DEPARTURE FROM BENTALA. 
females especially, were most furious in revenging the death, 
of their young ones, which they carried in their arms. 
Having- ascertained by experience that the reputation of 
the Serracolets for hospitality was well merited, I determined 
to remain a day longer at Bentala to recruit my strength, 
which had been more and more impaired by the rains, fatigue, 
and sickness. 
June 21st. We departed at the hour of prayer; the 
heat soon overcame me, and I was obliged to stop in a rice 
field, where a poor slave, perceiving the exhaustion manifested 
by my whole frame, l^rought me his dinner, which consisted 
of some yams boiled in water ; this repast somewhat refreshed 
me, and I was able to resume my route. Several rivers 
crossed our track ; I was obliged to dismount and ford them 
on foot. Once when we were on the point of crossing a 
torrent, we were obliged to recede some paces to leave a free 
passage for an enormous alligator, which would certainly have 
devoured one of us if we had been a little farther advan- 
ced in the water ; after this encounter we used the greatest 
circumspection in crossing the rivers. 
The storm which overtook us on our way, prevented 
our arriving before night at a rwnbdé situated at the foot 
of the chain of mountains, which extends from south to 
north as far as the Gambia, and which separates Fou ta Diallon 
from Tenda, a country dependent on it. 
Fouta Diallon, properly so called, begins to the south of the 
pp2 
