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Here they were fortunate enough to engage old Pasco and his wife, with Richard's former attendant, Jowdie, together with Ibrahim and Nimo, two Bornou men, who could speak English, as also the Haussa language. Hence they went to Badagarry, the chief of which place, Adooley, entertained them hospitably.
He not only made his way among the various tribes he had to pass through, but carried with him in safety a large trunk, containing Clapperton's clothes and other property, three watches, which he had secured about his person to preserve them from the rapacity of Bello, and all his master's papers and journals, with which, after a journey of nine months, accompanied by three blacks, he arrived in safety at Badagarry.
They remarked the kind way in which the dogs in this place were treated, their necks ornamented with collars of different colours, and cowries. No great man was without one, which always has a boy to take care of it. The people, hearing that a Brazilian brig had arrived at Badagarry, were preparing to set out on a slaving expedition to a place to the eastward.
Under the sanction of the King of Badagarry, the mission set out on its long and perilous journey on the 7th of December, accompanied by Mr Houtson. At Badagarry Clapperton had engaged an old negro, who had been a sailor, named Pasco, and who, speaking English, was likely to prove useful as an interpreter. Travelling on sixty miles, the mission entered the town of Jannah.
The courage, perseverance, and judgment exhibited by Richard Lander in making his way from Sackatoo to Badagarry after the death of Clapperton, and the attempt he had made of his own accord to follow the course of the Niger to the sea, pointed him out to the British Government as a fit person to lead another expedition with that object in view.
He at once accepted the offer made to him, and was allowed to take his younger brother John, a well-educated and intelligent young man, as his companion. They were directed to proceed from Badagarry to Boussa on the Niger, where Mungo Park was wrecked and lost his life, and down to which he had traced the stream from the neighbourhood of Timbuctoo.
From thence he was known to have set forward with another escort, but from that time nothing whatever was heard of him or his attendant, Columbus. At Benin Clapperton met an English merchant of the name of Houtson, who advised him not to ascend the river, but to take a route from Badagarry across the country to Katunga, the capital of Youriba.
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