The road was now extremely rough and bad, and the path so narrow and worn by the heavy rains washing away the soil and leaving the rough iron-stone and large roots crossing at short distances, as to render the march extremely fatiguing. Many of my poor fellows had their feet sadly bruised and cut. Having had several attacks of fever, I found myself considerably weaker within the last few days, and the wound on my leg daily enlarged and got in a very bad state. Being compelled to walk during the greater part of the latter end of this day, I felt more fatigued than I had ever done during the whole of my long journey, though many of them had been much longer. We crossed several glens and brooks, with very steep rocky banks, which no English horse would have even attempted, but so sure-footed are these Badagry horses, that the little fellow scrambled over all without any serious accident. In one instance, while climbing a smooth-surfaced granite rock, it slipped from nearly the top to the bottom, where it crushed one of the holsters and broke a girth, but it remained uninjured; however, it courageously made a second attempt, in which it succeeded. Owing to the road being so bad, we could make but slow progress; we were consequently benighted, and from the cloudy atmosphere the night was extremely dark. At last I became reckless, and blundered along with little or no caution, over rocks, through water, and over large roots, till about ten o’clock, when we came in sight of the lights of the town of Jallakoo. We had only made twenty-four miles during the whole of this long day. Jallakoo, like Savalu, was without walls or any fence. After crossing the Savalu mountains, I was again in the original kingdom of Dahomey, Jallakoo being the first Dahoman town in that direction. We were met at the entrance in the principal market-place by the old caboceer and his deputy who transacted all his official affairs. The caboceer was apparently upwards of ninety years of age. This venerable patriarch was determined to receive me with all the usual formality, and I was consequently (although I felt completely exhausted, as well as all my people) requested to dress myself in my uniform, and so enter the town. Fortunately, my appointments (epaulets and helmet) were tolerably clean, and had a very good effect by torch-light. Their torches are made of a very peculiar sort of wood, which when split into strips burns very brightly. These are sometimes smeared with the shea-butter.