In the first chapter of this volume, we left Dr. Desrioux and the the
Count de Pommerelle in readiness to leave Paris. They embarked at
Marseilles, on board the very steamer which, six months previously,
had conveyed their friends, but instead of stopping at Suez, as the
de Guéran expedition had done, they went right down the Red Sea,
through the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, as far as Aden.
Accident furthered their desire to travel as quickly as possible.
Without being obliged to land at the port of Aden, they found at
Steamer-Point, a large open roadstead, where the mails for India and
China put in for a few hours, a vessel just leaving for Zanzibar.
Their passage was at once secured on board this ship, their baggage
was transhipped, and very soon they were steaming through the Gulf of
Aden.
Doubling Cape Gardafuin they emerged into the Indian Ocean, coasted
along the barren and desert shore called the Somauli, crossed the
equator, and at the end of April, 1873, landed on the island of
Zanzibar.
In order to allow our readers to follow us, we must recall to their
recollection that the caravan of Madame de Guéran, after having,
travelled for more than twelve months towards the south-east, had
halted, on the 11th December, 1873, in front of the Blue Mountains,
in lat. 2° N., long. 27° E. To come up with it, MM. Desrioux and de
Pommerelle were consequently obliged, on leaving Zanzibar, to take a
north-westerly direction, and to traverse nine degrees of latitude,
that is to say, about two hundred and twenty-five miles, without
taking into account the longitude, which, of course, makes the
journey longer, seeing that it cannot be in a direct line.
Dr. Desrioux and the Count de Pommerelle were neither geographers,
nor even explorers, strictly speaking. The former had but one idea—to
reach Madame de Guéran as soon as possible. He neither saw nor
thought of anything but her, and until he found her, he could pay no
attention to countries, people or things. He was a traveller for
love; he needed no compass; his instinct and the cherished desire of
his heart guided him to his single point of attraction.
As for M. de Pommerelle, the drawing-room traveller, the ardent, but
latent, explorer, as soon as he commenced to soar, as soon as his
yearning, so long restrained, burst forth, he was carried away by his
new life. He was like a prisoner just released, or a school-boy in
the holidays, a reformed coward, to use his own expression, who had
at last made up his mind to fight. Forward! was his continual cry,
and he never wanted to stop. He filled his lungs with the novel air
which surrounded him; he scanned with all his eyes, and admired with
all his heart, the scenes which unfolded themselves before him.
Travellers like MM. Desrioux and de Pommerelle are of no possible use
to learned societies. They took no notes, and we have no means of
getting at their ideas, or of giving, from their standpoint, even a
bird's-eye view of the strange countries through which they passed.
But earnest travellers, both before and after them, have followed the
same route, and have, fortunately, left behind them records easy of
access. To the works of Burton, Speke and Grant, Livingstone and
Stanley we must refer our readers for the information withheld by MM.
Desrioux and Pommerelle. A persual of these works will give the
reader an idea of the interest attaching to this portion of the
African continent. We are now going briefly to describe the journey
of this pair, and to fill up the gap left by them, as we have already
said, from information derived from more reliable sources.
Bent upon joining the de Guéran expedition as soon as possible, and
determined to spare neither strength nor money to attain that end,
MM. Desrioux and Pommerelle, owing to the assistance rendered them by
the Sultan of Zanzibar, and the European Consuls, were enabled in a
few days to get together a caravan of considerable size. It consisted
of _pagazis_, or bearers, freed slaves, in number about two hundred,
under the leadership of a native guide (_kirangozi_), and an escort
of sixty Belucks, enlisted voluntarily, and of the Bashi-Bazouk, or
dare-devil class, commanded by a jemadar (lieutenant), and armed with
first-rate rifles, bought by M. de Pommerelle in Paris just before
leaving.
These preparations completed, our two friends sailed across to
Bagamoyo, on the mainland, whence they started on the 15th of May.