2 volumes, 8vo. With frontispiece portrait, hand-colored folding route map and 4 folding engraved plans. Contemporary half calf (labels rubbed). FIRST EDITION. Palgrave was a Jesuit missionary, former Indian Army officer, and accomplished Arab scholar, who became the first European to cross the Arabian Peninsula west to east. Disguised as a Syrian merchant, his objective was "to ascertain the viability of missionary enterprise among the Arabs," but he was also entrusted with a secret political mission for Napoleon III, to report on the attitude of the Arabs towards France.