In 1800-1801 the diary author was traveling along the Baltic Coast, visiting such places as Stettin [Szczecin], Anclam [Anklam], Wolgast, Greifswald (including Greifswald University), Stralsund, Rostock, Wismar, Dobberan [Bad Doberan], Demmin, Danzig, Königsberg, Memel, Mitau [Jelgava], Riga, and Liebau [Liepāja?]. While in Rostock he mentioned his departure from St. Petersburg.

In 1802 the author was in France and Italy, traveling from Liverpool to Dover, Montreuil, Abbeville, Amiens, Clermont, Chantilly, Paris, Fontainebleau, the Loire Valley, Tarentese Mountains, Lyon, Mt. Cenis, Turin, Milan, Mantua, Ferrara, Bologna, Pisa, and Leghorn. He briefly notes becoming a prisoner of war in Leghorn when war broke out once again between France and England, indicating he was on his "parole of honour" rather than being fully imprisoned.

He was apparently allowed to travel further while still held by the French and their allies, as he resumes writing about his movements around France and Italy in 1809 and 1810. He visited Florence, Poggio, Prato, Pistoia, Lucca, Viareggio, Pietra Santa, Massa, Lerici, Geona, Marengo, Turin, Chambery, Nimes, Montpellier, Toulouse, and Bordeaux, noting the difficulties he had in getting permission to travel to and a passport for Bordeaux.

In 1812 he describes the British Army taking Bordeaux and that he was finally freed from being a captive after about 11 years. He provides an account of British occupation and interviews with Lord Beresford and Admiral Penrose to obtain his passage home. He arrived back in England and his home of Liverpool in April 1814 after sailing on the HMS Venus.

Poyer, if that was the author's name, mentions a brother named Thomas, and he mingled with the well-to-do bourgeoisie. On his travels he inspected salt and malt mills and local manufactures. He describes the "distresses" of riding in a diligence and other public conveyances, dealing with con men, and flooding necessitating boarding a boat near Ferrara. He also notes a play produced in Straslund by a local author insulting Swedish army officers.