THE LURE OF KARTABO 13 



Some fatality seemed to attach to all future 

 attempts in this region. Gold was discovered, 

 and diamonds, and to-day the wilderness here 

 and there is powdering with rust and wreathing 

 with creeping tendrils great piles of machinery. 

 Pounds of gold have been taken out and hun- 

 dreds of diamonds, but thus far the negro pork- 

 knocker, with his pack and washing-pan, is the 

 only really successful miner. 



The jungle sends forth healthy trees tv/o hun- 

 dred feet in height, thriving for centuries, but 

 it reaches out and blights the attempts of man, 

 whether sisal, rubber, cocoa, or coffee. So far 

 the ebb-tide has left but two successful crops to 

 those of us whose kismet has led us hither — 

 crime and science. The concentration of negroes, 

 cooHes, Chinese and Portuguese on the coast fur- 

 nishes an unfailing supply of convicts to the set- 

 tlement, while the great world of life all about 

 affords to the naturalist a bounty rich beyond all 

 conception. 



So here was I, a grateful legatee of past fail* 

 ures, shaded by magnificent clumps of bamboo, 

 brought from Java and planted two or three hun- 

 dred years ago by the Dutch, and sheltered by 

 a bungalow which had played its part in the 



