Even while doing myself the honor of thus calling on His
Excellency, I had given orders to the captain of the ship to keep
up steam, having ventured to trust His Excellency would see his
way clear to furnishing me with immediate dispatch. An interview
most polite, full of mutual compliments in the best Portuguese
manner, enabled us to get under way as soon as the captain had got
the dinghy hauled aboard."

Can you imagine Wickham's sigh of relief as his vessel, with its
freight of perishable treasure, steamed out of port, and began the
long journey to England?





CHAPTER 5

PLANTATION DEVELOPMENT


The transporting of the rubber seeds from the Brazilian forests to
England was only the first step in Wickham's project. The real
test was still to come. The seeds were planted in the famous
Botanical Gardens of Kew, and on August 12, 1876, the several
thousand seedlings which had been raised from them were packed in
special cases and shipped to Ceylon on the other side of the globe
for the final and most important stage of the experiment.

How long the next five years must have seemed to the anxious