Impressions of Africa (French Literature Series) by Roussel Raymond

Author:Roussel, Raymond [Roussel, Raymond]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
Published: 2011-06-28T20:00:00+00:00

For an entire week the journey remained peaceful and pleasant. But in the middle of the eighth night, a terrible hurricane broke out in mid-Atlantic. The propeller and rudder were snapped off by the violence of the waves, and after two days of aimless drifting, the Lynceus, shoved around like dead wreckage, ran aground on the coast of Africa.

No one was missing from roll call, but, examining the mangled ship, now carrying nothing more than staved-in lifeboats, we had to abandon all hope of heading back to sea.

Scarcely off the ship, we saw rushing toward us, with supple leaps, several hundred Negroes who surrounded us gaily, manifesting their joy with loud shouts. They were led by a young chief with an open, intelligent face, who, introducing himself by the name Seil-kor, surprised us profoundly by answering our initial questions in correct, fluent French.

In just a few words Seil-kor apprised us of his mission, which was to lead us to Ejur, capital of the emperor Talou VII, his master, who’d been awaiting for hours the inevitable wreck of our vessel that a native fisherman had alerted him to; Talou intended to keep us in his power until he was paid a sufficient ransom.

We had to bow before the strength of their numbers.

While the Negroes busied themselves with unloading the ship, Seil-kor, yielding to our entreaties, good-naturedly provided various details about our future residence.

Sitting on a narrow boulder in the shade of a tall cliff, the young orator began by recounting his own story to our attentive group, stretched out here and there in the soft sand.

At the age of ten, wandering about the same region where fate had just cast us, Seil-kor had met a French explorer named Laubé, who, no doubt seduced by the child’s bright expression, had decided to take him under his wing and bring this living souvenir of his journey back among his people.

Laubé, who had disembarked on the western coast of Africa, had sworn never to retrace his steps; accompanied by a valiant entourage, he forged onward far to the east, then, turning north, crossed the desert on camelback and finally reached Tripoli, his predetermined destination.

During the two years devoted to this voyage, Seil-kor had learned French by listening to his companions; struck by his facility with language, the explorer had pushed solicitude to the point of giving the child many fruitful lessons in reading, history, and geography.

In Tripoli, Laubé expected to rejoin his wife and daughter, who, following certain arrangements made at the time of their separation, should already have been at the Hôtel d’Angleterre for the past two months.

The explorer experienced a sweet delight on learning from the hotel porter that the two loved ones he’d left behind were indeed waiting for him, after such a long absence from his tender affections.

Seil-kor slipped out to explore the city, not wishing to intrude on those first joyful moments his protector had awaited so impatiently.

Returning after an hour, he saw Laubé in the vast main lobby;

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