THE LURE OF KAHTABO 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 two 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, 

 coolies, 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 



