After Sir Edward Owen was appointed to the command of the British naval force upon the Canadian lakes, he gave Clapperton an acting order as a lieutenant, and appointed him to the command of the Confiance schooner. This was a situation, which, as it implied more responsibility than any he had hitherto held, likewise allowed him a greater degree of liberty than he could have enjoyed, had he been assigned a birth on board of a vessel commanded by a superior officer. When, therefore, he had the command of the Confiance, he was in the habit of making excursions into the forests on the coast, both of lake Huron and lake Erie, for the purpose of shooting game. While engaged in these excursions, he cultivated an acquaintance with several of the Indian tribes. The romantic turn of his mind led him not only to delight to associate with those aboriginal inhabitants of America, but also to adopt their manners and customs, and even to acquire their language. He became a great favourite among them; for he sometimes treated them with feasts, and on these occasions they used to fire a _feu de joie_ in honour of him as their benefactor. At one time, indeed, he entertained serious intentions of uniting himself to the Indians, marrying a princess, and thereby becoming a chief among them; and actually assumed the distinctive badge of the Huron nation. This romantic and foolish design was, however, soon relinquished; but the feasts which he had given to the chiefs led to deficiency in his accounts to the victualling department; and this deficiency was afterwards deducted from his half pay, and was the means of involving him in pecuniary difficulties, from which he was not altogether relieved till after his return from his first expedition from Africa.