Travels Into Bokhara: Containing The Narrative Of A Voyage On The Indus From The Sea To Lahore Burnes, Alexander.

First edition, complete in three volumes, a very good set in contemporary half calf, armorial bookplate on the front pastedowns. Complete with the seven plates as called for, which are spotted, principally to the margins. Following a successful expedition up the Indus at the age of 26, Burnes found favour with the Governor-General of India, Lord William Bentinck, and obtained permission for an expedition to Kabul and Bokhara. They were little-known places and he was fortunate to apply at a time when the British government was becoming increasingly concerned to assess Russian encroachment in the area. Thus in 1832 he travelled to Kabul, ruled by Dost Mohammed, and passed over the Hindu Kush to Balkh, where he found the graves of Trebeck, Moorcroft and Guthrie. By way of the Oxus, and the desert crossing he finally reached Bokhara where he received a welcome from the vizier Koosh Begee (though not the Emir). After one month there he returned by way of Merv, to the Persian Gulf and finally Bombay.