Captain Sir Alexander Burnes (16 May 1805 – 2 November 1841) was a Scottish explorer, military officer, and diplomat associated with the Great Game. He was nicknamed Bokhara Burnes for his role in establishing contact with and exploring Bukhara. His memoir, Travels into Bokhara, was a bestseller when it was first published in 1835. Early life Burnes was born on 16 May 1805 in Montrose, Scotland, as the fourth son of James Burnes (1780–1852) the local provost, who was first cousin to the poet Robert Burns. His brother was the doctor and surgeon James Burnes. At the age of sixteen, Alexander joined the army of the East India Company and while serving in India, he learned Urdu and Persian, and obtained an appointment as interpreter at Surat in 1822. He was transferred to Kutch in 1826 where he was based at Bhuj for three years. As assistant to the political agent, he took an interest in the history and geography of north-western India and the adjacent countries, which had not yet been thoroughly explored by the British; he then went to Afghanistan. Exploration Afghanistan, one of the most remote kingdoms in the world, found itself sandwiched between the rival British and Russian empires. British control in India made the Russians suspect an intention to move northwards through Afghanistan; conversely, the British feared that India was sought by Russia. Sensing the two empires would collide in Afghanistan, the British Government needed intelligence and dispatched Burnes to get it. In 1831, travelling in disguise, Burnes surveyed the route through Kabul to Bukhara and produced the first detailed accounts of Afghan politics. His proposal in 1829 to undertake a journey of exploration through the valley of the Indus River was approved and in 1831 his and Henry Pottinger's surveys of the Indus river would prepare the way for a future assault on the Sindh to clear a path towards Central Asia. In the same year he arrived in Lahore with a present of horses from King William IV to Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The British claimed that the horses would not survive the overland journey, so they were allowed to transport the horses up the Indus and used the opportunity to secretly survey the river. Despite pressure from his superiors, Burnes declined a military escort on his journey up the Indus, fearing their presence would cause the native population to conclude the British intended