IN this week in 1793 one of Scotland’s most intrepid explorers was born in Edinburgh. Major Alexander Gordon Laing would become famous in life and even more so after his death in Africa which, as we shall see, was almost predictable given his foolhardy courage.

Born on December 27, 1793, and growing up in Edinburgh in the period of the late Scottish Enlightenment, Laing was inspired by the amazing feats of, among others, Mungo Park, the great Scottish explorer of the interior of the Dark Continent as it was called then – and it was both dark and mysterious to the people outside Africa which was principally known for the slave trade and fantastical stories of lost cities such as Timbuktu, now in Mali.

Park’s account of his Travels In The Interior Districts Of Africa was published in 1799 and became a best-seller just at the time that Laing was studying under his father William, an innovative teacher of Classics. Laing learned Latin so well that when he matriculated at Edinburgh University at the age of 13 he was able to hold conversations with his lecturer in the language.

He left the university and briefly tried teaching but at the age of 18 he went to Barbados where his uncle, Colonel Gabriel Gordon, secured him a job as a clerk to the island’s governor Sir George Beckwith. He in turn secured an ensign’s commission for Laing, who was promoted to Captain in the Royal Africa Regiment at the age of just 20.

Tall, handsome and dashing, Laing became fanatical about exploring Western Africa, and rejoiced when he was sent to the Gambia and the Mandinka country to try to develop commerce and stop the slave trade there.

Laing became convinced he could find the source of the River Niger, and after seeing service in the British-Ashanti wars, he returned to Britain with news of the death of British governor and army commander Sir Charles MacCarthy who was killed and beheaded at the Battle of Nsamankow in January, 1824. Laing was lionised by the press and public for his service and for his precise and well-written accounts of his travels.

The following year, just like Park, Laing published his Travels In The Timanee, Kooranko And Soolima Countries In Western Africa and it, too, became a best-seller and made Laing a public name just as he was setting out on his greatest voyage.

After recuperation in Scotland, he longed to return to Africa and had decided on the journey that would gain him fame but not immortality – he would attempt to become the first European to find the “lost city” of Timbuktu. No European had ever travelled to it from the north and it was almost impossible to reach from the south. It would mean a horrendous journey of hundreds of miles from Tripoli in modern Libya across the Sahara Desert, but Laing was determined to try.

Now a major, he arrived at Tripoli and was immediately smitten by Emma Warrington, the daughter of the British consul. They were swiftly married and spent two nights together before Laing set off with Sheikh Babani, the chief of Ghadamis near Timbuktu.

On reaching Ghadamis after many adventures in the desert and several mishaps – his rifle was broken by an elephant treading on it – Laing wrote to his father-in-law to justify his next fateful step in going to Timbuktu.

He wrote: “I shall do more than has ever been done before, and shall show myself to be what I have ever considered myself, a man of enterprise and genius. My father used often to accuse me of want of common sense; but he little thought that I gloried in the accusation.”

He and his small party were attacked by Tuaregs and we know how he suffered: “I have five sabre cuts on the crown of the head, and three on the left temple; all fractures, from which much bone has come away. One on my left cheek, which fractured the jawbone, and has divided the ear, forming a very unsightly wound. One over the right temple, and a dreadful gash on the back of the neck, which slightly scratched the windpipe.”

He somehow survived and rested for two months before making the final push to Timbuktu from where he wrote several letters to tell the world of his feat and the need to redraw the map of Africa, as well as describing Timbuktu and its environs.

On September 21, 1826, he met his dreadful end shortly after he left Timbuktu on his return journey in the care of an Arab sheikh. His servant Bungola lived to testify about Laing’s fate.

“Did you see any water, and were you molested? We saw no water, nor were we molested till the third day, when the Arabs of the country attacked and killed my master.

“Was anyone killed beside your master? I was wounded, but cannot say if any were killed..

“How many wounds had your master? I cannot say, they were all with swords, and in the morning I saw the head had been cut off.

“Did the person who had charge of your master commit the murder? Sheik Bouraboushi killed him.”

He is largely forgotten now, but the house in Timbuktu where Laing stayed during his 38 days in the city is now a national heritage monument of Mali.