Part 19 (1/2)
”Undoubtedly, and persons deprived of food hold out longer than those deprived of water”
”I believe it Besides, when needshe coh that est”
”The savages don't boggle much about it!” said Kennedy
”Yes; but then they are savages, and accusto that I'd find very disgusting, for h,” said the doctor, ”that's a fact; and so much so, indeed, that nobody believed the narratives of the earliest travellers in Africa who brought back word that many tribes on that continent subsisted upon raw enerally refused to credit the stateular adventure befell Jah to hear it,” said Joe, stretching hireensward
”By all shi+re, who, between 1768 and 1772, traversed all Abyssinia, as far as Lake Tyana, in search of the sources of the Nile He afterward returned to England, but did not publish an account of his journeys until 1790 His statements were received with extreme incredulity, and such may be the reception accorded to our own The manners and customs of the Abyssinians seelish, that no one would credit the description of the other details, Bruce had put forward the assertion that the tribes of Eastern Africa fed upon raw flesh, and this set everybody against hiht say so as o and see! One day, in a parlor at Edinburgh, a Scotch gentleman took up the subject in his presence, as it had become the topic of daily pleasantry, and, in reference to the eating of raw flesh, said that the thing was neither possible nor true Bruce made no reply, but went out and returned a few minutes later with a raw steak, seasoned with pepper and salt, in the African style
”'Sir,' said he to the Scotchrossly affronted regiously mistaken; and, in proof thereof, you will now eat this beef-steak raw, or you will give me instant satisfaction!' The Scotchman had a wholesome dread of the brawny traveller, and DID eat the steak, although not without a good many wry faces Thereupon, with the ut, sir, that the thing were untrue, you will, at least, no longer maintain that it is impossible'”
”Well put in!” said Joe, ”and if the Scotchot no land, they dare to doubt e say about our travels-”
”Well, Joe, ould you do?”
”Why, I'll make the doubters s the pieces of the balloon, without either salt or pepper!”
All burst out laughing at Joe's queer notions, and thus the day slipped by in pleasant chat With returning strength, hope had revived, and with hope cae to do and to dare The past was obliterated in the presence of the future with providential rapidity
Joe would have been willing to re asylum; it was the realm he had pictured in his dreaive hiinable that he wrote down on his tablets fifteen degrees forty-three rees thirty-two ret, to wit, that he could not hunt in thatto his ideas, there was a slight deficiency of ferocious wild beasts in it
”But, my dear dick,” said the doctor, ”haven't you rather a short memory? How about the lion and the lioness?”
”Oh, that!” he ejaculated with the contea them here would lead one to suppose that we can't be far from a more fertile country”
”It don't prove er or thirst, will travel long distances, and I think that, to-night, we had better keep a ht fires, besides”
”What, in such heat as this?” said Joe ”Well, if it's necessary, we'll have to do it, but I do think it a real pity to burn this pretty grove that has been such a cos, we must take the utmost care not to set it on fire,” replied the doctor, ”so that others in the same strait as ourselves may some day find shelter here in the middle of the desert”
”I'll be very careful, indeed, doctor; but do you think that this oasis is known?”
”Undoubtedly; it is a halting-place for the caravans that frequent the centre of Africa, and a visit fro but pleasant to you, Joe”
”Why, are there any more of those rascally Nyaeneral na tribes, and, under the same climates, the same races are likely to have similar manners and customs”
”Pah!” said Joe, ”but, after all, it's natural enough If savages had the ways of gentlee, these fine felloouldn't have to be coaxed long to eat the Scotchain!”
With this very sensible observation, Joe began to get ready his firewood for the night,just as little of it as possible Fortunately, these precautions were superfluous; and each of the party, in his turn, dropped off into the soundest slun of change, but kept provokingly and obstinately fair The balloon remained motionless, without any oscillation to betray a breath of wind
The doctor began to get uneasy again If their stay in the desert were to be prolonged like this, their provisions would give out After nearly perishi+ng for want of water, they would, at last, have to starve to death!
But he took fresh courage as he saw the mercury fall considerably in the baroe in the atmosphere He therefore resolved to make all his preparations for a start, so as to avail hi-tank and the water-tank were both completely filled
Then he had to reestablish the equilibriued to part with another considerable portion of his precious quartz With restored health, his ambitious notions had come back to hi his master; but the latter convinced hiht with hiave hiold Joe hesitated no longer, but flung out the requisite quantity of his much-prized ore upon the sand
”The next people who come this way,” he remarked, ”will be rather surprised to find a fortune in such a place”
”And suppose some learned traveller should coested Kennedy
”You may be certain, dick, that they would take him by surprise, and that he would publish his astonishment in several folios; so that so quartz in the midst of the African sands!”
”And Joe there, will be the cause of it all!”
This idea of ely, andthe rest of the day the doctor vainly kept on the watch for a change of weather The temperature rose, and, had it not been for the shade of the oasis, would have been insupportable The therrees in the sun, and a veritable rain of fire filled the air This was the ed their bivouac for that evening, as he had done for the previous night; and during the watches kept by the doctor and Kennedy there was no fresh incident
But, toward three o'clock in the uard, the temperature suddenly fell; the sky became overcast with clouds, and the darkness increased
”Turn out!” cried Joe, arousing his companions ”Turn out! Here's the wind!”
”At last!” exclai the heavens ”But it is a storm! The balloon! Let us hasten to the balloon!”
It was high ti to the force of the hurricane, and dragging along the car, the latter grazing the sand Had any portion of the ballast been accidentally thrown out, the balloon would have been swept away, and all hope of recovering it have been forever lost
But fleet-footed Joe put forth his utmost speed, and checked the car, while the balloon beat upon the sand, at the risk of being torn to pieces The doctor, followed by Kennedy, leaped in, and lit his cylinder, while his companions threw out the superfluous ballast
The travellers took one last look at the trees of the oasis bowing to the force of the hurricane, and soon, catching the wind at two hundred feet above the ground, disappeared in the glooetation-The Fantastic Notion of a French Author-A Magnificent Country-The Kingdom of Adamova-The Explorations of Speke and Burton connected with those of Dr Barth-The Atlantika Mountains-The River Benoue-The City of Yola-The Bagele-Mount Mendif
Froreat velocity They longed to leave behind them the desert, which had so nearly been fatal to theht a gli on that sea of sand, and announcing, as the weeds upon the ocean did to Christopher Colu up timidly between pebbles that were, in their turn, to be the rocks of that vast expanse
Hills, but of trifling height, were seen in wavy lines upon the horizon Their profile, uely Theto disappear
The doctor hailed with joy the new country thus disclosed, and, like a seaman on lookout at the mast-head, he was ready to shout aloud: ”Land, ho! land!”
An hour later the continent spread broadly before their gaze, still wild in aspect, but less flat, less denuded, and with a few trees standing out against the gray sky
”We are in a civilized country at last!” said the hunter