Fifty men were ample for the attempt, and each one of this number was provided with a rifle, a lance to serve as an Alpenstock, an axe for pioneer purposes, a cord wound round the waist, and a linen bag or haversack, carried on the back, and containing provisions enough for several days. Cartridges and powder were also served out in equal proportions to every man.
The recalcitrant Beluchs and the few bearers who had mustered up courage to cross the lake, were left on the shore under the command of the jemadar. They were to await the return of the Europeans for the space of one month; that time past, they were at liberty to return to Zanzibar, where, on application at the Consulate, and on production of a certificate given to them by MM. Desrioux and de Pommerelle, they would receive the wages agreed upon.
On the 28th November, at sunrise, fifty Beluchs, after having embraced their comrades with that ardour and effusion natural to the entire black race, moved off in Indian file, and commenced the ascent. For the first two days it was not so difficult as had been anticipated. The forests through which the party passed, though sometimes an obstruction, were more often an assistance. Every trunk was a sort of fulcrum, and had the additional advantage of preventing all chance of falling backwards down the more precipitous places. The work was laborious and fatiguing, but frequent halts were made, and the novelty of the style of march, and the role of mountaineer which the negroes were playing, was a continual source of enjoyment to men easily amused, and naturally of a cheerful disposition.
Very soon, however, the ascent became more difficult and more dangerous; vegetation disappeared gradually; shrubs, too small to be of any assistance, succeeded to the trees; huge masses of rock barred the way, and much time was lost in getting round them. The caravan, also, found itself completely isolated in these regions, just as a ship would be if far from land and in an open, unexplored ocean. Not only was there no trace of any habitation, but there was not even the faintest sign that a human foot had ever passed that way. The dwellers by the shores of the lake had evidently no liking for the mountain, and very possibly, some superstition withheld them from penetrating into these regions.
On the 3rd of December, the instruments brought by Dr. Desrioux recorded an altitude of 1,800 metres above the level of Lake Albert. (According to Baker, the lake itself is 2,720 feet above the level of the sea). They were still far from having reached the topmost summits, which reared themselves up towards the west like a granite wall, and on that side completely shut out the horizon from view. After so much arduous exertion, were they perforce to be stopped by these last obstacles, and compelled to retrace their steps without even having a bird's eye view of the countries hidden from their sight only by a curtain of stone?
During one of their halts. Dr. Desrioux observed that a mountain, which up to that time had been lost in the clouds, but had then just emerged from its veil, was flat at the top, and had for its summit a plateau instead of a point. He determined to reach this lofty spot, whence, even if it did not prove to be the highest point, he could, at all events, obtain a view of the western slope of the mountain.
The escort would have only been a source of delay in an ascent of this kind; six men furnished with ropes and lances were quite sufficient for his purpose. He selected the strongest and most daring, and begged M. de Pommerelle, who for some time past had made light of every obstacle, and was now anxious to accompany him, to do nothing of the kind, but await his return with the remainder of the escort.
He made his arrangements in the evening, and started at the first glimmer of daylight on the 4th of December. After heroic exertion, he reached his goal about two o'clock in the afternoon, and was at once rewarded for his trouble. He found a vast plateau which, as he says in his notes, may be likened to the fort of Venasque, in the Pyrenees. Instead of having France to the north, and Spain to the south, he saw on the eastern side. Lake Albert, the Murchison Falls, and Magungo; on the western, several ranges of mountains, less lofty than the one he had ascended, and, behind these mountains, through the crevices and natural undulations in them, he beheld an extensive plain.
He was the first European—nay, possibly the first man who had ever reached the summit of the Blue Mountains, which, in this part of Africa, cut the continent in two and separate the western provinces from the eastern territory.