2 volumes, 8vo. Frontispiece portrait, folding map hand-colored in outline (short tear to fold), 4 folding plans. Publisher’s original green cloth gilt (light rubbing and staining, a few scuffs to spine).

Second 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.