第19章 Triangulation or Death

Acheer greeted Colonel Everest’s words.Before the Makololos,witha common danger facing them,Russians and English,forgetful of the international struggle,could only join in a mutual defence.Their situation made this imperative,and thus the Anglo-Russian Commission found itself reconstituted before the enemy,stronger and more united than ever.William Emery and Michel Zorn fell into each other’s arms;the others had shaken hands all round.

The Englishmen’s first thought was to quench their thirst—the Russian camp was well supplied with water drawn from the lake.Then,sheltering themselves in a casemate which had once formed part of some abandoned fortifications on the summit of the Scorzef,the Europeans discussed all that had happened since they parted at Kolobeng.Meanwhile the seamen kept watch on the Makololos,whose attack had now slackened.

In the first place,how was it the Russians found themselves on the top of this hill,so far to the left of their meridian?For the same reason as that which had brought the English to the right.Lying nearly half-way between the two arcs,the Scorzef was the only commanding eminence in this region where a station could be set up on the shores of the Ngami.So it was quite natural that these rival expeditions,at work on these plains,should meet on the only high ground which could be of any use to them.Russians and English meridians both ended at that point,some distance apart;hence the necessity to link the southern shore of Lake Ngami trigonometrically with its northern bank.

Matthew Strux then described the operation he had just completed.The triangulation,since they left Kolobeng,had been carried out without interruption.The first of the meridians which chance had assigned to the Russians traversed a fertile country,slightly undulating and giving them every facility for establishing a trigonometrical series.They had suffered,like the English,from the high temperature,but not from want of water.There were plenty of streams throughout the whole region,and these maintained a healthy moisture.Horses and oxen thus moved along through extensive pastures,across the greenest of prairies,intersected here and there by woods and copses.By keeping large fires burning at night,the Russians had managed to keep the beasts of prey at a distance from their camp.The natives were the settled tribes who lived in those towns and villages where Livingstone had almost always been hospitably entertained,so that the Boschjesmen had nothing to complain of.

On 20th February the Russians had reached the Scorzef,and they had been there thirty-six hours when the Makololos,numbering about three or four hundred men,made their appearance on the plain below.The terrified Boschjesmen immediately deserted,and left the Russians to defend themselves as they could.The Makololos began by plundering the waggons left at the foot of the mount,but very fortunately all the instruments had been taken up to the summit at the outset.Moreover,the steam launch was as yet undamaged,for the Russians had had time to put her together before the band of plunderers made their appearance,and she was at that moment lying at anchor in a small bay in the Ngami.

On that side the mountain descended perpendicularly into the lake,and so was inaccessible.But on the south side the ascent was practicable,and in the assault which the Makololos had just made,they would probably have carried the place but for the opportune arrival of the English.

Colonel Everest then described all that had occurred during his own march northward—the fatigue and sufferings undergone by the expedition,the desertion of the Boschjesmen,and the obstacles and difficulties they had to overcome.This made it clear that the Russians had been more favoured by fortune than the English since leaving Kolobeng.

Nothing happened to disturb them on the night of 21st February,when the bushman and seamen mounted guard beneath the walls of the fort.The Makololos did not attack;but fires lighted at the foot of the mountain showed that these banditti were still bivouacking there,and that they had not given up their schemes.

Next day,22nd,at daybreak the Europeans left their casemate and reconnoitered the plain,which was visible as far as the limits of the horizon in the early light of morning.On the southern side lay the desert,with its yellowish soil,its parched herbage,and its arid aspect.At their feet lay the enemy’s camp,about which swarmed from four to five hundred natives.Their fires were still burning and antelope flesh was already grilling on the hot embers.It was clear the Makololos had no intention of raising the siege,though everything belonging to the caravan which they valued—waggons,horses,oxen,and stores—had fallen into their hands.But this booty was not enough for them,and,after having massacred the Europeans,they wanted to get possession of their weapons,of which the Colonel and his companions had just made such terrible use.

The English and Russian savants,after surveying the native encampment,held a long discussion with the bushman.It was a question of coming to some settled decision;but this depended on circumstances,and,above all,it was essential to know the exact bearing of the Scorzef.

The astronomers already knew that this commanded to the south the immense plains which extended as far as the Karrou;to east and west stretched the desert;to the west the eye could make out on the horizon the distant outline of the hills that bordered the fertile Makololo country:Maketo,one of its chief towns,is about a hundred miles northeast of the Ngami.

Northwards,on the contrary,the Scorzef commanded a very different country.What a contrast with the arid steppes of the south!—water,trees,pastures,all that vegetation which neverfailing moisture brings with it.Over an extent of at least a hundred miles the beautiful waters of the Ngami stretched from east to west,lit up by the rays of the rising sun.Its greatest width lay along the parallels of longitude,but from north to south it could not measure more than thirty to forty miles.Beyond,the country seemed slightly undulating,varying in appearance with forests,pastures,water-courses,affluents either of the Lyambie or the Zambezi,and in the north,about eighty miles distant,it was enclosed by the picturesque outline of a chain of hills—a lovely country,dropped like an oasis amidst these deserts.Its soil,well watered by a network of tributaries,teemed with life.It was the great Zambezi whose tributaries did much to sustain this prodigious fertility:that immense artery is to Southern Africa what the Danube is to Europe,and the Amazon to South America.Such was the panorama which met the eyes of the Europeans.

As for the Scorzef,it rose immediately above the shore of the lake,and,as Matthew Strux had said,its sides rose perpendicularly above the water.But there is nothing too steep for a seaman to climb up or down,and,by a very narrow track from point to point;the sailors had managed to get down to the lake where the steam launch lay at anchor.Thus they were assured of a supply of water,and the little garrison could hold out behind the walls of the deserted fort until their provisions were exhausted.

But why this fort in the desert,on the summit of this hill?Mokoum,who had previously visited the country as Livingstone’s guide,was able to tell them.

This part of the lake was formerly much frequented by dealers in ivory and ebony.The ivory is supplied by the elephant and the rhinoceros.The ebony is human flesh,in which the slave-dealers trade.The whole of the Zambezi country is still infested by these wretched foreigners and their miserable traffic.Wars and marauding parties,raids,and the plundering of villages in the interior furnish numbers of prisoners,who are sold as slaves.This shore of the Ngami was precisely where the traders from the west had come,and the Scorzef was formerly the centre of their camp,where they rested awhile before going down the Zambezi to its outlet.The slave-dealers had therefore fortified this position to protect themselves and their slaves from the depredations of plunderers,for it was not unusual for the prisoners to be retaken by those who had sold them once,and would sell them again.

Such was the origin of this fort;but now it was falling into ruin.The caravan route had changed—the Ngami saw them no more on its shores,the Scorzef was no longer expected to defend them,and the walls which crowned it were crumbling away.Of this fort there now only remained an outer wall resembling a bow,whose arc fronted the south,and the cord the north.In the centre of this enclosed space was a small casemated redoubt,loopholed and surmounted by a small wooden tower,whose profile,reduced by the distance,had served as a sight for Colonel Everest’telescopes.Ruined as it was,it offered safety to the Europeans.Behind these thick sandstone walls,armed as they were with breech-loading rifles,they could hold out against an army of Makololos as long as their food and ammunition lasted,and this might enable them to achieve their object.

Of ammunition the Colonel and his friends had plenty,for the chest which carried it had been put into the same waggon as the steam launch,and this had not been captured by the natives.But it was a different thing as regards food,and there was the difficulty.The store waggons had not escaped being plundered;there were not more than two days’rations for men numbering eighteen in all.

This was the result of a minute study of their resources.This ascertained,and breakfast—a brief one—despatched,the astronomers and the bushman went to the casemated redoubt,while the sailors guarded the walls of the fort.

The lack of food was very seriously discussed,but they could not devise any remedy against certain—if not immediate—starvation.Then the hunter addressed them:

‘You attach very much importance,gentlemen,to our lack of provisions,but I really do not see why you should be at all uneasy.We have only two days rations,you say?But what forces us to stay even two days in this fort?We can leave it this very day if we please!Who is to prevent us?—the Makololos?But I do not believe they ever risk the waters of the Ngami,and with the steam launch I’ll undertake to convey you to the northern shore in a few hours.’

This proposal made the savants look at the bushman,as if this simple idea had never come into their heads:

And in truth it never had.It could not occur to men who,in this memorable expedition,were to show themselves as heroes in the cause of science.

Sir John Murray was the first to speak:‘But,my brave Mokoum,we have not yet finished our operations.’

‘What operations?’

‘To measure the meridian.’

‘Do you think the Makololos care about your meridian?’replied the hunter.

‘Probably not,but we do,and we do not intend to leave it unfinished.Do I not voice your feelings,gentlemen?’asked Sir John Murray.

‘Surely you do,’replied Colonel Everest,speaking for all.‘As long as one of us is left to set his eye to the glass of a telescope,we shall not give up measuring the meridian.The triangulation shall continue to the last.We shall still take our observations,if need be,with rifle in one hand and instrument in the other;but here we stay as long as we have breath in our bodies.’

‘Hurrah for England!Hurrah for Russia!’cried the excited savants,setting the interests of science above all thoughts of danger.The bushman looked at them for an instant,but made no comment.He understood them perfectly.

So it was settled.What ever the circumstances,the triangulation was to continue.But would not local difficulties,the Ngami,the lack of choice of a station render it impracticable?As Matthew Strux had been two days in the Scorzef,he might be able to give them an answer.

‘Gentlemen,’he replied,‘the operation will be difficult and troublesome in the extreme,but not impracticable.What have we to do?To link up the Scorzef with some point north of the lake?Now where is that point?Does it exist?Yes,for I had already chosen a peak on the horizon to serve as a sight for our telescopes.It rises to the northwest of the lake,so that this side of the triangle cuts the Ngami obliquely.’

‘Well’said Colonel Everest,‘if that point exists,where’s the difficulty?’

‘The difficulty,’replied Matthew Strux‘lies in the distance between the Scorzef and this peak.’

‘What may that distance be?’asked the Colonel.

‘A hundred and twenty miles at least.’

‘Our telescope is good enough for that distance.’

‘But there must be a signal light on the summit of the peak.’

‘It shall be lit.’

‘The lighting equipment must be carried there.’

‘It shall be carried there.’

‘And all the time we must defend ourselves against the Makololos,’the bushman added.

‘We will defend ourselves against the Makololos.’

‘Gentlemen,”said the bushman,‘I’m at your orders-what you command shall be done.’

And with these words of the faithful hunter the conversation,on which depended the fate of the undertaking,came to an end.All the savants were of one mind about it,and were willing to sacrifice their lives if need be,They left the casemate and went to examine the country north of the lake.

Matthew Strux pointed out the peak he had decided on.It was the Volquiria,a sort of cone,which at that distance was hardly visible.It rose to a great height,and not with standing its distance,a powerful electric beacon on its summit might be within range of their telescopes.But the means of making this light would have to be conveyed more than a hundred miles and then erected on the highest point of the mountain.Therein lay the real—but not insurmountable—difficulty.The angle which the Scorzef formed with the Volquiria and with the previous station should complete the measurement of the meridian,for the peak ought to be situated very near the twentieth parallel.The importance of the operation may be understood,as may the ardour with which the astronomers endeavoured to overcome the difficulties attending it.

First it was necessary to construct and erect the beacon,and this meant crossing a hundred miles in an unknown country.Michel Zorn and William Emery volunteered and their offer was accepted.The vorloper agreed to accompany them,and they prepared to set out at once.

Should they take the steamer with them?No;they preferred it to remain at their colleagues’service,for they might have to make a rapid retreat after completing their observation.

To cross the Ngami a birch-bark canoe,light and strong at the same time,which the natives would construct in a few hours,would be enough.Mokoum and the vorloper went down to the bank of the lake where some dwarf birches were growing,and they soon completed their task of making the canoe.

By eight in the evening their instruments,electric apparatus,provisions,arms,and ammunition were put on board.It was arranged for the astronomers to meet again on the south side of the Ngami at a creek well known to both bushman and vorloper;also that,as soon as the electric light on the Volquiria could be made out,Colonel Everest would light a beacon on the Scorzef,so that Michel Zorn and William Emery might work out their position.

After taking leave of their colleagues,Michel Zorn and William Emery left the fort and crept down to the canoe.The vorloper and a Russian and an English sailor had gone down before them.

It was pitch dark.The rope was cast off,and the frail craft,propelled by its paddle,took its silent course across the dark waters of the Ngami.