Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/237

 by the Djob, a river below the Equator. Baron Decken has left Monbaz, and revisited the mountains Kenia and Kilimandjaro, and is still advancing towards the interior."

"Also on foot?"

"Either on foot or with mules."

"All the same as far as I am concerned," replied Kennedy.

"Finally," continued the doctor, "M. Heuglin, the Austrian vice-consul at Karthoum, is about to organize a very important expedition, of which the chief aim will be the search for the explorer Vogel, who, in 1853, was sent into the Soudan to join forces with Dr. Earth. In 1856 he quitted Bornou, resolved to explore the unknown region which extends between Lake Tchad and Darfour. Since then he has not been heard of. Letters arrived in 1860 at Alexandria stating that he had been assassinated by the orders of the King of Wadai, but subsequent communications addressed by Dr. Hartmann to Vogel's father, that, according to the report of a fellatah of Bornou, Vogel was only kept a prisoner at Wara; all hope, therefore, is not lost. A committee has been formed under the presidency of the Regent of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. My friend Petermann is the secretary. A national subscription has been set on foot to support the expedition, to which several savants have already attached themselves. M. Heuglin left Masuah in June, and while he searches for Vogel, he has instructions to explore the country lying between the Nile and Lake Tchad, that is to say, to connect the discoveries of Speke and Barth, and then Africa will have been crossed from east to west!"

"Well," said the Scot, "as that is all so nicely arranged I don't see what there is for us to do."

Doctor Ferguson made no reply to this beyond a shrug of his shoulders.

had a man-servant who rejoiced in the name of Joe. An excellent fellow, entirely devoted to his master, and serving him with a boundless attention.