Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/416

 "Just as you please. Five years later Major Laing journeyed across the Sahara and penetrated up to Timbuctoo, and was strangled some miles beyond it by the Oulad-Shiman, who wanted to become a Mussulman."

"Another victim!" said Kennedy.

"Then a brave young fellow undertook, with his limited resources, and actually succeeded in making the most wonderful of modern journeys. I refer to the Frenchman, René Caillé. After frequent trials in 1819 and 1824, he set out anew upon the 19th April, 1827, from Rio Nunez; on the 3rd August he arrived at Timé, so completely exhausted, that he could not resume his journey for six months. He then joined a caravan, and protected by his oriental costume, reached the Niger on the 10th March, entered the town of Jeuné, took boat on the river and descended it as far as Timbuctoo, where he arrived on the 30th April.

"Another Frenchman, Imbert, in the year 1670, and an Englishman, Robert Adams, in 1810 had perhaps beheld this curious town; but René Caillé is entitled to the credit of being the first European who brought back authentic reports. On the 4th May he left that queen of the desert; on the 9th, he visited the very place where Major Laing had been killed; on the 19th, he arrived at El-Eraouan, and left that flourishing town to cross, amid a thousand dangers, the vast solitudes included between the Soudan and the northern regions of Africa. At length he reached Tangier, and on the 28th September he embarked for Toulon. So, in nineteen months, notwithstanding one hundred and ninety days of sickness, he had crossed Africa from west to north. Ah! if Caillé had been born in England he would have been honored as the greatest traveler of modern times—as the equal of Mungo Park. But in France he is not sufficiently appreciated."

"He was a brave fellow. What became of him?" asked Kennedy.

"He died at the age of thirty-nine, worn out by fatigue. It was thought reward sufficient to award him the prize of the Geographical Society in 1828; the greatest honor would have been paid him in England. Finally, while he was occupied in this wonderful journey, an Englishman started on the same enterprise, with as much courage, but not the same good fortune. This was Captain Clapperton,