CHAPTER XXXI. After the night time, all three, Kennedy's instincts, precautions, the course of the Shari River, Lake Chad, the water of the lake, the hippopotamus, one bullet thrown away. About three o'clock in the morning, Joe, who was then on watch, at length saw the city move away from beneath his feet. The victoria was once again in motion, and both the doctor and Kennedy awoke. The former consulted his compass, and saw with satisfaction that the wind was carrying them toward the north-northeast. We are in luck, said he. Everything works in our favor. We shall discover Lake Chad this very day. Is it a broad sheet of water? asked Kennedy. Somewhat, Dick. At its greatest length and breadth, it measures about one hundred and twenty miles. It will spice our trip with a little variety to sail over a spacious sheet of water. After all, though I don't see that we have much to complain of on that score. Our trip has been very much varied. Indeed, a more of a we are getting on under the best possible conditions. Unquestionably so, except in those privations on the desert, we have encountered no serious danger. It is not to be denied that our noble balloon has behaved wonderfully well. Today is May 12th, and we started on the 18th of April. That makes twenty-five days of journeying. In ten days more we shall have reached our destination. Where is that? I do not know, but what does that signify? You are right again, Samuel. Let us entrust to Providence the care of guiding us and of keeping us in good health as we are now. We do not look much as though we had been crossing the most pestilential country in the world. We had an opportunity of getting up in life, and that is what we have done. Who are off at trips in the air, cried Joe. Here we are at the end of twenty-five days in good condition, well fed and well rested. We have had too much rest, in fact, for my legs begin to feel rusty, and I would not be vexed a bit to stretch them with a run of thirty miles or so. You can do that, Joe, in the streets of London, but in fine we set out three together, like Denham, Clapperton and Overwig, like Barth, Richardson and Vogel, and more fortunate than our predecessors here, we have three in number still. But it is important for us not to separate. If while one of us was on the ground, the Victoria should have to ascend in order to escape some sudden danger, who knows whether we should ever see each other again. Therefore it is that I say again to Kennedy, frankly, that I do not like his going off alone to hunt. But still, Samuel, you will permit me to indulge that fancy a little. There is no harm in renewing our stock of provisions. Besides, before I departure, you hailed out to me the prospect of some superb hunting, and thus far I have done but little in the line of the Andersons and Cummings. But my dear Dick, your memory fails you, or modesty makes you forget your own exploits. It really seems to me that, without mentioning small game, you have already had an antelope, an elephant, and two lions on your conscience. But what's all that to an African sportsman who sees all the animals in creation strutting along under the muzzle of his rifle? There, there, look at that troupe of giraffes. Those giraffes, Lord Joe, why, if they're not as big as my fist, because we're a thousand feet above them, but close to them you would discover that they are three times as tall as you are. And what do you say to your unheard of gazelles and those ostriches, that run with the speed of the wind, resumed Kennedy? Those ostriches, for monster to Joe, again, those are chickens, and the greatest kind of chickens. Come, doctor, can't we get down nearer to them, pleaded Kennedy? We can get closer to them, Dick, but we must not land, and what good will it do you to strike down those poor animals when they can be of no use to you? Now if the caution were to destroy a lion, a tiger, a cat, a hyena, I could understand it, but to provide an antelope or a gazelle of life to no other purpose than the gratification of your instincts as a sportsman seems hardly worth the trouble. But after all, my friend, we are going to keep at about one hundred feet only from the soil, and should you see any ferocious wild beast, oblige us by sending a ball through its heart. The Victoria descended gradually, but still keeping at a safe height, for in barbarous yet very populous country, it was necessary to keep on the watch for unexpected perils. The travelers were then directly following the course of the Shari. The charming banks of this river were hidden beneath the foliage of trees of various dyes. Leanna's inclining plants wound in and out on all sides and formed the most curious combinations of color. Crocodiles were seen basking in the broad blaze of the sun or plunging beneath the waters with the agility of lizards, and in their gambles they sported it about among the many green islands that intercept the current of the stream. It was thus in the midst of rich and verdant landscapes that our travelers passed over the district of Mafate, and at about nine o'clock in the morning reached the sudden shore of Lake Chad. There it was at last, outstretched before them, that Caspian Sea of Africa, the existence of which was so long consigned to the realms of fable, that interior expansive water to which only denims and barst expeditions had been able to force their way. The Dr. Strohvin vein to fix his precise configuration upon paper, it had already changed greatly since 1847. In fact, the chart of Lake Chad is very difficult to trace with exactitude, for it is surrounded by muddy and almost impassable morasses, in which Barth thought that he was doomed to perish. From year to year these marshes, covered with reeds and papyrus, fifteen feet high, become the lake itself. Quickly two of the villages on its shore have submerged, as was the case with Ngumu in 1856, and now the hippopotamus and the alligator, frisk and dive where the dwellings of Bornu once stood. The sun shudders dazzling rays over this placid sheet of water, and toward the north the two elements merged into one on the same horizon. The doctor was desirous of determining the character of the water, which was long believed to be salt. There was no danger in descending close to the lake, and the car was soon skimming its surface, like a bird at the distance of only five feet. Joe plunged a bottle into the lake, and drew it up half filled. The water was then tasted and found to be but little fit for drinking, with a certain carbonate of soda flavor. While the doctor was joying down the result of this experiment, the louder port of a gun was heard, close behind him. Kennedy had not been able to resist the temptation of firing at a huge hippopotamus. The latter, who had been basking quietly, disappeared at the sound of the explosion, but did not seem to be otherwise incommodated by Kennedy's conical bullet. You'd have done better if you had harpooned him, said Joe. But how? With one of our anchors, it would have been a hook just big enough for such a rousing beast as that. Hmpf, ejaculated Kennedy. Joe really has an idea this time. Which I beg of you not to put into execution, it opposed the doctor. The animal would very quickly have dragged us where we could not have done much to help ourselves and where we have no business to be. Especially now, since we've all settled this question as to what kind of water there is in Lake Chad, is that sort of fish good to eat, Dr. Ferguson? That fish, as you call it, Joe, is really a mammiferous animal of the peccadermal species. Its flesh is said to be excellent and is an article of important trade between the tribes living along the borders of the lake. Then I'm sorry that Mr. Kennedy's shot didn't do more damage. The animal is vulnerable only in the stomach, between the thighs. Dick's ball hasn't even marked him. But should the ground strike me as favorable, we shall halt at the northern ends of the lake, where Kennedy will find himself in the midst of a whole menagerie and can make up for lost time. Well, said Joe, I hope then that Mr. Kennedy will hunt the hippopotamus a little. I'd like to taste the meat of that queer-looking beast. It doesn't look exactly natural to get away into the center of Africa to feed on snipe and partridge, just as if we were in England. CHAPTER 32 OF FIVE WEEKS IN THE BALLOON This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alex C. Tillander, Roseville, California. Five weeks in a balloon, or journeys and discoveries in Africa, by three Englishmen, by Jules Verne, translated by William Lackland. CHAPTER 32 THE CAPITAL OF BORNEW THE ISLANDS OF THE BEDUOMAS. THE CONDORS. THE DOCTOR'S ANSIETIES. HIS PROCAUTIONS. AN ATTACK IN MID-AIR. THE BALLOON COVERING TORN. THE FALL. SUBLIME SELF SACRIFICE. THE NORTH COAST OF THE LAKE. Since his arrival at Lake Chad, the balloon had struck a current that edged it farther to the westward. A few clouds tempered the heat of the day, and besides, a little air could be felt over this vast expanse of water. But about one o'clock, the Victoria, having slanted across this part of the lake, again advanced over the land for space as seven or eight miles. The doctor, who was somewhat vexed at first by this, turned of his course, no longer thought of complaining when he caught sight of the city of Kuka, the capital of Borneo. He saw it for a moment, encircled by its walls of white clay, and a few rudely constructed mosques, rising clumsily above the conglomeration of houses that look like plain dice, which form most Arab towns. In the courtyards of the private dwellings and on the public squares grew palms and kuchuk trees, topped with dome of foliage more than 100 feet in breadth. Joe called attention to the fact that these immense parasols were in proper accordance with the intense heat of the sun, and made thereon some pious reflections which it were needless to repeat. Kuka really consists of two distinct towns, separate by the Dendol, a large boulevard 300 yards wide, at that hour crowded with horsemen and foot passengers. On one side, the rich quarters stand squarely with its airy and lofty houses, laid out in regular order on the other, as huddled together the poor quarter, a miserable collection of low hovels of conical shape in which their poverty-stricken multitude vegetate rather than live, since Kuka is neither a trading nor commercial city. Kennedy thought it looked something like Edinburgh, where that city extended on a plain with its two distinct boroughs, but our travelers had scarcely the time to catch even this glimpse of it, for where the fulcrumness that characterizes the air currents this region, a contrary wind suddenly swept them some 40 miles over the surface of Lake Chad. Then they were regrailed with a new spectacle. They could count the numerous islets of the lake, inhabited by the Bedouomas, a race of bloodthirsty and formidable pirates, who are as greatly feared when neighbors as are the Tuaregs of Sahara. These estimable people were in readiness to receive the Victoria bravely with stones and arrows, but the balloon quickly passed their islands, fluttering over them from one to the other with butterfly motion, like a gigantic beetle. At this moment, Joe, who was scanning the horizon, said to Kennedy, There, sir, as you are always thinking of good sport, yonder is just the thing for you. What is it, Joe? This time the doctor will not disapprove of your shooting. But what is it? Don't you see that flock of big birds making for us? Birds exclaimed the doctor, snatching his spying-glass. I see them, replied Kennedy. There are at least a dozen of them. Fourteen exactly, said Joe. Heaven grant that they may be of a kind sufficiently noxious for the doctor to let me peg away at them. I should not object, but I would much rather see those birds at a distance from us. Why are you afraid of those fowls? They are condors, and of the largest size. Should they attack us? Well, if they do, we'll defend ourselves. We have a whole arsenal at our disposal. I don't think those birds are so very formidable. Who can tell, was the doctor's only remark. Ten minutes later the flock had come within gunshot, and were making the air ring with their hoarse cries. They came right toward the Victoria, more irritated and frightened by her presence. How they scream, what a noise, said Joe. Perhaps they don't like to see anybody poaching in their country up in the air, or daring to fly like themselves. Well, now, to tell the truth, when I take a good look at them, they are an ugly ferocious set, and I should think them dangerous enough that they were armed with pretty more rifles, admitted Kennedy. They have no need of such weapons, said Ferguson, looking very grave. The condors flew around them in wide circles, their flight growing gradually closer and closer to the balloon. They swept through the air in rapid, fantastic curves, occasionally precipitating themselves headlong with the speed of a bullet, and then breaking their line of projection by an abrupt and daring angle. The doctor, much disquited, resolved to ascend so as to escape this dangerous proximity. He therefore dilated the hydrogen in his balloon, and it rapidly rose. But the condors mounted with him, apparently determined not to part company. They seemed to mean mischief, said the hunter, cocking his rifle. And in fact they were swooping nearer, and more than one came within fifty feet of them as if to firing the firearms. Why, George, I am itching to let them have it, exclaimed Kennedy. No, Dick, not now. Don't exasperate them needlessly, that would only be exciting them to attack us. But I could soon settle those fellows. You may think so, Dick, but you are wrong. Why, we have a bullet for each of them. And suppose that they were to attack the other part of the balloon, what would you do? How would you get at them? Just imagine yourself in the presence of a troop of lions on the plane, or a school of sharks in the open ocean. For travelers in the air, this situation is just as dangerous. Are you speaking seriously, doctor? Very seriously, Dick. Let us wait, then. Wait. Hold yourself in readiness in case of an attack, but do not fire without my orders. The birds then collected at a short distance, yet to near that their naked necks, entirely bare feathers, could be plainly seen as they stretched them out with the effort of their cries, while their gristly crests, garnished with a comb and gills of deep violet, stood erect with rage. They were of the very largest size, their bodies being more than three feet in length, and the lower surface of their white wings glittering in the sunlight. They might well have been considered winged sharks, so striking was their resemblance to those ferocious ranges of the deep. They are following us, said the doctor, as he saw them ascending with him, and mount as we may, they can fly still higher. Well, what are we to do, asked Kennedy. The doctor made no answer. Listen, Sangels, to the sportsmen. There are fourteen of those birds. We have seventeen shot at our disposal, if we discharge all our weapons. Have we not the means then to destroy them, or disperse them? I will give a good account of some of them. I have no doubt of your skill, Dick. I look upon all as dead that may come within range of your rifle, but I repeat that if they attacked me up a part of the balloon, you could not get a sight at them. They would tear the silk covering that sustains us, and we are three thousand feet up in the air. At this moment one of the ferocious birds darted right at the balloon without stretch beaks and claws, ready to rend it with either or both. Fire, fire once, cried the doctor. He had scarcely ceased, ere the huge creature, stricken dead, dropped headlong, turning over and over in space as he fell. Kennedy had already grasped one of the two barreled fouling pieces, and Joe was taking aim with another. Frightened by the report, the condors drew back for a moment, but they almost instantly returned to the charge with extreme fury. Kennedy severed the head of one from its body with his first shot, and Joe broke the wing of another. Only eleven left, he said. Thereupon the birds changed their tactics, and by common consent soared above the balloon. Andy glanced at Ferguson. The latter, in spite of his imperturbility, grew pale, then ensued a moment of a terrifying silence, and the next they heard a harsh tearing noise as if something rending the silk, and the car seemed to sink from beneath the feet of our three aeronauts. We are lost, exclaimed Ferguson, glancing at the barometer, which was now swiftly rising. Over with the ballast he shouted, over with it, and in a few seconds the last lumps of quartz had disappeared. We are still falling. Into the water tanks, do you hear me, Joe? We are pitching into the lake. Joe obeyed. The doctor leaned over and looked down. The lake seemed to come up toward him like a rising tide. Every object around grew rapidly in size while they were looking at it. The car was not two hundred feet from the surface of the lake chad. The provisions, the provisions, cried the doctor, and the box containing them was launched into space. Their descent became less rapid, but the luckless aeronauts were still falling and into the lake. Throw out something. Something more, cried the doctor. There is nothing more to throw, was Kennedy's despairing response. Yes, there is called Joe, and with a wave to the hand he disappeared like a flash over the edge of the car. Joe, Joe, exclaimed the doctor, horror stricken. The Victoria thus relieved, resumed her ascending motion, mounted a thousand feet into the air, and the wind, burying itself into the disinflated covering, bore them away to ward the northern part of the lake. Lost exclaimed the sportsman with a gesture of despair. Lost to save us, responded Ferguson. And these men, intrepid as they were, felt the large cheers streaming down their cheeks. They leaned over with a veyon in hope of seeing some trace of their heroic companion, but they were already too far away from him. More core shall we pursue, asked Kennedy. A light as soon as possible, Dick, and then wait. After a sweep of some sixty miles, the Victoria halted on a desert shore, on the north of the lake. The anchor's caught in the low tree, and the sportsman fastened it securely. Night came, but neither Ferguson nor Kennedy could find one moment's sleep. End of Chapter 32 of Five Weeks in a Balloon. Recording by Alex C. Tlander, Roosevelt, California. www.alexcitlander.com. Chapter 33 of Five Weeks in a Balloon. This is a LibriVox recording, while LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alex C. Tlander, Roosevelt, California. Five Weeks in a Balloon. Or Journeys and Discoveries in Africa. By Three Englishmen. By Jules Verne. Translated by William Lankman. Chapter 33. Conjectures. Re-establishment of the Victoria's Equilibrium. Dr. Ferguson's New Calculations. Kennedy's Hunt. A Complete Exploration of Lake Chad. Tangalia. The Return. On the Morro, the Thirteenth of May, our travelers, for the first time, recognized the part of the coast in which they had landed. It was the sort of island of solid ground in the midst of an immense marsh. Around this fragment of terra firmer grew reeds as loftiest trees are in Europe and stretching away out of sight. These impenetrable swamps gave security to the position of the balloon. It was necessary to watch only the borders of the lake. The vast stretch of water broadened away from the spot, especially toward the east, and nothing could be seen on the horizon, neither mainland nor islands. The two friends had not yet ventured to speak of their recent companion. Kennedy first imparted his conjectures to the doctor. Perhaps Joe is not lost after all, he said. He was a skillful lad and had few equals as a swimmer. He would find no difficulty in swimming across the fret of forth at Edinburgh. We shall see him again. But how and where I know not. Let us omit nothing on our part to give him the chance of rejoining us. May God grant it as you say, Dick, replied the doctor with much emotion. We shall do everything in the world to find our lost friend again. Let us, in the first place, see where we are. But above all things, let us rid the victoria of this outside covering, which is of no further use. That will relieve us of 650 pounds, a weight not to be despised, and the end is worth the trouble. The doctor and Kennedy went to work at once, but they encountered great difficulty. They had to tear the strong silk away piece by piece, and then cut it in narrow strips so as to extricate it from the meshes of the network. The tear made by the beaks of the condors was found to be several feet in length. This operation took at least four hours, but at length, the inner balloon, once completely extricated, did not appear to have suffered in the least degree. The victoria was thus diminished in size by one-fifth, and this difference was sufficiently noticeable to excite Kennedy's surprise. Will it be large enough, he asked? Have no fears on that score. I will really establish the equilibrium, and should our poor Joe return, we shall find a way to start off with him again on our old route. At the moment of our fall, unless I'm mistaken, we were not far off from an island. Yes, I recollected to the doctor, but that island, like all the islands on Lake Chad, is no doubt inhabited by a gang of pirates and murderers. They certainly witnessed our misfortune, and should Joe fall into their hands, what will become of him unless protected by their superstitions? Oh, he's just allowed to get safely out of this grape, I repeat, I have great confidence in his shrewdness and skill. I hope so. Now, Dick, you may go and hunt in the neighborhood, but don't get far away whatever you do. It has become a pressing necessity for us to renew our stock of provisions, since we had to sacrifice nearly all the old lot. Very good, doctor, I shall not be long absent. Hereupon, Kennedy took a double-barreled fouling piece and strode through the long grass toward a thicket not far off, where the frequent sound of shooting soon let the doctor know that the sportsman was making a good use of his time. Meemaw Ferguson was engaged in calculating the relative weight of the articles still left in the car, and in establishing the equipoise of the second balloon, he found that there were still left some 30 pounds of Pimecan, a supply of tea and coffee, about a gallon and a half of brandy, and one empty water tank. All the dried meat had disappeared. The doctor was aware that by the loss of the hydrogen in the first balloon, the essential force at his disposal was now reduced to about 900 pounds. He therefore had to count upon this difference in order to rearrange his equilibrium. The new balloon measured 67,000 cubic feet and contained 33,480 feet of gas. The dilating apparatus appeared to be in good condition, and neither the battery nor the spiral had been injured. The essential force of the balloon was then about 3,000 pounds, and it added together the weight of the apparatus of the passengers, of the stock of water, of the car and its accessories, and putting aboard 50 gallons of water and 100 pounds of fresh meat, the doctor got a total weight of 2,830 pounds. He could then take with him 170 pounds of ballast for unforeseen emergencies, and the balloon would be in exact balance with the surrounding atmosphere. His arraignments were completed accordingly, and he made up for Joe's weight with a surplus of ballast. He spent the whole day in his preparations and the latter were finished when Kennedy returned. The hunter had been successful and brought back a regular cargo of geese, wild duck, snipe, teal, and plover. He went to work at once to draw and smoke the game. Each piece, suspended on a small thin skewer, was hung over a fire of green wood. When they seemed in good order, Kennedy, who was perfectly at home in the business, packed them away in the car. On the morrow the hunter was to complete his supplies. Evening surprised our travelers in the midst of this work. Their supper consisted of pimmican, biscuit, and tea, and fatigue after having given them appetite brought them sleep. Each of them strained eyes and ears into the gloom during his watch, sometimes fancying that they heard the voice of poor Joe, but alas, the voice that they so longed to hear was far away. At the first streak of day, the doctor aroused Kennedy. I had been long and carefully considering what should be done, said he, to find our companion. Whatever your plan be, whatever your plan be, doctor, it will soup me, speak. Above all things, it is important that Joe should hear from us in some way. Undoubtedly, suppose the brave fellow should take it into his head that we have abandoned him. He, he knows us too well for that. Such a thought would never come into his mind, but he must be informed as to where we are. How can that be managed? We shall get into our car and be off again through the air. But should the wind bear us away? Happily it will not. See, Dick, it is carrying us back to the lake, and this circumstance, which would have been vexatious yesterday, is fortunate now. Our efforts then will be limited to keeping ourselves above this vast sheet of water throughout the day. Joe could not fail to see us, and his eyes will be constantly on the lookout in that direction. Perhaps he will even manage to let us know the place of his retreat. If he be alone and at liberty, he certainly will. And if a prisoner reserves a doctor, it not being the practice of the natives to confine their captives, he will see us and comprehend the object of our researches. But at last, put in Kennedy, if we must anticipate everything, should we find no trace? If we should have left no mark to follow him by, what are we to do? We shall endeavor to regain the northern part of the lake, keeping ourselves as much in sight as possible. There we'll wait, we'll explore the blanks, we'll search the water's edge, for Joe will assertly try to reach the shore, and we will not leave the country without having done everything to find him. Let us set out then, said the hunter. The doctor hereupon took the exact bearings of the patch of solid land they were about to leave, and arrived at the conclusion that it lay on the north shore of Lake Chad, between the village of Larry and the village of Ingemini, both visited by Major Denim. During this time, Kennedy was completing a stalk of fresh meat. Although the neighboring marshes showed traces of rhinoceros, the lamantine, or manatee, and the hippopotamus, he had no opportunity to see a single specimen of those animals. At seven in the morning, but not without great difficulty, which to Joe would have been nothing, the balloon's anchor was detached from its hold, the gas dilated, and the new Victoria rose 200 feet into the air. It seemed to hesitate at first and went spinning around like a top, but at last a brisk current caught it, and it advanced over the lake and was soon borne away at a speed of 20 miles per hour. The doctor continued to keep at a height of from 200 to 500 feet. Kennedy frequently discharged his rifle, and when passing over islands, the aeronauts approached them even in prune prudently, scrutinizing the thickets, the bushes, the underbrush, in fine every spot where a massive shade or jutting rock could have afforded a retreat to their companion. They swooped down close to the long pierogues that navigated the lake, and that wild fishermen, terrified at the sight of the balloon, would plunge into the water and regain their islands with every symptom of undisguised fright. We could see nothing, said Kennedy, after two hours of search. Let us wait a little longer, Dick, and not lose heart. We could not be far away from the scene of our accident. By 11 o'clock, the balloon had gone 90 miles. A delin fell in with a new current, which, blowing almost a right angle to the other, drove them eastward about 60 miles. It next floated over a very large and populous island, which the doctor took to be a faram, on which the capital of the Bidiomas is situated. Ferguson expected at every moment to see Joe spring up out of some ticket, flying for his life and calling for help. Were he free, they could pick him up without trouble. Were he a prisoner, they could rescue him by repeating the maneuver they had practiced to save the missionary, and he would soon be with his friends again, but nothing was seen, not a sound was heard. The case seemed desperate. About half past two o'clock, the Victoria Hove inside of Angalia, a village situated on the eastern shore of Lake Chad, where it marks the extreme point attained by denim at the period of his exploration. The doctor became uneasy at this persistent setting of the wind in that direction, for he felt that he was being thrown back to the eastward, toward the center of Africa and the interminable deserts of that region. We must absolutely come to a halt, said he, and even a light. But Joe's sake, particularly, we ought to go back to the lake. But to begin with, let us endeavor to find an opposite current. During more than an hour, he searched at different altitudes. The balloon always came back toward the mainland, but at length at the height of a thousand feet, a very violent breeze swept to the northwestward. It was out of the question that Joe should have been detained on one of the islands of the lake, for in such case, he would certainly have found means to make his presence there known. Perhaps he had been dragged to the mainland. The doctor was raising thus to himself when he again came in sight at the northern shore of Lake Chad. As for supposing that Joe had been drowned, that was not to be believed for a moment. One horrible thought glanced across the mines of both Kennedy and the doctor. Came and swarmed in these waters, but neither one nor the other had the courage to distinctly communicate this impression. However, it came up to them so forcibly at last that the doctor said without further preface, crocodiles are found only on the shores of the islands or of the lake, and Joe will have skill enough to avoid them. Besides, they are not very dangerous, and the Africans bathe with impunity and quite fearless of their attacks. Kennedy made no reply. He preferred keeping quiet to discussing this terrible possibility. The doctor made out at the town of Lowry about five o'clock in the evening. The inhabitants were at work gathering in their cotton crop in front of their huts, constructed of woven reeds and standing in the midst of clean and neatly kept enclosures. This collection of about 50 habitations occupied a slight depression of the soil in a valley extending between two low mountains. The force of the wind carried the doctor farther onward than he wanted to go, but it changed his second time and bore him back exactly to his starting point on the sort of enclosed island where he had passed the preceding night. The anchor, instead of catching the branches of the tree, took hold of the masses of reeds fixed with the thick mud of the marshes, which offered considerable resistance. The doctor had much difficulty in restraining the balloon, but alent the wind died away with the setting of nightfall, and the tree friends kept watching together in an almost desperate state of mind. End of Chapter 33 of Five Weeks in a Balloon. Recording by Alex C. Tolanda, Roosevelt, California. www.alexcitolanda.com. Chapter 34 of Five Weeks in a Balloon. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alex C. Tolanda, Roosevelt, California. Five Weeks in a Balloon, or Journeys and Discoveries in Africa, by Three Englishmen, by Jules Verne, translated by William Lacklin. Chapter 34, The Hurricane, a forced departure, loss of an anchor, melancholy reflections, the resolution adopted, the sandstorm, the buried caravan, a contrary yet favorable wind, the return southward. Kennedy at his post. At three o'clock in the morning, the wind was raging. He beat down with such violence that the Victoria could not stay near the ground without danger. It was thrown almost flat over upon its side, and the reeds chafed the silk so roughly that it seemed as though they would tear it. We must be off, Dick, said the doctor. We cannot remain in this situation. But doctor, what of Joe? I am not likely to abandon him. No indeed. And should the hurricane carry me a thousand miles to the northward, I will return. But here we are endangering the safety of all. Must we go without him? Asked the Scot, with an accent of profound grief. And do you think then, rejoin Ferguson, that my heart does not bleed like your own? Am I not merely obeying an imperious necessity? I am entirely at your orders, replied the hunter. Let's start. But their departure was surrounded with unusual difficulty. The anchor, which had called very deeply, resisted all their efforts to disengage it, while the balloon, drawing in the opposite direction, increased its tension. Kennedy could not get it free. Besides, in his present position, the maneuver had become a very perilous one, for the Victoria threatened to break away before he should be able to get into the car again. The doctor, unwilling to run such a risk, made his friend get into his place and resigned himself to the alternative of cutting the anchor rope. The Victoria made one bound of 300 feet into the air and took her route directly northward. Ferguson had no other choice than to scud before the storm. He folded his arms and soon became absorbed in his own melancholy reflections. After a few moments of profound silence, he turned to Kennedy, who sat there and no less tested her. We have perhaps been tempting Providence, said he. It does not belong to man to undertake such a journey. And a sigh of grief escaped him as he spoke. It is but a few days, replied the sportsman, since we were congratulating ourselves upon having escaped so many dangers. All three of us were shaking hands. Poor Joe, kindly and excellent disposition, brave and candid heart, dazzled for a moment by his sudden discovery of wealth, he willingly sacrificed his treasures. And now he is far from us and the wind is carrying us still farther away with resistive speed. Come, doctor, admitting that he may have found refuge among the late tribes, can he not do as the travelers who visited them before us did, like Denim, like Barth? Both of those men got back to their own country. Ah, my dear Dick, Joe doesn't know one word of the language. He is alone and without resources. The travelers of whom you speak did not attempt to go forward without sending many prisons in advance of them to the chiefs and surrounded by an escort, armed and trained for these expeditions. Yet they could not avoid sufferings of the worst description. What then can you expect the fate of our companion to be? It is horrible to think of and this is one of the worst calamities that has ever been my lot to endure. But we'll come back again, doctor. Come back, Dick? Yes, if we have to abandon the balloon, if we should be forced to return to Lake Chad on foot and put ourselves in communication with the Sultan of Bernou, the Arabs cannot ever attain a disagreeable remembrance of the first Europeans. I will follow you, doctor, replied the hunter with emphasis. You may count upon me. We would rather give up the idea of prosecuting this journey than not return. Joe forgot himself for our sake. We will sacrifice ourselves for his. This resolve revived some hope in the hearts of these two men. They felt strong in the same inspiration. Ferguson, forthwith, said everything at work to get into a contrary current that might bring him back again to Lake Chad. But this was impractical at that moment and even to a light was out of the question on ground completely bare of trees and with such a hurricane blowing. The Victoria thus passed over the country of the Tibus, crossed the Belad El Gerid, a desert of briars that forms the border of the Sudan and advanced into the desert of sand streaked with the long tracks of the Mary Canavans that pass and repass there. The last line of vegetation was speedily lost in the dim southern horizon, not far from the principal oases in this part of Africa, whose 50 wells are shaded by magnificent trees, but it was impossible to stop. An Arab encampment, tens of striped stuff, some camels, stretching out their viper-like heads and necks along the sand, gave life to this solitude. But the Victoria sped by like a shooting star, and in this way traversed a distance of 60 miles and three hours without focusing being able to check or guide her course. We cannot halt, we cannot alight, said the doctor. Not a tree, not an inequality of the ground. Are we then to be driven clear across Sahara? Surely heaven is indeed against us. He was uttering these words with a sort of despairing rage when suddenly he saw the desert sands rising aloft in the midst of a dense cloud of dust and go whirling through the air impelled by opposing currents. Amid this tornado, an entire caravan, disorganized, broken, and overthrown, was disappearing beneath an avalanche of sand. The camels, flung pale mill together, were uttering dull and pitiful groans. Cries and howls of despair were heard, issuing from that dusty and stifling cloud. And from time to time, a party-colored garment cut the chaos of the scene with its vivid hues and the monion shrieking sounded overall, a terrible accompaniment to this spectacle of destruction. Air along the sand had accumulated in compact masses, and there were so recently stretched a level plain as far as the eye could see, rose now a ridgy line of hillocks, still moving from beneath, the vast tomb of an entire caravan. The doctor and Kennedy, pallid with emotion, sat transfixed by this fearful spectacle. They could no longer manage their balloon, which went whirling round and round in contending currents and refused to obey the different dilations of the gas. Caught in these eddies of the atmosphere, it spun about with a rapidity that made their heels real, while the car oscillated and swung to and fro violently at the same time. The instruments suspended on the awning clattered together as though they would be dashed as pieces. The pipe pipes of the spiral bent to and fro, threatening to break at every instant, and the water tanks jostled and jarred with tremendous din. Although but two feet apart, our aeronauts could not hear each other speak, but with firmly clenched hands, they clung convulsively to the cordage and endeavored to steady themselves against the fury of the tempest. Kennedy, with his hair blown wildly about his face, looked on without speaking. But the doctor had regained all his daring in the midst of the distantly peril, and not a sign of his emotion was betrayed in his countenance. Even when, after a last violent twirl, the victorious stopped suddenly in the midst of a most unlooked-for calm. The North wind had abruptly got the upper hand and now drove her back with equal rapidity over the route she had traversed in the morning. Where are we going now, cried Kennedy? Let us leave that to Providence, my dear Dick. I was wrong in doubting it. It knows better than we, and here we are, returning to places that we had expected never to see again. The surface of the country, which had looked so flat at level when they were coming, now seemed tossed and uneven, like the ocean billows after a storm, a long succession of hillocks that had scarcely settled for the places yet in dent of the desert. The wind blew furiously, and the blue fairly flew through the atmosphere. The direction taken by our aeronauts differed somewhat from that of the morning, and thus about nine o'clock, instead of finding themselves again near the borders of Lake Chad, they saw the desert still stretching away before them. Kennedy remarked the circumstance. It matters little, replied the doctor. The important point is to return southward. We shall come across the towns of Bornu, Woody, or Cucca, and I should not hesitate to halt there. If you are satisfied, I am content, replied the Scott. But having grant that we may not be reduced across the desert, as those unfortunate Arabs had to do, what we saw was frightful. It often happens, Dick, these trips across the desert are far more perilous than those across the ocean. The desert has all the dangers of the sea, including the risk of being swallowed up, and added there too are unendurable fatigues and privations. I think the wind shows some symptoms of moderating. The sand dust is less dense, the undulations of the surface are diminishing, and the skies growing clearer. So much the better, we must now reconnoiter attentively with our glasses, and take care not to omit a single point. I will look out for that doctor, another tree shall be seen without my informing you of it. And, suiting the action to the word, Kennedy took his station, spy glass in hand, at the forward part of the car. End of Chapter 34 of Five Weeks in a Balloon. Recording by Alex C. Tlander, Roosevelt, California, www.alexcitalander.com. Chapter 35 of Five Weeks in a Balloon. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alex C. Tlander, Roosevelt, California. Five Weeks in a Balloon, or Journeys and Discoveries in Africa, by Three Englishmen, by Jules Verne, translated by William Lackland. Chapter 35. What Happened to Joe? The Island of the Biduomps. The adoration shown him. The island that sank. The shores of the lake. The tree of the serpents. The foot tramp. Terrible suffering. Mosquitoes and ants. Hunger. The Victoria scene. She disappears. The swamp. One last despairing cry. What had become of Joe while his master was thus vainly seeking for him? When he had dashed headlong into the lake, his first movement on coming to the surface was to raise his eyes and look upward. He saw the Victoria already risen far above the water, still rapidly ascending and growing smaller and smaller. It was soon caught in a rapid current and disappeared to the northward. His master, both his friends, were saved. How lucky it was, thought he, that I had that idea to throw myself out into the lake. Mr. Kennedy would soon have jumped at it and he would not have hesitated to do as he did, for nothing's more natural than for one man to give himself up to save two others. That's mathematics. Satisfied on this point, Joe began to think of himself. He was in the middle of a vast lake surrounded by tribes unknown to him and probably ferocious. All the greater reason why he should get out of the scrape by depending on only himself. And so he gave himself no farther concern about it. Before the attack by the birds of prey, which, according to him, had behaved like real condors, he had noticed an island on the horizon and, determining to reach it, if possible, he put forth all his knowledge and skill in the art of swimming, after having relieved himself of the most troublesome part of his clothing. The idea of a stretch of five or six miles by no means disconcerted him and therefore, so long as he was in the open lake, he thought only of striking out straight ahead and manfully. In about an hour and a half, the distance between him and the island greatly diminished. But as he approached the land, a thought of first fleeting and then tenacious arose in his mind. He knew that the shores of the lake were frequented by huge alligators and was well aware of the veracity of those monsters. Now, no matter how much he was inclined to find everything in this world quite natural, the worthy fellow was no little deserved by this reflection. He feared greatly lest white flesh like his might be particularly acceptable to the dreaded brutes and advanced only with extreme precaution. His eyes on the alert on both sides and all around him. At length he was not more than 100 yards from a bank covered with green trees when a puff of air strongly impregnated with a musky odor reached him. There said he to himself, just what I expected. The crocodile isn't far off. With this he dived swiftly but not sufficiently so to avoid coming into contact within an enormous body, the scaly surface of which scratched him as he passed. He thought himself lost and swam with desperate energy. Then he rose again to the top of the water, took breath and dived once more. Thus passed a few minutes of unspeakable anguish which all his philosophy could not overcome for he thought all the while that he heard behind him the sound of those huge jaws ready to snap him up forever. In this state of mind he was striking out under the water as noiselessly as possible when he felt himself seized by the arm and then by the waist. Poor Joe, he gave one last thought to his master and began to struggle with all the energy of despair, feeding himself the while drawn along but not toward the bottom of the lake as is the habit of the crocodile when about to devour its prey but toward the surface. So soon as he could get breath and look around him he saw that he was between two natives as black as Ebony who held him with a fur and gripe and uttered strange cries. Ha! said Joe, blacks instead of crocodiles. Well, I prefer it as it is but how in the mischief dare these fellows go in bathing in such places? Joe was not aware that he inhabited the island of Lake Chad like many other Negro tribes plunged with impunity in the sheets of water infested with crocodiles and caimans and without troubling their heads about them. The amphibious denizens of this lake enjoyed the well-deserved reputation of being quite inoffensive but had not Joe escaped one peril only to fall into another? That was a question which he left events to decide and since he could not do otherwise he allowed himself to be conducted to the shore without manifesting any alarm. Evidently thought he these chaps saw the victorious giving the waters of the lake like a monster of the air. They were the distant witnesses of my tumble and they can't fail to have some respect for a man that fell from the sky. Let them have their own way then. Joe was at this stage of his meditations when he was landed amid a yelling crowd of both sexes and all ages and sizes but not of all colors. In fine he was surrounded by a tribe of Bidiomas as black as jet nor had he to blush for the scantiness of his costume for he saw that he was in undress in the highest style of that country. But before he had time to form an exact idea of the situation there was no mistake in the agitation of which he instantly became the object and this soon enabled him to pluck up courage although the adventure of Kazaa did come back rather vividly to his memory. I foresee that they are going to make a god of me again thought he, some son of the moon most likely. Well one's trades as good as another when a man has no choice. The main thing is to gain time. Should the Victoria pass this way again I'll take advantage of my new position to treat my worshipers here to a miracle when I go sailing up into the sky. While Joe's thoughts were running thus the throng pressed around him. They prostrated themselves before him. They howled, they felt him. They became even annoyingly familiar but at the same time they had the consideration to offer him a superb banquet consisting of sour milk and rice pounded into honey. The worthy fellow making the best of everything took one of the heartiest luncheons he ever ate in his life and gave his new adoras an exalted idea of how the gods took away their fruit upon grand occasions. When evening came the sorcerers of the island took him respectfully by the hand and conducted him to a sort of house surrounded with talismans. But as he was entering it Joe cast an uneasy look at the heaps of human bones that lay scattered around the sanctuary. But he had still more time to think about them when he found himself at last shut up in the cabin. During the evening and through part of the night he heard festive chantings, the reverberations of a kind of drum and a clatter of old iron which were very sweet no doubt to African ears. Then there were howling choruses accompanied by endless dances by gangs of natives who circled round and round the sacred hut with contortions and grimaces. Joe could catch the sound of this deafening orchestra through the mud and reeds of which his cabin was built and perhaps under other circumstances he might have been amused by these strange ceremonies. But his mind was soon disturbed by quite different and less agreeable reflections. Even looking at the bright side of things he found it both stupid and sad to be left alone in the midst of this savage country and among those wild tribes. Few travelers who had penetrated these regions had ever again seen their native land. Moreover could he trust to the worship of which he saw himself the object? He had good reason to believe in the vanity of human greatness and he asked himself whether in this country adoration did not sometimes go to the length of eating the object adored. But notwithstanding this rather perplexing prospect after some hours of meditation fatigue got the better of his gloomy thoughts and Joe fell into a profound slumber which would have lasted no doubt until sunrise had not a very unexpected sensation of dampness awakened the sleeper. Air along this dampness became water and that water gained so rapidly that it had soon mounted to Joe's waist. What can this be, said he, a flood, a waterspout or a new torture invented by these blacks? Faith, though, I'm not going to wait here till it's up to my neck. And so saying he burst through the frail wall with a jog of his powerful shoulder and found himself where? In the open lake? Island there was none, it had sunk during the night in its place the watery immensity of Lake Chad. A poor country for the landowners, said Joe, once more vigorously resorting to his skill in the art of notation. One of those phenomena which are by no means unusual in Lake Chad had liberated our brave Joe. More than one island that previously seemed to have the solidity of rock had been submerged in this way and the people living along the shores of the mainland have had to pick up the unfortunate survivors of these terrible catastrophes. Joe knew nothing about this peculiarity of the region but he was nonetheless ready to profit by it. He caught sight of a boat drifting about without occupants and was soon aboard of it. He found it to be but the trunk of a tree rudely hollowed out but there were a couple of paddles in it and Joe availing himself of a rapid current allowed his craft to float along. But let us see where we are, he said. The Polestar there that does its work honorably in pointing out the direction due north to everybody else will most likely do me that service. He discovered with satisfaction that the current was taking him to war on the northern shore of the lake and he allowed himself to glide with it. About two o'clock in the morning he disembarked upon a promontory covered with prickly reeds that proved very provoking and inconvenient even to a philosopher like him. But a tree grew there expressly to offer him a bed among its branches and Joe climbed up into it for greater security and there without sleeping much, however, awaited the dawn of day. When morning had come without suddenness which is peculiar to the equatorial regions Joe cast a glance at the tree which had sheltered him during the last few hours and beheld a sight that chilled the marrow on his bones. The branches of the tree were literally covered with snakes and chameleons. The foliage actually was hidden beneath their coils so that the beholder might have fancied that he saw before him a new kind of tree that bore reptiles for its leaves and fruit. And all this horrible living mass writhed and twisted in the first rays of the morning sun. Joe experienced a keen sensation or terror mingled with disgust as he looked at it and he leaped precipitately from the tree amid the hissings of these new and unwelcome bedfellows. Now there is something that I would never have believed, said he. He was not aware that Dr. Vogel's last letters had made known the singular feature of the Shorts of Lake Chad where reptiles are more numerous than in any other part of the world. But after what he had just seen Joe determined to be more circumspect for the future and taking his bearings by the sun he set off a foot toward the northeast avoiding with the utmost care cabins, huts, hovels, and dens of every description that might serve in any manner as a shelter for human beings. How often his gaze was turned upward to the sky he hoped to catch a glimpse each time of the Victoria and although he looked vainly during all that long fatigued day of sore foot travel his confident reliance on his master remained undiminished. Greater energy of character was needed to enable him thus to sustain the situation with philosophy. Hunger conspired with fatigue to crush him for a man's system is not really restored and fortified by a diet of roots, the pith of plants such as the melee or the fruit of the doom palm tree and yet according to his own calculations Joe was unable to push on about 20 miles to the westward. His body bore and scores of places the marks of the thorns with which the lake reeds, the acacias, the mimosas, and other wild shrubbery through which he had to force his way are thickly studded and his torn and bleeding feet are ended in walking both painful and difficult but at length he managed to react against all these sufferings and when evening came again he resolved to pass the night on the shores of Lake Chad. There he had to endure the bites of myriads of insects gnats, mosquitoes, ants half an inch long literally covered the ground and in less than two hours Joe had not a rag remaining of the garments that had covered him the insects having devoured them. It was a terrible sight that did not yield our exhausted traveler an hour of sleep. During all this time the wild boars and native buffaloes reinforced by the ajub a very dangerous species of Lamentine carried on their ferocious revels in the bushes and under the waters of the lake filling the night with a hideous concert. Joe dared scarcely breathe even his courage and coolness had hard work to bear up against so terrible a situation. At length day came again and Joe sprang to his feet precipitately but judge of the loathing he felt when he saw what species of creature had shared his couch a toad but a toad five inches in length a monstrous repulsive specimen of vermin that sat there staring at him with huge round eyes. Joe felt his stomach revolt at the sight and were gaining a little strength for the intensity of his repugnance. He rushed at the top of his speed plunged into the lake. This sudden bath somewhat eladed the pangs of the itching that tortured his whole body and chewing a few leaves he set forth resolutely again feeling an obstant resolution in the act for which he could hardly account even to his own mind. He no longer seemed to have entire control of his own acts and nevertheless he felt within him a strength superior to despair. However, he began now to suffer terribly from hunger. His stomach less resigned than he was rebelled and he was obliged to fasten a chendrel of wild vine tidy about his waist. Fortunately he could quench his thirst at any moment and in recalling the sufferings he had undergone in the desert he experienced comparative relief in his exemption from that other distressing want. What can it become of the Victoria, he wondered. The wind blows from the north and she should be carried back by it toward the lake. No doubt the doctor has gone to work to write her balance but yesterday would have given him in time enough for that. So that may be today but I must act just as if I was never to see him again. After all, if I only get to one of the large towns on the lake I'll find myself no worse off than the travelers my master used to talk about. Why shouldn't I work my way out of the scrape as well as they did? Some of them got back home again. Come then, the deuce, cheer up my boy. Thus, talking to himself and walking on rapidly, Joe came right upon a horde of natives in the very depths of the forest but he halted in time and was not seen by them. The Negroes were busy poisoning arrows with the juice of the euphorbia. A piece of work deemed a great affair among those savage tribes and carried on with a sort of ceremonial solemnity. Joe, entirely motionless and even holding his breath, was keeping himself concealed in a thicket when, having to raise his eyes, he saw through an opening in the foliage the welcome apparition of the balloon, the Victoria herself, moving toward the lake at a height of only about 100 feet above him. But he could not make himself heard. He dared not, could not make his friends even see him. Tears came to his eyes, not of grief but of thankfulness. His master was then seeking him. His master had not left him to perish. He would have to wait for the departure of the lax. Then he could quit his hiding-place and run toward the borders of the lake-chat. But by this time, the Victoria was disappearing in a distant sky. Joe was still determined to wait for her. She would come back again, undoubtedly. She did indeed return, but farther to the eastward. Joe ran, gesticulated, shouted, but all in vain. A strong breeze was sweeping the balloon away with the speed that deprived him of all hope. For the first time, energy and confidence abandoned the heart of the unfortunate man. He saw that he was lost. He thought his master gone beyond all prospect of return. He dared no longer think. He would no longer reflect. Like a crazy man, his feet bleeding, his body cut and torn, he walked on during all that day and a part of the next night. He even dragged himself along, sometimes on his knees, sometimes with his hands. He saw the moment nigh when all his strength would fail, and nothing would be left to him but to sink upon the ground and die. Thus working his way along, he had length found himself close to a marsh, or what he knew would soon become a marsh. For night had set in some hours before, and he fell by a sudden misstep into a thick, clinging mire. In spite of all his efforts, in spite of his desperate struggles, he felt himself sinking gradually in the swampy ooze, and in a few minutes he was buried to his waist. Here then at last is death, he thought in agony. And what a death! He now began to stroll again, like a madman, but his efforts only served to bury him deeper in the tomb that the poor doom lab was allowing for himself. Not a lot of wood or a branch to buoy him up, not a reed to which he might cling. He felt that all was over, his eyes convulsively closed. Master, master, help! were his last words, but his voice despairing, donated, half-stifled already by the rising mire, died away feebly on the night. End of Chapter 35 of Five Weeks in a Balloon Recording by Alexi Thelander, Roosevelt, California, www.alexitelander.com Chapter 36 of Five Weeks in a Balloon This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alexi Thelander, Roosevelt, California. Five Weeks in a Balloon, or Journeys and Discoveries in Africa, by Three Englishmen, by Jules Verne, translated by William Lackland. Chapter 36 A Throng of People on the Horizon A Troop of Arabs, the Pursuit It is he, fall from horseback, the strangled Arab, a ball from Kennedy, adroit maneuvers, caught up flying, Joe saved at last. For the moment when Kennedy resumed his post of observation in the front of the car, he had not ceased to watch the horizon with his utmost attention. After the lapse of some time, he turned toward the doctor and said, If I am not greatly mistaken, I can see, off yonder in the distance, a throng of men or animals moving. It is impossible to make them out yet, but I observe that they are in violent motion, for they are raising a great cloud of dust. May it not be another contrary breeze, said the doctor, another whirlwind coming to drive us back northward again, while speaking he stood up to examine the horizon. I think not, Samuel. It is a troop of gazelles or of wild oxen. Perhaps so, Dick, a young throng is some nine or ten miles from us at least, and on my part, even with the glass, I can make nothing of it. At all events I shall not lose sight of it. There is something remarkable about it that excites my curiosity. Sometimes it looks like a body of cavalry maneuvering. Ah, I was not mistaken. It is indeed a squadron of horsemen. Look, look there. The doctor eyed the group with great attention, and after a moment's pause remarked, I believe that you are right. It is a detachment of Arabs or Tibu, and they are galloping in the same direction with us, as they went in flight, but we are going faster than they, and we are rapidly gaining on them. In half an hour we shall be near enough to see them and know what they are. Kennedy had again lifted his glass and was attentively scrutinizing them. Meanwhile, the crowd of horsemen was becoming more distinctly visible, and a few were seeing to detach themselves from the main body. It is some hunting maneuver, evidently, said Kennedy. Those fellows seem to be in pursuit of something I would like to know what they are about. Patience, Dick. In a little while we shall overtake them, if they continue on the same route, where going at the rate of twenty miles per hour and no horse can keep up with that. Kennedy again raised his glass, and a few minutes later he exclaimed, There are Arabs galloping at the top of their speed. I can make them out distinctly. They are about fifteen number. I can see their bornuses, puffed out by the wind. It is some cavalry exercise that they are going through. Their chief is a hundred paces ahead of them, and they are rushing after him at headlong speed. Whoever they may be, Dick, they are not to be feared, and then, if necessary, we can go higher. Wait, doctor. Wait a little. It is curious, said Kennedy again, after a brief pause. There is something going on that I can't exactly explain. By the efforts they make and the irregularity of their line, I should fancy that those Arabs are pursuing someone, instead of following. Are you certain of that, Dick? Oh, yes, it's clear enough now. I am right. It is a pursuit, a hunt, but a manhunt. That is not their chief riding ahead of them, but a fugitive. A fugitive exclaimed the doctor, growing more and more interested. Yes, don't lose sight of him. Let us wait. Three or four miles more were quickly gained upon these horsemen, who nevertheless were dashing onward with incredible speed. Doctor, doctor, shouted Kennedy in an agitated voice. What is the matter, Dick? Is it an illusion? Can it be possible? What do you mean? Wait! And so, saying the scot, wiped the sights of his spyglass carefully and looked through it again intently. Well questioned the doctor. It is he, doctor. He exclaimed Ferguson with emotion. It is he, no other, and it was needless to pronounce the name. Yes, it is he, on horseback, at only a hundred paces in advance of his enemies. He is pursued. It is Joe. Joe himself, cried the doctor, turning pale. He cannot see us in his flight. He will see us, though, said the doctor, lowering the flame of his blowpipe. But how? In five minutes we shall be within fifty feet of the ground, and in fifteen we should be right over him. He must let him know it by firing a gun. No, he can't turn back to come this way.  What shall we do then? We must wait. Wait? And these Arabs? We shall overtake them. We'll pass them. We're not more than two miles from them, and provide that Joe's horse holds out. Great God exclaimed Kennedy suddenly. What is the matter? Kennedy, the uttered a cry of despair as he saw Joe, fling himself to the ground. His horse evidently exhausted to just fall in headlong.  The Arabs will overtake him. What is he waiting for? Ah, the brave lad. Huzzah! shouted the sportsman, who could no longer restrain his feelings. Joe, who had immediately sprung up after his fall, just as one of the swiftest horsemen rushed upon him, bounded like a panther, avoided his assailant by leaping to one side, jumped up behind him on the cropper, seized the Arab by the throat, and strangled him with his sinewy hands and fingers of steel, flung him on the sand, and continued his headlong flight. A tremendous howl was heard from the Arabs, but completely engrossed by the pursuit. They had not taken notice of the balloon, which now but 500 paces behind them, and only about thirty feet from the ground. On their part they were not twenty lengths of their horses from the fugitive. One of them was very perceptively, gaining on Joe, and was about to pierce him with his lance when Kennedy, with fixed eye and steady hand, stopped him short with a ball that hurled him to the earth. Joe did not even turn his head at the report. Some of the horsemen reigned in their barbs, and fell on their faces in the dust as they caught sight of the Victoria. The rest continued their pursuit. But what is Joe about? said Kennedy. He don't stop. He's doing better than that, Dick. I understand him. He's keeping on in the same direction as the balloon. He relies upon our intelligence. Ah, the noble fellow. We'll carry him off in the very teeth of those Arab rascals. We are not more than two hundred paces from him. What are we to do? asked Kennedy. Lay aside your rifle, Dick, and scot a bade that requested once. Do you think that you can hold one hundred and fifty pounds of ballast in your arms? Aye, more than that. Joe, that will be enough. And the doctor proceeded to pile up bags of sand in Kennedy's arms. Hold yourselves in readiness in the back part of the car, and be prepared to throw out that ballast at a single effort. But for your life, don't do so until I give the word. Be easy on that point. Otherwise we should miss Joe, and he would be lost. Count upon me. The Victoria at that moment almost commanded the troop of horsemen who were still desperately urging their steeds at Joe's heels. The doctor, standing in the front of the car, held the ladder clear, ready to throw it at any moment. Meanwhile, Joe had still maintained the distance between himself and his pursuers, say about fifty feet. The Victoria was now ahead of the party. Attention exclaimed the doctor to Kennedy. I am ready. Joe, look out for yourself, shouted the doctor in his sonorous, written voice, as he flung out the ladder, the lowest rat lines of which tossed up the dust of the road. As the doctor shouted, Joe had turned his head, but without checking his horse. The ladder dropped close to him, and at the instant he grasped it, the doctor again shouted to Kennedy, Throw ballast, it's done! And the Victoria, lightened by a weight greater than Joe's, shot up one hundred and fifty feet into the air. Joe clung with all his strength of the ladder, during the wild oscillations that it had to describe, and then making indescribable gestures to the Arabs and climbing with the agility of a monkey, he sprang up to his companions, who received him with open arms. The Arabs uttered a scream of astonishment and rage. The fugitive had been snatched from them on the wing, and the Victoria was rapidly speeding far beyond their reach. Master, Kennedy, ejaculated Joe, and overwhelmed at last with fatigue and emotion, the poor fellow fainted away, while Kennedy, almost beside himself, kept exclaiming, saved, saved! Saved indeed, remembered the doctor, who had recovered all his phlegmatic coolness. Joe was almost naked, his bleeding arms, his body covered with cuts and bruises, told what his sufferings had been. The doctor quietly dressed his wounds and laid him comfortably under the awning. Joe soon returned to consciousness and asked for a glass of brandy, which the doctor did not see fit to refuse, as the faithful fellow had to be indulged. After he had swallowed the stimulant, Joe grasped the hands of his two friends and announced that he was ready to relate what had happened to him. But they would not allow him to talk at that time, and he sank back into a profound sleep, of which he seemed to have the greatest possible need. The Victoria was then taking an oblique line to the westward. Driven by a tempestuous wind it again approached the borders of the thorny desert, which the travelers described over the tops of palm trees, bent and broken by the storm, and after having made a run of two hundred miles since rescuing Joe, it passed the tenth degree of east longitude about nightfall. CHAPTER 37 OF FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, ought to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. ALEXEY TALANDER 5 WEEKS IN A BALLOON Or Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen by Jules Verne Translated by William Lackland CHAPTER 37 THE WESTON ROOT Joe wakes up, his hopes to the sea. End of Joe's narrative TAGALAE Kennedy's anxieties, the route to the north, a night near our goddess. During the night the wind lulled as though we're posing after the boisterousness of the day, and the Victoria remained quietly at the top of the tall sycamore. The doctor and Kennedy kept watch by turns, and Joe availed himself with a chance to sleep most sturdily for twenty-four hours at a stretch. That's the remedy he needs, said Dr. Ferguson. Nature will take charge of his care. With the dawn of the wind sprang up again in quite strong and more of a capricious gusts. It shifted abruptly from south to north, but finally the Victoria was carried away by it toward the west. The doctor, map in hand, recognized the kingdom of Damergu, an undulating region of great fertility in which the huts that composed the villages are constructed of long reeds in a woven branches of the Asclepia. The grain mills were seen raised in the cultivated fields upon small scaffoldings or platforms to keep them out of the reach of the mice and the huge ants of that country. They soon passed the town of Zinder, recognized by its spacious place of execution, in the center of which stands the Tree of Death. At its foot the executioner stands waiting, and whoever passes beneath its shadow is immediately hung. Upon consulting his compass, Kennedy could not refrain from saying, Look, we are again moving northward. No matter. If it only takes us to Timbuktu, we shall not complain. Never was a finer voyage accomplished under better circumstances. More and better health, said Joe, at that instance thrusting his jolly countenance from between the currents of the awning. There he is. There's our gallant friend, our preserver, exclaimed Kennedy, cordially. How goes it, Joe? Oh, why naturally enough, Mr. Kennedy? Very naturally. I never felt better in my life. Nothing sets a man up like a little pleasure trip with a bath in Lake Chad to start on. Hey, doctor? Brave fellows had Ferguson pressing Joe's hand. What terrible anxiety you caused this. Humph. I knew, sir. Do you think that I felt easy in my mind about you, gentlemen? You gave me a fine fright, let me tell you. We shall never agree in that world, Joe, if you take things in that style. I see that his tumble hasn't changed him a bit, adding Kennedy. Your devotion and self-forgetfulness were sublime, my brave lad, and they saved us. But the Victoria was falling into the lake, and once there nobody could have extricated her. But if my devotion, as you are pleased to call my summer set, gave you, did it not save me, too, for here we are, all three of us, in first-rate health. Consequently, we have nothing to squabble about in the whole affair. Oh, we could never come to a settlement with that youth, said the sportsman. The best way to settle it, replied Joe, is to say nothing more about the matter. What's done is done. Good or bad, we can't take it back. You obstinate fellows, said the doctor, laughing. You can't refuse, though, to tell us of your adventures, at all events. None of you think it worthwhile, but in the first place I'm going to cook this fat goose to a turn, for I see that Mr. Kennedy has not wasted his time. All right, Joe, we'll let us see then how this African game will sit on a European stomach. The goose was soon roasted by the flame of the blowpipe, and not long afterwards it was comfortably stowed away. Joe took his own good share, like a man who had eaten nothing for several days. After the tea and the punch, he acquainted his friends with his recent adventures. He spoke with some emotion, even while looking at things for his usual philosophy. The doctor could not refrain from frequently pressing his hand when he saw his worthy servant more considered of his master's safety than of his own, and in relation to the sinking of the island of the Bedomas, he explained to him the frequency of this phenomenon upon Lake Chad. At length, Joe, continuing his recital, arrived at the point where, sinking in the swamp, he had uttered a last cry of despair. I thought I was gone, said he, and as you came right into my mind I made a hard fight for it, how I couldn't tell you, but I'd made up my mind that I wouldn't go under without knowing why. Just then I saw, two or three feet from me, what do you think, the end of a rope that had been fresh cut. So I took leave to make another jerk, and by hooker by crook I got to the rope. Then I pulled, it didn't give, so I pulled again, and hauled away, and there I was on dry ground. At the end of the rope I found an anchor. Ah, master, I have a right to call that the anchor of safety, anyhow, if you have no objection. I knew it again. It was the anchor of the Victoria. You had grounded there. So I followed the direction of the rope, and that gave me your direction, and after trying hard a few more times more I got out of the swamp. I had got my strength back with my spunk, and I walked on part of the night away from the lake, until I got to the edge of a very big wood. There I saw fenced in place, where some horses were grazing, without thinking of any harm. Now there are times when everybody knows how to ride a horse. Are there not, doctor? So I didn't spend much time thinking about it, but jumped right on the back of one of those innocent animals, and away we went galloping north, as fast as our legs could carry us. I didn't tell you about the towns that I didn't see, nor the villages that I took good care to go around. No. I crossed the plowed fields. I leaped the hedges. I scrambled over fences. I dug my heels into my nag. I thrashed him. I fairly lifted the poor fellow off his feet. At last I got to the end of the tilled land. Good. There was the desert. That suits me, said I, for I can see better ahead of me, and farther too. I was hoping all the time to see the balloon, tacking about and waiting for me, but not a bit of it. And so, in about three hours, I go plump, like a fool, into a camp of Arabs. Phew! What a hunt that was!  Still, I advise him not to try it, if he can keep out of it. My horse was so tired he was ready to drop off his legs. They were close on me. I threw myself to the ground, then I jumped up again behind an Arab. I didn't mean the fellow any harm, and I hope he has no grudge against me for choking him. But I saw you, and you know the rest. The Victoria came on at my heels, and you caught me up flying as a circus rider does a ring. Wasn't I right in counting on you? Now, doctor, you see how simple all that was. Nothing more natural in the world. I am ready to begin over again, if it would be of any service to you. And besides, master, as I said a while ago, it's not worth mentioning. My noble gallant Joe said the doctor, with great feeling, heart of gold, were we not astray and trusting to your intelligence and skill. Poe, doctor, one has only just to follow things along as they happen, and he can always work his way out of a scrape. Save his plan, you see, is to take matters as they come. While Joe was telling his experience, the balloon had rapidly passed over a long reach of country, in which he soon pointed out on the horizon a collection of structures that looked like a town. The doctor glanced at his map and recognized the place as a large village of Tangalay in the de Marigulha country. Here, said he, we come upon Dr. Barth's route. It was at this place that he parted from his companions, Richardson and Overweg. The first was to follow the Zinder route, and the second that of Moradi. And you may remember that, of these three travelers, Barth was the only one who ever returned to Europe. Then said Kennedy, following out the map, the direction of the Victoria, where you're going due north. Due north, Dick. And don't that give you a little uneasiness? Why should it? Because that line leads to Tripoli and over the great desert. Always shall not go so far as that, my friend. At least I hope not. But where do you expect to halt? Come, Dick, don't you feel some curiosity to see Timbuktu? Certainly, said Joe. Nobody nowadays can think of making the trip to Africa without going to see Timbuktu. You will be only the fifth or sixth European who has ever set eyes on that mysterious city. Who, then, for Timbuktu? Well then, let us try to get as far as between the seventh and eighteenth degrees of north latitude, and there we will seek a favorable wind to carry us westward. Good, said the hunter, but are we still far to go to the northward? One hundred and fifty miles, at least. In that case, said Kennedy, I'll turn in and sleep a bit. Sleep, sir? Sleep, urge Joe? And you, doctor, do the same for yourself. You must have need of rest, for I have made you keep watch a little out of time. The sportsman stretched himself under the awning, but Ferguson, who was not easily conquered by fatigue, remained at his post. In about three hours the Victoria was crossing with extreme rapidity and expanse of stony country, with ranges of lofty, naked mountains of granitic formation at the base. A few isolated peaks attained the height of even 4,000 feet. Giraffes, antelopes, and ostriches were seen running and bounding with marvelous agility in the midst of forests of acacias, mimosas, suas, and date trees. After the barrenness of the desert, vegetation was now resuming its empire. This was the country of the Kailuas, who veiled their faces with a bandage of cotton like their dangerous neighbors, the Turex. At ten o'clock in the evening, after a splinted trip of 250 miles, the Victoria halted over an important town. The moonlight revealed glimpses of one district half in ruins, and some pinnacles of mosques and minarets shut up here and there, glistening in the silvery rays. The doctor took a stellar observation and discovered that he was in the latitude of Agades. This city, once the seat of an immense trade, was already falling into ruin when Dr. Barth visited it. The Victoria, not being seen in the obscurity of the night, descended about two miles above Agades and a field of millet. The night was calm and began to break into dawn about three o'clock a.m., while a light wind coaxed the balloon westward and even a little toward the south. Dr. Ferguson hastened to avail himself of such good fortune, and rapidly ascending resumed his aerial journey amid a long wake of golden morning sunshine. Chapter thirty-eight of Five Weeks in a Balloon. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Touring by Alexey Tlander, Roswell, California. Five Weeks in a Balloon, or Journeys and Discoveries in Africa, by Three Englishmen, by Jules Verne, translated by William Lackland. Chapter thirty-eight, A Rapid Passage, Prudent Resolves, Caravans in Sight, Incessant Rains, Goa, The Niger, Goulbury, Jeffroy, and Gray, Mungo Park, Lang, Rene Calier, Clapperton, John and Richard Lander. The seventeenth of May passed tranquilly, without any remarkable incident that does it gain 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 Olum Minium Tuaregs. The plateau, at an elevation of 1,800 feet above the level of the sea, sloped down toward the south, our travelers having crossed the Agades route at Muzok, a route often pressed by the feet of camels, arrived that evening. In the sixteenth degree of latitude, and four degrees fifty-five minutes east longitude, after having passed over 180 miles over long and monotonous days' journey, during the day Joe dressed the last pieces of game, but had only hastily been prepared, and he served up for supper a mess of snipe, though a great wheel earlished. The wind continuing good the doctor resolved to keep on during the night, the moon still nearly at the full, illuminating it with her radiance. The Victoria ascended to a height of five hundred feet, and during her nocturnal trip for about sixty miles, the gentle slumbers of an infant would not have been stirred by her motion. On Sunday morning the direction of the wind again changed, and it bore to the northwestward. A few crows were seen sweeping through the air, and off on the horizon a flock of vultures, which, fortunately, however, kept at a distance. The Saturdays' burrows led Joe to compliment his master on the idea of having two balloons. Where would we be, said he, with only one balloon? The second balloon is like the lifeboat to a ship, in case of wreck we could always take to it and escape. You're right, friend Joe, so the doctor. Only that my lifeboat gives me some easiness. It is not so good as the main craft. What do you mean by that, doctor, as Kennedy? I mean to say that the new Victoria is not so good as the old one. Whether it be that the stuff it is made of is too much worn, or that the heat of the spiral has melted the gut aperture, I can observe a certain loss of gas. We don't amount to much thus far, but still isn't noticeable. We have a tendency to sink, and in order to keep our elevation I am compelled to give greater dilation to the hydrogen. The deuce exclaimed Kennedy with concern, I see no remedy for that. There is none, Dick, and that is why we must hasten our progress, and even avoid night halts. Are we still far from the coast, asked Joe? Which coast, my boy, how are we to know if a chance will carry us? All that I can say is that Timbuktu is still about four hundred miles to the westward. And how long would 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 remarked Joe, pointing to a long file of animals and men winding across the open desert, which will arrive there sooner than that caravan. Ferguson and Kennedy leaned over and saw an immense cavalcade. There were at least one hundred and fifty camels of that kind that, for twelve motocalls of gold, or about twenty-five dollars, go from Timbuktu to Tafile, with a load of five hundred pounds upon their backs. Each animal had dangling to its tail, a bag to receive its excrement, the only fuel on which the caravans can depend when crossing the desert. These tour-reg camels are of the very best rate. They can go from three to seven days without drinking, and for two without eating. Their speed surpasses that of the horse, and they obey with intelligence the voice of the cabir or guide of the caravan. They are known in the country under the name of Mahari. Such were the details given by the doctor while his companions continued to gaze upon that multitude of men, women and children, advancing on foot and with difficulty, over a waste of sand in 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 almost instantly. Joe inquired how the arrows managed to guide themselves across the desert, and come to the few wells scattered far between throughout this vast solitude. The arrows, 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 moment, an insignificant fragment of rock, a pebble, a tuft of grass, a different shade of color in the sand, suffice to guide them with accuracy. During the night they go by the Polestar, they never travel more than two miles per hour, and always rest during the noonday heat. You may judge from that how long it takes them to cross Sahara, a visit more than nine hundred miles in breath. But the Victoria had already disappeared from the astonished gaze of the Arabs. It must have envied her rapidity. That evening she passed two degrees, twenty minutes east longitude, and during the light left another degree behind her. On Monday the weather changed completely. Rain began to fall with extreme violence, and it 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 marshes that formed the sole surface of the country. Vegetation reappeared, however, along with the mimosas, the baobabs, and the temeran trees. Such was the Sonray country, with its villages topped with roofs turned over like Armenian caps. There were few mountains, and only such hills as were enough to form the ravines and pools where the pentados and snites 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 from tree to tree. The forests gave place to jungles with alligators, hippopotamiae, and the rhinoceros, made their haunts. It would not be long before we see the Niger's of the doctor. The face of the country always changes in the vicinity of large rivers. These moving highways, as they are sometimes correctly called, have first brought vegetation with them as they will at last bring civilization. Thus, in its course of 2,500 miles, the Niger has scattered along its banks the most important cities of Africa. By the way, Joe put in, that reminds me of what was said by an admirer of the goodness of Providence, who praised the foresight with which it had generally caused rivers to flow close to large cities. At noon the Victoria was passed over a petty town, a mere assemblage of miserable huts, which once was Goa, a great capital. It was there, said the doctor, that Barth crossed the Niger on his return from Timbuktu. This is the river so famous in antiquity, the rival of the Nile, to which pagan 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 them than perished on a count of the other. The Nile should flowed broadly between its banks and its waters rolled southward with some violence of current, but our travelers, born 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 from us. Under names of Duleba, Mayu, Egeru, Korra, and other titles besides, it traverses an immense extent of country, and almost competes in length with the Nile. These appellations signify simply the river, according to the dialects of the countries through which it passes. Did Dr. Barth follow this route, asked Kennedy? No, Dick. In quitting late Chad, he passed through the different towns of Borneo and intersected the Niajo at, say, four degrees below Goa. Then he penetrated to the bosom of those unexplored countries which the Niajo embraces in its elbow, and after eight months of fresh fatigues, he arrived at Timbuktu, all of which we may do in about three days, with a swift a wind as this. Have the sources of the Niajo been discovered, asked Joe? Long since, replied the doctor. The exploration of the Niajo and its tributaries was the object of several expeditions, the principle of which I shall mention. Between 1749 and 1758, Addison made a reconnaissance of the river and visited Gorea. From 1785 to 1788, Goldbury and Jeffroy traveled across the deserts of Senegalbia and ascended as far as the country of the Moors, who assassinated Sonnier, Besson, Adam, Raleigh, Koshile, and so many other unfortunate men. Then came the illustrious Mungo 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 Bombada, saw the Niajo, traveled 500 miles with a slave market, reconnoitered the Gambia River, and returned to England in 1797. He set out again on the 30th of January, 1805, with his brother-in-law, Addison Anderson, Scott, the designer, and a gang of workmen. He reached Gorea, there added an attachment of 35 soldiers to his party, and saw the Niajo again on the 19th of August. But by that time, in consequence of fatigue, privations, ill-usage, the inclement seas of the weather, and the unhealthiness of the country, only 11 persons remained alive of the 40 Europeans in the party. On the 16th of November, the last letters from Mungo Park reached his wife, and a year later, a trader from that country gave information that, having got as far as Boussa on the Niajo on the 23rd 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 Gray took part. It arrived in Senegal, penetrated to the Fanta Hallon, visited the Fula and the Mandingo populations, and returned to England without further results. In 1822 Major Lang explored all the western part of Africa near the British possessions, and he it was who got so far as the sources of the Niajo, and according to his documents, the spring in which the immense river takes its rise is not two feet broad. Easy to jump over, said Joe. How's that?  Retort the doctor. If we are to believe tradition, whoever attempts to pass that spring by leafing over it is immediately swallowed up, and whoever tries to draw water from it feels himself repulsed by an invisible hand. I suppose a man has no right to believe a word of that, persists to Joe. Oh, by all means. Five years later it was Major Lang's destiny to force his way across the desert of Sahara, penetrate to Timbuktu, and perish a few miles above it by strangling at the hands of the Uelad Shiman, who wanted to compel him to turn muslimen. Still another victim, said the sportsman. It was then that a brave young man, with his own feeble resources, undertook and accomplished the most astonishing of modern journeys. I mean the Frenchman René Caillet, who, after sundry attempts in 1819 and 1824, set out again on the 19th of April, 1827, from Rio Nunes. On the 3rd of August he arrived at time, so thoroughly 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 Jene, embarked on the river and descended it, as far as Timbuktu, where he arrived on the 30th of April. In 1760, another Frenchman, Imbert by name, and in 1810 an Englishman, Robert Adams, had seen this curious place. But René Caillet 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 Lang had been murdered. On the 19th he arrived at El Arwan, and left that commercial town to brave a thousand dangers in crossing the vast solitudes comprised between the Sudan and the northern regions of Africa. It lent the end of ten years, and on the 28th of September sailed for too long. In 19 months, now but standing 180 days' sickness, he had traversed Africa from west to north. Ah, had Caillet been born in England, he would have been honored as the most intrepid traveler of modern times, as was the case with Mungo Park. But in France he was not appreciated according to his worth. He was a sturdy fellow, said Kennedy, but what became of him? He died at the age of 39, from the consequences of his long fatigue. They thought he had done enough in decreeing him the prize of the Geographical Society in 1828, the high enough that others would have been paid to him in England. While he was accomplishing this remarkable journey, an Englishman could see a similar enterprise, and was trying to push it through with equal courage, if not with equal good fortune. This was Captain Clapperton, the companion of Denham. In 1829 he re-entered Africa by the western coast of the Gulf of Benin. He then followed in the track of Mungo Park and of Lang, recovered of Boussa, the documents relative to the death of the former, and arrived on the 20th of August at Sakatou, 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. He succeeded in regaining the coast and returned to London, bringing with him the captain's papers, and an exact narrative of his own journey. He then offered his services to the government to complete the reconnaissance of the Niger. He took with him his brother, John, the second child of a poor couple in Cornwall, and together these men, between 1829 and 1831, re-descended the river from Boussa to its mouth, describing it village by village, mile by mile. So both the brothers escaped the common fate, queried Kennedy? Yes, on this expedition at least, but in 1833 Richard undertook a third trip to the Niger, and perished by a bullet near the mouth of the river. You see that, my friends, that the country of which we are now passing has put in some noble instances of self-sacrifice, which, unfortunately, have only too often had death for their reward. End of Chapter 38 of Five Weeks in a Balloon. Recording by Alexi Tlander, Roseville, California. www.alexitlander.com. Chapter 39 of Five Weeks in a Balloon. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alexi Tlander, Roseville, California. Five Weeks in a Balloon, or Journeys and Discoveries in Africa, by Three Englishmen, by Jules Verne, translated by William Lackland. Chapter 39. The Country in the Elbow of the Niger. A fantastic view of the Humbury Mountains. Cabra. Timbuktu. The Chart of Dr. Barth. A decaying city. Wither heaven-wills. During the Stole Monday, Dr. Ferguson diverted his thoughts by giving his companions a thousand details concerning the country they were crossing. The surface, which was quite flat, offered no impediment to their progress. The Dr.'s sole anxiety arose from the obstinate northeast wind, which continued to blow furiously and bore them away from the latitude of Timbuktu. The Niger, after running northwards as far as that city, sweeps around like an immense water jet from some fountain, and falls into the Atlantic in a broad sheaf. In the elbow, thus formed the country, is a buried character, sometimes luxuriously fertile, and sometimes extremely bare. Fields of maze, succeeded by wide spaces, covered with foam-corn and uncultivated plains. All kinds of aquatic birds, pelicans, wild duck, kingfishers, and the rest were seen in numerous flocks hovering about the borders of the pools and torrents. From time to time there appeared an encampment of turrets. The men sheltered under their leather tents, while their women were visit with the domestic toil outside, milking their camels, and smoking their huge, bold pipes. By eight o'clock in the evening, the Victoria had advanced more than two hundred miles to the westward, and our aeronauts became the spectators of a magnificent scene. A mass of moonbeams forcing their way through an opening in the clouds, and gliding between the long lines of rolling rain, descended in a golden shower on the ridges of the Humbury Mountains. Nothing could be more weird than the appearance of these seemingly basaltic summits. They stood out in a fantastic profile, against the sump per sky, and the beholder might have fancied them to be the legendary ruins of some vast city of the Middle Ages, such as the icebergs or the polices sometimes mimic them in rites of gloom. An admiral landscape for the mysteries of Odolfo exclaimed the doctor, and Radcliffe could not have depicted yarn mountains in a more appalling aspect. Faith, said Joe, I wouldn't like to be strolling alone in the evening through this country of ghosts. Do you see, now, Master, if it wasn't so heavy, I'd like to carry that whole landscape home to Scotland. It would do for the borders of Lachlamund, and turrets would rush there in crowds. Our balloon is hardly large enough to admit of that little experiment, but I think our direction is changing. Bravo, the elves and fairies of the place are quite obliging. See, they've sent us a nice little southeast breeze that will put us on the right track again. In fact, the Victoria was resuming a more northerly route, and on the morning of the 20th, she was passing over an inextricable network of channels, torrents, and streams, in fine, the whole complicated tangle of the Niger's tributaries. Many of these channels, covered with a thick growth of herbage, resemble a luxurious Merleilands. There the doctor recognized the route followed by the explorer Barth, when he launched upon the river to descend to Timbuktu. Eight hundred fathoms brought at this point the Niger flow between banks richly grown with cruciferous plants and tamarin trees. Heards of agile gazelles were seen skipping about, their curling horns mingling with the tall herbage, in which the alligator, half-concealed, lay silently in wait for them with watchful eyes. Long files of camels and asses laden with merchandise from Jenae were winding in under the noble trees. Air-long an amphitheater of low-built houses was discovered at a turn of the river, their roofs and terraces, heat up with hay and straw, gathered from the neighboring districts. There's Cabra, explained the doctor joyously. There is the harbor of Timbuktu, and the city is not five miles from here.  Delighted, my boy. Very good, then everything's for the best. In fact, about two o'clock the queen of the desert, mysterious Timbuktu, which once, like Athens and Rome's, had her schools of learned men and her professureships of philosophy stretched away before the gaze of our travelers. Ferguson followed the most minute details upon the chart traced by Barth himself and was unable to recognize its perfect accuracy. The city forms an immense triangle marked out upon a vast plain of white sand, its acute angle directed toward the north and piercing a corner of the desert. In the environments, there is also nothing, hardly even a few grasses, with some dwarf mimosas and stunted bushes. As for the appearance of Timbuktu, the Rida has but to imagine a collection of billiard balls and thimbles, such as the bird's eye view. The streets, which are quite narrow, aligned with houses only one story in height, built of bricks in the sun, and huts of straw and reeds, the former square, the latter conical. Upon the terraces were seen some of the male inhabitants, carelessly lounging at the full length and flowing a power of bright colors, and lance or musket in hand, but no women were visible at that hour of the day. Yet they are said to be handsome remarked to the doctor. You see the three towers and the three mosques that are only the ones left standing of a greater number. The city has indeed fallen from its ancient splendor. At the top of the triangle arises the mosque of Sankortar, with its ranges of galleries resting on arcades of sufficiently pure design. Farther on and near to the Sane-Gungu quarter is the mosque of Sidi Yahya, and some two-story houses, but do not look for either palaces or monuments.  It seems to me that I can see half-ruined ramparts at Kennedy. They were destroyed by the Fulanes in 1826. The city was one-third larger then for Timbuktu, an object generally coveted by all the tribes since the 11th century, has belonged in succession to the Tuaregs, the Sunrayans, the Morocco men, and the Fulanes, and its great center of civilization, where a sage like Ahmed Baba, one owned in the 16th century, a library of 1600 manuscripts, is now nothing but a mere half-way house for the trade of Central Africa. The city indeed seemed abandoned to supreme leglet. It portrayed that indifference which seems epidemic to cities that are passing away. Huge heaps of rubbish encumbered the suburbs, and with the hill on which the marketplace stood, formed the only inequalities of the ground. When the Victoria passed, there was some slight show of movement. Drums were beaten, but the last learned man still lingering in the place had hardly time to notice the new phenomenon, for our travelers, driven onward by the wind of the desert, resumed the winding course of the river, and ere long, Timbuktu was nothing more than one of the fleeting reminiscences of their journey. And now, to the doctor, heaven may waft us wither it pleases, provided only that we go westward out of Kennedy. Ba said, Joe, I wouldn't be afraid if it was to go back to Zanzibar by the same road, or to cross the ocean to America. We would first have to be able to do that, Joe. And what's wanting, doctor? Gas, my boy. The ascending force of the balloon is evidently growing weaker, and we should need all our management to make it carry us to the sea coast. I shall even have to throw over some ballast. We are too heavy. That's what comes of doing nothing, doctor.  It's a lazybones trip this of ours, master, and when we get back, everybody will find this big and stout. Just like Joe, said Kennedy, just the idea is for him. But wait a bit. Can you tell what we may have to go through yet? So far from the end of our trip, what do you expect to strike the African coast, doctor? I should find it hard to answer you, Kennedy. We are at the mercy of very variable winds, but I should think myself fortunate where we just strike it between Sierra Leone and Portendick. There is a stretch of country in that quarter where we should meet with friends, and it would be a pleasure to press their hands, but are we going in the desirable direction? Not any too well, Dick. Not any too well. Look at the need of a compass. We're bearing southward and ascending the Niger toward its sources. A fine chance to discover them, said Joe, if they were not known already. Now couldn't we just find others for it on a pinch?  I hardly expect to go so far as that. At nightfall, the doctor threw out the last bag of sand. The Victoria rose higher, and a blowpipe, although working at full blast, could scarcely keep her up. At that time she was sixty miles to the southward of Timbuktu, and in the morning the aeronauts awoke over the banks of the Niger, not far from Lake Debo. End of Chapter 39 of Five Weeks in a Balloon. Chapter 40 of Five Weeks in a Balloon. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alexi Talander, Roosevelt, California. Five Weeks in a Balloon, or Journeys and Discoveries in Africa, by Three Englishmen, by Jules Verne, translated by William Lankland. Chapter 40 Dr. Ferguson's Anxieties, Persistent Movement Southward, a Cloud of Grasshoppers, a View of Jenny, a View of Sego, Change of the Wind, Joe's Regrets. The flow of the river was, at that point, divided by large islands into narrow branches, with a very rapid current. Upon one among them stood some shepherd's huts, but it had become impossible to take an exact observation of them, because the speed of the balloon was constantly increasing. Unfortunately, it turned still more toward the south, and in a few moments crossed Lake Debo. Dr. Ferguson, forcing the dilation of his aerocraft to the utmost, sought for other currents of air at different heights, but in vain, and he soon gave up the attempt which was only augmenting the waste of gas by pressing it against the well-worn tissue of the balloon. He made a remark, but he began to feel very anxious. This persistence of the wind to head him off toward the southern part of Africa was defeating his calculations, and he no longer knew upon whom or upon what to depend. Should he not reach the English or French territories, what was to become of him in the midst of the barbarous tribes that infest the coasts of Guinea? How should he get to a ship to take him back to England? And the actual direction of the wind was driving him along to the kingdom of Dahomey, among the most savage races, and into the power of a ruler who was in the habit of sacrificing thousands of human victims at his public orgies. There he would be lost. On the other hand, the balloon was visibly wearing out, and the doctor felt it failing him. However, as the weather was clearing up a little, he hoped that the cessation of the rain would bring about a change in the atmospheric currents. It was therefore a disagreeable reminder of the actual situation when Joe said aloud, There, the rain is going to pour down harder than ever, and this time it will be the deluge itself if we are to judge by a young cloud that is coming up. What? Another cloud asked Ferguson? Yes, and a famous one replied, Kennedy, and never saw the like of it at a show. I breathed freely against at the doctor, laying down a spyglass. That's not a cloud. Not a cloud, queried Joe is surprised. No, it is a swarm. Eh? A swarm of grasshoppers. That? Grasshoppers? Myriads of grasshoppers that are going to sweep over this country like a water-spout, and woe to it, for should these insects alight, it will be laid waste. That would be a sight worth beholding. Wait a little, Joe. In ten minutes that cloud will have arrived where we are, and you can then judge by the aid of your own eyes. The doctor was right. The cloud, thick, opaque, and several miles in extent came on with a deafening noise, casting its immense shadow over the fields. It was composed of numberless legions of that species of grasshopper called crickets. About a hundred paces in the balloon they settled down upon a tract full of foliage and verter. Fifteen minutes later the mass resumed its flight, and our travelers could, even at a distance, see the trees and the bushes entirely stripped, and the fields as bare as though they had been swept with the scythe. One would have thought that a sudden winter had just descended upon the earth, and struck the region with the most complete sterility. Well, Joe, what do you think of that? Well, doctor, it's very curious, but quite natural. What one grasshopper does on a small scale? Thousands do on a grand scale. It's a terrible shower, said the hunter. More so than hail itself in the devastation it causes. It is impossible to prevent, replied Ferguson. Sometimes the inhabitants have had the idea to burn the forest, and even the standing crops in order to arrest the progress of these insects. But the first ranks plunging into the flames would extinguish them beneath their mass, and the rest of the swarm would then pass irresistibly onward. Fortunately, in these regions there is some sort of compensation for their ravages, since the natives gather these insects in great numbers and greedily eat them. They are the pawns of the air, said Joe, who added that it was sorry that he had never had the chance to taste them, just for information's sake. The country became more marshy toward evening. The forest went up to isolated clumped trees, and on the borders of the river could be seen plantations of tobacco and swampy meadowlands fat with forage. At last the city of Jenner, on a large island, came in sight, with the two towers of his clay-built mosque and the putrid odor of the millions of swallows' nests accumulated in his walls. The tops of some baobabs, mimosas, and date trees peeped up between the houses, and even at night the activity of the place seemed very great. Jenner is, in fact, quite a commercial city. It supplies all the wants of Timbuktu. Its boats on the river and its caravans along the shady roads bear the various products of its industry. We're not that to do so would prolong our journey, said the doctor. I should light to a light at this place. There must be more than one hour up there who has traveled in England and France, and to whom our style of locomotion is not altogether new. But it would not be prudent. Let us put off the visit until our next trip, said Joe, laughing. Besides, my friends, unless I am mistaken, the wind has a slight tendency to veer a little more to the eastwood, and we must not lose such an opportunity. The doctor threw overboard at some articles that were no longer of use, some empty bottles, and a case that it contained preserved meat, and thereby managed to keep the balloon in a belt of the atmosphere, more favorable to his plans. At four o'clock in the morning the first rays of the sun lighted up Sego, the capital of Pambara, which should could be recognized at once by the four towns that composed it, by its saracenic mosques, and by the incessant going and coming of the flat-bottom boats that convey its inhabitants from one quarter to the other. But the travelers were not more seen than they saw. They sped rapidly and directly to the northwest, and the doctor's anxiety gradually subsided. Two more days in this direction and at this rate of speed we'll reach the Sangagal River, and we'll be in friendly country, asked the hunter. Not all together, but if the worst came to the worst, and the balloon were to fail us, we might make our way to the French settlements. But let it hold out only for a few hundred miles, and we shall arrive without fatigue, alarm, or danger at the western coast. And the thing will be over, added Joe. Hey, ho! So much to the worst. If it wasn't for the pleasure of telling about it, I would never want to set foot on the ground again. Do you think anybody will believe our story, doctor? Who can tell, Joe? One thing, however, will be undeniable. A thousand witnesses saw us start on one side of the African continent, and a thousand more will see us arrive on the other. And in that case it seems to me that it would be hard to say that we had not crossed it, added Kennedy. Ah, doctor said Joe again with a deep sigh, I'll think more than once of my lumps of solid gold ore. There was something that would have given weight to our narrative. At a grain of gold per head, I could have got together a nice crowd to listen to me, and even to admire me. End of Chapter 40 of Five Weeks in a Balloon. Recording by Alex C. Tlander, Louisville, California, www.alexcitalander.com