In obtaining plants and seeds of these valuable chinchonas from South America, it would be a source of deep regret to me if that measure was attended by any injury to the people or the commerce of Peru or Ecuador, countries in the welfare of which I have for years taken the deepest interest. But I have no apprehension that such will be the result of the cultivation of these plants in other parts of the world. The demand for quinine will always be in excess of the supply from South America; and the result of chinchona cultivation in India and Java will have the effect of lowering the price, and bringing this inestimable febrifuge within the reach of a vast number of people who are now excluded from its use, without in any way injuring the trade of Peru and Ecuador. I trust that not only will this measure do no injury to the South Americans, but that it may be hereafter productive of good to them, as well as to the rest of mankind. Hitherto they have destroyed the chinchona-trees in a spirit of reckless short-sightedness, and thus done more injury to their own interests than could possibly have arisen from any commercial competition; but it may be that the influence of peace and education will inaugurate a new system in time to come, that more enlightened views will prevail, and that they themselves may undertake the cultivation of a plant which is indigenous to their forests, but which, up to this time, they have so foolishly neglected. It will then be a pleasure to supply them with the information which will have been gained by the experience of cultivators in India, and thus to assist them in the establishment of plantations on the slopes of the eastern Andes. Under any circumstances the South Americans, who owe to India the staple food of millions of their people, and to the Old World most of their valuable products--wheat, barley, apples, peaches, sugar-cane, the vine, rice, the olive, sheep, cattle, and horses--have no right to desire to withhold from India a product which is so essentially necessary to her welfare. Nor do I believe that the better conditioned Peruvians have any such desire. On the contrary, many of them have shown themselves willing to promote a friendly interchange of the products of the New and Old Worlds; and the foolish decree issued in Ecuador on the 1st of May, 1861, as well as the numerous obstructions thrown in my way in southern Peru, may be imputed either to the narrow-minded selfishness of half-educated officials, or to the ignorant patriotism of backwoodsmen. These are feelings which are not shared by either the educated few, or by the Indian population.