disabled him. He afterwards earned a modest competency as a pedlar, and died at Brechin, 14 Oct. 1857.
Laing contributed to local newspapers and to the following poetical miscellanies: ‘Harp of Renfrewshire,’ 1819; R. A. Smith's ‘Scottish Minstrel,’ 1820; Struthers's ‘Harp of Caledonia,’ 1821; Whitelaw's ‘Book of Scottish Song,’ 1844; and ‘Whistle Binkie,’ 1832–47. He also furnished anecdotes to the Scottish story-book ‘The Laird of Logan,’ 1835. In 1846 he published a collection of his poetry under the title ‘Wayside Flowers,’ of which a second edition appeared in 1850. He writes vigorous and melodious lowland Scotch, and is both pathetic and humorous. Laing edited popular editions of Burns and Tannahill, supplied various notes to Allan Cunningham's ‘Scottish Songs,’ 1825, and biographical notices to the ‘Angus Album,’ 1833.
[Preface to Jervise's Epitaphs and Inscriptions; Rogers's Scottish Minstrel, vol. iv.; Grant Wilson's Poets and Poetry of Scotland, vol. ii.]
LAING, ALEXANDER GORDON (1793–1826), African traveller, born 27 Dec. 1793, was eldest son of William Laing, A.M., of Edinburgh, by his wife, the daughter of William Gordon of Glasgow Academy, writer of an English translation of Livy and of various educational books. William Laing, a very popular private teacher in his day, opened the first classical academy in Edinburgh. There Alexander was taught until the age of thirteen, when he entered Edinburgh University. At fifteen he was an assistant-master in Bruce's classical academy at Newcastle-on-Tyne, but afterwards went back to Edinburgh to help his father. In 1810 he was made an ensign in the Prince of Wales's regiment of loyal Edinburgh volunteers, and in 1811 he went out to Barbadoes. His mother's brother, Colonel (afterwards General) Gabriel Gordon (cf. Gent. Mag. 1855), who was deputy quartermaster-general there, employed him as an extra clerk in his office, and in that capacity he came under the notice of General Sir George Beckwith [q. v.] On 11 March 1813 he was appointed ensign in the York light infantry, a corps, composed chiefly of foreigners, formed for West India service. He became lieutenant 28 Dec. 1815, and served with the corps in Antigua. When it was disbanded at the peace he effected, after a brief interval on half-pay, an exchange into the 2nd West India regiment in Jamaica, and was employed there as deputy assistant quartermaster-general. To cure a violent attack of liver complaint he subsequently sailed to Honduras, where the governor, Colonel (afterwards Sir) George Arthur [q. v.], employed Laing as fort-major; but ill-health soon drove him home, and a reduction in the strength of his regiment placed him on half-pay from 25 Dec. 1818. In 1820 he was brought back into the 2nd West India regiment as lieutenant and adjutant, and on 3 April 1822 was promoted to a company in the royal African corps, to which (and not to the 2nd West India, as stated by Chambers) he belonged at the time of his death.
Early in 1822 Sir Charles MacCarthy, the governor of Sierra Leone, where Laing was serving with his corps, despatched him into the Kambian and Mandingo countries to ascertain the disposition of the natives regarding trade, and their sentiments respecting the abolition of the slave-trade. After staying at Kambia long enough to fulfil his instructions, he crossed the Scarcies to Melacourie, on the Melageah, and afterwards tried to reconcile Amara, the Mandingo king, described as ‘a crafty Mohammedan,’ with the rival chief Sannassee of Melacourie. To attain this object permanently, Laing, after his return to Sierra Leone, undertook a second journey, and for six days was without shelter by day or night. On 16 April 1822 he began a journey through the Timmannee and Kooranko countries to Falaba, the capital of Soolima, where he had learned that abundance of gold and ivory was to be found. He was well received, and remained some months. He ascertained the source of the Rokell, and was within three days of the supposed source of the Niger, which he was not allowed to visit. In October 1823 he was ordered to join his corps on the Gold Coast, in consequence of the menacing attitude of the Ashantees. He organised and commanded a large native force on the frontier during the greater part of 1823, in the course of which he frequently engaged and defeated the Ashantees. His success secured the allegiance of all the Fantee tribes, and he compelled the king of Ajucamon to put his troops under British control. When the Ashantees carried off a British sergeant, Laing offered to proceed on a mission to Coomassie to rescue him; but Sir Charles MacCarthy considered the enterprise too perilous (cf. Ann. Reg. 1824, pp. 124–36). After the fall of MacCarthy in action with the Ashantees, 21 Jan. 1824, Colonel Chisholm, on whom the chief command devolved, sent Laing home to report the position of affairs to Henry, third lord Bathurst [q. v.], then colonial secretary. While at home he began to prepare for the press his journals, subsequently published under the title, ‘Travels
