Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-12-28
HALTED BY SAvAGES
IN WILDS OF PANAMA
BARON Won TEUBER TELLS OF
SUFFERING
Fever Kills One of Party-Two Negro
Guides Shot-BeIieVes There Is
Great Anthracite
Deposit

NEW 1Of1fNs lee. Zf.-bdtoH r ..
Won Teuber, the young Austrian ex-
plorer, who went to the Isthmus of
Panama ten months ago to search for
anthracite coal and collect specimens
and chronological data for the Smith
sonian institution in the practically un-
known country of the San Bias In
dams, returned alone yesterday to New
York on the Royal Mail Steam packet
Magdalena.
When the baron sailed from this port
he was accompanied by three American
mining engineers, Frederick Smith,
Peter Bartlett and John Bradley, who
went to seek the source of the gold
washed down from the range of noun
tains called the Cordillera de Chipo to
the coast of the Gulf of San Bias On
arrival at Colon Carl Won Teuber,
brother of the baron and student
from Heidelberg, Joined the party.
Bradley died of black fever in a sail
ing boat while on his way to the hos
pital at Colon from Cart, a small town
at the mouth of a river of the same
name. Smith went to Peru and Bart
lett and Carl Won Teuber remained on
the isthmus
Among the baron's effects on the
liner Magdalena yesterday were sew
eral rare specimens of plants, pieces of
ancient pottery, complete skeletons and
clothing of different tribes of San Bias
Indians, quantity carved idols made of
Spanish mahogany, spears, bows and
arrows, all made by the natives. Some
of the pottery and idols antedated the
landing of Columbus.
Most of the specimens will be do
mated to the Smithsonian institution
and the rest to the Royal Museum of
Natural History in Vienna.
Tells of Trim
1--WE left Colon at the end of January
with provisions and tent outfit in a
gasoline launch said the baron, and
proceeded northeast along the coast to
Playa de Damas. There we left the
launch and waded knee deep up a mar
row, tortuous waterway to San Chris
toval, a negro settlement situated on a
small river of the same name. The
blacks were taken there from West
Africa in the early days of the French
Canal company, and remained in pref
erence to going back to Africa.
I'VE stopped at the village three
days to get guides to go up country.
We offered them IS a day each, but
the men were all too much afraid OF
fourth day we got two negroes to go
a short way and put us on the right
trail to cross the country to the Man
dinga river down which we could go
to the coast.
"They took us in a native dugout
until nightfall and then got scared and
left US. After that we waded down
stream for five days until we struck
the Mandinga river
bradley was the first man to fall
sick through the hardships of the trip,
bad water and intense heat. He was
from Boston, 81 years old, and did
not think his sickness was serious at
Do. 1a4f Ofaff hrsnT oh
tick getting into his foot and caus-
ing what is known in that country as
tick fever.
ION the same evening that the Man
dinga was reached we were surround
ed by 200 hostile Indians of the Cart
tribe, who had followed us on infor-
nation given them by Chinese trad
spoke Spanish, but the interpreter
talked English f1uently, and the first
question he asked was:
"'Say, do you know Coney Island?'
THAT made Bartlett smile and
brought a faint CLEAN of intelligence
from Bradley, who was lying on the
ground in weak state.
"The interpreter told us that he had
worked in New York two years, and
then went back to the San Bias coun-
try and barbaric life. He said that
the chief had decreed that we must
either go back the way we came or be
killed.
'I replied that it was impossible for
us to wade back against the current
carrying a dying man with us, and
asked permission to go down the
Mandinga to the coast.
"The Indians were armed with guns,
poisoned arrows, clubs and spears. The
chief would not believe our hunting
story, and said that God had given
that land to the Indians, and he did
not intend to let white men grab 1t
away from his tribe while he lived.
Become Desperate
GAS the days went by we became
desperate. 1t was evident that Brad
ley had not many hours to live, as he
had developed black water fever,
which is fatal to white men. The
chief came to us once again and said
we must go back.
"That same night our camp was fired
upon by the Indians and one arrow
stuck in the tent pole. Smith, my
brother Carl and myself rushed out
with our rifles and fired into the brush.
I know we hit one of them because of
the bowling, and then all became still.
Next day the chief, after a parley
about giving up our arms, agreed to
take us in canoes down the Mandinga
river twenty-five miles to the coast,
but would not give us any provisions,
although ours were almost exhausted.
1--WE lifted Bradley, who was uncon-
scious, into a canoe and started down
stream, arriving at Cart the next aft
ernoon. Our arrival at the town scared
all the women and children so that they
ran away, as we were the first white
men they had ever seen. That night a
council was held by the men of the
tribe, all squatting on the sand around
their wooden idol, to decide what to do
with us. While the tom-toms were
beating, the Mandinga Indians another
tribe came down in their canoes and
laid claim to us because we had been
captured in their territory. They Joined
in the hullabaloo, which could have
been heard for miles along the shore.
At dawn the interpreter passed our hut
and shouted out in the native tongue
that the Americans were to die.
Smith hurried to the chiefs and told
them through the interpreter than
gunboat was on its way from Colon to
rescue us and destroy their town.
Luckily at that moment one of the In
dams shouted out and pointed to the
sea, where a cloud of smoke, could be
seen rising to the sky. Bradley died
that day and hisc body was taken to
Colon by Smith in a sailing boat, who
also took Bartlett to the hospital.
"My brother Carl and then set out
in a canoe for San Christoval. The In
dams seemed content to let us go on
account of the supposed gunboat
which afterward proved to be one of
4bo Canal commands caaeoiOp Tugs