ABSTRACT
Hugh Clapperton, a Scotsman, had almost no schooling as a child, but he did take to navigation under the tutelage of Bryce Downie and was apprenticed at the age of thirteen as a cabin boy on a ship that traded between Liverpool and America. Dixon Denham was born in London. He began training to become a solicitor, but in 1811 he joined the army instead. By 1812 he had been promoted to second lieutenant and then lieutenant, during which time he served in Portugal, Spain and the south of France. Walter Oudney was born in Edinburgh, though not from a prominent family. Like most of the African travellers he was a self-made man. He gained entrance to the naval life by becoming a surgeon's mate on a man-of-war; he soon advanced to assistant surgeon, and was then promoted to surgeon and stationed in the East Indies.
