Northern Afghanistan or Letters from the Afghan Boundary Commission.

Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood and Sons,, 1888. One of the last flashpoints of the Great Game, inscribed by the author First edition, presentation copy, inscribed to Richard Assheton Cross, first viscount Cross, on the verso of the half-title: "Viscount Cross with the Author's Kind Regards. 11 June 1888", also with the engraved armorial bookplate of the Cross family on the front pastedown. This is a first-hand account of a crucial period in the Russian conquest of Central Asia and The Great Game. "The book describes the activity of the commission by a British officer, in 1885 in northwestern Afghanistan and then their long travel back to Lahore through Afghanistan. The closing chapters deal with the return of the mission in 1887 for the actual demarcation of the frontier" (Yakushi). Yate also outlines the Panjdeh incident, an armed engagement between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the Russian Empire in 1885. Hopkirk described the Pandjeh incident as one of the last "flashpoints" of the Great Game, "a remote and little-known oasis... destined shortly to become a household word" (p. 425). Sir Charles Edward Yate (1849-1940), administrator in India and politician, served on General Roberts's staff during the Second Afghan War. "From 1884 to 1886 he was attached to the Afghan boundary commission, a posting which supplied him with the material for a volume of descriptive letters, Northern Afghanistan (1888). In March 1885 Yate was British representative at Panjdeh, an oasis on Afghanistan's western frontier, when Russian troops invaded and threatened to embroil Britain in a war on Afghanistan's behalf. On 29 March, in a dramatic gesture of hospitality which typified his tendency to respond to a situation in terms of its protagonists, Yate invited the Russian officers to dine with him between the two lines of opposing soldiers. Notwithstanding the exchange of champagne toasts in no-man's-land, the Russians seized the disputed territory at dawn the following day. For his boundary work, Yate was made CSI in 1887 and CMG in 1888" (ODNB). Provenance: Cross (1823-1914), perhaps best remembered as a social reforming home secretary, was secretary of state for India at the time of presentation. Octavo. Original dark red cloth over bevelled boards, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, black surface-paper endpapers. With 3 maps (2 large and folding in pocket at end). 2-page advertisement for "England and Russia Face to Face", and 24-page publisher's catalogue at end. Cross bookplate with the lower half removed. A little rubbed and mildly shaken, damp stain at tail of spine and lower edges, with colour bleed from cloth into text block, minor loss to rear free endpaper from adhesion due to damp, leaves largely unopened. A very good copy. Wilber 341; Yakushi Y05. Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, 1990.