But it was
with much regret that I missed this wonderful coasting trip, long looked
forward to and now probably never to be accomplished. On my way home I
visited beautiful Adelaide, and the younger city, Perth, which reminded
me much of the West American mining towns. Colombo needs no call for
notice. At Messina we saw the ruined city, the devastation seeming to
have been very terrible; but it presented no such awful spectacle of
absolutely overwhelming destruction as did San Francisco. Etna was
smoking; Stromboli also. Then Marseilles, Paris, and home.

During that summer at home I was fortunate enough to see the polo test
matches between Hurlingham and Meadowbrook teams, otherwise England
versus America. It was a disheartening spectacle. The English could
neither drive a ball with accuracy nor distance; they "dwelt" at the
most critical time, were slow in getting off, overran the ball, and in
fact were beaten with ease, as they deserved to be.

An even more interesting experience was a visit to the aviation meeting
at Rheims, the first ever held in the world, and a most successful one.
Yet the British Empire was hardly represented even by visitors. Such
great filers as Curtis, Lefevre, Latham, Paulhan, Bleriot and Farman
were all present.

In the autumn I had a week's salmon-fishing at Garynahine in the Lews.
The weather was not favourable and the sport poor considering the place.
Close by is the Grimersta river and lodge, perhaps the finest rod salmon
fishery in Scotland. A young East Indian whom I happened to know had a
rod there, and was then at the lodge. On asking him about fishing, etc.,
he told me, and showed me by the lodge books, that the record for this
river was fifty-four salmon in one day to one rod, all caught by the
fly! The fortunate fisherman's name? Mr Naylor! the very man I had
travelled with to New Zealand! I have vainly tried for three seasons now
to get a rod on this river, if only for a week, and at Ј30 a week that
would be long enough for me. I also this autumn had a rod on the Dee,
but only fished twice; no fish and no water. During this summer I golfed
very determinedly, buoyed up by the vain hope of becoming a first-class
player--a "scratch" man. Alas! alas! but it is all vanity anyway! What
does the angler care for catching a large basket of trout if there be no
one by to show them to? And what does the golfer care about his game if
he have not an opponent or a crowd to witness his prowess? At Muirfield
I enjoyed the amateur championship--R. Maxwell's year.




CHAPTER XIII

FOURTH TOUR ABROAD

     Yucatan--Honduras--Costa
     Rica--Panama--Equador--Peru--Chile--Argentina--Brazil--Teneriffe.


October 1909 saw me on board the steamer _Lusitania_, bound for New York
and another long trip somewhere. What a leviathan! What luxury! Think of
the Spanish dons who crossed the same ocean in mere cobble boats of
fifty tons, and our equally intrepid discoverers and explorers. What
methods did they adopt to counteract the discomfort of _mal de mer_?
Which reminds me that on this same _Lusitania_ was the Viscomte D----,
Portuguese Ambassador or Minister to the United States of America, who
confidentially told me that he at one time was the worst of sailors, but
since adopting a certain belt which supports the diaphragm the idea of
sea-sickness never even suggests itself to him. For the public benefit
it may be said that this belt is manufactured by the Anti Mal de Mer
Belt Co., National Drug and Chemical Co., St Gabriel Street, Montreal,
Canada. Bad sailors take note! On this steamer were also, as honoured
guests, Jim Jeffries, the redoubtable, going to his doom; "Tay Pay"
O'Connor; and Kessler, the "freak" Savoy Hotel dinner-giver; also, by
the way, a certain London Jew financier, who gave me a commission to go
to and report on the Quito railroad.

When travelling west from New York in the fall one is filled with
admiration for the wonderful colour of the maple and other trees. Europe
has nothing at all comparable. This wonderful display is alone worth
crossing the Atlantic to see.

I found that the past summer had been a record hot one for Texas. The
thermometer went to 115° in the shade. Eggs were cooked (fried, it is to
be supposed) on the side-walk, and popcorn popped in the stalks. In
November I sailed from New Orleans for Yucatan to visit at Merida a
Mexican friend, who turned out to be the King of Yucatan, as he was
popularly called, he being an immense landed proprietor and practically
monopolist of the henequin industry. Henequin, or Sisal hemp, is the
fibre of _Agave Sisalensis_, a plant very like the _Agave Americana_,
from which pulque is extracted. Thence round the corner, so to speak, to
British Honduras, where we called in at Belize, whose trade is in
mahogany and chicklee gum, combined with a deal of quiet smuggling done
with the Central American States. Quite near Belize, among the
innumerable islands and reefs, was the stronghold of the celebrated
pirate Wallace (Scotchman). Many man-o'-war birds and pelicans were in
the harbour. From Belize to Porto Barrios, the eastern terminus of the
Guatemala railway. Here we are close to the scene of that wonderful and
mysterious Central American prehistoric civilization, which has left for
our antiquarians and learned men a life-work to decipher the still dumb
symbols carved on its stupendous ruins. In Guatemala, and near this
railway, are Copan and Quiriguб, and probably other still undiscovered
dead cities. Some of these Guatemala structures show a quite
extraordinary resemblance to those at Angkor in Cambodia. Mitla and
Palenque are in Mexico and are equally remarkable. The latter is still
difficult to get to. Here again (Palenque) the temple shows a strange
similarity to that at Boro Budoer in Java. Was it Stamford Raffles who
said that, as far as the expenditure of human labour and skill goes, the
pyramids of Egypt sink into insignificance when compared with this
sculptured temple of Boro Budoer. Chichen-Itza, Labna, Sayil and Uxmal
are all in Yucatan and approached from Merida. How many more of such
very wonderful ruins are still hidden in the dense jungle of these
countries it will be many years yet before we may know. Some I have seen
myself, and it is still my hope very soon to visit others.

Among the wild animals of Yucatan and Honduras are the jaguar (_Felis
onзa_) with spots, ocellated or eyed; and the panther (_Felis
concolor_) called puma in Arizona; the vaca de aqua or manatee, shaped
like a small whale but with two paddles; the howling monkey, largest in
America, and the spider monkey; the iguana, largest land lizard known to
history, and alligators. Alligators are confined to the Western
Hemisphere; crocodiles were supposed to be peculiar to the East, but
lately a true crocodile (_Crocodilus Americanus_) has been identified in
Florida. The alligator covers its eggs with a heap of rubbish for warmth
and so leaves them; the African crocodile, on the contrary, buries them
in the sand and then sits over them. The cardinal bird and the ocellated
turkey must not be forgotten. Here may be found the leaf-cutting ants,
which store the leaf particles in order to grow a fungus on, and which
they are very particular shall be neither too damp nor too dry. Also
another ant, the _Polyergus Rufescens_, a pure slave-hunter, absolutely
dependent on its slaves for all the comforts of life and being even fed
by them.

In Honduras there are many Caribs, still a strong race of Indians,
having a strict and severe criminal law of their own. They are employed
mostly as mahogany cutters, and are energetic, intelligent and
thoroughly reliable workmen. Puerto Cortez in Honduras has the finest
harbour on the whole Atlantic coast of Central America.

Note.--St Thomas is supposed to have visited and civilized the Central
American Indians, as Quetzalcohuatl did in Mexico.

On leaving New Orleans it had been my intention to enter Nicaragua and
report to a certain New Orleans newspaper on the conditions in that most
distressful country; said paper having commissioned me to do so.
Entrance to the State could only be made from Guatemala, but that
country's consul in New Orleans refused to issue the necessary passport.
Had I gone as an Englishman, and not as an American, there might have
been no difficulty. As said before, Central American States have a dread
and suspicion of Yankees. This was at the time that two Yankee
revolutionists had been shot by the President of Nicaragua.

The next place of call was Limon, the port of Costa Rica. Every foot of
land on these coasts, suitable for the growth of bananas, has been
bought up by the great American Fruit Co., a company of enormous
resources and great enterprise. Limon is a delightful little town from
whence the railway runs to San Josй, the capital, which stands some 4000
feet above sea-level. Costa Rica is a peace-loving little state,
prosperous, and enjoying a delightful climate. Much coffee and cocoa is
grown, shaded by the Bois immortel or madre de Cacao. The live-stock
industry is also a large one, and the animals seen on the high grassy
plains are well grown and apparently well bred enough. I visited
Cartago, a city which soon afterwards was destroyed by an earthquake.

On the railroad trip up to and back from the capital we passed through
lovely and romantic scenery, high hills, deep ravines and virgin
tropical forest. The rainy season was at its height, and how it rained!
The river was a raging torrent, and from the railway "cut" alongside
continuous land-slides of loose gravelly soil were threatening the track
with demolition. Indeed, at some points this had actually occurred, and
the train several times had to be stopped to allow the gangs of workmen
to clear the way. A bad slide, had it hit the train, would have pushed
the whole thing into the deep and turbulent river. All the passengers
were much alarmed, and I stood on the car platform ready to jump, though
the jump would necessarily have been into the seething water.

November 27th.--Colon once more! Went on to Panama. The Chagres River
was in the highest state of flood known in twenty years.

November 30th.--Sailed on steamship _Chile_ with about thirty
passengers, all Spanish Americans, bound for Equador, Peru or Chile.

December 3rd.--Reached the Equator, and I donned warmer clothes. We saw
whales, sharks, porpoises, rays and thrashers. Entered the Guayaquil
River. Here was where Pizarro first landed and obtained a footing. The
steamer anchored in quarantine a mile below the city. Yellow fever was
raging as usual, and the Quito railroad was blocked by the
revolutionists, so my projected visit again for the second time fell
through. Guayaquil has the highest permanent death-rate of all cities.
The state produces much cocoa and mangrove wood. The town is the centre
of the Panama hat trade, which hats are made of the sheaths of the
unexpanded leaves of the jaraca palm, or of the long sheaths protecting
the flower-cone of the hat palm (_taquilla_); and they can only be made
in a favourable damp atmosphere. Here on the mangrove roots and
submerged branches enormous quantities of oysters may be found. Oysters
on trees at last! Belonging to Equador State are the Galapagos Islands,
500 miles westward. Of course we did not visit them, but they are
remarkable for their giant tortoises and their wild cattle, donkeys and
dogs. It is said that these dogs do not bark, having forgotten how to;
but they develop the power after contact with domestic ones. The
Guayaquil River swarms with alligators, but luckily the alligator never
attacks man.

We sailed south down the coast, calling at many ports. From Guayaquil
south to Valparaiso, a distance of 2000 miles, we enjoyed bright, clear
weather, a pleasant, sometimes an even too low temperature, and
peaceful seas, a condition which the captain assured me was constant,
the low temperature being due to the South Polar or Humboldt current.
The absolute barren condition