Part 25 (1/2)
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHTH
A Rapid Passage-Prudent Resolves-Caravans in Sight-Incessant Rains-Goa-The Niger-Golberry, Geoffroy, and Gray-Mungo Park-Laing-Rene Caillie-Clapperton-John and Richard Lander
The 17th of May passed tranquilly, without any reained upon them once more; a moderate wind bore the Victoria toward the southwest, and she never swerved to the right or to the left, but her shadow traced a perfectly straight line on the sand
Before starting, the doctor had prudently renewed his stock of water, having feared that he should not be able to touch ground in these regions, infested as they are by the Aouelihteen hundred feet above the level of the sea, sloped doard the south Our travellers, having crossed the Aghades route at Murzouk-a route often pressed by the feet of caree of north latitude, and four degrees fifty-fivepassed over one hundred and eightythe day Joe dressed the last pieces of game, which had been only hastily prepared, and he served up for supper agood, the doctor resolved to keep on during the night, theit with her radiance The Victoria ascended to a height of five hundred feet, and, during her nocturnal trip of about sixty entle slumbers of an infant would not have been disturbed by her ain changed, and it bore to the northard A feere seen sweeping through the air, and, off on the horizon, a flock of vultures which, fortunately, however, kept at a distance
The sight of these birds led Joe to co two balloons
”Where would we be,” said he, ”with only one balloon? The second balloon is like the life-boat to a shi+p; in case of wreck we could always take to it and escape”
”You are right, friend Joe,” said the doctor, ”only that ood as the main craft”
”What do you mean by that, doctor?” asked Kennedy
”I ood as the old one Whether it be that the stuff it is made of is too utta-percha, I can observe a certain loss of gas It don't amount to much thus far, but still it is noticeable We have a tendency to sink, and, in order to keep our elevation, I aen”
”The deuce!” exclaimed Kennedy with concern; ”I see no remedy for that”
”There is none, dick, and that is e ht halts”
”Are we still far from the coast?” asked Joe
”Which coast, my boy? How are we to knohither chance will carry us? All that I can say is, that Timbuctoo is still about four hundredwill it take us to get there?”
”Should the wind not carry us too far out of the way, I hope to reach that city by Tuesday evening”
”Then,” re across the open desert, ”we shall arrive there sooner than that caravan”
Ferguson and Kennedy leaned over and saw an immense cavalcade There were at least one hundred and fifty caold, or about twenty-five dollars, go from Timbuctoo to Tafilet with a load of five hundred pounds upon their backs Each ani to receive its excrement, the only fuel on which the caravans can depend when crossing the desert
These Touareg cao fro, and for tithout eating Their speed surpasses that of the horse, and they obey with intelligence the voice of the khabir, or guide of the caravan They are known in the country under the naiven by the doctor while his coaze upon thaton foot and with difficulty over a waste of sand half in motion, and scarcely kept in its place by scanty nettles, withered grass, and stunted bushes that grew upon it The wind obliterated the marks of their feet aluide themselves across the desert, and cohout this vast solitude
”The Arabs,” replied Dr Ferguson, ”are endowed by nature with a wonderful instinct in finding their way Where a European would be at a loss, they never hesitate for a rass, a different shade of color in the sand, suffice to guide theo by the polar star They never travelthe noonday heat Youit takes them to cross Sahara, a desert more than nine hundred miles in breadth”
But the Victoria had already disappeared froaze of the Arabs, whoshe passed two degrees twenty ree behind her
On Monday the weather changed coan to fall with extreme violence, and not only had the balloon to resist the power of this deluge, but also the increase of weight which it caused by wetting the whole machine, car and all This continuous shower accounted for the swamps and etation reappeared, however, along with the mimosas, the baobabs, and the tamarind-trees
Such was the Sonray country, with its villages topped with roofs turned over like Armenian caps There were few h to form the ravines and pools where the pintadoes and snipes went sailing and diving through Here and there, an impetuous torrent cut the roads, and had to be crossed by the natives on long vines stretched froators, hippopotami, and the rhinoceros,before we see the Niger,” said the doctor ”The face of the country always changes in the vicinity of large rivers These hways, as they are soetation with the civilization Thus, in its course of twenty-five hundredits banks the most important cities of Africa”
”By-the-way,” put in Joe, ”that reoodness of Providence, who praised the foresight hich it had generally caused rivers to flow close to large cities!”
At noon the Victoria was passing over a petty town, a reat capital
”It was there,” said the doctor, ”that Barth crossed the Niger, on his return from Timbuctoo This is the river so faan superstition ascribed a celestial origin Like the Nile, it has engaged the attention of geographers in all ages; and like it, also, its exploration has cost the lives of many victims; yes, even more of theer flowed broadly between its banks, and its waters rolled southith some violence of current; but our travellers, borne swiftly by as they were, could scarcely catch a glimpse of its curious outline
”I wanted to talk to you about this river,” said Dr Ferguson, ”and it is already far frohirreou, Quorra, and other titles besides, it traverses an ith with the Nile These appellations signify si to the dialects of the countries through which it passes”
”Did Dr Barth follow this route?” asked Kennedy
”No, dick: in quitting Lake Tchad, he passed through the different towns of Bornou, and intersected the Niger at Say, four degrees below Goa; then he penetrated to the bosoer eues, he arrived at Timbuctoo; all of which we may do in about three days with as swift a wind as this”
”Have the sources of the Niger been discovered?” asked Joe
”Long since,” replied the doctor ”The exploration of the Niger and its tributaries was the object of several expeditions, the principal of which I shall mention: Between 1749 and 1758, Adamson made a reconnoissance of the river, and visited Gorea; from 1785 to 1788, Golberry and Geoffroy travelled across the deserts of Senegambia, and ascended as far as the country of the Moors, who assassinated Saugnier, Brisson, Adam, Riley, Cochelet, and so o Park, the friend of Sir Walter Scott, and, like him, a Scotchman by birth Sent out in 1795 by the African Society of London, he got as far as Baer, travelled five hundred miles with a slave-land in 1797 He again set out, on the 30th of January, 1805, with his brother-in-law Anderson, Scott, the designer, and a gang of workmen; he reached Gorea, there added a detacher again on the 19th of August But, by that tie, the inclemencies of the weather, and the unhealthiness of the country, only eleven persons remained alive of the forty Europeans in the party On the 16th of Noveo Park reached his wife; and, a year later a trader froot as far as Boussa, on the Niger, on the 23d of December, the unfortunate traveller's boat was upset by the cataracts in that part of the river, and he was murdered by the natives”
”And his dreadful fate did not check the efforts of others to explore that river?”
”On the contrary, dick Since then, there were two objects in view: namely, to recover the lost man's papers, as well as to pursue the exploration In 1816, an expedition was organized, in which Major Grey took part It arrived in Senegal, penetrated to the Fonta-Jallon, visited the Foullah and Mandingo populations, and returned to England without further results In 1822, Major Laing explored all the western part of Africa near to the British possessions; and he it ho got so far as the sources of the Niger; and, according to his docu in which that immense river takes its rise is not two feet broad
”Easy to jump over,” said Joe
”How's that? Easy you think, eh?” retorted the doctor ”If we are to believe tradition, whoever atte over it, is immediately sed up; and whoever tries to draater from it, feels himself repulsed by an invisible hand”
”I suppose a ht not to believe a word of that!” persisted Joe
”Oh, by all 's destiny to force his way across the desert of Sahara, penetrate to Ti, at the hands of the Ouelad-shi+man, anted to compel him to turn Mussulman”
”Still another victi man, with his own feeble resources, undertook and acco of modern journeys-I mean the Frenchman Rene Caillie, who, after sundry atteain on the 19th of April, 1827, froust he arrived at Tihly exhausted and ill that he could not resume his journey until six months later, in January, 1828 He then joined a caravan, and, protected by his Oriental dress, reached the Niger on the 10th of March, penetrated to the city of Jenne, embarked on the river, and descended it, as far as Timbuctoo, where he arrived on the 30th of April In 1760, another Frenchlishman, Robert Adams, had seen this curious place; but Rene Caillie was to be the first European who could bring back any authentic data concerning it On the 4th of May he quitted this 'Queen of the desert;' on the 9th, he surveyed the very spot where Major Laing had been murdered; on the 19th, he arrived at El-Arouan, and left that co the vast solitudes coions of Africa At length he entered Tangiers, and on the 28th of Septe one hundred and eighty days' sickness, he had traversed Africa froland, he would have been honored as the most intrepid traveller of o Park But in France he was not appreciated according to his worth”
”He was a sturdy fellow!” said Kennedy, ”but what becae of thirty-nine, froht they had done enough in decreeing hihest honors would have been paid to hi this relish to push it through with equal courage, if not with equal good fortune This was Captain Clapperton, the companion of Denham In 1829 he reentered Africa by the western coast of the Gulf of Benin; he then followed in the track of Mungo Park and of Laing, recovered at Boussa the documents relative to the death of the forust at Sackatoo, where he was seized and held as a prisoner, until he expired in the arms of his faithful attendant Richard Lander”
”And what became of this Lander?” asked Joe, deeply interested