About the end of 1816, Sir Edward Owen returned to England, and was the means of Clapperton’s commission being confirmed by the Board of Admiralty. And in the year 1817, when our vessels on the Canadian lakes were paid off and laid up, Lieutenant Clapperton returned to England, and, like many more, was put on half-pay. He went then to Edinburgh, where he remained a short time, and was introduced to the amiable mother of his beloved friend, Mr. Mackenzie, who died at Bombay. He afterwards retired to Lochmaben in 1818, and lived with an aged sister of his beloved mother’s, at the abode for many years of his grandfather. Here he continued to amuse himself with rural sports until 1820, when he went to Edinburgh, and there became acquainted with Dr. Oudney, who mentioned to him the offer that had been made to employ him in a mission to the interior of Africa. This was an opening, to Clapperton’s enterprising mind, not to be resisted; he immediately entreated that he might accompany the doctor, and his offer was accepted. Dr. Oudney was told by a friend that knew Lieutenant Clapperton well, that, in all varieties, and under every circumstance, however trying, he would find him a steady and faithful friend, and that his powerful and athletic form, and excellent constitution, had never been surpassed. This person was a medical man, and was so confirmed in the opinion that Clapperton, from the strength of his constitution, could not fall a sacrifice to disease, that, until the arrival of Clapperton’s servant, Richard Lander, from his last and fatal expedition, he would not (like many more who knew Clapperton) believe the report of his death in any way but by accident.