EXPLORING FOR CAST1LL0A RUBBER 
238 
into by a series of from three to five foot steps, with a pool of water in 
the hollow of each, so the difficulty in getting along may be imagined. 
Finally the top of Cerro Nuncio was reached, three thousand five 
hundred feet in the air, and laid out before us like a map. were the 
plains of the other side of the peninsula. This mountain, so said the 
Miner, was a mass of gold bearing quartz, and a part of the property we 
were examining, but we left it where it was. After a rest we started 
down towards the town of Las Minas which was to be our recuperating 
and repairing station. The descent was far too steep to ride, so we 
climbed down, finally reaching the plains, and a little after noon, we 
rode into the old Indian town. Here, installed in a house owned by 
the Pioneer, we were soon sitting at a table, using knives, forks, and 
napkins, as if we had always been accustomed to them. 
This narrative relates primarily to rubber, and it is hard to forecast 
just how much extraneous matter the reader will stand. But it is only 
fair to the writer to allow him a word concerning a part of the world 
which Christopher Columbus, Duke of Veragua, chose for his own, as 
it was his province, Veragua, that we then were in. Not only that, but 
all the Indians of his time were Spanish slaves, and the amount of work 
that they did in digging down mountain sides for gold, is marvelous. 
Las Minas, founded by the descendants of Columbus, has its plaza, 
church, tiled houses, dogs, children, and buzzards, like all Central Ameri- 
can towns. It also has several fine Castilloa trees, and not far away an 
extensive Castilloa plantation. The latter is known as “Las Margharitas” 
and is owend by the alcade of Las Minas. It consists of about twenty 
hectares of land, planted with rubber and coffee. There are said to be 
some twenty-five thousand Castilloas, that for age would average about 
three years. One tree that was ten years old was sixteen inches in 
diameter, and bled freely, but the latex was waxy, and did not coagulate 
until the wax was worked out. This was not the case with all, and I 
think the difference was individual. 
In our conversation with the Indians we learned all that they knew 
of the land just explored. They confessed that they did not like to go 
over there, as they were afraid of getting lost. They also boasted of 
the times when their grandfathers crossed the mountains and, filling 
canoes with latex, used them as coagulating vessels, and very hesitat- 
ingly, and only after very much persuasion, they told of the gold some 
brought out and of the “lost mines” that had once produced such riches 
for the Spaniards before the Indians rose and massacred them. 
Fourth of July came while we were in Las Minas, but it would take 
