Five Weeks in a Balloon

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"Shall we cross them?" asked Kennedy.

"Not, if it please God. I am looking for a wind that
will take me back toward the equator. I will even wait
for one, if necessary, and will make the balloon like a ship
that casts anchor, until favorable breezes come up."

But the foresight of the doctor was not long in bringing
its reward; for, after having tried different heights,
the Victoria at length began to sail off to the northeastward
with medium speed.

"We are in the right track," said the doctor, consulting
his compass, "and scarcely two hundred feet from the
surface; lucky circumstances for us, enabling us, as they
do, to reconnoitre these new regions. When Captain
Speke set out to discover Lake Ukereoue, he ascended
more to the eastward in a straight line above Kazeh."

"Shall we keep on long in this way?" inquired the Scot.

"Perhaps. Our object is to push a point in the direction
of the sources of the Nile; and we have more than
six hundred miles to make before we get to the extreme
limit reached by the explorers who came from the north."

"And we shan't set foot on the solid ground?" murmured
Joe; "it's enough to cramp a fellow's legs!"

"Oh, yes, indeed, my good Joe," said the doctor, reassuring
him; "we have to economize our provisions, you know; and
on the way, Dick, you must get us some fresh meat."

"Whenever you like, doctor."

"We shall also have to replenish our stock of water.
Who knows but we may be carried to some of the dried-up
regions? So we cannot take too many precautions."

At noon the Victoria was at twenty-nine degrees fifteen
minutes east longitude, and three degrees fifteen minutes
south latitude. She passed the village of Uyofu, the last
northern limit of the Unyamwezi, opposite to the Lake
Ukereoue, which could still be seen.

The tribes living near to the equator seem to be a little
more civilized, and are governed by absolute monarchs, whose
control is an unlimited despotism. Their most compact union
of power constitutes the province of Karagwah.

It was decided by the aeronauts that they would
alight at the first favorable place. They found that they
should have to make a prolonged halt, and take a careful
inspection of the balloon: so the flame of the cylinder
was moderated, and the anchors, flung out from the car,
ere long began to sweep the grass of an immense prairie,
that, from a certain height, looked like a shaven lawn,
but the growth of which, in reality, was from seven to
eight feet in height.

The balloon skimmed this tall grass without bending
it, like a gigantic butterfly: not an obstacle was in sight;
it was an ocean of verdure without a single breaker.

"We might proceed a long time in this style," remarked
Kennedy; "I don't see one tree that we could
approach, and I'm afraid that our hunt's over."

"Wait, Dick; you could not hunt anyhow in this
grass, that grows higher than your head. We'll find a
favorable place presently."

In truth, it was a charming excursion that they were
making now--a veritable navigation on this green, almost
transparent sea, gently undulating in the breath of the
wind. The little car seemed to cleave the waves of verdure,
and, from time to time, coveys of birds of magnificent
plumage would rise fluttering from the tall herbage,
and speed away with joyous cries. The anchors plunged
into this lake of flowers, and traced a furrow that closed
behind them, like the wake of a ship.

All at once a sharp shock was felt--the anchor had caught
in the fissure of some rock hidden in the high grass.

"We are fast!" exclaimed Joe.

These words had scarcely been uttered when a shrill cry
rang through the air, and the following phrases, mingled
with exclamations, escaped from the lips of our travellers:

"What's that?"

"A strange cry!"

"Look! Why, we're moving!"

"The anchor has slipped!"

"No; it holds, and holds fast too!" said Joe, who
was tugging at the rope.

"It's the rock, then, that's moving!"

An immense rustling was noticed in the grass, and soon
an elongated, winding shape was seen rising above it.

"A serpent!" shouted Joe.

"A serpent!" repeated Kennedy, handling his rifle.

"No," said the doctor, "it's an elephant's trunk!"

"An elephant, Samuel?"

And, as Kennedy said this, he drew his rifle to his shoulder.

"Wait, Dick; wait!"

"That's a fact! The animal's towing us!"

"And in the right direction, Joe--in the right direction."

The elephant was now making some headway, and soon reached
a clearing where his whole body could be seen. By his
gigantic size, the doctor recognized a male of a superb
species. He had two whitish tusks, beautifully curved, and
about eight feet in length; and in these the shanks of the
anchor had firmly caught. The animal was vainly trying with
his trunk to disengage himself from the rope that attached
him to the car.

"Get up--go ahead, old fellow!" shouted Joe, with
delight, doing his best to urge this rather novel team.
"Here is a new style of travelling!--no more horses for
me. An elephant, if you please!"

"But where is he taking us to?" said Kennedy, whose
rifle itched in his grasp.

"He's taking us exactly to where we want to go, my
dear Dick. A little patience!"

"'Wig-a-more! wig-a-more!' as the Scotch country folks say,"
shouted Joe, in high glee. "Gee-up! gee-up there!"

The huge animal now broke into a very rapid gallop.
He flung his trunk from side to side, and his monstrous
bounds gave the car several rather heavy thumps. Meanwhile
the doctor stood ready, hatchet in hand, to cut the
rope, should need arise.

"But," said he, "we shall not give up our anchor until
the last moment."

This drive, with an elephant for the team, lasted about
an hour and a half; yet the animal did not seem in the
least fatigued. These immense creatures can go over a
great deal of ground, and, from one day to another, are
found at enormous distances from there they were last
seen, like the whales, whose mass and speed they rival.

"In fact," said Joe, "it's a whale that we have harpooned;
and we're only doing just what whalemen do when out fishing."

But a change in the nature of the ground compelled
the doctor to vary his style of locomotion. A dense grove
of calmadores was descried on the horizon, about three
miles away, on the north of the prairie. So it became
necessary to detach the balloon from its draught-animal
at last.

Kennedy was intrusted with the job of bringing the
elephant to a halt. He drew his rifle to his shoulder, but
his position was not favorable to a successful shot; so
that the first ball fired flattened itself on the animal's
skull, as it would have done against an iron plate. The
creature did not seem in the least troubled by it; but, at
the sound of the discharge, he had increased his speed,
and now was going as fast as a horse at full gallop.

"The deuce!" ejaculated Kennedy.

"What a solid head!" commented Joe.

"We'll try some conical balls behind the shoulder-joint,"
said Kennedy, reloading his rifle with care. In
another moment he fired.

The animal gave a terrible cry, but went on faster
than ever.

"Come!" said Joe, taking aim with another gun, "I
must help you, or we'll never end it." And now two balls
penetrated the creature's side.

The elephant halted, lifted his trunk, and resumed his
run toward the wood with all his speed; he shook his huge
head, and the blood began to gush from his wounds.

"Let us keep up our fire, Mr. Kennedy."

"And a continuous fire, too," urged the doctor, "for
we are close on the woods."

Ten shots more were discharged. The elephant made
a fearful bound; the car and balloon cracked as though
every thing were going to pieces, and the shock made the
doctor drop his hatchet on the ground.

The situation was thus rendered really very alarming;
the anchor-rope, which had securely caught, could not be
disengaged, nor could it yet be cut by the knives of our
aeronauts, and the balloon was rushing headlong toward
the wood, when the animal received a ball in the eye just
as he lifted his head. On this he halted, faltered, his knees
bent under him, and he uncovered his whole flank to the
assaults of his enemies in the balloon.

"A bullet in his heart!" said Kennedy, discharging
one last rifle-shot.

The elephant uttered a long bellow of terror and agony,
then raised himself up for a moment, twirling his trunk in
the air, and finally fell with all his weight upon one of his
tusks, which he broke off short. He was dead.

"His tusk's broken!" exclaimed Kennedy--"ivory too
that in England would bring thirty-five guineas per
hundred pounds."

"As much as that?" said Joe, scrambling down to the
ground by the anchor-rope.

"What's the use of sighing over it, Dick?" said the
doctor. "Are we ivory merchants? Did we come hither
to make money?"

Joe examined the anchor and found it solidly attached
to the unbroken tusk. The doctor and Dick leaped out on
the ground, while the balloon, now half emptied, hovered
over the body of the huge animal.

"What a splendid beast!" said Kennedy, "what a mass of
flesh! I never saw an elephant of that size in India!"

"There's nothing surprising about that, my dear Dick;
the elephants of Central Africa are the finest in the world.
The Andersons and the Cummings have hunted so incessantly
in the neighborhood of the Cape, that these animals
have migrated to the equator, where they are often met
with in large herds."

"In the mean while, I hope," added Joe, "that we'll
taste a morsel of this fellow. I'll undertake to get you a
good dinner at his expense. Mr. Kennedy will go off and
hunt for an hour or two; the doctor will make an inspection
of the balloon, and, while they're busy in that way,
I'll do the cooking."

"A good arrangement!" said the doctor; "so do as
you like, Joe."

"As for me," said the hunter, "I shall avail myself of the
two hours' recess that Joe has condescended to let me have."

"Go, my friend, but no imprudence! Don't wander
too far away."

"Never fear, doctor!" and, so saying, Dick, shouldering
his gun, plunged into the woods.

Forthwith Joe went to work at his vocation. At first
he made a hole in the ground two feet deep; this he filled
with the dry wood that was so abundantly scattered about,
where it had been strewn by the elephants, whose tracks
could be seen where they had made their way through the
forest. This hole filled, he heaped a pile of fagots on it
a foot in height, and set fire to it.

Then he went back to the carcass of the elephant,
which had fallen only about a hundred feet from the edge
of the forest; he next proceeded adroitly to cut off the
trunk, which might have been two feet in diameter at the
base; of this he selected the most delicate portion, and
then took with it one of the animal's spongy feet. In fact,
these are the finest morsels, like the hump of the bison, the
paws of the bear, and the head of the wild boar.

When the pile of fagots had been thoroughly consumed,
inside and outside, the hole, cleared of the cinders
and hot coals, retained a very high temperature. The
pieces of elephant-meat, surrounded with aromatic leaves,
were placed in this extempore oven and covered with hot
coals. Then Joe piled up a second heap of sticks over all,
and when it had burned out the meat was cooked to a turn.

Then Joe took the viands from the oven, spread the
savory mess upon green leaves, and arranged his dinner
upon a magnificent patch of greensward. He finally
brought out some biscuit, some coffee, and some cognac,
and got a can of pure, fresh water from a neighboring
streamlet.

The repast thus prepared was a pleasant sight to behold,
and Joe, without being too proud, thought that it
would also be pleasant to eat.

"A journey without danger or fatigue," he soliloquized;
"your meals when you please; a swinging hammock all
the time! What more could a man ask? And there was
Kennedy, who didn't want to come!"

On his part, Dr. Ferguson was engrossed in a serious
and thorough examination of the balloon. The latter did
not appear to have suffered from the storm; the silk and
the gutta percha had resisted wonderfully, and, upon estimating
the exact height of the ground and the ascensional
force of the balloon, our aeronaut saw, with satisfaction,
that the hydrogen was in exactly the same quantity as
before. The covering had remained completely waterproof.

It was now only five days since our travellers had
quitted Zanzibar; their pemmican had not yet been
touched; their stock of biscuit and potted meat was enough
for a long trip, and there was nothing to be replenished
but the water.

The pipes and spiral seemed to be in perfect condition,
since, thanks to their india-rubber jointings, they had
yielded to all the oscillations of the balloon. His examination
ended, the doctor betook himself to setting his
notes in order. He made a very accurate sketch of the
surrounding landscape, with its long prairie stretching
away out of sight, the forest of calmadores, and the balloon
resting motionless over the body of the dead elephant.

At the end of his two hours, Kennedy returned with a
string of fat partridges and the haunch of an oryx, a sort
of gemsbok belonging to the most agile species of antelopes.
Joe took upon himself to prepare this surplus stock
of provisions for a later repast.

"But, dinner's ready!" he shouted in his most musical voice.

And the three travellers had only to sit down on the
green turf. The trunk and feet of the elephant were declared
to be exquisite. Old England was toasted, as usual,
and delicious Havanas perfumed this charming country
for the first time.

Kennedy ate, drank, and chatted, like four; he was
perfectly delighted with his new life, and seriously
proposed to the doctor to settle in this forest, to construct a
cabin of boughs and foliage, and, there and then, to lay the
foundation of a Robinson Crusoe dynasty in Africa.

The proposition went no further, although Joe had, at
once, selected the part of Man Friday for himself.

The country seemed so quiet, so deserted, that the
doctor resolved to pass the night on the ground, and Joe
arranged a circle of watch-fires as an indispensable barrier
against wild animals, for the hyenas, cougars, and jackals,
attracted by the smell of the dead elephant, were prowling
about in the neighborhood. Kennedy had to fire his rifle
several times at these unceremonious visitors, but the
night passed without any untoward occurrence.

CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH.

The Karagwah.--Lake Ukereoue.--A Night on an Island.--The Equator.--
Crossing the Lake.--The Cascades.--A View of the Country.--The Sources
of the Nile.--The Island of Benga.--The Signature of Andrea Debono.--The
Flag with the Arms of England.

At five o'clock in the morning, preparations for departure
commenced. Joe, with the hatchet which he had
fortunately recovered, broke the elephant's tusks. The
balloon, restored to liberty, sped away to the northwest
with our travellers, at the rate of eighteen miles per hour.

The doctor had carefully taken his position by the altitude
of the stars, during the preceding night. He knew
that he was in latitude two degrees forty minutes below
the equator, or at a distance of one hundred and sixty
geographical miles. He swept along over many villages
without heeding the cries that the appearance of the balloon
excited; he took note of the conformation of places
with quick sights; he passed the slopes of the Rubemhe,
which are nearly as abrupt as the summits of the Ousagara,
and, farther on, at Tenga, encountered the first projections
of the Karagwah chains, which, in his opinion,
are direct spurs of the Mountains of the Moon. So, the
ancient legend which made these mountains the cradle of
the Nile, came near to the truth, since they really border
upon Lake Ukereoue, the conjectured reservoir of the
waters of the great river.

From Kafuro, the main district of the merchants of that
country, he descried, at length, on the horizon, the lake
so much desired and so long sought for, of which Captain
Speke caught a glimpse on the 3d of August, 1858.

Samuel Ferguson felt real emotion: he was almost in
contact with one of the principal points of his expedition,
and, with his spy-glass constantly raised, he kept every
nook and corner of the mysterious region in sight. His
gaze wandered over details that might have been thus
described:

"Beneath him extended a country generally destitute
of cultivation; only here and there some ravines seemed
under tillage; the surface, dotted with peaks of medium
height, grew flat as it approached the lake; barley-fields
took the place of rice-plantations, and there, too, could be
seen growing the species of plantain from which the wine
of the country is drawn, and mwani, the wild plant which
supplies a substitute for coffee. A collection of some fifty
or more circular huts, covered with a flowering thatch,
constituted the capital of the Karagwah country."

He could easily distinguish the astonished countenances
of a rather fine-looking race of natives of yellowish-brown
complexion. Women of incredible corpulence
were dawdling about through the cultivated grounds, and
the doctor greatly surprised his companions by informing
them that this rotundity, which is highly esteemed in that
region, was obtained by an obligatory diet of curdled milk.

At noon, the Victoria was in one degree forty-five
minutes south latitude, and at one o'clock the wind was
driving her directly toward the lake.

This sheet of water was christened Uyanza Victoria,
or Victoria Lake, by Captain Speke. At the place now
mentioned it might measure about ninety miles in breadth,
and at its southern extremity the captain found a group
of islets, which he named the Archipelago of Bengal. He
pushed his survey as far as Muanza, on the eastern coast,
where he was received by the sultan. He made a triangulation
of this part of the lake, but he could not procure a
boat, either to cross it or to visit the great island of
Ukereoue which is very populous, is governed by three
sultans, and appears to be only a promontory at low tide.

The balloon approached the lake more to the northward,
to the doctor's great regret, for it had been his wish
to determine its lower outlines. Its shores seemed to be
thickly set with brambles and thorny plants, growing together
in wild confusion, and were literally hidden, sometimes,
from the gaze, by myriads of mosquitoes of a light-brown
hue. The country was evidently habitable and inhabited.
Troops of hippopotami could be seen disporting
themselves in the forests of reeds, or plunging beneath the
whitish waters of the lake.

The latter, seen from above, presented, toward the
west, so broad an horizon that it might have been called a
sea; the distance between the two shores is so great that
communication cannot be established, and storms are frequent
and violent, for the winds sweep with fury over this
elevated and unsheltered basin.

The doctor experienced some difficulty in guiding his
course; he was afraid of being carried toward the east,
but, fortunately, a current bore him directly toward the
north, and at six o'clock in the evening the balloon
alighted on a small desert island in thirty minutes south
latitude, and thirty-two degrees fifty-two minutes east
longitude, about twenty miles from the shore.

The travellers succeeded in making fast to a tree, and,
the wind having fallen calm toward evening, they remained
quietly at anchor. They dared not dream of taking the
ground, since here, as on the shores of the Uyanza, legions
of mosquitoes covered the soil in dense clouds. Joe even
came back, from securing the anchor in the tree, speckled
with bites, but he kept his temper, because he found it
quite the natural thing for mosquitoes to treat him as they
had done.

Nevertheless, the doctor, who was less of an optimist,
let out as much rope as he could, so as to escape these
pitiless insects, that began to rise toward him with a
threatening hum.

The doctor ascertained the height of the lake above
the level of the sea, as it had been determined by Captain
Speke, say three thousand seven hundred and fifty feet.

"Here we are, then, on an island!" said Joe, scratching
as though he'd tear his nails out.

"We could make the tour of it in a jiffy," added Kennedy,
"and, excepting these confounded mosquitoes, there's
not a living being to be seen on it."

"The islands with which the lake is dotted," replied
the doctor, "are nothing, after all, but the tops of submerged
hills; but we are lucky to have found a retreat
among them, for the shores of the lake are inhabited by
ferocious tribes. Take your sleep, then, since Providence
has granted us a tranquil night."

"Won't you do the same, doctor?"

"No, I could not close my eyes. My thoughts would
banish sleep. To-morrow, my friends, should the wind
prove favorable, we shall go due north, and we shall, perhaps,
discover the sources of the Nile, that grand secret
which has so long remained impenetrable. Near as we
are to the sources of the renowned river, I could not
sleep."

Kennedy and Joe, whom scientific speculations failed
to disturb to that extent, were not long in falling into
sound slumber, while the doctor held his post.

On Wednesday, April 23d, the balloon started at four
o'clock in the morning, with a grayish sky overhead; night
was slow in quitting the surface of the lake, which was
enveloped in a dense fog, but presently a violent breeze
scattered all the mists, and, after the balloon had been
swung to and fro for a moment, in opposite directions, it
at length veered in a straight line toward the north.

Dr. Ferguson fairly clapped his hands for joy.

"We are on the right track!" he exclaimed. "To-day
or never we shall see the Nile! Look, my friends, we are
crossing the equator! We are entering our own hemisphere!"

"Ah!" said Joe, "do you think, doctor, that the equator
passes here?"

"Just here, my boy!"

"Well, then, with all respect to you, sir, it seems to
me that this is the very time to moisten it."

"Good!" said the doctor, laughing. "Let us have a glass
of punch. You have a way of comprehending cosmography
that is any thing but dull."

And thus was the passage of the Victoria over the
equator duly celebrated.

The balloon made rapid headway. In the west could
be seen a low and but slightly-diversified coast, and,
farther away in the background, the elevated plains of the
Uganda and the Usoga. At length, the rapidity of the
wind became excessive, approaching thirty miles per hour.

The waters of the Nyanza, violently agitated, were
foaming like the billows of a sea. By the appearance of
certain long swells that followed the sinking of the waves,
the doctor was enabled to conclude that the lake must
have great depth of water. Only one or two rude boats
were seen during this rapid passage.

"This lake is evidently, from its elevated position,
the natural reservoir of the rivers in the eastern part of
Africa, and the sky gives back to it in rain what it takes
in vapor from the streams that flow out of it. I am certain
that the Nile must here take its rise."

"Well, we shall see!" said Kennedy.

About nine o'clock they drew nearer to the western
coast. It seemed deserted, and covered with woods; the
wind freshened a little toward the east, and the other
shore of the lake could be seen. It bent around in such a
curve as to end in a wide angle toward two degrees forty
minutes north latitude. Lofty mountains uplifted their
arid peaks at this extremity of Nyanza; but, between
them, a deep and winding gorge gave exit to a turbulent
and foaming river.

While busy managing the balloon, Dr. Ferguson never
ceased reconnoitring the country with eager eyes.

"Look!" he exclaimed, "look, my friends! the statements
of the Arabs were correct! They spoke of a river
by which Lake Ukereoue discharged its waters toward
the north, and this river exists, and we are descending it,
and it flows with a speed analogous to our own! And this
drop of water now gliding away beneath our feet is, beyond
all question, rushing on, to mingle with the Mediterranean!
It is the Nile!"

"It is the Nile!" reeechoed Kennedy, carried away by
the enthusiasm of his friend.

"Hurrah for the Nile!" shouted Joe, glad, and always
ready to cheer for something.

Enormous rocks, here and there, embarrassed the
course of this mysterious river. The water foamed as it
fell in rapids and cataracts, which confirmed the doctor
in his preconceived ideas on the subject. From the environing
mountains numerous torrents came plunging and
seething down, and the eye could take them in by hundreds.
There could be seen, starting from the soil, delicate
jets of water scattering in all directions, crossing and
recrossing each other, mingling, contending in the swiftness
of their progress, and all rushing toward that nascent
stream which became a river after having drunk them in.

"Here is, indeed, the Nile!" reiterated the doctor, with
the tone of profound conviction. "The origin of its name,
like the origin of its waters, has fired the imagination of
the learned; they have sought to trace it from the
Greek, the Coptic, the Sanscrit; but all that matters little
now, since we have made it surrender the secret of its
source!"

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