of reaching Soccatoo and Bornou. Two of his companions, Captain Pearce and Doctor Morrison, perished, a short time after leaving the coast, and Clapperton pursued his way, accompanied by his faithful servant Lander. At Katunga, he was within thirty miles of the Quorra or Niger, but was not permitted to visit it. Continuing his journey north, he reached Kano, and then proceeded westward to Soccatoo, the residence of his old friend Bello. Bello refused to allow him to proceed to Bornou, and detained him a long time in his capital. This disappointment preyed upon Clapperton's mind, and he died, April 13, 1827, at Chungary, a village four miles from Soccatoo, of a dysentery. "Twenty days," says Lander, "my poor master remained in a low and distressed state. His body, from being robust and vigorous, became weak and emaciated; and, indeed, was little better than a skeleton." A short time before his death, he called him to his bed, and said: “Richard, I shall shortly be no more; I feel myself dying; do not be so much affected, my dear boy!-it is the will of the Almighty;-it cannot be helped. Take care of my journal and papers after my death; and when you arrive in London, go immediately to my agents, send for my uncle, who will accompany you to the colonial office, and let him see you deposit them safely in the hands of the secretary. After I am buried, apply to Bello, (the sultan,) and borrow money to purchase camels and provisions for your journey over the desert. Do not lumber yourself with my books; leave them behind, as well as the barometer, boxes and sticks, and every heavy article you can conveniently part with. Remark what towns and villages you pass through; pay attention to whatever the chiefs may say to you, and put it on paper. The little money I have, and all my clothes, I leave to you: sell the latter, and put what you may receive for them into your pocket; and if, on your journey, you should be obliged to expend it, government will repay you on your return." "He then," says Lander, "took my hand betwixt his; and, looking me full in the face, while a tear stood glistening in his eye, said, in a low but deeply affecting tone, 'My dear Richard, if you had not been with me, I should have died long ago; I can only thank you, with my latest breath, for your kindness and attachment to me; and if I could have lived to return with you, you should have been placed beyond the reach of want; but God will reward you.' This conversation," continues Lander, "occupied nearly two hours, in the course of which my master fainted several times. The same evening he fell into a slumber, from which he awoke in much perturbation, and said he had heard distinctly the tolling of an English funeral bell in a few days afterwards he breathed his last."

Clapperton was the first European who traversed the whole of Central Africa, from the Bight of Benin to the Mediterranean. We have thus a continuous line from Tripoli to Badagry, which is of great importance from the assistance which it will afford to future researches. Clapperton was a man without education, but intelligent and impartial ; of a robust frame and a happy temperament. He was capable of enduring great hardships. His knowledge of the habits and prejudices of the Central Africans, and his frank, bold, and cheerful manners, would have rendered him peculiarly useful in promoting the designs of the British government in that quarter.

Sir Humphry Davy.

BORN A. D. 1778.-DIED A. D. 1828.

SIR HUMPHRY DAVY, Bart., was the most celebrated chemist of the present age. To trace the progress of a man of science, from childhood to manhood, and from the prime of life to age and decay, is at all times an instructive and an agreeable task. But there are occasions on which this task is more agreeable than on others. When the labours of the man of science have been ennobled by success, and have been productive of results of incalculable value to mankind, we cannot avoid transferring to the man a large portion of that interest which was originally excited by his works, and this interest is heightened to a very great degree when we find the elegance of the man of taste and literature mingled with the acquirements of the philosopher. It is delightful to turn from the consideration of the details of an abstract or an experimental science, to repose, for a moment, in tracing the progress of a mind devoted to the pursuits of elegant literature. A pleasure of this kind now awaits us, in a contemplation of the events of the life of the illustrious Davy.

On the 17th of December, 1778, Humphry Davy was born at Penzance, in Cornwall. His father, who had been educated as a carver in wood, was proprietor of a small estate at Varfell, in the Mount's Bay, on which he resided. The name of his mother, who was a most amiable woman, was Grace Millett. This lady had the misfortune to lose her parents at a very early age, but was taken under the care of Mr John Tonkin, a surgeon of Penzance, who had attended her parents in their last illness. To the benevolence of this gentleman, she and her sisters owed a home and an excellent education. Robert Davy, the father of

Humphry, married Grace, who was the second of the three orphans, and had a family of five children, of whom two were boys, the eldest the subject of our present memoir, the second also a man of science, the present Dr John Davy.

The early years of Humphry were spent partly under the immediate care of his parents, partly with the benefactors of his mother. It is seldom that the mind of a future philosopher and man of genius does not, even in the earliest years, rise, in some point or another, above the ordinary powers of childhood; and few examples of this can be adduced as more marked than that of Humphry Davy. The first school he attended was that of a Mr Bushell, where he showed talents quite unusual in a child of his age, and at a much earlier period of life than usual he was sent to the grammar-school in Penzance, under the Rev. J. C. Coryton. The earliest character which manifested itself in his mind in a remarkable degree, was that of quickness of apprehension. "At the age of about five years," says Dr Paris, his accomplished biographer, he would turn over the pages of a book as rapidly as if he were merely engaged in counting the number of leaves, or in hunting after pictures; and yet, on being questioned, he could generally give a very satisfactory account of the contents." The same faculty distinguished him through life. His reading was chiefly directed to history and works of

fancy, for both of which he showed a strong bias; and even exhibited his own powers, in occasional and not unsuccessful attempts at oratory and the relation of marvellous stories. Among his amusements we may also mention a few experiments of a chemical nature, with which he used to astonish his playfellows, as affording indications of the early tendencies of a great mind. He was also a sportsman; and used to catch fish long before he could aspire to a gun. The use of the rod and the gun was never forgotten, and the delight they afforded him was renewed on every opportunity, up to the latest year of his life. Davy was once the designer and an actor in a pantomime-the playbill still exists: the future philosopher acted the part of harlequin.

In 1793 he left the grammar-school, to enter upon the more advanced branches of education, under the Rev. Dr Cardew of Truro. He had hitherto not been studious; but the inducements to exertion being now stronger, he soon made up for lost time, and took his proper station among his class-fellows. In 1794 the father of Davy died. His character appears to have been tolerably good; he certainly did transmit to his son much of that power of mind which has rendered the name immortal. Soon after this Humphry was apprenticed to Mr Borlase, a surgeon in Penzance, under whom he had many opportunities, small indeed, but sufficient for an ardent mind, for prosecuting the study of chemistry, to which he was becoming strongly attached. He also made himself acquainted with the elements of mechanics; we say, made himself; for it appears that he acquired a knowledge of the most important parts of natural science by no other means than his own observations and experiments. Speaking of the "collision of bodies," Dr Paris says, "it is clear, that, had this branch of science not existed, Davy would have created it." For the anecdote on which this assertion is founded, we must refer to the original work. He did not like surgery, and certainly we cannot blame his master for complaining of his divided attention; though the consequences have been such as to make us regard as a fortunate circumstance, that which, in another, would have been deplored. From an early age young Davy was a poet. His more early productions are lost, but a few which were published display the dawnings of a great genius; and we may safely say, that, had not Davy become a great philosopher, he would have been great as a poet. The poems which remain are transcribed at large into Dr Paris' Memoir; they were written about the age of seventeen or eighteen. It is fortunate for the interests of mankind, that the powers of mind which shone forth so early were directed into a more useful channel. The desire for chemical experiment, once set in motion, became soon insatiable. Every thing that could be made to serve the purpose of a piece of chemical apparatus was, without scruple, appropriated to that purpose by young Davy. When an object was to be attained, his ingenuity soon contrived the means out of the most simple and apparently inadequate materials. An old and clumsy clyster apparatus was raised to the rank of an air-pump, before Davy had ever seen a proper instrument of that kind, and by the aid of this and other simple, though ingeniously applied pieces of apparatus, he made many experiments, and laid the foundation of his future experimental skill and unfailing resource. It is thus that the great benefactors of chemistry, Schule and Priestley, also began their career. With means extremely limited,