A Voyage Round the World

James Holman (1786 -1857), known as the 'Blind Traveler,' was a British adventurer, author and social observer, known for his writings on his extensive travels. Although blind and suffering from pain that hurt his mobility Holman undertook many solo trips. Holman was determined to travel around the world. He set out to accomplish by a somewhat different method the design which had been frustrated by the Russian authorities; and an account of his remarkable achievement was published in four volumes in 1834-1835, under the title of A Voyage Round the World, including Travels in Africa, Asia, Australasia, America, etc., from 1827 to 1832. In a time when blind people were thought to be almost totally helpless, and expected to do nothing but become a beggar, Holman's ability to sense his surroundings by the reverberations of a tapped cane or horse's hoof-beats was unfathomable.