The traveller and antiquary Henry Salt (1780–1827) hoped to become a portrait painter, but recognised his own limitations, and instead entered the employment of Viscount Valentia, embarking with him on an eastern tour in 1802. In 1805, Valentia sent him on a mission to improve relations with the rulers of Abyssinia. After a second expedition, this time on behalf of the British government, in which he made observations and collections of the local flora and fauna, he was appointed consul-general to Egypt, and in his spare time carried out excavations at Thebes and Abu Simbel. This two-volume work was published in 1834 by Salt's close friend, the painter J. J. Halls (1776–1853). Volume 2 describes Salt's later career in Egypt, as a diplomat and especially as a pioneering archaeologist, as well as his negotiations over the future of his own spectacular collection of Egyptian artefacts.