# Works of Jules Verne/Five Weeks in a Balloon/Chapter 14

CHAPTER XIV ARRIVAL AT KAZEH
The country, arid and parched, of a clayey soil that cracked with the heat, appeared deserted. Here and there some traces of caravans might be perceived, and the blanched bones of men and animals, half gnawed, lay mingling in the same dust.
After half an hour's walking, Dick and Joe plunged into a gum-tree forest, with eyes on the alert, and their fingers upon the triggers of their rifles. They did not know with what they might meet. Without being a first-rate shot, Joe could manage firearms very well.
"It does one good to walk, Mr. Dick, though this country is not the most level," said Joe, kicking aside some of the fragments of rock with which the ground was strewn.
Kennedy signed to his companion to hold his tongue, ​and to stop. They were obliged to dispense with dogs, and despite the agility of Joe, he did not possess the nose of a pointer or of a harrier. In the bed of a torrent, where some small pools still lingered, a herd of twelve antelopes were quenching their thirst. These graceful animals, scenting danger, appeared restless; between each draught they would raise their pretty heads quickly, and sniff the air with their mobile nostrils.
Kennedy passed around some massive trees, while Joe remained motionless. The Scot leveled and fired. The herd disappeared in the twinkling of an eye, all except a fine buck, which, hit in the shoulder, fell dead. Kennedy rushed forward to secure the booty. It was a "blawebock," a splendid animal of a pale blue tint, tending to gray; the belly and inside of the legs was of a snowy whiteness.
"A capital shot," cried the sportsman. "This is a very rare species of antelope, and I hope I shall be able to prepare his skin."
"You really think of doing so, Mr. Dick?"
"Certainly; what a splendid coat the fellow has got."
"But what will Doctor Ferguson say to such an additional weight?"
"Right, Joe. But it is a pity to leave such a splendid animal as that."
"Altogether, no, sir; we will cut off the best bits, and, if you will allow me, I will do it as well as the Lord Mayor's butcher himself."
"Very well, my friend, but nevertheless you must know that it is no more difficult for me to cut up the game than to kill it."
"I am quite sure of that, Mr. Dick; so, if it will not trouble you, make a fireplace out of three stones; there is a quantity of dead wood, and I only ask a few minutes before I shall be ready to make use of your hot embers."
"That will not be long," said Kennedy, who proceeded to the construction of his fireplace, which was ready, blazing, a minute or two later.
Joe meantime had cut from the antelope a dozen excellent cutlets and the tenderest portions of the fillet, which were soon transformed into a most savory grill.
"Won't this please friend Samuel," said Dick.
​"Do you know what I am thinking of, Mr. Richard?"
"Of what you are about; the steaks, no doubt."
"Not at all. I am thinking what a figure we should cut if we could not find the balloon."
"Goodness! Do you imagine that the doctor would abandon us?
"Oh no! But suppose the grapnel got loose?"
"Impossible. Besides, Samuel would not be at any difficulty to come down again. He can manage it very well."
"But suppose the wind caught it; he would not be able to bring it back to us in that case."
"Oh! bother, Joe, a truce to your suspicions; you are a regular 'Job's comforter.'
"Ah! sir, everything is possible in this world; so, as anything might happen, it is well to be prepared for everything———"
At that moment the report of a gun was heard.
"Listen!" cried Joe.
"My carbine! I know the sound," cried Kennedy.
"A signal!
"Danger for us!"
"Or for him, perhaps."
"Let us go at once."
The sportsmen rapidly packed up the products of their shooting and retraced their steps by means of the "blaze" made by Kennedy upon the trees. The thickness of the foliage prevented them from seeing the "Victoria," from which they could not be very far distant.
A second report was now heard.
"The matter is serious," said Joe.
"Yes, there's another!
"It seems as if he were defending himself."
"Let us make haste," said Kennedy, and running as quickly as possible, they arrived at the skirts of the wood, and all at once beheld the "Victoria" in its place and the doctor in the car.
"Good gracious!" exclaimed Joe.
"What do you see?" asked the Scot.
"A whole tribe of black men down there besieging the balloon."
In fact, about two miles away a number of individuals were pressing, shouting, and jumping at the base of the ​sycamore. Some of them having climbed into the tree were advancing to the highest branches. The danger appeared imminent.
"My master is lost!" cried Joe.
"Let us get on, Joe; coolness and a sharp eye. We hold the lives of four men in our hands. Go ahead."
They had covered a mile with great speed when another shot from the car sent a great fellow, who had been climbing up the rope of the grapnel, tumbling from branch to branch a corpse; he remained suspended twenty feet from the ground, his arms and legs swinging in the air.
"Now, I wonder how the devil he manages that," said Joe.
"Never mind," cried Kennedy, "let us get on."
"Ha! Mr. Kennedy," cried Joe, with a peal of laughter, "it is by his tail—by his tail. He is an ape; they are only apes, all of them!"
"That is better than being men just now," replied Kennedy, as he charged into the midst of the howling band.
It was a troop of apes, and very formidable ones. Ferocious and brutal, they were horrible to behold. However, some further shots easily persuaded them, and this grimacing horde departed, leaving many dead upon the ground.
In a moment Kennedy ascended the ladder, Joe pulled himself into the sycamore, and detached the grapnel; the ladder was close to him, and he entered the balloon without difficulty. Some minutes afterwards the "Victoria rose in the air and departed towards the west.
"There was an attack!" said Joe. "We began to think you were besieged by the natives."
"They were only apes, fortunately," replied the doctor.
"At a distance the difference is not striking, my dear Samuel."
"Not even when you are close," said Joe.
"However that may be," replied Ferguson, "the apes' attack might have had serious consequences. If the grapnel had given way under their repeated assaults who knows whither the wind might have carried me."
"What did I tell you, Mr. Kennedy?" said Joe.
"Quite right, Joe; but, correct as you are, nevertheless, will you prepare some of those steaks of which the sight alone has given me an appetite."
​"That I can readily believe," said the doctor; "the flesh of the antelope is delicious."
"You can now judge for yourself, sir; dinner is ready."
"Faith," said Kennedy, "these slices of venison have a strange sort of flavor not to be despised."
"Right! I could live upon antelope for ever," cried Joe, with his mouth full, "particularly if I had a glass of grog to wash it down." He prepared the beverage in question, which was relished in silence.
"So far so good," said Joe.
"Very good," added Kennedy.
"I say, Mr. Richard, do you now regret having accompanied us?"
"I should very much like to see the man who could have prevented my coming," said Dick, with a resolute look.
It was then four o'clock in the afternoon. The "Victoria" encountered a more rapid current, the earth was left insensibly, and soon the barometrical column marked an elevation of 1,500 feet above the level of the sea. The doctor was then obliged to keep up his balloon by a strong expansion of hydrogen gas and the blow-pipe worked incessantly. Towards seven o'clock the "Victoria" crossed the basin of the Kanyemé, the doctor took observations also of this vast clearing of ten miles in width, with its villages hidden among baobabs and gourds. There one of the sultans of Ugogo has his residence, and civilization is perhaps less backward. They very seldom sell members of their families there, but beasts and men all live together in the round, unfitted huts, which look like haystacks.
After passing Kanyemé the ground became arid and stony, but after an hour in a fertile valley, vegetation reappeared in all its luxuriance at a little distance from Mdaburu. The wind went down with the sun, and the air even seemed to go to sleep. The doctor searched in vain for a current at different altitudes, and seeing how still everything was he resolved to pass the night in the air, and for greater safety he went up to 1,000 feet high. The "Victoria" remained motionless. The night was starlit, and passed without incident.
Dick and Joe stretched themselves upon their quiet couch and slept soundly during the doctor's watch. At midnight the doctor was replaced by Kennedy.
​"Mind you wake me up if the slightest thing occurs," said the doctor; "and, above all things, keep your eyes upon the barometer. That is our compass."
The night was cold. There were twenty-seven degrees difference between its temperature and that of the day. With darkness rose the nocturnal concert of the animals which hunger and thirst drove from their lairs: the frogs sang their soprano, increased by the yelpings of the jackals, while the basso profundo of the lions sustained the music of this living orchestra.
When he got up in the morning Doctor Ferguson consulted his compass, and perceived that the wind had changed during the night. The "Victoria" had drifted about thirty miles to the northwest in about two hours. It had passed over Mabunguru, a very stony region, strewn with blocks of syenite of a beautiful polish, and dotted with rocks upon the shelving ridges; conical masses, like the pillars of Karnak, stuck up from the ground as high as Druidical "dolmens." Numerous skeletons of buffaloes and elephants lay blanching here and there. There were few trees except in the east, where some villages lay concealed in the midst of deep woods.
About seven o'clock a round rock, nearly two miles in extent, appeared, wearing the appearance of the back of an enormous tortoise.
"We are having a pleasant trip," said Doctor Ferguson. "There is Jihoue-la-Mkoa, where we shall stay for a little time. I must replenish the water-tanks; let us catch hold of something."
"There are very few trees," said Kennedy.
"Let us try, nevertheless. Joe, throw out the grapnels."
The balloon, by degrees, lost its ascending power, and approached the ground, the fluke of one of the grapnels caught in a fissure of a rock, and the "Victoria" halted.
You must not imagine that Doctor Ferguson was able to completely stop the action of the blow-pipe during these halts. The equilibrium of the balloon had been reckoned at the level of the sea; now the country was continually on the ascent, and they were elevated 600 or 700 feet above the sea level, so the balloon had the tendency to descend lower even than the surface of the ground. It was, therefore, necessary to sustain it by a certain expansion of gas. ​Only in the event of the absence of all wind, if the doctor had left the car to sleep on the ground, the balloon, then divested of a considerable weight, would be maintained in its position without the assistance of the blow-pipe.
The maps showed vast pools of water upon the western side of Jihoue-la-Mkoa. Joe went off with a barrel which might contain a dozen gallons; he found the place indicated without difficulty, not far from a small deserted village, took a supply of water, and returned to the balloon in less than three-quarters of an hour. He had seen nothing particular, except immense elephant traps; he narrowly escaped falling into one of them, in which a half-eaten carcass was lying. He found and brought back a sort of medlar, which the monkeys eat voraciously. The doctor recognized it as the fruit of the "mbenbu," a very common tree on the west part of Jihoue-la-Mkoa. Ferguson waited somewhat impatiently for Joe, for even a short stay upon that inhospitable land filled him with fear.
The water was hoisted in without difficulty, for the car was brought close to the ground. Joe was able to take up the grapnel and mount nimbly after his master, who at once set the flame going, and the "Victoria" resumed her aërial voyage.
They were then 100 miles from Kazeh, an important settlement in the interior, where, thanks to a southeasterly current, the travelers had hopes of arriving during the day. They progressed at about fourteen miles an hour, the management of the balloon became rather difficult, they could not rise very high without expanding too much gas, for the country was already nearly 3,000 feet high. The doctor preferred to restrain the expansion as much as possible, so he very adroitly followed the windings of a somewhat steep declivity, and passed very near to the villages of Themba and Tura Wells. This latter is situated in Unyamwezy, a magnificent region, where the trees attain enormous dimensions, and the cactus amongst others, which are gigantic.
About two o'clock, in splendid weather, beneath a scorching sun, which absorbed the least current of air, the "Victoria" hovered above the town of Kazeh, situated about 350 miles from the coast.
"We left Zanzibar at nine o'clock in the morning," said ​Doctor Ferguson, consulting his notes, and after two days' traveling we have accomplished, including our deviations, nearly 500 geographical miles. Captains Burton and Speke took four months and a half to accomplish the same distance.
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