BURNES. Three brothers of this name served together in India. Sir Alexander Burnes wrote Travels in Bokhara and History of Cabul, at which place, along with their youngest brother Charles, he fell on the 2d November 1841. They were natives of Montrose in Scotland, sons of James Burnes, provost of the town, and relatives of the poet Burns.
Sir Alexander entered the Bombay army in 1822 ; travelled from Bombay through Sind, the Patijab, and Bokhara to the Caspian Sea, return ing by the Persian Gulf, betwixt 1831 and 1833; was despatched on a mission to Krtbul in 1837 ; Assistant to the Envoy from 1838 tol 842; Author of Notice of Hospital for Animals at Surat, JI. i. p. 96 ; On the Colossal Images in Bamian, I31. As. Trans. 1833, Ii. p. 563 ; Travels into Bokhara, Loud. 1834, 3 vols.; On Female Infanticide in Cutch, Loud. A. S. Trans. 1834, i. p. 193 ; Cabool, 1837 and 1838, Lond. 1842, 1 vol. ; Notice of Sind, Lond. G. S. Trans. 1837, viii. p. 2 ; Observa tions on the Maritime Communications of India, as carried ou.by the Natives, ibid. 1836, vi. p. 2 ;
On the Ruins of Puttun Somnath, Lon. A. S. Trans. v. p. 104 ; Account of the Reg Rawan ; On the Descendants of Alexander in the Valley of the Oxus ; On a Fair for the Indus Trade ; On Herat and the Surrounding Countries ; Coal Localities near the Indus ; Navigation of the Indus ; On the State of Turkestan. He also wrote articles on Commerce in Sind and Afghanistan ; On the Persian Faction in Kabul ; On the Political Power of the Sikhs ; On the Political State of Kabul in 1837 ; On Russia in Central Asia ; On the Siah Posh ; On the Wool of Kabul and Bokh ara. A memoir of his life appeared in the Bombay Times, December 1841, As. JI. 1842.
James Burnes, K.H., the elder brother, a medical officer of the Bombay army, author of A Visit to the Court of Sind.—Dr. Buist's Narra tire of Afghanistan, Bombay, 1843.