January i, 1905.] 



I'HE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



109 



EXPLORING FOR "CASTILLOA" RUBBER IN PANAMA. 



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



SECOND LETTER. 

 Camp Rio Negro. — Roughing It. — Story of a Bridge. — Castilloa 

 Groves. — Hirds, Animals and Reptiles. — Cruz, tlie Hunter. — Trips 

 of Exploration. — Chiquita, the Commodore, and " Mula Grande." 

 Coagulating Rubber with Amole Juice. — Native Rubber Manufact- 

 ure. — Llanos. — Don Raimon and Donna Maria. — A Treasure Hunt. 



OU R plan at first, on coming ashore on the Azuero penin- 

 sula, had been to camp right where we landed but the 

 " heng-hengs " (rodadors) were so troublesome that an- 

 otherspot had been chosen some eight miles inland, and 

 having turned our belongings over to the mozos, we started over 

 the trail for camp Rio Negro. The Commodore led, because he 

 had brought his shotgun and planned to shoot something for 

 supper. He made a gallant figure, striding along the trail in 

 rubber soled shoes, and had deer or turkey appeared would 

 certainly have dropped it. But the game was wary, and the 

 only creature that dropped 

 was the hunter himself when 

 he inadvertently trod on a 

 slimy log and sat down in a 

 pool of water. 



The trip took about three 

 hours and led uphill slightly 

 all of the way. The trail was 

 fair, and ran through a sort of 

 open forest, where there were 

 many huge trees but not much 

 of the dense jungle that is so 

 often to be found in the trop 

 ics. The soil was a gravelly 

 loam, with a clay underlay, and 

 seemed to be rich, and the 

 beds of the brooks and creeks 

 were of hard gravel and boul- 

 ders. All along the trail 

 were Castilloas, sometimes 

 singly and often in clumps. 

 None of them was over 12 

 inches in diameter, and most 

 of them had been tapped. 

 Now and then was one that 

 had been felled a year or two 

 before, and frequently we saw 

 stumps of what must once 

 have been fine, large rubber trees. 



Eight miles is a long distance in the tropics, and though 

 lightly clad and walking slowly, we were soon very warm and 

 wet through with perspiration. The Pioneer ventured the pre- 

 diction that this was the last long tramp upon which the Com- 

 modore would carry an eight pound gun, and his prophecy 

 came true. Even long journeys end, however, and after ford- 

 ing the Palo Secco. and a little later the Negro river, we 

 emerged into a fine grove of Castilloas, and fronting it a palm 

 thatched house that was to be our base of operations for many 

 days. An hour later the mules arrived with the navy bags, and 

 within fiteen minutes we were in dry clothing, had hammocks 

 slung, and were ravenously watching the cook prepare supper 

 of jerked venison, bacon, dago bread, and coffee. Later he 

 made delicious chocolate, using condensed milk and serving it 

 in calabashes. Just here — the supper and its preparation sug- 



INTERIOR OF CAMP RIO NEGRO. 



gests it— let me say that the little camping stove was all right, 

 but three stones between which the fire was built were just as 

 good, while a candle box made a fine molding board. So too, 

 with the hip boots of rubber — they kept us dry a couple of 

 times in fording creeks, but it was so much easier to slop right 

 through and dry out on the march that we didn't bother with 

 them after the first day or two. It was lucky, however, that 

 there were ample stores of rice and salt, for the natives had ne- 

 glected to clear and plant during the dry season just preceding 

 our visit and the whole countryside was on the verge of starva- 

 tion. Not that they worried about it particularly ; they simply 

 ate what they could get and contentedly waited for the next 

 dry season to come around. 



Our first night in camp we slept part of us in hammocks and 

 part on a platform of poles under which the mozos crept when 



the evening rain came on. 

 The Pioneer kept a lantern 

 burning, as he said it scared 

 away the vampyre bats. It 

 did not frighten the insects, 

 however, for the morning 

 light showed four white men 

 well speckled with red spots, 

 just what the insect was could 

 not be discovered, but it was 

 most industrious. I counted 

 57 well defined bites between 

 knee and ankle, and there 

 were others. I also discov- 

 ered how to scratch these 

 bites and suffer no ill effects, 

 and Oh I the joy of such 

 scratching ! The remedy was 

 a 5 per cent, solution of for- 

 mine applied to the surface 

 after an orgy of scratching. 

 In two hours after the appli- 

 cation all the poison either 

 from bite or finger nails wholly 

 disappeared. It being Sun- 

 day, our mozos piously re- 

 frained from work, but in 

 spite of their scruples they 

 were induced to build a shelter for themselves, which they 

 finally did, getting the roof on just before the afternoon down- 

 pour of rain began. 



In speaking of the lack of enterprise that the natives show 

 it must not for a moment be imagined that they are behind 

 the times in everything. In the utilization of public money, 

 for example, they could give Tammany Hall points of value. 

 To cite an instance: The home government at Panama city 

 appropriated $3000 for the building of a bridge over a river 

 that flowed near a certain town. Shortly after that one 

 of the holders of the fund approached the Pioneer and 

 asked for an estimate as to the cost of putting up the bridge, 

 remarking that he had $2000 for it. The Pioneer offered to 

 do it for that sum, but the next morning, when the papers were 

 to be drawn, there remained only $1500. Then the trustee pro- 

 posed that a $750 bridge be built and that he and the Pippeer 



