IOR/L/MAR/C/573

Volume containing correspondence related to the Euphrates expedition of 1835-36, a survey of the navigability of the Euphrates River as part of a possible overland route between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. The correspondence covers preparations for the expedition, the sea journey from Liverpool to Sowedich [Samandağ] and the overland journey from Sowedich to Bir [Birecik]. The correspondence also discusses delays to the expedition caused by the obstructionism of various Ottoman officials, particularly Mehmet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, and his son Ibrahim Pasha.

The primary correspondent is the commander of the expedition Colonel Francis Rawdon Chesney. Other correspondents include: Chesney’s second-in-command Lieutenant Henry Blosse Lynch; the Board of Control; the Government of Bombay; HM Treasury; the British Consul, Aleppo; the British Consul, Baghdad; and HM Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

The report recommending the expedition from the House of Commons Select Committee on Steam Navigation to India is included on folios 74-75. A transcript of the following House of Commons debate on 4 August 1834 is included on folios 76-85.

Folios 204-224 contain a copy of the log book of the voyage of the George Canning from Liverpool to Sowedich, via Malta and Beirout [Beirut], February-April 1835, accompanied by HMS Columbine.

Folios 262-263 contain a description of a turtle, probably an African softshell turtle, by the expedition’s naturalist Dr Charles Frederick Staunton.

The volume includes a table of contents on folios 7-15.