The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-06-20
CHAMA And IT'S ORCHIDS
Millions of Flowers In Picturesque
Parts of Guatemala.

4 Colony ia Remote Mountain Re
EionS-GoId Mining Lends to the
Development of other Interests.
The American Soldiers Employed.
PHILADELPHIA. June 20.-Bronzcd
beyond all recognition as white men, Ed
win and Harry Kurtz, James h LouCEls.
and Clarence Getz. PhiIadeIphians. who
served together in Cuba and in the Phil
ippines. have brought home tidfngs of
Philadelphia colony located miles from
the habitat of white men in the great
Chama Mountains of Guatemala. They
bore letters from Walter =. Curley the
administrator or chief ma gistrate of the
Philadelphia colony. and a number of in
teTestiug photographs taken during their
six months stay in Central America
Upon their return from the home of the
TagIio- these young men. ripe fer travel
and adventure. were offered an oppoTtu-
. nifty to accompany Arthur J. Clark. who
was about to sail for Chama. Guatemala.
with twenty head of Kentucky horses
4 bought at the Lexington sales The trip
looked promising, and the soldiers. still
IN uniform, agreed to GO The story of
the trip. the adventures and the finding
of the Philadelphia colony is best told by
Edwin Rurtz-
We passed through the greatest
stretch Of magnificent tropical scenery
on the globe and through some of the
worst country the foot of man ever
touched" said Mr. kurtz- as q preface
to his narrative. Continuing, he said:
T After leaving Rev Orleans We touched
at Belize. port in British Honduras.
where We took the horses ashore for
/ exercise We had no end Of trouble
I with them and missed the steamer on
! which passage had been engaged. After
! stopping a few days at Belize, we
/ steamed down inside the keys TO
/ Livingston. a town chiefly inhabited b.
! Carib Indians. who. to hear them tell It,
! have ancestors who knew Noah when he
( WAS a boy. These half-naked- supersti-
! tious but docile natives live by raising
/ bananas, which are taken out four or five
| miles in the Gulf Of Amaitique and sold
TO traders The women do all the work
: negotiate the trades. and run the place
/ Any one Of these women can manage n
J canoe in storm better than any semi
J sayaSss on earth. They take to the
: water ike fish, and, being wholly without
: fear, go out TO sea in their tiny canoes.
, storm or no storm, and nobody at Liv-
/ inEston could tell US when any of them
7 had been drowned Their skill II the ca
noe is simply marvellous.
We had to divide our horses and party
to make the trip up the River Dulce The
little stern-wheeiers plying that waterway
| could not carry Us ALL so We agreed to
! meet AT IZabaI. where the old Spanish
/ fort. San Felipe. still stands. picturesque.
( but disnantled. \ single worthless can
non is all that remains Of the once great
! armament OF thc ancient stronghold
Here met a Marty n L-rgIic3,
tourists, who were making a tour Of the
/ world. Sir Kendrick B0nsaIIe-Drake was
chief Of the party and he asserted that
/ Lake Izabal exceeds in beauty any Of the
famous lakes of Switzerland. Not having
seen any Of the Swiss lakes we took his
word Tor it Certainly nothing that any
of Us have ever seen equals the natural
/ beauties Of Lake IzabaL
/ Then we struck the bad lands From
! the tropical magniiceuce of the country
around Izabal we passed on to Panzos via
/ the River Palschic, which is the limit Of
| impossible navigation.
Within fifty miles that river bends 100
! times by actual count and the streets OF
/ hensiHgton are straight and in order
compared with this miserable waterway
We saw, not scores OF hundreds of ALI
gators, but miles Of them, some OF the
big fellows being fully fifteen feet in
! length Swamps extend for miles and
miles on both sides of this river, and no
man would stop there an hour for his life.
Strange enough, the handsonest birds [
ever saw were found all along these
swamps, and we saw dozens of big black
/ balloons.
The master Of the vessel supplied us
with ammunition and we amused our
selves shooting aIIigators- In these
j tropical verdUre in the world, but the
land itself proved to be a wholly impos-
, / sible pToposition-the very worst that
, ever happened.
We were eight days making the jour
ney from Livingston to Panzos. although
the trip usually takes only two. Panzos.
. | being the head Of the navigation on that
river. is quite a place and we were royal
| ~ treated \ narrOw-gause railroad car
! ried US thirty miles to Pancajche. where
We left the railroad for good and started
over the trail to Tucuru, and from there
We pushed on to Tamahu, where Getz
who lived for years near Shenandoah,
found coal of the finest quality
Four leagues over a splendid road and
through Gods own country brought us to
/ Tactic. AS we passed through the many
Indian towns and settlements we noticed
that each tribe could be distinguished by
the head-dress worn by the women.
Here we heard of the only savage
treatment ever accorded foreigners IN that
| country. The violence occurred during
the building Of Huntingdon's railroad
when eight American negroes were &C
tuaIly cut to bits BY the natives as a pen
| atty for crimes committed in a settlement
near Tamahu. Two Of these coIored men,
| Joseph Hendrickson and Joshua Dorsey,
claimed TO be PhiIadelphians, but the Ad-
| ministrador at Tactic said that the other
coIored men In the party identified them
as men from Delaware. The American
| Minister investigated the horrible affair
! at the time, but refused to act asserting
that the punishment just about fitted the
| crime
After resting at Tactic we hurried on
! to Coban via Santa Cruz Two hours be
I fore We entered the city We could see it
/ from the mountain pass.
| The great palace of the Administrator
| or AIcade stood far and above the other
/ buildings in the town, and as far as we
/ could see there was nothing but tropical
| scenery of exquisite beauty. COban Is the
| capital Of AIta-N erapaZ. and on entering
| the city we crossed a high divide and
! wound into the region Of bananas, tree
| tropics.
| "Coban is one Of the most attractive and
| interesting cities in Central America II
! IS the commercial centre Of the vast Cha
/ ma coffee district, the product Of which
| commands the highest price paid in the
| Republic of Guatemala The transactions
/ are mainly in trade and barter. A coin
/ once in the hands of q native is forever
lost TO circulation. The women take the
! coins, punch holes in them, and wear