Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/375

 "Are we again going to be becalmed, I wonder?" said the doctor.

"Well, sir, we have neither the want of water nor the desert to fear now."

"No, but the population is still very formidable."

"There" said Joe, eagerly, "is something that resembles a town."

"It is Kernak. The last breath of wind will carry us thither, and if it suits us, we can take an exact plan of the place."

"Can we not go nearer to it?" asked Kennedy.

"Nothing is more easy, Dick," said the doctor. "We are exactly over the town. Allow me to turn the tap of the blow-pipe a little, and we shall soon descend."

In half an hour the "Victoria " was floating motionless, about 200 feet from the ground.

"We are here nearer to Kernak," said the doctor, "than a man would be to London, if he were perched on the dome of St. Paul's. So we can observe at our ease all that is going on."

"What is that sound of mallets that we hear on all sides?"

Joe watched attentively, and perceived that the noise was produced by the number of weavers, who were beating their cloths stretched upon the large trunks of trees.

The capital of Loggoum was viewed in its entirety, like a plan unrolled at their feet. It was a veritable town, with lines of houses and good-sized streets. In the center of a large square a slave-market was held, and there was a large concourse of purchasers; for the Mandara women, with their little hands and feet, are very much sought after, and are sold for high prices.

At sight of the "Victoria," the oft-produced effect was again repeated—first cries, then profound stupefaction; business was abandoned, work suspended, the noise was hushed. The travelers remained immovable, and did not lose a detail of this populous city; they even descended to a distance of sixty feet from the ground.

Then the governor of Loggoum came out of his house, displaying his green flag, and accompanied by his musicians, who blew enthusiastically with the full force of their lungs into their hoarse buffalo horns. The crowd assembled round