Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the River Zaire, Usually Called the Congo: In South Africa, in 1816, Under the Direction of Captain J.K. Tuckey, R.N. To which is Added, the Journal of Professor Smith; and Some General Observations on the Country and Its Inhabitants. Published by Permission of the Lords Commissioners of the AdmiraltyJames Kingston Tuckey (1776-1816) was a British naval officer who, after service in the Caribbean, Asia, and Australia, was asked by the British government to command an expedition to explore the Congo River. He was to ascertain, in particular, whether the Congo was connected to the Niger River. Tuckey traveled 480 kilometers up the Congo, mapping the river and gathering ethnographic and geographic information. Before he could complete his mission, he died of fever (on October 4, 1816, near Moanda, in the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo). This work consists of his journal, which he kept until shortly before his death, supplemented by observations by other members of the expedition. An appendix offers a basic vocabulary of two African languages, Malemba and Embomma. |
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Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the River Zaire, Usually Called the ... James Hingston Tuckey,Christen Smith No preview available - 2018 |
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Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the River Zaire, Usually Called the ... James Hingston Tuckey,Christen Smith No preview available - 2022 |
Common terms and phrases
Adansonia Africa anchor animals appearance August baft banks banza birds board the Congo branches brandy Cabenda canoes Cape Captain Tuckey cataract Chenoo coast colour Cooloo covered creek Cyperus papyrus distance double boats Embomma English European excursion expedition fathoms feet fetiche fish Fitzmaurice four fowls Galwey gangam gentlemen grass Gulf of Guinea Hawkey hills hippopotami huts island journey Kullu land Loango Mafook MALEMBA mangrove morning mountains named natives negroes Niger night noon o'clock objects obliged observed palaver palm wine passed plants Porto Praya Portuguese present Prince's island proceeded procure quartz rain ravines reached resembling rise river rocks round sail sandy sea breeze season seems seen sent Shark Point ship shore shrubs side slate slave species stream summit thickets tion trade trees Tudor valley vegetation vessel village Wangara whole wind wood Yellala Zaire
Popular passages
Page 120 - In another species (when put into the microscope by candle light) the luminous property was observed to be in the brain, which, when the animal was at rest, resembled a most brilliant amethyst about the size of a large pin's head, and from which, when it moved, darted flashes of a brilliant silvery light.
Page xlvii - This great mortality is the more extraordinary, as it appears from Captain Tuckey's journal that nothing could be finer than the climate, the thermometer never descending lower than 60° of Fahrenheit during the night, and seldom exceeding 76° in the...
Page 161 - It was vain attempting to convey to this sage prince, any idea of the objects of the expedition. The terms which express science, and an enlightened curiosity, did not excite in his mind a single idea, and he rang continual changes on the questions : — Are you come to trade ? and are you come to make war ? being unable to conjecture any other motive.
Page lviii - He married in 1806, a fellow prisoner, Miss Margaret Stuart, daughter of the commander of a ship in the East India Company's service, at Bengal. She also had been taken by the Rochefort squadron, on her passage in a packet to join her father in India. Various applications were made at different times, for the exchange of Mr. Tuckey ; but they proved fruitless, and he was doomed to remain a prisoner during the war : sad consequence of that implacable spirit of hatred which actuated the ruler of France,...
Page lv - West Indies, was winter to the coolest one we had in the Red Sea. The whole coast of " Araby the Blest," from Babelmandel to Suez, for forty miles inland, is an arid sand, producing not a single blade of grass nor affording one drop of fresh water ; that which we drank for nine months, on being analyzed, was found to contain a very considerable portion of sea salt.
Page 355 - This idea of a lake seems to have arisen from the " extraordinary quitt rise" of the river, which was from three to six inches in twenty-four hours. If the rise of the Zaire had proceeded from rains to the southward of the line, swelling the tributary streams and pouring in mountain torrents the waters into the main channel, the rise would have been sudden and impetuous, but coming on as it did in a quiet and regular manner, it could proceed only from the gradual overflowing of a lake.
Page 85 - ... lost. They had met in their progress with a party of slave-dealers, having in their possession a negro in fetters, from the Mandingo country. From motives of humanity, and with the view of returning this man to his friends and country, as well as under the hope that he might become useful as they proceeded, and give some account of the regions through which he must have passed, as soon as he should be able to speak a little English, Captain Tuckey purchased...
Page 280 - I examined some of them taken in this blood-coloured water : when highly magnified, they do not appear larger than the head of a small pin. They were at first in a rapid motion, which however soon ceased, and at the same instant the whole animal separated into a number of small spherical particles.
Page 245 - Yellala in his way up, he observes, that, ' combining his observations with the information which he had been able to collect from the natives, vague and trifling as it was, he could not help thinking that the Zaire would be found to issue from some large lake...
Page 357 - ... subsequently, I could almost walk on board dryshod, when near high-water. I lived for some time afterwards in the expectation that the hole beneath us would, some day, fill up again with a similar shaking ; but it did not happen while I remained in the country. The space through which the shocks were felt, was three hundred miles in length, and one hundred and fifty in breadth, including the main ridge of the Andes. " It plucked the seated hills with all their load.