บทที่ บทที่ 12 · Crossing the Strait.—The Mrima.—Dick’s Remark and Joe’s Proposition.—A

. Crossing the Strait.—The Mrima.—Dick’s Remark and Joe’s Proposition.—A

Recipe for Coffee-making.—The Uzaramo.—The Unfortunate Maizan.—Mount

Duthumi.—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[2] 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.

[2] U and Ou signify country in the language of that region.

The aëronauts 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 grand 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 aëronauts, 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.