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Charles Masson, the subject of this book, is one of those names which
is difficult to place - something to do with Afghanistan perhaps, and
was he the inspiration for Kipling's The Man who would be King? If
Masson seems an elusive character then this is exactly what he was.
For a start, his was an adopted name. According to the author , Classics
professor at Durham University, Masson was born as James Lewis in
1800 in east London. Even here, right at the beginning of his story ,
facts seem scarce. What was his family back ground, why did he join
the army of the East India Company, and how did a private soldier, as
he was, learn Latin and Greek? It is an uneasy start to the book, not
helped by an over-emotive opening chapter. The rational reader seeks
details of his regiment (Bengal Artillery, we are told), and questions
just how easy it was to desert from the army garrison at Agra. Masson
himself lied about much in his past in his autobiography, leading some
to think he was an American from Kentucky and that he had travelled
through Rajputana in 1826, when in fact he was still at the time, an
army soldier.
But once the story gets going it is indeed an extraordinary tale. The
Alexandria of the title is not of course the Egyptian port, but one of the
several cities founded by Alexander the Great on his sweep eastwards
through Afghanistan and into northern India. Masson became obsessed
with finding the Afghan Alexandria and explored a number of possible
sites for the lost city . What he did find was the Bimaran stupa near
Jallalabad and the exquis ite casket with which his name ill always be
associated - a pure gold ruby-studded reliquary with the figures of
Buddha and Indian gods. Although Masson wa s called an archaeologist
there was littl e sc ie ntific discipline at the time, and many of the coins in
his large collection came from casual finds by tribesmen, without any
prove nance. Nevertheless Masson deserves ac kno wledgement as th e
first p e rson to id entify a nd record the Kharo s hthi script used in the
gigantic s tone inscriptions set up by the emperor Ashoka. There is
much more to Masson's story - he was recruited as a spy by the East
Indi a Company, who held the threat of punishment for his army
d esertion over hi s head. He met other vivid characters including Josiah
Harlan, who was American, and certainly wanted to be king of
Kafiristan. Handsomely illustrated though no full portrait of Masson
exists. It is a good read, but the author's informal prose style
throughout the book may annoy some.
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