CLAPPERTON'S SECOND JOURNEY. 171 



to conduct anew mission to Sackatoo. These promises, it 

 is extremely probable, were mere inferences drawn from the 

 empty boasts of the sultan ; he being master neither of Ra- 

 kah nor Fundah, nor of any place within a great distance 

 of the Gulf of Benin. Be this as it may, there seemed 

 good ground to expect a welcome for the British envoys 

 when they should reach his capital ; and in that direction, 

 it was conjectured, were to be found the termination of the 

 Niger, and also the most direct channel of trade with re- 

 gions already ascertained to be the finest in Africa. 



These were \'iews to which the enterprising statesmen 

 who conducted the naval government at home were never 

 insensible. They equipped afresh Mr. Clapperton, now 

 promoted to the rank of captain, and sent him to the Gulf 

 of Benin ; naming as his associates, Captain Pearce, an ex* 

 cellent draftsman, and Mr. Morrison, a naval surgeon of 

 some experience, whose skill, it was hoped, might be of 

 great avail in preserving the health of the whole expedition. 



The mission, in the end of 1825, reached its destination ; 

 but, as might perhaps have been anticipated, they coul4 

 hear nothing of Rakah or of Fundah, of any messengers 

 sent by Bello, nor of any town that was subject to him on 

 this coast. They were not, however, discouraged ; and 

 having consulted Mr. Houtson, whom a long residence had 

 made thoroughly acquamted with the country, they were 

 advised not to attempt ascending the banks of the river, — a 

 circuitous track, and covered with pestilential swamps, — but 

 to take the route from Badagry as the most direct and com- 

 modious, and by which, in fact, almost all the caravans from 

 Houssa come down to the coast. 



On the 7th December, 1825, the mission set out from 

 Badagry on this grand journey into Interior Africa. But at 

 the very first they were guilty of a fatal imprudence. During 

 the nights of the 7th and 9th they slept in the open air, and 

 on the last occasion in the public market-place of Dagmoo, 

 without even their beds, which had been sent away by mis- 

 take. The consequence was, that in a day or two Morrison 

 and Pearce were attacked with a dangerous fever, and Clap- 

 perton with fits of ague. It does not appear why they did 

 not stop in one of the towns, and endeavour by rest to re- 

 cruit their strength ; on the contrary, they pushed on till 

 the 22d, when Captain Clapperton, seeing the illness of hia 



