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EXPLORING FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 
was about as near a wreck as one could be, for Chiquita on level ground 
developed into the fastest, hardest gaited little trotter that I have ever 
seen. She simply would not canter, and in her trot she kept up with the 
galloping horses and pounded me almost to jelly. 
At Chitre we expected to find the Ahnirante, but she was not 
there. After waiting two days we took passage on the Quartos Her- 
mcmos, the Prospector being brought aboard on a mattress. It must 
not be thought he was the only damaged one, for all of us were some- 
what battered. I had a scalp wound an inch long that I had secured by 
going through a doorway at Innocentias without stooping enough to 
avoid the sharp tiles, the Scout had a cracked rib, because his horse 
jammed him under a leaning tree, and the Commodore had a touch of 
fever. 
The Quartos Hermanos got away late, by poling down the narrow, 
muddy Parita River one and one-half miles to the bay. At the river’s 
mouth, we met the Ahnirante, and, leaving the Commodore to guard 
the luggage, boarded our own boat. It was hard work to get El Capitan 
to turn about and follow the other schooner — why, I don't know — but 
it was finally accomplished. But alas, hardly were the schooners a 
quarter of a mile from shore when both were aground. Half an hour 
later one could walk on the hard, black sand from one boat to the other. 
It would be flood tide by midnight, and if there was wind that would 
mean a race for Panama. So I offered our captain ten dollars, silver, 
if he got in first. By eleven our boat was again on even keel ; ten 
minutes later she was under way, the breeze freshening every minute. 
It finally got so fresh that I could not sleep on deck but went below. 
With the exception of one hour’s calm the wind held all the next day, 
and at midnight blew us into Panama harbor. But the shrewd old 
Portuguese captain of the Quartos Hermanos beat us an hour by getting 
to the windward and then sailing like a streak. 
It was just sunrise as we dropped anchor in the bay opposite the 
Hotel Marina, from which picturesque hostelry many 1x>ats put off 
to secure the job of putting us and our belongings ashore. This task 
was accomplished after much haggling, and within an hour we stood 
on the beach surrounded by our luggage, objects of much interest 
to a score of watermen, half as many dogs, and a huge drove of wild 
pigs that had just been unloaded from a small freight schooner. One 
more hour on the beach sufficed to purchase porters and a cart — I say 
“purchase” advisedly — and start our belongings toward the hotel. 
Once again at the Hotel Grand Central, where were stored most 
