156 CAPTAIN TUCKEY’S NARRATIVE. 
infinitely more refreshing and grateful to the stomach, when 
heated and fatigued, than either wine or spirits and water, 
is at this season extremely scarce, owing to the long drought; 
so that, though every banza and gentleman’s town is sur- 
rounded by these trees (from 20 to 200 at each), we often — 
could not procure it even in exchange for brandy. It 
appears that the rainy season, for these last two years, has 
been very moderate, and the lighter rains, that usually 
happen in June, have been entirely wanting this year, which 
accounts for the burnt-up appearance of the country, and 
the very little water. It is however expected by the natives, 
that the ensuing rainy season will be proportionally violent ; 
and they are now preparing for it, by fresh covering and 
repairing their huts. ‘They say that every third or fourth 
year the river rises’ considerably higher than in the inter- 
mediate ones ; and this accounts for the different elevation 
of the marks on the rocks. 
Thus far the banks of the river do not afford a single 
timber tree capable of making a beam or timber for a sloop 
of war. The only trees that grow to a large size are the 
Adansonia and the Bombax, (or wild cotton), and the 
wood of both is spongy and useless; several varieties of 
evergreens, highly ornamental in their growth and foliage, 
are however met with in the vallies. 
