How marked is the contrast in the rainy season! It is difficult to persuade yourself that it is the same place you have shortly before seen standing in barren nakedness. All those spots, where nothing but sand was to be observed before, are now clad with a most luxuriant verdure, interspersed with the most beautiful flowers. The hedges round the houses are interlaced with a variety of creepers and twining plants, whose variegated flowers afford a most pleasing spectacle. The environs of the houses are cultivated with dockn, which stands so high that the tops of the roofs are only to be seen projecting beyond it; not a single house can be descried at a distance, and the whole country appears like one large forest. The entire town then resembles a park intersected by mazes, rendering it difficult for a stranger to extricate himself, or to find out a particular house. His embarrassment is greatly augmented by the circumstance of there being several thousands of small straw huts, and by the close resemblance of the houses to each other—for all are built alike—so that the stranger experiences much trouble in even recognising the house he may be lodging in. But all this is in its way unique, and diverts the eye. The traveller wanders with pleasure through these thousands and thousands of intricate paths, and is delighted at every step with the beautiful variations in the scene. At this time, however, the tropical showers set in, bringing a number of disagreeables in their train; for the rain falls so suddenly, and in such abundance, that the soil in some places cannot absorb the water with sufficient rapidity; and thus streams are formed, or the ground is ploughed up into beds, which fill in an instant, rendering the intercourse between one quarter and the other, or even from house to house, very difficult, if they do not totally impede all communication. There are no bridges, not even as much as boards laid down to facilitate the passage over these brooks, and he who is obliged by business to go out immediately after the rain, has no alternative but to wade through all these streams and puddles barefooted. It would be impracticable at this period to ride a donkey even, for notwithstanding their sureness of foot, the ground is so uneven that they must tread into holes, and both man and beast would run the risk of being drowned. Nearly every year there are instances of loss of life from men venturing to go from hut to hut by night, and it is really advisable to remain confined to the house until these torrents are lost in the sand, as is very soon the case.