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What does The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon reveal about 18th-century sea travel?
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Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding, frontispiece to Fielding's Works (1st ed., 1762), engraving by James Basire after a drawing by William Hogarth
The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon provides a vivid, firsthand account of the challenges associated with 18th-century sea travel. Specifically, the work highlights the "tortuous slowness" of maritime journeys during that era.1
Beyond the pace of travel, the journal reveals the difficulties of the period by documenting the "horrors of contemporary medicine" and the "caprices of arbitrary power" frequently exercised by customs officers and other petty officials. Written by Henry Fielding while he was in failing health, the account also serves as a testament to his personal resilience, as he was forced to be carried on and off the ship due to his inability to walk.1