Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the River Zaire: Usually Called the Congo, in South Africa, in 1816J. Murray, 1818 - 498 pages |
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Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the River Zaire: Usually Called the ... James Hingston Tuckey No preview available - 2015 |
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anchor animals appearance baft banks banza belonging birds boats branches Cabenda calyx canoes Cape Captain Tuckey Chenoo Chrysobalanus Icaco coast collection colour Congo consists Cooloo covered Cyperus papyrus Dicotyledonous distance du Mus Embomma equinoctial Africa expedition fathoms feet fetiche fish Fitzmaurice flowers four fowls fruit Galwey genera gentlemen genus grass Hawkey herbarium hills hippopotami India island Jussieu land latitude Loango Lockhart Mafook Malemba miles an hour morning mountains mouth natives nearly negroes Niger night noon o'clock observed ovarium palm wine passed Phænogamous plants Porto Praya Portuguese probably proceeded rain ravines remarkable resembling river rocks round sail sea breeze season seems seen Senegal sent Shark Point shell ship shore side Sierra Leone slave species specimens stream summit trees tropics Tudor valley vegetation vessel village Wangara whole wind Zaire
Popular passages
Page 375 - Every one wears about him, and keeps also in his dwelling, a charm against evil, and there is nothing so vile in nature that does not serve for a negro's fetiche ; — the horn, the hoof, the hair, the teeth, and the bones of all manner of quadrupeds — the feathers, beaks, claws, skulls, and bones of birds — the heads and skins of snakes — the shells and fins of fishes — pieces of old iron, copper, wood, seeds of plants — and sometimes a mixture of all or most of them strung together on...
Page 366 - ... between the slave dealers of the interior, and the European purchasers ; but having made a fortune, which was frequently the case in this once lucrative employment, they purchase the rank of Mafook, and from that moment are said to be dumb, and utterly unable any longer to interpret. The Foomos are composed of that class of the society who have houses and lands of their own, two or three wives, and perhaps a slave or two to work for them ; they are in fact the yeomanry of the country. The fishermen,...
Page 467 - Leone, and, what is remarkable, has the same name in every part of the west coast. The Ordeal Tree noticed in Professor Smith's journal under the name of Cassa, and in Captain Tuckey's narrative erroneously called a species of Cassia, if not absolutely the same plant as the Red Water Tree of Sierra Leone,8 and as it is said also of the Gold Coast, belongs at least to the same genus.
Page 354 - The winter,' says Carli, • of the kingdom of Congo, is the mild spring or autumn of Italy ; it is not subject to rains, but every morning there falls a dew which fertilizes the earth.' None of the party make any complaint of the climate ; they speak, on the contrary, in their notes and memoranda, of the cool, dry, and refreshing atmosphere, especially after the western breezes set in, which they usually do an hour or two after the sun has passed the meridian, and continue till midnight ; and when...
Page 343 - Tuckey's unelaborated notes give the opinion that the "extraordinarily quiet rise of the river shows it to issue from some lake, which had received almost the whole of its waters from the north of the line;" and again, he says, "I cannot help thinking that the Congo will be found to issue from some large lake or chain of lakes, considerably to northward of the equator." The reason of Tuckey's supposition that the lakes, which evidently maintain the volume of water...
Page lix - But his benevolence 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...
Page 346 - This idea of a lake seems to have arisen from the " extraordinary quiet rise" of the river, which was from three to six inches in twenty-four hours, Jf the rise of the Zaire had proceeded from rains to the southward of the line, swelling the tributary streams and pouring in mountain torrents the waters into the main channel, the rise would have been sudden, and impetuous, but coming on as it did in a quiet and regular manner, it could proceed only from the gradual overflowing of a lake.
Page 348 - ... subsequently, I could almost walk on board dryshod, when near high-water. I lived for some time afterwards in the expectation that the hole beneath us would, some day, fill up again with a similar shaking ; but it did not happen while I remained in the country. The space through which the shocks were felt, was three hundred miles in length, and one hundred and fifty in breadth, including the main ridge of the Andes. " It plucked the seated hills with all their load.
Page 103 - It was vain attempting to convey to this sage prince, any idea of the objects of the expedition. The terms which express science, and an enlightened curiosity, did not excite in his mind a single idea, and he rang continual changes on the questions : — Are you come to trade ? and are you come to make war ? being unable to conjecture any other motive.