# Works of Jules Verne/Five Weeks in a Balloon/Chapter 5

CHAPTER V
THE MAP OF AFRICA
Doctor Ferguson kept pressing forward the preparations for his departure; he personally directed the construction of his balloon, following out certain modifications, respecting which he maintained an absolute silence.
For some time previously, he had been applying himself to the study of Arabic, and of various patois, and thanks to his arrangement of the dialects, he made rapid progress.
In the meantime, his friend never left him for a moment; he was doubtless apprehensive that the doctor would take flight, and he still brought to bear upon the subject his most persuasive arguments, which had no effect whatever upon Samuel Ferguson, who would endeavor to escape under cover of the most moving entreaties, by which he appeared little touched himself. Dick felt that he was slipping through his fingers.
The unfortunate Scot was really to be pitied; he could never think of the azure vault of Heaven without a fit of the "blues"; he realized, when asleep, the giddy suspension, and every night he felt as if he were falling from an immense height.
We ought to state that, while under these terrible ​night-mares, he fell out of bed once or twice. His first notion was to exhibit a great contusion on his head.
"There," he said, with a smile," look at that, and only caused by a fall of three feet. Now, what do you think?"
This insinuation, full of sadness though it was, had no effect upon the doctor.
"We shall not fall out/' he said slyly.
"But suppose we do ?"
"We shall not, I tell you."
This was decisive, and Kennedy had nothing to say.
What particularly aggravated Dick was that the doctor appeared completely to ignore his (Dick's) individuality, and looked upon him as fated to become his aerial companion. There was not a shadow of doubt about that.
Samuel was accustomed to make a shameful abuse of the first person plural.
"We" go."We" shall be ready."We" shall leave. And then the adjective (possessive)—"Our" balloon. "Our" boat."Our" undertaking. And again in the plural—"Our" preparations."Our" discoveries."Our" ascents.
Dick shuddered at all this, although determined not to stir, but he did not wish to thwart his friend. Let us confess, indeed, that, without saying anything about it, he had caused some clothes and his best rifles to be forwarded to him secretly from Edinburgh.
One day, having gone so far as to confess that, with good luck, one might have a chance of success, he pretended to agree with the doctor, but in order to delay the journey, he quoted a number of the most wonderfully varied and hairbreadth escapes. He fell back upon the use and expediency of the journey. Was it really a necessity to discover the sources of the Nile? Would their work really prove of benefit to the human race? Suppose, after all, the tribes of Africa should be civilized, how much better off will they be then ? Was it by any means certain, moreover, that they were not already as civilized as Europe? Perhaps so. And, in the first place, why couldn't they wait a little longer? Surely Africa could be crossed one day in a less dangerous fashion? In a month, in six months, before the year was out, some explorer would indubitably present himself. ​These insinuations produced an effect the very opposite to the speaker's wishes, and the doctor quivered with impatience.
"Do you wish, then, you unhappy man, that this glory shall be shared with someone else? Is it, then, necessary to fib about it; to enlarge upon obstacles which are not serious; to repay, by cowardly hesitation, what has been done for me by the Government and the Royal Society?"
"But," replied Kennedy, who was very much addicted to the use of this word.
"But! " echoed the doctor, "do not you know that my journey ought to contribute to the success of enterprises already undertaken? Are you not aware that fresh expeditions are advancing into the center of Africa?"
"Still———"
"Listen to me, Dick. Just look at this map."
Dick regarded it with a resigned expression.
"Follow up the course of the Nile———"
"I am following it," replied the Scot resignedly.
"Have you reached Gondokoro?"
"I am there." And Kennedy thought how easy it would be to make a similar voyage on a map.
"Now," said the doctor, "place one of the points upon that town which the bravest travelers have with difficulty passed."
"I have fixed it."
"And now look on the coast line for the island of Zanzibar in the 6th degree of south latitude."
"I have got it."
"Follow now this parallel and you arrive at Kazet."
"All right."
"Now go up by the 33rd degree of longitude as far as the commencement of Lake Onkéreoné, at the spot where Lieutenant Speke halted."
"I am there. I shall be in the lake in a minute."
"Now do you know what is the natural deduction from the information gathered from the tribes on the borders of the lake?"
"I have not the faintest notion."
"It is that this lake, whose lower end is in 2° 30' latitude, ought to extend equally two and a half degrees above the equator."
​"Really?"
"Now, from this northern extremity runs a stream which ought to flow into the Nile, if it be not the Nile itself."
"That is extremely interesting."
"Now place the other point of that compass on this extremity of the lake"
"It is done," said Ferguson.
"How many degrees do you make it between the points?"
"Scarcely two."
"Do you know how far that is, Dick?"
"Haven't an idea!"
"It is but 120 miles; a mere nothing."
"Well, scarcely nothing, Samuel."
"Now, do you know what is actually taking place at this moment?"
"No, upon my life, I don't.
"Well, the Geographical Society considers it very important that this lake, discovered by Speke, should be explored. Under its direction, Lieutenant, now Captain, Speke has joined with Captain Grant of the Indian Army; they have been put at the head of a numerous caravan, and with ample funds. They have been commissioned to go up the lake, and to return as far as Gondokoro. They have been subsidized to the amount of £5,000, and the Governor of the Cape has placed Hottentot soldiers under their orders. They left Zanzibar at the end of October, 1860. During this time, John Petherick, H. M. Consul at Karthoum, has received from the Foreign Office about £700. He has orders to provide a steamer, and, with a plentiful supply of provisions, to proceed to Gondokoro, there to await the arrival of Captain Speke’s party, and to assist them if necessary."
"That is a well-conceived plan," said Kennedy.
"You can now perceive that we have no time to lose if we would participate in this expedition. And that is not all; while they are marching on foot to discover the sources of the Nile, other travelers are bravely penetrating into the very heart of Africa."
"On foot?" exclaimed Kennedy incredulously.
"Yes," replied the doctor, without noticing the insinuation. "Doctor Krapf proposes to push towards the west ​by the Djob, a river below the Equator. Baron Decken has left Monbaz, and revisited the mountains Kenia and Kilimandjaro, and is still advancing towards the interior."
"Also on foot?"
"Either on foot or with mules."
"All the same as far as I am concerned," replied Kennedy.
"Finally," continued the doctor, "M. Heuglin, the Austrian vice-consul at Karthoum, is about to organize a very important expedition, of which the chief aim will be the search for the explorer Vogel, who, in 1853, was sent into the Soudan to join forces with Dr. Earth. In 1856 he quitted Bornou, resolved to explore the unknown region which extends between Lake Tchad and Darfour. Since then he has not been heard of. Letters arrived in 1860 at Alexandria stating that he had been assassinated by the orders of the King of Wadai, but subsequent communications addressed by Dr. Hartmann to Vogel's father, that, according to the report of a fellatah of Bornou, Vogel was only kept a prisoner at Wara; all hope, therefore, is not lost. A committee has been formed under the presidency of the Regent of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. My friend Petermann is the secretary. A national subscription has been set on foot to support the expedition, to which several savants have already attached themselves. M. Heuglin left Masuah in June, and while he searches for Vogel, he has instructions to explore the country lying between the Nile and Lake Tchad, that is to say, to connect the discoveries of Speke and Barth, and then Africa will have been crossed from east to west!"
"Well," said the Scot, "as that is all so nicely arranged I don't see what there is for us to do."
Doctor Ferguson made no reply to this beyond a shrug of his shoulders.
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