Five Weeks in a Balloon

By

Jules Verne

www.freeclassicebooks.com

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER FIRST.. 4

CHAPTER SECOND.. 16

CHAPTER THIRD.. 21

CHAPTER FOURTH.. 35

CHAPTER FIFTH.. 43

CHAPTER SIXTH.. 53

CHAPTER SEVENTH.. 62

CHAPTER EIGHTH.. 70

CHAPTER NINTH.. 80

CHAPTER TENTH.. 89

CHAPTER ELEVENTH.. 97

CHAPTER TWELFTH.. 107

CHAPTER THIRTEENTH.. 121

CHAPTER FOURTEENTH.. 132

CHAPTER FIFTEENTH.. 147

CHAPTER SIXTEENTH.. 165

CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH.. 180

CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH.. 195

CHAPTER NINETEENTH.. 212

CHAPTER TWENTIETH.. 222

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST.. 233

CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND.. 249

CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRD.. 263

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURTH.. 278

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIFTH.. 291

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXTH.. 303

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENTH.. 314

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTH.. 326

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINTH.. 337

CHAPTER THIRTIETH.. 348

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIRST.. 361

CHAPTER THIRTY-SECOND.. 369

CHAPTER THIRTY-THIRD.. 380

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOURTH.. 392

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIFTH.. 401

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIXTH.. 416

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVENTH.. 427

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHTH.. 438

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINTH.. 451

CHAPTER FORTIETH.. 460

CHAPTER FORTY-FIRST.. 467

CHAPTER FORTY-SECOND.. 481

CHAPTER FORTY-THIRD.. 490

CHAPTER FORTY-FOURTH.. 506

FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON.

------

CHAPTER FIRST.

The End of a much-applauded Speech.--The Presentation of Dr. Samuel

Ferguson.--Excelsior.--Full-length Portrait of the Doctor.--A Fatalist

convinced.--A Dinner at the Travellers' Club.--Several Toasts for the

Occasion.

There was a large audience assembled on the 14th of

January, 1862, at the session of the Royal Geographical

Society, No. 3 Waterloo Place, London. The president,

Sir Francis M----, made an important communication to

his colleagues, in an address that was frequently

interrupted by applause.

This rare specimen of eloquence terminated with the

following sonorous phrases bubbling over with patriotism:

"England has always marched at the head of nations"

(for, the reader will observe, the nations always march

at the head of each other), "by the intrepidity of her

explorers in the line of geographical discovery." (General

assent). "Dr. Samuel Ferguson, one of her most glorious

sons, will not reflect discredit on his origin." ("No,

indeed!" from all parts of the hall.)

"This attempt, should it succeed" ("It will succeed!"),

"will complete and link together the notions, as yet

disjointed, which the world entertains of African cartology"

(vehement applause); "and, should it fail, it will,

at least, remain on record as one of the most daring

conceptions of human genius!" (Tremendous cheering.)

"Huzza! huzza!" shouted the immense audience,

completely electrified by these inspiring words.

"Huzza for the intrepid Ferguson!" cried one of the

most excitable of the enthusiastic crowd.

The wildest cheering resounded on all sides; the name

of Ferguson was in every mouth, and we may safely believe

that it lost nothing in passing through English

throats. Indeed, the hall fairly shook with it.

And there were present, also, those fearless travellers

and explorers whose energetic temperaments had borne

them through every quarter of the globe, many of them

grown old and worn out in the service of science. All

had, in some degree, physically or morally, undergone the

sorest trials. They had escaped shipwreck; conflagration;

Indian tomahawks and war-clubs; the fagot and the

stake; nay, even the cannibal maws of the South Sea

Islanders. But still their hearts beat high during Sir

Francis M----'s address, which certainly was the finest

oratorical success that the Royal Geographical Society of

London had yet achieved.

But, in England, enthusiasm does not stop short with

mere words. It strikes off money faster than the dies of

the Royal Mint itself. So a subscription to encourage Dr.

Ferguson was voted there and then, and it at once attained

the handsome amount of two thousand five hundred

pounds. The sum was made commensurate with the

importance of the enterprise.

A member of the Society then inquired of the president

whether Dr. Ferguson was not to be officially introduced.

"The doctor is at the disposition of the meeting,"

replied Sir Francis.

"Let him come in, then! Bring him in!" shouted the

audience. "We'd like to see a man of such extraordinary

daring, face to face!"

"Perhaps this incredible proposition of his is only

intended to mystify us," growled an apoplectic old

admiral.

"Suppose that there should turn out to be no such

person as Dr. Ferguson?" exclaimed another voice, with

a malicious twang.

"Why, then, we'd have to invent one!" replied a

facetious member of this grave Society.

"Ask Dr. Ferguson to come in," was the quiet remark

of Sir Francis M----.

And come in the doctor did, and stood there, quite

unmoved by the thunders of applause that greeted his

appearance.

He was a man of about forty years of age, of medium

height and physique. His sanguine temperament was

disclosed in the deep color of his cheeks. His countenance

was coldly expressive, with regular features, and a large

nose--one of those noses that resemble the prow of a ship,

and stamp the faces of men predestined to accomplish

great discoveries. His eyes, which were gentle and

intelligent, rather than bold, lent a peculiar charm to

his physiognomy. His arms were long, and his feet were

planted with that solidity which indicates a great pedestrian.

A calm gravity seemed to surround the doctor's entire

person, and no one would dream that he could become the

agent of any mystification, however harmless.

Hence, the applause that greeted him at the outset

continued until he, with a friendly gesture, claimed silence

on his own behalf. He stepped toward the seat that had

been prepared for him on his presentation, and then,

standing erect and motionless, he, with a determined

glance, pointed his right forefinger upward, and

pronounced aloud the single word--

"Excelsior!"

Never had one of Bright's or Cobden's sudden onslaughts,

never had one of Palmerston's abrupt demands

for funds to plate the rocks of the English coast with iron,

made such a sensation. Sir Francis M----'s address was

completely overshadowed. The doctor had shown himself

moderate, sublime, and self-contained, in one; he had

uttered the word of the situation--

"Excelsior!"

The gouty old admiral who had been finding fault, was

completely won over by the singular man before him, and

immediately moved the insertion of Dr. Ferguson's speech

in "The Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society

of London."

Who, then, was this person, and what was the enterprise

that he proposed?

Ferguson's father, a brave and worthy captain in the

English Navy, had associated his son with him, from the

young man's earliest years, in the perils and adventures of

his profession. The fine little fellow, who seemed to have

never known the meaning of fear, early revealed a keen

and active mind, an investigating intelligence, and a

remarkable turn for scientific study; moreover, he disclosed

uncommon address in extricating himself from difficulty;

he was never perplexed, not even in handling his fork for

the first time--an exercise in which children generally

have so little success.

His fancy kindled early at the recitals he read of daring

enterprise and maritime adventure, and he followed

with enthusiasm the discoveries that signalized the first part

of the nineteenth century. He mused over the glory of the

Mungo Parks, the Bruces, the Caillies, the Levaillants,

and to some extent, I verily believe, of Selkirk (Robinson

Crusoe), whom he considered in no wise inferior to the

rest. How many a well-employed hour he passed with

that hero on his isle of Juan Fernandez! Often he criticised

the ideas of the shipwrecked sailor, and sometimes

discussed his plans and projects. He would have done

differently, in such and such a case, or quite as well at

least--of that he felt assured. But of one thing he was

satisfied, that he never should have left that pleasant island,

where he was as happy as a king without subjects--

no, not if the inducement held out had been promotion to

the first lordship in the admiralty!

It may readily be conjectured whether these tendencies

were developed during a youth of adventure, spent in

every nook and corner of the Globe. Moreover, his father,

who was a man of thorough instruction, omitted no opportunity

to consolidate this keen intelligence by serious

studies in hydrography, physics, and mechanics, along

with a slight tincture of botany, medicine, and astronomy.

Upon the death of the estimable captain, Samuel Ferguson,

then twenty-two years of age, had already made

his voyage around the world. He had enlisted in the

Bengalese Corps of Engineers, and distinguished himself

in several affairs; but this soldier's life had not exactly

suited him; caring but little for command, he had not been

fond of obeying. He, therefore, sent in his resignation,

and half botanizing, half playing the hunter, he made his

way toward the north of the Indian Peninsula, and crossed

it from Calcutta to Surat--a mere amateur trip for him.

From Surat we see him going over to Australia, and

in 1845 participating in Captain Sturt's expedition, which

had been sent out to explore the new Caspian Sea, supposed

to exist in the centre of New Holland.

Samuel Ferguson returned to England about 1850,

and, more than ever possessed by the demon of discovery,

he spent the intervening time, until 1853, in accompanying

Captain McClure on the expedition that went around

the American Continent from Behring's Straits to Cape

Farewell.

Notwithstanding fatigues of every description, and in

all climates, Ferguson's constitution continued marvellously

sound. He felt at ease in the midst of the most complete

privations; in fine, he was the very type of the

thoroughly accomplished explorer whose stomach expands

or contracts at will; whose limbs grow longer or shorter

according to the resting-place that each stage of a journey

may bring; who can fall asleep at any hour of the day or

awake at any hour of the night.

Nothing, then, was less surprising, after that, than to

find our traveller, in the period from 1855 to 1857, visiting

the whole region west of the Thibet, in company with the

brothers Schlagintweit, and bringing back some curious

ethnographic observations from that expedition.

During these different journeys, Ferguson had been

the most active and interesting correspondent of the

Daily Telegraph, the penny newspaper whose circulation

amounts to 140,000 copies, and yet scarcely suffices for its

many legions of readers. Thus, the doctor had become

well known to the public, although he could not claim

membership in either of the Royal Geographical Societies

of London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, or St. Petersburg, or

yet with the Travellers' Club, or even the Royal Polytechnic

Institute, where his friend the statistician Cockburn

ruled in state.

The latter savant had, one day, gone so far as to propose

to him the following problem: Given the number of

miles travelled by the doctor in making the circuit of the

Globe, how many more had his head described than his

feet, by reason of the different lengths of the radii?--or,

the number of miles traversed by the doctor's head and

feet respectively being given, required the exact height

of that gentleman?

This was done with the idea of complimenting him,

but the doctor had held himself aloof from all the learned

bodies--belonging, as he did, to the church militant and

not to the church polemical. He found his time better

employed in seeking than in discussing, in discovering

rather than discoursing.

There is a story told of an Englishman who came one

day to Geneva, intending to visit the lake. He was placed

in one of those odd vehicles in which the passengers sit

side by side, as they do in an omnibus. Well, it so happened

that the Englishman got a seat that left him with

his back turned toward the lake. The vehicle completed

its circular trip without his thinking to turn around once,

and he went back to London delighted with the Lake of Geneva.

Doctor Ferguson, however, had turned around to look

about him on his journeyings, and turned to such good

purpose that he had seen a great deal. In doing so, he

had simply obeyed the laws of his nature, and we have

good reason to believe that he was, to some extent, a fatalist,

but of an orthodox school of fatalism withal, that led

him to rely upon himself and even upon Providence. He

claimed that he was impelled, rather than drawn by his

own volition, to journey as he did, and that he traversed

the world like the locomotive, which does not direct itself,

but is guided and directed by the track it runs on.

"I do not follow my route;" he often said, "it is my

route that follows me."

The reader will not be surprised, then, at the calmness

with which the doctor received the applause that welcomed

him in the Royal Society. He was above all such

trifles, having no pride, and less vanity. He looked upon

the proposition addressed to him by Sir Francis M---- as

the simplest thing in the world, and scarcely noticed the

immense effect that it produced.

When the session closed, the doctor was escorted to

the rooms of the Travellers' Club, in Pall Mall. A superb

entertainment had been prepared there in his honor. The

dimensions of the dishes served were made to correspond

with the importance of the personage entertained, and the

boiled sturgeon that figured at this magnificent repast was

not an inch shorter than Dr. Ferguson himself.

Numerous toasts were offered and quaffed, in the wines

of France, to the celebrated travellers who had made their

names illustrious by their explorations of African territory.

The guests drank to their health or to their memory,

in alphabetical order, a good old English way of doing the

thing. Among those remembered thus, were: Abbadie,

Adams, Adamson, Anderson, Arnaud, Baikie, Baldwin,

Barth, Batouda, Beke, Beltram, Du Berba, Bimbachi,

Bolognesi, Bolwik, Belzoni, Bonnemain, Brisson, Browne,

Bruce, Brun-Rollet, Burchell, Burckhardt, Burton, Cailland,

Caillie, Campbell, Chapman, Clapperton, Clot-Bey,

Colomieu, Courval, Cumming, Cuny, Debono, Decken,

Denham, Desavanchers, Dicksen, Dickson, Dochard, Du

Chaillu, Duncan, Durand, Duroule, Duveyrier, D'Escayrac,

De Lauture, Erhardt, Ferret, Fresnel, Galinier, Galton,

Geoffroy, Golberry, Hahn, Halm, Harnier, Hecquart,

Heuglin, Hornemann, Houghton, Imbert, Kauffmann,

Knoblecher, Krapf, Kummer, Lafargue, Laing, Lafaille,

Lambert, Lamiral, Lampriere, John Lander, Richard

Lander, Lefebvre, Lejean, Levaillant, Livingstone, MacCarthy,

Maggiar, Maizan, Malzac, Moffat, Mollien, Monteiro, Morrison,

Mungo Park, Neimans, Overweg, Panet, Partarrieau,

Pascal, Pearse, Peddie, Penney, Petherick, Poncet, Prax,

Raffenel, Rabh, Rebmann, Richardson, Riley, Ritchey,

Rochet d'Hericourt, Rongawi, Roscher, Ruppel, Saugnier,

Speke, Steidner, Thibaud, Thompson, Thornton, Toole,

Tousny, Trotter, Tuckey, Tyrwhitt, Vaudey, Veyssiere,

Vincent, Vinco, Vogel, Wahlberg, Warrington, Washington,

Werne, Wild, and last, but not least, Dr. Ferguson,

who, by his incredible attempt, was to link together the

achievements of all these explorers, and complete the series

of African discovery.

CHAPTER SECOND.

The Article in the Daily Telegraph.--War between the Scientific Journals.--

Mr. Petermann backs his Friend Dr. Ferguson.--Reply of the Savant Koner.

--Bets made.--Sundry Propositions offered to the Doctor.

On the next day, in its number of January 15th, the Daily

Telegraph published an article couched in the following terms:

"Africa is, at length, about to surrender the secret

of her vast solitudes; a modern OEdipus is to give us the

key to that enigma which the learned men of sixty centuries

have not been able to decipher. In other days, to seek the

sources of the Nile--fontes Nili quoerere--was regarded as

a mad endeavor, a chimera that could not be realized.

"Dr. Barth, in following out to Soudan the track traced

by Denham and Clapperton; Dr. Livingstone, in multiplying

his fearless explorations from the Cape of Good Hope

to the basin of the Zambesi; Captains Burton and Speke,

in the discovery of the great interior lakes, have opened

three highways to modern civilization. THEIR POINT OF

INTERSECTION, which no traveller has yet been able to

reach, is the very heart of Africa, and it is thither

that all efforts should now be directed.

"The labors of these hardy pioneers of science are now

about to be knit together by the daring project of Dr.

Samuel Ferguson, whose fine explorations our readers

have frequently had the opportunity of appreciating.

"This intrepid discoverer proposes to traverse all

Africa from east to west IN A BALLOON. If we are well

informed, the point of departure for this surprising journey

is to be the island of Zanzibar, upon the eastern coast.

As for the point of arrival, it is reserved for Providence

alone to designate.

"The proposal for this scientific undertaking was officially

made, yesterday, at the rooms of the Royal Geographical

Society, and the sum of twenty-five hundred pounds was

voted to defray the expenses of the enterprise.

"We shall keep our readers informed as to the progress

of this enterprise, which has no precedent in the annals

of exploration."

As may be supposed, the foregoing article had an

enormous echo among scientific people. At first, it stirred

up a storm of incredulity; Dr. Ferguson passed for a

purely chimerical personage of the Barnum stamp, who,

after having gone through the United States, proposed to

"do" the British Isles.

A humorous reply appeared in the February number

of the Bulletins de la Societe Geographique of Geneva,

which very wittily showed up the Royal Society of London

and their phenomenal sturgeon.

But Herr Petermann, in his Mittheilungen, published

at Gotha, reduced the Geneva journal to the most absolute

silence. Herr Petermann knew Dr. Ferguson personally,

and guaranteed the intrepidity of his dauntless friend.

Besides, all manner of doubt was quickly put out of

the question: preparations for the trip were set on foot at

London; the factories of Lyons received a heavy order for

the silk required for the body of the balloon; and, finally,

the British Government placed the transport-ship Resolute,

Captain Bennett, at the disposal of the expedition.

At once, upon word of all this, a thousand encouragements

were offered, and felicitations came pouring in from

all quarters. The details of the undertaking were published

in full in the bulletins of the Geographical Society

of Paris; a remarkable article appeared in the Nouvelles

Annales des Voyages, de la Geographie, de l'Histoire, et

de l'Archaeologie de M. V. A. Malte-Brun ("New Annals

of Travels, Geography, History, and Archaeology, by

M. V. A. Malte-Brun"); and a searching essay in the Zeitschrift

fur Allgemeine Erdkunde, by Dr. W. Koner, triumphantly

demonstrated the feasibility of the journey, its

chances of success, the nature of the obstacles existing,

the immense advantages of the aerial mode of locomotion,

and found fault with nothing but the selected point of

departure, which it contended should be Massowah, a small

port in Abyssinia, whence James Bruce, in 1768, started

upon his explorations in search of the sources of the Nile.

Apart from that, it mentioned, in terms of unreserved

admiration, the energetic character of Dr. Ferguson, and the

heart, thrice panoplied in bronze, that could conceive and

undertake such an enterprise.

The North American Review could not, without some

displeasure, contemplate so much glory monopolized by

England.  It therefore rather ridiculed the doctor's scheme,

and urged him, by all means, to push his explorations as

far as America, while he was about it.

In a word, without going over all the journals in the

world, there was not a scientific publication, from the

Journal of Evangelical Missions to the Revue Algerienne

et Coloniale, from the Annales de la Propagation de la

Foi to the Church Missionary Intelligencer, that had not

something to say about the affair in all its phases.

Many large bets were made at London and throughout

England generally, first, as to the real or supposititious

existence of Dr. Ferguson; secondly, as to the trip itself,

which, some contended, would not be undertaken at all,

and which was really contemplated, according to others;

thirdly, upon the success or failure of the enterprise; and

fourthly, upon the probabilities of Dr. Ferguson's return.

The betting-books were covered with entries of immense

sums, as though the Epsom races were at stake.

Thus, believers and unbelievers, the learned and the

ignorant, alike had their eyes fixed on the doctor, and he

became the lion of the day, without knowing that he carried

such a mane. On his part, he willingly gave the

most accurate information touching his project. He was

very easily approached, being naturally the most affable

man in the world. More than one bold adventurer presented

himself, offering to share the dangers as well as the

glory of the undertaking; but he refused them all, without

giving his reasons for rejecting them.

Numerous inventors of mechanism applicable to the

guidance of balloons came to propose their systems, but

he would accept none; and, when he was asked whether

he had discovered something of his own for that purpose,

he constantly refused to give any explanation, and merely

busied himself more actively than ever with the preparations

for his journey.

CHAPTER THIRD.

The Doctor's Friend.--The Origin of their Friendship.--Dick Kennedy

at London.--An unexpected but not very consoling Proposal.--A Proverb

by no means cheering.--A few Names from the African Martyrology.--The

Advantages of a Balloon.--Dr. Ferguson's Secret.

Dr. Ferguson had a friend--not another self, indeed,

an alter ego, for friendship could not exist between two

beings exactly alike.

But, if they possessed different qualities, aptitudes, and

temperaments, Dick Kennedy and Samuel Ferguson lived

with one and the same heart, and that gave them no great

trouble. In fact, quite the reverse.

Dick Kennedy was a Scotchman, in the full acceptation

of the word--open, resolute, and headstrong. He lived

in the town of Leith, which is near Edinburgh, and, in

truth, is a mere suburb of Auld Reekie. Sometimes he

was a fisherman, but he was always and everywhere a

determined hunter, and that was nothing remarkable for a

son of Caledonia, who had known some little climbing

among the Highland mountains. He was cited as a wonderful

shot with the rifle, since not only could he split a

bullet on a knife-blade, but he could divide it into two

such equal parts that, upon weighing them, scarcely any

difference would be perceptible.

Kennedy's countenance strikingly recalled that of Herbert

Glendinning, as Sir Walter Scott has depicted it in

"The Monastery"; his stature was above six feet; full of

grace and easy movement, he yet seemed gifted with herculean

strength; a face embrowned by the sun; eyes keen

and black; a natural air of daring courage; in fine,

something sound, solid, and reliable in his entire person,

spoke, at first glance, in favor of the bonny Scot.

The acquaintanceship of these two friends had been

formed in India, when they belonged to the same regiment.

While Dick would be out in pursuit of the tiger

and the elephant, Samuel would be in search of plants and

insects. Each could call himself expert in his own province,

and more than one rare botanical specimen, that to

science was as great a victory won as the conquest of a

pair of ivory tusks, became the doctor's booty.

These two young men, moreover, never had occasion

to save each other's lives, or to render any reciprocal

service.  Hence, an unalterable friendship. Destiny

sometimes bore them apart, but sympathy always united

them again.

Since their return to England they had been frequently

separated by the doctor's distant expeditions; but, on

his return, the latter never failed to go, not to ASK for

hospitality, but to bestow some weeks of his presence at

the home of his crony Dick.

The Scot talked of the past; the doctor busily prepared

for the future. The one looked back, the other forward.

Hence, a restless spirit personified in Ferguson; perfect

calmness typified in Kennedy--such was the contrast.

After his journey to the Thibet, the doctor had remained

nearly two years without hinting at new explorations; and

Dick, supposing that his friend's instinct for travel and

thirst for adventure had at length died out, was perfectly

enchanted. They would have ended badly, some day or other,

he thought to himself; no matter what experience one has

with men, one does not travel always with impunity among

cannibals and wild beasts. So, Kennedy besought the doctor

to tie up his bark for life, having done enough for science,

and too much for the gratitude of men.

The doctor contented himself with making no reply to

this. He remained absorbed in his own reflections, giving

himself up to secret calculations, passing his nights among

heaps of figures, and making experiments with the

strangest-looking machinery, inexplicable to everybody but

himself. It could readily be guessed, though, that some great

thought was fermenting in his brain.

"What can he have been planning?" wondered Kennedy, when, in

the month of January, his friend quitted him to return to London.

He found out one morning when he looked into the Daily Telegraph.

"Merciful Heaven!" he exclaimed, "the lunatic! the

madman! Cross Africa in a balloon! Nothing but that

was wanted to cap the climax! That's what he's been

bothering his wits about these two years past!"

Now, reader, substitute for all these exclamation points,

as many ringing thumps with a brawny fist upon the table,

and you have some idea of the manual exercise that Dick

went through while he thus spoke.

When his confidential maid-of-all-work, the aged Elspeth,

tried to insinuate that the whole thing might be a hoax--

"Not a bit of it!" said he. "Don't I know my man? Isn't it

just like him? Travel through the air! There, now, he's

jealous of the eagles, next! No! I warrant you, he'll not

do it! I'll find a way to stop him! He! why if they'd let

him alone, he'd start some day for the moon!"

On that very evening Kennedy, half alarmed, and half

exasperated, took the train for London, where he arrived

next morning.

Three-quarters of an hour later a cab deposited him at

the door of the doctor's modest dwelling, in Soho Square,

Greek Street. Forthwith he bounded up the steps and

announced his arrival with five good, hearty, sounding

raps at the door.

Ferguson opened, in person.

"Dick! you here?" he exclaimed, but with no great

expression of surprise, after all.

"Dick himself!" was the response.

"What, my dear boy, you at London, and this the

mid-season of the winter shooting?"

"Yes! here I am, at London!"

"And what have you come to town for?"

"To prevent the greatest piece of folly that ever was

conceived."

"Folly!" said the doctor.

"Is what this paper says, the truth?" rejoined Kennedy,

holding out the copy of the Daily Telegraph, mentioned above.

"Ah! that's what you mean, is it? These newspapers

are great tattlers! But, sit down, my dear Dick."

"No, I won't sit down!--Then, you really intend to

attempt this journey?"

"Most certainly! all my preparations are getting along

finely, and I--"

"Where are your traps? Let me have a chance at

them! I'll make them fly! I'll put your preparations in

fine order." And so saying, the gallant Scot gave way to

a genuine explosion of wrath.

"Come, be calm, my dear Dick!" resumed the doctor.

"You're angry at me because I did not acquaint you with

my new project."

"He calls this his new project!"

"I have been very busy," the doctor went on, without

heeding the interruption; "I have had so much to look

after! But rest assured that I should not have started

without writing to you."

"Oh, indeed! I'm highly honored."

"Because it is my intention to take you with me."

Upon this, the Scotchman gave a leap that a wild goat

would not have been ashamed of among his native crags.

"Ah! really, then, you want them to send us both to

Bedlam!"

"I have counted positively upon you, my dear Dick,

and I have picked you out from all the rest."

Kennedy stood speechless with amazement.

"After listening to me for ten minutes," said the doctor,

"you will thank me!"

"Are you speaking seriously?"

"Very seriously."

"And suppose that I refuse to go with you?"

"But you won't refuse."

"But, suppose that I were to refuse?"

"Well, I'd go alone."

"Let us sit down," said Kennedy, "and talk without

excitement. The moment you give up jesting about it,

we can discuss the thing."

"Let us discuss it, then, at breakfast, if you have no

objections, my dear Dick."

The two friends took their seats opposite to each other,

at a little table with a plate of toast and a huge tea-urn

before them.

"My dear Samuel," said the sportsman, "your project

is insane! it is impossible! it has no resemblance to

anything reasonable or practicable!"

"That's for us to find out when we shall have tried it!"

"But trying it is exactly what you ought not to attempt."

"Why so, if you please?"

"Well, the risks, the difficulty of the thing."

"As for difficulties," replied Ferguson, in a serious

tone, "they were made to be overcome; as for risks and

dangers, who can flatter himself that he is to escape them?

Every thing in life involves danger; it may even be

dangerous to sit down at one's own table, or to

put one's hat on one's own head. Moreover, we must

look upon what is to occur as having already occurred,

and see nothing but the present in the future, for the

future is but the present a little farther on."

"There it is!" exclaimed Kennedy, with a shrug.

"As great a fatalist as ever!"

"Yes! but in the good sense of the word. Let us not

trouble ourselves, then, about what fate has in store for us,

and let us not forget our good old English proverb: 'The

man who was born to be hung will never be drowned!'"

There was no reply to make, but that did not prevent

Kennedy from resuming a series of arguments which may

be readily conjectured, but which were too long for us to

repeat.

"Well, then," he said, after an hour's discussion, "if

you are absolutely determined to make this trip across the

African continent--if it is necessary for your happiness,

why not pursue the ordinary routes?"

"Why?" ejaculated the doctor, growing animated.

"Because, all attempts to do so, up to this time, have

utterly failed. Because, from Mungo Park, assassinated

on the Niger, to Vogel, who disappeared in the Wadai

country; from Oudney, who died at Murmur, and Clapperton,

lost at Sackatou, to the Frenchman Maizan, who was cut to

pieces; from Major Laing, killed by the Touaregs, to Roscher,

from Hamburg, massacred in the beginning of 1860, the names

of victim after victim have been inscribed on the lists of

African martyrdom! Because, to contend successfully against

the elements; against hunger, and thirst, and fever; against

savage beasts, and still more savage men, is impossible!

Because, what cannot be done in one way, should be tried

in another. In fine, because what one cannot pass through

directly in the middle, must be passed by going to one side

or overhead!"

"If passing over it were the only question!" interposed Kennedy;

"but passing high up in the air, doctor, there's the rub!"

"Come, then," said the doctor, "what have I to fear?

You will admit that I have taken my precautions in such

manner as to be certain that my balloon will not fall; but,

should it disappoint me, I should find myself on the ground

in the normal conditions imposed upon other explorers.

But, my balloon will not deceive me, and we need make

no such calculations."

"Yes, but you must take them into view."

"No, Dick. I intend not to be separated from

the balloon until I reach the western coast of Africa.

With it, every thing is possible; without it, I fall back

into the dangers and difficulties as well as the natural

obstacles that ordinarily attend such an expedition: with it,

neither heat, nor torrents, nor tempests, nor the simoom,

nor unhealthy climates, nor wild animals, nor savage men,

are to be feared! If I feel too hot, I can ascend; if too

cold, I can come down. Should there be a mountain, I can

pass over it; a precipice, I can sweep across it; a river, I can

sail beyond it; a storm, I can rise away above it; a torrent,

I can skim it like a bird! I can advance without fatigue,

I can halt without need of repose! I can soar above the

nascent cities! I can speed onward with the rapidity of a

tornado, sometimes at the loftiest heights, sometimes only a

hundred feet above the soil, while the map of Africa unrolls

itself beneath my gaze in the great atlas of the world."

Even the stubborn Kennedy began to feel moved, and

yet the spectacle thus conjured up before him gave him the

vertigo. He riveted his eyes upon the doctor with wonder

and admiration, and yet with fear, for he already felt

himself swinging aloft in space.

"Come, come," said he, at last. "Let us see, Samuel.

Then you have discovered the means of guiding a balloon?"

"Not by any means. That is a Utopian idea."

"Then, you will go--"

"Whithersoever Providence wills; but, at all events,

from east to west."

"Why so?"

"Because I expect to avail myself of the trade-winds,

the direction of which is always the same."

"Ah! yes, indeed!" said Kennedy, reflecting; "the

trade-winds--yes--truly--one might--there's something

in that!"

"Something in it--yes, my excellent friend--there's

EVERY THING in it. The English Government has placed a

transport at my disposal, and three or four vessels are to

cruise off the western coast of Africa, about the presumed

period of my arrival. In three months, at most, I shall be

at Zanzibar, where I will inflate my balloon, and from that

point we shall launch ourselves."

"We!" said Dick.

"Have you still a shadow of an objection to offer?

Speak, friend Kennedy."

"An objection! I have a thousand; but among other

things, tell me, if you expect to see the country. If you

expect to mount and descend at pleasure, you cannot do

so, without losing your gas. Up to this time no other

means have been devised, and it is this that has always

prevented long journeys in the air."

"My dear Dick, I have only one word to answer--I

shall not lose one particle of gas."

"And yet you can descend when you please?"

"I shall descend when I please."

"And how will you do that?"

"Ah, ha! therein lies my secret, friend Dick. Have

faith, and let my device be yours--'Excelsior!'"

"'Excelsior' be it then," said the sportsman, who did

not understand a word of Latin.

But he made up his mind to oppose his friend's departure

by all means in his power, and so pretended to give

in, at the same time keeping on the watch. As for the

doctor, he went on diligently with his preparations.

CHAPTER FOURTH.

African Explorations.--Barth, Richardson, Overweg, Werne, Brun-Rollet,

Penney, Andrea, Debono, Miani, Guillaume Lejean, Bruce, Krapf and Rebmann,

Maizan, Roscher, Burton and Speke.

The aerial line which Dr. Ferguson counted upon following

had not been chosen at random; his point of departure had

been carefully studied, and it was not without

good cause that he had resolved to ascend at the island

of Zanzibar. This island, lying near to the eastern coast

of Africa, is in the sixth degree of south latitude, that is

to say, four hundred and thirty geographical miles below

the equator.

From this island the latest expedition, sent by way of

the great lakes to explore the sources of the Nile, had just

set out.

But it would be well to indicate what explorations

Dr. Ferguson hoped to link together. The two principal

ones were those of Dr. Barth in 1849, and of Lieutenants

Burton and Speke in 1858.

Dr. Barth is a Hamburger, who obtained permission

for himself and for his countryman Overweg to join the

expedition of the Englishman Richardson. The latter was

charged with a mission in the Soudan.

This vast region is situated between the fifteenth and

tenth degrees of north latitude; that is to say, that, in

order to approach it, the explorer must penetrate fifteen

hundred miles into the interior of Africa.

Until then, the country in question had been known

only through the journeys of Denham, of Clapperton, and

of Oudney, made from 1822 to 1824. Richardson, Barth,

and Overweg, jealously anxious to push their investigations

farther, arrived at Tunis and Tripoli, like their predecessors,

and got as far as Mourzouk, the capital of Fezzan.

They then abandoned the perpendicular line, and made

a sharp turn westward toward Ghat, guided, with difficulty,

by the Touaregs. After a thousand scenes of pillage, of

vexation, and attacks by armed forces, their caravan

arrived, in October, at the vast oasis of Asben. Dr. Barth

separated from his companions, made an excursion to the

town of Aghades, and rejoined the expedition, which

resumed its march on the 12th of December. At length it

reached the province of Damerghou; there the three travellers

parted, and Barth took the road to Kano, where he

arrived by dint of perseverance, and after paying

considerable tribute.

In spite of an intense fever, he quitted that place on

the 7th of March, accompanied by a single servant. The

principal aim of his journey was to reconnoitre Lake Tchad,

from which he was still three hundred and fifty miles distant.

He therefore advanced toward the east, and reached

the town of Zouricolo, in the Bornou country, which is the

core of the great central empire of Africa. There he heard

of the death of Richardson, who had succumbed to fatigue

and privation. He next arrived at Kouka, the capital of

Bornou, on the borders of the lake. Finally, at the end

of three weeks, on the 14th of April, twelve months after

having quitted Tripoli, he reached the town of Ngornou.

We find him again setting forth on the 29th of March,

1851, with Overweg, to visit the kingdom of Adamaoua,

to the south of the lake, and from there he pushed on as

far as the town of Yola, a little below nine degrees north

latitude. This was the extreme southern limit reached by

that daring traveller.

He returned in the month of August to Kouka; from

there he successively traversed the Mandara, Barghimi,

and Klanem countries, and reached his extreme limit in

the east, the town of Masena, situated at seventeen

degrees twenty minutes west longitude.

On the 25th of November, 1852, after the death of

Overweg, his last companion, he plunged into the west,

visited Sockoto, crossed the Niger, and finally reached

Timbuctoo, where he had to languish, during eight long

months, under vexations inflicted upon him by the sheik,

and all kinds of ill-treatment and wretchedness. But the

presence of a Christian in the city could not long be

tolerated, and the Foullans threatened to besiege it. The

doctor, therefore, left it on the 17th of March, 1854, and

fled to the frontier, where he remained for thirty-three

days in the most abject destitution. He then managed to

get back to Kano in November, thence to Kouka, where

he resumed Denham's route after four months' delay. He

regained Tripoli toward the close of August, 1855, and

arrived in London on the 6th of September, the only

survivor of his party.

Such was the venturesome journey of Dr. Barth.

Dr. Ferguson carefully noted the fact, that he had

stopped at four degrees north latitude and seventeen

degrees west longitude.

Now let us see what Lieutenants Burton and Speke

accomplished in Eastern Africa.

The various expeditions that had ascended the Nile

could never manage to reach the mysterious source of that

river. According to the narrative of the German doctor,

Ferdinand Werne, the expedition attempted in 1840, under

the auspices of Mehemet Ali, stopped at Gondokoro,

between the fourth and fifth parallels of north latitude.

In 1855, Brun-Rollet, a native of Savoy, appointed

consul for Sardinia in Eastern Soudan, to take the place

of Vaudey, who had just died, set out from Karthoum,

and, under the name of Yacoub the merchant, trading in

gums and ivory, got as far as Belenia, beyond the fourth

degree, but had to return in ill-health to Karthoum, where

he died in 1857.

Neither Dr. Penney--the head of the Egyptian medical

service, who, in a small steamer, penetrated one degree

beyond Gondokoro, and then came back to die of exhaustion

at Karthoum--nor Miani, the Venetian, who, turning the

cataracts below Gondokoro, reached the second parallel--

nor the Maltese trader, Andrea Debono, who pushed his

journey up the Nile still farther--could work their way

beyond the apparently impassable limit.

In 1859, M. Guillaume Lejean, intrusted with a mission

by the French Government, reached Karthoum by

way of the Red Sea, and embarked upon the Nile with a

retinue of twenty-one hired men and twenty soldiers, but

he could not get past Gondokoro, and ran extreme risk of

his life among the negro tribes, who were in full revolt.

The expedition directed by M. d'Escayrac de Lauture

made an equally unsuccessful attempt to reach the famous

sources of the Nile.

This fatal limit invariably brought every traveller to a

halt. In ancient times, the ambassadors of Nero reached

the ninth degree of latitude, but in eighteen centuries only

from five to six degrees, or from three hundred to three

hundred and sixty geographical miles, were gained.

Many travellers endeavored to reach the sources of the

Nile by taking their point of departure on the eastern

coast of Africa.

Between 1768 and 1772 the Scotch traveller, Bruce,

set out from Massowah, a port of Abyssinia, traversed the

Tigre, visited the ruins of Axum, saw the sources of the

Nile where they did not exist, and obtained no serious result.

In 1844, Dr. Krapf, an Anglican missionary, founded

an establishment at Monbaz, on the coast of Zanguebar,

and, in company with the Rev. Dr. Rebmann, discovered

two mountain-ranges three hundred miles from the coast.

These were the mountains of Kilimandjaro and Kenia,

which Messrs. de Heuglin and Thornton have partly scaled

so recently.

In 1845, Maizan, the French explorer, disembarked,

alone, at Bagamayo, directly opposite to Zanzibar, and

got as far as Deje-la-Mhora, where the chief caused him

to be put to death in the most cruel torment.

In 1859, in the month of August, the young traveller,

Roscher, from Hamburg, set out with a caravan of Arab

merchants, reached Lake Nyassa, and was there assassinated

while he slept.

Finally, in 1857, Lieutenants Burton and Speke, both

officers in the Bengal army, were sent by the London

Geographical Society to explore the great African lakes,

and on the 17th of June they quitted Zanzibar, and

plunged directly into the west.

After four months of incredible suffering, their baggage

having been pillaged, and their attendants beaten

and slain, they arrived at Kazeh, a sort of central

rendezvous for traders and caravans. They were in the

midst of the country of the Moon, and there they collected

some precious documents concerning the manners, government,

religion, fauna, and flora of the region. They next

made for the first of the great lakes, the one named

Tanganayika, situated between the third and eighth degrees

of south latitude. They reached it on the 14th of February,

1858, and visited the various tribes residing on its

banks, the most of whom are cannibals.

They departed again on the 26th of May, and reentered

Kazeh on the 20th of June. There Burton, who

was completely worn out, lay ill for several months,

during which time Speke made a push to the northward

of more than three hundred miles, going as far as Lake

Okeracua, which he came in sight of on the 3d of August;

but he could descry only the opening of it at latitude

two degrees thirty minutes.

He reached Kazeh, on his return, on the 25th of August,

and, in company with Burton, again took up the

route to Zanzibar, where they arrived in the month of

March in the following year. These two daring explorers

then reembarked for England; and the Geographical

Society of Paris decreed them its annual prize medal.

Dr. Ferguson carefully remarked that they had not

gone beyond the second degree of south latitude, nor the

twenty-ninth of east longitude.

The problem, therefore, was how to link the explorations

of Burton and Speke with those of Dr. Barth, since

to do so was to undertake to traverse an extent of more

than twelve degrees of territory.

CHAPTER FIFTH.

Kennedy's Dreams.--Articles and Pronouns in the Plural.--Dick's Insinuations.

--A Promenade over the Map of Africa.--What is contained between two

Points of the Compass.--Expeditions now on foot.--Speke and Grant.--Krapf,

De Decken, and De Heuglin.

Dr. Ferguson energetically pushed the preparations

for his departure, and in person superintended the

construction of his balloon, with certain modifications; in

regard to which he observed the most absolute silence.

For a long time past he had been applying himself to the

study of the Arab language and the various Mandingoe

idioms, and, thanks to his talents as a polyglot, he had

made rapid progress.

In the mean while his friend, the sportsman, never let

him out of his sight--afraid, no doubt, that the doctor

might take his departure, without saying a word to anybody.

On this subject, he regaled him with the most

persuasive arguments, which, however, did NOT persuade

Samuel Ferguson, and wasted his breath in pathetic

entreaties, by which the latter seemed to be but slightly

moved. In fine, Dick felt that the doctor was slipping

through his fingers.

The poor Scot was really to be pitied. He could not look

upon the azure vault without a sombre terror: when asleep,

he felt oscillations that made his head reel; and every

night he had visions of being swung aloft at immeasurable heights.

We must add that, during these fearful nightmares,

he once or twice fell out of bed. His first care then was

to show Ferguson a severe contusion that he had received

on the cranium. "And yet," he would add, with

warmth, "that was at the height of only three feet--not

an inch more--and such a bump as this! Only think, then!"

This insinuation, full of sad meaning as it was, did not

seem to touch the doctor's heart.

"We'll not fall," was his invariable reply.

"But, still, suppose that we WERE to fall!"

"We will NOT fall!"

This was decisive, and Kennedy had nothing more to say.

What particularly exasperated Dick was, that the doctor

seemed completely to lose sight of his personality--

of his--Kennedy's--and to look upon him as irrevocably

destined to become his aerial companion. Not even the

shadow of a doubt was ever suggested; and Samuel made

an intolerable misuse of the first person plural:

"'We' are getting along; 'we' shall be ready on

the ----; 'we' shall start on the ----," etc., etc.

And then there was the singular possessive adjective:

"'Our' balloon; 'our' car; 'our' expedition."

And the same in the plural, too:

"'Our' preparations; 'our' discoveries; 'our' ascensions."

Dick shuddered at them, although he was determined

not to go; but he did not want to annoy his friend. Let

us also disclose the fact that, without knowing exactly

why himself, he had sent to Edinburgh for a certain

selection of heavy clothing, and his best hunting-gear and

fire-arms.

One day, after having admitted that, with an overwhelming

run of good-luck, there MIGHT be one chance of

success in a thousand, he pretended to yield entirely to

the doctor's wishes; but, in order to still put off the

journey, he opened the most varied series of subterfuges. He

threw himself back upon questioning the utility of the

expedition--its opportuneness, etc. This discovery of the

sources of the Nile, was it likely to be of any use?--Would

one have really labored for the welfare of humanity?--

When, after all, the African tribes should have been civilized,

would they be any happier?--Were folks certain

that civilization had not its chosen abode there rather

than in Europe?--Perhaps!--And then, couldn't one wait

a little longer?--The trip across Africa would certainly

be accomplished some day, and in a less hazardous manner.--

In another month, or in six months before the year

was over, some explorer would undoubtedly come in--etc., etc.

These hints produced an effect exactly opposite to

what was desired or intended, and the doctor trembled

with impatience.

"Are you willing, then, wretched Dick--are you willing,

false friend--that this glory should belong to another?

Must I then be untrue to my past history; recoil before

obstacles that are not serious; requite with cowardly

hesitation what both the English Government and the

Royal Society of London have done for me?"

"But," resumed Kennedy, who made great use of that

conjunction.

"But," said the doctor, "are you not aware that my

journey is to compete with the success of the expeditions

now on foot? Don't you know that fresh explorers are

advancing toward the centre of Africa?"

"Still--"

"Listen to me, Dick," and cast your eyes over that map."

Dick glanced over it, with resignation.

"Now, ascend the course of the Nile."

"I have ascended it," replied the Scotchman, with

docility.

"Stop at Gondokoro."

"I am there."

And Kennedy thought to himself how easy such a trip

was--on the map!

"Now, take one of the points of these dividers and let it rest

upon that place beyond which the most daring explorers have

scarcely gone."

"I have done so."

"And now look along the coast for the island of Zanzibar,

in latitude six degrees south."

"I have it."

"Now, follow the same parallel and arrive at Kazeh."

"I have done so."

"Run up again along the thirty-third degree of longitude

to the opening of Lake Oukereoue, at the point where

Lieutenant Speke had to halt."

"I am there; a little more, and I should have tumbled

into the lake."

"Very good!  Now, do you know what we have the

right to suppose, according to the information given by

the tribes that live along its shores?"

"I haven't the least idea."

"Why, that this lake, the lower extremity of which is

in two degrees and thirty minutes, must extend also two

degrees and a half above the equator."

"Really!"

"Well from this northern extremity there flows a

stream which must necessarily join the Nile, if it be not

the Nile itself."

"That is, indeed, curious."

"Then, let the other point of your dividers rest upon

that extremity of Lake Oukereoue."

"It is done, friend Ferguson."

"Now, how many degrees can you count between the

two points?"

"Scarcely two."

"And do you know what that means, Dick?"

"Not the least in the world."

"Why, that makes scarcely one hundred and twenty

miles--in other words, a nothing."

"Almost nothing, Samuel."

"Well, do you know what is taking place at this moment?"

"No, upon my honor, I do not."

"Very well, then, I'll tell you. The Geographical Society

regard as very important the exploration of this lake

of which Speke caught a glimpse. Under their auspices,

Lieutenant (now Captain) Speke has associated with him

Captain Grant, of the army in India; they have put themselves

at the head of a numerous and well-equipped expedition;

their mission is to ascend the lake and return to

Gondokoro; they have received a subsidy of more than

five thousand pounds, and the Governor of the Cape of

Good Hope has placed Hottentot soldiers at their disposal;

they set out from Zanzibar at the close of October, 1860.

In the mean while John Petherick, the English consul at

the city of Karthoum, has received about seven hundred

pounds from the foreign office; he is to equip a steamer at

Karthoum, stock it with sufficient provisions, and make his

way to Gondokoro; there, he will await Captain Speke's

caravan, and be able to replenish its supplies to some extent."

"Well planned," said Kennedy.

"You can easily see, then, that time presses if we are

to take part in these exploring labors. And that is not

all, since, while some are thus advancing with sure steps

to the discovery of the sources of the Nile, others are

penetrating to the very heart of Africa."

"On foot?" said Kennedy.

"Yes, on foot," rejoined the doctor, without noticing

the insinuation. "Doctor Krapf proposes to push forward,

in the west, by way of the Djob, a river lying under the

equator. Baron de Decken has already set out from

Monbaz, has reconnoitred the mountains of Kenaia and

Kilimandjaro, and is now plunging in toward the centre."

"But all this time on foot?"

"On foot or on mules."

"Exactly the same, so far as I am concerned," ejaculated Kennedy.

"Lastly," resumed the doctor, "M. de Heuglin, the

Austrian vice-consul at Karthoum, has just organized a

very important expedition, the first aim of which is to

search for the traveller Vogel, who, in 1853, was sent into

the Soudan to associate himself with the labors of Dr.

Barth. In 1856, he quitted Bornou, and determined to

explore the unknown country that lies between Lake Tchad

and Darfur. Nothing has been seen of him since that

time. Letters that were received in Alexandria, in 1860,

said that he was killed at the order of the King of Wadai;

but other letters, addressed by Dr. Hartmann to the traveller's

father, relate that, according to the recital of a felatah

of Bornou, Vogel was merely held as a prisoner at

Wara. All hope is not then lost. Hence, a committee

has been organized under the presidency of the Regent of

Saxe-Cogurg-Gotha; my friend Petermann is its secretary;

a national subscription has provided for the expense

of the expedition, whose strength has been increased

by the voluntary accession of several learned men, and

M. de Heuglin set out from Massowah, in the month of

June. While engaged in looking for Vogel, he is also to

explore all the country between the Nile and Lake Tchad,

that is to say, to knit together the operations of Captain

Speke and those of Dr. Barth, and then Africa will have

been traversed from east to west."*

* After the departure of Dr. Ferguson, it was ascertained that

M. de Heuglin, owing to some disagreement, took a route different

from the one assigned to his expedition, the command of the latter

having been transferred to Mr. Muntzinger.

"Well," said the canny Scot, "since every thing is

getting on so well, what's the use of our going down there?"

Dr. Ferguson made no reply, but contented himself

with a significant shrug of the shoulders.

CHAPTER SIXTH.

A Servant--match him!--He can see the Satellites of Jupiter.--Dick

and Joe hard at it.--Doubt and Faith.--The Weighing Ceremony.--Joe

and Wellington.--He gets a Half-crown.

Dr. Ferguson had a servant who answered with alacrity to

the name of Joe. He was an excellent fellow, who testified

the most absolute confidence in his master, and the most

unlimited devotion to his interests, even anticipating

his wishes and orders, which were always intelligently

executed. In fine, he was a Caleb without the

growling, and a perfect pattern of constant good-humor.

Had he been made on purpose for the place, it could not

have been better done. Ferguson put himself entirely in

his hands, so far as the ordinary details of existence were

concerned, and he did well. Incomparable, whole-souled

Joe! a servant who orders your dinner; who likes what

you like; who packs your trunk, without forgetting your

socks or your linen; who has charge of your keys and your

secrets, and takes no advantage of all this!

But then, what a man the doctor was in the eyes of

this worthy Joe! With what respect and what confidence

the latter received all his decisions! When Ferguson had

spoken, he would be a fool who should attempt to question

the matter. Every thing he thought was exactly right;

every thing he said, the perfection of wisdom; every thing

he ordered to be done, quite feasible; all that he undertook,

practicable; all that he accomplished, admirable.

You might have cut Joe to pieces--not an agreeable

operation, to be sure--and yet he would not have altered

his opinion of his master.

So, when the doctor conceived the project of crossing

Africa through the air, for Joe the thing was already

done; obstacles no longer existed; from the moment when

the doctor had made up his mind to start, he had arrived

--along with his faithful attendant, too, for the noble

fellow knew, without a word uttered about it, that he would

be one of the party.

Moreover, he was just the man to render the greatest

service by his intelligence and his wonderful agility. Had

the occasion arisen to name a professor of gymnastics for

the monkeys in the Zoological Garden (who are smart

enough, by-the-way!), Joe would certainly have received

the appointment. Leaping, climbing, almost flying--

these were all sport to him.

If Ferguson was the head and Kennedy the arm, Joe

was to be the right hand of the expedition. He had,

already, accompanied his master on several journeys, and

had a smattering of science appropriate to his condition

and style of mind, but he was especially remarkable for a

sort of mild philosophy, a charming turn of optimism. In

his sight every thing was easy, logical, natural, and,

consequently, he could see no use in complaining or grumbling.

Among other gifts, he possessed a strength and range

of vision that were perfectly surprising. He enjoyed, in

common with Moestlin, Kepler's professor, the rare faculty

of distinguishing the satellites of Jupiter with the naked

eye, and of counting fourteen of the stars in the group of

Pleiades, the remotest of them being only of the ninth

magnitude. He presumed none the more for that; on the

contrary, he made his bow to you, at a distance, and when

occasion arose he bravely knew how to use his eyes.

With such profound faith as Joe felt in the doctor, it

is not to be wondered at that incessant discussions sprang

up between him and Kennedy, without any lack of respect

to the latter, however.

One doubted, the other believed; one had a prudent foresight,

the other blind confidence. The doctor, however, vibrated

between doubt and confidence; that is to say, he troubled

his head with neither one nor the other.

"Well, Mr. Kennedy," Joe would say.

"Well, my boy?"

"The moment's at hand. It seems that we are to sail

for the moon."

"You mean the Mountains of the Moon, which are not

quite so far off. But, never mind, one trip is just as

dangerous as the other!"

"Dangerous! What! with a man like Dr. Ferguson?"

"I don't want to spoil your illusions, my good Joe;

but this undertaking of his is nothing more nor less than

the act of a madman. He won't go, though!"

"He won't go, eh? Then you haven't seen his balloon

at Mitchell's factory in the Borough?"

"I'll take precious good care to keep away from it!"

"Well, you'll lose a fine sight, sir. What a splendid

thing it is! What a pretty shape! What a nice car!

How snug we'll feel in it!"

"Then you really think of going with your master?"

"I?" answered Joe, with an accent of profound conviction.

"Why, I'd go with him wherever he pleases!

Who ever heard of such a thing? Leave him to go off

alone, after we've been all over the world together! Who

would help him, when he was tired? Who would give

him a hand in climbing over the rocks? Who would

attend him when he was sick? No, Mr. Kennedy, Joe will

always stick to the doctor!"

"You're a fine fellow, Joe!"

"But, then, you're coming with us!"

"Oh! certainly," said Kennedy; "that is to say, I

will go with you up to the last moment, to prevent Samuel

even then from being guilty of such an act of folly! I

will follow him as far as Zanzibar, so as to stop him there,

if possible."

"You'll stop nothing at all, Mr. Kennedy, with all respect

to you, sir. My master is no hare-brained person;

he takes a long time to think over what he means to do,

and then, when he once gets started, the Evil One himself

couldn't make him give it up."

"Well, we'll see about that."

"Don't flatter yourself, sir--but then, the main thing

is, to have you with us. For a hunter like you, sir,

Africa's a great country. So, either way, you won't be

sorry for the trip."

"No, that's a fact, I shan't be sorry for it, if I can get

this crazy man to give up his scheme."

"By-the-way," said Joe, "you know that the weighing

comes off to-day."

"The weighing--what weighing?"

"Why, my master, and you, and I, are all to be

weighed to-day!"

"What! like horse-jockeys?"

"Yes, like jockeys. Only, never fear, you won't be

expected to make yourself lean, if you're found to be

heavy. You'll go as you are."

"Well, I can tell you, I am not going to let myself be

weighed," said Kennedy, firmly.

"But, sir, it seems that the doctor's machine requires it."

"Well, his machine will have to do without it."

"Humph! and suppose that it couldn't go up, then?"

"Egad! that's all I want!"

"Come! come, Mr. Kennedy! My master will be sending

for us directly."

"I shan't go."

"Oh! now, you won't vex the doctor in that way!"

"Aye! that I will."

"Well!" said Joe with a laugh, "you say that because

he's not here; but when he says to your face, 'Dick!'

(with all respect to you, sir,) 'Dick, I want to know

exactly how much you weigh,' you'll go, I warrant it."

"No, I will NOT go!"

At this moment the doctor entered his study, where

this discussion had been taking place; and, as he came

in, cast a glance at Kennedy, who did not feel altogether

at his ease.

"Dick," said the doctor, "come with Joe; I want to

know how much you both weigh."

"But--"

"You may keep your hat on. Come!" And Kennedy went.

They repaired in company to the workshop of the

Messrs. Mitchell, where one of those so-called "Roman"

scales was in readiness. It was necessary, by the way,

for the doctor to know the weight of his companions, so

as to fix the equilibrium of his balloon; so he made Dick

get up on the platform of the scales. The latter, without

making any resistance, said, in an undertone:

"Oh! well, that doesn't bind me to any thing."

"One hundred and fifty-three pounds," said the doctor,

noting it down on his tablets.

"Am I too heavy?"

"Why, no, Mr. Kennedy!" said Joe; "and then, you

know, I am light to make up for it."

So saying, Joe, with enthusiasm, took his place on the

scales, and very nearly upset them in his ready haste.

He struck the attitude of Wellington where he is made to

ape Achilles, at Hyde-Park entrance, and was superb in

it, without the shield.

"One hundred and twenty pounds," wrote the doctor.

"Ah! ha!" said Joe, with a smile of satisfaction

And why did he smile? He never could tell himself.

"It's my turn now," said Ferguson--and he put down

one hundred and thirty-five pounds to his own account.

"All three of us," said he, "do not weigh much more

than four hundred pounds."

"But, sir," said Joe, "if it was necessary for your

expedition, I could make myself thinner by twenty pounds,

by not eating so much."

"Useless, my boy!" replied the doctor. "You may

eat as much as you like, and here's half-a-crown to buy

you the ballast."

CHAPTER SEVENTH.

Geometrical Details.--Calculation of the Capacity of the Balloon.--The

Double Receptacle.--The Covering.--The Car.--The Mysterious Apparatus.

--The Provisions and Stores.--The Final Summing up.

Dr. Ferguson had long been engaged upon the details

of his expedition. It is easy to comprehend that the balloon

--that marvellous vehicle which was to convey him

through the air--was the constant object of his solicitude.

At the outset, in order not to give the balloon too

ponderous dimensions, he had decided to fill it with

hydrogen gas, which is fourteen and a half times lighter

than common air. The production of this gas is easy,

and it has given the greatest satisfaction hitherto in

aerostatic experiments.

The doctor, according to very accurate calculations,

found that, including the articles indispensable to his

journey and his apparatus, he should have to carry a weight

of 4,000 pounds; therefore he had to find out what would

be the ascensional force of a balloon capable of raising such

a weight, and, consequently, what would be its capacity.

A weight of four thousand pounds is represented by

a displacement of the air amounting to forty-four thousand

eight hundred and forty-seven cubic feet; or, in other

words, forty-four thousand eight hundred and forty-seven

cubic feet of air weigh about four thousand pounds.

By giving the balloon these cubic dimensions, and filling

it with hydrogen gas, instead of common air--the former

being fourteen and a half times lighter and weighing

therefore only two hundred and seventy-six pounds--a

difference of three thousand seven hundred and twenty-four

pounds in equilibrium is produced; and it is this

difference between the weight of the gas contained in the

balloon and the weight of the surrounding atmosphere

that constitutes the ascensional force of the former.

However, were the forty-four thousand eight hundred

and forty-seven cubic feet of gas of which we speak, all

introduced into the balloon, it would be entirely filled;

but that would not do, because, as the balloon continued

to mount into the more rarefied layers of the atmosphere,

the gas within would dilate, and soon burst the cover

containing it. Balloons, then, are usually only two-thirds

filled.

But the doctor, in carrying out a project known only

to himself, resolved to fill his balloon only one-half; and,

since he had to carry forty-four thousand eight hundred

and forty-seven cubic feet of gas, to give his balloon

nearly double capacity he arranged it in that elongated,

oval shape which has come to be preferred. The horizontal

diameter was fifty feet, and the vertical diameter

seventy-five feet. He thus obtained a spheroid, the

capacity of which amounted, in round numbers, to ninety

thousand cubic feet.

Could Dr. Ferguson have used two balloons, his chances

of success would have been increased; for, should one

burst in the air, he could, by throwing out ballast, keep

himself up with the other. But the management of two

balloons would, necessarily, be very difficult, in view of

the problem how to keep them both at an equal ascensional force.

After having pondered the matter carefully, Dr. Ferguson,

by an ingenious arrangement, combined the advantages of

two balloons, without incurring their inconveniences. He

constructed two of different sizes, and inclosed the

smaller in the larger one. His external balloon, which

had the dimensions given above, contained a less one of

the same shape, which was only forty-five feet in

horizontal, and sixty-eight feet in vertical diameter. The

capacity of this interior balloon was only sixty-seven

thousand cubic feet: it was to float in the fluid surrounding

it. A valve opened from one balloon into the other,

and thus enabled the aeronaut to communicate with both.

This arrangement offered the advantage, that if gas

had to be let off, so as to descend, that which was in the

outer balloon would go first; and, were it completely

emptied, the smaller one would still remain intact. The

outer envelope might then be cast off as a useless encumbrance;

and the second balloon, left free to itself, would not offer

the same hold to the currents of air as a half-inflated one

must needs present.

Moreover, in case of an accident happening to the outside

balloon, such as getting torn, for instance, the other

would remain intact.

The balloons were made of a strong but light Lyons silk,

coated with gutta percha. This gummy, resinous substance

is absolutely water-proof, and also resists acids and gas

perfectly. The silk was doubled, at the upper extremity of

the oval, where most of the strain would come.

Such an envelope as this could retain the inflating

fluid for any length of time. It weighed half a pound per

nine square feet. Hence the surface of the outside balloon

being about eleven thousand six hundred square feet, its

envelope weighed six hundred and fifty pounds. The envelope

of the second or inner balloon, having nine thousand two

hundred square feet of surface, weighed only about five

hundred and ten pounds, or say eleven hundred and sixty

pounds for both.

The network that supported the car was made of very

strong hempen cord, and the two valves were the object

of the most minute and careful attention, as the rudder of

a ship would be.

The car, which was of a circular form and fifteen feet

in diameter, was made of wicker-work, strengthened with

a slight covering of iron, and protected below by a system

of elastic springs, to deaden the shock of collision. Its

weight, along with that of the network, did not exceed

two hundred and fifty pounds.

In addition to the above, the doctor caused to be constructed

two sheet-iron chests two lines in thickness. These were

connected by means of pipes furnished with stopcocks. He

joined to these a spiral, two inches in diameter, which

terminated in two branch pieces of unequal length, the

longer of which, however, was twenty-five feet in height

and the shorter only fifteen feet.

These sheet-iron chests were embedded in the car in

such a way as to take up the least possible amount of

space. The spiral, which was not to be adjusted until

some future moment, was packed up, separately, along

with a very strong Buntzen electric battery. This apparatus

had been so ingeniously combined that it did not

weigh more than seven hundred pounds, even including

twenty-five gallons of water in another receptacle.

The instruments provided for the journey consisted of

two barometers, two thermometers, two compasses, a sextant,

two chronometers, an artificial horizon, and an altazimuth,

to throw out the height of distant and inaccessible objects.

The Greenwich Observatory had placed itself at the

doctor's disposal. The latter, however, did not intend to

make experiments in physics; he merely wanted to be

able to know in what direction he was passing, and to

determine the position of the principal rivers, mountains,

and towns.

He also provided himself with three thoroughly tested

iron anchors, and a light but strong silk ladder fifty feet

in length.

He at the same time carefully weighed his stores of

provision, which consisted of tea, coffee, biscuit, salted

meat, and pemmican, a preparation which comprises many

nutritive elements in a small space. Besides a sufficient

stock of pure brandy, he arranged two water-tanks, each

of which contained twenty-two gallons.

The consumption of these articles would necessarily,

little by little, diminish the weight to be sustained, for it

must be remembered that the equilibrium of a balloon

floating in the atmosphere is extremely sensitive. The

loss of an almost insignificant weight suffices to produce a

very noticeable displacement.

Nor did the doctor forget an awning to shelter the

car, nor the coverings and blankets that were to be the

bedding of the journey, nor some fowling pieces and rifles,

with their requisite supply of powder and ball.

Here is the summing up of his various items, and their

weight, as he computed it:

Ferguson...........................  135 pounds.

Kennedy............................  153   "

Joe................................  120   "

Weight of the outside balloon......  650   "

Weight of the second balloon.......  510   "

Car and network....................  280   "

Anchors, instruments, awnings,

and sundry utensils, guns,

coverings, etc...................  190   "

Meat, pemmican, biscuits, tea,

coffee, brandy...................  386   "

Water..............................  400   "

Apparatus..........................  700   "

Weight of the hydrogen.............  276   "

Ballast............................  200   "

-----

4,000 pounds.

Such were the items of the four thousand pounds that Dr.

Ferguson proposed to carry up with him. He took only two

hundred pounds of ballast for "unforeseen emergencies,"

as he remarked, since otherwise he did not expect to use

any, thanks to the peculiarity of his apparatus.

CHAPTER EIGHTH.

Joe's Importance.--The Commander of the Resolute.--Kennedy's

Arsenal.--Mutual Amenities.--The Farewell Dinner.--Departure

on the 21st of February.--The Doctor's Scientific Sessions.--

Duveyrier.--Livingstone.--Details of the Aerial Voyage.--Kennedy

silenced.

About the 10th of February, the preparations were

pretty well completed; and the balloons, firmly secured,

one within the other, were altogether finished. They had

been subjected to a powerful pneumatic pressure in all

parts, and the test gave excellent evidence of their solidity

and of the care applied in their construction.

Joe hardly knew what he was about, with delight. He

trotted incessantly to and fro between his home in Greek

Street, and the Mitchell establishment, always full of business,

but always in the highest spirits, giving details of the

affair to people who did not even ask him, so proud was

he, above all things, of being permitted to accompany his

master. I have even a shrewd suspicion that what with

showing the balloon, explaining the plans and views of the

doctor, giving folks a glimpse of the latter, through a

half-opened window, or pointing him out as he passed along

the streets, the clever scamp earned a few half-crowns, but

we must not find fault with him for that. He had as

much right as anybody else to speculate upon the admiration

and curiosity of his contemporaries.

On the 16th of February, the Resolute cast anchor near

Greenwich. She was a screw propeller of eight hundred

tons, a fast sailer, and the very vessel that had been sent

out to the polar regions, to revictual the last expedition

of Sir James Ross. Her commander, Captain Bennet, had

the name of being a very amiable person, and he took a

particular interest in the doctor's expedition, having been

one of that gentleman's admirers for a long time. Bennet

was rather a man of science than a man of war, which

did not, however, prevent his vessel from carrying four

carronades, that had never hurt any body, to be sure, but

had performed the most pacific duty in the world.

The hold of the Resolute was so arranged as to find a

stowing-place for the balloon. The latter was shipped

with the greatest precaution on the 18th of February, and

was then carefully deposited at the bottom of the vessel in

such a way as to prevent accident. The car and its accessories,

the anchors, the cords, the supplies, the water-tanks,

which were to be filled on arriving, all were embarked

and put away under Ferguson's own eyes.

Ten tons of sulphuric acid and ten tons of iron filings,

were put on board for the future production of the hydrogen

gas. The quantity was more than enough, but it was

well to be provided against accident. The apparatus to

be employed in manufacturing the gas, including some

thirty empty casks, was also stowed away in the hold.

These various preparations were terminated on the

18th of February, in the evening. Two state-rooms,

comfortably fitted up, were ready for the reception of Dr.

Ferguson and his friend Kennedy. The latter, all the

while swearing that he would not go, went on board with

a regular arsenal of hunting weapons, among which were

two double-barrelled breech-loading fowling-pieces, and a

rifle that had withstood every test, of the make of Purdey,

Moore & Dickson, at Edinburgh. With such a weapon a

marksman would find no difficulty in lodging a

bullet in the eye of a chamois at the distance of two

thousand paces. Along with these implements, he had two

of Colt's six-shooters, for unforeseen emergencies. His

powder-case, his cartridge-pouch, his lead, and his bullets,

did not exceed a certain weight prescribed by the doctor.

The three travellers got themselves to rights on board

during the working-hours of February 19th. They were

received with much distinction by the captain and his

officers, the doctor continuing as reserved as ever, and

thinking of nothing but his expedition. Dick seemed a

good deal moved, but was unwilling to betray it; while

Joe was fairly dancing and breaking out in laughable

remarks. The worthy fellow soon became the jester and

merry-andrew of the boatswain's mess, where a berth had

been kept for him.

On the 20th, a grand farewell dinner was given to Dr.

Ferguson and Kennedy by the Royal Geographical Society.

Commander Bennet and his officers were present

at the entertainment, which was signalized by copious

libations and numerous toasts. Healths were drunk, in

sufficient abundance to guarantee all the guests a lifetime

of centuries. Sir Francis M---- presided, with restrained

but dignified feeling.

To his own supreme confusion, Dick Kennedy came

in for a large share in the jovial felicitations of the night.

After having drunk to the "intrepid Ferguson, the glory

of England," they had to drink to "the no less courageous

Kennedy, his daring companion."

Dick blushed a good deal, and that passed for modesty;

whereupon the applause redoubled, and Dick blushed again.

A message from the Queen arrived while they were at

dessert. Her Majesty offered her compliments to the two

travellers, and expressed her wishes for their safe and

successful journey. This, of course, rendered imperative

fresh toasts to "Her most gracious Majesty."

At midnight, after touching farewells and warm shaking

of hands, the guests separated.

The boats of the Resolute were in waiting at the stairs

of Westminster Bridge. The captain leaped in, accompanied

by his officers and passengers, and the rapid current

of the Thames, aiding the strong arms of the rowers,

bore them swiftly to Greenwich. In an hour's time all

were asleep on board.

The next morning, February 21st, at three o'clock, the

furnaces began to roar; at five, the anchors were weighed,

and the Resolute, powerfully driven by her screw, began

to plough the water toward the mouth of the Thames.

It is needless to say that the topic of conversation with

every one on board was Dr. Ferguson's enterprise. Seeing

and hearing the doctor soon inspired everybody with

such confidence that, in a very short time, there was no

one, excepting the incredulous Scotchman, on the steamer

who had the least doubt of the perfect feasibility and

success of the expedition.

During the long, unoccupied hours of the voyage, the

doctor held regular sittings, with lectures on geographical

science, in the officers' mess-room. These young men felt

an intense interest in the discoveries made during the last

forty years in Africa; and the doctor related to them the

explorations of Barth, Burton, Speke, and Grant, and depicted

the wonders of this vast, mysterious country, now

thrown open on all sides to the investigations of science.

On the north, the young Duveyrier was exploring Sahara,

and bringing the chiefs of the Touaregs to Paris. Under

the inspiration of the French Government, two expeditions

were preparing, which, descending from the north, and

coming from the west, would cross each other at Timbuctoo.

In the south, the indefatigable Livingstone was

still advancing toward the equator; and, since March,

1862, he had, in company with Mackenzie, ascended the

river Rovoonia. The nineteenth century would, assuredly,

not pass, contended the doctor, without Africa having

been compelled to surrender the secrets she has kept

locked up in her bosom for six thousand years.

But the interest of Dr. Ferguson's hearers was excited

to the highest pitch when he made known to them, in

detail, the preparations for his own journey. They took

pleasure in verifying his calculations; they discussed

them; and the doctor frankly took part in the discussion.

As a general thing, they were surprised at the limited

quantity of provision that he took with him; and one day

one of the officers questioned him on that subject.

"That peculiar point astonishes you, does it?" said

Ferguson.

"It does, indeed."

"But how long do you think my trip is going to last?

Whole months? If so, you are greatly mistaken. Were

it to be a long one, we should be lost; we should never

get back. But you must know that the distance from

Zanzibar to the coast of Senegal is only thirty-five

hundred--say four thousand miles. Well, at the rate of two

hundred and forty miles every twelve hours, which does

not come near the rapidity of our railroad trains, by

travelling day and night, it would take only seven days to

cross Africa!"

"But then you could see nothing, make no geographical

observations, or reconnoitre the face of the country."

"Ah!" replied the doctor, "if I am master of my

balloon--if I can ascend and descend at will, I shall stop

when I please, especially when too violent currents of air

threaten to carry me out of my way with them."

"And you will encounter such," said Captain Bennet.

"There are tornadoes that sweep at the rate of more than

two hundred and forty miles per hour."

"You see, then, that with such speed as that, we could

cross Africa in twelve hours. One would rise at Zanzibar,

and go to bed at St. Louis!"

"But," rejoined the officer, "could any balloon withstand

the wear and tear of such velocity?"

"It has happened before," replied Ferguson.

"And the balloon withstood it?"

"Perfectly well. It was at the time of the coronation

of Napoleon, in 1804. The aeronaut, Gernerin, sent up a

balloon at Paris, about eleven o'clock in the evening. It

bore the following inscription, in letters of gold: 'Paris,

25 Frimaire; year XIII; Coronation of the Emperor Napoleon

by his Holiness, Pius VII.' On the next morning,

the inhabitants of Rome saw the same balloon soaring

above the Vatican, whence it crossed the Campagna, and

finally fluttered down into the lake of Bracciano. So you

see, gentlemen, that a balloon can resist such velocities."

"A balloon--that might be; but a man?" insinuated Kennedy.

"Yes, a man, too!--for the balloon is always motionless

with reference to the air that surrounds it. What

moves is the mass of the atmosphere itself: for instance,

one may light a taper in the car, and the flame will not

even waver. An aeronaut in Garnerin's balloon would not

have suffered in the least from the speed. But then I

have no occasion to attempt such velocity; and if I can

anchor to some tree, or some favorable inequality of the

ground, at night, I shall not fail to do so. Besides, we

take provision for two months with us, after all; and there

is nothing to prevent our skilful huntsman here from furnishing

game in abundance when we come to alight."

"Ah! Mr. Kennedy," said a young midshipman, with

envious eyes, "what splendid shots you'll have!"

"Without counting," said another, "that you'll have

the glory as well as the sport!"

"Gentlemen," replied the hunter, stammering with

confusion, "I greatly--appreciate--your compliments--

but they--don't--belong to me."

"You!" exclaimed every body, "don't you intend to go?"

"I am not going!"

"You won't accompany Dr. Ferguson?"

"Not only shall I not accompany him, but I am here so as

to be present at the last moment to prevent his going."

Every eye was now turned to the doctor.

"Never mind him!" said the latter, calmly. "This is

a matter that we can't argue with him. At heart he knows

perfectly well that he IS going."

"By Saint Andrew!" said Kennedy, "I swear--"

"Swear to nothing, friend Dick; you have been ganged

and weighed--you and your powder, your guns, and your

bullets; so don't let us say anything more about it."

And, in fact, from that day until the arrival at Zanzibar,

Dick never opened his mouth. He talked neither about that

nor about anything else. He kept absolutely silent.

CHAPTER NINTH.

They double the Cape.--The Forecastle.--A Course of Cosmography

by Professor Joe.--Concerning the Method of guiding Balloons.--How

to seek out Atmospheric Currents.--Eureka.

The Resolute plunged along rapidly toward the Cape

of Good Hope, the weather continuing fine, although the

sea ran heavier.

On the 30th of March, twenty-seven days after the departure

from London, the Table Mountain loomed up on the horizon.

Cape City lying at the foot of an amphitheatre of hills,

could be distinguished through the ship's glasses, and soon

the Resolute cast anchor in the port. But the captain touched

there only to replenish his coal bunkers, and that was but a

day's job. On the morrow, he steered away to the south'ard,

so as to double the southernmost point of Africa, and enter

the Mozambique Channel.

This was not Joe's first sea-voyage, and so, for his

part, he soon found himself at home on board; every body

liked him for his frankness and good-humor. A considerable

share of his master's renown was reflected upon him.

He was listened to as an oracle, and he made no more

mistakes than the next one.

So, while the doctor was pursuing his descriptive course

of lecturing in the officers' mess, Joe reigned supreme

on the forecastle, holding forth in his own peculiar

manner, and making history to suit himself--a style of

procedure pursued, by the way, by the greatest historians

of all ages and nations.

The topic of discourse was, naturally, the aerial voyage.

Joe had experienced some trouble in getting the rebellious

spirits to believe in it; but, once accepted by them, nothing

connected with it was any longer an impossibility to the

imaginations of the seamen stimulated by Joe's harangues.

Our dazzling narrator persuaded his hearers that, after

this trip, many others still more wonderful would be undertaken.

In fact, it was to be but the first of a long series

of superhuman expeditions.

"You see, my friends, when a man has had a taste of that

kind of travelling, he can't get along afterward with any

other; so, on our next expedition, instead of going off to

one side, we'll go right ahead, going up, too, all the time."

"Humph! then you'll go to the moon!" said one of

the crowd, with a stare of amazement.

"To the moon!" exclaimed Joe, "To the moon! pooh!

that's too common. Every body might go to the moon,

that way. Besides, there's no water there, and you have

to carry such a lot of it along with you. Then you have

to take air along in bottles, so as to breathe."

"Ay! ay! that's all right! But can a man get a drop of

the real stuff there?" said a sailor who liked his toddy.

"Not a drop!" was Joe's answer. "No! old fellow,

not in the moon. But we're going to skip round among

those little twinklers up there--the stars--and the

splendid planets that my old man so often talks about. For

instance, we'll commence with Saturn--"

"That one with the ring?" asked the boatswain.

"Yes! the wedding-ring--only no one knows what's

become of his wife!"

"What? will you go so high up as that?" said one of

the ship-boys, gaping with wonder. "Why, your master

must be Old Nick himself."

"Oh! no, he's too good for that."

"But, after Saturn--what then?" was the next inquiry

of his impatient audience.

"After Saturn? Well, we'll visit Jupiter. A funny

place that is, too, where the days are only nine hours and

a half long--a good thing for the lazy fellows--and the

years, would you believe it--last twelve of ours, which is

fine for folks who have only six months to live. They get

off a little longer by that."

"Twelve years!" ejaculated the boy.

"Yes, my youngster; so that in that country you'd be

toddling after your mammy yet, and that old chap yonder,

who looks about fifty, would only be a little shaver of four

and a half."

"Blazes! that's a good 'un!" shouted the whole forecastle together.

"Solemn truth!" said Joe, stoutly.

"But what can you expect? When people will stay in

this world, they learn nothing and keep as ignorant as

bears. But just come along to Jupiter and you'll see.

But they have to look out up there, for he's got satellites

that are not just the easiest things to pass."

All the men laughed, but they more than half believed

him. Then he went on to talk about Neptune, where seafaring

men get a jovial reception, and Mars, where the

military get the best of the sidewalk to such an extent

that folks can hardly stand it. Finally, he drew them a

heavenly picture of the delights of Venus.

"And when we get back from that expedition," said the

indefatigable narrator, "they'll decorate us with the Southern

Cross that shines up there in the Creator's button-hole."

"Ay, and you'd have well earned it!" said the sailors.

Thus passed the long evenings on the forecastle in

merry chat, and during the same time the doctor went on

with his instructive discourses.

One day the conversation turned upon the means of

directing balloons, and the doctor was asked his opinion

about it.

"I don't think," said he, "that we shall succeed in finding

out a system of directing them. I am familiar with

all the plans attempted and proposed, and not one has

succeeded, not one is practicable. You may readily

understand that I have occupied my mind with this subject,

which was, necessarily, so interesting to me, but I have

not been able to solve the problem with the appliances

now known to mechanical science. We would have to

discover a motive power of extraordinary force, and

almost impossible lightness of machinery. And, even then,

we could not resist atmospheric currents of any considerable

strength. Until now, the effort has been rather to

direct the car than the balloon, and that has been one

great error."

"Still there are many points of resemblance between a

balloon and a ship which is directed at will."

"Not at all," retorted the doctor, "there is little or no

similarity between the two cases. Air is infinitely less

dense than water, in which the ship is only half submerged,

while the whole bulk of a balloon is plunged in the atmosphere,

and remains motionless with reference to the element

that surrounds it."

"You think, then, that aerostatic science has said its

last word?"

"Not at all! not at all! But we must look for another

point in the case, and if we cannot manage to guide our

balloon, we must, at least, try to keep it in favorable aerial

currents. In proportion as we ascend, the latter become

much more uniform and flow more constantly in one direction.

They are no longer disturbed by the mountains and

valleys that traverse the surface of the globe, and these,

you know, are the chief cause of the variations of the wind

and the inequality of their force. Therefore, these zones

having been once determined, the balloon will merely have

to be placed in the currents best adapted to its destination."

"But then," continued Captain Bennet, "in order to reach them,

you must keep constantly ascending or descending. That is the

real difficulty, doctor."

"And why, my dear captain?"

"Let us understand one another. It would be a difficulty

and an obstacle only for long journeys, and not for

short aerial excursions."

"And why so, if you please?"

"Because you can ascend only by throwing out ballast;

you can descend only after letting off gas, and by these

processes your ballast and your gas are soon exhausted."

"My dear sir, that's the whole question. There is the

only difficulty that science need now seek to overcome.

The problem is not how to guide the balloon, but how to

take it up and down without expending the gas which is

its strength, its life-blood, its soul, if I may use the

expression."

"You are right, my dear doctor; but this problem is

not yet solved; this means has not yet been discovered."

"I beg your pardon, it HAS been discovered."

"By whom?"

"By me!"

"By you?"

"You may readily believe that otherwise I should not

have risked this expedition across Africa in a balloon. In

twenty-four hours I should have been without gas!"

"But you said nothing about that in England?"

"No! I did not want to have myself overhauled in

public. I saw no use in that. I made my preparatory

experiments in secret and was satisfied. I have no occasion,

then, to learn any thing more from them."

"Well! doctor, would it be proper to ask what is

your secret?"

"Here it is, gentlemen--the simplest thing in the

world!"

The attention of his auditory was now directed to the

doctor in the utmost degree as he quietly proceeded with

his explanation.

CHAPTER TENTH.

Former Experiments.--The Doctor's Five Receptacles.--The Gas Cylinder.--

The Calorifere.--The System of Manoeuvring.--Success certain.

"The attempt has often been made, gentlemen," said

the doctor, "to rise and descend at will, without losing

ballast or gas from the balloon. A French aeronaut, M.

Meunier, tried to accomplish this by compressing air in an

inner receptacle. A Belgian, Dr. Van Hecke, by means

of wings and paddles, obtained a vertical power that would

have sufficed in most cases, but the practical results

secured from these experiments have been insignificant.

"I therefore resolved to go about the thing more directly;

so, at the start, I dispensed with ballast altogether,

excepting as a provision for cases of special emergency,

such as the breakage of my apparatus, or the necessity of

ascending very suddenly, so as to avoid unforeseen obstacles.

"My means of ascent and descent consist simply in dilating

or contracting the gas that is in the balloon by the

application of different temperatures, and here is the

method of obtaining that result.

"You saw me bring on board with the car several

cases or receptacles, the use of which you may not have

understood. They are five in number.

"The first contains about twenty-five gallons of water,

to which I add a few drops of sulphuric acid, so as to

augment its capacity as a conductor of electricity, and then I

decompose it by means of a powerful Buntzen battery.

Water, as you know, consists of two parts of hydrogen to

one of oxygen gas.

"The latter, through the action of the battery, passes

at its positive pole into the second receptacle. A third

receptacle, placed above the second one, and of double its

capacity, receives the hydrogen passing into it by the

negative pole.

"Stopcocks, of which one has an orifice twice the size

of the other, communicate between these receptacles and

a fourth one, which is called the mixture reservoir, since in

it the two gases obtained by the decomposition of the

water do really commingle. The capacity of this fourth

tank is about forty-one cubic feet.

"On the upper part of this tank is a platinum tube

provided with a stopcock.

"You will now readily understand, gentlemen, the apparatus

that I have described to you is really a gas cylinder

and blow-pipe for oxygen and hydrogen, the heat of

which exceeds that of a forge fire.

"This much established, I proceed to the second part

of my apparatus. From the lowest part of my balloon,

which is hermetically closed, issue two tubes a little

distance apart. The one starts among the upper layers of the

hydrogen gas, the other amid the lower layers.

"These two pipes are provided at intervals with strong

jointings of india-rubber, which enable them to move in

harmony with the oscillations of the balloon.

"Both of them run down as far as the car, and lose

themselves in an iron receptacle of cylindrical form,

which is called the heat-tank. The latter is closed at

its two ends by two strong plates of the same metal.

"The pipe running from the lower part of the balloon

runs into this cylindrical receptacle through the lower

plate; it penetrates the latter and then takes the form of

a helicoidal or screw-shaped spiral, the rings of which,

rising one over the other, occupy nearly the whole of the

height of the tank. Before again issuing from it, this

spiral runs into a small cone with a concave base, that is

turned downward in the shape of a spherical cap.

"It is from the top of this cone that the second pipe

issues, and it runs, as I have said, into the upper beds of

the balloon.

"The spherical cap of the small cone is of platinum, so

as not to melt by the action of the cylinder and blow-pipe,

for the latter are placed upon the bottom of the iron tank

in the midst of the helicoidal spiral, and the extremity of

their flame will slightly touch the cap in question.

"You all know, gentlemen, what a calorifere, to heat

apartments, is. You know how it acts. The air of the

apartments is forced to pass through its pipes, and is then

released with a heightened temperature. Well, what I

have just described to you is nothing more nor less than a

calorifere.

"In fact, what is it that takes place? The cylinder

once lighted, the hydrogen in the spiral and in the

concave cone becomes heated, and rapidly ascends through

the pipe that leads to the upper part of the balloon. A

vacuum is created below, and it attracts the gas in the

lower parts; this becomes heated in its turn, and is

continually replaced; thus, an extremely rapid current of gas

is established in the pipes and in the spiral, which issues

from the balloon and then returns to it, and is heated over

again, incessantly.

"Now, the cases increase 1/480 of their volume for each

degree of heat applied. If, then, I force the temperature

18 degrees, the hydrogen of the balloon will dilate 18/480 or

1614 cubic feet, and will, therefore, displace 1614 more

cubic feet of air, which will increase its ascensional power

by 160 pounds. This is equivalent to throwing out that

weight of ballast. If I augment the temperature by 180

degrees, the gas will dilate 180/480 and will displace 16,740

cubic feet more, and its ascensional force will be augmented

by 1,600 pounds.

"Thus, you see, gentlemen, that I can easily effect

very considerable changes of equilibrium. The volume of

the balloon has been calculated in such manner that, when

half inflated, it displaces a weight of air exactly equal to

that of the envelope containing the hydrogen gas, and of

the car occupied by the passengers, and all its apparatus

and accessories. At this point of inflation, it is in exact

equilibrium with the air, and neither mounts nor descends.

"In order, then, to effect an ascent, I give the gas a

temperature superior to the temperature of the surrounding

air by means of my cylinder. By this excess of heat

it obtains a larger distention, and inflates the balloon

more. The latter, then, ascends in proportion as I heat

the hydrogen.

"The descent, of course, is effected by lowering the

heat of the cylinder, and letting the temperature abate.

The ascent would be, usually, more rapid than the descent;

but that is a fortunate circumstance, since it is of no

importance to me to descend rapidly, while, on the other

hand, it is by a very rapid ascent that I avoid obstacles.

The real danger lurks below, and not above.

"Besides, as I have said, I have a certain quantity of

ballast, which will enable me to ascend more rapidly still,

when necessary. My valve, at the top of the balloon, is

nothing more nor less than a safety-valve. The balloon

always retains the same quantity of hydrogen, and the

variations of temperature that I produce in the midst of

this shut-up gas are, of themselves, sufficient to provide

for all these ascending and descending movements.

"Now, gentlemen, as a practical detail, let me add

this:

"The combustion of the hydrogen and of the oxygen

at the point of the cylinder produces solely the vapor or

steam of water. I have, therefore, provided the lower

part of the cylindrical iron box with a scape-pipe, with a

valve operating by means of a pressure of two atmospheres;

consequently, so soon as this amount of pressure

is attained, the steam escapes of itself.

"Here are the exact figures: 25 gallons of water,

separated into its constituent elements, yield 200 pounds

of oxygen and 25 pounds of hydrogen. This represents,

at atmospheric tension, 1,800 cubic feet of the former and

3,780 cubic feet of the latter, or 5,670 cubic feet, in all, of

the mixture. Hence, the stopcock of my cylinder, when

fully open, expends 27 cubic feet per hour, with a flame at

least six times as strong as that of the large lamps used

for lighting streets. On an average, then, and in order to

keep myself at a very moderate elevation, I should not

burn more than nine cubic feet per hour, so that my

twenty-five gallons of water represent six hundred and

thirty-six hours of aerial navigation, or a little

more than twenty-six days.

"Well, as I can descend when I please, to replenish my

stock of water on the way, my trip might be indefinitely

prolonged.

"Such, gentlemen, is my secret. It is simple, and,

like most simple things, it cannot fail to succeed. The

dilation and contraction of the gas in the balloon is my

means of locomotion, which calls for neither cumbersome

wings, nor any other mechanical motor. A calorifere to

produce the changes of temperature, and a cylinder to

generate the heat, are neither inconvenient nor heavy. I

think, therefore, that I have combined all the elements of

success."

Dr. Ferguson here terminated his discourse, and was

most heartily applauded. There was not an objection to

make to it; all had been foreseen and decided.

"However," said the captain, "the thing may prove

dangerous."

"What matters that," replied the doctor, "provided

that it be practicable?"

CHAPTER ELEVENTH.

The Arrival at Zanzibar.--The English Consul.--Ill-will of the

Inhabitants.--The Island of Koumbeni.--The Rain-Makers.--Inflation

of the Balloon.--Departure on the 18th of April.--The last Good-by.

--The Victoria.

An invariably favorable wind had accelerated the

progress of the Resolute toward the place of her

destination. The navigation of the Mozambique Channel was

especially calm and pleasant. The agreeable character of

the trip by sea was regarded as a good omen of the probable

issue of the trip through the air. Every one looked

forward to the hour of arrival, and sought to give the last

touch to the doctor's preparations.

At length the vessel hove in sight of the town of Zanzibar,

upon the island of the same name, and, on the 15th of April,

at 11 o'clock in the morning, she anchored in the port.

The island of Zanzibar belongs to the Imaum of Muscat,

an ally of France and England, and is, undoubtedly,

his finest settlement. The port is frequented by a great

many vessels from the neighboring countries.

The island is separated from the African coast only by

a channel, the greatest width of which is but thirty miles.

It has a large trade in gums, ivory, and, above all, in

"ebony," for Zanzibar is the great slave-market. Thither

converges all the booty captured in the battles which the

chiefs of the interior are continually fighting. This traffic

extends along the whole eastern coast, and as far as the

Nile latitudes. Mr. G. Lejean even reports that he has

seen it carried on, openly, under the French flag.

Upon the arrival of the Resolute, the English consul at

Zanzibar came on board to offer his services to the doctor,

of whose projects the European newspapers had made him

aware for a month past. But, up to that moment, he had

remained with the numerous phalanx of the incredulous.

"I doubted," said he, holding out his hand to Dr. Ferguson,

"but now I doubt no longer."

He invited the doctor, Kennedy, and the faithful Joe,

of course, to his own dwelling. Through his courtesy,

the doctor was enabled to have knowledge of the various

letters that he had received from Captain Speke. The

captain and his companions had suffered dreadfully from

hunger and bad weather before reaching the Ugogo country.

They could advance only with extreme difficulty,

and did not expect to be able to communicate again for

a long time.

"Those are perils and privations which we shall manage

to avoid," said the doctor.

The baggage of the three travellers was conveyed to

the consul's residence. Arrangements were made for

disembarking the balloon upon the beach at Zanzibar. There

was a convenient spot, near the signal-mast, close by an

immense building, that would serve to shelter it from the

east winds. This huge tower, resembling a tun standing

on one end, beside which the famous Heidelberg tun

would have seemed but a very ordinary barrel, served as

a fortification, and on its platform were stationed

Belootchees, armed with lances. These Belootchees are a

kind of brawling, good-for-nothing Janizaries.

But, when about to land the balloon, the consul was

informed that the population of the island would oppose

their doing so by force. Nothing is so blind as fanatical

passion. The news of the arrival of a Christian, who was

to ascend into the air, was received with rage. The

negroes, more exasperated than the Arabs, saw in this

project an attack upon their religion. They took it into

their heads that some mischief was meant to the sun and

the moon. Now, these two luminaries are objects of

veneration to the African tribes, and they determined to

oppose so sacrilegious an enterprise.

The consul, informed of their intentions, conferred with

Dr. Ferguson and Captain Bennet on the subject. The

latter was unwilling to yield to threats, but his friend

dissuaded him from any idea of violent retaliation.

"We shall certainly come out winners," he said.

"Even the imaum's soldiers will lend us a hand, if we

need it. But, my dear captain, an accident may happen

in a moment, and it would require but one unlucky blow

to do the balloon an irreparable injury, so that the trip

would be totally defeated; therefore we must act with

the greatest caution."

"But what are we to do? If we land on the coast of

Africa, we shall encounter the same difficulties. What

are we to do?"

"Nothing is more simple," replied the consul. "You

observe those small islands outside of the port; land your

balloon on one of them; surround it with a guard of

sailors, and you will have no risk to run."

"Just the thing!" said the doctor, "and we shall be

entirely at our ease in completing our preparations."

The captain yielded to these suggestions, and the

Resolute was headed for the island of Koumbeni. During

the morning of the 16th April, the balloon was placed in

safety in the middle of a clearing in the great woods,

with which the soil is studded.

Two masts, eighty feet in height, were raised at the

same distance from each other. Blocks and tackle, placed

at their extremities, afforded the means of elevating the

balloon, by the aid of a transverse rope. It was then

entirely uninflated. The interior balloon was fastened to

the exterior one, in such manner as to be lifted up in the

same way. To the lower end of each balloon were fixed

the pipes that served to introduce the hydrogen gas.

The whole day, on the 17th, was spent in arranging

the apparatus destined to produce the gas; it consisted

of some thirty casks, in which the decomposition of water

was effected by means of iron-filings and sulphuric acid

placed together in a large quantity of the first-named

fluid. The hydrogen passed into a huge central cask,

after having been washed on the way, and thence into

each balloon by the conduit-pipes. In this manner each

of them received a certain accurately-ascertained quantity

of gas. For this purpose, there had to be employed

eighteen hundred and sixty-six pounds of sulphuric acid,

sixteen thousand and fifty pounds of iron, and nine thousand

one hundred and sixty-six gallons of water. This

operation commenced on the following night, about three

A.M., and lasted nearly eight hours. The next day, the

balloon, covered with its network, undulated gracefully

above its car, which was held to the ground by numerous

sacks of earth. The inflating apparatus was put together

with extreme care, and the pipes issuing from the balloon

were securely fitted to the cylindrical case.

The anchors, the cordage, the instruments, the travelling-wraps,

the awning, the provisions, and the arms, were

put in the place assigned to them in the car. The supply

of water was procured at Zanzibar. The two hundred

pounds of ballast were distributed in fifty bags placed at

the bottom of the car, but within arm's-reach.

These preparations were concluded about five o'clock in the

evening, while sentinels kept close watch around the island,

and the boats of the Resolute patrolled the channel.

The blacks continued to show their displeasure by

grimaces and contortions. Their obi-men, or wizards,

went up and down among the angry throngs, pouring

fuel on the flame of their fanaticism; and some of the

excited wretches, more furious and daring than the rest,

attempted to get to the island by swimming, but they

were easily driven off.

Thereupon the sorceries and incantations commenced;

the "rain-makers," who pretend to have control over the

clouds, invoked the storms and the "stone-showers," as

the blacks call hail, to their aid. To compel them to do

so, they plucked leaves of all the different trees that grow

in that country, and boiled them over a slow fire, while,

at the same time, a sheep was killed by thrusting a long

needle into its heart. But, in spite of all their ceremonies,

the sky remained clear and beautiful, and they profited

nothing by their slaughtered sheep and their ugly grimaces.

The blacks then abandoned themselves to the most

furious orgies, and got fearfully drunk on "tembo," a

kind of ardent spirits drawn from the cocoa-nut tree, and

an extremely heady sort of beer called "togwa." Their

chants, which were destitute of all melody, but were sung

in excellent time, continued until far into the night.

About six o'clock in the evening, the captain assembled

the travellers and the officers of the ship at a farewell

repast in his cabin. Kennedy, whom nobody ventured to

question now, sat with his eyes riveted on Dr. Ferguson,

murmuring indistinguishable words. In other respects,

the dinner was a gloomy one. The approach of the final

moment filled everybody with the most serious reflections.

What had fate in store for these daring adventurers?

Should they ever again find themselves in the midst of

their friends, or seated at the domestic hearth? Were

their travelling apparatus to fail, what would become of

them, among those ferocious savage tribes, in regions that

had never been explored, and in the midst of boundless

deserts?

Such thoughts as these, which had been dim and vague

until then, or but slightly regarded when they came up,

returned upon their excited fancies with intense force at

this parting moment. Dr. Ferguson, still cold and impassible,

talked of this, that, and the other; but he strove in vain

to overcome this infectious gloominess. He utterly failed.

As some demonstration against the personal safety of

the doctor and his companions was feared, all three slept

that night on board the Resolute. At six o'clock in the

morning they left their cabin, and landed on the island of

Koumbeni.

The balloon was swaying gently to and fro in the

morning breeze; the sand-bags that had held it down

were now replaced by some twenty strong-armed sailors,

and Captain Bennet and his officers were present to

witness the solemn departure of their friends.

At this moment Kennedy went right up to the doctor,

grasped his hand, and said:

"Samuel, have you absolutely determined to go?"

"Solemnly determined, my dear Dick."

"I have done every thing that I could to prevent this

expedition, have I not?"

"Every thing!"

"Well, then, my conscience is clear on that score, and

I will go with you."

"I was sure you would!" said the doctor, betraying

in his features swift traces of emotion.

At last the moment of final leave-taking arrived. The

captain and his officers embraced their dauntless friends

with great feeling, not excepting even Joe, who, worthy

fellow, was as proud and happy as a prince. Every one

in the party insisted upon having a final shake of the

doctor's hand.

At nine o'clock the three travellers got into their car.

The doctor lit the combustible in his cylinder and turned

the flame so as to produce a rapid heat, and the balloon,

which had rested on the ground in perfect equipoise, began

to rise in a few minutes, so that the seamen had to slacken

the ropes they held it by. The car then rose about twenty

feet above their heads.

"My friends!" exclaimed the doctor, standing up between

his two companions, and taking off his hat, "let us

give our aerial ship a name that will bring her good luck!

let us christen her Victoria!"

This speech was answered with stentorian cheers of

"Huzza for the Queen! Huzza for Old England!"

At this moment the ascensional force of the balloon

increased prodigiously, and Ferguson, Kennedy, and Joe,

waved a last good-by to their friends.

"Let go all!" shouted the doctor, and at the word the

Victoria shot rapidly up into the sky, while the four

carronades on board the Resolute thundered forth a parting

salute in her honor.

CHAPTER TWELFTH

Crossing the Strait.--The Mrima.--Dick's Remark and Joe's

Proposition.--A Recipe for Coffee-making.--The Uzaramo.--The

Unfortunate Maizan.--Mount Dathumi.--The Doctor's Cards.--Night

under a Nopal.

The air was pure, the wind moderate, and the balloon

ascended almost perpendicularly to a height of fifteen

hundred feet, as indicated by a depression of two inches

in the barometric column.

At this height a more decided current carried the

balloon toward the southwest. What a magnificent spectacle

was then outspread beneath the gaze of the travellers!

The island of Zanzibar could be seen in its entire extent,

marked out by its deeper color upon a vast planisphere;

the fields had the appearance of patterns of different

colors, and thick clumps of green indicated the groves and

thickets.

The inhabitants of the island looked no larger than

insects. The huzzaing and shouting were little by little

lost in the distance, and only the discharge of the ship's

guns could be heard in the concavity beneath the balloon,

as the latter sped on its flight.

"How fine that is!" said Joe, breaking silence for the

first time.

He got no reply. The doctor was busy observing the

variations of the barometer and noting down the details

of his ascent.

Kennedy looked on, and had not eyes enough to take

in all that he saw.

The rays of the sun coming to the aid of the heating

cylinder, the tension of the gas increased, and the Victoria

attained the height of twenty-five hundred feet.

The Resolute looked like a mere cockle-shell, and the

African coast could be distinctly seen in the west marked

out by a fringe of foam.

"You don't talk?" said Joe, again.

"We are looking!" said the doctor, directing his spy-glass

toward the mainland.

"For my part, I must talk!"

"As much as you please, Joe; talk as much as you like!"

And Joe went on alone with a tremendous volley of

exclamations. The "ohs!" and the "ahs!" exploded one

after the other, incessantly, from his lips.

During his passage over the sea the doctor deemed it

best to keep at his present elevation. He could thus

reconnoitre a greater stretch of the coast. The thermometer

and the barometer, hanging up inside of the half-opened

awning, were always within sight, and a second barometer

suspended outside was to serve during the night watches.

At the end of about two hours the Victoria, driven

along at a speed of a little more than eight miles, very

visibly neared the coast of the mainland. The doctor,

thereupon, determined to descend a little nearer to the

ground. So he moderated the flame of his cylinder, and

the balloon, in a few moments, had descended to an altitude

only three hundred feet above the soil.

It was then found to be passing just over the Mrima

country, the name of this part of the eastern coast of

Africa. Dense borders of mango-trees protected its margin,

and the ebb-tide disclosed to view their thick roots,

chafed and gnawed by the teeth of the Indian Ocean. The

sands which, at an earlier period, formed the coast-line,

rounded away along the distant horizon, and Mount

Nguru reared aloft its sharp summit in the northwest.

The Victoria passed near to a village which the doctor

found marked upon his chart as Kaole. Its entire population

had assembled in crowds, and were yelling with anger

and fear, at the same time vainly directing their arrows

against this monster of the air that swept along so majestically

away above all their powerless fury.

The wind was setting to the southward, but the doctor

felt no concern on that score, since it enabled him the

better to follow the route traced by Captains Burton and

Speke.

Kennedy had, at length, become as talkative as Joe,

and the two kept up a continual interchange of admiring

interjections and exclamations.

"Out upon stage-coaches!" said one.

"Steamers indeed!" said the other.

"Railroads! eh? rubbish!" put in Kennedy, "that

you travel on, without seeing the country!"

"Balloons! they're the sort for me!" Joe would add.

"Why, you don't feel yourself going, and Nature takes

the trouble to spread herself out before one's eyes!"

"What a splendid sight! What a spectacle! What

a delight! a dream in a hammock!"

"Suppose we take our breakfast?" was Joe's unpoetical

change of tune, at last, for the keen, open air had

mightily sharpened his appetite.

"Good idea, my boy!"

"Oh! it won't take us long to do the cooking--biscuit

and potted meat?"

"And as much coffee as you like," said the doctor. "I

give you leave to borrow a little heat from my cylinder.

There's enough and to spare, for that matter, and so we

shall avoid the risk of a conflagration."

"That would be a dreadful misfortune!" ejaculated

Kennedy. "It's the same as a powder-magazine suspended

over our heads."

"Not precisely," said Ferguson, "but still if the gas were

to take fire it would burn up gradually, and we should

settle down on the ground, which would be disagreeable;

but never fear--our balloon is hermetically sealed."

"Let us eat a bite, then," replied Kennedy.

"Now, gentlemen," put in Joe, "while doing the same

as you, I'm going to get you up a cup of coffee that I

think you'll have something to say about."

"The fact is," added the doctor, "that Joe, along with

a thousand other virtues, has a remarkable talent for the

preparation of that delicious beverage: he compounds it

of a mixture of various origin, but he never would reveal

to me the ingredients."

"Well, master, since we are so far above-ground, I can

tell you the secret. It is just to mix equal quantities of

Mocha, of Bourbon coffee, and of Rio Nunez."

A few moments later, three steaming cups of coffee

were served, and topped off a substantial breakfast, which

was additionally seasoned by the jokes and repartees of

the guests. Each one then resumed his post of observation.

The country over which they were passing was remarkable

for its fertility. Narrow, winding paths plunged

in beneath the overarching verdure. They swept along

above cultivated fields of tobacco, maize, and barley, at

full maturity, and here and there immense rice-fields,

full of straight stalks and purple blossoms. They could

distinguish sheep and goats too, confined in large

cages, set up on piles to keep them out of reach of the

leopards' fangs. Luxuriant vegetation spread in wild

profuseness over this prodigal soil.

Village after village rang with yells of terror and

astonishment at the sight of the Victoria, and Dr.

Ferguson prudently kept her above the reach of the barbarian

arrows. The savages below, thus baffled, ran together

from their huddle of huts and followed the travellers with

their vain imprecations while they remained in sight.

At noon, the doctor, upon consulting his map, calculated

that they were passing over the Uzaramo* country.

The soil was thickly studded with cocoa-nut, papaw, and

cotton-wood trees, above which the balloon seemed to disport

itself like a bird. Joe found this splendid vegetation

a matter of course, seeing that they were in Africa. Kennedy

descried some hares and quails that asked nothing

better than to get a good shot from his fowling-piece, but

it would have been powder wasted, since there was no

time to pick up the game.

* U and Ou signify country in the language of that region.

The aeronauts swept on with the speed of twelve miles

per hour, and soon were passing in thirty-eight degrees

twenty minutes east longitude, over the village of Tounda.

"It was there," said the doctor, "that Burton and

Speke were seized with violent fevers, and for a moment

thought their expedition ruined. And yet they were only

a short distance from the coast, but fatigue and privation

were beginning to tell upon them severely."

In fact, there is a perpetual malaria reigning throughout

the country in question. Even the doctor could hope

to escape its effects only by rising above the range of the

miasma that exhales from this damp region whence the

blazing rays of the sun pump up its poisonous vapors.

Once in a while they could descry a caravan resting in a

"kraal," awaiting the freshness and cool of the evening to

resume its route. These kraals are wide patches of cleared

land, surrounded by hedges and jungles, where traders

take shelter against not only the wild beasts, but also the

robber tribes of the country. They could see the natives

running and scattering in all directions at the sight of the

Victoria. Kennedy was keen to get a closer look at them,

but the doctor invariably held out against the idea.

"The chiefs are armed with muskets," he said, "and

our balloon would be too conspicuous a mark for their

bullets."

"Would a bullet-hole bring us down?" asked Joe.

"Not immediately; but such a hole would soon become

a large torn orifice through which our gas would escape."

"Then, let us keep at a respectful distance from yon

miscreants. What must they think as they see us sailing

in the air? I'm sure they must feel like worshipping us!"

"Let them worship away, then," replied the doctor,

"but at a distance. There is no harm done in getting as far

away from them as possible. See! the country is already

changing its aspect: the villages are fewer and farther

between; the mango-trees have disappeared, for their growth

ceases at this latitude. The soil is becoming hilly and

portends mountains not far off."

"Yes," said Kennedy, "it seems to me that I can see

some high land on this side."

"In the west--those are the nearest ranges of the

Ourizara--Mount Duthumi, no doubt, behind which I hope

to find shelter for the night. I'll stir up the heat in the

cylinder a little, for we must keep at an elevation of five

or six hundred feet."

"That was a grant idea of yours, sir," said Joe. "It's

mighty easy to manage it; you turn a cock, and the thing's

done."

"Ah! here we are more at our ease," said the sportsman,

as the balloon ascended; "the reflection of the sun

on those red sands was getting to be insupportable."

"What splendid trees!" cried Joe. "They're quite

natural, but they are very fine! Why a dozen of them

would make a forest!"

"Those are baobabs," replied Dr. Ferguson. "See, there's one

with a trunk fully one hundred feet in circumference. It was,

perhaps, at the foot of that very tree that Maizan, the French

traveller, expired in 1845, for we are over the village of

Deje-la-Mhora, to which he pushed on alone. He was seized by

the chief of this region, fastened to the foot of a baobab,

and the ferocious black then severed all his joints while

the war-song of his tribe was chanted; he then made a gash

in the prisoner's neck, stopped to sharpen his knife, and

fairly tore away the poor wretch's head before it had been

cut from the body. The unfortunate Frenchman was but

twenty-six years of age."

"And France has never avenged so hideous a crime?"

said Kennedy.

"France did demand satisfaction, and the Said of Zanzibar

did all in his power to capture the murderer, but in vain."

"I move that we don't stop here!" urged Joe; "let us

go up, master, let us go up higher by all means."

"All the more willingly, Joe, that there is Mount

Duthumi right ahead of us. If my calculations be right

we shall have passed it before seven o'clock in the evening."

"Shall we not travel at night?" asked the Scotchman.

"No, as little as possible. With care and vigilance

we might do so safely, but it is not enough to sweep across

Africa. We want to see it."

"Up to this time we have nothing to complain of,

master. The best cultivated and most fertile country in

the world instead of a desert! Believe the geographers

after that!"

Let us wait, Joe! we shall see by-and-by."

About half-past six in the evening the Victoria was directly

opposite Mount Duthumi; in order to pass, it had to ascend

to a height of more than three thousand feet, and to accomplish

that the doctor had only to raise the temperature of his gas

eighteen degrees. It might have been correctly said that he

held his balloon in his hand. Kennedy had only to indicate

to him the obstacles to be surmounted, and the Victoria

sped through the air, skimming the summits of the range.

At eight o'clock it descended the farther slope, the

acclivity of which was much less abrupt. The anchors were

thrown out from the car and one of them, coming in contact

with the branches of an enormous nopal, caught on it

firmly. Joe at once let himself slide down the rope and

secured it. The silk ladder was then lowered to him

and he remounted to the car with agility. The balloon

now remained perfectly at rest sheltered from the

eastern winds.

The evening meal was got ready, and the aeronauts,

excited by their day's journey, made a heavy onslaught

upon the provisions.

"What distance have we traversed to-day?" asked

Kennedy, disposing of some alarming mouthfuls.

The doctor took his bearings, by means of lunar observations,

and consulted the excellent map that he had with

him for his guidance. It belonged to the Atlas of "Der

Neuester Endeckungen in Afrika" ("The Latest Discoveries

in Africa"), published at Gotha by his learned friend

Dr. Petermann, and by that savant sent to him. This

Atlas was to serve the doctor on his whole journey; for it

contained the itinerary of Burton and Speke to the great

lakes; the Soudan, according to Dr. Barth; the Lower

Senegal, according to Guillaume Lejean; and the Delta of

the Niger, by Dr. Blaikie.

Ferguson had also provided himself with a work which

combined in one compilation all the notions already acquired

concerning the Nile. It was entitled "The Sources

of the Nile; being a General Survey of the Basin of that

River and of its Head-Stream, with the History of the

Nilotic Discovery, by Charles Beke, D.D."

He also had the excellent charts published in the

"Bulletins of the Geographical Society of London;" and

not a single point of the countries already discovered

could, therefore, escape his notice.

Upon tracing on his maps, he found that his latitudinal

route had been two degrees, or one hundred and

twenty miles, to the westward.

Kennedy remarked that the route tended toward the

south; but this direction was satisfactory to the doctor,

who desired to reconnoitre the tracks of his predecessors

as much as possible. It was agreed that the night should

be divided into three watches, so that each of the party

should take his turn in watching over the safety of the

rest. The doctor took the watch commencing at nine

o'clock; Kennedy, the one commencing at midnight; and

Joe, the three o'clock morning watch.

So Kennedy and Joe, well wrapped in their blankets,

stretched themselves at full length under the awning, and

slept quietly; while Dr. Ferguson kept on the lookout.

CHAPTER THIRTEENTH.

Change of Weather.--Kennedy has the Fever.--The Doctor's Medicine.

--Travels on Land.--The Basin of Imenge.--Mount Rubeho.--Six

Thousand Feet Elevation.--A Halt in the Daytime.

The night was calm. However, on Saturday morning,

Kennedy, as he awoke, complained of lassitude and feverish

chills. The weather was changing. The sky, covered

with clouds, seemed to be laying in supplies for a fresh

deluge. A gloomy region is that Zungomoro country,

where it rains continually, excepting, perhaps, for a couple

of weeks in the month of January.

A violent shower was not long in drenching our travellers.

Below them, the roads, intersected by "nullahs,"

a sort of instantaneous torrent, were soon rendered

impracticable, entangled as they were, besides, with thorny

thickets and gigantic lianas, or creeping vines. The

sulphuretted hydrogen emanations, which Captain Burton

mentions, could be distinctly smelt.

"According to his statement, and I think he's right,"

said the doctor, "one could readily believe that there is

a corpse hidden behind every thicket."

"An ugly country this!" sighed Joe; "and it seems

to me that Mr. Kennedy is none the better for having

passed the night in it."

"To tell the truth, I have quite a high fever," said the

sportsman.

"There's nothing remarkable about that, my dear Dick, for

we are in one of the most unhealthy regions in Africa; but

we shall not remain here long; so let's be off."

Thanks to a skilful manoeuvre achieved by Joe, the

anchor was disengaged, and Joe reascended to the car by

means of the ladder. The doctor vigorously dilated the

gas, and the Victoria resumed her flight, driven along by

a spanking breeze.

Only a few scattered huts could be seen through the

pestilential mists; but the appearance of the country soon

changed, for it often happens in Africa that some of the

unhealthiest districts lie close beside others that are

perfectly salubrious.

Kennedy was visibly suffering, and the fever was mastering

his vigorous constitution.

"It won't do to fall ill, though," he grumbled; and

so saying, he wrapped himself in a blanket, and lay down

under the awning.

"A little patience, Dick, and you'll soon get over

this," said the doctor.

"Get over it! Egad, Samuel, if you've any drug in

your travelling-chest that will set me on my feet again,

bring it without delay. I'll swallow it with my eyes

shut!"

"Oh, I can do better than that, friend Dick; for I can

give you a febrifuge that won't cost any thing."

"And how will you do that?"

"Very easily. I am simply going to take you up

above these clouds that are now deluging us, and remove

you from this pestilential atmosphere. I ask for only ten

minutes, in order to dilate the hydrogen."

The ten minutes had scarcely elapsed ere the travellers

were beyond the rainy belt of country.

"Wait a little, now, Dick, and you'll begin to feel the

effect of pure air and sunshine."

"There's a cure for you!" said Joe; "why, it's wonderful!"

"No, it's merely natural."

"Oh! natural; yes, no doubt of that!"

"I bring Dick into good air, as the doctors do, every

day, in Europe, or, as I would send a patient at Martinique

to the Pitons, a lofty mountain on that island, to get clear

of the yellow fever."

"Ah! by Jove, this balloon is a paradise!" exclaimed

Kennedy, feeling much better already.

"It leads to it, anyhow!" replied Joe, quite gravely.

It was a curious spectacle--that mass of clouds piled

up, at the moment, away below them! The vapors rolled

over each other, and mingled together in confused masses

of superb brilliance, as they reflected the rays of the sun.

The Victoria had attained an altitude of four thousand

feet, and the thermometer indicated a certain diminution

of temperature. The land below could no longer be seen.

Fifty miles away to the westward, Mount Rubeho raised

its sparkling crest, marking the limit of the Ugogo country

in east longitude thirty-six degrees twenty minutes.

The wind was blowing at the rate of twenty miles an hour,

but the aeronauts felt nothing of this increased speed.

They observed no jar, and had scarcely any sense of motion

at all.

Three hours later, the doctor's prediction was fully

verified. Kennedy no longer felt a single shiver of the

fever, but partook of some breakfast with an excellent

appetite.

That beats sulphate of quinine!" said the energetic

Scot, with hearty emphasis and much satisfaction.

"Positively," said Joe, "this is where I'll have to retire

to when I get old!"

About ten o'clock in the morning the atmosphere

cleared up, the clouds parted, and the country beneath

could again be seen, the Victoria meanwhile rapidly

descending. Dr. Ferguson was in search of a current that

would carry him more to the northeast, and he found it

about six hundred feet from the ground. The country

was becoming more broken, and even mountainous. The

Zungomoro district was fading out of sight in the east

with the last cocoa-nut-trees of that latitude.

Ere long, the crests of a mountain-range assumed a more

decided prominence. A few peaks rose here and there,

and it became necessary to keep a sharp lookout for the

pointed cones that seemed to spring up every moment.

"We're right among the breakers!" said Kennedy.

"Keep cool, Dick. We shan't touch them," was the

doctor's quiet answer.

"It's a jolly way to travel, anyhow!" said Joe, with

his usual flow of spirits.

In fact, the doctor managed his balloon with wondrous

dexterity.

"Now, if we had been compelled to go afoot over that

drenched soil," said he, "we should still be dragging along

in a pestilential mire. Since our departure from Zanzibar,

half our beasts of burden would have died with fatigue.

We should be looking like ghosts ourselves, and despair

would be seizing on our hearts. We should be in continual

squabbles with our guides and porters, and completely

exposed to their unbridled brutality. During the daytime,

a damp, penetrating, unendurable humidity! At

night, a cold frequently intolerable, and the stings of a

kind of fly whose bite pierces the thickest cloth, and drives

the victim crazy! All this, too, without saying any thing

about wild beasts and ferocious native tribes!"

"I move that we don't try it!" said Joe, in his droll way.

"I exaggerate nothing," continued Ferguson, "for,

upon reading the narratives of such travellers as have had

the hardihood to venture into these regions, your eyes

would fill with tears."

About eleven o'clock they were passing over the basin

of Imenge, and the tribes scattered over the adjacent hills

were impotently menacing the Victoria with their weapons.

Finally, she sped along as far as the last undulations

of the country which precede Rubeho. These form the

last and loftiest chain of the mountains of Usagara.

The aeronauts took careful and complete note of the

orographic conformation of the country. The three ramifications

mentioned, of which the Duthumi forms the first

link, are separated by immense longitudinal plains. These

elevated summits consist of rounded cones, between which

the soil is bestrewn with erratic blocks of stone and gravelly

bowlders. The most abrupt declivity of these mountains

confronts the Zanzibar coast, but the western slopes

are merely inclined planes. The depressions in the soil

are covered with a black, rich loam, on which there is a

vigorous vegetation. Various water-courses filter through,

toward the east, and work their way onward to flow into

the Kingani, in the midst of gigantic clumps of sycamore,

tamarind, calabash, and palmyra trees.

"Attention!" said Dr. Ferguson. "We are approaching Rubeho, the

name of which signifies, in the language of the country, the

'Passage of the Winds,' and we would do well to double its jagged

pinnacles at a certain height. If my chart be exact, we are going

to ascend to an elevation of five thousand feet."

"Shall we often have occasion to reach those far upper

belts of the atmosphere?"

"Very seldom: the height of the African mountains

appears to be quite moderate compared with that of the

European and Asiatic ranges; but, in any case, our good

Victoria will find no difficulty in passing over them."

In a very little while, the gas expanded under the

action of the heat, and the balloon took a very decided

ascensional movement. Besides, the dilation of the hydrogen

involved no danger, and only three-fourths of the vast

capacity of the balloon was filled when the barometer,

by a depression of eight inches, announced an elevation

of six thousand feet.

"Shall we go this high very long?" asked Joe.

"The atmosphere of the earth has a height of six thousand

fathoms," said the doctor; "and, with a very large

balloon, one might go far. That is what Messrs. Brioschi

and Gay-Lussac did; but then the blood burst from their

mouths and ears. Respirable air was wanting. Some

years ago, two fearless Frenchmen, Messrs. Barral and

Bixio, also ventured into the very lofty regions; but their

balloon burst--"

"And they fell?" asked Kennedy, abruptly.

"Certainly they did; but as learned men should always

fall--namely, without hurting themselves."

"Well, gentlemen," said Joe, "you may try their fall

over again, if you like; but, as for me, who am but a dolt,

I prefer keeping at the medium height--neither too far

up, nor too low down. It won't do to be too ambitious."

At the height of six thousand feet, the density of the

atmosphere has already greatly diminished; sound is conveyed

with difficulty, and the voice is not so easily heard.

The view of objects becomes confused; the gaze no longer

takes in any but large, quite ill-distinguishable masses;

men and animals on the surface become absolutely invisible;

the roads and rivers get to look like threads, and

the lakes dwindle to ponds.

The doctor and his friends felt themselves in a very

anomalous condition; an atmospheric current of extreme

velocity was bearing them away beyond arid mountains,

upon whose summits vast fields of snow surprised the

gaze; while their convulsed appearance told of Titanic

travail in the earliest epoch of the world's existence.

The sun shone at the zenith, and his rays fell perpendicularly

upon those lonely summits. The doctor took an accurate design

of these mountains, which form four distinct ridges almost in

a straight line, the northernmost being the longest.

The Victoria soon descended the slope opposite to the

Rubeho, skirting an acclivity covered with woods, and

dotted with trees of very deep-green foliage. Then came

crests and ravines, in a sort of desert which preceded the

Ugogo country; and lower down were yellow plains,

parched and fissured by the intense heat, and, here and

there, bestrewn with saline plants and brambly thickets.

Some underbrush, which, farther on, became forests,

embellished the horizon. The doctor went nearer to the

ground; the anchors were thrown out, and one of them

soon caught in the boughs of a huge sycamore.

Joe, slipping nimbly down the tree, carefully attached

the anchor, and the doctor left his cylinder at work to a

certain degree in order to retain sufficient ascensional

force in the balloon to keep it in the air. Meanwhile the

wind had suddenly died away.

"Now," said Ferguson, "take two guns, friend Dick--

one for yourself and one for Joe--and both of you try to

bring back some nice cuts of antelope-meat; they will

make us a good dinner."

"Off to the hunt!" exclaimed Kennedy, joyously.

He climbed briskly out of the car and descended. Joe had

swung himself down from branch to branch, and was waiting

for him below, stretching his limbs in the mean time.

"Don't fly away without us, doctor!" shouted Joe.

"Never fear, my boy!--I am securely lashed. I'll

spend the time getting my notes into shape. A good hunt

to you! but be careful. Besides, from my post here, I

can observe the face of the country, and, at the least

suspicious thing I notice, I'll fire a signal-shot, and

with that you must rally home."

"Agreed!" said Kennedy; and off they went.

CHAPTER FOURTEENTH.

The Forest of Gum-Trees.--The Blue Antelope.--The Rallying-Signal.

--An Unexpected Attack.--The Kanyeme.--A Night in the Open Air.--The

Mabunguru.--Jihoue-la-Mkoa.--A Supply of Water.--Arrival at Kazeh.

The country, dry and parched as it was, consisting of

a clayey soil that cracked open with the heat, seemed,

indeed, a desert: here and there were a few traces of

caravans; the bones of men and animals, that had been

half-gnawed away, mouldering together in the same dust.

After half an hour's walking, Dick and Joe plunged

into a forest of gum-trees, their eyes alert on all sides,

and their fingers on the trigger. There was no foreseeing

what they might encounter. Without being a rifleman, Joe

could handle fire-arms with no trifling dexterity.

"A walk does one good, Mr. Kennedy, but this isn't

the easiest ground in the world," he said, kicking aside

some fragments of quartz with which the soil was bestrewn.

Kennedy motioned to his companion to be silent and

to halt. The present case compelled them to dispense

with hunting-dogs, and, no matter what Joe's agility might

be, he could not be expected to have the scent of a setter

or a greyhound.

A herd of a dozen antelopes were quenching their

thirst in the bed of a torrent where some pools of water

had lodged. The graceful creatures, snuffing danger in

the breeze, seemed to be disturbed and uneasy. Their

beautiful heads could be seen between every draught,

raised in the air with quick and sudden motion as they

sniffed the wind in the direction of our two hunters, with

their flexible nostrils.

Kennedy stole around behind some clumps of shrubbery,

while Joe remained motionless where he was. The

former, at length, got within gunshot and fired.

The herd disappeared in the twinkling of an eye; one

male antelope only, that was hit just behind the

shoulder-joint, fell headlong to the ground, and

Kennedy leaped toward his booty.

It was a blauwbok, a superb animal of a pale-bluish

color shading upon the gray, but with the belly and the

inside of the legs as white as the driven snow.

"A splendid shot!" exclaimed the hunter. "It's a very

rare species of the antelope, and I hope to be able to

prepare his skin in such a way as to keep it."

"Indeed!" said Joe, "do you think of doing that, Mr. Kennedy?"

"Why, certainly I do! Just see what a fine hide it is!"

"But Dr. Ferguson will never allow us to take such an

extra weight!"

"You're right, Joe. Still it is a pity to have to leave

such a noble animal."

"The whole of it? Oh, we won't do that, sir; we'll

take all the good eatable parts of it, and, if you'll let me,

I'll cut him up just as well as the chairman of the honorable

corporation of butchers of the city of London could do."

"As you please, my boy! But you know that in my hunter's way

I can just as easily skin and cut up a piece of game as kill it."

"I'm sure of that, Mr. Kennedy. Well, then, you can

build a fireplace with a few stones; there's plenty of dry

dead-wood, and I can make the hot coals tell in a few

minutes."

"Oh! that won't take long," said Kennedy, going to

work on the fireplace, where he had a brisk flame crackling

and sparkling in a minute or two.

Joe had cut some of the nicest steaks and the best parts of

the tenderloin from the carcass of the antelope, and these

were quickly transformed to the most savory of broils.

"There, those will tickle the doctor!" said Kennedy.

"Do you know what I was thinking about?" said Joe.

"Why, about the steaks you're broiling, to be sure!"

replied Dick.

"Not the least in the world. I was thinking what a

figure we'd cut if we couldn't find the balloon again."

"By George, what an idea! Why, do you think the

doctor would desert us?"

"No; but suppose his anchor were to slip!"

"Impossible! and, besides, the doctor would find no

difficulty in coming down again with his balloon; he

handles it at his ease."

"But suppose the wind were to sweep it off, so that he

couldn't come back toward us?"

"Come, come, Joe! a truce to your suppositions;

they're any thing but pleasant."

"Ah! sir, every thing that happens in this world is

natural, of course; but, then, any thing may happen, and

we ought to look out beforehand."

At this moment the report of a gun rang out upon the air.

"What's that?" exclaimed Joe.

"It's my rifle, I know the ring of her!" said Kennedy.

"A signal!"

"Yes; danger for us!"

"For him, too, perhaps."

"Let's be off!"

And the hunters, having gathered up the product of

their expedition, rapidly made their way back along the

path that they had marked by breaking boughs and bushes

when they came. The density of the underbrush prevented

their seeing the balloon, although they could not

be far from it.

A second shot was heard.

"We must hurry!" said Joe.

"There! a third report!"

"Why, it sounds to me as if he was defending himself

against something."

"Let us make haste!"

They now began to run at the top of their speed.

When they reached the outskirts of the forest, they, at

first glance, saw the balloon in its place and the doctor in

the car.

"What's the matter?" shouted Kennedy.

"Good God!" suddenly exclaimed Joe.

"What do you see?"

"Down there! look! a crowd of blacks surrounding

the balloon!"

And, in fact, there, two miles from where they were,

they saw some thirty wild natives close together, yelling,

gesticulating, and cutting all kinds of antics at the foot of

the sycamore. Some, climbing into the tree itself, were

making their way to the topmost branches. The danger

seemed pressing.

"My master is lost!" cried Joe.

"Come! a little more coolness, Joe, and let us see how

we stand. We hold the lives of four of those villains in

our hands. Forward, then!"

They had made a mile with headlong speed, when

another report was heard from the car. The shot had,

evidently, told upon a huge black demon, who had been

hoisting himself up by the anchor-rope. A lifeless body

fell from bough to bough, and hung about twenty feet

from the ground, its arms and legs swaying to and fro in

the air.

"Ha!" said Joe, halting, "what does that fellow hold by?"

"No matter what!" said Kennedy; "let us run! let

us run!"

"Ah! Mr. Kennedy," said Joe, again, in a roar of

laughter, "by his tail! by his tail! it's an ape! They're

all apes!"

"Well, they're worse than men!" said Kennedy, as he

dashed into the midst of the howling crowd.

It was, indeed, a troop of very formidable baboons of

the dog-faced species. These creatures are brutal, ferocious,

and horrible to look upon, with their dog-like muzzles

and savage expression. However, a few shots scattered

them, and the chattering horde scampered off,

leaving several of their number on the ground.

In a moment Kennedy was on the ladder, and Joe,

clambering up the branches, detached the anchor; the car

then dipped to where he was, and he got into it without

difficulty. A few minutes later, the Victoria slowly

ascended and soared away to the eastward, wafted by a

moderate wind.

"That was an attack for you!" said Joe.

"We thought you were surrounded by natives."

"Well, fortunately, they were only apes," said the doctor.

"At a distance there's no great difference," remarked Kennedy.

"Nor close at hand, either," added Joe.

"Well, however that may be," resumed Ferguson, "this

attack of apes might have had the most serious consequences.

Had the anchor yielded to their repeated efforts, who knows

whither the wind would have carried me?"

"What did I tell you, Mr. Kennedy?"

"You were right, Joe; but, even right as you may

have been, you were, at that moment, preparing some

antelope-steaks, the very sight of which gave me a

monstrous appetite."

"I believe you!" said the doctor; "the flesh of the

antelope is exquisite."

"You may judge of that yourself, now, sir, for supper's ready."

"Upon my word as a sportsman, those venison-steaks

have a gamy flavor that's not to be sneezed at, I tell you."

"Good!" said Joe, with his mouth full, "I could live

on antelope all the days of my life; and all the better with

a glass of grog to wash it down."

So saying, the good fellow went to work to prepare a

jorum of that fragrant beverage, and all hands tasted it

with satisfaction.

"Every thing has gone well thus far," said he.

"Very well indeed!" assented Kennedy.

"Come, now, Mr. Kennedy, are you sorry that you

came with us?"

"I'd like to see anybody prevent my coming!"

It was now four o'clock in the afternoon. The Victoria

had struck a more rapid current. The face of the

country was gradually rising, and, ere long, the barometer

indicated a height of fifteen hundred feet above the level

of the sea. The doctor was, therefore, obliged to keep

his balloon up by a quite considerable dilation of gas, and

the cylinder was hard at work all the time.

Toward seven o'clock, the balloon was sailing over the

basin of Kanyeme. The doctor immediately recognized

that immense clearing, ten miles in extent, with its villages

buried in the midst of baobab and calabash trees.

It is the residence of one of the sultans of the Ugogo

country, where civilization is, perhaps, the least backward.

The natives there are less addicted to selling members of

their own families, but still, men and animals all live

together in round huts, without frames, that look like

haystacks.

Beyond Kanyeme the soil becomes arid and stony, but

in an hour's journey, in a fertile dip of the soil, vegetation

had resumed all its vigor at some distance from Mdaburu.

The wind fell with the close of the day, and the atmosphere

seemed to sleep. The doctor vainly sought for a

current of air at different heights, and, at last, seeing this

calm of all nature, he resolved to pass the night afloat, and,

for greater safety, rose to the height of one thousand feet,

where the balloon remained motionless. The night was

magnificent, the heavens glittering with stars, and profoundly

silent in the upper air.

Dick and Joe stretched themselves on their peaceful

couch, and were soon sound asleep, the doctor keeping the

first watch. At twelve o'clock the latter was relieved by

Kennedy.

"Should the slightest accident happen, waken me,"

said Ferguson, "and, above all things, don't lose sight of

the barometer. To us it is the compass!"

The night was cold. There were twenty-seven degrees

of difference between its temperature and that of the daytime.

With nightfall had begun the nocturnal concert

of animals driven from their hiding-places by hunger and

thirst. The frogs struck in their guttural soprano,

redoubled by the yelping of the jackals, while the imposing

bass of the African lion sustained the accords of this living

orchestra.

Upon resuming his post, in the morning, the doctor

consulted his compass, and found that the wind had

changed during the night. The balloon had been bearing

about thirty miles to the northwest during the last two

hours. It was then passing over Mabunguru, a stony

country, strewn with blocks of syenite of a fine polish, and

knobbed with huge bowlders and angular ridges of rock;

conic masses, like the rocks of Karnak, studded the soil

like so many Druidic dolmens; the bones of buffaloes and

elephants whitened it here and there; but few trees could

be seen, excepting in the east, where there were dense

woods, among which a few villages lay half concealed.

Toward seven o'clock they saw a huge round rock

nearly two miles in extent, like an immense tortoise.

"We are on the right track," said Dr. Ferguson.

"There's Jihoue-la-Mkoa, where we must halt for a few

minutes. I am going to renew the supply of water necessary

for my cylinder, and so let us try to anchor somewhere."

"There are very few trees," replied the hunger.

"Never mind, let us try. Joe, throw out the anchors!"

The balloon, gradually losing its ascensional force,

approached the ground; the anchors ran along until, at

last, one of them caught in the fissure of a rock, and the

balloon remained motionless.

It must not be supposed that the doctor could entirely

extinguish his cylinder, during these halts. The equilibrium

of the balloon had been calculated at the level of

the sea; and, as the country was continually ascending,

and had reached an elevation of from six to seven hundred

feet, the balloon would have had a tendency to go lower

than the surface of the soil itself. It was, therefore,

necessary to sustain it by a certain dilation of the gas. But,

in case the doctor, in the absence of all wind, had let the

car rest upon the ground, the balloon, thus relieved of a

considerable weight, would have kept up of itself, without

the aid of the cylinder.

The maps indicated extensive ponds on the western

slope of the Jihoue-la-Mkoa. Joe went thither alone

with a cask that would hold about ten gallons. He found

the place pointed out to him, without difficulty, near to a

deserted village; got his stock of water, and returned in

less than three-quarters of an hour. He had seen nothing

particular excepting some immense elephant-pits. In fact,

he came very near falling into one of them, at the bottom

of which lay a half-eaten carcass.

He brought back with him a sort of clover which the

apes eat with avidity. The doctor recognized the fruit

of the "mbenbu"-tree which grows in profusion, on the

western part of Jihoue-la-Mkoa. Ferguson waited for

Joe with a certain feeling of impatience, for even a short

halt in this inhospitable region always inspires a degree

of fear.

The water was got aboard without trouble, as the car

was nearly resting on the ground. Joe then found it easy

to loosen the anchor and leaped lightly to his place beside

the doctor. The latter then replenished the flame in the

cylinder, and the balloon majestically soared into the air.

It was then about one hundred miles from Kazeh, an

important establishment in the interior of Africa, where,

thanks to a south-southeasterly current, the travellers

might hope to arrive on that same day. They were moving

at the rate of fourteen miles per hour, and the guidance

of the balloon was becoming difficult, as they dared

not rise very high without extreme dilation of the gas, the

country itself being at an average height of three thousand

feet. Hence, the doctor preferred not to force the

dilation, and so adroitly followed the sinuosities of a

pretty sharply-inclined plane, and swept very close to the

villages of Thembo and Tura-Wels. The latter forms

part of the Unyamwezy, a magnificent country, where the

trees attain enormous dimensions; among them the cactus,

which grows to gigantic size.

About two o'clock, in magnificent weather, but under a

fiery sun that devoured the least breath of air, the balloon

was floating over the town of Kazeh, situated about three

hundred and fifty miles from the coast.

"We left Zanzibar at nine o'clock in the morning,"

said the doctor, consulting his notes, "and, after two

days' passage, we have, including our deviations, travelled

nearly five hundred geographical miles. Captains

Burton and Speke took four months and a half to make

the same distance!"

CHAPTER FIFTEENTH.

Kazeh.--The Noisy Market-place.--The Appearance of the Balloon.--The

Wangaga.--The Sons of the Moon.--The Doctor's Walk.--The Population of the

Place.--The Royal Tembe.--The Sultan's Wives.--A Royal Drunken-Bout.--

Joe an Object of Worship.--How they Dance in the Moon.--A Reaction.--

Two Moons in one Sky.--The Instability of Divine Honors.

Kazeh, an important point in Central Africa, is not a

city; in truth, there are no cities in the interior. Kazeh

is but a collection of six extensive excavations. There

are enclosed a few houses and slave-huts, with little courtyards

and small gardens, carefully cultivated with onions,

potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, and mushrooms, of perfect

flavor, growing most luxuriantly.

The Unyamwezy is the country of the Moon--above

all the rest, the fertile and magnificent garden-spot of

Africa. In its centre is the district of Unyanembe--a

delicious region, where some families of Omani, who are

of very pure Arabic origin, live in luxurious idleness.

They have, for a long period, held the commerce between

the interior of Africa and Arabia: they trade in

gums, ivory, fine muslin, and slaves. Their caravans

traverse these equatorial regions on all sides; and they

even make their way to the coast in search of those articles

of luxury and enjoyment which the wealthy merchants

covet; while the latter, surrounded by their wives

and their attendants, lead in this charming country the

least disturbed and most horizontal of lives--always

stretched at full length, laughing, smoking, or sleeping.

Around these excavations are numerous native dwellings;

wide, open spaces for the markets; fields of cannabis

and datura; superb trees and depths of freshest

shade--such is Kazeh!

There, too, is held the general rendezvous of the caravans

--those of the south, with their slaves and their freightage

of ivory; and those of the west, which export cotton,

glassware, and trinkets, to the tribes of the great lakes.

So in the market-place there reigns perpetual excitement,

a nameless hubbub, made up of the cries of mixed-breed

porters and carriers, the beating of drums, and the

twanging of horns, the neighing of mules, the braying of

donkeys, the singing of women, the squalling of children,

and the banging of the huge rattan, wielded by the jemadar

or leader of the caravans, who beats time to this pastoral

symphony.

There, spread forth, without regard to order--indeed,

we may say, in charming disorder--are the showy stuffs,

the glass beads, the ivory tusks, the rhinoceros'-teeth, the

shark's-teeth, the honey, the tobacco, and the cotton of

these regions, to be purchased at the strangest of bargains

by customers in whose eyes each article has a price only

in proportion to the desire it excites to possess it.

All at once this agitation, movement and noise stopped

as though by magic. The balloon had just come in sight,

far aloft in the sky, where it hovered majestically for

a few moments, and then descended slowly, without

deviating from its perpendicular. Men, women, children,

merchants and slaves, Arabs and negroes, as suddenly

disappeared within the "tembes" and the huts.

"My dear doctor," said Kennedy, "if we continue to

produce such a sensation as this, we shall find some

difficulty in establishing commercial relations with

the people hereabouts."

"There's one kind of trade that we might carry on,

though, easily enough," said Joe; "and that would be to

go down there quietly, and walk off with the best of the

goods, without troubling our heads about the merchants;

we'd get rich that way!"

"Ah!" said the doctor, "these natives are a little

scared at first; but they won't be long in coming back,

either through suspicion or through curiosity."

"Do you really think so, doctor?"

"Well, we'll see pretty soon. But it wouldn't be prudent

to go too near to them, for the balloon is not iron-clad,

and is, therefore, not proof against either an arrow

or a bullet."

"Then you expect to hold a parley with these blacks?"

"If we can do so safely, why should we not? There

must be some Arab merchants here at Kazeh, who are better

informed than the rest, and not so barbarous. I remember

that Burton and Speke had nothing but praises

to utter concerning the hospitality of these people; so we

might, at least, make the venture."

The balloon having, meanwhile, gradually approached

the ground, one of the anchors lodged in the top of a tree

near the market-place.

By this time the whole population had emerged from

their hiding-places stealthily, thrusting their heads out

first. Several "waganga," recognizable by their badges

of conical shellwork, came boldly forward. They were

the sorcerers of the place. They bore in their girdles

small gourds, coated with tallow, and several other

articles of witchcraft, all of them, by-the-way, most

professionally filthy.

Little by little the crowd gathered beside them, the

women and children grouped around them, the drums

renewed their deafening uproar, hands were violently

clapped together, and then raised toward the sky.

"That's their style of praying," said the doctor; "and,

if I'm not mistaken, we're going to be called upon to play

a great part."

"Well, sir, play it!"

"You, too, my good Joe--perhaps you're to be a god!"

"Well, master, that won't trouble me much. I like a

little flattery!"

At this moment, one of the sorcerers, a "myanga,"

made a sign, and all the clamor died away into the

profoundest silence. He then addressed a few words to the

strangers, but in an unknown tongue.

Dr. Ferguson, not having understood them, shouted

some sentences in Arabic, at a venture, and was

immediately answered in that language.

The speaker below then delivered himself of a very

copious harangue, which was also very flowery and very

gravely listened to by his audience. From it the doctor

was not slow in learning that the balloon was mistaken for

nothing less than the moon in person, and that the amiable

goddess in question had condescended to approach the town

with her three sons--an honor that would never be forgotten

in this land so greatly loved by the god of day.

The doctor responded, with much dignity, that the

moon made her provincial tour every thousand years,

feeling the necessity of showing herself nearer at hand

to her worshippers. He, therefore, begged them not to be

disturbed by her presence, but to take advantage of it to

make known all their wants and longings.

The sorcerer, in his turn, replied that the sultan, the

"mwani," who had been sick for many years, implored

the aid of heaven, and he invited the son of the moon to

visit him.

The doctor acquainted his companions with the invitation.

"And you are going to call upon this negro king?"

asked Kennedy.

"Undoubtedly so; these people appear well disposed;

the air is calm; there is not a breath of wind, and we have

nothing to fear for the balloon?"

"But, what will you do?"

"Be quiet on that score, my dear Dick. With a little

medicine, I shall work my way through the affair!"

Then, addressing the crowd, he said:

"The moon, taking compassion on the sovereign who

is so dear to the children of Unyamwezy, has charged us

to restore him to health. Let him prepare to receive us!"

The clamor, the songs and demonstrations of all kinds

increased twofold, and the whole immense ants' nest of

black heads was again in motion.

"Now, my friends," said Dr. Ferguson, "we must

look out for every thing beforehand; we may be forced to

leave this at any moment, unexpectedly, and be off with

extra speed. Dick had better remain, therefore, in the

car, and keep the cylinder warm so as to secure a sufficient

ascensional force for the balloon. The anchor is solidly

fastened, and there is nothing to fear in that respect. I

shall descend, and Joe will go with me, only that he must

remain at the foot of the ladder."

"What! are you going alone into that blackamoor's den?"

"How! doctor, am I not to go with you?"

"No! I shall go alone; these good folks imagine that

the goddess of the moon has come to see them, and their

superstition protects me; so have no fear, and each one

remain at the post that I have assigned to him."

"Well, since you wish it," sighed Kennedy.

"Look closely to the dilation of the gas."

"Agreed!"

By this time the shouts of the natives had swelled to

double volume as they vehemently implored the aid of the

heavenly powers.

"There, there," said Joe, "they're rather rough in

their orders to their good moon and her divine sons."

The doctor, equipped with his travelling medicine-chest,

descended to the ground, preceded by Joe, who kept

a straight countenance and looked as grave and knowing

as the circumstances of the case required. He then seated

himself at the foot of the ladder in the Arab fashion, with

his legs crossed under him, and a portion of the crowd

collected around him in a circle, at respectful distances.

In the meanwhile the doctor, escorted to the sound of

savage instruments, and with wild religious dances, slowly

proceeded toward the royal "tembe," situated a considerable

distance outside of the town. It was about three

o'clock, and the sun was shining brilliantly. In fact, what

less could it do upon so grand an occasion!

The doctor stepped along with great dignity, the waganga

surrounding him and keeping off the crowd. He was soon

joined by the natural son of the sultan, a handsomely-built

young fellow, who, according to the custom of the country,

was the sole heir of the paternal goods, to the exclusion

of the old man's legitimate children. He prostrated himself

before the son of the moon, but the latter graciously raised

him to his feet.

Three-quarters of an hour later, through shady paths,

surrounded by all the luxuriance of tropical vegetation,

this enthusiastic procession arrived at the sultan's palace,

a sort of square edifice called ititenya, and situated on the

slope of a hill.

A kind of veranda, formed by the thatched roof, adorned the

outside, supported upon wooden pillars, which had some

pretensions to being carved. Long lines of dark-red clay

decorated the walls in characters that strove to reproduce

the forms of men and serpents, the latter better

imitated, of course, than the former. The roofing of this

abode did not rest directly upon the walls, and the air

could, therefore, circulate freely, but windows there were

none, and the door hardly deserved the name.

Dr. Ferguson was received with all the honors by the

guards and favorites of the sultan; these were men of a

fine race, the Wanyamwezi so-called, a pure type of the

central African populations, strong, robust, well-made, and

in splendid condition. Their hair, divided into a great

number of small tresses, fell over their shoulders, and by

means of black-and-blue incisions they had tattooed their

cheeks from the temples to the mouth. Their ears, frightfully

distended, held dangling to them disks of wood and

plates of gum copal. They were clad in brilliantly-painted

cloths, and the soldiers were armed with the saw-toothed

war-club, the bow and arrows barbed and poisoned with

the juice of the euphorbium, the cutlass, the "sima," a long

sabre (also with saw-like teeth), and some small battle-axes.

The doctor advanced into the palace, and there, notwithstanding

the sultan's illness, the din, which was terrific before,

redoubled the instant that he arrived. He noticed, at the

lintels of the door, some rabbits' tails and zebras' manes,

suspended as talismans. He was received by the whole troop

of his majesty's wives, to the harmonious accords of the

"upatu," a sort of cymbal made of the bottom of a copper

kettle, and to the uproar of the "kilindo," a drum five feet

high, hollowed out from the trunk of a tree, and hammered by

the ponderous, horny fists of two jet-black virtuosi.

Most of the women were rather good-looking, and they laughed

and chattered merrily as they smoked their tobacco and "thang"

in huge black pipes. They seemed to be well made, too, under

the long robes that they wore gracefully flung about their

persons, and carried a sort of "kilt" woven from the fibres

of calabash fastened around their girdles.

Six of them were not the least merry of the party,

although put aside from the rest, and reserved for a cruel

fate. On the death of the sultan, they were to be buried

alive with him, so as to occupy and divert his mind during

the period of eternal solitude.

Dr. Ferguson, taking in the whole scene at a rapid

glance, approached the wooden couch on which the sultan

lay reclining. There he saw a man of about forty, completely

brutalized by orgies of every description, and in a

condition that left little or nothing to be done. The

sickness that had afflicted him for so many years was simply

perpetual drunkenness. The royal sot had nearly lost all

consciousness, and all the ammonia in the world would

not have set him on his feet again.

His favorites and the women kept on bended knees

during this solemn visit. By means of a few drops of

powerful cordial, the doctor for a moment reanimated the

imbruted carcass that lay before him. The sultan stirred,

and, for a dead body that had given no sign whatever of

life for several hours previously, this symptom was

received with a tremendous repetition of shouts and cries

in the doctor's honor.

The latter, who had seen enough of it by this time, by a

rapid motion put aside his too demonstrative admirers

and went out of the palace, directing his steps immediately

toward the balloon, for it was now six o'clock in the evening.

Joe, during his absence, had been quietly waiting at

the foot of the ladder, where the crowd paid him their

most humble respects. Like a genuine son of the moon,

he let them keep on. For a divinity, he had the air of a

very clever sort of fellow, by no means proud, nay, even

pleasingly familiar with the young negresses, who seemed

never to tire of looking at him. Besides, he went so far

as to chat agreeably with them.

"Worship me, ladies! worship me!" he said to them.

"I'm a clever sort of devil, if I am the son of a goddess."

They brought him propitiatory gifts, such as are usually

deposited in the fetich huts or mzimu. These gifts

consisted of stalks of barley and of "pombe." Joe considered

himself in duty bound to taste the latter species

of strong beer, but his palate, although accustomed to gin

and whiskey, could not withstand the strength of the new

beverage, and he had to make a horrible grimace, which

his dusky friends took to be a benevolent smile.

Thereupon, the young damsels, conjoining their voices

in a drawling chant, began to dance around him with the

utmost gravity.

"Ah! you're dancing, are you?" said he. "Well, I

won't be behind you in politeness, and so I'll give you one

of my country reels."

So at it he went, in one of the wildest jigs that ever

was seen, twisting, turning, and jerking himself in all

directions; dancing with his hands, dancing with his body,

dancing with his knees, dancing with his feet; describing

the most fearful contortions and extravagant evolutions;

throwing himself into incredible attitudes; grimacing beyond

all belief, and, in fine giving his savage admirers a

strange idea of the style of ballet adopted by the deities

in the moon.

Then, the whole collection of blacks, naturally as imitative

as monkeys, at once reproduced all his airs and

graces, his leaps and shakes and contortions; they did

not lose a single gesticulation; they did not forget an

attitude; and the result was, such a pandemonium of movement,

noise, and excitement, as it would be out of the

question even feebly to describe. But, in the very midst

of the fun, Joe saw the doctor approaching.

The latter was coming at full speed, surrounded by a

yelling and disorderly throng. The chiefs and sorcerers

seemed to be highly excited. They were close upon the

doctor's heels, crowding and threatening him.

Singular reaction! What had happened? Had the sultan

unluckily perished in the hands of his celestial physician?

Kennedy, from his post of observation, saw the danger

without knowing what had caused it, and the balloon,

powerfully urged by the dilation of the gas, strained and

tugged at the ropes that held it as though impatient to

soar away.

The doctor had got as far as the foot of the ladder. A

superstitious fear still held the crowd aloof and hindered

them from committing any violence on his person. He

rapidly scaled the ladder, and Joe followed him with his

usual agility.

"Not a moment to lose!" said the doctor. "Don't

attempt to let go the anchor! We'll cut the cord!

Follow me!"

"But what's the matter?" asked Joe, clambering into

the car.

"What's happened?" questioned Kennedy, rifle in hand.

"Look!" replied the doctor, pointing to the horizon.

"Well?" ejaculated the Scot.

"Well! the moon!"

And, in fact, there was the moon rising red and magnificent,

a globe of fire in a field of blue! It was she, indeed--she

and the balloon!--both in one sky!

Either there were two moons, then, or these strangers

were imposters, designing scamps, false deities!

Such were the very natural reflections of the crowd,

and hence the reaction in their feelings.

Joe could not, for the life of him, keep in a roar of

laughter; and the population of Kazeh, comprehending

that their prey was slipping through their clutches, set

up prolonged howlings, aiming, the while, their bows and

muskets at the balloon.

But one of the sorcerers made a sign, and all the

weapons were lowered. He then began to climb into the

tree, intending to seize the rope and bring the machine to

the ground.

Joe leaned out with a hatchet ready. "Shall I cut

away?" said he.

"No; wait a moment," replied the doctor.

"But this black?"

"We may, perhaps, save our anchor--and I hold a

great deal by that. There'll always be time enough to

cut loose."

The sorcerer, having climbed to the right place, worked

so vigorously that he succeeded in detaching the anchor,

and the latter, violently jerked, at that moment, by the

start of the balloon, caught the rascal between the limbs,

and carried him off astride of it through the air.

The stupefaction of the crowd was indescribable as

they saw one of their waganga thus whirled away into

space.

"Huzza!" roared Joe, as the balloon--thanks to its

ascensional force--shot up higher into the sky, with

increased rapidity.

"He holds on well," said Kennedy; "a little trip will

do him good."

"Shall we let this darky drop all at once?" inquired Joe.

"Oh no," replied the doctor, "we'll let him down

easily; and I warrant me that, after such an adventure,

the power of the wizard will be enormously enhanced in

the sight of his comrades."

"Why, I wouldn't put it past them to make a god of

him!" said Joe, with a laugh.

The Victoria, by this time, had risen to the height of

one thousand feet, and the black hung to the rope with

desperate energy. He had become completely silent, and

his eyes were fixed, for his terror was blended with

amazement. A light west wind was sweeping the balloon right

over the town, and far beyond it.

Half an hour later, the doctor, seeing the country deserted,

moderated the flame of his cylinder, and descended

toward the ground. At twenty feet above the turf, the

affrighted sorcerer made up his mind in a twinkling: he

let himself drop, fell on his feet, and scampered off at a

furious pace toward Kazeh; while the balloon, suddenly

relieved of his weight, again shot up on her course.

CHAPTER SIXTEENTH.

Symptoms of a Storm.--The Country of the Moon.--The Future of the African

Continent.--The Last Machine of all.--A View of the Country at Sunset.--

Flora and Fauna.--The Tempest.--The Zone of Fire.--The Starry Heavens.

"See," said Joe, "what comes of playing the sons of

the moon without her leave! She came near serving us

an ugly trick. But say, master, did you damage your

credit as a physician?"

"Yes, indeed," chimed in the sportsman. "What kind

of a dignitary was this Sultan of Kazeh?"

"An old half-dead sot," replied the doctor, "whose

loss will not be very severely felt. But the moral of all

this is that honors are fleeting, and we must not take too

great a fancy to them."

"So much the worse!" rejoined Joe. "I liked the

thing--to be worshipped!--Play the god as you like!

Why, what would any one ask more than that? By-the-way,

the moon did come up, too, and all red, as if she

was in a rage."

While the three friends went on chatting of this and

other things, and Joe examined the luminary of night

from an entirely novel point of view, the heavens became

covered with heavy clouds to the northward, and the lowering

masses assumed a most sinister and threatening look.

Quite a smart breeze, found about three hundred feet from

the earth, drove the balloon toward the north-northeast;

and above it the blue vault was clear; but the atmosphere

felt close and dull.

The aeronauts found themselves, at about eight in the

evening, in thirty-two degrees forty minutes east

longitude, and four degrees seventeen minutes latitude. The

atmospheric currents, under the influence of a tempest

not far off, were driving them at the rate of from thirty

to thirty-five miles an hour; the undulating and fertile

plains of Mfuto were passing swiftly beneath them. The

spectacle was one worthy of admiration--and admire it

they did.

"We are now right in the country of the Moon," said

Dr. Ferguson; "for it has retained the name that antiquity

gave it, undoubtedly, because the moon has been worshipped

there in all ages. It is, really, a superb country."

"It would be hard to find more splendid vegetation."

"If we found the like of it around London it would not be

natural, but it would be very pleasant," put in Joe. "Why

is it that such savage countries get all these fine things?"

"And who knows," said the doctor, "that this country

may not, one day, become the centre of civilization? The

races of the future may repair hither, when Europe shall

have become exhausted in the effort to feed her inhabitants."

"Do you think so, really?" asked Kennedy.

"Undoubtedly, my dear Dick. Just note the progress

of events: consider the migrations of races, and you

will arrive at the same conclusion assuredly. Asia was

the first nurse of the world, was she not? For about four

thousand years she travailed, she grew pregnant, she produced,

and then, when stones began to cover the soil

where the golden harvests sung by Homer had flourished,

her children abandoned her exhausted and barren bosom.

You next see them precipitating themselves upon young

and vigorous Europe, which has nourished them for the

last two thousand years. But already her fertility is beginning

to die out; her productive powers are diminishing

every day. Those new diseases that annually attack the

products of the soil, those defective crops, those insufficient

resources, are all signs of a vitality that is rapidly

wearing out and of an approaching exhaustion. Thus, we

already see the millions rushing to the luxuriant bosom of

America, as a source of help, not inexhaustible indeed, but

not yet exhausted. In its turn, that new continent will

grow old; its virgin forests will fall before the axe of

industry, and its soil will become weak through having too

fully produced what had been demanded of it. Where

two harvests bloomed every year, hardly one will be gathered

from a soil completely drained of its strength. Then,

Africa will be there to offer to new races the treasures

that for centuries have been accumulating in her breast.

Those climates now so fatal to strangers will be purified by

cultivation and by drainage of the soil, and those scattered

water supplies will be gathered into one common bed to

form an artery of navigation. Then this country over

which we are now passing, more fertile, richer, and fuller

of vitality than the rest, will become some grand realm

where more astonishing discoveries than steam and electricity

will be brought to light."

"Ah! sir," said Joe, "I'd like to see all that."

"You got up too early in the morning, my boy!"

"Besides," said Kennedy, "that may prove to be a

very dull period when industry will swallow up every

thing for its own profit. By dint of inventing machinery,

men will end in being eaten up by it! I have always

fancied that the end of the earth will be when some enormous

boiler, heated to three thousand millions of atmospheric

pressure, shall explode and blow up our Globe!"

"And I add that the Americans," said Joe, "will not

have been the last to work at the machine!"

"In fact," assented the doctor, "they are great boiler-makers!

But, without allowing ourselves to be carried away by such

speculations, let us rest content with enjoying the

beauties of this country of the Moon, since we have

been permitted to see it."

The sun, darting his last rays beneath the masses of

heaped-up cloud, adorned with a crest of gold the slightest

inequalities of the ground below; gigantic trees, arborescent

bushes, mosses on the even surface--all had their

share of this luminous effulgence. The soil, slightly undulating,

here and there rose into little conical hills; there

were no mountains visible on the horizon; immense brambly

palisades, impenetrable hedges of thorny jungle, separated

the clearings dotted with numerous villages, and

immense euphorbiae surrounded them with natural

fortifications, interlacing their trunks with the coral-shaped

branches of the shrubbery and undergrowth.

Ere long, the Malagazeri, the chief tributary of Lake

Tanganayika, was seen winding between heavy thickets

of verdure, offering an asylum to many water-courses that

spring from the torrents formed in the season of freshets,

or from ponds hollowed in the clayey soil. To observers

looking from a height, it was a chain of waterfalls thrown

across the whole western face of the country.

Animals with huge humps were feeding in the luxuriant

prairies, and were half hidden, sometimes, in the tall

grass; spreading forests in bloom redolent of spicy perfumes

presented themselves to the gaze like immense bouquets;

but, in these bouquets, lions, leopards, hyenas, and

tigers, were then crouching for shelter from the last hot

rays of the setting sun. From time to time, an elephant

made the tall tops of the undergrowth sway to and fro,

and you could hear the crackling of huge branches as his

ponderous ivory tusks broke them in his way.

"What a sporting country!" exclaimed Dick, unable

longer to restrain his enthusiasm; "why, a single ball fired

at random into those forests would bring down game

worthy of it. Suppose we try it once!"

"No, my dear Dick; the night is close at hand--a

threatening night with a tempest in the background--and

the storms are awful in this country, where the heated soil

is like one vast electric battery."

"You are right, sir," said Joe, "the heat has got to be

enough to choke one, and the breeze has died away. One

can feel that something's coming."

"The atmosphere is saturated with electricity," replied

the doctor; "every living creature is sensible that this

state of the air portends a struggle of the elements, and I

confess that I never before was so full of the fluid myself."

"Well, then," suggested Dick, "would it not be advisable

to alight?"

"On the contrary, Dick, I'd rather go up, only that I

am afraid of being carried out of my course by these

counter-currents contending in the atmosphere."

"Have you any idea, then, of abandoning the route

that we have followed since we left the coast?"

"If I can manage to do so," replied the doctor, "I will

turn more directly northward, by from seven to eight

degrees; I shall then endeavor to ascend toward the

presumed latitudes of the sources of the Nile; perhaps we

may discover some traces of Captain Speke's expedition

or of M. de Heuglin's caravan. Unless I am mistaken, we

are at thirty-two degrees forty minutes east longitude,

and I should like to ascend directly north of the equator."

"Look there!" exclaimed Kennedy, suddenly, "see

those hippopotami sliding out of the pools--those masses

of blood-colored flesh--and those crocodiles snuffing the

air aloud!"

"They're choking!" ejaculated Joe. "Ah! what a fine

way to travel this is; and how one can snap his fingers at

all that vermin!--Doctor! Mr. Kennedy! see those packs

of wild animals hurrying along close together. There are

fully two hundred. Those are wolves."

"No! Joe, not wolves, but wild dogs; a famous breed

that does not hesitate to attack the lion himself. They

are the worst customers a traveller could meet, for they

would instantly tear him to pieces."

"Well, it isn't Joe that'll undertake to muzzle them!"

responded that amiable youth. "After all, though, if

that's the nature of the beast, we mustn't be too hard on

them for it!"

Silence gradually settled down under the influence of

the impending storm: the thickened air actually seemed

no longer adapted to the transmission of sound; the

atmosphere appeared MUFFLED, and, like a room hung with

tapestry, lost all its sonorous reverberation. The "rover

bird" so-called, the coroneted crane, the red and

blue jays, the mocking-bird, the flycatcher, disappeared

among the foliage of the immense trees, and all nature

revealed symptoms of some approaching catastrophe.

At nine o'clock the Victoria hung motionless over

Msene, an extensive group of villages scarcely distinguishable

in the gloom. Once in a while, the reflection of a

wandering ray of light in the dull water disclosed a

succession of ditches regularly arranged, and, by one last

gleam, the eye could make out the calm and sombre forms

of palm-trees, sycamores, and gigantic euphorbiae.

"I am stifling!" said the Scot, inhaling, with all the

power of his lungs, as much as possible of the rarefied air.

"We are not moving an inch! Let us descend!"

"But the tempest!" said the doctor, with much uneasiness.

"If you are afraid of being carried away by the wind,

it seems to me that there is no other course to pursue."

"Perhaps the storm won't burst to-night," said Joe;

"the clouds are very high."

"That is just the thing that makes me hesitate about

going beyond them; we should have to rise still higher,

lose sight of the earth, and not know all night whether

we were moving forward or not, or in what direction we

were going."

"Make up your mind, dear doctor, for time presses!"

"It's a pity that the wind has fallen," said Joe, again;

"it would have carried us clear of the storm."

"It is, indeed, a pity, my friends," rejoined the doctor.

"The clouds are dangerous for us; they contain opposing

currents which might catch us in their eddies, and lightnings

that might set on fire. Again, those perils avoided,

the force of the tempest might hurl us to the ground, were

we to cast our anchor in the tree-tops."

"Then what shall we do?"

"Well, we must try to get the balloon into a medium

zone of the atmosphere, and there keep her suspended

between the perils of the heavens and those of the earth.

We have enough water for the cylinder, and our two hundred

pounds of ballast are untouched. In case of emergency I

can use them."

"We will keep watch with you," said the hunter.

"No, my friends, put the provisions under shelter, and

lie down; I will rouse you, if it becomes necessary."

"But, master, wouldn't you do well to take some rest

yourself, as there's no danger close on us just now?"

insisted poor Joe.

"No, thank you, my good fellow, I prefer to keep

awake. We are not moving, and should circumstances

not change, we'll find ourselves to-morrow in exactly the

same place."

"Good-night, then, sir!"

"Good-night, if you can only find it so!"

Kennedy and Joe stretched themselves out under their

blankets, and the doctor remained alone in the immensity

of space.

However, the huge dome of clouds visibly descended,

and the darkness became profound. The black vault

closed in upon the earth as if to crush it in its embrace.

All at once a violent, rapid, incisive flash of lightning

pierced the gloom, and the rent it made had not closed

ere a frightful clap of thunder shook the celestial depths.

"Up! up! turn out!" shouted Ferguson.

The two sleepers, aroused by the terrible concussion,

were at the doctor's orders in a moment.

"Shall we descend?" said Kennedy.

"No! the balloon could not stand it. Let us go up

before those clouds dissolve in water, and the wind is let

loose!" and, so saying, the doctor actively stirred up the

flame of the cylinder, and turned it on the spirals of the

serpentine siphon.

The tempests of the tropics develop with a rapidity

equalled only by their violence. A second flash of lightning

rent the darkness, and was followed by a score of

others in quick succession. The sky was crossed and dotted,

like the zebra's hide, with electric sparks, which danced

and flickered beneath the great drops of rain.

"We have delayed too long," exclaimed the doctor;

"we must now pass through a zone of fire, with our

balloon filled as it is with inflammable gas!"

"But let us descend, then! let us descend!" urged Kennedy.

"The risk of being struck would be just about even,

and we should soon be torn to pieces by the branches of

the trees!"

"We are going up, doctor!"

"Quicker, quicker still!"

In this part of Africa, during the equatorial storms, it

is not rare to count from thirty to thirty-five flashes of

lightning per minute. The sky is literally on fire, and the

crashes of thunder are continuous.

The wind burst forth with frightful violence in this

burning atmosphere; it twisted the blazing clouds; one

might have compared it to the breath of some gigantic

bellows, fanning all this conflagration.

Dr. Ferguson kept his cylinder at full heat, and the

balloon dilated and went up, while Kennedy, on his knees,

held together the curtains of the awning. The balloon

whirled round wildly enough to make their heads turn,

and the aeronauts got some very alarming jolts, indeed, as

their machine swung and swayed in all directions. Huge

cavities would form in the silk of the balloon as the wind

fiercely bent it in, and the stuff fairly cracked like a pistol

as it flew back from the pressure. A sort of hail, preceded

by a rumbling noise, hissed through the air and

rattled on the covering of the Victoria. The latter, however,

continued to ascend, while the lightning described

tangents to the convexity of her circumference; but she

bore on, right through the midst of the fire.

"God protect us!" said Dr. Ferguson, solemnly, "we

are in His hands; He alone can save us--but let us be

ready for every event, even for fire--our fall could not be

very rapid."

The doctor's voice could scarcely be heard by his companions;

but they could see his countenance calm as ever

even amid the flashing of the lightnings; he was watching

the phenomena of phosphorescence produced by the fires

of St. Elmo, that were now skipping to and fro along the

network of the balloon.

The latter whirled and swung, but steadily ascended,

and, ere the hour was over, it had passed the stormy belt.

The electric display was going on below it like a vast

crown of artificial fireworks suspended from the car.

Then they enjoyed one of the grandest spectacles that

Nature can offer to the gaze of man. Below them, the

tempest; above them, the starry firmament, tranquil,

mute, impassible, with the moon projecting her peaceful

rays over these angry clouds.

Dr. Ferguson consulted the barometer; it announced

twelve thousand feet of elevation. It was then eleven

o'clock at night.

"Thank Heaven, all danger is past; all we have to do

now, is, to keep ourselves at this height," said the doctor.

"It was frightful!" remarked Kennedy.

"Oh!" said Joe, "it gives a little variety to the trip,

and I'm not sorry to have seen a storm from a trifling

distance up in the air. It's a fine sight!"

CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH.

The Mountains of the Moon.--An Ocean of Verdure.--They cast

Anchor.--The Towing Elephant.--A Running Fire.--Death of the

Monster.--The Field-Oven.--A Meal on the Grass.--A Night on the Ground.

About four in the morning, Monday, the sun reappeared

in the horizon; the clouds had dispersed, and a

cheery breeze refreshed the morning dawn.

The earth, all redolent with fragrant exhalations,

reappeared to the gaze of our travellers. The balloon,

whirled about by opposing currents, had hardly budged

from its place, and the doctor, letting the gas contract,

descended so as to get a more northerly direction. For

a long while his quest was fruitless; the wind carried him

toward the west until he came in sight of the famous

Mountains of the Moon, which grouped themselves in a

semicircle around the extremity of Lake Tanganayika; their

ridges, but slightly indented, stood out against the bluish

horizon, so that they might have been mistaken for a natural

fortification, not to be passed by the explorers of the

centre of Africa. Among them were a few isolated cones,

revealing the mark of the eternal snows.

"Here we are at last," said the doctor, "in an unexplored

country! Captain Burton pushed very far to the westward,

but he could not reach those celebrated mountains; he even

denied their existence, strongly as it was affirmed by

Speke, his companion. He pretended that they were born in

the latter's fancy; but for us, my friends, there is no

further doubt possible."

"Shall we cross them?" asked Kennedy.

"Not, if it please God. I am looking for a wind that

will take me back toward the equator. I will even wait

for one, if necessary, and will make the balloon like a ship

that casts anchor, until favorable breezes come up."

But the foresight of the doctor was not long in bringing

its reward; for, after having tried different heights,

the Victoria at length began to sail off to the northeastward

with medium speed.

"We are in the right track," said the doctor, consulting

his compass, "and scarcely two hundred feet from the

surface; lucky circumstances for us, enabling us, as they

do, to reconnoitre these new regions. When Captain

Speke set out to discover Lake Ukereoue, he ascended

more to the eastward in a straight line above Kazeh."

"Shall we keep on long in this way?" inquired the Scot.

"Perhaps. Our object is to push a point in the direction

of the sources of the Nile; and we have more than

six hundred miles to make before we get to the extreme

limit reached by the explorers who came from the north."

"And we shan't set foot on the solid ground?" murmured

Joe; "it's enough to cramp a fellow's legs!"

"Oh, yes, indeed, my good Joe," said the doctor, reassuring

him; "we have to economize our provisions, you know; and

on the way, Dick, you must get us some fresh meat."

"Whenever you like, doctor."

"We shall also have to replenish our stock of water.

Who knows but we may be carried to some of the dried-up

regions? So we cannot take too many precautions."

At noon the Victoria was at twenty-nine degrees fifteen

minutes east longitude, and three degrees fifteen minutes

south latitude. She passed the village of Uyofu, the last

northern limit of the Unyamwezi, opposite to the Lake

Ukereoue, which could still be seen.

The tribes living near to the equator seem to be a little

more civilized, and are governed by absolute monarchs, whose

control is an unlimited despotism. Their most compact union

of power constitutes the province of Karagwah.

It was decided by the aeronauts that they would

alight at the first favorable place. They found that they

should have to make a prolonged halt, and take a careful

inspection of the balloon: so the flame of the cylinder

was moderated, and the anchors, flung out from the car,

ere long began to sweep the grass of an immense prairie,

that, from a certain height, looked like a shaven lawn,

but the growth of which, in reality, was from seven to

eight feet in height.

The balloon skimmed this tall grass without bending

it, like a gigantic butterfly: not an obstacle was in sight;

it was an ocean of verdure without a single breaker.

"We might proceed a long time in this style," remarked

Kennedy; "I don't see one tree that we could

approach, and I'm afraid that our hunt's over."

"Wait, Dick; you could not hunt anyhow in this

grass, that grows higher than your head. We'll find a

favorable place presently."

In truth, it was a charming excursion that they were

making now--a veritable navigation on this green, almost

transparent sea, gently undulating in the breath of the

wind. The little car seemed to cleave the waves of verdure,

and, from time to time, coveys of birds of magnificent

plumage would rise fluttering from the tall herbage,

and speed away with joyous cries. The anchors plunged

into this lake of flowers, and traced a furrow that closed

behind them, like the wake of a ship.

All at once a sharp shock was felt--the anchor had caught

in the fissure of some rock hidden in the high grass.

"We are fast!" exclaimed Joe.

These words had scarcely been uttered when a shrill cry

rang through the air, and the following phrases, mingled

with exclamations, escaped from the lips of our travellers:

"What's that?"

"A strange cry!"

"Look! Why, we're moving!"

"The anchor has slipped!"

"No; it holds, and holds fast too!" said Joe, who

was tugging at the rope.

"It's the rock, then, that's moving!"

An immense rustling was noticed in the grass, and soon

an elongated, winding shape was seen rising above it.

"A serpent!" shouted Joe.

"A serpent!" repeated Kennedy, handling his rifle.

"No," said the doctor, "it's an elephant's trunk!"

"An elephant, Samuel?"

And, as Kennedy said this, he drew his rifle to his shoulder.

"Wait, Dick; wait!"

"That's a fact! The animal's towing us!"

"And in the right direction, Joe--in the right direction."

The elephant was now making some headway, and soon reached

a clearing where his whole body could be seen. By his

gigantic size, the doctor recognized a male of a superb

species. He had two whitish tusks, beautifully curved, and

about eight feet in length; and in these the shanks of the

anchor had firmly caught. The animal was vainly trying with

his trunk to disengage himself from the rope that attached

him to the car.

"Get up--go ahead, old fellow!" shouted Joe, with

delight, doing his best to urge this rather novel team.

"Here is a new style of travelling!--no more horses for

me. An elephant, if you please!"

"But where is he taking us to?" said Kennedy, whose

rifle itched in his grasp.

"He's taking us exactly to where we want to go, my

dear Dick. A little patience!"

"'Wig-a-more! wig-a-more!' as the Scotch country folks say,"

shouted Joe, in high glee. "Gee-up! gee-up there!"

The huge animal now broke into a very rapid gallop.

He flung his trunk from side to side, and his monstrous

bounds gave the car several rather heavy thumps. Meanwhile

the doctor stood ready, hatchet in hand, to cut the

rope, should need arise.

"But," said he, "we shall not give up our anchor until

the last moment."

This drive, with an elephant for the team, lasted about

an hour and a half; yet the animal did not seem in the

least fatigued. These immense creatures can go over a

great deal of ground, and, from one day to another, are

found at enormous distances from there they were last

seen, like the whales, whose mass and speed they rival.

"In fact," said Joe, "it's a whale that we have harpooned;

and we're only doing just what whalemen do when out fishing."

But a change in the nature of the ground compelled

the doctor to vary his style of locomotion. A dense grove

of calmadores was descried on the horizon, about three

miles away, on the north of the prairie. So it became

necessary to detach the balloon from its draught-animal

at last.

Kennedy was intrusted with the job of bringing the

elephant to a halt. He drew his rifle to his shoulder, but

his position was not favorable to a successful shot; so

that the first ball fired flattened itself on the animal's

skull, as it would have done against an iron plate. The

creature did not seem in the least troubled by it; but, at

the sound of the discharge, he had increased his speed,

and now was going as fast as a horse at full gallop.

"The deuce!" ejaculated Kennedy.

"What a solid head!" commented Joe.

"We'll try some conical balls behind the shoulder-joint,"

said Kennedy, reloading his rifle with care. In

another moment he fired.

The animal gave a terrible cry, but went on faster

than ever.

"Come!" said Joe, taking aim with another gun, "I

must help you, or we'll never end it." And now two balls

penetrated the creature's side.

The elephant halted, lifted his trunk, and resumed his

run toward the wood with all his speed; he shook his huge

head, and the blood began to gush from his wounds.

"Let us keep up our fire, Mr. Kennedy."

"And a continuous fire, too," urged the doctor, "for

we are close on the woods."

Ten shots more were discharged. The elephant made

a fearful bound; the car and balloon cracked as though

every thing were going to pieces, and the shock made the

doctor drop his hatchet on the ground.

The situation was thus rendered really very alarming;

the anchor-rope, which had securely caught, could not be

disengaged, nor could it yet be cut by the knives of our

aeronauts, and the balloon was rushing headlong toward

the wood, when the animal received a ball in the eye just

as he lifted his head. On this he halted, faltered, his knees

bent under him, and he uncovered his whole flank to the

assaults of his enemies in the balloon.

"A bullet in his heart!" said Kennedy, discharging

one last rifle-shot.

The elephant uttered a long bellow of terror and agony,

then raised himself up for a moment, twirling his trunk in

the air, and finally fell with all his weight upon one of his

tusks, which he broke off short. He was dead.

"His tusk's broken!" exclaimed Kennedy--"ivory too

that in England would bring thirty-five guineas per

hundred pounds."

"As much as that?" said Joe, scrambling down to the

ground by the anchor-rope.

"What's the use of sighing over it, Dick?" said the

doctor. "Are we ivory merchants? Did we come hither

to make money?"

Joe examined the anchor and found it solidly attached

to the unbroken tusk. The doctor and Dick leaped out on

the ground, while the balloon, now half emptied, hovered

over the body of the huge animal.

"What a splendid beast!" said Kennedy, "what a mass of

flesh! I never saw an elephant of that size in India!"

"There's nothing surprising about that, my dear Dick;

the elephants of Central Africa are the finest in the world.

The Andersons and the Cummings have hunted so incessantly

in the neighborhood of the Cape, that these animals

have migrated to the equator, where they are often met

with in large herds."

"In the mean while, I hope," added Joe, "that we'll

taste a morsel of this fellow. I'll undertake to get you a

good dinner at his expense. Mr. Kennedy will go off and

hunt for an hour or two; the doctor will make an inspection

of the balloon, and, while they're busy in that way,

I'll do the cooking."

"A good arrangement!" said the doctor; "so do as

you like, Joe."

"As for me," said the hunter, "I shall avail myself of the

two hours' recess that Joe has condescended to let me have."

"Go, my friend, but no imprudence! Don't wander

too far away."

"Never fear, doctor!" and, so saying, Dick, shouldering

his gun, plunged into the woods.

Forthwith Joe went to work at his vocation. At first

he made a hole in the ground two feet deep; this he filled

with the dry wood that was so abundantly scattered about,

where it had been strewn by the elephants, whose tracks

could be seen where they had made their way through the

forest. This hole filled, he heaped a pile of fagots on it

a foot in height, and set fire to it.

Then he went back to the carcass of the elephant,

which had fallen only about a hundred feet from the edge

of the forest; he next proceeded adroitly to cut off the

trunk, which might have been two feet in diameter at the

base; of this he selected the most delicate portion, and

then took with it one of the animal's spongy feet. In fact,

these are the finest morsels, like the hump of the bison, the

paws of the bear, and the head of the wild boar.

When the pile of fagots had been thoroughly consumed,

inside and outside, the hole, cleared of the cinders

and hot coals, retained a very high temperature. The

pieces of elephant-meat, surrounded with aromatic leaves,

were placed in this extempore oven and covered with hot

coals. Then Joe piled up a second heap of sticks over all,

and when it had burned out the meat was cooked to a turn.

Then Joe took the viands from the oven, spread the

savory mess upon green leaves, and arranged his dinner

upon a magnificent patch of greensward. He finally

brought out some biscuit, some coffee, and some cognac,

and got a can of pure, fresh water from a neighboring

streamlet.

The repast thus prepared was a pleasant sight to behold,

and Joe, without being too proud, thought that it

would also be pleasant to eat.

"A journey without danger or fatigue," he soliloquized;

"your meals when you please; a swinging hammock all

the time! What more could a man ask? And there was

Kennedy, who didn't want to come!"

On his part, Dr. Ferguson was engrossed in a serious

and thorough examination of the balloon. The latter did

not appear to have suffered from the storm; the silk and

the gutta percha had resisted wonderfully, and, upon estimating

the exact height of the ground and the ascensional

force of the balloon, our aeronaut saw, with satisfaction,

that the hydrogen was in exactly the same quantity as

before. The covering had remained completely waterproof.

It was now only five days since our travellers had

quitted Zanzibar; their pemmican had not yet been

touched; their stock of biscuit and potted meat was enough

for a long trip, and there was nothing to be replenished

but the water.

The pipes and spiral seemed to be in perfect condition,

since, thanks to their india-rubber jointings, they had

yielded to all the oscillations of the balloon. His examination

ended, the doctor betook himself to setting his

notes in order. He made a very accurate sketch of the

surrounding landscape, with its long prairie stretching

away out of sight, the forest of calmadores, and the balloon

resting motionless over the body of the dead elephant.

At the end of his two hours, Kennedy returned with a

string of fat partridges and the haunch of an oryx, a sort

of gemsbok belonging to the most agile species of antelopes.

Joe took upon himself to prepare this surplus stock

of provisions for a later repast.

"But, dinner's ready!" he shouted in his most musical voice.

And the three travellers had only to sit down on the

green turf. The trunk and feet of the elephant were declared

to be exquisite. Old England was toasted, as usual,

and delicious Havanas perfumed this charming country

for the first time.

Kennedy ate, drank, and chatted, like four; he was

perfectly delighted with his new life, and seriously

proposed to the doctor to settle in this forest, to construct a

cabin of boughs and foliage, and, there and then, to lay the

foundation of a Robinson Crusoe dynasty in Africa.

The proposition went no further, although Joe had, at

once, selected the part of Man Friday for himself.

The country seemed so quiet, so deserted, that the

doctor resolved to pass the night on the ground, and Joe

arranged a circle of watch-fires as an indispensable barrier

against wild animals, for the hyenas, cougars, and jackals,

attracted by the smell of the dead elephant, were prowling

about in the neighborhood. Kennedy had to fire his rifle

several times at these unceremonious visitors, but the

night passed without any untoward occurrence.

CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH.

The Karagwah.--Lake Ukereoue.--A Night on an Island.--The Equator.--

Crossing the Lake.--The Cascades.--A View of the Country.--The Sources

of the Nile.--The Island of Benga.--The Signature of Andrea Debono.--The

Flag with the Arms of England.

At five o'clock in the morning, preparations for departure

commenced. Joe, with the hatchet which he had

fortunately recovered, broke the elephant's tusks. The

balloon, restored to liberty, sped away to the northwest

with our travellers, at the rate of eighteen miles per hour.

The doctor had carefully taken his position by the altitude

of the stars, during the preceding night. He knew

that he was in latitude two degrees forty minutes below

the equator, or at a distance of one hundred and sixty

geographical miles. He swept along over many villages

without heeding the cries that the appearance of the balloon

excited; he took note of the conformation of places

with quick sights; he passed the slopes of the Rubemhe,

which are nearly as abrupt as the summits of the Ousagara,

and, farther on, at Tenga, encountered the first projections

of the Karagwah chains, which, in his opinion,

are direct spurs of the Mountains of the Moon. So, the

ancient legend which made these mountains the cradle of

the Nile, came near to the truth, since they really border

upon Lake Ukereoue, the conjectured reservoir of the

waters of the great river.

From Kafuro, the main district of the merchants of that

country, he descried, at length, on the horizon, the lake

so much desired and so long sought for, of which Captain

Speke caught a glimpse on the 3d of August, 1858.

Samuel Ferguson felt real emotion: he was almost in

contact with one of the principal points of his expedition,

and, with his spy-glass constantly raised, he kept every

nook and corner of the mysterious region in sight. His

gaze wandered over details that might have been thus

described:

"Beneath him extended a country generally destitute

of cultivation; only here and there some ravines seemed

under tillage; the surface, dotted with peaks of medium

height, grew flat as it approached the lake; barley-fields

took the place of rice-plantations, and there, too, could be

seen growing the species of plantain from which the wine

of the country is drawn, and mwani, the wild plant which

supplies a substitute for coffee. A collection of some fifty

or more circular huts, covered with a flowering thatch,

constituted the capital of the Karagwah country."

He could easily distinguish the astonished countenances

of a rather fine-looking race of natives of yellowish-brown

complexion. Women of incredible corpulence

were dawdling about through the cultivated grounds, and

the doctor greatly surprised his companions by informing

them that this rotundity, which is highly esteemed in that

region, was obtained by an obligatory diet of curdled milk.

At noon, the Victoria was in one degree forty-five

minutes south latitude, and at one o'clock the wind was

driving her directly toward the lake.

This sheet of water was christened Uyanza Victoria,

or Victoria Lake, by Captain Speke. At the place now

mentioned it might measure about ninety miles in breadth,

and at its southern extremity the captain found a group

of islets, which he named the Archipelago of Bengal. He

pushed his survey as far as Muanza, on the eastern coast,

where he was received by the sultan. He made a triangulation

of this part of the lake, but he could not procure a

boat, either to cross it or to visit the great island of

Ukereoue which is very populous, is governed by three

sultans, and appears to be only a promontory at low tide.

The balloon approached the lake more to the northward,

to the doctor's great regret, for it had been his wish

to determine its lower outlines. Its shores seemed to be

thickly set with brambles and thorny plants, growing together

in wild confusion, and were literally hidden, sometimes,

from the gaze, by myriads of mosquitoes of a light-brown

hue. The country was evidently habitable and inhabited.

Troops of hippopotami could be seen disporting

themselves in the forests of reeds, or plunging beneath the

whitish waters of the lake.

The latter, seen from above, presented, toward the

west, so broad an horizon that it might have been called a

sea; the distance between the two shores is so great that

communication cannot be established, and storms are frequent

and violent, for the winds sweep with fury over this

elevated and unsheltered basin.

The doctor experienced some difficulty in guiding his

course; he was afraid of being carried toward the east,

but, fortunately, a current bore him directly toward the

north, and at six o'clock in the evening the balloon

alighted on a small desert island in thirty minutes south

latitude, and thirty-two degrees fifty-two minutes east

longitude, about twenty miles from the shore.

The travellers succeeded in making fast to a tree, and,

the wind having fallen calm toward evening, they remained

quietly at anchor. They dared not dream of taking the

ground, since here, as on the shores of the Uyanza, legions

of mosquitoes covered the soil in dense clouds. Joe even

came back, from securing the anchor in the tree, speckled

with bites, but he kept his temper, because he found it

quite the natural thing for mosquitoes to treat him as they

had done.

Nevertheless, the doctor, who was less of an optimist,

let out as much rope as he could, so as to escape these

pitiless insects, that began to rise toward him with a

threatening hum.

The doctor ascertained the height of the lake above

the level of the sea, as it had been determined by Captain

Speke, say three thousand seven hundred and fifty feet.

"Here we are, then, on an island!" said Joe, scratching

as though he'd tear his nails out.

"We could make the tour of it in a jiffy," added Kennedy,

"and, excepting these confounded mosquitoes, there's

not a living being to be seen on it."

"The islands with which the lake is dotted," replied

the doctor, "are nothing, after all, but the tops of submerged

hills; but we are lucky to have found a retreat

among them, for the shores of the lake are inhabited by

ferocious tribes. Take your sleep, then, since Providence

has granted us a tranquil night."

"Won't you do the same, doctor?"

"No, I could not close my eyes. My thoughts would

banish sleep. To-morrow, my friends, should the wind

prove favorable, we shall go due north, and we shall, perhaps,

discover the sources of the Nile, that grand secret

which has so long remained impenetrable. Near as we

are to the sources of the renowned river, I could not

sleep."

Kennedy and Joe, whom scientific speculations failed

to disturb to that extent, were not long in falling into

sound slumber, while the doctor held his post.

On Wednesday, April 23d, the balloon started at four

o'clock in the morning, with a grayish sky overhead; night

was slow in quitting the surface of the lake, which was

enveloped in a dense fog, but presently a violent breeze

scattered all the mists, and, after the balloon had been

swung to and fro for a moment, in opposite directions, it

at length veered in a straight line toward the north.

Dr. Ferguson fairly clapped his hands for joy.

"We are on the right track!" he exclaimed. "To-day

or never we shall see the Nile! Look, my friends, we are

crossing the equator! We are entering our own hemisphere!"

"Ah!" said Joe, "do you think, doctor, that the equator

passes here?"

"Just here, my boy!"

"Well, then, with all respect to you, sir, it seems to

me that this is the very time to moisten it."

"Good!" said the doctor, laughing. "Let us have a glass

of punch. You have a way of comprehending cosmography

that is any thing but dull."

And thus was the passage of the Victoria over the

equator duly celebrated.

The balloon made rapid headway. In the west could

be seen a low and but slightly-diversified coast, and,

farther away in the background, the elevated plains of the

Uganda and the Usoga. At length, the rapidity of the

wind became excessive, approaching thirty miles per hour.

The waters of the Nyanza, violently agitated, were

foaming like the billows of a sea. By the appearance of

certain long swells that followed the sinking of the waves,

the doctor was enabled to conclude that the lake must

have great depth of water. Only one or two rude boats

were seen during this rapid passage.

"This lake is evidently, from its elevated position,

the natural reservoir of the rivers in the eastern part of

Africa, and the sky gives back to it in rain what it takes

in vapor from the streams that flow out of it. I am certain

that the Nile must here take its rise."

"Well, we shall see!" said Kennedy.

About nine o'clock they drew nearer to the western

coast. It seemed deserted, and covered with woods; the

wind freshened a little toward the east, and the other

shore of the lake could be seen. It bent around in such a

curve as to end in a wide angle toward two degrees forty

minutes north latitude. Lofty mountains uplifted their

arid peaks at this extremity of Nyanza; but, between

them, a deep and winding gorge gave exit to a turbulent

and foaming river.

While busy managing the balloon, Dr. Ferguson never

ceased reconnoitring the country with eager eyes.

"Look!" he exclaimed, "look, my friends! the statements

of the Arabs were correct! They spoke of a river

by which Lake Ukereoue discharged its waters toward

the north, and this river exists, and we are descending it,

and it flows with a speed analogous to our own! And this

drop of water now gliding away beneath our feet is, beyond

all question, rushing on, to mingle with the Mediterranean!

It is the Nile!"

"It is the Nile!" reeechoed Kennedy, carried away by

the enthusiasm of his friend.

"Hurrah for the Nile!" shouted Joe, glad, and always

ready to cheer for something.

Enormous rocks, here and there, embarrassed the

course of this mysterious river. The water foamed as it

fell in rapids and cataracts, which confirmed the doctor

in his preconceived ideas on the subject. From the environing

mountains numerous torrents came plunging and

seething down, and the eye could take them in by hundreds.

There could be seen, starting from the soil, delicate

jets of water scattering in all directions, crossing and

recrossing each other, mingling, contending in the swiftness

of their progress, and all rushing toward that nascent

stream which became a river after having drunk them in.

"Here is, indeed, the Nile!" reiterated the doctor, with

the tone of profound conviction. "The origin of its name,

like the origin of its waters, has fired the imagination of

the learned; they have sought to trace it from the

Greek, the Coptic, the Sanscrit; but all that matters little

now, since we have made it surrender the secret of its

source!"

"But," said the Scotchman, "how are you to make

sure of the identity of this river with the one recognized

by the travellers from the north?"

"We shall have certain, irrefutable, convincing, and

infallible proof," replied Ferguson, "should the wind hold

another hour in our favor!"

The mountains drew farther apart, revealing in their

place numerous villages, and fields of white Indian corn,

doura, and sugar-cane. The tribes inhabiting the region

seemed excited and hostile; they manifested more anger

than adoration, and evidently saw in the aeronauts only

obtrusive strangers, and not condescending deities. It

appeared as though, in approaching the sources of the

Nile, these men came to rob them of something, and so

the Victoria had to keep out of range of their muskets.

"To land here would be a ticklish matter!" said the Scot.

"Well!" said Joe, "so much the worse for these natives.

They'll have to do without the pleasure of our conversation."

"Nevertheless, descend I must," said the doctor,

"were it only for a quarter of an hour. Without doing

so I cannot verify the results of our expedition."

"It is indispensable, then, doctor?"

"Indispensable; and we will descend, even if we have

to do so with a volley of musketry."

"The thing suits me," said Kennedy, toying with his

pet rifle.

"And I'm ready, master, whenever you say the word!"

added Joe, preparing for the fight.

"It would not be the first time," remarked the doctor,

"that science has been followed up, sword in hand. The

same thing happened to a French savant among the mountains

of Spain, when he was measuring the terrestrial meridian."

"Be easy on that score, doctor, and trust to your two

body-guards."

"Are we there, master?"

"Not yet. In fact, I shall go up a little, first, in order

to get an exact idea of the configuration of the country."

The hydrogen expanded, and in less than ten minutes the

balloon was soaring at a height of twenty-five hundred

feet above the ground.

From that elevation could be distinguished an inextricable

network of smaller streams which the river received into

its bosom; others came from the west, from between numerous

hills, in the midst of fertile plains.

"We are not ninety miles from Gondokoro," said the

doctor, measuring off the distance on his map, "and less

than five miles from the point reached by the explorers

from the north. Let us descend with great care."

And, upon this, the balloon was lowered about two

thousand feet.

"Now, my friends, let us be ready, come what may."

"Ready it is!" said Dick and Joe, with one voice.

"Good!"

In a few moments the balloon was advancing along

the bed of the river, and scarcely one hundred feet above

the ground. The Nile measured but fifty fathoms in width

at this point, and the natives were in great excitement,

rushing to and fro, tumultuously, in the villages

that lined the banks of the stream. At the second degree

it forms a perpendicular cascade of ten feet in height, and

consequently impassable by boats.

"Here, then, is the cascade mentioned by Debono!"

exclaimed the doctor.

The basin of the river spread out, dotted with numerous

islands, which Dr. Ferguson devoured with his eyes.

He seemed to be seeking for a point of reference which he

had not yet found.

By this time, some blacks, having ventured in a boat

just under the balloon, Kennedy saluted them with a shot

from his rifle, that made them regain the bank at their

utmost speed.

"A good journey to you," bawled Joe, "and if I were in

your place, I wouldn't try coming back again. I should

be mightily afraid of a monster that can hurl thunderbolts

when he pleases."

But, all at once, the doctor snatched up his spy-glass,

and directed it toward an island reposing in the middle

of the river.

"Four trees!" he exclaimed; "look, down there!" Sure

enough, there were four trees standing alone at one

end of it.

"It is Bengal Island! It is the very same," repeated

the doctor, exultingly.

"And what of that?" asked Dick.

"It is there that we shall alight, if God permits."

"But, it seems to be inhabited, doctor."

"Joe is right; and, unless I'm mistaken, there is a

group of about a score of natives on it now."

"We'll make them scatter; there'll be no great trouble

in that," responded Ferguson.

"So be it," chimed in the hunter.

The sun was at the zenith as the balloon approached

the island.

The blacks, who were members of the Makado tribe,

were howling lustily, and one of them waved his bark hat

in the air. Kennedy took aim at him, fired, and his hat

flew about him in pieces. Thereupon there was a general

scamper. The natives plunged headlong into the river,

and swam to the opposite bank. Immediately, there came

a shower of balls from both banks, along with a perfect

cloud of arrows, but without doing the balloon any damage,

where it rested with its anchor snugly secured in the

fissure of a rock. Joe lost no time in sliding to the ground.

"The ladder!" cried the doctor. "Follow me, Kennedy."

"What do you wish, sir?"

"Let us alight. I want a witness."

"Here I am!"

"Mind your post, Joe, and keep a good lookout."

"Never fear, doctor; I'll answer for all that."

"Come, Dick," said the doctor, as he touched the ground.

So saying, he drew his companion along toward a

group of rocks that rose upon one point of the island;

there, after searching for some time, he began to rummage

among the brambles, and, in so doing, scratched his hands

until they bled.

Suddenly he grasped Kennedy's arm, exclaiming:

"Look! look!"

"Letters!"

Yes; there, indeed, could be descried, with perfect

precision of outline, some letters carved on the rock. It

was quite easy to make them out:

"A. D."

"A.D.!" repeated Dr. Ferguson. "Andrea Debono--

the very signature of the traveller who farthest ascended

the current of the Nile."

"No doubt of that, friend Samuel," assented Kennedy.

"Are you now convinced?"

"It is the Nile! We cannot entertain a doubt on that

score now," was the reply.

The doctor, for the last time, examined those precious

initials, the exact form and size of which he carefully noted.

"And now," said he--"now for the balloon!"

"Quickly, then, for I see some of the natives getting

ready to recross the river."

"That matters little to us now. Let the wind but

send us northward for a few hours, and we shall reach

Gondokoro, and press the hands of some of our countrymen."

Ten minutes more, and the balloon was majestically

ascending, while Dr. Ferguson, in token of success, waved

the English flag triumphantly from his car.

CHAPTER NINETEENTH.

The Nile.--The Trembling Mountain.--A Remembrance of the Country.--The

Narratives of the Arabs.--The Nyam-Nyams.--Joe's Shrewd Cogitations.--The

Balloon runs the Gantlet.--Aerostatic Ascensions.--Madame Blanchard.

"Which way do we head?" asked Kennedy, as he

saw his friend consulting the compass.

"North-northeast."

"The deuce! but that's not the north?"

"No, Dick; and I'm afraid that we shall have some

trouble in getting to Gondokoro. I am sorry for it; but,

at last, we have succeeded in connecting the explorations

from the east with those from the north; and we must

not complain."

The balloon was now receding gradually from the Nile.

"One last look," said the doctor, "at this impassable

latitude, beyond which the most intrepid travellers could

not make their way. There are those intractable tribes,

of whom Petherick, Arnaud, Miuni, and the young traveller

Lejean, to whom we are indebted for the best work

on the Upper Nile, have spoken."

"Thus, then," added Kennedy, inquiringly, "our discoveries

agree with the speculations of science."

"Absolutely so. The sources of the White Nile, of

the Bahr-el-Abiad, are immersed in a lake as large as a

sea; it is there that it takes its rise. Poesy, undoubtedly,

loses something thereby. People were fond of ascribing

a celestial origin to this king of rivers. The ancients gave

it the name of an ocean, and were not far from believing

that it flowed directly from the sun; but we must come

down from these flights from time to time, and accept

what science teaches us. There will not always be scientific

men, perhaps; but there always will be poets."

"We can still see cataracts," said Joe.

"Those are the cataracts of Makedo, in the third degree

of latitude. Nothing could be more accurate. Oh, if we could

only have followed the course of the Nile for a few hours!"

"And down yonder, below us, I see the top of a mountain,"

said the hunter.

"That is Mount Longwek, the Trembling Mountain of

the Arabs. This whole country was visited by Debono,

who went through it under the name of Latif-Effendi.

The tribes living near the Nile are hostile to each other,

and are continually waging a war of extermination. You

may form some idea, then, of the difficulties he had to

encounter."

The wind was carrying the balloon toward the northwest,

and, in order to avoid Mount Longwek, it was necessary

to seek a more slanting current.

"My friends," said the doctor, "here is where OUR passage

of the African Continent really commences; up to this time

we have been following the traces of our predecessors.

Henceforth we are to launch ourselves upon the unknown.

We shall not lack the courage, shall we?"

"Never!" said Dick and Joe together, almost in a shout.

"Onward, then, and may we have the help of Heaven!"

At ten o'clock at night, after passing over ravines,

forests, and scattered villages, the aeronauts reached the

side of the Trembling Mountain, along whose gentle slopes

they went quietly gliding. In that memorable day, the 23d of

April, they had, in fifteen hours, impelled by a rapid

breeze, traversed a distance of more than three hundred and

fifteen miles.

But this latter part of the journey had left them in

dull spirits, and complete silence reigned in the car. Was

Dr. Ferguson absorbed in the thought of his discoveries?

Were his two companions thinking of their trip through

those unknown regions? There were, no doubt, mingled

with these reflections, the keenest reminiscences of home

and distant friends. Joe alone continued to manifest the

same careless philosophy, finding it QUITE NATURAL that

home should not be there, from the moment that he left

it; but he respected the silent mood of his friends, the

doctor and Kennedy.

About ten the balloon anchored on the side of the

Trembling Mountain, so called, because, in Arab tradition,

it is said to tremble the instant that a Mussulman sets

foot upon it. The travellers then partook of a substantial

meal, and all quietly passed the night as usual, keeping

the regular watches.

On awaking the next morning, they all had pleasanter

feelings. The weather was fine, and the wind was blowing

from the right quarter; so that a good breakfast,

seasoned with Joe's merry pranks, put them in high good-humor.

The region they were now crossing is very extensive.

It borders on the Mountains of the Moon on one side,

and those of Darfur on the other--a space about as

broad as Europe.

"We are, no doubt, crossing what is supposed to be

the kingdom of Usoga. Geographers have pretended that

there existed, in the centre of Africa, a vast depression,

an immense central lake. We shall see whether there is

any truth in that idea," said the doctor.

"But how did they come to think so?" asked Kennedy.

"From the recitals of the Arabs. Those fellows are

great narrators--too much so, probably. Some travellers,

who had got as far as Kazeh, or the great lakes, saw

slaves that had been brought from this region; interrogated

them concerning it, and, from their different narratives,

made up a jumble of notions, and deduced systems

from them. Down at the bottom of it all there is some

appearance of truth; and you see that they were right

about the sources of the Nile."

"Nothing could be more correct," said Kennedy. "It

was by the aid of these documents that some attempts at

maps were made, and so I am going to try to follow our

route by one of them, rectifying it when need be."

"Is all this region inhabited?" asked Joe.

"Undoubtedly; and disagreeably inhabited, too."

"I thought so."

"These scattered tribes come, one and all, under the

title of Nyam-Nyams, and this compound word is only a

sort of nickname. It imitates the sound of chewing."

"That's it! Excellent!" said Joe, champing his teeth

as though he were eating; "Nyam-Nyam."

"My good Joe, if you were the immediate object of

this chewing, you wouldn't find it so excellent."

"Why, what's the reason, sir?"

"These tribes are considered man-eaters."

"Is that really the case?"

"Not a doubt of it! It has also been asserted that

these natives had tails, like mere quadrupeds; but it was

soon discovered that these appendages belonged to the

skins of animals that they wore for clothing."

"More's the pity! a tail's a nice thing to chase away

mosquitoes."

"That may be, Joe; but we must consign the story to

the domain of fable, like the dogs' heads which the

traveller, Brun-Rollet, attributed to other tribes."

"Dogs' heads, eh? Quite convenient for barking, and

even for man-eating!"

"But one thing that has been, unfortunately, proven

true, is, the ferocity of these tribes, who are really very

fond of human flesh, and devour it with avidity."

"I only hope that they won't take such a particular

fancy to mine!" said Joe, with comic solemnity.

"See that!" said Kennedy.

"Yes, indeed, sir; if I have to be eaten, in a moment

of famine, I want it to be for your benefit and my master's;

but the idea of feeding those black fellows--gracious! I'd

die of shame!"

"Well, then, Joe," said Kennedy, "that's understood;

we count upon you in case of need!"

"At your service, gentlemen!"

"Joe talks in this way so as to make us take good care

of him, and fatten him up."

"Maybe so!" said Joe. "Every man for himself."

In the afternoon, the sky became covered with a warm

mist, that oozed from the soil; the brownish vapor scarcely

allowed the beholder to distinguish objects, and so, fearing

collision with some unexpected mountain-peak, the doctor,

about five o'clock, gave the signal to halt.

The night passed without accident, but in such profound

obscurity, that it was necessary to use redoubled vigilance.

The monsoon blew with extreme violence during all

the next morning. The wind buried itself in the lower

cavities of the balloon and shook the appendage by which

the dilating-pipes entered the main apparatus. They had,

at last, to be tied up with cords, Joe acquitting himself

very skilfully in performing that operation.

He had occasion to observe, at the same time, that the

orifice of the balloon still remained hermetically sealed.

"That is a matter of double importance for us," said

the doctor; "in the first place, we avoid the escape of

precious gas, and then, again, we do not leave behind us

an inflammable train, which we should at last inevitably

set fire to, and so be consumed."

"That would be a disagreeable travelling incident!"

said Joe.

"Should we be hurled to the ground?" asked Kennedy.

"Hurled! No, not quite that. The gas would burn

quietly, and we should descend little by little. A similar

accident happened to a French aeronaut, Madame Blanchard.

She ignited her balloon while sending off fireworks,

but she did not fall, and she would not have been killed,

probably, had not her car dashed against a chimney and

precipitated her to the ground."

"Let us hope that nothing of the kind may happen to

us," said the hunter. "Up to this time our trip has not

seemed to me very dangerous, and I can see nothing to

prevent us reaching our destination."

"Nor can I either, my dear Dick; accidents are generally

caused by the imprudence of the aeronauts, or the

defective construction of their apparatus. However, in

thousands of aerial ascensions, there have not been twenty

fatal accidents. Usually, the danger is in the moment of

leaving the ground, or of alighting, and therefore at those

junctures we should never omit the utmost precaution."

"It's breakfast-time," said Joe; "we'll have to put up

with preserved meat and coffee until Mr. Kennedy has had

another chance to get us a good slice of venison."

CHAPTER TWENTIETH.

The Celestial Bottle.--The Fig-Palms.--The Mammoth Trees.--The Tree of

War.--The Winged Team.--Two Native Tribes in Battle.--A Massacre.--An

Intervention from above.

The wind had become violent and irregular; the balloon

was running the gantlet through the air. Tossed

at one moment toward the north, at another toward the

south, it could not find one steady current.

"We are moving very swiftly without advancing

much," said Kennedy, remarking the frequent oscillations

of the needle of the compass.

"The balloon is rushing at the rate of at least thirty

miles an hour. Lean over, and see how the country is

gliding away beneath us!" said the doctor.

"See! that forest looks as though it were precipitating

itself upon us!"

"The forest has become a clearing!" added the other.

"And the clearing a village!" continued Joe, a moment or two

later. "Look at the faces of those astonished darkys!"

"Oh! it's natural enough that they should be astonished,"

said the doctor. "The French peasants, when they

first saw a balloon, fired at it, thinking that it was an aerial

monster. A Soudan negro may be excused, then, for opening his

eyes VERY wide!"

"Faith!" said Joe, as the Victoria skimmed closely

along the ground, at scarcely the elevation of one hundred

feet, and immediately over a village, "I'll throw them

an empty bottle, with your leave, doctor, and if it reaches

them safe and sound, they'll worship it; if it breaks, they'll

make talismans of the pieces."

So saying, he flung out a bottle, which, of course, was

broken into a thousand fragments, while the negroes

scampered into their round huts, uttering shrill cries.

A little farther on, Kennedy called out: "Look at that

strange tree! The upper part is of one kind and the

lower part of another!"

"Well!" said Joe, "here's a country where the trees

grow on top of each other."

"It's simply the trunk of a fig-tree," replied the doctor,

"on which there is a little vegetating earth. Some fine

day, the wind left the seed of a palm on it, and the

seed has taken root and grown as though it were on the

plain ground."

"A fine new style of gardening," said Joe, "and I'll

import the idea to England. It would be just the thing

in the London parks; without counting that it would be

another way to increase the number of fruit-trees. We

could have gardens up in the air; and the small house-owners

would like that!"

At this moment, they had to raise the balloon so as to

pass over a forest of trees that were more than three

hundred feet in height--a kind of ancient banyan.

"What magnificent trees!" exclaimed Kennedy. "I

never saw any thing so fine as the appearance of these

venerable forests. Look, doctor!"

"The height of these banyans is really remarkable,

my dear Dick; and yet, they would be nothing astonishing

in the New World."

"Why, are there still loftier trees in existence?"

"Undoubtedly; among the 'mammoth trees' of California,

there is a cedar four hundred and eighty feet in

height. It would overtop the Houses of Parliament, and

even the Great Pyramid of Egypt. The trunk at the

surface of the ground was one hundred and twenty feet in

circumference, and the concentric layers of the wood

disclosed an age of more than four thousand years."

"But then, sir, there was nothing wonderful in it!

When one has lived four thousand years, one ought to be

pretty tall!" was Joe's remark.

Meanwhile, during the doctor's recital and Joe's response,

the forest had given place to a large collection of

huts surrounding an open space. In the middle of this

grew a solitary tree, and Joe exclaimed, as he caught

sight of it:

"Well! if that tree has produced such flowers as

those, for the last four thousand years, I have to offer

it my compliments, anyhow," and he pointed to a gigantic

sycamore, whose whole trunk was covered with human

bones. The flowers of which Joe spoke were heads freshly

severed from the bodies, and suspended by daggers thrust

into the bark of the tree.

"The war-tree of these cannibals!" said the doctor;

"the Indians merely carry off the scalp, but these negroes

take the whole head."

"A mere matter of fashion!" said Joe. But, already,

the village and the bleeding heads were disappearing on

the horizon. Another place offered a still more revolting

spectacle--half-devoured corpses; skeletons mouldering

to dust; human limbs scattered here and there, and left

to feed the jackals and hyenas.

"No doubt, these are the bodies of criminals; according

to the custom in Abyssinia, these people have left them a

prey to the wild beasts, who kill them with their terrible

teeth and claws, and then devour them at their leisure.

"Not a whit more cruel than hanging!" said the

Scot; "filthier, that's all!"

"In the southern regions of Africa, they content themselves,"

resumed the doctor, "with shutting up the criminal

in his own hut with his cattle, and sometimes with his

family. They then set fire to the hut, and the whole

party are burned together. I call that cruel; but, like

friend Kennedy, I think that the gallows is quite as cruel,

quite as barbarous."

Joe, by the aid of his keen sight, which he did not fail

to use continually, noticed some flocks of birds of prey

flitting about the horizon.

"They are eagles!" exclaimed Kennedy, after reconnoitring

them through the glass, "magnificent birds, whose flight

is as rapid as ours."

"Heaven preserve us from their attacks!" said the

doctor, "they are more to be feared by us than wild

beasts or savage tribes."

"Bah!" said the hunter, "we can drive them off with

a few rifle-shots."

"Nevertheless, I would prefer, dear Dick, not having

to rely upon your skill, this time, for the silk of our

balloon could not resist their sharp beaks; fortunately, the

huge birds will, I believe, be more frightened than attracted

by our machine."

"Yes! but a new idea, and I have dozens of them,"

said Joe; "if we could only manage to capture a team of

live eagles, we could hitch them to the balloon, and they'd

haul us through the air!"

"The thing has been seriously proposed," replied the

doctor, "but I think it hardly practicable with creatures

naturally so restive."

"Oh! we'd tame them," said Joe. "Instead of driving

them with bits, we'd do it with eye-blinkers that would

cover their eyes. Half blinded in that way, they'd go to

the right or to the left, as we desired; when blinded

completely, they would stop."

"Allow me, Joe, to prefer a favorable wind to your

team of eagles. It costs less for fodder, and is more

reliable."

"Well, you may have your choice, master, but I stick

to my idea."

It now was noon. The Victoria had been going at

a more moderate speed for some time; the country merely

passed below it; it no longer flew.

Suddenly, shouts and whistlings were heard by our

aeronauts, and, leaning over the edge of the car, they saw

on the open plain below them an exciting spectacle.

Two hostile tribes were fighting furiously, and the air

was dotted with volleys of arrows. The combatants were

so intent upon their murderous work that they did not

notice the arrival of the balloon; there were about three

hundred mingled confusedly in the deadly struggle: most

of them, red with the blood of the wounded, in which they

fairly wallowed, were horrible to behold.

As they at last caught sight of the balloon, there was

a momentary pause; but their yells redoubled, and some

arrows were shot at the Victoria, one of them coming

close enough for Joe to catch it with his hand.

"Let us rise out of range," exclaimed the doctor; "there

must be no rashness! We are forbidden any risk."

Meanwhile, the massacre continued on both sides, with

battle-axes and war-clubs; as quickly as one of the combatants

fell, a hostile warrior ran up to cut off his head,

while the women, mingling in the fray, gathered up these

bloody trophies, and piled them together at either extremity

of the battle-field. Often, too, they even fought

for these hideous spoils.

"What a frightful scene!" said Kennedy, with profound disgust.

"They're ugly acquaintances!" added Joe; "but then,

if they had uniforms they'd be just like the fighters of all

the rest of the world!"

"I have a keen hankering to take a hand in at that

fight," said the hunter, brandishing his rifle.

"No! no!" objected the doctor, vehemently; "no,

let us not meddle with what don't concern us. Do you

know which is right or which is wrong, that you would

assume the part of the Almighty? Let us, rather, hurry

away from this revolting spectacle. Could the great

captains of the world float thus above the scenes of their

exploits, they would at last, perhaps, conceive a disgust

for blood and conquest."

The chieftain of one of the contending parties was

remarkable for his athletic proportions, his great height,

and herculean strength. With one hand he plunged his

spear into the compact ranks of his enemies, and with the

other mowed large spaces in them with his battle-axe.

Suddenly he flung away his war-club, red with blood,

rushed upon a wounded warrior, and, chopping off his arm

at a single stroke, carried the dissevered member to his

mouth, and bit it again and again.

"Ah!" ejaculated Kennedy, "the horrible brute! I

can hold back no longer," and, as he spoke, the huge

savage, struck full in the forehead with a rifle-ball, fell

headlong to the ground.

Upon this sudden mishap of their leader, his warriors

seemed struck dumb with amazement; his supernatural

death awed them, while it reanimated the courage and

ardor of their adversaries, and, in a twinkling, the field

was abandoned by half the combatants.

"Come, let us look higher up for a current to bear us

away. I am sick of this spectacle," said the doctor.

But they could not get away so rapidly as to avoid

the sight of the victorious tribe rushing upon the dead

and the wounded, scrambling and disputing for the still

warm and reeking flesh, and eagerly devouring it.

"Faugh!" uttered Joe, "it's sickening."

The balloon rose as it expanded; the howlings of the

brutal horde, in the delirium of their orgy, pursued them

for a few minutes; but, at length, borne away toward the

south, they were carried out of sight and hearing of this

horrible spectacle of cannibalism.

The surface of the country was now greatly varied,

with numerous streams of water, bearing toward the east.

The latter, undoubtedly, ran into those affluents of Lake

Nu, or of the River of the Gazelles, concerning which M.

Guillaume Lejean has given such curious details.

At nightfall, the balloon cast anchor in twenty-seven

degrees east longitude, and four degrees twenty minutes

north latitude, after a day's trip of one hundred and fifty

miles.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST.

Strange Sounds.--A Night Attack.--Kennedy and Joe in the Tree.--Two

Shots.--"Help! help!"--Reply in French.--The Morning.--The Missionary.

--The Plan of Rescue.

The night came on very dark. The doctor had not

been able to reconnoitre the country. He had made fast

to a very tall tree, from which he could distinguish only a

confused mass through the gloom.

As usual, he took the nine-o'clock watch, and at midnight

Dick relieved him.

"Keep a sharp lookout, Dick!" was the doctor's good-night injunction.

"Is there any thing new on the carpet?"

"No; but I thought that I heard vague sounds below

us, and, as I don't exactly know where the wind has

carried us to, even an excess of caution would do no harm."

"You've probably heard the cries of wild beasts."

"No! the sounds seemed to me something altogether

different from that; at all events, on the least alarm

don't fail to waken us."

"I'll do so, doctor; rest easy."

After listening attentively for a moment or two longer,

the doctor, hearing nothing more, threw himself on his

blankets and went asleep.

The sky was covered with dense clouds, but not a

breath of air was stirring; and the balloon, kept in

its place by only a single anchor, experienced not

the slightest oscillation.

Kennedy, leaning his elbow on the edge of the car, so

as to keep an eye on the cylinder, which was actively at

work, gazed out upon the calm obscurity; he eagerly

scanned the horizon, and, as often happens to minds that

are uneasy or possessed with preconceived notions, he

fancied that he sometimes detected vague gleams of light

in the distance.

At one moment he even thought that he saw them only

two hundred paces away, quite distinctly, but it was a

mere flash that was gone as quickly as it came, and he

noticed nothing more. It was, no doubt, one of those

luminous illusions that sometimes impress the eye in the

midst of very profound darkness.

Kennedy was getting over his nervousness and falling

into his wandering meditations again, when a sharp whistle

pierced his ear.

Was that the cry of an animal or of a night-bird, or

did it come from human lips?

Kennedy, perfectly comprehending the gravity of the

situation, was on the point of waking his companions, but

he reflected that, in any case, men or animals, the creatures

that he had heard must be out of reach. So he merely

saw that his weapons were all right, and then, with his

night-glass, again plunged his gaze into space.

It was not long before he thought he could perceive

below him vague forms that seemed to be gliding toward

the tree, and then, by the aid of a ray of moonlight that

shot like an electric flash between two masses of cloud, he

distinctly made out a group of human figures moving in

the shadow.

The adventure with the dog-faced baboons returned

to his memory, and he placed his hand on the doctor's

shoulder.

The latter was awake in a moment.

"Silence!" said Dick. "Let us speak below our breath."

"Has any thing happened?"

"Yes, let us waken Joe."

The instant that Joe was aroused, Kennedy told him

what he had seen.

"Those confounded monkeys again!" said Joe.

"Possibly, but we must be on our guard."

"Joe and I," said Kennedy, "will climb down the tree

by the ladder."

"And, in the meanwhile," added the doctor, "I will

take my measures so that we can ascend rapidly at a

moment's warning."

"Agreed!"

"Let us go down, then!" said Joe.

"Don't use your weapons, excepting at the last extremity!

It would be a useless risk to make the natives

aware of our presence in such a place as this."

Dick and Joe replied with signs of assent, and then

letting themselves slide noiselessly toward the tree, took

their position in a fork among the strong branches where

the anchor had caught.

For some moments they listened minutely and motionlessly

among the foliage, and ere long Joe seized Kenedy's hand

as he heard a sort of rubbing sound against the bark of

the tree.

"Don't you hear that?" he whispered.

"Yes, and it's coming nearer."

"Suppose it should be a serpent? That hissing or

whistling that you heard before--"

"No! there was something human in it."

"I'd prefer the savages, for I have a horror of those

snakes."

"The noise is increasing," said Kennedy, again, after

a lapse of a few moments.

"Yes! something's coming up toward us--climbing."

"Keep watch on this side, and I'll take care of the other."

"Very good!"

There they were, isolated at the top of one of the

larger branches shooting out in the midst of one of

those miniature forests called baobab-trees. The darkness,

heightened by the density of the foliage, was profound;

however, Joe, leaning over to Kennedy's ear and pointing

down the tree, whispered:

"The blacks! They're climbing toward us."

The two friends could even catch the sound of a few

words uttered in the lowest possible tones.

Joe gently brought his rifle to his shoulder as he spoke.

"Wait!" said Kennedy.

Some of the natives had really climbed the baobab,

and now they were seen rising on all sides, winding along

the boughs like reptiles, and advancing slowly but surely,

all the time plainly enough discernible, not merely to the

eye but to the nostrils, by the horrible odors of the rancid

grease with which they bedaub their bodies.

Ere long, two heads appeared to the gaze of Kennedy

and Joe, on a level with the very branch to which they

were clinging.

"Attention!" said Kennedy. "Fire!"

The double concussion resounded like a thunderbolt

and died away into cries of rage and pain, and in a

moment the whole horde had disappeared.

But, in the midst of these yells and howls, a strange,

unexpected--nay what seemed an impossible--cry had

been heard! A human voice had, distinctly, called aloud

in the French language--

"Help! help!"

Kennedy and Joe, dumb with amazement, had regained

the car immediately.

"Did you hear that?" the doctor asked them.

"Undoubtedly, that supernatural cry, 'A moi! a moi!'

comes from a Frenchman in the hands of these barbarians!"

"A traveller."

"A missionary, perhaps."

"Poor wretch!" said Kennedy, "they're assassinating

him--making a martyr of him!"

The doctor then spoke, and it was impossible for him

to conceal his emotions.

"There can be no doubt of it," he said; "some unfortunate

Frenchman has fallen into the hands of these

savages. We must not leave this place without doing all

in our power to save him. When he heard the sound of

our guns, he recognized an unhoped-for assistance, a

providential interposition. We shall not disappoint

his last hope. Are such your views?"

"They are, doctor, and we are ready to obey you."

"Let us, then, lay our heads together to devise some

plan, and in the morning we'll try to rescue him."

"But how shall we drive off those abominable blacks?"

asked Kennedy.

"It's quite clear to me, from the way in which they

made off, that they are unacquainted with fire-arms. We

must, therefore, profit by their fears; but we shall await

daylight before acting, and then we can form our plans of

rescue according to circumstances."

"The poor captive cannot be far off," said Joe, "because--"

"Help! help!" repeated the voice, but much more

feebly this time.

"The savage wretches!" exclaimed Joe, trembling

with indignation. "Suppose they should kill him

to-night!"

"Do you hear, doctor," resumed Kennedy, seizing the

doctor's hand. "Suppose they should kill him to-night!"

"It is not at all likely, my friends. These savage

tribes kill their captives in broad daylight; they must

have the sunshine."

"Now, if I were to take advantage of the darkness to

slip down to the poor fellow?" said Kennedy.

"And I'll go with you," said Joe, warmly.

"Pause, my friends--pause! The suggestion does

honor to your hearts and to your courage; but you would

expose us all to great peril, and do still greater harm to

the unfortunate man whom you wish to aid."

"Why so?" asked Kennedy. "These savages are

frightened and dispersed: they will not return."

"Dick, I implore you, heed what I say. I am acting

for the common good; and if by any accident you should

be taken by surprise, all would be lost."

"But, think of that poor wretch, hoping for aid, waiting

there, praying, calling aloud. Is no one to go to his

assistance? He must think that his senses deceived him;

that he heard nothing!"

"We can reassure him, on that score," said Dr. Ferguson

--and, standing erect, making a speaking-trumpet

of his hands, he shouted at the top of his voice, in French:

"Whoever you are, be of good cheer! Three friends are

watching over you."

A terrific howl from the savages responded to these

words--no doubt drowning the prisoner's reply.

"They are murdering him! they are murdering him!"

exclaimed Kennedy. "Our interference will have served

no other purpose than to hasten the hour of his doom.

We must act!"

"But how, Dick? What do you expect to do in the

midst of this darkness?"

"Oh, if it was only daylight!" sighed Joe.

"Well, and suppose it were daylight?" said the doctor,

in a singular tone.

"Nothing more simple, doctor," said Kennedy. "I'd

go down and scatter all these savage villains with powder

and ball!"

"And you, Joe, what would you do?"

"I, master? why, I'd act more prudently, maybe, by

telling the prisoner to make his escape in a certain

direction that we'd agree upon."

"And how would you get him to know that?"

"By means of this arrow that I caught flying the other

day. I'd tie a note to it, or I'd just call out to him in a

loud voice what you want him to do, because these black

fellows don't understand the language that you'd speak

in!"

"Your plans are impracticable, my dear friends. The

greatest difficulty would be for this poor fellow to escape

at all--even admitting that he should manage to elude

the vigilance of his captors. As for you, my dear Dick,

with determined daring, and profiting by their alarm at

our fire-arms, your project might possibly succeed; but,

were it to fail, you would be lost, and we should have two

persons to save instead of one. No! we must put ALL the

chances on OUR side, and go to work differently."

"But let us act at once!" said the hunter.

"Perhaps we may," said the doctor, throwing considerable

stress upon the words.

"Why, doctor, can you light up such darkness as this?"

"Who knows, Joe?"

"Ah! if you can do that, you're the greatest learned

man in the world!"

The doctor kept silent for a few moments; he was

thinking. His two companions looked at him with much

emotion, for they were greatly excited by the strangeness

of the situation. Ferguson at last resumed:

"Here is my plan: We have two hundred pounds of

ballast left, since the bags we brought with us are still

untouched. I'll suppose that this prisoner, who is evidently

exhausted by suffering, weighs as much as one of

us; there will still remain sixty pounds of ballast to throw

out, in case we should want to ascend suddenly."

"How do you expect to manage the balloon?" asked Kennedy.

"This is the idea, Dick: you will admit that if I can

get to the prisoner, and throw out a quantity of ballast,

equal to his weight, I shall have in nowise altered the

equilibrium of the balloon. But, then, if I want to get a

rapid ascension, so as to escape these savages, I must

employ means more energetic than the cylinder. Well,

then, in throwing out this overplus of ballast at a given

moment, I am certain to rise with great rapidity."

"That's plain enough."

"Yes; but there is one drawback: it consists in the fact that,

in order to descend after that, I should have to part with a

quantity of gas proportionate to the surplus ballast that I

had thrown out. Now, the gas is precious; but we must not

haggle over it when the life of a fellow-creature is at stake."

"You are right, sir; we must do every thing in our

power to save him."

"Let us work, then, and get these bags all arranged on

the rim of the car, so that they may be thrown overboard

at one movement."

"But this darkness?"

"It hides our preparations, and will be dispersed only

when they are finished. Take care to have all our weapons

close at hand. Perhaps we may have to fire; so we

have one shot in the rifle; four for the two muskets;

twelve in the two revolvers; or seventeen in all, which

might be fired in a quarter of a minute. But perhaps we

shall not have to resort to all this noisy work. Are you

ready?"

"We're ready," responded Joe.

The sacks were placed as requested, and the arms

were put in good order.

"Very good!" said the doctor. "Have an eye to

every thing. Joe will see to throwing out the ballast,

and Dick will carry off the prisoner; but let nothing be

done until I give the word. Joe will first detach the

anchor, and then quickly make his way back to the car."

Joe let himself slide down by the rope; and, in a few

moments, reappeared at his post; while the balloon, thus

liberated, hung almost motionless in the air.

In the mean time the doctor assured himself of the

presence of a sufficient quantity of gas in the mixing-tank

to feed the cylinder, if necessary, without there being any

need of resorting for some time to the Buntzen battery.

He then took out the two perfectly-isolated conducting-wires,

which served for the decomposition of the water, and,

searching in his travelling-sack, brought forth two pieces

of charcoal, cut down to a sharp point, and fixed one at

the end of each wire.

His two friends looked on, without knowing what he

was about, but they kept perfectly silent. When the doctor

had finished, he stood up erect in the car, and, taking

the two pieces of charcoal, one in each hand, drew their

points nearly together.

In a twinkling, an intense and dazzling light was

produced, with an insupportable glow between the two

pointed ends of charcoal, and a huge jet of electric

radiance literally broke the darkness of the night.

"Oh!" ejaculated the astonished friends.

"Not a word!" cautioned the doctor.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND.

The Jet of Light.--The Missionary.--The Rescue in a Ray of Electricity.--A

Lazarist Priest.--But little Hope.--The Doctor's Care.--A Life of Self-Denial.

--Passing a Volcano.

Dr. Ferguson darted his powerful electric jet toward

various points of space, and caused it to rest on a spot

from which shouts of terror were heard. His companions

fixed their gaze eagerly on the place.

The baobab, over which the balloon was hanging almost

motionless, stood in the centre of a clearing, where,

between fields of Indian-corn and sugar-cane, were seen

some fifty low, conical huts, around which swarmed a

numerous tribe.

A hundred feet below the balloon stood a large post,

or stake, and at its foot lay a human being--a young man

of thirty years or more, with long black hair, half naked,

wasted and wan, bleeding, covered with wounds, his head

bowed over upon his breast, as Christ's was, when He

hung upon the cross.

The hair, cut shorter on the top of his skull, still

indicated the place of a half-effaced tonsure.

"A missionary! a priest!" exclaimed Joe.

"Poor, unfortunate man!" said Kennedy.

"We must save him, Dick!" responded the doctor;

"we must save him!"

The crowd of blacks, when they saw the balloon over

their heads, like a huge comet with a train of dazzling

light, were seized with a terror that may be readily imagined.

Upon hearing their cries, the prisoner raised his

head. His eyes gleamed with sudden hope, and, without

too thoroughly comprehending what was taking place, he

stretched out his hands to his unexpected deliverers.

"He is alive!" exclaimed Ferguson. "God be praised!

The savages have got a fine scare, and we shall save him!

Are you ready, friends?"

"Ready, doctor, at the word."

"Joe, shut off the cylinder!"

The doctor's order was executed. An almost imperceptible

breath of air impelled the balloon directly over

the prisoner, at the same time that it gently lowered with

the contraction of the gas. For about ten minutes it remained

floating in the midst of luminous waves, for Ferguson

continued to flash right down upon the throng his

glowing sheaf of rays, which, here and there, marked out

swift and vivid sheets of light. The tribe, under the

influence of an indescribable terror, disappeared little by

little in the huts, and there was complete solitude around

the stake. The doctor had, therefore, been right in counting

upon the fantastic appearance of the balloon throwing

out rays, as vivid as the sun's, through this intense gloom.

The car was approaching the ground; but a few of the

savages, more audacious than the rest, guessing that their

victim was about to escape from their clutches, came back

with loud yells, and Kennedy seized his rifle. The doctor,

however, besought him not to fire.

The priest, on his knees, for he had not the strength to

stand erect, was not even fastened to the stake, his weakness

rendering that precaution superfluous. At the instant

when the car was close to the ground, the brawny Scot,

laying aside his rifle, and seizing the priest around the

waist, lifted him into the car, while, at the same moment,

Joe tossed over the two hundred pounds of ballast.

The doctor had expected to ascend rapidly, but, contrary

to his calculations, the balloon, after going up some

three or four feet, remained there perfectly motionless.

"What holds us?" he asked, with an accent of terror.

Some of the savages were running toward them, uttering

ferocious cries.

"Ah, ha!" said Joe, "one of those cursed blacks is

hanging to the car!"

"Dick! Dick!" cried the doctor, "the water-tank!"

Kennedy caught his friend's idea on the instant, and,

snatching up with desperate strength one of the water-tanks

weighing about one hundred pounds, he tossed it

overboard. The balloon, thus suddenly lightened, made a

leap of three hundred feet into the air, amid the howlings

of the tribe whose prisoner thus escaped them in a blaze

of dazzling light.

"Hurrah!" shouted the doctor's comrades.

Suddenly, the balloon took a fresh leap, which carried

it up to an elevation of a thousand feet.

"What's that?" said Kennedy, who had nearly lost

his balance.

"Oh! nothing; only that black villain leaving us!"

replied the doctor, tranquilly, and Joe, leaning over, saw

the savage that had clung to the car whirling over and

over, with his arms outstretched in the air, and presently

dashed to pieces on the ground. The doctor then separated

his electric wires, and every thing was again buried

in profound obscurity. It was now one o'clock in the

morning.

The Frenchman, who had swooned away, at length

opened his eyes.

"You are saved!" were the doctor's first words.

"Saved!" he with a sad smile replied in English,

"saved from a cruel death! My brethren, I thank you,

but my days are numbered, nay, even my hours, and I

have but little longer to live."

With this, the missionary, again yielding to exhaustion,

relapsed into his fainting-fit.

"He is dying!" said Kennedy.

"No," replied the doctor, bending over him, "but he

is very weak; so let us lay him under the awning."

And they did gently deposit on their blankets that

poor, wasted body, covered with scars and wounds, still

bleeding where fire and steel had, in twenty places, left

their agonizing marks. The doctor, taking an old handkerchief,

quickly prepared a little lint, which he spread

over the wounds, after having washed them. These rapid

attentions were bestowed with the celerity and skill of a

practised surgeon, and, when they were complete, the doctor,

taking a cordial from his medicine-chest, poured a few

drops upon his patient's lips.

The latter feebly pressed his kind hands, and scarcely

had the strength to say, "Thank you! thank you!"

The doctor comprehended that he must be left perfectly

quiet; so he closed the folds of the awning and resumed

the guidance of the balloon.

The latter, after taking into account the weight of the

new passenger, had been lightened of one hundred and

eighty pounds, and therefore kept aloft without the aid of

the cylinder. At the first dawn of day, a current drove it

gently toward the west-northwest. The doctor went in

under the awning for a moment or two, to look at his still

sleeping patient.

"May Heaven spare the life of our new companion!

Have you any hope?" said the Scot.

"Yes, Dick, with care, in this pure, fresh atmosphere."

"How that man has suffered!" said Joe, with feeling.

"He did bolder things than we've done, in venturing all

alone among those savage tribes!"

"That cannot be questioned," assented the hunter.

During the entire day the doctor would not allow the

sleep of his patient to be disturbed. It was really a long

stupor, broken only by an occasional murmur of pain that

continued to disquiet and agitate the doctor greatly.

Toward evening the balloon remained stationary in the

midst of the gloom, and during the night, while Kennedy

and Joe relieved each other in carefully tending the sick

man, Ferguson kept watch over the safety of all.

By the morning of the next day, the balloon had moved,

but very slightly, to the westward. The dawn came up

pure and magnificent. The sick man was able to call his

friends with a stronger voice. They raised the curtains

of the awning, and he inhaled with delight the keen

morning air.

"How do you feel to-day?" asked the doctor.

"Better, perhaps," he replied. "But you, my friends,

I have not seen you yet, excepting in a dream! I can,

indeed, scarcely recall what has occurred. Who are you

--that your names may not be forgotten in my dying

prayers?"

"We are English travellers," replied Ferguson. "We

are trying to cross Africa in a balloon, and, on our way,

we have had the good fortune to rescue you."

"Science has its heroes," said the missionary.

"But religion its martyrs!" rejoined the Scot.

"Are you a missionary?" asked the doctor.

"I am a priest of the Lazarist mission. Heaven sent

you to me--Heaven be praised! The sacrifice of my life

had been accomplished! But you come from Europe;

tell me about Europe, about France! I have been without

news for the last five years!"

"Five years! alone! and among these savages!" exclaimed

Kennedy with amazement.

"They are souls to redeem! ignorant and barbarous

brethren, whom religion alone can instruct and civilize."

Dr. Ferguson, yielding to the priest's request, talked

to him long and fully about France. He listened eagerly,

and his eyes filled with tears. He seized Kennedy's and

Joe's hands by turns in his own, which were burning with

fever. The doctor prepared him some tea, and he drank

it with satisfaction. After that, he had strength enough

to raise himself up a little, and smiled with pleasure at

seeing himself borne along through so pure a sky.

"You are daring travellers!" he said, "and you will

succeed in your bold enterprise. You will again behold

your relatives, your friends, your country--you--"

At this moment, the weakness of the young missionary

became so extreme that they had to lay him again on the

bed, where a prostration, lasting for several hours, held

him like a dead man under the eye of Dr. Ferguson. The

latter could not suppress his emotion, for he felt that this

life now in his charge was ebbing away. Were they then

so soon to lose him whom they had snatched from an

agonizing death? The doctor again washed and dressed

the young martyr's frightful wounds, and had to sacrifice

nearly his whole stock of water to refresh his burning

limbs. He surrounded him with the tenderest and most

intelligent care, until, at length, the sick man revived,

little by little, in his arms, and recovered his consciousness

if not his strength.

The doctor was able to gather something of his history

from his broken murmurs.

"Speak in your native language," he said to the sufferer;

"I understand it, and it will fatigue you less."

The missionary was a poor young man from the village

of Aradon, in Brittany, in the Morbihan country. His

earliest instincts had drawn him toward an ecclesiastical

career, but to this life of self-sacrifice he was also desirous

of joining a life of danger, by entering the mission of the

order of priesthood of which St. Vincent de Paul was the

founder, and, at twenty, he quitted his country for the

inhospitable shores of Africa. From the sea-coast, overcoming

obstacles, little by little, braving all privations,

pushing onward, afoot, and praying, he had advanced to

the very centre of those tribes that dwell among the tributary

streams of the Upper Nile. For two years his faith

was spurned, his zeal denied recognition, his charities

taken in ill part, and he remained a prisoner to one of the

cruelest tribes of the Nyambarra, the object of every

species of maltreatment. But still he went on teaching,

instructing, and praying. The tribe having been dispersed

and he left for dead, in one of those combats which

are so frequent between the tribes, instead of retracing his

steps, he persisted in his evangelical mission. His most

tranquil time was when he was taken for a madman.

Meanwhile, he had made himself familiar with the idioms

of the country, and he catechised in them. At length,

during two more long years, he traversed these barbarous

regions, impelled by that superhuman energy that comes

from God. For a year past he had been residing with

that tribe of the Nyam-Nyams known as the Barafri,

one of the wildest and most ferocious of them all. The

chief having died a few days before our travellers appeared,

his sudden death was attributed to the missionary, and

the tribe resolved to immolate him. His sufferings had

already continued for the space of forty hours, and, as the

doctor had supposed, he was to have perished in the blaze

of the noonday sun. When he heard the sound of fire-arms,

nature got the best of him, and he had cried out, "Help!

help!" He then thought that he must have been dreaming,

when a voice, that seemed to come from the sky, had

uttered words of consolation.

"I have no regrets," he said, "for the life that is passing

away from me; my life belongs to God!"

"Hope still!" said the doctor; "we are near you, and

we will save you now, as we saved you from the tortures

of the stake."

"I do not ask so much of Heaven," said the priest,

with resignation. "Blessed be God for having vouchsafed

to me the joy before I die of having pressed your friendly

hands, and having heard, once more, the language of my

country!"

The missionary here grew weak again, and the whole

day went by between hope and fear, Kennedy deeply

moved, and Joe drawing his hand over his eyes more

than once when he thought that no one saw him.

The balloon made little progress, and the wind seemed

as though unwilling to jostle its precious burden.

Toward evening, Joe discovered a great light in the

west. Under more elevated latitudes, it might have been

mistaken for an immense aurora borealis, for the sky

appeared on fire. The doctor very attentively examined

the phenomenon.

"It is, perhaps, only a volcano in full activity," said he.

"But the wind is carrying us directly over it," replied

Kennedy.

"Very well, we shall cross it then at a safe height!"

said the doctor.

Three hours later, the Victoria was right among the

mountains. Her exact position was twenty-four degrees

fifteen minutes east longitude, and four degrees forty-two

minutes north latitude, and four degrees forty-two

minutes north latitude. In front of her a volcanic crater

was pouring forth torrents of melted lava, and hurling

masses of rock to an enormous height. There were jets,

too, of liquid fire that fell back in dazzling cascades--a

superb but dangerous spectacle, for the wind with unswerving

certainty was carrying the balloon directly toward this

blazing atmosphere.

This obstacle, which could not be turned, had to be

crossed, so the cylinder was put to its utmost power, and

the balloon rose to the height of six thousand feet, leaving

between it and the volcano a space of more than three

hundred fathoms.

From his bed of suffering, the dying missionary could

contemplate that fiery crater from which a thousand jets

of dazzling flame were that moment escaping.

"How grand it is!" said he, "and how infinite is the

power of God even in its most terrible manifestations!"

This overflow of blazing lava wrapped the sides of the

mountain with a veritable drapery of flame; the lower

half of the balloon glowed redly in the upper night; a

torrid heat ascended to the car, and Dr. Ferguson made

all possible haste to escape from this perilous situation.

By ten o'clock the volcano could be seen only as a red

point on the horizon, and the balloon tranquilly pursued

her course in a less elevated zone of the atmosphere.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRD.

Joe in a Fit of Rage.--The Death of a Good Man.--The Night of watching

by the Body.--Barrenness and Drought.--The Burial.--The Quartz Rocks.

--Joe's Hallucinations.--A Precious Ballast.--A Survey of the Gold-bearing

Mountains.--The Beginning of Joe's Despair.

A magnificent night overspread the earth, and the

missionary lay quietly asleep in utter exhaustion.

"He'll not get over it!" sighed Joe. "Poor young

fellow--scarcely thirty years of age!"

"He'll die in our arms. His breathing, which was so

feeble before, is growing weaker still, and I can do nothing

to save him," said the doctor, despairingly.

"The infamous scoundrels!" exclaimed Joe, grinding

his teeth, in one of those fits of rage that came over him

at long intervals; "and to think that, in spite of all, this

good man could find words only to pity them, to excuse,

to pardon them!"

"Heaven has given him a lovely night, Joe--his last

on earth, perhaps! He will suffer but little more after

this, and his dying will be only a peaceful falling asleep."

The dying man uttered some broken words, and the

doctor at once went to him. His breathing became difficult,

and he asked for air. The curtains were drawn

entirely back, and he inhaled with rapture the light

breezes of that clear, beautiful night. The stars sent

him their trembling rays, and the moon wrapped him in

the white winding-sheet of its effulgence.

"My friends," said he, in an enfeebled voice, "I am

going. May God requite you, and bring you to your safe

harbor! May he pay for me the debt of gratitude that I

owe to you!"

"You must still hope," replied Kennedy. "This is

but a passing fit of weakness. You will not die. How

could any one die on this beautiful summer night?"

"Death is at hand," replied the missionary, "I know

it! Let me look it in the face! Death, the commencement

of things eternal, is but the end of earthly cares.

Place me upon my knees, my brethren, I beseech you!"

Kennedy lifted him up, and it was distressing to see

his weakened limbs bend under him.

"My God! my God!" exclaimed the dying apostle,

"have pity on me!"

His countenance shone. Far above that earth on

which he had known no joys; in the midst of that night

which sent to him its softest radiance; on the way to

that heaven toward which he uplifted his spirit, as though

in a miraculous assumption, he seemed already to live and

breathe in the new existence.

His last gesture was a supreme blessing on his new

friends of only one day. Then he fell back into the arms

of Kennedy, whose countenance was bathed in hot tears.

"Dead!" said the doctor, bending over him, "dead!"

And with one common accord, the three friends knelt

together in silent prayer.

"To-morrow," resumed the doctor, "we shall bury him in the

African soil which he has besprinkled with his blood."

During the rest of the night the body was watched,

turn by turn, by the three travellers, and not a word

disturbed the solemn silence. Each of them was weeping.

The next day the wind came from the south, and the

balloon moved slowly over a vast plateau of mountains:

there, were extinct craters; here, barren ravines; not a

drop of water on those parched crests; piles of broken

rocks; huge stony masses scattered hither and thither,

and, interspersed with whitish marl, all indicated the most

complete sterility.

Toward noon, the doctor, for the purpose of burying

the body, decided to descend into a ravine, in the midst

of some plutonic rocks of primitive formation. The surrounding

mountains would shelter him, and enable him to

bring his car to the ground, for there was no tree in sight

to which he could make it fast.

But, as he had explained to Kennedy, it was now impossible

for him to descend, except by releasing a quantity

of gas proportionate to his loss of ballast at the time when

he had rescued the missionary. He therefore opened the

valve of the outside balloon. The hydrogen escaped, and

the Victoria quietly descended into the ravine.

As soon as the car touched the ground, the doctor

shut the valve. Joe leaped out, holding on the while to

the rim of the car with one hand, and with the other

gathering up a quantity of stones equal to his own weight.

He could then use both hands, and had soon heaped into

the car more than five hundred pounds of stones, which

enabled both the doctor and Kennedy, in their turn, to

get out. Thus the Victoria found herself balanced, and

her ascensional force insufficient to raise her.

Moreover, it was not necessary to gather many of

these stones, for the blocks were extremely heavy, so much

so, indeed, that the doctor's attention was attracted by

the circumstance. The soil, in fact, was bestrewn with

quartz and porphyritic rocks.

"This is a singular discovery!" said the doctor, mentally.

In the mean while, Kennedy and Joe had strolled away

a few paces, looking up a proper spot for the grave. The

heat was extreme in this ravine, shut in as it was like a

sort of furnace. The noonday sun poured down its rays

perpendicularly into it.

The first thing to be done was to clear the surface of

the fragments of rock that encumbered it, and then a

quite deep grave had to be dug, so that the wild animals

should not be able to disinter the corpse.

The body of the martyred missionary was then

solemnly placed in it. The earth was thrown in over

his remains, and above it masses of rock were deposited,

in rude resemblance to a tomb.

The doctor, however, remained motionless, and lost in

his reflections. He did not even heed the call of his

companions, nor did he return with them to seek a shelter

from the heat of the day.

"What are you thinking about, doctor?" asked Kennedy.

"About a singular freak of Nature, a curious effect of

chance. Do you know, now, in what kind of soil that

man of self-denial, that poor one in spirit, has just been

buried?"

"No! what do you mean, doctor?"

"That priest, who took the oath of perpetual poverty,

now reposes in a gold-mine!"

"A gold-mine!" exclaimed Kennedy and Joe in one breath.

"Yes, a gold-mine," said the doctor, quietly. "Those

blocks which you are trampling under foot, like worthless

stones, contain gold-ore of great purity."

"Impossible! impossible!" repeated Joe.

"You would not have to look long among those

fissures of slaty schist without finding peptites

of considerable value."

Joe at once rushed like a crazy man among the scattered

fragments, and Kennedy was not long in following

his example.

"Keep cool, Joe," said his master.

"Why, doctor, you speak of the thing quite at your ease."

"What! a philosopher of your mettle--"

"Ah, master, no philosophy holds good in this case!"

"Come! come! Let us reflect a little. What good

would all this wealth do you? We cannot carry any of

it away with us."

"We can't take any of it with us, indeed?"

"It's rather too heavy for our car! I even hesitated

to tell you any thing about it, for fear of exciting your

regret!"

"What!" said Joe, again, "abandon these treasures

--a fortune for us!--really for us--our own--leave it

behind!"

"Take care, my friend! Would you yield to the thirst

for gold? Has not this dead man whom you have just

helped to bury, taught you the vanity of human affairs?"

"All that is true," replied Joe, "but gold! Mr. Kennedy,

won't you help to gather up a trifle of all these

millions?"

"What could we do with them, Joe?" said the hunter,

unable to repress a smile. "We did not come hither in

search of fortune, and we cannot take one home with us."

"The millions are rather heavy, you know," resumed

the doctor, "and cannot very easily be put into one's

pocket."

"But, at least," said Joe, driven to his last defences,

"couldn't we take some of that ore for ballast, instead of

sand?"

"Very good! I consent," said the doctor, "but you

must not make too many wry faces when we come to

throw some thousands of crowns' worth overboard."

"Thousands of crowns!" echoed Joe; "is it possible

that there is so much gold in them, and that all this is

the same?"

"Yes, my friend, this is a reservoir in which Nature

has been heaping up her wealth for centuries! There is

enough here to enrich whole nations! An Australia and

a California both together in the midst of the wilderness!"

"And the whole of it is to remain useless!"

"Perhaps! but at all events, here's what I'll do to

console you."

"That would be rather difficult to do!" said Joe, with

a contrite air.

"Listen! I will take the exact bearings of this spot,

and give them to you, so that, upon your return to England,

you can tell our countrymen about it, and let them have a

share, if you think that so much gold would make them

happy."

"Ah! master, I give up; I see that you are right, and

that there is nothing else to be done. Let us fill our car

with the precious mineral, and what remains at the end of

the trip will be so much made."

And Joe went to work. He did so, too, with all his

might, and soon had collected more than a thousand pieces

of quartz, which contained gold enclosed as though in an

extremely hard crystal casket.

The doctor watched him with a smile; and, while Joe

went on, he took the bearings, and found that the missionary's

grave lay in twenty-two degrees twenty-three minutes east

longitude, and four degrees fifty-five minutes

north latitude.

Then, casting one glance at the swelling of the soil,

beneath which the body of the poor Frenchman reposed,

he went back to his car.

He would have erected a plain, rude cross over the

tomb, left solitary thus in the midst of the African deserts,

but not a tree was to be seen in the environs.

"God will recognize it!" said Kennedy.

An anxiety of another sort now began to steal over

the doctor's mind. He would have given much of the

gold before him for a little water--for he had to replace

what had been thrown overboard when the negro was

carried up into the air. But it was impossible to find it

in these arid regions; and this reflection gave him great

uneasiness. He had to feed his cylinder continually; and

he even began to find that he had not enough to quench

the thirst of his party. Therefore he determined to lose

no opportunity of replenishing his supply.

Upon getting back to the car, he found it burdened

with the quartz-blocks that Joe's greed had heaped in it.

He got in, however, without saying any thing. Kennedy

took his customary place, and Joe followed, but not without

casting a covetous glance at the treasures in the ravine.

The doctor rekindled the light in the cylinder; the

spiral became heated; the current of hydrogen came in a

few minutes, and the gas dilated; but the balloon did not

stir an inch.

Joe looked on uneasily, but kept silent.

"Joe!" said the doctor.

Joe made no reply.

"Joe! Don't you hear me?"

Joe made a sign that he heard; but he would not understand.

"Do me the kindness to throw out some of that quartz!"

"But, doctor, you gave me leave--"

"I gave you leave to replace the ballast; that was all!"

"But--"

"Do you want to stay forever in this desert?"

Joe cast a despairing look at Kennedy; but the hunter

put on the air of a man who could do nothing in the

matter.

"Well, Joe?"

"Then your cylinder don't work," said the obstinate

fellow.

"My cylinder? It is lit, as you perceive. But the

balloon will not rise until you have thrown off a little

ballast."

Joe scratched his ear, picked up a piece of quartz, the

smallest in the lot, weighed and reweighed it, and tossed

it up and down in his hand. It was a fragment of about

three or four pounds. At last he threw it out.

But the balloon did not budge.

"Humph!" said he; "we're not going up yet."

"Not yet," said the doctor. "Keep on throwing."

Kennedy laughed. Joe now threw out some ten pounds,

but the balloon stood still.

Joe got very pale.

"Poor fellow!" said the doctor. "Mr. Kennedy, you

and I weigh, unless I am mistaken, about four hundred

pounds--so that you'll have to get rid of at least that

weight, since it was put in here to make up for us."

"Throw away four hundred pounds!" said Joe, piteously.

"And some more with it, or we can't rise. Come,

courage, Joe!"

The brave fellow, heaving deep sighs, began at last to

lighten the balloon; but, from time to time, he would stop,

and ask:

"Are you going up?"

"No, not yet," was the invariable response.

"It moves!" said he, at last.

"Keep on!" replied the doctor.

"It's going up; I'm sure."

"Keep on yet," said Kennedy.

And Joe, picking up one more block, desperately tossed it out

of the car. The balloon rose a hundred feet or so, and, aided

by the cylinder, soon passed above the surrounding summits.

"Now, Joe," resumed the doctor, "there still remains

a handsome fortune for you; and, if we can only keep the

rest of this with us until the end of our trip, there you

are--rich for the balance of your days!"

Joe made no answer, but stretched himself out luxuriously

on his heap of quartz.

"See, my dear Dick!" the doctor went on. "Just see

the power of this metal over the cleverest lad in the world!

What passions, what greed, what crimes, the knowledge

of such a mine as that would cause! It is sad to think

of it!"

By evening the balloon had made ninety miles to the

westward, and was, in a direct line, fourteen hundred miles

from Zanzibar.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURTH.

The Wind dies away.--The Vicinity of the Desert.--The Mistake in the

Water-Supply.--The Nights of the Equator.--Dr. Ferguson's Anxieties.

--The Situation flatly stated.--Energetic Replies of Kennedy and Joe.

--One Night more.

The balloon, having been made fast to a solitary tree,

almost completely dried up by the aridity of the region

in which it stood, passed the night in perfect quietness;

and the travellers were enabled to enjoy a little of the

repose which they so greatly needed. The emotions of

the day had left sad impressions on their minds.

Toward morning, the sky had resumed its brilliant

purity and its heat. The balloon ascended, and, after

several ineffectual attempts, fell into a current that,

although not rapid, bore them toward the northwest.

"We are not making progress," said the doctor. "If

I am not mistaken, we have accomplished nearly half of

our journey in ten days; but, at the rate at which we are

going, it would take months to end it; and that is all the

more vexatious, that we are threatened with a lack of

water."

"But we'll find some," said Joe. "It is not to be

thought of that we shouldn't discover some river, some

stream, or pond, in all this vast extent of country."

"I hope so."

"Now don't you think that it's Joe's cargo of stone

that is keeping us back?"

Kennedy asked this question only to tease Joe; and

he did so the more willingly because he had, for a moment,

shared the poor lad's hallucinations; but, not finding any

thing in them, he had fallen back into the attitude of a

strong-minded looker-on, and turned the affair off with a

laugh.

Joe cast a mournful glance at him; but the doctor

made no reply. He was thinking, not without secret terror,

probably, of the vast solitudes of Sahara--for there

whole weeks sometimes pass without the caravans meeting

with a single spring of water. Occupied with these

thoughts, he scrutinized every depression of the soil with

the closest attention.

These anxieties, and the incidents recently occurring,

had not been without their effect upon the spirits of our

three travellers. They conversed less, and were more

wrapt in their own thoughts.

Joe, clever lad as he was, seemed no longer the same

person since his gaze had plunged into that ocean of gold.

He kept entirely silent, and gazed incessantly upon the

stony fragments heaped up in the car--worthless to-day,

but of inestimable value to-morrow.

The appearance of this part of Africa was, moreover,

quite calculated to inspire alarm: the desert was gradually

expanding around them; not another village was

to be seen--not even a collection of a few huts; and

vegetation also was disappearing. Barely a few dwarf

plants could now be noticed, like those on the wild heaths

of Scotland; then came the first tract of grayish sand and

flint, with here and there a lentisk tree and brambles.

In the midst of this sterility, the rudimental carcass of the

Globe appeared in ridges of sharply-jutting rock. These

symptoms of a totally dry and barren region greatly

disquieted Dr. Ferguson.

It seemed as though no caravan had ever braved this

desert expanse, or it would have left visible traces of its

encampments, or the whitened bones of men and animals.

But nothing of the kind was to be seen, and the aeronauts

felt that, ere long, an immensity of sand would cover the

whole of this desolate region.

However, there was no going back; they must go forward;

and, indeed, the doctor asked for nothing better;

he would even have welcomed a tempest to carry him beyond

this country. But, there was not a cloud in the sky.

At the close of the day, the balloon had not made thirty

miles.

If there had been no lack of water! But, there remained

only three gallons in all! The doctor put aside

one gallon, destined to quench the burning thirst that a

heat of ninety degrees rendered intolerable. Two gallons

only then remained to supply the cylinder. Hence, they

could produce no more than four hundred and eighty cubic

feet of gas; yet the cylinder consumed about nine cubic

feet per hour. Consequently, they could not keep on

longer than fifty-four hours--and all this was a

mathematical calculation!

"Fifty-four hours!" said the doctor to his companions.

"Therefore, as I am determined not to travel by night, for

fear of passing some stream or pool, we have but three

days and a half of journeying during which we must find

water, at all hazards. I have thought it my duty to make

you aware of the real state of the case, as I have retained

only one gallon for drinking, and we shall have to put

ourselves on the shortest allowance."

"Put us on short allowance, then, doctor," responded

Kennedy, "but we must not despair. We have three days

left, you say?"

"Yes, my dear Dick!"

"Well, as grieving over the matter won't help us, in

three days there will be time enough to decide upon what

is to be done; in the meanwhile, let us redouble our

vigilance!"

At their evening meal, the water was strictly measured

out, and the brandy was increased in quantity in the punch

they drank. But they had to be careful with the spirits,

the latter being more likely to produce than to quench

thirst.

The car rested, during the night, upon an immense

plateau, in which there was a deep hollow; its height was

scarcely eight hundred feet above the level of the sea.

This circumstance gave the doctor some hope, since it recalled

to his mind the conjectures of geographers concerning

the existence of a vast stretch of water in the centre

of Africa. But, if such a lake really existed, the point was

to reach it, and not a sign of change was visible in the

motionless sky.

To the tranquil night and its starry magnificence succeeded

the unchanging daylight and the blazing rays of

the sun; and, from the earliest dawn, the temperature became

scorching. At five o'clock in the morning, the doctor

gave the signal for departure, and, for a considerable

time, the balloon remained immovable in the leaden

atmosphere.

The doctor might have escaped this intense heat by

rising into a higher range, but, in order to do so, he would

have had to consume a large quantity of water, a thing

that had now become impossible. He contented himself,

therefore, with keeping the balloon at one hundred feet

from the ground, and, at that elevation, a feeble current

drove it toward the western horizon.

The breakfast consisted of a little dried meat and pemmican.

By noon, the Victoria had advanced only a few miles.

"We cannot go any faster," said the doctor; "we no

longer command--we have to obey."

"Ah! doctor, here is one of those occasions when a

propeller would not be a thing to be despised."

"Undoubtedly so, Dick, provided it would not require

an expenditure of water to put it in motion, for, in that

case, the situation would be precisely the same; moreover,

up to this time, nothing practical of the sort has been

invented. Balloons are still at that point where ships were

before the invention of steam. It took six thousand years

to invent propellers and screws; so we have time enough yet."

"Confounded heat!" said Joe, wiping away the perspiration

that was streaming from his forehead.

"If we had water, this heat would be of service to us,

for it dilates the hydrogen in the balloon, and diminishes

the amount required in the spiral, although it is true that,

if we were not short of the useful liquid, we should not

have to economize it. Ah! that rascally savage who cost

us the tank!"*

* The water-tank had been thrown overboard when the native

clung to the car.

"You don't regret, though, what you did, doctor?"

"No, Dick, since it was in our power to save that unfortunate

missionary from a horrible death. But, the hundred pounds of

water that we threw overboard would be very useful to us now;

it would be thirteen or fourteen days more of progress secured,

or quite enough to carry us over this desert."

"We've made at least half the journey, haven't we?"

asked Joe.

"In distance, yes; but in duration, no, should the wind

leave us; and it, even now, has a tendency to die away

altogether."

"Come, sir," said Joe, again, "we must not complain;

we've got along pretty well, thus far, and whatever

happens to me, I can't get desperate. We'll find water;

mind, I tell you so."

The soil, however, ran lower from mile to mile; the

undulations of the gold-bearing mountains they had left

died away into the plain, like the last throes of exhausted

Nature. Scanty grass took the place of the fine trees of

the east; only a few belts of half-scorched herbage still

contended against the invasion of the sand, and the huge

rocks, that had rolled down from the distant summits,

crushed in their fall, had scattered in sharp-edged pebbles

which soon again became coarse sand, and finally impalpable dust.

"Here, at last, is Africa, such as you pictured it to

yourself, Joe! Was I not right in saying, 'Wait a

little?' eh?"

"Well, master, it's all natural, at least--heat and dust.

It would be foolish to look for any thing else in such a

country. Do you see," he added, laughing, "I had no

confidence, for my part, in your forests and your prairies;

they were out of reason. What was the use of coming

so far to find scenery just like England? Here's the first

time that I believe in Africa, and I'm not sorry to get a

taste of it."

Toward evening, the doctor calculated that the balloon

had not made twenty miles during that whole burning day,

and a heated gloom closed in upon it, as soon as the sun

had disappeared behind the horizon, which was traced

against the sky with all the precision of a straight line.

The next day was Thursday, the 1st of May, but the

days followed each other with desperate monotony. Each

morning was like the one that had preceded it; noon

poured down the same exhaustless rays, and night condensed

in its shadow the scattered heat which the ensuing

day would again bequeath to the succeeding night. The

wind, now scarcely observable, was rather a gasp than a

breath, and the morning could almost be foreseen when

even that gasp would cease.

The doctor reacted against the gloominess of the situation

and retained all the coolness and self-possession of a

disciplined heart. With his glass he scrutinized every

quarter of the horizon; he saw the last rising ground

gradually melting to the dead level, and the last vegetation

disappearing, while, before him, stretched the immensity

of the desert.

The responsibility resting upon him pressed sorely, but

he did not allow his disquiet to appear. Those two men,

Dick and Joe, friends of his, both of them, he had induced

to come with him almost by the force alone of friendship

and of duty. Had he done well in that? Was it not like

attempting to tread forbidden paths? Was he not, in

this trip, trying to pass the borders of the impossible?

Had not the Almighty reserved for later ages the knowledge

of this inhospitable continent?

All these thoughts, of the kind that arise in hours of

discouragement, succeeded each other and multiplied in

his mind, and, by an irresistible association of ideas, the

doctor allowed himself to be carried beyond the bounds

of logic and of reason. After having established in his

own mind what he should NOT have done, the next

question was, what he should do, then. Would it be impossible

to retrace his steps? Were there not currents higher up

that would waft him to less arid regions? Well informed

with regard to the countries over which he had passed, he

was utterly ignorant of those to come, and thus his conscience

speaking aloud to him, he resolved, in his turn, to

speak frankly to his two companions. He thereupon

laid the whole state of the case plainly before them; he

showed them what had been done, and what there was

yet to do; at the worst, they could return, or attempt it, at

least.--What did they think about it?

"I have no other opinion than that of my excellent

master," said Joe; "what he may have to suffer, I can

suffer, and that better than he can, perhaps. Where he

goes, there I'll go!"

"And you, Kennedy?"

"I, doctor, I'm not the man to despair; no one was

less ignorant than I of the perils of the enterprise, but I

did not want to see them, from the moment that you

determined to brave them. Under present circumstances,

my opinion is, that we should persevere--go clear to the

end. Besides, to return looks to me quite as perilous as

the other course. So onward, then! you may count upon us!"

"Thanks, my gallant friends!" replied the doctor,

with much real feeling, "I expected such devotion as this;

but I needed these encouraging words. Yet, once again,

thank you, from the bottom of my heart!"

And, with this, the three friends warmly grasped each

other by the hand.

"Now, hear me!" said the doctor. "According to

my solar observations, we are not more than three hundred

miles from the Gulf of Guinea; the desert, therefore,

cannot extend indefinitely, since the coast is inhabited, and

the country has been explored for some distance back into

the interior. If needs be, we can direct our course to that

quarter, and it seems out of the question that we should

not come across some oasis, or some well, where we could

replenish our stock of water. But, what we want now, is

the wind, for without it we are held here suspended in the

air at a dead calm.

"Let us wait with resignation," said the hunter.

But, each of the party, in his turn, vainly scanned the

space around him during that long wearisome day. Nothing

could be seen to form the basis of a hope. The very

last inequalities of the soil disappeared with the setting

sun, whose horizontal rays stretched in long lines of fire

over the flat immensity. It was the Desert!

Our aeronauts had scarcely gone a distance of fifteen

miles, having expended, as on the preceding day, one

hundred and thirty-five cubic feet of gas to feed the

cylinder, and two pints of water out of the remaining

eight had been sacrificed to the demands of intense thirst.

The night passed quietly--too quietly, indeed, but the

doctor did not sleep!

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIFTH.

A Little Philosophy.--A Cloud on the Horizon.--In the Midst of a Fog.--The

Strange Balloon.--An Exact View of the Victoria.--The Palm-Trees.--Traces

of a Caravan.--The Well in the Midst of the Desert.

On the morrow, there was the same purity of sky, the

same stillness of the atmosphere. The balloon rose to an

elevation of five hundred feet, but it had scarcely changed

its position to the westward in any perceptible degree.

"We are right in the open desert," said the doctor.

"Look at that vast reach of sand! What a strange spectacle!

What a singular arrangement of nature! Why should there be,

in one place, such extreme luxuriance of vegetation yonder,

and here, this extreme aridity, and that in the same latitude,

and under the same rays of the sun?"

"The why concerns me but little," answered Kennedy,

"the reason interests me less than the fact. The thing is

so; that's the important part of it!"

"Oh, it is well to philosophize a little, Dick; it does

no harm."

"Let us philosophize, then, if you will; we have time

enough before us; we are hardly moving; the wind is

afraid to blow; it sleeps."

"That will not last forever," put in Joe; "I think I

see some banks of clouds in the east."

"Joe's right!" said the doctor, after he had taken a look.

"Good!" said Kennedy; "now for our clouds, with a

fine rain, and a fresh wind to dash it into our faces!"

"Well, we'll see, Dick, we'll see!"

"But this is Friday, master, and I'm afraid of Fridays!"

"Well, I hope that this very day you'll get over those

notions."

"I hope so, master, too. Whew!" he added, mopping his

face, "heat's a good thing, especially in winter,

but in summer it don't do to take too much of it."

"Don't you fear the effect of the sun's heat on our

balloon?" asked Kennedy, addressing the doctor.

"No! the gutta-percha coating resists much higher

temperatures than even this. With my spiral I have

subjected it inside to as much as one hundred and

fifty-eight degrees sometimes, and the covering does

not appear to have suffered."

"A cloud! a real cloud!" shouted Joe at this moment,

for that piercing eyesight of his beat all the glasses.

And, in fact, a thick bank of vapor, now quite distinct,

could be seen slowly emerging above the horizon.

It appeared to be very deep, and, as it were, puffed out.

It was, in reality, a conglomeration of smaller clouds.

The latter invariably retained their original formation,

and from this circumstance the doctor concluded that

there was no current of air in their collected mass.

This compact body of vapor had appeared about eight

o'clock in the morning, and, by eleven, it had already

reached the height of the sun's disk. The latter then

disappeared entirely behind the murky veil, and the lower

belt of cloud, at the same moment, lifted above the line

of the horizon, which was again disclosed in a full blaze

of daylight.

"It's only an isolated cloud," remarked the doctor.

"It won't do to count much upon that."

"Look, Dick, its shape is just the same as when we

saw it this morning!"

"Then, doctor, there's to be neither rain nor wind, at

least for us!"

"I fear so; the cloud keeps at a great height."

"Well, doctor, suppose we were to go in pursuit of

this cloud, since it refuses to burst upon us?"

"I fancy that to do so wouldn't help us much; it

would be a consumption of gas, and, consequently, of

water, to little purpose; but, in our situation, we must

not leave anything untried; therefore, let us ascend!"

And with this, the doctor put on a full head of flame

from the cylinder, and the dilation of the hydrogen,

occasioned by such sudden and intense heat, sent the

balloon rapidly aloft.

About fifteen hundred feet from the ground, it encountered

an opaque mass of cloud, and entered a dense

fog, suspended at that elevation; but it did not meet with

the least breath of wind. This fog seemed even destitute

of humidity, and the articles brought in contact with it

were scarcely dampened in the slightest degree. The

balloon, completely enveloped in the vapor, gained a little

increase of speed, perhaps, and that was all.

The doctor gloomily recognized what trifling success

he had obtained from his manoeuvre, and was relapsing

into deep meditation, when he heard Joe exclaim, in tones

of most intense astonishment:

"Ah! by all that's beautiful!"

"What's the matter, Joe?"

"Doctor! Mr. Kennedy! Here's something curious!"

"What is it, then?"

"We are not alone, up here! There are rogues about!

They've stolen our invention!"

"Has he gone crazy?" asked Kennedy.

Joe stood there, perfectly motionless, the very picture

of amazement.

"Can the hot sun have really affected the poor fellow's

brain?" said the doctor, turning toward him.

"Will you tell me?--"

"Look!" said Joe, pointing to a certain quarter of

the sky.

"By St. James!" exclaimed Kennedy, in turn, "why,

who would have believed it? Look, look! doctor!"

"I see it!" said the doctor, very quietly.

"Another balloon! and other passengers, like ourselves!"

And, sure enough, there was another balloon about

two hundred paces from them, floating in the air with its

car and its aeronauts. It was following exactly the same

route as the Victoria.

"Well," said the doctor, "nothing remains for us but

to make signals; take the flag, Kennedy, and show them

our colors."

It seemed that the travellers by the other balloon

had just the same idea, at the same moment, for the same

kind of flag repeated precisely the same salute with a

hand that moved in just the same manner.

"What does that mean?" asked Kennedy.

"They are apes," said Joe, "imitating us."

"It means," said the doctor, laughing, "that it is you,

Dick, yourself, making that signal to yourself; or, in other

words, that we see ourselves in the second balloon, which

is no other than the Victoria."

"As to that, master, with all respect to you," said Joe,

"you'll never make me believe it."

"Climb up on the edge of the car, Joe; wave your

arms, and then you'll see."

Joe obeyed, and all his gestures were instantaneously

and exactly repeated.

"It is merely the effect of the MIRAGE," said the doctor,

"and nothing else--a simple optical phenomenon due to

the unequal refraction of light by different layers of the

atmosphere, and that is all.

"It's wonderful," said Joe, who could not make up

his mind to surrender, but went on repeating his

gesticulations.

"What a curious sight! Do you know," said Kennedy,

"that it's a real pleasure to have a view of our

noble balloon in that style? She's a beauty, isn't she?--

and how stately her movements as she sweeps along!"

"You may explain the matter as you like," continued

Joe, "it's a strange thing, anyhow!"

But ere long this picture began to fade away; the

clouds rose higher, leaving the balloon, which made no

further attempt to follow them, and in about an hour

they disappeared in the open sky.

The wind, which had been scarcely perceptible, seemed

still to diminish, and the doctor in perfect desperation

descended toward the ground, and all three of the travellers,

whom the incident just recorded had, for a few moments,

diverted from their anxieties, relapsed into gloomy

meditation, sweltering the while beneath the scorching

heat.

About four o'clock, Joe descried some object standing

out against the vast background of sand, and soon was

able to declare positively that there were two palm-trees

at no great distance.

"Palm-trees!" exclaimed Ferguson; "why, then

there's a spring--a well!"

He took up his glass and satisfied himself that Joe's

eyes had not been mistaken.

"At length!" he said, over and over again, "water!

water! and we are saved; for if we do move slowly, still

we move, and we shall arrive at last!"

"Good, master! but suppose we were to drink a mouthful

in the mean time, for this air is stifling?"

"Let us drink then, my boy!"

No one waited to be coaxed. A whole pint was swallowed

then and there, reducing the total remaining supply

to three pints and a half.

"Ah! that does one good!" said Joe; "wasn't it

fine? Barclay and Perkins never turned out ale equal to

that!"

"See the advantage of being put on short allowance!"

moralized the doctor.

"It is not great, after all," retorted Kennedy; "and if

I were never again to have the pleasure of drinking water,

I should agree on condition that I should never be deprived

of it."

At six o'clock the balloon was floating over the palm-trees.

They were two shrivelled, stunted, dried-up specimens

of trees--two ghosts of palms--without foliage, and more

dead than alive. Ferguson examined them with terror.

At their feet could be seen the half-worn stones of a

spring, but these stones, pulverized by the baking heat

of the sun, seemed to be nothing now but impalpable dust.

There was not the slightest sign of moisture. The doctor's

heart shrank within him, and he was about to communicate

his thoughts to his companions, when their exclamations

attracted his attention. As far as the eye could

reach to the eastward, extended a long line of whitened

bones; pieces of skeletons surrounded the fountain; a caravan

had evidently made its way to that point, marking its

progress by its bleaching remains; the weaker had fallen

one by one upon the sand; the stronger, having at length

reached this spring for which they panted, had there found

a horrible death.

Our travellers looked at each other and turned pale.

"Let us not alight!" said Kennedy, "let us fly from

this hideous spectacle! There's not a drop of water

here!"

"No, Dick, as well pass the night here as elsewhere;

let us have a clear conscience in the matter. We'll dig

down to the very bottom of the well. There has been a

spring here, and perhaps there's something left in it!"

The Victoria touched the ground; Joe and Kennedy

put into the car a quantity of sand equal to their weight,

and leaped out. They then hastened to the well, and

penetrated to the interior by a flight of steps that was now

nothing but dust. The spring appeared to have been dry

for years. They dug down into a parched and powdery

sand--the very dryest of all sand, indeed--there was not

one trace of moisture!

The doctor saw them come up to the surface of the

desert, saturated with perspiration, worn out, covered with

fine dust, exhausted, discouraged and despairing.

He then comprehended that their search had been

fruitless. He had expected as much, and he kept silent,

for he felt that, from this moment forth, he must have

courage and energy enough for three.

Joe brought up with him some pieces of a leathern

bottle that had grown hard and horn-like with age, and

angrily flung them away among the bleaching bones of

the caravan.

At supper, not a word was spoken by our travellers,

and they even ate without appetite. Yet they had not,

up to this moment, endured the real agonies of thirst, and

were in no desponding mood, excepting for the future.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXTH.

One Hundred and Thirteen Degrees.--The Doctor's Reflections.--A Desperate

Search.--The Cylinder goes out.--One Hundred and Twenty-two Degrees.--

Contemplation of the Desert.--A Night Walk.--Solitude.--Debility.--Joe's

Prospects.--He gives himself One Day more.

The distance made by the balloon during the preceding

day did not exceed ten miles, and, to keep it afloat,

one hundred and sixty-two cubic feet of gas had been

consumed.

On Saturday morning the doctor again gave the signal

for departure.

"The cylinder can work only six hours longer; and,

if in that time we shall not have found either a well or a

spring of water, God alone knows what will become of us!"

"Not much wind this morning, master," said Joe; "but

it will come up, perhaps," he added, suddenly remarking

the doctor's ill-concealed depression.

Vain hope! The atmosphere was in a dead calm--one

of those calms which hold vessels captive in tropical seas.

The heat had become intolerable; and the thermometer,

in the shade under the awning, indicated one hundred

and thirteen degrees.

Joe and Kennedy, reclining at full length near each

other, tried, if not in slumber, at least in torpor, to forget

their situation, for their forced inactivity gave them

periods of leisure far from pleasant. That man is to be

pitied the most who cannot wean himself from gloomy

reflections by actual work, or some practical pursuit. But

here there was nothing to look after, nothing to undertake,

and they had to submit to the situation, without

having it in their power to ameliorate it.

The pangs of thirst began to be severely felt; brandy,

far from appeasing this imperious necessity, augmented

it, and richly merited the name of "tiger's milk" applied

to it by the African natives. Scarcely two pints of water

remained, and that was heated. Each of the party devoured

the few precious drops with his gaze, yet neither

of them dared to moisten his lips with them. Two pints

of water in the midst of the desert!

Then it was that Dr. Ferguson, buried in meditation,

asked himself whether he had acted with prudence.

Would he not have done better to have kept the water

that he had decomposed in pure loss, in order to sustain

him in the air? He had gained a little distance, to be

sure; but was he any nearer to his journey's end? What

difference did sixty miles to the rear make in this region,

when there was no water to be had where they were?

The wind, should it rise, would blow there as it did here,

only less strongly at this point, if it came from the east.

But hope urged him onward. And yet those two gallons

of water, expended in vain, would have sufficed for nine

days' halt in the desert. And what changes might not

have occurred in nine days! Perhaps, too, while retaining

the water, he might have ascended by throwing out

ballast, at the cost merely of discharging some gas, when

he had again to descend. But the gas in his balloon was

his blood, his very life!

A thousand one such reflections whirled in succession

through his brain; and, resting his head between his

hands, he sat there for hours without raising it.

"We must make one final effort," he said, at last,

about ten o'clock in the morning. "We must endeavor,

just once more, to find an atmospheric current to bear us

away from here, and, to that end, must risk our last

resources."

Therefore, while his companions slept, the doctor raised

the hydrogen in the balloon to an elevated temperature,

and the huge globe, filling out by the dilation of the gas,

rose straight up in the perpendicular rays of the sun.

The doctor searched vainly for a breath of wind, from the

height of one hundred feet to that of five miles; his

starting-point remained fatally right below him, and absolute

calm seemed to reign, up to the extreme limits of the

breathing atmosphere.

At length the feeding-supply of water gave out; the

cylinder was extinguished for lack of gas; the Buntzen

battery ceased to work, and the balloon, shrinking together,

gently descended to the sand, in the very place

that the car had hollowed out there.

It was noon; and solar observations gave nineteen

degrees thirty-five minutes east longitude, and six degrees

fifty-one minutes north latitude, or nearly five hundred

miles from Lake Tchad, and more than four hundred miles

from the western coast of Africa.

On the balloon taking ground, Kennedy and Joe awoke

from their stupor.

"We have halted," said the Scot.

"We had to do so," replied the doctor, gravely.

His companions understood him. The level of the soil at

that point corresponded with the level of the sea, and,

consequently, the balloon remained in perfect equilibrium,

and absolutely motionless.

The weight of the three travellers was replaced with

an equivalent quantity of sand, and they got out of the

car. Each was absorbed in his own thoughts; and for

many hours neither of them spoke. Joe prepared their

evening meal, which consisted of biscuit and pemmican,

and was hardly tasted by either of the party. A mouthful

of scalding water from their little store completed this

gloomy repast.

During the night none of them kept awake; yet none

could be precisely said to have slept. On the morrow

there remained only half a pint of water, and this the

doctor put away, all three having resolved not to touch it

until the last extremity.

It was not long, however, before Joe exclaimed:

"I'm choking, and the heat is getting worse! I'm

not surprised at that, though," he added, consulting the

thermometer; "one hundred and forty degrees!"

"The sand scorches me," said the hunter, "as though

it had just come out of a furnace; and not a cloud in this

sky of fire. It's enough to drive one mad!"

"Let us not despair," responded the doctor. "In this

latitude these intense heats are invariably followed by

storms, and the latter come with the suddenness of lightning.

Notwithstanding this disheartening clearness of

the sky, great atmospheric changes may take place in less

than an hour."

"But," asked Kennedy, "is there any sign whatever

of that?"

"Well," replied the doctor, "I think that there is

some slight symptom of a fall in the barometer."

"May Heaven hearken to you, Samuel! for here we are

pinned to the ground, like a bird with broken wings."

"With this difference, however, my dear Dick, that

our wings are unhurt, and I hope that we shall be able to

use them again."

"Ah! wind! wind!" exclaimed Joe; "enough to

carry us to a stream or a well, and we'll be all right.

We have provisions enough, and, with water, we could

wait a month without suffering; but thirst is a cruel

thing!"

It was not thirst alone, but the unchanging sight of the

desert, that fatigued the mind. There was not a variation

in the surface of the soil, not a hillock of sand, not a

pebble, to relieve the gaze. This unbroken level discouraged

the beholder, and gave him that kind of malady

called the "desert-sickness." The impassible monotony

of the arid blue sky, and the vast yellow expanse of the

desert-sand, at length produced a sensation of terror. In

this inflamed atmosphere the heat appeared to vibrate

as it does above a blazing hearth, while the mind grew

desperate in contemplating the limitless calm, and could

see no reason why the thing should ever end, since immensity

is a species of eternity.

Thus, at last, our hapless travellers, deprived of water

in this torrid heat, began to feel symptoms of mental disorder.

Their eyes swelled in their sockets, and their gaze

became confused.

When night came on, the doctor determined to combat

this alarming tendency by rapid walking. His idea

was to pace the sandy plain for a few hours, not in search

of any thing, but simply for exercise.

"Come along!" he said to his companions; "believe

me, it will do you good."

"Out of the question!" said Kennedy; "I could not

walk a step."

"And I," said Joe, "would rather sleep!"

"But sleep, or even rest, would be dangerous to you,

my friends; you must react against this tendency to

stupor. Come with me!"

But the doctor could do nothing with them, and, therefore,

set off alone, amid the starry clearness of the night.

The first few steps he took were painful, for they were

the steps of an enfeebled man quite out of practice in

walking. However, he quickly saw that the exercise

would be beneficial to him, and pushed on several miles

to the westward. Once in rapid motion, he felt his spirits

greatly cheered, when, suddenly, a vertigo came over him;

he seemed to be poised on the edge of an abyss; his knees

bent under him; the vast solitude struck terror to his

heart; he found himself the minute mathematical point,

the centre of an infinite circumference, that is to say--a

nothing! The balloon had disappeared entirely in the

deepening gloom. The doctor, cool, impassible, reckless

explorer that he was, felt himself at last seized with a

nameless dread. He strove to retrace his steps, but in

vain. He called aloud. Not even an echo replied, and

his voice died out in the empty vastness of surrounding

space, like a pebble cast into a bottomless gulf; then,

down he sank, fainting, on the sand, alone, amid the eternal

silence of the desert.

At midnight he came to, in the arms of his faithful

follower, Joe. The latter, uneasy at his master's prolonged

absence, had set out after him, easily tracing him

by the clear imprint of his feet in the sand, and had found

him lying in a swoon.

"What has been the matter, sir?" was the first inquiry.

"Nothing, Joe, nothing! Only a touch of weakness,

that's all. It's over now."

"Oh! it won't amount to any thing, sir, I'm sure of

that; but get up on your feet, if you can. There! lean

upon me, and let us get back to the balloon."

And the doctor, leaning on Joe's arm, returned along

the track by which he had come.

"You were too bold, sir; it won't do to run such

risks. You might have been robbed," he added, laughing.

"But, sir, come now, let us talk seriously."

"Speak! I am listening to you."

"We must positively make up our minds to do something.

Our present situation cannot last more than a few

days longer, and if we get no wind, we are lost."

The doctor made no reply.

"Well, then, one of us must sacrifice himself for the

good of all, and it is most natural that it should fall to me

to do so."

"What have you to propose? What is your plan?"

"A very simple one! It is to take provisions enough,

and to walk right on until I come to some place, as I must

do, sooner or later. In the mean time, if Heaven sends

you a good wind, you need not wait, but can start again.

For my part, if I come to a village, I'll work my way

through with a few Arabic words that you can write for

me on a slip of paper, and I'll bring you help or lose my

hide. What do you think of my plan?"

"It is absolute folly, Joe, but worthy of your noble

heart. The thing is impossible. You will not leave us."

"But, sir, we must do something, and this plan can't

do you any harm, for, I say again, you need not wait;

and then, after all, I may succeed."

"No, Joe, no! We will not separate. That would

only be adding sorrow to trouble. It was written that

matters should be as they are; and it is very probably

written that it shall be quite otherwise by-and-by. Let

us wait, then, with resignation."

"So be it, master; but take notice of one thing: I

give you a day longer, and I'll not wait after that. To-day

is Sunday; we might say Monday, as it is one o'clock

in the morning, and if we don't get off by Tuesday, I'll

run the risk. I've made up my mind to that!"

The doctor made no answer, and in a few minutes they

got back to the car, where he took his place beside Kennedy,

who lay there plunged in silence so complete that

it could not be considered sleep.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENTH.

Terrific Heat.--Hallucinations.--The Last Drops of Water.--Nights

of Despair.--An Attempt at Suicide.--The Simoom.--The Oasis.--The

Lion and Lioness.

The doctor's first care, on the morrow, was to consult

the barometer. He found that the mercury had scarcely

undergone any perceptible depression.

"Nothing!" he murmured, "nothing!"

He got out of the car and scrutinized the weather;

there was only the same heat, the same cloudless sky, the

same merciless drought.

"Must we, then, give up to despair?" he exclaimed,

in agony.

Joe did not open his lips. He was buried in his own

thoughts, and planning the expedition he had proposed.

Kennedy got up, feeling very ill, and a prey to nervous

agitation. He was suffering horribly with thirst, and his

swollen tongue and lips could hardly articulate a syllable.

There still remained a few drops of water. Each of

them knew this, and each was thinking of it, and felt

himself drawn toward them; but neither of the three dared

to take a step.

Those three men, friends and companions as they were,

fixed their haggard eyes upon each other with an instinct

of ferocious longing, which was most plainly revealed in

the hardy Scot, whose vigorous constitution yielded the

soonest to these unnatural privations.

Throughout the day he was delirious, pacing up and

down, uttering hoarse cries, gnawing his clinched fists,

and ready to open his veins and drink his own hot blood.

"Ah!" he cried, "land of thirst! Well might you be

called the land of despair!"

At length he sank down in utter prostration, and his

friends heard no other sound from him than the hissing of

his breath between his parched and swollen lips.

Toward evening, Joe had his turn of delirium. The

vast expanse of sand appeared to him an immense pond,

full of clear and limpid water; and, more than once, he

dashed himself upon the scorching waste to drink long

draughts, and rose again with his mouth clogged with hot

dust.

"Curses on it!" he yelled, in his madness, "it's nothing

but salt water!"

Then, while Ferguson and Kennedy lay there motionless,

the resistless longing came over him to drain the last

few drops of water that had been kept in reserve. The

natural instinct proved too strong. He dragged himself

toward the car, on his knees; he glared at the bottle

containing the precious fluid; he gave one wild, eager

glance, seized the treasured store, and bore it to his lips.

At that instant he heard a heart-rending cry close

beside him--"Water! water!"

It was Kennedy, who had crawled up close to him, and

was begging there, upon his knees, and weeping piteously.

Joe, himself in tears, gave the poor wretch the bottle,

and Kennedy drained the last drop with savage haste.

"Thanks!" he murmured hoarsely, but Joe did not

hear him, for both alike had dropped fainting on the sand.

What took place during that fearful night neither of

them knew, but, on Tuesday morning, under those showers

of heat which the sun poured down upon them, the

unfortunate men felt their limbs gradually drying up, and

when Joe attempted to rise he found it impossible.

He looked around him. In the car, the doctor, completely

overwhelmed, sat with his arms folded on his

breast, gazing with idiotic fixedness upon some imaginary

point in space. Kennedy was frightful to behold. He

was rolling his head from right to left like a wild beast in

a cage.

All at once, his eyes rested on the butt of his rifle,

which jutted above the rim of the car.

"Ah!" he screamed, raising himself with a superhuman effort.

Desperate, mad, he snatched at the weapon, and turned

the barrel toward his mouth.

"Kennedy!" shouted Joe, throwing himself upon his friend.

"Let go! hands off!" moaned the Scot, in a hoarse,

grating voice--and then the two struggled desperately for

the rifle.

"Let go, or I'll kill you!" repeated Kennedy. But

Joe clung to him only the more fiercely, and they had

been contending thus without the doctor seeing them for

many seconds, when, suddenly the rifle went off. At the

sound of its discharge, the doctor rose up erect, like a

spectre, and glared around him.

But all at once his glance grew more animated; he extended

his hand toward the horizon, and in a voice no

longer human shrieked:

"There! there--off there!"

There was such fearful force in the cry that Kennedy

and Joe released each other, and both looked where the

doctor pointed.

The plain was agitated like the sea shaken by the fury

of a tempest; billows of sand went tossing over each other

amid blinding clouds of dust; an immense pillar was seen

whirling toward them through the air from the southeast,

with terrific velocity; the sun was disappearing behind an

opaque veil of cloud whose enormous barrier extended

clear to the horizon, while the grains of fine sand went

gliding together with all the supple ease of liquid particles,

and the rising dust-tide gained more and more with

every second.

Ferguson's eyes gleamed with a ray of energetic hope.

"The simoom!" he exclaimed.

"The simoom!" repeated Joe, without exactly knowing what it meant.

"So much the better!" said Kennedy, with the bitterness of

despair. "So much the better--we shall die!"

"So much the better!" echoed the doctor, "for we

shall live!" and, so saying, he began rapidly to throw out

the sand that encumbered the car.

At length his companions understood him, and took

their places at his side.

"And now, Joe," said the doctor, "throw out some

fifty pounds of your ore, there!"

Joe no longer hesitated, although he still felt a fleeting

pang of regret. The balloon at once began to ascend.

"It was high time!" said the doctor.

The simoom, in fact, came rushing on like a thunderbolt,

and a moment later the balloon would have been

crushed, torn to atoms, annihilated. The awful whirlwind

was almost upon it, and it was already pelted with showers

of sand driven like hail by the storm.

"Out with more ballast!" shouted the doctor.

"There!" responded Joe, tossing over a huge fragment

of quartz.

With this, the Victoria rose swiftly above the range

of the whirling column, but, caught in the vast displacement

of the atmosphere thereby occasioned, it was borne

along with incalculable rapidity away above this foaming

sea.

The three travellers did not speak. They gazed, and

hoped, and even felt refreshed by the breath of the tempest.

About three o'clock, the whirlwind ceased; the sand,

falling again upon the desert, formed numberless little

hillocks, and the sky resumed its former tranquillity.

The balloon, which had again lost its momentum, was

floating in sight of an oasis, a sort of islet studded with

green trees, thrown up upon the surface of this sandy

ocean.

"Water! we'll find water there!" said the doctor.

And, instantly, opening the upper valve, he let some

hydrogen escape, and slowly descended, taking the ground

at about two hundred feet from the edge of the oasis.

In four hours the travellers had swept over a distance

of two hundred and forty miles!

The car was at once ballasted, and Kennedy, closely

followed by Joe, leaped out.

"Take your guns with you!" said the doctor; "take

your guns, and be careful!"

Dick grasped his rifle, and Joe took one of the fowling-pieces.

They then rapidly made for the trees, and disappeared under

the fresh verdure, which announced the presence of abundant

springs. As they hurried on, they had not taken notice of

certain large footprints and fresh tracks of some living

creature marked here and there in the damp soil.

Suddenly, a dull roar was heard not twenty paces from them.

"The roar of a lion!" said Joe.

"Good for that!" said the excited hunter; "we'll

fight him. A man feels strong when only a fight's in

question."

"But be careful, Mr. Kennedy; be careful! The lives

of all depend upon the life of one."

But Kennedy no longer heard him; he was pushing

on, his eye blazing; his rifle cocked; fearful to behold in

his daring rashness. There, under a palm-tree, stood an

enormous black-maned lion, crouching for a spring on his

antagonist. Scarcely had he caught a glimpse of the

hunter, when he bounded through the air; but he had not

touched the ground ere a bullet pierced his heart, and he

fell to the earth dead.

"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted Joe, with wild exultation.

Kennedy rushed toward the well, slid down the dampened

steps, and flung himself at full length by the side of

a fresh spring, in which he plunged his parched lips. Joe

followed suit, and for some minutes nothing was heard but

the sound they made with their mouths, drinking more

like maddened beasts than men.

"Take care, Mr. Kennedy," said Joe at last; "let us

not overdo the thing!" and he panted for breath.

But Kennedy, without a word, drank on. He even

plunged his hands, and then his head, into the delicious

tide--he fairly revelled in its coolness.

"But the doctor?" said Joe; "our friend, Dr. Ferguson?"

That one word recalled Kennedy to himself, and, hastily

filling a flask that he had brought with him, he started on

a run up the steps of the well.

But what was his amazement when he saw an opaque

body of enormous dimensions blocking up the passage!

Joe, who was close upon Kennedy's heels, recoiled with

him.

"We are blocked in--entrapped!"

"Impossible! What does that mean?--"

Dick had no time to finish; a terrific roar made him

only too quickly aware what foe confronted him.

"Another lion!" exclaimed Joe.

"A lioness, rather," said Kennedy. "Ah! ferocious

brute!" he added, "I'll settle you in a moment more!"

and swiftly reloaded his rifle.

In another instant he fired, but the animal had disappeared.

"Onward!" shouted Kennedy.

"No!" interposed the other, "that shot did not kill

her; her body would have rolled down the steps; she's

up there, ready to spring upon the first of us who appears,

and he would be a lost man!"

"But what are we to do? We must get out of this,

and the doctor is expecting us."

"Let us decoy the animal. Take my piece, and give

me your rifle."

"What is your plan?"

"You'll see."

And Joe, taking off his linen jacket, hung it on the end

of the rifle, and thrust it above the top of the steps. The

lioness flung herself furiously upon it. Kennedy was on

the alert for her, and his bullet broke her shoulder. The

lioness, with a frightful howl of agony, rolled down the

steps, overturning Joe in her fall. The poor fellow imagined

that he could already feel the enormous paws of the

savage beast in his flesh, when a second detonation

resounded in the narrow passage, and Dr. Ferguson appeared

at the opening above with his gun in hand, and still smoking

from the discharge.

Joe leaped to his feet, clambered over the body of the

dead lioness, and handed up the flask full of sparkling

water to his master.

To carry it to his lips, and to half empty it at a draught,

was the work of an instant, and the three travellers offered

up thanks from the depths of their hearts to that Providence

who had so miraculously saved them.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTH.

An Evening of Delight.--Joe's Culinary Performance.--A Dissertation on Raw

Meat.--The Narrative of James Bruce.--Camping out.--Joe's Dreams.--The

Barometer begins to fall.--The Barometer rises again.--Preparations for

Departure.--The Tempest.

The evening was lovely, and our three friends enjoyed

it in the cool shade of the mimosas, after a substantial

repast, at which the tea and the punch were dealt out with

no niggardly hand.

Kennedy had traversed the little domain in all directions.

He had ransacked every thicket and satisfied himself

that the balloon party were the only living creatures

in this terrestrial paradise; so they stretched themselves

upon their blankets and passed a peaceful night that

brought them forgetfulness of their past sufferings.

On the morrow, May 7th, the sun shone with all his

splendor, but his rays could not penetrate the dense screen

of the palm-tree foliage, and as there was no lack of provisions,

the doctor resolved to remain where he was while

waiting for a favorable wind.

Joe had conveyed his portable kitchen to the oasis, and proceeded

to indulge in any number of culinary combinations, using water

all the time with the most profuse extravagance.

"What a strange succession of annoyances and enjoyments!"

moralized Kennedy. "Such abundance as this after such

privations; such luxury after such want! Ah! I nearly went mad!"

"My dear Dick," replied the doctor, "had it not been

for Joe, you would not be sitting here, to-day, discoursing

on the instability of human affairs."

"Whole-hearted friend!" said Kennedy, extending

his hand to Joe.

"There's no occasion for all that," responded the latter;

"but you can take your revenge some time, Mr. Kennedy,

always hoping though that you may never have occasion

to do the same for me!"

"It's a poor constitution this of ours to succumb to so

little," philosophized Dr. Ferguson.

"So little water, you mean, doctor," interposed Joe;

"that element must be very necessary to life."

"Undoubtedly, and persons deprived of food hold out

longer than those deprived of water."

"I believe it. Besides, when needs must, one can eat

any thing he comes across, even his fellow-creatures,

although that must be a kind of food that's pretty hard

to digest."

"The savages don't boggle much about it!" said

Kennedy.

"Yes; but then they are savages, and accustomed to

devouring raw meat; it's something that I'd find very

disgusting, for my part."

"It is disgusting enough," said the doctor, "that's a

fact; and so much so, indeed, that nobody believed the

narratives of the earliest travellers in Africa who brought

back word that many tribes on that continent subsisted

upon raw meat, and people generally refused to credit the

statement. It was under such circumstances that a very

singular adventure befell James Bruce."

"Tell it to us, doctor; we've time enough to hear it,"

said Joe, stretching himself voluptuously on the cool

greensward.

"By all means.--James Bruce was a Scotchman, of

Stirlingshire, who, between 1768 and 1772, traversed all

Abyssinia, as far as Lake Tyana, in search of the sources

of the Nile. He afterward returned to England, but did

not publish an account of his journeys until 1790. His

statements were received with extreme incredulity, and

such may be the reception accorded to our own. The

manners and customs of the Abyssinians seemed so different

from those of the English, that no one would credit the

description of them. Among other details, Bruce had put

forward the assertion that the tribes of Eastern Africa fed

upon raw flesh, and this set everybody against him. He

might say so as much as he pleased; there was no one

likely to go and see! One day, in a parlor at Edinburgh,

a Scotch gentleman took up the subject in his presence, as

it had become the topic of daily pleasantry, and, in reference

to the eating of raw flesh, said that the thing was

neither possible nor true. Bruce made no reply, but went

out and returned a few minutes later with a raw steak,

seasoned with pepper and salt, in the African style.

"'Sir,' said he to the Scotchman, 'in doubting my

statements, you have grossly affronted me; in believing

the thing to be impossible, you have been egregiously

mistaken; and, in proof thereof, you will now eat this

beef-steak raw, or you will give me instant satisfaction!'

The Scotchman had a wholesome dread of the brawny

traveller, and DID eat the steak, although not without a

good many wry faces. Thereupon, with the utmost coolness,

James Bruce added: 'Even admitting, sir, that the

thing were untrue, you will, at least, no longer maintain

that it is impossible.'"

"Well put in!" said Joe, "and if the Scotchman

found it lie heavy on his stomach, he got no more than he

deserved. If, on our return to England, they dare to

doubt what we say about our travels--"

"Well, Joe, what would you do?"

"Why, I'll make the doubters swallow the pieces of

the balloon, without either salt or pepper!"

All burst out laughing at Joe's queer notions, and thus

the day slipped by in pleasant chat. With returning

strength, hope had revived, and with hope came the courage

to do and to dare. The past was obliterated in the

presence of the future with providential rapidity.

Joe would have been willing to remain forever in this

enchanting asylum; it was the realm he had pictured in

his dreams; he felt himself at home; his master had to

give him his exact location, and it was with the gravest

air imaginable that he wrote down on his tablets fifteen

degrees forty-three minutes east longitude, and eight degrees

thirty-two minutes north latitude.

Kennedy had but one regret, to wit, that he could not

hunt in that miniature forest, because, according to his

ideas, there was a slight deficiency of ferocious wild beasts

in it.

"But, my dear Dick," said the doctor, "haven't you

rather a short memory? How about the lion and the

lioness?"

"Oh, that!" he ejaculated with the contempt of a

thorough-bred sportsman for game already killed. "But

the fact is, that finding them here would lead one to

suppose that we can't be far from a more fertile country."

"It don't prove much, Dick, for those animals, when

goaded by hunger or thirst, will travel long distances, and

I think that, to-night, we had better keep a more vigilant

lookout, and light fires, besides."

"What, in such heat as this?" said Joe. "Well, if it's

necessary, we'll have to do it, but I do think it a real pity

to burn this pretty grove that has been such a comfort to us!"

"Oh! above all things, we must take the utmost care

not to set it on fire," replied the doctor, "so that others

in the same strait as ourselves may some day find shelter

here in the middle of the desert."

"I'll be very careful, indeed, doctor; but do you think

that this oasis is known?"

"Undoubtedly; it is a halting-place for the caravans

that frequent the centre of Africa, and a visit from one

of them might be any thing but pleasant to you, Joe."

"Why, are there any more of those rascally Nyam-Nyams

around here?"

"Certainly; that is the general name of all the neighboring

tribes, and, under the same climates, the same

races are likely to have similar manners and customs."

"Pah!" said Joe, "but, after all, it's natural enough.

If savages had the ways of gentlemen, where would be the

difference? By George, these fine fellows wouldn't have

to be coaxed long to eat the Scotchman's raw steak, nor

the Scotchman either, into the bargain!"

With this very sensible observation, Joe began to get

ready his firewood for the night, making just as little of

it as possible. Fortunately, these precautions were superfluous;

and each of the party, in his turn, dropped off into

the soundest slumber.

On the next day the weather still showed no sign of

change, but kept provokingly and obstinately fair. The

balloon remained motionless, without any oscillation to

betray a breath of wind.

The doctor began to get uneasy again. If their stay in the

desert were to be prolonged like this, their provisions

would give out. After nearly perishing for want of

water, they would, at last, have to starve to death!

But he took fresh courage as he saw the mercury fall

considerably in the barometer, and noticed evident signs

of an early change in the atmosphere. He therefore resolved

to make all his preparations for a start, so as to

avail himself of the first opportunity. The feeding-tank

and the water-tank were both completely filled.

Then he had to reestablish the equilibrium of the balloon,

and Joe was obliged to part with another considerable

portion of his precious quartz. With restored health,

his ambitious notions had come back to him, and he made

more than one wry face before obeying his master; but

the latter convinced him that he could not carry so considerable

a weight with him through the air, and gave

him his choice between the water and the gold. Joe

hesitated no longer, but flung out the requisite quantity

of his much-prized ore upon the sand.

"The next people who come this way," he remarked,

"will be rather surprised to find a fortune in such a

place."

"And suppose some learned traveller should come

across these specimens, eh?" suggested Kennedy.

"You may be certain, Dick, that they would take him

by surprise, and that he would publish his astonishment

in several folios; so that some day we shall hear of a

wonderful deposit of gold-bearing quartz in the midst of the

African sands!"

"And Joe there, will be the cause of it all!"

This idea of mystifying some learned sage tickled Joe

hugely, and made him laugh.

During the rest of the day the doctor vainly kept on

the watch for a change of weather. The temperature rose,

and, had it not been for the shade of the oasis, would have

been insupportable. The thermometer marked a hundred

and forty-nine degrees in the sun, and a veritable rain of

fire filled the air. This was the most intense heat that

they had yet noted.

Joe arranged their bivouac for that evening, as he had

done for the previous night; and during the watches kept

by the doctor and Kennedy there was no fresh incident.

But, toward three o'clock in the morning, while Joe

was on guard, the temperature suddenly fell; the sky

became overcast with clouds, and the darkness increased.

"Turn out!" cried Joe, arousing his companions.

"Turn out! Here's the wind!"

"At last!" exclaimed the doctor, eying the heavens.

"But it is a storm! The balloon! Let us hasten to the

balloon!"

It was high time for them to reach it. The Victoria

was bending to the force of the hurricane, and dragging

along the car, the latter grazing the sand. Had any portion

of the ballast been accidentally thrown out, the

balloon would have been swept away, and all hope of

recovering it have been forever lost.

But fleet-footed Joe put forth his utmost speed, and

checked the car, while the balloon beat upon the sand, at

the risk of being torn to pieces. The doctor, followed by

Kennedy, leaped in, and lit his cylinder, while his companions

threw out the superfluous ballast.

The travellers took one last look at the trees of the

oasis bowing to the force of the hurricane, and soon,

catching the wind at two hundred feet above the ground,

disappeared in the gloom.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINTH.

Signs of Vegetation.--The Fantastic Notion of a French Author.--A

Magnificent Country.--The Kingdom of Adamova.--The Explorations of

Speke and Burton connected with those of Dr. Barth.--The Atlantika

Mountains.--The River Benoue.--The City of Yola.--The Bagele.--Mount

Mendif.

From the moment of their departure, the travellers

moved with great velocity. They longed to leave behind

them the desert, which had so nearly been fatal to them.

About a quarter-past nine in the morning, they caught

a glimpse of some signs of vegetation: herbage floating

on that sea of sand, and announcing, as the weeds upon

the ocean did to Christopher Columbus, the nearness of

the shore--green shoots peeping up timidly between pebbles

that were, in their turn, to be the rocks of that vast

expanse.

Hills, but of trifling height, were seen in wavy lines

upon the horizon. Their profile, muffled by the heavy

mist, was defined but vaguely. The monotony, however,

was beginning to disappear.

The doctor hailed with joy the new country thus disclosed,

and, like a seaman on lookout at the mast-head, he

was ready to shout aloud:

"Land, ho! land!"

An hour later the continent spread broadly before their

gaze, still wild in aspect, but less flat, less denuded, and

with a few trees standing out against the gray sky.

"We are in a civilized country at last!" said the hunter.

"Civilized? Well, that's one way of speaking; but

there are no people to be seen yet."

"It will not be long before we see them," said Ferguson,

"at our present rate of travel."

"Are we still in the negro country, doctor?"

"Yes, and on our way to the country of the Arabs."

"What! real Arabs, sir, with their camels?"

"No, not many camels; they are scarce, if not altogether

unknown, in these regions. We must go a few degrees farther

north to see them."

"What a pity!"

"And why, Joe?"

"Because, if the wind fell contrary, they might be of

use to us."

"How so?"

"Well, sir, it's just a notion that's got into my head:

we might hitch them to the car, and make them tow us

along. What do you say to that, doctor?"

"Poor Joe! Another person had that idea in advance

of you. It was used by a very gifted French author--

M. Mery--in a romance, it is true. He has his travellers

drawn along in a balloon by a team of camels; then a lion

comes up, devours the camels, swallows the tow-rope, and

hauls the balloon in their stead; and so on through the

story. You see that the whole thing is the top-flower of

fancy, but has nothing in common with our style of locomotion."

Joe, a little cut down at learning that his idea had

been used already, cudgelled his wits to imagine what

animal could have devoured the lion; but he could not

guess it, and so quietly went on scanning the appearance

of the country.

A lake of medium extent stretched away before him,

surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills, which yet could

not be dignified with the name of mountains. There were

winding valleys, numerous and fertile, with their tangled

thickets of the most various trees. The African oil-tree

rose above the mass, with leaves fifteen feet in length upon

its stalk, the latter studded with sharp thorns; the bombax,

or silk-cotton-tree, filled the wind, as it swept by,

with the fine down of its seeds; the pungent odors of the

pendanus, the "kenda" of the Arabs, perfumed the air

up to the height where the Victoria was sailing; the

papaw-tree, with its palm-shaped leaves; the sterculier,

which produces the Soudan-nut; the baobab, and the

banana-tree, completed the luxuriant flora of these

inter-tropical regions.

"The country is superb!" said the doctor.

"Here are some animals," added Joe. "Men are not

far away."

"Oh, what magnificent elephants!" exclaimed Kennedy.

"Is there no way to get a little shooting?"

"How could we manage to halt in a current as strong

as this? No, Dick; you must taste a little of the torture

of Tantalus just now. You shall make up for it afterward."

And, in truth, there was enough to excite the fancy of

a sportsman. Dick's heart fairly leaped in his breast as

he grasped the butt of his Purdy.

The fauna of the region were as striking as its flora.

The wild-ox revelled in dense herbage that often concealed

his whole body; gray, black, and yellow elephants of the

most gigantic size burst headlong, like a living hurricane,

through the forests, breaking, rending, tearing down,

devastating every thing in their path; upon the woody

slopes of the hills trickled cascades and springs flowing

northward; there, too, the hippopotami bathed their huge

forms, splashing and snorting as they frolicked in the

water, and lamantines, twelve feet long, with bodies like

seals, stretched themselves along the banks, turning up

toward the sun their rounded teats swollen with milk.

It was a whole menagerie of rare and curious beasts in

a wondrous hot-house, where numberless birds with plumage

of a thousand hues gleamed and fluttered in the sunshine.

By this prodigality of Nature, the doctor recognized

the splendid kingdom of Adamova.

"We are now beginning to trench upon the realm of

modern discovery. I have taken up the lost scent of preceding

travellers. It is a happy chance, my friends, for

we shall be enabled to link the toils of Captains Burton and

Speke with the explorations of Dr. Barth. We have left

the Englishmen behind us, and now have caught up with

the Hamburger. It will not be long, either, before we

arrive at the extreme point attained by that daring explorer."

"It seems to me that there is a vast extent of country

between the two explored routes," remarked Kennedy;

"at least, if I am to judge by the distance that we have

made."

"It is easy to determine: take the map and see what

is the longitude of the southern point of Lake Ukereoue,

reached by Speke."

"It is near the thirty-seventh degree."

"And the city of Yola, which we shall sight this evening,

and to which Barth penetrated, what is its position?"

"It is about in the twelfth degree of east longitude."

"Then there are twenty-five degrees, or, counting sixty

miles to each, about fifteen hundred miles in all."

"A nice little walk," said Joe, "for people who have

to go on foot."

"It will be accomplished, however. Livingstone and

Moffat are pushing on up this line toward the interior.

Nyassa, which they have discovered, is not far from Lake

Tanganayika, seen by Burton. Ere the close of the century

these regions will, undoubtedly, be explored. But," added

the doctor, consulting his compass, "I regret that the

wind is carrying us so far to the westward. I wanted to

get to the north."

After twelve hours of progress, the Victoria found herself

on the confines of Nigritia. The first inhabitants of

this region, the Chouas Arabs, were feeding their wandering

flocks. The immense summits of the Atlantika Mountains

seen above the horizon--mountains that no European

foot had yet scaled, and whose height is computed to be

ten thousand feet! Their western slope determines the

flow of all the waters in this region of Africa toward the

ocean. They are the Mountains of the Moon to this part

of the continent.

At length a real river greeted the gaze of our travellers,

and, by the enormous ant-hills seen in its vicinity, the

doctor recognized the Benoue, one of the great tributaries

of the Niger, the one which the natives have called "The

Fountain of the Waters."

"This river," said the doctor to his companions, "will,

one day, be the natural channel of communication with

the interior of Nigritia. Under the command of one of

our brave captains, the steamer Pleiad has already ascended

as far as the town of Yola. You see that we are

not in an unknown country."

Numerous slaves were engaged in the labors of the

field, cultivating sorgho, a kind of millet which forms the

chief basis of their diet; and the most stupid expressions

of astonishment ensued as the Victoria sped past like a

meteor. That evening the balloon halted about forty miles

from Yola, and ahead of it, but in the distance, rose the

two sharp cones of Mount Mendif.

The doctor threw out his anchors and made fast to the

top of a high tree; but a very violent wind beat upon the

balloon with such force as to throw it over on its side, thus

rendering the position of the car sometimes extremely

dangerous. Ferguson did not close his all night, and

he was repeatedly on the point of cutting the anchor-rope

and scudding away before the gale. At length, however,

the storm abated, and the oscillations of the balloon ceased

to be alarming.

On the morrow the wind was more moderate, but it

carried our travellers away from the city of Yola, which

recently rebuilt by the Fouillans, excited Ferguson's curiosity.

However, he had to make up his mind to being borne farther

to the northward and even a little to the east.

Kennedy proposed to halt in this fine hunting-country,

and Joe declared that the need of fresh meat was beginning

to be felt; but the savage customs of the country,

the attitude of the population, and some shots fired at the

Victoria, admonished the doctor to continue his journey.

They were then crossing a region that was the scene of

massacres and burnings, and where warlike conflicts between

the barbarian sultans, contending for their power

amid the most atrocious carnage, never cease.

Numerous and populous villages of long low huts

stretched away between broad pasture-fields whose dense

herbage was besprinkled with violet-colored blossoms.

The huts, looking like huge beehives, were sheltered behind

bristling palisades. The wild hill-sides and hollows

frequently reminded the beholder of the glens in the Highlands

of Scotland, as Kennedy more than once remarked.

In spite of all he could do, the doctor bore directly to

the northeast, toward Mount Mendif, which was lost in

the midst of environing clouds. The lofty summits of

these mountains separate the valley of the Niger from the

basin of Lake Tchad.

Soon afterward was seen the Bagele, with its eighteen

villages clinging to its flanks like a whole brood of children

to their mother's bosom--a magnificent spectacle for

the beholder whose gaze commanded and took in the entire

picture at one view. Even the ravines were seen to

be covered with fields of rice and of arachides.

By three o'clock the Victoria was directly in front of

Mount Mendif. It had been impossible to avoid it; the

only thing to be done was to cross it. The doctor, by

means of a temperature increased to one hundred and

eighty degrees, gave the balloon a fresh ascensional force

of nearly sixteen hundred pounds, and it went up to an

elevation of more than eight thousand feet, the greatest

height attained during the journey. The temperature of

the atmosphere was so much cooler at that point that the

aeronauts had to resort to their blankets and thick coverings.

Ferguson was in haste to descend; the covering of the

balloon gave indications of bursting, but in the meanwhile

he had time to satisfy himself of the volcanic origin of the

mountain, whose extinct craters are now but deep abysses.

Immense accumulations of bird-guano gave the sides of

Mount Mendif the appearance of calcareous rocks, and there

was enough of the deposit there to manure all the lands in

the United Kingdom.

At five o'clock the Victoria, sheltered from the south

winds, went gently gliding along the slopes of the mountain,

and stopped in a wide clearing remote from any habitation.

The instant it touched the soil, all needful precautions

were taken to hold it there firmly; and Kennedy,

fowling-piece in hand, sallied out upon the sloping plain.

Ere long, he returned with half a dozen wild ducks and a

kind of snipe, which Joe served up in his best style. The

meal was heartily relished, and the night was passed in

undisturbed and refreshing slumber.

CHAPTER THIRTIETH.

Mosfeia.--The Sheik.--Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney.--Vogel.--The Capital

of Loggoum.--Toole.--Becalmed above Kernak.--The Governor and his Court.

--The Attack.--The Incendiary Pigeons.

On the next day, May 11th, the Victoria resumed her

adventurous journey. Her passengers had the same confidence

in her that a good seaman has in his ship.

In terrific hurricanes, in tropical heats, when making

dangerous departures, and descents still more dangerous,

it had, at all times and in all places, come out safely. It

might almost have been said that Ferguson managed it

with a wave of the hand; and hence, without knowing in

advance, where the point of arrival would be, the doctor

had no fears concerning the successful issue of his journey.

However, in this country of barbarians and fanatics, prudence

obliged him to take the strictest precautions. He

therefore counselled his companions to have their eyes

wide open for every thing and at all hours.

The wind drifted a little more to the northward, and,

toward nine o'clock, they sighted the larger city of Mosfeia,

built upon an eminence which was itself enclosed between

two lofty mountains. Its position was impregnable,

a narrow road running between a marsh and a thick wood

being the only channel of approach to it.

At the moment of which we write, a sheik, accompanied

by a mounted escort, and clad in a garb of brilliant

colors, preceded by couriers and trumpeters, who put aside

the boughs of the trees as he rode up, was making his

grand entry into the place.

The doctor lowered the balloon in order to get a better

look at this cavalcade of natives; but, as the balloon

grew larger to their eyes, they began to show symptoms

of intense affright, and at length made off in different

directions as fast as their legs and those of their horses

could carry them.

The sheik alone did not budge an inch. He merely

grasped his long musket, cocked it, and proudly waited in

silence. The doctor came on to within a hundred and

fifty feet of him, and then, with his roundest and fullest

voice, saluted him courteously in the Arabic tongue.

But, upon hearing these words falling, as it seemed,

from the sky, the sheik dismounted and prostrated himself

in the dust of the highway, where the doctor had to

leave him, finding it impossible to divert him from his

adoration.

"Unquestionably," Ferguson remarked, "those people

take us for supernatural beings. When Europeans came

among them for the first time, they were mistaken for

creatures of a higher race. When this sheik comes to

speak of to-day's meeting, he will not fail to embellish the

circumstance with all the resources of an Arab imagination.

You may, therefore, judge what an account their

legends will give of us some day."

"Not such a desirable thing, after all," said the Scot,

"in the point of view that affects civilization; it would be

better to pass for mere men. That would give these negro

races a superior idea of European power."

"Very good, my dear Dick; but what can we do about

it? You might sit all day explaining the mechanism of

a balloon to the savants of this country, and yet they would

not comprehend you, but would persist in ascribing it to

supernatural aid."

"Doctor, you spoke of the first time Europeans visited

these regions. Who were the visitors?" inquired Joe.

"My dear fellow, we are now upon the very track of

Major Denham. It was at this very city of Mosfeia that

he was received by the Sultan of Mandara; he had quitted

the Bornou country; he accompanied the sheik in an expedition

against the Fellatahs; he assisted in the attack

on the city, which, with its arrows alone, bravely resisted

the bullets of the Arabs, and put the sheik's troops to

flight. All this was but a pretext for murders, raids, and

pillage. The major was completely plundered and stripped,

and had it not been for his horse, under whose stomach he

clung with the skill of an Indian rider, and was borne with

a headlong gallop from his barbarous pursuers, he never

could have made his way back to Kouka, the capital of

Bornou."

"Who was this Major Denham?"

"A fearless Englishman, who, between 1822 and 1824,

commanded an expedition into the Bornou country, in

company with Captain Clapperton and Dr. Oudney. They

set out from Tripoli in the month of March, reached Mourzouk,

the capital of Fez, and, following the route which at

a later period Dr. Barth was to pursue on his way back to

Europe, they arrived, on the 16th of February, 1823, at

Kouka, near Lake Tchad. Denham made several explorations

in Bornou, in Mandara, and to the eastern shores of

the lake. In the mean time, on the 15th of December,

1823, Captain Clapperton and Dr. Oudney had pushed

their way through the Soudan country as far as Sackatoo,

and Oudney died of fatigue and exhaustion in the town

of Murmur."

"This part of Africa has, therefore, paid a heavy tribute

of victims to the cause of science," said Kennedy.

"Yes, this country is fatal to travellers. We are moving

directly toward the kingdom of Baghirmi, which Vogel

traversed in 1856, so as to reach the Wadai country, where

he disappeared. This young man, at the age of twenty-three,

had been sent to cooperate with Dr. Barth. They

met on the 1st of December, 1854, and thereupon commenced

his explorations of the country. Toward 1856, he

announced, in the last letters received from him, his

intention to reconnoitre the kingdom of Wadai, which no

European had yet penetrated. It appears that he got as

far as Wara, the capital, where, according to some accounts,

he was made prisoner, and, according to others,

was put to death for having attempted to ascend a sacred

mountain in the environs. But, we must not too lightly

admit the death of travellers, since that does away with

the necessity of going in search of them. For instance,

how often was the death of Dr. Barth reported, to his

own great annoyance! It is, therefore, very possible that

Vogel may still be held as a prisoner by the Sultan of

Wadai, in the hope of obtaining a good ransom for him.

"Baron de Neimans was about starting for the Wadai

country when he died at Cairo, in 1855; and we now know

that De Heuglin has set out on Vogel's track with the

expedition sent from Leipsic, so that we shall soon be

accurately informed as to the fate of that young and

interesting explorer."*

* Since the doctor's departure, letters written from El'Obeid

by Mr. Muntzinger, the newly-appointed head of the expedition,

unfortunately place the death of Vogel beyond a doubt.

Mosfeia had disappeared from the horizon long ere this,

and the Mandara country was developing to the gaze of

our aeronauts its astonishing fertility, with its forests of

acacias, its locust-trees covered with red flowers, and the

herbaceous plants of its fields of cotton and indigo trees.

The river Shari, which eighty miles farther on rolled its

impetuous waters into Lake Tchad, was quite distinctly

seen.

The doctor got his companions to trace its course upon

the maps drawn by Dr. Barth.

"You perceive," said he, "that the labors of this savant

have been conducted with great precision; we are moving

directly toward the Loggoum region, and perhaps toward

Kernak, its capital. It was there that poor Toole died, at

the age of scarcely twenty-two. He was a young Englishman,

an ensign in the 80th regiment, who, a few weeks

before, had joined Major Denham in Africa, and it was

not long ere he there met his death. Ah! this vast

country might well be called the graveyard of European

travellers."

Some boats, fifty feet long, were descending the current

of the Shari. The Victoria, then one thousand feet

above the soil, hardly attracted the attention of the

natives; but the wind, which until then had been blowing

with a certain degree of strength, was falling off.

"Is it possible that we are to be caught in another dead

calm?" sighed the doctor.

"Well, we've no lack of water, nor the desert to fear,

anyhow, master," said Joe.

"No; but there are races here still more to be dreaded."

"Why!" said Joe, again, "there's something like a town."

"That is Kernak. The last puffs of the breeze are

wafting us to it, and, if we choose, we can take an exact

plan of the place."

"Shall we not go nearer to it?" asked Kennedy.

"Nothing easier, Dick! We are right over it. Allow

me to turn the stopcock of the cylinder, and we'll not be

long in descending."

Half an hour later the balloon hung motionless about

two hundred feet from the ground.

"Here we are!" said the doctor, "nearer to Kernak

than a man would be to London, if he were perched in the

cupola of St. Paul's. So we can take a survey at our

ease."

"What is that tick-tacking sound that we hear on all sides?"

Joe looked attentively, and at length discovered that

the noise they heard was produced by a number of weavers

beating cloth stretched in the open air, on large trunks of

trees.

The capital of Loggoum could then be seen in its entire

extent, like an unrolled chart. It is really a city with

straight rows of houses and quite wide streets. In the

midst of a large open space there was a slave-market,

attended by a great crowd of customers, for the Mandara

women, who have extremely small hands and feet, are in

excellent request, and can be sold at lucrative rates.

At the sight of the Victoria, the scene so often produced

occurred again. At first there were outcries, and

then followed general stupefaction; business was abandoned;

work was flung aside, and all noise ceased. The

aeronauts remained as they were, completely motionless,

and lost not a detail of the populous city. They even

went down to within sixty feet of the ground.

Hereupon the Governor of Loggoum came out from his residence,

displaying his green standard, and accompanied by his

musicians, who blew on hoarse buffalo-horns, as though

they would split their cheeks or any thing else,

excepting their own lungs. The crowd at once gathered

around him. In the mean while Dr. Ferguson tried to

make himself heard, but in vain.

This population looked like proud and intelligent people,

with their high foreheads, their almost aquiline noses,

and their curling hair; but the presence of the Victoria

troubled them greatly. Horsemen could be seen galloping

in all directions, and it soon became evident that the

governor's troops were assembling to oppose so extraordinary

a foe. Joe wore himself out waving handkerchiefs

of every color and shape to them; but his exertions were

all to no purpose.

However, the sheik, surrounded by his court, proclaimed

silence, and pronounced a discourse, of which the

doctor could not understand a word. It was Arabic, mixed

with Baghirmi. He could make out enough, however, by

the universal language of gestures, to be aware that he

was receiving a very polite invitation to depart. Indeed,

he would have asked for nothing better, but for lack of

wind, the thing had become impossible. His noncompliance,

therefore, exasperated the governor, whose courtiers

and attendants set up a furious howl to enforce immediate

obedience on the part of the aerial monster.

They were odd-looking fellows those courtiers, with

their five or six shirts swathed around their bodies! They

had enormous stomachs, some of which actually seemed

to be artificial. The doctor surprised his companions by

informing them that this was the way to pay court to the

sultan. The rotundity of the stomach indicated the ambition

of its possessor. These corpulent gentry gesticulated

and bawled at the top of their voices--one of them

particularly distinguishing himself above the rest--to

such an extent, indeed, that he must have been a prime

minister--at least, if the disturbance he made was any

criterion of his rank. The common rabble of dusky denizens

united their howlings with the uproar of the court,

repeating their gesticulations like so many monkeys, and

thereby producing a single and instantaneous movement

of ten thousand arms at one time.

To these means of intimidation, which were presently

deemed insufficient, were added others still more formidable.

Soldiers, armed with bows and arrows, were drawn

up in line of battle; but by this time the balloon was

expanding, and rising quietly beyond their reach. Upon

this the governor seized a musket and aimed it at the

balloon; but, Kennedy, who was watching him, shattered

the uplifted weapon in the sheik's grasp.

At this unexpected blow there was a general rout.

Every mother's son of them scampered for his dwelling

with the utmost celerity, and stayed there, so that the

streets of the town were absolutely deserted for the remainder

of that day.

Night came, and not a breath of wind was stirring.

The aeronauts had to make up their minds to remain

motionless at the distance of but three hundred feet

above the ground. Not a fire or light shone in the deep

gloom, and around reigned the silence of death; but the

doctor only redoubled his vigilance, as this apparent quiet

might conceal some snare.

And he had reason to be watchful. About midnight,

the whole city seemed to be in a blaze. Hundreds of

streaks of flame crossed each other, and shot to and fro

in the air like rockets, forming a regular network of fire.

"That's really curious!" said the doctor, somewhat

puzzled to make out what it meant.

"By all that's glorious!" shouted Kennedy, "it looks

as if the fire were ascending and coming up toward us!"

And, sure enough, with an accompaniment of musket-shots,

yelling, and din of every description, the mass of

fire was, indeed, mounting toward the Victoria. Joe got

ready to throw out ballast, and Ferguson was not long at

guessing the truth. Thousands of pigeons, their tails garnished

with combustibles, had been set loose and driven

toward the Victoria; and now, in their terror, they were

flying high up, zigzagging the atmosphere with lines of

fire. Kennedy was preparing to discharge all his batteries

into the middle of the ascending multitude, but what

could he have done against such a numberless army?

The pigeons were already whisking around the car; they

were even surrounding the balloon, the sides of which,

reflecting their illumination, looked as though enveloped

with a network of fire.

The doctor dared hesitate no longer; and, throwing

out a fragment of quartz, he kept himself beyond the

reach of these dangerous assailants; and, for two hours

afterward, he could see them wandering hither and thither

through the darkness of the night, until, little by little,

their light diminished, and they, one by one, died out.

"Now we may sleep in quiet," said the doctor.

"Not badly got up for barbarians," mused friend Joe,

speaking his thoughts aloud.

"Oh, they employ these pigeons frequently, to set fire

to the thatch of hostile villages; but this time the village

mounted higher than they could go."

"Why, positively, a balloon need fear no enemies!"

"Yes, indeed, it may!" objected Ferguson.

"What are they, then, doctor?"

"They are the careless people in the car! So, my friends,

let us have vigilance in all places and at all times."

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIRST.

Departure in the Night-time.--All Three.--Kennedy's Instincts.--Precautions.--

The Course of the Shari River.--Lake Tchad.--The Water of the Lake.--The

Hippopotamus.--One Bullet thrown away.

About three o'clock in the morning, Joe, who was then

on watch, at length saw the city move away from beneath

his feet. The Victoria was once again in motion, and

both the doctor and Kennedy awoke.

The former consulted his compass, and saw, with satisfaction,

that the wind was carrying them toward the north-northeast.

"We are in luck!" said he; "every thing works in

our favor: we shall discover Lake Tchad this very day."

"Is it a broad sheet of water?" asked Kennedy.

"Somewhat, Dick. At its greatest length and breadth,

it measures about one hundred and twenty miles."

"It will spice our trip with a little variety to sail

over a spacious sheet of water."

"After all, though, I don't see that we have much to

complain of on that score. Our trip has been very much

varied, indeed; and, moreover, we are getting on under

the best possible conditions."

"Unquestionably so; excepting those privations on

the desert, we have encountered no serious danger."

"It is not to be denied that our noble balloon has

behaved wonderfully well. To-day is May 12th, and we

started on the 18th of April. That makes twenty-five

days of journeying. In ten days more we shall have

reached our destination."

"Where is that?"

"I do not know. But what does that signify?"

"You are right again, Samuel! Let us intrust to Providence

the care of guiding us and of keeping us in good

health as we are now. We don't look much as though

we had been crossing the most pestilential country in the

world!"

"We had an opportunity of getting up in life, and that's

what we have done!"

"Hurrah for trips in the air!" cried Joe. "Here we

are at the end of twenty-five days in good condition, well

fed, and well rested. We've had too much rest in fact,

for my legs begin to feel rusty, and I wouldn't be vexed

a bit to stretch them with a run of thirty miles or so!"

"You can do that, Joe, in the streets of London, but

in fine we set out three together, like Denham, Clapperton,

and Overweg; like Barth, Richardson, and Vogel, and,

more fortunate than our predecessors here, we are three

in number still. But it is most important for us not to

separate. If, while one of us was on the ground, the

Victoria should have to ascend in order to escape some

sudden danger, who knows whether we should ever see

each other again? Therefore it is that I say again to

Kennedy frankly that I do not like his going off alone to

hunt."

"But still, Samuel, you will permit me to indulge that

fancy a little. There is no harm in renewing our stock of

provisions. Besides, before our departure, you held out

to me the prospect of some superb hunting, and thus far I

have done but little in the line of the Andersons and Cummings."

"But, my dear Dick, your memory fails you, or your

modesty makes you forget your own exploits. It really

seems to me that, without mentioning small game, you

have already an antelope, an elephant, and two lions on

your conscience."

"But what's all that to an African sportsman who sees

all the animals in creation strutting along under the

muzzle of his rifle? There! there! look at that troop of

giraffes!"

"Those giraffes," roared Joe; "why, they're not as big

as my fist."

"Because we are a thousand feet above them; but close

to them you would discover that they are three times as

tall as you are!"

"And what do you say to yon herd of gazelles, and

those ostriches, that run with the speed of the wind?"

resumed Kennedy.

"Those ostriches?" remonstrated Joe, again; "those

are chickens, and the greatest kind of chickens!"

"Come, doctor, can't we get down nearer to them?"

pleaded Kennedy.

"We can get closer to them, Dick, but we must not

land. And what good will it do you to strike down those

poor animals when they can be of no use to you? Now,

if the question were to destroy a lion, a tiger, a cat, a

hyena, I could understand it; but to deprive an antelope

or a gazelle of life, to no other purpose than the gratification

of your instincts as a sportsman, seems hardly worth

the trouble. But, after all, my friend, we are going to

keep at about one hundred feet only from the soil, and,

should you see any ferocious wild beast, oblige us by sending

a ball through its heart!"

The Victoria descended gradually, but still keeping at a safe

height, for, in a barbarous, yet very populous country, it was

necessary to keep on the watch for unexpected perils.

The travellers were then directly following the course

of the Shari. The charming banks of this river were

hidden beneath the foliage of trees of various dyes; lianas

and climbing plants wound in and out on all sides and

formed the most curious combinations of color. Crocodiles

were seen basking in the broad blaze of the sun or plunging

beneath the waters with the agility of lizards, and in

their gambols they sported about among the many green

islands that intercept the current of the stream.

It was thus, in the midst of rich and verdant landscapes

that our travellers passed over the district of Maffatay,

and about nine o'clock in the morning reached the

southern shore of Lake Tchad.

There it was at last, outstretched before them, that

Caspian Sea of Africa, the existence of which was so long

consigned to the realms of fable--that interior expanse of

water to which only Denham's and Barth's expeditions

had been able to force their way.

The doctor strove in vain to fix its precise configuration

upon paper. It had already changed greatly since

1847. In fact, the chart of Lake Tchad is very difficult to

trace with exactitude, for it is surrounded by muddy and

almost impassable morasses, in which Barth thought that

he was doomed to perish. From year to year these

marshes, covered with reeds and papyrus fifteen feet high,

become the lake itself. Frequently, too, the villages on

its shores are half submerged, as was the case with Ngornou

in 1856, and now the hippopotamus and the alligator

frisk and dive where the dwellings of Bornou once stood.

The sun shot his dazzling rays over this placid sheet

of water, and toward the north the two elements merged

into one and the same horizon.

The doctor was desirous of determining the character

of the water, which was long believed to be salt. There

was no danger in descending close to the lake, and the car

was soon skimming its surface like a bird at the distance

of only five feet.

Joe plunged a bottle into the lake and drew it up half

filled. The water was then tasted and found to be but

little fit for drinking, with a certain carbonate-of-soda

flavor.

While the doctor was jotting down the result of this

experiment, the loud report of a gun was heard close beside

him. Kennedy had not been able to resist the temptation

of firing at a huge hippopotamus. The latter, who

had been basking quietly, disappeared at the sound of the

explosion, but did not seem to be otherwise incommoded

by Kennedy's conical bullet.

"You'd have done better if you had harpooned him,"

said Joe.

"But how?"

"With one of our anchors. It would have been a hook

just big enough for such a rousing beast as that!"

"Humph!" ejaculated Kennedy, "Joe really has an

idea this time--"

"Which I beg of you not to put into execution," interposed

the doctor. "The animal would very quickly have

dragged us where we could not have done much to help

ourselves, and where we have no business to be."

"Especially now since we've settled the question as to

what kind of water there is in Lake Tchad. Is that sort

of fish good to eat, Dr. Ferguson?"

"That fish, as you call it, Joe, is really a mammiferous

animal of the pachydermal species. Its flesh is said to be

excellent and is an article of important trade between the

tribes living along the borders of the lake."

"Then I'm sorry that Mr. Kennedy's shot didn't do

more damage."

"The animal is vulnerable only in the stomach and between

the thighs. Dick's ball hasn't even marked him;

but should the ground strike me as favorable, we shall halt

at the northern end of the lake, where Kennedy will find

himself in the midst of a whole menagerie, and can make

up for lost time."

"Well," said Joe, "I hope then that Mr. Kennedy

will hunt the hippopotamus a little; I'd like to taste the

meat of that queer-looking beast. It doesn't look exactly

natural to get away into the centre of Africa, to feed on

snipe and partridge, just as if we were in England."

CHAPTER THIRTY-SECOND.

The Capital of Bornou.--The Islands of the Biddiomahs.--The Condors.--The

Doctor's Anxieties.--His Precautions.--An Attack in Mid-air.--The Balloon

Covering torn.--The Fall.--Sublime Self-Sacrifice.--The Northern Coast of

the Lake.

Since its arrival at Lake Tchad, the balloon had struck

a current that edged it farther to the westward. A few

clouds tempered the heat of the day, and, besides, a little

air could be felt over this vast expanse of water; but about

one o'clock, the Victoria, having slanted across this part

of the lake, again advanced over the land for a space of

seven or eight miles.

The doctor, who was somewhat vexed at first at this

turn of his course, no longer thought of complaining when

he caught sight of the city of Kouka, the capital of Bornou.

He saw it for a moment, encircled by its walls of

white clay, and a few rudely-constructed mosques rising

clumsily above that conglomeration of houses that look

like playing-dice, which form most Arab towns. In the

court-yards of the private dwellings, and on the public

squares, grew palms and caoutchouc-trees topped with a

dome of foliage more than one hundred feet in breadth.

Joe called attention to the fact that these immense parasols

were in proper accordance with the intense heat of

the sun, and made thereon some pious reflections which it

were needless to repeat.

Kouka really consists of two distinct towns, separated

by the "Dendal," a large boulevard three hundred

yards wide, at that hour crowded with horsemen and foot

passengers. On one side, the rich quarter stands squarely

with its airy and lofty houses, laid out in regular order;

on the other, is huddled together the poor quarter, a miserable

collection of low hovels of a conical shape, in which

a poverty-stricken multitude vegetate rather than live,

since Kouka is neither a trading nor a commercial city.

Kennedy thought it looked something like Edinburgh,

were that city extended on a plain, with its two distinct

boroughs.

But our travellers had scarcely the time to catch even

this glimpse of it, for, with the fickleness that characterizes

the air-currents of this region, a contrary wind suddenly

swept them some forty miles over the surface of Lake Tchad.

Then then were regaled with a new spectacle. They

could count the numerous islets of the lake, inhabited by

the Biddiomahs, a race of bloodthirsty and formidable

pirates, who are as greatly feared when neighbors as are

the Touaregs of Sahara.

These estimable people were in readiness to receive the

Victoria bravely with stones and arrows, but the balloon

quickly passed their islands, fluttering over them, from one

to the other with butterfly motion, like a gigantic beetle.

At this moment, Joe, who was scanning the horizon,

said to Kennedy:

"There, sir, as you are always thinking of good sport,

yonder is just the thing for you!"

"What is it, Joe?"

"This time, the doctor will not disapprove of your shooting."

"But what is it?"

"Don't you see that flock of big birds making for us?"

"Birds?" exclaimed the doctor, snatching his spyglass.

"I see them," replied Kennedy; "there are at least a

dozen of them."

"Fourteen, exactly!" said Joe.

"Heaven grant that they may be of a kind sufficiently

noxious for the doctor to let me peg away at them!"

"I should not object, but I would much rather see

those birds at a distance from us!"

"Why, are you afraid of those fowls?"

"They are condors, and of the largest size. Should

they attack us--"

"Well, if they do, we'll defend ourselves. We have a

whole arsenal at our disposal. I don't think those birds

are so very formidable."

"Who can tell?" was the doctor's only remark.

Ten minutes later, the flock had come within gunshot,

and were making the air ring with their hoarse cries. They

came right toward the Victoria, more irritated than frightened

by her presence.

"How they scream! What a noise!" said Joe.

"Perhaps they don't like to see anybody poaching in their

country up in the air, or daring to fly like themselves!"

"Well, now, to tell the truth, when I take a good look

at them, they are an ugly, ferocious set, and I should think

them dangerous enough if they were armed with Purdy-Moore

rifles," admitted Kennedy.

"They have no need of such weapons," said Ferguson,

looking very grave.

The condors flew around them in wide circles, their

flight growing gradually closer and closer to the balloon.

They swept through the air in rapid, fantastic curves,

occasionally precipitating themselves headlong with the

speed of a bullet, and then breaking their line of projection

by an abrupt and daring angle.

The doctor, much disquieted, resolved to ascend so as

to escape this dangerous proximity. He therefore dilated

the hydrogen in his balloon, and it rapidly rose.

But the condors mounted with him, apparently determined

not to part company.

"They seem to mean mischief!" said the hunter, cocking

his rifle.

And, in fact, they were swooping nearer, and more than

one came within fifty feet of them, as if defying the fire-arms.

"By George, I'm itching to let them have it!" exclaimed

Kennedy.

"No, Dick; not now! Don't exasperate them needlessly.

That would only be exciting them to attack us!"

"But I could soon settle those fellows!"

"You may think so, Dick. But you are wrong!"

"Why, we have a bullet for each of them!"

"And suppose that they were to attack the upper part

of the balloon, what would you do? How would you get

at them? Just imagine yourself in the presence of a troop

of lions on the plain, or a school of sharks in the open

ocean! For travellers in the air, this situation is just as

dangerous."

"Are you speaking seriously, doctor?"

"Very seriously, Dick."

"Let us wait, then!"

"Wait! Hold yourself in readiness in case of an attack,

but do not fire without my orders."

The birds then collected at a short distance, yet to

near that their naked necks, entirely bare of feathers, could

be plainly seen, as they stretched them out with the effort

of their cries, while their gristly crests, garnished with a

comb and gills of deep violet, stood erect with rage. They

were of the very largest size, their bodies being more than

three feet in length, and the lower surface of their white

wings glittering in the sunlight. They might well have

been considered winged sharks, so striking was their resemblance

to those ferocious rangers of the deep.

"They are following us!" said the doctor, as he saw

them ascending with him, "and, mount as we may, they

can fly still higher!"

"Well, what are we to do?" asked Kennedy.

The doctor made no answer.

"Listen, Samuel!" said the sportsman. "There are

fourteen of those birds; we have seventeen shots at our

disposal if we discharge all our weapons. Have we not

the means, then, to destroy them or disperse them? I

will give a good account of some of them!"

"I have no doubt of your skill, Dick; I look upon all

as dead that may come within range of your rifle, but I

repeat that, if they attack the upper part of the balloon,

you could not get a sight at them. They would tear the

silk covering that sustains us, and we are three thousand

feet up in the air!"

At this moment, one of the ferocious birds darted right

at the balloon, with outstretched beak and claws, ready to

rend it with either or both.

"Fire! fire at once!" cried the doctor.

He had scarcely ceased, ere the huge creature, stricken

dead, dropped headlong, turning over and over in space as

he fell.

Kennedy had already grasped one of the two-barrelled

fowling-pieces and Joe was taking aim with another.

Frightened by the report, the condors drew back for a

moment, but they almost instantly returned to the charge

with extreme fury. Kennedy severed the head of one

from its body with his first shot, and Joe broke the wing

of another.

"Only eleven left," said he.

Thereupon the birds changed their tactics, and by common

consent soared above the balloon. Kennedy glanced at

Ferguson. The latter, in spite of his imperturbability,

grew pale. Then ensued a moment of terrifying silence.

In the next they heard a harsh tearing noise, as of

something rending the silk, and the car seemed to sink

from beneath the feet of our three aeronauts.

"We are lost!" exclaimed Ferguson, glancing at the

barometer, which was now swiftly rising.

"Over with the ballast!" he shouted, "over with it!"

And in a few seconds the last lumps of quartz had disappeared.

"We are still falling! Empty the water-tanks! Do

you hear me, Joe? We are pitching into the lake!"

Joe obeyed. The doctor leaned over and looked out.

The lake seemed to come up toward him like a rising tide.

Every object around grew rapidly in size while they were

looking at it. The car was not two hundred feet from the

surface of Lake Tchad.

"The provisions! the provisions!" cried the doctor.

And the box containing them was launched into space.

Their descent became less rapid, but the luckless

aeronauts were still falling, and into the lake.

"Throw out something--something more!" cried the doctor.

"There is nothing more to throw!" was Kennedy's

despairing response.

"Yes, there is!" called Joe, and with a wave of the hand

he disappeared like a flash, over the edge of the car.

"Joe! Joe!" exclaimed the doctor, horror-stricken.

The Victoria thus relieved resumed her ascending motion,

mounted a thousand feet into the air, and the wind,

burying itself in the disinflated covering, bore them away

toward the northern part of the lake.

"Lost!" exclaimed the sportsman, with a gesture of despair.

"Lost to save us!" responded Ferguson.

And these men, intrepid as they were, felt the large

tears streaming down their cheeks. They leaned over

with the vain hope of seeing some trace of their heroic

companion, but they were already far away from him.

"What course shall we pursue?" asked Kennedy.

"Alight as soon as possible, Dick, and then wait."

After a sweep of some sixty miles the Victoria halted

on a desert shore, on the north of the lake. The anchors

caught in a low tree and the sportsman fastened it securely.

Night came, but neither Ferguson nor Kennedy could

find one moment's sleep.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THIRD.

Conjectures.--Reestablishment of the Victoria's Equilibrium.--Dr.

Ferguson's New Calculations.--Kennedy's Hunt.--A Complete Exploration

of Lake Tchad.--Tangalia.--The Return.--Lari.

On the morrow, the 13th of May, our travellers, for

the first time, reconnoitred the part of the coast on which

they had landed. It was a sort of island of solid ground

in the midst of an immense marsh. Around this fragment

of terra firma grew reeds as lofty as trees are in Europe,

and stretching away out of sight.

These impenetrable swamps gave security to the position

of the balloon. It was necessary to watch only the

borders of the lake. The vast stretch of water broadened

away from the spot, especially toward the east, and nothing

could be seen on the horizon, neither mainland nor islands.

The two friends had not yet ventured to speak of their

recent companion. Kennedy first imparted his conjectures

to the doctor.

"Perhaps Joe is not lost after all," he said. "He was

a skilful lad, and had few equals as a swimmer. He would

find no difficulty in swimming across the Firth of Forth at

Edinburgh. We shall see him again--but how and where

I know not. Let us omit nothing on our part to give him

the chance of rejoining us."

"May God grant it as you say, Dick!" replied the

doctor, with much emotion. "We shall do everything in

the world to find our lost friend again. Let us, in the first

place, see where we are. But, above all things, let us rid

the Victoria of this outside covering, which is of no further

use. That will relieve us of six hundred and fifty pounds,

a weight not to be despised--and the end is worth the

trouble!"

The doctor and Kennedy went to work at once, but

they encountered great difficulty. They had to tear the

strong silk away piece by piece, and then cut it in narrow

strips so as to extricate it from the meshes of the network.

The tear made by the beaks of the condors was found to

be several feet in length.

This operation took at least four hours, but at length

the inner balloon once completely extricated did not appear

to have suffered in the least degree. The Victoria was

thus diminished in size by one fifth, and this difference

was sufficiently noticeable to excite Kennedy's surprise.

"Will it be large enough?" he asked.

"Have no fears on that score, I will reestablish the

equilibrium, and should our poor Joe return we shall find

a way to start off with him again on our old route."

"At the moment of our fall, unless I am mistaken, we

were not far from an island."

"Yes, I recollect it," said the doctor, "but that island,

like all the islands on Lake Tchad, is, no doubt, inhabited

by a gang of pirates and murderers. They certainly witnessed

our misfortune, and should Joe fall into their hands, what

will become of him unless protected by their superstitions?"

"Oh, he's just the lad to get safely out of the scrape, I repeat.

I have great confidence in his shrewdness and skill."

"I hope so. Now, Dick, you may go and hunt in the

neighborhood, but don't get far away whatever you do.

It has become a pressing necessity for us to renew our

stock of provisions, since we had to sacrifice nearly all the

old lot."

"Very good, doctor, I shall not be long absent."

Hereupon, Kennedy took a double-barrelled fowling-piece,

and strode through the long grass toward a thicket

not far off, where the frequent sound of shooting soon let

the doctor know that the sportsman was making a good

use of his time.

Meanwhile Ferguson was engaged in calculating the

relative weight of the articles still left in the car, and in

establishing the equipoise of the second balloon. He found

that there were still left some thirty pounds of pemmican,

a supply of tea and coffee, about a gallon and a half of

brandy, and one empty water-tank. All the dried meat

had disappeared.

The doctor was aware that, by the loss of the hydrogen

in the first balloon, the ascensional force at his disposal

was now reduced to about nine hundred pounds. He

therefore had to count upon this difference in order to

rearrange his equilibrium. The new balloon measured sixty-seven

thousand cubic feet, and contained thirty-three

thousand four hundred and eighty feet of gas. The dilating

apparatus appeared to be in good condition, and neither

the battery nor the spiral had been injured.

The ascensional force of the new balloon was then

about three thousand pounds, and, in adding together the

weight of the apparatus, of the passengers, of the stock of

water, of the car and its accessories, and putting aboard

fifty gallons of water, and one hundred pounds of fresh

meat, the doctor got a total weight of twenty-eight hundred

and thirty pounds. He could then take with him one

hundred and seventy pounds of ballast, for unforeseen

emergencies, and the balloon would be in exact balance

with the surrounding atmosphere.

His arrangements were completed accordingly, and he

made up for Joe's weight with a surplus of ballast. He

spent the whole day in these preparations, and the latter

were finished when Kennedy returned. The hunter had

been successful, and brought back a regular cargo of geese,

wild-duck, snipe, teal, and plover. He went to work at

once to draw and smoke the game. Each piece, suspended

on a small, thin skewer, was hung over a fire of green

wood. When they seemed in good order, Kennedy, who

was perfectly at home in the business, packed them away

in the car.

On the morrow, the hunter was to complete his supplies.

Evening surprised our travellers in the midst of this

work. Their supper consisted of pemmican, biscuit, and

tea; and fatigue, after having given them appetite, brought

them sleep. Each of them strained eyes and ears into the

gloom during his watch, sometimes fancying that they

heard the voice of poor Joe; but, alas! the voice that

they so longed to hear, was far away.

"At the first streak of day, the doctor aroused Kennedy.

"I have been long and carefully considering what

should be done," said he, "to find our companion."

"Whatever your plan may be, doctor, it will suit me. Speak!"

"Above all things, it is important that Joe should hear

from us in some way."

"Undoubtedly. Suppose the brave fellow should take

it into his head that we have abandoned him?"

"He! He knows us too well for that. Such a thought

would never come into his mind. But he must be informed

as to where we are."

"How can that be managed?"

"We shall get into our car and be off again through

the air."

"But, should the wind bear us away?"

"Happily, it will not. See, Dick! it is carrying us

back to the lake; and this circumstance, which would

have been vexatious yesterday, is fortunate now. Our

efforts, then, will be limited to keeping ourselves above

that vast sheet of water throughout the day. Joe cannot

fail to see us, and his eyes will be constantly on the

lookout in that direction. Perhaps he will even manage to

let us know the place of his retreat."

"If he be alone and at liberty, he certainly will."

"And if a prisoner," resumed the doctor, "it not being

the practice of the natives to confine their captives, he will

see us, and comprehend the object of our researches."

"But, at last," put in Kennedy--"for we must anticipate

every thing--should we find no trace--if he should

have left no mark to follow him by, what are we to do?"

"We shall endeavor to regain the northern part of

the lake, keeping ourselves as much in sight as possible.

There we'll wait; we'll explore the banks; we'll search

the water's edge, for Joe will assuredly try to reach the

shore; and we will not leave the country without having

done every thing to find him."

"Let us set out, then!" said the hunter.

The doctor hereupon took the exact bearings of the

patch of solid land they were about to leave, and arrived

at the conclusion that it lay on the north shore of Lake

Tchad, between the village of Lari and the village of

Ingemini, both visited by Major Denham. During this

time Kennedy was completing his stock of fresh meat.

Although the neighboring marshes showed traces of the

rhinoceros, the lamantine (or manatee), and the hippopotamus,

he had no opportunity to see a single specimen of

those animals.

At seven in the morning, but not without great difficulty

--which to Joe would have been nothing--the balloon's

anchor was detached from its hold, the gas dilated,

and the new Victoria rose two hundred feet into the air.

It seemed to hesitate at first, and went spinning around,

like a top; but at last a brisk current caught it, and it

advanced over the lake, and was soon borne away at a

speed of twenty miles per hour.

The doctor continued to keep at a height of from two

hundred to five hundred feet. Kennedy frequently discharged

his rifle; and, when passing over islands, the

aeronauts approached them even imprudently, scrutinizing

the thickets, the bushes, the underbrush--in fine, every spot

where a mass of shade or jutting rock could have afforded

a retreat to their companion. They swooped down close

to the long pirogues that navigated the lake; and the

wild fishermen, terrified at the sight of the balloon, would

plunge into the water and regain their islands with every

symptom of undisguised affright.

"We can see nothing," said Kennedy, after two hours

of search.

"Let us wait a little longer, Dick, and not lose heart.

We cannot be far away from the scene of our accident."

By eleven o'clock the balloon had gone ninety miles.

It then fell in with a new current, which, blowing almost

at right angles to the other, drove them eastward about

sixty miles. It next floated over a very large and populous

island, which the doctor took to be Farram, on which

the capital of the Biddiomahs is situated. Ferguson expected

at every moment to see Joe spring up out of some

thicket, flying for his life, and calling for help. Were he

free, they could pick him up without trouble; were he a

prisoner, they could rescue him by repeating the manoeuvre

they had practised to save the missionary, and he would

soon be with his friends again; but nothing was seen, not

a sound was heard. The case seemed desperate.

About half-past two o'clock, the Victoria hove in sight

of Tangalia, a village situated on the eastern shore of

Lake Tchad, where it marks the extreme point attained

by Denham at the period of his exploration.

The doctor became uneasy at this persistent setting

of the wind in that direction, for he felt that he was being

thrown back to the eastward, toward the centre of Africa,

and the interminable deserts of that region.

"We must absolutely come to a halt," said he, "and

even alight. For Joe's sake, particularly, we ought to

go back to the lake; but, to begin with, let us endeavor

to find an opposite current."

During more than an hour he searched at different

altitudes: the balloon always came back toward the mainland.

But at length, at the height of a thousand feet, a

very violent breeze swept to the northwestward.

It was out of the question that Joe should have been

detained on one of the islands of the lake; for, in such case

he would certainly have found means to make his presence

there known. Perhaps he had been dragged to the mainland.

The doctor was reasoning thus to himself, when he

again came in sight of the northern shore of Lake Tchad.

As for supposing that Joe had been drowned, that was

not to be believed for a moment. One horrible thought

glanced across the minds of both Kennedy and the doctor:

caymans swarm in these waters! But neither one

nor the other had the courage to distinctly communicate

this impression. However, it came up to them so forcibly

at last that the doctor said, without further preface:

"Crocodiles are found only on the shores of the islands

or of the lake, and Joe will have skill enough to avoid

them. Besides, they are not very dangerous; and the

Africans bathe with impunity, and quite fearless of their

attacks."

Kennedy made no reply. He preferred keeping quiet

to discussing this terrible possibility.

The doctor made out the town of Lari about five

o'clock in the evening. The inhabitants were at work

gathering in their cotton-crop in front of their huts,

constructed of woven reeds, and standing in the midst of clean

and neatly-kept enclosures. This collection of about fifty

habitations occupied a slight depression of the soil, in a

valley extending between two low mountains. The force

of the wind carried the doctor farther onward than he

wanted to go; but it changed a second time, and bore

him back exactly to his starting-point, on the sort of

enclosed island where he had passed the preceding night.

The anchor, instead of catching the branches of the tree,

took hold in the masses of reeds mixed with the thick mud

of the marshes, which offered considerable resistance.

The doctor had much difficulty in restraining the balloon;

but at length the wind died away with the setting

in of nightfall; and the two friends kept watch together

in an almost desperate state of mind.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOURTH.

The Hurricane.--A Forced Departure.--Loss of an Anchor.--Melancholy

Reflections.--The Resolution adopted.--The Sand-Storm.--The Buried

Caravan.--A Contrary yet Favorable Wind.--The Return southward.--Kennedy

at his Post.

At three o'clock in the morning the wind was raging.

It beat down with such violence that the Victoria could

not stay near the ground without danger. It was thrown

almost flat over upon its side, and the reeds chafed the

silk so roughly that it seemed as though they would tear it.

"We must be off, Dick," said the doctor; "we cannot

remain in this situation."

"But, doctor, what of Joe?"

"I am not likely to abandon him. No, indeed! and

should the hurricane carry me a thousand miles to the

northward, I will return! But here we are endangering

the safety of all."

"Must we go without him?" asked the Scot, with an

accent of profound grief.

"And do you think, then," rejoined Ferguson, "that

my heart does not bleed like your own? Am I not merely

obeying an imperious necessity?"

"I am entirely at your orders," replied the hunter;

"let us start!"

But their departure was surrounded with unusual difficulty.

The anchor, which had caught very deeply, resisted all

their efforts to disengage it; while the balloon,

drawing in the opposite direction, increased its tension.

Kennedy could not get it free. Besides, in his present

position, the manoeuvre had become a very perilous one,

for the Victoria threatened to break away before he should

be able to get into the car again.

The doctor, unwilling to run such a risk, made his

friend get into his place, and resigned himself to the

alternative of cutting the anchor-rope. The Victoria made

one bound of three hundred feet into the air, and took her

route directly northward.

Ferguson had no other choice than to scud before the

storm. He folded his arms, and soon became absorbed in

his own melancholy reflections.

After a few moments of profound silence, he turned to

Kennedy, who sat there no less taciturn.

"We have, perhaps, been tempting Providence," said

he; "it does not belong to man to undertake such a journey!"

--and a sigh of grief escaped him as he spoke.

"It is but a few days," replied the sportsman, "since

we were congratulating ourselves upon having escaped so

many dangers! All three of us were shaking hands!"

"Poor Joe! kindly and excellent disposition! brave

and candid heart! Dazzled for a moment by his sudden

discovery of wealth, he willingly sacrificed his treasures!

And now, he is far from us; and the wind is carrying us

still farther away with resistless speed!"

"Come, doctor, admitting that he may have found

refuge among the lake tribes, can he not do as the travellers

who visited them before us, did;--like Denham, like

Barth? Both of those men got back to their own country."

"Ah! my dear Dick! Joe doesn't know one word of

the language; he is alone, and without resources. The

travellers of whom you speak did not attempt to go forward

without sending many presents in advance of them

to the chiefs, and surrounded by an escort armed and

trained for these expeditions. Yet, they could not avoid

sufferings of the worst description! What, then, can you

expect the fate of our companion to be? It is horrible to

think of, and this is one of the worst calamities that it has

ever been my lot to endure!"

"But, we'll come back again, doctor!"

"Come back, Dick? Yes, if we have to abandon the

balloon! if we should be forced to return to Lake Tchad

on foot, and put ourselves in communication with the

Sultan of Bornou! The Arabs cannot have retained a disagreeable

remembrance of the first Europeans."

"I will follow you, doctor," replied the hunter, with

emphasis. "You may count upon me! We would rather

give up the idea of prosecuting this journey than not

return. Joe forgot himself for our sake; we will sacrifice

ourselves for his!"

This resolve revived some hope in the hearts of these

two men; they felt strong in the same inspiration. Ferguson

forthwith set every thing at work to get into a contrary

current, that might bring him back again to Lake

Tchad; but this was impracticable at that moment, and

even to alight was out of the question on ground completely

bare of trees, and with such a hurricane blowing.

The Victoria thus passed over the country of the Tibbous,

crossed the Belad el Djerid, a desert of briers that

forms the border of the Soudan, and advanced into the

desert of sand streaked with the long tracks of the many

caravans that pass and repass there. The last line of vegetation

was speedily lost in the dim southern horizon, not far

from the principal oasis in this part of Africa, whose fifty

wells are shaded by magnificent trees; but it was impossible

to stop. An Arab encampment, tents of striped

stuff, some camels, stretching out their viper-like heads

and necks along the sand, gave life to this solitude, but

the Victoria sped by like a shooting-star, and in this way

traversed a distance of sixty miles in three hours, without

Ferguson being able to check or guide her course.

"We cannot halt, we cannot alight!" said the doctor;

"not a tree, not an inequality of the ground! Are

we then to be driven clear across Sahara? Surely, Heaven

is indeed against us!"

He was uttering these words with a sort of despairing

rage, when suddenly he saw the desert sands rising aloft

in the midst of a dense cloud of dust, and go whirling

through the air, impelled by opposing currents.

Amid this tornado, an entire caravan, disorganized,

broken, and overthrown, was disappearing beneath an

avalanche of sand. The camels, flung pell-mell together,

were uttering dull and pitiful groans; cries and howls of

despair were heard issuing from that dusty and stifling

cloud, and, from time to time, a parti-colored garment cut

the chaos of the scene with its vivid hues, and the moaning

and shrieking sounded over all, a terrible accompaniment

to this spectacle of destruction.

Ere long the sand had accumulated in compact masses;

and there, where so recently stretched a level plain as far

as the eye could see, rose now a ridgy line of hillocks,

still moving from beneath--the vast tomb of an entire

caravan!

The doctor and Kennedy, pallid with emotion, sat

transfixed by this fearful spectacle. They could no longer

manage their balloon, which went whirling round and

round in contending currents, and refused to obey the

different dilations of the gas. Caught in these eddies of

the atmosphere, it spun about with a rapidity that made

their heads reel, while the car oscillated and swung to and

fro violently at the same time. The instruments suspended

under the awning clattered together as though they would

be dashed to pieces; the pipes of the spiral bent to and fro,

threatening to break at every instant; and the water-tanks

jostled and jarred with tremendous din. Although but

two feet apart, our aeronauts could not hear each other

speak, but with firmly-clinched hands they clung convulsively

to the cordage, and endeavored to steady themselves

against the fury of the tempest.

Kennedy, with his hair blown wildly about his face,

looked on without speaking; but the doctor had regained

all his daring in the midst of this deadly peril, and not a

sign of his emotion was betrayed in his countenance, even

when, after a last violent twirl, the Victoria stopped suddenly

in the midst of a most unlooked-for calm; the north

wind had abruptly got the upper hand, and now drove her

back with equal rapidity over the route she had traversed

in the morning.

"Whither are we going now?" cried Kennedy.

"Let us leave that to Providence, my dear Dick; I

was wrong in doubting it. It knows better than we, and

here we are, returning to places that we had expected

never to see again!"

The surface of the country, which had looked so flat

and level when they were coming, now seemed tossed and

uneven, like the ocean-billows after a storm; a long succession

of hillocks, that had scarcely settled to their places

yet, indented the desert; the wind blew furiously, and the

balloon fairly flew through the atmosphere.

The direction taken by our aeronauts differed somewhat

from that of the morning, and thus about nine o'clock,

instead of finding themselves again near the borders of

Lake Tchad, they saw the desert still stretching away

before them.

Kennedy remarked the circumstance.

"It matters little," replied the doctor, "the important

point is to return southward; we shall come across the

towns of Bornou, Wouddie, or Kouka, and I should not

hesitate to halt there."

"If you are satisfied, I am content," replied the Scot,

"but Heaven grant that we may not be reduced to cross

the desert, as those unfortunate Arabs had to do! What

we saw was frightful!"

"It often happens, Dick; these trips across the desert

are far more perilous than those across the ocean. The

desert has all the dangers of the sea, including the risk of

being swallowed up, and added thereto are unendurable

fatigues and privations."

"I think the wind shows some symptoms of moderating;

the sand-dust is less dense; the undulations of the

surface are diminishing, and the sky is growing clearer."

"So much the better! We must now reconnoitre attentively

with our glasses, and take care not to omit a

single point."

"I will look out for that, doctor, and not a tree shall

be seen without my informing you of it."

And, suiting the action to the word, Kennedy took his

station, spy-glass in hand, at the forward part of the car.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIFTH.

What happened to Joe.--The Island of the Biddiomahs.--The Adoration

shown him.--The Island that sank.--The Shores of the Lake.--The Tree

of the Serpents.--The Foot-Tramp.--Terrible Suffering.--Mosquitoes

and Ants.--Hunger.--The Victoria seen.--She disappears.--The Swamp.

--One Last Despairing Cry.

What had become of Joe, while his master was thus

vainly seeking for him?

When he had dashed headlong into the lake, his first

movement on coming to the surface was to raise his eyes

and look upward. He saw the Victoria already risen far

above the water, still rapidly ascending and growing

smaller and smaller. It was soon caught in a rapid current

and disappeared to the northward. His master--both

his friends were saved!

"How lucky it was," thought he, "that I had that

idea to throw myself out into the lake! Mr. Kennedy

would soon have jumped at it, and he would not have

hesitated to do as I did, for nothing's more natural than

for one man to give himself up to save two others. That's

mathematics!"

Satisfied on this point, Joe began to think of himself.

He was in the middle of a vast lake, surrounded by tribes

unknown to him, and probably ferocious. All the greater

reason why he should get out of the scrape by depending

only on himself. And so he gave himself no farther concern

about it.

Before the attack by the birds of prey, which, according

to him, had behaved like real condors, he had noticed

an island on the horizon, and determining to reach it, if

possible, he put forth all his knowledge and skill in the art

of swimming, after having relieved himself of the most

troublesome part of his clothing. The idea of a stretch

of five or six miles by no means disconcerted him; and

therefore, so long as he was in the open lake, he thought

only of striking out straight ahead and manfully.

In about an hour and a half the distance between him

and the island had greatly diminished.

But as he approached the land, a thought, at first fleeting

and then tenacious, arose in his mind. He knew that

the shores of the lake were frequented by huge alligators,

and was well aware of the voracity of those monsters.

Now, no matter how much he was inclined to find

every thing in this world quite natural, the worthy fellow

was no little disturbed by this reflection. He feared greatly

lest white flesh like his might be particularly acceptable

to the dreaded brutes, and advanced only with extreme

precaution, his eyes on the alert on both sides and all

around him. At length, he was not more than one hundred

yards from a bank, covered with green trees, when

a puff of air strongly impregnated with a musky odor

reached him.

"There!" said he to himself, "just what I expected.

The crocodile isn't far off!"

With this he dived swiftly, but not sufficiently so to

avoid coming into contact with an enormous body, the

scaly surface of which scratched him as he passed. He

thought himself lost and swam with desperate energy.

Then he rose again to the top of the water, took breath

and dived once more. Thus passed a few minutes of unspeakable

anguish, which all his philosophy could not overcome,

for he thought, all the while, that he heard behind

him the sound of those huge jaws ready to snap him up

forever. In this state of mind he was striking out under

the water as noiselessly as possible when he felt himself

seized by the arm and then by the waist.

Poor Joe! he gave one last thought to his master; and

began to struggle with all the energy of despair, feeling

himself the while drawn along, but not toward the bottom

of the lake, as is the habit of the crocodile when about to

devour its prey, but toward the surface.

So soon as he could get breath and look around him,

he saw that he was between two natives as black as ebony,

who held him, with a firm gripe, and uttered strange cries.

"Ha!" said Joe, "blacks instead of crocodiles! Well,

I prefer it as it is; but how in the mischief dare these

fellows go in bathing in such places?"

Joe was not aware that the inhabitants of the islands

of Lake Tchad, like many other negro tribes, plunge with

impunity into sheets of water infested with crocodiles and

caymans, and without troubling their heads about them.

The amphibious denizens of this lake enjoy the well-deserved

reputation of being quite inoffensive.

But had not Joe escaped one peril only to fall into

another? That was a question which he left events to

decide; and, since he could not do otherwise, he allowed

himself to be conducted to the shore without manifesting

any alarm.

"Evidently," thought he, "these chaps saw the Victoria

skimming the waters of the lake, like a monster of the

air. They were the distant witnesses of my tumble, and

they can't fail to have some respect for a man that fell

from the sky! Let them have their own way, then."

Joe was at this stage of his meditations, when he was

landed amid a yelling crowd of both sexes, and all ages

and sizes, but not of all colors. In fine, he was surrounded

by a tribe of Biddiomahs as black as jet. Nor had he to

blush for the scantiness of his costume, for he saw that he

was in "undress" in the highest style of that country.

But before he had time to form an exact idea of the

situation, there was no mistaking the agitation of which

he instantly became the object, and this soon enabled him

to pluck up courage, although the adventure of Kazah did

come back rather vividly to his memory.

"I foresee that they are going to make a god of me

again," thought he, "some son of the moon most likely.

Well, one trade's as good as another when a man has no

choice. The main thing is to gain time. Should the

Victoria pass this way again, I'll take advantage of my

new position to treat my worshippers here to a miracle

when I go sailing up into the sky!"

While Joe's thoughts were running thus, the throng

pressed around him. They prostrated themselves before

him; they howled; they felt him; they became even annoyingly

familiar; but at the same time they had the consideration

to offer him a superb banquet consisting of sour

milk and rice pounded in honey. The worthy fellow,

making the best of every thing, took one of the heartiest

luncheons he ever ate in his life, and gave his new adorers

an exalted idea of how the gods tuck away their food upon

grand occasions.

When evening came, the sorcerers of the island took

him respectfully by the hand, and conducted him to a sort

of house surrounded with talismans; but, as he was entering

it, Joe cast an uneasy look at the heaps of human

bones that lay scattered around this sanctuary. But he

had still more time to think about them when he found

himself at last shut up in the cabin.

During the evening and through a part of the night,

he heard festive chantings, the reverberations of a kind

of drum, and a clatter of old iron, which were very sweet,

no doubt, to African ears. Then there were howling

choruses, accompanied by endless dances by gangs of

natives who circled round and round the sacred hut with

contortions and grimaces.

Joe could catch the sound of this deafening orchestra,

through the mud and reeds of which his cabin was built;

and perhaps under other circumstances he might have been

amused by these strange ceremonies; but his mind was

soon disturbed by quite different and less agreeable reflections.

Even looking at the bright side of things, he found

it both stupid and sad to be left alone in the midst of this

savage country and among these wild tribes. Few travellers

who had penetrated to these regions had ever again

seen their native land. Moreover, could he trust to the

worship of which he saw himself the object? He had

good reason to believe in the vanity of human greatness;

and he asked himself whether, in this country, adoration

did not sometimes go to the length of eating the object

adored!

But, notwithstanding this rather perplexing prospect,

after some hours of meditation, fatigue got the better of

his gloomy thoughts, and Joe fell into a profound slumber,

which would have lasted no doubt until sunrise, had

not a very unexpected sensation of dampness awakened

the sleeper. Ere long this dampness became water, and

that water gained so rapidly that it had soon mounted

to Joe's waist.

"What can this be?" said he; "a flood! a water-spout!

or a new torture invented by these blacks? Faith, though,

I'm not going to wait here till it's up to my neck!"

And, so saying, he burst through the frail wall with

a jog of his powerful shoulder, and found himself--where?

--in the open lake! Island there was none. It had sunk

during the night. In its place, the watery immensity of

Lake Tchad!

"A poor country for the land-owners!" said Joe, once more

vigorously resorting to his skill in the art of natation.

One of those phenomena, which are by no means unusual

on Lake Tchad, had liberated our brave Joe. More than

one island, that previously seemed to have the solidity

of rock, has been submerged in this way; and the people

living along the shores of the mainland have had to

pick up the unfortunate survivors of these terrible catastrophes.

Joe knew nothing about this peculiarity of the region,

but he was none the less ready to profit by it. He caught

sight of a boat drifting about, without occupants, and was

soon aboard of it. He found it to be but the trunk of a

tree rudely hollowed out; but there were a couple of

paddles in it, and Joe, availing himself of a rapid current,

allowed his craft to float along.

"But let us see where we are," he said. "The polar-star

there, that does its work honorably in pointing out

the direction due north to everybody else, will, most likely,

do me that service."

He discovered, with satisfaction, that the current was

taking him toward the northern shore of the lake, and he

allowed himself to glide with it. About two o'clock in the

morning he disembarked upon a promontory covered with

prickly reeds, that proved very provoking and inconvenient

even to a philosopher like him; but a tree grew

there expressly to offer him a bed among its branches,

and Joe climbed up into it for greater security, and there,

without sleeping much, however, awaited the dawn of day.

When morning had come with that suddenness which

is peculiar to the equatorial regions, Joe cast a glance at

the tree which had sheltered him during the last few

hours, and beheld a sight that chilled the marrow in his

bones. The branches of the tree were literally covered

with snakes and chameleons! The foliage actually was

hidden beneath their coils, so that the beholder might

have fancied that he saw before him a new kind of tree

that bore reptiles for its leaves and fruit. And all this

horrible living mass writhed and twisted in the first rays

of the morning sun! Joe experienced a keen sensation

or terror mingled with disgust, as he looked at it, and he

leaped precipitately from the tree amid the hissings of

these new and unwelcome bedfellows.

"Now, there's something that I would never have believed!"

said he.

He was not aware that Dr. Vogel's last letters had

made known this singular feature of the shores of Lake

Tchad, where reptiles are more numerous than in any

other part of the world. But after what he had just seen,

Joe determined to be more circumspect for the future;

and, taking his bearings by the sun, he set off afoot toward

the northeast, avoiding with the utmost care cabins, huts,

hovels, and dens of every description, that might serve

in any manner as a shelter for human beings.

How often his gaze was turned upward to the sky!

He hoped to catch a glimpse, each time, of the Victoria;

and, although he looked vainly during all that long,

fatiguing day of sore foot-travel, his confident reliance on

his master remained undiminished. Great energy of character

was needed to enable him thus to sustain the situation

with philosophy. Hunger conspired with fatigue to

crush him, for a man's system is not greatly restored and

fortified by a diet of roots, the pith of plants, such as the

Mele, or the fruit of the doum palm-tree; and yet, according

to his own calculations, Joe was enabled to push on

about twenty miles to the westward.

His body bore in scores of places the marks of the

thorns with which the lake-reeds, the acacias, the mimosas,

and other wild shrubbery through which he had to force

his way, are thickly studded; and his torn and bleeding

feet rendered walking both painful and difficult. But at

length he managed to react against all these sufferings;

and when evening came again, he resolved to pass the

night on the shores of Lake Tchad.

There he had to endure the bites of myriads of insects

--gnats, mosquitoes, ants half an inch long, literally

covered the ground; and, in less than two hours, Joe had

not a rag remaining of the garments that had covered him,

the insects having devoured them! It was a terrible night,

that did not yield our exhausted traveller an hour of sleep.

During all this time the wild-boars and native buffaloes,

reenforced by the ajoub--a very dangerous species of lamantine

--carried on their ferocious revels in the bushes

and under the waters of the lake, filling the night with a

hideous concert. Joe dared scarcely breathe. Even his

courage and coolness had hard work to bear up against so

terrible a situation.

At length, day came again, and Joe sprang to his feet

precipitately; but judge of the loathing he felt when he

saw what species of creature had shared his couch--a

toad!--but a toad five inches in length, a monstrous,

repulsive specimen of vermin that sat there staring at him

with huge round eyes. Joe felt his stomach revolt at the

sight, and, regaining a little strength from the intensity

of his repugnance, he rushed at the top of his speed and

plunged into the lake. This sudden bath somewhat allayed

the pangs of the itching that tortured his whole body;

and, chewing a few leaves, he set forth resolutely, again

feeling an obstinate resolution in the act, for which he

could hardly account even to his own mind. He no longer

seemed to have entire control of his own acts, and, nevertheless,

he felt within him a strength superior to despair.

However, he began now to suffer terribly from hunger.

His stomach, less resigned than he was, rebelled, and he was

obliged to fasten a tendril of wild-vine tightly about his

waist. Fortunately, he could quench his thirst at any

moment, and, in recalling the sufferings he had undergone

in the desert, he experienced comparative relief in his exemption

from that other distressing want.

"What can have become of the Victoria?" he wondered.

"The wind blows from the north, and she should be

carried back by it toward the lake. No doubt the doctor

has gone to work to right her balance, but yesterday

would have given him time enough for that, so that may

be to-day--but I must act just as if I was never to see

him again. After all, if I only get to one of the large

towns on the lake, I'll find myself no worse off than the

travellers my master used to talk about. Why shouldn't

I work my way out of the scrape as well as they did?

Some of them got back home again. Come, then! the

deuce! Cheer up, my boy!"

Thus talking to himself and walking on rapidly, Joe

came right upon a horde of natives in the very depths of

the forest, but he halted in time and was not seen by them.

The negroes were busy poisoning arrows with the juice of

the euphorbium--a piece of work deemed a great affair

among these savage tribes, and carried on with a sort of

ceremonial solemnity.

Joe, entirely motionless and even holding his breath,

was keeping himself concealed in a thicket, when, happening

to raise his eyes, he saw through an opening in the

foliage the welcome apparition of the balloon--the Victoria

herself--moving toward the lake, at a height of only

about one hundred feet above him. But he could not

make himself heard; he dared not, could not make his

friends even see him!

Tears came to his eyes, not of grief but of thankfulness;

his master was then seeking him; his master had

not left him to perish! He would have to wait for the

departure of the blacks; then he could quit his hiding-place

and run toward the borders of Lake Tchad!

But by this time the Victoria was disappearing in the

distant sky. Joe still determined to wait for her; she

would come back again, undoubtedly. She did, indeed,

return, but farther to the eastward. Joe ran, gesticulated,

shouted--but all in vain! A strong breeze was sweeping

the balloon away with a speed that deprived him of all

hope.

For the first time, energy and confidence abandoned

the heart of the unfortunate man. He saw that he was

lost. He thought his master gone beyond all prospect of

return. He dared no longer think; he would no longer

reflect!

Like a crazy man, his feet bleeding, his body cut and

torn, he walked on during all that day and a part of the

next night. He even dragged himself along, sometimes

on his knees, sometimes with his hands. He saw the moment

nigh when all his strength would fail, and nothing would

be left to him but to sink upon the ground and die.

Thus working his way along, he at length found himself

close to a marsh, or what he knew would soon become

a marsh, for night had set in some hours before, and he fell

by a sudden misstep into a thick, clinging mire. In spite

of all his efforts, in spite of his desperate struggles, he felt

himself sinking gradually in the swampy ooze, and in a

few minutes he was buried to his waist.

"Here, then, at last, is death!" he thought, in agony,

"and what a death!"

He now began to struggle again, like a madman; but

his efforts only served to bury him deeper in the tomb

that the poor doomed lad was hollowing for himself; not

a log of wood or a branch to buoy him up; not a reed to

which he might cling! He felt that all was over! His

eyes convulsively closed!

"Master! master!--Help!" were his last words; but

his voice, despairing, unaided, half stifled already by the

rising mire, died away feebly on the night.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIXTH.

A Throng of People on the Horizon.--A Troop of Arabs.--The Pursuit.

--It is He.--Fall from Horseback.--The Strangled Arab.--A Ball from

Kennedy.--Adroit Manoeuvres.--Caught up flying.--Joe saved at last.

From the moment when Kennedy resumed his post of

observation in the front of the car, he had not ceased to

watch the horizon with his utmost attention.

After the lapse of some time he turned toward the

doctor and said:

"If I am not greatly mistaken I can see, off yonder in

the distance, a throng of men or animals moving. It is impossible

to make them out yet, but I observe that they are in violent

motion, for they are raising a great cloud of dust."

"May it not be another contrary breeze?" said the

doctor, "another whirlwind coming to drive us back northward

again?" and while speaking he stood up to examine

the horizon.

"I think not, Samuel; it is a troop of gazelles or of

wild oxen."

"Perhaps so, Dick; but yon throng is some nine or

ten miles from us at least, and on my part, even with the

glass, I can make nothing of it!"

"At all events I shall not lose sight of it. There is

something remarkable about it that excites my curiosity.

Sometimes it looks like a body of cavalry manoeuvring.

Ah! I was not mistaken. It is, indeed, a squadron of

horsemen. Look--look there!"

The doctor eyed the group with great attention, and,

after a moment's pause, remarked:

"I believe that you are right. It is a detachment of

Arabs or Tibbous, and they are galloping in the same

direction with us, as though in flight, but we are going

faster than they, and we are rapidly gaining on them. In

half an hour we shall be near enough to see them and know

what they are."

Kennedy had again lifted his glass and was attentively

scrutinizing them. Meanwhile the crowd of horsemen was

becoming more distinctly visible, and a few were seen to

detach themselves from the main body.

"It is some hunting manoeuvre, evidently," said Kennedy.

"Those fellows seem to be in pursuit of something.

I would like to know what they are about."

"Patience, Dick! In a little while we shall overtake

them, if they continue on the same route. We are going

at the rate of twenty miles per hour, and no horse can

keep up with that."

Kennedy again raised his glass, and a few minutes

later he exclaimed:

"They are Arabs, galloping at the top of their speed;

I can make them out distinctly. They are about fifty in

number. I can see their bournouses puffed out by the wind.

It is some cavalry exercise that they are going through.

Their chief is a hundred paces ahead of them and they

are rushing after him at headlong speed."

"Whoever they may be, Dick, they are not to be

feared, and then, if necessary, we can go higher."

"Wait, doctor--wait a little!"

"It's curious," said Kennedy again, after a brief pause,

"but there's something going on that I can't exactly explain.

By the efforts they make, and the irregularity of

their line, I should fancy that those Arabs are pursuing

some one, instead of following."

"Are you certain of that, Dick?"

"Oh! yes, it's clear enough now. I am right! It is a

pursuit--a hunt--but a man-hunt! That is not their chief

riding ahead of them, but a fugitive."

"A fugitive!" exclaimed the doctor, growing more

and more interested.

"Yes!"

"Don't lose sight of him, and let us wait!"

Three or four miles more were quickly gained upon

these horsemen, who nevertheless were dashing onward

with incredible speed.

"Doctor! doctor!" shouted Kennedy in an agitated

voice.

"What is the matter, Dick?"

"Is it an illusion? Can it be possible?"

"What do you mean?"

"Wait!" and so saying, the Scot wiped the sights of

his spy-glass carefully, and looked through it again intently.

"Well?" questioned the doctor.

"It is he, doctor!"

"He!" exclaimed Ferguson with emotion.

"It is he! no other!" and it was needless to pronounce

the name.

"Yes! it is he! on horseback, and only a hundred

paces in advance of his enemies! He is pursued!"

"It is Joe--Joe himself!" cried the doctor, turning pale.

"He cannot see us in his flight!"

"He will see us, though!" said the doctor, lowering

the flame of his blow-pipe.

"But how?"

"In five minutes we shall be within fifty feet of the

ground, and in fifteen we shall be right over him!"

"We must let him know it by firing a gun!"

"No! he can't turn back to come this way. He's

headed off!"

"What shall we do, then?"

"We must wait."

"Wait?--and these Arabs!"

"We shall overtake them. We'll pass them. We are

not more than two miles from them, and provided that

Joe's horse holds out!"

"Great God!" exclaimed Kennedy, suddenly.

"What is the matter?"

Kennedy had uttered a cry of despair as he saw Joe

fling himself to the ground. His horse, evidently

exhausted, had just fallen headlong.

"He sees us!" cried the doctor, "and he motions to

us, as he gets upon his feet!"

"But the Arabs will overtake him! What is he

waiting for? Ah! the brave lad! Huzza!" shouted the

sportsman, who could no longer restrain his feelings.

Joe, who had immediately sprung up after his fall, just

as one of the swiftest horsemen rushed upon him, bounded

like a panther, avoided his assailant by leaping to one

side, jumped up behind him on the crupper, seized the

Arab by the throat, and, strangling him with his sinewy

hands and fingers of steel, flung him on the sand, and

continued his headlong flight.

A tremendous howl was heard from the Arabs, but,

completely engrossed by the pursuit, they had not taken

notice of the balloon, which was now but five hundred

paces behind them, and only about thirty feet from the

ground. On their part, they were not twenty lengths of

their horses from the fugitive.

One of them was very perceptibly gaining on Joe, and

was about to pierce him with his lance, when Kennedy,

with fixed eye and steady hand, stopped him short with a

ball, that hurled him to the earth.

Joe did not even turn his head at the report. Some

of the horsemen reined in their barbs, and fell on their

faces in the dust as they caught sight of the Victoria;

the rest continued their pursuit.

"But what is Joe about?" said Kennedy; "he don't stop!"

"He's doing better than that, Dick! I understand him!

He's keeping on in the same direction as the balloon. He

relies upon our intelligence. Ah! the noble fellow! We'll

carry him off in the very teeth of those Arab rascals! We

are not more than two hundred paces from him!"

"What are we to do?" asked Kennedy.

"Lay aside your rifle,Dick."

And the Scot obeyed the request at once.

"Do you think that you can hold one hundred and fifty

pounds of ballast in your arms?"

"Ay, more than that!"

"No! That will be enough!"

And the doctor proceeded to pile up bags of sand in

Kennedy's arms.

"Hold yourself in readiness in the back part of the car,

and be prepared to throw out that ballast at a single effort.

But, for your life, don't do so until I give the word!"

"Be easy on that point."

"Otherwise, we should miss Joe, and he would be lost."

"Count upon me!"

The Victoria at that moment almost commanded the

troop of horsemen who were still desperately urging their

steeds at Joe's heels. The doctor, standing in the front

of the car, held the ladder clear, ready to throw it at any

moment. Meanwhile, Joe had still maintained the distance

between himself and his pursuers--say about fifty feet.

The Victoria was now ahead of the party.

"Attention!" exclaimed the doctor to Kennedy.

"I'm ready!"

"Joe, look out for yourself!" shouted the doctor in his

sonorous, ringing voice, as he flung out the ladder, the

lowest ratlines of which tossed up the dust of the road.

As the doctor shouted, Joe had turned his head, but

without checking his horse. The ladder dropped close to

him, and at the instant he grasped it the doctor again

shouted to Kennedy:

"Throw ballast!"

"It's done!"

And the Victoria, lightened by a weight greater than

Joe's, shot up one hundred and fifty feet into the air.

Joe clung with all his strength to the ladder during

the wide oscillations that it had to describe, and then

making an indescribable gesture to the Arabs, and climbing

with the agility of a monkey, he sprang up to his companions,

who received him with open arms.

The Arabs uttered a scream of astonishment and rage.

The fugitive had been snatched from them on the wing,

and the Victoria was rapidly speeding far beyond

their reach.

"Master! Kennedy!" ejaculated Joe, and overwhelmed,

at last, with fatigue and emotion, the poor fellow

fainted away, while Kennedy, almost beside himself,

kept exclaiming:

"Saved--saved!"

"Saved indeed!" murmured the doctor, who had recovered

all his phlegmatic coolness.

Joe was almost naked. His bleeding arms, his body

covered with cuts and bruises, told what his sufferings had

been. The doctor quietly dressed his wounds, and laid

him comfortably under the awning.

Joe soon returned to consciousness, and asked for a

glass of brandy, which the doctor did not see fit to refuse,

as the faithful fellow had to be indulged.

After he had swallowed the stimulant, Joe grasped the

hands of his two friends and announced that he was ready

to relate what had happened to him.

But they would not allow him to talk at that time, and

he sank back into a profound sleep, of which he seemed to

have the greatest possible need.

The Victoria was then taking an oblique line to the

westward. Driven by a tempestuous wind, it again approached

the borders of the thorny desert, which the travellers

descried over the tops of palm-trees, bent and broken

by the storm; and, after having made a run of two hundred

miles since rescuing Joe, it passed the tenth degree

of east longitude about nightfall.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVENTH.

The Western Route.--Joe wakes up.--His Obstinacy.--End of Joe's

Narrative.--Tagelei.--Kennedy's Anxieties.--The Route to the

North.--A Night near Aghades.

During the night the wind lulled as though reposing

after the boisterousness of the day, and the Victoria remained

quietly at the top of the tall sycamore. The doctor

and Kennedy kept watch by turns, and Joe availed himself

of the chance to sleep most sturdily for twenty-four

hours at a stretch.

"That's the remedy he needs," said Dr. Ferguson.

"Nature will take charge of his care."

With the dawn the wind sprang up again in quite

strong, and moreover capricious gusts. It shifted abruptly

from south to north, but finally the Victoria was carried

away by it toward the west.

The doctor, map in hand, recognized the kingdom of

Damerghou, an undulating region of great fertility, in

which the huts that compose the villages are constructed

of long reeds interwoven with branches of the asclepia.

The grain-mills were seen raised in the cultivated fields,

upon small scaffoldings or platforms, to keep them out of

the reach of the mice and the huge ants of that country.

They soon passed the town of Zinder, recognized by

its spacious place of execution, in the centre of which

stands the "tree of death." At its foot the executioner

stands waiting, and whoever passes beneath its shadow is

immediately hung!

Upon consulting his compass, Kennedy could not refrain

from saying:

"Look! we are again moving northward."

"No matter; if it only takes us to Timbuctoo, we shall

not complain. Never was a finer voyage accomplished

under better circumstances!"

"Nor in better health," said Joe, at that instant thrusting

his jolly countenance from between the curtains of the

awning.

"There he is! there's our gallant friend--our preserver!"

exclaimed Kennedy, cordially.--"How goes it, Joe?"

"Oh! why, naturally enough, Mr. Kennedy, very naturally!

I never felt better in my life! Nothing sets a

man up like a little pleasure-trip with a bath in Lake

Tchad to start on--eh, doctor?"

"Brave fellow!" said Ferguson, pressing Joe's hand,

"what terrible anxiety you caused us!"

"Humph! and you, sir? Do you think that I felt

easy in my mind about you, gentlemen? You gave me

a fine fright, let me tell you!"

"We shall never agree in the world, Joe, if you take

things in that style."

"I see that his tumble hasn't changed him a bit,"

added Kennedy.

"Your devotion and self-forgetfulness were sublime,

my brave lad, and they saved us, for the Victoria was falling

into the lake, and, once there, nobody could have extricated her."

"But, if my devotion, as you are pleased to call my

summerset, saved you, did it not save me too, for here we

are, all three of us, in first-rate health? Consequently we

have nothing to squabble about in the whole affair."

"Oh! we can never come to a settlement with that

youth," said the sportsman.

"The best way to settle it," replied Joe, "is to say

nothing more about the matter. What's done is done.

Good or bad, we can't take it back."

"You obstinate fellow!" said the doctor, laughing;

"you can't refuse, though, to tell us your adventures, at

all events."

"Not if you think it worth while. But, in the first

place, I'm going to cook this fat goose to a turn, for I see

that Mr. Kennedy has not wasted his time."

"All right, Joe!"

"Well, let us see then how this African game will sit

on a European stomach!"

The goose was soon roasted by the flame of the blow-pipe,

and not long afterward was comfortably stowed

away. Joe took his own good share, like a man who had

eaten nothing for several days. After the tea and the

punch, he acquainted his friends with his recent adventures.

He spoke with some emotion, even while looking

at things with his usual philosophy. The doctor could not

refrain from frequently pressing his hand when he saw his

worthy servant more considerate of his master's safety

than of his own, and, in relation to the sinking of the island

of the Biddiomahs, he explained to him the frequency of

this phenomenon upon Lake Tchad.

At length Joe, continuing his recital, arrived at the

point where, sinking in the swamp, he had uttered a last

cry of despair.

"I thought I was gone," said he, "and as you came

right into my mind, I made a hard fight for it. How, I

couldn't tell you--but I'd made up my mind that I wouldn't

go under without knowing why. Just then, I saw--two or

three feet from me--what do you think? the end of a rope

that had been fresh cut; so I took leave to make another

jerk, and, by hook or by crook, I got to the rope. When

I pulled, it didn't give; so I pulled again and hauled away

and there I was on dry ground! At the end of the rope,

I found an anchor! Ah, master, I've a right to call that

the anchor of safety, anyhow, if you have no objection. I

knew it again! It was the anchor of the Victoria! You

had grounded there! So I followed the direction of the

rope and that gave me your direction, and, after trying

hard a few times more, I got out of the swamp. I had

got my strength back with my spunk, and I walked on

part of the night away from the lake, until I got to the

edge of a very big wood. There I saw a fenced-in place,

where some horses were grazing, without thinking of any

harm. Now, there are times when everybody knows how

to ride a horse, are there not, doctor? So I didn't spend

much time thinking about it, but jumped right on the back

of one of those innocent animals and away we went galloping

north as fast as our legs could carry us. I needn't

tell you about the towns that I didn't see nor the villages

that I took good care to go around. No! I crossed the

ploughed fields; I leaped the hedges; I scrambled over

the fences; I dug my heels into my nag; I thrashed him;

I fairly lifted the poor fellow off his feet! At last I got to

the end of the tilled land. Good! There was the desert.

'That suits me!' said I, 'for I can see better ahead of me

and farther too.' I was hoping all the time to see the balloon

tacking about and waiting for me. But not a bit of

it; and so, in about three hours, I go plump, like a fool,

into a camp of Arabs! Whew! what a hunt that was!

You see, Mr. Kennedy, a hunter don't know what a real

hunt is until he's been hunted himself! Still I advise him

not to try it if he can keep out of it! My horse was so

tired, he was ready to drop off his legs; they were close

on me; I threw myself to the ground; then I jumped up

again behind an Arab! I didn't mean the fellow any harm,

and I hope he has no grudge against me for choking him,

but I saw you--and you know the rest. The Victoria

came on at my heels, and you caught me up flying, as a

circus-rider does a ring. Wasn't I right in counting on

you? Now, doctor, you see how simple all that was!

Nothing more natural in the world! I'm ready to begin

over again, if it would be of any service to you. And

besides, master, as I said a while ago, it's not worth

mentioning."

"My noble, gallant Joe!" said the doctor, with great

feeling. "Heart of gold! we were not astray in trusting

to your intelligence and skill."

"Poh! doctor, one has only just to follow things along

as they happen, and he can always work his way out of

a scrape! The safest plan, you see, is to take matters as

they come."

While Joe was telling his experience, the balloon had

rapidly passed over a long reach of country, and Kennedy

soon pointed out on the horizon a collection of structures

that looked like a town. The doctor glanced at his map

and recognized the place as the large village of Tagelei,

in the Damerghou country.

"Here," said he, "we come upon Dr. Barth's route.

It was at this place that he parted from his companions,

Richardson and Overweg; the first was to follow the Zinder

route, and the second that of Maradi; and you may

remember that, of these three travellers, Barth was the

only one who ever returned to Europe."

"Then," said Kennedy, following out on the map the

direction of the Victoria, "we are going due north."

"Due north, Dick."

"And don't that give you a little uneasiness?"

"Why should it?"

"Because that line leads to Tripoli, and over the Great

Desert."

"Oh, we shall not go so far as that, my friend--at

least, I hope not."

"But where do you expect to halt?"

"Come, Dick, don't you feel some curiosity to see

Timbuctoo?"

"Timbuctoo?"

"Certainly," said Joe; "nobody nowadays can think

of making the trip to Africa without going to see

Timbuctoo."

"You will be only the fifth or sixth European who has

ever set eyes on that mysterious city."

"Ho, then, for Timbuctoo!"

"Well, then, let us try to get as far as between the

seventeenth and eighteenth degrees of north latitude, and

there we will seek a favorable wind to carry us westward."

"Good!" said the hunter. "But have we still far to

go to the northward?"

"One hundred and fifty miles at least."

"In that case," said Kennedy, "I'll turn in and sleep

a bit."

"Sleep, sir; sleep!" urged Joe. "And you, doctor, do

the same yourself: you must have need of rest, for I made

you keep watch a little out of time."

The sportsman stretched himself under the awning;

but Ferguson, who was not easily conquered by fatigue,

remained at his post.

In about three hours the Victoria was crossing with

extreme rapidity an expanse of stony country, with ranges

of lofty, naked mountains of granitic formation at the

base. A few isolated peaks attained the height of even

four thousand feet. Giraffes, antelopes, and ostriches were

seen running and bounding with marvellous agility in the

midst of forests of acacias, mimosas, souahs, and date-trees.

After the barrenness of the desert, vegetation was

now resuming its empire. This was the country of the

Kailouas, who veil their faces with a bandage of cotton,

like their dangerous neighbors, the Touaregs.

At ten o'clock in the evening, after a splendid trip of

two hundred and fifty miles, the Victoria halted over an

important town. The moonlight revealed glimpses of one

district half in ruins; and some pinnacles of mosques and

minarets shot up here and there, glistening in the silvery

rays. The doctor took a stellar observation, and discovered

that he was in the latitude of Aghades.

This city, once the seat of an immense trade, was already

falling into ruin when Dr. Barth visited it.

The Victoria, not being seen in the obscurity of night,

descended about two miles above Aghades, in a field of

millet. The night was calm, and began to break into

dawn about three o'clock A.M.; while a light wind coaxed

the balloon westward, and even a little toward the south.

Dr. Ferguson hastened to avail himself of such good

fortune, and rapidly ascending resumed his aerial journey

amid a long wake of golden morning sunshine.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHTH.

A Rapid Passage.--Prudent Resolves.--Caravans in Sight.--Incessant Rains.--

Goa.--The Niger.--Golberry, Geoffroy, and Gray.--Mungo Park.--Laing.--

Rene Caillie.--Clapperton.--John and Richard Lander.

The 17th of May passed tranquilly, without any remarkable

incident; the desert gained upon them once more; a moderate

wind bore the Victoria toward the southwest, and she never

swerved to the right or to the left, but her shadow traced

a perfectly straight line on the sand.

Before starting, the doctor had prudently renewed his

stock of water, having feared that he should not be able to

touch ground in these regions, infested as they are by the

Aouelim-Minian Touaregs. The plateau, at an elevation

of eighteen hundred feet above the level of the sea, sloped

down toward the south. Our travellers, having crossed

the Aghades route at Murzouk--a route often pressed by

the feet of camels--arrived that evening, in the sixteenth

degree of north latitude, and four degrees fifty-five minutes

east longitude, after having passed over one hundred

and eighty miles of a long and monotonous day's journey.

During the day Joe dressed the last pieces of game,

which had been only hastily prepared, and he served up

for supper a mess of snipe, that were greatly relished.

The wind continuing good, the doctor resolved to keep on

during the night, the moon, still nearly at the full,

illumining it with her radiance. The Victoria ascended to a

height of five hundred feet, and, during her nocturnal trip

of about sixty miles, the gentle slumbers of an infant

would not have been disturbed by her motion.

On Sunday morning, the direction of the wind again

changed, and it bore to the northwestward. A few crows

were seen sweeping through the air, and, off on the

horizon, a flock of vultures which, fortunately,

however, kept at a distance.

The sight of these birds led Joe to compliment his

master on the idea of having two balloons.

"Where would we be," said he, "with only one balloon?

The second balloon is like the life-boat to a ship;

in case of wreck we could always take to it and escape."

"You are right, friend Joe," said the doctor, "only

that my life-boat gives me some uneasiness. It is not so

good as the main craft."

"What do you mean by that, doctor?" asked Kennedy.

"I mean to say that the new Victoria is not so good as

the old one. Whether it be that the stuff it is made of is

too much worn, or that the heat of the spiral has melted

the gutta-percha, I can observe a certain loss of gas. It

don't amount to much thus far, but still it is noticeable.

We have a tendency to sink, and, in order to keep our

elevation, I am compelled to give greater dilation to the

hydrogen."

"The deuce!" exclaimed Kennedy with concern; "I

see no remedy for that."

"There is none, Dick, and that is why we must hasten

our progress, and even avoid night halts."

"Are we still far from the coast?" asked Joe.

"Which coast, my boy? How are we to know whither chance

will carry us? All that I can say is, that Timbuctoo is

still about four hundred miles to the westward.

"And how long will it take us to get there?"

"Should the wind not carry us too far out of the way,

I hope to reach that city by Tuesday evening."

"Then," remarked Joe, pointing to a long file of animals

and men winding across the open desert, "we shall

arrive there sooner than that caravan."

Ferguson and Kennedy leaned over and saw an immense

cavalcade. There were at least one hundred and

fifty camels of the kind that, for twelve mutkals of gold,

or about twenty-five dollars, go from Timbuctoo to Tafilet

with a load of five hundred pounds upon their backs. Each

animal had dangling to its tail a bag to receive its excrement,

the only fuel on which the caravans can depend when

crossing the desert.

These Touareg camels are of the very best race. They

can go from three to seven days without drinking, and for

two without eating. Their speed surpasses that of the

horse, and they obey with intelligence the voice of the

khabir, or guide of the caravan. They are known in the

country under the name of mehari.

Such were the details given by the doctor while his

companions continued to gaze upon that multitude of men,

women, and children, advancing on foot and with difficulty

over a waste of sand half in motion, and scarcely kept in

its place by scanty nettles, withered grass, and stunted

bushes that grew upon it. The wind obliterated the marks

of their feet almost instantly.

Joe inquired how the Arabs managed to guide themselves

across the desert, and come to the few wells scattered

far between throughout this vast solitude.

"The Arabs," replied Dr. Ferguson, "are endowed

by nature with a wonderful instinct in finding their way.

Where a European would be at a loss, they never hesitate

for a moment. An insignificant fragment of rock, a pebble,

a tuft of grass, a different shade of color in the sand,

suffice to guide them with accuracy. During the night

they go by the polar star. They never travel more than

two miles per hour, and always rest during the noonday

heat. You may judge from that how long it takes them

to cross Sahara, a desert more than nine hundred miles in

breadth."

But the Victoria had already disappeared from the

astonished gaze of the Arabs, who must have envied her

rapidity. That evening she passed two degrees twenty

minutes east longitude, and during the night left another

degree behind her.

On Monday the weather changed completely. Rain

began to fall with extreme violence, and not only had the

balloon to resist the power of this deluge, but also the

increase of weight which it caused by wetting the whole

machine, car and all. This continuous shower accounted

for the swamps and marshes that formed the sole surface

of the country. Vegetation reappeared, however, along

with the mimosas, the baobabs, and the tamarind-trees.

Such was the Sonray country, with its villages topped

with roofs turned over like Armenian caps. There were

few mountains, and only such hills as were enough to form

the ravines and pools where the pintadoes and snipes went

sailing and diving through. Here and there, an impetuous

torrent cut the roads, and had to be crossed by the

natives on long vines stretched from tree to tree. The

forests gave place to jungles, which alligators, hippopotami,

and the rhinoceros, made their haunts.

"It will not be long before we see the Niger," said the

doctor. "The face of the country always changes in the

vicinity of large rivers. These moving highways, as they

are sometimes correctly called, have first brought vegetation

with them, as they will at last bring civilization.

Thus, in its course of twenty-five hundred miles, the Niger

has scattered along its banks the most important cities of

Africa."

"By-the-way," put in Joe, "that reminds me of what

was said by an admirer of the goodness of Providence, who

praised the foresight with which it had generally caused

rivers to flow close to large cities!"

At noon the Victoria was passing over a petty town,

a mere assemblage of miserable huts, which once was Goa,

a great capital.

"It was there," said the doctor, "that Barth crossed

the Niger, on his return from Timbuctoo. This is the

river so famous in antiquity, the rival of the Nile, to which

pagan superstition ascribed a celestial origin. Like the

Nile, it has engaged the attention of geographers in all

ages; and like it, also, its exploration has cost the lives

of many victims; yes, even more of them than perished

on account of the other."

The Niger flowed broadly between its banks, and its

waters rolled southward with some violence of current;

but our travellers, borne swiftly by as they were, could

scarcely catch a glimpse of its curious outline.

"I wanted to talk to you about this river," said Dr.

Ferguson, "and it is already far from us. Under the

names of Dhiouleba, Mayo, Egghirreou, Quorra, and other

titles besides, it traverses an immense extent of country,

and almost competes in length with the Nile. These

appellations signify simply 'the River,' according to the

dialects of the countries through which it passes."

"Did Dr. Barth follow this route?" asked Kennedy.

"No, Dick: in quitting Lake Tchad, he passed through

the different towns of Bornou, and intersected the Niger

at Say, four degrees below Goa; then he penetrated to the

bosom of those unexplored countries which the Niger

embraces in its elbow; and, after eight months of fresh

fatigues, he arrived at Timbuctoo; all of which we may

do in about three days with as swift a wind as this."

"Have the sources of the Niger been discovered?"

asked Joe.

"Long since," replied the doctor. "The exploration

of the Niger and its tributaries was the object of several

expeditions, the principal of which I shall mention: Between

1749 and 1758, Adamson made a reconnoissance of

the river, and visited Gorea; from 1785 to 1788, Golberry

and Geoffroy travelled across the deserts of Senegambia,

and ascended as far as the country of the Moors, who

assassinated Saugnier, Brisson, Adam, Riley, Cochelet,

and so many other unfortunate men. Then came the illustrious

Mungo Park, the friend of Sir Walter Scott, and,

like him, a Scotchman by birth. Sent out in 1795 by the

African Society of London, he got as far as Bambarra,

saw the Niger, travelled five hundred miles with a slave-merchant,

reconnoitred the Gambia River, and returned

to England in 1797. He again set out, on the 30th of

January, 1805, with his brother-in-law Anderson, Scott,

the designer, and a gang of workmen; he reached Gorea,

there added a detachment of thirty-five soldiers to his

party, and saw the Niger again on the 19th of August.

But, by that time, in consequence of fatigue, privations,

ill-usage, the inclemencies of the weather, and the

unhealthiness of the country, only eleven persons remained

alive of the forty Europeans in the party. On the 16th

of November, the last letters from Mungo Park reached

his wife; and, a year later a trader from that country

gave information that, having got as far as Boussa, on the

Niger, on the 23d of December, the unfortunate traveller's

boat was upset by the cataracts in that part of the river,

and he was murdered by the natives."

"And his dreadful fate did not check the efforts of

others to explore that river?"

"On the contrary, Dick. Since then, there were two

objects in view: namely, to recover the lost man's papers,

as well as to pursue the exploration. In 1816, an expedition

was organized, in which Major Grey took part. It arrived

in Senegal, penetrated to the Fonta-Jallon, visited

the Foullah and Mandingo populations, and returned to

England without further results. In 1822, Major Laing

explored all the western part of Africa near to the British

possessions; and he it was who got so far as the sources

of the Niger; and, according to his documents, the spring

in which that immense river takes its rise is not two feet

broad.

"Easy to jump over," said Joe.

"How's that? Easy you think, eh?" retorted the doctor.

"If we are to believe tradition, whoever attempts

to pass that spring, by leaping over it, is immediately

swallowed up; and whoever tries to draw water from it,

feels himself repulsed by an invisible hand."

"I suppose a man has a right not to believe a word

of that!" persisted Joe.

"Oh, by all means!--Five years later, it was Major

Laing's destiny to force his way across the desert of

Sahara, penetrate to Timbuctoo, and perish a few miles

above it, by strangling, at the hands of the Ouelad-shiman,

who wanted to compel him to turn Mussulman."

"Still another victim!" said the sportsman.

"It was then that a brave young man, with his own

feeble resources, undertook and accomplished the most

astonishing of modern journeys--I mean the Frenchman

Rene Caillie, who, after sundry attempts in 1819 and 1824,

set out again on the 19th of April, 1827, from Rio Nunez.

On the 3d of August he arrived at Time, so thoroughly

exhausted and ill that he could not resume his journey

until six months later, in January, 1828. He then joined

a caravan, and, protected by his Oriental dress, reached

the Niger on the 10th of March, penetrated to the city

of Jenne, embarked on the river, and descended it, as far

as Timbuctoo, where he arrived on the 30th of April. In

1760, another Frenchman, Imbert by name, and, in 1810, an

Englishman, Robert Adams, had seen this curious place;

but Rene Caillie was to be the first European who could

bring back any authentic data concerning it. On the 4th

of May he quitted this 'Queen of the desert;' on the 9th,

he surveyed the very spot where Major Laing had been

murdered; on the 19th, he arrived at El-Arouan, and left

that commercial town to brave a thousand dangers in

crossing the vast solitudes comprised between the Soudan

and the northern regions of Africa. At length he entered

Tangiers, and on the 28th of September sailed for Toulon.

In nineteen months, notwithstanding one hundred and

eighty days' sickness, he had traversed Africa from west

to north. Ah! had Callie been born in England, he

would have been honored as the most intrepid traveller

of modern times, as was the case with Mungo Park. But

in France he was not appreciated according to his worth."

"He was a sturdy fellow!" said Kennedy, "but what

became of him?"

"He died at the age of thirty-nine, from the consequences

of his long fatigues. They thought they had done enough

in decreeing him the prize of the Geographical Society

in 1828; the highest honors would have been paid to him

in England.

"While he was accomplishing this remarkable journey,

an Englishman had conceived a similar enterprise and

was trying to push it through with equal courage, if not

with equal good fortune. This was Captain Clapperton,

the companion of Denham. In 1829 he reentered Africa

by the western coast of the Gulf of Benin; he then followed

in the track of Mungo Park and of Laing, recovered

at Boussa the documents relative to the death of the former,

and arrived on the 20th of August at Sackatoo, where

he was seized and held as a prisoner, until he expired in the

arms of his faithful attendant Richard Lander."

"And what became of this Lander?" asked Joe, deeply interested.

"He succeeded in regaining the coast and returned to

London, bringing with him the captain's papers, and an

exact narrative of his own journey. He then offered his

services to the government to complete the reconnoissance

of the Niger. He took with him his brother John, the

second child of a poor couple in Cornwall, and, together,

these men, between 1829 and 1831, redescended the river

from Boussa to its mouth, describing it village by village,

mile by mile."

"So both the brothers escaped the common fate?"

queried Kennedy.

"Yes, on this expedition, at least; but in 1833 Richard

undertook a third trip to the Niger, and perished by a

bullet, near the mouth of the river. You see, then, my

friends, that the country over which we are now passing

has witnessed some noble instances of self-sacrifice which,

unfortunately, have only too often had death for their reward."

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINTH.

The Country in the Elbow of the Niger.--A Fantastic View of the

Hombori Mountains.--Kabra.--Timbuctoo.--The Chart of Dr. Barth.

--A Decaying City.--Whither Heaven wills.

During this dull Monday, Dr. Ferguson diverted his

thoughts by giving his companions a thousand details

concerning the country they were crossing. The surface,

which was quite flat, offered no impediment to their progress.

The doctor's sole anxiety arose from the obstinate

northeast wind which continued to blow furiously, and bore

them away from the latitude of Timbuctoo.

The Niger, after running northward as far as that city,

sweeps around, like an immense water-jet from some fountain,

and falls into the Atlantic in a broad sheaf. In the

elbow thus formed the country is of varied character,

sometimes luxuriantly fertile, and sometimes extremely

bare; fields of maize succeeded by wide spaces covered

with broom-corn and uncultivated plains. All kinds of

aquatic birds--pelicans, wild-duck, kingfishers, and the

rest--were seen in numerous flocks hovering about the

borders of the pools and torrents.

From time to time there appeared an encampment of

Touaregs, the men sheltered under their leather tents,

while their women were busied with the domestic toil

outside, milking their camels and smoking their

huge-bowled pipes.

By eight o'clock in the evening the Victoria had advanced

more than two hundred miles to the westward,

and our aeronauts became the spectators of a magnificent

scene.

A mass of moonbeams forcing their way through an

opening in the clouds, and gliding between the long lines

of falling rain, descended in a golden shower on the ridges

of the Hombori Mountains. Nothing could be more

weird than the appearance of these seemingly basaltic

summits; they stood out in fantastic profile against the

sombre sky, and the beholder might have fancied them to

be the legendary ruins of some vast city of the middle

ages, such as the icebergs of the polar seas sometimes

mimic them in nights of gloom.

"An admirable landscape for the 'Mysteries of Udolpho'!"

exclaimed the doctor. "Ann Radcliffe could not

have depicted yon mountains in a more appalling aspect."

"Faith!" said Joe, "I wouldn't like to be strolling

alone in the evening through this country of ghosts. Do

you see now, master, if it wasn't so heavy, I'd like to carry

that whole landscape home to Scotland! It would do for

the borders of Loch Lomond, and tourists would rush there

in crowds."

"Our balloon is hardly large enough to admit of that

little experiment--but I think our direction is changing.

Bravo!--the elves and fairies of the place are quite obliging.

See, they've sent us a nice little southeast breeze,

that will put us on the right track again."

In fact, the Victoria was resuming a more northerly

route, and on the morning of the 20th she was passing

over an inextricable network of channels, torrents, and

streams, in fine, the whole complicated tangle of the Niger's

tributaries. Many of these channels, covered with a thick

growth of herbage, resembled luxuriant meadow-lands.

There the doctor recognized the route followed by the

explorer Barth when he launched upon the river to descend

to Timbuctoo. Eight hundred fathoms broad at this point,

the Niger flowed between banks richly grown with cruciferous

plants and tamarind-trees. Herds of agile gazelles were seen

skipping about, their curling horns mingling with the tall

herbage, within which the alligator, half concealed, lay

silently in wait for them with watchful eyes.

Long files of camels and asses laden with merchandise

from Jenne were winding in under the noble trees. Ere

long, an amphitheatre of low-built houses was discovered

at a turn of the river, their roofs and terraces heaped up

with hay and straw gathered from the neighboring districts.

"There's Kabra!" exclaimed the doctor, joyously;

"there is the harbor of Timbuctoo, and the city is not

five miles from here!"

"Then, sir, you are satisfied?" half queried Joe.

"Delighted, my boy!"

"Very good; then every thing's for the best!"

In fact, about two o'clock, the Queen of the Desert,

mysterious Timbuctoo, which once, like Athens and Rome,

had her schools of learned men, and her professorships

of philosophy, stretched away before the gaze of our

travellers.

Ferguson followed the most minute details upon the

chart traced by Barth himself, and was enabled to

recognize its perfect accuracy.

The city forms an immense triangle marked out upon

a vast plain of white sand, its acute angle directed toward

the north and piercing a corner of the desert. In the environs

there was almost nothing, hardly even a few grasses,

with some dwarf mimosas and stunted bushes.

As for the appearance of Timbuctoo, the reader has but

to imagine a collection of billiard-balls and thimbles--such

is the bird's-eye view! The streets, which are quite narrow,

are lined with houses only one story in height, built

of bricks dried in the sun, and huts of straw and reeds, the

former square, the latter conical. Upon the terraces were

seen some of the male inhabitants, carelessly lounging at

full length in flowing apparel of bright colors, and lance

or musket in hand; but no women were visible at that

hour of the day.

"Yet they are said to be handsome," remarked the

doctor. "You see the three towers of the three mosques

that are the only ones left standing of a great number--

the city has indeed fallen from its ancient splendor! At

the top of the triangle rises the Mosque of Sankore, with its

ranges of galleries resting on arcades of sufficiently pure

design. Farther on, and near to the Sane-Gungu quarter,

is the Mosque of Sidi-Yahia and some two-story houses.

But do not look for either palaces or monuments: the

sheik is a mere son of traffic, and his royal palace is a

counting-house."

"It seems to me that I can see half-ruined ramparts,"

said Kennedy.

"They were destroyed by the Fouillanes in 1826; the

city was one-third larger then, for Timbuctoo, an object

generally coveted by all the tribes, since the eleventh

century, has belonged in succession to the Touaregs, the

Sonrayans, the Morocco men, and the Fouillanes; and this

great centre of civilization, where a sage like Ahmed-Baba

owned, in the sixteenth century, a library of sixteen hundred

manuscripts, is now nothing but a mere half-way house for

the trade of Central Africa."

The city, indeed, seemed abandoned to supreme neglect;

it betrayed that indifference which seems epidemic

to cities that are passing away. Huge heaps of rubbish

encumbered the suburbs, and, with the hill on which the

market-place stood, formed the only inequalities of the

ground.

When the Victoria passed, there was some slight show

of movement; drums were beaten; but the last learned

man still lingering in the place had hardly time to notice

the new phenomenon, for our travellers, driven onward

by the wind of the desert, resumed the winding course of

the river, and, ere long, Timbuctoo was nothing more than

one of the fleeting reminiscences of their journey.

"And now," said the doctor, "Heaven may waft us

whither it pleases!"

"Provided only that we go westward," added Kennedy.

"Bah!" said Joe; "I wouldn't be afraid if it was to

go back to Zanzibar by the same road, or to cross the

ocean to America."

"We would first have to be able to do that, Joe!"

"And what's wanting, doctor?"

"Gas, my boy; the ascending force of the balloon is

evidently growing weaker, and we shall need all our

management to make it carry us to the sea-coast. I shall

even have to throw over some ballast. We are too heavy."

"That's what comes of doing nothing, doctor; when a

man lies stretched out all day long in his hammock, he

gets fat and heavy. It's a lazybones trip, this of ours,

master, and when we get back every body will find us big

and stout."

"Just like Joe," said Kennedy; "just the ideas for

him: but wait a bit! Can you tell what we may have to

go through yet? We are still far from the end of our trip.

Where do you expect to strike the African coast, doctor?"

"I should find it hard to answer you, Kennedy. We

are at the mercy of very variable winds; but I should

think myself fortunate were we to strike it between Sierra

Leone and Portendick. There is a stretch of country in

that quarter where we should meet with friends."

"And it would be a pleasure to press their hands; but,

are we going in the desirable direction?"

"Not any too well, Dick; not any too well! Look at

the needle of the compass; we are bearing southward, and

ascending the Niger toward its sources."

"A fine chance to discover them," said Joe, "if they

were not known already. Now, couldn't we just find

others for it, on a pinch?"

"Not exactly, Joe; but don't be alarmed: I hardly

expect to go so far as that."

At nightfall the doctor threw out the last bags of sand.

The Victoria rose higher, and the blow-pipe, although working

at full blast, could scarcely keep her up. At that time

she was sixty miles to the southward of Timbuctoo, and in

the morning the aeronauts awoke over the banks of the

Niger, not far from Lake Debo.

CHAPTER FORTIETH.

Dr. Ferguson's Anxieties.--Persistent Movement southward.--A Cloud of

Grasshoppers.--A View of Jenne.--A View of Sego.--Change of the

Wind.--Joe's Regrets.

The flow of the river was, at that point, divided by

large islands into narrow branches, with a very rapid current.

Upon one among them stood some shepherds' huts,

but it had become impossible to take an exact observation

of them, because the speed of the balloon was constantly

increasing. Unfortunately, it turned still more toward

the south, and in a few moments crossed Lake Debo.

Dr. Ferguson, forcing the dilation of his aerial craft

to the utmost, sought for other currents of air at different

heights, but in vain; and he soon gave up the attempt,

which was only augmenting the waste of gas by pressing

it against the well-worn tissue of the balloon.

He made no remark, but he began to feel very anxious.

This persistence of the wind to head him off toward the

southern part of Africa was defeating his calculations, and

he no longer knew upon whom or upon what to depend.

Should he not reach the English or French territories,

what was to become of him in the midst of the barbarous

tribes that infest the coasts of Guinea? How should he

there get to a ship to take him back to England? And

the actual direction of the wind was driving him along to

the kingdom of Dahomey, among the most savage races,

and into the power of a ruler who was in the habit of

sacrificing thousands of human victims at his public orgies.

There he would be lost!

On the other hand, the balloon was visibly wearing out,

and the doctor felt it failing him. However, as the weather

was clearing up a little, he hoped that the cessation of the

rain would bring about a change in the atmospheric currents.

It was therefore a disagreeable reminder of the actual

situation when Joe said aloud:

"There! the rain's going to pour down harder than ever;

and this time it will be the deluge itself, if we're to

judge by yon cloud that's coming up!"

"What! another cloud?" asked Ferguson.

"Yes, and a famous one," replied Kennedy.

"I never saw the like of it," added Joe.

"I breathe freely again!" said the doctor, laying down

his spy-glass. "That's not a cloud!"

"Not a cloud?" queried Joe, with surprise.

"No; it is a swarm."

"Eh?"

"A swarm of grasshoppers!"

"That? Grasshoppers!"

"Myriads of grasshoppers, that are going to sweep over

this country like a water-spout; and woe to it! for, should

these insects alight, it will be laid waste."

"That would be a sight worth beholding!"

"Wait a little, Joe. In ten minutes that cloud will

have arrived where we are, and you can then judge by the

aid of your own eyes."

The doctor was right. The cloud, thick, opaque, and

several miles in extent, came on with a deafening noise,

casting its immense shadow over the fields. It was composed

of numberless legions of that species of grasshopper

called crickets. About a hundred paces from the

balloon, they settled down upon a tract full of foliage and

verdure. Fifteen minutes later, the mass resumed its

flight, and our travellers could, even at a distance, see the

trees and the bushes entirely stripped, and the fields as

bare as though they had been swept with the scythe.

One would have thought that a sudden winter had just

descended upon the earth and struck the region with the

most complete sterility.

"Well, Joe, what do you think of that?"

"Well, doctor, it's very curious, but quite natural.

What one grasshopper does on a small scale, thousands

do on a grand scale."

"It's a terrible shower," said the hunter; "more so

than hail itself in the devastation it causes."

"It is impossible to prevent it," replied Ferguson.

"Sometimes the inhabitants have had the idea to burn

the forests, and even the standing crops, in order to arrest

the progress of these insects; but the first ranks plunging

into the flames would extinguish them beneath their mass,

and the rest of the swarm would then pass irresistibly

onward. Fortunately, in these regions, there is some sort

of compensation for their ravages, since the natives gather

these insects in great numbers and greedily eat them."

"They are the prawns of the air," said Joe, who added

that he was sorry that he had never had the chance to

taste them--just for information's sake!

The country became more marshy toward evening;

the forests dwindled to isolated clumps of trees; and on

the borders of the river could be seen plantations of

tobacco, and swampy meadow-lands fat with forage. At

last the city of Jenne, on a large island, came in sight,

with the two towers of its clay-built mosque, and the

putrid odor of the millions of swallows' nests accumulated

in its walls. The tops of some baobabs, mimosas, and

date-trees peeped up between the houses; and, even at

night, the activity of the place seemed very great. Jenne

is, in fact, quite a commercial city: it supplies all the

wants of Timbuctoo. Its boats on the river, and its caravans

along the shaded roads, bear thither the various

products of its industry.

"Were it not that to do so would prolong our journey,"

said the doctor, "I should like to alight at this place.

There must be more than one Arab there who has travelled

in England and France, and to whom our style of locomotion

is not altogether new. But it would not be prudent."

"Let us put off the visit until our next trip," said Joe,

laughing.

"Besides, my friends, unless I am mistaken, the wind

has a slight tendency to veer a little more to the eastward,

and we must not lose such an opportunity."

The doctor threw overboard some articles that were

no longer of use--some empty bottles, and a case that had

contained preserved-meat--and thereby managed to keep

the balloon in a belt of the atmosphere more favorable to

his plans. At four o'clock in the morning the first rays

of the sun lighted up Sego, the capital of Bambarra, which

could be recognized at once by the four towns that compose

it, by its Saracenic mosques, and by the incessant

going and coming of the flat-bottomed boats that convey

its inhabitants from one quarter to the other. But

the travellers were not more seen than they saw. They

sped rapidly and directly to the northwest, and the doctor's

anxiety gradually subsided.

"Two more days in this direction, and at this rate of

speed, and we'll reach the Senegal River."

"And we'll be in a friendly country?" asked the hunter.

"Not altogether; but, if the worst came to the worst,

and the balloon were to fail us, we might make our way

to the French settlements. But, let it hold out only for a

few hundred miles, and we shall arrive without fatigue,

alarm, or danger, at the western coast."

"And the thing will be over!" added Joe. "Heigh-ho!

so much the worse. If it wasn't for the pleasure of telling

about it, I would never want to set foot on the ground

again! Do you think anybody will believe our story, doctor?"

"Who can tell, Joe? One thing, however, will be

undeniable: a thousand witnesses saw us start on one

side of the African Continent, and a thousand more will

see us arrive on the other."

"And, in that case, it seems to me that it would be

hard to say that we had not crossed it," added Kennedy.

"Ah, doctor!" said Joe again, with a deep sigh, "I'll

think more than once of my lumps of solid gold-ore!

There was something that would have given WEIGHT to our

narrative! At a grain of gold per head, I could have got

together a nice crowd to listen to me, and even to admire me!"

CHAPTER FORTY-FIRST.

The Approaches to Senegal.--The Balloon sinks lower and lower.--They

keep throwing out, throwing out.--The Marabout Al-Hadji.--Messrs.

Pascal, Vincent, and Lambert.--A Rival of Mohammed.--The Difficult

Mountains.--Kennedy's Weapons.--One of Joe's Manoeuvres.--A Halt

over a Forest.

On the 27th of May, at nine o'clock in the morning,

the country presented an entirely different aspect. The

slopes, extending far away, changed to hills that gave

evidence of mountains soon to follow. They would have to

cross the chain which separates the basin of the Niger

from the basin of the Senegal, and determines the course

of the water-shed, whether to the Gulf of Guinea on the

one hand, or to the bay of Cape Verde on the other.

As far as Senegal, this part of Africa is marked down

as dangerous. Dr. Ferguson knew it through the recitals

of his predecessors. They had suffered a thousand privations

and been exposed to a thousand dangers in the midst

of these barbarous negro tribes. It was this fatal climate

that had devoured most of the companions of Mungo Park.

Ferguson, therefore, was more than ever decided not to

set foot in this inhospitable region.

But he had not enjoyed one moment of repose. The

Victoria was descending very perceptibly, so much so

that he had to throw overboard a number more of useless

articles, especially when there was a mountain-top to pass.

Things went on thus for more than one hundred and

twenty miles; they were worn out with ascending and

falling again; the balloon, like another rock of Sisyphus,

kept continually sinking back toward the ground. The

rotundity of the covering, which was now but little inflated,

was collapsing already. It assumed an elongated shape,

and the wind hollowed large cavities in the silken surface.

Kennedy could not help observing this.

"Is there a crack or a tear in the balloon?" he asked.

"No, but the gutta percha has evidently softened or

melted in the heat, and the hydrogen is escaping through

the silk."

"How can we prevent that?"

"It is impossible. Let us lighten her. That is the

only help. So let us throw out every thing we can spare."

"But what shall it be?" said the hunter, looking at

the car, which was already quite bare.

"Well, let us get rid of the awning, for its weight is

quite considerable."

Joe, who was interested in this order, climbed up on

the circle which kept together the cordage of the network,

and from that place easily managed to detach the heavy

curtains of the awning and throw them overboard.

"There's something that will gladden the hearts of a

whole tribe of blacks," said he; "there's enough to dress

a thousand of them, for they're not very extravagant with

cloth."

The balloon had risen a little, but it soon became evident

that it was again approaching the ground.

"Let us alight," suggested Kennedy, "and see what

can be done with the covering of the balloon."

"I tell you, again, Dick, that we have no means of repairing it."

"Then what shall we do?"

"We'll have to sacrifice every thing not absolutely indispensable;

I am anxious, at all hazards, to avoid a detention in these

regions. The forests over the tops of which we are skimming are

any thing but safe."

"What! are there lions in them, or hyenas?" asked

Joe, with an expression of sovereign contempt.

"Worse than that, my boy! There are men, and some

of the most cruel, too, in all Africa."

"How is that known?"

"By the statements of travellers who have been here

before us. Then the French settlers, who occupy the

colony of Senegal, necessarily have relations with the

surrounding tribes. Under the administration of Colonel

Faidherbe, reconnoissances have been pushed far up into

the country. Officers such as Messrs. Pascal, Vincent, and

Lambert, have brought back precious documents from their

expeditions. They have explored these countries formed by

the elbow of the Senegal in places where war and pillage

have left nothing but ruins."

"What, then, took place?"

"I will tell you. In 1854 a Marabout of the Senegalese

Fouta, Al-Hadji by name, declaring himself to be inspired

like Mohammed, stirred up all the tribes to war

against the infidels--that is to say, against the

Europeans. He carried destruction and desolation over the

regions between the Senegal River and its tributary,

the Fateme. Three hordes of fanatics led on by him

scoured the country, sparing neither a village nor a hut

in their pillaging, massacring career. He advanced in

person on the town of Sego, which was a long time

threatened. In 1857 he worked up farther to the northward,

and invested the fortification of Medina, built by the

French on the bank of the river. This stronghold was

defended by Paul Holl, who, for several months, without

provisions or ammunition, held out until Colonel Faidherbe

came to his relief. Al-Hadji and his bands then

repassed the Senegal, and reappeared in the Kaarta,

continuing their rapine and murder.--Well, here below us

is the very country in which he has found refuge with his

hordes of banditti; and I assure you that it would not be

a good thing to fall into his hands."

"We shall not," said Joe, "even if we have to throw

overboard our clothes to save the Victoria."

"We are not far from the river," said the doctor, "but

I foresee that our balloon will not be able to carry

us beyond it."

"Let us reach its banks, at all events," said the Scot,

"and that will be so much gained."

"That is what we are trying to do," rejoined Ferguson,

"only that one thing makes me feel anxious."

"What is that?"

"We shall have mountains to pass, and that will be

difficult to do, since I cannot augment the ascensional force

of the balloon, even with the greatest possible heat that I

can produce."

"Well, wait a bit," said Kennedy, "and we shall see!"

"The poor Victoria!" sighed Joe; "I had got fond

of her as the sailor does of his ship, and I'll not give her

up so easily. She may not be what she was at the start--

granted; but we shouldn't say a word against her. She

has done us good service, and it would break my heart to

desert her."

"Be at your ease, Joe; if we leave her, it will be in

spite of ourselves. She'll serve us until she's completely

worn out, and I ask of her only twenty-four hours more!"

"Ah, she's getting used up! She grows thinner and

thinner," said Joe, dolefully, while he eyed her. "Poor

balloon!"

"Unless I am deceived," said Kennedy, "there on the

horizon are the mountains of which you were speaking,

doctor."

"Yes, there they are, indeed!" exclaimed the doctor,

after having examined them through his spy-glass, "and

they look very high. We shall have some trouble in

crossing them."

"Can we not avoid them?"

"I am afraid not, Dick. See what an immense space

they occupy--nearly one-half of the horizon!"

"They even seem to shut us in," added Joe. "They

are gaining on both our right and our left."

"We must then pass over them."

These obstacles, which threatened such imminent peril,

seemed to approach with extreme rapidity, or, to speak

more accurately, the wind, which was very fresh, was

hurrying the balloon toward the sharp peaks. So rise it

must, or be dashed to pieces.

"Let us empty our tank of water," said the doctor,

"and keep only enough for one day."

"There it goes," shouted Joe.

"Does the balloon rise at all?" asked Kennedy.

"A little--some fifty feet," replied the doctor, who

kept his eyes fixed on the barometer. "But that is not

enough."

In truth the lofty peaks were starting up so swiftly before

the travellers that they seemed to be rushing down upon them.

The balloon was far from rising above them. She lacked an

elevation of more than five hundred feet more.

The stock of water for the cylinder was also thrown

overboard and only a few pints were retained, but still all

this was not enough.

"We must pass them though!" urged the doctor.

"Let us throw out the tanks--we have emptied them."

said Kennedy.

"Over with them!"

"There they go!" panted Joe. "But it's hard to see

ourselves dropping off this way by piecemeal."

"Now, for your part, Joe, make no attempt to sacrifice

yourself as you did the other day! Whatever happens,

swear to me that you will not leave us!"

"Have no fears, my master, we shall not be separated."

The Victoria had ascended some hundred and twenty

feet, but the crest of the mountain still towered above it.

It was an almost perpendicular ridge that ended in a regular

wall rising abruptly in a straight line. It still rose

more than two hundred feet over the aeronauts.

"In ten minutes," said the doctor to himself, "our car

will be dashed against those rocks unless we succeed in

passing them!"

"Well, doctor?" queried Joe.

"Keep nothing but our pemmican, and throw out all

the heavy meat."

Thereupon the balloon was again lightened by some

fifty pounds, and it rose very perceptibly, but that was of

little consequence, unless it got above the line of the

mountain-tops. The situation was terrifying. The Victoria

was rushing on with great rapidity. They could

feel that she would be dashed to pieces--that the shock

would be fearful.

The doctor glanced around him in the car. It was

nearly empty.

"If needs be, Dick, hold yourself in readiness to throw

over your fire-arms!"

"Sacrifice my fire-arms?" repeated the sportsman,

with intense feeling.

"My friend, I ask it; it will be absolutely necessary!"

"Samuel! Doctor!"

"Your guns, and your stock of powder and ball might

cost us our lives."

"We are close to it!" cried Joe.

Sixty feet! The mountain still overtopped the balloon

by sixty feet.

Joe took the blankets and other coverings and tossed

them out; then, without a word to Kennedy, he threw

over several bags of bullets and lead.

The balloon went up still higher; it surmounted the

dangerous ridge, and the rays of the sun shone upon its

uppermost extremity; but the car was still below the level

of certain broken masses of rock, against which it would

inevitably be dashed.

"Kennedy! Kennedy! throw out your fire-arms, or

we are lost!" shouted the doctor.

"Wait, sir; wait one moment!" they heard Joe exclaim,

and, looking around, they saw Joe disappear over

the edge of the balloon.

"Joe! Joe!" cried Kennedy.

"Wretched man!" was the doctor's agonized expression.

The flat top of the mountain may have had about

twenty feet in breadth at this point, and, on the other

side, the slope presented a less declivity. The car just

touched the level of this plane, which happened to be quite

even, and it glided over a soil composed of sharp pebbles

that grated as it passed.

"We're over it! we're over it! we're clear!" cried out

an exulting voice that made Ferguson's heart leap to his

throat.

The daring fellow was there, grasping the lower rim of

the car, and running afoot over the top of the mountain,

thus lightening the balloon of his whole weight. He had

to hold on with all his strength, too, for it was likely to

escape his grasp at any moment.

When he had reached the opposite declivity, and the

abyss was before him, Joe, by a vigorous effort, hoisted

himself from the ground, and, clambering up by the cordage,

rejoined his friends.

"That was all!" he coolly ejaculated.

"My brave Joe! my friend!" said the doctor, with

deep emotion.

"Oh! what I did," laughed the other, "was not for

you; it was to save Mr. Kennedy's rifle. I owed him

that good turn for the affair with the Arab! I like to

pay my debts, and now we are even," added he, handing

to the sportsman his favorite weapon. "I'd feel very

badly to see you deprived of it."

Kennedy heartily shook the brave fellow's hand, without

being able to utter a word.

The Victoria had nothing to do now but to descend.

That was easy enough, so that she was soon at a height

of only two hundred feet from the ground, and was then

in equilibrium. The surface seemed very much broken

as though by a convulsion of nature. It presented numerous

inequalities, which would have been very difficult to

avoid during the night with a balloon that could no longer

be controlled. Evening was coming on rapidly, and,

notwithstanding his repugnance, the doctor had to make

up his mind to halt until morning.

"We'll now look for a favorable stopping-place," said he.

"Ah!" replied Kennedy, "you have made up your

mind, then, at last?"

"Yes, I have for a long time been thinking over a plan

which we'll try to put into execution; it is only six o'clock

in the evening, and we shall have time enough. Throw

out your anchors, Joe!"

Joe immediately obeyed, and the two anchors dangled

below the balloon.

"I see large forests ahead of us," said the doctor; "we

are going to sweep along their tops, and we shall grapple

to some tree, for nothing would make me think of passing

the night below, on the ground."

"But can we not descend?" asked Kennedy.

"To what purpose? I repeat that it would be dangerous

for us to separate, and, besides, I claim your help

for a difficult piece of work."

The Victoria, which was skimming along the tops of

immense forests, soon came to a sharp halt. Her anchors

had caught, and, the wind falling as dusk came on, she

remained motionlessly suspended above a vast field of

verdure, formed by the tops of a forest of sycamores.

CHAPTER FORTY-SECOND.

A Struggle of Generosity.--The Last Sacrifice.--The Dilating Apparatus.

--Joe's Adroitness.--Midnight.--The Doctor's Watch.--Kennedy's Watch.

--The Latter falls asleep at his Post.--The Fire.--The Howlings of the

Natives.--Out of Range.

Doctor Ferguson's first care was to take his bearings

by stellar observation, and he discovered that he was

scarcely twenty-five miles from Senegal.

"All that we can manage to do, my friends," said he,

after having pointed his map, "is to cross the river; but,

as there is neither bridge nor boat, we must, at all hazards,

cross it with the balloon, and, in order to do that, we must

still lighten up."

"But I don't exactly see how we can do that?" replied

Kennedy, anxious about his fire-arms, "unless one of us

makes up his mind to sacrifice himself for the rest,--that

is, to stay behind, and, in my turn, I claim that honor."

"You, indeed!" remonstrated Joe; "ain't I used to--"

"The question now is, not to throw ourselves out of

the car, but simply to reach the coast of Africa on foot. I

am a first-rate walker, a good sportsman, and--"

"I'll never consent to it!" insisted Joe.

"Your generous rivalry is useless, my brave friends,"

said Ferguson; "I trust that we shall not come to any

such extremity: besides, if we did, instead of separating,

we should keep together, so as to make our way across the

country in company."

"That's the talk," said Joe; "a little tramp won't do

us any harm."

"But before we try that," resumed the doctor, "we

must employ a last means of lightening the balloon."

"What will that be? I should like to see it," said

Kennedy, incredulously.

"We must get rid of the cylinder-chests, the spiral,

and the Buntzen battery. Nine hundred pounds make a

rather heavy load to carry through the air."

"But then, Samuel, how will you dilate your gas?"

"I shall not do so at all. We'll have to get along

without it."

"But--"

"Listen, my friends: I have calculated very exactly

the amount of ascensional force left to us, and it is

sufficient to carry us every one with the few objects that

remain. We shall make in all a weight of hardly five

hundred pounds, including the two anchors which I desire

to keep."

"Dear doctor, you know more about the matter than

we do; you are the sole judge of the situation. Tell us

what we ought to do, and we will do it."

"I am at your orders, master," added Joe.

"I repeat, my friends, that however serious the decision

may appear, we must sacrifice our apparatus."

"Let it go, then!" said Kennedy, promptly.

"To work!" said Joe.

It was no easy job. The apparatus had to be taken

down piece by piece. First, they took out the mixing

reservoir, then the one belonging to the cylinder, and

lastly the tank in which the decomposition of the water

was effected. The united strength of all three travellers

was required to detach these reservoirs from the bottom

of the car in which they had been so firmly secured; but

Kennedy was so strong, Joe so adroit, and the doctor so

ingenious, that they finally succeeded. The different

pieces were thrown out, one after the other, and they

disappeared below, making huge gaps in the foliage of

the sycamores.

"The black fellows will be mightily astonished," said

Joe, "at finding things like those in the woods; they'll

make idols of them!"

The next thing to be looked after was the displacement

of the pipes that were fastened in the balloon and

connected with the spiral. Joe succeeded in cutting the

caoutchouc jointings above the car, but when he came to

the pipes he found it more difficult to disengage them,

because they were held by their upper extremity and fastened

by wires to the very circlet of the valve.

Then it was that Joe showed wonderful adroitness.

In his naked feet, so as not to scratch the covering, he

succeeded by the aid of the network, and in spite of the

oscillations of the balloon, in climbing to the upper

extremity, and after a thousand difficulties, in holding on

with one hand to that slippery surface, while he detached

the outside screws that secured the pipes in their place.

These were then easily taken out, and drawn away by the

lower end, which was hermetically sealed by means of a

strong ligature.

The Victoria, relieved of this considerable weight, rose

upright in the air and tugged strongly at the anchor-rope.

About midnight this work ended without accident, but

at the cost of most severe exertion, and the trio partook

of a luncheon of pemmican and cold punch, as the doctor

had no more fire to place at Joe's disposal.

Besides, the latter and Kennedy were dropping off

their feet with fatigue.

"Lie down, my friends, and get some rest," said the

doctor. "I'll take the first watch; at two o'clock I'll

waken Kennedy; at four, Kennedy will waken Joe, and

at six we'll start; and may Heaven have us in its keeping

for this last day of the trip!"

Without waiting to be coaxed, the doctor's two companions

stretched themselves at the bottom of the car and

dropped into profound slumber on the instant.

The night was calm. A few clouds broke against the

last quarter of the moon, whose uncertain rays scarcely

pierced the darkness. Ferguson, resting his elbows on the

rim of the car, gazed attentively around him. He watched

with close attention the dark screen of foliage that spread

beneath him, hiding the ground from his view. The least

noise aroused his suspicions, and he questioned even the

slightest rustling of the leaves.

He was in that mood which solitude makes more keenly

felt, and during which vague terrors mount to the brain.

At the close of such a journey, after having surmounted

so many obstacles, and at the moment of touching the

goal, one's fears are more vivid, one's emotions keener.

The point of arrival seems to fly farther from our gaze.

Moreover, the present situation had nothing very consolatory

about it. They were in the midst of a barbarous

country, and dependent upon a vehicle that might fail

them at any moment. The doctor no longer counted implicitly

on his balloon; the time had gone by when he

manoevred it boldly because he felt sure of it.

Under the influence of these impressions, the doctor,

from time to time, thought that he heard vague sounds in

the vast forests around him; he even fancied that he saw

a swift gleam of fire shining between the trees. He looked

sharply and turned his night-glass toward the spot; but

there was nothing to be seen, and the profoundest silence

appeared to return.

He had, no doubt, been under the dominion of a mere

hallucination. He continued to listen, but without hearing

the slightest noise. When his watch had expired, he

woke Kennedy, and, enjoining upon him to observe the

extremest vigilance, took his place beside Joe, and fell

sound asleep.

Kennedy, while still rubbing his eyes, which he could

scarcely keep open, calmly lit his pipe. He then ensconced

himself in a corner, and began to smoke vigorously by way

of keeping awake.

The most absolute silence reigned around him; a light

wind shook the tree-tops and gently rocked the car, inviting

the hunter to taste the sleep that stole over him in

spite of himself. He strove hard to resist it, and repeatedly

opened his eyes to plunge into the outer darkness one

of those looks that see nothing; but at last, yielding to

fatigue, he sank back and slumbered.

How long he had been buried in this stupor he knew

not, but he was suddenly aroused from it by a strange,

unexpected crackling sound.

He rubbed his eyes and sprang to his feet. An intense

glare half-blinded him and heated his cheek--the forest

was in flames!

"Fire! fire!" he shouted, scarcely comprehending

what had happened.

His two companions started up in alarm.

"What's the matter?" was the doctor's immediate

exclamation.

"Fire!" said Joe. "But who could--"

At this moment loud yells were heard under the foliage,

which was now illuminated as brightly as the day.

"Ah! the savages!" cried Joe again; "they have set

fire to the forest so as to be the more certain of burning

us up."

"The Talabas! Al-Hadji's marabouts, no doubt," said

the doctor.

A circle of fire hemmed the Victoria in; the crackling

of the dry wood mingled with the hissing and sputtering

of the green branches; the clambering vines, the foliage,

all the living part of this vegetation, writhed in the

destructive element. The eye took in nothing but one vast

ocean of flame; the large trees stood forth in black relief

in this huge furnace, their branches covered with glowing

coals, while the whole blazing mass, the entire conflagration,

was reflected on the clouds, and the travellers could

fancy themselves enveloped in a hollow globe of fire.

"Let us escape to the ground!" shouted Kennedy,

"it is our only chance of safety!"

But Ferguson checked him with a firm grasp, and,

dashing at the anchor-rope, severed it with one well-directed

blow of his hatchet. Meanwhile, the flames, leaping up at

the balloon, already quivered on its illuminated sides; but

the Victoria, released from her fastenings, spun

upward a thousand feet into the air.

Frightful yells resounded through the forest, along

with the report of fire-arms, while the balloon, caught in a

current of air that rose with the dawn of day, was borne to

the westward.

It was now four o'clock in the morning.

CHAPTER FORTY-THIRD.

The Talabas.--The Pursuit.--A Devastated Country.--The Wind begins to

fall.--The Victoria sinks.--The last of the Provisions.--The Leaps of

the Balloon.--A Defence with Fire-arms.--The Wind freshens.--The Senegal

River.--The Cataracts of Gouina.--The Hot Air.--The Passage of the River.

"Had we not taken the precaution to lighten the balloon

yesterday evening, we should have been lost beyond

redemption," said the doctor, after a long silence.

"See what's gained by doing things at the right

time!" replied Joe. "One gets out of scrapes then, and

nothing is more natural."

"We are not out of danger yet," said the doctor.

"What do you still apprehend?" queried Kennedy.

"The balloon can't descend without your permission, and

even were it to do so--"

"Were it to do so, Dick? Look!"

They had just passed the borders of the forest, and

the three friends could see some thirty mounted men clad

in broad pantaloons and the floating bournouses. They were

armed, some with lances, and others with long muskets,

and they were following, on their quick, fiery little steeds,

the direction of the balloon, which was moving at only

moderate speed.

When they caught sight of the aeronauts, they uttered

savage cries, and brandished their weapons. Anger and

menace could be read upon their swarthy faces, made

more ferocious by thin but bristling beards. Meanwhile

they galloped along without difficulty over the low levels

and gentle declivities that lead down to the Senegal.

"It is, indeed, they!" said the doctor; "the cruel

Talabas! the ferocious marabouts of Al-Hadji! I would

rather find myself in the middle of the forest encircled by

wild beasts than fall into the hands of these banditti."

"They haven't a very obliging look!" assented Kennedy;

"and they are rough, stalwart fellows."

"Happily those brutes can't fly," remarked Joe; "and

that's something."

"See," said Ferguson, "those villages in ruins, those

huts burned down--that is their work! Where vast

stretches of cultivated land were once seen, they have

brought barrenness and devastation."

"At all events, however," interposed Kennedy, "they

can't overtake us; and, if we succeed in putting the river

between us and them, we are safe."

"Perfectly, Dick," replied Ferguson; "but we must

not fall to the ground!" and, as he said this, he glanced

at the barometer.

"In any case, Joe," added Kennedy, "it would do us

no harm to look to our fire-arms."

"No harm in the world, Mr. Dick! We are lucky

that we didn't scatter them along the road."

"My rifle!" said the sportsman. "I hope that I shall

never be separated from it!"

And so saying, Kennedy loaded the pet piece with the

greatest care, for he had plenty of powder and ball remaining.

"At what height are we?" he asked the doctor.

"About seven hundred and fifty feet; but we no longer

have the power of seeking favorable currents, either going

up or coming down. We are at the mercy of the balloon!"

"That is vexatious!" rejoined Kennedy. "The wind

is poor; but if we had come across a hurricane like some

of those we met before, these vile brigands would have

been out of sight long ago."

"The rascals follow us at their leisure," said Joe.

"They're only at a short gallop. Quite a nice little

ride!"

"If we were within range," sighed the sportsman, "I

should amuse myself with dismounting a few of them."

"Exactly," said the doctor; "but then they would

have you within range also, and our balloon would offer

only too plain a target to the bullets from their long guns;

and, if they were to make a hole in it, I leave you to judge

what our situation would be!"

The pursuit of the Talabas continued all morning;

and by eleven o'clock the aeronauts had made scarcely

fifteen miles to the westward.

The doctor was anxiously watching for the least cloud

on the horizon. He feared, above all things, a change in

the atmosphere. Should he be thrown back toward the

Niger, what would become of him? Besides, he remarked

that the balloon tended to fall considerably. Since the

start, he had already lost more than three hundred feet,

and the Senegal must be about a dozen miles distant.

At his present rate of speed, he could count upon

travelling only three hours longer.

At this moment his attention was attracted by fresh

cries. The Talabas appeared to be much excited, and

were spurring their horses.

The doctor consulted his barometer, and at once discovered

the cause of these symptoms.

"Are we descending?" asked Kennedy.

"Yes!" replied the doctor.

"The mischief!" thought Joe

In the lapse of fifteen minutes the Victoria was only

one hundred and fifty feet above the ground; but the

wind was much stronger than before.

The Talabas checked their horses, and soon a volley

of musketry pealed out on the air.

"Too far, you fools!" bawled Joe. "I think it would

be well to keep those scamps at a distance."

And, as he spoke, he aimed at one of the horsemen

who was farthest to the front, and fired. The Talaba fell

headlong, and, his companions halting for a moment, the

balloon gained upon them.

"They are prudent!" said Kennedy.

"Because they think that they are certain to take us,"

replied the doctor; "and, they will succeed if we descend

much farther. We must, absolutely, get higher into the air."

"What can we throw out?" asked Joe.

"All that remains of our stock of pemmican; that will

be thirty pounds less weight to carry."

"Out it goes, sir!" said Joe, obeying orders.

The car, which was now almost touching the ground,

rose again, amid the cries of the Talabas; but, half an

hour later, the balloon was again falling rapidly, because

the gas was escaping through the pores of the covering.

Ere long the car was once more grazing the soil, and

Al-Hadji's black riders rushed toward it; but, as frequently

happens in like cases, the balloon had scarcely

touched the surface ere it rebounded, and only came down

again a mile away.

"So we shall not escape!" said Kennedy, between his teeth.

"Throw out our reserved store of brandy, Joe," cried

the doctor; "our instruments, and every thing that has

any weight, even to our last anchor, because go they must!"

Joe flung out the barometers and thermometers, but

all that amounted to little; and the balloon, which had

risen for an instant, fell again toward the ground.

The Talabas flew toward it, and at length were not

more than two hundred paces away.

"Throw out the two fowling-pieces!" shouted Ferguson.

"Not without discharging them, at least," responded

the sportsman; and four shots in quick succession struck

the thick of the advancing group of horsemen. Four

Talabas fell, amid the frantic howls and imprecations of

their comrades.

The Victoria ascended once more, and made some

enormous leaps, like a huge gum-elastic ball, bounding

and rebounding through the air. A strange sight it was

to see these unfortunate men endeavoring to escape by

those huge aerial strides, and seeming, like the giant

Antaeus, to receive fresh strength every time they touched

the earth. But this situation had to terminate. It was

now nearly noon; the Victoria was getting empty and

exhausted, and assuming a more and more elongated form

every instant. Its outer covering was becoming flaccid,

and floated loosely in the air, and the folds of the silk

rustled and grated on each other.

"Heaven abandons us!" said Kennedy; "we have to fall!"

Joe made no answer. He kept looking intently at his master.

"No!" said the latter; "we have more than one hundred

and fifty pounds yet to throw out."

"What can it be, then?" said Kennedy, thinking that

the doctor must be going mad.

"The car!" was his reply; "we can cling to the

network. There we can hang on in the meshes until we

reach the river. Quick! quick!"

And these daring men did not hesitate a moment to

avail themselves of this last desperate means of escape.

They clutched the network, as the doctor directed, and

Joe, holding on by one hand, with the other cut the cords

that suspended the car; and the latter dropped to the

ground just as the balloon was sinking for the last time.

"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the brave fellow exultingly,

as the Victoria, once more relieved, shot up again to a

height of three hundred feet.

The Talabas spurred their horses, which now came

tearing on at a furious gallop; but the balloon, falling in

with a much more favorable wind, shot ahead of them,

and was rapidly carried toward a hill that stretched across

the horizon to the westward. This was a circumstance

favorable to the aeronauts, because they could rise over

the hill, while Al-Hadji's horde had to diverge to the

northward in order to pass this obstacle.

The three friends still clung to the network. They

had been able to fasten it under their feet, where it had

formed a sort of swinging pocket.

Suddenly, after they had crossed the hill, the doctor

exclaimed: "The river! the river! the Senegal, my friends!"

And about two miles ahead of them, there was indeed

the river rolling along its broad mass of water, while the

farther bank, which was low and fertile, offered a sure

refuge, and a place favorable for a descent.

"Another quarter of an hour," said Ferguson, "and

we are saved!"

But it was not to happen thus; the empty balloon descended

slowly upon a tract almost entirely bare of vegetation. It

was made up of long slopes and stony plains, a

few bushes and some coarse grass, scorched by the sun.

The Victoria touched the ground several times, and

rose again, but her rebound was diminishing in height and

length. At the last one, it caught by the upper part of

the network in the lofty branches of a baobab, the only

tree that stood there, solitary and alone, in the midst of

the waste.

"It's all over," said Kennedy.

"And at a hundred paces only from the river!"

groaned Joe.

The three hapless aeronauts descended to the ground,

and the doctor drew his companions toward the Senegal.

At this point the river sent forth a prolonged roaring;

and when Ferguson reached its bank, he recognized the

falls of Gouina. But not a boat, not a living creature was

to be seen. With a breadth of two thousand feet, the

Senegal precipitates itself for a height of one hundred and

fifty, with a thundering reverberation. It ran, where they

saw it, from east to west, and the line of rocks that barred

its course extended from north to south. In the midst of

the falls, rocks of strange forms started up like huge

ante-diluvian animals, petrified there amid the waters.

The impossibility of crossing this gulf was self-evident,

and Kennedy could not restrain a gesture of despair.

But Dr. Ferguson, with an energetic accent of undaunted

daring, exclaimed--

"All is not over!"

"I knew it," said Joe, with that confidence in his master

which nothing could ever shake.

The sight of the dried-up grass had inspired the doctor

with a bold idea. It was the last chance of escape. He

led his friends quickly back to where they had left the

covering of the balloon.

"We have at least an hour's start of those banditti,"

said he; "let us lose no time, my friends; gather a quantity

of this dried grass; I want a hundred pounds of it, at least."

"For what purpose?" asked Kennedy, surprised.

"I have no more gas; well, I'll cross the river with hot air!"

"Ah, doctor," exclaimed Kennedy, "you are, indeed,

a great man!"

Joe and Kennedy at once went to work, and soon had

an immense pile of dried grass heaped up near the baobab.

In the mean time, the doctor had enlarged the orifice

of the balloon by cutting it open at the lower end. He

then was very careful to expel the last remnant of hydrogen

through the valve, after which he heaped up a quantity of

grass under the balloon, and set fire to it.

It takes but a little while to inflate a balloon with hot

air. A head of one hundred and eighty degrees is sufficient

to diminish the weight of the air it contains to the

extent of one-half, by rarefying it. Thus, the Victoria

quickly began to assume a more rounded form. There

was no lack of grass; the fire was kept in full blast by the

doctor's assiduous efforts, and the balloon grew fuller every

instant.

It was then a quarter to four o'clock.

At this moment the band of Talabas reappeared about

two miles to the northward, and the three friends could

hear their cries, and the clatter of their horses galloping

at full speed.

"In twenty minutes they will be here!" said Kennedy.

"More grass! more grass, Joe! In ten minutes we

shall have her full of hot air."

"Here it is, doctor!"

The Victoria was now two-thirds inflated.

"Come, my friends, let us take hold of the network, as

we did before."

"All right!" they answered together.

In about ten minutes a few jerking motions by the balloon

indicated that it was disposed to start again. The

Talabas were approaching. They were hardly five hundred

paces away.

"Hold on fast!" cried Ferguson.

"Have no fear, master--have no fear!"

And the doctor, with his foot pushed another heap of

grass upon the fire.

With this the balloon, now completely inflated by the

increased temperature, moved away, sweeping the branches

of the baobab in her flight.

"We're off!" shouted Joe.

A volley of musketry responded to his exclamation. A

bullet even ploughed his shoulder; but Kennedy, leaning

over, and discharging his rifle with one hand, brought

another of the enemy to the ground.

Cries of fury exceeding all description hailed the departure

of the balloon, which had at once ascended nearly

eight hundred feet. A swift current caught and swept it

along with the most alarming oscillations, while the

intrepid doctor and his friends saw the gulf of the

cataracts yawning below them.

Ten minutes later, and without having exchanged a

word, they descended gradually toward the other bank of

the river.

There, astonished, speechless, terrified, stood a group

of men clad in the French uniform. Judge of their amazement

when they saw the balloon rise from the right bank

of the river. They had well-nigh taken it for some celestial

phenomenon, but their officers, a lieutenant of marines

and a naval ensign, having seen mention made of Dr. Ferguson's

daring expedition, in the European papers, quickly

explained the real state of the case.

The balloon, losing its inflation little by little, settled

with the daring travellers still clinging to its network;

but it was doubtful whether it would reach the land. At

once some of the brave Frenchmen rushed into the water

and caught the three aeronauts in their arms just as the

Victoria fell at the distance of a few fathoms from the left

bank of the Senegal.

"Dr. Ferguson!" exclaimed the lieutenant.

"The same, sir," replied the doctor, quietly, "and his

two friends."

The Frenchmen escorted our travellers from the river,

while the balloon, half-empty, and borne away by a swift

current, sped on, to plunge, like a huge bubble, headlong

with the waters of the Senegal, into the cataracts of Gouina.

"The poor Victoria!" was Joe's farewell remark.

The doctor could not restrain a tear, and extending his

hands his two friends wrung them silently with that deep

emotion which requires no spoken words.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOURTH.

Conclusion.--The Certificate.--The French Settlements.--The Post

of Medina.--The Basilic.--Saint Louis.--The English Frigate.--The

Return to London.

The expedition upon the bank of the river had been

sent by the governor of Senegal. It consisted of two officers,

Messrs. Dufraisse, lieutenant of marines, and Rodamel,

naval ensign, and with these were a sergeant and

seven soldiers. For two days they had been engaged in

reconnoitring the most favorable situation for a post at

Gouina, when they became witnesses of Dr. Ferguson's

arrival.

The warm greetings and felicitations of which our travellers

were the recipients may be imagined. The Frenchmen, and

they alone, having had ocular proof of the accomplishment

of the daring project, naturally became Dr. Ferguson's

witnesses. Hence the doctor at once asked them to give

their official testimony of his arrival at the cataracts of Gouina.

"You would have no objection to signing a certificate

of the fact, would you?" he inquired of Lieutenant Dufraisse.

"At your orders!" the latter instantly replied.

The Englishmen were escorted to a provisional post

established on the bank of the river, where they found the

most assiduous attention, and every thing to supply their

wants. And there the following certificate was drawn up

in the terms in which it appears to-day, in the archives of

the Royal Geographical Society of London:

"We, the undersigned, do hereby declare that, on the

day herein mentioned, we witnessed the arrival of Dr.

Ferguson and his two companions, Richard Kennedy and

Joseph Wilson, clinging to the cordage and network of a

balloon, and that the said balloon fell at a distance of a few

paces from us into the river, and being swept away by the

current was lost in the cataracts of Gouina. In testimony

whereof, we have hereunto set our hands and seals beside

those of the persons hereinabove named, for the information

of all whom it may concern.

"Done at the Cataracts of Gouina, on the 24th of May,

1862.

"(Signed),   "SAMUEL FERGUSON

"RICHARD KENNEDY,

"JOSEPH WILSON,

"DUFRAISSE, Lieutenant of Marines,

"RODAMEL, Naval Ensign,

"DUFAYS, Sergeant,

"FLIPPEAU, MAYOR,   }

"PELISSIER, LOROIS, } Privates."

RASCAGNET, GUIL- }

LON, LEBEL,      }

Here ended the astonishing journey of Dr. Ferguson

and his brave companions, as vouched for by undeniable

testimony; and they found themselves among friends in

the midst of most hospitable tribes, whose relations with

the French settlements are frequent and amicable.

They had arrived at Senegal on Saturday, the 24th of

May, and on the 27th of the same month they reached the

post of Medina, situated a little farther to the north, but

on the river.

There the French officers received them with open

arms, and lavished upon them all the resources of their

hospitality. Thus aided, the doctor and his friends were

enabled to embark almost immediately on the small steamer

called the Basilic, which ran down to the mouth of the

river.

Two weeks later, on the 10th of June, they arrived at

Saint Louis, where the governor gave them a magnificent

reception, and they recovered completely from their

excitement and fatigue.

Besides, Joe said to every one who chose to listen:

That was a stupid trip of ours, after all, and I

wouldn't advise any body who is greedy for excitement to

undertake it. It gets very tiresome at the last, and if it

hadn't been for the adventures on Lake Tchad and at the

Senegal River, I do believe that we'd have died of yawning."

An English frigate was just about to sail, and the three

travellers procured passage on board of her. On the 25th

of June they arrived at Portsmouth, and on the next day

at London.

We will not describe the reception they got from the

Royal Geographical Society, nor the intense curiosity and

consideration of which they became the objects. Kennedy

set off, at once, for Edinburgh, with his famous rifle,

for he was in haste to relieve the anxiety of his faithful

old housekeeper.

The doctor and his devoted Joe remained the same

men that we have known them, excepting that one change

took place at their own suggestion.

They ceased to be master and servant, in order to

become bosom friends.

The journals of all Europe were untiring in their

praises of the bold explorers, and the Daily Telegraph

struck off an edition of three hundred and seventy-seven

thousand copies on the day when it published a sketch of

the trip.

Doctor Ferguson, at a public meeting of the Royal

Geographical Society, gave a recital of his journey through

the air, and obtained for himself and his companions the

golden medal set apart to reward the most remarkable

exploring expedition of the year 1862.

----------

The first result of Dr. Ferguson's expedition was to

establish, in the most precise manner, the facts and

geographical surveys reported by Messrs. Barth, Burton,

Speke, and others. Thanks to the still more recent expeditions

of Messrs. Speke and Grant, De Heuglin and Muntzinger,

who have been ascending to the sources of the

Nile, and penetrating to the centre of Africa, we shall be

enabled ere long to verify, in turn, the discoveries of Dr.

Ferguson in that vast region comprised between the fourteenth

and thirty-third degrees of east longitude.