As it is a fearful country, and far beyond my worst experience.
There is no apparent break to the boundless marsh before and behind us,
this is about fifteen miles wide, as forest trees and the tall dolape
palms can sometimes be distinguished upon the horizon.
"What the unfortunate Higginbotham will do I cannot conceive, as there
is no possibility of communicating with him, and he will get into the
rainy season.
"Another soldier died this evening; he was an excellent man, who had
been employed at the arsenal at Cairo. His friend and bosom companion
was a fellow workman, and he was so grieved at the loss that he declared
he should not live beyond a few days. There was no dry ground in which
to dig a grave; it was therefore necessary to cut a hole in the base of
a white ant-hill, as these Babel-like towers were the only dry spots
that rose above the flood.
"This death is the sixth within the last few days, exclusive of one boy.
I think our black doctor assists them in departing from this life, as
they die very suddenly when he attends them. Like Dr. Sangrado, he is
very fond of the lancet, which is usually fatal in this climate.
