Alexander Gordon Laing
Alexander Gordon Laing (December 27, 1793–September 26, 1826) was a Scottish explorer and the first European to reach Timbuktu.
Biography
Laing was born at Edinburgh. He was educated by his father, William Laing, a private teacher of classics, and at Edinburgh University. After assisting his father running the Academy, and for a short time a scholl master in Newcastel, he volunteered for military service in 1809, becoming and ensign in the Prince of Wales Volunteers. In 1811 he went to Barbados as clerk to his maternal uncle Colonel (afterwards General) Gabriel Gordon, then deputy quarter-master general, hoping for a transfer to the regular army. Through General Sir George Beckwith, governor of Barbados, he obtained a commission in the York Light Infantry, He was employed in the [[West Indies]. A bout of illness followed, during which he recuperated in Scotland. He was also on half-pay during this eihteen-month period. However, by 1819 he was fully restored to health and looking to rejoin his regiment. he was promoted to a lieutenant in the Royal African Corps and despatched to Sierra Leone.
Exploring Africa
It was in 1822 that his exploits as an explorer began when he was sent by the governor Sir Charles MacCarthy, to the Mandingo country, with the double object of opening up commerce and endeavouring to abolish the slave trade in that region. Later in the same year, promoted to Captain, Laing visited Falaba, the capital of the Solimana country, and ascertained the source of the Rokell. He endeavoured to reach the source of the Niger, but was stopped by the local population. He did, though, fix the location with approximate accuracy.
During 1823 and 1824, he took an active part in the Ashanti War, and was sent home with the despatches containing the news of the death in action of Sir Charles MacCarthy.
While in England in 1824 he prepared a narrative of his earlier journeys, which was published in 1825 and entitled Travels in the Timannee, Kooranko and Soolima Countries, in Western Africa.
Henry, 3rd Earl Bathurst, then secretary for the colonies, instructed Captain Laing to undertake a journey, via Tripoli and Timbuktu, to further elucidate the hydrography of the Niger basin. Laing left England in February 1825, and at Tripoli on the 14th of July following he married Emma Warrington, daughter of the British consul. Two days later, leaving his bride behind, he started to cross the Sahara, being accompanied by a sheikh who was subsequently accused of planning his murder. Ghadames was reached, by an indirect route, in October 1825, and in December Laing was in the Tuat territory, where he was well received by the Tuareg.
On the 10th of January 1826, now a Major, he left Tuat and made for the almost legendary Timbuktu across the desert of Tanezroft. Letters from him written in May and July following told of sufferings from fever and the plundering of his caravan by Tuareg, Laing being wounded in twenty-four places in the fighting. Another letter dated from Timbuktu on the 21st of September announced his arrival in that city on the preceding 18th of August, and the insecurity of his position owing to the hostility of the Fula chieftain Bello, then ruling the city. He added that he intended leaving Timbuktu in three days time. No further news was received from the traveller. From local information it was ascertained that he left Timbuktu on the day he had planned and was murdered on the night of the 26th of September 1826. His papers were never recovered, though it is believed that they were secretly brought to Tripoli in 1828. In 1903 the French government placed a tablet bearing the name of the explorer and the date of his visit on the house occupied by him during his thirty-eight days stay in Timbuktu.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Bovill, E. W. Missions to the Niger. Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1975.
- Laing, Alexander Gordon Travels in the Timannee, Kooranko and Soolima Countries, in Western Africa, London: John Murray, 1825; Boston, MA: Adamant Media, 2001 ISBN 978-1402173912
- Fleming, Fergus. Off the Map Tales of Endurance and Exploration. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005, ISBN 9780871138996
- McCullin, Don. Hearts of Darkness. New York: Knopf, 1981 ISBN 9780394514765
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
External Links
- Laing at "Significant Scots" includes some of his correspindence Retrieved October 16, 2007.
- Biography at NNDB Retrieved October 16, 2007.
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