AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 185 
his steps as far as Sackatoo, visited Lake Tchad, and 
attempted to reach the hill. 
Outside Gliat the caravan with which Laing was 
travelling was attacked, some say by Tuaricks, others 
by Berber Arabs, a tribe living near the Niger. 
“ Laing,” says Caillie, who got his information at 
Timbuctoo, “ was recognised as a Christian, and horribly 
ill-treated. He was beaten with a stick until he was 
THE ANTELOPE. 
left for dead. I suppose that the other Christian whom 
they told me was beaten to death, was one of the major’s 
servants. The Moors of Laing’s caravan picked him 
up, and succeeded by dint of great care in recalling him 
to life. So soon as he regained consciousness he was 
placed on his camel, to which he had to be tied, he was 
too weak to be able to sit up. The robbers had left him 
nothing, the greater part of his baggage had been 
rifled.” 
Laing arrived at Timbuctoo on the 18th August, 1826, 
