CLAPPERTON, HUGH,
a distinguished African traveller, was born in Anna, Dumfries-shire,
in 1788. His grandfather, Robert Clapperton, M.D., a native of the
north of Scotland, studied medicine at Edinburgh and Paris, and,
marrying Elizabeth Campbell, a distant relative of the Campbells of
Glenlyon, settled in Dumfries-shire, first at a place called
Crowden-Nows, and afterwards at Lochmaben. He acquired some reputation
in the locality as a physician and an amateur both in mineralogy and
antiquities. He made a collection of objects in natural history in the
district mines, and of antiquities at the site of the camps of
Agricola; and some old border ballads and genealogies communicated by
him were inserted in the ‘Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.’ With one
daughter, he had six sons, all of whom were medical men, except the
youngest who, in the beginning of 1793, became second lieutenant of
marines. George, the eldest son, the father of the traveller, was a
surgeon in Annan. He was twice married, and is said to have had in all
twenty-one children. By his first wife, a daughter of John Johnstone,
proprietor of the lands of Thorniwhate and Lochmaben castle, he had
ten or eleven sons and one daughter. Of this marriage Hugh was the
youngest child. The limited circumstances of his father prevented him
from obtaining a classical education, but he was early placed under
the tuition of Mr. Bryce Downie, a mathematical teacher of some
eminence at Annan, under whom Edward Irving also studied; and after
acquiring an elementary knowledge of practical mathematics, he was, at
the age of thirteen, at his own wish, apprenticed to the owner of a
vessel, named the Postlethwaite of Maryport, trading between Liverpool
and North America, in which he made several voyages across the
Atlantic. After one of these, as it proved to him the last, when the
ship was at Liverpool, being caught by a custom-house officer bringing
ashore a few pounds of rock-salt in his handkerchief, for the use of
his landlady, he was threatened with imprisonment for smuggling; but
having consented to go on board the Tender, then in that port, he was
carried round to Plymouth, and draughted on board of his majesty’s
ship Gibraltar, of eighty guns. In 1806, he arrived at Gibraltar in a
naval transport, from which he was impressed, with others, on board
the frigate Renommée, captain Sir Thomas Livingstone. Fortunately for
him, during the time he was there the Saturn, captain Lord Amelius
Beauclerc, belonging to off Collingwood’s fleet off Cadiz, arrived at
Gibraltar for the purpose of watering and refitting; and learning that
his uncle was captain of marines on board of her, young Clapperton
sent him a letter describing his situation in the Renommée. The uncle
immediately waited upon Sir Thomas Livingstone, who was an old
messmate of his, when they were both lieutenants at the Cape of Good
Hope many years before, and through his intercession, Sir Thomas at
once placed his nephew of the quarter-deck, as a midshipman. The
Renommée soon after left Gibraltar for the Mediterranean, and when on
the coast of Spain, had occasion to send boats to attack some of the
enemy’s vessels on shore. Clapperton being in one of the boats, was
slightly wounded in the head, and for a time suffered much annoyance
from the wound. On the Renommée being paid off in 1808, he joined the
Venerable, Captain King, in the Downs, as a midshipman, but learning
from his friends at home, who were interesting themselves in his
advancement, that by getting into the Clorinde frigate, Commander
Briggs, this object was likely to be facilitated, he applied to be
transferred to that vessel. His request was granted; but as the
Clorinde had previously sailed for the East Indies, he was ordered by
the admiral to have a passage in a ship proceeding to the same
destination. In the course of the voyage he was nearly drowned in
attempting to aid a vessel in distress, which passed near their ship.
Clapperton
remained on board the Clorinde frigate, and in the East Indies, from
March 1810 to the end of 1813. He then returned to England, and was,
with some other clever midshipmen, sent to Portsmouth dockyard, for
the purpose of being instructed, by the celebrated swordsman Angelo,
in the improved cutlass exercise recently introduced, and in which he
afterwards excelled. When these midshipmen were distributed to the
different ships of the fleet as drill-masters, Clapperton was
appointed to Sir Alexander Cochrane’s flagship, the Asia, to instruct
the officers and crew in the use of the cutlass. The Aisa sailed from
Spithead in the end of January 1814, and during the passage to
Bermuda, his services as drill-master were performed on the
quarter-deck. On her arrival, he was sent to Halifax, and thence to
the Canadian Lakes, just then about to become the scene of warlike
operations. With the utmost diligence in the discharge of his duty, he
is described as having been at the mess-table the soul and life of the
party. He could sing a good song, tell a merry tale, paint scenes for
the ship’s theatricals, sketch views and draw caricatures, while his
conversation was at all times extremely amusing. He thus became a
general favourite on board. He arrived at Upper Canada in 1815, and
during the winter he was placed in command of a blockhouse on Lake
Huron, with a party of seamen, and one small gun, for the purpose of
defending it. Being attacked by an American schooner, the blockhouse
was destroyed, and he found that himself and party must either become
prisoners of war, or cross Lake Michigan upon the ice, a journey of
nearly sixty miles, to York, the nearest British depot. The latter
alternative was adopted, and the party, after great suffering and
remarkable devotion and humanity on the part of Clapperton, by
attempting to carry a poor boy who was unable to proceed, and died of
exhaustion while on his back – reached York emaciated, almost
famished, and nearly out of clothing. Owing to the long inaction of
his left hand in holding up the boy, Clapperton lost, from the
severity of the frost, the first joint of his thumb.
Soon after,
on Sir Edward Owen being appointed to the command upon the Canadian
lakes, he gave to Clapperton an acting order as lieutenant, and
appointed him to the command of the Confiance schooner. While she rode
at anchor near the shores of Lake Erie or Lake Huron, he occasionally
repaired to the woods, and with his gun kept himself well supplied
with fresh provisions. In these excursions he cultivated an
acquaintance with the aborigines, whose mode of life he very much
admired. His acting order as lieutenant he had sent to England for
confirmation by the Board of Admiralty, but a very large promotion
having just previously taken place, the board declined confirming the
commission. On this disappointment, he formed the idea of abandoning
the navy altogether, and become a denizen of the North American
forests; but this romantic notion he soon abandoned. At this time he
occasionally dined on shore, and being an expert swimmer he not
unfrequently plunged into the water with his clothes on and swan to
the schooner. This he did, partly to show his dexterity, but chiefly
for the purpose of keeping his men on the alert. The practice,
however, had very nearly proved fatal to him, as he was one night so
much exhausted that he could scarcely make those on board hear his
cries, till he was on the point of sinking, when he was luckily
observed and taken on board, but he never again tried the experiment.
About the
end of 1816, when Sir Edward Owen returned to England, he got
Clapperton’s commission of lieutenant confirmed by the Board of
Admiralty; and in 1817, on our vessels on the Canadian lakes being
paid off and laid up. Lieutenant Clapperton came home, and, with many
more, was put on half-pay. In 1818, he retired to Lochmaben, where he
lived with an aged sister of his mother, and amused himself
principally with rural sports. In 1820, he removed to Edinburgh, where
he became acquainted with Dr. Oudney, a young Englishman who was then
about to embark on a mission to the interior of Africa, and requested
permission to accompany him. Dr. Oudney was told by a friend, a
medical man, who knew Clapperton well, that in all varieties and under
every circumstance, that in all varieties and under every
circumstance, however trying, he would find him a steady and faithful
friend, and that his powerful and athletic form and excellent
constitution had never been surpassed; great recommendations for a
companion on such a hazardous enterprize. Lieutenant, afterwards
Colonel Denham, having volunteered his services, and it being intended
that researches should be made to the east and west of Bornou where
Dr. Oudney was to reside as British counsul, Clapperton’s name was
added to the expedition by Earl Bathurst, then secretary of state for
the colonial department. After their arrival at Tripoli, the
travellers set out, early in 1822, in a line nearly south to Mourzook,
which place they reached on the 8th of April. Clapperton,
with his friend Oudney, then made an excursion to the westward of
Mourzook, into the country of the Tuaricks, and penetrated as far as
Ghraat, in the eleventh degree of east longitude. On the 29th
November the travellers left Mourzook, and arrived at Lake Tchad, in
the kingdom of Bornou, February 4, 1823, after a journey of eight
hundred miles. On the 17th they reached Kouka, where, being
well received by the Sultan, they remained till the 14th of
December, when they set out for the purpose of exploring the course of
the Niger. They arrived in safety at Murmer, where Dr. Oudney died,
January 12, 1824.
Clapperton
pursued his journey alone to Kano, and from thence to Saccatoo, the
capital of the Felatah empire. On the road he was met by an escort of
one hundred and fifty horsemen, with drums and trumpets, which Bello,
the sultan, had sent to conduct him to his capital. Not being
permitted to proceed to the Niger, which was only five days’ journey
to the westward, he returned to Kouka, July 8th, 1824. He
was here rejoined by Colonel Denham, who did not at first know him, so
altered was he by fatigue and illness. The travellers now returned to
England, where they arrived June 1, 1825; and on the 22d of the same
month Clapperton was made a commander in the navy.
The result
of this expedition was a work published at London in 1826, in one
volume quarto, entitled ‘Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in
Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824, by
Major Denham, Captain Clapperton and the late Dr. Oudney.’ Although
the disputed questions of the course and termination of the Niger were
left undecided, the geographical information collected was of great
value, inasmuch as it determined the position and extent of the
kingdoms of Mandara, Bornou, and Houssa, with the situation of their
principal cities. Before he could finish this work for the press, he
was engaged again by Lord Bathurst, colonial secretary, to take the
management of another expedition, by the way of the western coast of
Africa, near the Bight of Benin, to carry presents from his sovereign
to the Sultan Bello, and to El Kanemy, the sheikh of Bornou. He sailed
from Portsmouth in his majesty’s sloop Brazen, Captain Willis, and was
accompanied by Dr. Dickson, Captain Pearce, royal navy, and Dr.
Morrison, a naval surgeon, and also by Richard Lander, a young
Englishman, who attended him in the capacity of confidential servant.
They called at Sierra Leone; from that sailed to Benin, where they
landed, and thence proceeded up the country, and on 29th
November Clapperton arrived at Badagry. Dr. Dickson had left him near
Whidah, and Captain Pearce and Dr. Morrison died a short time after
leaving the coast. Quitting Badagry, December 7, 1825, accompanied by
his faithful servant Richard Lander, he pursued a north-easterly
direction, with the intention of reaching Saccatoo.
In January
1826, he reached Katunga, the capital of Youriba, and soon after
crossed the Niger at Boussa, the place where Park met his fate.
Continuing his journey north, he reached Kano, and leaving Lander
there with the baggage, he proceeded westward to Saccatoo, the
residence of Sultan Bello, who, though he accepted his presents,
refused to allow him either to return to Kano, or to revisit Bornou,
on account of the war in which he was then engaged with the sheikh of
the latter place. He was, in consequence, detained five months at
Saccatoo; and in the meantime the Sultan had inveigled Lander to the
capital, and obtained possession of the presents intended for the
sheikh; and then refused both master and servant permission to leave
by way of Bornou. While thus detained, Captain Clapperton was attacked
with dysentery, and died April 13, 1827, at Chungary, a village about
four miles from Saccatoo. He was the first European who traversed the
region of Central Africa, extending from the Bight of Benin to the
Mediterranean. He was about five feet eleven inches in height,
possessed a frank and generous disposition, and had acquired a
thorough knowledge of the habits and prejudices of the inhabitants of
Central Africa. On Lander’s return to England, a quarto volume
appeared, entitled ‘Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior
of Africa, from the Bight of Benin to Saccatoo. By the late Commander
Clapperton, R.N. To which is added the Journal of Richard Lander, with
a portrait of Captain Clapperton.’ From this portrait, which was
painted by Gildon Manton, and engraved by Thomas Lupton, the following
woodcut is taken:
