City of Myths, River of Dreams by James Marr

Author:James Marr [Marr, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE – TIMBUKTU

REWARD: TEN THOUSAND FRENCH FRANCS

A bounty of ten thousand francs had been placed on the head of an elusive African city. The first man returning with a credible account took home the loot.

If nothing else the French initiative spurred on British efforts. With such an agreeable sum in the offing, surely any adventurer sporting a musket, a compass and a stout pair of boots would now be heading to the hinterlands of Africa. Or so they believed. ‘Damn such French impertinence,’ echoed in the corridors of Whitehall. They’d whipped Napoleon good and proper; no way would the frogs beat them to Timbuktu.

On the 9th May 1825 a self-assured young officer stepped ashore in Tripoli harbour. It was the turn of Major Alexander Gordon Laing to have a go at uncovering the City of Gold. Laing was met at the quayside by the British Consul, the effusive Hanmar Warrington, who whisked his visitor across the bay, to his residence on the far shore. That very first evening, nursing a pre-dinner glass of gin, the salt water crust freshly washed from his hair and the scent of jasmine drifting on the breeze, Laing fell head over heels for Emma, one of the consul’s three daughters.

Warrington was not best pleased at such a turn of events, though the consul had a keen eye for the main chance; should his new son-in-law succeed in finding Timbuktu, the advantage of such an association to a man of Warrington’s ambition was obvious. He allowed his daughter’s marriage with Laing to proceed, though there was one thing he did hold the major to: the marriage was not to be consummated until his return from the desert.

Laing left Tripoli on the 18th July accompanying a caravan of merchantmen making the long journey to Timbuktu. If Laing ever kept a journal during his journey it has never been found. The stream of letters he dispatched from the desert remains the principal source of information for historians. The major’s retinue at the start of the long trek south included Jack Le Bore, a long-time associate of Laing’s from his days in Sierra Leone, a pair of carpenters tasked with building the vessel on which the explorer would navigate the Niger River, a freed slave and an interpreter. In such company Laing’s confidence soared on the hot, Saharan breeze. He had little doubt that Timbuktu was as good as in the bag.

For seemingly a lifetime the caravan plodded over vast, featureless plains, in and out of dry riverbeds and up and down bleak plateaus. Their trek was punctuated by meagre rations and the constant search to replenish water. The further south they went the more they rested during the hottest part of the day, travelling increasingly in the pre-dawn and evening. After almost two months the caravan entered Ghadames, an ancient city of six thousand people, an oasis for exhausted desert travellers. In Ghadames Laing received by messenger various letters from Tripoli, including a miniature portrait from his dearest Emma.

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