Part 11 (2/2)
”And what of that?” asked dick
”It is there that we shall alight, if God permits”
”But, it seeht; and, unless I'roup of about a score of natives on it now”
”We'll reat trouble in that,” responded Ferguson
”So be it,” chimed in the hunter
The sun was at the zenith as the balloon approached the island
The blacks, erelustily, and one of them waved his bark hat in the air Kennedy took aim at him, fired, and his hat flew about hieneral sca into the river, and swam to the opposite bank Immediately, there ca with a perfect cloud of arrows, but without doing the balloon any daly secured in the fissure of a rock Joe lost no tiround
”The ladder!” cried the doctor ”Follow me, Kennedy”
”What do you wish, sir?”
”Let us alight I want a witness”
”Here I aood lookout”
”Never fear, doctor; I'll answer for all that”
”Coround
So saying, he drew his coroup of rocks that rose upon one point of the island; there, after searching for so the bra, scratched his hands until they bled
Suddenly he grasped Kennedy's ar: ”Look! look!”
”Letters!”
Yes; there, indeed, could be descried, with perfect precision of outline, some letters carved on the rock It was quite easy to uson ”Andrea Debono-the very signature of the traveller who farthest ascended the current of the Nile”
”No doubt of that, friend Samuel,” assented Kennedy
”Are you now convinced?”
”It is the Nile! We cannot entertain a doubt on that score noas the reply
The doctor, for the last time, examined those precious initials, the exact form and size of which he carefully noted
”And now,” said he-”now for the balloon!”
”Quickly, then, for I see so ready to recross the river”
”That matters little to us now Let the wind but send us northward for a few hours, and we shall reach Gondokoro, and press the hands of some of our countrymen”
Ten , while Dr Ferguson, in token of success, waved the English flag triumphantly from his car
CHAPTER NINETEENTH
The Nile-The Tre Mountain-A Remembrance of the Country-The Narratives of the Arabs-The Nyaitations-The Balloon runs the Gantlet-Aerostatic Ascensions-Madame Blanchard
”Which way do we head?” asked Kennedy, as he saw his friend consulting the compass
”North-northeast”
”The deuce! but that's not the north?”
”No, dick; and I' to Gondokoro I a the explorations from the east with those from the north; and we radually from the Nile
”One last look,” said the doctor, ”at this impassable latitude, beyond which the most intrepid travellers could not make their way There are those intractable tribes, of who traveller Lejean, to e are indebted for the best work on the Upper Nile, have spoken”
”Thus, then,” added Kennedy, inquiringly, ”our discoveries agree with the speculations of science”
”Absolutely so The sources of the White Nile, of the Bahr-el-Abiad, are ie as a sea; it is there that it takes its rise Poesy, undoubtedly, loses so a celestial origin to this king of rivers The ancients gave it the na that it flowed directly frohts from time to time, and accept what science teaches us There will not always be scientific men, perhaps; but there alill be poets”
”We can still see cataracts,” said Joe
”Those are the cataracts of Makedo, in the third degree of latitude Nothing could be more accurate Oh, if we could only have followed the course of the Nile for a few hours!”
”And down yonder, below us, I see the top of a wek, the Tre Mountain of the Arabs This whole country was visited by Debono, ent through it under the na near the Nile are hostile to each other, and are continually waging a war of extermination You may form some idea, then, of the difficulties he had to encounter”
The as carrying the balloon toward the northwest, and, in order to avoid Mount Longwek, it was necessary to seek acurrent
”My friends,” said the doctor, ”here is where OUR passage of the African Continent really co the traces of our predecessors Henceforth we are to launch ourselves upon the unknown We shall not lack the courage, shall we?”
”Never!” said dick and Joe together, almost in a shout
”Onward, then, and may we have the help of Heaven!”