UP A TROPICAL RIVER.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XX, Issue 2064, 8 January 1925, Page 2

UP A TROPICAL RIVER.

ADVENTURES IN CENTRAL AMERICA. Many strange experiences befell Lady (Richmond) Brown and Mr Mitchel Hedges in their recent trip on a small motor..yacht with a crew of only tUvo men. They wenit from Colon, in Panama, to Porto Bello and Nomine ilo Dios—where Drake singed tho heart It. of the Spaniards—and thence on a cruise among the little-known islands °fl the const of Central America. Their experience there among-’the Indians were curious—in one island the women all lined up for the privilege ol looking at Lady (Richmond) Brown’s nose—but on the mainland l they managed to penetrate to the villages of The Chueunaque Indians ,an unknown, almost legendary people, whose origin and customs are a puzzle to ethnologists. The approach to tho country of the Chueunaque involved a voyage up a tropical river in two dugout canoes, and then n journey on foot through a dense tropical jungle, infested with snakes and jaguars and mosquitoes, in a temperature like that of a hot-house. It was a terrible journey. Lady (Richmond) Brown admits thaitt her endurance was nearly at breaking point when one of the Indian guides stopped and waved his hand around. I‘hey had arrived at their goal, the land of mystery, the unknown Chueunaque. The Chueunaque, by tho mysterious mens of communication they uso, evidently knew the visitors wore coining, and had sent a deputation of head men to meet them. Accompanying tho head men were about 50 Indians, armed with huge clubs and bows and arrows—the last with five barbed prongs—and two fearsome looking witch doctors. Not a word did the head men or witch doctors speak; only turned and led tho way, the Indians falling in silently behind, Not only is their vacabulary small, but these Indians of Central America seem to cultivate taciturnity, at least' with strangers. In one of the islands Lady (Richmond) Brown had a rather disconcerting interview with a chief, who sat silent as the Sphinx for an hour, and then said only one word, “Nueddee,” which means “good.” And .this experience was repeated with the chio fetf riie Chucunaque, who, reclining in a gorgeouslycoloured hammocks, merely looked at his visitors in silence for a long time. But at last he said “Nueddee.” all the Indians moaned a little and the ice was broken.