186 
AFRICA AND ITS 'EXPLORATION. 
and recovered from liis wounds. His convalescence was 
slow, but lie was fortunately spared tlie extortions of 
the natives, owing to the letters of introduction he had 
brought with him from Tripoli and to the sedulous care 
of his host, a native of that city. 
According to Caillie, who quotes this remarkable fact 
from an old native, Laing retained his European costume, 
and gave out that he had been sent by his master, the 
king of England, to visit Timbuctoo and describe the 
wonders it contained. 
“ It appears,” adds the French traveller, “ that Laing 
drew the plan of the city in public, for the same Moor 
told me in his naive and expressive language, that he 
had e written the town and everything in it.’ ” 
After a careful examination of Timbuctoo, Laing, who 
had good reason to fear the Tuaricks, paid a visit by 
night to Cabra, and looked down on the waters of the 
Niger. Instead of returning to Europe by way of the 
Great Desert, he was very anxious to go past Jenneli 
and Sego to the French settlements in Senegal, but at 
the first hint of his purpose to the Foulahs who crowded 
to stare at him, he was told that a Nazarene could not 
possibly be allowed to set foot in their country, and that 
if he dared attempt it they would make him repent it. 
Laing was, therefore, driven to go by way of El 
Arawan, where he hoped to join a caravan of Moorish 
merchants taking salt to Sansanding. But five days 
after he left Timbuctoo, his caravan was joined by a 
fanatic sheikh, named Ilamed-ould-Habib, chief of the 
Zawat tribe, and Laing was at once arrested under pre¬ 
tence of his having entered their country without 
authorisation. The major being urged to profess 
Mohammedanism refused, preferring death to apostasy. 
A discussion then took place between the sheikh and his 
hired assassins as to how the victim should be put to 
death, and finally Laing was strangled by two slaves. 
His body was left unburied in the desert. 
This was all Caillie' was able to find out when he 
visited Timbuctoo but one year after Major Laing’s 
death. We have supplemented his accounts by a few 
