170 
A VISIT TO RUBBER PLANTATIONS 
up through the wonderful system of lagoons and waterways that were 
to be our pathway to the rubber plantations. 
These comprise the Bluefields River, the Escondido (‘‘Hidden 
Waters”) River, and a great variety of deep lagoons and waterways, inter - 
mingling in inextricable confusion, shut in by walls of tropical foliage — 
an expanse of natural passages so great that a navy might easily be hidden 
there without the remotest chance of detection. Indeed, in the old days 
of the buccaneers, these lagoons were favorite retreats, and if closely 
pursued a vessel could slip into one of them, tie a few branches to her 
topmasts, and defy discovery. 
Waldron’s store — cukra and Canada 
PLANTATIONS. 
The ride up through the Escondido was simply entrancing. There 
was scarcely a ripple on the water ; the foliage of palms, palmettos, man- 
groves, and wild bananas, interspersed with patches of pampas grass, 
the stalks of which were twenty and thirty feet high, bound together 
with vines and spangled with flowers ; the huge flocks of blue and white 
cranes and the basking alligators — all made a panorama so wild in its 
tropical beauty that it added new fascinations every moment. 
Finally, late in the afternoon, we turned into Sloophouse creek, 
and a little later were moored at the pier belonging to the Cukra 
