William Dampier—the surname, like so many in England, is of French origin—was born, the son of a farmer, at East Coker, near Yeovil, in the south of Somersetshire. His attention no doubt was directed to a seafaring life by the constant intercourse which at that time went on between Yeovil and Weymouth; and when Dampier was about seventeen years old, at his own desire he was apprenticed to the master of a ship at Weymouth, with whom he made a voyage to Newfoundland. But the cold experienced in this voyage so disgusted him that he managed to get his indentures cancelled, and in 1671 engaged himself as an able seaman on a great vessel of the East India Company which was leaving England for Java. He soon returned from the Malay Archipelago, however, and enlisted on board a ship of the British navy, in which he took a small part in the naval war with Holland. Then he was sent out to Jamaica as a plantation manager by the lord of the manor of East Coker (the village in which he was born). Except for a brief visit to England in 1678, when his marriage took place, he lived chiefly in the West Indies and on the coast of Central America. He had soon left the work on a plantation to join the buccaneers, or English, French, and Dutch pirates, who were attempting to break down the supremacy of Spain in the waters of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. With a party of these buccaneers he established himself on the coast of Yucatan to cut log-wood, and after his return to and residence in England between 1675-9 he came back to the neighbourhood of what is now British Honduras. Together with a party of buccaneers he crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and, reaching the Pacific littoral, embarked in Indian canoes. And in these they ranged up and down the coast of Central and South America, attacking Spanish towns and shipping. Apparently they must have captured from the Spaniards something more serviceable for ocean traffic than Indian dug-out canoes, because in 1680 they voyaged across the Pacific as far as the lonely island of Juan Fernandez, on which Alexander Selkirk was afterwards stranded by an English buccaneering captain. Some of his adventures in this direction will be described in another volume of the present series dealing with that region. The success of these bold pirates in capturing Spanish treasure ships and seizing Spanish towns on the coasts of Mexico and Peru, and holding them to ransom, was so great that they decided to return in force and renew their operations to the west coast of South America. Thus with bigger ships they passed through the Straits of Magellan and navigated the Pacific Ocean unopposed.

It is interesting to note that on these truly remarkable voyages, which few living seamen would be heroic enough to undertake, their chief means of sustenance were flour (probably from maize) and chocolate mixed with sugar, besides the fish obtained for them by their Indian companions. The buccaneers afterwards recrossed Central America, and rested for a time in the English colony of Virginia. From this region Dampier accompanied a captain, John Cook, in the Revenge (a privateer or buccaneering ship), on a voyage to the Pacific. They sailed first to the Cape Verde Islands in the eastern Atlantic.

On one of the easternmost of this still-little-known archipelago Dampier made some most interesting and truthful observations regarding the nesting of flamingoes, though he jumped to a wrong conclusion as to the attitude in which the female flamingo hatches her eggs; but he observes that a dish of flamingoes' tongues is fit for a prince's table, the tongue of this bird being very large and fat. From the Cape Verde Islands they passed on to the Sherboro River (near Sierra Leone), even in those days an English trading settlement. Then, boldly leaving the West African coast, they steered right across the Atlantic to the extremity of South America, helped by a succession of tornadoes to cross the region of equatorial calms till the trade winds blew them over to the Falkland Islands and round Cape Horn. Soon after entering the Pacific Ocean they fell in with other English ships, quite a number of which were now being dispatched round the extremity of South America to the Pacific Ocean, not so much to make discoveries in that direction as to trade with or to plunder the west coast of South America. To all such the Islands of Juan Fernandez[51] were a favourite and safe rendevous for repairs and for obtaining supplies of fresh water. But that the Spaniards became during the seventeenth century perfectly inept in the matter of defending their monopolist pretensions in seas which they attempted to forbid to the rest of the world, they would have occupied and garrisoned at an early date the principal island of the Juan Fernandez group.[52] On this island—Mas-a-tierra—goats and pigs had been landed by the Spanish pilot, Juan Fernandez himself, in the sixteenth century. They had increased and multiplied, and furnished excellent mutton and pork for ships that called there. There were only two bays in Mas-a-tierra Island (which was about 36 miles in circumference and of very broad, diversified surface, "high hills and small pleasant valleys") wherein ships might anchor. In the vicinity of each harbour there were rivulets of good fresh water. In course of time the goats multiplied to such an extent that they began to destroy the forests, which still in Dampier's time were a prominent feature in the landscapes, and which included not only good timber trees but an Areca cabbage-palm, the head of which formed an excellent vegetable for seafaring people, badly in need of such an addition to their diet. The sea round about Mas-a-tierra swarmed with fish, and was thronged by seals and sea-lions, which came ashore to breed or to bask in the sun. Dampier states that there were possibly "millions of seals", "either sitting on the shore of the bays or going and coming in the sea round the island". Both seals and sea-lions provided the ships with quantities of train-oil, but the flesh of these aquatic mammals was not liked. [Dampier notes with correctness the abundance of seals along the coasts of North and South America, but their relative absence from the seas washing the East Indies, where indeed they only reappear in the far south along the coasts of Australia and New Zealand.]

From the Juan Fernandez Islands Dampier's ship made its way to the Galapagos archipelago, where Dampier duly noted the large, fat, and tame land-lizards—a species of iguana—and, above all, the enormous tortoises "extraordinarily large and fat; so sweet that no pullet eats more pleasantly". A very large tortoise might weigh as much as 200 pounds. He also observed the abundance of turtle of four kinds in the sea round the coasts of this archipelago.[53]

After their stay at the Galapagos Islands Captain John Cook died, and his place was taken by a commander named Davis. Two other English buccaneering ships had joined Dampier's vessel at the Galapagos, and the adventurers spent months which became years in various piratical adventures up and down the west coast of Central and South America from California to Peru. At last a Captain Swan, to whose ship the Cygnet Dampier had transferred himself on 25 August, 1685, decided, probably on Dampier's advice, to return to England by way of the East Indies. Accordingly they steered right across the Pacific from Cape Corrientes on the coast of Mexico to Guam in the Ladrone Islands, a passage in which they had been preceded by Francis Drake in 1580 and Sir Thomas Cavendish in 1588. Of course the terrors of this voyage across some seven thousand miles of sea was diminished by this time owing to the frequent passages made by the Spanish ships between Mexico and the Philippine Islands. Apparently this somewhat northern track across the tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean was relatively free from violent tempests, and at the right season of the year provided with continuously favourable winds in one direction or the other. At any rate, the two ships of the expedition, under Captain Swan and Captain Teat (Dampier being with Swan), set out from Cape Corrientes on 31 March, 1686, and reached Guam on 21 May with only three days' provisions left for the ships' crews. The somewhat strict allowance of food and drink on which all were placed was thought by Dampier to have cured him of a dropsy from which he was suffering at the time of his departure from Cape Corrientes. Their sustenance consisted of ten spoonfuls of boiled Indian corn a day, together with a little water for those who were thirsty; but Dampier noticed that some of the seamen did not drink for nine or ten days at a time, and one man went without any liquid for seventeen days, declaring he was not thirsty. For such as these the moisture in the boiled maize seems to have sufficed. But the men had grimly resolved that they would not long grow hungry if Captain Swan's estimate was at fault. It had been decided that, as soon as victuals failed, Captain Swan should be killed and eaten!

Of course the arrival at the Island of Guam (or Guahan, as it was called by the natives) did not mean necessarily that they would at once obtain provisions, because the island, unlike Mas-a-tierra (Juan Fernandez), was strongly fortified and garrisoned by the Spaniards, who kept it, naturally, for the relief and refreshment of Spanish ships alone, those engaged in the transit between the Philippine Islands and the west coast of America. Guam produced in those days rice, pineapples, melons, oranges, limes, bread-fruit, and, above all, coconuts. Upon their first arrival Captain Swan pretended that he and his men were Spaniards. By this means they induced a Spanish priest with three natives of the island to come on board. These they held as hostages, sending word, through them, to the governor of the island of Guam that Captain Swan was badly in want of provisions, was of peaceable intent, and prepared to purchase the same on reasonable terms. Meantime the seamen, including Dampier, landed with little ceremony and brought off quantities of coconuts—as to which Dampier wrote in rapturous terms, noting the delicious liquid preserved in the cavity of the coconut, the flesh of the nut, and the sweet sap drawn from the tree which made either a kind of wine "very sweet and pleasant if it is to be drunk within twenty-four hours after being drawn" and capable of becoming a very alcoholic liquid when fermented. "The kernel", he writes, "is much used in making broth. When the nut is dry they take off the husk, and giving two good blows on the middle of the nut it breaks in two equal parts, letting the water fall on the ground; then with a small iron rasp made for the purpose the kernel or nut is rasped out clean, which being put into a little fresh water, makes it become white as milk. In this milky water they boil a fowl or any other sort of flesh, and it makes very savoury broth. English seamen put this water into boiled rice, which they eat instead of rice-milk, carrying nuts purposely to sea with them. This they learn from the natives."

The Governor of Guam, partly through fear, but also pleased at the presents sent to him by Captain Swan, furnished the two ships with a variety and an abundance of provisions, so that they were able to go on their way to the Philippine Islands, of which Dampier wrote an excellent description, which may be read in his book.[54]

The powerful chiefs of the large islands in the Philippine archipelago in those days had not been subdued by the Spaniards, and therefore considered themselves quite free to trade with the English ships. But during the long stay off the island of Mindanao the seamen got out of hand, and mutinied against Captain Swan's projects of founding some establishment for trading purposes in the Philippine Islands. A section of the expedition elected John Read, a young navigator, with Captain Teat as sailing master of the ship, to command them. With Dampier amongst them they then sailed away from Mindanao leaving Swan[55] and thirty-six of his men behind. After cruising about the rest of the Philippine Islands and visiting the coasts of Tonquin, Siam, the Island of Formosa, and southern China, they made for the Island of Timor, intending to pass out that way from the Malay Archipelago into the Indian Ocean, and so return to England by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. On their way thither they anchored before the Dutch fort of Macassar on the remarkable island of Celebes. Here an allusion is made to buffaloes[56] (which they did not see), and to "crockadores" (cockatoos) "as big as a parrot, shaped like it, and with a smaller bill, but as white as milk, with a bunch of feathers on its head like a crown."

In the month of December, 1687, Dampier, with his companions, had passed the Island of Timor, which he described as long, high, and mountainous, and already a part of the Malay Archipelago specially appropriated by the Portuguese. The commanders of the vessel (Read and Teat) now proposed to "touch at New Holland, a part of Terra Australis Incognita, to see what that country would afford us". After avoiding with great care shoals and reefs, they anchored on 5 January, 1688, two miles from the shore, at the mouth, probably, of King Sound on the north-west coast of Australia; an inlet in which there were numerous islands, at that time somewhat densely inhabited by the aborigines. Dampier must have landed with many of his companions, otherwise he could not have given such a realistic description of this part of Australia and its inhabitants. He describes the land (which he, like the Dutch discoverers who had preceded him, guessed at once to be of continental extent) as having a dry, sandy soil, and being very destitute of water, though it was possible to sink wells and obtain it not far from the surface, yet this part of Tropical Australia produced various kinds of trees growing separately and sparsely, and not in forests. The most prominent tree in the region he visited was a species of DracÆna or tree-lily, which was the biggest seen in that neighbourhood. He at once saw the resemblance between these tree-lilies and the Dragon tree of Tropical Asia, which produced the dark-coloured gum known as dragons' blood. Under the trees grew long, thin grass, but both animals and birds seem to have been scarce; in fact, Dampier and his companions saw no beast, but only the track of one, which suggested the existence of something as big as a "great mastiff dog". This may have been the footprints of a dingo. On the beach there were turtle and also dugongs.[57]

Dampier writes more about the natives of Australia rather than its products or landscapes. He describes them as "the miserablest people in the world", beside whom the Hodmadods (Hottentots) of South Africa were gentlemen. These aboriginal Australians had no houses or skin garments, no domestic animals, and no cultivated forms of vegetable food. They had great bottle noses, pretty full lips and wide mouths, from which the two middle incisor teeth of the upper jaw were wanting, having been extracted from the people of both sexes whilst they were still children. Their faces were long and their heads disproportionately big, with very projecting brows. The eyelids were kept half-closed because of the pest of flies for ever trying to get into their eyes. The head-hair was black, short, and curled, like that of Negroes, and (curiously enough) they had no beards. (This is a strange remark on the part of Dampier, and almost suggests that at this time that broad portion of north-west Australia which he visited was inhabited by a Papuan race from New Guinea, for if there is one thing for which the typical Australian aborigine is noteworthy it is the abundance of the beard in the men. Even the women of middle age frequently grow short whiskers and a tuft of beard at the chin.) The colour of their skins was coal black, like that of the Negroes of Guinea. They were tall, slender people, with somewhat delicate limbs. They had no sort of clothing, but round the waist was tied a girdle of bark, and into this was thrust occasionally a handful of long grass or three or four small green boughs full of leaves. There were no signs of any houses, the people sleeping on the ground in the open air. But they generally slept round about a fire, and would sometimes stick a few branches in the ground as a shelter from the prevailing wind. From his description they evidently possessed the wooden boomerang and wooden lances or spears, the ends of which were hardened by heat. They seemed to have no boats or even rafts, but they were good swimmers, and were observed swimming from one island to another. Their food seemed to consist almost entirely of fish, which they caught by making weirs of stones across little inlets of the sea, in such a way that the high tides brought the fish up these inlets and left them stranded behind the weirs. They also sought diligently for shellfish along the shore. They were acquainted with the use of fire, and boiled the fish, the clams, the mussels, oysters, and periwinkles which they obtained from the seashore, carefully distributing all the food they thus acquired amongst the old people and the children as well as the able-bodied who procured it. After eating they would lie down and sleep until it was necessary to sally out again at low water and obtain fresh supplies of fish food. Their language seemed to be very guttural.

Dampier and his companions sailed away from north-west Australia to the Cocos or Coconut Islands in the Indian Ocean, which long afterwards were settled by enterprising Scotsmen, and have become a British possession of some little value. From the Cocos Islands they made their way back to Sumatra and the mainland of Indo-China. By this time he had become thoroughly sick of the buccaneers and their piratical ways, and, after making one or two vain attempts to escape, he, with two companions, extorted an unwilling permission from Captain Read to be left behind on the Nicobar Islands (between Sumatra and the Andamans). One of the seamen who rowed them ashore out of kindliness stole an axe and gave it to the party of three Englishmen, "knowing it was a good commodity with the Indians".[58]

When they landed it was dark, so Dampier lighted a candle and conducted his companions to one of the native houses, where they hung up their hammocks. They were later joined by a Portuguese interpreter and four Achin Malay seamen. "It was a fine, clear moonlight night in which we were left ashore, therefore we walked on the sandy bay to watch when the ship should weigh and be gone, not thinking ourselves secure in our new gotten liberty till then." However, at midnight the pirate vessel sailed away, and Dampier and his companions went peacefully to sleep. The next day they bought from their native landlord a canoe for the axe, and, putting their chests and clothes in it, decided to go to the south of the island and wait there till the monsoon had shifted and the wind was favourable for a passage across to the north end of Sumatra. But no sooner was their canoe launched, with all their goods and men in it, than it capsized and the party were obliged to save their lives by swimming. Their boxes and clothes were also saved, and Dampier applied himself most assiduously to the drying of his precious journal and drawings. During the next three days the Achinese seamen of their party (who had been members of the crew of a native vessel seized by the pirates) had arranged outriggers to the canoe, fitted her with a good mast, and made a substantial sail of mats. Their canoe thus steadied, they put off once more to sea, and so sailed southwards to another island. Here, through an unfortunate accident, they caused the natives to think that they came as enemies. By a bold manoeuvre, organized by Dampier, friendship was concluded with them and "all very joyfully accepted of a peace. This became universal over all the islands, to the great joy of the inhabitants.... Gladness appeared in their countenances, and now we could go out and fish again without fear of being taken. This peace was not more welcome to them than to us.... They again brought their mellory to us, which we bought for old rags." The loaves of mellory, of which Dampier writes so much and so gratefully, for it was sometimes the only sustenance he had in these adventures, were derived from the local bread-fruit, either identical with the species of the Pacific islands or belonging to an allied kind of Artocarpus[59].

"On 15 May, 1688, about four o'clock in the afternoon, we left Nicobar Island, directing our course towards Achin, being eight men of us in company, namely, three Englishmen, four Malayans (Achinese), and a mongrel Portuguese." Their vessel, the Nicobar canoe, was about the size (he writes) of a London wherry, coming to a sharp point at either end, rather narrower than a wherry, and so thin and light that when empty four men could launch her or pull her ashore. She would have easily capsized but for the outriggers made of strong poles and lashed fast and firm on each side of the vessel. The gunwale of the little vessel was not more than 3 inches above the water when she was loaded.

In the middle of their passage from Nicobar to Achin a terrible storm arose, with a violent wind. The sea rose higher and higher, but at first did them no damage, for the steersman kept the little vessel at right angles to the great waves and the crew baled incessantly. What they feared most was that the violence of the ups and downs would smash the outriggers; there would then be no hope for them, as the canoe would promptly capsize. The evening of 18 May was very dismal, the sky looked black, being covered with dark clouds, the wind blew hard and the seas ran high and roared in a white foam about the canoe. The still darker night was coming on, no land was in sight, and it seemed as though their little ark must be swallowed up by each great wave in succession. "What was worst of all, none of us thought ourselves prepared for another world. I have been in many imminent dangers before now, but the worst of them all was but a play game in comparison to this." In the middle of the night heavy rain fell, which not only lessened the wind but gave the wretched crew fresh water to drink. Then again arose a fresh hurricane. It was again abated by another torrential downpour, so that in addition to other miseries the occupants of the canoe had not one dry patch in their clothing and were chilled extremely. At length the day appeared, but with such dark, black clouds near the horizon that it brought little comfort. However, the weather began to improve, and on the second day after this violent storm they landed safely at the mouth of a river in Achin. "The gentlemen of Sumatra were extraordinarily kind to us", providing the fever-stricken party with everything that they had need of—young buffaloes, goats, coconuts, plantains, fowls, eggs, fish, and rice. They were afterwards conveyed to the town of Achin and put up at the English factory there. The Portuguese and one of the English companions of Dampier died of the fever which afflicted all the party, and which made Dampier himself so ill that he was long in recovering his strength. After spending nearly three years with the English traders in different parts of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, he managed to smuggle himself on board a British East Indiaman, and thus returned, after many adventures, round the Cape of Good Hope to England.

He brought back with him to England, as the only asset of property acquired after his tremendous adventures, a "painted prince" named Jeoly. This was a man born on the little island of Meangis (north of Jilolo), whom Dampier had purchased at the fort of Benkulen, an English factory on the south-west coast of Sumatra, where he (Dampier) had served for five months as a gunner. Jeoly claimed to be the son of the chief of his island, and was most remarkably tatued, or, as Dampier phrases it, "painted", all over his body, the decoration being made by minute punctures of the skin into which was rubbed the powdered gum of a tree. Jeoly and his relations had been driven in their canoes by a strong wind on to the coast of Mindanao (Philippine Islands), where they were sold as slaves, and, having been bought by an Englishman, were transferred to Benkulen in Sumatra. Here Dampier made the acquaintance of this man, whom he seems to have treated with great kindness when he was ill. At his own request he acquired a right over Jeoly by purchase. When he reached England with Jeoly, whom he had managed to convey away on the ship which had given him a return passage, he supported himself for some time by exhibiting Jeoly at country fairs as a painted prince. It is sad to relate, however, that, either because of his necessity or for profit, he sold the faithful Jeoly to another master, and then took up a sea life again. Jeoly—no doubt catching cold by being constantly exhibited without clothes at English fairs—died at Oxford about 1696.

Meantime Dampier was steadily working away at his journals, and in 1697 he published his first book on his truly remarkable adventures and his circumnavigation of the globe. It met with a well-merited success, being, indeed, superior to any work of travel published up to that time in the English tongue; and apparently the excellence of his book obtained for him a small position in the service of the Customs House in London. Having by these means got into touch with the Admiralty, he proposed that he should be put in command of an expedition to explore the coasts of New Holland (Australia), and on this voyage, commanding the Roebuck, he started on 14 January, 1699.

After touching at Brazil, which was almost obligatory as part of the sailing voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, he sailed on a direct course from South Africa to the west coast of Australia, which he reached at the place christened by himself Sharks Bay. The land everywhere appeared generally low, flat, and even, but with steep cliffs to the sea—a desolate coast, without trees, shrubs, or grass. After coming to an anchor in what is now called Dampier Bay he went on shore with his men, carrying pickaxes and shovels to dig for water, and axes to cut wood. They found no water, but the soil was less sterile than had seemed at a distance, a reddish sand in which grew grasses, plants, and shrubs. The grass grew in great tufts as big as a bushel basket, and intermixed with much heather. The low trees or shrubs were evidently some kind of Eucalyptus, with reddish timber and strong-scented leaves. In the brackish water of the coast lagoons there were quantities of water-fowl, pelicans, cormorants, ducks, curlews, various kinds of oyster-catcher and plover, and gulls. On the land were a few singing birds, some of them no bigger than wrens, all singing with a great variety of fine, shrill notes. Eagles soared in the blue heaven and apparently preyed on the few beasts and reptiles which were to be seen in the neighbourhood. Amongst these was a sort of racoon, "different from those of America in that it had very short forelegs but powerful hind limbs on which it jumped". This was probably one of the smaller species of kangaru. Then there was a lizard (described wrongly as an iguana) with a large and ugly head, and a very short, thick tail, which seemed another head at the other end of the animal, but without mouth or eyes. These were speckled black and yellow like toads, with scales and knobs on their backs similar to those of crocodiles. They were very slow in motion, but when a man came near them they would stand still and hiss, and not endeavour to get away.[60]

There was no river, lake, or pond of fresh water to be seen here, but the sea water along the coast abounded with fish, and especially with sharks and rays. On the beach were many kinds of shellfish—mussels, periwinkles, limpets, cockles, oysters—both edible and of the kind which produces pearls. The shore was lined thick with many other sorts of strange and beautiful shells, most finely spotted with red, black, or yellow. There were also green turtle weighing about 200 pounds each, two of which the party caught when they were stranded on shore by the ebbing tide, and which were a most welcome sustenance to the crew, though he speaks of their meat as only being indifferently good. On the other hand, his seamen ate most heartily of the sharks. One of these was 11 feet long, and its maw, or stomach, was like a leather sack, very thick, and so tough that a sharp knife could scarcely cut it. In this they found the head and bones of a "hippopotamus",[61] the hairy lips of which were still sound and not putrefied, the jaw also firm, out of which they plucked a great many teeth, two of them very large, as big as a man's thumb, small at one end, and a little crooked.

During Dampier's stay in the vicinity of Shark's Bay (in or about which he anchored at three separate places searching in vain for fresh water) his company were well refreshed with the flesh of kangarus, turtle, shark, ducks, and plovers. Pursuing his course farther he explored the waters of Freycinet Harbour and realized that the great promontory to the west of it was really an island (Dirk Hartog's Island), but finding no means of getting on shore to search for water (owing to the dangers of the shoals and the rocks) he sailed northwards, and was impressed by the noise made by the whales (blowing through their nostrils, or even uttering sounds more vocal) at night-time, and by the beautiful sea snakes during the day. Of these they saw two different kinds, one was yellow, about the bigness of a woman's wrist, and 4 feet long, with a flat tail, and the other much smaller and shorter, and spotted black and yellow.

About the twentieth degree of south latitude they found themselves sailing through an archipelago of islands, since named after Dampier. Here again they landed in their eager search after fresh water, but were once more disappointed. The islands were dry, rocky, and barren, of a general rusty-yellow colour, yet supporting a fair amount of vegetation, shrubs like rosemary, and others with blue and yellow flowers, creeping peas and beans, some with beautiful deep-red flowers. On these islands, besides the ordinary sea birds, they beheld large flocks of white parrots (cockatoos). They also enjoyed the abundance of small oysters, which were delicious eating. Here and there smoke rose from the islands, showing that they were inhabited by man, and this was the characteristic of the distant mainland. But it was not until the vessel had sailed as far north as the eighteenth degree of south latitude that Dampier was able to approach near enough to the shore to land on it in his search for water. Here at last they came into contact with the Australian aborigines. As they neared the shore they saw three tall, black, naked men, who fled at their approach. These they pursued with amicable intentions till they reached something which looked like a human settlement and was marked as such by its "haycocks" or shelters, which were possibly adaptations of tall anthills. But they found no water here, so they returned to the seashore and there dug into the sand. The natives followed them at a distance, making threatening noises and gestures. In the afternoon Dampier made another attempt to get into touch with the people, and one of his seamen, an active young man named Alexander Beal, outran them. They turned and fought him with their wooden lances and wounded him. In order to save his life Dampier was obliged to come to his rescue and shoot one of the natives with his gun, after which the rest ran away, carrying off their wounded companions. Amongst these natives was one who by his appearance and carriage seemed to be a chief amongst them. He was a brisk young man, not very tall, or even as good-looking as some of the others, but more active and courageous. He alone was painted, and his face was decorated with a circle of white paste round his eyes, a white streak down his forehead and nose, while white patterns were painted on his breast and arms. He and his people had unpleasant looks, and seemed to Dampier more savage than any human race he had ever met with. They were rendered additionally ugly by their blinking eyes, due to the flies which gathered round the eyelids in teasing numbers. Their skins were black and the hair bushy and frizzled. It was found that at their camps, when they did not use the shelter of anthills, they would stick three or four leafy boughs into the ground against the prevailing wind blowing off the sea. Near these they made their fireplaces, and thus obtained shelter and warmth during the night. At each fireplace were great heaps of the shells of oysters, mussels, cockles, &c., the chief sustenance of these savages. Unlike the natives whom Dampier had encountered farther north, in his first glimpse of Australia, these people seemed to live entirely on shellfish, and made no weirs to catch fish at the ebbing of the tide.

From this place they obtained only four hogsheads of brackish water by digging wells in the sand, while engaged in which work they were pestered with the flies, whose attentions they felt far more than the blazing sun. Indeed, by inference, we may gather that Dampier experienced on the tropical coast of West Australia the same immunity from sunstroke as is characteristic of other parts of Australia.

The land of this region (which would be the southern part of the vast Kimberley district) was level, and although terribly waterless by no means devoid of vegetation, being more or less covered with flowering shrubs and bushes and bright with red, white, blue, and yellow flowers, most of them belonging to some kind of pea or bean, which also bore ripened seeds in pods. He notes the number of "rocks" in the vast plains, 5 or 6 feet high, round at the top, like a haycock, red, or in some cases white. These were obviously the anthills built by a termite or "white ant". Farther inland beyond these plains was a thin forest, and along the creeks of the seashore grew a few dwarf mangrove trees. Animals were scarce and consisted chiefly of lizards, snakes, and a few marsupial mammals (probably kangarus) and wandering dingoes "like hungry wolves". As to birds, there were "crows just like ours in England" (see p. 41), small hawks and kites, turtle-doves, and a variety of small birds about the size of larks.

In despair of finding fresh water in this inhospitable country, Dampier directed his course towards the Island of Timor. On their way thither they saw more sea snakes, some of which were all black, whilst another large one had a red head. At last, "to our great joy", they saw the tops of the high mountains of Timor peeping above the clouds, and came to an anchor on the south side of the island about 200 yards from the shore.[62] The land by the sea was full of tall, straight-bodied trees like pines (Casuarinas), but they were again balked, for the approach to land which might yield fresh water was hindered by a long mangrove creek. Much of the south coast of Timor proved "barricaded with mangroves", though beyond the land appeared pleasant enough to the eye, the sides and tops of lofty mountains covered with large forests and meadows, and obvious plantations in which they could see coconut palms growing. The weary mariners, suffering terribly from scurvy, were obliged to turn the ship about and sail to the west end of the island in order to get on its north coast.

Here they found themselves approaching a Dutch fort—Concordia—and a Dutch ship came to meet them, greatly surprised at the arrival of Englishmen from such a direction, especially as they had found their way between the islands at the south-west extremity of Timor. The discourse between the two parties was in French, as there was no one on board the English ship who could speak Dutch. The Hollanders proved most inhospitable, as they suspected Dampier and his men of being pirates. Grudgingly they were allowed to obtain water from the Dutch fort at Kupang. Passing round the north coast (stopping here and there to get fresh water, buffalo meat, and cockatoos) they reached the region of the Portuguese settlements. Here they were much more hospitably treated than they had been by the Dutch, and the Deputy-Governor of Lifau sent them a most welcome present of young buffaloes, goats, kids, coconuts, ripe mangoes, and jack-fruit. The only pure-blooded Portuguese at this place were a priest and a lieutenant; the rest were mostly Christianized natives of Timor, "copper coloured, with black, lank hair". The Portuguese lieutenant was named Alexis Mendoza. Dampier was informed that at the east end of Timor (Dilli) there was a good harbour and a large Portuguese town where he could get plenty refreshments for his men and pitch for his ship, the Governor of the place (CapitÃo MÔr) being a very courteous gentlemen and glad to entertain English ships. For some reason he turned back to the west and camped on the coast in a region called Babao, near the Dutch settlement of Kupang. Here he obtained the pitch with which he caulked the planks of his leaking ship, and cleaned the sides of weed and shells, giving them afterwards a coating of lime. Every now and again his men went inland and hunted buffaloes, afterwards roasting, smoking, or drying the flesh. The Dutch visited them here to find out what they were doing. After some misunderstandings Dampier went to dine with the Governors of the Dutch fort of Concordia in Kupang Bay. Here he found plenty of very good victuals well dressed, the linen being white and clean, the dishes and all plate being fine china. Nowhere on this voyage did he meet with better entertainment or so much decency and order. With their meals they drank wine, beer, or rum and water. The Dutch Governor had formed an interesting collection of beautiful shells. Still, their treatment by the Dutch was grudging. They were denied stores, and though offered fresh provisions, realized that these would be much dearer than the things they could obtain at little cost to themselves by hunting.

From Timor Dampier sailed between the islands of Ombai and Wetar or Vetta and past the small island of Gunong Api,[63] which consists mainly of one huge, active volcano, sloping up from the sea towards the top, where it is divided into two peaks, between which issued more smoke than Dampier had ever seen from any other volcano. Most of this island was burnt up and desolate from the devastating effect of the streams of red-hot lava. Thence he sailed through the Banda Sea till on New Year's Day, 1700, he first descried the coast of New Guinea, probably the country of Baaik, the southern part of that extraordinary western projection of New Guinea—the Arfak Peninsula—which is nearly cut into two large islands by M'Clure Inlet and Geelvink Bay. Here, nearly opposite the big island of Ceram, his men landed to obtain fresh water. The country was mountainous and well clothed with magnificent forests, which appeared very green. The seamen brought back with them from the shore a variety of wild fruits which they found in the forest, and "a stately land fowl of a sky colour", with white and red spots on the wings, and on the crown a large bunch of long feathers. The bill was like that of a pigeon, but the red legs and feet resembled those of fowls. The men had also discovered the nest of this bird with one egg in it as large as that of a hen. It was the now well-known Victoria Crowned Pigeon, sometimes styled the Goura. Some 150 years afterwards it was rediscovered in what is now British New Guinea, and named after Queen Victoria. From this point Dampier seems to have shaped his course to a small island off M'Clure Inlet, which he calls by its Malay name of Pulo Sabuda. Here he saw more of these large Goura pigeons and enormous fruit-bats (of the genus Pteropus), the bodies of which were as big as those of rabbits, while in a general way they looked exactly what their name implies "flying foxes", with a stretch of wing from tip to tip measuring 4 feet. The inhabitants of this island were of two distinct types—the Malayan, with tawny skin and long, lank, black hair, and "curl-pated New Guinea negroes", many of which were slaves to the people of Malayan type. The Malays possessed large sailing boats with which they visited the coasts of New Guinea, where they obtained Papuan slaves, parrots, and Paradise-birds, which they carried over to the Dutch settlements in Ceram and exchanged for European trade goods.

After stopping at Pulo Sabuda Dampier rounded the north-western promontory of New Guinea, calling at some of the small islands for wood and water and shellfish, some of which were "cockles" weighing 10 pounds each, and other huge bivalves, clams, weighing 78 pounds. At most of these islands they saw the same large fruit-bats. One of these islands off Waigiu (in what is still called the Dampier Strait) he named after King William III. After that he continued to sail round the north coast of New Guinea, past islands which he knew to have been previously discovered by the Dutch.

At last he reached the vicinity of the two great islands now known as New Mecklenburg and New Pomerania. He took them to be one island, to which he gave the name of Nova Britannia (New Britain), a name which it bore down to the days of Captain Cook, who christened the northern portion, which was found to be a separate island, New Ireland. Dampier, landing on the northern coast of New Ireland (now New Mecklenburg), described it as high and mountainous, adorned with tall, flourishing trees, possessing many plantations and patches of cleared land. The natives, however, flung stones at them with their slings, so Dampier renounced any attempt to obtain water there. For this purpose he called at Gerrit Denys Island, one of an archipelago lying to the north of New Ireland, and here the natives were more friendly. The island was thickly populated, the people being very black, strong, and stout-limbed. Their hair was short and curly; besides being clipped into different patterns, it was dyed or bleached a variety of colours, red, white, or yellow, besides its original black. These people had broad, round faces, with big, bottle noses, yet looked agreeable enough until they disfigured themselves by tatuing[64] and by wearing things through the septum of the nostrils as big as a man's thumb and 4 inches long. Sometimes these objects were passed actually through the cheeks, and not through the nostrils. They also made holes in their ears into which they thrust pieces of bone or wood. They were very dexterous with their canoes, which were fitted with outriggers on one side. The bow and the stern rose high and were carved into extraordinary painted devices resembling birds, fish, or a man's hand. Dampier, noticing these people had no knowledge of metal utensils, and knowing nothing of their stone weapons, wondered how they could carve this work so elaborately. Their speech was clear and distinct, and for a sign of friendship they would hold up the bow of a tree full of leaves. Continuing his circumnavigation of "Nova Britannia", Dampier discovered and named the entrance to St. George's Channel, but he believed it to be only a deep indentation, and did not realize it was a passage between New Ireland and New Britain. Calling at Port Montague, off the south coast of New Britain, where the land was mountainous, woody, full of rich valleys and pleasant water brooks, Dampier found this part of the great island abounded in food—coconuts, yams,[65] ginger; hogs, pigeons, and fish. The natives proved to be friendly. The men were finely decked with feathers of various colours. The women wore nothing but a bunch of small green leaves. Pigs swarmed in their villages and ran wild in the woods.

Reaching the western extremity of New Britain, Dampier sailed through the strait which still bears his name, into the sea of the Bismarck Archipelago. Off this part of the New Guinea coast there are several small islands which still contain active volcanoes. One of these amazed the crew of Dampier's ship by vomiting fire and smoke with dreadful noises and explosions all through the night at intervals of about half a minute. These convulsions were alternately slight and tremendous, and when they were severe great volumes of flame rose into the sky above the crater, while red-hot streams of lava could be seen running down to the seashore. Why Dampier should have turned to the north and rounded New Britain, instead of pursuing his course southwards to discover the connection—if any—between New Guinea and Australia, it is difficult to understand. Perhaps he thought that the indentation of Huon Gulf indicated the eastern extremity of New Guinea; but even then one would have thought that he would have sailed in that direction in order to circumnavigate this island, and so regain the Malay Archipelago or the coast of Australia. But instead of this he contented himself with once more sailing past the north of New Guinea, till he regained the known regions about Ceram.

He landed on that large island and noticed how it abounded in strange or beautiful birds: cassowaries, pigeons, parrots, and cockatoos. One of the seamen killed two hornbills. From Ceram they made their way back to Timor, calling again at the Dutch settlements. He then thought of revisiting the coast of Australia, but owing to contrary winds made his way instead to Java, from which he voyaged back to the Cape of Good Hope and so towards England. But when off the island of Ascension their ship sprang a leak and they were obliged to abandon it. To their great thankfulness they found a spring of fresh water on the high mountain of Ascension, while plenty of turtle visited the beach. There was also an abundance of goats running wild, and there were edible land-crabs. The hollow rocks afforded a convenient lodging in the mild and equable climate, and before they had spent more than a week on this refuge there arrived a British ship which gave them a passage back to England.

On his return to England he was charged by his officers and men with cruelty, and was found guilty of this charge by a court of enquiry, who decided he was not a fit person to command a king's ship, and fined him all his pay. There must have been some truth in these charges, and friction between him and his men was probably the reason why Dampier ceased his explorations after rounding New Britain. But he soon afterwards obtained the command of a ship belonging to a company of merchants, and in this he made his way back to the Pacific Ocean round Cape Horn. This ship was little else than a pirate vessel, which, under the guise of privateering in the French wars, was sent out to prey on foreign commerce off the west coast of South America. They met with varying fortunes after calling at the island of Juan Fernandez, and Dampier quarrelled with his officers and men, some of whom deserted him. Dampier eventually made his way back across the Pacific Ocean to the Dutch East Indies, where he was imprisoned for some months. But in 1707 he got back to England and attempted to vindicate himself from the further charges brought against him by members of his crew, who had reached England after deserting him. In 1708 he obtained a position as pilot on another privateer, and this voyage stands out in history from the interesting fact that the captain under whom he sailed (Woodes-Rogers) called at the island of Juan Fernandez, and there took away the celebrated Alexander Selkirk, who had been landed on that island more than four years previously, and had lived there, like Robinson Crusoe, in solitude.

Dampier and his crew watching a volcanic eruption