[2] His drawings of the people and places he encountered on his voyages show the meticulous precision of a surgeon and scientist rather than the hand of a trained artist.

In the late 1780s Bacstrom found a patron, whose name is unknown, who established him in an expensive laboratory in Marylebone to conduct research in natural philosophy.

He eventually received sponsorship to collect samples for Banks on a voyage around the world via Cape Horn, Nootka Sound, China and the East Indies that was to be undertaken by a group of London merchants as a commercial venture.

He was briefly a guest of the Spanish officers at Nootka before being welcomed on board the Three Brothers, a brig out of Newcastle, sailing with the schooner Prince William Henry.

Returning to Nootka Sound, Bacstrom took passage as surgeon on the American flagged brig Amelia for China.

He eventually signed on as surgeon aboard the Warren Hastings, an ex-East Indiaman of 600 tons flying Genoese colors, with a British captain, and a crew from 13 different nations, bound for the Cape of Good Hope and Ostend.

Thanks to help from the governor of the British Virgin Islands, George Leonard, Bacstrom eventually arrived home in London July 23, 1795, four years and eight months after he left.

Bacstrom's translation of Catena Aurea Homeri (Golden Chain of Homer) was published by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in 1891 in the Theosophical magazine Lucifer.

"[8] The similarity of the "Philosophical Seal" of the Bacstrom Society of Rosicrucians depicted in Waite (a triangle and square inscribed in a circle) with the emblem used by the Lectorium Rosicrucianum today is also striking.

[5][9] Among Bacstrom's circle of associates in London were the physician and astrologer Ebenezer Sibly (1751 – c. 1799) and the General Charles Rainsford (1728–1809).

From Frederick Hockley, Bacstrom's writings probably came into the hands of William Alexander Ayton (1816–1909), William Wynn Westcott and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, thus influencing the teachings of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and thus in turn influencing the development of Western occultism in the 20th century.

An authentic copy of a long letter of Sigismond Bacstrom and sent to Mr. Hand has been handwritten by Frederick Hockley in 1839: the Mr. Yardley's Process.

Then, this manuscript has been bought in 1913 by the famous bookseller Pierre Dujols and given to Julien Champagne, the illustrator of Fulcanelli's books.

Julien Champagne wrote the French translation of the Mr. Yardley's Process in front of the English text in blank frames that have been previously drawn by Frederick Hockley on all verso pages.

After more than one century, this manuscript owned by Champagne's family has been published in facsimile by Éditions Les Trois R (France, 2015–2016).