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 to see 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 of books, 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 ordinary etiquette of 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 his money 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 they went. 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 for enjeuement; 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 the fancy science; 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, they were 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, and came 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 ordered to chain his ladder to his premises in future.
Sect. VIII.—HIS FIRST EXPEDITION TO AFRICA.
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 constitution of 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 old man. 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 was seized 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.
Sect. IX.—HIS SECOND EXPEDITION TO AFRICA.
The result of the expedition was upon the whole favourable, and afforded encouragement to make farther researches in the interior of Africa; and especially a letter from Bello, the sultan of the Fellatahs, addressed to our King, George IV. and brought to England by Clapperton, was the occasion of his second expedition. In that letter Sultan Bello proposed “The establishment of a friendly intercourse between the two nations, by means of a consul who was to reside at the seaport of Raka;—the delivery of certain presents described, at the port of Funda, (supposed to be somewhere near Whidah);—and the prohibition of the exportation of slaves by any of the Houssa merchants, to Atagher, Dahomy, or Ashantee.” These proposals of the Fallatah sultan led to the resolution forthwith to send out a second expedition to Africa, and our hero, now Captain Clapperton, immediately volunteered his services on the occasion, with whom were associated in the same hazardous enterprise, Captain Pearce, Dr. Morrison, and Dr. Dickson, with their respective attendants.