19.06.2013 Views

Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

RESIDENCE AT TARAPOTO 59<br />

win the heart of and actually marry the daughter<br />

of the oldest Portuguese colonist, Senhor Brandao,<br />

who (as he himself has told me) considered him-<br />

self of the same race as our ancient Dukes of<br />

Suffolk. Arrived at Para, the resident merchants<br />

and druggists, deceived by the appearance of the<br />

bark, and probably at that epoch unable to test it<br />

chemically, offered to buy the whole cargo at a<br />

price that would have amply remunerated the<br />

adventurers, who, however, now thoroughly persuaded<br />

of the genuineness of their bark, and be-<br />

for it in<br />

lieving they could obtain a far higher price<br />

England, determined to proceed with it to Liver-<br />

pool. <strong>The</strong>y accordingly freighted a vessel of<br />

Singlehurst's, partly on borrowed money and<br />

partly on credit of the proceeds of the sale they<br />

hoped to effect. It must have been a sorrowful<br />

moment for them when their bark, having been<br />

analysed at Liverpool by competent judges, was<br />

pronounced to be vian Bark at<br />

utterly worthless, and not Peru-<br />

all. When ulterior analysis only<br />

was left for them<br />

confirmed the sentence, nothing<br />

but to abandon their hoped-for source of wealth<br />

and return to their own country, which they were<br />

only enabled to do by the beneficence of the merchants<br />

of Liverpool. Mr. Singlehurst had the<br />

unsaleable bark left on his hands, in lieu of ^400<br />

due to him on freight from Para, and for expense-<br />

incurred in England.<br />

At Lamas I was shown the spurious bark-tree,<br />

still growing in tolerable abundance, and recognised<br />

it as one I had gathered in llower and fruit on hill<br />

sides at Tarapoto. It is the Condaniinc<br />

bosa of Decandolle, and belongs to the same family

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!