LAING (lang), ALEXANDER GORDON Scottish explorer, the first European to reach Timbuktu, born at Edinburgh on Dec. 27, 1793. He was educated at Edinburgh uni versity. In 1811 he went to Barbados as clerk to his uncle, Colonel (afterwards General) Gabriel Gordon. He obtained an ensigncy in the York Light Infantry, and, after serving in the West Indies, was promoted (1822) to a company in the Royal African Corps. In that year, while with his regiment at Sierra Leone, he was sent by the governor, Sir Charles MacCarthy, to the Man dingo country, with the double object of opening up commerce and endeavouring to abolish the slave trade in that region. Later in the same year Laing visited Falaba, the capital of the Sulima country, and found the source of the Rokell. He endeavoured to reach the source of the Niger, but was stopped by the natives. He fixed it, however, with approximate accuracy. He took an active part in the Ashanti War of 1823-24, and was sent home with the despatches containing the news of the death in action of Sir Charles MacCarthy. Henry, 3rd earl Bathurst, then secre tary for the colonies, instructed Captain Laing to undertake a journey, via Tripoli and Timbuktu, to explore the Niger basin.
Laing left England in Feb. 1825, and at Tripoli on July 14, he married Emma Warrington, daughter of the British consul. Two days later, leaving her behind, he started to cross the Sahara, being accompanied by a sheikh who was subsequently accused of planning his murder. Ghadames was reached, by an indirect route, in Oct. 1825, and in December Laing was in the Tuat terri tory, where he was at first well received by the Tuareg. On Jan.
I 0, 1826 he left Tuat, and made for Timbuktu across the desert of Tanezroft. He arrived in Timbuktu on Sept. 21, after severe fighting, in which he was wounded. He left Timbuktu on Sept. and was murdered on the night of Sept. 26, 1826. His papers were never recovered, though it is believed that they were secretly brought to Tripoli in 1828.
While in England in 1824 Laing prepared a narrative of his earlier journeys, which was published in 1825 and entitled Travels in the Timannee, Kooranko and Soolima Countries, in Western Africa.