In 1836, the young Scottish naval officer John Wood embarked on a mission up the Indus River and into Afghanistan in search of the source of the Oxus River, one of the largest waterways of Central Asia and an important strategic feature in the nineteenth century's Great Game between the British and ...

In 1836, the young Scottish naval officer John Wood embarked on a mission up the Indus River and into Afghanistan in search of the source of the Oxus River, one of the largest waterways of Central Asia and an important strategic feature in the nineteenth century's Great Game between the British and Russian empires. Steeped in the legacies of Alexander the Great, Babur, and Marco Polo, he would document his journey with not only a professional commitment to detail, but also a vivid personal curiosity and a clear moral sensibility. He illuminates both the physical territory that he traverses and the people whom he meets-from generous villagers to petty potentates, as well as a rogues' gallery of bandits, slave traders, and even a drunken and dueling Frenchman.