120 
RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 
Prior to this, what is really the dry season is often broken by rainfall; 
in fact, it rains a little about half the time. Beginning with the first 
of June, however, and lasting until the first of September, come the 
torrential rains, except that there is, in August, a week or ten days 
of dry weather. Nine days out of ten during the torrential rains, the 
morning breaks bright, clear and sunshiny. Then in the early afternoon 
heavy thunder is heard, followed by the roar of the rain through the 
forest, the water falling in sheets from one-half to one and one-half 
hours. It also rains regularly during the night. 
When night fell at La Buena Ventura, we all went indoors, for 
beautiful though the tropical moonlight is, fevers are most easily caught 
after sundown, and particularly if one sleeps out in the open. In fact, 
native or planter will do almost anything rather than thus expose him- 
self. We did sit in the doorway, for awhile, and drink in the glorious 
view of tropical luxuriance, made almost as light as day by the full 
moon, yet softened to a weird, rich beauty that the northern climes 
cannot equal. 
For the first time in my life I slept under a gracefully draped series 
of muslin curtains. As there were no mosquitoes, I .thought it rather 
unnecessary until my host said that although the country was a para- 
dise, centipedes, small snakes, and tarantulas sometimes dropped from 
the inside of the thatched roof, and while they were not as poisonous 
as many thought, I might not care to share my couch with them. I slept 
under a blanket, it was so cool, and awoke to find awaiting me, at the end 
of a palm thatched corridor, a fine shower bath. Few planters have 
them, but Mr. Harvey’s English blood, so it is said, impelled him to 
build this before he had a roof on his house. It was certainly a great 
luxury, and one to which my thought often turned when later I awoke 
from a night’s alleged sleep in a passenger coach or native hut. 
The day was Sunday, and we had coffee and rolls soon after rising, 
and breakfast about twelve, as. is the custom of the country. In the 
afternoon many neighboring planters rode over on horses or mules, dis- 
cussed crops, and asked the news from the outer world. They were 
most cordial in their invitations to me to visit their places, and it was 
with the greatest regret that I was able to avail myself of only a few 
of these privileges. 
It was during this social Sabbath that I renewed a pleasant acquaint- 
ance with the two Fish brothers, Wisconsin Yankees, who were looking 
at land in that region, and who, I believe, finally purchased La 
Florencia estate, said to have the oldest cultivated rubber in that 
