Science fiction, French -- Translations into English
WHAT HAD BEEN DONE AT KILIMANJARO DURING EIGHT
MONTH OF THIS MEMORABLE YEAR.
The country of Wamasai is situated in the eastern part of Central Africa,
between the coast of Zanzibar and the regions of the large lakes, where
the Victoria Nyanza and the Tanganiyka form a great interior ocean. The
part best known is that which has been visited by the Englishman Johnston,
Count Tekeli and the German doctor Meyer. This mountainous land is under
the sovereignty of Sultan Bali-Bali, whose people consist of 30,000 or
40,000 Negroes.
Three degrees below the Equator is situated the chain of Kilimanjaro,
which here reaches its greatest altitude. Among other peaks is the Mount
of Kibo, with an altitude of 5,704 metres. The important ruler of this
region has under his domination towards the south, north, and west the
vast and fertile plains of Wamasai, which stretch from the lake of
Victoria Nyanza across the province of Mozambique.
A few leagues below Kilimanjaro is the small village of Kisongo, the
regular residence of the Sultan. This capital is in reality only a large
hamlet. It is occupied by a very intelligent and industrious people, who
work themselves as industriously as their slaves under the iron rule which
Bali-Bali imposes on them.
This Sultan rightly ranked as one of the most remarkable rulers of those
people of Central Africa who try to escape the influence, or more
correctly the domination of England. At this capital of Kisongo, President
Barbicane and Capt. Nicholl accompanied by six men who were devoted to
them, arrived in the first week of January of the current year. On leaving
the United States, whence their departure was only known to Mrs.
Evangelina Scorbitt, and J. T. Maston, they had embarked in New York for
the Cape of Good Hope, whence a vessel transported them to Zanzibar, on
the island of the same name. There a bark secretly chartered by the Sultan
brought them to the port of Mombas, on the African border on the other
side of the channel. An escort sent by the Sultan waited for them at this
port, and after a hard voyage nearly a hundred leagues across this
terrible region, obstructed by forests, deep marshes, etc., they arrived
at the royal residence. After knowing the calculations of J.T. Maston,
President Barbicane had already put himself in communication with
Bali-Bali through the help of a Swedish explorer, who had passed several
years in this part of Africa. As the Sultan had become one of their most
ardent admirers since their trip to the moon, a trip whose reputation had
gone as far as these countries, he had a great friendship for these
courageous Yankees. Without telling him for what purpose it was, Impey
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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