Five Weeks in a Balloon Chapter 2

**Alex E. Talander** (0:26)
CHAPTER II.
THE ARTICLE IN THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WAR BETWEEN THE SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS Mr. Peterman backs his friend Dr. Ferguson. REPLY OF THE SAVANT KONER BETS MADE SUNDERY PROPOSITIONS OFFERED TO THE DOCTOR On the next day, in its number of January 15th, the Daily Telegraph published an article, crouched in the following terms. Africa is, at length, about to surrender the secret of her vast solitudes. A modern Oedipus is to give us the key to that enigma, which the learned men of sixty centuries have not been able to decipher. In other days, to seek the sources of the Nile, Fonce Neely-Corell was regarded as a mad endeavour, a chimera that could not be realized. Dr. Barth, in following out to Sudan, the track traced by Denham and Clapperton, Dr. Livingston, in multiplying his fearless explorations from the Cape of Good Hope to the Basin of the Zambezi, Captain's Burton and Spiek, and the discovery of the Great Interior Lakes, have opened three highways to modern civilization. Their point of intersection, which no traveller has yet been able to reach, is the very heart of Africa, and it is dither that all efforts should now be directed. The labours of these hardy pioneers of science are now about to be knit together by the daring project of Dr. Samuel Ferguson, whose fine explorations our readers have frequently had the opportunity of appreciating. The intrepid discoverer proposes to traverse all Africa from east to west in a balloon. If we are well informed, the point of departure for this surprising journey is to be the island of Zanzibar, upon the eastern coast. As for the point of arrival, it is reserved for Providence alone to designate. The proposal for this scientific undertaking was officially made yesterday at the ruins of the Royal Geographical Society, and the sum of £2,500 was voted to defray the expenses of the enterprise. We shall keep our readers informed as to the progress of this enterprise, which is no precedent in the annals of exploration.
As may be supposed, the foregoing article had an enormous echo among scientific people, and at first it stirred up the storming credulity. Dr. Ferguson passed for a purely chimerical personage of the Barnum stamp, who after having gone through the United States, proposed to do the British Isles. A humorous reply appeared in the February number of the bulletins De La Societe Geographique of Geneva, which very wittily showed up the Royal Society of London and their phenomenal sturgeon. But Herr Pudemann, in his Mit Heilugen, published at Gotha, produced the Geneva Journal to the most absolute silence. Herr Pudemann knew Dr. Ferguson personally, and guaranteed the intrepidity of his dauntless friend. Besides, all matter of doubt was quickly put out of the question. Preparations for the trip were set on foot at London, the factories of Lyon received a heavy order for the silk required for the body of the balloon, and finally the British government placed the transport ship Resolute, Captain Bennet, at the disposal of the expedition. At once, upon word of all this, a thousand encouragements were offered, and felicitations came pouring in from all quarters. The details of the undertaking were published in full in the bulletins of the Geographical Society of Paris. A remarkable article appeared in the Nouveau Anal des Voyages, de la Geographie, de l'Histoire, et de l'Archaeologie, de M. V. A. Maltbrunn.
A Searching Essay in the Zeitschrift für Alemanya, Örtkunde, by dear Dr. W. Köhner, triumphantly demonstrated the feasibility of the journey, its chances of success, the nature of the obstacles existing, the immense advantages of the aerial mode of locomotion, and found fault with nothing but the selected point of departure, which it contended should be Masoa, a small port in Abyssinia, whence James Bruce, in 1768, started upon his explorations in search of the sources of the Nile. Apart from that, it mentioned, in terms of unreserved admiration, the energetic character of Dr. Ferguson, and the heart, thrice-panoplyed in bronze, that could conceive and undertake such an enterprise. The North American Review could not, without some displeasure, contemplate so much glory monopolized by England. It therefore rather ridiculed the doctor's scheme, and urged him by all means to push his explorations as far as America, while he was about it. In a word, without going over all the journals in the world, there was not a scientific publication, from the Journal of Evangelical Missions, to the Review Algerienne et Colonial, from the Annals de la Provocation de la Foy, to the Church Missionary Intelligencer, that had not something to say about the affair in all its phases.
Many large bets were made at London, and throughout England generally, at first, as to the real or suppositious existence of Dr. Ferguson, secondly, as to the trip itself, which, some contended, would not be undertaken at all, and which was rarely contemplated, according to others, thirdly, upon the success of failure of the enterprise, and fourthly, upon the probabilities of Dr. Ferguson's return. The betting books were covered with entries of immense sums, as though the epsom races were at stake. Thus believers and unbelievers, the learned and the ignorant alike, had their eyes fixed on the doctor, and he became the lion of the day, without knowing that he carried such a main. On his part, he willingly gave the most accurate information touching his project. He was very easily approached, being naturally the most affable man in the world. More than one bold adventurer presented himself, offering to share the dangers as well as the glory of the undertaking. But he refused them all, without giving his reasons for rejecting them.