Five Weeks in a Balloon
by
Jules Verne
Part 6 out of 7
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?"
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