In 1882, Francis Younghusband was commissioned into the First King’s Dragoon Guards who were then stationed in India. Younghusband soon launched into his career of exploration with two brief sorties into the Himalayas. The Heart of a Continent, first published in 1896, tells of Younghusband’s journey through Manchuria and along the Silk Road into Chinese Turkistan. The narrative allows the archair traveller a vicarious enjoyment of the excitement, the hardships, and the achievements of the Great Game being played at the time in Central Asia by Russia and Great Britain.