overland from England, through Russia, Persia, and Affghaunistaun.
London, Bentley, 1834
The great game. A scarce title by Conolly, a key figure in the history of British and Russian relations in nineteenth-century Central Asia.
It was Conolly who coined the phrase 'The Great Game' and his tragic execution along with Colonel Charles Stoddart is memorably recounted on the opening page of Peter Hopkirk's book of the same name.
'Being in England on sick leave in 1829, Conolly obtained leave to return to India through central Asia. He left London on 10 August 1829, travelled through France and Germany to Hamburg, then continued by sea to St Petersburg, where he stayed a month, and then travelled via Tiflis and Tehran to Asterabad. There he disguised himself as an Asian merchant, with a stock of furs and shawls, hoping to reach Khiva. He left Asterabad for the Turkoman steppes on 26 April 1830, but when the little caravan to which he attached himself was about halfway between Krasnovodsk and Kizil Arvat he was seized by nomads and robbed. The Turkomans were undecided whether to kill him or sell him into slavery. Tribal jealousies in the end secured his release, and he returned to Asterabad on 22 May 1830, from where he travelled to India by way of Mashhad, Herat, and Kandahar, visiting Sind, and finally crossing the Indian frontier in January 1831. He published a lively narrative of the journey—reflecting his bright, hopeful temperament—A Journey to Northern India (1834)' (ODNB).
First edition; 2 vols, 8vo, xii, 418; viii, 440 pp., 2 pages ads at end, 2 etched frontispieces, folding lithographed map, light browning to text from old damp staining, later red half morocco gilt by Frost of Bath, a good copy.
Yakushi (1994), C331.
It was Conolly who coined the phrase 'The Great Game' and his tragic execution along with Colonel Charles Stoddart is memorably recounted on the opening page of Peter Hopkirk's book of the same name.
'Being in England on sick leave in 1829, Conolly obtained leave to return to India through central Asia. He left London on 10 August 1829, travelled through France and Germany to Hamburg, then continued by sea to St Petersburg, where he stayed a month, and then travelled via Tiflis and Tehran to Asterabad. There he disguised himself as an Asian merchant, with a stock of furs and shawls, hoping to reach Khiva. He left Asterabad for the Turkoman steppes on 26 April 1830, but when the little caravan to which he attached himself was about halfway between Krasnovodsk and Kizil Arvat he was seized by nomads and robbed. The Turkomans were undecided whether to kill him or sell him into slavery. Tribal jealousies in the end secured his release, and he returned to Asterabad on 22 May 1830, from where he travelled to India by way of Mashhad, Herat, and Kandahar, visiting Sind, and finally crossing the Indian frontier in January 1831. He published a lively narrative of the journey—reflecting his bright, hopeful temperament—A Journey to Northern India (1834)' (ODNB).
First edition; 2 vols, 8vo, xii, 418; viii, 440 pp., 2 pages ads at end, 2 etched frontispieces, folding lithographed map, light browning to text from old damp staining, later red half morocco gilt by Frost of Bath, a good copy.
Yakushi (1994), C331.
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