Five Weeks in a Balloon
The whole day, on the 17th, was spent in arranging the apparatus
destined to produce the gas; it consisted of some thirty casks, in
which the decomposition of water was effected by means of iron-filings
and sulphuric acid placed together in a large quantity of the
first-named fluid. The hydrogen passed into a huge central cask, after
having been washed on the way, and thence into each balloon by the
conduit-pipes. In this manner each of them received a certain
accurately-ascertained quantity of gas. For this purpose, there had to
be employed eighteen hundred and sixty-six pounds of sulphuric acid,
sixteen thousand and fifty pounds of iron, and nine thousand one
hundred and sixty-six gallons of water. This operation commenced on the
following night, about three A.M., and lasted nearly eight hours. The
next day, the balloon, covered with its network, undulated gracefully
above its car, which was held to the ground by numerous sacks of earth.
The inflating apparatus was put together with extreme care, and the
pipes issuing from the balloon were securely fitted to the cylindrical
case.
The anchors, the cordage, the instruments, the travelling-wraps, the
awning, the provisions, and the arms, were put in the place assigned to
them in the car. The supply of water was procured at Zanzibar. The two
hundred pounds of ballast were distributed in fifty bags placed at the
bottom of the car, but within arm’s-reach.
These preparations were concluded about five o’clock in the evening,
while sentinels kept close watch around the island, and the boats of
the _Resolute_ patrolled the channel.
The blacks continued to show their displeasure by grimaces and
contortions. Their _obi-men_, or wizards, went up and down among the
angry throngs, pouring fuel on the flame of their fanaticism; and some
of the excited wretches, more furious and daring than the rest,
attempted to get to the island by swimming, but they were easily driven
off.
Thereupon the sorceries and incantations commenced; the “rain-makers,”
who pretend to have control over the clouds, invoked the storms and the
“stone-showers,” as the blacks call hail, to their aid. To compel them
to do so, they plucked leaves of all the different trees that grow in
that country, and boiled them over a slow fire, while, at the same
time, a sheep was killed by thrusting a long needle into its heart.
But, in spite of all their ceremonies, the sky remained clear and
beautiful, and they profited nothing by their slaughtered sheep and
their ugly grimaces.
The blacks then abandoned themselves to the most furious orgies, and
got fearfully drunk on “tembo,” a kind of ardent spirits drawn from the
cocoa-nut tree, and an extremely heady sort of beer called “togwa.”
Their chants, which were destitute of all melody, but were sung in
excellent time, continued until far into the night.
About six o’clock in the evening, the captain assembled the travellers
and the officers of the ship at a farewell repast in his cabin.
Kennedy, whom nobody ventured to question now, sat with his eyes
riveted on Dr. Ferguson, murmuring indistinguishable words. In other
respects, the dinner was a gloomy one. The approach of the final moment
filled everybody with the most serious reflections. What had fate in
store for these daring adventurers? Should they ever again find
themselves in the midst of their friends, or seated at the domestic
hearth? Were their travelling apparatus to fail, what would become of
them, among those ferocious savage tribes, in regions that had never
been explored, and in the midst of boundless deserts?
Such thoughts as these, which had been dim and vague until then, or but
slightly regarded when they came up, returned upon their excited
fancies with intense force at this parting moment. Dr. Ferguson, still
cold and impassible, talked of this, that, and the other; but he strove
in vain to overcome this infectious gloominess. He utterly failed.
As some demonstration against the personal safety of the doctor and his
companions was feared, all three slept that night on board the
_Resolute_. At six o’clock in the morning they left their cabin, and
landed on the island of Koumbeni.
The balloon was swaying gently to and fro in the morning breeze; the
sand-bags that had held it down were now replaced by some twenty
strong-armed sailors, and Captain Bennet and his officers were present
to witness the solemn departure of their friends.
At this moment Kennedy went right up to the doctor, grasped his hand,
and said:
“Samuel, have you absolutely determined to go?”
“Solemnly determined, my dear Dick.”
“I have done every thing that I could to prevent this expedition, have
I not?”
“Every thing!”
“Well, then, my conscience is clear on that score, and I will go with
you.”
“I was sure you would!” said the doctor, betraying in his features
swift traces of emotion.
At last the moment of final leave-taking arrived. The captain and his
officers embraced their dauntless friends with great feeling, not
excepting even Joe, who, worthy fellow, was as proud and happy as a
prince. Every one in the party insisted upon having a final shake of
the doctor’s hand.
At nine o’clock the three travellers got into their car. The doctor lit
the combustible in his cylinder and turned the flame so as to produce a
rapid heat, and the balloon, which had rested on the ground in perfect
equipoise, began to rise in a few minutes, so that the seamen had to
slacken the ropes they held it by. The car then rose about twenty feet
above their heads.
“My friends!” exclaimed the doctor, standing up between his two
companions, and taking off his hat, “let us give our aërial ship a name
that will bring her good luck! let us christen her _Victoria!_”
This speech was answered with stentorian cheers of “Huzza for the
Queen! Huzza for Old England!”
At this moment the ascensional force of the balloon increased
prodigiously, and Ferguson, Kennedy, and Joe, waved a last good-by to
their friends.
“Let go all!” shouted the doctor, and at the word the _Victoria_ shot
rapidly up into the sky, while the four carronades on board the
_Resolute_ thundered forth a parting salute in her honor.
CHAPTER TWELFTH.
Crossing the Strait.—The Mrima.—Dick’s Remark and Joe’s Proposition.—A
Recipe for Coffee-making.—The Uzaramo.—The Unfortunate Maizan.—Mount
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