xxviii INTRODUCTION. 



draught of water ; but Lord Stanhope's ideas were rejected 

 by a committee of naval officers as crude and visionary, 

 with the exception, we believe, of one individual. The 

 Congo was schooner-rigged, and three parallel keels assisted 

 in enabling her to hold a good wind. 



In the event of meeting with shallows, rapids, or cata- 

 racts, of the existence of which no doubt could be enter- 

 tained, though the accounts given of them were vague 

 and uncertain, it was necessary that some hghter kind of 

 vessel should be provided capable of being transported by 

 land ; Captain Tuckey proposed a double-boat built of 

 light materials, drawing very little water, and which, when 

 screwed together by means of a kind of connecting plat- 

 form, should be able to carry from twenty to thirty men, 

 Avith three months provisions ; each boat was 35 feet 

 long, and six feet broad, and when put together a canopjr 

 was fitted to keep off the sun and rain. A second double- 

 boat was afterwards provided, and several smaller ones ; 

 and as the size of the Congo was wholly inadequate to 

 the stowage of these boats, with the provisions, water, pre- 

 sents, &c. the Dorothy transport, of about 350 tons, was 

 appointed to accompany the expedition into the river 

 Zaire, when, after transhipping into the Congo all that 

 could be deemed necessary for the prosecution of the 

 great object of exploring the river, she was to return to 

 England. 



The armament of the Congo, the quantities and the 

 different kinds of provisions and refreshments, were left 

 to the discretion of Captain Tuckey. Presents of the 

 usual kind, such as iron tools, knives, glass ware, beads, 

 bafts, umbrellas, &c. were put on board in such quantities 



