Records of Captain Clapperton's Last Expedition to Africa

by Lander, Richard

• ISBN13: 9781108030434
• ISBN10: 1108030432
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-04-18
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Hugh Clapperton (1788-1827) was a former naval officer who was determined to explore the course of the River Niger. In 1822 he set out on an expedition to trace the river by approaching it through North Africa, though this proved unsuccessful. Three years later, Clapperton tried again, with plans to start in West Africa, and the young explorer Richard Lander (1804-1834) joined his party. They arrived in Badagry (in present-day Nigeria) and eventually crossed the Niger at Bussa, before reaching Sokoto (in north-west Nigeria), where Clapperton died from an attack of dysentery. Lander returned to England and published this two-volume account of the journey in 1830. Volume 1 recounts the voyage out, travel inland through Africa, and arrival at the river, while describing the people encountered in a part of Africa that was barely known to Europeans during this period.

Table of Contents

Character of the Africans in general

The author resumes his narrative

The author's severe indisposition and distress of mind

Pasko

The author overtaken at Dunrora by four armed horsemen from Zeg Zeg, who force him to accompany them back to Zaria

The author becoming entangled, whilst crossing a river, in the stirrups of his horse's saddle, is thrown from its back, and narrowly escapes drowning

Ebo the celebrated fat Eunuch

Novel method adopted by Europeans for conveying slaves on board their vessels

The fetish-huts and tree at Badagry

Captain Laing, of the Brig Maria, of London, hearing that an Englishman was at Badagry, comes from Whydah to fetch the Author

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