Rescuing a missionary from a tribe that was preparing to sacrifice him.There are numerous scenes of adventure, composed of either a conflict with a native or a conflict with the environment. The second leg is to link up the other explorers. Map of the trip described in the book from the east to the west coast of Africa.Ī good deal of the initial exploration is focused on finding the source of the Nile, an event that occurs in chapter 18 (out of 43). The book describes the unknown interior of Africa near modern-day Central African Republic as a desert, when it is actually savanna. The trip begins in Zanzibar on the east coast, and passes across Lake Victoria, Lake Chad, Agadez, Timbuktu, Djenné and Ségou to St Louis in modern-day Senegal on the west coast. This voyage is meant to link together the voyages of Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke in East Africa with those of Heinrich Barth in the regions of the Sahara and Chad. He has invented a mechanism that, by eliminating the need to release gas or throw ballast overboard to control his altitude, allows very long trips to be taken. Samuel Fergusson, accompanied by his manservant Joe and his friend professional hunter Richard "Dick" Kennedy, sets out to travel across the African continent - still not fully explored - with the help of a balloon filled with hydrogen. Public interest in fanciful tales of African exploration was at its height, and the novel was an instant hit it made Verne financially independent and led to long-term contracts with Pierre-Jules Hetzel's publishing house, which put out some sixty more books of his over the next four decades.Ī scholar and explorer, Dr. The book gives readers a glimpse of the exploration of Africa, which was still not completely known to Europeans of the time, with explorers traveling all over the continent in search of its secrets. It is the first novel in which he perfected the "ingredients" of his later work, skillfully mixing a story line full of adventure and plot twists that keep the reader's interest through passages of technical, geographic, and historic description. Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, A Journey of Discovery by Three Englishmen in Africa ( French: Cinq semaines en ballon) is an adventure novel by Jules Verne, published in 1863.
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