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.
Soon after Clapperton’s return to London from his first expedition
to Africa, he wrote to the friend with whom he had lived during his
residence in Edinburgh, expressing the pleasure which he felt in being
again in Britain, and informing him, that since his arrival in London,
he had been so busily employed in making out reports to government,
that he had not a moment’s leisure to attend either to pleasure or
friendship. In a subsequent letter, he told him, that along with his
other duties and avocations, he had to prepare his part of the “journal
of the expedition,” that it might be ready for publication before his
departure on the second mission. “I have got,” says he, “no sinecure
in this new appointment. I have to see the whole of the presents sent
off without any one to assist me. My Journal will scarce be complete
before I go, and the necessary attendance at the public offices is
truly harassing.” In a letter of a later date, he says “You cannot have
any idea of the infinite trouble and anxiety I have had since I have
been in London. If I receive honour and praise, they are assuredly
earned with labour and pain. The whole of the arrangements for the new
mission have fallen upon me. To give you an outline of what I am to
do, or where I am to go, is at present impossible, but when I get to
sea I shall write to you more fully.” From Portsmouth, 27th August,
1825, he tells the same correspondent, “We leave England this morning;
and as far as I am concerned, I have experienced nothing but misery
and trouble since my arrival, and look forward to our voyage for peace
and rest.” In this letter, he mentions that Mr. Brown of the Linnæan
Society had called one of the plants in Dr. Oudney’s collection by
the name of that lamented gentleman, and after sending compliments
and remembrances to several of his intimate acquaintances, he bids an
affecting, and, as it proved, a final farewell to his “dear friend.”
On the 27th of August 1825, Captain Clapperton and his associates of
this second expedition, with their servants, embarked in his Majesty’s
ship Brazen, at Portsmouth, and arrived off Whidah on the 26th of
November thereafter. Here Dr. Dickson landed for the purpose of
proceeding into the interior, along with a Portuguese named De Seusa.
The design of their journey is not unfolded in any of the journals
which have been published by the travellers; but the agreement between
Dr. Dickson and Captain Clapperton was, that after the former had
traversed the kingdom of Dahomy and the adjacent countries, he should
rejoin his friend, the Captain, at Jennah. Lander, in his recently
published “Records of Captain Clapperton,” says the parting between
the friends was tender and affecting, and seemed to intimate that they
should meet again no more. “Study the natives well,” said the Captain
to the Doctor, “respect their institutions, and be kind to them on
all occasions; for it is on paying proper respect to these rules, and
these only, that you must ground your hope of being successful in your
progress through the country; and the conduct of the people to you will
be guided by your behaviour towards them. Set a guard upon your temper,
my dear Dickson, and never, let it lead you into error.” “We meet at
Jennah, then,” said the Doctor, with an inquiring eye, and anxious
half doubting look. “We meet at Jennah,” answered Captain Clapperton,
solemnly. “Once more adieu, my dear Dickson, and may God bless and
protect you.” Lander adds, that it was reported that Dr. Dickson was
slain in a quarrel with the natives, about two days’ journey from
Shar; and so was the first of the mission who fell a victim to African
research.
The Brazen proceeded with the other members of the mission to the
river Benin or Formosa; and on the advice of Mr. Houtson, an English
merchant whom they met there, they relinquished the plan of ascending
that river, and went into the interior from Badagry. They could hear no
tidings at Whidah either of Sultan Bello or of his messengers, and as
for Funda and Raka, such towns were wholly unknown at that place.
Besides the gentlemen of the mission, whose names have been already
mentioned, there were in the capacity of servants, Columbus, a West
Indian mulatto, who had accompanied Major Denham in the previous
journey; Pasko, a black native of Houssa, who had served on board an
English man-of-war, and though a great scoundrel, was useful as an
interpreter; George Dawson, an English sailor, engaged at Badagry, as
servant to Dr. Morrison; and Richard Lander, Captain Clapperton’s own
confidential servant. This man had been a wanderer from his youth.
When only eleven years of age, he accompanied a mercantile gentleman
to the West Indies. He was absent three years; and on his return went
to France and other places on the continent, as a gentleman’s servant,
and continued abroad in that capacity till his nineteenth year. On
his return home, he did not stay long in his native country, but
went to South Africa with Major Colebrook, and traversed, along with
that gentleman, the whole of the Cape colony, from one extremity to
the other. The reason why he left Major Colebrook has not been made
public, but, on his return to England in 1824, he heard of Captain
Clapperton’s second expedition to the interior of Africa, and regarding
the adventure as something peculiarly suited to his roving disposition,
he went to the Captain and tendered his services, which were accepted.
His own account of the matter is as follows:—“The Captain listened
to me with attention, and after I had answered a few interrogations,
willingly engaged me to be his confidential servant. In this interview
the keen penetrating eye of the African traveller did not escape my
observation, and by its fire, energy, and quickness, depicted, in my
own opinion at least, the very soul of enterprise and adventure.” This
man continued faithful and attached to Clapperton to the last; and
to him we are indebted for the preservation of his beloved master’s
journal, from which, in connexion with his own recently published
“Records” of the Expedition, we derive all that can now be known of the
last stage of Captain Clapperton’s short but eventful career.[11]
Clapperton and his associates commenced their journey from Badagry
upon the 7th of December 1825; and, regardless of what they could not
but know either from the information of others, or—as was the case
with some of them at least—from their own personal experience, that an
African climate was most unfriendly to European constitutions, they
were guilty of the great imprudence of sleeping the first night of
their journey upon the low and swampy banks of the river, or rather
creek, named Bawie, under the open canopy of heaven. Lander says
they had previously been drinking; and adds, that next morning they
found themselves wet to the skin with the heavy dew which had fallen
during the night. And, as he remarks, after the Quarterly Review,
“in all probability were thus sown the seeds of those disorders
which subsequently broke out with such fatal virulence, and produced
suffering, disease, and death to almost the whole of the little
party.” The second night after that was likewise spent in the open
air, and, in the morning, the clothes of the party were saturated with
dew. This exceedingly imprudent conduct was speedily followed by its
natural consequences. On the 10th Clapperton was seized with ague,
from which it would appear he never perfectly recovered. Dr. Morrison
and Captain Pearce soon after became very unwell, and died before they
had proceeded far on their journey. About the same time one of the
servants died, and Lander was so ill that no hopes were entertained
of his recovery. The loss of Captain Pearce is thus bewailed by his
friend and companion in danger, Captain Clapperton: “The death of
Captain Pearce has caused me much concern; for, independently of his
amiable qualities as a friend and companion, he was eminently fitted,
by his talents, his perseverance, and his fortitude, to be of singular
service to the mission, and on these accounts I deplore his loss as the
greatest I could have sustained, both as regards my private feelings
and the public service.” One day about this time, when our traveller
was sick and sorrowful, as he reposed under the shade of trees which
skirted the way, unable to proceed, a native, on horseback, moved by
the kindness of a generous nature, quickly dismounted, and offered the
invalid the use of his horse—a proffer which was gratefully accepted.
Both Clapperton and Lander speak with rapture respecting the beauty and
fertility of the country through which they passed, from the western
coast to the City of Sackatoo, where their journey and the life of the
former were unhappily terminated. The country is represented by them as
extremely populous, and the inhabitants, unless when selfish feelings
intervened, as possessing very kind, and even generous dispositions.
Our traveller did all in his power to recover the books, papers, and
other property, which might have been left by the unfortunate and
lamented Mungo Park, as well as to ascertain an accurate account of
the manner of his death, but with little success. The chiefs in the
neighbourhood of Boussa, where the event occurred, were anxious to
avoid all communication on the subject; and some of them were greatly
embarrassed when they were questioned respecting it. He received the
following account of the death of that unfortunate traveller from
an eye-witness:—“He said, that when the boat came down the river,
it happened unfortunately just at the time that the Fellatahs first
rose in arms, and were ravaging Goobur and Zamfra; that the Sultan of
Boussa, on hearing that the persons in the boat were white men, and
that the boat was different from any that had ever been seen before,
as she had a house at one end, called his people together from the
neighbouring towns, attacked and killed them, not doubting that they
were the advance guard of the Fellatah army then ravaging Soudan,
under the command of Malem Danfodio, the father of the present Bello;
that one of the white men was a tall man, with long hair; that they
fought for three days before they were killed; that the people in the
neighbourhood were very much alarmed, and great numbers fled to Niffé
and other countries, thinking that the Fellatahs were certainly among
them. The number of persons in the boat was only four, two white men
and two blacks; that they found great treasure in the boat; but that
the people had all died who eat of the meat that was found in her.”
“This account,” Clapperton adds, “I believe to be the most correct of
all that I have yet got; and was told to me without my putting any
questions, or showing any eagerness for him to go on with his story.”
At Wawa, or according to Lander’s orthography of the town, Waw Waw,
Clapperton had a singular adventure with a rich widow of Arabian
extraction. This lady was between 30 and 40 years of age, and being
fairer than the natives of the city of her residence, was anxious to
be regarded as a white woman. She was the richest person in Wawa,
having the best house in town, and a thousand slaves; and was withal
a “perfect Turkish beauty—just like a walking water-butt.” Her great
riches, and her intriguing disposition, had prompted her oftener than
once to rise in rebellion against her rightful sovereign, who always
had the gallantry generously to pardon her on her submission. Though
it might have been supposed that the age of the tender passions was
over with the widow, yet she fell violently in love with Lander, and
tried all the female arts and winning ways her ingenuity could suggest
to induce him to visit her at her own house, but without success. She,
however, visited him; and on these occasions Clapperton humoured the
joke, and fanned the love-sick widow’s flame by sounding the praises
of his servant. He sat with as much _non challance_ as if he had been
at home in a Scottish cottage, with his arms folded, rolling out great
volumes of smoke from his pipe, enjoying this singular scene of African
courtship, and saying at intervals, to induce the widow to persevere
in her suit, “See what beautiful eyes he has,—if you were to search
from Badagry to Wawa, and from Wawa to Badagry, you would not find such
eyes.” While all the time poor Lander was embarrassed with the amorous
attentions of the widow, and was afraid lest he should be squeezed to
death by the closeness of her tender embraces. At length he mustered
courage fairly to tell her that he could not return her passion; and
though she afterwards ceased to persecute him farther, she was not, as
many of her sex in similar circumstances would have been, actuated by
the least feeling of revenge. On the contrary, she continued to regard
him with kindness to the last, but forthwith transferred her love to
Clapperton.
To ingratiate herself with him, she sent him rich and abundant store of
provisions ready cooked, and endeavoured to gain his black rascal of a
servant, Pasko, to her interests, by bribing him with a handsome female
slave for a wife. She invited the captain to pay her a visit, which
he accepted, and has given us, in his journal, the following graphic
account of his entertainment:—
“Not being much afraid of myself, and wishing to see the interior
arrangement of her house, I went and visited her. I found her house
large, and full of male and female slaves; the males lying about the
outer huts, the females more in the interior. In the centre of the huts
was a square one of large dimensions, surrounded by verandahs, with
screens of matting all around, except in one place, where there was
hung a tanned bullock’s hide; to this spot I was led up, and, on its
being drawn to one side, I saw the lady sitting cross-legged on a small
Turkey carpet, like one of our hearth-rugs, a large leather cushion
under her left knee; her goora-pot, which was a large old-fashioned
pewter mug, by her side, and a calebash of water to wash her mouth out,
as she alternately kept eating goora, and chewing tobacco snuff, the
custom with all ranks, male or female, who can procure them; on her
right side lay a whip. At a little distance, squatted on the ground,
sat a dwarfish hump-backed female slave, with a wide mouth, but good
eyes; she had on no clothing, if I except a profusion of strings of
beads and coral round her neck and waist. This personage served the
purposes of a bell in our country, and what, I suppose, would in old
times have been called a page. The lady herself was dressed in a white
clean muslin turban; her neck profusely decorated with necklaces of
coral and gold chains, amongst which was one of rubies and gold beads;
her eyebrows and eyelashes black, her hair dyed with indigo, and her
hands and feet with henna; around her body she had a fine striped
silk and cotton country cloth, which came as high as her tremendous
breasts, and reached as low as her ankles; in her right hand she held
a fan made of stained grass, of a square form. She desired me to sit
down on the carpet beside her, which I did, and she began fanning me,
and sent hump-back to bring out her finery for me to look at; which
consisted of four gold bracelets, two large paper dressing-cases,
with looking-glasses, and several strings of coral, silver rings, and
bracelets, with a number of other trifling articles. After a number
of compliments, and giving me an account of all her wealth, I was led
through one apartment into another, cool, clean, and ornamented with
pewter dishes and bright brass pans. She now told me her husband had
been dead these ten years, that she had only one son and he was darker
than herself; that she loved white men, and would go to Boussa with me.
I thought this was carrying the joke a little too far, and began to
look very serious, on which she sent for the looking-glass, and looking
at herself, then offering it to me, said, to be sure she was rather
older than I was, but very little, and what of that? This was too much,
and I made my retreat as soon as I could, determined never to come to
such close quarters with her again.”
A short time after this interview with the beautiful and amorous
widow Zuma, Clapperton went to Boussa, leaving Lander and his baggage
in Wawa; and though the widow did not actually accompany him in his
journey thither, as she had intimated her intention of doing; yet she
followed very speedily after him. On this occasion, Lander informs
us, she was dressed in a mantle of scarlet silk and gold, and loose
trowsers of scarlet silk, with red morocco boots, and an ample white
turban on her head; she rode astride on a noble horse decorated with
brass plates and bells, with a profusion of charms or amulets in
green, red, and yellow leather. Her saddle-cloth was of scarlet, and
both widow and horse were singularly imposing. In her train were many
spearmen and bowmen on horseback, with a band of musicians furnished
with drums, fiddles, guitars, and flutes.
The romantic intention of Zuma was to accompany Clapperton wherever he
went. The Sultan, however, was anxious, for the sake of his revenue
and the security of his throne, to counteract the widow’s designs;
and his first step for that end was to put an embargo on Lander and
Clapperton’s baggage, and his next was to despatch a strong party in
pursuit of the fugitive widow, with strict injunctions to bring her
back. This was accomplished, and, on her submission, she was pardoned.
The travellers saw the widow no more, and the serious consequences by
which this singular adventure was likely to be followed, made them
resolve to be more cautious in future in giving encouragement to the
advances of the African ladies. But Zuma was not the only belle of
distinction who wished to attach herself to Clapperton. He was, while
at Wawa, haunted even to annoyance by another lady of high rank. “I was
pestered,” he says, “for three or four days by the governor’s daughter,
who used to come several times in the day, painted and bedizened in
the highest style of Wawa fashion, but always half tipsy; I could only
get rid of her by telling her that I prayed and looked at the stars
all night, never drank any thing stronger than _roa in zafir_, which
they call my tea—literally hot water: She always departed in a flood of
tears.”
As Clapperton and Lander proceeded on their journey towards Sackatoo,
the latter was seized with dysentery, and while he continued ill and
weak, he experienced the kindness of his generous master in a very
marked manner. Though his own strength was fast declining, Lander says
of him, “whenever we came to a stream which was too deep to ford,
and unfurnished with a ferry-boat, being too weak myself to swim, my
generous master used to take me on his shoulders, and often times at
the imminent risk of his own life, carry me in safety to the opposite
bank.”
On their arrival at Kano, Lander was left in that town while Clapperton
proceeded to Sackatoo, the capital of Bello, Sultan of the Felathas, on
whose account chiefly this second mission had been undertaken. Bello
at this time happened to be at war, and with his army encamped before
Coonia, the capital of Goobur. Clapperton went there to join him, was
most kindly received by him, and had an opportunity of witnessing the
African mode of fighting in a furious assault which was made upon the
city of Coonia the day after his arrival in the camp. Soon after this
event he reached Soccatoo, where for about six months he inhabited the
same house which he had occupied during his first visit to that city.
The Sultan sent to Kano and brought Lander and the baggage to his
capital, and on their arrival the baggage was seized, under pretence
that Clapperton was conveying guns and warlike stores to the Sheik of
Bornou, with whom Bello was then at war. He was next ordered to deliver
up Lord Bathurst’s letter to the Shiek, and indeed every thing which
was supposed to form a part of the intended present to him was seized
upon. Clapperton remonstrated against these nefarious proceedings with
the utmost earnestness, but without effect. He was stript of every
thing, and detained himself as a prisoner. The effect of this treatment
upon his spirits was so great, that Lander declares he never saw him
smile afterwards.
He was strongly impressed with the idea that the Arabs had stirred up
the Africans against him and his companions. By their insinuations
against them in the hearing of Bello, they succeeded in undermining
their reputation with that monarch. Clapperton had not been perfectly
well from the day of his arrival in Africa, and the entire failure
of his mission, and the ungenerous treatment he had experienced at
Soccatoo, were the means of bringing on his last illness and hastening
his death.
As long as he was able, while at Soccatoo, he was in the habit of
spending whole days in shooting, dressed in the costume of the country;
his beard was long and flowing, and he lived in a clay hut like an
enormous bee hive. At night he and Lander used frequently to smoke
cigars for an hour or two together; but in every other respect they
lived like the Africans. Sometimes they sung, and Clapperton was
delighted to listen while Lander sung, “My Native Highland Home.”
Then gang wi’ me to Scotland, dear,
We ne’er again will roam,