After making several voyages in that vessel, he either left her, or was impressed into his Majesty’s service, and was put on board a Tender then lying at Liverpool, which vessel carried him round to Plymouth, where he with others were draughted on board of his Majesty’s ship Gibraltar, of eighty guns. He did not remain long in that ship, as in 1806 he arrived at Gibraltar in a naval transport; from which he was impressed, with others, on board his Majesty’s frigate Renommée, Captain Sir Thomas Livingston. Opportunely for our traveller, at that time his Majesty’s ship Saturn, Captain Lord Amelias Beauclerc (belonging to Lord Collingwood’s fleet off Cadiz), arrived for the purpose of watering and refitting; and our traveller, learning that his uncle (now Lieut.-Col. Clapperton) was captain of royal marines on board the Saturn, sent him a letter describing his situation in the Renommée. The uncle having been an old messmate of Sir Thomas’s, when both were lieutenants at the Cape of Good Hope many years before, made it his business immediately to see Sir Thomas; and, through his intercession, Sir Thomas very kindly put our traveller, for the first time, upon the quarter-deck as a midshipman. The Renommée very soon after left Gibraltar for the Mediterranean; and, when on the coast of Spain, had occasion to send boats to attack some enemy’s vessels on shore. Clapperton, being in one of the boats, was slightly, as he considered it, wounded in the head, which, however, afterwards gave him much annoyance. He remained in the Renommée, with Sir Thomas, until she returned to England, and was paid off, in the year 1808. He then joined his Majesty’s ship Venerable, Captain King, in the Downs, as a midshipman, where he did not remain long, having heard that Captain Briggs was going to the East Indies in the Clorinde frigate, and wishing to go to that country, he applied for his discharge, that he might enter with Captain Briggs; but he could not accomplish it before the Clorinde had sailed from Portsmouth; he was ordered, however, (by the admiral) to have a passage in a ship going to the East Indies. In the course of the voyage, they fell in with a ship in great distress, it then blowing a gale of wind; but humanity required assistance, if it could be given. A boat was ordered to be got ready, and Clapperton to go in her. He declared to his messmates his decided opinion that the boat could not possibly live in the sea that was then running, but that it was not for him to question the orders of his superior officer. On pushing off, he told his messmates to share equally among them any articles belonging to him, and bade them good bye. The boat had scarcely put off from the ship when she swamped, and as no assistance could be rendered, all hands perished, with the exception of two; one of whom was Clapperton, who, under such trying circumstances, encouraged and assisted his only surviving companion till his own strength failed him. Among others, he