Alexander Gordon Laing had left Tuat on…
September 1826 CE
Letters written in May and July tell of his suffering from fever and the plundering of his caravan by another group of Tuareg.
Laing describes being wounded in twenty-four places in the fighting.
Together with another survivor, he had managed to reach Sidi Al Muktar, penniless and having lost his right hand.
He joined another caravan and reaches Timbuktu, thus becoming the first European to cross the Sahara from north to south.
His letter dated from Timbuktu on September 21 announced his arrival in that city on the preceding August 18, and the insecurity of his position owing to the hostility of the Fula chieftain Bello, who rules the city at this time.
He adds that he intended leaving Timbuktu in three days time.
No further news will be received from the explorer.
From information pieced together later, it will be ascertained that he left Timbuktu on the day he had planned.
He was brutally strangled by Tuareg raiders—two men pulling on each end of a turban wrapped around Laing's neck—on or about the night of September 26, 1826.
Laing's papers will never be recovered, and his father-in-law Hanmer Warrington will accuse the French (who also want to reach Timbuktu) of interference and having procured Laing's journal; however, there will never be any evidence for this.
René Caillié will reach Timbuktu two years after Laing and by returning alive will be able to claim the ten thousand-franc prize offered by the Société de Géographie for the feat.
Both men will be awarded the Gold Medal of the Society for 1830.
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