Note 10 — MEMOIR OF CAPTAIN HUGH CLAPPERTON, THE AFRICAN TRAVELLER.

The following anecdote is transcribed from M‘Diarmid:—

“At this period, and before the Asia had weighed anchor, an incident occurred which illustrates very strikingly his characteristic coolness and intrepidity. One evening, the alarm was given that the ship was on fire; the drums immediately beat to quarters, and the firemen were piped away to the gun-room, where an immense quantity of luggage had been temporarily deposited, and from whence were issuing huge and increasing volumes of smoke. The after-magazine, containing some hundred barrels of gun-powder, was immediately beneath, and the appearance of the combustion had become so alarming, that every man awaited his fate in silence, under an impression that the ship would speedily be blown to atoms. At this awful moment, which will recal to every mind Campbell’s striking description,

“As they drifted o’er their path,

There was silence deep as death;

And the boldest held his breath

For a time”—

my informant, Mr. Archibald Blacklock, one of the assistant surgeons of the Asia, left the deck, and on passing through the cock-pit, observed a midshipman in the larboard birth, sitting at a table, and very quietly smoking a cigar. The sight surprised him, and on discovering that the smoker was his friend Clapperton, he could not help marvelling at his seeming apathy. The other, however, was quite cool, and stated, ‘that he was only a supernumerary; that no particular station had been assigned to him; and that if the ship blew up, as seemed very likely, it was of little consequence where he was.’ But the seat of the fire was fortunately discovered, and the flames subdued with admirable order and presence of mind, which are never more apparent than in ships of war during moments of danger; and on the first of February, the Asia and Superb weighed their anchors and stood out to sea.”—Sketches from Nature, p. 330.