Thus perished, in the bloom of life, an officer beloved and respected by those of his profession who were acquainted with him; a man of a daring and enterprising spirit; and one who, for humanity and active benevolence, could be surpassed by none.
INTRODUCTION.
When the late Captain Clapperton made his way to Soccatoo for the first time, in the year 1824, he received the most flattering attentions, and every mark of kindness, from Bello, the sultan of the Fellans, as they call themselves, or Fellatas, as they are called by the people of Soudan. This chieftain may be said to rule over almost the whole of that part of North Africa which is distinguished by the name of Houssa, though he appears to have lost a considerable portion of what his father, Hatman Danfodio, first overran; and many of the petty chiefs still continue in a state of rebellion, some of them within a day’s journey of his capital. In the course of frequent conversations held with this chief, at his usual residence of Soccatoo, Clapperton was given to understand, that the establishment of a friendly intercourse with England would be most agreeable to him; that he wished particularly for certain articles of English manufacture to be sent out to him to the sea-coast, where there was a place of great commerce belonging to him, named Funda: he also expressed a wish that an English physician and a consul should be appointed to reside at another sea-port, called Raka; to the former of which places, he said, he would despatch messengers to bring up the articles from England; and to the latter he would send down a proper person to transact all matters of business between the two governments, through the intervention of the English consul; and he made no difficulty in declaring his readiness to adopt measures for putting an entire stop to that part of the slave-trade supposed to be carried on by his subjects with foreigners.
On the arrival of Clapperton in England, Lord Bathurst, then secretary of state for the colonies, considering this so favourable an opportunity of establishing an intercourse with the interior of Africa, and probably of putting an effectual check, through this powerful chief, to a large portion of the infamous traffic carried on in the Bight of Benin, and also for extending the legitimate commerce of Great Britain with this part of Africa, and at the same time adding to our knowledge of the country, did not hesitate in adopting the arrangement which Clapperton had made with Bello. Accordingly it was determined to send him out again to that chief, by the way of Benin, with suitable companions and presents, in order that a communication might be opened between Soccatoo and the sea-coast, and an attempt made to carry into effect the objects to which Bello was supposed to have given his hearty assent.
It had been arranged that, after a certain period agreed upon, Bello should send down his messengers to Whidah, on the coast, to meet Captain Clapperton and his companions. On their arrival, however, in the Bight of Benin, they could neither gain any intelligence of Bello’s messengers, nor did any of the people there know any thing of such names as Funda or Raka, the places which were pointed out by Bello as lying on the sea-coast. The country of Houssa, however, was well known by name, and as the precise geographical position of Soccatoo had been ascertained, our enterprising travellers could have no difficulty in knowing what direction to take; but the spot from whence it would be most advisable to start was a point not so easily to be determined. They finally, however, selected Badagry, for reasons that will be briefly stated; and proceeding northerly, from one chief to another, the survivors met with some delay, but no serious impediments, in reaching the spot of their destination.
The conduct, however, of Bello, though at first kind, was afterwards changed to every thing the reverse, for reasons which will appear in the course of the journal. His desire for establishing an amicable intercourse was not even hinted at, nor one word respecting the physician, the consul, or the slave-trade; and, either through ignorance or design (the former, in all probability), Bello had totally misled Clapperton as to the position of the city or district of Funda; which, instead of being on the sea-coast, as stated by him, is now ascertained to be at least 150 miles from the nearest part of the coast; and the other city, Raka, still farther in the interior. Indeed, one would almost suspect that Clapperton, from not being sufficiently acquainted with the Fellata language, must have mistaken the meaning of Bello on his former visit, had not the letter in Arabic, which he brought home from the latter, addressed to the king of England, borne him out in his representation of the proposals made or assented to by this chieftain. In this letter he says, “We agreed with him upon this (the prohibition of the exportation of slaves), on account of the good which will result from it, both to you and to us; and that a vessel of yours is to come to the harbour of Raka, with two cannons, and the quantities of powder, shot, &c. which they require, as also a number of muskets: we will then send our officer to arrange and settle every thing with your consul, and fix a certain period for the arrival of your merchant ships; and when they come, they may traffic and deal with our merchants. Then, after their return, the consul may reside in that harbour (namely, Raka) as protector, in company with our agent there, if God be pleased.”
It is clear, from this letter, that Bello understood what was proposed and accepted, but, with regard to the geographical position of his two sea-ports, he was evidently most grossly ignorant; for, admitting the ambiguity of the Arabic word bahr, which signifies any great collection of water, whether sea, lake, or river, merchant ships could not get up to Raka, which is an inland town, not situated on any coast or river. Be this as it may, an expedition, as already stated, was planned without loss of time, at the head of which Clapperton was placed. He was allowed to take with him, as a companion, a fellow-countryman of the name of Dickson, who had been brought up as a surgeon, in which capacity he had served in the West Indies, but had recently been studying the law. This person considered himself to be inured to a tropical climate, and was supposed to have a sufficient knowledge of medicine to take care of himself and the rest of the party.
In an enterprise of this novel and hazardous nature, it was deemed advisable to unite two other gentlemen to those above-mentioned; in order that, when once at Soccatoo, two of them might be spared to set out from thence, and explore the country of Soudan in various directions. For this purpose, Captain Pearce of the navy, and Dr. Morrison, a naval surgeon, were selected; the former an active and accomplished officer, and a most excellent draughtsman; the latter well versed in various branches of natural history. Unhappily, it was not their good fortune to live long enough to put their respective talents in practice for the benefit of the public, or the gratification of their friends; having each of them, on the same day, fallen a sacrifice to the pestilential climate, at a very early period of their journey in Africa.