Five Weeks in a Balloon [29]
The aeronauts swept on with the speed of twelve miles per hour, and soon were passing in thirty–eight degrees twenty minutes east longitude, over the village of Tounda.
"It was there," said the doctor, "that Burton and Speke were seized with violent fevers, and for a moment thought their expedition ruined. And yet they were only a short distance from the coast, but fatigue and privation were beginning to tell upon them severely."
In fact, there is a perpetual malaria reigning throughout the country in question. Even the doctor could hope to escape its effects only by rising above the range of the miasma that exhales from this damp region whence the blazing rays of the sun pump up its poisonous vapors. Once in a while they could descry a caravan resting in a "kraal," awaiting the freshness and cool of the evening to resume its route. These kraals are wide patches of cleared land, surrounded by hedges and jungles, where traders take shelter against not only the wild beasts, but also the robber tribes of the country. They could see the natives running and scattering in all directions at the sight of the Victoria. Kennedy was keen to get a closer look at them, but the doctor invariably held out against the idea.
"The chiefs are armed with muskets," he said, "and our balloon would be too conspicuous a mark for their bullets."
"Would a bullet–hole bring us down?" asked Joe.
"Not immediately; but such a hole would soon become a large torn orifice through which our gas would escape."
"Then, let us keep at a respectful distance from yon miscreants. What must they think as they see us sailing in the air? I’m sure they must feel like worshipping us!"
"Let them worship away, then," replied the doctor, "but at a distance. There is no harm done in getting as far away from them as possible. See! the country is already changing its aspect: the villages are fewer and farther between; the mango–trees have disappeared, for their growth ceases at this latitude. The soil is becoming hilly and portends mountains not far off."
"Yes," said Kennedy, "it seems to me that I can see some high land on this side."
"In the west—those are the nearest ranges of the Ourizara—Mount Duthumi, no doubt, behind which I hope to find shelter for the night. I’ll stir up the heat in the cylinder a little, for we must keep at an elevation of five or six hundred feet."
"That was a grant idea of yours, sir," said Joe. "It’s mighty easy to manage it; you turn a cock, and the thing’s done."
"Ah! here we are more at our ease," said the sportsman, as the balloon ascended; "the reflection of the sun on those red sands was getting to be insupportable."
"What splendid trees!" cried Joe. "They’re quite natural, but they are very fine! Why a dozen of them would make a forest!"
"Those are baobabs," replied Dr. Ferguson. "See, there’s one with a trunk fully one hundred feet in circumference. It was, perhaps, at the foot of that very tree that Maizan, the French traveller, expired in 1845, for we are over the village of Deje–la–Mhora, to which he pushed on alone. He was seized by the chief of this region, fastened to the foot of a baobab, and the ferocious black then severed all his joints while the war–song of his tribe was chanted; he then made a gash in the prisoner’s neck, stopped to sharpen his knife, and fairly tore away the poor wretch’s head before it had been cut from the body. The unfortunate Frenchman was but twenty–six years of age."
"And France has never avenged so hideous a crime?" said Kennedy.
"France did demand satisfaction, and the Said of Zanzibar did all in his power to capture the murderer, but in vain."
"I move that we don’t stop here!" urged Joe; "let us go up, master, let us go up higher by all means."
"All the more willingly,