Part 6 (1/2)
”The fact is,” added the doctor, ”that Joe, along with a thousand other virtues, has a ree: he coin, but he never would reveal to redients”
”Well, round, I can tell you the secret It is just to mix equal quantities of Mocha, of Bourbon coffee, and of Rio Nunez”
A fewcups of coffee were served, and topped off a substantial breakfast, which was additionally seasoned by the jokes and repartees of the guests Each one then resumed his post of observation
The country over which they were passing was reed in beneath the overarching verdure They swept along above cultivated fields of tobacco, maize, and barley, at full maturity, and here and there iht stalks and purple blossooats too, confined in large cages, set up on piles to keep theetation spread in wild profuseness over this prodigal soil
Village after village rang with yells of terror and astonishuson prudently kept her above the reach of the barbarian arrows The savages below, thus baffled, ran together from their huddle of huts and followed the travellers with their vain iht
At noon, the doctor, upon consulting hisover the Uzaramo country The soil was thickly studded with cocoa-nut, papaw, and cotton-wood trees, above which the balloon seeetation athat they were in Africa Kennedy descried soood shot fro-piece, but it would have been poasted, since there was no tinify country in the language of that region
The aeronauts swept on with the speed of twelve rees twenty e of Tounda
”It was there,” said the doctor, ”that Burton and Speke were seized with violent fevers, and for a ht their expedition ruined And yet they were only a short distance fro to tell upon thening throughout the country in question Even the doctor could hope to escape its effects only by rising above the range of therays of the sun pump up its poisonous vapors Once in a while they could descry a caravan resting in a ”kraal,” awaiting the freshness and cool of the evening to resume its route These kraals are wide patches of cleared land, surrounded by hedges and jungles, where traders take shelter against not only the wild beasts, but also the robber tribes of the country They could see the natives running and scattering in all directions at the sight of the Victoria Kennedy was keen to get a closer look at theainst the idea
”The chiefs are armed with muskets,” he said, ”and our balloon would be too conspicuous aus down?” asked Joe
”Not ie torn orifice through which our gas would escape”
”Then, let us keep at a respectful distance fro in the air? I' us!”
”Let them worshi+p away, then,” replied the doctor, ”but at a distance There is no har as far away fro its aspect: the villages are fewer and farther between; the rowth ceases at this latitude The soil is beco hilly and portends mountains not far off”
”Yes,” said Kennedy, ”it seeh land on this side”
”In the west-those are the nearest ranges of the Ourizara-Mount Duthuht I'll stir up the heat in the cylinder a little, for we must keep at an elevation of five or six hundred feet”
”That was a grant idea of yours, sir,” said Joe ”It's 's done”
”Ah! here we are more at our ease,” said the sportsman, as the balloon ascended; ”the reflection of the sun on those red sands was getting to be insupportable”
”What splendid trees!” cried Joe ”They're quite natural, but they are very fine! Why a dozen of them would uson ”See, there's one with a trunk fully one hundred feet in circumference It was, perhaps, at the foot of that very tree that Maizan, the French traveller, expired in 1845, for we are over the village of Deje-la-Mhora, to which he pushed on alone He was seized by the chief of this region, fastened to the foot of a baobab, and the ferocious black then severed all his joints while the war-song of his tribe was chanted; he then ash in the prisoner's neck, stopped to sharpen his knife, and fairly tore away the poor wretch's head before it had been cut from the body The unfortunate Frenche”
”And France has never avenged so hideous a crime?” said Kennedy
”France did demand satisfaction, and the Said of Zanzibar did all in his power to capture the murderer, but in vain”
”I o up, her by all ly, Joe, that there is Mount Duthuht we shall have passed it before seven o'clock in the evening”
”Shall we not travel at night?” asked the Scotchilance we h to sweep across Africa We want to see it”
”Up to this ti to complain of, master The best cultivated and most fertile country in the world instead of a desert! Believe the geographers after that!”
”Let us wait, Joe! we shall see by-and-by”
About half-past six in the evening the Victoria was directly opposite Mount Duthuht of more than three thousand feet, and to accomplish that the doctor had only to raise the teht have been correctly said that he held his balloon in his hand Kennedy had only to indicate to hih the air, skiht o'clock it descended the farther slope, the acclivity of which was much less abrupt The anchors were thrown out fro in contact with the branches of an enorht on it firmly Joe at once let himself slide down the rope and secured it The silk ladder was then lowered to hiility The balloon now remained perfectly at rest sheltered froot ready, and the aeronauts, excited by their day's journey, ht upon the provisions
”What distance have we traversed to-day?” asked Kennedy, disposing of sos, by means of lunar observations, and consulted the excellent ed to the Atlas of ”Der Neuester Endeckungen in Afrika” (”The Latest Discoveries in Africa”), published at Gotha by his learned friend Dr Petermann, and by that savant sent to him This Atlas was to serve the doctor on his whole journey; for it contained the itinerary of Burton and Speke to the great lakes; the Soudan, according to Dr Barth; the Lower Senegal, according to Guillauer, by Dr Blaikie
Ferguson had also provided himself with a hich combined in one co the Nile It was entitled ”The Sources of the Nile; being a General Survey of the Basin of that River and of its Head-Stream, with the History of the Nilotic Discovery, by Charles Beke, DD”
He also had the excellent charts published in the ”Bulletins of the Geographical Society of London;” and not a single point of the countries already discovered could, therefore, escape his notice
Upon tracing on his rees, or one hundred and twenty miles, to the ard
Kennedy remarked that the route tended toward the south; but this direction was satisfactory to the doctor, who desired to reconnoitre the tracks of his predecessors as ht should be divided into three watches, so that each of the party should take his turn in watching over the safety of the rest The doctor took the watch co atwatch
So Kennedy and Joe, rapped in their blankets, stretched the, and slept quietly; while Dr Ferguson kept on the lookout
CHAPTER THIRTEENTH
Change of Weather-Kennedy has the Fever-The Doctor's Medicine-Travels on Land-The Basin of Ie-Mount Rubeho-Six Thousand Feet Elevation-A Halt in the Dayti, Kennedy, as he awoke, complained of lassitude and feverish chills The weather was changing The sky, covered with clouds, seeion is that Zungo, perhaps, for a couple of weeks in thein drenching our travellers Below them, the roads, intersected by ”nullahs,” a sort of instantaneous torrent, were soon rendered iled as they were, besides, with thorny thickets and gigantic lianas, or creeping vines The sulphuretted hydrogen emanations, which Captain Burtonto his stateht,” said the doctor, ”one could readily believe that there is a corpse hidden behind every thicket”
”An ugly country this!” sighed Joe; ”and it see passed the night in it”
”To tell the truth, I have quite a high fever,” said the sports remarkable about that, ions in Africa; but we shall not re; so let's be off”
Thanks to a skilful ed, and Joe reascended to the car by as, and the Victoria resu breeze
Only a few scattered huts could be seen through the pestilential ed, for it often happens in Africa that some of the unhealthiest districts lie close beside others that are perfectly salubrious
Kennedy was visibly suffering, and the fever was orous constitution
”It won't do to fall ill, though,” he gru, he wrapped hi