INTRODUCTION. Vn 



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 Avhom 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, Avas 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 'i'uckey's instructions, of whom he 

 speaks in the strongest terms of gratitude and affection. 

 He was generous to a fault. A near relation 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." 



In his person Captain Tuckey was tall, and must once 



