Five Weeks in a Balloon
and, if we choose, we can take an exact plan of the place.”
“Shall we not go nearer to it?” asked Kennedy.
“Nothing easier, Dick! We are right over it. Allow me to turn the
stopcock of the cylinder, and we’ll not be long in descending.”
Half an hour later the balloon hung motionless about two hundred feet
from the ground.
“Here we are!” said the doctor, “nearer to Kernak than a man would be
to London, if he were perched in the cupola of St. Paul’s. So we can
take a survey at our ease.”
“What is that tick-tacking sound that we hear on all sides?”
Joe looked attentively, and at length discovered that the noise they
heard was produced by a number of weavers beating cloth stretched in
the open air, on large trunks of trees.
The capital of Loggoum could then be seen in its entire extent, like an
unrolled chart. It is really a city with straight rows of houses and
quite wide streets. In the midst of a large open space there was a
slave-market, attended by a great crowd of customers, for the Mandara
women, who have extremely small hands and feet, are in excellent
request, and can be sold at lucrative rates.
At the sight of the _Victoria_, the scene so often produced occurred
again. At first there were outcries, and then followed general
stupefaction; business was abandoned; work was flung aside, and all
noise ceased. The aëronauts remained as they were, completely
motionless, and lost not a detail of the populous city. They even went
down to within sixty feet of the ground.
Hereupon the Governor of Loggoum came out from his residence,
displaying his green standard, and accompanied by his musicians, who
blew on hoarse buffalo-horns, as though they would split their cheeks
or any thing else, excepting their own lungs. The crowd at once
gathered around him. In the mean while Dr. Ferguson tried to make
himself heard, but in vain.
This population looked like proud and intelligent people, with their
high foreheads, their almost aquiline noses, and their curling hair;
but the presence of the _Victoria_ troubled them greatly. Horsemen
could be seen galloping in all directions, and it soon became evident
that the governor’s troops were assembling to oppose so extraordinary a
foe. Joe wore himself out waving handkerchiefs of every color and shape
to them; but his exertions were all to no purpose.
However, the sheik, surrounded by his court, proclaimed silence, and
pronounced a discourse, of which the doctor could not understand a
word. It was Arabic, mixed with Baghirmi. He could make out enough,
however, by the universal language of gestures, to be aware that he was
receiving a very polite invitation to depart. Indeed, he would have
asked for nothing better, but for lack of wind, the thing had become
impossible. His noncompliance, therefore, exasperated the governor,
whose courtiers and attendants set up a furious howl to enforce
immediate obedience on the part of the aërial monster.
They were odd-looking fellows those courtiers, with their five or six
shirts swathed around their bodies! They had enormous stomachs, some of
which actually seemed to be artificial. The doctor surprised his
companions by informing them that this was the way to pay court to the
sultan. The rotundity of the stomach indicated the ambition of its
possessor. These corpulent gentry gesticulated and bawled at the top of
their voices—one of them particularly distinguishing himself above the
rest—to such an extent, indeed, that he must have been a prime
minister—at least, if the disturbance he made was any criterion of his
rank. The common rabble of dusky denizens united their howlings with
the uproar of the court, repeating their gesticulations like so many
monkeys, and thereby producing a single and instantaneous movement of
ten thousand arms at one time.
To these means of intimidation, which were presently deemed
insufficient, were added others still more formidable. Soldiers, armed
with bows and arrows, were drawn up in line of battle; but by this time
the balloon was expanding, and rising quietly beyond their reach. Upon
this the governor seized a musket and aimed it at the balloon; but,
Kennedy, who was watching him, shattered the uplifted weapon in the
sheik’s grasp.
At this unexpected blow there was a general rout. Every mother’s son of
them scampered for his dwelling with the utmost celerity, and stayed
there, so that the streets of the town were absolutely deserted for the
remainder of that day.
Night came, and not a breath of wind was stirring. The aëronauts had to
make up their minds to remain motionless at the distance of but three
hundred feet above the ground. Not a fire or light shone in the deep
gloom, and around reigned the silence of death; but the doctor only
redoubled his vigilance, as this apparent quiet might conceal some
snare.
And he had reason to be watchful. About midnight, the whole city seemed
to be in a blaze. Hundreds of streaks of flame crossed each other, and
shot to and fro in the air like rockets, forming a regular network of
fire.
“That’s really curious!” said the doctor, somewhat puzzled to make out
what it meant.
“By all that’s glorious!” shouted Kennedy, “it looks as if the fire
were ascending and coming up toward us!”
And, sure enough, with an accompaniment of musket-shots, yelling, and
din of every description, the mass of fire was, indeed, mounting toward
the _Victoria_. Joe got ready to throw out ballast, and Ferguson was
not long at guessing the truth. Thousands of pigeons, their tails
garnished with combustibles, had been set loose and driven toward the
_Victoria;_ and now, in their terror, they were flying high up,
zigzagging the atmosphere with lines of fire. Kennedy was preparing to
discharge all his batteries into the middle of the ascending multitude,
but what could he have done against such a numberless army? The pigeons
were already whisking around the car; they were even surrounding the
balloon, the sides of which, reflecting their illumination, looked as
though enveloped with a network of fire.
The doctor dared hesitate no longer; and, throwing out a fragment of
quartz, he kept himself beyond the reach of these dangerous assailants;
and, for two hours afterward, he could see them wandering hither and
thither through the darkness of the night, until, little by little,
their light diminished, and they, one by one, died out.
“Now we may sleep in quiet,” said the doctor.
“Not badly got up for barbarians,” mused friend Joe, speaking his
thoughts aloud.
“Oh, they employ these pigeons frequently, to set fire to the thatch of
hostile villages; but this time the village mounted higher than they
could go.”
“Why, positively, a balloon need fear no enemies!”
“Yes, indeed, it may!” objected Ferguson.
“What are they, then, doctor?”
“They are the careless people in the car! So, my friends, let us have
vigilance in all places and at all times.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIRST.
Departure in the Night-time.—All Three.—Kennedy’s
Instincts.—Precautions.—The Course of the Shari River.—Lake Tchad.—The
Water of the Lake.—The Hippopotamus.—One Bullet thrown away.
About three o’clock in the morning, Joe, who was then on watch, at
length saw the city move away from beneath his feet. The _Victoria_ was
once again in motion, and both the doctor and Kennedy awoke.
The former consulted his compass, and saw, with satisfaction, that the
wind was carrying them toward the north-northeast.
“We are in luck!” said he; “every thing works in our favor: we shall
discover Lake Tchad this very day.”
“Is it a broad sheet of water?” asked Kennedy.
“Somewhat, Dick. At its greatest length and breadth, it measures about
one hundred and twenty miles.”
“It will spice our trip with a little variety to sail over a spacious
sheet of water.”
“After all, though, I don’t see that we have much to complain of on
that score. Our trip has been very much varied, indeed; and, moreover,
we are getting on under the best possible conditions.”
“Unquestionably so; excepting those privations on the desert, we have
encountered no serious danger.”
“It is not to be denied that our noble balloon has behaved wonderfully
well. To-day is May 12th, and we started on the 18th of April. That
makes twenty-five days of journeying. In ten days more we shall have
reached our destination.”
“Where is that?”
“I do not know. But what does that signify?”
“You are right again, Samuel! Let us intrust to Providence the care of
guiding us and of keeping us in good health as we are now. We don’t
look much as though we had been crossing the most pestilential country
in the world!”
“We had an opportunity of getting up in life, and that’s what we have
done!”
“Hurrah for trips in the air!” cried Joe. “Here we are at the end of
twenty-five days in good condition, well fed, and well rested. We’ve
had too much rest in fact, for my legs begin to feel rusty, and I
wouldn’t be vexed a bit to stretch them with a run of thirty miles or
so!”
“You can do that, Joe, in the streets of London, but in fine we set out
three together, like Denham, Clapperton, and Overweg; like Barth,
Richardson, and Vogel, and, more fortunate than our predecessors here,
we are three in number still. But it is most important for us not to
separate. If, while one of us was on the ground, the _Victoria_ should
have to ascend in order to escape some sudden danger, who knows whether
we should ever see each other again? Therefore it is that I say again
to Kennedy frankly that I do not like his going off alone to hunt.”
“But still, Samuel, you will permit me to indulge that fancy a little.
There is no harm in renewing our stock of provisions. Besides, before
our departure, you held out to me the prospect of some superb hunting,
and thus far I have done but little in the line of the Andersons and
Cummings.”
“But, my dear Dick, your memory fails you, or your modesty makes you
forget your own exploits. It really seems to me that, without
mentioning small game, you have already an antelope, an elephant, and
two lions on your conscience.”
“But what’s all that to an African sportsman who sees all the animals
in creation strutting along under the muzzle of his rifle? There!
there! look at that troop of giraffes!”
“Those giraffes,” roared Joe; “why, they’re not as big as my fist.”
“Because we are a thousand feet above them; but close to them you would
discover that they are three times as tall as you are!”
“And what do you say to yon herd of gazelles, and those ostriches, that
run with the speed of the wind?” resumed Kennedy.
“Those ostriches?” remonstrated Joe, again; “those are chickens, and
the greatest kind of chickens!”
“Come, doctor, can’t we get down nearer to them?” pleaded Kennedy.
“We can get closer to them, Dick, but we must not land. And what good
will it do you to strike down those poor animals when they can be of no
use to you? Now, if the question were to destroy a lion, a tiger, a
cat, a hyena, I could understand it; but to deprive an antelope or a
gazelle of life, to no other purpose than the gratification of your
instincts as a sportsman, seems hardly worth the trouble. But, after
all, my friend, we are going to keep at about one hundred feet only
from the soil, and, should you see any ferocious wild beast, oblige us
by sending a ball through its heart!”
The _Victoria_ descended gradually, but still keeping at a safe height,
for, in a barbarous, yet very populous country, it was necessary to
keep on the watch for unexpected perils.
The travellers were then directly following the course of the Shari.
The charming banks of this river were hidden beneath the foliage of
trees of various dyes; lianas and climbing plants wound in and out on