Records of Captain Clapperton's Last Expedition to Africa
With the Subsequent Adventures of the Author

An 1830 account of an expedition through West Africa to follow the River Niger, written by the party's only survivor.

Richard Lander (Author)

9781108030427, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 April 2011

342 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.44 kg

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.

Introduction
Sketch of the author's life
1. Life of the gentlemen and others engaged in the mission
2. The ship sails again
3. The travellers reach Badagry, and leave that city on the 7th of December
4. Deaths of Dawson, Captain Pearce, and Dr. Morrison
5. Residence at Katunga
6. Widow Zuma's love adventures
7. Residence at Kano
8. The author quits Kano to join his master
9. Religion.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH]