Yellow Fever got me started
This Yellow Fever thing got me started in Panama, but it didn't benefit Gorgas Memorial Lab very much, because they soon found out that there was no mammal reservoir host of Sylvan Yellow Fever. The virus survives from one rainy season to the next in the mosquitoes that spend the dry season in damp tree holes in the canopy.
That introduction to Panama led me into an inventory of the mammals of Panama. I went everywhere in the country, wherever there were no trails. I don't know much about the urban parts of Panama. I only passed through town and cities and hired local people or Indians to get me into the very back, back country. Well, I got beyond the last Guardia Nacional stations to where all the crooks were, so I always hired a bunch of guys evading the law as my helpers. One guy that I had I later found was wanted for about two dozen murders. I refused to give him my shotgun as a gift when we finally parted. I said, "You expect me to give you my shotgun when you have cheated me the whole time?" Only later did I find out that he was a murderer.
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