Page:Enterprise and Adventure.djvu/19

Rh party, before reaching their destination, were terrible in the extreme. Their shoes were worn from their feet; their bodies woefully emaciated from their want of nourishment; while Clapperton, from the effects of the frost, and the long inaction of his left hand while carrying the boy on his back, lost the first joint of his thumb.

The extraordinary energy and love of enterprise of Clapperton fitted him admirably for encountering those perils of African discovery which had consumed the lives of so many illustrious discoverers. The history of his entry into the navy is interesting. The youngest son of a Dumfries apothecary with a large family, Clapperton went to sea in a merchant ship when a boy, and was one day seized by a press-gang, and conveyed aboard a king's ship. Here he made the best of his position, and being remarkable for his great strength and agility, he was one of those who were selected to learn the new sword exercise, then taught by the famous Angelo, with a view to their afterwards teaching it to the sailors of the fleet. The boldness and decision displayed by him in his retreat from the Canadian blockhouse brought him into notice, and interesting the Admiralty in his favour, led to his promotion from the grade of midshipman to that of acting lieutenant, and finally to that of captain. Placed on half-pay by the termination of the war in 1817, his great delight was in shooting, fishing, and other out-door exercises; till, becoming acquainted in Edinburgh with Dr. Oudney, the African explorer, his mind became captivated with the idea of travel in that little-explored continent; and in 1823 he became employed by Lord Bathurst, in