Autobiography of James Silk Buckingham

James Silk Buckingham (17861855) 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.