INTRODUCTION. XXXi 
their baggage, instruments, &c. (which persons you are to bear on a supernu- 
merary list for victuals only) ; and having taken under your orders the trans- 
port Dorothy, laden with certain stores and provisions, for the use of the: expe- 
dition, you are to put to sea without delay, and make the best of your way 
into the river Zaire, commonly called the Congo, in southern Africa, and having 
proceeded up that river to some convenient place for transhipping the stores, 
and provisions abovementioned, you are to direct the master of the transport to 
return to Spithead, sending by him an account of your proceedings, for our 
information. 
On the departure of the transport, you will proceed up the Zaire, and use 
your utmost endeavours to carry into execution the instructions contained in the 
memorandum, which accompanies this order; and on your return to the mouth 
of the river, you are either to proceed to England, to the Isle of St. Thomas, 
or to St. Helena, as you may judge most expedient for the safety of yourself, 
and people entrusted to your charge, after a due consideration of the state of 
the vessel and of your previsions ; reporting to our Secretary, for our informa- 
tion, your arrival, and transmitting an account of your proceedings. 
Given under our hands, the 7th of February, 1816. 
(Signed) MELVILLE. 
GEO. I. HOPE. 
; H. PAULET. 
To James K. Tucxsy, Esq. Commander of 
his Majesty's Sloop Congo, at Deptford, 
By Command of their Lordships, 
(Signed ) Jonn Barrow. 
Memorandum of an Instruction to Captain Tuckey. 
Although the expedition, about to be undertaken for exploring the course of the 
river Zaire, which flows through the kingdom of Congo, in southern Africa, was 
originally grounded on a suggestion of its being identical with the Niger, it is 
not to be understood, that the attempt to ascertain this pomt is by any means 
the exclusive object of the expedition. Thata river of such magnitude as the 
Zaire, and offering so many peculiarities, should not be known with any degree 
of certainty, beyond, if so far as, 200 miles from its mouth, is incompatible with 
the present advanced state of geographical science, and little creditable to those 
Europeans, who, for three centuries nearly, have occupied various parts of the 
coast, near to which it empties itself into the sea, and have held communication 
