Cinq semaines en ballon. English Read online

  CHAPTER SECOND.

  The Article in the Daily Telegraph.--War between the ScientificJournals.--Mr. Petermann backs his Friend Dr. Ferguson.--Reply of theSavant Koner.--Bets made.--Sundry Propositions offered to the Doctor.

  On the next day, in its number of January 15th, the Daily Telegraphpublished an article couched in the following terms:

  "Africa is, at length, about to surrender the secret of her vastsolitudes; a modern OEdipus is to give us the key to that enigma whichthe learned men of sixty centuries have not been able to decipher. Inother days, to seek the sources of the Nile--fontes Nili quoerere--wasregarded as a mad endeavor, a chimera that could not be realized.

  "Dr. Barth, in following out to Soudan the track traced by Denham andClapperton; Dr. Livingstone, in multiplying his fearless explorationsfrom the Cape of Good Hope to the basin of the Zambesi; Captains Burtonand Speke, in the discovery of the great interior lakes, have openedthree highways to modern civilization. THEIR POINT OF INTERSECTION,which no traveller has yet been able to reach, is the very heart ofAfrica, and it is thither that all efforts should now be directed.

  "The labors of these hardy pioneers of science are now about to beknit together by the daring project of Dr. Samuel Ferguson, whosefine explorations our readers have frequently had the opportunity ofappreciating.

  "This intrepid discoverer proposes to traverse all Africa from east towest IN A BALLOON. If we are well informed, the point of departurefor this surprising journey is to be the island of Zanzibar, uponthe eastern coast. As for the point of arrival, it is reserved forProvidence alone to designate.

  "The proposal for this scientific undertaking was officially made,yesterday, at the rooms of the Royal Geographical Society, and the sumof twenty-five hundred pounds was voted to defray the expenses of theenterprise.

  "We shall keep our readers informed as to the progress of thisenterprise, which has no precedent in the annals of exploration."

  As may be supposed, the foregoing article had an enormous echo amongscientific people. At first, it stirred up a storm of incredulity; Dr.Ferguson passed for a purely chimerical personage of the Barnum stamp,who, after having gone through the United States, proposed to "do" theBritish Isles.

  A humorous reply appeared in the February number of the Bulletins de laSociete Geographique of Geneva, which very wittily showed up the RoyalSociety of London and their phenomenal sturgeon.

  But Herr Petermann, in his Mittheilungen, published at Gotha, reducedthe Geneva journal to the most absolute silence. Herr Petermann knewDr. Ferguson personally, and guaranteed the intrepidity of his dauntlessfriend.

  Besides, all manner of doubt was quickly put out of the question:preparations for the trip were set on foot at London; the factories ofLyons received a heavy order for the silk required for the body of theballoon; and, finally, the British Government placed the transport-shipResolute, Captain Bennett, at the disposal of the expedition.

  At once, upon word of all this, a thousand encouragements were offered,and felicitations came pouring in from all quarters. The details of theundertaking were published in full in the bulletins of the GeographicalSociety of Paris; a remarkable article appeared in the Nouvelles Annalesdes Voyages, de la Geographie, de l'Histoire, et de l'Archaeologie deM. V. A. Malte-Brun ("New Annals of Travels, Geography, History, andArchaeology, by M. V. A. Malte-Brun"); and a searching essay in theZeitschrift fur Allgemeine Erdkunde, by Dr. W. Koner, triumphantlydemonstrated the feasibility of the journey, its chances of success, thenature of the obstacles existing, the immense advantages of the aerialmode of locomotion, and found fault with nothing but the selected pointof departure, which it contended should be Massowah, a small port inAbyssinia, whence James Bruce, in 1768, started upon his explorationsin search of the sources of the Nile. Apart from that, it mentioned, interms of unreserved admiration, the energetic character of Dr. Ferguson,and the heart, thrice panoplied in bronze, that could conceive andundertake such an enterprise.

  The North American Review could not, without some displeasure,contemplate so much glory monopolized by England. It therefore ratherridiculed the doctor's scheme, and urged him, by all means, to push hisexplorations as far as America, while he was about it.

  In a word, without going over all the journals in the world, there wasnot a scientific publication, from the Journal of Evangelical Missionsto the Revue Algerienne et Coloniale, from the Annales de la Propagationde la Foi to the Church Missionary Intelligencer, that had not somethingto say about the affair in all its phases.

  Many large bets were made at London and throughout England generally,first, as to the real or supposititious existence of Dr. Ferguson;secondly, as to the trip itself, which, some contended, would not beundertaken at all, and which was really contemplated, according toothers; thirdly, upon the success or failure of the enterprise;and fourthly, upon the probabilities of Dr. Ferguson's return. Thebetting-books were covered with entries of immense sums, as though theEpsom races were at stake.

  Thus, believers and unbelievers, the learned and the ignorant, alikehad their eyes fixed on the doctor, and he became the lion of the day,without knowing that he carried such a mane. On his part, he willinglygave the most accurate information touching his project. He was veryeasily approached, being naturally the most affable man in the world.More than one bold adventurer presented himself, offering to share thedangers as well as the glory of the undertaking; but he refused themall, without giving his reasons for rejecting them.

  Numerous inventors of mechanism applicable to the guidance of balloonscame to propose their systems, but he would accept none; and, whenhe was asked whether he had discovered something of his own for thatpurpose, he constantly refused to give any explanation, and merelybusied himself more actively than ever with the preparations for hisjourney.