by Jules Verne
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINTH.
The Country in the Elbow of the Niger.--A Fantastic View of the HomboriMountains.--Kabra.--Timbuctoo.--The Chart of Dr. Barth.--A DecayingCity.--Whither Heaven wills.
During this dull Monday, Dr. Ferguson diverted his thoughts by givinghis companions a thousand details concerning the country they werecrossing. The surface, which was quite flat, offered no impedimentto their progress. The doctor's sole anxiety arose from the obstinatenortheast wind which continued to blow furiously, and bore them awayfrom the latitude of Timbuctoo.
The Niger, after running northward as far as that city, sweeps around,like an immense water-jet from some fountain, and falls into theAtlantic in a broad sheaf. In the elbow thus formed the country is ofvaried character, sometimes luxuriantly fertile, and sometimes extremelybare; fields of maize succeeded by wide spaces covered with broom-cornand uncultivated plains. All kinds of aquatic birds--pelicans,wild-duck, kingfishers, and the rest--were seen in numerous flockshovering about the borders of the pools and torrents.
From time to time there appeared an encampment of Touaregs, the mensheltered under their leather tents, while their women were busiedwith the domestic toil outside, milking their camels and smoking theirhuge-bowled pipes.
By eight o'clock in the evening the Victoria had advanced more than twohundred miles to the westward, and our aeronauts became the spectatorsof a magnificent scene.
A mass of moonbeams forcing their way through an opening in the clouds,and gliding between the long lines of falling rain, descended in agolden shower on the ridges of the Hombori Mountains. Nothing could bemore weird than the appearance of these seemingly basaltic summits; theystood out in fantastic profile against the sombre sky, and the beholdermight have fancied them to be the legendary ruins of some vast city ofthe middle ages, such as the icebergs of the polar seas sometimes mimicthem in nights of gloom.
"An admirable landscape for the 'Mysteries of Udolpho'!" exclaimed thedoctor. "Ann Radcliffe could not have depicted yon mountains in a moreappalling aspect."
"Faith!" said Joe, "I wouldn't like to be strolling alone in the eveningthrough this country of ghosts. Do you see now, master, if it wasn't soheavy, I'd like to carry that whole landscape home to Scotland! It woulddo for the borders of Loch Lomond, and tourists would rush there incrowds."
"Our balloon is hardly large enough to admit of that littleexperiment--but I think our direction is changing. Bravo!--the elvesand fairies of the place are quite obliging. See, they've sent us a nicelittle southeast breeze, that will put us on the right track again."
In fact, the Victoria was resuming a more northerly route, and on themorning of the 20th she was passing over an inextricable network ofchannels, torrents, and streams, in fine, the whole complicated tangleof the Niger's tributaries. Many of these channels, covered with a thickgrowth of herbage, resembled luxuriant meadow-lands. There the doctorrecognized the route followed by the explorer Barth when he launchedupon the river to descend to Timbuctoo. Eight hundred fathoms broad atthis point, the Niger flowed between banks richly grown with cruciferousplants and tamarind-trees. Herds of agile gazelles were seen skippingabout, their curling horns mingling with the tall herbage, withinwhich the alligator, half concealed, lay silently in wait for them withwatchful eyes.
Long files of camels and asses laden with merchandise from Jenne werewinding in under the noble trees. Ere long, an amphitheatre of low-builthouses was discovered at a turn of the river, their roofs and terracesheaped up with hay and straw gathered from the neighboring districts.
"There's Kabra!" exclaimed the doctor, joyously; "there is the harbor ofTimbuctoo, and the city is not five miles from here!"
"Then, sir, you are satisfied?" half queried Joe.
"Delighted, my boy!"
"Very good; then every thing's for the best!"
In fact, about two o'clock, the Queen of the Desert, mysteriousTimbuctoo, which once, like Athens and Rome, had her schools of learnedmen, and her professorships of philosophy, stretched away before thegaze of our travellers.
Ferguson followed the most minute details upon the chart traced by Barthhimself, and was enabled to recognize its perfect accuracy.
The city forms an immense triangle marked out upon a vast plain of whitesand, its acute angle directed toward the north and piercing a corner ofthe desert. In the environs there was almost nothing, hardly even a fewgrasses, with some dwarf mimosas and stunted bushes.
As for the appearance of Timbuctoo, the reader has but to imagine acollection of billiard-balls and thimbles--such is the bird's-eye view!The streets, which are quite narrow, are lined with houses only onestory in height, built of bricks dried in the sun, and huts of strawand reeds, the former square, the latter conical. Upon the terraces wereseen some of the male inhabitants, carelessly lounging at full lengthin flowing apparel of bright colors, and lance or musket in hand; but nowomen were visible at that hour of the day.
"Yet they are said to be handsome," remarked the doctor. "You see thethree towers of the three mosques that are the only ones left standingof a great number--the city has indeed fallen from its ancient splendor!At the top of the triangle rises the Mosque of Sankore, with its rangesof galleries resting on arcades of sufficiently pure design. Farther on,and near to the Sane-Gungu quarter, is the Mosque of Sidi-Yahia and sometwo-story houses. But do not look for either palaces or monuments:the sheik is a mere son of traffic, and his royal palace is acounting-house."
"It seems to me that I can see half-ruined ramparts," said Kennedy.
"They were destroyed by the Fouillanes in 1826; the city was one-thirdlarger then, for Timbuctoo, an object generally coveted by all thetribes, since the eleventh century, has belonged in succession to theTouaregs, the Sonrayans, the Morocco men, and the Fouillanes; and thisgreat centre of civilization, where a sage like Ahmed-Baba owned, inthe sixteenth century, a library of sixteen hundred manuscripts, is nownothing but a mere half-way house for the trade of Central Africa."
The city, indeed, seemed abandoned to supreme neglect; it betrayed thatindifference which seems epidemic to cities that are passing away. Hugeheaps of rubbish encumbered the suburbs, and, with the hill on which themarket-place stood, formed the only inequalities of the ground.
When the Victoria passed, there was some slight show of movement; drumswere beaten; but the last learned man still lingering in the place hadhardly time to notice the new phenomenon, for our travellers, drivenonward by the wind of the desert, resumed the winding course of theriver, and, ere long, Timbuctoo was nothing more than one of thefleeting reminiscences of their journey.
"And now," said the doctor, "Heaven may waft us whither it pleases!"
"Provided only that we go westward," added Kennedy.
"Bah!" said Joe; "I wouldn't be afraid if it was to go back to Zanzibarby the same road, or to cross the ocean to America."
"We would first have to be able to do that, Joe!"
"And what's wanting, doctor?"
"Gas, my boy; the ascending force of the balloon is evidently growingweaker, and we shall need all our management to make it carry us tothe sea-coast. I shall even have to throw over some ballast. We are tooheavy."
"That's what comes of doing nothing, doctor; when a man lies stretchedout all day long in his hammock, he gets fat and heavy. It's a lazybonestrip, this of ours, master, and when we get back every body will find usbig and stout."
"Just like Joe," said Kennedy; "just the ideas for him: but wait a bit!Can you tell what we may have to go through yet? We are still far fromthe end of our trip. Where do you expect to strike the African coast,doctor?"
"I should find it hard to answer you, Kennedy. We are at the mercy ofvery variable winds; but I should think myself fortunate were we tostrike it between Sierra Leone and Portendick. There is a stretch ofcountry in that quarter where we should meet with friends."
"And it would be a pleasure to press their hands; but, are we going inthe desirable direction?"
"Not any too well, Dick
; not any too well! Look at the needle of thecompass; we are bearing southward, and ascending the Niger toward itssources."
"A fine chance to discover them," said Joe, "if they were not knownalready. Now, couldn't we just find others for it, on a pinch?"
"Not exactly, Joe; but don't be alarmed: I hardly expect to go so far asthat."
At nightfall the doctor threw out the last bags of sand. The Victoriarose higher, and the blow-pipe, although working at full blast, couldscarcely keep her up. At that time she was sixty miles to the southwardof Timbuctoo, and in the morning the aeronauts awoke over the banks ofthe Niger, not far from Lake Debo.