Cook, John, M.D., at Hamilton.  Voyages and Travels : Through the Russian Empire, Tartary, and part of the Kingdom of Persia.  Edinburgh: Oriental Research Partners, 1997.

                 Voyages and Travels was originally published in 1770, in Edinburgh and the time frame of this travelers account is 1730s-1740s.  The author is an English doctor and a practitioner of medicine, who travels from Chelsea to Turkey and Persia (Ottoman Empire) through the Russian Empire and the Crimean Tatar Khanate.  Shortly after the trip from England to St. Petersburg, John Cook gets recruited as the personal doctor of a Russian Prince Golitsyn, and remains in this position of employment throughout most of the story.  He travels with the Prince through Russia and “Tartary,” as he calls it into Turkey and keeps a journal of his travels. 

            This book was not mass-produced and there were very few copies available.  This fact and the “journal” style of the book suggest that this was not intended for the majority.  The book is a first hand account of the people and the events of the territories traveled by John Cook, so the intended audience was most likely English, or Western European merchants and travelers into the Russian Empire (especially the south of Russia).  The first quarter of the book describes the customs of the Russian Army, Navy and the Clergy, which furthermore suggests the intended audience was the W. European travelers.  Of the events described in the account, the most exciting and most detailed is the uprising of a Tatar prince, Kuli Khan.  The uprising begins in Astrakhan, which is one of the first places John Cook travels from St. Petersburg.  Kuli Khan and his men appear everywhere from Central Asia to the Ottoman Empire and especially the South of Russia and present day Ukraine, which Dr. Cook calls Tartary.  As a result, the traveling becomes much less safe and John Cook along with Prince Golitsyn get into some troubles with the Tatars throughout the journey. 

            Such events as the Russo-Turkish War (1735-1739), Kuli Khan uprising (1730s and 40s) and war with Sweden (1740s) take place during the timeline of this book.  John Cook concludes the book by providing a quite detailed history of Riga (Volume II, pg474-489).  He describes the general history and geographic position of Livonia, the merchant nature of Riga, the fortifications of the Russian army near Riga and of course, he describes and mentions the people of Riga, which he met during his stay there.  (AY 2006)