In about 1821, Seacole visited London, stayed for a year, and visited relatives, the merchant Henriques family. Although London had a number of black people,[28] she records that a companion, a West Indian with skin darker than her own "dusky" shades, was taunted by children. Seacole herself was "only a little brown",[14] nearly white according to Ramdin.[29] She returned to London approximately a year later, bringing a "large stock of West Indian pickles and preserves for sale".[14] Her later travels would be as an "unprotected" woman, without a chaperone or sponsor—an unusual practice.[30] Seacole returned to Jamaica in 1825.[31]