In 1860, James Bruce (1811 63), the eighth Earl of Elgin, embarked upon a second embassy to China which aimed to obtain ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin and finally conclude the Second Opium War on terms favourable to the British. Accompanying Elgin as his private secretary was the enterprising army officer Henry Brougham Loch (1827 1900). Originally published in 1869, Loch's first-hand account of the mission reflects sustained concern over Britain's strained trading relationship with China in the nineteenth century. Notwithstanding his views regarding the need for European influence to shape China's future success in government, his clearly written narrative illuminates contemporary diplomacy and the events surrounding the Convention of Peking in October 1860. Prior to this outcome, Loch had been captured, imprisoned and brutally tortured by Chinese officials. His chapters detailing this experience and his eventual release are especially noteworthy.

The surgeon, naturalist and Arctic explorer Sir John Richardson (1787 1865) was a lifelong friend to his former commander Sir John Franklin, with whom he had twice travelled to seek the North-West Passage. Following two years of silence from Franklin after he embarked on his 1845 expedition to the Arctic, Richardson set out on his own voyage in the hope of finding his comrade. Originally published in 1851, this two-volume work charts the journey which would inevitably fail in its ambition: Franklin, unknown to Richardson, had already died in June 1847. Volume 1, which depicts the journey to Fort Confidence in the Canadian Arctic, ends with detailed descriptions of the aboriginal Inuit and Gwich'in peoples encountered. The text is punctuated throughout by accounts of the wildlife and geographical features sighted, and the customs and cultures observed on this remarkable mission.

The surgeon, naturalist and Arctic explorer Sir John Richardson (1787 1865) was a lifelong friend to his former commander Sir John Franklin, with whom he had twice travelled to seek the North-West Passage. Following two years of silence from Franklin after he embarked on his 1845 expedition to the Arctic, Richardson set out on his own voyage in the hope of finding his comrade. Originally published in 1851, this two-volume work charts the journey which would inevitably fail in its ambition: Franklin, unknown to Richardson, had already died in June 1847. Volume 2 begins with detailed descriptions of the aboriginal Chipewyan and Cree peoples. A thorough appendix comprises observations on physical geography, climatology and the geographical distribution of plants, and includes vocabularies for the dialects encountered during the mission. The text ends, Richardson having returned, with the hope that future expeditions may yet trace 'so many gallant victims to science'.

Remembered chiefly for his archaeological discoveries in Crete, Sir Arthur John Evans (1851 1941) was also highly respected as an expert on the Balkans, an area then little known. Evans describes 'a land and people among the most interesting in Europe', and in 1875 he was visiting for the third time. This trip found him witnessing the outbreak of the revolt that saw Austria-Hungary take control of Bosnia. Here, however, Evans explores Bosnia's rich heritage with detailed ethnographic and anthropological observations, alongside descriptive impressions of its people and natural beauty. He returned in 1877 as a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, which resulted in his Illyrian Letters (also reissued in this series). First published in 1876 and reprinted the following year, the present work offers background not only to the revolt in that country, but also to the later deadly conflicts that would shake all of Europe.

French explorer Rene Caillie (1799-1838) was the first European to document a successful expedition to Timbuktu, Africa's elusive 'city of gold'. Europeans were not welcome there, and until Caillie's expedition no explorer had returned alive. Encouraged by the 10,000 francs offered by the Societe de Geographie to the first non-Muslim to bring back information on the city, he set out in 1824 from Senegal and eventually reached Timbuktu in 1828, remaining there for a fortnight before returning to France. His travels are recounted here in this two-volume work, first published in English in 1830. Volume 1 covers his outward journey, with detailed accounts of his travels through Saint-Louis, Kankan and other exotic waypoints, and the people, customs and commerce he encountered in the course of his trip. Vividly written, Caillie's work remains a landmark in the history of African exploration and adventure.

French explorer Rene Caillie (1799-1838) was the first European to document a successful expedition to Timbuktu, Africa's elusive 'city of gold'. Europeans were not welcome there, and until Caillie's expedition no explorer had returned alive. Encouraged by the 10,000 francs offered by the Societe de Geographie to the first non-Muslim to bring back information on the city, he set out from Senegal in 1824 and eventually reached Timbuktu in 1828. His travels are recounted here in this two-volume work, first published in English in 1830. Volume 2 covers the final part of his journey to Timbuktu, where he stayed for two weeks. Including his impressions of the peoples, tribal conflict, slavery, customs and commerce, the volume concludes with an account of his journey home across the Sahara Desert, and his survival in spite of suffering from fever and fatigue. Vividly written, Caillie's work remains a landmark in the history of African exploration and adventure.

This two-volume travelogue recounts the diplomatic mission through Central Asia and Russia undertaken by James Abbott (1807 96) in 1839. An officer in the Bengal Artillery, Abbott first travelled to Central Asia in 1838 and was soon drawn into the 'Great Game' between Russia and Britain as they struggled for influence in the region. When Russia launched an expedition against Khiva in 1839, ostensibly to free Russian slaves, Abbott was sent there to advise the Khan and then travelled to Russia to initiate mediation. While the Russian slaves were freed by Abbott's successor, Abbott believed he had succeeded and published this account in 1843. The work includes anecdotes of his experiences and observations on the cultures and landscapes he encountered. In Volume 1, he describes his journey from Herat to Khiva and the beginning of his journey to Russia.

This two-volume travelogue recounts the diplomatic mission through Central Asia and Russia undertaken by James Abbott (1807 96) in 1839. An officer in the Bengal Artillery, Abbott first travelled to Central Asia in 1838 and was soon drawn into the 'Great Game' between Russia and Britain as they struggled for influence in the region. When Russia launched an expedition against Khiva in 1839, ostensibly to free Russian slaves, Abbott was sent there to advise the Khan and then travelled to Russia to initiate mediation. While the Russian slaves were freed by Abbott's successor, Abbott believed he had succeeded and published this account in 1843. The work includes anecdotes of his experiences and observations on the cultures and landscapes he encountered. In Volume 2, he chronicles his journey to St Petersburg via Moscow and recounts his general impressions of Russia.

Written by Austrian baron Karl Alexander Anselm von Hugel (1795-1870), this travelogue was one of the first western books published on the Kashmir region. Von Hugel, who worked as a soldier, diplomat, botanist, explorer and ethnologist at various stages in his life, embarked on a trip to India in the 1830s as part of an extensive world tour. His account of his time in Kashmir and the Punjab was first published in German as a four-volume edition from 1840. He aimed to 'lift the veil' on Kashmir in an attempt to resolve the contentious reputation among Europeans of this unfamiliar region, and the book serves as a thorough guide to its history, geography, climate, culture and politics. This English translation and abridgement was prepared by Thomas Best Jervis (1796-1857) and published in 1845. Also included in this reissue is a biography that the author's son, Anatole von Hugel, privately published in 1903.

Scottish explorer and author James Baillie Fraser (1783 1856) was already known for his narratives of travel in the East (his 1820 journal of a journey through the Himalayas being also reissued in this series) when in 1826 he published this account of his journey into the lesser known provinces of Persia. Though it includes an appendix containing information on geology and commerce, it dwells less on statistical and historical details than it does on the author's personal experiences and impressions. In his preface, Fraser summarily rejects factual material as 'insignificant', preferring to describe the manners of a people seldom encountered by Europeans. The work captures both the sights and sounds of bazaars and cities, and the characters of the people, from princes to peasant boys; and Fraser provides facts on topics ranging from rice cultivation to the architecture of ancient tombs and methods of cooling water.

William Jardine Proudfoot (c.1804 1887) published his critique of Sir John Barrow's Travels in China (1804; also reissued in this series) with the agenda of exposing the latter as unreliable and unjust. Barrow had accompanied Lord Macartney on the first British mission to the Chinese Imperial Court (1792 4), in a party that also included the official astronomer, Dr James Dinwiddie, Proudfoot's grandfather. Comparing Barrow's account to that found in other records, Proudfoot concludes that the earlier work was 'a great humbug', ascribing to Barrow the 'powerful motive' of self-promotion. In a work full of vitriol against its subject, Proudfoot's concern is to honour the memory of the mission's members, whom he felt Barrow belittled and vilified, and also to point out factual inaccuracies, accusing him of seeking amusement rather than truth in his anecdotes. Read alongside Barrow's work, it makes for an interesting, scornful, and often entertaining counter.

Kate Marsden (1859 1931), the youngest of eight children from a poor family, was a highly committed nurse. She cared for soldiers in the Russo-Turkish War in 1877 8, and undertook missionary travels to various countries, but she was especially concerned about the plight of those suffering from leprosy. This volume, published in 1893, describes her remarkable journey to Siberian leper colonies. At first she travelled by sledge with a friend, but continued alone on horseback, facing appalling weather conditions with her customary courage. Her commitment to leprosy sufferers led her to found the St Francis Leprosy Guild in London in 1895, and she organised a leprosy hospital in the remote Siberian town of Vilyusk in 1897. She was made a Member of the Russian Imperial Red Cross Society, and she was also one of the first women to be appointed a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

A. H. Savage Landor (1867 1925), the grandson of the author Walter Savage Landor (1775 1864), was born and educated in Florence. He abandoned his painting studies in Paris to travel around the world, and visited Asia, the Middle East and South America, supporting himself as he went by painting portraits of people he encountered. Landor became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1892, and a Member of the Royal Institution in 1897. This volume, first published in 1893, deals with his adventurous experiences among the indigenous Ainu, the 'hairy men' who lived in the northern 'home islands' of Japan and in Sakhalin, the island whose possession was disputed by Japan and Russia for two hundred years. Landor insisted on 'doing in Ainuland as the Ainu does'. He describes his journey through the Ainu territory and gives a detailed and ethnographically aware account of its people and their culture.

Sir Allen Young (1827-1915), merchant navy officer and experienced Polar explorer, took part in several expeditions before that of the Pandora. As navigator he had accompanied the McClintock expedition to discover the fate of Sir John Franklin, during which he explored several hundred miles of new coastline by sledge. He was also in command of the Fox on the 1860 North Atlantic telegraph expedition to assess the practicality of a cable route between Europe and America across the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland. In 1875, he led, and financed, the British North-West Passage Expedition on the Pandora, and this compelling account of his journey was first published in 1876. In it, he records his attempt to reach the magnetic pole via Baffin Bay and Lancaster Sound, and to navigate the North-West Passage in one season, though he failed in this attempt because of heavy ice in the Franklin Strait.

Charles Lewis Meryon (1783 1877) was the personal physician to the unconventional and adventurous Lady Hester Stanhope (1776 1839), who left England in 1810 to travel to the Middle East. She eventually settled in Lebanon and by the time she died no longer had contact with any Europeans. Meryon's Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope (also reissued in this series) recounted her journey during the first seven years he spent with her before returning to England to complete his medical training. Over the next twenty years, they remained in contact and he stayed with her on two more occasions before she died. In this three-volume work, first published in 1845, Meryon presents letters he received from her and recounts their conversations, giving a remarkable insight into the woman he describes as 'out of humour with all mankind'. Volume 1 covers events between 1823 and 1837, beginning with her letters imploring him to visit.

Charles Lewis Meryon (1783 1877) was the personal physician to the unconventional and adventurous Lady Hester Stanhope (1776 1839), who left England in 1810 to travel to the Middle East. She eventually settled in Lebanon and by the time she died no longer had contact with any Europeans. Meryon's Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope (also reissued in this series) recounted her journey during the first seven years he spent with her before returning to England to complete his medical training. Over the next twenty years, they remained in contact and he stayed with her on two more occasions before she died. In this three-volume work, first published in 1845, Meryon presents letters he received from her and recounts their conversations, giving a remarkable insight into the woman he describes as 'out of humour with all mankind'. Volume 2 looks back at Lady Hester's noble origins and her reasons for leaving England.

Charles Lewis Meryon (1783 1877) was the personal physician to the unconventional and adventurous Lady Hester Stanhope (1776 1839), who left England in 1810 to travel to the Middle East. She eventually settled in Lebanon and by the time she died no longer had contact with any Europeans. Meryon's Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope (also reissued in this series) recounted her journey during the first seven years he spent with her before returning to England to complete his medical training. Over the next twenty years, they remained in contact and he stayed with her on two more occasions before she died. In this three-volume work, first published in 1845, Meryon presents letters he received from her and recounts their conversations, giving a remarkable insight into the woman he describes as 'out of humour with all mankind'. Volume 3 covers the period from 1838 until her death, including reflections on her isolated final months of life.

Abby Jane Morrell (b. 1809) was the wife of ship captain and explorer Benjamin Morrell (1795 1839). During the nineteenth century it became more common for women to join their husbands on voyages, and Abby insisted on accompanying her husband on his fourth voyage. They left America for the Pacific in 1829 on board the Antarctic, which visited the Auckland Islands and Pacific Islands in search of commercial gain, before returning via the Azores in 1831. First published in 1833, this is Abby's account of their journey. It was ghostwritten by the American author Samuel Knapp (1783 1838) and followed the publication of Benjamin Morrell's own account as part of A Narrative of Four Voyages (also reissued in this series). It includes an account of the violent conflicts with the inhabitants of some of the Pacific Islands, and also contains Abby's comments on the 'amelioration of the condition of American Seamen'.

Later known as an administrator in Australia and founder of one of Tasmania's earliest settlements, William Paterson (1755-1810) was an army officer, naturalist and friend of Joseph Banks. Keenly interested in botany from childhood, in 1777 he was dispatched to Cape Colony on an expedition to collect plant specimens, many of which remain in the Natural History Museum. His accounts, published in 1789, are the observations and impressions of one of the first Europeans to venture into the south-east of modern-day South Africa. On his return to England he brought with him the skin and skeleton of a giraffe, which remained on show in the British Museum until the early twentieth century. He writes clearly and engagingly of the people, flora and fauna, assuring the reader that the work is 'a series of facts, noted down upon the spot, without any after additions'.

Explorer and naturalist Thomas Thomson (1817 78) led an intrepid life. He started his career as an assistant surgeon with the East India Company and soon became a curator of the Asiatic Society's museum in Bengal. He was sent to Afghanistan in 1840 during the First Anglo-Afghan War, and was captured but managed to escape as he was about to be sold as a slave. Undaunted by this misfortune, he accepted a perilous mission to define the boundary between Kashmir and Chinese Tibet in 1847. During his eighteen-month journey, Thomson explored the Kashmir territories and went as far north as the barren Karakoram Pass. He collected valuable geographical and geological information as well as a wealth of botanical specimens. He describes his findings in minute detail in this account, first published in 1852. Thomson later became a Fellow of the Linnean Society, the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society.

Sir Henry Holland (1788-1873) was a passionate and intrepid traveller from a young age. In addition to a distinguished career as court physician - first to Caroline of Brunswick, then to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert - he sought to keep two months of each year free to travel. His trip to Greece formed part of a European tour that Holland undertook in 1812-13 after having taken his medical degree at Edinburgh. Holland focuses on the lesser-known islands and parts of Macedonia and Albania, and gives a unique first-hand account of the Albanian vizier Ali Pasha (1740-1822), whom he befriended while visiting his court. The publication of Holland's travelogue in 1815 enhanced his reputation greatly and he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society that year. The book contributed to the early nineteenth-century fascination with Greece that would later lead Lord Byron to join the Greek War of Independence.

Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston (1874 1938) was a colonial administrator and oriental scholar. He travelled extensively in the Far East and developed a deep interest in Chinese culture and religion. His fourteen-year posting to Weihaiwei, a quiet naval base, allowed him to travel to places not usually visited by Europeans, and to begin writing. In 1906 he spent six months travelling across China to Burma, publishing this illustrated account of his arduous journey in 1908. In it he comments on the economic and political state of China, but the book's main theme is the beauty of the country and the character of its people. His understanding of the language, religion and culture make this a valuable description of Chinese society at the beginning of the twentieth century. Johnston's Lion and Dragon in Northern China (1910) and Twilight in the Forbidden City (1934) are also reprinted in this series.

Alexis de Tocqueville visited Ireland in the company of his good friend Gustave de Beaumont in July and August of 1835. At the time of his visit, Tocqueville had just acquired an international reputation with the publication of the first two volumes of his celebrated Democracy in America. His profound interest in the great transition from aristocracy to democracy then taking place in the western world including Ireland was given special point in his observations. Of equal interest to Tocqueville were the problem of poverty, the pace of religion in civil society, and the intriguing ambivalence of the Irish peasant toward the law. The notes on conversations, letters to family, and vivid descriptions Tocqueville wrote on his visit to Ireland bring the problems of pre- and early-famine Ireland into sharp focus. Tocqueville was welcome everywhere, in the mansions of the Protestant bishops and in the simple homes of priests whom he accompanied on their rounds through their parishes. His visits to the poorhouse, the university, the sites of the Assizes and the Office of the Clerk of the Crown of Ireland are among the recorded visits and impressions of his journey. He noted the conditions of the towns and countryside, saw that people starved amid plenty and was told repeatedly that in Ireland the aristocracy made the problems and the poor sustained each other. He recorded conversations in their entirety. He made clear notes on what he saw and heard, often noting his own reactions. The diary and the letters that he wrote to his family about his visit to Ireland provide a rare insight into one of the seminal minds of the nineteenth century. This edition of his journal is perhaps the first serious scholarly effort to place Tocqueville's journey to Ireland in its proper intellectual, geographical, and historical context. The forty-seven episodes, with the exception of three, have been arranged in chronological order according to their occurrence. This volume includes a map of Irish roads originally produced in the atlas accompanying the ""Second Report of the Railway Commissioners, Ireland, 1838.

Polar explorer John Ross (1777 1856) sailed with William Edward Parry in 1818 to seek a North-West Passage from Baffin Bay. The attempt was unsuccessful, and Ross was widely blamed for its failure. In 1829, he set out on a privately funded expedition on the steamship Victory, accompanied by his nephew James Clark Ross, to try again, returning to England in late 1833. Using survival techniques learnt from the Inuit he befriended, Ross kept his crew healthy through four icebound winters. While the voyage once again failed to find a North-West Passage, it surveyed the Boothia Peninsula and a large part of King William Land. It was also valuable for its scientific findings, with J. C. Ross discovering the magnetic pole. Ross published this two-volume work in 1835. Volume 2 contains scientific reports, ethnological information on the Inuit, an Eskimo vocabulary, and comments on natural history.

The Norwegian explorer and ethnographer Carl Lumholtz (1851-1922) wrote the influential ethnographic studies Among Cannibals and Unknown Mexico (both reissued in this series) after his journeys through Australia and Mexico respectively. In 1913, Lumholtz went on his final expedition, which aimed to explore the large parts of Borneo unknown to the rest of the world. Interested by tales of head-hunting, he wanted to spend time with the indigenous people and conduct research. Originally published in 1920, this two-volume work is Lumholtz's account of his expedition. Many of the illustrations in the work are from photographs taken by the author, including pictures of members of the different tribes he stayed with. Volume 1 begins with an overview of Borneo and goes on to describe the expedition's journey into the jungle, and the various ceremonies experienced during the journey, which provide interesting insights into tribal life and belief systems.