154 Major Idling — Africa. 



MAJOR LAING AFRICA. 



Dispatches have been received at the Colonial Office, dated 

 18th June, from Mr. Warrington, British Consul at Tripoli. 

 These dispatches, we are delighted to state, announce the 

 arrival of our intrepid countryman, Major Laing, at the great 

 centre of African internal commerce, the long-sought city of 

 Timbuctoo. The date of his arrival is not stated, but from 

 the time he left Twat, it was probable that it took place about 

 the beginning of February. The next caravan which arrives 

 at Tripoli from Timbuctoo will bring us further accounts from 

 our enterprising traveller regarding his future movements. If 

 he proceeded down the river Niger as expeditiously as he 

 could, we may soon expect to hear of his arrival in England. 

 The reports of the dispersion of the caravan with which he was 

 travelling after it had left Twat, and which had reached this 

 country through a respectable channel, are thus, we rejoice to 

 say, falsified. Inured to the African climate, and arriving 

 at Timbuctoo early in the dry season, we consider every 

 danger to Major Laing as over. The navigable current of 

 the Niger will rapidly bear him, we think, to the Atlantic, 

 through countries and powers deeply impressed with the 

 majesty and fame of Great Britain. Two British travellers 

 are at present in the heart of Northern Africa, to which they 

 have advanced from opposite points. No later advices have 

 been received from Clapperton than those which announced 

 his arrival at Sackatoo, but by the arrival- of the Dispatch 

 man-of-war from the coast of Africa (the Bight of Benin) 

 some previous dispatches from that traveller have been re- 

 ceived, which are of considerable importance, as disclosing his 

 route and progress to Sackatoo. On the 7th of March he 

 was at Katangah, the capital of Yarba or Yarriba, a country 

 bordering on Nyflte ; from whence he was preparing to set out 

 for Kiama, and from thence to Wauwa and Youri (distant 

 four days journey from Wauwa); thus passing the places where 

 our unfortunate countryman Park was lost. Katangah is stated 

 to be 30 miles east of the Niger: — Important information he 

 must, of course, have obtained there ; but still more im- 

 portant information he of course obtained, and has no doubt 

 generally transmitted to this country, in his advance to Ka- 

 tangah, and in his further advance northwards; — because in 

 that route, and in the latter space, he must have crossed the 

 Niger, and passed Nyffe, at that point where some will have 

 it that the Niger turns east to the Nile of Egypt, and others 

 that it empties itself into an inland lake. — There he must have 

 received positive information whether the mighty Niger runs, 

 eastward, or continues its course, as we believe it does, south- 



' ward, 



