An American adventurer’s pioneering circuit through the peaks of central Asia

In 1826 a ragtag party of eight men, injured and starving, stumbled into the lofty Hindu Kush north-east of Kabul. They had no map, no compass, no money, not even provisions. In fact, they had no clear destination: unlike most explorers, who aim to find a hidden peak or river source, the leader of this sorry band, Alexander Haughton Campbell Gardner, was not searching for glory but fleeing death. Yet despite this unpromising start, over the next three years Gardner completed a dangerous first: a circuit through the high mountains of central Asia, traversing lands and meeting peoples never before encountered by outsiders.

Gardner had begun his central Asian wanderings in 1819. He was on the run when he rode into Afghanistan in 1824, and – having thrown in his lot with Habib-ulla Khan, rival to Afghan warlord Dost Mohammad Khan for the throne of Kabul – he was