Sect. IX.—HIS SECOND EXPEDITION TO AFRICA.

The result of the expedition was upon the whole favourable, and afforded encouragement to make farther researches in the interior of Africa; and especially a letter from Bello, the sultan of the Fellatahs, addressed to our King, George IV. and brought to England by Clapperton, was the occasion of his second expedition. In that letter Sultan Bello proposed “The establishment of a friendly intercourse between the two nations, by means of a consul who was to reside at the seaport of Raka;—the delivery of certain presents described, at the port of Funda, (supposed to be somewhere near Whidah);—and the prohibition of the exportation of slaves by any of the Houssa merchants, to Atagher, Dahomy, or Ashantee.” These proposals of the Fallatah sultan led to the resolution forthwith to send out a second expedition to Africa, and our hero, now Captain Clapperton, immediately volunteered his services on the occasion, with whom were associated in the same hazardous enterprise, Captain Pearce, Dr. Morrison, and Dr. Dickson, with their respective attendants.

Soon after Clapperton’s return to London from his first expedition to Africa, he wrote to the friend with whom he had lived during his residence in Edinburgh, expressing the pleasure which he felt in being again in Britain, and informing him, that since his arrival in London, he had been so busily employed in making out reports to government, that he had not a moment’s leisure to attend either to pleasure or friendship. In a subsequent letter, he told him, that along with his other duties and avocations, he had to prepare his part of the “journal of the expedition,” that it might be ready for publication before his departure on the second mission. “I have got,” says he, “no sinecure in this new appointment. I have to see the whole of the presents sent off without any one to assist me. My Journal will scarce be complete before I go, and the necessary attendance at the public offices is truly harassing.” In a letter of a later date, he says “You cannot have any idea of the infinite trouble and anxiety I have had since I have been in London. If I receive honour and praise, they are assuredly earned with labour and pain. The whole of the arrangements for the new mission have fallen upon me. To give you an outline of what I am to do, or where I am to go, is at present impossible, but when I get to sea I shall write to you more fully.” From Portsmouth, 27th August, 1825, he tells the same correspondent, “We leave England this morning; and as far as I am concerned, I have experienced nothing but misery and trouble since my arrival, and look forward to our voyage for peace and rest.” In this letter, he mentions that Mr. Brown of the Linnæan Society had called one of the plants in Dr. Oudney’s collection by the name of that lamented gentleman, and after sending compliments and remembrances to several of his intimate acquaintances, he bids an affecting, and, as it proved, a final farewell to his “dear friend.”

On the 27th of August 1825, Captain Clapperton and his associates of this second expedition, with their servants, embarked in his Majesty’s ship Brazen, at Portsmouth, and arrived off Whidah on the 26th of November thereafter. Here Dr. Dickson landed for the purpose of proceeding into the interior, along with a Portuguese named De Seusa. The design of their journey is not unfolded in any of the journals which have been published by the travellers; but the agreement between Dr. Dickson and Captain Clapperton was, that after the former had traversed the kingdom of Dahomy and the adjacent countries, he should rejoin his friend, the Captain, at Jennah. Lander, in his recently published “Records of Captain Clapperton,” says the parting between the friends was tender and affecting, and seemed to intimate that they should meet again no more. “Study the natives well,” said the Captain to the Doctor, “respect their institutions, and be kind to them on all occasions; for it is on paying proper respect to these rules, and these only, that you must ground your hope of being successful in your progress through the country; and the conduct of the people to you will be guided by your behaviour towards them. Set a guard upon your temper, my dear Dickson, and never, let it lead you into error.” “We meet at Jennah, then,” said the Doctor, with an inquiring eye, and anxious half doubting look. “We meet at Jennah,” answered Captain Clapperton, solemnly. “Once more adieu, my dear Dickson, and may God bless and protect you.” Lander adds, that it was reported that Dr. Dickson was slain in a quarrel with the natives, about two days’ journey from Shar; and so was the first of the mission who fell a victim to African research.

The Brazen proceeded with the other members of the mission to the river Benin or Formosa; and on the advice of Mr. Houtson, an English merchant whom they met there, they relinquished the plan of ascending that river, and went into the interior from Badagry. They could hear no tidings at Whidah either of Sultan Bello or of his messengers, and as for Funda and Raka, such towns were wholly unknown at that place.

Besides the gentlemen of the mission, whose names have been already mentioned, there were in the capacity of servants, Columbus, a West Indian mulatto, who had accompanied Major Denham in the previous journey; Pasko, a black native of Houssa, who had served on board an English man-of-war, and though a great scoundrel, was useful as an interpreter; George Dawson, an English sailor, engaged at Badagry, as servant to Dr. Morrison; and Richard Lander, Captain Clapperton’s own confidential servant. This man had been a wanderer from his youth. When only eleven years of age, he accompanied a mercantile gentleman to the West Indies. He was absent three years; and on his return went to France and other places on the continent, as a gentleman’s servant, and continued abroad in that capacity till his nineteenth year. On his return home, he did not stay long in his native country, but went to South Africa with Major Colebrook, and traversed, along with that gentleman, the whole of the Cape colony, from one extremity to the other. The reason why he left Major Colebrook has not been made public, but, on his return to England in 1824, he heard of Captain Clapperton’s second expedition to the interior of Africa, and regarding the adventure as something peculiarly suited to his roving disposition, he went to the Captain and tendered his services, which were accepted. His own account of the matter is as follows:—“The Captain listened to me with attention, and after I had answered a few interrogations, willingly engaged me to be his confidential servant. In this interview the keen penetrating eye of the African traveller did not escape my observation, and by its fire, energy, and quickness, depicted, in my own opinion at least, the very soul of enterprise and adventure.” This man continued faithful and attached to Clapperton to the last; and to him we are indebted for the preservation of his beloved master’s journal, from which, in connexion with his own recently published “Records” of the Expedition, we derive all that can now be known of the last stage of Captain Clapperton’s short but eventful career.[11]

Clapperton and his associates commenced their journey from Badagry upon the 7th of December 1825; and, regardless of what they could not but know either from the information of others, or—as was the case with some of them at least—from their own personal experience, that an African climate was most unfriendly to European constitutions, they were guilty of the great imprudence of sleeping the first night of their journey upon the low and swampy banks of the river, or rather creek, named Bawie, under the open canopy of heaven. Lander says they had previously been drinking; and adds, that next morning they found themselves wet to the skin with the heavy dew which had fallen during the night. And, as he remarks, after the Quarterly Review, “in all probability were thus sown the seeds of those disorders which subsequently broke out with such fatal virulence, and produced suffering, disease, and death to almost the whole of the little party.” The second night after that was likewise spent in the open air, and, in the morning, the clothes of the party were saturated with dew. This exceedingly imprudent conduct was speedily followed by its natural consequences. On the 10th Clapperton was seized with ague, from which it would appear he never perfectly recovered. Dr. Morrison and Captain Pearce soon after became very unwell, and died before they had proceeded far on their journey. About the same time one of the servants died, and Lander was so ill that no hopes were entertained of his recovery. The loss of Captain Pearce is thus bewailed by his friend and companion in danger, Captain Clapperton: “The death of Captain Pearce has caused me much concern; for, independently of his amiable qualities as a friend and companion, he was eminently fitted, by his talents, his perseverance, and his fortitude, to be of singular service to the mission, and on these accounts I deplore his loss as the greatest I could have sustained, both as regards my private feelings and the public service.” One day about this time, when our traveller was sick and sorrowful, as he reposed under the shade of trees which skirted the way, unable to proceed, a native, on horseback, moved by the kindness of a generous nature, quickly dismounted, and offered the invalid the use of his horse—a proffer which was gratefully accepted. Both Clapperton and Lander speak with rapture respecting the beauty and fertility of the country through which they passed, from the western coast to the City of Sackatoo, where their journey and the life of the former were unhappily terminated. The country is represented by them as extremely populous, and the inhabitants, unless when selfish feelings intervened, as possessing very kind, and even generous dispositions. Our traveller did all in his power to recover the books, papers, and other property, which might have been left by the unfortunate and lamented Mungo Park, as well as to ascertain an accurate account of the manner of his death, but with little success. The chiefs in the neighbourhood of Boussa, where the event occurred, were anxious to avoid all communication on the subject; and some of them were greatly embarrassed when they were questioned respecting it. He received the following account of the death of that unfortunate traveller from an eye-witness:—“He said, that when the boat came down the river, it happened unfortunately just at the time that the Fellatahs first rose in arms, and were ravaging Goobur and Zamfra; that the Sultan of Boussa, on hearing that the persons in the boat were white men, and that the boat was different from any that had ever been seen before, as she had a house at one end, called his people together from the neighbouring towns, attacked and killed them, not doubting that they were the advance guard of the Fellatah army then ravaging Soudan, under the command of Malem Danfodio, the father of the present Bello; that one of the white men was a tall man, with long hair; that they fought for three days before they were killed; that the people in the neighbourhood were very much alarmed, and great numbers fled to Niffé and other countries, thinking that the Fellatahs were certainly among them. The number of persons in the boat was only four, two white men and two blacks; that they found great treasure in the boat; but that the people had all died who eat of the meat that was found in her.” “This account,” Clapperton adds, “I believe to be the most correct of all that I have yet got; and was told to me without my putting any questions, or showing any eagerness for him to go on with his story.”

At Wawa, or according to Lander’s orthography of the town, Waw Waw, Clapperton had a singular adventure with a rich widow of Arabian extraction. This lady was between 30 and 40 years of age, and being fairer than the natives of the city of her residence, was anxious to be regarded as a white woman. She was the richest person in Wawa, having the best house in town, and a thousand slaves; and was withal a “perfect Turkish beauty—just like a walking water-butt.” Her great riches, and her intriguing disposition, had prompted her oftener than once to rise in rebellion against her rightful sovereign, who always had the gallantry generously to pardon her on her submission. Though it might have been supposed that the age of the tender passions was over with the widow, yet she fell violently in love with Lander, and tried all the female arts and winning ways her ingenuity could suggest to induce him to visit her at her own house, but without success. She, however, visited him; and on these occasions Clapperton humoured the joke, and fanned the love-sick widow’s flame by sounding the praises of his servant. He sat with as much non challance as if he had been at home in a Scottish cottage, with his arms folded, rolling out great volumes of smoke from his pipe, enjoying this singular scene of African courtship, and saying at intervals, to induce the widow to persevere in her suit, “See what beautiful eyes he has,—if you were to search from Badagry to Wawa, and from Wawa to Badagry, you would not find such eyes.” While all the time poor Lander was embarrassed with the amorous attentions of the widow, and was afraid lest he should be squeezed to death by the closeness of her tender embraces. At length he mustered courage fairly to tell her that he could not return her passion; and though she afterwards ceased to persecute him farther, she was not, as many of her sex in similar circumstances would have been, actuated by the least feeling of revenge. On the contrary, she continued to regard him with kindness to the last, but forthwith transferred her love to Clapperton.

To ingratiate herself with him, she sent him rich and abundant store of provisions ready cooked, and endeavoured to gain his black rascal of a servant, Pasko, to her interests, by bribing him with a handsome female slave for a wife. She invited the captain to pay her a visit, which he accepted, and has given us, in his journal, the following graphic account of his entertainment:—

“Not being much afraid of myself, and wishing to see the interior arrangement of her house, I went and visited her. I found her house large, and full of male and female slaves; the males lying about the outer huts, the females more in the interior. In the centre of the huts was a square one of large dimensions, surrounded by verandahs, with screens of matting all around, except in one place, where there was hung a tanned bullock’s hide; to this spot I was led up, and, on its being drawn to one side, I saw the lady sitting cross-legged on a small Turkey carpet, like one of our hearth-rugs, a large leather cushion under her left knee; her goora-pot, which was a large old-fashioned pewter mug, by her side, and a calebash of water to wash her mouth out, as she alternately kept eating goora, and chewing tobacco snuff, the custom with all ranks, male or female, who can procure them; on her right side lay a whip. At a little distance, squatted on the ground, sat a dwarfish hump-backed female slave, with a wide mouth, but good eyes; she had on no clothing, if I except a profusion of strings of beads and coral round her neck and waist. This personage served the purposes of a bell in our country, and what, I suppose, would in old times have been called a page. The lady herself was dressed in a white clean muslin turban; her neck profusely decorated with necklaces of coral and gold chains, amongst which was one of rubies and gold beads; her eyebrows and eyelashes black, her hair dyed with indigo, and her hands and feet with henna; around her body she had a fine striped silk and cotton country cloth, which came as high as her tremendous breasts, and reached as low as her ankles; in her right hand she held a fan made of stained grass, of a square form. She desired me to sit down on the carpet beside her, which I did, and she began fanning me, and sent hump-back to bring out her finery for me to look at; which consisted of four gold bracelets, two large paper dressing-cases, with looking-glasses, and several strings of coral, silver rings, and bracelets, with a number of other trifling articles. After a number of compliments, and giving me an account of all her wealth, I was led through one apartment into another, cool, clean, and ornamented with pewter dishes and bright brass pans. She now told me her husband had been dead these ten years, that she had only one son and he was darker than herself; that she loved white men, and would go to Boussa with me. I thought this was carrying the joke a little too far, and began to look very serious, on which she sent for the looking-glass, and looking at herself, then offering it to me, said, to be sure she was rather older than I was, but very little, and what of that? This was too much, and I made my retreat as soon as I could, determined never to come to such close quarters with her again.”

A short time after this interview with the beautiful and amorous widow Zuma, Clapperton went to Boussa, leaving Lander and his baggage in Wawa; and though the widow did not actually accompany him in his journey thither, as she had intimated her intention of doing; yet she followed very speedily after him. On this occasion, Lander informs us, she was dressed in a mantle of scarlet silk and gold, and loose trowsers of scarlet silk, with red morocco boots, and an ample white turban on her head; she rode astride on a noble horse decorated with brass plates and bells, with a profusion of charms or amulets in green, red, and yellow leather. Her saddle-cloth was of scarlet, and both widow and horse were singularly imposing. In her train were many spearmen and bowmen on horseback, with a band of musicians furnished with drums, fiddles, guitars, and flutes.

The romantic intention of Zuma was to accompany Clapperton wherever he went. The Sultan, however, was anxious, for the sake of his revenue and the security of his throne, to counteract the widow’s designs; and his first step for that end was to put an embargo on Lander and Clapperton’s baggage, and his next was to despatch a strong party in pursuit of the fugitive widow, with strict injunctions to bring her back. This was accomplished, and, on her submission, she was pardoned. The travellers saw the widow no more, and the serious consequences by which this singular adventure was likely to be followed, made them resolve to be more cautious in future in giving encouragement to the advances of the African ladies. But Zuma was not the only belle of distinction who wished to attach herself to Clapperton. He was, while at Wawa, haunted even to annoyance by another lady of high rank. “I was pestered,” he says, “for three or four days by the governor’s daughter, who used to come several times in the day, painted and bedizened in the highest style of Wawa fashion, but always half tipsy; I could only get rid of her by telling her that I prayed and looked at the stars all night, never drank any thing stronger than roa in zafir, which they call my tea—literally hot water: She always departed in a flood of tears.”

As Clapperton and Lander proceeded on their journey towards Sackatoo, the latter was seized with dysentery, and while he continued ill and weak, he experienced the kindness of his generous master in a very marked manner. Though his own strength was fast declining, Lander says of him, “whenever we came to a stream which was too deep to ford, and unfurnished with a ferry-boat, being too weak myself to swim, my generous master used to take me on his shoulders, and often times at the imminent risk of his own life, carry me in safety to the opposite bank.”

On their arrival at Kano, Lander was left in that town while Clapperton proceeded to Sackatoo, the capital of Bello, Sultan of the Felathas, on whose account chiefly this second mission had been undertaken. Bello at this time happened to be at war, and with his army encamped before Coonia, the capital of Goobur. Clapperton went there to join him, was most kindly received by him, and had an opportunity of witnessing the African mode of fighting in a furious assault which was made upon the city of Coonia the day after his arrival in the camp. Soon after this event he reached Soccatoo, where for about six months he inhabited the same house which he had occupied during his first visit to that city. The Sultan sent to Kano and brought Lander and the baggage to his capital, and on their arrival the baggage was seized, under pretence that Clapperton was conveying guns and warlike stores to the Sheik of Bornou, with whom Bello was then at war. He was next ordered to deliver up Lord Bathurst’s letter to the Shiek, and indeed every thing which was supposed to form a part of the intended present to him was seized upon. Clapperton remonstrated against these nefarious proceedings with the utmost earnestness, but without effect. He was stript of every thing, and detained himself as a prisoner. The effect of this treatment upon his spirits was so great, that Lander declares he never saw him smile afterwards.

He was strongly impressed with the idea that the Arabs had stirred up the Africans against him and his companions. By their insinuations against them in the hearing of Bello, they succeeded in undermining their reputation with that monarch. Clapperton had not been perfectly well from the day of his arrival in Africa, and the entire failure of his mission, and the ungenerous treatment he had experienced at Soccatoo, were the means of bringing on his last illness and hastening his death.

As long as he was able, while at Soccatoo, he was in the habit of spending whole days in shooting, dressed in the costume of the country; his beard was long and flowing, and he lived in a clay hut like an enormous bee hive. At night he and Lander used frequently to smoke cigars for an hour or two together; but in every other respect they lived like the Africans. Sometimes they sung, and Clapperton was delighted to listen while Lander sung, “My Native Highland Home.”

Then gang wi’ me to Scotland, dear,

We ne’er again will roam,

And with thy smile sae bonny, cheer

My native Highland home.

For blithsome is the breath of day,

And sweet’s the bonny broom,

And pure the dimpling rills that play

Around my Highland home.

Such, during several months, was their almost unvaried mode of life. On the 12th of March 1826, Clapperton was seized with dysentery; and the intense heat of the weather as well as the feverish state of the patient rendered it necessary that he should be almost constantly fanned; a female slave was employed to perform this office, but she found it too irksome, and soon abandoned her post and ran away. He grew daily worse, while Lander was oppressed with anxiety on account of the calamities which had befallen him, and exhausted with the exertion required in the performance of the various duties which devolved upon him. As he had a great regard for his master, we see no reason to doubt the accuracy of his account, that he was unremitting in his attentions to him during his last illness, which Clapperton himself attributed to the following instance of imprudence. “Early in February,” said he one day to Lander, “after walking a whole day exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, I was fatigued, and lay down under the branch of a tree. The soil on that occasion was soft and wet, and from that hour to the present I have not been free from cold. This has brought on my present disorder, from which I believe I shall never recover.” A couch was made for him on the outside of his hut, and during the space of twenty days he gradually declined, till at last all hope of recovery was extinguished. In these dismal moments, says his faithful attendant, he derived consolation and support from the exercises of religion. Lander read the scriptures to him daily. No stranger visited him during his illness, except an Arab of Fezzan, who intruded himself one day into the hut, and wished to be allowed to read some of the Mahometan prayers, but he was ordered to quit his presence. Pasko who had left his service, and had married and settled in the city, was taken back, and relieved Lander of a portion of his heavy tasks. During his illness Clapperton talked much of his country and his friends. By the advice of Maddie, a native of Bornou, he swallowed a decoction of green bark from the butter tree, and speedily afterwards became worse, so that he could get no repose. On the next day he said to Lander, “I feel myself dying. Take care of my journal and papers after my decease; and when you arrive in London, go immediately to my agents and send for my uncle who will accompany you to the colonial office, and see you deposit them with the secretary. Borrow money, and go home by Fezzan in the train of the Arab merchants. From Mourzuk send to Mr. Warrington, our consul at Tripoli, for money, and wait till it comes. Do not lumber yourself with my books. Leave also the barometer and every cumbersome article. You may give them to Mallem Mudey. Remark what towns and villages you pass through, and put on paper whatever remarkable thing the chiefs of the different places may say to you.”

On the 11th of April, he was shaved, and rallied a little, but soon became worse, and died on the 13th. By order of Bello he was buried in an open place about five miles from the city of Soccatoo, and Lander read over him the service of the church of England for the “burial of the dead,” as Clapperton had himself formerly done for Dr. Oudney and some other of his companions. Next day Lander returned to the spot, and with the assistance of some of the natives a shed was erected over the grave.

MEMOIR
OF
MAJOR ALEXANDER LAING,
THE
AFRICAN TRAVELLER.

MEMOIR
OF
MAJOR ALEX. GORDON LAING,
THE
AFRICAN TRAVELLER.

Major Alexander Gordon Laing, another of those adventurous spirits who met with their common fate, in the attempt to explore the interior of Africa, was born at Edinburgh on the 27th December 1794, and was the eldest son of Mr. William Laing, A.M., one of the most popular classical teachers of his day. In his academy, in the New Town of Edinburgh, young Laing received nearly the whole of his education, at least all that was necessary to prepare him for the university. Possessing a quick intuitive perception, and an ardent thirst for classical knowledge, his progress was in proportion; and at the early age of thirteen, he entered the university of Edinburgh. Here his attainments became still more marked, and Professor Christison, who then occupied the humanity chair, observing his literary taste, used to point him out in the public class as worthy the imitation of his fellow-students, though few might hope to surpass him.

When about fifteen, Laing went to Newcastle, where for six months he filled the situation of assistant to Mr. Bruce, a teacher in that city; he then returned to Edinburgh, and entered upon a similar duty under his father, a situation for which he was singularly qualified.

It appears strange that a young man, quietly, and, at the same time, eagerly, pursuing the laborious profession of a schoolmaster, should have afterwards adopted another line of life forming a perfect contrast to that in which he had been previously employed. The change of his tastes is wholly to be attributed to his connexion with the volunteers. At a time when volunteering was very general, Alexander Laing entered one of the corps then forming; and in 1810 was made an ensign in the Prince of Wales’s Edinburgh Volunteers, then being in his seventeenth year. Captivated with the specimen he there had of a military life, he desired earnestly to be a soldier. He could no longer submit to the restraints and routine of school discipline; and at the end of the second year, he finally gave up the now to him irksome duties of teaching, to the disappointment of his parents and relatives, who were very desirous that he should not change his profession. Being, however, bent upon the military service, he, in the year 1811, went out to Barbadoes, where his maternal uncle, Colonel, afterwards General Gabriel Gordon, then was, with whom he remained a short time till he obtained an ensigncy in the York Light Infantry, which regiment he immediately joined at Antigua, and in two years thereafter he was promoted to a lieutenancy in the same corps—a situation which he held till the regiment was reduced, when he was then placed upon half pay.

But anxious for occupation, he exchanged, as speedily as the affair could be negotiated, into the second West India regiment, which he joined at Jamaica. While there, he had to discharge the duties of deputy quartermaster-general, the exertions of which department brought on a liver complaint, for which his medical advisers recommended a sea voyage. He accordingly sailed to Honduras, by which his complaint was considerably relieved, and the governor, Colonel Arthur, finding him an active, useful, and intelligent officer, appointed him to the office of fort-major, and would not suffer him to return to Jamaica, but had him attached to another division of his regiment then in Honduras, where he remained till a return of his complaint forced him to come home, his frame being so much debilitated, that he was unable to walk, so that it became necessary to carry him on shipboard.

His constitution was very seriously injured by this illness, and in consequence he remained nearly eighteen months with his friends in Scotland. During this time, however, that half of the second West India regiment to which he was attached was reduced, and he was again placed upon half-pay. In the autumn of 1819, he returned to London, and having been sent for by the late Sir Henry Torrens, then Colonel of his regiment, was familiarly complimented by him on his former services, immediately appointed lieutenant and adjutant, and proceeded to Sierra Leone.

Early in January 1822, Lieutenant Laing was sent by the late governor, Sir Charles M‘Carthy, on an embassy to Kambia and the Mandingo country, to ascertain the political state of those districts, the disposition of the inhabitants to trade, and their sentiments in regard to the abolition of the slave trade. Sir Charles was perfectly satisfied with the manner in which his instructions were executed, and with the information he received on the different heads.

Having fulfilled the purposes of the mission at Kambia, he crossed the river Scarcies, and proceeded on foot to Malacouri, a strongly fortified Mandingo town, situated on the banks of the river Malageea, about twenty miles N. by W. from Kambia, where he learned that Amara had applied to the king of the Soolimas, who had sent a numerous army to his assistance, by whose means he had taken Malageea, the principal town belonging to Sannassee, and had made that chief a prisoner. Here he was also informed, that Amara meant to put Sannassee to death after the performance of several ceremonies. The Soolima force was stated to exceed ten thousand in number, and commanded by Yaradee, a brother of the king, who had acquired some renown as a warrior. Of the Soolimas, little more than the name was known at Sierra Leone: they were reported, however, to be a very powerful nation, residing in the interior, at a distance of three or four hundred miles to the eastward of Sierra Leone.

Sannassee having always been upon the most friendly terms with our government, and the unforgiving disposition of Amara being well known, great alarm was excited for the unfortunate chieftain whom he had in his power; Laing therefore, though suffering under a severe attack of fever and ague, proceeded to the Soolima camp to mediate between Amara and the captive Sannassee. His account of this expedition is as follows:

“About two miles beyond the river Malageea, which I crossed near its source, I fell in with an outlying picket of the Soolimas, consisting of about fifty men, with sentries regularly posted, to whom I was obliged to explain my purpose before the chief of the guard would permit me to pass: another mile west brought me to a stronger guard of about one hundred and fifty men; and a mile and a-half farther to a large savannah or plain where the whole army was encamped. It was now nearly nine o’clock, and being very faint and feverish, I was glad to take refuge from the rays of the morning sun, which, in this part of Africa is the most oppressive time of the day, under a few bundles of dried grass thrown loosely upon three sticks fixed apart in the ground at equal distances, the tops being drawn together and fastened after the manner of military triangles. These temporary dwellings, when well constructed, form no bad imitation of, or substitute for, bell-tents, possessing this advantage, that they can be erected with little trouble, and no expense, in a short time, whenever an army takes up a position. From this covering I had a view of the whole encampment, which exhibited the appearance and bustle of a well attended fair, rather than the regularity and discipline of military quarters. Tents constructed as above described, were to be seen covering the savannah as far as the trees, windings, and other obstacles, would permit the eye to reach; and the distinguishing flags of the various and numerous tribes were everywhere to be observed waving over the habitations of their respective chiefs. Music, a horrid din of a variety of barbarous instruments broke on the ear from every direction; while parties of men, grotesquely habited in war dresses, were here and there descried, brandishing their cutlasses, and capering with the most extravagant gestures, to the time of the various sounds produced. The novelty of the scene attracted my attention for a while,—but fatigue, arising from the ague of the preceding night, at length overcame my curiosity. About noon I was awoke by one of my followers, who acquainted me that Amara was ready to hold a palaver with me, and desired my immediate attendance. In my way to his tent I visited Satin Lai, a designing Mandingo chief, possessing much power; he had been mainly instrumental in putting Amara on the throne, and was at this time the only staunch adherent to the king, who, by following too implicitly his advice, had lowered himself considerably in the opinion of his head men, who form the principal strength of an African king. I found Satin Lai, a good-looking man, apparently between sixty and seventy years of age, about five feet ten inches in height, affable in his deportment, with a mild and amiable countenance which is said to be rather at variance with his actions. He was performing the office of a commissary, surrounded by several hundred baskets of white rice, which he was distributing to the different tribes in quantities proportionate to their strength. In one corner of the tent some of his slaves were employed in cooking, in another his horse was feeding, encircled with Moorish trapping, spears, muskets, bows and quivers. On appearing before the tent of Amara, I was directed to seat myself under the shade of a large booth covered with cocoa-nut branches and plantain leaves, capable of containing and sheltering from the rays of the sun upwards of two thousand people; here the king soon joined me, and the war drum being beat, the booth was shortly filled with a motley assemblage of armed men. Booths of corresponding size, erected at right angles, and parallel to the one in which I sat, so as to form a large square, were also soon crowded with hordes of Soolimas, Bennas, Tambaccas, and Sangaras, in all, amounting to about ten thousand men, while the inclosed space was free to such as were desirous of exhibiting in feats of warlike exercises, in dancing, and in music. As the exibitions on this occasion were of the same kind with those which I afterwards saw in the Soolima country on similar occasions, and which will be described hereafter, I shall merely observe that Yaradee, the general of the Soolima army, was particularly conspicuous in exhibiting on horseback the various evolutions of African attack and defence. When their performances were concluded, I had an interview with Yaradee, and obtaining from him an assurance that Sannassee’s life should be preserved, I took my leave, receiving many protestations of friendship. A subsequent conversation with Amara, in which I explained his Excellency’s wishes, terminated my visit to the camp, which I quitted at sunset, and proceeded direct on my return to Sierra Leone, where I did not arrive till the sixth day, having suffered much inconvenience on the journey, from the effects of increasing illness.”

We have given this account entire, that the reader may understand the kind of natives that he had to deal with in his after intercourse with them. His interference seemed here to have terminated happily for Sannassee, but he was scarcely recovered from his illness, when it was reported that all his efforts had been of no avail; and the governor, still anxious to save the life of his ally, asked Laing again to undertake another embassy for the same object; he complied, again visited the Soolima camp, where he found that Amara had set Sannassee at liberty, after first burning his town, and then plundering his property. Lieutenant Laing did not waste time in a longer palaver than was just sufficient to mark the displeasure of the governor regarding their conduct to Sannassee. He was accompanied on this mission by Mr. Mackie, assistant surgeon, who, together with Lieutenant Laing, were the objects of undisguised astonishment to Yarradee, who scrutinized every article of their dress with great minuteness; and on observing Laing pull off his gloves, “he stared with surprise, covered his widely opened mouth with his hands, and at length he exclaimed, ‘Alla ackbar,’ he has pulled the skin off his hands.” Lieutenant Laing and Mr. Mackie reached Sierra Leone after an absence of six days and a-half during the whole of which time they had not been under shelter for a single hour. While upon this second mission he had observed that many men who accompanied the Soolima army possessed considerable quantities of gold, and having learned that ivory abounded in Soolima, he suggested to the governor the advantage to the colony of opening up an intercourse with these people.

The governor was pleased with the suggestion, and submitted it without delay to a meeting of the council, when it was resolved, that Lieutenant Laing should be permitted to penetrate to the country of the Soolimas, choosing his own road, and the one by which he could most easily communicate his discoveries. He was now in the character of a volunteer traveller, a character which he admirably supported.

This party consisted of Musah Kanta, a native of Foutah Jallon; two soldiers of the second West India regiment, eleven carriers, natives of the Jolof country, and a boy, Mahomed, a native of Sego.

They quitted Sierra Leone in boats on the 16th of April, 1822, and ascending the Rokelle, slept the first night at Mr. M‘Cormick’s factory, who, from his name, seems to have been a countryman of our traveller’s. They took the route through the Timannee country, calling upon the various chieftains and governors who were in their way, from whom they received passes, but often with difficulty, and only on the payment of money, and the presentation of articles, sometimes of considerable value.

While they were upon the point of leaving Rokon, which is in the Timannee country, the king of the place made his appearance in a violent rage, and the cause of his grievance, was a Jolofman, who attended Lieutenant Laing, having had the audacity to dress himself in a new red slop shirt, which the king considering a more splendid habiliment than his own, insisted upon having; this the Jolof obstinately refused; while the king declared it to be the law in his country, (a law made by himself at the moment) “That any man dressed better than himself, especially in red, should forfeit his clothes.” Lieutenant Laing settled this difference by desiring the Jolof to change his shirt, and giving the king a bar of tobacco and a dram of rum. After leaving Rokon, the country for a short time was beautiful and cultivated, and on reaching Nunkaba, they found the female inhabitants busy with their cotton, preparing it for spinning.

On their arrival at Toma, though only sixty miles from Sierra Leone, Lieutenant Laing learned, to his surprise, that “no white man had ever before been seen there.” He says, in his journal, “the first appearance of surprise, that came under my observation was in a woman, who stood fixed like a statue, gazing at the party as they entered the town, and did not stir a muscle till the whole had passed, when she gave a loud halloo of astonishment, and covered her mouth with both her hands.”

This astonishment at their appearance, was sometimes productive of annoyance during the progress of their journey. At Balanduco they found the women busily employed in separating the juicy saffron-coloured fruit from the palm nut; in squeezing it into wooden mortars, and in beating it into one common mash, in order that the oil might be extracted more easily and more commodiously in boiling. Lieutenant Laing estimated that during the season of the fruit, they manufactured, on an average, from thirty to forty gallons a-day.

They now began to feel the fatigues of a long continued journey; they reached Rokanka on the 25th of April, much fatigued, and deprived of water, the inhabitants of the village either being unable or unwilling to supply them with any; and being afraid to enter the woods in search of it, from the whistle of the Purrah being heard in the neighbourhood. The Purrah are a sort of “Robin Hood gang,” who infest the woods, occasionally making an inroad upon some peaceful village, which they invariably plunder; the inhabitants keeping hidden, and never attempting any resistance. They are tatooed in a manner peculiar to themselves, and have gradations of rank in their community. At stated times they hold assemblies, on which occasions, the country is in the greatest alarm, for notices are dispersed abroad concerning them, and the people are obliged to attend; they settle all differences, and inflict capital punishments, according to their pleasure, so that in fact, they are the governors of the country, and Lieutenant Laing says, “that from the nature of their power, and the purposes to which it is applied, they will probably be found a most serious obstacle to its civilization.”

On leaving Rokanka the next day, they came in sight of a stream, after walking about an hour and a quarter, and having suffered so much from thirst, for thirty hours preceding, they were so eager to enjoy it, and indulged so freely in it, that on reaching a town four miles farther, the whole party were attacked with the most violent spasms, Lieutenant Laing suffering particularly, it being six days before he was at all restored to his usual health.

He found some difficulty in procuring permission to depart from Ma-Bung, which was the name of his present residence, being obliged to hold a palaver, as they termed it, with the head men of the place; and it was only after a very long palaver with his interpreter and them, that he was suffered to depart, upon making presents of tobacco, powder, white baft, and rum.

This custom of presenting gifts at every place, was a serious evil, but it was one without which it was impossible to proceed, and occasionally, his attendants and the inhabitants engaged in a scuffle, sometimes difficult to suppress. It is unnecessary to follow his motions minutely; the reader may find them interestingly and particularly recorded in his travels published in 1825, and edited by his friend Captain Sabine.

It is sufficient to mention that on the 7th of May he reached the last town of the Timmannee country; called Ma-Boom, part of which was inhabited by Koorankos, in which part he took up his residence, as through that country it was now his intention to proceed.

He found very great difficulty in getting away from Ma-Boom, owing to the greediness and treachery of Smeilla, the head man of the place, who laid a plan of assault and robbery upon him and his party, but from which he was preserved by the sagacity of his servant, Musah, and his own decision. With the other inhabitants of Ma-Boom he seemed pleased, particularly the Mandingo families, and the country around, he says, is thickly wooded, and abounds with rich pasturages, well stocked with cattle, sheep, and goats.

The next station was Kooloofa, where they received a kind but noisy welcome, being prevented from sleeping during the night by barbarous music in honour of their visit. “They, one and all,” says Lieutenant Laing, “thanked God for my appearance among them: they said they could not live without trade, and on that account, if for no other, they were glad to see a white man come into the country to open a good road.” He easily received permission to depart from Kooloofa, and left it with the best wishes of a numerous crowd, assembled to witness his departure. After passing through several places, they reached Seemera, where he was as kindly received as at Kooloofa, the king “thanking God that he had seen a white man, and would do any thing to help him, as he was sure he could have no other object in coming to this country than to do good.” While there the place was visited by a tremendous tornado. The house where Laing slept being badly thatched, the lightning kept it in almost perpetual illumination, and, as he himself expresses it, the holes in the roof gave him the full benefit of a shower bath. He was detained here a short time, partly by the rain, during which time the king sent a company of dancers to dance before him for his diversion. His route, after leaving Seemera, was difficult and dangerous, he and his party having to endure several heavy tornadoes, rough roads, and plots laid to rob him of his baggage. His remarks upon what he observed during this journey must be extremely interesting to a geologist, and, indeed, to any man of science, for which, however, we again refer to his travels.

While at Worrowyah, he was entertained by some female singers, the tenor of whose song, he said, did not please him. They sung “of the white man who had come to their town; the houseful of money which he had; such cloth, such beads, such fine things had never been seen in Kooranko before; if their husbands were men, and wished to see their wives well dressed, they ought to take some of the money from the white man.” He was saved from the effects of this advice by one of his suite called Tamba, who answered them by a counter song. He sung of “Sierra Leone, of houses a mile in length filled with money; that the white man who was here had nothing compared to those in Sierra Leone; if, therefore, they wished to see some of the rich men from that country come into Kooranko, they must not trouble this one; whoever wanted to see a snake’s tail must not strike it on the head.” This song was applauded, and Lieutenant Laing was allowed to keep his money.

While at Kamato, which he reached on the 29th of May, Laing had a severe attack of fever, which lasted for several days. As he was recovering from the attack, a messenger arrived from the king of the Soolimas, with a party, and two horses, to convey him to their country, his majesty being very desirous to see him within his territories. Laing was very glad to accept of the invitation, so on the morning of the 5th of June, he mounted one of the horses, and left the Kooranko country for a time. It was not till the 11th that he reached the royal city, having in his way thither received much kindness and hospitality from the native head men of the villages through which they passed; one head man, says our traveller, “took off his cap, and lifting his aged eyes to heaven, fervently thanked his Creator for having blessed him with the sight of a white man before he died.”

When Lieutenant Laing reached Falaba, which was the residence of the king of the Soolimas, he was saluted with a heavy and irregular discharge of musketry, which he ordered to be returned with three rounds from his party, and then alighting, shook hands with the king, who presented him with two massive gold rings, and made him sit down beside him. The king and the Lieutenant were scarcely seated, when his old friend Yaradee, better dressed than when he last met him, mounted on a fiery charger, crossed the parade at full gallop, followed by about thirty warriors on horseback, and two thousand on foot,—the equestrians returning and performing many evolutions, to the amazement and admiration of the spectators. After which many other spectacles were exhibited for the diversion of his guest by the king of the Soolimas. Yaradee was particularly kind to Lieutenant Laing, saying, “he was a proud man that day, the first day in which a white man had ever been in the Soolima country.”

The different chieftains paid homage to our traveller, when they saw how highly he was thought of by their sovereign, and he was teazed with speeches and remarks addressed to him by a crowd for the pleasure of hearing him speak, and whenever he did so, they would shout, “He speaks, the white man speaks.” He said these marks of attention would have delighted him any other time, but his horse having fallen with him, he had been precipitated into the water of a marsh he was crossing at the time of the accident, which brought on an attack of fever, from which, however, he recovered in about three days. Those who wish to see an account of the fetes and the excursions, designed principally in honour of Lieutenant Laing, must read his travels, in which they will find an interesting account.

Feeling again the intimations of approaching illness, he shortened his interviews, and came to the great business of the mission, free intercourse and trade, and the desire of Sir Charles M‘Carthy to cultivate a good understanding with them; and then producing his presents, which were considerable, every thing was adjusted in the most amicable manner: but he had scarcely returned to his hut, when the fever was renewed with redoubled violence, and, stretching himself on his mat, he resigned himself to the disease which for nine or ten days prevented him from rising; three days of which he was in a state of delirium. On his consciousness returning he found he had been cupped by one of the country doctors, which had been of great service to him. During this illness his meteorological observations ceased, and it was, as he expresses it, “with a grief bordering on distraction that he thought upon his chronometer, which, as nobody could wind up but himself, had unavoidably gone down.”

It was on the 1st of July that he found himself able to write a few lines to acquaint his friends at Sierra Leone with his arrival at Falaba, and that he hoped soon to be able to go even farther eastward; two natives of Soolima volunteering to be the bearers of his despatches. On the 11th, he was so well as to mount on horseback and take a survey of the adjacent country, but from the delay occasioned by the unwillingness of the king to allow him to depart, it was not till the 17th of September that he finally quitted Falaba in order to return to Sierra Leone; having resided in the Soolima country more than three months. He was on the 9th of September gratified by the return of the messengers he had sent to Sierra Leone; he received the packet they conveyed to him with exquisite delight; but besides the kind letters of his friends, they sent “tobacco, sugar, a little brandy, which soon disappeared among the Soolimas, and, though last not least, two pairs of good shoes, a luxury to which his feet had for some time been unaccustomed. He was also furnished, through the kindness of Dr. Barry, staff-surgeon at Sierra Leone, with a lancet and two glass plates of preserved vaccine virus, with which, on the 13th, he was permitted to inoculate a number of children, commencing with those of the king himself,” who had so much confidence in him, that Laing says “he believed he would have permitted him to have attempted the most extravagant experiment upon any of his own family.” If he had possessed sufficient virus, he continues, “I might have inoculated all the children in Falaba: the yard was absolutely crowded with old men and women, holding young children in their arms, and forming a group worthy of the pencil of a West or a Rubens.” He very naturally remarks upon it as an interesting fact, “that a nation so far in the interior of Africa, should have so readily submitted, at the instigation of a white man, who was almost a stranger to them, to an operation against which so much prejudice existed for so many years in the most enlightened and civilized countries in Europe. When the general prevalence of superstitious fear from greegrees and fetishes is duly considered, this fact presents a strong proof of the confidence which the natives of Western Africa repose in the measures of white people to benefit them; and affords a no less strong presumption, that their other superstitious notions might soon be found to give way, in like manner, to the labours of the missionary: and their present barbarous habits of obtaining slaves for trade by force of arms, to the more rational proceeding of cultivating the soil for articles of commercial exchange.”

The day that he quitted Falaba, which, as has been already stated, was on the 17th of September, the natives in great numbers accompanied him for a considerable distance, the females making most extravagant demonstrations of grief; the king accompanied him a little farther, when a parting took place, which we shall insert in Captain Laing’s own words, (for while at Falaba, he had received intelligence of his promotion to the rank of captain). “At length the old man stopped and said, he was now to see me for the last time. The tears were in his eyes, and the power of utterance seemed to have forsaken him for a while. Holding my hand still fast, he said ‘white man, think of Falaba, for Falaba will always think of you: the men laughed when you came among us, the women and children feared and hid themselves: they all sit now with their heads in their hands, and with tears in their eyes because you leave us. I shall remember all you have said to me; you have told me what is good, and I know that it will make my country great; I shall make no more slaves.’ Then squeezing me affectionately by the hand, and turning away his head, he gently loosened his grasp, and saying, ‘Go, and return to see us,’ he covered his face with his hands. I felt as if I had parted from a father. Such remembrances impress themselves too deeply in the heart to be effaced by time or distance, and establish a permanent interest in the welfare of a country, which may have a material influence on the after life of the individual who entertains them.”

The route of Captain Laing and his party back to Sierra Leone was much the same with that which they had gone when they set out; most of the head men expressing surprise at seeing him again, they in general supposing that he had been killed in the interior, and on the 28th of October, he had the pleasure of being welcomed by his friends at Sierra Leone, “so many of whom, so much esteemed, and so highly valued, are now, alas, no more!”

On Captain Laing’s arrival at Sierra Leone, he received an order to join his regiment on the Gold Coast, without delay, in consequence of the hostilities which had commenced between the British government and the king of the Ashantees.

On his arrival on the Gold Coast, he was employed in the organization and command of a very considerable native force, designed to be auxiliary to a small British detachment, which was then expected from England. During the greater part of the year 1823, this native force was stationed on the frontier of the Fantee and Ashantee countries, and was frequently engaged, and always successfully, with detachments of the Ashantee army.

On the fall of Sir Charles M‘Carthy, which took place early in 1824, Captain Sabine, who edits the Travels, and writes the preface from which we quote, says, “that Lieutenant-Colonel Chisholm, on whom the command of the Gold Coast devolved, deemed it expedient to send Captain Laing to England, for the purpose of acquainting government, more fully than could be done by despatch, with the existing circumstances of the command. Soon after his arrival in England, which took place in August, he obtained a short leave of absence to visit Scotland for the recovery of his health, which had been seriously affected by so many months of such constant and extreme exposure in Africa, as it is probable few constitutions would have supported.”

He returned to London in October of the same year, where an opportunity now presented itself which he had long anxiously desired, of proceeding under the auspices of government, on an expedition to discover the course and termination of the Niger. He was now promoted to the rank of major, and departed from London on that enterprise early in February 1825, with the intention of leaving Tripoli, for Timbuctoo, in the course of the summer of that year. He touched at Malta on his way to Tripoli, where he was shown every attention by the late Marquis of Hastings, at whose table he repeatedly dined.

While at Tripoli, he became acquainted with the British Consul, Mr. Warrington, his business with him producing an intimacy of the closest nature, which was farther cemented by Major Laing’s marrying his daughter, Emma Maria Warrington, an event which took place on the 14th of July 1825. But he had no time to spend in domestic life: two days after marriage he set out for those vallies of death where every preceding traveller had found a grave.

It was on the 17th of July that Major Laing left Tripoli in company of the Sheik Babani, a highly respectable man who had resided in Timbuctoo twenty-two years, and whose wife and children were there still. This Sheik engaged to conduct our traveller thither in two months and a half; and there, or at his neighbouring residence, to deliver him over to the great Marabout Mooktar, by whose influence he would be able to proceed farther in any direction that might be required, according to information received as to the course of the river. This Babani is stated by the Consul of Tripoli, to be “one of the finest fellows, with the best tempered and most prepossessing countenance that he ever beheld; Laing, in all his letters, speaks of him in the highest terms of respect and approbation. As the Gharan mountains were rendered impassable by the defection of a rebellious chief of the Bashaw, who had taken possession of all the passes, the small koffila of Babani took the route of Beneoleed. On the 21st of August they reached Shaté, and, on the 13th of September, arrived safely at Ghadamis, after a “tedious and circuitous journey of nearly a thousand miles.” In the course of this journey, Laing reports the destruction of all his instruments from the heat of the weather, and the jolting of the camels; his barometers broken; his hygrometers rendered useless from the evaporation of the ether; the tubes of most of his thermometers snapt by the warping of the ivory; the glass of the artificial horizon so dimmed by the friction of sand which insinuated itself everywhere, as to render an observation difficult and troublesome; his chronometer stopt, owing, he says, to the extremes of heat and cold, but more probably to the jolting, or the insinuation of sandy particles; and to wind up the catalogue of his misfortunes, the stock of his rifle broken by the great gouty foot of a camel treading upon it. The range of the thermometer in the desert, was from 120° about the middle of the day, to 75°-68°, and once or twice to 62° an hour or two before sunrise, at which time was observable a great incrustation of nitre on the ground, which is the common appearance on the surface of all the known deserts of Africa, from Tripoli to the Cape of Good Hope.

When Major Laing reached Ghadamis, he discovered that his companion, the Sheik Babani, was governor of the town. He considered him a person of sterling worth, with a quiet, inoffensive, unobtrusive character, though at the same time not deficient in decision, but never once suspected him to be a person of so much importance and influence as he all at once discovered him to be. The Sheik immediately lodged him in one of his own houses, with a large garden, and yard for his camels, which were fed at the expense of the governor. Ghadamis is a place of considerable trade; all the koffilas to and from Soudan passing through it. The citizens pay tribute to the Tuaric who inhabit the great Sahara or desert on the western side of Africa for permission to their koffilas to pass without being subjected to plunder. The town contains six or seven thousand inhabitants.

Major Laing left Ghadamis on the 27th of October, and arrived at Ensala on the 3d of December. Ensala is the most eastern town in the province of Tuat, and belongs to the Tuaric: it is considered to be thirty-five days journey distant from Timbuctoo. As he approached this city, some thousands of people, of all ages, came out to meet this Christian traveller. Nothing could exceed the kindness and hospitality with which they received him, and Major Laing returned it, by patiently listening to their complaints, and administering medicine to their diseases to the best of his ability.

The koffila left Ensala on the 10th of January 1826, and on the 26th of the same month entered upon the desert of Tenezarof, about twenty journies from Timbuctoo, a mere desert of sand, perfectly flat, and quite destitute of all verdure. Major Laing, at this time was still an enthusiast in his expedition, and, possessed of good health and spirits, experiencing everywhere, from every person, nothing but good will, kindness, and hospitality. He particularly mentions the services of Hatteta, the Tuaric who had accompanied him thither; he also speaks of the sheik Babani, who, he says, continued “to watch over him with the solicitude of a father.” Shortly after the arrival of a letter with these accounts from Tenezarof, reports reached Tripoli, that the koffila had been attacked by robbers; that the Major’s servant, as well as some others, had been killed, and he himself wounded; at the same time adding, that he had effected his escape to the Marabout Mooktar, who usually resided at a spot only five days journey distant from Timbuctoo. These reports, though they created some uneasiness, were not believed, till a letter was received at Tripoli by Mrs. Laing, indirectly tending to confirm them. She received it on the 20th of September 1826: it was written from the desert of Tenezarof. The following extract is what appears to refer to the circumstances which raised the reports.

“I take the advantage of a Tuaric going to Tuat, to acquaint you, that I am safe and in perfect health, and completely recovered from the trifling indisposition which annoyed me on leaving that place. If it pleases God I shall be in Timbuctoo in less than twenty days, and in two months afterwards I hope to find my way to some part of the coast. I have met with much annoyance from the Tuaric; few, very few of whom are like Hatteta, and are not, as the consul anticipated, our friends. You shall know all particulars from me on my arrival at Timbuctoo, from whence I shall lose no time in addressing you. I have stopped in the sun to write; pray excuse it, for I am in great haste, and I write with only a thumb and a finger, having a very severe cut on my fore finger.”

This cut probably refers to the wounds he had received, but which he did not wish to mention in a more serious manner.

About the middle of October, new reports reached Tripoli, of Major Laing’s safe residence with Mooktar, a short distance from Timbuctoo, but adding, that a Jew servant, and a black servant, who had accompanied him, had both been killed in an attack of the Tuaric. The consul wished to believe these reports false, and flattered himself that they were so, but, unfortunately, they were too true. Major Laing’s Arab servant, Hamet, arrived at Tripoli, bringing letters from his master with him, dated Azoad, the 1st and 10th of July, at which place he had been detained for some time after his escape from the attack of the robbers, in consequence of a dreadful fever there raging among the inhabitants. In his letter of the 1st he thus mentions it.

“I was detained,” he says, “to afford assistance to the sufferers with my medicines; nearly half the population have been swept away by its ravages; and among others, Sidi Mooktar himself, the marabout and sheik of the place; his loss I must regret, for he had taken a considerable interest in my situation, and had promised to conduct me to Nooshi; which, I regret to say, his son neither possesses the disposition, nor the power to do. While attending Sidi Mooktar, I was seized with the malady myself, and for nine days, lay in a very helpless and dangerous state, without any attendance, for poor Jack was taken ill at the same time, and the surviving sailor never was of much service to himself nor to any body else. My fever yielded at length to the effects of blistering and calomel, but poor Jack’s proved fatal, and he breathed his last on the 21st ult. On the 25th the sailor was taken ill, and died on the 28th, so that I am now the only surviving member of the mission.”

He mentions having received permission to proceed to Timbuctoo, adding, but that “with Timbuctoo, my research must, for the present, cease, as I have no camels to carry me farther.” No mention, nor even allusion is made in this letter, concerning the attack of the Tuaric, but in the one dated the 10th, he says, “I am recovering rapidly, but am subject to dreadful pains in my head, arising from the severity of my wounds;” and he speaks of his being unable to write much “from the mangled state of his arms.” The statement, however, of the Arab servant, gave a clear account of all the circumstances, and is as follows:—“That they left Tuat, and travelled about eight hours (or thirty-six miles) each day, making forced marches when in want of water; that on the 11th day, the koffila was joined by twenty Tuaric mounted on maherries; that on the sixteenth day from Tuat, at a place called Wady Ahennet, the Tuaric, armed with guns, spears, swords, and pistols, fell at once on the rest of the koffila, consisting of forty-five persons; that they surrounded Laing’s tent, cutting the canvass cords, fired at him while in bed, and that before he could arm himself, he was cut down by a wound in the thigh; that himself (the Arab) received a sabre wound, which brought him to the ground; that Babani and his people rendered no assistance, nor were they attacked by the robbers, but he remonstrated with them, and fetched a marabout in the neighbourhood, who abused the Tuaric for their conduct, and made them swear not to molest the koffila farther.”

Laing seems to have thought Babani acted oddly on this occasion, though he says little on the subject; the Arab saying, “that Babani one day before the attack, took the belts and gunpowder from me, and the other black man, and gave them to the Tuaric, but Laing did not tell me to mention that part, but he objected at the time to Babani’s giving powder and the belts to the Tuaric.”

The letters already mentioned, of the 1st and 10th, as having been received from Major Laing, were the last that were so, and of course, the Arab’s narrative becomes more important and interesting. He states, “that Major Laing’s wounds were so severe, as to prevent him keeping up with the koffila of Babani for some days; and that he (the Arab) the Major’s servant, Jack, a black boy to whom Laing had given freedom, and one of Babani’s men, attended him, following slowly behind; that they all re-assembled, however, at a watering-place, where they remained two days.” He then mentions their travelling for nineteen days over a desert; their arrival at Mooktar, where they were kindly treated, and of the recovery of Major Laing of his wounds, but his being seized by the fever already alluded to in his own letters, with the accounts of the deaths occasioned by it, of Mooktar, the boy Jack, and Harry the sailor; and that “young Mooktar had promised to take Laing to Timbuctoo, and bring him back safely to Tuat for one thousand dollars, which was agreed to, Major Laing saying that he had no money, but would pay him in other things which he still had. He was to set off in sixteen days when I left him.”

The Arab had received such a fright, first from the attack of the robbers, and then from the death of his fellow-servants, that he determined to leave his master, and return to Tripoli by the first koffila. “On the very day it left (says Major Laing) when I was in a very weak state, having barely succeeded in overcoming the severe fever by which I had been assailed, while as yet the corpses of my poor Jack, and the sailor were hardly cold, the bearer (of his letter), unmindful of all laws of humanity, came to me, and said he wished to go to Tuat along with the koffila; I told him he might go; I blame no man for taking care of his carcass, so, in God’s name, let him go. I have given him a maherrie, provisions, so that he departs like a Sultan.”

This Arab likewise brought a letter from Mooktar to the Bashaw of Tripoli, mentioning all the occurrences which have been already detailed, viz. the attack of the robbers, in which Laing’s Jew servant, and a black man were killed, and the Major himself very severely wounded; so this affair is placed beyond a doubt, by which Laing was deprived of almost all his property.

Major Laing promised to write from Timbuctoo, but no letters having reached Tripoli, the consul became alarmed, and urged the Bashaw of Tripoli to send out couriers in all directions, to cause inquiries to be made concerning him. On the 20th of February 1827, the courier returned from Ghadamis bringing letters for the Bashaw and the consul, stating that a Tuaric had seen one of Mooktar’s sons at Tuat, who told him that Major Laing was in Timbuctoo in good health and spirits; stating however that inquiries were carefully going on fully to ascertain the truth of it. On the 31st of March the consul was made acquainted with the answers to these inquiries concerning his son-in-law: “they stated that the Christian who arrived at Timbuctoo with Mooktar’s son had been murdered; that the Fellatas took Timbuctoo and demanded that the Christian should be sent away, or they would plunder the town; that the people of Timbuctoo assisted him to escape, and gave him a man to conduct him to Bambarra; that the Fellata, apprised of this, followed him on the road, overtook him, and put him to death.” Reports of a contradictory nature, however, reached the consul, mentioning that though the Fellatas had entered Timbuctoo, that Laing had escaped unhurt, and that it was understood he had arrived at Sansanding, on the banks of the Niger. The same story being repeated by one Abdullah Benhahi, who, in August 1827, had been in Timbuctoo three months before, and who saw Laing in that place.

But since that time, however, the reports of his death have been confirmed in a manner that leaves no doubt in the minds of his relatives of the melancholy fact, and these authenticated accounts record, that he fell by the hands of the barbarians, under the fiat of the king of the Foulahs, long the inveterate enemies of the Soolimas, by whom, the reader will recollect, Major Laing was so kindly received, and with whose king he contracted so interesting an acquaintance, or rather friendship, residing, it will be remembered, for three months in their capital of Falaba. The accounts of his death state, that it took place soon after the 21st of September 1826. We shall conclude this slight sketch of Major Laing, by extracting some remarks from an able article in the Quarterly Review, to which we have been indebted for some of our information regarding his last journey.

“We trust, (says the Reviewer) that there will be an end to the sacrifice of valuable lives, in prosecuting discoveries on this wretched continent, of which we know enough to be satisfied that it contains little at all worthy of being known; a continent that has been the grave of Europeans, the seat of slavery, and the theatre of such crimes and miseries as human nature shudders to think of; where eternal war rages among the numberless petty chiefs for no other motive than to seize the innocent families of the original natives, and sell them into perpetual slavery. The products for commercial purposes are few, and mostly confined to the sea-coasts; two-thirds of the interior being a naked and unhospitable desert, over which are scattered bands of ruthless robbers.”

FINIS.