The day that he quitted Falaba, which, as has been already stated, was on the 17th of September, the natives in great numbers accompanied him for a considerable distance, the females making most extravagant demonstrations of grief; the king accompanied him a little farther, when a parting took place, which we shall insert in Captain Laing’s own words, (for while at Falaba, he had received intelligence of his promotion to the rank of captain). “At length the old man stopped and said, he was now to see me for the last time. The tears were in his eyes, and the power of utterance seemed to have forsaken him for a while. Holding my hand still fast, he said ‘white man, think of Falaba, for Falaba will always think of you: the men laughed when you came among us, the women and children feared and hid themselves: they all sit now with their heads in their hands, and with tears in their eyes because you leave us. I shall remember all you have said to me; you have told me what is good, and I know that it will make my country great; I shall make no more slaves.’ Then squeezing me affectionately by the hand, and turning away his head, he gently loosened his grasp, and saying, ‘Go, and return to see us,’ he covered his face with his hands. I felt as if I had parted from a father. Such remembrances impress themselves too deeply in the heart to be effaced by time or distance, and establish a permanent interest in the welfare of a country, which may have a material influence on the after life of the individual who entertains them.” The route of Captain Laing and his party back to Sierra Leone was much the same with that which they had gone when they set out; most of the head men expressing surprise at seeing him again, they in general supposing that he had been killed in the interior, and on the 28th of October, he had the pleasure of being welcomed by his friends at Sierra Leone, “so many of whom, so much esteemed, and so highly valued, are now, alas, no more!” On Captain Laing’s arrival at Sierra Leone, he received an order to join his regiment on the Gold Coast, without delay, in consequence of the hostilities which had commenced between the British government and the king of the Ashantees. 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 England. 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.