to such an expedition; with her, neither heat, torrents, storms, whirlwinds, unsanitary climates, wild animals, nor human beings are a concern! If I’m too hot, I go higher; if I’m cold, I descend; if there’s a mountain, I pass it by; a precipice, I clear it; a river, I cross it; a downpour, I rise above it; a torrent, I skim over it like a bird! I press on without growing tired, I halt without needing to rest! I glide past new cities! I fly as fast as a tornado, sometimes high in the skies, sometimes just a hundred feet from the ground, and below is the great atlas of the world, with the map of Africa unfolding beneath my eyes!”
Our gallant Kennedy was starting to feel excited, but the mental picture in front of his eyes gave him vertigo. He looked at Samuel in wonderment, also in fear; already he felt he was swaying in the stratosphere.
“Hold on,” he said, “hold on a second, my dear Samuel—does this mean you’ve found a way of steering a balloon?”
“Far from it. That’s a pipe dream.”
“But then you’ll go—”
“Where Providence wills; but in any event from east to west.” “Why is that?”
“Because I’m counting on using the trade winds, which always blow in the same direction.”
“Oh … right!” Kennedy said, thinking it over. “The trade winds … certainly … in a pinch … there’s something to be said for ’em …”
“Something? No, my gallant friend, everything. The English govern ment has put a cargo boat at my disposal; they’ve likewise arranged for three or four ships to cruise off Africa’s west coast around the projected time of my arrival. In three months at the most, I’ll be in Zanzibar where I’ll set about inflating my balloon, and from there we’ll launch her—”
“We?” Dick interrupted.
“Really now, have you a single objection left? Out with it, Kennedy old friend.”
“A single objection? I have a thousand; but tell me, among other things: if you’re counting on seeing the country, if you’re counting on rising and descending at will, how can you do it without losing gas? So far there’s no other way of proceeding, and that’s why nobody goes on long outings in the clouds.”
“My dear Dick, I’ll tell you just one thing: I won’t lose an atom of gas, not a single molecule.”
“And you’ll descend at will?”
“I’ll descend at will.”
“And how will you manage it?”
“That’s my secret, Dick old friend. Trust me and make my motto yours: Excelsior!”
“Excelsior it is,” replied the hunter, who didn’t know a word of Latin.
But he was bound and determined to thwart his friend’s departure in any way he could. So he pretended to agree but kept a careful lookout. As for Samuel, he went off to oversee his preparations.
* Nickname for Edinburgh meaning “Old Smoky.”
* Insane asylum in London.
chapter 4
African exploring parties—Barth, Richardson, Overweg, Werne, Brun-Rollet, Peney, Andrea Debono, Miani, Guillaume Lejean, Bruce, Krapf and Rebmann, Maizan, Roscher, Burton and Speke.
The course through the clouds that Dr. Fergusson intended to follow hadn’t been chosen by accident; he had put serious thought into his starting point, and it was with good reason that he decided to launch his balloon from the island of Zanzibar. Located off Africa’s east coast, this island lies at latitude 6° south, in other words, 430 statute miles1 below the equator.
The latest expedition in search of the Nile’s headwaters had just set out from this island and was proceeding by way of the great inland lakes.
But it’s important to point out which exploring parties Dr. Fergusson hoped to connect with each other. There were two main ones: Dr. Barth’s in 1849 and the party led by Lieutenants Burton and Speke in 1858.
A native of Hamburg, Dr. Barth obtained permission for his countryman Overweg and himself to join an expedition under the Englishman Richardson; the latter had been entrusted with a mission in Sudan.
This huge country is located between latitudes 10° and 15° north—in other words, you have to push more than 1,500 miles2 into Africa’s interior to reach it.
At the time all that was known of this region came from the travels of Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney over the years 1822–1824. Keen on pressing their investigations farther, Richardson, Barth, and Overweg arrive like their predecessors in Tunis and Tripoli, then forge ahead to Murzuk, capital of Libya’s Fezzan region.
At this juncture they take a sharp right turn to the west in the direction of Ghat, accompanied by Tuareg tribesmen and plenty of complications. After a thousand episodes of thievery, humiliation, and armed assault, their caravan reaches the huge oasis of the Aïr by October. Dr. Barth separates from his companions, makes an excursion to the town of Agadez, and rejoins the expedition, which sets out again on December 12. It arrives in the province of Damergou; there the three travelers part company, and Barth takes the route to Kano, which he reaches by persevering and by paying sizable bribes.
Despite a high fever, he vacates this town on March 7, bringing only a single servant. His journey’s main objective is to scout out Lake Chad, which still lies 350 miles away. So he presses on to the east and gets to the town of Zuricolo in Bornu, the heart of this large central African empire. There he learns that Richardson is dead, the victim of exhaustion and hardship. He arrives in Kouka, Bornu’s lakeside capital. Three weeks later on April 14, he finally makes it to the town of Ngornu, 12½ months after leaving Tripoli.
We find him setting out again with Overweg on March 29, 1851, bound for the kingdom of Adamawa south of the lake; from there he gets as far as the town of Yola, a little below latitude 9° north. Which is the southernmost point reached by this bold explorer.
During the month of August, he goes back to Kouka, from there consecutively travels through Mandara, Bagirmi, and Kanem, then reaches his easternmost position, the town of Másena, located at longitude 17° 20′ west.*
On November 25, 1852, after the death of his last-remaining companion Overweg, Barth pushes into the west, visits Sokoto, crosses the Niger, and finally arrives in Timbuktu, where he’s forced to sit out eight long months of misery, mistreatment, and humiliation by the sheik. But the presence of a Christian in town can no longer be tolerated; Fula tribesmen threaten to lay siege to the place. So the doctor clears out on March 17, 1854, takes refuge at the border where he stays for thirty-three days in a state of utter destitution, gets back to Kano in November, reenters Kouka, and from there goes home by Denham’s route after a four-month layover; the doctor sights Tripoli again near the end of August 1855, and reenters London on September 6 without a single companion left.
And that’s the story of Barth’s bold
