"My Log."

family copy

Rare account of travel through the Arabian Gulf stopping at Hormuz, Bandar Abbas, Bahrain, Bushehr, and Kuwait, before travelling up the Euphrates to Basra and Baghdad. Owned by the author's nephew who served with him in India, and then by the author's cousin the 6th Laird of Lour.

The narrative gives evocative glimpses into the Gulf in 1878, recounting brief histories of Hormuz and Bandar Abbas under the Portuguese before moving onto Bahrain. Bahrain is described as being nestled amongst numerous date groves, with pearl fishing off the coast, as well as its breeding of 'white donkeys and milch cows'. Then to Bushehr and Kuwait, which sits on a 'low sandy shore' and is where 'the best Arab horses' are exported from, with the author's ship carrying some fourteen horse-dealers to the city. The rest of the journey is up to Baghdad, stopping at Khorramshahr (Al-Muhammarah) to meet the Sheikh of Arabistan, which receives its own description. Details such as food, climate, clothing, and transport also abound.

General Alexander Carnegy (1829-1900) served almost his entire life in the Indian Army, rising to provisional Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army in 1887. He wrote this work on a trip to inspect his Battalion's detachments stationed in the Gulf, when the India Office still held jurisdiction over British interests in that area. This was the copy of his nephew, Robert William Elliot Carnegy (1860-1887), who served as Aide-de-Camp to the author before dying of typhoid at just 26. It then found its way to the author's cousin, Patrick Alexander Watson-Carnegy 6th Laird of Lour and Turin (1836-1914), who held his family's seat from the age of two and was a Major of the Forfarshire Light Horse, as well as being the Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace of Forfarshire.

Rare, with only 3 known copies in the world (BL, Oxford, New York).

First edition; 8vo (20 x 15 cm); armorial bookplate loosely inserted; original cloth-backed printed boards, manuscript inscription to upper board 'R.W.E. Carnegy' and old price, a little rubbed and soiled, still a remarkably well preserved copy; 48 pp.