December i, 1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



73 



EXPLORING FOR "CASTILLOA" RUBBER IN PAMAMA. 



Experiences of The Editor of " The India Rubber World." 



FIRST LETTER. 



To Panama in the Rainy Season. — Fortune Island. — Colon. — 

 Along the Panama Canal. — Panama City. — The Almirante. — To- 

 boga Island. — Queer Fish. — Sleeping in the Kain. — The Quebro 

 Outlaws. — El Ciipilan s Fears. — Almost Wrecked. — In the Lee of 

 Gubernador. — The " Pioneer " Comes Aboard. — Ashore at Last. 



IT was decidedly against my better judgment that I found 

 myself en route for Central America in May, and due to 

 reach the infant republic of Panama during the rainy 

 season, and when yellow fever might be too easy of 

 acquisition. Nevertheless, there I was, passenger on the Alli- 

 anca, with two fellow adventurers, while a third was waiting our 

 arrival in Panama city. The exploring party consisted of four 

 — the "Prospector," a well known mining engineer; the 

 " Scout," then in Panama, getting together supplies, engaging 

 guides, and chartering a schooner ; the " Commodore," and the 

 writer. My task was the examination of some 800 square miles 

 of wild lands, privately owned and long forgotten. 



The voyage to Colon was uneventful, but enjoyable, although 

 it grew warmer each day, and side awnings and wind scoops 

 told of increasing nearness to the tropics. In due time Bird 

 Island rock was sighted, where is a lighthouse, flagstaff, and 

 thirteen cocoanut palms, but no sign of life on the dazzling 

 white beaches. Later came Fortune island and, stopping far otT 

 shore, the one white resident came oflf to us in a jolly boat 

 rowed by a half dozen husky negroes and got his mail. Although 

 the sea was smooth as glass, of a wonderful indescribable blue, 

 and the little cluster of houses in the distance in a setting of 

 graceful palms, with foreground of snowwhite beaches, was most 

 beautiful, the heat was killing and we were glad when the 

 steamer left it all behind. Later the light on Cape Maisi, Cuba, 

 was raised, and then came the boisterous and lonely Caribbean sea. 

 Heavy thunder storms soon became frequent, and the heat dur- 

 ing the day was intense, but the nights, as the moon was full, 

 were glorious. Finally, on the last day of May, at 11 in the 

 morning, we sighted the rugged coast of Colombia, shadowed 

 by masses of deep cloud, and not long after were in Colon. 

 Although soon transferred to the train that crosses the Isth- 



mus, we had a chance to see the building where 24 United 

 States marines «tood oflf 400 Columbian regulars, to take in the 

 negro huts that cluster about the town in every swampy spot, 

 and to size up the small, scraggy horses, the parrots, monkeys, 

 and a good percentage of Colon's 2000 inhabitants. 



The afternoon train scheduled to leave at 2.45 gets away 

 promptly at 3.30. Almost at once the journey is made interest- 

 ing by the relics of the French canal diggers, and such relics ! 

 Trains of cars abandoned, overgrown with vines, trees, and 

 lusty weeds; mountains of corroding iron pipe, hundreds of 

 tons of rusty rails, donkey engines, locomotives, dredges — all 

 crumbling, rotting, sinking out of sight in the slime, or covered 

 by the rank swamp growths. Further on were huge warehouses, 

 said to be full of expensive machinery, and then the chateaus 

 of the French engineers, once trig and neat, now tawdry, deso- 

 late, deserted. We saw the Chagres river, and very harmless 

 and muddy it looked; observed Monkey Hill cemetery, and 

 wondered why the French engineers elected to live in a swamp 

 and be buried on a hill ; admired the fine work done in exca- 

 vating the Culebra cut ; took note of the types ol jungle growth, 

 and at 6 in the evening arrived at the city of Panama, were met 

 by the Scout, and at once taken to the Hotel Grand Central. 



Here was a deadly, sticky, oppressive heat, with not a breath 

 of air stirring. The bare bedrooms were like ovens, and even 

 the cone of mosquito netting that hung over the bed was to the 

 imagination as stiffing as a blanket. It was too hot to think of 

 sleep, so we wandered about the city, interested, amused, and 

 disgusted — interested by the quaint and ancient architecture, 

 amused by the police custom of blowing whistles in concert 

 when the clocks struck the hour, disgusted by the smells that 

 many side streets developed. 



The next morning after coffee we went down to the water 

 front, where, lying high and dry on the beach, as the tide was 

 out, was the Almirante, the 60 ton schooner that was to take 

 us to our destination. The crew of five negroes, headed by the 

 Mate, were slowly getting our outfit aboard, and at the same 

 time chaffing the crews of nearby hog schooners that were un- 



m THE CANAL ZONE.— RIVER VIEW. 



CATHEDRAL SQUARE AND HOTEL GRAND CENTRAL, PANAMA CITY 



