And pure the dimpling rills that play
Around my Highland home.
Such, during several months, was their almost unvaried mode of life. On the 12th of March 1826, Clapperton was seized with dysentery; and the intense heat of the weather as well as the feverish state of the patient rendered it necessary that he should be almost constantly fanned; a female slave was employed to perform this office, but she found it too irksome, and soon abandoned her post and ran away. He grew daily worse, while Lander was oppressed with anxiety on account of the calamities which had befallen him, and exhausted with the exertion required in the performance of the various duties which devolved upon him. As he had a great regard for his master, we see no reason to doubt the accuracy of his account, that he was unremitting in his attentions to him during his last illness, which Clapperton himself attributed to the following instance of imprudence. “Early in February,” said he one day to Lander, “after walking a whole day exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, I was fatigued, and lay down under the branch of a tree. The soil on that occasion was soft and wet, and from that hour to the present I have not been free from cold. This has brought on my present disorder, from which I believe I shall never recover.” A couch was made for him on the outside of his hut, and during the space of twenty days he gradually declined, till at last all hope of recovery was extinguished. In these dismal moments, says his faithful attendant, he derived consolation and support from the exercises of religion. Lander read the scriptures to him daily. No stranger visited him during his illness, except an Arab of Fezzan, who intruded himself one day into the hut, and wished to be allowed to read some of the Mahometan prayers, but he was ordered to quit his presence. Pasko who had left his service, and had married and settled in the city, was taken back, and relieved Lander of a portion of his heavy tasks. During his illness Clapperton talked much of his country and his friends. By the advice of Maddie, a native of Bornou, he swallowed a decoction of green bark from the butter tree, and speedily afterwards became worse, so that he could get no repose. On the next day he said to Lander, “I feel myself dying. Take care of my journal and papers after my decease; and when you arrive in London, go immediately to my agents and send for my uncle who will accompany you to the colonial office, and see you deposit them with the secretary. Borrow money, and go home by Fezzan in the train of the Arab merchants. From Mourzuk send to Mr. Warrington, our consul at Tripoli, for money, and wait till it comes. Do not lumber yourself with my books. Leave also the barometer and every cumbersome article. You may give them to Mallem Mudey. Remark what towns and villages you pass through, and put on paper whatever remarkable thing the chiefs of the different places may say to you.”
On the 11th of April, he was shaved, and rallied a little, but soon became worse, and died on the 13th. By order of Bello he was buried in an open place about five miles from the city of Soccatoo, and Lander read over him the service of the church of England for the “burial of the dead,” as Clapperton had himself formerly done for Dr. Oudney and some other of his companions. Next day Lander returned to the spot, and with the assistance of some of the natives a shed was erected over the grave.
MEMOIR
OF
MAJOR ALEXANDER LAING,
THE
AFRICAN TRAVELLER.