As Fast As We Stopped The Holes, Others Were Made With Determined Perseverance.

Having a supply of arsenic, I gave them an entertainment, the effect being disagreeable to all parties, as the rats died in their holes, and created a horrible effluvium, while fresh hosts took the place of the departed.

Now and then a snake would be seen gliding within the thatch, having taken shelter from the pouring rain. The smallpox was raging throughout the country, and the natives were dying like flies in winter. The country was extremely unhealthy, owing to the constant rain and the rank herbage, which prevented a free circulation of air, and from the extreme damp induced fevers. The temperature was 65 degrees Fahr. at night, and 72 degrees during the day; dense clouds obscured the sun for many days, and the air was reeking with moisture. In the evening it was always necessary to keep a blazing fire within the hut, as the floor and walls were wet and chilly.

The wet herbage disagreed with my baggage animals.

Innumerable flies appeared, including the Tsetse, and in a few weeks the donkeys had no hair left, either on their ears or legs; they drooped and died one by one. It was in vain that I erected sheds, and lighted fires; nothing would protect them from the flies. The moment the fires were lit, the animals would rush wildly into the smoke, from which nothing would drive them, and in the clouds of imaginary protection they would remain all day, refusing food.

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