Jules Verne - The Essential Jules Verne - 29 Greatest Sci-Fi & Adventure Books in One Edition

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Musaicum Books presents to you this carefully created volume of «THE ESSENTIAL JULES VERNE: 29 Greatest Sci-Fi & Adventure Books in One Edition». This ebook has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices.
Contents:
Five Weeks In A Balloon – 1863
A Journey To The Center Of The Earth – 1864
The Adventures Of Captain Hatteras – 1864
From The Earth To The Moon – 1865
In Search Of The Castaways – 1865
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea – 1869
Around The Moon – 1869
Around The World In Eighty Days – 1872
The Fur Country – 1872
The Mysterious Island – 1874
The Survivors Of The Chancellor – 1874
Michael Strogoff – 1876
Off On A Comet – 1877
The Underground City (or The Child of the Cavern) – 1877
Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen – 1878
Eight Hundred Leagues On The Amazon – 1881
Godfrey Morgan – 1882
Robur The Conqueror – 1886
The Purchase of the North Pole (or Topsy-Turvy) – 1889
The Adventures Of A Special Correspondent (or Claudius Bombarnac) – 1893
Facing The Flag – 1896
An Antarctic Mystery – 1897
The Master Of The World – 1904
Novellas & Stories:
A Voyage In A Balloon (Or A Drama In The Air) – 1851
Master Zacharius Or The Clockmaker Who Lost His Soul – 1854
A Winter Amid The Ice – 1855
The Blockade Runners – 1871
Doctor Ox's Experiment (Or A Fantasy Of Dr Ox) – 1872
In The Year 2889 – 1889
ules Verne (1828-1905) was a French novelist who pioneered the genre of science fiction. A true visionary with an extraordinary talent for writing adventure stories, his writings incorporated the latest scientific knowledge of his day and envisioned technological developments that were years ahead of their time. Verne wrote about undersea, air, and space travel long before any navigable or practical craft were invented. Verne wrote over 50 novels and numerous short stories.

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CHAPTER ELEVENTH.

Table of Contents

The Arrival at Zanzibar.—The English Consul.—Ill-will of the Inhabitants.—The Island of Koumbeni.—The Rain-Makers.—Inflation of the Balloon.—Departure on the 18th of April.—The last Good-by. —The Victoria.

An invariably favorable wind had accelerated the progress of the Resolute toward the place of her destination. The navigation of the Mozambique Channel was especially calm and pleasant. The agreeable character of the trip by sea was regarded as a good omen of the probable issue of the trip through the air. Every one looked forward to the hour of arrival, and sought to give the last touch to the doctor’s preparations.

At length the vessel hove in sight of the town of Zanzibar, upon the island of the same name, and, on the 15th of April, at 11 o’clock in the morning, she anchored in the port.

The island of Zanzibar belongs to the Imaum of Muscat, an ally of France and England, and is, undoubtedly, his finest settlement. The port is frequented by a great many vessels from the neighboring countries.

The island is separated from the African coast only by a channel, the greatest width of which is but thirty miles.

It has a large trade in gums, ivory, and, above all, in “ebony,” for Zanzibar is the great slave-market. Thither converges all the booty captured in the battles which the chiefs of the interior are continually fighting. This traffic extends along the whole eastern coast, and as far as the Nile latitudes. Mr. G. Lejean even reports that he has seen it carried on, openly, under the French flag.

Upon the arrival of the Resolute, the English consul at Zanzibar came on board to offer his services to the doctor, of whose projects the European newspapers had made him aware for a month past. But, up to that moment, he had remained with the numerous phalanx of the incredulous.

“I doubted,” said he, holding out his hand to Dr. Ferguson, “but now I doubt no longer.”

He invited the doctor, Kennedy, and the faithful Joe, of course, to his own dwelling. Through his courtesy, the doctor was enabled to have knowledge of the various letters that he had received from Captain Speke. The captain and his companions had suffered dreadfully from hunger and bad weather before reaching the Ugogo country. They could advance only with extreme difficulty, and did not expect to be able to communicate again for a long time.

“Those are perils and privations which we shall manage to avoid,” said the doctor.

The baggage of the three travellers was conveyed to the consul’s residence. Arrangements were made for disembarking the balloon upon the beach at Zanzibar. There was a convenient spot, near the signal-mast, close by an immense building, that would serve to shelter it from the east winds. This huge tower, resembling a tun standing on one end, beside which the famous Heidelberg tun would have seemed but a very ordinary barrel, served as a fortification, and on its platform were stationed Belootchees, armed with lances. These Belootchees are a kind of brawling, good-for-nothing Janizaries.

But, when about to land the balloon, the consul was informed that the population of the island would oppose their doing so by force. Nothing is so blind as fanatical passion. The news of the arrival of a Christian, who was to ascend into the air, was received with rage. The negroes, more exasperated than the Arabs, saw in this project an attack upon their religion. They took it into their heads that some mischief was meant to the sun and the moon. Now, these two luminaries are objects of veneration to the African tribes, and they determined to oppose so sacrilegious an enterprise.

The consul, informed of their intentions, conferred with Dr. Ferguson and Captain Bennet on the subject. The latter was unwilling to yield to threats, but his friend dissuaded him from any idea of violent retaliation.

“We shall certainly come out winners,” he said. “Even the imaum’s soldiers will lend us a hand, if we need it. But, my dear captain, an accident may happen in a moment, and it would require but one unlucky blow to do the balloon an irreparable injury, so that the trip would be totally defeated; therefore we must act with the greatest caution.”

“But what are we to do? If we land on the coast of Africa, we shall encounter the same difficulties. What are we to do?”

“Nothing is more simple,” replied the consul. “You observe those small islands outside of the port; land your balloon on one of them; surround it with a guard of sailors, and you will have no risk to run.”

“Just the thing!” said the doctor, “and we shall be entirely at our ease in completing our preparations.”

The captain yielded to these suggestions, and the Resolute was headed for the island of Koumbeni. During the morning of the 16th April, the balloon was placed in safety in the middle of a clearing in the great woods, with which the soil is studded.

Two masts, eighty feet in height, were raised at the same distance from each other. Blocks and tackle, placed at their extremities, afforded the means of elevating the balloon, by the aid of a transverse rope. It was then entirely uninflated. The interior balloon was fastened to the exterior one, in such manner as to be lifted up in the same way. To the lower end of each balloon were fixed the pipes that served to introduce the hydrogen gas.

The whole day, on the 17th, was spent in arranging the apparatus destined to produce the gas; it consisted of some thirty casks, in which the decomposition of water was effected by means of iron-filings and sulphuric acid placed together in a large quantity of the first-named fluid. The hydrogen passed into a huge central cask, after having been washed on the way, and thence into each balloon by the conduit-pipes. In this manner each of them received a certain accurately-ascertained quantity of gas. For this purpose, there had to be employed eighteen hundred and sixty-six pounds of sulphuric acid, sixteen thousand and fifty pounds of iron, and nine thousand one hundred and sixty-six gallons of water. This operation commenced on the following night, about three A.M., and lasted nearly eight hours. The next day, the balloon, covered with its network, undulated gracefully above its car, which was held to the ground by numerous sacks of earth. The inflating apparatus was put together with extreme care, and the pipes issuing from the balloon were securely fitted to the cylindrical case.

The anchors, the cordage, the instruments, the travelling-wraps, the awning, the provisions, and the arms, were put in the place assigned to them in the car. The supply of water was procured at Zanzibar. The two hundred pounds of ballast were distributed in fifty bags placed at the bottom of the car, but within arm’s-reach.

These preparations were concluded about five o’clock in the evening, while sentinels kept close watch around the island, and the boats of the Resolute patrolled the channel.

The blacks continued to show their displeasure by grimaces and contortions. Their obi-men, or wizards, went up and down among the angry throngs, pouring fuel on the flame of their fanaticism; and some of the excited wretches, more furious and daring than the rest, attempted to get to the island by swimming, but they were easily driven off.

Thereupon the sorceries and incantations commenced; the “rain-makers,” who pretend to have control over the clouds, invoked the storms and the “stone-showers,” as the blacks call hail, to their aid. To compel them to do so, they plucked leaves of all the different trees that grow in that country, and boiled them over a slow fire, while, at the same time, a sheep was killed by thrusting a long needle into its heart. But, in spite of all their ceremonies, the sky remained clear and beautiful, and they profited nothing by their slaughtered sheep and their ugly grimaces.

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