Autobiography of James Silk Buckingham

James Silk Buckingham (1786-1855) was a writer who travelled extensively and published accounts of his adventures in places such as India, Persia, Egypt, and Palestine. He first went to sea as a boy, and, aged only ten, spent a period as a prisoner-of-war in Spain. He was expelled from India in 1823 for criticising the East India Company and the Bengal government. Back in London, he was a supporter of reform, and served as the first M.P. for the new constituency of Sheffield, from 1832 to 1837. He founded several journals, including The Athenaeum. On retiring from Parliament, he left for North America, where he spent nearly four years, and was highly critical of America's economic dependence on slavery. His autobiography was cut short by his death. Volume 1 covers his early life and travels until 1812, mostly in the Mediterranean but also to the West Indies and America.

Preface; 1. Reasons for writing this autobiography; 2. Excitement of the French Revolution, in 1792; 3. My going to sea at length determined on; 4. Sailing from Falmouth, after adieus and struggles; 5. Second voyage to Lisbon in the same ship; 6. Disastrous issue for my third voyage to Lisbon; 7. Setting out on our march through Galicia; 8. The English fleet of Sir John Jervis entering the Tagus; 9. Complete change in the current of my life; 10. Life of ease and pleasure passed on shore; 11. Determination to resume my original sea-life; 12. Delay in the arrival of an expected ship; 13. First voyage to the West Indies in the Titus; 14. Portuguese merchants from Lisbon and Oporto; 15. Voyage to Virginia, in America, in the ship Rising States; 16. First appointment as Captain of a West Indiaman, at twenty-one; 17. First entertainment at a military mess-room; 18. Homeward voyage from the Bahama Islands; 19. Association with captains, merchants, and ship-owners; 20. Anticipations and preparations for the Mediterranean; 21. Departure from Gibraltar for Malta; 22. Departure from Malta for the Archipelago.