In Unknown Arabia

Abstract

OF the excellence of Major Cheesman's journey into the deserts of eastern Arabia there can be no question. He travelled down the Persian Gulf from Basra to Bahrain, and from there to the little port of Oqair, on the Arabian coast; there he met camels, sent down for him by the ruler of eastern Arabia, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, whom he had already met, and to whom he carried a personal letter from Sir Percy Cox. The camels took him, his baggage, and his Baghdadi servant to Hufuf, an oasis which has already been visited by several European travellers. The purpose of the expedition was to collect mammals and birds, and, where necessary, to fix the position of places astronomically, and to make compass traverses when passing over unmapped routes; the traveller's purpose was to work his way south from Hufuf towards the empty quarter of Arabia, unvisited by Europeans, unknown to most Arabs, and only recently brought under the suzerainty of the conquering ibn Saud, leader of the Wahhabis.

In Unknown Arabia.

Major R. E. Cheesman. Pp. xx + 447 + 32 plates. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1926.) 25s. net.