John Buffa

John Buffa was a physician and travel writer who died in 1812. The main work reliably linked to him is Travels through the Empire of Morocco, published in London in 1810, where he is identified as "John Buffa, M.D." and "Physician to the Forces."

In the book, Buffa explains that his journey grew out of events in 1805 and 1806, when he was serving at the Depot Hospital on the Isle of Wight and later traveled from Gibraltar to Morocco to provide medical help to the governor of Larache. That experience became the basis for a narrative combining travel, medicine, and close observation of Moroccan places and society.

Little biographical information seems easy to confirm beyond those points, and even major library records mainly preserve his name in connection with this single book and his death year. Still, that surviving work gives a clear sense of a practical observer writing from direct experience rather than from hearsay.