ABSTRACT
When Hickey’s narrative takes him away from London and its salacious temptations, the tone changes. Hickey abruptly abandons the candid and sometimes embarrassing confessional mode and now devotes significant stretches to describing his travels, although, given his interest in character (his and others), he continues to dot his pages with novelesque descriptions of many of the men and women he came upon in his journeys. His narrative clearly mirrors the Romantic, nationalistic and imperialistic characteristics found in contemporary novels and travel literature. We still find recollections of drinking and whoring, but they no longer dominate the narrative as before. To remove William from the temptations of London, Hickey’s father, Joseph, drawing upon close connections with directors of the Company and reflecting the system of “Old Corruption,” enlists his son as a cadet in the army of the East India Company. After a failed stint as a soldier in Madras, Joseph then tries to find employment for his son as an attorney in Jamaica—a venture that also comes to naught.
