| "Laing saw Mount Loma." |
Laing had now spent three months in Soolimana, and had made many excursions. It is a very picturesque country, in which alternate hills, valleys, and fertile plains, bordered by woods and adorned with thickets of luxuriant trees.
The soil is fertile and requires very little cultivation; the harvests are abundant and rice grows well. Oxen, sheep, goats, and a small species of poultry, with a few horses, are the chief domestic animals of the people of Soolimana. The wild beasts, of which there are a good many, are elephants, buffaloes, a kind of antelope, monkeys, and leopards.
Falaba, which takes its name from the Fala-ba river, on which it is situated, is about a mile and a half long by one broad. The houses are closer together than in most African towns, and it contains some six thousand inhabitants. Its position as a fortified town is well-chosen. Built on an eminence in the centre of a plain which is under water in the rainy season, it is surrounded by a very strong wooden palisade, proof against every engine of war except artillery.
Strange to say in Soolimana the occupations of men and women seem to be reversed; the latter work in the fields except at seed time and harvest, build the houses, act as masons, barbers, and surgeons, whilst the men attend to the dairy, milk the cows, sew, and wash the linen.
On the 17th September, Laing started on his return journey to Sierra Leone bearing presents from the king, and escorted for several miles by a vast crowd. He finally reached the English colony in safety.
Laing's trip through Timmannee, Kooranko, and Soolimana was not without importance. It opened up districts hitherto unknown to Europeans, and introduced us to the manners, occupations, and trade of the people, as well as to the products of the country. At the same time the course was traced and the source discovered of the Rokelle, whilst for the first time definite information was obtained as to the sources of the Niger, for although our traveller had not actually visited them, he had gone near enough to determine their position approximately.
The results obtained by Laing on this journey, only fired his ambition for further discoveries. He, therefore, determined to make his way to Timbuctoo.
On the 17th June, 1825, he embarked at Malta for Tripoli, where he joined a caravan with which Hateeta, the Tuarick chief, who had made such friends with Lyon, was also travelling as far as Ghât. After two months' halt at Ghadames, Laing again started in October and reached Insalah, which he places a good deal further west than his predecessors had done. Here he remained from November, 1825, to January 1826, and then made his way to the Wâdy Ghât, intending to go from thence at once to Timbuctoo, making a tour of Lake Jenneh or Debbie, visiting the Melli country, and tracing the Niger to its mouth. He would then have retraced his steps as far as Sackatoo, visited Lake Tchad and attempted to reach the hill.