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friends, or seated at the domestic hearth? Were their travelling apparatus
to fail, what would become of them, among those ferocious savage tribes, in
regions that had never been explored, and in the midst of boundless deserts?
Such thoughts as these, which had been dim and vague until then, or but
slightly regarded when they came up, returned upon their excited fancies
with intense force at this parting moment. Dr. Ferguson, still cold and
impassible, talked of this, that, and the other; but he strove in vain to
overcome this infectious gloominess. He utterly failed.
As some demonstration against the personal safety of the doctor and his
companions was feared, all three slept that night on board the Resolute. At
six o'clock in the morning they left their cabin, and landed on the island
of Koumbeni.
The balloon was swaying gently to and fro in the morning breeze; the
sandbags that had held it down were now replaced by some twenty strongarmed
sailors, and Captain Bennet and his officers were present to witness the
solemn departure of their friends.
At this moment Kennedy went right up to the doctor, grasped his hand, and
said:
"Samuel, have you absolutely determined to go?"
"Solemnly determined, my dear Dick."
"I have done every thing that I could to prevent this expedition, have I
not?"
"Every thing!"
"Well, then, my conscience is clear on that score, and I will go with you."
"I was sure you would!" said the doctor, betraying in his features swift
traces of emotion.
At last the moment of final leavetaking arrived. The captain and his
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officers embraced their dauntless friends with great feeling, not excepting
even Joe, who, worthy fellow, was as proud and happy as a prince.
Every one in the party insisted upon having a final shake of the doctor's
hand.
At nine o'clock the three travellers got into their car. The doctor lit the
combustible in his cylinder and turned the flame so as to produce a rapid
heat, and the balloon, which had rested on the ground in perfect equipoise,
began to rise in a few minutes, so that the seamen had to slacken the ropes
they held it by. The car then rose about twenty feet above their heads.
"My friends!" exclaimed the doctor, standing up between his two companions,
and taking off his hat, "let us give our aerial ship a name that will bring
her good luck! let us christen her Victoria!"
Five Weeks in a Balloon
CHAPTER ELEVENTH.
37
This speech was answered with stentorian cheers of "Huzza for the Queen!
Huzza for Old England!"
At this moment the ascensional force of the balloon increased prodigiously,
and Ferguson, Kennedy, and Joe, waved a last goodby to their friends.
"Let go all!" shouted the doctor, and at the word the Victoria shot rapidly
up into the sky, while the four carronades on board the Resolute thundered
forth a parting salute in her honor.
CHAPTER TWELFTH
Crossing the Strait.The Mrima.Dick's Remark and Joe's Proposition.A Recipe
for
Coffeemaking.The Uzaramo.The Unfortunate Maizan.Mount Dathumi.The Doctor's
Cards.Night under a Nopal.
The air was pure, the wind moderate, and the balloon ascended almost
perpendicularly to a height of fifteen hundred feet, as indicated by a
depression of two inches in the barometric column.
At this height a more decided current carried the balloon toward the
southwest. What a magnificent spectacle was then outspread beneath the gaze
of the travellers! The island of Zanzibar could be seen in its entire
extent, marked out by its deeper color upon a vast planisphere; the fields
had the appearance of patterns of different colors, and thick clumps of green
indicated the groves and thickets.
The inhabitants of the island looked no larger than insects. The huzzaing
and shouting were little by little lost in the distance, and only the
discharge of the ship's guns could be heard in the concavity beneath the
balloon, as the latter sped on its flight.
"How fine that is!" said Joe, breaking silence for the first time.
He got no reply. The doctor was busy observing the variations of the
barometer and noting down the details of his ascent.
Kennedy looked on, and had not eyes enough to take in all that he saw.
The rays of the sun coming to the aid of the heating cylinder, the tension
of the gas increased, and the
Victoria attained the height of twentyfive hundred feet.
The Resolute looked like a mere cockleshell, and the African coast could be
distinctly seen in the west marked out by a fringe of foam.
"You don't talk?" said Joe, again.
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