“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.