Cinq semaines en ballon. English

  CHAPTER FORTIETH.

  Dr. Ferguson's Anxieties.--Persistent Movement southward.--A Cloudof Grasshoppers.--A View of Jenne.--A View of Sego.--Change of theWind.--Joe's Regrets.

  The flow of the river was, at that point, divided by large islands intonarrow branches, with a very rapid current. Upon one among them stoodsome shepherds' huts, but it had become impossible to take an exactobservation of them, because the speed of the balloon was constantlyincreasing. Unfortunately, it turned still more toward the south, and ina few moments crossed Lake Debo.

  Dr. Ferguson, forcing the dilation of his aerial craft to the utmost,sought for other currents of air at different heights, but in vain; andhe soon gave up the attempt, which was only augmenting the waste of gasby pressing it against the well-worn tissue of the balloon.

  He made no remark, but he began to feel very anxious. This persistenceof the wind to head him off toward the southern part of Africa wasdefeating his calculations, and he no longer knew upon whom or upon whatto depend. Should he not reach the English or French territories, whatwas to become of him in the midst of the barbarous tribes that infestthe coasts of Guinea? How should he there get to a ship to take him backto England? And the actual direction of the wind was driving him alongto the kingdom of Dahomey, among the most savage races, and into thepower of a ruler who was in the habit of sacrificing thousands of humanvictims at his public orgies. There he would be lost!

  On the other hand, the balloon was visibly wearing out, and the doctorfelt 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 inthe atmospheric currents.

  It was therefore a disagreeable reminder of the actual situation whenJoe said aloud:

  "There! the rain's going to pour down harder than ever; and this time itwill be the deluge itself, if we're to judge by yon cloud that's comingup!"

  "What! another cloud?" asked Ferguson.

  "Yes, and a famous one," replied Kennedy.

  "I never saw the like of it," added Joe.

  "I breathe freely again!" said the doctor, laying down his spy-glass."That's not a cloud!"

  "Not a cloud?" queried Joe, with surprise.

  "No; it is a swarm."

  "Eh?"

  "A swarm of grasshoppers!"

  "That? Grasshoppers!"

  "Myriads of grasshoppers, that are going to sweep over this country likea water-spout; and woe to it! for, should these insects alight, it willbe laid waste."

  "That would be a sight worth beholding!"

  "Wait a little, Joe. In ten minutes that cloud will have arrived wherewe are, and you can then judge by the aid of your own eyes."

  The doctor was right. The cloud, thick, opaque, and several miles inextent, came on with a deafening noise, casting its immense shadow overthe fields. It was composed of numberless legions of that species ofgrasshopper called crickets. About a hundred paces from the balloon,they settled down upon a tract full of foliage and verdure. Fifteenminutes later, the mass resumed its flight, and our travellers could,even at a distance, see the trees and the bushes entirely stripped, andthe fields as bare as though they had been swept with the scythe. Onewould have thought that a sudden winter had just descended upon theearth 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 onegrasshopper does on a small scale, thousands do on a grand scale."

  "It's a terrible shower," said the hunter; "more so than hail itself inthe devastation it causes."

  "It is impossible to prevent it," replied Ferguson. "Sometimes theinhabitants have had the idea to burn the forests, and even the standingcrops, in order to arrest the progress of these insects; but the firstranks plunging into the flames would extinguish them beneath theirmass, and the rest of the swarm would then pass irresistibly onward.Fortunately, in these regions, there is some sort of compensation fortheir ravages, since the natives gather these insects in great numbersand greedily eat them."

  "They are the prawns of the air," said Joe, who added that he was sorrythat he had never had the chance to taste them--just for information'ssake!

  The country became more marshy toward evening; the forests dwindled toisolated clumps of trees; and on the borders of the river could be seenplantations of tobacco, and swampy meadow-lands fat with forage. At lastthe city of Jenne, on a large island, came in sight, with the twotowers of its clay-built mosque, and the putrid odor of the millionsof swallows' nests accumulated in its walls. The tops of some baobabs,mimosas, and date-trees peeped up between the houses; and, even atnight, the activity of the place seemed very great. Jenne is, in fact,quite a commercial city: it supplies all the wants of Timbuctoo. Itsboats on the river, and its caravans along the shaded roads, bearthither the various products of its industry.

  "Were it not that to do so would prolong our journey," said the doctor,"I should like to alight at this place. There must be more than one Arabthere who has travelled in England and France, and to whom our style oflocomotion 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 slighttendency to veer a little more to the eastward, and we must not losesuch an opportunity."

  The doctor threw overboard some articles that were no longerof use--some empty bottles, and a case that had containedpreserved-meat--and thereby managed to keep the balloon in a belt of theatmosphere more favorable to his plans. At four o'clock in the morningthe first rays of the sun lighted up Sego, the capital of Bambarra,which could be recognized at once by the four towns that compose it,by its Saracenic mosques, and by the incessant going and coming of theflat-bottomed boats that convey its inhabitants from one quarter to theother. But the travellers were not more seen than they saw. Theysped rapidly and directly to the northwest, and the doctor's anxietygradually subsided.

  "Two more days in this direction, and at this rate of speed, and we'llreach the Senegal River."

  "And we'll be in a friendly country?" asked the hunter.

  "Not altogether; but, if the worst came to the worst, and the balloonwere 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 arrivewithout fatigue, alarm, or danger, at the western coast."

  "And the thing will be over!" added Joe. "Heigh-ho! so much the worse.If it wasn't for the pleasure of telling about it, I would never wantto set foot on the ground again! Do you think anybody will believe ourstory, doctor?"

  "Who can tell, Joe? One thing, however, will be undeniable: a thousandwitnesses saw us start on one side of the African Continent, and athousand more will see us arrive on the other."

  "And, in that case, it seems to me that it would be hard to say that wehad not crossed it," added Kennedy.

  "Ah, doctor!" said Joe again, with a deep sigh, "I'll think more thanonce of my lumps of solid gold-ore! There was something that would havegiven WEIGHT to our narrative! At a grain of gold per head, I could havegot together a nice crowd to listen to me, and even to admire me!"