172 Notes on the Congo River . 
pointed arrow to the company.” And, again, 
“ Poor Cranch is almost too much the object of 
jest; Galway is the principal banterer.” In the 
Professors remarks on the “ fat purser,” we can 
detect the foreigner, who, on such occasions, 
should never be mixed up with Englishmen. 
Sir Joseph Banks had suggested a steamer 
drawing four feet, with twenty-four horse-power ; 
an admirable idea, but practical difficulties of con¬ 
struction rendered the “ Congo ” useless. Of the 
fifty-four white men, eighteen, including eleven of 
the “Congo” crew, died in less than three months. 
Fourteen out of a party of thirty officers and men, 
who set out to explore the cataracts via the 
northern bank, lost their lives; and they were 
followed by four more on board the “ Congo,” and 
one at Bahia. The expedition remained in the 
river between July 6th and October 18th, little 
more than three months; yet twenty-one, or nearly 
one-third, three of the superior officers and all the 
scientific men, perished. Captain Tuckey died of 
fatigue and exhaustion (Oct. 4th) rather than of 
disease; Lieutenant Hawkey, of fatal typhus 
(which during 1862 followed the yellow fever, in 
the Bonny and New Calabar Rivers) ; and Mr. 
Eyre, palpably of bilious remittent. Professor 
Smith had been so charmed with the river, that 
he was with difficulty persuaded to return. Pro¬ 
strated four days afterwards by sickness on board 
