INTRODUCTION. lix 
hepatic functions being generally in a deranged state ; yet 
he was always unwilling to acknowledge himself an invalid, 
and refused to take such medicines as were deemed at the 
time to be essentially necessary. On his march into the 
interior, the symptoms became much aggravated, and he 
was prevailed on by Doctor Smith to take some calomel ; 
afterwards opium was found necessary, and lastly, the bark. 
The tew survivors of this ill-fated expedition will long 
cherish the memory of Captain Tuckey, of whom Mr. 
Fitzmaurice, the master, who succeeded to the command, 
observes, in reporting his death,—* in him the navy has 
lost an ornament, and its seamen a father.” But his bene- 
volence was not confined to the profession of which he 
was so distinguished a member. A poor black of South 
Africa, who, in his youth, had been kidnapped by a slave 
dealer, was put on board the Congo, while in the Thames, 
with the view of restoring him to his friends and country, 
neither of which turned out to be in the neighbourhood of 
the Zaire, and he was brought back to England. ‘This 
black was publicly baptized at Deptford church, by the 
name of Benjamin Peters; having learned to read on the 
passage out by Captain ‘l'uckey’s instructions, of whom he 
speaks in the strongest terms of gratitude and affection. 
He was generous to a fault. A near relatiun has observed, 
«« that a want of sufficient economy, and an incapability of 
refusal to open his purse to the necessities of others, have 
been the cause of many of the difficulties which clouded 
the prospects of his after life ;’—that « he knew nothing of 
the value of money, except as it enabled him to gratify the 
feelings of a benevolent heart.” 
Jn his person Captain Tuckey was tall, and must once 
