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 were 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. 
