CHAPTER XXIII 

 La Mulata to BaKia Honda 



Saturday, June 6th. By six our party in the 

 little Tarpon was well on its way to Bahia Honda. 

 With regrets we gazed back at Guajaibon and the 

 receding ranges to the west, for we had become 

 greatly attached to the sierra country, to its pre- 

 cipitous forested heights and rich valleys. We 

 liked its simple unspoiled people who still retain 

 the courtesies of a past era. We knew the topog- 

 raphy and the salient geological features of the 

 region, and believed we understood them. There 

 in splendid revelry nature predominates and man, 

 in his little scattered villages and tiny farms, is of 

 the smallest incident. Now we were about to 

 enter an entirely different country where the wilds 

 are subdued, and man is paramount with his cities, 

 his commerce, his highly cultivated estates, and 

 his restless politics. 



We proceeded rapidly steering closely into the 



shore to avoid the coral patches that became more 



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