Clapperton, Hugh (1788–1827). Scottish explorer of west Africa, Clapperton revealed the Fulani empire and tried to solve the problem of the Niger's course and termination. After an adventurous early career in the Royal Navy, Clapperton was retired on half-pay when in 1822 W. Oudney invited him and Denham to join an official expedition from Tripoli across the Sahara to the middle Niger region. Clapperton alone visited Kano and Sokoto in the newly created Fulani empire of Uthman dan Fodio and his son Mohamed Bello in 1824. On his return to Britain, the colonial secretary asked him immediately to go back to Sokoto to make treaties. With
Lander, he penetrated from the Guinea coast in the south, but Bello's disputes with neighbouring Bornu hampered Clapperton, who died of dysentery in April 1827 without solving the Niger problem. But three years later Lander showed that the Niger terminated in the Gulf of Guinea.
Roy C. Bridges
