Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/280

340 that the main object of his mission failed. The king all along promised to send back with him a company of traders; but when the time of departure arrived, these promises ended in nought. Although within three days' journey of the source of the Niger, he was not permitted to visit lhat often sought spot, and deep was the grief which the loss of such an opportunity cost him; by measuring, however, the height of the source of the Rokelle, which he found to be 1441 feet, and by taking into account the height of the mountains in the distance, which gave rise to the Niger, he calculated, (as he himself thought,) with a tolerable degree of accuracy, that that river which has had so much importance assigned to it, has an elevation at its source of from 1500 to 1600 feet above the level of the Atlantic. We cannot resist quoting here the testimony of an eminent writer in the Edinburgh Journal of Natural and Geographical Science, (Tune, 1830,) more especially as the measurements of captain Laing have been rather lightly spoken of in the Quarterly Review, (we believe by Mr Barrow:) "Major Laing," says the Edinburgh Journalist, "assigned the position and the elevation above the sea of Mount Loma, from whence the Niger takes its origin: and he first traced on the map the first part of its course towards the north for an extent of about twenty-five leagues."

On the 17th of September our traveller quitted Falaba, accompanied by numbers of the natives, who escorted him to a considerable distance, the last to leave him was the king himself. Of his "adieu" the captain speaks in the most affecting terms. On returning, the route of the party was nearly the same as that by which they set out The conclusion of the journey we give, in the traveller's own words, in a note.

Before our traveller's return, hostilities had commenced between the British government and the king of the Ashantees—the consequence was, that no sooner had he tasted the comforts of a British settlement, than he was ordered to join his regiment on the Gold coast without delay. Having transmitted details to his friend, captain Sabine in London, of the geographical determinations of the latitude, longitude, and elevation of the places he had lately visited, he hastened to obey the order he had received. On his arrival on the Gold coast he was employed in the organization and command of a very considerable native force, designed to be auxiliary to a small British detachment which was then expected from Britain. During the greater part of the year 1823, this native force was stationed on the frontier of the Fantee and Ashantee countries, and was frequently engaged, and always successfully, with detachments of the Ashantee army. On one of these occasions the enemy was completely beaten, and the fame of the victory spread over the whole coasts; in so much, and so effectually, that Sir Charles McCarthy received the allegiance of most of the Fantee tribes. On another occasion captain Laing made two gallant and successful attacks on a larger division of the enemy; and entering into the territories of the king of Aju-