The Search for Alexander Lang: Vanished Explorer of Timbuktu and the Sahara

The last letter that Alexander Laing sent from Timbuktu was dated 21 September 1826. The absence of any letters from Laing — and not merely letters, but any rumour of him at all — began to worry Consul Warrington deeply. So began the search for Alexander Laing.

Who was Alexander Laing: a traveller's biography

Alexander Gordon Laing was a British army major and explorer who, in 1826, became one of the first Europeans to reach the fabled city of Timbuktu. His expedition set out from Tripoli across the Sahara, guided part of the way by the caravan of Sheikh Babani. Laing's achievement placed him among the great names of West African exploration, alongside Hugh Clapperton, René Caillié, the Lander brothers and Heinrich Barth, though his own fate would long remain obscured by the successes of those who followed.

Laing's expedition to Timbuktu

Laing's journey into Timbuktu was arduous and dangerous even before he reached the city. In the Wadi Ahnet he had already learned firsthand how perilous travel across the Saharan trade routes could be, an experience that later proved grimly relevant to how his own end unfolded. Having survived to enter Timbuktu, Laing stayed only a short time before setting out once more with an Arab caravan, a departure that would prove fatal.

The role of Consul Warrington in organising the search

Consul Warrington drove the search for Laing forward, motivated both by official duty and by a personal stake: Laing was his son-in-law. Convinced that Pasha Yusuf knew something he was unwilling to disclose, the consul decided to "lean on" the ruler. It happened that several British warships were then visiting Tripoli, and Warrington deliberately timed his visits to the pasha to coincide with their presence, hoping the show of naval strength would loosen the ruler's tongue.

Yusuf, it seems, would gladly have handed his dangerous "friend" news of Laing had he possessed any, but he had none, and so he stayed silent — hardly able to explain that even in Ghadames he held no real authority.

Pressure on Pasha Yusuf

Warrington's suspicion of the pasha and his ministers hardened into open accusation. Believing the ruler guilty of ill intent, he repeatedly staged loud confrontations before the entirely blameless Yusuf, demanding the truth. The pasha met these scenes with silence or with vague promises to find something out. When a caravan arrived from Ghadames in late July, Warrington reported to Hay that none of the merchants who came with it believed the bad news about Laing. On 2 August the consul went to the palace and subjected the pasha to what amounted to a formal interrogation about any information concerning Laing. Yusuf stated most emphatically that he had never believed in Laing's death, and that whatever information he had received he had already set down for the consul in writing.

Reports of Laing from Ghadames and Tripoli

Modern scholars of Africa have often remarked how, across the immense expanse of the Sahara, everyone somehow knows what everyone else is doing — and news of the fate of a European who had reached Timbuktu was no exception. In late March 1827 Pasha Yusuf received a letter from Ghadames and at once shared it with Warrington. The letter reported that men arriving from Tuat had said the Christian had been forced to flee the city in secret because the Fulani demanded his expulsion; the Fulani, it was said, had overtaken him on the road and killed him.

The consul refused to believe this account, which for him meant not only the failure of an important expedition but also the loss of a relative. Suspecting the pasha and his ministers of foul play, he kept making loud scenes before the innocent Yusuf, demanding the truth, while the pasha answered only with silence or promises.

Conflicting rumours about the traveller's fate

The rumours reaching Tripoli about Laing's fate were bewilderingly contradictory. At the very moment the news of his death was circulating, Warrington also received a report that Laing had been seen alive and well in Sansanding, which he naturally reported at once to the new Colonial Secretary, Lord Goderich. Such conflicting stories made it impossible to fix the truth from a distance, and only a firsthand witness could resolve them.

A French newspaper's report of Laing's death

By this time Warrington already knew that on 2 May 1827 a French newspaper had carried a notice reporting Laing's death, together with fairly accurate details of the event. Because the notice was printed with reference to information received from Tripoli, Warrington — who suspected the pasha to be the source — tried to obtain from him confirmation or denial of the article's main points.

The reaction of geographer François Jomard

Warrington was not the only one who refused to believe the reports of Laing's death. Commenting directly on the article, one of the most eminent geographers of the age, the Frenchman François Jomard, spoke out very firmly:

"This report is false, and it is regrettable that the correspondent writing from Tripoli should have spread news so dreadful to the friends of Major Laing."

Sending Muhammad al-Fezzani to Timbuktu

In late August 1827 the consul persuaded the pasha to dispatch a certain Muhammad al-Fezzani to Timbuktu. This man had only just returned from Bornu, where he had heard of Laing's death, and he was to discover what had truly happened. As it turned out, however, there was no need to await al-Fezzani's return. In late August 1828 al-Khadir, nephew of the late Sheikh Babani who had brought Laing to Timbuktu two years earlier, arrived in Tripoli. With him came Bongola — Laing's black servant — the only surviving witness of his master's death.

The testimony of Laing's servant, Bongola

Bongola recounted that Laing and his companions left Timbuktu as part of an Arab caravan, travelling so that "the sun was on his right cheek" — in other words, heading east. The first three days passed peacefully and gave no cause for suspicion, but on the third night the Arabs fell upon Laing and his servants.

The circumstances of the attack and the destruction of the caravan

Laing and an Arab boy were killed, while Bongola was gravely wounded. The attackers abandoned him along with the dead, but the next day a passing Berabish Arab picked Bongola up and carried him to Timbuktu. All of Laing's papers and belongings vanished without trace. From Bongola's account it became clear that the sheikh of the Berabish Arabs, Amadu Labeida — to whose protection the elders of Timbuktu had entrusted Laing — had himself carried out this treacherous attack, and had evidently taken all the dead traveller's property as well.

For the mores of the nomadic aristocracy such an assault was, on the whole, nothing unusual. Bongola's testimony remained the only reliable information about the circumstances of Laing's death, and for more than ninety years the last journey of Alexander Gordon Laing was pushed into the shadows by the successes of Clapperton (who outlived his rival by only seven months, dying of illness at Sokoto in April 1827), Caillié, the Landers and Barth.

The fate of Laing's papers and journals

The disappearance of Laing's papers and journals was among the most grievous losses of the whole affair, for they would have contained his own record of reaching Timbuktu. In 1910 the French researcher Bonnel de Mézières, one of the pioneers of archaeological investigation in West Africa, met an eighty-two-year-old Berabish who turned out to be a nephew and foster son of Amadu Labeida. The old man readily related the family tradition of how Laing had died.

According to that tradition, Laing had gone ahead of the caravan, and Amadu Labeida overtook him at a place called Sahab, some fifty kilometres north of Timbuktu on the Arawan road. There, so the story went, the sheikh demanded that the "Christian" renounce his errors and embrace Islam, but Laing refused outright. He bore himself with such dignity that even the sheikh's servants hesitated to attack him, despite Amadu's order; in the end they carried out the command, and in their excessive zeal killed the Arab boy and wounded another servant. The dead man's belongings were burned by the Berabish, who feared their magical properties — though the money and few valuables Laing still had aroused no such fears and were divided among the four participants in this "deed pleasing to Allah." The bodies were left under a tree, but later that same day a passing Berabish of the Ulad Sliman clan, Brahim ould Omar ould Salah, buried them there.

Travellers who visited Timbuktu and its surroundings after Laing more than once reported seeing, among the inhabitants of Arawan and even in regions far more distant — such as Tafilalt in Morocco — individual objects that had once belonged to the first "Christian" to enter Timbuktu. Bonnel de Mézières saw in the hands of Amadu Labeida's grandson a gold charm in the shape of a cockerel, which had fallen to Amadu Labeida in the division of Laing's property.

The results of the search and the historical significance of the expedition

Whether the attack was carried out by day or by night cannot be answered with full confidence. Yet what is known of the habits and practice of the Saharan nomads of that time speaks rather in favour of Bongola's account: the "knights of the desert," to whose "nobility" so many lines of poetry have been devoted, were not overly fond of performing their exploits in broad daylight. By night the work was both calmer and safer, and Laing himself had already had occasion to learn as much in the Wadi Ahnet.

Bonnel de Mézières was shown the spot where Brahim ould Omar had buried the "Christian" and his servant boy. When the supposed grave was opened, two skeletons were found. Bonnel de Mézières took them to Timbuktu, where French military doctors determined that they belonged to an adult European and a young Arab. The bones were then reburied a second time in the European cemetery at Timbuktu. After this discovery there remained almost no doubt that on 1 September 1828 Bongola had told Colonel Warrington the true story of Alexander Laing's death.

A chronology of the key events of the search

The distance between Timbuktu and Sahab — about fifty kilometres — supports the reconstructed sequence of events. The caravan left the city in the afternoon of 22 September, and since the speed of a trading caravan rarely exceeded twenty kilometres a day, Laing could have reached Sahab precisely by the evening of 24 September. The main milestones can be set out as follows:

• 21 September 1826 — Laing's last surviving letter is written in Timbuktu.
• 22 September 1826 — the caravan departs Timbuktu in the afternoon.
• 24 September 1826 — Laing is killed at Sahab, north of Timbuktu.
• 2 May 1827 — a French newspaper reports his death.
• 1 September 1828 — Bongola gives his testimony to Warrington in Tripoli.
• 1910 — Bonnel de Mézières records the Berabish family tradition and locates the grave.

It can therefore be said that this very day — 24 September 1826 — is the date of death of Major Alexander Laing, one of the first Europeans to reach Timbuktu. In 1927 Bonnel de Mézières's book Major A. Gordon Laing appeared in Paris, and three years later a memorial plaque was placed on the house in which Laing had lodged during his brief stay in Timbuktu (more here: Alexander Laing — a remarkable man).

Sources and further reading

The account above draws on the correspondence of Consul Warrington preserved in British archives, on the published testimony gathered from Bongola, and above all on the field research of Bonnel de Mézières, whose 1927 Paris study Major A. Gordon Laing reconstructed the traveller's final days and the location of his grave. Readers interested in the wider context of Saharan exploration and the caravan routes to Timbuktu can also explore related material on History and on Travel across the region.