AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF TEE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 145 
using it. “ 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. 
On this the sultan made a gesture of dismissal, and 
Clapperton retired. 
This was not, however, the last attempt of a similar 
kind, and things grew much worse later. A few days 
afterwards another messenger was sent to demand the 
presents reserved for El Khanemy, and on Clapperton’s 
refusing to give them up, they were taken from him. 
“ I told the Gadado,” says Clapperton, “ that they 
were acting like robbers towards me, in defiance of all 
good faith : that no people in the world would act the 
same, and they had far better have cut my head off than 
done such an act; but I suppose they would do that 
also when they had taken everything from me.” 
An attempt was now made to obtain his arms and 
ammunition, but this he resisted sturdily. His terrified 
servants ran away, but soon returned to share the 
dangers of their master, for whom they entertained the 
warmest affection. 
At this critical moment, the entries in Clapperton’s 
journal ceased. He had now been six months in Soka- 
too, without being able to undertake any explorations 
or to bring to a satisfactory conclusion the mission 
which had brought him from the coast. Sick at heart, 
weary, and ill, he could take no rest, and his illness 
suddenly increased upon him to an alarming degree. 
His servant, Richard Lander, who had now joined him, 
tried in vain to be all things at once. On the 12th 
March, 1827, Clapperton was seized with dysentery. 
Nothing could check the progress of the malady, and 
he sank rapidly. It being the time of the feast of the 
Rhamadan, Lander could get no help, not even servants. 
Fever soon set in, and after twenty days of great 
suffering Clapperton, feeling his end approaching, gave 
L 
