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.”