146 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[February i, 1905. 



doubt if he appreciated some of the uses described, but the 

 making of waterproof clothing caught his fancy at once. For 

 most of the Indians have a little bag made of cloth and coated 

 with rubber, mixed with gunpowder, if they can spare it, to 

 help the sun cure it. In this, or a purse made of Iguana skin, 

 they carry flint and steel, a bit of cotton wicking with one end 

 let into a bone extinguisher, and tobacco for cigarettes. They 

 are a quiet, anemic race, very superstitious, and so fearful of 

 spirits and tii^res that if overtaken by night in the forest, climb 

 trees and tying themselves to the limbs, remain until morning. 

 They have a horror of gold, not the coin, but the raw material, 

 always denying all knowledge of it, the 

 probable reason being that the story of 

 the cruelties of the Spanish gold seek- 

 ers are still in vogue among them. 

 There are, all told, on the Soo square 

 miles of the Azuero lands, some 400 

 souls. On the other side of the moun- 

 tain ranges, however, are large towns 

 and many thousands of natives. 



It took some time to appreciate that 

 this was a land where practically no 

 laws were operative. As the weeks 

 passed and no word came from the 

 outer world, and we learned that the 

 few letters despatched to the faraway 

 Panamanian postoffice would never ^"'^^ bakery 



reach their destination, we began to realize that this was in- 

 deed a forgotten corner of the world. The natives are all good 

 Catholics and show their religious fervor at many yf^/aj by 

 burning candles, exploding gunpwder, and getting drunh. In 

 this latter state they show much energy and put up some spir- 

 ited machete fights. If an Americano tries to patch up one of 

 the wounded they oflfer no resistance, but as soon as the good 

 Samaritan departs take off the bandages, plaster the wound 

 with cow dung, and if the victim dies lay his death at the door 

 of the foreigner. How well I remember the disgust of the 

 Scout who wanted to extract a bullet 

 that was just under the skin in the neck 

 of a moxo whom the alcalde had shot 

 for some misdemeanor. 



" Why it's only under the skin ; it 

 will almost roll out " he exclaimed in 

 Spanish. 



But they would not allow the skin 

 to be cut, although they did prop the 

 sufferer up, heels in the air and head 

 to the ground, and watched all night 

 to see the bullet as it rolled out. 



Of the thousands of shell mounds 

 that contain the graves of their ances- 

 tors the natives know little, and cheer- 

 fully assist the despoiler to open them 

 and secure such relics or treasure as 

 they may contain. the church 



The women are quite pretty when young, particularly those 

 who live in the mountains, and have a custom of filing their 

 teeth so that the points are as sharp as needles, said to be most 

 becoming, from an Indian point of view. The mountain men who 

 are physically the best Indian specimens, wear only a shirt and 

 a pair of pants cut off at the knees, and are known in the low- 

 lands as the " short pants." 



That night in Rio Negro camp it was really cold, the air was 

 damp, it was raining heavily, although only a little came through 

 the roof, and we were sitting about too grumpy to talk until the 



AT LAS MINAS- 



gray mule took possession of the kitchen, and, in the mix-up 

 that followed, led us to forget our woes. Then the Prospector 

 began to talk about rubber plantations, and my conceit got a 

 shock, for he told me of some that I had never heard of. It 

 was on Gorgonas island, which lies off the coast of Colombia, 

 owned by the fine old Spaniard, Don Raimon, whom we met in 

 Panama city, where are some 5000 cultivated trees 4^ years 

 old. The Prospector feared that the revolutionists from the 

 main land might have destroyed some of them in their periodic 

 forays, but was not sure. Then the Pioneer took the floor. 

 He had formerly been manager for the Darien Gold Mining 

 Co. and for them cleared wide paths 

 through the forest in which to plant 

 Castilloa trees. The planting was in 

 part from seed, and in part of young 

 trees for which he paid the natives $5 

 a hundred, in silver. This was in 1900, 

 and there were some 300,000 trees on 

 land some miles from the coast planted 

 at an altitude of 1500 feet. Since leav- 

 ing the company his successor had 

 planted certainly as many more. 



The trips that I have outlined are a 

 few of many, long and short, that taken 

 as a whole gave me a knowledge of the 

 lands as a whole. The final journey 

 was to be along the " hog backs " that 

 extended up to the mountains, then over them and down to the 

 further shore, whence the Almirante had been despatched to 

 meet and convey us to Panama city. 



First came the preparations, most important of which was 

 the packing of the camera supplies. Considering the fact that 

 the mule that bore this precious load always fell down when 

 crossing a river, and that the searching dampness of the at- 

 mosphere had been at work at the films for many weeks, it is a 

 wonder that any pictures at all were obtained. Then came the 

 drying of clothing, and a supply of bread. The Pioneer tried 

 his hand at bread baking along the 

 lines of his rice pudding triumph, but 

 the resulting solid cakes, scorched on 

 the outside, dough within, could not be 

 honestly termed the staff of life. By 

 splitting open and toasting them they 

 were edible, and were eaten, all but one 

 that I saved for a paper weight. 



On Sabado (Saturday) morning at 

 6.30 we broke camp and started on 

 what our guides claimed would be the 

 hardest day's work we had ever done, 

 and it was. There was only one river 

 to ford, the Marieto, and Chiquita, 

 knowing little beast, kept her feet, 

 while the other mules and horses were 

 stumbling, plunging, and threatening 

 AT LAS MINAS. [q gQ (Jown Stream with the swift 



current. Then began the steady climb, over a trail that was 

 like the bed of a brook, through underbrush that tried the pack 

 mules sorely, often stopping them completely until freed by the 

 use of the machete. I had an army saddle on Chiquita and a 

 rope bridle about her nose, but the first could not be cinched 

 tight enough to stay on, and the latter was only a matter of 

 form. Pull all I could she went where she thought the trail 

 was best, and in all fairness I must say she was usually right. 

 I do think, however, when she insisted on crowding so close to 

 a sharp stub pointing down the trail that saddle and rider were 



