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Jules Verne: Complete Works (Wisehouse Classics)
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This volume presents the complete works of Jules Verne (47 novels.) Jules Gabriel Verne (1828 – 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. Verne's collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a widely popular series of scrupulously researched adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Verne is generally considered a major literary author in France and most of Europe, where he has had a wide influence on the literary avant-garde and on surrealism. Verne has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979, ranking between Agatha Christie and William Shakespeare. He has sometimes been called the "Father of Science Fiction", a title that has also been given to H. G. Wells, Mary Shelley, and Hugo Gernsback.
Author
Jules Verne
Victor Marie Hugo (1802–1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement and is considered one of the greatest French writers. Hugo’s best-known works are the novels Les Misérables, 1862, and The Hunchbak of Notre-Dame, 1831, both of which have had several adaptations for stage and screen.
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Jules Verne - Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Complete Works
W
Wisehouse Classics
Jules Verne
Complete Works
Executive Editor
Sam Vaseghi
2019 Published by Wisehouse Classics – Sweden
ISBN 978-91-7637-586-0
Wisehouse Classics is a Wisehouse Imprint.
www.wisehouse-classics.com
© Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Contents
Five Weeks in a Balloon
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
The Adventures of Captain Hatteras
Chapter 1—The Forward
Chapter 2—An Unexpected Letter
Chapter 3—Dr. Clawbonny
Chapter 4—The Dog Captain
Chapter 5—At Sea
Chapter 6—The Great Polar Current
Chapter 7—The Entrance of Davis Strait
Chapter 8—The Talk of the Crew
Chapter 9—Another Letter
Chapter 10—Dangerous Sailing
Chapter 11—The Devil’s Thumb
Chapter 12—Captain Hatteras
Chapter 13—The Captain’s Plans
Chapter 14—The Expeditions in Search of Franklin
Chapter 15—The Forward Driven Southward
Chapter 16—The Magnetic Pole
Chapter 17—The Fate of Sir John Franklin
Chapter 18—The Way Northward
Chapter 19—A Whale in Sight
Chapter 20—Beechey Island
Chapter 21—The Death of Bellot
Chapter 22—The First Signs of Mutiny
Chapter 23—Attacked by the Ice
Chapter 24—Preparations for Wintering
Chapter 25—One of James Ross’s Foxes
Chapter 26—The Last Piece of Coal
Chapter 27—The Great Cold at Christmas
Chapter 28—Preparations for Departure
Chapter 29—Across the Ice-Fields
Chapter 30—The Cairn
Chapter 31—The Death of Simpson
Chapter 32—The Return to the Forward
Chapter 33—The Doctor’s Inventory
Chapter 34—Altamont’s First Words
Chapter 35—Seventeen Days of Land Journey
Chapter 36—The Last Charge of Powder
Chapter 37—The Seal and the Bear
Chapter 38—The Porpoise
Chapter 39—A Discussion about Charts
Chapter 40—Excursion to the North of Victoria Bay
Chapter 41—Cold and Heat
Chapter 42—The Pleasures of Winter-Quarters
Chapter 43—Disquieting Traces
Chapter 44—The Ice Prison
Chapter 45—The Mine
Chapter 46—The Polar Spring
Chapter 47—The Northwest Passage
Chapter 48—Northern Arcadia
Chapter 49—Altamont’s Revenge
Chapter 50—The Last Preparations
Chapter 51—The Journey Northward
Chapter 52—Footprints on the Snow
Chapter 53—The Open Sea
Chapter 54—The Approach to the Pole
Chapter 55—The English Flag
Chapter 56—Polar Cosmography
Chapter 57—Mount Hatteras
Chapter 58—Return to the South
Chapter 59—Conclusion
Journey to the Interior of the Earth
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
From the Earth to the Moon
Chapter 1—The Gun Club
Chapter 2—President Barbicane’s Communication
Chapter 3—Effect of the President’s Communication
Chapter 4—Reply from the Observatory of Cambridge
Chapter 5—The Romance of the Moon
Chapter 6—Permissive Limits of Ignorance and Belief in the United States
Chapter 7—The Hymn of the Cannon-Ball
Chapter 8—History of the Cannon
Chapter 9—The Question of the Powders
Chapter 10—One Enemy v. Twenty-Five Millions of Friends
Chapter 11—Florida and Texas
Chapter 12—Urbi Et Orbi
Chapter 13—Stones Hill
Chapter 14—Pickaxe and Trowel
Chapter 15—The Fete of the Casting
Chapter 16—The Columbiad
Chapter 17—A Telegraphic Dispatch
Chapter 18—The Passenger of the Atlanta
Chapter 19—A Monster Meeting
Chapter 20—Attack and Riposte
Chapter 21—How a Frenchman Manages an Affair
Chapter 22—The New Citizen of the United States
Chapter 23—The Projectile-Vehicle
Chapter 24—The Telescope of the Rocky Mountains
Chapter 25—Final Details
Chapter 26—Fire!
Chapter 27—Foul Weather
Chapter 28—A New Star
In Search of the Castaways
Part 1—South America
Part 2—Australia
Part 3—New Zealand
Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Chapter 1—A Shifting Reef
Chapter 2—Pro and Con
Chapter 3—I Form My Resolution
Chapter 4—Ned Land
Chapter 5—At a Venture
Chapter 6—At Full Steam
Chapter 7—An Unknown Species of Whale
Chapter 8—Mobilis in Mobili
Chapter 9—Ned Land’s Tempers
Chapter 10—The Man of the Seas
Chapter 11—All by Electricity
Chapter 12—Some Figures
Chapter 13—The Black River
Chapter 14—A Note of Invitation
Chapter 15—A Walk on the Bottom of the Sea
Chapter 16—A Submarine Forest
Chapter 17—Four Thousand Leagues Under the Pacific
Chapter 18—Vanikoro
Chapter 19—Torres Straits
Chapter 20—A Few Days on Land
Chapter 21—Captain Nemo’s Thunderbolt
Chapter 22—Aegri Somnia
Chapter 23—The Coral Kingdom
Chapter 24—The Indian Ocean
Chapter 25—A Novel Proposal of Captain Nemo’s
Chapter 26—A Pearl of Ten Millions
Chapter 27—The Red Sea
Chapter 28—The Arabian Tunnel
Chapter 29—The Grecian Archipelago
Chapter 30—The Mediterranean in Forty-Eight Hours
Chapter 31—Vigo Bay
Chapter 32—A Vanished Continent
Chapter 33—The Submarine Coal-Mines
Chapter 34—The Sargasso Sea
Chapter 35—Cachalots and Whales
Chapter 36—The Iceberg
Chapter 37—The South Pole
Chapter 38—Accident or Incident?
Chapter 39—Want of Air
Chapter 40—From Cape Horn to the Amazon
Chapter 41—The Poulps
Chapter 42—The Gulf Stream
Chapter 43—From Latitude 47° 24’ To Longitude 17° 28’
Chapter 44—A Hecatomb
Chapter 45—The Last Words of Captain Nemo
Chapter 46—Conclusion
Around the Moon
Preliminary Chapter— The First Part of This Work, and Serving as a Preface to the Second
Chapter 1—Twenty Minutes Past Ten to Forty-Seven Minutes Past Ten p.m.
Chapter 2—The First Half-Hour
Chapter 3—Their Place of Shelter
Chapter 4—A Little Algebra
Chapter 5—The Cold of Space
Chapter 6—Question and Answer
Chapter 7—A Moment of Intoxication
Chapter 8—At Seventy-Eight Thousand Five Hundred and Fourteen Leagues
Chapter 9—The Consequences of a Deviation
Chapter 10—The Observers of the Moon
Chapter 11—Fancy and Reality
Chapter 12—Orographic Details
Chapter 13—Lunar Landscapes
Chapter 14—The Night of Three Hundred and Fifty-Four Hours and a Half
Chapter 15—Hyperbola or Parabola
Chapter 16—The Southern Hemisphere
Chapter 17—Tycho
Chapter 18—Grave Questions
Chapter 19—A Struggle Against the Impossible
Chapter 20—The Soundings of the Susquehanna
Chapter 21—J. T. Maston Recalled
Chapter 22—Recovered from the Sea
Chapter 23—The End
A Floating City
Chapter 1—The Great Eastern
Chapter 2—Our Preparations Completed
Chapter 3—I Meet a Friend
Chapter 4 — An Accident
Chapter 5—Off at Last
Chapter 6—Life On Board the Great Eastern
Chapter 7—Hints of Trouble
Chapter 8—We Sight a Wreck
Chapter 9—Characters Among the Passengers
Chapter 10—A Hopeless Disease
Chapter 11—I Hear the Story of Fabian’s Trouble
Chapter 12—Services On Board
Chapter 13 — Dr. Pitferge Tells of the Ghost
Chapter 14—The Ghost Fails to Appear
Chapter 15—A Collision Is Narrowly Avoided
Chapter 16—A Watch for Icebergs
Chapter 17—The Mad Woman
Chapter 18—The Pilot’s Pool
Chapter 19—Fabian and Drake Meet
Chapter 20—I Find Ellen’s Hiding Place
Chapter 21—We Encounter a Cyclone
Chapter 22—The Storm Continues
Chapter 23—Fabian Learns the Name of His Enemy
Chapter 24—Fabian Recognizes Ellen
Chapter 25—A Sailor’s Burial
Chapter 26—Land in Sight
Chapter 27—A Storm Brewing
Chapter 28—A Duel with Swords
Chapter 29—The Statistician to the Front
Chapter 30—A Week in America
Chapter 31—On the Hudson River
Chapter 32—The Falls of the Niagara
Chapter 33—The Doctor and I Meet Corsican Again
Chapter 34—The Return to Europe
The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa
Chapter 1—On the Banks of the Orange River
Chapter 2—Official Presentations
Chapter 3—The Land Journey
Chapter 4—A Few Words About the Mètre
Chapter 5—A Hottentot Village
Chapter 6—Better Acquaintance
Chapter 7—The Base of the Triangle
Chapter 8—The Twenty-Fourth Meridian
Chapter 9—The Kraal
Chapter 10—The Rapid
Chapter 11—A Missing Companion
Chapter 12—A Station to Sir John’s Liking
Chapter 13—Pacification by Fire
Chapter 14—A Declaration of War
Chapter 15—A Geometric Progression
Chapter 16—Danger in Disguise
Chapter 17—An Unexpected Blight
Chapter 18—The Desert
Chapter 19—Science Undaunted
Chapter 20—Standing a Siege
Chapter 21—Suspense
Chapter 22—Hide and Seek
Chapter 23—Homeward Bound
The Fur Country
Chapter 1—A Soirée at Fort Reliance
Chapter 2—The Hudson’s Bay Fur Company
Chapter 3—A Savant Thawed
Chapter 4—A Factory
Chapter 5—From Fort Reliance to Fort Enterprise
Chapter 6—A Wapiti Duel
Chapter 7—The Arctic Circle
Chapter 8—The Great Bear Lake
Chapter 9—A Storm on the Lake
Chapter 10—A Retrospect
Chapter 11—Along the Coast
Chapter 12—The Midnight Sun
Chapter 13—Fort Hope
Chapter 14—Some Excursions
Chapter 15—Fifteen Miles from Cape Bathurst
Chapter 16—Two Shots
Chapter 17—The Approach of Winter
Chapter 18—The Polar Night
Chapter 19—A Neighbourly Visit
Chapter 20—Mercury Freezes
Chapter 21—The Large Polar Bears
Chapter 22—Five Months More
Chapter 23—The Eclipse of the 18th July 1860
Chapter 24—A Floating Fort
Chapter 25—Where Are We?
Chapter 26—A Tour of the Island
Chapter 27—A Night Encampment
Chapter 28—From July 25th to August 20th
Chapter 29—Ten Days of Tempest
Chapter 30—A Fire and a Cry
Chapter 31—Mrs. Paulina Barnett’s Excursion
Chapter 32—Kalumah’s Adventures
Chapter 33—The Kamtchatka Current
Chapter 34—A Communication from Lieutenant Hobson
Chapter 35—A Chance to Be Tried
Chapter 36—Across the Ice-Field
Chapter 37—The Winter Months
Chapter 38—The Last Exploring Expedition
Chapter 39—The Break-Up of the Ice
Chapter 40—The Avalanche
Chapter 41—All at Work
Chapter 42—Behring Sea
Chapter 43—In the Offing
Chapter 44—The Island Becomes an Islet
Chapter 45—The Four Following Days
Chapter 46—On a Piece of Ice
Chapter 47—Conclusion
Around the World in Eighty Days
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
The Mysterious Island
Part 1—Dropped from the Clouds
Part 2—Abandoned
Part 3—The Secret of the Island
The Survivors of the Chancellor
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Michael Strogoff
Chapter 1—A Fête at the New Palace
Chapter 2—Russians and Tartars
Chapter 3—Michael Strogoff Meets the Czar
Chapter 4—From Moscow to Nijni-Novgorod
Chapter 5—The Two Announcements
Chapter 6—Brother and Sister
Chapter 7—Going Down the Volga
Chapter 8—Going up the Kama
Chapter 9—Day and Night in a Tarantass
Chapter 10—A Storm in the Ural Mountains
Chapter 11—Travelers in Distress
Chapter 12—Provocation
Chapter 13—Duty Before Everything
Chapter 14—Mother and Son
Chapter 15—The Marshes of the Baraba
Chapter 16—A Final Effort
Chapter 17—The Rivals
Chapter 18—A Tartar Camp
Chapter 19—Correspondents in Trouble
Chapter 20—Blow for Blow
Chapter 21—The Triumphal Entry
Chapter 22—Look While You May!
Chapter 23—A Friend on the Highway
Chapter 24—The Passage of the Yenisei
Chapter 25—A Hare Crosses the Road
Chapter 26—In the Steppe
Chapter 27—Baikal and Angara
Chapter 28—Between Two Banks
Chapter 29—Irkutsk
Chapter 30—The Czar’s Courier
Chapter 31—The Night of the Fifth of October
Chapter 32—Conclusion
Hector Servadac
Chapter 1—A Challenge
Chapter 2—Captain Servadac and His Orderly
Chapter 3—Interrupted Effusions
Chapter 4—A Convulsion of Nature
Chapter 5—A Mysterious Sea
Chapter 6—The Captain Makes an Exploration
Chapter 7—Ben Zoof Watches in Vain
Chapter 8—Venus in Perilous Proximity
Chapter 9—Inquiries Unsatisfied
Chapter 10—A Search for Algeria
Chapter 11—An Island Tomb
Chapter 12—At the Mercy of the Winds
Chapter 13—A Royal Salute
Chapter 14—Sensitive Nationality
Chapter 15—An Enigma from the Sea
Chapter 16—The Residuum of a Continent
Chapter 17—A Second Enigma
Chapter 18—An Unexpected Population
Chapter 19—Gallia’s Governor General
Chapter 20—A Light on the Horizon
Chapter 21—Winter Quarters
Chapter 22—A Frozen Ocean
Chapter 23—A Carrier-Pigeon
Chapter 24—A Sledge-Ride
Chapter 25—The Astronomer
Chapter 26—A Revelation
Chapter 27—The Professor’s Experiences
Chapter 28—A Revised Calendar
Chapter 29—Wanted: A Steelyard
Chapter 30—Money at a Premium
Chapter 31—Gallia Weighed
Chapter 32—Jupiter Somewhat Close
Chapter 33—Market Prices in Gallia
Chapter 34—Far into Space
Chapter 35—A Fête Day
Chapter 36—The Bowels of the Comet
Chapter 37—Dreary Months
Chapter 38—The Professor Perplexed
Chapter 39—A Journey and a Disappointment
Chapter 40—A Bold Proposition
Chapter 41—The Venture Made
Chapter 42—Suspense
Chapter 43—Back Again
The Underground City
Chapter 1—Contradictory Letters
Chapter 2—On the Road
Chapter 3—The Dochart Pit
Chapter 4—The Ford Family
Chapter 5—Some Strange Phenomena
Chapter 6—Simon Ford’s Experiment
Chapter 7—New Aberfoyle
Chapter 8—Exploring
Chapter 9—The Fire-Maidens
Chapter 10—Coal Town
Chapter 11—Hanging by a Thread
Chapter 12—Nell Adopted
Chapter 13—On the Revolving Ladder
Chapter 14—A Sunrise
Chapter 15—Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine
Chapter 16—A Final Threat
Chapter 17—The Monk
Chapter 18—Nell’s Wedding
Chapter 19—The Legend of Old Silfax
Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen
Chapter 1—The Pilgrim
Chapter 2—The Apprentice
Chapter 3—A Rescue
Chapter 4—The Survivors of the Waldeck
Chapter 5—Dingo’s Sagacity
Chapter 6—A Whale in Sight
Chapter 7—Preparations for an Attack
Chapter 8—A Catastrophe
Chapter 9—Dick’s Promotion
Chapter 10—The New Crew
Chapter 11—Rough Weather
Chapter 12—Hope Revived
Chapter 13—Land at Last
Chapter 14—Ashore
Chapter 15—A Stranger
Chapter 16—Through the Forest
Chapter 17—Misgivings
Chapter 18—A Terrible Discovery
Chapter 19—The Dark Continent
Chapter 20—Accomplices
Chapter 21—On the March Again
Chapter 22—Rough Travelling
Chapter 23—White Ants
Chapter 24—A Diving-Bell
Chapter 25—A Slave Caravan
Chapter 26—Notes by the Way
Chapter 27—Kazonndé
Chapter 28—Market-Day
Chapter 29—A Bowl of Punch
Chapter 30—Royal Obsequies
Chapter 31—In Captivity
Chapter 32—A Ray of Hope
Chapter 33—An Exciting Chase
Chapter 34—A Magician
Chapter 35—Drifting Down the Stream
Chapter 36—An Anxious Voyage
Chapter 37—An Attack
Chapter 38—A Happy Reunion
The Five Hundred Millions of the Begum
Chapter 1—Enter Mr. Sharp
Chapter 2—Friends
Chapter 3—Effect of an Item of News
Chapter 4—Two Claimants
Chapter 5—Steeltown
Chapter 6—The Albrecht Pit
Chapter 7—The Central Block
Chapter 8—The Dragon’s Den
Chapter 9—P. P. C.
Chapter 10—An Article from Unsere Centurie,
a German Review
Chapter 11—At Dinner with Dr. Sarrasin
Chapter 12—The Council
Chapter 13—News for the Professor
Chapter 14—Clearing For Action
Chapter 15—The Exchange of San Francisco
Chapter 16—A Brace of Frenchmen Capture a Town
Chapter 17—Parley Before the Citadel
Chapter 18—The Kernel of the Nut
Chapter 19—A Family Affair
Chapter 20—Conclusion
The Tribulations of a Chinaman in China
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
The Steam House
Part 1—The Demon of Cawnpore
Part 2—Tigers and Traitors
Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon
Part 1—The Giant Raft
Part 2—The Cryptogram
Godfrey Morgan
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
The Green Ray
Chapter 1—The Brothers Sam and Sib
Chapter 2—Helena Campbell
Chapter 3—The Article in the Morning Post
Chapter 4—Down the Clyde
Chapter 5—Change of Steamers
Chapter 6—The Gulf of Coryvrechan
Chapter 7—Aristobulus Ursiclos
Chapter 8—A Cloud On the Horizon
Chapter 9—Dame Bess’s Talk
Chapter 10—A Croquet Party
Chapter 11—Oliver Sinclair
Chapter 12—New Plans
Chapter 13—The Glories of the Sea
Chapter 14—Life at Iona
Chapter 15—The Ruins of Iona
Chapter 16—Two Gun-Shots
Chapter 17—On Board the Clorinda
Chapter 18—Staffa
Chapter 19—Fingal’s Cave
Chapter 20—For Helena’s Sake
Chapter 21—A Tempest in a Cavern
Chapter 22—The Green Ray
Chapter 23—Conclusion
Kéraban the Inflexible
Part 1—The Captain of the Guidara
Part 2—Scarpante the Spy
The Star of the South
Chapter 1—One for the Frenchman
Chapter 2—To the Diamond Fields
Chapter 3—A Little Science
Chapter 4—Vandergaart Kopje
Chapter 5—The Diggers at Work
Chapter 6—In Camp
Chapter 7—The Landslip
Chapter 8—The Great Experiment
Chapter 9—A Surprise
Chapter 10—John Watkins Thinks Matters Over
Chapter 11—The Star Disappears
Chapter 12—Making Ready
Chapter 13—Across the Transvaal
Chapter 14—The North of the Limpopo
Chapter 15—A Plot
Chapter 16—Treason
Chapter 17—An African Steeplechase
Chapter 18—The Talking Ostrich
Chapter 19—The Wonderful Grotto
Chapter 20—The Return
Chapter 21—Venetian Justice
Chapter 22—A Mine of a New Sort
Chapter 23—The Hour of Triumph
Chapter 24—The Fate of the Star
The Archipelago on Fire
Chapter 1—A Ship in the Offing
Chapter 2—Face to Face
Chapter 3—Greeks Against Turks
Chapter 4—A House of Sorrow
Chapter 5—The Coast of Messenia
Chapter 6—Down With the Pirates of the Archipelago
Chapter 7—The Unexpected
Chapter 8—Twenty Millions at Stake
Chapter 9—The Archipelago in Flames
Chapter 10—The Campaign in the Archipelago
Chapter 11—Unanswered Signals
Chapter 12—An Auction at Scarpanto
Chapter 13—On Board the Syphanta
Chapter 14—Sacratif
Chapter 15—Conclusion
Mathias Sandorf
Chapter 1—The Carrier-Pigeon
Chapter 2—Count Sandorf
Chapter 3—Toronthal’s Bank
Chapter 4—The Message in Cipher
Chapter 5—The Trial
Chapter 6—The Donjon of Pisino
Chapter 7—Along the Foiba
Chapter 8—The Fisherman’s Hut
Chapter 9—The Final Effort of the Final Struggle
Chapter 10—Pescade and Matifou
Chapter 11—The Launch of the Trabacolo
Chapter 12—Doctor Antekirtt
Chapter 13—The Widow of Stephen Bathory
Chapter 14—On Board the Savarena
Chapter 15—The Mouths of the Cattaro
Chapter 16—Complications
Capítulo 17—A Meeting in the Stradone
Chapter 18—The Mediterranean
Chapter 19—Past and Present
Chapter 20—Events at Ragusa
Chapter 21—The Doctor Delays
Chapter 22—Malta
Chapter 23—The Environs of Catania
Chapter 24—The Casa Degli Inglesi
Chapter 25—Ceuta
Chapter 26—The Meeting at Gibraltar
Chapter 27—Seventeen Times
Chapter 28—The Last Stake
Chapter 29—The Examination of Toronthal
Chapter 30—The Apparition
Chapter 31—A Squeeze from Cape Matifou
Chapter 32—The Feast of the Storks
Chapter 33—The House of Sidi Hazam
Chapter 34—Antekirtta
Chapter 35—Justice
The Lottery Ticket
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Robur the Conqueror
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
North Against South
Chapter 1—On Board the Shannon
Chapter 2—Camdless Bay
Chapter 3—The War of Secession
Chapter 4—The Burbank Family
Chapter 5—Black Creek
Chapter 6—Jacksonville
Chapter 7—Before the Court
Chapter 8—The Last Slave
Chapter 9—Waiting
Chapter 10—The Morning of the 2nd of March
Chapter 11—The Evening of the 2nd of March
Chapter 12—The Six Days That Followed
Chapter 13—A Few Hours
Chapter 14—On the St. John’s
Chapter 15—Sentence
Chapter 16—After the Capture
Chapter 17—A Strange Operation
Chapter 18—The Day Before
Chapter 19—A Gale from the North-East
Chapter 20—A Prisoner
Chapter 21—St. Augustine
Chapter 22—Last Words and a Last Sigh
Chapter 23—From Camdless Bay to Lake Washington
Chapter 24—The Great Cypress Forest
Chapter 25—A Meeting
Chapter 26—The Everglades
Chapter 27—What Zermah Overheard
Chapter 28—A Double Life
Chapter 29—Zermah at Work
Chapter 30—The Two Brothers
Chapter 31—Conclusion
The Flight to France
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Two Years’ Vacation
Chapter 1—The Storm
Chapter 2—The Wreck
Chapter 3—Cast Adrift
Chapter 4—The First Day Ashore
Chapter 5—The View from the Cape
Chapter 6—A Spell of Rain
Chapter 7—The Explorers
Chapter 8—The Cave
Chapter 9—François Baudoin
Chapter 10—The Raft
Chapter 11—A Capture
Chapter 12—The Colony
Chapter 13—Winter Quarters
Chapter 14—A Journey Northwards
Chapter 15—Bravo, Baxter!
Chapter 16—The Seal Hunt
Chapter 17—Across the Lake
Chapter 18—The New Chief
Chapter 19—A Skating Adventure
Chapter 20—The Separation
Chapter 21—The Boat On the Beach
Chapter 22—The Invasion
Chapter 23—All Together
Chapter 24—The Tail of a Kite
Chapter 25—The Enemy in Sight
Chapter 26—A Daring Escape
Chapter 27—Diamond Cut Diamond
Chapter 28—The Fortune of War
Chapter 29—Afloat Once More
Chapter 30—Home
Family Without a Name
Chapter 1—A Few Facts and Dates
Chapter 2—Twelve Years Before
Chapter 3—A Huron Notary
Chapter 4—The Villa Montcalm
Chapter 5—The Unknown
Chapter 6—The St. Lawrence
Chapter 7—From Quebec to Montreal
Chapter 8—An Anniversary
Chapter 9—The Maison-Close
Chapter 10—The Farm of Chipogan
Chapter 11—The Last of the Sagamores
Chapter 12—The Dinner
Chapter 13—Musketry at Dessert
Chapter 14—The Opening Skirmish
Chapter 15—St. Denis and St. Charles
Chapter 16—De Vaudreuil at Maison-Close
Chapter 17—The Next Week
Chapter 18—The Investigation
Chapter 19—Walhatta
Chapter 20—Fort Frontenac
Chapter 21—Joann and Jean
Chapter 22—Navy Island
Chapter 23—Bridget Morgaz
Chapter 24—Expiation
Chapter 25—The Last Days
Chapter 26—The Night of the 28th of December
Chapter 27—The Last Phases of the Insurrection
The Purchase of the North Pole
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Caesar Cascabel
Chapter 1—A Fortune Realized
Chapter 2—The Cascabel Family
Chapter 3—The Sierra Nevada
Chapter 4—A Great Resolution
Chapter 5—On the Road
Chapter 6—The Journey Continued
Chapter 7—Through Cariboo
Chapter 8—Knaves’ Village
Chapter 9—Can’t Pass Through!
Chapter 10—Kayette
Chapter 11—Sitka
Chapter 12—From Sitka to Fort Yukon
Chapter 13—Cornelia Cascabel Has an Idea
Chapter 14—From Fort Yukon to Port Clarence
Chapter 15—Port Clarence
Chapter 16—Farewell to the New Continent
Chapter 17—Behring Strait
Chapter 18—Between Two Currents
Chapter 19—Adrift
Chapter 20—From the 16th of November to the 2d of December
Chapter 21—Liakhov Islands
Chapter 22—In Winter Quarters
Chapter 23—A Good Trick of Mr. Cascabel’s
Chapter 24—The Country of the Iakouts
Chapter 25—Right On to the Obi
Chapter 26—From the Obi to the Ural Mountains
Chapter 27—The Ural Mountains
Chapter 28—A Journey’s End Which Is Not the End
Chapter 29—An Endless Day
Chapter 30—A Denouement Warmly Applauded by the Spectators
Chapter 31—Conclusion
Mistress Branican
Chapter 1—The Franklin
Chapter 2—Family Matters
Chapter 3—Prospect House
Chapter 4—On Board the Boundary
Chapter 5—Three Months Elapse
Chapter 6—The End of a Sorrowful Year
Chapter 7—Various Matters
Chapter 8—A Difficult Position
Chapter 9—Revelations
Chapter 10—Preparations
Chapter 11—The First Cruise in Malaysia
Chapter 12—Another Year
Chapter 13—A Cruise in the Timor Sea
Chapter 14—Browse Island
Chapter 15—Living Wreckage
Chapter 16—Harry Felton
Chapter 17—By Yes
and No
Chapter 18—On the Voyage
Chapter 19—Godfrey
Chapter 20—A Historic Hat
Chapter 21—The Train to Adelaide
Chapter 22—Across South Australia
Chapter 23—An Unexpected Meeting
Chapter 24—Northwards
Chapter 25—Beyond Alice Spring
Chapter 26—Mrs. Branican’s Journal
Chapter 27—A Few More Extracts
Chapter 28—Indications and Incidents
Chapter 29—The Last Efforts
Chapter 30—Among the Indas
Chapter 31—Len Burker’s Game
Chapter 32—The Last Encampment
Chapter 33—The End
The Castle of the Carpathians
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Claudius Bombarnac
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Foundling Mick
Chapter 1—In Far Connaught
Chapter 2—Little Mick
Chapter 3—The Poor School
Chapter 4—Concerning a Seagull
Chapter 5—More of the Poor School
Chapter 6—Limerick
Chapter 7—Rocks Ahead
Chapter 8—Kirwan’s Farm
Chapter 9—Foundling Mick’s Installation
Chapter 10—What Happened in Donegal
Chapter 11—Life Insurance
Chapter 12—The Return
Chapter 13—Change
Chapter 14—Catastrophe
Chapter 15—Trelingar Castle
Chapter 16—In Service
Chapter 17—A Young English Nobleman
Chapter 18—Eighteen Years Between Them
Chapter 19—Seven Months in Cork
Chapter 20—The First Fireman on the ‘Vulcan’
Chapter 21—On the Way to Dublin
Chapter 22—Dublin
Chapter 23—The Boys Bazaar
Chapter 24—Found
Chapter 25—A Change of Colour and Condition
Chapter 26—The Voyage of the Doris
Chapter 27—The Wages of Foundling Mick
Captain Antifer
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Floating Island
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Facing the Flag
Chapter 1—Healthful House
Chapter 2—Count d’Artigas
Chapter 3—Kidnapped
Chapter 4—The Schooner ‘Ebba’
Chapter 5—Where Am I?
Chapter 6—On Deck
Chapter 7—Two Days at Sea
Chapter 8—Back Cup
Chapter 9—Inside Back Cup
Chapter 10—Ker Karraje
Chapter 11—Five Weeks in Back Cup
Chapter 12—Engineer Serko’s Advice
Chapter 13—God Be With It
Chapter 14—Battle Between the Sword
and the Tug
Chapter 15—Expectation
Chapter 16—Only a Few More Hours
Chapter 17—One Against Five
Chapter 18—On Board the ‘Tonnant’
Clovis Dardentor
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
An Antarctic Mystery
Chapter 1—The Kerguelen Islands
Chapter 2—The Schooner ‘Halbrane’
Chapter 3—Captain Len Guy
Chapter 4—From the Kerguelen Isles to Prince Edward Island
Chapter 5—Edgar Poe’s Romance
Chapter 6—An Ocean Waif
Chapter 7—Tristan d’Acunha
Chapter 8—Bound for the Falklands
Chapter 9—Fitting Out the ‘Halbrane’
Chapter 10—The Outset of the Enterprise
Chapter 11—From the Sandwich Islands to the Polar Circle
Chapter 12—Between the Polar Circle and the Ice Wall
Chapter 13—Along the Front of the Icebergs
Chapter 14—A Voice in a Dream
Chapter 15—Bennet Islet
Chapter 16—Tsalal Island
Chapter 17—And Pym?
Chapter 18—A Revelation
Chapter 19—Land?
Chapter 20—Unmerciful Disaster
Chapter 21—Amid the Mists
Chapter 22—In Camp
Chapter 23—Found at Last
Chapter 24—Eleven Years in a Few Pages
Chapter 25—We Were the First
Chapter 26—A Little Remnant
The Will of an Eccentric
Chapter 1—A Whole Town in Festivity
Chapter 2—William J. Hypperbone
Chapter 3—Oakwood
Chapter 4—The Six
Chapter 5—The Will
Chapter 6—The Board Is Published
Chapter 7—The First to Start
Chapter 8—Tom Crabbe Entrained by John Milner
Chapter 9—One and One Make Two
Chapter 10—A Reporter On His Travels
Chapter 11—The Anxieties of Jovita Foley
Chapter 12—The Fifth Player
Chapter 13—The Adventures of Commodore Urrican
Chapter 14—Commodore Urrican’s Adventures, Continued
Chapter 15—The Situation On the 27th of May
Chapter 16—The National Park
Chapter 17—One Taken for the Other
Chapter 18—The Pace of the Tortoise
Chapter 19—The Green Flag
Chapter 20—The Caves of Kentucky
Chapter 21—Death Valley
Chapter 22—The House in South Halsted Street
Chapter 23—A Challenge and Its Consequences
Chapter 24—Two Hundred Dollars a Day
Chapter 25—The Peregrinations of Harris T. Kymbale
Chapter 26—The Prison of Missouri
Chapter 27—A Sensation for the Tribune
Chapter 28—The Last Moves of the Hypperbone Match
Chapter 29—The Bell at Oakwood
Chapter 30—The Final Eccentricity
The Master of the World
Chapter 1—What Happened in the Mountains
Chapter 2—I Reach Morganton
Chapter 3—The Great Eyrie
Chapter 4—A Meeting of the Automobile Club
Chapter 5—Along the Shores of New England
Chapter 6—The First Letter
Chapter 7—A Third Machine
Chapter 8—At Any Cost
Chapter 9—The Second Letter
Chapter 10—Outside the Law
Chapter 11—The Campaign
Chapter 12—Black Rock Creek
Chapter 13—On Board the Terror
Chapter 14—Niagara
Chapter 15—The Eagle’s Nest
Chapter 16—Robur, the Conqueror
Chapter 17—In the Name of the Law
Chapter 18—The Old Housekeeper’s Last Comment
The Chase of the Golden Meteor
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Five Weeks in a Balloon¹
Chapter 1
There was a large audience assembled on the 14th of January, 1862, at the session of the Royal Geographical Society, No. 3 Waterloo Place, London. The president, Sir Francis M—— made an important communication to his colleagues, in an address that was frequently interrupted by applause.
This rare specimen of eloquence terminated with the following sonorous phrases bubbling over with patriotism:
England has always marched at the head of nations
(for, the reader will observe, the nations always march at the head of each other), by the intrepidity of her explorers in the line of geographical discovery.
(General assent). Dr. Samuel Ferguson, one of her most glorious sons, will not reflect discredit on his origin.
(No, indeed!
from all parts of the hall.)
This attempt, should it succeed
(It will succeed!
), will complete and link together the notions, as yet disjointed, which the world entertains of African cartology
(vehement applause); and, should it fail, it will, at least, remain on record as one of the most daring conceptions of human genius!
(Tremendous cheering.)
Huzza! huzza!
shouted the immense audience, completely electrified by these inspiring words.
Huzza for the intrepid Ferguson!
cried one of the most excitable of the enthusiastic crowd.
The wildest cheering resounded on all sides; the name of Ferguson was in every mouth, and we may safely believe that it lost nothing in passing through English throats. Indeed, the hall fairly shook with it.
And there were present, also, those fearless travellers and explorers whose energetic temperaments had borne them through every quarter of the globe, many of them grown old and worn out in the service of science. All had, in some degree, physically or morally, undergone the sorest trials. They had escaped shipwreck; conflagration; Indian tomahawks and war-clubs; the fagot and the stake; nay, even the cannibal maws of the South Sea Islanders. But still their hearts beat high during Sir Francis M—— ‘s address, which certainly was the finest oratorical success that the Royal Geographical Society of London had yet achieved.
But, in England, enthusiasm does not stop short with mere words. It strikes off money faster than the dies of the Royal Mint itself. So a subscription to encourage Dr. Ferguson was voted there and then, and it at once attained the handsome amount of two thousand five hundred pounds. The sum was made commensurate with the importance of the enterprise.
A member of the Society then inquired of the president whether Dr. Ferguson was not to be officially introduced.
The doctor is at the disposition of the meeting,
replied Sir Francis.
Let him come in, then! Bring him in!
shouted the audience. We’d like to see a man of such extraordinary daring, face to face!
Perhaps this incredible proposition of his is only intended to mystify us,
growled an apoplectic old admiral.
Suppose that there should turn out to be no such person as Dr. Ferguson?
exclaimed another voice, with a malicious twang.
Why, then, we’d have to invent one!
replied a facetious member of this grave Society.
Ask Dr. Ferguson to come in,
was the quiet remark of Sir Francis M——.
And come in the doctor did, and stood there, quite unmoved by the thunders of applause that greeted his appearance.
He was a man of about forty years of age, of medium height and physique. His sanguine temperament was disclosed in the deep color of his cheeks. His countenance was coldly expressive, with regular features, and a large nose—one of those noses that resemble the prow of a ship, and stamp the faces of men predestined to accomplish great discoveries. His eyes, which were gentle and intelligent, rather than bold, lent a peculiar charm to his physiognomy. His arms were long, and his feet were planted with that solidity which indicates a great pedestrian.
A calm gravity seemed to surround the doctor’s entire person, and no one would dream that he could become the agent of any mystification, however harmless.
Hence, the applause that greeted him at the outset continued until he, with a friendly gesture, claimed silence on his own behalf. He stepped toward the seat that had been prepared for him on his presentation, and then, standing erect and motionless, he, with a determined glance, pointed his right forefinger upward, and pronounced aloud the single word—
Excelsior!
Never had one of Bright’s or Cobden’s sudden onslaughts, never had one of Palmerston’s abrupt demands for funds to plate the rocks of the English coast with iron, made such a sensation. Sir Francis M—— ‘s address was completely overshadowed. The doctor had shown himself moderate, sublime, and self-contained, in one; he had uttered the word of the situation—
Excelsior!
The gouty old admiral who had been finding fault, was completely won over by the singular man before him, and immediately moved the insertion of Dr. Ferguson’s speech in The Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London.
Who, then, was this person, and what was the enterprise that he proposed?
Ferguson’s father, a brave and worthy captain in the English Navy, had associated his son with him, from the young man’s earliest years, in the perils and adventures of his profession. The fine little fellow, who seemed to have never known the meaning of fear, early revealed a keen and active mind, an investigating intelligence, and a remarkable turn for scientific study; moreover, he disclosed uncommon address in extricating himself from difficulty; he was never perplexed, not even in handling his fork for the first time—an exercise in which children generally have so little success.
His fancy kindled early at the recitals he read of daring enterprise and maritime adventure, and he followed with enthusiasm the discoveries that signalized the first part of the nineteenth century. He mused over the glory of the Mungo Parks, the Bruces, the Caillies, the Levaillants, and to some extent, I verily believe, of Selkirk (Robinson Crusoe), whom he considered in no wise inferior to the rest. How many a well-employed hour he passed with that hero on his isle of Juan Fernandez! Often he criticised the ideas of the shipwrecked sailor, and sometimes discussed his plans and projects. He would have done differently, in such and such a case, or quite as well at least—of that he felt assured. But of one thing he was satisfied, that he never should have left that pleasant island, where he was as happy as a king without subjects—no, not if the inducement held out had been promotion to the first lordship in the admiralty!
It may readily be conjectured whether these tendencies were developed during a youth of adventure, spent in every nook and corner of the Globe. Moreover, his father, who was a man of thorough instruction, omitted no opportunity to consolidate this keen intelligence by serious studies in hydrography, physics, and mechanics, along with a slight tincture of botany, medicine, and astronomy.
Upon the death of the estimable captain, Samuel Ferguson, then twenty-two years of age, had already made his voyage around the world. He had enlisted in the Bengalese Corps of Engineers, and distinguished himself in several affairs; but this soldier’s life had not exactly suited him; caring but little for command, he had not been fond of obeying. He, therefore, sent in his resignation, and half botanizing, half playing the hunter, he made his way toward the north of the Indian Peninsula, and crossed it from Calcutta to Surat—a mere amateur trip for him.
From Surat we see him going over to Australia, and in 1845 participating in Captain Sturt’s expedition, which had been sent out to explore the new Caspian Sea, supposed to exist in the centre of New Holland.
Samuel Ferguson returned to England about 1850, and, more than ever possessed by the demon of discovery, he spent the intervening time, until 1853, in accompanying Captain McClure on the expedition that went around the American Continent from Behring’s Straits to Cape Farewell.
Notwithstanding fatigues of every description, and in all climates, Ferguson’s constitution continued marvellously sound. He felt at ease in the midst of the most complete privations; in fine, he was the very type of the thoroughly accomplished explorer whose stomach expands or contracts at will; whose limbs grow longer or shorter according to the resting-place that each stage of a journey may bring; who can fall asleep at any hour of the day or awake at any hour of the night.
Nothing, then, was less surprising, after that, than to find our traveller, in the period from 1855 to 1857, visiting the whole region west of the Thibet, in company with the brothers Schlagintweit, and bringing back some curious ethnographic observations from that expedition.
During these different journeys, Ferguson had been the most active and interesting correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, the penny newspaper whose circulation amounts to 140,000 copies, and yet scarcely suffices for its many legions of readers. Thus, the doctor had become well known to the public, although he could not claim membership in either of the Royal Geographical Societies of London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, or St. Petersburg, or yet with the Travellers’ Club, or even the Royal Polytechnic Institute, where his friend the statistician Cockburn ruled in state.
The latter savant had, one day, gone so far as to propose to him the following problem: Given the number of miles travelled by the doctor in making the circuit of the Globe, how many more had his head described than his feet, by reason of the different lengths of the radii?—or, the number of miles traversed by the doctor’s head and feet respectively being given, required the exact height of that gentleman?
This was done with the idea of complimenting him, but the doctor had held himself aloof from all the learned bodies—belonging, as he did, to the church militant and not to the church polemical. He found his time better employed in seeking than in discussing, in discovering rather than discoursing.
There is a story told of an Englishman who came one day to Geneva, intending to visit the lake. He was placed in one of those odd vehicles in which the passengers sit side by side, as they do in an omnibus. Well, it so happened that the Englishman got a seat that left him with his back turned toward the lake. The vehicle completed its circular trip without his thinking to turn around once, and he went back to London delighted with the Lake of Geneva.
Doctor Ferguson, however, had turned around to look about him on his journeyings, and turned to such good purpose that he had seen a great deal. In doing so, he had simply obeyed the laws of his nature, and we have good reason to believe that he was, to some extent, a fatalist, but of an orthodox school of fatalism withal, that led him to rely upon himself and even upon Providence. He claimed that he was impelled, rather than drawn by his own volition, to journey as he did, and that he traversed the world like the locomotive, which does not direct itself, but is guided and directed by the track it runs on.
I do not follow my route;
he often said, it is my route that follows me.
The reader will not be surprised, then, at the calmness with which the doctor received the applause that welcomed him in the Royal Society. He was above all such trifles, having no pride, and less vanity. He looked upon the proposition addressed to him by Sir Francis M—— as the simplest thing in the world, and scarcely noticed the immense effect that it produced.
When the session closed, the doctor was escorted to the rooms of the Travellers’ Club, in Pall Mall. A superb entertainment had been prepared there in his honor. The dimensions of the dishes served were made to correspond with the importance of the personage entertained, and the boiled sturgeon that figured at this magnificent repast was not an inch shorter than Dr. Ferguson himself.
Numerous toasts were offered and quaffed, in the wines of France, to the celebrated travellers who had made their names illustrious by their explorations of African territory. The guests drank to their health or to their memory, in alphabetical order, a good old English way of doing the thing. Among those remembered thus, were: Abbadie, Adams, Adamson, Anderson, Arnaud, Baikie, Baldwin, Barth, Batouda, Beke, Beltram, Du Berba, Bimbachi, Bolognesi, Bolwik, Belzoni, Bonnemain, Brisson, Browne, Bruce, Brun-Rollet, Burchell, Burckhardt, Burton, Cailland, Caillie, Campbell, Chapman, Clapperton, Clot-Bey, Colomieu, Courval, Cumming, Cuny, Debono, Decken, Denham, Desavanchers, Dicksen, Dickson, Dochard, Du Chaillu, Duncan, Durand, Duroule, Duveyrier, D’Escayrac, De Lauture, Erhardt, Ferret, Fresnel, Galinier, Galton, Geoffroy, Golberry, Hahn, Halm, Harnier, Hecquart, Heuglin, Hornemann, Houghton, Imbert, Kauffmann, Knoblecher, Krapf, Kummer, Lafargue, Laing, Lafaille, Lambert, Lamiral, Lampriere, John Lander, Richard Lander, Lefebvre, Lejean, Levaillant, Livingstone, MacCarthy, Maggiar, Maizan, Malzac, Moffat, Mollien, Monteiro, Morrison, Mungo Park, Neimans, Overweg, Panet, Partarrieau, Pascal, Pearse, Peddie, Penney, Petherick, Poncet, Prax, Raffenel, Rabh, Rebmann, Richardson, Riley, Ritchey, Rochet d’Hericourt, Rongawi, Roscher, Ruppel, Saugnier, Speke, Steidner, Thibaud, Thompson, Thornton, Toole, Tousny, Trotter, Tuckey, Tyrwhitt, Vaudey, Veyssiere, Vincent, Vinco, Vogel, Wahlberg, Warrington, Washington, Werne, Wild, and last, but not least, Dr. Ferguson, who, by his incredible attempt, was to link together the achievements of all these explorers, and complete the series of African discovery.
Chapter 2
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.
Chapter 3
Dr. Ferguson had a friend—not another self, indeed, an alter ego, for friendship could not exist between two beings exactly alike.
But, if they possessed different qualities, aptitudes, and temperaments, Dick Kennedy and Samuel Ferguson lived with one and the same heart, and that gave them no great trouble. In fact, quite the reverse.
Dick Kennedy was a Scotchman, in the full acceptation of the word—open, resolute, and headstrong. He lived in the town of Leith, which is near Edinburgh, and, in truth, is a mere suburb of Auld Reekie. Sometimes he was a fisherman, but he was always and everywhere a determined hunter, and that was nothing remarkable for a son of Caledonia, who had known some little climbing among the Highland mountains. He was cited as a wonderful shot with the rifle, since not only could he split a bullet on a knife-blade, but he could divide it into two such equal parts that, upon weighing them, scarcely any difference would be perceptible.
Kennedy’s countenance strikingly recalled that of Herbert Glendinning, as Sir Walter Scott has depicted it in The Monastery
; his stature was above six feet; full of grace and easy movement, he yet seemed gifted with herculean strength; a face embrowned by the sun; eyes keen and black; a natural air of daring courage; in fine, something sound, solid, and reliable in his entire person, spoke, at first glance, in favor of the bonny Scot.
The acquaintanceship of these two friends had been formed in India, when they belonged to the same regiment. While Dick would be out in pursuit of the tiger and the elephant, Samuel would be in search of plants and insects. Each could call himself expert in his own province, and more than one rare botanical specimen, that to science was as great a victory won as the conquest of a pair of ivory tusks, became the doctor’s booty.
These two young men, moreover, never had occasion to save each other’s lives, or to render any reciprocal service. Hence, an unalterable friendship. Destiny sometimes bore them apart, but sympathy always united them again.
Since their return to England they had been frequently separated by the doctor’s distant expeditions; but, on his return, the latter never failed to go, not to ASK for hospitality, but to bestow some weeks of his presence at the home of his crony Dick.
The Scot talked of the past; the doctor busily prepared for the future. The one looked back, the other forward. Hence, a restless spirit personified in Ferguson; perfect calmness typified in Kennedy—such was the contrast.
After his journey to the Thibet, the doctor had remained nearly two years without hinting at new explorations; and Dick, supposing that his friend’s instinct for travel and thirst for adventure had at length died out, was perfectly enchanted. They would have ended badly, some day or other, he thought to himself; no matter what experience one has with men, one does not travel always with impunity among cannibals and wild beasts. So, Kennedy besought the doctor to tie up his bark for life, having done enough for science, and too much for the gratitude of men.
The doctor contented himself with making no reply to this. He remained absorbed in his own reflections, giving himself up to secret calculations, passing his nights among heaps of figures, and making experiments with the strangest-looking machinery, inexplicable to everybody but himself. It could readily be guessed, though, that some great thought was fermenting in his brain.
What can he have been planning?
wondered Kennedy, when, in the month of January, his friend quitted him to return to London.
He found out one morning when he looked into the Daily Telegraph.
Merciful Heaven!
he exclaimed, the lunatic! the madman! Cross Africa in a balloon! Nothing but that was wanted to cap the climax! That’s what he’s been bothering his wits about these two years past!
Now, reader, substitute for all these exclamation points, as many ringing thumps with a brawny fist upon the table, and you have some idea of the manual exercise that Dick went through while he thus spoke.
When his confidential maid-of-all-work, the aged Elspeth, tried to insinuate that the whole thing might be a hoax—
Not a bit of it!
said he. Don’t I know my man? Isn’t it just like him? Travel through the air! There, now, he’s jealous of the eagles, next! No! I warrant you, he’ll not do it! I’ll find a way to stop him! He! why if they’d let him alone, he’d start some day for the moon!
On that very evening Kennedy, half alarmed, and half exasperated, took the train for London, where he arrived next morning.
Three-quarters of an hour later a cab deposited him at the door of the doctor’s modest dwelling, in Soho Square, Greek Street. Forthwith he bounded up the steps and announced his arrival with five good, hearty, sounding raps at the door.
Ferguson opened, in person.
Dick! you here?
he exclaimed, but with no great expression of surprise, after all.
Dick himself!
was the response.
What, my dear boy, you at London, and this the mid-season of the winter shooting?
Yes! here I am, at London!
And what have you come to town for?
To prevent the greatest piece of folly that ever was conceived.
Folly!
said the doctor.
Is what this paper says, the truth?
rejoined Kennedy, holding out the copy of the Daily Telegraph, mentioned above.
Ah! that’s what you mean, is it? These newspapers are great tattlers! But, sit down, my dear Dick.
No, I won’t sit down!—Then, you really intend to attempt this journey?
Most certainly! all my preparations are getting along finely, and I —
Where are your traps? Let me have a chance at them! I’ll make them fly! I’ll put your preparations in fine order.
And so saying, the gallant Scot gave way to a genuine explosion of wrath.
Come, be calm, my dear Dick!
resumed the doctor. You’re angry at me because I did not acquaint you with my new project.
He calls this his new project!
I have been very busy,
the doctor went on, without heeding the interruption; I have had so much to look after! But rest assured that I should not have started without writing to you.
Oh, indeed! I’m highly honored.
Because it is my intention to take you with me.
Upon this, the Scotchman gave a leap that a wild goat would not have been ashamed of among his native crags.
Ah! really, then, you want them to send us both to Bedlam!
I have counted positively upon you, my dear Dick, and I have picked you out from all the rest.
Kennedy stood speechless with amazement.
After listening to me for ten minutes,
said the doctor, you will thank me!
Are you speaking seriously?
Very seriously.
And suppose that I refuse to go with you?
But you won’t refuse.
But, suppose that I were to refuse?
Well, I’d go alone.
Let us sit down,
said Kennedy, and talk without excitement. The moment you give up jesting about it, we can discuss the thing.
Let us discuss it, then, at breakfast, if you have no objections, my dear Dick.
The two friends took their seats opposite to each other, at a little table with a plate of toast and a huge tea-urn before them.
My dear Samuel,
said the sportsman, your project is insane! it is impossible! it has no resemblance to anything reasonable or practicable!
That’s for us to find out when we shall have tried it!
But trying it is exactly what you ought not to attempt.
Why so, if you please?
Well, the risks, the difficulty of the thing.
As for difficulties,
replied Ferguson, in a serious tone, they were made to be overcome; as for risks and dangers, who can flatter himself that he is to escape them? Every thing in life involves danger; it may even be dangerous to sit down at one’s own table, or to put one’s hat on one’s own head. Moreover, we must look upon what is to occur as having already occurred, and see nothing but the present in the future, for the future is but the present a little farther on.
There it is!
exclaimed Kennedy, with a shrug. As great a fatalist as ever!
Yes! but in the good sense of the word. Let us not trouble ourselves, then, about what fate has in store for us, and let us not forget our good old English proverb: ‘The man who was born to be hung will never be drowned!’
There was no reply to make, but that did not prevent Kennedy from resuming a series of arguments which may be readily conjectured, but which were too long for us to repeat.
Well, then,
he said, after an hour’s discussion, if you are absolutely determined to make this trip across the African continent—if it is necessary for your happiness, why not pursue the ordinary routes?
Why?
ejaculated the doctor, growing animated. Because, all attempts to do so, up to this time, have utterly failed. Because, from Mungo Park, assassinated on the Niger, to Vogel, who disappeared in the Wadai country; from Oudney, who died at Murmur, and Clapperton, lost at Sackatou, to the Frenchman Maizan, who was cut to pieces; from Major Laing, killed by the Touaregs, to Roscher, from Hamburg, massacred in the beginning of 1860, the names of victim after victim have been inscribed on the lists of African martyrdom! Because, to contend successfully against the elements; against hunger, and thirst, and fever; against savage beasts, and still more savage men, is impossible! Because, what cannot be done in one way, should be tried in another. In fine, because what one cannot pass through directly in the middle, must be passed by going to one side or overhead!
If passing over it were the only question!
interposed Kennedy; but passing high up in the air, doctor, there’s the rub!
Come, then,
said the doctor, what have I to fear? You will admit that I have taken my precautions in such manner as to be certain that my balloon will not fall; but, should it disappoint me, I should find myself on the ground in the normal conditions imposed upon other explorers. But, my balloon will not deceive me, and we need make no such calculations.
Yes, but you must take them into view.
No, Dick. I intend not to be separated from the balloon until I reach the western coast of Africa. With it, every thing is possible; without it, I fall back into the dangers and difficulties as well as the natural obstacles that ordinarily attend such an expedition: with it, neither heat, nor torrents, nor tempests, nor the simoom, nor unhealthy climates, nor wild animals, nor savage men, are to be feared! If I feel too hot, I can ascend; if too cold, I can come down. Should there be a mountain, I can pass over it; a precipice, I can sweep across it; a river, I can sail beyond it; a storm, I can rise away above it; a torrent, I can skim it like a bird! I can advance without fatigue, I can halt without need of repose! I can soar above the nascent cities! I can speed onward with the rapidity of a tornado, sometimes at the loftiest heights, sometimes only a hundred feet above the soil, while the map of Africa unrolls itself beneath my gaze in the great atlas of the world.
Even the stubborn Kennedy began to feel moved, and yet the spectacle thus conjured up before him gave him the vertigo. He riveted his eyes upon the doctor with wonder and admiration, and yet with fear, for he already felt himself swinging aloft in space.
Come, come,
said he, at last. Let us see, Samuel. Then you have discovered the means of guiding a balloon?
Not by any means. That is a Utopian idea.
Then, you will go —
Whithersoever Providence wills; but, at all events, from east to west.
Why so?
Because I expect to avail myself of the trade-winds, the direction of which is always the same.
Ah! yes, indeed!
said Kennedy, reflecting; the trade-winds—yes—truly—one might—there’s something in that!
"Something in it—yes, my excellent friend—there’s every thing in it. The English Government has placed a transport at my disposal, and three or four vessels are to cruise off the western coast of Africa, about the presumed period of my arrival. In three months,
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