CHAPTER SECOND.
On the next day, in its number of January 15th, the Daily Telegraph
published an article couched in the following terms:
“Africa is, at length, about to surrender the secret of her vast
solitudes; a modern OEdipus is to give us the key to that enigma which the
learned men of sixty centuries have not been able to decipher. In other days,
to seek the sources of the Nile—fontes Nili quoerere—was regarded
as a mad endeavor, a chimera that could not be realized.
“Dr. Barth, in following out to Soudan the track traced by Denham
and Clapperton; Dr. Livingstone, in multiplying his fearless explorations from
the Cape of Good Hope to the basin of the Zambesi; Captains Burton and Speke,
in the discovery of the great interior lakes, have opened three highways to
modern civilization. THEIR POINT OF INTERSECTION, which no traveller has yet
been able to reach, is the very heart of Africa, and it is thither that all
efforts should now be directed.
“The labors of these hardy pioneers of science are now about to be
knit together by the daring project of Dr. Samuel Ferguson, whose fine
explorations our readers have frequently had the opportunity of appreciating.
“This intrepid discoverer proposes to traverse all Africa from
east to west IN A BALLOON. If we are well informed, the point of departure for
this surprising journey is to be the island of Zanzibar, upon the eastern
coast. As for the point of arrival, it is reserved for Providence alone to
designate.
“The proposal for this scientific undertaking was officially made,
yesterday, at the rooms of the Royal Geographical Society, and the sum of
twenty-five hundred pounds was voted to defray the expenses of the enterprise.
“We shall keep our readers informed as to the progress of this
enterprise, which has no precedent in the annals of exploration.”
As may be supposed, the foregoing article had an enormous echo among
scientific 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” the British Isles.
A humorous reply appeared in the February number of the Bulletins de la
Societe Geographique of Geneva, which very wittily showed up the Royal Society
of London and their phenomenal sturgeon.
But Herr Petermann, in his Mittheilungen, published at Gotha, reduced
the Geneva journal to the most absolute silence. Herr Petermann knew Dr.
Ferguson personally, and guaranteed the intrepidity of his dauntless friend.
Besides, all manner of doubt was quickly put out of the question:
preparations for the trip were set on foot at London; the factories of Lyons
received a heavy order for the silk required for the body of the balloon; and,
finally, the British Government placed the transport-ship Resolute, 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 the
undertaking were published in full in the bulletins of the Geographical Society
of Paris; a remarkable article appeared in the Nouvelles Annales des Voyages,
de la Geographie, de l’Histoire, et de l’Archaeologie de M. V. A.
Malte-Brun (“New Annals of Travels, Geography, History, and Archaeology,
by M. V. A. Malte-Brun”); and a searching essay in the Zeitschrift fur
Allgemeine Erdkunde, by Dr. W. Koner, triumphantly demonstrated the feasibility
of the journey, its chances of success, the nature of the obstacles existing,
the immense advantages of the aerial mode of locomotion, and found fault with
nothing but the selected point of departure, which it contended should be
Massowah, a small port in Abyssinia, whence James Bruce, in 1768, started upon
his explorations in search of the sources of the Nile. Apart from that, it
mentioned, in terms of unreserved admiration, the energetic character of Dr.
Ferguson, and the heart, thrice panoplied in bronze, that could conceive and
undertake such an enterprise.
The North American Review could not, without some displeasure, contemplate
so much glory monopolized by England. It therefore rather ridiculed the
doctor’s scheme, and urged him, by all means, to push his explorations as
far as America, while he was about it.
In a word, without going over all the journals in the world, there was
not a scientific publication, from the Journal of Evangelical Missions to the
Revue Algerienne et Coloniale, from the Annales de la Propagation de la Foi to
the Church Missionary Intelligencer, that had not something to 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 be undertaken at all, and
which was really contemplated, according to others; thirdly, upon the success
or failure of the enterprise; and fourthly, upon the probabilities of Dr.
Ferguson’s return. The betting-books were covered with entries of immense
sums, as though the Epsom races were at stake.
Thus, believers and unbelievers, the learned and the ignorant, alike had
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 willingly gave the most
accurate information touching his project. He was very easily approached, being
naturally the most affable man in the world. More than one bold adventurer
presented himself, offering to share the dangers as well as the glory of the
undertaking; but he refused them all, without giving his reasons for rejecting
them.
Numerous inventors of mechanism applicable to the guidance of balloons
came to propose their systems, but he would accept none; and, when he was asked
whether he had discovered something of his own for that purpose, he constantly
refused to give any explanation, and merely busied himself more actively than
ever with the preparations for his journey.
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