IN PANAMA 21$ 



SECOND LETTER. 



CAMP Rio NEGRO ROUGHING IT STORY OF A BRIDGE CASTILLOA GROVES 

 BIRDS, ANIMALS AND REPTILES CRUZ, THE HUNTER TRIPS OF EXPLORATION CHI- 

 QUITA, THE COMMODORE, AND MULA GRANDE COAGULATING RUBBER WITH AMOLE 

 JUICE NATIVE RUBBER MANUFACTURE LLANOS DON RAMON AND DONNA MARIA 

 A TREASURE HUNT. 



OUR plan at first, on coming ashore on the Azuero Peninsula, had 

 been to camp right where we landed, but the "heng-hengs" 

 (rodadors) were so troublesome that another spot had been 

 chosen, some eight miles inland, and having turned our belongings 

 over to the mozos, we started on 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, they 

 certainly would have dropped. 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 slightly uphill 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 tropics. The soil was a gravelly loam, 

 with a clay underlay, and seemed to be rich, while the beds of the 

 brooks and creeks were of hard gravel and boulders. All along the 

 trail were Castilloas, sometimes singly, and often in clumps. None of 

 them were over twelve 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 prediction that this was 

 the last long tramp upon which the Commodore would carry an eight- 

 pound gun, and his prophecy came true. Even long journeys end r 

 however, and after fording the Palo Seco, 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 fifteen 



