Five Weeks in a Balloon
itself, but is guided and directed by the track it runs on.
“I do not follow my route;” he often said, “it is my route that follows
me.”
The reader will not be surprised, then, at the calmness with which the
doctor received the applause that welcomed him in the Royal Society. He
was above all such trifles, having no pride, and less vanity. He looked
upon the proposition addressed to him by Sir Francis M——as the simplest
thing in the world, and scarcely noticed the immense effect that it
produced.
When the session closed, the doctor was escorted to the rooms of the
Travellers’ Club, in Pall Mall. A superb entertainment had been
prepared there in his honor. The dimensions of the dishes served were
made to correspond with the importance of the personage entertained,
and the boiled sturgeon that figured at this magnificent repast was not
an inch shorter than Dr. Ferguson himself.
Numerous toasts were offered and quaffed, in the wines of France, to
the celebrated travellers who had made their names illustrious by their
explorations of African territory. The guests drank to their health or
to their memory, in alphabetical order, a good old English way of doing
the thing. Among those remembered thus, were: Abbadie, Adams, Adamson,
Anderson, Arnaud, Baikie, Baldwin, Barth, Batouda, Beke, Beltram, Du
Berba, Bimbachi, Bolognesi, Bolwik, Belzoni, Bonnemain, Brisson,
Browne, Bruce, Brun-Rollet, Burchell, Burckhardt, Burton, Cailland,
Caillie, Campbell, Chapman, Clapperton, Clot-Bey, Colomieu, Courval,
Cumming, Cuny, Debono, Decken, Denham, Desavanchers, Dicksen, Dickson,
Dochard, Du Chaillu, Duncan, Durand, Duroule, Duveyrier, D’Escayrac, De
Lauture, Erhardt, Ferret, Fresnel, Galinier, Galton, Geoffroy,
Golberry, Hahn, Halm, Harnier, Hecquart, Heuglin, Hornemann, Houghton,
Imbert, Kauffmann, Knoblecher, Krapf, Kummer, Lafargue, Laing,
Lafaille, Lambert, Lamiral, Lampriere, John Lander, Richard Lander,
Lefebvre, Lejean, Levaillant, Livingstone, MacCarthy, Maggiar, Maizan,
Malzac, Moffat, Mollien, Monteiro, Morrison, Mungo Park, Neimans,
Overweg, Panet, Partarrieau, Pascal, Pearse, Peddie, Penney, Petherick,
Poncet, Prax, Raffenel, Rabh, Rebmann, Richardson, Riley, Ritchey,
Rochet d’Hericourt, Rongawi, Roscher, Ruppel, Saugnier, Speke,
Steidner, Thibaud, Thompson, Thornton, Toole, Tousny, Trotter, Tuckey,
Tyrwhitt, Vaudey, Veyssière, Vincent, Vinco, Vogel, Wahlberg,
Warrington, Washington, Werne, Wild, and last, but not least, Dr.
Ferguson, who, by his incredible attempt, was to link together the
achievements of all these explorers, and complete the series of African
discovery.
CHAPTER SECOND.
The Article in the Daily Telegraph.—War between the Scientific
Journals.—Mr. Petermann backs his Friend Dr. Ferguson.—Reply of the
Savant Koner.—Bets made.—Sundry Propositions offered to the Doctor.
On the next day, in its number of January 15th, the _Daily Telegraph_
published an article couched in the following terms:
“Africa is, at length, about to surrender the secret of her vast
solitudes; a modern Œdipus is to give us the key to that enigma which
the learned men of sixty centuries have not been able to decipher. In
other days, to seek the sources of the Nile—_fontes Nili quærere_—was
regarded as a mad endeavor, a chimera that could not be realized.
“Dr. Barth, in following out to Soudan the track traced by Denham and
Clapperton; Dr. Livingstone, in multiplying his fearless explorations
from the Cape of Good Hope to the basin of the Zambesi; Captains Burton
and Speke, in the discovery of the great interior lakes, have opened
three highways to modern civilization. _Their point of intersection_,
which no traveller has yet been able to reach, is the very heart of
Africa, and it is thither that all efforts should now be directed.
“The labors of these hardy pioneers of science are now about to be knit
together by the daring project of Dr. Samuel Ferguson, whose fine
explorations our readers have frequently had the opportunity of
appreciating.
“This intrepid discoverer proposes to traverse all Africa from east to
west _in a balloon_. If we are well informed, the point of departure
for this surprising journey is to be the island of Zanzibar, upon the
eastern coast. As for the point of arrival, it is reserved for
Providence alone to designate.
“The proposal for this scientific undertaking was officially made,
yesterday, at the rooms of the Royal Geographical Society, and the sum
of twenty-five hundred pounds was voted to defray the expenses of the
enterprise.
“We shall keep our readers informed as to the progress of this
enterprise, which has no precedent in the annals of exploration.”
As may be supposed, the foregoing article had an enormous echo among
scientific people. At first, it stirred up a storm of incredulity; Dr.
Ferguson passed for a purely chimerical personage of the Barnum stamp,
who, after having gone through the United States, proposed to “do” the
British Isles.
A humorous reply appeared in the February number of the _Bulletins de
la Société Géographique_ of Geneva, which very wittily showed up the
Royal Society of London and their phenomenal sturgeon.
But Herr Petermann, in his _Mittheilungen_, published at Gotha, reduced
the Geneva journal to the most absolute silence. Herr Petermann knew
Dr. Ferguson personally, and guaranteed the intrepidity of his
dauntless friend.
Besides, all manner of doubt was quickly put out of the question:
preparations for the trip were set on foot at London; the factories of
Lyons received a heavy order for the silk required for the body of the
balloon; and, finally, the British Government placed the transport-ship
_Resolute_, Captain Bennett, at the disposal of the expedition.
At once, upon word of all this, a thousand encouragements were offered,
and felicitations came pouring in from all quarters. The details of the
undertaking were published in full in the bulletins of the Geographical
Society of Paris; a remarkable article appeared in the _Nouvelles
Annales des Voyages, de la Géographie, de l’Histoire, et de
l’Archaeologie de M. V. A. Malte-Brun_ (“New Annals of Travels,
Geography, History, and Archaeology, by M. V. A. Malte-Brun”); and a
searching essay in the _Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Erdkunde_, by Dr. W.
Koner, triumphantly demonstrated the feasibility of the journey, its
chances of success, the nature of the obstacles existing, the immense
advantages of the aërial mode of locomotion, and found fault with
nothing but the selected point of departure, which it contended should
be Massowah, a small port in Abyssinia, whence James Bruce, in 1768,
started upon his explorations in search of the sources of the Nile.
Apart from that, it mentioned, in terms of unreserved admiration, the
energetic character of Dr. Ferguson, and the heart, thrice panoplied in
bronze, that could conceive and undertake such an enterprise.
The _North American Review_ could not, without some displeasure,
contemplate so much glory monopolized by England. It therefore rather
ridiculed the doctor’s scheme, and urged him, by all means, to push his
explorations as far as America, while he was about it.
In a word, without going over all the journals in the world, there was
not a scientific publication, from the _Journal of Evangelical
Missions_ to the _Revue Algérienne et Coloniale_, from the _Annales de
la Propagation de la Foi_ to the _Church Missionary Intelligencer_,
that had not something to say about the affair in all its phases.
Many large bets were made at London and throughout England generally,
first, as to the real or supposititious existence of Dr. Ferguson;
secondly, as to the trip itself, which, some contended, would not be
undertaken at all, and which was really contemplated, according to
others; thirdly, upon the success or failure of the enterprise; and
fourthly, upon the probabilities of Dr. Ferguson’s return. The
betting-books were covered with entries of immense sums, as though the
Epsom races were at stake.
Thus, believers and unbelievers, the learned and the ignorant, alike
had their eyes fixed on the doctor, and he became the lion of the day,
without knowing that he carried such a mane. On his part, he willingly
gave the most accurate information touching his project. He was very
easily approached, being naturally the most affable man in the world.
More than one bold adventurer presented himself, offering to share the
dangers as well as the glory of the undertaking; but he refused them
all, without giving his reasons for rejecting them.
Numerous inventors of mechanism applicable to the guidance of balloons
came to propose their systems, but he would accept none; and, when he
was asked whether he had discovered something of his own for that
purpose, he constantly refused to give any explanation, and merely
busied himself more actively than ever with the preparations for his
journey.
CHAPTER THIRD.
The Doctor’s Friend.—The Origin of their Friendship.—Dick Kennedy at
London.—An unexpected but not very consoling Proposal.—A Proverb by no
means cheering.—A few Names from the African Martyrology.—The
Advantages of a Balloon.—Dr. Ferguson’s Secret.
Dr. Ferguson had a friend—not another self, indeed, an _alter ego_, for
friendship could not exist between two beings exactly alike.
But, if they possessed different qualities, aptitudes, and
temperaments, Dick Kennedy and Samuel Ferguson lived with one and the
same heart, and that gave them no great trouble. In fact, quite the
reverse.
Dick Kennedy was a Scotchman, in the full acceptation of the word—open,
resolute, and headstrong. He lived in the town of Leith, which is near
Edinburgh, and, in truth, is a mere suburb of _Auld Reekie_. Sometimes
he was a fisherman, but he was always and everywhere a determined
hunter, and that was nothing remarkable for a son of Caledonia, who had
known some little climbing among the Highland mountains. He was cited
as a wonderful shot with the rifle, since not only could he split a
bullet on a knife-blade, but he could divide it into two such equal
parts that, upon weighing them, scarcely any difference would be
perceptible.
Kennedy’s countenance strikingly recalled that of Herbert Glendinning,
as Sir Walter Scott has depicted it in “The Monastery”; his stature was
above six feet; full of grace and easy movement, he yet seemed gifted
with herculean strength; a face embrowned by the sun; eyes keen and
black; a natural air of daring courage; in fine, something sound,
solid, and reliable in his entire person, spoke, at first glance, in
favor of the bonny Scot.
The acquaintanceship of these two friends had been formed in India,
when they belonged to the same regiment. While Dick would be out in
pursuit of the tiger and the elephant, Samuel would be in search of
plants and insects. Each could call himself expert in his own province,
and more than one rare botanical specimen, that to science was as great
a victory won as the conquest of a pair of ivory tusks, became the
doctor’s booty.
These two young men, moreover, never had occasion to save each other’s
lives, or to render any reciprocal service. Hence, an unalterable
friendship. Destiny sometimes bore them apart, but sympathy always
united them again.
Since their return to England they had been frequently separated by the
doctor’s distant expeditions; but, on his return, the latter never
failed to go, not to _ask_ for hospitality, but to bestow some weeks of
his presence at the home of his crony Dick.
The Scot talked of the past; the doctor busily prepared for the future.
The one looked back, the other forward. Hence, a restless spirit
personified in Ferguson; perfect calmness typified in Kennedy—such was
the contrast.