After this attack he became exceedingly restless, and
expressed a desire to be moved from the tent in which he had so long been
confined, to the underground room, but as that rude apartment was
exceedingly cold at night, I thought it advisable to have a chimney built
to it before he was taken there. It was not until the 12th that it was
ready for him. As the men were carrying him across the camp towards the
room he was destined to occupy for so short a time, I pointed out the
pyramid to him, and it is somewhat singular, that the first drops of
rain, on the continuance of which our deliverance depended, fell as the
men were bearing him along.
Referring back to the early part of the month, I may observe that the
indications of a breaking up of the drought, became every day more
apparent.
It was now clear, indeed, that the sky was getting surcharged with
moisture, and it is impossible for me to describe the intense anxiety
that prevailed in the camp. On the morning of the 3rd the firmament was
again cloudy, but the wind shifted at noon to west, and the sun set in a
sky so clear that we could hardly believe it had been so lately overcast.
On the following morning he rose bright and clear as he had set, and we
had a day of surpassing fineness, like a spring day in England.
The night of the 6th was the coldest night we experienced at the Depot,
when the thermometer descended to 24 degrees.
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