Plaisted was a marine surveyor in the service of the East India Company and may have been in India as early as 1740. He visited Cyprus in the summer of 1750, on his return to England from India, and he described the island in some detail. The route he described was the classic route from India to the Mediterranean at this time: by sea up the Persian Gulf to Basra, the port of Baghdad, and then across the desert to Aleppo, usually crossing to Cyprus for connections to Europe.
A Journal From Calcutta in Bengal, by Sea, to Busserah: From thence across the Great Desart [sic] to Aleppo: And From thence to Marseilles, and through France, to England. In the Year, 1750. By Mr. Bartholomew Plaisted, In the East-India Company’s Service. To which are added, Directions by Capt. Eliot Eliot, For Passing over the Little Desart from Busserah, by the Way of Bagdad, Mousul, Orfa, and Aleppo. Published from his Original Manuscript. London: Printed for J. Newbery, at the Bible and Sun, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard. MDCCLVII.