Page:The National geographic magazine, volume 1.djvu/382

 horizontal pieces of a smaller diameter were securely fastened on with long tough strips of bark, and thus a square or oblong frame was fashioned. The horizontal pieces were placed at a distance of about three feet from the ground, on which a flooring was eventually laid, and at the top of the frame where the slope of the roof began. On the top pieces other poles were laid and fastened across and lengthwise, and on these the men stood while making the skeleton of the roof. The latter was made very steep for better protection against the rain. After the ridge pole was put in position other smaller poles were fastened on parallel and perpendicular to it so that the whole roof was divided up into squares, and it was finally completed by weaving in thick bunches of palm and other leaves in such a way as to make it thoroughly water-proof. For our purpose no protection on the sides of the structures other than the projecting eaves was considered necessary. A floor of poles laid very close together was put in one house, the one used for sleeping purposes, and in the other a table for eating, writing, draughting, etc., was made. Thus in two or three days the place was made thoroughly habitable, and men were detailed to see that the grounds, etc., were always kept thoroughly clean and in a good sanitary condition, a very necessary precaution in a tropical country. The forest afforded game, the river an abundance of fish; bananas, oranges, lemons and pineapples were easily procured from the natives, who also furnished material for a poultry yard, and thus while located at camp Capite, situated as it was on a picturesque spot overlooking two swiftly flowing rivers, with good drinking water, a commissary department well stocked, a French cook who would have done himself credit anywhere, I could not but think that heretofore pictures of life in Darien had been too somberly drawn, and that where so much suffering and sickness had prevailed among the early explorers it was because they had gone there not properly outfitted, and because carried away with ambitious enthusiasm their adventurous spirit had caused them often to undertake that which their calmer judgment would not have dictated; and that to these causes as much as to the unhealthy condition of the locality was due their many hardships. Several days were spent here getting time and latitude observations and in mapping out plans for the work. It was decided that the mouths of the Yape, Capite and Pucro and other points along these rivers, such as mouths of tributary streams, etc., should be astronomically lo-