Introduction

Alexander Gordon Laing, born on 27 December 1794, was the son of William Laing, a popular Edinburgh schoolmaster who had his own private academy. His mother was the daughter of William Gordon of Glasgow Academy. Brief memoirs of Gordon Laing were published in various journals when, after a lapse of two or three years, all doubt about his reported death in 1826 had been finally dispelled. Since then his name and his achievement have been repeatedly noticed in countless works on geographical discovery and African history, but no attempt has hitherto been made to write a definitive account of the journey which was his claim to fame. Although Laing will always be remembered as the discoverer of Timbuktu, and his expedition was officially known as the Timbuktu Mission, his objective was the Niger. The discovery of Timbuktu was his immediate objective, but only as a means to a greater end.