Heart of a Continent

London: John Murray, 1896. Full Description:

YOUNGHUSBAND, Francis. The Heart of a Continent: A Narrative of Travels in Manchuria, Across the Gobi Desert, Through the Himalayas, the Pamirs, and Chitral, 1884-1894. London: John Murray, 1896.

First edition. Octavo (). [xx], 409, [1, blank] pp. With frontispiece and 17 additional black-and-white plates. With four folding maps, printed in color. One of which is stored in rear pocket.

Publisher's full green deluxe cloth binding. Front board stamped and lettered in gilt. Spine stamped and lettered in gilt. Edges uncut. Decorative endpapers. Binding slightly skewed. Some rubbing to head and tail of spine and corners. Map of Manchuria with a 3-inch closed tear, with no loss and edges a bit frayed. All other maps are about fine. Overall a very good copy.

"Younghusband made his name as an exploring soldier and imperialist. His was a classic British imperialism, not shy of exercising brute power, but more typically presenting itself as a paternalistic endeavour, helping ‘lower' races while furthering Britain's cause against imperial rivals. The empire exemplified his principle of 'unity in difference', in which the ‘advanced' races dictated terms for all. In 1886 he accompanied a seven-month expedition to Manchuria. In Peking (Beijing) in March 1887 he met his superior Colonel Mark Sever Bell, and the two men obtained leave to return to India by separate land routes. Younghusband, alone with hired guides, spent seven months crossing the Gobi Desert to Hami, and over the Himalaya via Kashgar and the Muztagh Pass to Kashmir. The crossing of this 19,000 foot pass was a rite of passage which heightened his sense of being a lone Englishman carrying 'England's mission' into new territory. In a letter of 1901 to his friend Henry Newbolt he would write: 'The Empire must grow: we can't help it' (French, 156). On returning to London in April 1888 Younghusband lectured to the Royal Geographical Society; he was elected their youngest fellow, and awarded the founder's medal in 1890. In 1889-91 he consolidated his role as a trekking arm of empire in the border zones of British India, Russia, China, and Afghanistan, and recorded these journeys in The Heart of a Continent (1896)." (Oxford DNB).

HBS 69160.

$750.