1-158-593 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Alexander Gordon Laing, Scottish explorer of Western Africa, 1870. Laing (1793-1826) was the first European known to have reached the ancient city of Tombouctou (Timbuctoo). He reached the city in August 1826, but was murdered there a month later. From A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen by Thomas Thomson. (London, 1870).