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.