The following incident affords a striking proof of the almost invincible hardiness of his constitution, for which he was indebted partly to the bounty of nature, and partly to the privations and habits of his early life. Having bidden adieu to the flag ship, on which he had acted so conspicuous a part, and taken his passage to Halifax, with the view of thence proceeding to the lakes, he was sent along with others to perform some service on the horrid coast of Labrador, and being there cast away while in a long boat, all the individuals who were along with him at the time were so severely frost bitten that some of them died, and the rest were lame for life, while he escaped with only losing the power of the first joint of his left hand thumb, which ever after continued crooked, and on that account used to be called “Hooky,” both by himself and his friends. He was sent, along with a party of five hundred men, from Halifax to join Sir James Yeo, who, at that time, had the command upon the Lakes. As this journey was performed in winter, when the river St. Lawrence is frozen over, and of course when the water communication is suspended, it was both tedious and toilsome. The men marched on foot, first to Quebec, and then to the lakes, while the baggage was dragged after them in _sleighs_. Soon after his arrival on the lakes, he and a small party of men were appointed to defend a blockhouse on the coast of Lake Ontario; but he had not been long in this situation when the blockhouse, which had only one small gun for its defence, was attacked by a superior American force, by which it was speedily demolished; and when Clapperton and his men were left no other alternative but to become prisoners of war, or to cross the ice to York, the capital of Upper Canada, a distance of sixty or seventy miles. Frightful as the attempt was, in their destitute and forlorn circumstances, the journey was instantly resolved upon. But the party had not advanced more than ten or twelve miles, when a boy, one of the number, lay down on the ice unable to proceed farther, on account of the cold, and his previous fatigue. The sailors declared, each in his turn, that they were so benumbed with cold, and so exhausted by wading through the newly fallen snow, that it was with difficulty they could support themselves, and so could afford no assistance to the poor unfortunate boy. On this trying occasion the strong benevolence of Clapperton’s character was strikingly manifested. His nature was too generous to suffer him for a moment to endure the idea of leaving a fellow-creature inevitably to perish under such appalling circumstances; for as it was snowing at the time, it was quite evident that the boy would, if left, have been quickly overwhelmed by the drift. Clapperton, therefore, took the boy upon his own back, and carried him about eight or nine miles, when he found that he had relaxed his hold, and on examining the cause, he