A biographical memoir of the late Dr. Walter Oudney, Captain Hugh Clapperton, both of the Royal Navy, and Major Alex. Gordon Laing, all of whom died amid their active and enterprising endeavours to explore the interior of Africa

by Thomas Nelson

Section I.—INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

The life 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, all true 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.

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 the work 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.