A naturalist's wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago. A narrative of travel and exploration from 1878 to 1883.

The Scottish zoologist H.O. Forbes (1851-1932) travelled from the Keeling Islands through Indonesia between 1878-1883 visiting The Cocos Islands, West Java, South-Sumatra, Timor, Ambon, Larat (one of the Tanimbar Islands), and Buru. Forbes was active primarily in the Moluccas, Sumatra and New Guinea. His unusual tasks there also included tracking down the murderers of Captain J. C. Craig on Joannet Island in his temporary capacity as a government agent. In 1887 he was appointed meteorological observer at Port Moresby in New Guinea and used this opportunity to attempt further exploration of the island interior. The map he made from these explorations was deemed "unreliable" and he was not paid for his efforts. Disgruntled he decided to return to Britain. However he made a major stay in New Zealand before achieving this.

He served as Director of the Canterbury Museum in New Zealand between 1890 and 1893, and eventually moved to Liverpool, England, where he served as a consulting Director of Museums there until his death.

Forbes coordinated and led the Liverpool and British Museums joint expedition to Socotra and Abd al Kuri in 1898–1899.

Henry Ogg Forbes dedicated his book A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago to the zoologist William Alexander Forbes, who died on an expedition to West Africa in 1883. They had been friends and classmate at the University of Edinburgh.

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New York, Harper & Brothers, 1885.Original pictorial cloth gilt. Gilt to spine. Tear to front endpaper at hinge. Slight scuff to rear board. Slight discoloration at edge of pages. With colored frontispiece, 6 maps (3 folding), and many wood-engraved plates and illustrations. XIX,536 pp. First American edition.