found I had lost a day or two in my account. My ink
failing soon after, I omitted in my daily memorandum things of an
indifferent nature, & contented myself to write down only the most
remarkable events of my life. The rainy and dry seasons appeared now
regular to me, and experience taught me how to provide for them; yet, in
one thing I am going to relate, my experience very much failed me. You
may call to mind what I have mentioned of some barley and rice which I
had saved; about thirty stalks of the former, and twenty of the latter;
and at that time, the sun being in its southern position, going from
me, together with the rains, made me conclude it a very proper season to
sow it. Accordingly I dug up a piece of ground, with my wooden spade,
and dividing it into two parts, sowed about two thirds of my seed,
preserving by me about a handful of each. And happy it was I did so; for
no rains falling, it was choaked up, and never appeared above the earth
till the wet season came again, and then part of it grew, as if it had
been newly sown.

I was resolved all to make another trial; and seeking for a moister
piece of ground near my bower, I there sowed the rest of my seed in
February, a little before the vernal equinox; which having the rainy
months of March and April to water it, yielded a noble crop, and sprang
up very pleasantly. I had still saved part of the seed, not daring to
venture all; and by the time I found out the proper seasons to sow it
in, and that I might expect every year two seed-times and two harvests,
my stock amounted to above half a peck of each sort of grain.

No sooner were the rains over, but the stakes which I had cut from the
trees, shot out like willows the first year after lopping their heads. I
was ignorant of the tree I cut them from; but they grew so regularly
beautiful, that they made a most lively appearance, and so flourished in
three year's time, that I resolved to cut more of them; and these soon
growing made a glorious fence, as afterwards I shall observe.

And now I perceived that the seasons of the year might generally be
divided, not into summer and winter, as in Europe, but into wet and dry
seasons, as in this manner:

/ February,\
Half< March, > Rainy, sun coming near the Equinox.
\ April, /

/ April, \
| May, |
Half< June, > Dry, sun getting north of the Line.
| July, |
\ August, /

/ August, \
Half< Septemb