The Overland Guide-book / A complete vade-mecum for the overland traveller, to India viâ Egypt.

Gloster—Knowest thou the way?
Edgar—Both stile and gate, horseway and footway. Poor Tom shall lead thee.—Take my hand. —Shakspere.
SECOND EDITION. LONDON: Wm. H. ALLEN AND Co., 7, LEADENHALL-STREET. 1850.


TO THE CIVIL AND MILITARY SERVICES OF BRITISH INDIA, THIS WORK IS DEDICATED, WITH GRATEFUL RESPECT AND CORDIAL GOOD WISHES, BY THEIR OBEDIENT HUMBLE SERVANT, THE AUTHOR.

The purpose of this little volume, which I have now the honour to submit to the public, is to combine, in a compact and convenient form, all the information necessary to the prosecution of the journey Overland to India and vice versâ .
Scarcely a day passes that I am not asked, either personally or by letter, to guide some intending traveller in his arrangements for the trip, and even to advise him as to the preferable routes, the expense, the manner of the voyage, &c. Ignorance on all these points induces inapposite and irrelevant questions; and it is not unusual to find, at the end of correspondence or a prolonged interview, that the querist is as far from the possession of the knowledge he desired to acquire as he was when he first preferred his application. No clear and satisfactory information can possibly be obtained by a desultory conversation or fragmentary epistles; hence the value of a systematic and comprehensive arrangement of all the facts and suggestions pertaining to the subject.

There is another reason why I should put forth this Guide,—it completes, in a measure—as far, at least, as the great Overland scheme is in itself complete—my humble labours in the mighty cause of steam-communication between England and India. For the past fourteen years, I have earnestly and ardently advocated the accomplishment of this great object; and, though treated as a vain and visionary enthusiast, when I have presumed to predict the establishment of a semi-monthly intercourse (which I did in 1836!), my endeavours never relaxed, nor did my hope in the least degree abate. I may be pardoned, therefore, some measure of exultation and self-approval, when, looking back upon the state of the steam question some years ago, and tracing its rise and progress through a thousand difficulties and obstructions, I venture to associate my own zeal and exertions with the triumphant consummation apparent in the scheme now adopted and carried out by the Peninsular and Oriental Company, and the East India Company, not only with the Presidencies of India, but also with our Chinese possessions.