350 



LAINO LAIRESSE. 



office of deputy quarter-master-general in Barbadoes, 

 and who irav.- him a situation as clerk in his count- 

 fng-house. While in this situation he obtained, unso- 

 licited, an ensign's commission in the York light 

 infantry, and joined his regiment in Antigua : in two 

 years he was made a lieutenant, and Shortly after, 

 on the reduction of the regiment, was put on half- 

 pay. Dissatisfied with the inactivity consequent on 

 such a measure, he exchanged into the 2nd West 

 India regiment, and proceeded to Jamaica. Here 

 over-exertion caused him to suffer much from dis- 

 ease on the liver. He retired to Honduras for (lie 

 iccovery of his health, where he was appointed fort 

 major. His distemper, however, returned with in- 

 creasing violence, and compelled him to seek relief in 

 me air of his native land. 



During eighteen months that he remained at home, 

 the division of the 2nd West India regiment to which 

 lie belonged, was reduced, and he was again put on 

 half-pay. Restored, however, to health, he could not 

 remain inactive. Towards the end of 1819, he went 

 to London, and having been appointed lieutenant and 

 adjutant of his regiment, he proceeded to Sierra 

 Leone. 



From the beginning of the year 1822 his history 

 as an African traveller may properly be dated. In 

 that year he was despatched on two several impor- 

 tant embassies to Kambia and the Mandingo country. 

 Having been led to believe, during his last embassy, 

 that the Soolimas were in possession of quantities of 



fold and ivory, he suggested to the governor of 

 ierra Leone the propriety and probable advanta- 

 ges of the colony opening up a commercial intercourse 

 with them ; and the suggestion having been approv- 

 ed of, he left Sierra Leone on the 16th of April, 1822, 

 with the view of furthering such an object, accom- 

 panied by two Europeans, and thirteen natives of 

 Africa. On his arrival at Komato, the last town of 

 the Koorankoes, on his route, he found a messenger 

 from the king of Soolimana, with horses and carriages 

 to convey him to Falaba, the capital of that nation. 

 Not long after reaching Falaba, lieutenant, now cap- 

 tain Laing (for about this time he was promoted), 

 was seized with a fever which brought on delirium 

 for seTeral days. While in this state he was cupped 

 by one of the Soolima doctors, and this so effectual- 

 ly as to satisfy him that it was the means of saving 

 his life. Although within three days' journey of the 

 source of the Niger, he was not permitted to visit 

 that often sought spot, and deep was the grief which 

 the loss of such an opportunity cost him. On the 

 17th of September he quitted Falaba, and had no 

 sooner reached Sierra Leone than he was ordered to 

 join his regiment on the Gold coast without delay, in 

 the war with the Ashantees, which order he obeyed, 

 after having transmitted details to his friend, captain 

 Sabine in London, of the geographical determinations 

 of the latitude, longitude, and elevation of the places 

 he had lately visited. 



In 1824 he was sent home, to acquaint government 

 of the state of the Ashantee country, and the cir- 

 cumstances of the war. An opportunity having 

 unexpectedly presented itself to him, of proceeding 

 under lord Bathurst's auspices, in the discovery of 

 the course and termination of the Niger, he gladly 

 embraced it; and it was arranged, that he should 

 accompany the caravan from Tripoli to Timbuctoo, 

 in the ensuing summer. Our traveller, now promoted 

 to a majority, left London for Tripoli, in the month 

 of February, 1825. While in the latter city he had 

 occasion to have frequent intercourse with the British 

 consul, Mr Warrington ; a close intimacy was formed 

 between them, and the bond was strengthened by 

 the major's marrying Emma Maria, the daughter ot 

 the consul. This event was celebrated on the 14th of 



I July, 1825 ; and two days after the marriage the 

 major pn>'.:eeded on his pilgrimage to Timbuctoo. 



He left Tripoli in company with the sheik Babani. 

 whom he afterwards discovered to be no less a per- 

 sonage than the governor of Ghadamis. After a 

 tedious and circuitous journey of nearly a thousand 

 miles, they arrived at Ghadamis ; and on the 3d of 

 December reached Ensala, a town said to be tliirty- 

 five days' journey from Timbuctoo, and from which 

 he wrote the last letter to his relations in Scotland, 

 which they ever received from him. He quitted 

 Ensala on the 10th of January, 1826, and on the 2>Glh 

 of the same month entered on the sandy desert of 

 Tenezaroff. Hitherto the elements only had been his 

 foes ; but in the desert he was to enter on a different 

 course of experience, and bitter assuredly it was. In 

 an engagement with the Tuarics he received no less 

 than twenty-four sabre wounds, and on recovering 

 from his wounds, he was seized with fever. 



On the 18th of August he arrived at Timbuctoo, 

 and made himself acquainted with many interesting 

 particulars regarding that capital of central Africa. 

 After remaining there about two months, he set out 

 on his return, but was assassinated on the way, Sept. 

 1826, and all his valuable papers stolen. Much 

 mystery for some time existed regarding the death of 

 this unfortunate and enterprising traveller ; but from 

 facts elicited at Tripoli in 1829, it would appear that 

 the very guide (Babani), who set out with him on 

 his expedition, was under the secret direction of 

 Hassunah D' Ghies, son of the prime minister of the 

 Tripolitan bashaw, and the conspirator against the 

 major's life that by his (D 7 Ghies') instructions the 

 ferocious Bourabouschi, the eventual murderer, was 

 appointed to be the conductor of the major from 

 Timbuctoo, and that into his (D' Ghies') hands the 

 major's papers were put by another of his emissaries 

 shortly after the murder. 



It would further appear that the documents referred 

 to were given by D' Ghies to the French consul at 

 Tripoli, the baron de Rousseau, and that during the 

 greater part of the major's journey this official from 

 France had been in secret correspondence with the 

 conspirators that he exerted himself in securing the 

 flight of Hassunah D' Ghies after the treachery had 

 been discovered, and gave protection to, and tam- 

 pered with his brother Mohammed, who made the 

 disclosure. It were out of place, in this memoir, to 

 detail the strong chain of evidence by which these 

 allegations are supported. A masterly summary of 

 it will be found in the Quarterly Review, No. 84. 



LAING, MALCOLM, a Scottish lawyer and historian, 

 was born at Strynzia, his paternal estate, on the main- 

 land of Orkney, in 1762. He was educated at Kirk- 

 wall, whence he was removed to the university of 

 Edinburgh, after which he studied law, and was called 

 to the bar. His first literary production was a com- 

 pletion of the last volume of Dr Henry's History of 

 Britain (1793). He afterwards published a " History 

 of Scotland from the union of the crowns to the union 

 of the kingdoms," in 4 vols. 8vo. This work con- 

 tains many searching investigations on disputed 

 points of history, in which the author, with a spurious 

 liberality, always adopts the unpopular or anti- 

 national view of the subjects. His last literary un- 

 dertaking was an edition of the poems of Ossian, to 

 which he prefixed a dissertation, which is generally 

 considered to have set the question at rest as to their 

 want of authenticity. Mr Laing served in parliament 

 under the short administration of Mr Fox, to whose 

 politics he was attached. He died in 1818. 



LAIRESSE. There was a family of Flemish 

 painters of this name, of whom Gerard,. son to the 

 elder Lairesse, has acquired by far the greatest re- 

 putation. He was born in 1640, at Liege. He is 





