1?0 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 30, 1910. 
and protesting. Finally it was all arranged, and 
with a satisfied expression my fat friend came 
to me and said, “'I have done very good busi¬ 
ness.” Then from our canoe some cheeses were 
taken out, three of them, if I remember cor¬ 
rectly, which must have weighed one hundred 
pounds each. With these was a bale of calico 
and a half dozen knives. That was all, but Don 
Pacho said that he had made about $600, though 
of course he did not say this in the hearing of 
the people. 
A little later we started on our way again, and 
were soon on the Nechi River, and one of the 
first objects pointed out to me was the wreck 
of a steamer which had been carried against a 
ledge of rock by the rough current when the 
river had been at flood, and sticking fast had be¬ 
come a total wreck. Don Pacho assured me 
that a great many steamers were lost in this 
way, and that the navigation of the rivers in 
Colombia was extremely hazardous. 
On the way up the river I noticed a group of 
termites’ nests, built something as the hornets 
build their nests in the North, but very much 
larger, so large in fact that they were of striking 
appearance, and could be seen up and down the 
river for a long distance. I wished to obtain a 
specimen, but Don Pacho said that the termites 
could sting unpleasantly, and that most probably 
the men would not care for such an undertaking. 
However, on asking them, they immediately 
volunteered, and coming to the shore we selected 
a very large specimen, and the men began cutting 
down the sapling around the trunk and branches 
of which it was attached. As the men worked, 
a swarm of termites came after them down the 
trunk of the sapling. These were killed or 
brushed aside by one of the men standing near, 
and presently we had a fine specimen. The men 
then dragged it to the edge of the water, threw 
it in, allowed it to remain for a while, and then 
when all the termites had been killed, drew it 
out carefully and left it to dry in the sun until 
we would pick it up at our convenience on our 
way back. 
We were now in the gold country. On either 
side were beautiful ranges of mountains, through 
wnich the river had eroded a deep valley, and 
Don Pacho claimed that every inch of it carried 
gold, and that some day the whole place would 
be dredged out. That there was gold here I had 
little doubt, but whether it could be worked' suc¬ 
cessfully seemed the question. However, im¬ 
provements are being made rapidly in mining 
machinery, and this now almost deserted region 
may one day become the scene of great ac¬ 
tivities. ' 
That day we made fair progress, and at night 
pitched our camp on a convenient bank, Don 
Pacho saying that the mosquitoes would not 
trouble us so much now, and that we could sit 
up for a while. Supper was prepared, and then 
in the cool evening we sat around enjoying the 
pleasure of the night air. After a time fish 
hooks were brought out and the men proposed 
that we should have some fish for breakfast. 
Their arrangements for fishing were certainly 
crude. A piece of fat was used to bait the hook, 
and presently a small fish something like a white 
perch was caught, and this was immediately cut 
up for bait. Larger hooks were then prepared 
and a set line thrown out into the river. This 
was allowed to remain for a time, perhaps half 
an hour, while we sat about talking and smok¬ 
ing. Then one of the men called out, ‘‘Let’s see 
what we have got.” The line was pulled in, but 
most of the hooks were bare, though one held 
a large specimen, something like a bullhead 
which the men hailed with delight, saying it was 
fine eating. Then the hooks were baited again, 
the line thrown over, and left as before to be 
hauled in after a while, only to reveal bare hooks 
from which the bait had been eaten. The men 
tried it again, and this time they were more suc¬ 
cessful. There were two bullheads, one of them 
of large size and somewhat resembling a pick¬ 
erel. These, the men said, would be enough for 
breakfast, so the lines were put away. Evidently 
they did not fish for sport or pleasure, but only 
to obtain something fresh to eat. The fish were 
cleaned, salted down and put in our iron pot, 
and then we all went to bed to sleep comfort¬ 
ably till morning. 
The next morning we had our fish for break¬ 
fast, and they were a very satisfactory change 
from our diet of dried meat, cheese and plantain. 
We all ate abundantly, for we were in the woods 
in a country where the mosquitoes were not so 
troublesome. So we ate more in the mornings 
and were not in such haste to get away from 
our camp. 
It was rough traveling now. The current was 
swift and the men worked hard, sometimes hav¬ 
ing great difficulty to make their way at all, yet 
by dint of struggling the canoe was forced on 
and on, and finally we came to a point in the 
river where a little distance ahead could be seen 
a troop of wild hogs. The men were all excite¬ 
ment. Wild hog meat was good, and a chase 
had its attractions. The men conferred together 
for a time and then decided that we would go 
through the woods, head the hogs off if possible, 
so that the river would be on one side and our 
men on the other. The hogs would not go into 
the river, and in making their escape, one would 
probably be killed with the pistols or perhaps 
with the machettes. Carefully the canoe was 
brought to the shore, then through the woods 
we all went, scrambling along as best we could 
until we reached a point where Don Agusto said 
we had the hogs directly before us. A line was 
now formed, I staying with Vincente, who would 
show me how they hunted wild hogs. Forward 
we went as cautiously as possible so as not to 
disturb the game, and presently had the satis¬ 
faction of knowing that at least they were cer¬ 
tainly headed off and could not escape us. The 
river made a sharp bend here and quite a sandy 
point had been built up by the waters, and on 
this point the hogs were feeding. 
Our vantage point gained, all went forward. 
The hogs heard us, and protesting, made their 
way out to the open, and then seeing their dan¬ 
ger, turned and charged. It was not a large 
troop nor were they the dangerous kind. Their 
one object was to escape. On they came in a 
body, making for Don Pacho and Don Agusto. 
They seemed to understand their tactics pretty 
well and had evidently been hunted before. In 
one solid mass they charged, a body not to be 
resisted. Don Pacho jumped up on a log to get 
out of harm’s way, the men scattered, Vincente 
pulled me behind a tree, Don Agusto placed him¬ 
self at one side of a thorn bush, and the next 
instant the hogs went sweeping past us. Don 
Pacho shot at them and Don Agusto tried to 
stick one with his machette, but with grunts and 
squealings of protest, the whole troop went 
scampering into the woods, and that Was the 
end of our hunting. Evidently my companions 
were not expert at the chase. Don Pacho scram¬ 
bled down from his log, smiling and looking a 
little foolish. Vincente said, “Never mind,” and 
we all went back to the canoe and up the river 
again. 
On the w r ay we came to a pleasant grove and 
there stopped for almuerzo. The trees were 
magnificent, the shade cool and inviting, butter¬ 
flies were flitting about, and a most delightful 
rest was in prospect. While the men were cook¬ 
ing and I was taking it easy—in fact, I was a 
little ashamed of doing so small a part of the 
work, yet the men were willing, and on this trip 
I was being simply carried—suddenly something 
fell among us. One of the men exclaimed, “A 
dimonio!” and looking up at the trees, there 
sure enough was a troop of monkeys bent on 
mischief and inclined to curiosity. Around 
among the trees they danced, enjoying them¬ 
selves hugely, making faces and grinning at us, 
evidently having little fear because the men 
rarely shoot the monkeys, saying they do not 
care to eat them, though at other places I have 
found people who were quite willing to shoot 
monkeys, claiming that they were very good 
eating, but for myself I never care to eat 
them. 
This troop of monkeys was evidently at home 
and proposed to make themselves disagreeable. 
They would chase one another around the 
branches, and chattering, would throw sticks at 
us. The men laughing, threw things back, and 
it would have been great fun if there had been 
any end to the sport, but the monkeys had no 
idea of giving up their amusement, and appar¬ 
ently proposed that we should have no rest. Per¬ 
haps it was their intention to get some of our 
provisions. At any rate they kept up their atten¬ 
tions, and we had to eat breakfast watching the 
monkeys, for they would come with all sorts of 
things to throw at us, and seemed to delight in 
the amusement. Of course there was no danger, 
yet we were robbed of our siesta, and after 
breakfast had to go on our way again, the men 
cursing the monkeys and taking care that no 
provisions should remain behind for their bene¬ 
fit. Usually monkeys are shy and very retiring, 
but at times their curiosity and their demonstra¬ 
tions make them quite troublesome. 
Comfortably seated in the canoe, personally I 
had little objection to going on up the cool river, 
but the men missed their noonday rest, and I 
was sorry for themt yet the extra work had its 
compensation, for later we came to a ranch 
occupied by a man they called Don Jaime, and 
there we stopped for the night rather earlier 
than usual, but glad to find such comfortable 
quarters. Here Don Pacho began trading again, 
and another cheese w'as disposed of, Don Jaime 
buying in gold dust, which I was very much in¬ 
terested to see, having come to examine the gold 
country. 
That night I slept in a bed, the first I had 
occupied for some time, and it seemed very 
comfortable, and I am sure I rested much better 
now that I was free from dangerous scorpions 
and all the creeping things of the woods. Not 
entirely free, however, for scorpions often come 
into the houses, yet one or two are not so an¬ 
noying as a w'hole troop of them creeping around 
among the thatches of the roof hunting cock¬ 
roaches for supper. 
