IN PANAMA 227 



by all the natives as a most distinguished guest, his condition being due 

 to the fact that when he was young "a witch looked at him." Looking 

 at him in turn one wondered what result that look had upon the witch. 



What with heavy rains that made the trails bad and the rivers 

 impassable for a half day at a time, the laziness of the natives, and 

 their habit of disappearing to attend far away fiestas, not to speak of the 

 way the mules had of hiding in the brush when they were most needed, 

 we were not getting ahead as fast as could be wished. So the Pros- 

 pector and the Miner, with Juancho, the best woodsman on the penin- 

 sula, took the schooner to the Quebro to arrange for trail cutters, or, 

 better still, canoes and men to take us up that unknown river. In the 

 meantime, the rest of us went on with the work of exploration. A few 

 days later the Quebro expedition returned and reported no canoes, no 

 men, and no chance of getting through until the dry season, as the rains 

 were far worse than where we were. 



It was during the absence of the party named that the rest of us 

 went far up in the mountain valleys^ where no white man, even in the 

 time of the Spaniards, had been, and*preempting an old rubber cutter's 

 shack, we established ourselves in Camp Iguana. We w^ere able to 

 make the journey most of the way on mule back as an ancient Indian 

 trail passed close to it. The barometer read one thousand feet elevation, 

 but the Castilloa was just as plentiful as on the lower lands, and indeed, 

 here were the largest trees. I found also a species of Ficus that pro- 

 duced a very good quality of rubber, but was not plentiful enough to 

 have commercial value. 



Our party consisted of the Pioneer, the Scout, the Commodore, the 

 writer, three Indians, with one pack mule, besides those we rode. As 

 there was no feed the mules were sent back to Rio Negro as soon as they 

 were relieved of their burdens. The ride to Iguana, although rough in 

 places was delightful. 



JUANCHO S RUBBER TAPPING TOOL. 



