Florian Described The Country As Very Healthy During The Dry
Season, But Extremely Dangerous During The Rains, Especially In
The Month Of October, When, On The Cessation Of Rain, The Sun
Evaporated The Moisture From The Sodden Ground And Rank
Vegetation.
I accordingly determined to arrange our winter
quarters as comfortably as possible at Sofi for three months,
during which
Holiday I should have ample time for gaining
information and completing my arrangements for the future.
Violent storms were now of daily occurrence; they had first
commenced at about 2 P.M., but they had gradually altered the
hour of their arrival to between 3 and 4. This night, 29th July,
we were visited at about 11 P.M. with the most tremendous tempest
that we had yet experienced, which lasted until the morning.
Fortunately the tent was well secured with four powerful
storm-ropes fastened from the top of the pole, and pinned about
twenty-five yards from the base to iron bars driven deep into the
hard ground; but the night was passed in the discomforts of a
deluge that, driven by the hurricane, swept through the tent,
which threatened every minute to desert us in shreds. On the
following morning the storm had passed away, and the small tent
had done likewise, having been blown down and carried many yards
from the spot where it had been pitched. Mahomet, who was the
occupant, had found himself suddenly enveloped in wet canvas,
from which he had emerged like a frog in the storm.
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