Travels in Peru and India
While Superintending the Collection of Chinchona Plants and Seeds in South America, and their Introduction into India

First published in 1862, this is an account of the expedition that introduced quinine-yielding trees to India from Peru.

Clements R. Markham (Author)

9781108046718, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 June 2012

618 pages, 15 b/w illus. 2 maps
21.6 x 14 x 3.5 cm, 0.78 kg

Sir Clements Robert Markham (1830–1916) had a lifelong interest in Peru. Having already travelled there in his early twenties, he was commissioned to return ten years later to supervise the collection of sufficient specimens of the cinchona tree for its introduction to India. The bark of the tree yielded quinine, by then a well-known febrifuge and one of the few effective treatments for malaria. This book, originally published in 1862, is Markham's personal account of his travels. His story moves from the misty heights of the Peruvian mountains, where he suffered from altitude sickness, to the Malabar coastline and its complex, remarkable caste system. Markham also includes a detailed history of the use of cinchona bark, both by Europeans and aboriginal Peruvians, and a discussion of Incan culture since the arrival of the Spanish. His work is still a valuable resource for students of scientific and colonial history.

Preface
Travels in Peru: 1. Discovery of Peruvian Bark
2. The valuable species of chinchona-trees, their history, their discoveries, and their forests
3. Rapid destruction of chinchona-trees in South America
4. Introduction of chinchona-plants into India
5. Islay and Arequipa
6. Journey across the Cordillera to Puno
7. The Aymara Indians
8. The Peruvian Indians
9. Narrative of the insurrection of José Gabriel Tupac Amaru, the last of the Incas
10. Diego Tupac Amaru
11. Journey from Pumo to Crucero, the capital of Caravaya
12. The Province of Caravaya
13. Caravaya
14. Coca cultivation
15. Caravaya
16. General remarks on the chinchona-plants of Caravaya
17. Journey from the forests of Tambopata to the port of Islay
18. Present condition and future prospects of Peru
19. Mr. Spruce's expedition to procure plants and seeds of the 'red bark', or C. succirubra
20. Conveyance of chinchona-plants and seeds from South America to India
Travels in India: 21. Malabar
22. Neilgherry Hills
23. Selection of sites for Chinchona-plantations on the Neilgherry Hills
24. Journey to the Pulney Hills
25. Madura and Trichinopoly
26. Mysore and Coorg
27. The Mahabaleshwur hills and the Deccan
28. Cultivation of the chinchona-plants in the Neilgherry Hills, under the superintendence of Mr. McIvr
29. Chinchona cultivation
Appendix.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]