Clapperton

Clapperton, Hugh, the son of a surgeon at Annan, N.B., was born in 1788. Whilst serving as an apprentice on board a trading vessel he was impressed for the royal navy, in which he became a lieutenant, and had command of a vessel on the Canadian Lakes. He came home in 1817, and became associated with Dr. Oudney and Colonel Denham in an expedition sent out by Government to explore N. Africa, Clapperton got as far as Sakatu on the way to the Niger (1824), but the death of Oudney caused him to return. In the following year he was again sent out with Lander and others, penetrating into the interior from the Bight of Benin. He failed to get beyond Sakatu, where he died of dysentery in 1827. His Journals were published by Lander, who also wrote The Records of Clapperton's Last Expedition.