AFRICAN EXRL ORERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTUR Y. 177 
without the aid of Government or of any scientific 
society, by sheer force of will, he had succeeded in 
throwing a flood of new light on an immense tract of 
Africa. 
Caillie was not indeed the first European who had 
visited Timbuctoo. In the preceding year, Major 
SOME HORRORS OF THE DESERT. 
Laing had penetrated into that mysterious city, but 
he had paid for his expedition with his life, and 
we shall relate the touching details of his fatal expedi¬ 
tion. 
Before giving our necessarily brief account of the ex¬ 
pedition which cost Alexander Gordon Laing his life, 
for his journals were all lost, we must say a few words 
N 
