Mapping the Great Game Quotes

“The commander of the expedition, General Napier, a man known not to mince his words, would say of this land grab: ‘We have no right to seize Sind, yet we shall do so and a very advantageous, useful, and humane piece of rascality it will be.’ The satirical magazine Punch would jokingly publish how, on conquering the province, Napier had sent back a one-word dispatch: Peccavi (Latin for ‘I have Sin[ne]d’).”
― Riaz Dean, Mapping the Great Game: Explorers, Spies and Maps in 19th-Century Asia

“Travels into Bokhara,”
― Riaz Dean, Mapping the Great Game: Explorers, Spies and Maps in 19th-Century Asia

“France now attacked not British India, but Russia, to the latter’s astonishment. However, the tsar’s troops inflicted a stunning defeat on the French, aided by Russia’s greatest natural ally, mother winter. A simple monument in the Baltic town of Vilnius best sums up the French retreat during that terrible winter. The front plaque reads: ‘Napoleon Bonaparte passed this way in 1812 with 400,000 men.’ The reverse side, facing Moscow, shows: ‘Napoleon Bonaparte passed this way in 1812 with 9000 men.”
― Riaz Dean, Mapping the Great Game: Explorers, Spies and Maps in 19th-Century Asia