BELL (John).
Travels from St Petersburg in Russia, to Various Parts of Asia.
“The best model for travel-writing in the English language” (Quarterly Review).As a diplomat, Bell travelled extensively throughout Russia and Asia. His first expedition (1714-1717), made in the service of Tsar Peter I, took him from Moscow along the Volga to Astrakhan, and thence across the Caspian Sea to Derbent and then on to Esfahan in Persia. Bell’s second mission (1721-22) is of even more importance, since his description of the sixteen-month expedition to China via Kazan and Siberia includes descriptions of the Dalai Lama, the Great Wall of China and his residence in Beijing.
