“I sent immediately to the governor of thetown to acquaint him with what had happened, and to desire he would point out a spot where I might bury my friend, and also to have people to watch the body and dig the grave, which was speedily complied with. I had dead cloths made from some turbans that were intended as presents, and as we travelled as Englishmen and servants of his Majesty, I considered it my most indispensable duty to read the service of the dead over the grave, according to the rites of the Church of England, which happily was not objected to, but, on the contrary, I was paid a good deal of respect for so doing. I then bought two sheep, which were killed and given to the poor, and I had a clay wall built round the grave, to preserve it from beasts of prey.” It is added to this account (inserted in the “Narrative,” &c.) of the death and funeral, substantially the same as that given above, that “Thus died Walter Oudney, M.D., a man of unassuming deportment, pleasing manners, stedfast perseverance, and undaunted enterprise; while his mind was fraught at once with knowledge, virtue, and religion,”—a statement which accurately describes his character. In personal appearance, we may remark, that in stature he was of the middle size, slightly made, with a pale complexion, and grave and benevolent expression of countenance.
It will naturally be asked—since Dr. Oudney was of a temper of mind so active and enterprising, as well as possessed of so muchphysical science—why he has contributed so little to the elucidation of the central parts of Africa which he visited? We are sorry we are unable to solve this problem, having found it impossible to obtain any farther information on the subject than is contained in the volume of Travels, published (1826) in the name of the three persons who formed the mission, namely, Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney. Denham, in speaking of the materials of the volume in question says, that the only papers of Oudney’s placed in his hands, were “an itinerary from Mourzuk to Bornou,” and “An excursion to the westward of Mourzuk.” The latter is printed at the end of the “Introductory Chapter;” but of the former, only a few mineralogical notes are given. There is not a doubt, however, but that a vast mass of materials illustrative of the districts visited, were collected by Dr. Oudney, although it is now impossible to say what has become of them. Mr. Barrow asserts that he was labouring under a pectoral complaint when he left England; and that the disorder was increased by this journey to Ghaat, and he would thereby insinuate that, during the greater part of the time he lived in Africa, he was rendered unfit, by bodily weakness, for keeping regular journals. Now, none of his most intimate friends had the least suspicion that he was troubled with any disease of the breast. His chest, instead of being contracted, was broad and ample; and, in ascendingthe hills of his native land, and the equally difficult common stairs of Edinburgh, the lightness of his figure, and the activity of his habits, always enabled him to outrun the longest-winded, and the supplest-jointed of his companions; and certainly nothing mentioned in the letters which we have published would lead to the inference that he did not enjoy the most perfect health till after he had been a considerable length of time in Bornou. It is likewise quite clear that he was not of a character to neglect any duty which the situation in which he was placed imposed upon him; and so we repeat, that a great deal of valuable information must have been collected by him, although it is to be feared it is now irrecoverably lost. It is to be regretted, moreover, that his premature death rendered the term of his service too short to warrant government to make some provision for his sisters, now orphans, and one of them in a bad state of health.
MEMOIROFCAPTAIN HUGH CLAPPERTON,THEAFRICAN TRAVELLER.
MEMOIROFCAPTAIN HUGH CLAPPERTON,THEAFRICAN TRAVELLER.
Thelife of Captain Hugh Clapperton, who died in his second attempt to explore the interior of Africa, was short, but very eventful. Not only did he possess a frame and constitution, both of body and mind, well fitted for a career of active exertion and romantic enterprise; but from the day of his birth to that of his death, it was his lot to endure, with almost no interruption, a painful succession of hardships and privations, or to be engaged in scenes and pursuits of a nature so perilous as to put existence itself in constant and imminent jeopardy. And had any record of these things been kept, either by himself or by any one else, who might chance to know even a tithe of the manifold dangers to which he was exposed, and the bold, and sometimes rash enterprises in which he was engaged, a narrative might thence have been composed, alltrue to the letter, and yet as full of wonderful and diversified incident, as well as of fearless and daring action, as ever flowed from the pen of the most creative genius in fictitious history—all modified by the child-like simplicity and generous nobleness of heart, combined with unbending integrity, unshrinking courage, and indomitable fortitude, in the character of him, whose fortunes in life they formed, and whose achievements in the discharge of duty they exhibited. But no such record was kept, except, while he lived, in our hero’s own retentive memory; and therefore, now that he is dead, some of the most marvellous passages of his life must remain in the deep oblivion in which they have been buried. We are assured by the friends with whom he lived in the closest intimacy, that when, like Othello, he was questioned respecting the story of his life from year to year; the battles, sieges, fortunes, that he had past; he would, with a fine flow of good humour, and an interesting detail of particulars, run it through even from his boyish days, down to the time when he was desired to tell it; and then, like the enamoured Moor, it was his hint to speak of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood or field;Of hair-breadth ’scapes in the imminent deadly breach;Of being taken by the insolent foe,And sold to slavery; of his redemption thence,With all his travel’s history.
Of moving accidents by flood or field;Of hair-breadth ’scapes in the imminent deadly breach;Of being taken by the insolent foe,And sold to slavery; of his redemption thence,With all his travel’s history.
Of moving accidents by flood or field;Of hair-breadth ’scapes in the imminent deadly breach;Of being taken by the insolent foe,And sold to slavery; of his redemption thence,With all his travel’s history.
Of moving accidents by flood or field;
Of hair-breadth ’scapes in the imminent deadly breach;
Of being taken by the insolent foe,
And sold to slavery; of his redemption thence,
With all his travel’s history.
But these narratives of his adventures were given by Clapperton for the sole end of entertaining his friends when they met for the mere purpose of social intercourse and convivial enjoyment; and, therefore, those friends can now give but a very indistinct account of what “by parcels they had something heard,” without any intention of detailing it again, unless in the same way and for the same purpose it had been told to themselves. Hence the early and professional life of our traveller can never be well known, except that part of it which he has embodied in the published journals of his expeditions to Africa. And not only are the incidents of his life during the time he was a sailor imperfectly known, but even of those parts of it respecting which we have obtained some vague information, we have different versions of the same story considerably at variance with one another; so that, amid their discrepancy, it is difficult to select the facts and circumstances relative to the life of our hero which are genuine and free from defect on the one side, and exaggeration on the other. No memoir of his life has yet appeared at all worthy of him. We have seen in one periodical an atrocious libel upon his memory, the emanation evidently of a mean and malignant spirit. Any newspaper notices of him which have been printed are meagre in the extreme; and the “Short Sketch” which is prefixed to the “Journal of his Second Expedition,” and purporting to be thework of his uncle, a colonel of marines, although the best account of him which has yet appeared, contains exceedingly little that is really interesting. Such being the lack of materials, we regret much that we shall not be able to produce a “Memoir” adequate to the subject; but we can assure our readers that we have used all diligence to obtain the most accurate and ample information which can now be had, and shall therefore proceed to submit it to their candid consideration.
In one of the short notices which have been published of the traveller’s life, it is stated that the “family of Clapperton is ancient, and not without celebrity in the north of Scotland. The name,” it is added, “has been distinguished both in the church and in the field; and in proof of this we are told that a Bishop Clapperton is buried in the island called Inchcolm, in the Firth of Forth; while another individual of the same name is mentioned in the history of Sweden as having been a field-marshall in the army of that country. We cannot tell whether the prelate or the soldier is to be regarded as belonging to the family whence the African traveller was descended; but it unquestionably was highly respectable, both in point of antiquity and of its station insociety. His grandfather, Robert Clapperton, was a doctor of medicine, whose professional studies were pursued by him first at the University of Edinburgh, and afterwards among the hospitals in Paris. On his return to his own country he married Miss Elizabeth Campbell, a near relation of Campbell of Glenlyon, and settled at the town of Lochmaben, in Dumfries-shire, as a medical practitioner. He is said to have been a good classical scholar, and much attached to the study of antiquity; and while he excelled in the tracing of genealogies, in the collecting of coins and songs, with the view of illustrating border history, he was highly esteemed as a skilful physician. He had two sons, the younger of whom chose the army as his profession, and is now a lieutenant-colonel of marines; but George, the elder of the two, adopted that of his father; and having previously obtained an adequate professional education, he settled as a surgeon in the town of Annan, Dumfries-shire. He was long the only medical practitioner of repute in that place; and the numerous operations and cures which he performed proved the means both of increasing his practice and extending his fame. While still young, he married a daughter of Johnstone of Thornythwaite, by whom he had fourteen children, Hugh, who afterwards became the African traveller, being the tenth. The mother of this numerous family, who is described as beautiful, amiable and accomplished,died in the thirty-ninth year of her age, leaving behind her seven sons and a daughter, Hugh being the youngest of these surviving sons, and consequently a mere infant. And to enhance the greatness of the bereavement which he had sustained in the loss of his mother, his father speedily afterwards married a second wife, whom his friends regarded as a woman of inferior station to that which he and his family occupied. At the time when this second marriage took place, most of the sons had left their father’s house, to engage elsewhere in the active pursuits of life, and the girl had been taken away by her mother’s relations; but the subject of this memoir and some of his younger brothers, were left at home to encounter the stern control of a stepmother—a species of government at best far from being desirable, but in the case of the young Clappertons, rendered peculiarly arbitrary and despotic, from the concurrence of a variety of incidental circumstances. In the first place, their stepmother, conscious that she was deemed by the friends of the family an unsuitable match for their father, must have been haunted incessantly by a feeling, not at all likely to soothe and sweeten her temper, or fitted to dispose her to regard the children of the former marriage with any considerable degree of complacency; by a feeling not likely to lead her to watch over such of them as were subject to her management with any very vigilant attention,to make her extremely solicitous about their comfort or improvement, or to visit them with a treatment any way marked by kind and tender affection. In the second place, she soon had children of her own, and these, by degrees, increased, till they amounted to the number of seven; and it will readily be allowed, that her own offspring were naturally fitted more strongly to engage her affections and to engross her solicitude, than those children with whom she had only an adventitious relationship. And in the third place, it would appear that Dr. Clapperton himself, the father of the African traveller, was not by any means so attentive to the interests of his immense family as he ought to have been; for his brother, the colonel, says of him, “He might have made a fortune, but unfortunately he was, like his father, careless of money;” and we believe the fact cannot be denied; nor, moreover, can it be disguised that the condition into which he fell in his latter days was owing, partly at least, to a culpable neglect of his professional duties.[3]When, therefore, it is considered that as his father advanced in years, his circumstances in life so much declined, as at last to reduce him into a state of abject indigence,—while at the same time his family was constantly increasing in number, and that it wasthe melancholy lot of our traveller to lose his mother in his infancy, and so scarcely ever to have had the happiness to experience the soothing and heart-impressive influence of maternal tenderness and maternal care, but, on the contrary, to be placed at that tender age under the care and control of a stepmother,—it will be abundantly obvious that his life commenced under the most unpropitious auspices that can well be imagined.
He was born in the year 1788, and was, as we have seen, soon after placed under the charge of a stepmother, by whom it is said he was not only neglected, but treated with harshness and cruelty; and hence throughout his life stepmothers were regarded by him with a feeling of unconquerable horror.[4]The accounts which he occasionally gave his companions of the sufferings of his youth, arising from the causes which have been specified, were appalling. In reference to them, an enemy, who, however, seems tohave been in possession of accurate information on the subject, says, that while a schoolboy, “the climate of Lapland and that of Timbuctoo alternated several times in the course of a day—a species of seasoning, or rathercase-hardening, that must go far to render him invulnerable on the sultry banks of the Joliba.” And one of the most intimate of his friends thus speaks of them in a letter now before us: “How can the hardships and privations of his early life be touched upon without hurting the feelings of relatives? These had much better be buried in oblivion, although they tended to form the man hardy and self-denying.” When he was a boy, he was nearly drowned in the Annan; and on that occasion he used to say, that he felt as if a calm and pleasing sleep was stealing over his senses, and thought that gay and beautifully painted streamers were attached to his legs and arms, and that thereby he was buoyed out into the sea; but he always declared that he experienced no pain until efforts were making to restore him to a state of animation. At this time he was an expert swimmer, having been previously taught that useful art by his brothers; but he had exhausted his strength by continuing too long in the water. When the alarm of his danger was given by some one to his father, he hastened to the spot, plunged in, and found his son in a sitting posture in very deep water.
Among the injuries of his early life, that ofa neglected education was none of the least. He was taught the ordinary acquirements of reading, writing, and arithmetic, which are generally imparted to the lowest classes of the Scottish youth; but he was never initiated into a knowledge of the classic authors of Greece and Rome. Under Mr. Bryce Downie, however, a celebrated teacher of geometry in the town of Annan, he acquired a practical knowledge of mathematics, including navigation and trigonometry, and afterwards, by means of his own application, he acquired many other branches of useful and ornamental knowledge, and excelled especially in drawing.[5]
He very early discovered a strong propensity for this latter accomplishment, so that, with the aid of a few instructions from his father, who excelled in the knowledge of geography, he could sketch a map of Europe,while still a child in frocks, with chalk on the floor. His love of foreign travel and romantic adventure, were likewise very soon manifested in the delight which he took in listening to his father, while he pointed out the likely situation of the “North West passage” to him and his brothers on the globe; in the enthusiasm which he displayed, when told by his father that he might be the destined discoverer of that long sought for route from Europe to Eastern Asia; and also in the avidity with which he devoured books of voyages and travels of all descriptions whenever they fell in his way.
The circumstance of his entering upon a seafaring life is variously reported. By one account we are assured that his situation at home being so unpleasant, he became so thoroughly disgusted with his father’s house, that he left it clandestinely, and went on board the first vessel in the harbour of Annan that was willing to receive him. By his anonymous and unfriendly biographer, it is said that he was promoted to the rank of an apprentice to a coasting sloop of Maryport, commanded by Captain John Smith, and that soon afterwards he was again promoted to the rank of cook’s mate on board his majesty’s tender in the harbour of Liverpool. His uncle’s account, in the sketch of his life prefixed to the Journal of his Second African Expedition, is, that on leaving Mr. Downie, at the age of thirteen, he was, by his own desire, bound anapprentice to the owner of a vessel of considerable burden trading between Liverpool and North America: that after making several voyages in that vessel, he either left her or was impressed into his Majesty’s service, and put on board the tender lying at Liverpool. It is clear, from all these accounts, that Captain Clapperton commenced his naval career as a common sailor boy—a situation which implies hard duty and rough usage; yet, as is testified by the following well authenticated anecdote, this, with all he had previously endured, was unable to break his spirit, or to subdue the dignified feelings of a noble nature. As soon as he had joined the trading vessel in which he first sailed, he was told that one piece of duty which he had to perform on board was to brush his captain’s boots and shoes. This he positively refused to do, adding, that he was most willing to take his full share of the hardest work which belonged to the loading, the unloading, or the working of the ship; but to the menial drudgery of cleaning boots and shoes he certainly would not submit. After he had for a short time served on board several trading vessels, he was impressed into his Majesty’s service at Liverpool; and in 1806 he was sent to Gibraltar in a navy transport.[6]The idea, however,of having been placed on board a man-of-war by force, and retained there as a prisoner, was so galling to his nature—to a spirit panting and struggling to be free—that he formed the resolution (one most difficult to be put in practice) of deserting whenever the opportunity of doing so should occur: and such was the reckless daring of his disposition, that, watching the time when he was least observed by his messmates before the mast, he actually threw himself headlong overboard, and swam towards a Gibraltar privateer—a vessel of that class which, during the late war, were usually calledrock scorpionsby our sailors. He was taken on board the privateer, and so for a short time he was the associate of an abandoned and a lawless set of robbers. But he was soon disgusted with their regardless,savage and brutal manners, and so embraced the first opportunity of leaving them, and of going again into the merchant service. While, however, he was on board the Rock Scorpion, she had sustained an engagement, in which our hero was severely wounded by a grape-shot—an accident by which his body was seamed and scarred in a frightful manner, and which, had it happened to his face or his limbs, must have rendered him deformed or lame for life.
After he had left the privateer he was soon discovered, and brought back to the Renommée frigate as a deserter. It is mentioned in the “Sketch,” which says nothing of the rock scorpion adventure, that when Clapperton first joined the Renommée frigate, which was commanded by Sir Thomas Livingstone, having heard that his uncle, a captain of marines on board his Majesty’s ship Saturn, which had arrived at Gibraltar for the purpose of watering and refitting, he sent him a letter describing his situation on board the Renommée; that his uncle having previously been a messmate of her captain, Sir Thomas Livingstone, interfered with him in behalf ofhis nephew, and through his interest got him promoted to the rank of a midshipman.[7]All we can say to this statement is, that Clapperton himself, whose heart was most grateful, never spoke of a letter he had written to his uncle, nor that he was in any way indebted to that gentleman for his promotion in the navy. He seems never to have seen his uncle till he met him in London after he had engaged to go with Dr. Oudney to Africa. In a letter to a friend, dated London, 1st September 1821, he says, “my uncle has been to see me several times, and was truly kind. He is a perfect gentleman, without any nonsense.” Now, the correspondent to whom he thus writes,declares that Clapperton never mentioned to him that he had ever written to his uncle, soliciting his interest in his favour, or that he was in any respect indebted to him, in the first instance, for his promotion in the navy. But while he said nothing to his friend of his uncle in connexion with this matter, he frequently gave him a most circumstantial and graphic description of the manner in which this promotion took place. And as it is in keeping with the rest of the romantic and eventful life of our hero, and, above all, as it is his own account, we hasten to lay it before our readers.
When he was apprehended as a deserter, and brought back to his old birth on board the Renommée, his captain, Sir Thomas Livingstone, having previously observed that he possessed a strength of body, a robustness of constitution, and a fearless daringness of spirit, which might be turned to good account in the naval service, which, at that time required to be sustained and strengthened by attaching to it men of such mental and bodily qualities as these, asked the deserter, if he should pardon his delinquency, and raise him to the rank of a midshipman, would he give him his solemn pledge, that he would no more desert, but do his duty faithfully? Clapperton, with the bold and dauntless air and bearing of the captive British prince, who “had been the admiration, the terror of the Romans,” when led in triumph through the streets of the mighty capital, still “walked thewarrior, majestic in his chains,” replied that he was not yet prepared to give a final and decisive answer to such a question, and therefore asked time to consider on what he should determine. “Are you not aware, Sir,” rejoined the captain, “that I can order you to be flogged as a deserter?” “That I know you can do, and I expect no less,” was our hero’s reply, “but still I am unprepared at present to decide on your proposal.” The result, however, of this extraordinary conversation was, that the captain ordered him into solitary confinement, with an admonition to lose no time in coming to a speedy determination as to the course which he should adopt. In this situation his reflections took a wise and a prudent turn, and led him quickly to resolve to give his generous captain the assurance of fidelity which he required of him; and, on doing so, he was promoted to the rank of a midshipman on board the Renommée frigate, where he had first served as an impressed sailor boy, and on the deck of which he had stood in the capacity of an apprehended deserter. Afterwards, on his own request, he was allowed to go on shore during a specified period of time, on hisparoleof honour. It is very true the account of his promotion through his uncle’s interference in his behalf accords better with the ordinary course of things in such proceedings than that stated above. But we think, that if Clapperton had been aware that he wasindebted to his uncle on this occasion he would not have concealed the fact from his friends; and likewise we think, that the disparity of his condition as a common sailor, and that of his uncle as a captain of marines, would have been sufficient to deter him from making himself known to his uncle, or asking any thing from him. For though his feelings of honour sometimes rested on mistaken principles, they were always very sensitive; and so we are decidedly of opinion, that in the circumstances of this case he would have felt equally unwilling to expose his own servile condition to his uncle, and to compromise his uncle’s dignity by making the captain of marines appear the near kinsman of the common sailor. We happen to know a case in point which illustrates this view of the matter. During the late war, one of the sons of a gentleman in Argyleshire, absconded from his father’s house, and for a while it was unknown where he had gone, till he was discovered by one of his brothers, a captain in the army, as a common sailor on board a man-of-war. The captain instigated by fraternal affection, was anxious to procure an interview with his brother, and so sent him a note, informing him where he was, and expressing his earnest desire that he would endeavour to meet him on shore. The answer to this kind and brotherly invitation was an expression of wounded pride. “If,” said the sailor, “Captain M. has any business to transact with Donald M. let him come onboard H. M. S——— and transact it there.” And we think Clapperton would have been apt to feel and act nearly in the same manner in the circumstances in which he and his uncle were relatively situated on board the Renommée frigate, and the ship Saturn; though at the same time, it is not unlikely that Sir Thomas Livingstone having discovered his deserter’s connexion with his old messmate, was disposed not only to remit his punishment, but likewise to give him the chance of retrieving his honour and of benefiting his country. Neither do we think it is the least unlikely that Sir Thomas and Captain Clapperton may have had mutual communications respecting our hero, but we can see no reason for believing that he was in any way made privy to them, but many to make us believe the contrary. Now raised to the rank of a midshipman, he performed some hard service on the coast of Spain, in which he was wounded on the head—a wound which, though it seemed apparently slight, afterwards gave him much annoyance. He remained on board the Renommée, and under the command of Sir Thomas Livingstone, to whom he was so deeply indebted, till the year 1808, when the frigate was brought to England and paid off.[8]
When Clapperton left the Renommée frigate, and his generous captain, Sir Thomas Livingstone, to whom he was indebted for his first step of promotion in the Royal Navy, he is said to have joined his Majesty’s ship Venerable, (or, as others say, the San Domingo,) which then lay in the Downs under the command of Captain King. But as this was a situation too monotonous and inactive for his enterprising spirit, he volunteered to go with Captain Briggs, to the East Indies, in the Clorinde frigate. Though, however, his services were accepted, he could not obtain his discharge in time to make his voyage to India in the Clorinde; and so he was deprived of the pleasure of getting acquainted, in the course of it, with those with whom he was ultimatelyto be associated as his messmates. But as tranships and convoys were frequently sailing from England to the east, he was ordered by the Admiral to have a passage on board one of them, and to join Captain Briggs on his arrival in India.
In the course of this outward voyage, he was ordered, during the raging of a tremendous storm, to go, in an open barge, to the relief of a vessel in distress. The barge was accordingly manned, but the mighty rolling of the billows chaffed and vexed with the furious raging of the tempest, was such, that Clapperton and many others on board the ship in which he sailed, were of opinion, that it was next to impossible an open boat could live during the blowing of so heavy a gale. In this emergency, Clapperton said, that it was not for him to dispute the orders of his superior officer, but that he was thoroughly convinced that in doing his duty he must sacrifice his life. Then, in serious mood and sailor-like fashion, he made his will, bequeathing any little property he had among his messmates—his kit to one, his quadrant to another, and his glass and watch to a third—adding, that in all probability they should never meet again, and requesting them to keep these articles, trifling as they were, in token of his affection for them. Then he jumped into the barge, which, in spite of all that the most skillful seamanship could accomplish, had scarcely left the side of the ship, when she was upset, andthe greater part of her crew engulfed in the awfully agitated waters. Clapperton, however, and a few other individuals, still clung to the sides of the floating wreck; and though their perilous situation was distinctly seen from the ship, no assistance could be afforded to them, so long as the tempest continued to rage with so much violence. In the mean time, Clapperton, while he was careful to preserve his own life, did his utmost, and more than perhaps any other man would have ventured to do in like circumstances, to save the lives of his companions in distress. As they, one by one, lost their hold of the barge, and dropped off into the sea, he swam after them, picked them up, and replaced them in their former situation. He was especially anxious to save the life of a warrant officer, the boatswain of the ship, we believe. This man he several times rescued when he was on the point of sinking, and restored him to the barge. By these efforts, Clapperton’s strength, great as it was, soon became nearly exhausted, and while with difficulty he was bringing the boatswain back to take a fresh hold of the boat, and while at the same time he was crying, “Oh, what will become of my wife and children,” Clapperton coolly observed, that he had better pay some attention to his own safety at present, otherwise he must, however reluctantly, leave him to his fate. This man was drowned, as well as every one else who had left the ship in the barge, except Clapperton and the bowman,whom our hero cheered by saying, “Thank heaven neither you nor I is the Jonah,” intimating, by this marine proverb, that it was not for the punishment of their bad conduct that the tempest had been sent; and at the same time advised him tobob, that is, to lay himself flat, when he saw a wave approaching, so that he might not be washed off the barge.
Long prior to this signal occurrence, in which our hero showed so much of the boldness of determined courage, united with the gentle feelings of compassion, he had become a general favourite both with the officers and men. His stately form, his noble bearing, his kind, frank, and manly demeanour, had endeared him to all on board the ship in which he served. But a man is often the last to know the sentiments entertained of him by others to whom he is known; and indeed, seldom knows them at all, unless when they happen to be revealed to him by accidental circumstances. And hence, as Clapperton was hoisted on board the ship, in an exhausted state, after being rescued from the perilous situation in which he had so long struggled for his life, he had his feelings strongly excited, on hearing the wives of the Scottish soldiers on board exclaiming, “Thank heaven, it is na our ain kintryman, the bonny muckle midshipman that’s drownded after a’!”
It may reasonably be supposed, that the gallantry and humanity which Clapperton hadso conspicuously displayed on this trying occasion, would tend to deepen the esteem in which he was held by all on board, and especially that it would be the means of securing for him the admiration, the affection, and the friendship of many kindred spirits connected with the navy—a service so long and so eminently distinguished for firmness of purpose and nobleness of disposition. Accordingly, when Clapperton arrived in India, and when his gallantry was made known, he received the greatest attention from Captain Briggs,[9]during the whole of the time he continued under his command; and among other friendships which he formed with officers of his own standing, was one of peculiar intimacy and tenderness, with Mr. Mackenzie, the youngest son of the late Lord Seaforth. It happened that this amiable and noble youth became, in that distant region, the victim of a dangerous disease; and during the whole of his illness, Clapperton, his newly acquired friend, unless when the avocations of professional duty called him hence, never left him; but continued to amuse and nurse him with the affectionate assiduity of a loving brother, till he was so far recovered as to be able to resume his public duty. After Mackenzie was in some degree restored to health, he continuedto be depressed in spirits, and in that state became careless of his person and of every thing else, thinking, like most hypochondriacs, that death was fast approaching to deliver him from all his sufferings. When under the influence of these feelings—afflicted indeed both in mind and body—he was by no means a desirable companion, and in truth was shunned by most of the young officers on board the Clorinde. But Clapperton, whose benevolent heart would not permit him to witness a fellow-creature, and still less a countryman and a friend an object of unfeeling neglect, redoubled his attentions to the forlorn youth. He read with him daily such books of instruction and amusement as either of them had in their possession, or could procure the perusal of from the other officers. He endeavoured to inspire him with the sentiments befitting his rank as the lineal descendant of a noble family, and with a sense of the duties incumbent upon him as an officer of the British navy. He talked to him of Scotland, and relations, and home. He entertained him with amusing anecdotes, of which he possessed an inexhaustible fund, and by relating to him the numerous vicissitudes and strange adventures of his own early life. And such was the happy effect produced upon the health and spirits of his young friend, that he was able to resume his duty on board the Clorinde, and to enjoy and return the cordialfriendship which he experienced from Clapperton.
Though we believe, that the officers of the British navy are, perhaps, more distinguished for simplicity of feeling and openness of heart, than the men belonging to any other profession whatsoever; yet, it would appear, that some of the officers of the Clorinde had given entertainment in their breasts to the green-eyed monster, Envy. And hence, when they observed the close intimacy which subsisted between Clapperton and Mackenzie, and the kind attention which, during his illness, the latter experienced from the former, they said among themselves, but loud enough to be heard by Clapperton, “The canny Scotsman knows what he is about, by attaching himself so closely to a sprig of nobility; he courts his favour that he may use him as his instrument for obtaining promotion.” The effect of these injurious whisperings upon the mind of our hero was, in the first instance, to cause him to make a great sacrifice of feeling to the injury both of himself and his friend. He withdrew all attention from Mackenzie, and ceased, not only to keep company with him, but even to speak to him when they met. Mackenzie, in utter ignorance as to the cause of the change which had so suddenly taken place in the conduct of Clapperton towards him, after having puzzled and perplexed his mind in conjecturing in what way he had given such deadly offenceto his friend, as to make him behave in the manner he was doing, at last mustered courage, fairly to ask him, why he had of late treated him with so much coldness and distance? On this, Clapperton, with his feelings strongly excited, stated to his friend what had been said among their shipmates, of the interested motives which had been attributed to him, as the cause of what they had represented as pretended friendship on his part. “But,” he added, “my dear Mackenzie, I have been wrong to punish both myself and you, in listening to these most false and injurious speeches. And henceforth let the best of them beware how they use them in future; for the first man whom I detect doing so, must do it at the risk of his life.” As this hint was pretty publicly intimated on the part of Clapperton, his friendship for Mackenzie suffered no interruption afterwards, so long as they served together in the same ship. But the disease which he had caught returned upon him again, and after causing him to linger for some time as an invalid, he was sent to his friends, with little hope of his recovery; nor indeed had he been long at home, till he died. While, however, he lay upon his death-bed, he spoke with all the enthusiasm of sincere and warm friendship, of the kind attentions he had received from Clapperton when ill and far from home; and entreated his relations, and especially his mother, to discharge the debt of gratitude which he owed him, bytreating him as a son, in requital of his having, so long as he had it in his power, treated him as his brother.
We have not been able to obtain any satisfactory information respecting the nature of the naval service in which Clapperton was employed in India, nor of the exploits of seamanship and prowess which he performed while he was on that station, except in one instance, which is well worthy of being recorded to his honour. When we stormed Port Louis, in the Isle of France, he was the first man who advanced into the breach; and it was he who pulled down the colours of France, and planted those of Britain in their place. And we know that his conduct was in all respects worthy of the rank which he had obtained in a manner so unique, and such as entitled him to expect his turn of promotion in due course. He continued in India from the early part of 1810 till the latter end of 1813, when he returned to England. He had not been long at home, when he was draughted, along with a select number of midshipmen, for the purpose of being sent to Portsmouth, to be instructed by Angelo, the famous fencing-master, in the cutlass exercise, with the view of introducing that mode of defence and attack into the navy. These young men, when perfected in the art, were distributed through the fleet, as teachers of the young officers and men. Clapperton, being an apt pupil, soon excelled in this exercise, and when his companions were distributedthrough the fleet as drill-masters, he was sent to the Asia, the flag ship of Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, then lying at Spithead.
While he taught Angelo’s sword-exercise on board the Asia, he volunteered his services for the lakes of Canada, in the expedition which was sent to that novel scene of naval enterprise towards the beginning of the year 1814. In the voyage from England to Bermuda[10]he continuedto act as a drill-master on board the Asia; and though, as yet, he had obtained no higher rank than that of midshipman, such was the respect in which he was held, and the deference paid to him, that in most respects he was treated as if he had been a lieutenant. He was now a tall and handsome young man, with great breadth of chest and expansion of shoulders, and possessing withal a mild temper and the kindest dispositions. Along with his other duties he drilled the young officers and men on deck, whenever the weather permitted, and when amusement was the order of the day, he was the life and soul of the crew; he was an excellent table companion, he could tell humourous tales, and his conversationwas extremely amusing; he painted scenes for the ship’s theatricals, sketched views, drew caricatures, and so he was much beloved and respected by all, to whose amusement he so largely contributed.
The following incident affords a striking proof of the almost invincible hardiness of his constitution, for which he was indebted partly to the bounty of nature, and partly to the privations and habits of his early life. Having bidden adieu to the flag ship, on which he had acted so conspicuous a part, and taken his passage to Halifax, with the view of thence proceeding to the lakes, he was sent along with others to perform some service on the horrid coast of Labrador, and being there cast away while in a long boat, all the individuals who were along with him at the time were so severely frost bitten that some of them died, and the rest were lame for life, while he escaped with only losing the power of the first joint of his left hand thumb, which ever after continued crooked, and on that account used to be called “Hooky,” both by himself and his friends.
He was sent, along with a party of five hundred men, from Halifax to join Sir James Yeo, who, at that time, had the command upon the Lakes. As this journey was performed in winter, when the river St. Lawrence is frozen over, and of course when the water communication is suspended, it was both tedious and toilsome. The men marched on foot, firstto Quebec, and then to the lakes, while the baggage was dragged after them insleighs. Soon after his arrival on the lakes, he and a small party of men were appointed to defend a blockhouse on the coast of Lake Ontario; but he had not been long in this situation when the blockhouse, which had only one small gun for its defence, was attacked by a superior American force, by which it was speedily demolished; and when Clapperton and his men were left no other alternative but to become prisoners of war, or to cross the ice to York, the capital of Upper Canada, a distance of sixty or seventy miles. Frightful as the attempt was, in their destitute and forlorn circumstances, the journey was instantly resolved upon. But the party had not advanced more than ten or twelve miles, when a boy, one of the number, lay down on the ice unable to proceed farther, on account of the cold, and his previous fatigue. The sailors declared, each in his turn, that they were so benumbed with cold, and so exhausted by wading through the newly fallen snow, that it was with difficulty they could support themselves, and so could afford no assistance to the poor unfortunate boy. On this trying occasion the strong benevolence of Clapperton’s character was strikingly manifested. His nature was too generous to suffer him for a moment to endure the idea of leaving a fellow-creature inevitably to perish under such appalling circumstances; for as it was snowingat the time, it was quite evident that the boy would, if left, have been quickly overwhelmed by the drift. Clapperton, therefore, took the boy upon his own back, and carried him about eight or nine miles, when he found that he had relaxed his hold, and on examining the cause, he was perceived to be in a dying state, and very soon after expired. The party then proceeded on their journey, and endured very great sufferings before they could reach York. Their shoes and stockings were completely worn off their feet; and the want of nourishment had dreadfully emaciated their bodies, as they had no provisions during the journey except a bag of meal. According to his uncle’s account, it was, while he was making generous efforts to save the boy, who fell a victim to the cold, that Clapperton lost the first joint of his thumb. His uncle says, “he took the boy upon his back, holding him with his left hand, and supported himself from slipping with a staff in his right;” and adds, “that from the long inaction of his left hand in carrying the boy upon his back, he lost, from the effects of the cold, his thumb joint.”—This is certainly a very probable account of the matter, and assigns a cause sufficiently adequate for effecting a greater bodily injury than the loss of part of a thumb. But, as we have great confidence in the information which we have received on the subject, we are inclined to adhere to the account which we have given above, namely, thatClapperton lost the joint of his thumb on the coast of Labrador, when his companions in distress lost their limbs and their lives. It is evident, moreover, that his uncle’s information on many points was neither very extensive nor very accurate. A glaring instance of inaccuracy is abundantly apparent in his account of this very journey over the ice, from the demolished blockhouse to York, the capital of Upper Canada. He asserts that this journey was performed from the coast of Lake Huron, across Lake Michigan, to the town of York—an exploit which any one, by slightly inspecting a map of North America, will instantly see is impossible to be accomplished.
After Sir Edward Owen was appointed to the command of the British naval force upon the Canadian lakes, he gave Clapperton an acting order as a lieutenant, and appointed him to the command of the Confiance schooner. This was a situation, which, as it implied more responsibility than any he had hitherto held, likewise allowed him a greater degree of liberty than he could have enjoyed, had he been assigned a birth on board of a vessel commanded by a superior officer. When, therefore, he had the command of the Confiance, he was in the habit of making excursions into the forests on the coast, both of lake Huron and lake Erie, for the purpose of shooting game. While engaged in these excursions, he cultivated an acquaintance withseveral of the Indian tribes. The romantic turn of his mind led him not only to delight to associate with those aboriginal inhabitants of America, but also to adopt their manners and customs, and even to acquire their language. He became a great favourite among them; for he sometimes treated them with feasts, and on these occasions they used to fire afeu de joiein honour of him as their benefactor. At one time, indeed, he entertained serious intentions of uniting himself to the Indians, marrying a princess, and thereby becoming a chief among them; and actually assumed the distinctive badge of the Huron nation. This romantic and foolish design was, however, soon relinquished; but the feasts which he had given to the chiefs led to deficiency in his accounts to the victualling department; and this deficiency was afterwards deducted from his half pay, and was the means of involving him in pecuniary difficulties, from which he was not altogether relieved till after his return from his first expedition from Africa.
But notwithstanding this fact, he was a most active, diligent, and efficient officer, while he served upon the lakes; so that it was the wish of Sir Edward Owen that the acting order which he had given him should be confirmed by the Board of Admiralty; and for this end Clapperton sent it to his uncle in London; but as the Board of Admiralty had just promoted a great number of naval officers, they refusedto confirm his commission at that time. It was the feeling of disappointment arising from this refusal which made him form the design of permanently connecting himself with the Indians. When he went on shore to visit his friends among these tribes, he did not always order a boat to be in attendance upon him to bring him on board; but when he regarded it as time to return, he used to plunge into the water with his clothes on, swim along side of the schooner, and hail the people on board to take him up. This rash mode of proceeding, however, nearly cost him his life; for on one occasion he encountered a strong current which bore him away from his own schooner, the Confiance; and it was with difficulty he could make himself be heard, as in distress, and unable to bear up against the stream, by the men on board the schooner commanded by Lieutenant Adam Gordon, who sent a boat to fetch him on board. This adventure put an end to the exploits of swimming to and from the vessel, when he had occasion to be on shore. While he served on the lakes, he was distinguished by another singular practice. In the midst of winter he was in the habit of causing the ice to be broken daily for the purpose of making an opening in which he might bathe. He used to say, he felt a shock when he first plunged into the cold water, but that this was followed by a pleasant glow. The place which was broken in the ice, for the indulgence of this luxury, was with great propriety designated“Clapperton’s bath,” as no one else chose to participate with him in this species of pleasure. Yet amidst all these singularities he never neglected his duty as an officer; he loved to keep the sailors upon the alert; and when herowed guard, he delighted to surprise the sentinels.
Like most other Scotsmen, when at a distance from their native land, he displayed a strong feeling ofamor patriæ, and was particularly attentive to any of his countrymen he happened to meet with abroad, a fact which perhaps laid the foundation of his attachment to Mackenzie. At any rate, when he was on the lakes, there happened to be some species of merry-making among the officers, when he met, for the first time, a gentleman from Edinburgh, belonging to the medical department. As he had a very youthful appearance, Clapperton supposed that he must be inexperienced, and from a sincere desire to be serviceable to him, he took him aside and advised him always to maintain his rights, gave him some sage advice about his dress, and decorated his right thigh with a brilliant, scarlet-coloured watch ribbon. This gentleman took all in good part, assumed the aspect of the greenhorn which Clapperton supposed him to be, and allowed him both to direct and decorate him as he pleased. But when he understood that he was of considerable standing in the service, he came to him and apologized for his mistake—a thing which was of course accepted, and the curious incident proved the commencementof a sincere and firm friendship on both sides.
When Sir Edward Owen returned to England towards the end of 1816, he got Clapperton’s commission confirmed. Previous to this he had been examined as to his knowledge of naval tactics, and the information which he had displayed both as a theoretical and practical seaman was highly satisfactory to his examinators. The manner especially in which he had kept his log-book, was the cause of procuring for him the greatest encomiums. It is the practice of the officers of his majesty’s ships to note down at noon, in their log-books, what sails the ships to which they respectively belong, then carry. And as Clapperton had a natural talent for drawing, which he had cultivated with care, instead of doing this in the ordinary way, he represented the state of his ship’s canvass, at the hour required, by a spirited sketch. He likewise shewed, by the ingenious efforts of his pencil, the different headlands and the peculiar appearance of the coasts, together with their harbours, noting at the same time their soundings, and the mode of approaching them. This log-book was so highly approved by his examinators, that theyasked him to allow them to transmit it to the Admiralty—a request which being readily granted, it was sent there, where it still remains. As Great Britain was now at peace with the whole world, Lieutenant Clapperton like many others was put on half pay, and soon afterwards returned to Edinburgh in 1817.
He had not been long in Edinburgh after his return from the Lakes, till he was surprised to hear himself inquired after by the attendants of an elegant equipage, which had stopped at his lodgings. This equipage proved to be that of Lady Seaforth, the mother of his respected friend Mackenzie, whom he had met in India. This lady, prompted by the feelings of gratitude with which she had been inspired by the account which her beloved son had given her with his dying breath, of the unremitting kindness and attention which he had experienced from Clapperton during his illness in India, had been very anxious to have a personal interview with him, that she might have an opportunity of expressing to him the obligations which his friendship for her son had laid upon her. For this end she had made many inquiries respecting him even at the Admiralty, and at length she discovered where he was to be found through means of her relative, Lieutenant Proby, and had come to call upon him. The name of Lady Seaforth speedily brought to his recollection the imputation of the interested motives to which his friendship for her son had been attributed, and at first he refused tosee her. He however, at that time lived with a gentleman—the same he had been so anxious should cut a respectable appearance among the officers on the Lakes—who represented to him the ill breeding and absurdity of refusing to see her ladyship, when she had done him the honour of waiting upon him. He then went into her ladyship’s presence, who being overpowered by her feelings, almost overwhelmed him with her kindness. After the occurrence of this scene, Clapperton was persuaded by the same gentleman, to accept of Lady Seaforth’s invitations to visit her at her own house. And from that period, during all the time he was in Edinburgh, he was a frequent guest and inmate there, and was uniformly treated with the greatest kindness, but he steadily and even resolutely refused to be in any way indebted to her ladyship beyond the common forms of hospitality. It was needless for the grateful lady to offer to exert her influence in his behalf in reference to promotion in his profession. Clapperton would not hear of such a thing. It was in vain that both she and her daughters urged him to accept of a gold watch, chain, and seals, to be worn by him as a token of the sense they entertained of his kindness towards the son and the brother of whom they had been bereaved. Our hero positively declined their generous offer, declaring that he had already a most capital watch, and had no occasion for another. Sometime afterwards her ladyship sent him a large package ofbooks, chiefly on religious subjects; these likewise he was determined to return, till it was represented to him that he must not only retain the books, but thank Lady Seaforth for sending them, with a promise to peruse them diligently, otherwise he would be regarded by her and her family as a downright heathen. The only other thing which he would accept from Lady Seaforth, was a lock of her son’s hair, which he received as a token of affection, and ever after wore in a locket about his person. He always declared that he had a sincere regard for Lady Seaforth, and was very much affected with her kindness, but such was the morbid sensitiveness of his nature on this point, cherished by the rankling recollection of what his messmates had unjustly said of him, that he was of opinion he could accept of nothing either from herself, or procured through her interest, without compromising his principles of honour and independence. How different is all this from the common ways of the world!
During the greater part of the year 1818, and part of 1819, Clapperton lived with an aunt in Lochmaben, Dumfries-shire. While domesticated with his aunt, who was a sister of his mother’s, and of whom, in his letters to his friends, he speaks with much affection, he applied himself to the study of the French language; his open and frank manners likewise procured him many friendships, and many curious anecdotes are told of his sailor-like conduct,in paying little regard to the ordinaryetiquetteof social intercourse. Like other sailors on shore, he seemed to be of opinion that nothing should obstruct the gratification of his whims and oddities. Hence he was sometimes disposed to pay unseasonable visits to his friends, and not to be particularly ceremonious as to the mode in which he entered the houses of those with whom he lived in terms of intimacy; but he was much beloved while he resided in Dumfries-shire, by all to whom he was known.
Clapperton, however, soon tired of the dullness of a country life; and so returned to Edinburgh, and went to live with the gentleman with whom he had resided when he was so much embarrassed by the kindness of Lady Seaforth. Here, being an entirely idle man, fond of adventures withal, and in a place where they might easily be found, he soon had a hand in some curious scenes. Having little idea of economy, and not being well acquainted with the value of money, and indeed caring nothing for it whatever, provided he got enough to serve his purposes at the time when it was wanted, the quarterly items of his half pay did not last him long. Indeed, he entertained some singular notions on the subject of borrowing money, and when he had recourse to his friends for a supply, he gave them to understand that he was doing them a favour by becoming their debtor. As an instance of the careless way in which he parted with hismoney when in Edinburgh, we may mention the following incident. At this time a young man, the son of a staunch anti-patronist, was figuring away in this town as a popular preacher, in which capacity he became so notorious, that week after week he was puffed in the newspapers, and was attended by vast crowds on Sunday, when he held forth in a well known chapel of ease. This person happened to meet Clapperton one day just after he had drawn his quarter’s pay; and he immediately laid a plan, and forthwith commenced the putting of it in practice, for the purpose of getting possession of a considerable share of it. He said to Clapperton that he had that day met with a great disappointment, in not getting from his friends a remittance of money which he had expected; that now he would not get it before Monday; nor would he have cared for the delay of a day or two, had he not promised to pay his tailor’s account, and regretted exceedingly that he should not be able to do it, as he was a lover of punctuality, and was anxious above every thing to keep his word. At the end of this fair speech, Clapperton asked his reverend friend how much money would serve his purpose, and was told that ten pounds would do all he wanted, till he heard from his friends on Monday. Clapperton, believing the man to be honest, gave him the sum specified, when the reverend gentleman asked him to go to Barclay’s hotel and he would treat him to his dinner. Away theywent. An excellent dinner was set upon the table and discussed. Madeira, champaign, and other expensive wines were called for, and the two got cheerful, joyous, happy, glorious. At length the swindler, as he proved to be, made some pretence for going out for a little. He went, but never returned, and Clapperton, in addition to the ten pounds which he had given him, never to see again, had a bill of between two and three pounds more to pay before he could leave the house.
Barclay’s was the place where Clapperton and his friends generally met forenjeuement; and though, with the exception of a single individual, none of them were addicted to intemperance, sometimes very curious scenes occurred, of which a specimen or two may serve both to amuse our readers and to develope our hero’s character. He was told of a swaggering fellow, who generally sat at the bar, and boasted of his extraordinary strength, and his profound knowledge of thefancyscience; Clapperton walked up to him one night, and said in a loud determined tone, “Sir, I am told you are a bully; I should like to try a round or two with you.” The poor man was so much terrified that he walked off, and never returned to the house again. One night, as he was going home, with another of his friends, and the individual, who was apt to take a cup too much, and whom, perhaps from the circumstance that he was too frequently in a state of imbecility, theywere accustomed, by the rule of contraries, to call Able; the difficulty they found in keeping Able steady threw the other gentleman into a fit of laughter which he could not restrain. Clapperton, thinking it was cruel to laugh at poor Able’s infirmity, placed him against the railing, in front of the College, and fairly knocked the laugher down, and then apologized to him for what he had done. On the same occasion, when he had Able in tow, the latter fell down on the curb stone of the pavement, and Clapperton found that he could not raise him up again, and so, though it was eleven o’clock at night, he said, “My dear fellow, I cannot set you on your feet again, but I shall do all that man can do, I shall sit down beside you,” and so fairly sat down beside him till more assistance was procured. But the most amusing of his frolics, of which we have heard any account, was the method he took to get into his lodgings one night when he happened to be rather late out. He had rung the door bell several times without being answered; so he went and brought a long heavy ladder, belonging to a house painter, and reared it in front of the house in which he lodged. Then he mounted it, opened the window of his own room, went in, and then hurled the ladder down, the rubbing of which on the wall made a loud and uncommon noise which disturbed the neighbourhood. This latter part of our hero’s proceeding was observed by the watchman, who called some of his companions, andcame to reconnoitre. On seeing the ladder lying on the pavement, they naturally imagined that it was the instrument by which thieves had broken into some of the upper flats. Immediately a tremendous ringing commenced at the door of the house into which Clapperton a few minutes before had entered by the window. The door was opened, and in came the policemen, who insisted that they had seen some person enter the house through a window, with the aid of a ladder, which was still lying below. By this time Clapperton was in bed, and had found means to request the people in the house not to betray him. But the policemen were not to be satisfied with the assurance that there was no person in the house but such as belonged to it. They searched every hole and corner, and at length they found wet clothes; and as the night was rainy, they naturally conjectured that they must belong to the man who had come in by the window. On this Clapperton, laughing heartily, raised himself up in his bed, and told the vigilant policemen how the matter stood, and on giving them his name, and his promise to pay any expenses which might be incurred by this frolic, they departed. The ladder was carried to the police office, and was with difficulty conveyed thither by three stout men. At the police office, the whole was viewed as a piece of sailor-like humour, and Clapperton got off on paying a trifling sum, and the house painter was orderedto chain his ladder to his premises in future.
By this time our hero had become acquainted with Dr. Oudney, at whose house we have had the pleasure of occasionally meeting him; and when the Doctor was appointed to his exploratory expedition to Africa, he expressed, through the medium of the common friend of both, and to whose information we have been much indebted in drawing up our memoir of their lives, his desire to be attached to the mission. Clapperton could not boast the possession of much either of the literary or the scientific knowledge requisite to constitute the intelligent traveller; but he was distinguished for other qualities fitted to render him a valuable acquisition to any mission similar to that to the accomplishment of which Dr. Oudney had been appointed. The portrait prefixed to the “Journal of his second Expedition,” shows that his figure was tall, strong, and manly. He had a fine bust, and his whole frame combined length of arm, great strength, weight, and agility—circumstances which the portrait does not sufficiently represent, and is also deficient in expressing his fine lion-like forehead and eye. We have seen that he was endowed with a constitutionof almost invincible strength, that he possessed a most enterprising disposition of mind, great conscientiousness in the discharge of duty, and a heart alive to the kindly impressions of compassion, and capable of strong and steady friendship. Such a travelling companion was likely to be a treasure to a man like Dr. Oudney; and he had the pleasure to be informed that his application to have Clapperton attached to the mission was granted.
Accordingly, in the autumn of 1821, the travellers left Scotland for London, with the view of then commencing their expedition to the interior of Africa. In a letter to a friend dated London, September 1, 1821, Clapperton says, he had been supplied with arms, and had got instruments of his own choosing, and mentions the sextant as the most complete he had ever seen; he states to his friend that he had had several agreeable interviews with his uncle; and adds, that he was just on the eve of setting off for Falmouth. His next letter to the same gentleman was written at Mourzuk, May 20, 1822, in which he tells his friend that his health had continued vigorous, although the heat was 106 degrees of Fahrenheit, in the shade; and says, that Oudney was much admired by the ladies for the blackness of his beard, and himself for the strength of his mustachoes. Oudney in a postscript on the same sheet, says, “Clapperton is just the oldman. He is a strange-looking figure with his long sandy coloured beard and mustachoes. You would smile were you to see him smoking his pipe, and calling to his servant,Waddy ama simpri, or fill my pipe.” In a subsequent letter from the same place, to the same correspondent, Clapperton speaks in praise of the Tuaricks, whom by this time, (Sept. 1822) he had visited. He says they are a fine warlike race, who fear nothing but the devil and his agents, that they offered to convey both him and Oudney to Timbuctoo; and adds, “They wished me much to take a wife amongst them, but I said she would have to go to Bournou and England with me, which got me out of the scrape with a good grace, as their women never leave their country, and those who marry them must stay with them.” And the fact is that our hero very soon found himself as much at home among the wild Tauricks, who traverse the sandy deserts of Sahaara, as he had formerly done among the Indians who dwell in the midst of the forests of Canada.
It would seem that Clapperton did not regard it as any part of his duty to keep a separate journal while Oudney lived; nor was it necessary, as they were generally together in all the excursions which they made in Fezzan, and their joint observations were combined by the Doctor into the same narrative, to which he put his own name. But the case was greatly altered after the arrival of the travellers in Bournou, where Oudney wasseized with the illness which terminated in death, upon the 12th of January, 1824. After this mournful event, Clapperton, sick and sorrowful as he was, proceeded onward to Kano, with the view of visiting Sackatoo, as was originally intended. He reached this city, (as may be seen in his printed journal) upon the 16th of March, and had many interviews and long conversations with the sultan, Bello. He remained at Sackatoo till the 4th of May, when he began to retrace his steps,—again reached Kuka upon the 8th of July, and arrived in London in the summer of 1825. Clapperton and Denham came from Tripoli to Leghorn, sent the animals and baggage home by sea, under the charge of Hillman, their only surviving companion, while they themselves crossed the Alps, and on the 1st of June, 1825, they reported their arrival in England to Earl Bathurst, under whose auspices the mission had been sent to Africa.