vinegar; Tuckey much better. Sloop
arrives; reason of not joining before, does not beat well.

"September 24th.--Cloudy morning; small rain. _Dorothy_ sets up her
rigging. Set sail on _Dorothy_, but she could not stem the current,
which is very strong. The corporal, Middleton, is the only man out of
the sick list.

"September 25th.--Cloudy morning; land breeze until noon. Two bottles
of wine were stolen from the sick last night. _Congo_ in sight, and
schooner, the latter coming up the river; anchored here. Removed all
the sick from the sloop to the _Dorothy_.

"September 26th.--Grey morning. Paid our blacks, and as soon as we
weighed turned them adrift in the large canoe. Weighed and worked
round Sharks' Point; felt quite happy when to the westward of it. On
the 5th July we entered the _Congo_, and since then thirteen of our
party have died and one has been drowned. Sick generally better;
seventeen on the list. Tuckey hailed for assistance previous to our
weighing; talks of giving up charge."

On September 30th Lieutenant Hawkey enters the death of Lethbridge and
of Eyre.

On October 1st enters: "Taken very unwell myself--universal debility
and slight headache.

"October 2nd.--Cloudy. Standing to the west all day. Very unwell.

"October 3rd.--Cloudy, with swell. Still very unwell. Swallow caught."

This is the last entry in the diary. On the day following Captain Tuckey
died; and on October 6th Lieutenant Hawkey's own name was added to the
fatal list of those who perished in this most disastrous expedition. In
all eighteen died in the short space of less than three months during
which they remained in the river, or within a few days after leaving it.
Fourteen of these were of the party that had set out on the land journey
above Juga; the other four were attacked on board the _Congo_; two had
died on the passage out, and the sergeant of marines in the hospital at
Bahia, making the total of deaths amount to twenty-one.

This great mortality is the more extraordinary, as it appears from
Captain Tuckey's journal that