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 deg. 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
pir