Cabool: Being A Personal Narrative Of A Journey To, And Residence In That City, In The Years 1836, 7, And 8. With Numerous Illustrations Burnes, Sir Alexander (1805-1841), Gonsalvez, José M. (Fl.1826-1842, Lithographer), Day, William (1797-1845, Lithographer), Haghe, Louis (1806-1885, Lithographer) Voyages & Travel

(8 11/16 x 5 1/2 inches). First edition. [a2] b4 B-2C8. [i]-xii [1]-398 [2] [1]-8. 420 pp. Frontispiece, Title, Dedication to James Burnes, Preface, Contents, Author portrait, Chapters I-XI. Appendices I-VI, Erratum, Publishers advertisements. 12 plates: engraved author portrait, 9 lithograph plates, including 2 folding and 6 tinted, and 2 woodcut plates. A number of in-text woodcut illustrations. Pencil marginalia. Publisher's green blind-stamped paneled cloth, spine blind-ruled into five compartments and lettered gilt in second, yellow endpapers, set within a green cloth clamshell box with gilt-title on spine Complete First edition of a well-illustrated account of Burnes's second mission to Kabul, published the year after his assassination. Cabool is an account of an 18-month voyage undertaken by the Scottish explorer Sir Alexander Burnes for the British Governor-General of India. The purpose of the journey was to survey the Indus River and the territories adjoining it, with the aim of opening up the river to commerce. Following a route that took them up the Indus from its mouth in present-day Pakistan, Burnes and his party visited Shikarpur, Peshawar, Kabul, Herat, and Jalalabad, before completing their journey in Lahore. The book contains detailed information about the ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups living in Afghanistan and parts of present-day Pakistan, and observations about the war underway at that time between the Sikh Empire and the Emirate of Afghanistan. Included is an account of a formal audience with the Amir of Afghanistan, Dost Mohammad Khan, who cordially received the visitors. Of particular interest is the economic and demographic data compiled by Burnes and his party, which is presented in striking detail. The book notes, for example, that the bazaar at Dera Ghazee Khan (present-day Dera Ghazi Khan City, Pakistan) had 1,597 shops, of which 115 were sellers of cloth, 25 sellers of silk, 60 jewelers, 18 paper sellers, and so forth. Burnes, first cousin to Scottish national poet Robert Burns (1759-1796), was known as "Bukhara Burnes" for establishing contact with the ancient Uzbek city Bukhara and writing his successful 1835 travelogue Travels into Bokhara, for which he won the Royal Geographical Society Founder's Medal and was received by the King. Burnes started his career by joining the army of the East India Company. He was stationed in India, and learned to speak Urdu and Persian at an early age. With his familiarity with the languages and customs of the region, and an interest in Northwest India and locales which had not been explored by the British, he was uniquely fit to visit parts of the region no other Britisher had been. His reports back include some of the earliest detailing of Afghanistan's internal politics in English. Burnes proved useful to the Crown in the region, and often served as a military and political officer for the government. He was assassinated in Kabul in 1841 by Aghans retaliating against British colonization after waving away warnings to leave. Yakushi B633.