Februarv I, 1905. 



THE INDIA RUBBER ^^'ORLD 



145 



EXPLORING FOR "CASTILLOA" RUBBER IN PANAMA. 



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



THIRD AND LAST LHTTER. 

 Camp Iguana. — Close Quarters. — Provisions Low. — Lucas 

 Cruz. --The Forest Primeval. — Bees and Rubber. — The Natives' 

 Horror of Gold. — A Land Without Law. — Breaking Camp. — 

 Mountain Climbing. — At Las Minas. — The Plantation " Las Mar- 

 gharitas."--Kourth of July Fifsta. — On Board Qtiarlros tiermanos. 

 ■ — Panama, Colon, and New York. 



THE ride to Iguana, as I was saying when my last letter 

 came to a close, was delightful. Part of the time 

 through dense forest, where some of the trees meas- 

 ured 10 to 12 feet in diameter, then perhaps through an 

 abandoned Indian farm grown up to jungle, but still producing 

 mangos, bananas, and alligator pears — climbing hills that 

 seemed to go straight up in the air, and sliding down others 

 that were even straighter — frightening big iguanas and little 

 lizards^stepping gingerly over six inch wide columns of leaf 

 carrying ants — always on the lookout for wild pigs, deer, or 

 turkeys to replenish our larder — the whole journey was full of 

 variety and incident. The hut at Iguana, with a little repair- 

 ing, gave us barely room to stretch out comfortably at night, 

 and had any one man chosen to stretch himself diagonally 

 across the pole bed there would have been no room for the 

 rest. The hut was open on three sides, was about 9 feet wide, 

 7 feet high in front, and 5 feet in the rear, roofed with palm, 

 and had an earth floor. We used our navy bags as hold-alls by 

 day, and pillows by night, and slept beautifully, except when 

 our feet went through the side of the hut, or a leak in the roof 

 let in too much water upon our persons. 



Our first meal there seemed the most delicious I had ever 

 eaten. It consisted of canned smoked beef (the edges of the 

 slices were too far spoiled to eat, but the middle was good), 

 fried bread sweetened with condensed milk, boiled rice, and 

 cotlee. The meat was cooked over an open fire and served on 

 big wild banana leaves. Nor shall I forget the first night — the 

 almost deafening chirping of the crickets and tree frogs, the 

 queer cries of the night birds, and the steady drip of the dew 

 from the trees like a slow rain, and the fireflies, how big and 

 beautiful they were, and how still the air was, so that the flame 

 of the candle went straight up with never a quiver. 



To assist in the exploration of this part of the tract was 

 Lucas Cruz, an old rubber cutter, the builder of the hut in 

 which we were installed. He had come there from across the 

 mountains 20 years before, with his father and five brothers, 

 and had taken out rubber ever since, selling it to the traders 

 all the way from 20 to 40 cents a pound, silver. His figures as 

 to the ancient yield of the trees were rather indefinite. At 

 present, however, as the trees were smaller than of yore, he 

 tapped about 30 trees in a day and got 6 to 7 pounds of milk, 

 or 3 to 4 pounds of dry rubber. His system was to have a 

 helper, one of the twain tapping while the other collected the 

 milk in a calabash. 



Under his guidance we got out very early in the morning, 

 examined the valleys and steep hillsides in various directions, 

 and found the Castilloa growing everywhere, and many a stiff 

 climb Lucas gave us before the choice growths were reached. 

 Afterward he explained that he only took us to the easy places, 

 as from some where he went alone, we would never have returned 

 alive. Even up here I found stumps of huge Castilloas that 

 had been cut down to get all of the milk. The largest trees 

 then standing did not measure more than 16 to 18 inches in 



diameter, but there were many of them, and thousands of a 

 lesser size. 



Pressed later for a definite statement as to what he gathered 

 daily when rubber hunting, Lucas said that two years before 

 six of them had, in this region, in seven days, gathered 400 

 pounds of dry rubber. As they never work Sundays that 

 would mean six days' work, that is, unless they loafed three 

 of them, which is probable. For an experiment, we sent out 

 four men late one morning, who were back by midday with 15^ 

 pounds of milk that after coagulation and drying made about 

 8 pounds of rubber. As they normally get 50 cents a day, sil- 

 ver, equal to 25 cents, gold, that was not a bad return. 



It IS due to the man who first told the story of bees collect- 

 ing rubber latex, as well as the rubber itself, from the cuts in 

 the trees, that he receive apologies of all skeptics ! for the 

 story is true. I saw hundreds in all parts of the peninsular 

 and they not only love rubber but almost everything, and are a 

 great nuisance in camp. What they do with the rubber, 

 whether it goes into comb or honey, I do not know, but they 

 certainly work most energetically in gathering it. 



By cutting down a few trees on the top of a lofty ridge near 

 camp, a fine view of the country was developed from the source 

 of the Marieto river to the sea, the llanos, the Suoy river, and 

 even the far away gulf. It was wonderful how Lucas could 

 pick out the Castilloa miles away from this eyrie, and without 

 apparent mistake either. 



After a few days at Iguana we began to look anxiously for 

 the return of the mules, for food was getting scarce, and worse 

 than all, the coffee was nearly gone. Although signs of deer 

 were plentiful the hunter could get none, and even parrots and 

 monkeys were not in evidence. There was, to be sure, a land 

 crab that the Indians caught occasionally. It was as big as a 

 saucer, with a bright blue body, red legs, and eyes set on props 

 an inch long. It was as giddy looking as a Chicago runabout 

 and apparently about as edible. Just as we were tiring of rice 

 and weak coffee the Pioneer mixed some boiled rice with con- 

 densed milk, put it in a small pan on the fire, then laid a piece 

 of tin over the pan, and built another fire on that. An hour 

 later we were feasting upon as fine a rice pudding as ever was 

 cooked. And at that time the pack train appeared, and ere 

 long we were on our way back to Rio Negro camp. 



No incidents of special note occurred on the return trip. 

 The trails were so wet from recent rains that the many hum- 

 ming birds, the gorgeous butterflies, and the rich tropical flow- 

 ers, were hardly noted. The swarms of horseflies that swooped 

 down upon our patient beasts could not be wholly ignored, 

 however, and all soon became most expert in killing them. As 

 usual, a stray starving dog appeared from nowhere and silently 

 attached himself to our party. Although we knew he would 

 crawl under our hammocks at night to give his fleas an oppor- 

 tunity to emigrate to richer pastures, he was accepted without 

 protest. He had his virtues. Nothing could tempt him to 

 steal, although starving — he would allow a wild pig to cut him 

 to ribbons that the hunter might get a shot, and he was 

 after all the friend of man. 



During this ride a strange thing happened: Cruz asked what 

 the Americanos used the rubber for ! It was the first time in 

 the memory of the Pioneer that any cholo (civilized Indian) 

 had ever shown the slightest curiosity in that direction. I 



