by Jules Verne
CHAPTER TWELFTH
Crossing the Strait.--The Mrima.--Dick's Remark and Joe'sProposition.--A Recipe for Coffee-making.--The Uzaramo.--The UnfortunateMaizan.--Mount Dathumi.--The Doctor's Cards.--Night under a Nopal.
The air was pure, the wind moderate, and the balloon ascended almostperpendicularly to a height of fifteen hundred feet, as indicated by adepression of two inches in the barometric column.
At this height a more decided current carried the balloon toward thesouthwest. What a magnificent spectacle was then outspread beneath thegaze of the travellers! The island of Zanzibar could be seen in itsentire extent, marked out by its deeper color upon a vast planisphere;the fields had the appearance of patterns of different colors, and thickclumps of green indicated the groves and thickets.
The inhabitants of the island looked no larger than insects. Thehuzzaing and shouting were little by little lost in the distance, andonly the discharge of the ship's guns could be heard in the concavitybeneath 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 thebarometer 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, thetension of the gas increased, and the Victoria attained the height oftwenty-five hundred feet.
The Resolute looked like a mere cockle-shell, and the African coastcould 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 themainland.
"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, fromhis lips.
During his passage over the sea the doctor deemed it best to keep at hispresent elevation. He could thus reconnoitre a greater stretch of thecoast. The thermometer and the barometer, hanging up inside of thehalf-opened awning, were always within sight, and a second barometersuspended outside was to serve during the night watches.
At the end of about two hours the Victoria, driven along at a speed ofa little more than eight miles, very visibly neared the coast of themainland. The doctor, thereupon, determined to descend a little nearerto the ground. So he moderated the flame of his cylinder, and theballoon, in a few moments, had descended to an altitude only threehundred feet above the soil.
It was then found to be passing just over the Mrima country, the name ofthis part of the eastern coast of Africa. Dense borders of mango-treesprotected its margin, and the ebb-tide disclosed to view their thickroots, chafed and gnawed by the teeth of the Indian Ocean. The sandswhich, at an earlier period, formed the coast-line, rounded away alongthe distant horizon, and Mount Nguru reared aloft its sharp summit inthe northwest.
The Victoria passed near to a village which the doctor found marked uponhis chart as Kaole. Its entire population had assembled in crowds, andwere yelling with anger and fear, at the same time vainly directingtheir arrows against this monster of the air that swept along somajestically away above all their powerless fury.
The wind was setting to the southward, but the doctor felt no concern onthat score, since it enabled him the better to follow the route tracedby Captains Burton and Speke.
Kennedy had, at length, become as talkative as Joe, and the two kept upa 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, withoutseeing the country!"
"Balloons! they're the sort for me!" Joe would add. "Why, you don'tfeel yourself going, and Nature takes the trouble to spread herself outbefore one's eyes!"
"What a splendid sight! What a spectacle! What a delight! a dream in ahammock!"
"Suppose we take our breakfast?" was Joe's unpoetical change of tune, atlast, 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 toborrow a little heat from my cylinder. There's enough and to spare, forthat matter, and so we shall avoid the risk of a conflagration."
"That would be a dreadful misfortune!" ejaculated Kennedy. "It's thesame as a powder-magazine suspended over our heads."
"Not precisely," said Ferguson, "but still if the gas were to take fireit would burn up gradually, and we should settle down on the ground,which would be disagreeable; but never fear--our balloon is hermeticallysealed."
"Let us eat a bite, then," replied Kennedy.
"Now, gentlemen," put in Joe, "while doing the same as you, I'm goingto get you up a cup of coffee that I think you'll have something to sayabout."
"The fact is," added the doctor, "that Joe, along with a thousand othervirtues, has a remarkable talent for the preparation of that deliciousbeverage: he compounds it of a mixture of various origin, but he neverwould reveal to me the ingredients."
"Well, master, since we are so far above-ground, I can tell you thesecret. 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, andtopped off a substantial breakfast, which was additionally seasoned bythe jokes and repartees of the guests. Each one then resumed his post ofobservation.
The country over which they were passing was remarkable for itsfertility. Narrow, winding paths plunged in beneath the overarchingverdure. They swept along above cultivated fields of tobacco, maize, andbarley, at full maturity, and here and there immense rice-fields, fullof straight stalks and purple blossoms. They could distinguish sheep andgoats too, confined in large cages, set up on piles to keep them outof reach of the leopards' fangs. Luxuriant vegetation spread in wildprofuseness over this prodigal soil.
Village after village rang with yells of terror and astonishment at thesight of the Victoria, and Dr. Ferguson prudently kept her above thereach of the barbarian arrows. The savages below, thus baffled, rantogether from their huddle of huts and followed the travellers withtheir vain imprecations while they remained in sight.
At noon, the doctor, upon consulting his map, calculated that they werepassing over the Uzaramo* country. The soil was thickly studded withcocoa-nut, papaw, and cotton-wood trees, above which the balloon seemedto disport itself like a bird. Joe found this splendid vegetation amatter of course, seeing that they were in Africa. Kennedy descried somehares and quails that asked nothing better than to get a good shot fromhis fowling-piece, but it would have been powder wasted, since there wasno time to pick up the game.
* U and Ou signify country in the language of that region.
The aeronauts swept on with the speed of twelve miles per hour, and soonwere passing in thirty-eight degrees twenty minutes east longitude, overthe village of Tounda.
"It was there," said the doctor, "that Burton and Speke were seized withviolent fevers, and for a moment thought their expedition ruined. Andyet they were only a short distance from the coast, but fatigue andprivation were beginning to tell upon them severely."
In fact, there is a perpetual malaria reigning throughout the countryin question. Even the doctor could hope to escape its effects only byrising above the range of the miasma that exhales from this damp regionwhence the blazing rays of the sun pump up its poisonous vapors. Once ina while they could descry a caravan resting in a "kraal," awaiting thefreshness and cool of the evening to resume its route. These kraals arewide patches of cleared land, surrounded by hedges and jungles, wheretraders take shelter against not only the wild beasts, but also therobber tribes of the countr
y. They could see the natives running andscattering in all directions at the sight of the Victoria. Kennedy waskeen to get a closer look at them, but the doctor invariably held outagainst the idea.
"The chiefs are armed with muskets," he said, "and our balloon would betoo 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 orificethrough which our gas would escape."
"Then, let us keep at a respectful distance from yon miscreants. Whatmust they think as they see us sailing in the air? I'm sure they mustfeel 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 andfarther between; the mango-trees have disappeared, for their growthceases at this latitude. The soil is becoming hilly and portendsmountains not far off."
"Yes," said Kennedy, "it seems to me that I can see some high land onthis side."
"In the west--those are the nearest ranges of the Ourizara--MountDuthumi, 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 anelevation of five or six hundred feet."
"That was a grant idea of yours, sir," said Joe. "It's mighty easy tomanage it; you turn a cock, and the thing's done."
"Ah! here we are more at our ease," said the sportsman, as the balloonascended; "the reflection of the sun on those red sands was getting tobe insupportable."
"What splendid trees!" cried Joe. "They're quite natural, but they arevery fine! Why a dozen of them would make a forest!"
"Those are baobabs," replied Dr. Ferguson. "See, there's one with atrunk fully one hundred feet in circumference. It was, perhaps, at thefoot of that very tree that Maizan, the French traveller, expired in1845, for we are over the village of Deje-la-Mhora, to which he pushedon alone. He was seized by the chief of this region, fastened to thefoot of a baobab, and the ferocious black then severed all his jointswhile the war-song of his tribe was chanted; he then made a gash in theprisoner's neck, stopped to sharpen his knife, and fairly tore away thepoor wretch's head before it had been cut from the body. The unfortunateFrenchman 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 hispower to capture the murderer, but in vain."
"I move that we don't stop here!" urged Joe; "let us go up, master, letus go up higher by all means."
"All the more willingly, Joe, that there is Mount Duthumi right aheadof us. If my calculations be right we shall have passed it before seveno'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 sosafely, 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 bestcultivated 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 oppositeMount Duthumi; in order to pass, it had to ascend to a height of morethan three thousand feet, and to accomplish that the doctor had only toraise the temperature of his gas eighteen degrees. It might have beencorrectly said that he held his balloon in his hand. Kennedy had onlyto indicate to him the obstacles to be surmounted, and the Victoria spedthrough the air, skimming the summits of the range.
At eight o'clock it descended the farther slope, the acclivity of whichwas much less abrupt. The anchors were thrown out from the car andone 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 andsecured it. The silk ladder was then lowered to him and he remountedto the car with agility. The balloon now remained perfectly at restsheltered from the eastern winds.
The evening meal was got ready, and the aeronauts, excited by theirday's journey, made a heavy onslaught upon the provisions.
"What distance have we traversed to-day?" asked Kennedy, disposing ofsome alarming mouthfuls.
The doctor took his bearings, by means of lunar observations, andconsulted the excellent map that he had with him for his guidance. Itbelonged to the Atlas of "Der Neuester Endeckungen in Afrika" ("TheLatest Discoveries in Africa"), published at Gotha by his learned friendDr. Petermann, and by that savant sent to him. This Atlas was to servethe doctor on his whole journey; for it contained the itinerary ofBurton and Speke to the great lakes; the Soudan, according to Dr. Barth;the Lower Senegal, according to Guillaume Lejean; and the Delta of theNiger, by Dr. Blaikie.
Ferguson had also provided himself with a work which combined in onecompilation all the notions already acquired concerning the Nile. It wasentitled "The Sources of the Nile; being a General Survey of the Basinof that River and of its Head-Stream, with the History of the NiloticDiscovery, by Charles Beke, D.D."
He also had the excellent charts published in the "Bulletins of theGeographical Society of London;" and not a single point of the countriesalready discovered could, therefore, escape his notice.
Upon tracing on his maps, he found that his latitudinal route had beentwo degrees, or one hundred and twenty miles, to the westward.
Kennedy remarked that the route tended toward the south; but thisdirection was satisfactory to the doctor, who desired to reconnoitre thetracks of his predecessors as much as possible. It was agreed that thenight should be divided into three watches, so that each of the partyshould take his turn in watching over the safety of the rest. The doctortook the watch commencing at nine o'clock; Kennedy, the one commencingat midnight; and Joe, the three o'clock morning watch.
So Kennedy and Joe, well wrapped in their blankets, stretched themselvesat full length under the awning, and slept quietly; while Dr. Fergusonkept on the lookout.