Hugh Clapperton

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Hugh Clapperton
Annan, Dumfriesshire
Died13 April 1827(1827-04-13) (aged 38)
Sokoto
NationalityScottish
Known forExploration
Parent(s)George Clapperton, Margaret Johnstone

Bain Hugh Clapperton (18 May 1788 – 13 April 1827) was a

explorer of West and Central Africa
.

Early career

Clapperton was born in

Port Louis, Mauritius, in November 1810, he was first in the breach and hauled down the French flag.[1]

In 1814 Clapperton went to Canada, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and to the command of a schooner on the Canadian lakes. In 1817, when the flotilla on the lakes was dismantled, he returned home on half-pay. In 1820 Clapperton removed to Edinburgh, where he made the acquaintance of Walter Oudney, who aroused his interest in African travel.[1]

African exploration

Lieutenant

homosexual relations with one of the Arab servants. The accusation, based on a rumour spread by a disgruntled servant dismissed by Clapperton for theft, was almost certainly unfounded, and Denham later withdrew it but without telling Clapperton he had done so, leading the historian Bovill to observe that 'it remains difficult to recall in all the checkered (sic) history of geographic discovery.... a more odious man than Dixon Denham'.[3]

Denham and Clapperton received by Sheikh al-Kaneimi at Kuka

On 17 February 1823, the party eventually reached Kuka (now

Waube, Logone and Shari. However, only a few weeks later, Oudney died at the village of Murmur, located near the town of Katagum on the road to Kano.[4] Undeterred, Clapperton continued his journey alone through Kano to Sokoto, the capital of the Fulani Empire, where by order of Sultan Muhammed Bello he was obliged to stop, though the Niger was only a five-day journey to the west. Exhausted by his travels, he returned by way of Zaria and Katsina to Kuka, where Denham found him barely recognizable after his privations. Clapperton and Denham departed Kuka for Tripoli in August 1824, reaching Tripoli on 26 January 1825. Their mutual antipathy unabated, they exchanged not a word during the 133-day journey. The pair continued their journey to England, arriving home to a heroes' welcome on 1 June 1825. An account of their travels was published in 1826 under the title Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa in the years 1822–1823 and 1824.[1]

Immediately after his return to England, Clapperton was raised to the rank of commander, and sent out with another expedition to Africa, the sultan Bello of Sokoto having professed his eagerness to open up trade with the west coast. Clapperton came out on

Richard Lemon Lander, Captain Pearce, and Dr. Morrison, navy surgeon and naturalist. Before the month was out Pearce and Morrison were dead of fever. Clapperton continued his journey, and, passing through the Yoruba country, in January 1826 he crossed the Niger at Bussa, the spot where Mungo Park had died twenty years before.[1]

Death

In July, Clapperton arrived at Kano and thence the

Fulani were now at war with al-Kaneimi, and Sultan Bello refused him permission to leave. After many months' detention, afflicted by malaria, depression, and dysentery, Clapperton died, leaving his servant Lander the only survivor of the expedition. Lander returned to the coast, and at Fernando Po by extraordinary coincidence met Clapperton's old antagonist, Dixon Denham, who duly relayed the news of Clapperton's demise to London.[5]

Legacy

Clapperton was the first European to make known from personal observation the Hausa states, which he visited soon after the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate by the Fula. In 1829 the Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa, &c., by Clapperton appeared posthumously, with a biographical sketch of the explorer by his uncle, Lieutenant-Colonel S. Clapperton, as a preface. Richard Lander, who had brought back the journal of his master, also published Records of Captain Clapperton's Last Expedition to Africa ... with the subsequent Adventures of the Author (2 volumes, London, 1830).[1]

Paintings and Engravings

Hugh Clapperton was painted in c 1817 by Sir

National Gallery of Scotland[7] The frontispiece to Clapperton's Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa features an engraving by Thomas Goff Lupton.[8]

Works

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Chisholm 1911.
  2. ^ Salak, Kira. "National Geographic article about Libya". National Geographic Adventure.
  3. ^ Bovill, E. W. (ed.) (1966). Missions to the Niger. Vols. II – IV. The Bornu Mission, 1822–25. Cambridge University Press.
  4. ^ "Oudney, Dr, Walter". The annual biography and obituary for the year 1825. Vol. 9. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green. 1825. pp. 446–447.
  5. .
  6. ^ http://www.historicalportraits.com/Gallery.asp? Page=Item&ItemID=109&Desc=Commander-Hugh-Clapperton-|-Sir-Henry-Raeburn-PRSA Historical portraits by Philip Mould
  7. ^ https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/2127/captain-hugh-clapperton-1788-1827-african-explorer Portrait of Hugh Clapperton , National Gallery
  8. ^ The London Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, page 778, 1828)
  9. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Clapperton.

Further reading

  • James R. Bruce-Lockhart, Clapperton in Borno: Journals of the Travels in Borno of Lieutenant Hugh Clapperton RN, from January 1823 to September 1824 (Cologne, 1996)
  • James R. Bruce-Lockhart, John Wright, Difficult and Dangerous Roads: Hugh Clapperton's Travels in Sahara and Fezzan 1822–1825 (London: Sickle Moon Books, 2000)

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