ON May 11th Mr. Weir completed the packing of the plants, and we were preparing for the journey up into the _pajonales_ on the following day, having previously fixed on the _Calisaya_-trees from which we intended to obtain a supply of seeds in August, when Gironda received an ominous letter from Don José Mariano Bobadilla, the Alcalde Municipal of Quiaca, ordering him to prevent me from taking away a single plant; to arrest both myself and the person who had acted as my guide; and to send us to Quiaca.[345] I found that an outcry against my proceedings had been raised by Don Manuel Martel, the red-faced man whom I had met on the road to Sandia, and that the people of Sandia and Quiaca had been excited by assertions that the exportation of cascarilla-seeds would prove the ruin of themselves and their descendants. Gironda, though friendly and hospitable, feared that the finger of scorn would be pointed at him, as the man who had allowed the stranger to injure his countrymen. He wanted to throw away all the plants, except a few which we might take without observation, and, if we had not kept constant guard over them, he would have carried his views into effect without consulting us. I saw that in an immediate retreat was the only hope of saving the plants; and I explained to Gironda that his views were incorrect, and that, if necessary, we were prepared to defend our property by force. At the same time I addressed a letter to Don José Bobadilla, stating that his interference was an unwarrantable step which I would not tolerate; and that, as I understood the provisions of the Constitution of 1856, the functions of the _Juntas Municipales_ were purely consultative and legislative, conferring no executive powers whatever, concluding with an expression of my sense of his patriotic zeal, and of regret that it should be accompanied by such misguided and lamentable ignorance of the true interests of his country. Nevertheless, I felt the imperative necessity of immediate flight, especially as I obtained information from an Indian of Quiaca that Martel's son and his party, who had brought the letter, were only the vanguard of a body of mestizos, who were coming down the valley to seize me, and destroy my collection of chinchona-plants. Early in the morning of May 12th we took leave of our kind and hospitable old friend Gironda, without whose assistance we should have been exposed to much suffering from want of food; and of the honest forester Martinez. I expressed my sincere regret to Gironda that any misunderstanding should have arisen at the close of our acquaintance, and promised Martinez to obtain guarantees that he should suffer no molestation on account of the services he had rendered to me. The most melancholy part of travelling is the parting with friends, never to meet again.