Part 20 (1/2)
CHAPTER THIRTIETH
Mosfeia-The Sheik-Denhaoum-Toole-Becalmed above Kernak-The Governor and his Court-The Attack-The Incendiary Pigeons
On the next day, May 11th, the Victoria resuers had the saood seaman has in his shi+p
In terrific hurricanes, in tropical heats, when erous, it had, at all tiht aled it with a wave of the hand; and hence, without knowing in advance, where the point of arrival would be, the doctor had no fears concerning the successful issue of his journey However, in this country of barbarians and fanatics, prudence obliged him to take the strictest precautions He therefore counselled his co and at all hours
The wind drifted a little hted the larger city of Mosfeia, built upon an eminence which was itself enclosed between two loftybetween athe only channel of approach to it
At the moment of which rite, a sheik, accoarb of brilliant colors, preceded by couriers and truhs of the trees as he rode up, was rand entry into the place
The doctor lowered the balloon in order to get a better look at this cavalcade of natives; but, as the balloon grew larger to their eyes, they began to show syth s and those of their horses could carry therasped his long musket, cocked it, and proudly waited in silence The doctor came on to within a hundred and fifty feet of him, and then, with his roundest and fullest voice, saluted hi these words falling, as it seemed, from the sky, the sheik dishhere the doctor had to leave hi it impossible to divert hiuson res When Europeans ca them for the first tiher race When this sheik co, he will not fail to embellish the circuination You ive of us so, after all,” said the Scot, ”in the point of view that affects civilization; it would be better to pass for ro races a superior idea of European power”
”Very good, ht sit all day explaining the mechanism of a balloon to the savants of this country, and yet they would not co it to supernatural aid”
”Doctor, you spoke of the first tiions Who were the visitors?” inquired Joe
”My dear felloe are now upon the very track of Major Denham It was at this very city of Mosfeia that he was received by the Sultan of Mandara; he had quitted the Bornou country; he accoainst the Fellatahs; he assisted in the attack on the city, which, with its arrows alone, bravely resisted the bullets of the Arabs, and put the sheik's troops to flight All this was but a pretext for e The major was completely plundered and stripped, and had it not been for his horse, under whose sto with the skill of an Indian rider, and was borne with a headlong gallop from his barbarous pursuers, he never could have made his way back to Kouka, the capital of Bornou”
”Who was this Major Denhalishman, who, between 1822 and 1824, commanded an expedition into the Bornou country, in company with Captain Clapperton and Dr Oudney They set out from Tripoli in the month of March, reached Mourzouk, the capital of Fez, and, following the route which at a later period Dr Barth was to pursue on his way back to Europe, they arrived, on the 16th of February, 1823, at Kouka, near Lake Tchad Denham made several explorations in Bornou, in Mandara, and to the eastern shores of the lake In the mean time, on the 15th of December, 1823, Captain Clapperton and Dr Oudney had pushed their way through the Soudan country as far as Sackatoo, and Oudney died of fatigue and exhaustion in the town of Murmur”
”This part of Africa has, therefore, paid a heavy tribute of victims to the cause of science,” said Kennedy
”Yes, this country is fatal to travellers We are el traversed in 1856, so as to reach the Wadai country, where he disappeared This young e of twenty-three, had been sent to cooperate with Dr Barth They met on the 1st of December, 1854, and thereupon commenced his explorations of the country Toward 1856, he announced, in the last letters received frodom of Wadai, which no European had yet penetrated It appears that he got as far as Wara, the capital, where, according to so to others, was put to death for having attempted to ascend a sacred htly admit the death of travellers, since that does aith the necessity of going in search of them For instance, how often was the death of Dr Barth reported, to his own great annoyance! It is, therefore, very possible that Vogel may still be held as a prisoner by the Sultan of Wadai, in the hope of obtaining a good ranso for the Wadai country when he died at Cairo, in 1855; andthat De Heuglin has set out on Vogel's track with the expedition sent from Leipsic, so that we shall soon be accurately infor explorer”
Since the doctor's departure, letters written froer, the newly-appointed head of the expedition, unfortunately place the death of Vogel beyond a doubt
Mosfeia had disappeared fro ere this, and the Mandara country was developing to the gaze of our aeronauts its astonishi+ng fertility, with its forests of acacias, its locust-trees covered with red flowers, and the herbaceous plants of its fields of cotton and indigo trees The river Shari, which eighty miles farther on rolled its impetuous waters into Lake Tchad, was quite distinctly seen
The doctor got his companions to trace its course upon the maps drawn by Dr Barth
”You perceive,” said he, ”that the labors of this savant have been conducted with great precision; we are ion, and perhaps toward Kernak, its capital It was there that poor Toole died, at the age of scarcely twenty-two He was a young Englishiment, who, a feeeks before, had joined Major Denha ere he there ht well be called the graveyard of European travellers”
So the current of the Shari The Victoria, then one thousand feet above the soil, hardly attracted the attention of the natives; but the wind, which until then had been bloith a certain degree of strength, was falling off
”Is it possible that we are to be caught in another dead calhed the doctor
”Well, we've no lack of water, nor the desert to fear, anyhow, master,” said Joe
”No; but there are races here still ain, ”there's so like a town”
”That is Kernak The last puffs of the breeze are wafting us to it, 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 round
”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 nu 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 e open space there was a slave-reat 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; as flung aside, and all noise ceased The aeronauts 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 Loggoureen standard, and accompanied by his h they would split their cheeks or any thing else, excepting their own lungs The crowd at once gathered around hiuson tried to make himself heard, but in vain
This population looked like proud and intelligent people, with their high foreheads, their al hair; but the presence of the Victoria troubled the in all directions, and it soon beca to oppose so extraordinary a foe Joe wore hi 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, h, 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 becoovernor, whose courtiers and attendants set up a furious howl to enforce immediate obedience on the part of the aerialfellows those courtiers, with their five or six shi+rts swathed around their bodies! They had enormous stomachs, some of which actually seemed to be artificial The doctor surprised his co them that this was the way to pay court to the sultan The rotundity of the stomach indicated the aesticulated and bawled at the top of their voices-one of the 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 cos with the uproar of the court, repeating their gesticulations like so le 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 arroere drawn up in line of battle; but by this ti quietly beyond their reach Upon this the governor seized a musket and ai hirasp
At this unexpected blow there was a general rout Everywith the utmost celerity, and stayed there, so that the streets of the toere absolutely deserted for the reht ca The aeronauts 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 glooned the silence of death; but the doctor only redoubled his vigilance, as this apparent quiet ht conceal soht, 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, forular network of fire
”That's really curious!” said the doctor, somewhat puzzled to lorious!” shouted Kennedy, ”it looks as if the fire were ascending and coh, with an acco, and din of every description, thetoward 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 ate all his batteries into theainst such a nu around the car; they were even surrounding the balloon, the sides of which, reflecting their illuh enveloped with a network of fire