CHAPTER II. OFFICIAL PRESENTATIONS
CHAPTER III. THE LAND JOURNEY
CHAPTER IV. A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE "METRE"
CHAPTER V. A HOTTENTOT VILLAGE
CHAPTER VI. BETTER ACQUAINTANCE
CHAPTER VII. THE BASE OF THE TRIANGLE
CHAPTER VIII. THE TWENTY-FOURTH MERIDIAN
CHAPTER IX. THE KRAAL
CHAPTER X. THE RAPID
CHAPTER XI. A MISSING COMPANION
CHAPTER XII. A STATION TO SIR JOHN'S LIKING
CHAPTER XIII. PACIFICATION BY FIRE
CHAPTER XIV. A DECLARATION OF WAR
CHAPTER XV. A GEOMETRIC PROGRESSION
CHAPTER XVI. DANGER IN DISGUISE
CHAPTER XVII. AN UNEXPECTED BLIGHT
CHAPTER XVIII. THE DESERT
CHAPTER XIX. SCIENCE UNDAUNTED
CHAPTER XX. STANDING A SIEGE
CHAPTER XXI. SUSPENSE
CHAPTER XXII. HIDE AND SEEK
CHAPTER XXIII. HOMEWARD BOUND
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FRONTISPIECE.
William Emery and the Bushman
At length an exclamation of the Bushman made his heart beat
Meeting of Members of the Expedition
"The Hunter Mokoum," said William Emery, presenting his Companion
All these Objects were deposited on the Beach
The Mission Home Establishment
Chief Moulibahan
William Emery and Michael Zorn in advance of the Expedition
The Bushman pointing to the Plain
Commencement of the Geodesic Operations
Measuring the Arc of the Meridian
Taking the Measurements
The Astronomers at Work
Encampment under an immense Baobab
The Hunters
The Elephant and the Dog
"He is ours! he is ours!"
The Hippopotamus did not quit his hold, but shook the Boat as a Dog
would a Hare
"There he is," cried Mokoum
A missing Companion
It was a deep Grotto, strewn with Bones and stained with Blood
The Entrance to the Lion's Den
A Ball from the Bushman arrested the Lioness
"Well," said Mokoum, "I hope you like our African Partridges"
Sir John was soon asleep
The Forest on Fire
"War is declared between England and Russia"
The Parting of Emery and Zorn
"The Rhinoceros!" exclaimed Sir John
The Advance of the Caravan
The Hunters glided through the Creepers and Brushwood
The empty Oryx Skin
Emery and two Natives struck by Lightning
A strange Cloud
Crossing the Desert
"The Ngami! the Ngami!"
The English come to the relief of the Russians
On Guard on Mount Scorzef
An Attack on Mount Scorzef
The Rice of the Bochjesmen
Watching for the Signal from Mount Volquiria
The Steamboat leaving Mount Scorzef
Palander robbed by the Chacma
Palander's Combat with the Chacma
Descending the Zambesi
Adieu to Mokoum
The Natives regarded with superstitious admiration the smoking vessel
MERIDIANA;
THE ADVENTURES OF THREE ENGLISHMEN AND THREE RUSSIANS.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE BANKS OF THE ORANGE RIVER.
On the 27th of January, 1854, two men lay stretched at the foot of an
immense weeping willow, chatting, and at the same time watching most
attentively the waters of the Orange River. This river, the Groote of
the Dutch, and the Gariep of the Hottentots, may well vie with the
other three great arteries of Africa--the Nile, the Niger, and the
Zambesi. Like those, it has its periodical risings, its rapids and
cataracts. Travellers whose names are known over part of its course,
Thompson, Alexander, and Burchell, have each in their turn praised the
clearness of its waters, and the beauty of its shores.
At this point the river, as it approached the Duke of York Mountains,
offered a magnificent spectacle to the view. Insurmountable rocks,
imposing masses of stone, and trunks of trees that had become
mineralized by the action of the weather, deep caverns, impenetrable
forests, not yet disturbed by the settler's axe, all these, shut in by
a background formed by the mountains of the Gariep, made up a scene
matchless in its magnificence. There, too, the waters of the river, on
account of the extreme narrowness of their bed, and the sudden falling
away of the soil, rushed down from a height of 400 feet. Above the
fall there were only surging sheets of water, broken here and there
by points of rock wreathed with green boughs; below, there was only a
dark whirlpool of tumultuous waters, crowned with a thick cloud of damp
vapour, and striped with all the colours of the rainbow. From this gulf
there arose a deafening roar, increased and varied by the echoes of the
valley.
Of these two men, who had evidently been brought into this part of
South Africa by the chances of an exploration, one lent only a vague
attention to the beauties of nature that were opened to his view. This
indifferent traveller was a hunting bushman, a fine type of that brave,
bright-eyed, rapidly-gesticulating race of men, who lead a wandering
life in the woods. Bushman, a word derived from the Dutch "Bochjesman,"
is literally "a man of the bushes," and is applied to the wandering
tribes that scour the country in the N.W. of Cape Colony. Not a
family of these bushmen is sedentary; they pass their lives in roaming
over the region lying between the Orange River and the mountains of
the East, in pillaging farms, and in destroying the crops of the
overbearing colonists, by whom they have been driven back towards the
interior of the country, where more rocks than plants abound.
This bushman, a man of about forty years of age, was very tall, and
evidently possessed great muscular strength, for even when at rest
his body presented the attitude of action. The clearness, ease, and
freedom of his movements stamped him as an energetic character, a man
cast in the same mould as the celebrated "Leather-stocking," the hero
of the Canadian prairies, though perhaps possessing less calmness than
Cooper's favourite hunter, as could be seen by the transient deepening
of colour in his face, whenever he was animated by any unusual emotion.
The bushman was no longer a savage like the rest of his race, the
ancient Laquas; for, born of an English father and a Hottentot mother,
the half-breed, through his association with strangers, had gained more
than he had lost, and spoke the paternal tongue fluently. His costume,
half-Hottentot, half-European, consisted of a red flannel shirt, a
loose coat and breeches of antelope hide, and leggings made of the skin
of a wild cat; from his neck hung a little bag containing a knife, a
pipe, and some tobacco; he wore on his head a kind of skull-cap of
sheep-skin; a belt, made from the thick thong of some wild animal,
encircled his waist; and on his naked wrists were rings of ivory,
wrought with remarkable skill. From his shoulders flowed a "kross,"
a kind of hanging mantle, cut out of a tiger's skin, and falling as
low as the knees. A dog of native breed was sleeping near him, while
he himself was smoking a bone pipe in quick puffs, giving unequivocal
signs of impatience.
"Come, let's be calm, Mokoum," said his interlocutor. "You are truly
the most impatient of mortals whenever you are not hunting; but do
understand, my worthy companion, that we can't change what is. Those
whom we are expecting will come sooner or later--to-morrow, if not
to-day."
The bushman's companion was a young man, from twenty-five to twenty-six
years of age, and quite a contrast to him. His calm temperament was
shown in every action; and it could be decided without a moment's
hesitation that he was an Englishman. His much too homely costume
proved him to be unaccustomed to travelling. He gave one the idea
of a clerk who had wandered into a savage country, and one looked
involuntarily to see if he carried a pen behind his ear, like a
cashier, clerk, accountant, or some other variety of the great family
of the bureaucracy.
In truth, this young man was not a traveller, but a distinguished
_savant_, William Emery, an astronomer attached to the Observatory at
the Cape--a useful establishment, which has for a long time rendered
true services to science.
The scholar, rather out of his element, perhaps, in this uninhabited
region of South Africa, several hundred miles from Cape Town, could
hardly manage to curb the impatience of his companion.
"Mr. Emery," replied the hunter in good English, "here we have been
for eight days at the place appointed on the Orange, the cataract of
Morgheda. It is indeed a long time since it has befallen a member of
my family to remain eight days in one place: you forget that we are
rovers, and that our feet burn at lingering here."
"My friend Mokoum," replied the astronomer, "those we are waiting
for are coming from England, and surely we can allow them eight days
of grace: we must take into account the length of the passage, and
the hindrances which a steam-vessel must meet with in ascending the
Orange; and, in short, the thousand difficulties belonging to such an
undertaking. We have been told to make every preparation for a journey
of exploration in South Africa, and that being done, to come here to
the Falls of Morgheda and wait for my colleague, Colonel Everest, of
the Cambridge Observatory. Well, here are the Falls of Morgheda, we
are at the place appointed, and we are waiting: what more do you want,
my worthy bushman?"
The hunter doubtless did want more, for his fingers played feverishly
with the lock of his rifle, an excellent Manton, a weapon of precision
with conical shot, and which could bring down a wild cat or an antelope
at a distance of eight or nine hundred yards. Thus it may be seen that
the bushman had put aside the quiver of aloes and the poisoned darts of
his fellow-countrymen for the use of European weapons.
"But are you not mistaken, Mr. Emery?" replied Mokoum. "Is it really at
the Falls of Morgheda, and towards the end of this month of January,
that they have appointed to meet you?"
"Yes, my friend," quietly answered William Emery, "and here is the
letter from Mr. Airy, the director of the Greenwich Observatory, which
will show you that I am not mistaken."
The bushman took the letter that his companion gave him. He turned
it over and over like a man not very familiar with the mysteries of
penmanship; then giving it back to William Emery, he said, "Tell me
again what the blotted piece of paper says."
The young astronomer, endowed with a patience proof against every
thing, began again, for the twentieth time, the story he had so often
told to his friend the hunter. At the end of the foregoing year,
William Emery had received a letter telling him of the approaching
arrival of Colonel Everest, and an international scientific commission
in Southern Africa. What the plans of the commission were, and why
it came to the extremity of the continent of Africa, Emery could not
say, Mr. Airy's letter being silent on that point; but following the
instructions that he had received, he hastened to Lattakoo, one of the
most northern stations in the Hottentot country, to prepare waggons,
provisions, and, in short, every thing that could be wanted for the
victualling of a Bochjesman caravan. Then, as he knew the reputation of
the native hunter, Mokoum, who had accompanied Anderson in his hunting
expeditions in Western Africa, and the intrepid David Livingstone on
his first journey of exploration to Lake Ngami and the falls of the
Zambesi, he offered him the command of this same caravan.
This done, it was arranged that the bushman, who knew the country
perfectly, should lead William Emery along the banks of the Orange to
the Morgheda Falls, the place appointed for the scientific commission
to join them. This commission was to take its passage in the British
frigate "Augusta," to reach the mouth of the Orange on the western
coast of Africa, as high as Cape Voltas, and to ascend the river as
far as the cataracts. William Emery and Mokoum had therefore brought a
waggon, which they had left at the bottom of the valley, to carry the
strangers and their baggage to Lattakoo, unless they preferred getting
there by the Orange and its affluents, after they had avoided the Falls
of Morgheda by a land journey of some miles.
[Illustration: William Emery and the Bushman.]
This story ended, and at length really impressed on the bushman's
mind, he advanced to the edge of the gulf to whose bottom the foaming
river threw itself with a crash: the astronomer followed, for there a
projecting point commanded a view of the river, below the cataract,
for a distance of several miles. For some minutes Mokoum and his
companion gazed attentively at the part of the river where it resumed
its tranquillity about a quarter of a mile below them, but not an
object, either boat or pirogue, disturbed its course. It was then
three o'clock. The month of January here corresponds to the July of
northern countries, and the sun, almost vertical in lat. 29°, heated
the atmosphere till the thermometer stood at 105° Fahrenheit in the
shade. If it had not been for the westerly breeze, which moderated the
heat a little, the temperature would have been unbearable for any but
a bushman. Still, the young astronomer, with his cool temperament, all
bone and all nerves, did not feel it too much: the thick foliage of the
trees which overhung the abyss protected him from the direct attacks
of the sun's rays. Not a bird enlivened the solitude during these hot
hours of the day; not an animal left the cool shade of the bushes
to trust itself along the glades; not a sound would have been heard in
this deserted region, even if the cataract had not filled the whole air
with its roar.
After gazing for ten minutes, Mokoum turned to William Emery, stamping
impatiently with his large foot; his penetrating eyes had discovered
nothing.
"Supposing your people don't come?" he asked the astronomer.
"They'll come, my brave hunter," answered William Emery: "they are men
of their word, and punctual, like all astronomers. Besides, what fault
do you find with them? The letter says they are to arrive at the end of
January; this is the 27th, and these gentlemen have still a right to
four more days before they need to reach the Morgheda Falls."
"And supposing they have not come at the end of those four days?" asked
the bushman.
"Well! then, master hunter, there will be a chance for us to show our
patience, for we will wait for them until I have certain proof that
they are not coming at all."
"By our god Ko!" cried the bushman in a sonorous voice, "you are a man
who would wait until the Gariep had emptied all its roaring waters into
that abyss!"
"No, hunter, no," replied Emery in his ever quiet tone; "but we
must let reason govern our actions; and what does reason tell us?
This:--that if Colonel Everest and his companions, wearied with a
tiresome journey, in want perhaps, and lost in this lonely country,
were not to find us at the place of rendezvous, we should be to blame
in every way. If any thing went wrong, the responsibility would rest on
us; we ought, therefore, to stay at our post as long as it is our duty
to do so. And besides, we want for nothing here: our waggon is waiting
for us at the bottom of the valley, and gives us shelter at night; we
have plenty of provisions; nature here is magnificent and worthy of our
admiration; and it is quite a new pleasure to me to spend a few days
in these splendid forests on the banks of this matchless river. As for
you, Mokoum, what can you want more? Game, both hairy and feathered,
abounds in the forests, and your rifle keeps us supplied with venison.
Hunt, my brave hunter! kill time by killing deer and buffaloes! Go, my
good bushman; I'll watch for the loiterers meanwhile, and _your_ feet,
at any rate, will run no risk of taking root."
The hunter thought the astronomer's advice was good, and decided that
he would go for a few hours and beat the neighbouring bushes and
brushwood. Lions, hyenas, and leopards would not disturb such a Nimrod
as he, so well accustomed to the African forests. He whistled to his
dog Top, an animal of the hyena breed from the desert of Kalahari, and
a descendant of that race of which the Balabas formerly made pointers.
The intelligent creature, as impatient, seemingly, as his master,
bounded up, and showed by his joyous barking how much he was gratified
at the bushman's intention. Soon both man and dog disappeared among
the thick masses of wood which crowned the background of the cataract.
William Emery, now alone, again stretched himself at the foot of the
willow, and while he was waiting for the heat to send him to sleep,
began to think over his actual position. Here he was, far away from any
inhabited spot, on the banks of the Orange river, a river as yet but
little explored. He was waiting for Europeans, fellow-countrymen who
had left their homes to run the risks of a distant expedition. But what
was the expedition for? What scientific problem could it want to solve
in the deserts of South Africa? What observation could it be trying
to take in lat. 30° S.? That was just what Mr. Airy, the director of
the Greenwich Observatory, did not tell in his letter. As for Emery
himself, they asked for his co-operation as for that of a scientific
man who was familiar with the climate of those southern latitudes, and
as he was openly engaged in scientific labours, he was quite at the
disposal of his colleagues in the United Kingdom.
As the young astronomer lay musing over all these things, and asking
himself a thousand questions which he could not answer, his eyelids
became heavy, and at length he slept soundly. When he awoke, the sun
was already hidden behind the western hills, whose picturesque outline
stood out sharply against the bright horizon. Some gnawings of hunger
told him that supper-time was near; it was, in fact, six o'clock, and
just the hour for returning to the waggon at the bottom of the valley.
At that very moment a report resounded from a grove of arborescent
heaths, from twelve to fifteen feet high, which was growing along the
slope of the hills on the right. Almost immediately the bushman and
Top made their appearance at the edge of the wood, the former dragging
behind him the animal that he had just shot. "Come, come, master
purveyor!" cried Emery, "what have you got for supper?"
"A spring-bok, Mr. William," replied the hunter, throwing down an
animal with horns curved like a lyre. It was a kind of antelope, more
generally known by the name of "leaping buck," and which is to be met
with in every part of South Africa. It is a charming animal, with its
cinnamon-coloured back, and its croup covered with tufts of silky hair
of a dazzling whiteness, whilst its under part is in shades of chestnut
brown; its flesh, always excellent eating, was on this occasion to form
the evening repast.
The hunter and the astronomer, lifting the beast by means of a pole
placed across their shoulders, now left the head of the cataract,
and in half an hour reached their encampment in a narrow gorge of
the valley, where the waggon, guarded by two Bochjesman drivers, was
waiting for them.