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In 1875 Burnaby, an adventurous and unorthodox captain in the Royal Horse Guards, travelled from St Petersburg to Khiva with the permission of the Russian authorities, but not of the British Foreign Office. Faced with one of the worst winters in memory, Burnaby eventually reached Khiva, where he was installed in the Khan’s guest house and favourably received by the Khan himself. He was thwarted, however, in his plan to proceed to Bokhara and Merv, and forced to return to St. Petersburgh, escorted by a party of Cossacks. His account, first published in Britain the preceding year, was an immediate success, perhaps because of its anti-Russian, jingoistic tenor, and it went through a number of printings.