Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the River Zaire, Usually Called the Congo, in South Africa, in 1816

In these memoirs, posthumously published in 1818, a captain and his botanist recount their doomed African expedition of 1816.

James Hingston Tuckey (Author), Christen Smith (Author)

9781108050517, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 June 2012

620 pages, 13 b/w illus. 1 colour illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 3.5 cm, 0.9 kg

In 1816, an expedition to Africa, commanded by Captain James Tuckey (1776–1816), set out on HMS Congo, accompanied by the storeship Dorothy. The aim was to discover more about African geography - of which relatively little was then known - and in particular the connection between the River Congo, also known as the Zaire, and the Niger Basin. The mission failed when eighteen crew members, including Tuckey, died from virulent fevers and attacks by hostile natives. However, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty gave permission for publication of Tuckey's notes, and those of his Norwegian botanist Christen Smith (1785–1816), who also died during the voyage. First published in 1818, the work comprises their narratives of the doomed expedition. At the time it aroused Western interest in Africa, encouraging further research, and it remains of interest to geographers, botanists and scholars of African studies today.

Introduction
1. Passage to, and notices on, the island of St Jago
2. Passage from Porto Praya to the mouth of the Zaire
3. Passage up the river to the place where the ship was moored
4. Progress up the river as far as Yellalla, or the Cataract
5. Progress from the Cataract, or Cooloo, by land chiefly, to Inga
6. Excursion from Inga, and from thence to the termination of the journey
Professor Smith's journal
Appendix.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH]