Robur the Conqueror by Jules Verne

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Thus was the strange phenomenon at last explained to the people of
the two worlds. Thus was peace given to the scientists of the
numerous observatories on the surface of the terrestrial globe.

Chapter XV

A SKIRMISH IN DAHOMEY

At this point in the circumnavigatory voyage of the "Albatross" it is
only natural that some such questions as the following should be
asked. Who was this Robur, of whom up to the present we know nothing
but the name? Did he pass his life in the air? Did his aeronef never
rest? Had he not some retreat in some inaccessible spot in which, if
he had need of repose or revictualing, be could betake himself? It
would be very strange if it were not so. The most powerful flyers
have always an eyrie or nest somewhere.

And what was the engineer going to do with his prisoners? Was he
going to keep them in his power and condemn them to perpetual
aviation? Or was he going to take them on a trip over Africa, South
America, Australasia, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic and the Pacific,
to convince them against their will, and then dismiss them with, "And
now gentlemen, I hope you will believe a little more in heavier than
air?"

To these questions, it is now impossible to reply. They are the
secrets of the future. Perhaps the answers will be revealed. Anyhow
the bird-like Robur was not seeking his nest on the northern frontier
of Africa. By the end of the day he had traversed Tunis from Cape Bon
to Cape Carthage, sometimes hovering, and sometimes darting along at
top speed. Soon he reached the interior, and flew down the beautiful
valley of Medjeida above its yellow stream hidden under its luxuriant
bushes of cactus and oleander; and scared away the hundreds of
parrots that perch on the telegraph wires and seem to wait for the
messages to pass to bear them away beneath their wings.

Two hours after sunset the helm was put up and the "Albatross" bore
off to the southeast; and on the morrow, after clearing the Tell
Mountains, she saw the rising of the morning star over the sands of
the Sahara.

On the 30th of July there was seen from the aeronef the little
village of Geryville, founded like Laghouat on the frontier of the
desert to facilitate the future conquest of Kabylia. Next, not
without difficulty, the peaks of Stillero were passed against a
somewhat boisterous wind. Then the desert was crossed, sometimes
leisurely over the Ksars or green oases, sometimes at terrific speed
that far outstripped the flight of the vultures. Often the crew had
to fire into the flocks of these birds which, a dozen or so at a
time, fearlessly hurled them selves on to the aeronef to the extreme
terror of Frycollin.

But if the vultures could only reply with cries and blows of beaks
and talons, the natives, in no way less savage, were not sparing of
their musket-shots, particularly when crossing the Mountain of Sel,
whose green and violet slope bore its cape of white. Then the
"Albatross" was at last over the grand Sahara; and at once she rose
into the higher zones so as to escape from a simoom which was
sweeping a wave of ruddy sand along the surface of the ground like a
bore on the surface of the sea.

Then the desolate tablelands of Chetka scattered their ballast in
blackish waves up to the, fresh. and verdant valley of Ain-Massin. It
is difficult to conceive the variety of the territories which could
be seen at one view. To the green hills covered with trees and shrubs
there succeeded long gray undulations draped like the folds of an
Arab burnous and broken in picturesque masses. In the distance could
be seen the wadys with their torrential waters, their forests of
palm-trees, and blocks of small houses grouped on a hill around a
mosque, among them Metlili, where there vegetates a religious chief.
the grand marabout Sidi Chick.

Before night several hundred miles had been accomplished above a
flattish country ridged occasionally with large sandhills. If the
"Albatross" had halted, she would have come to the earth in the
depths of the Wargla oasis hidden beneath an immense forest of
palm-trees. The town was clearly enough displayed with its three
distinct quarters, the ancient palace of the Sultan, a kind of
fortified Kasbah, houses of brick which had been left to the sun to
bake, and artesian wells dug in the valley--where the aeronef could
have renewed her water supply. But, thanks to her extraordinary
speed, the waters of the Hydaspes taken in the vale of Cashmere still
filled her tanks in the center of the African desert.

Was the "Albatross" seen by the Arabs, the Mozabites, and the Negroes
who share amongst them the town of Wargla? Certainly, for she was
saluted with many hundred gunshot, and the bullets fell back before
they reached her.

Then came the night, that silent night in the desert of which
Felicien David has so poetically told us the secrets.

During the following hours the course lay southwesterly, cutting
across the routes of El Golea, one of which was explored in 1859 by
the intrepid Duveyrier.

The darkness was profound. Nothing could be seen of the Trans-
Saharan Railway constructing on the plans of Duponchel--a long
ribbon of iron destined to bind together Algiers and Timbuktu by way
of Laghouat and Gardaia, and destined eventually to run down into the
Gulf of Guinea.

Then the "Albatross" entered the equatorial region below the tropic
of Cancer. Six hundred miles from the northern frontier of the Sahara
she crossed the route on which Major Laing met his, death in 1846,
and crossed the road of the caravans from Morocco to the Sudan, and
that part of the desert swept by the Tuaregs, where could be heard
what is called "the song of the sand," a soft and plaintive murmur
that seems to escape from the ground.

Only one thing happened. A cloud of locusts came flying along, and
there fell such a cargo of them on board as to threaten to sink the
ship. But all hands set to work to clear the deck, and the locusts
were thrown over except a few hundred kept by Tapage for his larder.
And he served them up in so succulent a fashion that Frycollin forgot
for the moment his perpetual trances and said, "these are as good as
prawns."

The aeronef was then eleven hundred miles from the Wargla oasis and
almost on the northern frontier of the Sudan. About two o'clock in
the afternoon a city appeared in the bend of a large river. The river
was the Niger. The city was Timbuktu.

If, up to then, this African Mecca had only been visited by the
travelers of the ancient world Batouta, Khazan, Imbert, Mungo Park,
Adams, Laing, Caille, Barth, Lenz, on that day by a most singular
chance the two Americans could boast of having seen, heard, and smelt
it, on their return to America--if they ever got back there.

Of having seen it, because their view included the whole triangle of
three or four miles in circumference; of having heard it, because the
day was one of some rejoicing and the noise was terrible; of having
smelt it, because the olfactory nerve could not but be very
disagreeably affected by the odors of the Youbou-Kamo square, where
the meatmarket stands close to the palace of the ancient Somai kings.

The engineer had no notion of allowing the president and secretary of
the Weldon Institute to be ignorant that they had the honor of
contemplating the Queen of the Sudan, now in the power of the Tuaregs
of Taganet.

"Gentlemen, Timbuktu!" he said, in the same tone as twelve days
before he had said, "Gentlemen, India!" Then he continued, "Timbuktu
is an important city of from twelve to thirteen thousand inhabitants,
formerly illustrious in science and art. Perhaps you would like to
stay there for a day or two?"

Such a proposal could only have been made ironically. "But,"
continued he, "it would he dangerous among the Negroes, Berbers, and
Foullanes who occupy, it--particularly as our arrival in an aeronef
might prejudice them against you."

"Sir," said Phil Evans, in the same tone, "for the pleasure of
leaving you we would willingly risk an unpleasant reception from the
natives. Prison for prison, we would rather be in Timbuktu than on
the "Albatross.""

"That is a matter of taste," answered the engineer. "Anyhow, I shall
not try the adventure, for I am responsible for the safety of the
guests who do me the honor to travel with me."

"And so," said Uncle Prudent, explosively, "you are not content with
being our jailer, but you insult us."

"Oh! a little irony, that is all!"

"Are there any weapons on board?"

"Oh, quite an arsenal."

"Two revolvers will do, if I hold one and you the other."

"A duel!" exclaimed Robur, "a duel, which would perhaps cause the
death of one of us."

"Which certainly would cause it."

"Well! No, Mr. President of the Weldon Institute, I very much prefer
keeping you alive."

"To be sure of living yourself. That is wise."

"Wise or not, it suits me. You are at liberty to think as you like,
and to complain to those who have the power to help you--if you can."

"And that we have done, Mr. Robur."

"Indeed!"

"Was it so difficult when we were crossing the inhabited part of
Europe to drop a letter overboard?"

"Did you do that?" said Robur, in a paroxysm of rage.

"And if we have done it?"

"If you have done it--you deserve --"

"What, sir?"

"To follow your letter overboard."

"Throw us over, then. We did do it."

Robur stepped towards them. At a gesture from him Tom Turner and some
of the crew ran up. The engineer was seriously tempted to put his
threat into execution, and, fearful perhaps of yielding to it, he
precipitately rushed into his cabin,

"Good!" exclaimed Phil Evans.

"And what he will dare not do," said Uncle Prudent, "I Will do! Yes,
I Will do!"

At the moment the population of Timbuktu were crowding onto the
squares and roads and the terraces built like amphitheaters. In the
rich quarters of Sankere and Sarahama, as in the miserable huts at
Raguidi, the priests from the minarets were thundering their loudest
maledictions against the aerial monster. These were more harmless
than the rifle-bullets; though assuredly, if the aeronef had come to
earth she would have certainly been torn to pieces.

For some miles noisy flocks of storks, francolins, and ibises
escorted the "Albatross" and tried to race her, but in her rapid
flight she soon distanced them.

The evening came. The air was troubled by the roarings of the
numerous herds of elephants and buffaloes which wander over this
land, whose fertility is simply marvelous. For forty-eight hours the
whole of the region between the prime meridian and the second degree,
in the bend of the Niger, was viewed from the "Albatross."

If a geographer had only such an apparatus at his command, with what
facility could he map the country, note the elevations, fix the
courses of the rivers and their affluents, and determine the
positions of the towns and villages! There would then be no huge
blanks on the map of Africa, no dotted lines, no vague designations
which are the despair of cartographers.

In the morning of the 11th the "Albatross" crossed the mountains of
northern Guinea, between the Sudan and the gulf which bears their
name. On the horizon was the confused outline of the Kong mountains
in the kingdom of Dahomey.

Since the departure from Timbuktu Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans
noticed that the course had been due south. If that direction was
persisted in they would cross the equator in six more degrees. The
"Albatross" would then abandon the continents and fly not over the
Bering Sea, or the Caspian Sea, or the North Sea, or the
Mediterranean, but over the Atlantic Ocean.

This look-out was not particularly pleasing to the two friends, whose
chances of escape had sunk to below zero. But the "Albatross" had
slackened speed as though hesitating to leave Africa behind. Was
Robur thinking of going back? No; but his attention had been
particularly attracted to the country which he was then crossing.

We know--and he knew--that the kingdom of Dahomey is one of the
most powerful on the West Coast of Africa. Strong enough to hold its
own with its neighbor Ashantee, its area is somewhat small, being
contained within three hundred and sixty leagues from north to south,
and one hundred and eighty from east to west. But its population
numbers some seven or eight hundred thousand, including the
neighboring independent territories of Whydah and Ardrah.

If Dahomey is not a large country, it is often talked about. It is
celebrated for the frightful cruelties which signalize its annual
festivals, and by its human sacrifices--fearful hecatombs intended
to honor the sovereign it has lost and the sovereign who has
succeeded him. It is even a matter of politeness when the King of
Dahomey receives a visit from some high personage or some foreign
ambassador to give him a surprise present of a dozen heads, cut off
in his honor by the minister of justice, the "minghan," who is
wonderfully skillful in that branch of his duties.

When the "Albatross" came flying over Dahomey, the old King Bahadou
had just died, and the whole population was proceeding to the
enthronization of his successor. Hence there was great agitation all
over the country, and it did not escape Robur that everybody was on
the move.

Long lines of Dahomians were hurrying along the roads from the
country into the capital, Abomey. Well kept roads radiating among
vast plains clothed with giant trees, immense fields of manioc,
magnificent forests of palms, cocoa-trees, mimosas, orange-trees,
mango-trees--such was the country whose perfumes mounted to the
"Albatross," while many parrots and cardinals swarmed among the trees.

The engineer, leaning over the rail, seemed deep in thought, and
exchanged but a few words with Tom Turner. It did not look as though
the "Albatross" had attracted the attention of those moving masses,
which were often invisible under the impenetrable roof of trees. This
was doubtless due to her keeping at a good altitude amid a bank of
light cloud.

About eleven o'clock in the morning the capital was sighted,
surrounded by its walls, defended by a fosse measuring twelve miles
round, with wide, regular streets on the flat plain, and a large
square on the northern side occupied by the king's palace. This huge
collection of buildings is commanded by a terrace not far from the
place of sacrifice. During the festival days it is from this high
terrace that they throw the prisoners tied up in wicker baskets, and
it can be imagined with what fury these unhappy wretches are cut in
pieces.

In one of the courtyards which divide the king's palace there were
drawn up four thousand warriors, one of the contingents of the royal
army--and not the least courageous one. If it is doubtful if there
are any Amazons an the river of that name, there is no doubt of there
being Amazons at Dahomey. Some have a blue shirt with a blue or red
scarf, with white-and-blue striped trousers and a white cap; others,
the elephant-huntresses, have a heavy carbine, a short-bladed dagger,
and two antelope horns fixed to their heads by a band of iron. The
artillery-women have a blue-and-red tunic, and, as weapons,
blunderbusses and old cast cannons; and another brigade, consisting
of vestal virgins, pure as Diana, have blue tunics and white
trousers. If we add to these Amazons, five or six thousand men in
cotton drawers and shirts, with a knotted tuft to increase their
stature, we shall have passed in review the Dahomian army.

Abomey on this day was deserted. The soveriegn, the royal family, the
masculine and feminine army, and the population had all gone out of
the capital to a vast plain a few miles away surrounded by
magnificent forests.

On this plain the recognition of the new king was to take place. Here
it was that thousands of prisoners taken during recent razzias were
to be immolated in his honor.

It was about two o'clock when the "Albatross" arrived over the plain
and began to descend among the clouds which still hid her from the
Dahomians.

There were sixteen thousand people at least come from all parts of
the kingdom, from Whydah, and Kerapay, and Ardrah, and Tombory, and
the most distant villages.

The new king--a sturdy fellow named Bou-Nadi--some five-and-twenty
years old, was seated on a hillock shaded by a group of wide-branched
trees. Before him stood his male army, his Amazons, and his people.

At the foot of the mound fifty musicians were playing on their
barbarous instruments, elephants' tusks giving forth a husky note,
deerskin drums, calabashes, guitars, bells struck with an iron
clapper, and bamboo flutes, whose shrill whistle was heard over all.
Every other second came discharges of guns and blunderbusses,
discharges of cannons with the carriages jumping so as to imperil the
lives of the artillery-women, and a general uproar so intense that
even the thunder would be unheard amidst it.

In one corner of the plain, under a guard of soldiers, were grouped
the prisoners destined to accompany the defunct king into the other
world. At the obsequies of Ghozo, the father of Bahadou, his son had
dispatched three thousand, and Bou-Nadi could not do less than his
predecessor. For an hour there was a series of discourses, harangues,
palavers and dances, executed not only by professionals, but by the
Amazons, who displayed much martial grace.

But the time for the hecatomb was approaching. Robur, who knew the
customs of Dahomey, did not lose sight of the men, women, and
children reserved for butchery.

The minghan was standing at the foot of the hillock. He was
brandishing his executioner's sword, with its curved blade surmounted
by a metal bird, whose weight rendered the cut more certain.

This time he was not alone. He could not have performed the task.
Near him were grouped a hundred executioners, all accustomed to cut
off heads at one blow.

The "Albatross" came slowly down in an oblique direction. Soon she
emerged from the bed of clouds which hid her till she was within
three hundred feet of the ground, and for the first time she was
visible from below.

Contrary to what had hitherto happened, the savages saw in her a
celestial being come to render homage to King Baha-dou. The
enthusiasm was indescribable, the shouts were interminable, the
prayers were terrific--prayers addressed to this supernatural
hippogriff, which "had doubtless come to" take the king's body to the
higher regions of the Dahomian heaven. And now the first head fell
under the minghan's sword, and the prisoners were led up in hundreds
before the horrible executioners.

Suddenly a gun was fired from the "Albatross." The minister of
justice fell dead on his face!

"Well aimed, Tom!" said Robur,

His comrades, armed as he was, stood ready to fire when the order was
given.

But a change came over the crowd below. They had understood. The
winged monster was not a friendly spirit, it was a hostile spirit.
And after the fall of the minghan loud shouts for revenge arose on
all sides. Almost immediately a fusillade resounded over the plain.

These menaces did not prevent the "Albatross" from descending boldly
to within a hundred and fifty feet of the ground. Uncle Prudent and
Phil Evans, whatever were their feelings towards Robur, could not
help joining him in such a work of humanity.

"Let us free the prisoners!" they shouted.

"That is what I am going to do!" said the engineer.

And the magazine rifles of the "Albatross" in the hands of the
colleagues, as in the hands of the crew, began to rain down the
bullets, of which not one was lost in the masses below. And the
little gun shot forth its shrapnel, which really did marvels.

The prisoners, although they did not understand how the help had come
to them, broke their bonds, while the soldiers were firing at the
aeronef. The stern screw was shot through by a bullet, and a few
holes were made in the hull. Frycollin, crouching in his cabin,
received a graze from a bullet that came through the deck-house.

"Ah! They will have them!" said Tom Turner. And, rushing to the
magazine, he returned with a dozen dynamite cartridges, which be
distributed to the men. At a sign from Robur, these cartridges were
fired at the hillock, and as they reached the ground exploded like so
many small shells.

The king and his court and army and people were stricken with fear at
the turn things had taken. They fled under the trees, while the
prisoners ran off without anybody thinking of pursuing them.

In this way was the festival interfered with. And in this way did
Uncle Prudent and, Phil Evans recognize the power of the aeronef and
the services it could render to humanity.

Soon the "Albatross" rose again to a moderate height, and passing
over Whydah lost to view this savage coast which the southwest wind
hems round with an inaccessible surf. And she flew out over the
Atlantic.

Chapter XVI

OVER THE ATLANTIC

Yes, the Atlantic! The fears of the two colleagues were realized; but
it did not seem as though Robur had the least anxiety about venturing
over this vast ocean. Both he and his men seemed quite unconcerned
about it and had gone back to their stations.

Whither was the "Albatross" bound? Was she going more than round the
world as Robur had said? Even if she were, the voyage must end
somewhere. That Robur spent his life in the air on board the aeronef
and never came to the ground was impossible. How could he make up his
stock of provisions and the materials required for working his
machines? He must have some retreat, some harbor of refuge--in some
unknown and inaccessible spot where the "Albatross" could revictual.
That he had broken off all connections with the inhabitants of the
land might be true, but with every point on the surface of the earth,
certainly not.

That being the case, where was this point? How had the engineer come
to choose it? Was he expected by a little colony of which he was the
chief? Could he there find a new crew?

What means had he that he should be able to build so costly a vessel
as the "Albatross" and keep her building secret? It is true his
living was not expensive. But, finally, who was this Robur? Where did
he come from? What had been his history? Here were riddles impossible
to solve; and Robur was not the man to assist willingly in their
solution.

It is not to be wondered at that these insoluble problems drove the
colleagues almost to frenzy. To find themselves whipped off into the
unknown without knowing what the end might be doubting even if the
adventure would end, sentenced to perpetual aviation, was this not
enough to drive the President and secretary of the Weldon Institute
to extremities?

Meanwhile the "Albatross" drove along above the Atlantic, and in the
morning when the sun rose there was nothing to be seen but the
circular line where earth met sky. Not a spot of land was insight in
this huge field of vision. Africa had vanished beneath the northern
horizon.

When Frycollin ventured out of his cabin and saw all this water
beneath him, fear took possession of him.

Of the hundred and forty-five million square miles of which the area
of the world's waters consists, the Atlantic claims about a quarter;
and it seemed as though the engineer was in no hurry to cross it.
There was now no going at full speed, none of the hundred and twenty
miles an hour at which the "Albatross" had flown over Europe. Here,
where the southwest winds prevail, the wind was ahead of them, and
though it was not very strong, it would not do to defy it and the
"Albatross" was sent along at a moderate speed, which, however,
easily outstripped that of the fastest mail-boat.

On the 13th of July she crossed the line, and the fact was duly
announced to the crew. It was then that Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans
ascertained that they were bound for the southern hemisphere. The
crossing of the line took place without any of the Neptunian
ceremonies that still linger on certain ships. Tapage was the only
one to mark the event, and he did so by pouring a pint of water down
Frycollin's neck.

On the 18th of July, when beyond the tropic of Capricorn, another
phenomenon was noticed, which would have been somewhat alarming to a
ship on the sea. A strange succession of luminous waves widened out
over the surface of the ocean with a speed estimated at quite sixty
miles an hour. The waves ran along at about eight feet from one
another, tracing two furrows of light. As night fell a bright
reflection rose even to the "Albatross," so that she might have been
taken for a flaming aerolite. Never before had Robur sailed on a sea
of fire--fire without heat--which there was no need to flee from as
it mounted upwards into the sky.

The cause of this light must have been electricity; it could not be
attributed to a bank of fish spawn, nor to a crowd of those
animalculae that give phosphorescence to the sea, and this showed
that the electrical tension of the atmosphere was considerable.

In the morning an ordinary ship would probably have been lost. But
the "Albatross" played with the winds and waves like the powerful
bird whose name she bore. If she did not walk on their surface like
the petrels, she could like the eagles find calm and sunshine in the
higher zones.

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