BEGINNING OF THE RAINY SEASON. 99 



and Brumado makes a great change of temperature ; there 

 it was very hot, with very little air, so that the return to 

 this fresh, light atmosphere was very pleasant. 



October 23. — Last night we had another deluge. We 

 were awakened by the noise of the downpour on the roof 

 of the tent. Lighting a candle, I examined whether the 

 water was coming in ; there was just a trickling on the 

 up-hill side. I turned in again, but not to sleep ; the drum- 

 like roar of the rain on the tent was too great, added to 

 the rushing of the rivers flowing down the deep gutter 

 which surrounds the tent. Soon I felt a curious motion 

 under my hammock, a sort of upheaval ; it was the dog 

 creeping about, as he always sleeps near my feet. I con- 

 cluded the rain was coming in, and, putting down my hand, 

 felt a stream. On striking a light, we saw a curious sight. 

 Between Roberts's camp-bed and my hammock rushed a 

 -river some two inches deep, and in it were floating empty 

 cups and pots and slippers, etc., bobbing up and down at 

 the lower side of the tent ; my gun-case and saddle-bags 

 had diverted a portion of the stream under my hammock, 

 while the rush of the rivers outside had prevented my 

 hearing the stream inside. We rescued our slippers and 

 grabbed at other floating articles, and I then, from the 

 vantage point of my hammock, viewed with some amuse- 

 ment the novel sight of a stream, more than a yard wide, 

 between our two beds. The rain came down in such 

 torrents that the ditch, though it was pretty deep, was 

 not large enough to carry it off ; so we had it enlarged 

 next morning, and now it is quite a jump to cross it. 



The rainy season having begun, the traffic has likewise 

 commenced. While the dry season lasts, the atrocious 

 tracks, called roads, are at least bearable ; but there is no 

 pasture for the cattle that draw the carts or for the pack- 



