A VISIT TO RUBBER PLANTATIONS 



up through the wonderful system of lagoons and waterways that were 

 to be our pathway to the rubber plantations. 



These comprise the Bluefields River, the Escondido ("Hidden 

 Waters") River, and a great variety of deep lagoons and waterways, inter- 

 mingling in inextricable confusion, shut in by walls of tropical foliage 

 an expanse of natural passages so great that a navy might easily be hidden 

 there without the remotest chance of detection. Indeed, in the old days 

 of the buccaneers, these lagoons were favorite retreats, and if closely 

 pursued a vessel could slip into one of them, tie a few branches to her 

 topmasts, and defy discovery. 



WALDRON S STORE CUKRA AND CANADA 

 PLANTATIONS. 



The ride up through the Escondido was simply entrancing. There 

 was scarcely a ripple on the water ; the foliage of palms, palmettos, man- 

 groves, and wild bananas, interspersed with patches of pampas grass, 

 the stalks of which were twenty and thirty feet high, bound together 

 with vines and spangled with flowers ; the huge flocks of blue and white 

 cranes and the basking alligators all made a panorama so wild in its 

 tropical beauty that it added new fascinations every moment. 



Finally, late in the afternoon, we turned into Sloophouse creek, 

 and a little later were moored at the pier belonging to the Cukra 



