ANNALS 



OP 



PHILOSOPHY. 



MAY, 1818. 



Article I. 



Biographical Memoir of Prof. Smith and Mr. Cranch. 



IF we except the expedition which has just sailed for the 

 purpose of exploring the northern ocean, the public expectation 

 has been seldom raised to a higher pitch than it was by the 

 project that was formed to discover the source of the river Zaire, 

 and to investigate the course of the Niger. In proportion to the 

 degree of expectation which was excited, so was the disappoint- 

 ment at its total failure, and the regret for the melancholy fate 

 which befel those who engaged in it. We shall not, in this place, 

 inquire into the cause of that failure ; nor shall we enter upon 

 the question, whether a sufficient degree of prudence and fore- 

 sight were exercised in forming the plan, and in adapting the 

 means to the object in view. Of the expedition to the Niger 

 we know indeed nothing, but the general fact that it was stopped 

 almost at its outset, and that the commander, Major Peddie, 

 and all the officers and men of science, fell a sacrifice to the 

 climate, or to the hardships to which they were subjected. The 

 result of the expedition to the Zaire was no less disastrous than 

 that to the Niger ; it proved equally fatal to those engaged in it, 

 and probably from the same cause — the excessive bodily fatigue 

 which they underwent, in a climate and atmosphere ill adapted 

 for enabling the body to endure any extraordinary exertions. 

 With respect to this latter expedition, much as we must lament 

 the untimely fate of the gallant commander, Capt. Tuckey, and 

 all his officers, as well as the men of science who accompanied 

 him, still it has not been altogether useless ; Capt. Tuckey him- 

 self, and Prof. Smith, kept, each of them, an accurate narrative 

 Vol. XI. N° V. X 



