CLAPPERTON, HUGH (1788-1827), Scottish traveller in central Africa, was born at Annan, Dumfriesshire, and after some years in the merchant service was impressed into the navy. In 1817 he returned home with the grade of lieutenant, and in 182o accompanied Oudney and Denham in the Government expedition to Bornu. From Bornu they set out to explore the Niger country. After Oudney's death at Murmur (Jan. 1824) Clapperton pro ceeded along to Kano and Sokoto, returning by way of Zatia and Katsena to Kuka, where he met Denham. An account of the travels was published in 1826 under the title of Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa in the years 1822-1824.
Immediately after his return Clapperton was raised to the rank of commander, and sent out with another expedition to Africa. He landed at Badagry in the Bight of Benin, and started overland for the Niger on Dec. 7, 1825, having with him his servant Richard Lander (q.v.), Captain Pearce, R.N., and Dr. Morrison, navy surgeon and naturalist. Before the month was out Pearce and Morrison were dead of fever. Clapperton con tinued his journey, and, passing through the Yoruba country, in Jan. 1826 he crossed the Niger at Bussa, where Mungo Park had died 20 years before. In July he arrived at Kano. Thence he went to Sokoto, intending afterwards to go to Bornu. The sultan, however, detained him, and he died of dysentery near Sokoto on April 13, 1827. Clapperton was the first European to make known from personal observation the semi-civilized Hausa countries, which he visited soon after the establishment of the Sokoto empire by the Fula.
In 1829 appeared the Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa, etc., by the late Commander Clapperton, with a biographical sketch of the explorer by Lieut.-Col. S. Clapper ton. Lander, who had brought back the journal of his master, also published Records of Captain Clapperton's Last Expedition to Africa . . . with the subsequent Adventures of the Author (2 vols. 2830).