J LEAKY HOUSE. 



525 



of about Imlf a mile in a shallow bay, Around it are a 

 few cultivated patches, aud a good deal of aecoud-growth 

 woody vepfetation ; while behind, at the distxince of about 

 half a mile, i\B/m the virgin forest, through which are a 

 few paths to some houses and plantations a mile or two 

 inland The country round is nither Oat, and in places 

 swampy, and there are one or two small streams which 

 run behind the irTllage into the sea below it Finding that 

 no house coidd be had suitable to my purpose, and having 

 so often experienced the advantages of living close to or 

 just within the forest, I ohtained the assistauce of half-a- 

 dozen men ; and having selected a spot near the path and 

 the stream, and close to a fine fig-tree, which stood just 

 within the forest, we cleared the ground and set to budd- 

 ing a house. As I did not expect to stay here so long as I 

 had done at Borey, I built a long, low, narrow shed, about 

 seven feet high on one side and four on the other, which 

 rR(|uired but little wood, and was put up very rapidly. 

 Our sails, with a few old attaps from a deserted hut in the 

 villi^e, formed the walla, and a quantity of "cadjans," or 

 palm-leaf mats, covered in the roof. On the third day my 

 house waa finished, and all my thinga put in and cotafort- 

 ably arranged to begin work, and I was quite pleased at 

 having got established so quickly and in such a nice 

 situation. 



It had been so far fine weather, but in the night it 

 rained hard, and we found our mat roof would not keep 

 out water. It first began to drop, and then to stream over 

 everything, I had to get up in the nnddle of the night to 

 secure my insect-boxes, rice, and other perishable articles, 

 and to find a dry place to sleep in, for ray bed was soaked, 

 Iresh leaks kept forming as the rain continued, and we 

 all passed a very misemblo aud sleepless night. In the 

 morning the sun sli(»ne Ijrigluly, and everything wiis put 

 out io diy. We tried to find out why the mats leaked, 

 and thought we had di^^covered that they had been laid on 

 upside down. Having shifted them all, and got everything 

 dry and comfortable by the evening, we again went to beil, 

 aud before midnight were again awaketl by torrents of 

 rain and leaks streaming in upon us as l)ad as ever. 

 There was no more uleep for us that night, and the next 



