CHAPTER 2

An article from the Daily Telegraph—A campaign by learned journals

THE FOLLOWING DAY, in its issue of January 15, the Daily Telegraph published an article in the following terms:

Africa is at last about to yield the secret of her vast solitudes. A modern Oedipus is to give us the key to this enigma which the scientists of sixty centuries have failed to solve. Of old the search for the sources of the Nile, fontes Nili quœerere , was regarded as a mad project, an unrealisable chimera.

Dr Barth, following as far as the Sudan the track traced by Denham and Clapperton; Dr Livingstone multiplying his daring investigations from the Cape of Good Hope to the shores of the Zambesi; and Captains Burton and Speke, by their discovery of the great lakes of the interior have opened three routes to modern civilisation. Their point of intersection which no traveller has yet succeeded in reaching is the very heart of Africa. It is upon this that all efforts should be concentrated.

Now the work of these bold pioneers of Science is to be taken up again in the audacious scheme of Dr Samuel Fergusson, whose splendid explorations our readers have so often appreciated.

This intrepid discoverer proposes to cross the whole of Africa, from east to west, in a balloon. If we are accurately informed the point of departure of this astonishing journey will be the Island of Zanzibar off the east coast. The point of destination is known only to Providence.

This scheme of scientific exploration was yesterday officially announced to the Royal Geographical Society, and a sum of two thousand five hundred pounds was voted to meet the expenses of the enterprise. We shall keep our readers in touch with this venture which is without precedent in the annals of geography.

As will be imagined, this article caused a tremendous sensation. At first it roused a storm of incredulity. Dr Fergusson was taken to be a purely imaginary being invented by Mr Barnum, who, after having worked the United States, was preparing to 'do' the British Isles. A sarcastic reply appeared in Geneva, in the February number of the Bulletins de la SociétéGéographique , wittily making game of the Royal Geographical Society of London, the Travellers' Club and the prodigious sturgeon. But Herr Petermann, in his Mitteilungen , published in Gotha, reduced the Geneva journal to complete silence. Herr Petermann knew Dr Fergusson personally and vouched for the daring of his friend.

Moreover, further doubt soon became impossible. Preparations for the journey were being made in London. The Lyons factories had received an important order for silk for the construction of the balloon. Lastly, the British Government was putting the transport Resolute , Captain Pennet, at the doctor's disposal.

At once a thousand voices were raised in encouragement, thousands of congratulations were poured forth. The details of the enterprise were minutely reported in the bulletins of the Royal Geographical Society of Paris. A remarkable article was printed in the Nouvelles annales des voyages de la géographie, de l'histoire et de l'archéologie of M. V. A. MalteBrun; and an exhaustive article published in the Zeitschrift für allgemeine Erdkunde , by Dr W. Koner, demonstrated irrefutably the possibility of the voyage, its chances of success, the nature of the obstacles, the immense advantages of air travel. It only condemned the point of departure and suggested for preference Massaua, a small Abyssinian port whence James Bruce had started out in 1768 in search of the sources of the Nile. For the rest it was unstinted in its admiration of Dr Fergusson's dauntless spirit and the heart of triple brass which could conceive and attempt such a journey. The North American Review could not see such glory reserved for England without displeasure. It turned the doctor's proposal into a jest and invited him to push forward as far as America while he was so far on the way. In short, among the journals of the entire world there was not a scientific periodical, from the Journal of Evangelical Missions to the Algerian and Colonial Review, from the Annals of the Propagation of the Gospel to the Church Missionary Intelligence , which did not describe the event in its every detail.

Considerable wagers were laid in London and throughout England; firstly as to the real or fictitious existence of Dr Fergusson; secondly as to the expedition itself, some holding that it would not be attempted at all, others that it would be carried through; thirdly, on the question of whether it would succeed or not; fourthly, on the probability or improbability of Dr Fergusson's return. Books were made involving enormous sums as though it had been the Derby.

Thus, the eyes of everyone, convinced or sceptical, ignorant or wise, were fixed upon the doctor, who became the lion of the day, though unconscious of his mane. He readily gave exact information about his expedition and was always approachable—the most natural man in the world. More than one bold adventurer presented himself and expressed a desire to share the glory and dangers of his venture, but he refused without giving his reasons. Many inventors of appliances adapted for balloons brought them before his notice. He rejected them all. Whenever he was asked if he had discovered anything in this respect, he invariably refused to commit himself and busied himself more strenuously than ever with the preparations for his journey.