On his arrival at Timbuctoo, Major Laing healed his wounds by the aid of an ointment which he brought with him from England. His recovery was slow; but he was made very comfortable, owing to the letters of recommendation which he had brought from Tripoli, and especially to the attention of his landlord, a Tripolitan, to whom he had been directed. The house of this Moor was near that in which I lodged at Timbuctoo. I had frequent opportunities of seeing him. He appeared to me a man full of kindly feelings. Many a time he has given me dates, from mere charity, and the day before I left he made me a present of a pair of blue cotton trowsers, to wear on my journey. He told me that the major had been recommended by a Tripolitan house to an old Moor, who, not having convenience to lodge him, transferred him to his hospitality. Laing, he added, never laid aside his European dress, and used to give out that he had been sent by his master the King of England, for the purpose of making himself acquainted with Timbuctoo and the wonders it contains.[14] It would appear that the traveller had openly taken a plan of Timbuctoo, for the same Moor told me in his simple way that _he had written down every thing in it_. Other Moors, whom I questioned respecting Laing, merely told me that the major ate little, and that he lived entirely on bread, eggs, and poultry. I moreover learned that he was tormented to say that there is but one God and that Mahomet is his prophet; but he always stopped at the words: “There is but one God” They then called him cafir, and infidel, but, without ill treating him, left him free to think and pray in his own way. Sidi-Abdallahi, whom I often questioned as to whether the major had been insulted during his stay at Timbuctoo, always replied in the negative; shaking his head, to give me to understand, that they would have been sorry to annoy him. This toleration may be accounted for by the fact, that the Moors who reside at Timbuctoo come from Tripoli, Algiers, and Morocco, and that, being in the habit of seeing christians in their own countries, they are less liable to be offended at their worship and their manners. For instance, Sidi-Abdallahi, who came from Tatta, a town near Cape Mogador, was not inimical to the christians. Thus it may easily be conceived that the major was free to inspect every part of the town and even to enter the mosques.