We profited by the last few days to sow the wheat and other remaining European grains, that the rain might germinate them.

We had already had some showers; the temperature was variable, the sky became cloudy, and the wind rose.

The season changed sooner than we expected; the winds raged through the woods, the sea roared, mountains of clouds were piled in the heavens.

They soon burst over our heads, and torrents of rain fell night and day, without intermission; the rivers swelled till their waters met, and turned the whole country around us into an immense lake.

Happily we had formed our little establishment on a spot rather elevated above the rest of the valley; the waters did not quite reach our tree, but surrounded us about two hundred yards off, leaving us on a sort of island in the midst of the general inundation.
We were reluctantly obliged to descend from our aerial abode; the rain entered it on all sides, and the hurricane threatened every moment to carry away the apartment, and all that were in it.