Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 10, 2025
She desired Clapperton to sit down on the carpet beside her, an invitation which he accepted, and in an alluring manner she began to fan him, at the same time sending humpback to bring out her finery for him to look at, which consisted of four gold bracelets, two large paper dressing-cases with looking-glasses, and several strings of coral, silver rings, and bracelets, with a number of other trifling articles.
Clapperton was introduced to her on the following morning, when she politely joined her husband in requesting Clapperton to delay his journey another day, in which case, they kindly proposed they should travel together. Of course, it was impossible to refuse so agreeable an invitation, to which Clapperton seemed to yield with all possible courtesy.
Clapperton explained that the King of England had a vast number of Moslems who were his willing subjects, and that their object in India was to protect the natives and to give them good laws, not to tyrannise over them; while, with regard to Algiers, the Algerines had been punished because they persisted in making slaves of Europeans.
Indeed, much the same brutality was exhibited as in English prize-fights. Clapperton, hearing that they sometimes gouged out each other's eyes, and that such combats seldom terminated without one or more being killed, having satisfied his curiosity, ordered the battle to cease, and gave the promised reward.
They told them very gravely, and with rueful countenances, that they had both been weeping in the morning for the death of Captain Clapperton, whose untimely end they would never cease to lament. It is true, they might have been so engaged, but as on their entrance, no outward signs of tears appeared, they rather mistrusted the information which had been imparted to them.
Clapperton lost no time in asking the governor's permission to bury his comrade; and this being obtained, he dug a grave for him himself under an old mimosa-tree near one of the gates of the town.
None of them had ever seen a light-coloured beard before, and all the old men dye their grey beards with henna, which gives them a colour approaching to that of Lieutenant Clapperton. They now proceeded to visit the interior of the town. The houses were built of mud, and erected on the sides of the hill, appearing as if one were pulled on the other.
In this expedition, Captain Clapperton died of the fever of the country. His faithful servant, Lander, after publishing his journal, returned to Africa, in 1830, with his brother, landed at Badagry, and again crossed the country to the Niger. At Boussa, they obtained the first authentic information of the death of Park, and recovered his gun, robe, and other relics.
The next experiment was made by land from Tripoli across the Great Desert under Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney. This effort was partially baffled by sickness, but still more by the arts of the native chiefs, who are singularly jealous of strangers. In a second attempt Clapperton, the only survivor of the former, died.
"To open the letter myself," said Clapperton, "is more than my head is worth." He had come, he urged, bringing Bello a letter and presents from the King of England, relying upon the confidence inspired by the sultan's letter of the previous year, and he hoped his host would not forfeit that confidence by tampering with another person's letter.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking