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Travels into Bokhara : a voyage up the Indus to Lahore and a journey to Cabool, Tartary & Persia

Burnes, Alexander, Sir, 1805-18412012
Book
Sent to India aged just sixteen to make his fortune, 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 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. This brand new edition brings the heady sense of excitement, risk and zeal of Alexander Burnes's missions bursting out from the pages.
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