During tlie eighteen months he remained at home, the division of the 2nd
West India regiment to which he belonged, was reduced, and he was again put
on half-pay. Restored, however, to health, he could not remain inactive. Towards the end of 1819, he went to London, was sent for by the colonel of his regiment, the late Sir Henry Torrence, received many flattering compliments for his former services, and having been appointed lieutenant and adjutant, he proceeded to Sierra Leone.
From the beginning of the year 1822 his history as an African traveller may properly be dated. In January of that year ho was despatched by Sir Charles M'Carthy, governor of Sierra Leone, on an important embassy to Kambia and the Mandingo country, where he collected much valuable information regarding the political condition of these districts, their dispositions as to commerce, and their sentiments as to slavery. Having so far achieved the object for which he set out, he crossed to Malacouri, a Mandingo town, situated on the banks of the river Malageea. There he learned that Sannassee, the chief of the district of Malageea, and a friend of the British government, had been captured by Arnara, the king of the Soolimas, and was about to be put to death. Well knowing the unrelenting disposition of Amara,Laing, although labouring under a severe attack of fever and ague, resolved to go to the Soolima camp, and intercede for the life of the unfortunate Sannassee.
With this view he crossed the Malageea near its source, and after experiencing many difficulties in meeting with Soolima guards, he at length reached the camp. Having witnessed the feats of warlike exercise, the dancing, and the music exhibited by Soolimas, Eennas, Sangaras, and Tambaccas, he was invited to a palaver with Yarradee, the general of the Soolima army. This officer received him Avith much kindness, and with many protestations of friendship. Subsequently he was introduced to, and had a conversation with Amara himself, and having obtained an assurance that Sannassee Avould not be put to death, he retired to Sierra Leone, where he arrived on the 6th day, exhausted by the fatigues of his journey and continued illness.
Scarcely had Laing recovered, when a report at Sierra Leone that his mission had been of no avail, induced the governor to send him on another embassy for the same object. Having once more visited the Soolima camp, he was assured indeed that Sannassee had been set at liberty, but he also learned that his town had been burned, and his property plundered or destroyed. Of this conduct he expressed in the name of his government the most decided reprobation; and after a journey of six and a half days, during which he had never for a single hour been under shelter, he once more reached Sierra Leone.
It was now that lieutenant Laing assumed the character of a volunteer traveller. Having been led to believe during the last embassy that the Soolimas were in possession of considerable quantities of gold and ivory, he suggested to the governor the propriety and probable advantages of the colony opening up a commercial intercourse with them ; and the suggestion having been approved of by the council at large, he left Sierra Leone again on the 16th of April, 1822, with the view of furthering such an object, accompanied by two soldiers of the 2nd West India regiment, a native of Foutah Jallow, eleven carriers, natives of the Jolof district, and a boy a native of Sego.
When he set out upon this journey little was known of the Soolimas except the name; they were said to be distant from Sierra Leone four hundred miles to the eastward: it afterwards appeared that Falaba, the capital, is only distant two hundred miles. They were represented as a powerful nation, rich in gold and ivory; but this also turned out not to be the fact.
On his arrival at Toma in the country of the Timmanees, our traveller found
