Journey To The North Of India, Overland From England, Through Russia, Persia, And Affghaunistaun

The narrator reveals that this is a narrative of an overland journey that undertook from St. Petersburg in Russia to Hissar (a small town just North of Delhi, India). Starting from London on the 10th of August 1829, the author makes his way from Russia to Tabriz and thence to Tehran in Iran. It is from here that he starts his narrative in detail. Traveling along the Southern shore of the Caspian Sea, he makes an aborted attempt to reach the Central Asian town of Khiva; retracing his steps, he travels along the North of Iran and passes into Afghanistan to Herat. Travelling through Afghanistan, passing into North Baluchistan, he turns north from Khyrpur in Sindh and finally crosses into India to halt at Hissar on the 14th of Jan 1831. The writer was a player of the Great Game, and his journey was a mission of reconnaissance to access the possibilities of an overland invasion of India by the Russians and French. Along the route he describes the terrain and offers copious note of the people and their habits. The book ends with a chapter on the history of Afghanistan and another chapter on an envisioned invasion of India; a map illustrating the route accompanies the book and a plate.