exportation of the plants: they declared they would cut his feet off if they caught him, and he has ever since been obliged to live at Pelechuco, in Bolivia. This feeling has rendered any future operations of a like nature exceedingly difficult' (Markham (1862), pp. 49-50).

Nothing further was said at the time, Manuel being very taciturn, and other Indians being near; but next day he reluctantly told Mr. Ledger that every stranger on entering the Yungas was closely watched, unobserved by himself; how several seed collectors had had their seed changed, how their germinating power was destroyed by their own guides, servants, &c. He also stated that all the Indians most implicitly believed that, if by plants or seeds from the Yungas the Cinchonas are successfully propagated in other countries, all their own trees will perish. Mr. Ledger further writes: — "You are aware how I am looked upon as a doctor by the Indians; well, one day, soon after, when making a decoction from coca leaves, I said, 'Manuel, I may some day require some seed and flowers of the famous white flower, Rojo Cascarilla, as a remedy, and I shall rely on your not deceiving me.' He merely said, 'Patron, I will not deceive you,' and I thought no more about it." Mr. Ledger brought Alpacas to Sydney in 1858, accompanied by Santiago, one of the sons of Manuel, and on the return of the latter to Bolivia sent a message to Manuel to procure seed of Rojo Cinchona and meet Mr. Ledger at Tacua in Peru. After having become ruined through the introduction of Alpacas to Australia, Mr. Ledger returned to his family in Tacua, in January, 1865, and at once sent a message informing Manuel of his arrival. "At the end of May he arrived with his precious seed. Only now, some twenty-four years after poor Manuel's promise not to deceive me, is it manifest how faithfully and loyally he kept it. I say 'poor Manuel' because, as you know, he lost his life while trying to get another supply of seeds for me in 1872."

6

Markham (1880), p. 215, reports that Manuel was captured in Bolivia, imprisoned and beaten, and died from the ill treatment.

A portion of the seed was purchased by the East Indian Government, and part by the Netherlands Government. Mr. Ledger concludes: "Such, then, is the story attached to the now famous Cinchona Ledgeriana, the source of untold wealth to Java, Ceylon, and, I hope, to India and elsewhere. I am proud to see my dream of close on forty years ago is realised; Europe is no longer dependent on Bolivia for its supply of life-giving Quinine."]