Travels into Bokhara: The Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus (abridged re-ed. 2012)

Sent to India aged just sixteen to make his fortune, Alexander Burnes soon revealed an extraordinary talent for languages, combined with a boyish charm, insatiable curiosity, and irrepressible enthusiasm. By the age of 26 he had so impressed his superiors that he was entrusted with the task of delivering a gift of horses from King William IV to the Maharajah of Lahore. In reality he was acting as a diplomat and spy. Having succeeded, he was then dispatched on a much more dangerous mission, to explore the political and ethnic realities amongst the Khanates of Afghanistan and Central Asia. This travelogue brings the heady sense of excitement, risk, and zeal of Alexander Burnes' missions. Before Thesiger, T.E. Lawrence and Richard Burton, there was an even greater traveller in the heroic British tradition of the recklessly adventurous, amateur scholar Alexander Burnes. This slightly built, wiry young Scotsman, had a rapier-like mind, sharp, quick and decisive. Sent to India aged just sixteen to make his fortune, he soon revealed an extraordinary talent for languages, combined with a boyish charm, insatiable curiosity and irrepressible enthusiasm. By the age of 26 he had so impressed his superiors that he was entrusted with the task of journeying up the Indus, ostensibly with a gift of horses from King George to the Maharajah of Lahore. In reality he was acting as a diplomat and spy, assessing both the territory and the calibre of the warrior-kingdoms on the western frontier of the British Raj. Having succeeded, he was then despatched on a much more dangerous mission, to explore the political and ethnic realities amongst the Khanates of Afghanistan and Central Asia. The subsequent account of these travels, was a best-seller in its day At the age of only twenty six, Alexander Burnes proved himself to be one of the most effective intelligence agents of his time. Making two dangerous journeys beyond the frontiers of the Indian Empire, he reported back via the East India Company to Downing Street on the geography and politics of the kingdoms that lay to the northwest as far as fabled Bokhara. He travelled simply, disguised as a local, but with his rapier-like mind, an ear for languages and an infectious charm and curiosity, he had a formidable arsenal of talents at his command. In 1835, the publication of Burnes's Travels into Bokhara made him a celebrity in London, where he lectured to packed halls and was even given an audience by the King. This brand new edition brings the heady sense of excitement, risk and zeal bursting from the pages. Alexander Burnes travelled up the Indus to Lahore and to the Khanates of Afghanistan and Central Asia in the 1830s, spying on behalf of the British Government in what was to become known as the 'Great Game'. His account of these travels was a bestseller in its day and this brand new edition brings the heady sense of excitement, risk and zeal bursting from the pages