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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, at most, I shall be
at Zanzibar, where I will inflate my balloon, and from that
point we shall launch ourselves."
    "We!" said Dick.
    "Have you still a shadow of an objection to offer?
Speak, friend Kennedy."
    "An objection! I have a thousand; but among other
things, tell me, if you expect to see the country. If you
expect to mount and descend at pleasure, you cannot do
so, without losing your gas. Up to this time no other
means have been devised, and it is this that has always
prevented long journeys in the air."
    "My dear Dick, I have only one word to answer—I
shall not lose one particle of gas."
    "And yet you can descend when you please?"
    "I shall descend when I please."
    "And how will you do that?"
    "Ah, ha! therein lies my secret, friend Dick. Have
faith, and let my device be yours—'Excelsior!'"
    "'Excelsior' be it then," said the sportsman, who did
not understand a word of Latin.
    But he made up his mind to oppose his friend's departure
by all means in his power, and so pretended to give
in, at the same time keeping on the watch. As for the
doctor, he went on