UNIVERSITY OF CAL FORM A SAN D EGO 
 
 '3 1822 00194 8298
 
 AND GO 
 
 5Hf 
 
 J 1822 00194' 8298 

 
 EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGERS.
 
 ATTACKING THE ARMADA IN THE CHANNEL. 
 
 Page itS.
 
 EARLY ENGLISH 
 VOYAGERS. 
 
 HUTCH MEDAL ON THE OVERTHROW OF THE ARMADA. 
 
 {Tbomas IFUlson and Sons, 
 
 LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK.
 
 EARLY ENGLISH 
 VOYAGERS; 
 
 OK, 
 
 Mixtures and DiscoYeries 
 
 OF 
 
 , Ca\>ent>i6b, anfc SDampier* 
 
 " The spirits of your fathers 
 
 Shall start from every wave ; 
 For the deck it was their field of fame, 
 And ocean was their grave." 
 
 CAMPBELL. 
 
 T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 EDINBURGH ; AND NEW YORK. 
 1892.
 
 (UTontents. 
 
 DRAKE. 
 
 I. SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, ... ... ... ... ... 11 
 
 ii. DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION, ... ... ... ... so 
 
 III. EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES, ... ... ... 108 
 
 CAVENDISH. 
 
 I. VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, ... .. ... ... 133 
 
 II. SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA, ... ... .. 172 
 
 D A M P I E R. 
 
 I. THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA, ... ... ... ... 197 
 
 II. ADVENTURES AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS, ... 261 
 
 III. ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS, ... ... . . 302 
 
 IV. CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE, ... ... ... 325 
 
 V. VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND, ... ... ... ... 420
 
 oi 
 
 ATTACKING THE ARMADA IN THE CHANNEL, ... ... Frontispiece 
 
 DUTCH MEDAL ON THE OVERTHROW OF THE ARMADA, ... Vignette 
 
 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, ... ... ... ... ... ... 13 
 
 SIR JOHN HAWKINS, ... ... ... ... - ... ... 17 
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH, ... ... ... ... ... ... 31 
 
 PENGUINS OF THE SOUTH SEAS, ... ... ... ... 57 
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH KNIGHTING DRAKE, ... ... ... ... 101 
 
 DRAKE'S CHAIR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, ... ... 105 
 
 DRAKE FIGHTING WITH THE SPANIARDS, ... ... ... 119 
 
 DRAKE'S FUNERAL, ... ... ... ... ... ... 127 
 
 THOMAS CAVENDISH, ... ... ... ... ... ... 135 
 
 WILLIAM DAMPIER, ... ... ... ... ... ... 199 
 
 INDIANS BUCCANING A TAPIR, ... ... ... ... ... 203 
 
 INDIANS OF DARIEN, ... ... ... ... ... ... 313 
 
 SEA LIONS, ... ... ... ... ... ... 335 
 
 MALAY PROA, ... ... ... ... 367
 
 DRAKE.
 
 DRAKE. 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 
 
 FRANCIS DRAKE, in common with many of the great 
 men whose names impart lustre to the annals of En- 
 gland, may be termed the son of his own brave deeds. 
 His family, and the rank of his father, have, however, 
 been made the subject of much unprofitable discussion. 
 In the heroic ages, the birth of so illustrious a man, if 
 at all obscure, would at once have been derived from 
 the gods, an origin of extreme convenience to such 
 biographers as, influenced by the prejudices of descent, 
 disdain to relate the history of a poor man's son. 
 Modern scepticism and coldness of imagination making 
 this no longer possible, a struggle is nevertheless made 
 for distinguished origin of some kind. The godfather 
 of Drake was Sir Francis Russell of Tavistock, after- 
 wards Earl of Bedford ; and though various authorities 
 are given for his father having been in orders, there 
 remains no doubt that he was an honest mariner be-
 
 12 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 
 
 longing to the same place. An attempt has been made 
 to reconcile the contradictory accounts of Camden and 
 Stowe, by assuming that the father of Drake, originally 
 a seaman, was converted to the Reformed faith in the 
 reign of Henry VIII., fell under the cognizance of some 
 of his capricious and arbitrary edicts, and, fleeing into 
 Kent, obtained orders, first read prayers to the fleet, 
 and afterwards was appointed vicar of Upnore on the 
 Medway, in which river the royal fleet then usually 
 rode. Though Johnson, following Camden, without 
 hesitation assumes the fact of the elder Drake being a 
 clergyman, it is superfluous to cite the dates and ac- 
 curate authority which disprove what both the annalist 
 and the sage had a strong inclination to believe. 
 Stowe, and the " Biographia Britannica," restore to the 
 "honest mariner of Tavistock" the son of whom he 
 had been innocently deprived by the real or imaginary 
 vicar of Upnore; and Burney, in later times, though 
 searching and accurate, does not even advert to a claim 
 of birth which could add nothing to the renown of 
 Francis Drake. The credit of having had Sir Francis 
 Russell for his godfather is also disputed ; and with 
 this too Drake could dispense, especially as he is allowed 
 to have gained nothing by this distinction save the 
 Christian name which he bore. 
 
 But, whatever were his ancestry, it is clearly as- 
 certained that Francis was the eldest of twelve sons, 
 who, with few exceptions, went to sea. It is said that 
 he was brought up and educated by Sir John Hawkins,
 
 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 
 
 Page II.
 
 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 15 
 
 who was his kinsman. The degree or existence of the 
 relationship is not clearly made out ; and it is certain 
 that young Drake was not long a charge upon any 
 patron ; for at a very tender age, his father, having a 
 large family, put him apprentice to a neighbour who 
 traded to Zealand and France. Here he speedily ac- 
 quired that practical knowledge of his profession which 
 made him early in life as experienced and expert a 
 seaman as he afterwards became an able commander. 
 His fidelity and diligence in this service gained the 
 goodwill and regard of his master, who, dying a bachelor, 
 bequeathed his vessel to young Drake ; and thus, in 
 the active and vigilant discharge of his first humble 
 duties, was laid the sure foundation of future eminence 
 and prosperity. At the early age of eighteen, Drake 
 was made purser of a ship trading to Biscay, and soon 
 afterwards engaged in the Guinea trade, which had 
 lately been opened by the enterprise of his reputed 
 relation Captain John Hawkins. The cruelty and 
 injustice of this traffic were the discovery of a much 
 later age. 
 
 The regular course of the trade, the most lucrative 
 in which England had ever been engaged, was for ships 
 to repair first to the Guinea coast for the human cargo, 
 obtained by fraud, violence, and the most inhuman 
 means, and then to the Spanish islands and the colonies 
 on the Main, where the Africans were bartered for 
 silver, sugar, hides, etc., etc. The history of the first 
 voyage to the Guinea coast is that of every succeeding
 
 16 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 
 
 one, "Master John Hawkins coming upon the coast 
 of Sierra Leone, stayed for some time, and partly by the 
 sword, and partly by other means, got into his posses- 
 sion three hundred negroes at the least." 
 
 Few voyages had been made from England to this 
 new El Dorado, when Drake, at the age of twenty, 
 desirous of extending his professional knowledge and 
 participating in the gains of the slave-trade, embarked 
 for Guinea in the squadron of Captain John Hawkins. 
 Though Hawkins, for his exploits on the Guinea coast, 
 had already obtained for his coat-of-arms, by patent 
 from the Herald's Office, " a demi-Moor, in his proper 
 colour, bound with a cord," he was not knighted till 
 after he had obtained distinction in the public service. 
 Whether Drake sailed from Plymouth captain of the 
 Judith, one of the smallest ships of Hawkins's squadron, 
 in the expedition undertaken to Guinea in 15C7, or 
 obtained this honour during the voyage, or in the 
 harbour of St. Juan de Ulloa, is not clear ; though it is 
 asserted, in the relation of Miles Philip, that he went 
 out captain. It is sufficient that, in the desperate 
 encounter at St. Juan de Ulloa, between the Spaniards 
 and the English squadron, he held a command, and 
 honourably distinguished himself. But this somewhat 
 anticipates the order of events in the first remarkable 
 period of Drake's history. 
 
 Having completed his cargo of slaves, Hawkins and 
 his company took the usual course to the Canaries and 
 Spanish America, to exchange the Africans for other 
 
 (829)
 
 SIR JOHN HAWKINS. 
 
 Page 16.
 
 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 19 
 
 wares more valued in England. In passing, he took 
 the town of Rio de la Hacha, because the governor did 
 not choose to trade with him. This circumstance is 
 noticed, as it affords the only shadow of palliation for 
 the subsequent treachery displayed by the Spaniards 
 in the port of St. Juan de Ulloa, whither Hawkins was 
 driven in to obtain shelter and refreshments by the 
 severe gales which, on his way to England, were en- 
 countered off the coast of Florida. When the squadron 
 of six ships entered the port, they were believed by the 
 inhabitants to be a Spanish fleet, then hourly expected; 
 and those who came on board were in some consterna- 
 tion on discovering the mistake. Hawkins, who from 
 the first professed that he came in peace and friendship, 
 to obtain shelter from stress of weather, and provisions 
 for his money and merchandise, treated them with 
 civility, but thought it prudent to detain two persons 
 of consequence as hostages till assured of the terms on 
 which he was to be received. The temptation of 
 twelve merchant ships lying in the port, with cargoes 
 estimated at 200,000, did not shake his integrity, 
 though he was aware that they might easily be over- 
 mastered by his force. It is indeed candidly confessed 
 by Hawkins that he dreaded the displeasure of the 
 queen. A messenger was despatched to the Viceroy of 
 Mexico; but before any answer could be returned to 
 the demand of Hawkins, the expected fleet appeared, 
 and his situation became uneasy and critical. The 
 Spanish fleet had on board a cargo valued at six or
 
 20 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 
 
 seven million. If Hawkins prevented them from 
 entering the harbour, they ran imminent risk of de- 
 struction ; and if admitted, his own safety was put in 
 jeopardy, the port being confined, the town populous, 
 and the Spaniards ready, he believed, and fatally ex- 
 perienced, to practise any treachery. At last the fleet 
 was admitted, the Governor of Mexico agreeing to the 
 terms stipulated, which were the exchange of hostages, 
 a supply of provisions on fair terms, and that a fortified 
 island, which lay across and commanded the port, 
 should be given up to the English till their departure. 
 On the faith of this treaty the Spanish fleet was 
 allowed to sail in ; mutual salutations were fired by 
 the ships of both nations, and visits and civilities ex- 
 changed between the officers and the seamen. 
 
 Save for embroiling England in war, and thereby 
 incurring the wrath of Elizabeth, and perhaps en- 
 dangering his own neck, Hawkins, dissatisfied and 
 rendered suspicious by the tardiness of the late nego- 
 tiation, would certainly have put all to the hazard of a 
 fight, and have gained glory and the seven million, or 
 have lost himself; but he was now lulled into tem- 
 porary security, on the faith of a treaty which the 
 Spaniards had never meant to observe longer than 
 until they were able to violate it with impunity. 
 Their fleet was reinforced by a thousand men secretly 
 conveyed from the land. An unusual bustle and shift- 
 ing of men and weapons from ship to ship were noticed 
 by the English ; and their demand for explanation of
 
 SIM FRANCIS DRAKE. 21 
 
 these symptoms was answered by an instant attack on 
 all sides. The Minion, and the Judith, the small 
 vessel commanded by Drake, were the only English 
 ships that escaped, and their safety was owing to the 
 valour and conduct of the commanders, and only insured 
 after a desperate though short conflict. The other four 
 vessels were destroyed, and many of the seamen were 
 rather butchered in cold blood than killed in action. 
 The English who held the fortress, struck with alarm, 
 fled to reach the ships at the beginning of the fight ; 
 and in the attempt were massacred without mercy. 
 Such an engagement in a narrow port, each of the 
 English vessels surrounded and attacked by three or 
 four of those of Spain, presents a scene of havoc and 
 confusion unparalleled in the records of maritime war- 
 fare. By the desperate valour of the English in this 
 unequal combat, the Admiral and several more of the 
 Spanish ships were burnt and sunk. 
 
 Placed between the fortress and the still numerous 
 fleet, it was by miracle that even one English vessel 
 got away. Hawkins reached England in the Minion, 
 which suffered incredible hardships in the homeward 
 voyage. She left the port without provisions or water, 
 and crowded with seamen who had escaped the general 
 slaughter, many of them wounded. The relation of 
 their hardships, produced as they were by the basest 
 treachery, must have made an indelible impression in 
 England, where the Spaniards were already in bad 
 odour. The details given by Miles Philip of the hard-
 
 22 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 
 
 ships of the voyage are too revolting to be transferred 
 to this narrative, but may be imagined from the words 
 of Hawkins: "If all the miseries and troublesome 
 affairs of this voyage be thoroughly written, there 
 would need a painful man with his pen, and as great a 
 time as he that wrote the ' Lives of the Martyrs.'" The 
 Judith, Drake's vessel, which parted from the Minion 
 on the fatal night (" forsook us in our great misery," 
 are the words of Hawkins) made the homeward voy- 
 age with less hardship and difficulty than the Minion. 
 
 Here Drake had lost his all, and here was laid the 
 foundation of that hatred and distrust of the Spaniards 
 which must have palliated many of his subsequent 
 actions, and reconciled his countrymen to conduct they 
 might not so readily have pardoned in one less sinned 
 against. The chaplain of the fleet obtains the credit 
 of expounding the justice of making reprisals on all 
 Spaniards for the wrong inflicted by a few ; but this 
 might well be a spontaneous feeling, in a brave young 
 man burning with resentment at the perfidy by which 
 his comrades had been murdered, and himself betrayed 
 and beggared. It has been quaintly said, "that in 
 sea-divinity the case was clear. The King of Spain's 
 subjects had undone Mr. Drake, and therefore Mr. 
 Drake was entitled to take the best satisfaction he 
 could on the subjects of the King of Spain." 
 
 This doctrine was very taking in England, where 
 "the good old rule, the simple plan," was still fol- 
 lowed,
 
 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 23 
 
 " That they should take who have the power, 
 And those should keep who can." 
 
 The scheme of Drake, for a new expedition to the 
 Spanish American colonies, was accordingly no sooner 
 made public than he found numbers of volunteers and 
 friends ready to promote so praiseworthy a design as 
 that which he was presumed to entertain, and who, 
 having no personal quarrel of their own, were quite 
 ready to adopt his, if the issue promised any share of 
 those treasures with the fame of which Europe rung. 
 But Drake was not yet prepared for the full develop- 
 ment of his projects, and in all probability it \vas but 
 gradually that they arose in his own mind. 
 
 The infamous transaction of St. Juan de Ulloa took 
 place in September 1568, and in 1570 Drake undertook 
 his first voyage with two ships, the Dragon and the 
 Swan. In the following year he sailed with the Swan 
 alone. That the means of undertaking any voyage 
 were placed in the hands of a man still so young, is 
 highly creditable to his character and good conduct. 
 These might be called preparatory or experimental 
 voyages, in which he cautiously and carefully recon- 
 noitred the scene of future exploits; and, improving his 
 acquaintance with the islands and coasts of South 
 America, on the only side hitherto supposed accessible 
 to Englishmen, amassed the wealth which enabled him 
 to extend his sphere of enterprise, and enrich himself 
 and his owners, while paying back part of his old debt 
 to Spain.
 
 24 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 
 
 Drake's first bold and daring attempt at reprisal was 
 made in 1572. His squadron consisted of two vessels 
 of small weight, and this kind of light bark he seemed 
 always to prefer, the Pacha of seventy tons burden, 
 which he commanded; and the Sivan, once again afloat, 
 a vessel of twenty-five tons, in which he placed his 
 brother, Mr. John Drake. His whole force consisted of 
 seventy-three men and boys. Instead of setting out, 
 as has been alleged, with so slender a force as twenty- 
 three men and boys, to take ships and storm towns, it 
 is probable that Drake, after leaving England, recruited 
 his numbers from vessels with which he fell in among the 
 islands, as Lopez Vaz relates that at Nombre de Dios he 
 landed one hundred and fifty men. This town was at 
 that time what Porto Bello, a much more convenient 
 station, afterwards became, the entrepot between the 
 commodities of Old Spain and the wealth of India and 
 Peru, and in riches imagined to be inferior only to 
 Panama on the western shore. It was, however, merely 
 a stage in the transmission of treasure and merchandise, 
 and not their abiding place ; and at particular seasons 
 the town, which did not at any time exceed thirty 
 houses, was almost deserted. 
 
 On the 24th March, Drake sailed from Plymouth, 
 and on the 22nd July, in the night, made the attack 
 on the town. A relation of this adventure, written by 
 Philip Nicols, preacher, and afterwards published by 
 Sir Francis Drake, nephew, heir, and godson of the 
 navigator, is both less accurate and circumstantial than
 
 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 25 
 
 the narrative of Lopez Vaz, who, if not an eye-witness, 
 was near the spot, and conversant with the actors and 
 spectators. Drake's force is estimated at one hundred 
 and fifty men, half of which he left at a small fort, and 
 with the other division advanced in cautious silence to 
 the market-place, when he ordered the calivers to be 
 discharged, and the trumpet to be loudly sounded, the 
 trumpeter in the fort replying, and the men firing at the 
 same time, which made the alarmed Spaniards, startled 
 out of their sleep, believe the place was attacked on all 
 sides. Some, scarcely awake, fled to the mountains ; 
 but a band of fourteen or fifteen rallied, and, armed 
 with harquebusses, repaired to the scene of action. 
 Discovering the small number of the assailants, they 
 took courage, fired and killed the trumpeter, and 
 wounded one of the leaders of the party, Drake was 
 also wounded. The men in the fort, hearing the 
 trumpet silenced, which had been the preconcerted 
 signal, while the firing continued more briskly than 
 before, became alarmed, and fled to their pinnaces. 
 
 Lopez Vaz relates that Drake's followers, retiring on 
 the fort and finding it evacuated, shared in the panic, 
 hastened to the shore, leaving their equipments behind, 
 and by wading and swimming reached the pinnaces. 
 One Spaniard, looking out at a window, was accident- 
 ally killed. 
 
 Disappointed of the rich booty expected in the town, 
 Drake, on information obtained from the Symerons, a 
 tribe of Indians in the Darien who lived in constant
 
 26 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 
 
 hostility with the Spaniards, resolved to intercept the 
 mules employed to carry treasure from Panama to 
 Nombre de Dios. Leaving his small squadron moored 
 within the Sound of Darien, he set out, with a hundred 
 men and a number of Indians, to attack and plunder 
 this caravan of the New World. The plan, so well 
 laid, was in the first instance frustrated by a drunken 
 seaman. 
 
 It was in this expedition across the Isthmus that 
 Drake, from the first sight of the Pacific, received that 
 inspiration which, in the words of Camden, " left him 
 no rest in his own mind till he had accomplished his 
 purpose of sailing an English ship in those seas." The 
 account of this adventure is in one original history 
 so interesting and picturesque that we transfer it 
 without mutilation : " On the twelfth day we came 
 to the height of the desired hill (lying east and west 
 like a ridge between the two seas) about ten of the 
 clock ; where the chiefest of the Symerons took our 
 captain by the hand and prayed him to follow him. 
 Here was that goodly and great high tree, in which 
 they had cut, and made divers steps to ascend near 
 the top, where they had made a convenient bower, 
 wherein ten or twelve men might easily sit ; and from 
 thence we might see the Atlantic Ocean we came from, 
 and the South Atlantic so much desired. South and 
 north of this tree they had felled certain trees, that 
 the prospect might be the clearer. 
 
 " After our captain had ascended to this bower with
 
 SIB FRANCIS DRAKE. 27 
 
 the chief Symeron, and having, as it pleased God at 
 this time by reason of the breeze, a very fair day, had 
 seen that sea of which he had heard such golden reports, 
 he besought of Almighty God of his goodness to give 
 him life and leave to sail once in an English ship in 
 that sea, and then, calling up all the rest of our men, 
 acquainted John Oxnam especially with this his petition 
 and purpose, if it should please God to grant him that 
 happiness." 
 
 This enthusiasm of a noble ambition did not, how- 
 ever, divert the thoughts of the adventurer from enter- 
 prises of a more questionable kind. Disappointed at 
 Nombre de Dios, and again of intercepting the mules, 
 he stormed Venta Cruz, a half-way station for the 
 lodgment of goods and refreshment of travellers making 
 their way through the difficult and fatiguing passes of 
 the Isthmus. According to Lopez Vaz, six or seven 
 merchants were killed; and as no gold or silver was 
 obtained to satiate the thirst of the English seamen, 
 goods were wantonly destroyed to the amount of two 
 thousand ducats. It is, however, not easy to say 
 whether it was before or after this outrage that a string 
 of treasure-mules was by accident surprised. The gold 
 was carried off, and as much silver as it was possible 
 to bear away. The rest was buried till a new voyage 
 should be undertaken, and Drake and his company re- 
 gained their ships just in time to escape the Spaniards. 
 "Fortune so favoured his proceedings," says Vaz, 
 "that he had not been above half an hour on board
 
 28 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 
 
 when there came to the seaside above three hundred 
 soldiers, which were sent of purpose to take him ; but 
 God suffered him to escape their hands to be a further 
 plague unto the Spaniards." In this expedition a trait 
 of Drake's character is recorded which at once marks 
 his generosity and enlightened policy. To the cacique 
 of the friendly Symerons he had presented his own 
 cutlass, for which the chief had discovered a true 
 Indian longing. In return the Indian gave him four 
 large wedges of gold, which, declining to appropriate, 
 Drake threw into the common stock, saying "he 
 thought it but just that such as bore the charge of so 
 uncertain a voyage on his credit should share the 
 utmost advantage that voyage produced." And now, 
 "God suffering him to be a further plague to the 
 Spanish nation, he sailed away with his treasure." 
 This was considerable, and good fortune attended 
 Drake to the end of his voyage ; for, leaving Florida, 
 in twenty-three days he reached the Scilly Isles prob- 
 ably the quickest passage that had yet been made. 
 It was in time of public service, on Sunday the 9th 
 August, 1573, that he returned to Plymouth; and 
 "news of Captain Drake's return being carried to 
 church, there remained few or no people with the 
 preacher; all running out to observe the blessing of 
 God upon the dangerous adventures of the captain, 
 who had spent one year two months and some odd 
 days in this voyage." 
 
 The next undertaking of Drake was of a more am-
 
 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 29 
 
 bitious character. With the wealth acquired thus 
 gallantly, and in the opinion of his contemporaries 
 fairly and honourably, though the means may not 
 stand the test of the morality of a more enlightened 
 and philosophic age, Drake fitted out three stout 
 frigates, which, with himself as a volunteer, he placed 
 at the disposal of Walter, Earl of Essex, father of the 
 unfortunate favourite of Elizabeth. Of these he was, 
 as a matter of course, appointed commander, and 
 performed good service in subduing the rebellion in 
 Ireland. His former reputation and his late exploits 
 had now acquired for Drake high fame and noble 
 patronage. He became known to the queen through 
 the introduction of her favourite and privy-councillor, 
 Sir Christopher Hatton a distinction doubly desirable 
 as it promised assistance in "that haughty design 
 which every day and night lay next his heart, pricking 
 him forwards to the performance." 
 
 Though, in the enthusiasm of the moment of inspira- 
 tion, Drake had betrayed his project, when the time 
 came for its accomplishment he maintained an almost 
 suspicious reserve, meditating his great design without 
 " confiding it to any one." His character through life 
 was that of a man who listens to every one's counsel, 
 but follows his own ; and doubtless in the purpose he 
 meditated there was no judgment so well-informed 
 and ripe.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 SPAIN and England were still nominally at peace, though 
 the national animosity was continually breaking out in 
 fits of aggression and violence ; and if Elizabeth did 
 not absolutely discountenance, her policy forbade open 
 approbation of a project so equivocal as that which 
 Drake contemplated. It is, however, certain that the 
 plan of his voyage was laid before the queen ; and her 
 majesty, once convinced of its importance and the glory 
 and advantage which might be derived to her kingdom 
 from its prosperous issue, was easily reconciled to the 
 justice of what appeared so expedient. The plan accord- 
 ingly at last received her decided though secret appro- 
 bation. In one relation of the voyage it is even affirmed 
 that Drake held the royal commission, though this is 
 not probable. What follows is more true to the char- 
 acter of Elizabeth, subtle at once and bold. At a part- 
 ing interview she is said to have presented Drake 
 with a sword, delivered with this emphatic speech, 
 " We do account that he who striketh at thee, Drake, 
 striketh at us." Even this verbal commission saves
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 rage JO.
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 33 
 
 Drake from the charge of having made a piratical 
 voyage, or divides the shame with his sovereign. 
 
 The high estimation in which Drake was now held 
 
 O 
 
 may be gathered from the readiness with which friends 
 and admirers placed in his hands their ships, and the 
 means of equipping a squadron to go on some expedition 
 of which the destination lay hid in his own bosom. 
 Nor, though the horrible sufferings of Hawkins's crew 
 
 ' O O 
 
 and more recent disasters were still fresh in the public 
 memory, did he lack both officers and seamen, from 
 among the most bold, able, and active of that age, who 
 were ready to follow him blindfold to the end of the 
 world. Some of the more sordid might from afar smell 
 the spoils of the Spaniards, but many were actuated by 
 nobler motives. 
 
 The squadron was ostensibly fitted out for a trading 
 voyage to Alexandria, though the pretence deceived no 
 one, and least of all the watchful Spaniards. It con- 
 sisted of five vessels of light burden, the largest being 
 only one hundred tons. This was named the Pelican, 
 and was the captain-general's ship. The others were, 
 the Elizabeth, a bark of eighty tons belonging to London, 
 and commanded by Captain John Winter ; the Swan, 
 a fly-boat of fifty tons burden, Captain John Chester ; 
 the Christopher, a pinnace of fifteen tons, Captain 
 Thomas Moone; and the Marigold, a bark of thirty tons, 
 Captain John Thomas. The Benedict, a pinnace of 
 twelve tons, accompanied the Elizabeth. The frames 
 of four pinnaces were taken out, to be set up as they 
 
 (829) 3
 
 34 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 were wanted. The anxiety displayed for the proper 
 outfit of the squadron, the extent of preparations in 
 provisioning the ships, and laying in arms and stores 
 equal to a very long voyage, and the improbability of 
 Drake, after his late exploits, undertaking a peaceful 
 expedition for traffic, had betrayed in part his design 
 before the fleet left England ; but when, out of sight 
 of the land, the captain-general, in case of separation, 
 appointed a rendezvous at the island of Mogadore on 
 the Barbary coast, there was no remaining doubt that 
 his enterprise pointed to a place more distant and im- 
 portant than Alexandria. 
 
 Though it is probable that traversing the Pacific was 
 a subsequent idea arising from the condition in which 
 we shall find him after leaving the coast of New Albion, 
 Drake is not the less entitled to the praise he has often 
 received for attempting an enterprise like that of pass- 
 ing the Strait of Magellan with so small a force, and 
 adventuring into wild, stormy, and unknown seas with 
 ships of so little weight. The passage of the Strait, 
 even to a man not so obnoxious to the Spanish nation, 
 was a project which could only rationally be entertained 
 by a bold and commanding genius relying implicitly 
 on its own resources. The dangers and difficulties of 
 Magellan Strait had made it be for a long period of years 
 almost abandoned by the Spaniai'ds, and it was come 
 to be a saying among them that the passage had closed 
 up. A superstitious prejudice was conceived against all 
 further attempts in the SOUTH SEA, which, it was
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 35 
 
 asserted, had proved fatal to every one who had been 
 celebrated as a discoverer there, as if Providence had 
 a controversy with those who were so daring as to pass 
 the insuperable barriers placed between the known and 
 the unknown world. Magellan had been killed by the 
 heathen in this new region, which Europeans had no 
 sanction to approach ; Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the Eu- 
 ropean who first saw the South Sea, had been put to 
 death by his countrymen; and De Solis was cruelly 
 murdered by the natives of Rio de la Plata when pro- 
 ceeding to the Strait. Most of the commanders had 
 successively perished of diseases produced by the hard- 
 ships and anxiety attending the voyage. The mariner 
 De Lope, who from the topmast of a ship of Magellan's 
 fleet first saw the Strait, had a fate still more dreadful 
 in the eyes of the good Catholics of Castile, as he had 
 turned a renegade and Mohammedan. None of these 
 real and imaginary dangers deterred Drake ; and he, 
 who at all times preferred vessels of light burden, as 
 of greater utility in threading narrow and intricate 
 channels and coasting unknown shores than ships of 
 large and unwieldy size, selected those mentioned above. 
 Besides the cargoes usually exported for trading, both 
 with civilized and savage nations, Drake, who knew the 
 full value of shows and pageants, and whatever strikes 
 the senses, had taken care to equip himself with many 
 elegancies seldom thought of by early navigators. His 
 own furniture and equipage were splendid, and his 
 silver cooking utensils and the plate of his table of rich
 
 36 DRA KE 'S CIRCUMNA V1GA TION. 
 
 and curious workmanship. He also carried out a band 
 of musicians, and studied everything that could impress 
 the natives in the lands he was to visit or discover with 
 the magnificence, and the high state of refinement and 
 of the arts in his own country. 
 
 On the loth November, 1577, the squadron sailed 
 from Plymouth, but encountering a violent gale on the 
 same night, were forced to put back into Falmouth: the 
 mainmast of the Pelican was cut away, and the Man- 
 gold was driven on shore and shattered. This was a 
 disheartening outset ; but after refitting at Plymouth, 
 they sailed once more on the 13th December, and pro- 
 ceeded prosperously. 
 
 On Christmas-day they reached Cape Cantin on the 
 coast of Barbary, and, on the 27th, Mogadore, an island 
 lying about a mile from the mainland, between which 
 and it they found a safe and convenient harbour. 
 Mogadore is an island of moderate height ; it is about 
 a league in circuit. Having sent out a boat to sound, 
 they entered by the north approach to the port, the 
 southern access being found rocky and shallow. Here 
 Drake halted to fit up one of the pinnaces for service ; 
 and while thus engaged, some of the Barbary Moors 
 appeared on the shore, displaying a flag of truce, and 
 making signals to be taken on board. Two of superior 
 condition were brought to the ships, an English hostage 
 being left on shore for their safe return. The strangers 
 were courteously received and hospitably regaled by 
 the captain-general, who presented them with linen,
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 37 
 
 shoes, and a javelin. When sent on shore, the hostage 
 was restored ; and next day, as several loaded camels 
 were seen approaching, it was naturally presumed their 
 burdens were provisions and merchandise, and the 
 English sent off a boat to trade. On the boat reaching 
 the shore, a seaman, more alert than his neighbours, 
 leapt among the Moors, and was instantly snatched up, 
 thrown across a horse, and the whole party set off at a 
 round gallop. The boat's crew, instead of attempting 
 to rescue their companion, consulted their personal 
 safety by an immediate retreat to the ships. Indignant 
 at the treachery of the Moors, Drake landed with a 
 party to recover the Englishman and take vengeance, 
 but was compelled to return without accomplishing his 
 object. Time, which cleared up the mystery, also partly 
 exculpated the Moors. It was ascertained that the 
 seaman had been seized to be examined by the king, 
 the famous Muley Moloch, respecting an armament 
 then fitting out by the Portuguese to invade his terri- 
 tory, an invasion which soon afterwards took place, 
 and of which the results are well known. Before the 
 prisoner was dismissed the fleet had sailed ; but he was 
 well treated, and permitted to return to England by the 
 first ship that offered. 
 
 The fleet having taken in wood, sailed on the 31st 
 December, and on the 17th January, 1578, reached 
 Cape Blanco, having on the cruise captured three 
 caunters, as the Spanish fishing-boats were called, and 
 two or else three caravels, the accounts on this, as on
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 several other minor points, being often contradictory. A 
 ship, which was surprised in the harbour with only two 
 men on board, shared the same fate. At Cape Blanco 
 they halted for five days' fishing : while on shore Drake 
 exercised his company in arms, thus studying both their 
 health and the maintenance of good discipline. From 
 the stores of the fishermen they helped themselves to 
 such commodities as they wanted, and sailed on the 
 22nd, carrying off also a caunter of forty tons burden, 
 for which the owner received, as a slight indemnification, 
 the pinnace Christopher. At Cape Blanco fresh water 
 was at this season so scarce that, instead of obtaining 
 a supply, Drake, compassionating the condition of the 
 natives, who came down from the heights offering 
 ambergris and gums in exchange for it, generally filled 
 their leathern bags without accepting any recompense, 
 and otherwise treated them humanely and hospitably. 
 Four of the prizes were released here. After six days' 
 sailing they came to anchor on the 28th at the west part 
 of Mayo, an island where, according to the information 
 of the master of the caravel, dried goat's flesh might be 
 had in plenty, the inhabitants preparing a store annually 
 for the use of the king's ships. The people on the 
 island, mostly herdsmen and husbandmen belonging to 
 the Portuguese of the island of St. Jago, would have no 
 intercourse with the ships, having probably been warned 
 of danger. Next day a party of sixty men landed, 
 commanded by Captain Winter and Mr. Doughty, a 
 name with which, in the sequel, the reader will become
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 39 
 
 but too familiar. They repaired to what was described 
 as the capital of the island, by which must be under- 
 stood the principal aggregation of cabins or huts, but 
 found it deserted. The inhabitants had fled, and had 
 previously salted the springs. The country appeared 
 fertile, especially in the valleys ; and in the depth of 
 the winter of Great Britain they feasted on ripe and 
 delicious grapes. The island also produced cocoa-nuts, 
 and they saw abundance of goats and wild hens; though 
 these good things, and the fresh springs, were unfor- 
 tunately too far distant from the ships to be available. 
 Salt produced by the heat of the sun formed here an 
 article of commerce, and one of the prizes made was a 
 caravel bound to St. Jago for salt. 
 
 Leaving Mayo on the 30th, on the south-west side of 
 St. Jago they fell in with a prize of more value, a 
 Portuguese* ship bound to Brazil laden with wine, 
 cloth, and general merchandise, and having a good 
 many passengers on board. The command of this 
 prize was given to Doughty, who was, however, soon 
 afterwards superseded by Mr. Thomas Drake, the 
 brother of the general. This is the first time we hear 
 of offences being charged against the unfortunate 
 Doughty. It is said he appropriated to his own use 
 presents, probably given as bribes to obtain good usage, 
 by the Portuguese prisoners. These captives Drake 
 
 * Portugal was at this time annexed to the crown of Spain, which 
 enabled the English navigators to reconcile an attack on the Portuguese 
 ships, to consciences not, however, particularly scrupulous.
 
 40 DRA KE 'S CIRCUMNA VIGA TION. 
 
 generously dismissed at the first safe and convenient 
 place, giving every passenger his wearing apparel, and 
 presenting them with a butt of wine, provisions, and 
 the pinnace he had set up at Mogadore. Only the 
 pilot was detained, Nuno de Silva, who was acquainted 
 with the coast of Brazil, and who afterwards published 
 a minute and accurate account of Drake's voyage. 
 
 Here, near the island named by the Portuguese Isla 
 del Fogo or the Burning Island, where, says the " Famous 
 Voyage," "on the north side is a consuming fire, the 
 matter whereof is said to be sulphur," lies Brava, 
 described in the early narratives as a terrestrial para- 
 dise, " a most sweet and pleasant island, the trees 
 whereof are always green, and fair to look upon ; in 
 respect of which they call it Isla Brava, that is, The 
 Brave Island." The " soil was almost full of trees ; so 
 that it was a storehouse of many fruits and commo- 
 dities, as figs, always ripe, cocoas, plantains, oranges, 
 lemons, citrons, and cotton. From the brooks into the 
 sea do run in many places silver streams of sweet and 
 wholesome water," with which ships may easily be sup- 
 plied. There was, however, no convenient harbour nor 
 anchoring found at this " sweet and pleasant" island, 
 the volcanic tops of Del Fogo " not burning higher in 
 the air " than the foundations of Brava dipped sheer 
 into the sea. 
 
 The squadron now approached the equinoctial line, 
 sometimes becalmed, and at other times beaten about 
 with tempests and heavy seas. In their progress they
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 41 
 
 were indebted to the copious rains for a seasonable 
 supply of water. They also caught dolphins, bonitos, 
 and flying-fish, which fell on the decks, and could not 
 rise again "for lack of moisture on their wings." They 
 had left the shore of Brava on the 2nd February. On 
 the 28th March, their valuable Portuguese prize, which 
 was their wine-cellar and store, was separated in a 
 tempest, but afterwards rejoined at a place which, in 
 commemoration of the event, was called Cape Joy. The 
 coast of Brazil was now seen in 31 1* south. On the 
 5th April the natives, having discovered the ships on 
 the coast, made great fires, went through various in- 
 cantations, and offered sacrifices, as was imagined, to 
 the devil, that the prince of the powers of the air might 
 raise storms to sink the strangers. To these diabolical 
 arts the mariners doubtless attributed the violent light- 
 ning, thunder, and rain, which they encountered in this 
 latitude. 
 
 About Cape Joy the air was mild and salubrious, the 
 soil rich and fertile. Troops of wild deer, " large and 
 mighty," were the only living creatures seen on this 
 part of the coast, though the foot-prints of men of large 
 stature were traced on the ground. Some seals were 
 killed here, fresh provisions of any kind never being 
 neglected. On the 14th of April, Drake anchored 
 within the entrance of Bio de la Plata, where he had 
 
 * Another account says 38 south. In determining the latitude or 
 longitude, the authority of Burney is generally followed in this volume, 
 as his eminent practical skill makes his observations on the discrepancies 
 in the different accounts of great value.
 
 42 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 appointed a rendezvous in case of separation after leav- 
 ing the Cape de Verd Islands ; and here the caunter, 
 which had separated in a gale on the 7th, rejoined, 
 when the expedition sailed eighteen leagues further into 
 the river, where they killed sea- wolves (seals), "whole- 
 some but not pleasant food." Still further in, they rode 
 in fresh water; but finding no good harbour, and having 
 taken in water, the fleet, on the 27th, stood out, and 
 afterwards southward. The Sivan lost them on the 
 first night, and the caunter, ever apt to go astray, was 
 separated ten days afterwards. In 47 south a head- 
 land was seen, within which was a bay that promised 
 safe harbourage ; and having, on the 12th May, entered 
 and anchored, Drake, who seldom devolved the duty of 
 examination on an inferior officer, went off in the boat 
 next morning to explore the bay. Before he made land, 
 a thick fog came on, and was followed by bad weather, 
 which took from him the sight of the fleet. The com- 
 pany became alarmed for their protector and general, in 
 whom all their hopes of fortune, fame, and even of 
 preservation, were placed. The Marigold, a bark of 
 light weight, stood in for the bay, picked up the captain- 
 general, and came to anchor. In the meanwhile the 
 other ships, as the gale increased, had been compelled 
 to stand out to sea. The fog which had fallen between 
 Drake and the fleet also took from his sight an Indian, 
 who, loudly shaking a rattle, danced in time to the 
 discordant music he made, and by his gestures seemed 
 to invite the strangers on shore. Next day Drake
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 43 
 
 landed, and several Indians came in sight, to whom a 
 white flag was waved in token of amity, and as a signal 
 to approach. The natives acknowledged the symbol of 
 peace, but still kept at a wary distance. 
 
 Drake now ordered fires to be lighted as signals to 
 the ships ; and they all rejoined, save the two vessels 
 formerly separated. 
 
 In a sort of storehouse here, above fifty dried ostriches 
 were found, besides other birds laid up, dry or drying 
 for provision, by the Indians. It was believed by some 
 of the English that these had been left as a present ; 
 and Drake, whether believing or not in so rare an in- 
 stance of hospitality, appropriated the dried birds to 
 the use of his company. It is a charitable conjecture 
 that some of his own wares were left in return. The 
 manner in which these ostriches, whose flesh supplied 
 food while their feathers furnished ornaments, were 
 snared deserves notice. Plumes of feathers were affixed 
 to a stick, made to resemble the head and neck of the 
 bird. Behind these decoys the hunter concealed himself, 
 and, moving onwards, drove the ostriches into some 
 narrow tongue of land, across which strong nets were 
 placed to intercept the return of the bird, which runs, 
 but cannot fly.* Dogs were then set upon the prey, 
 which was thus taken. 
 
 The choice of the place in which the fleet now lay 
 
 * It is to be understood that in this volume objects of natural history 
 are often described according to the notions of early voyagers, and not as 
 further research and observation, and the discoveries and classifications 
 of science, warrant.
 
 44 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 had been dictated by necessity alone. On the 15th it 
 was abandoned, and on the 17th they anchored in a 
 good port, in 47| south. Here seals were so plentiful 
 that upwards of two hundred were killed in an hour. 
 While the crews were filling the water-butts, killing 
 seals, and salting birds for future provision, Drake in 
 the Pelican, and Captain Winter in the Elizabeth, set 
 out on different courses in quest of the Swan and the 
 Portuguese prize. On the same day Drake fell in with 
 the Swan, and before attempting the Strait, formed 
 the prudent resolution of diminishing the cares and 
 hazards of the voyage by reducing the number of his 
 ships. The Swan was accordingly broken up for fire- 
 wood, after all her materials and stores had been 
 removed. 
 
 When the ships had lain here a few days, a party of 
 the natives came to the shore, dancing, leaping, and 
 making signs of invitation to a few of the seamen then 
 on a small island, which at low water communicated 
 with the mainland. They were a handsome, strong, 
 agile race, lively and alert. Their only covering was 
 the skin of an animal, which, worn about their middle 
 when walking, was wrapped round their shoulders while 
 they squatted or lay on the ground. They were painted 
 over the whole body after a grotesque fashion. Though 
 fancy and ingenuity were displayed in the figures and 
 patterns, and in the contrast and variety of colours, it 
 is reasonable to conclude that the practice had its origin 
 in utility, and was adopted as a defence against cold,
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 45 
 
 ornament being at first only a secondary consideration, 
 though, as in more refined regions, it sometimes usurped 
 the place of the principal object. These Indians being 
 first painted all over, on this ground-work many freaks 
 of fancy were displayed : white full-moons were ex- 
 hibited to advantage on a black ground, and black suns 
 on a white one. Some had one shoulder black and the 
 other white ; but these were probably persons who 
 carried the mode to the extreme. 
 
 On seeing that the signals made were interpreted in 
 a friendly way, Drake sent a boat to the shore with 
 bells, cutlery, and such small wares as were likely to be 
 attractive and acceptable to the tastes of the natives. 
 As the boat neared the shore, two of the group, who 
 had been standing on a height, moved swiftly down, 
 but stopped short at a little distance. The presents were 
 fastened to a pole, and left on the beach; and after the 
 boat put off they were removed, and in return such 
 feathers as the natives wore, and the carved bones 
 which they used as ornaments, were deposited near or 
 fastened to the same pole. Thus a friendly, if not 
 profitable or useful, traffic was established. For such 
 trifles as the English bestowed, they gave in return the 
 only articles they possessed to which value was attached. 
 These were bows, arrows made of reeds and pointed 
 with flint, feathers, and carved bones. Their mode of 
 exchange was to have everything placed on the ground, 
 from whence the goods were removed, and the article 
 bartered for substituted. By some of the voyagers
 
 46 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 these people are described as of gigantic stature. They 
 were of a gay and cheerful disposition ; the sound of 
 the trumpets delighted them ; and they danced merrily 
 with the sailors. One of their number who had tasted 
 wine, and became, it is stated, intoxicated with the 
 mere smell before the glass reached his lips, always 
 afterwards approached the tents crying, " Wine, wine !" 
 Their principal article of food was seals, and sometimes 
 the flesh of other animals ; all of which they roasted, 
 or rather scorched for a few minutes, in large lumps of 
 six pounds weight, and then devoured nearly raw, 
 "men and women tearing it with their teeth like lions." 
 The fleet sailed from Seal Bay, as this place was 
 named, on the 3rd June, and on the 12th came to anchor 
 in a bay where they remained for two days, during which 
 they stripped the caunter and allowed it to drift. 
 Drake had thus reduced his force to a more compact 
 and manageable form. The place from which this 
 vessel was sent adrift is sometimes called the Cape of 
 Good Hope, but seems to have been named Cape 
 Hope. From the 14th to the 17th May the fleet cruised 
 about in search of the Mary, the Portuguese prize, and 
 then came to anchor in a bay 50 20' south. On the 
 19th the missing vessel was found, and next day the 
 whole squadron anchored in the Port St. Julian of 
 Magellan in 40 30' south ; where, says one relation, 
 " we found the gibbet still standing on the Main where 
 Magellan did execute justice upon some of his rebellious 
 and discontented company." So soon as the ships were
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 47 
 
 safely moored, Drake and some of his officers went off 
 in a boat to examine the capabilities of this part of the 
 coast, and on landing met two men of immense stature, 
 who appeared to give them welcome. These were of the 
 Patagonian tribes of Magellan. A few trifles presented 
 to them were accepted with pleasure, and they were 
 apparently delighted by the dexterity with which the 
 gunner used the English bow in a trial of skill, sending 
 his arrows so far beyond their best aim. Nothing, 
 however, can be more fickle and capricious than the 
 friendship of most savage tribes. An Indian of less 
 amiable disposition than his companions approached, and 
 with menacing gestures signified to the crew to be gone. 
 Mr. Winter, an English gentleman, displeased with 
 the interruption given to their pastime by this churlish 
 fellow, between jest and earnest drew a shaft partly in 
 intimidation, but also to prove the superiority of the 
 English bow and skill. The bow-string unfortunately 
 snapped ; and while he was repairing it a sudden shower 
 of arrows wounded him in the shoulder and the side. 
 Oliver, the gunner, instantly levelled his piece ; but it 
 missed fire, and the attempt proved the signal for his 
 destruction. He was pierced through with an arrow, 
 and immediately dropped. At this critical moment 
 Drake ordered the rest of the party to cover themselves 
 with their targets, and advance upon the Indians, who 
 were fast mustering. With ready presence of mind, he 
 directed his men, at the same time, to break every arrow 
 aimed at them, as the assailants must thus soon expend
 
 48 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 their stock. The captain-general might at this juncture 
 have remembered that, in the TiuUe where Magellan 
 lost his life, the same arrows were picked up by the 
 people of Matan, and repeatedly shot, as they drove the 
 Spaniards into the water. At the same instant in which 
 he gave the order, Drake seized the gunner's piece, and 
 taking aim at the man who had killed Oliver and begun 
 the affray, he shot him in the belly. This turned the 
 fate of the hour, and probably prevented the massacre 
 of the whole party of English ; for many more of the 
 Patagonians were seen hastening from the woods to 
 support their countrymen, when the hideous bellowing 
 of the wounded man struck with panic those already 
 engaged, and the whole fled. It was not thought pru- 
 dent to pursue them, nor even to tarry on shore. Mr. 
 Winter was therefore borne off to the ships ; but in the 
 haste of embarkation the body of the gunner was left. 
 Next day, when looked after, the body was found 
 uninjured, save that an English arrow had been thrust 
 into the left eye. The clothes were in part stripped off, 
 and formed into a pillow or truss, which was placed 
 under the head of the corpse. Winter soon afterwards 
 died of his wounds. 
 
 This unfortunate affray appears to have been more 
 the consequence of misunderstanding than design ; and 
 the usage of the dead body, and subsequent conduct of 
 the natives, evince a less revengeful and ferocious dispo- 
 sition than is usually displayed even among the mildest 
 savage tribes when inflamed by recent battle. During
 
 DRAKE 'S CIRCUMNA VIGA TION. 49 
 
 the remainder of the time that the fleet lay here no 
 further molestation was offered to the English. 
 
 The stature of these tribes, and of those in the 
 Strait, has been the subject of dispute among navi- 
 gators from the voyage of Magellan to our own times, 
 each succeeding band being unwilling to yield an inch 
 to their precursors, or to meet with "giants" less 
 formidable than those which had been previously seen. 
 Cliffe, however, says "they were of ordinary height, 
 and that he had seen Englishmen taller than any of 
 them ; " and then, like a true seaman of the period, he 
 imputes their exaggerated stature to the " lies " of the 
 Spaniards, from whom no good thing could come, and 
 who, in the imaginary impunity of escaping detection 
 from the navigators of other nations, related these 
 marvellous tales^ "The World Encompassed" makes 
 the height of these people seven feet and a half. It is 
 not unlikely that the mists, haze, and storms, through 
 which the natives were often partially seen in the 
 Strait, or on those wild coasts, perched on a rock or 
 grovelling on the ground, may be the origin of the 
 pigmies and giants of the early navigators ; but that 
 "tribes of tall though not gigantic stature were seen in 
 the South Sea islands, and also on the western coasts 
 of the continent of America, from its southern ex- 
 tremity as far north as was then explored, does not 
 admit of doubt. 
 
 While the fleet lay at Port St. Julian an event 
 occurred, which, as the contradictory evidence is viewed, 
 
 (829) 4
 
 50 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 must either be termed the most heroic or the most 
 questionable act in the life of Admiral Drake. Mr. 
 Thomas Doughty, a man of talent, and too probably of 
 ill-regulated ambition, had served as an officer in the 
 fleet, and it is said enjoyed in a high degree the affec- 
 tion and confidence of the captain-general, who must 
 voluntarily have selected him as one of his company. 
 Doughty was at this place accused of conspiracy and 
 mutiny ; of a plan to massacre Drake and the principal 
 officers, and thus defeat the whole expedition, as if the 
 first-imagined crime did not constitute sufficient guilt. 
 The details of this singular affair are scanty, obscure, 
 and perplexed ; and no contemporary writer notices 
 any specific fact or ground of charge. The offence of 
 Doughty is purely constructive. Cliffe dismisses the 
 subject in one seaman -like sentence, merely saying, 
 "Mr. Thomas Doughty was brought to his answer, 
 accused, convicted, and beheaded." The account in 
 " The World Encompassed " is more elaborate, and for 
 Drake apologetic, but not much more satisfactory. It 
 contains strong general charges, but no record of facts, 
 nor a shadow of proof of the general allegations. These 
 early chroniclers appear either thoroughly convinced of 
 the guilt of the culprit, or indifferent to the propriety 
 of convincing others of the justice and necessity of their 
 captain's sentence, or they were fully convinced that 
 the accused merited his fate. Doughty had previously 
 been called in question for his conduct in accepting 
 gifts or bribes while in the Portuguese prize, and he
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 51 
 
 had afterwards strayed once or twice with the same 
 vessel, which was burnt to prevent like accidents. 
 According to one account his treason was of old date ; 
 and before the fleet left Plymouth, he had been hatch- 
 ing plots against his commander, who refused to believe 
 " that one he so dearly loved would conceive evil 
 against him, till perceiving that lenity and favour did 
 little good, he thought it high time to call those prac- 
 tices in question, and therefore, setting good watch 
 over him, and assembling all his captains and gentle- 
 men of his company together, he propounded to them 
 the good parts that were in this gentleman, and the great 
 good-will and inward affection, more than brotherly, 
 which he had ever since his first acquaintance borne 
 him, and afterwards delivered the letters which were 
 written to him (Drake), with the particulars from time 
 to time, which had been observed not so much by him- 
 self as by his good friends; not only at sea, but even at 
 Plymouth ; not bare words, but writings ; not writings, 
 but actions tending to the overthrow of the service in 
 hand, and making away his person. Proofs were 
 required, and alleged so many and so evident that the 
 gentleman himself, stricken with remorse, acknowledged 
 himself to have deserved death, yea, many deaths ; for 
 that he conspired not only the overthrow of the action, 
 but of the principal actor also." The account continues 
 in the same strain, asserting that forty of the principal 
 men of Drake's band adjudged the culprit to deserve 
 death, and gave this judgment under their hand and
 
 52 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 seal, leaving the manner to the general, who allowed 
 the unfortunate man the choice of being either aban- 
 doned on the coast, taken back to England to answer 
 to the lords of the queen's council, or executed here. 
 He chose the last, requesting, it is said, that he might 
 "once more receive the holy communion with the 
 captain-general before his death, and that he might not 
 die other than the death of a gentleman." The circum- 
 stances of the execution are striking. Mr. Fletcher 
 celebrated the communion on the next day. Drake re- 
 ceived the sacrament with the condemned man, and 
 afterwards they dined together " at the same table, as 
 cheerfully in sobriety as ever in their lives they had 
 done ; and taking their leaves, by drinking to each 
 other, as if some short journey only had been in hand." 
 Without further delay, all things being in readiness, 
 Doughty walked forth, requested the bystanders to 
 pray for him, and submitted his neck to the executioner. 
 Camden's version of this transaction does not differ 
 materially from the above. The chaplain of the fleet, 
 Mr. Francis Fletcher, left a manuscript journal of the 
 voyage, now deposited in the British Museum, which 
 contradicts many of the important statements in the 
 other relations. He asserts that the criminal utterly 
 denied the truth of the charges against him, upon his 
 salvation, at the time of communicating, and at the 
 hour and moment of his death. Mr. Fletcher likewise 
 affirms that no choice of life or death was given him 
 upon any conditions. It is evident that, in the opinion
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 53 
 
 of the chaplain, Doughty was an innocent and a mur- 
 dered man; the victim of a conspiracy not rigidly sifted 
 by the general, and in which the actors too probably 
 consulted his secret wishes. 
 
 The fleet had not long left England when the affair 
 of the Portuguese prisoners, in which there might be 
 dishonour, but no crime deserving severity of punish- 
 ment, and still less death, was brought against him. 
 But in Port St. Julian, Fletcher remarks, "more dan- 
 gerous matter is laid to his charge, and by the same 
 persons (John Brewer, Edward Bright, and others of 
 their friends) namely, for words spoken by him to them 
 in the general's garden at Plymouth, which it had 
 been their part and duty to have discovered them at 
 the time, and not have concealed them for a time and 
 place not so fitting." Besides the vague charges made 
 of plots and mutinous conduct, and the anomalous 
 offence of being " an emulator of the glory of his com- 
 mander," another cause is assigned for the death of 
 Doughty, which, if it were supported by reasonable 
 proof, would fix a deeper stigma on the character of 
 Drake than all his other questionable deeds put to- 
 gether. In England the age of dark iniquitous intrigue 
 had succeeded the times of ferocity and open violence ; 
 but the dependants and partisans of the leading men 
 in the state were still as criminally subservient to the 
 flagitious designs of their patrons as when their daggers 
 had been freely drawn in their service. It was alleged 
 that Captain Drake had carried this man to sea to rid
 
 54 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 the powerful Earl of Leicester of a dangerous prater, 
 and in time and place convenient to revenge his quarrel. 
 It is probable that the intimacy of Doughty with 
 Captain Drake had commenced in Ireland, as both had 
 served under Essex; and it is affirmed that the real 
 crime of the former was accusing Leicester of plotting 
 the secret murder of his noble rival, of which few men 
 in England believed him wholly guiltless. On the 
 other hand, Essex was the patron of Drake, who, it is 
 reasonably urged, was thus much more likely to protect 
 than punish a friend brought into trouble for freedom 
 of speech on an occasion that would have moved stocks 
 or stones. It may be further pleaded on behalf of 
 Drake, that, with the exception of the chaplain, whose 
 relation has, however, every mark of sincerity and good 
 faith, no man nor officer in the fleet has left any record 
 or surmise of objection to the justice of the execution, 
 though the affair, after the return of the expedition, 
 was keenly canvassed in England. In his whole course 
 of life Drake maintained the character of integrity and 
 humanity ; nor did he lack generosity in fitting season. 
 He at all times discovered a strong sense of religion, 
 and of moral obligation, save in the case of the Spaniards 
 and " Portugals," for which, however, " sea-divinity " 
 afforded an especial exception. That he could have 
 put an innocent man to death to conceal the crimes or 
 to execute the vengeance of Leicester, is too monstrous 
 for belief ; and that, conscious of the deepest injustice, 
 he should have gone through the solemn religious
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 55 
 
 observances which preceded the perpetration of his 
 crime, presents a picture of odious hypocrisy and cold- 
 blooded cruelty more worthy of a demon than a brave 
 man. The case resolves itself into the simple necessity 
 of maintaining discipline in the fleet, and sustaining 
 that personal authority which, in a commander, is 
 a duty even more important than self-preservation. 
 Drake's notions of authority might have been some- 
 what overstrained; nor is it unlikely that he uncon- 
 sciously imbibed slight feelings of jealousy of "this 
 emulator of his glory." Every one who mentions 
 Doughty speaks of him as a man of great endowments. 
 Mr. Fletcher is warm in his praise. " An industrious 
 and stout man," says Camden, even when relating his 
 crimes, and one, it appears, of sufficient consequence to 
 be imagined the cause of disquiet to the still all-power- 
 ful Leicester. 
 
 Immediately after the execution, Drake, who to his 
 other qualities added the gift of a bold natural elo- 
 quence, addressed his whole company, " persuading us 
 to unity, obedience, love, and regard of our voyage; 
 and, for the better confirmation thereof, wished every 
 man the next Sunday following to prepare himself to 
 receive the communion as Christian brethren and friends 
 ought to do; which was done in very reverent sort, and 
 so with good contentment every man went about his 
 business." 
 
 Doubt and darkness will, however, always hang over 
 this transaction, though probably only from the simple
 
 56 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 reason of no formal record being kept of the proceedings. 
 Doughty was buried with Mr. Winter and the gunner 
 on an island in the harbour, and the chaplain relates 
 that he erected a stone, and on it cut the names of these 
 unfortunate Englishmen, and the date of their burial. 
 
 The ships, by the breaking up of the Portuguese 
 prize, were now reduced to three; and being "trimmed" 
 and supplied with wood and water, and such other 
 necessaries as could be obtained, they sailed from this 
 " port accursed " on the 17th August. Cliffe relates that 
 while they lay here the weather, though in July and 
 August, was as cold as at midwinter in England. On 
 the 20th they made Cape de las Virgines, entered the 
 Strait, and on the 24th anchored thirty leagues within it. 
 
 There is a considerable variation in the relations of 
 Drake's passage of the Strait. The statements are 
 even absolutely contradictory on some points, though 
 the disagreements, when the facts are sifted, are more 
 apparent than real, every narrator noting only what he 
 had himself witnessed or casually gathered from the 
 information of others. The original narrative of the 
 passage by the Portuguese pilot Nuno de Silva is 
 among the most interesting and accurate ; but in the 
 present account an attempt is made to combine what- 
 ever appears most striking and important in the differ- 
 ent relations. The eastern mouth of the Strait was 
 found about a league broad ; the land bare and flat. 
 On the north side Indians were seen making great 
 fires ; but on the south no inhabitants appeared. The
 
 PENGUINS OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 Pages*).
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 59 
 
 length was computed at one hundred and ten leagues. 
 The tide was seen to rise (setting in from both sides) 
 about fifteen feet. It met about the middle, or rather 
 nearer the western entrance. The medium breadth was 
 one league. Where the ships came to anchor on the 
 24th were three small islands, on which they killed 
 three thousand " of birds (penguins) having no wings, 
 but short pinions which serve their turn in swimming." 
 They were as " fat as an English goose." 
 
 " The land on both sides was very huge and moun- 
 tainous ; the lower mountains whereof, although they 
 be very monstrous to look upon for their height, yet 
 there are others which in height exceed them in a 
 strange manner, reaching themselves above their fol- 
 lowers so high that between them did appear three 
 regions of clouds. These mountains are covered with 
 snow at both the southerly and easterly parts of the 
 Strait. There are islands among which the sea hath 
 his indraught into the Strait even as it hath at the 
 main entrance. The Strait is extreme cold, with frost 
 and snow continually. The trees seem to stoop with 
 the burden of the weather, and yet are green continu- 
 ally, and many good and sweet herbs do very plentifully 
 increase and grow under them." 
 
 Such are the natural appearances described. Near 
 the western entrance a number of narrow channels, 
 with which the whole of that side abounds, occasioned 
 some difficulty in the navigation ; and Drake, with his 
 usual caution, brought the fleet to anchor near an
 
 60 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 island, while he went out in his boat to explore these 
 various openings to the South Sea. In this expedition 
 Indians of the pigmy race, attributed to a region 
 abounding in all monstrous things, were seen ; though 
 both the gigantic and the diminutive size of these tribes 
 are brought in question even by contemporary relations. 
 Yet these pigmy Indians were seen close at hand, in 
 a canoe ingeniously constructed of the bark of trees, 
 of which material the people also formed vessels for 
 domestic use. The canoe was semicircular, being high 
 in the prow and the stern. The seams were secured 
 by a lacing of thongs of seal-skin, and fitted so nicely 
 that there was little leakage. The tools of these in- 
 genious small folks were formed of the shell of a very 
 large species of mussel, containing seed-pearls, which 
 was found in the Strait. These shells they tempered, 
 if the word may be used, so skilfully that they cut the 
 hardest wood, and even bone. One of their dwellings, 
 which might, however, be but a fishing-hut, was seen 
 rudely formed of sticks stuck in the ground, over which 
 skins were stretched. 
 
 Early in September the western entrance was reached; 
 and on the 6th of the same month, Drake attained the 
 long-desired happiness of sailing an English ship on the 
 South Sea. 
 
 The passage of Drake was the quickest * and easiest 
 
 * Lopez Vaz makes the time spent in passing the Strait only twelve 
 days, and it could not be above fifteen, where months had been occupied 
 by less fortunate or skilful navigators.
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 61 
 
 that had yet been made, fortune favouring him here as 
 at every other point of this voyage. The temperature 
 was also much milder than had been experienced by 
 former navigators, or the English seamen might pro- 
 bably be more hardy and enduring than those of Spain. 
 
 One main object of Drake in leaving England was 
 undoubtedly the discovery of a North-west Passage, by 
 following the bold and novel track his genius chalked 
 out, and in which he might still hope to anticipate all 
 other adventurers, whether their career commenced 
 from the east or the west. On clearing the Strait he 
 accordingly held a north-west course, and in two days 
 the fleet had advanced seventy leagues. Here it was 
 overtaken by a violent and steady gale from the north- 
 east, which drove them into 57 south latitude, and 
 two hundred leagues to the west of Magellan Strait. 
 While still driving before the wind, under bare poles, 
 the moon was eclipsed at five o'clock in the afternoon 
 of the loth, but produced neither abatement nor change 
 of the wind. " Neither did the ecliptical conflict of the 
 moon improve our state, nor her clearing again mend 
 us a whit, but the accustomed eclipse of the sea con- 
 tinued in his force, we being darkened more than the 
 moon sevenfold." 
 
 On the 24th the weather became more moderate, the 
 wind shifted, and they partly retraced their course, for 
 seven days standing to the north-east, during which 
 land was seen, near which a vain attempt was made to 
 anchor. Their troubles did not end here : once more
 
 62 DRA KE 'S CIRGUMNA VIGA TION. 
 
 the wind got back to its old quarter, and with great 
 violence ; and on the 30th the Marigold was separated 
 from the Elizabeth and the Golden Hind, as Drake on 
 entering the South Sea had named his ship, in compli- 
 ment, it is said, to his patron Sir Christopher Hatton. 
 They made the land ; but the Marigold was borne to 
 sea by the stress of the gale, and was never heard of 
 more. We do not even find a conjecture breathed about 
 the fate of this ship. On the evening of the 7th October 
 the Golden Hind and Elizabeth made a bay near the 
 western entrance of Magellan Strait, which was after- 
 wards named the Bay of Parting Friends ; and here 
 they intended to lie by till the weather improved. 
 During the night the cable of the Hind broke, and she 
 drove to sea; nor did Captain Winter, in the Elizabeth, 
 make any attempt to follow his commander. Heartily 
 tired of a voyage of which he had just had so unpleasant 
 a specimen, he next day entered the Strait, secretly 
 purposing to return home. Edward Cliffe, who sailed 
 in the Elizabeth, and whose relation stops with her 
 return to England, stoutly denies for the seamen the 
 craven intention of abandoning their commander, Cap- 
 tain Drake; and even asserts that some efforts were 
 made to find the admiral's ship, though of a very 
 passive kind. Anchoring in a bay within the Strait, 
 fires were kindled on the shore; so that, if Drake 
 sought them in this direction and on that day, there 
 was a chance of his finding them. This duty discharged, 
 they went into secure harbourage in a place which they
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 63 
 
 named Port Health, from the rapid recovery of the 
 crew, who had lately suffered so much from cold, wet, 
 and fatigue. In the large mussels and other shell-fish 
 found here they obtained pleasant and restorative food ; 
 and they remained till the beginning of November, 
 when the voyage was formally abandoned, " on Mr. 
 Winter's compulsion, and full sore against the mariners' 
 minds." Winter alleged that he now despaired of the 
 captain-general's safety, or of being able to hold his 
 course with the Elizabeth for the imagined Ophir of 
 New Spain. 
 
 It was the llth of November before the Elizabeth 
 got clear of the Strait an eastward voyage that had 
 only been once performed, and by a Spanish navigator, 
 Ladrilleros, twenty years before, and believed to be 
 next to impossible and June in the following year 
 before Winter returned to England, with the credit of 
 having made the passage of the Strait eastward, and 
 the shame of having deserted his commander, while his 
 company, with nobler spirit, showed unshaken fidelity 
 and unabated ardour. 
 
 There is more interest in following the fortunes of 
 the Hind, which we left tossed about in the misnamed 
 Pacific. Drake was once more carried back to 55 
 south, when he judged it expedient to run in among 
 the islands or broken land of Tierra del Fuego, where, 
 together with a supply of seals and fresh water, a 
 season of repose was found from the continual fatigues 
 of the last month. But this interval of ease was of
 
 64 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 short duration : they were once more driven to sea in 
 a gale, and suffered the further calamity of being parted 
 from the shallop, in which were eight seamen with 
 almost no provisions. While the Hind drove further 
 and further south, the shallop was in the first instance 
 so far fortunate as to regain the Strait, where the 
 men salted and stored penguins for future supply. 
 They soon lost all hope of rejoining the captain-general; 
 so, passing the Strait, they contrived to make, in their 
 frail bark, first for Port St. Julian, and afterwards Rio 
 de la Plata, where six of them, wandering into the 
 woods in quest of food, were attacked by a party of 
 Indians. All were wounded with arrows; but while 
 four were made prisoners, two escaped, and joined their 
 two comrades left in charge of the boat. The Indians 
 pursued, and the whole four were wounded before the 
 natives were beaten back and the shallop got off. The 
 Englishmen made for a small island at three leagues' 
 distance, where two of their number died of their 
 wounds. Nor was this the last calamity they were to 
 endure : the shallop was dashed to pieces in a storm. 
 
 A melancholy interest is connected with this frag- 
 ment of Drake's original company. On the desolate 
 island in which they remained for two months no fresh 
 water was to be found ; and though they obtained food 
 from eels, small crabs, and a species of fruit resembling 
 an orange, their sufferings from intense thirst came to 
 an extremity too painful and revolting to be made the 
 subject of narrative. At the end of two months a
 
 DRAKE 'S CIRCUMNA VIGA TION. 65 
 
 plank ten feet long, which had drifted from Rio de la 
 Plata, was picked up, smaller sticks were fastened to 
 it, and a store of provision was laid in; then com- 
 mitting themselves to God, paddling and clinging to 
 this ark, they in three days and two nights made the 
 mainland which had so long tantalized their sight. 
 In relating the issue of this adventure, the words of 
 Peter Carder the survivor are adopted : " At our first 
 coming on land we found a little river of sweet and 
 pleasant water, where William Pitcher, my only com- 
 fort and companion, although I dissuaded him to the 
 contrary, overdrank himself, being perished before with 
 extreme thirst ; and, to my unspeakable grief and dis- 
 comfort, died half an hour after in my presence, whom 
 I buried as well as I could in the sand." 
 
 The subsequent adventures of Peter Carder among 
 the savages on the coast of Brazil, and his captivity 
 among the Portuguese of Bahia de Todos los Santos, 
 form an amusing and interesting section of Purchas's 
 Pilgrims. After a nine years' absence he got back to 
 England, and had the honour of relating his adven- 
 tures before Queen Elizabeth, who presented him with 
 twenty-two angels, and recommended him to her lord- 
 high-admiral, Howard. 
 
 To return to Drake. His ship, now driven south- 
 ward further than before, again ran in among the 
 islands. This is an important stage in the navigation 
 of Drake as a voyage of discovery. He had reached 
 the southern extremity of the American continent, and 
 
 (829) 5
 
 66 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION, 
 
 been driven round it; for " here no land was seen, but the 
 Atlantic and South Sea meeting in a large free scope." 
 
 On the 28th October, the weather, which since the 
 6th September, when they entered the Pacific, had 
 been nearly one continued hurricane, became moderate, 
 and the Golden Hind came to anchor in twenty 
 fathoms water, though within a gunshot of the land, 
 in a harbour of an island of which the southern point 
 has long been known as Cape Horn. 
 
 Sir Richard Hawkins, the son of Sir John, and the 
 reputed kinsman of Admiral Drake, relates that he 
 was informed by the navigator 'himself that, " at the 
 end of the great storm, he found himself in 50 S.." 
 which was sufficient proof that he had been beaten 
 round without the Strait; and, moreover, that from 
 the change of the wind not being able to double the 
 southernmost island, he anchored under the lee of it, 
 cast himself down upon the extreme point, and reached 
 over as far as was safe ; and, after the ship sailed, told 
 his company that he had been " upon the southernmost 
 point of land in the world, known or likely to be 
 known, and further than any man had ever before 
 ventured." 
 
 Mr. Fletcher, the chaplain, also landed here. He 
 found this island three parts of a degree further south 
 than any of the other islands. 
 
 To all the islands discovered here Drake gave the 
 general name of the Elizabethides, in compliment to 
 his royal mistress. They were inhabited, and the
 
 DRAKE^S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 67 
 
 natives were frequently seen, though little appears to 
 have been learned of their character or customs. 
 
 Having thus discovered and landed on the southern- 
 most part of the continent, Drake changed the Terra 
 Incognita of the Spanish geographers into the Terra 
 bene nunc Cognita of his chaplain, and on the 30th 
 October, with a fair wind from the south, he held a 
 course north-west ; but, being bent on exploring, after- 
 wards kept east, not to lose the coast. On the 25th 
 November they anchored at the island of Mocha, off 
 the coast of Chili, where the captain-general landed. 
 Cattle and sheep were seen here, and also maize and 
 potatoes. Presents were exchanged with the Indians, 
 and next day a watering-party, which Drake accom- 
 panied, rowed towards the shore, in full security of 
 their pacific dispositions. Two seamen, who landed to 
 fill the water-casks, were instantly killed, and the rest 
 of the party narrowly escaped an ambush laid for them 
 in case they should come to the assistance of their 
 countrymen. They were fiercely assailed with arrows 
 and stones, and every one was wounded more or less 
 severely. The general was wounded both in the face 
 and on the head; and the attack was continued so 
 warmly and close that the Indians seized four of the 
 oars. This unprovoked attack was imputed by the 
 ship's company to the hatred which the inhabitants of 
 Chili bore the Spaniards, whom, it was presumed, they 
 had not yet learned to distinguish from other Euro- 
 peans. In this view it was forgiven by men whose
 
 68 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 prejudices and animosity were equally strong with 
 those of the Indians. 
 
 Sailing along the coast with the wind at south, on 
 the 30th November they anchored in a bay about 32^ 
 S., and sent out a boat to examine the shores, which 
 captured and brought before the captain an Indian 
 found fishing in his canoe. This man was kindly 
 treated. A present of linen and a chopping-knife 
 gained his affections ; and he bore the message of Drake 
 to his countrymen, who, induced by the hope of like 
 gifts, brought to the ship's side a fat hog and poultry. 
 It was at this time of more consequence to one main 
 object of the voyagers, who, doing much for the glory 
 of England and Elizabeth, wished at the same time to 
 do a little for themselves, that an intelligent Indian 
 repaired to the ship who spoke the Spanish language, 
 and, believing them mariners of that nation, unwit- 
 tingly gave them much valuable information. From 
 him they learned that they had by six leagues over- 
 sailed Valparaiso, the port of St. Jago, where a Spanish 
 vessel then lay at anchor. The innocent offer of Felipe, 
 when he saw their disappointment, to pilot them back, 
 was eagerly accepted. On the 4th December they 
 sailed from Philip's Bay, as they named this harbour 
 in honour of their Indian pilot, and next day, without 
 any difficulty, captured the ship the Grand Captain 
 of the South Seas, in which was found sixty thousand 
 pesos of gold, besides jewels, merchandise, and one 
 thousand seven hundred and seventy jars of Chili wine.
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 69 
 
 This was a joyful beginning : each peso was reckoned 
 worth eight shillings. The people of the town, which 
 consisted of only nine families, fled ; and Drake's fol- 
 lowers revelled in the unforbidden luxury of a general 
 pillage of wine, bread, bacon, and other things most 
 acceptable to men who had been so long at sea, both 
 for present refreshment and also for storing the ship. 
 In every new Spanish settlement, however small, a 
 church rose as it were simultaneously. The small 
 chapel of Valparaiso was plundered of a silver chalice, 
 two cruets, and its altar-cloth, which, to prevent their 
 desecration, and to obtain a blessing on the voyage, 
 were presented to Fletcher, the pastor of this ocean- 
 flock. They sailed on the 8th with their prize, taking, 
 however, only one of the crew, a Greek named Juan 
 Griego, who was capable of piloting them to Lima. 
 Their Indian guide, Felipe, was rewarded, and sent on 
 shore near his own home. From the most southern 
 point of this coasting voyage Drake had been continu- 
 ally on the outlook for the Marigold and Elizabeth ; 
 and the Hind being too unwieldy to keep in near the 
 coast in the search, a pinnace was intended to be built 
 for this duty as well as for other operations which the 
 cap tain -general kept in view. A convenient place 
 for this purpose had been found at Coquimbo. Near 
 the spot selected the Spaniards had raised or collected 
 a considerable force ; and a watering-party of fourteen 
 of the English were here surprised, and with some 
 difficulty escaped from a body of three hundred horse
 
 70 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 and two hundred foot. One seaman was killed, owing, 
 however, to his own braggart temerity. 
 
 In a quieter and safer bay the pinnace was set up, 
 and Drake himself embarked in it to look after the 
 strayed ships; but the wind becoming adverse, he 
 soon returned. They quitted this harbour on the 19th 
 January 1579, invigorated by a season of repose, by 
 the refreshments and booty obtained, and by the hopes 
 of richer plunder and more glorious conquest. With 
 few adventures they sailed along the coast, till, ac- 
 cidentally landing at Tarapaza, they found a Spaniard 
 asleep on the shore with thirteen bars of silver lying 
 beside him, as if waiting their arrival. Advancing a 
 little further, on landing to procure water they fell in 
 with a Spaniard and an Indian boy driving eight 
 llamas, each of which was laden with two leathern bags 
 containing fifty pounds of silver, or eight hundred 
 pounds in all. The llamas, or Peruvian sheep, are de- 
 scribed by the old voyagers as of the size of an ass, 
 with a neck like a camel, and of great strength and 
 steadiness, forming the beast of burden of these countries. 
 They were indeed the mules of the New World ; but a 
 much more valuable animal, as the wool is fine and the 
 flesh good. The credulity of the most credulous of the 
 family of John Bull his sons of the ocean was here 
 amusingly displayed. If the coast of Peru was not liter- 
 ally strewed with gold, pure silver was found so richly 
 mixed with the soil that every hundredweight of com- 
 mon earth yielded, on a moderate calculation, five ounces.
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 71 
 
 The eight llamas and their precious burden being 
 brought on board, the Golden Hind next entered the 
 port of Arica, where two or three small barks then lay. 
 These, when rifled, were found perfectly unprotected, 
 the crews being on shore, unable to imagine danger on 
 this coast. Arica is described as a beautiful and fertile 
 valley. The town contained about twenty houses, 
 which, the " Famous Voyage " states, " we would have 
 ransacked, if our company had been better and more 
 numerous ; but our general, contented with the spoil of 
 the ships, put to sea, and sailed for Lima " in pursuit 
 of a vessel very richly laden, of which they had ob- 
 tained intelligence. The ship, of which they were now 
 in hot pursuit, got notice of her danger in time to land 
 the treasure with which she was freighted, eight 
 hundred bars of silver, the property of the King of 
 Spain. Drake, now preparing for active measures, rid 
 himself of every encumbrance by setting all the sails 
 of his prizes, and turning them adrift whithersoever 
 the winds might carry them. The arrival of these 
 tenantless barks on some wild coast or lonely island 
 may yet form the theme of Indian tradition, though 
 more probably they must all have been dashed to 
 pieces. 
 
 Tidings of the English being upon the coast had by 
 this time been despatched overland to the governor at 
 Lima; but the difficulty of travelling in these still 
 tangled and trackless regions enabled Drake to outstrip 
 the messenger, and on the 13th September to surprise
 
 72 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 the Spanish ships lying in Callao, the port of Lima. 
 The spoil was trifling for the number of vessels. In 
 boarding a ship from Panama, which was just then 
 entering the port, an Englishman was killed. Another 
 account says he was shot from a boat while pursuing 
 the crew, who were abandoning the vessel. In one 
 ship a chest of ryals of plate, and a considerable store 
 of linens, silks, and general merchandise, were obtained. 
 From the prisoners Drake learned that ten days before 
 (Lopez Vaz makes it but three) the Cacafuego, laden 
 with treasure, had sailed for Panama, the point from 
 whence all goods were carried across the Isthmus. 
 This information at once determined the course of our 
 navigator ; and as ships from Callao to Panama were 
 in the habit of touching at intermediate places, he 
 reckoned the Cacaftiego already his prize. As a 
 measure of precaution, the mainmasts of the two 
 largest prizes found here were cut away, the cables 
 of the smaller ones were severed, and the goods and 
 people being previously removed, the whole were aban- 
 doned to the mercy of the winds and waves; while 
 Drake bore northward in full sail, or, when the wind 
 slackened, was towed on by the boats, each man strain- 
 ing to reach the golden goal. But this rather anti- 
 cipates the course of the narrative. 
 
 When intelligence of Drake's ship at last reached 
 Lima, it was presumed some of the Spanish crews had 
 mutinied, and that the Golden Hind was a Spanish 
 vessel turned pirate, so little was an attack by the
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 73 
 
 English on this side of the continent deemed possible, 
 or that the ships of any nation, save Spain, could pass 
 the intricate and fatal Strait of Magellan. On being 
 apprised of the real fact, and of the danger impending, 
 Don Francisco de Toledo, the viceroy at Lima, im- 
 mediately repaired to the port with a force estimated 
 by Lopez Vaz at two thousand horse and foot. The 
 Golden Hind still remained in sight of the port, and 
 nearly becalmed. Two vessels, in each of which two 
 hundred fighting men were embarked, were equipped 
 in all haste, and the capture of Drake the pirate- 
 heretic was already confidently reckoned upon. At 
 the same hour in which they left the port to make the 
 attack a fresh gale sprung up, and the English ship 
 pressed onward. The flight and pursuit were con- 
 tinued for some time, as it was not the policy of Drake, 
 with his very inferior force, to risk an action. By an 
 oversight, most fortunate for the English, the Spaniards, 
 in their eagerness and confidence of an easy conquest, 
 had neglected to take provisions on board. Famine 
 compelled them to abandon the pursuit, but Don 
 Francisco lost no time in remedying this inadvertence. 
 A force of three ships, fully equipped, was despatched 
 under the command of Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, 
 but arrived too late. The same commander afterwards 
 long watched, and waited in vain, the return of Drake 
 by the Strait. On his recommendation they were after- 
 wards fortified, and a colony planted, an abortive at- 
 tempt which cost Spain much treasure and many lives.
 
 74 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 Near Payti, a small vessel, in which some silver 
 ornaments were found, was rifled and dismissed ; and 
 on passing Payti, from the crew of a vessel which was 
 searched they learned that the Cacafuego had the start 
 of them now only by two days. Every nerve was 
 fresh-braced for pursuit; but the future advantage 
 hoped for did not lead them, in the meantime, to 
 despise present small gains. Two more vassels were 
 intercepted, rifled, and turned adrift the crews being 
 first landed. In one of these some silver and eighty 
 pounds of gold were found, and a golden crucifix in 
 which was set "a goodly and great emerald." They 
 also found a good supply of useful stores and a large 
 quantity of cordage, which made most part of the 
 cargo. On the 24th February they crossed the Line, 
 the Cacajuego still ahead and unseen ; and Drake, to 
 animate the hopes and quicken the vigilance of his 
 company, offered as a reward to whoever should first 
 descry the prize the gold chain which he usually wore. 
 The reward was gained by Mr. John Drake, who, at 
 three o'clock in the afternoon of the 1st March, from 
 the mast-head discerned the prize, which by six o'clock 
 was boarded and taken. This capture was made off 
 Cape Francisco. The captain, a Biscayan named Juan 
 de Anton, was so little aware of his danger, that seeing 
 a vessel coming up to him under a press of sail, he 
 concluded that the viceroy had sent some important 
 message, and struck his sails to await the approach of 
 the Golden Hind. When aware, from closer inspection,
 
 DRAKE 'S CIRCUMNA VIGA TION. 75 
 
 of his mistake, he tried to escape ; but he was already 
 within reach of Drake's guns, and possessed no defensive 
 weapons of any kind. Yet, with the brave spirit of 
 his province, the Biscayan refused to strike till his 
 rnizzenmast was shot away, and he himself wounded by 
 an arrow. 
 
 This ship proved to be a prize worth gaining. It 
 contained twenty-six tons of silver, thirteen chests of 
 ryals of plate, and eighty pounds of gold, besides 
 diamonds and inferior gems, the whole estimated at 
 three hundred and sixty thousand pesos. 
 
 Among the spoils were two very handsome silver 
 gilt bowls belonging to the pilot, of which Drake de- 
 manded one; which the doughty Spaniard surrender- 
 ing, presented the other to the steward, as if he disdained 
 to hold anything by the favour of the English. The 
 " Famous Voyage " records some capital salt-water jests 
 made on this occasion at the expense of the Spaniards. 
 It must be owned that the laugh was wholly on the 
 side of the English. 
 
 Had Drake, thus richly laden, now been assured of a 
 safe and an easy passage to England, it is probable 
 that the Golden Hind might not on this voyage have 
 encompassed the globe. The advanced season, however, 
 and the outlook which he was aware the Spaniards 
 would keep for his return, forbade the attempt of re- 
 passing the Strait ; while the glory of discovery, and 
 the hope of taking his immense treasure safely to 
 England, determined him in the resolution of seeking a
 
 76 DRA KB 'S CIRCUMNA VI G A TION. 
 
 north-west passage homeward. Though not in general 
 communicative, his plans were no sooner formed than 
 he unfolded them to the ship's company, with the 
 persuasive eloquence of a man eminently fitted for 
 command. The crew were now in high spirits, and 
 full of confidence in their skilful, bold, and successful 
 leader. His counsel, which carried all the weight of 
 command, was " to seek out some convenient place to 
 trim the ship, and store it with wood, water, and such 
 provisions as could be found, and thenceforward to 
 hasten our intended journey for the discovery of the 
 said passage, through which we might with joy return 
 to our longed homes." 
 
 With this resolution they steered for Nicaragua, and 
 on the 16th March anchored in a small bay of the 
 island of Canno, which proved a good station to water 
 and refit. The pinnace was once more on active duty, 
 and a prize was brought in laden with honey, butter, 
 sarsaparilla, and other commodities. Among the papers 
 of the prize were letters from the King of Spain to the 
 governor of the Philippines, and sea-charts which after- 
 wards proved of use to the English. While Drake lay 
 here, a violent shock of an earthquake was felt. From 
 Canno they sailed on the 24th March, the captain- 
 general never loitering in any port beyond the time 
 absolutely necessary to repair the ship and take in 
 water. On the 6th April they made another valuable 
 prize. Being already well supplied with stores, their 
 choice was become more nice and difficult ; and select-
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 77 
 
 ing only silks, linen, delicate porcelain, and a falcon of 
 finely-wrought gold, in the breast of which a large 
 emerald was set, the vessel was dismissed, and of her 
 crew only a negro and the pilot detained, who steered 
 them into the harbour of Guatalco. Landing, accord- 
 ing to their approved good practice, to ransack the 
 town, it is related in the " Famous Voyage " that they 
 surprised a council then holding on certain negroes 
 accused of a plot to burn the place. To their mutual 
 astonishment, judges and culprits were hurried on 
 board in company, and the chief men were compelled 
 to write to the townspeople to make no resistance to 
 the English. The only plunder found in ransacking 
 this small place, in which there were but fourteen 
 persons belonging to Old Spain, consisted of about a 
 bushel of ryals of plate. One of the party, Mr. John 
 Winter, seeing a Spaniard taking flight, pursued and 
 took from the fugitive a chain of gold and some jewels. 
 This is related with great exultation, as a feat of 
 peculiar dexterity and merit. All the Spaniards on 
 board the Golden Hind were now set at liberty. The 
 Portuguese pilot, Nuno Silva, who had been brought 
 from the Cape de Verd Islands, was also dismissed, and 
 probably at this place wrote the relation of the voyage 
 from which quotations have been made in this memoir. 
 Silva's account was sent to the Portuguese viceroy in 
 India, and long afterwards fell into the hands of the 
 English. 
 
 Satiated with plunder on sea and shore, Drake, on
 
 78 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 the ICth April, sailed on that bold project of discovery 
 formerly communicated to his company, and by the 
 3rd of June had gone over one thousand four hundred 
 leagues, in different courses, without seeing land. They 
 had now reached 43 north ; the cold was become very 
 severe, and, on advancing two or three degrees further, 
 so intense, that meat froze the instant it was removed 
 from the fire, and the ropes and tackling of the ship 
 became rigid from the influence of the frost. On the 
 5th, being driven in by the winds, land was seen, and 
 they anchored in a small bay, too unsheltered, however, 
 to permit of their remaining. Drake had not expected 
 to find the coast stretching so far westward. The 
 wind was now become adverse to holding a northerly 
 course, although the extreme cold, and the chill, raw, 
 unwholesome fogs which surrounded them had made 
 such a track desirable. The land seen here was in 
 general low ; but wherever a height appeared it was 
 found covered with snow, though now almost mid- 
 summer. The land seen was the western coast of 
 California. On the 17th June they anchored in a good 
 harbour, on an inhabited coast. As the Hind drew 
 near the shore the natives approached, and an am- 
 bassador or spokesman put off in a canoe, who made a 
 formal harangue, accompanied with much gesticulation. 
 When the oration was concluded, he made a profound 
 obeisance and retired to the land. A second and a 
 third time he returned in the same manner, bringing, 
 as a gift or tribute, a bunch of feathers neatly trimmed
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 79 
 
 and stuck together, and a basket made of rushes. Of 
 these rushes it was afterwards found that the natives 
 fabricated several useful and pretty things. The 
 females, though the men were entirely naked, wore a 
 sort of petticoat composed of rushes, previously stripped 
 into long threads resembling hemp. They also wore 
 deer-skins round their shoulders ; and some of the men 
 occasionally used furs as a covering. It was remarked 
 that the Indians appeared as sensible to the extreme 
 severity of the weather as the English seamen, cower- 
 ing, shivering, and keeping huddled together, even 
 when wrapped up in their furs. The basket brought 
 by the Indian ambassador or orator was filled with an 
 herb which, in some of the original relations of the 
 voyage, is called tabah, the native name, and in others 
 tobacco. The Indian was either afraid or unwilling to 
 accept of any present from the English in return for 
 this simple tribute, but picked up a hat which was 
 sent afloat towards him. The kindness of Drake 
 ultimately gained the confidence of these people. 
 
 The ship had some time before sprung a leak, and it 
 was here found necessary to land the goods and stores, 
 that she might be repaired. On the 21st this was 
 done, though the natives appeared to view the move- 
 ment with suspicion and dissatisfaction. They, how- 
 ever, laid aside their bows and arrows when requested 
 to do so, and an exchange of presents further cemented 
 the growing friendship. They retired apparently satis- 
 fied; but had no sooner reached their huts, which
 
 80 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 stood at a considerable distance, than a general howling 
 and lamentation commenced, which lasted all night. 
 The females especially continued shrieking in a wild 
 and doleful manner, which, if not absolutely appalling 
 to the English, was yet to the last degree painful, 
 Drake, whose presence of mind never forsook him, and 
 who was seldom lulled into false security by appear- 
 ances of friendship, mistrusting the state of excitement 
 into which the Indians were raised, took the precaution 
 of intrenching the tents into which the goods and the 
 crew had been removed while the repairs of the ship 
 were in progress. For the two days following "the 
 night of lamentation " no native appeared. At the end 
 of that time a great number seemed to have joined the 
 party first seen ; and the whole assembled on a height 
 overlooking the fortified station of the ship's company, 
 and appeared desirous of approaching the strangers. 
 The ceremonies were opened by an orator or herald 
 making a long speech or proclamation, with which 
 the audience were understood to express assent, by 
 bowing their bodies at the conclusion, and groaning in 
 chorus Oh ! or Oh ! oh ! After this friendly demon- 
 stration for as such it was intended a deputation 
 of the assembly stuck their bows into the earth, and 
 bearing gifts of feathers and rush-baskets with tabah, 
 descended towards the fort. While this was passing 
 below, the women, mixed with the group on the height, 
 began to shriek and howl as on the " night of lamen- 
 tation," to tear their flesh with their nails, and dash
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 81 
 
 themselves on the ground, till the blood sprung from 
 their bodies. This is said, in the " Famous Voyage," 
 to have been part of the orgies of their idol or demon 
 worship. Drake, it is said, struck with grief and 
 horror, and probably not without a tincture of super- 
 stition, ordered divine service to be solemnized. The 
 natives sat silent and attentive, at proper pauses 
 breathing their expressive " Oh ! " in token of assent 
 or approbation. With the psalms, sung probably to 
 one of the simple solemn chants of the Old Church, 
 they appeared affected and charmed; and they re- 
 peatedly afterwards requested their visitors to sing. 
 On taking leave they declined the gifts tendered, either 
 from superstitious dread, or as probably on the same 
 principle which makes a clown at a fair afraid to 
 accept the tempting shilling offered by a recruiting- 
 sergeant, from no dislike to the coin, or reluctance to 
 drink the king's health, but from great distrust of the 
 motives of the giver. The voyagers, with amusing 
 self-complaisance, ascribe this fear or delicacy to the 
 deep veneration of the natives, and to their thinking 
 " themselves sufficiently enriched and happy that they 
 had free access to see us." 
 
 The Indians here managed their foreign relations 
 with ceremonial that might have sufficed for more re- 
 fined societies. The news of the arrival of the English 
 having spread, on the 26th two heralds or pursuivants 
 arrived at headquarters, craving an audience of the 
 captain-general on the part of their hioh or king. The 
 
 (829) 6
 
 82 DRA KE 'S CIRCUMNA VIGA TION. 
 
 precursor of majesty harangued a full half-hour, his 
 associate dictating to or prompting him, and concluded 
 by demanding tokens of friendship and safe-conduct 
 for the chief. These were cheerfully given. 
 
 The approach of the hioh was well arranged, and 
 imposing in effect. First came the sceptre or mace 
 bearer, as he is called, though club-bearer would be the 
 more correct phrase. This officer was a tall and hand- 
 some man, of noble presence. His staff or club of office 
 was about five feet in length, and made of a dark wood. 
 To this were attached two pieces of net-work or chain- 
 work, curiously and delicately wrought, of a bony 
 substance, minute, thin, and burnished, and consisting 
 of innumerable links. He had also a basket of tabah. 
 These net-cauls or chains were supposed to be insignia 
 of personal rank and dignity, akin to the crosses, stars, 
 and ribbons of civilized nations, the number of them 
 worn denoting the degree of consequence, as the im- 
 portance of a pasha is signified by the number of his 
 tails. The king followed his minister, and in his turn 
 was succeeded by a man of tall stature, with an air of 
 natural grandeur and majesty which struck the English 
 visitors. The royal-guard came next in order. It was 
 formed of one hundred picked men, tall and martial- 
 looking, and clothed in skins. Some of them wore 
 ornamental head-dresses made of feathers, or of a 
 feathery-down which grew upon a plant of the country. 
 The king wore about his shoulders a robe made of the 
 skins of the species of marmot afterwards described.
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 83 
 
 Next in place in this national procession came the 
 common people, every one painted, though in a variety 
 of patterns, and with feathers stuck in the club of hair 
 drawn up at the crown of their heads. The women 
 and children brought up the rear, carrying each, as a 
 propitiatory gift, a basket, in which was either tabali, 
 broiled fish, or a root that the natives ate both raw 
 and baked. 
 
 Drake, seeing them so numerous, drew up his men in 
 order, and under arms, within his fortification or block- 
 house. At a few paces' distance the procession halted, 
 and deep silence was observed, w r hile the sceptre -bearer, 
 prompted as before by another official, harangued for 
 a full half-hour. His eloquent address, whatever it 
 might import, received the concurrent " Oh " of the 
 national assembly. The same orator commenced a song 
 or chant, keeping time in a slow, solemn dance, per- 
 formed with a stately air, the king and all the warriors 
 joining both in the measure and the chorus. The 
 females also moved in the dance, but silently. Drake 
 could no longer doubt of their amicable feelings and 
 peaceful intentions. They were admitted, still singing 
 and moving in a choral dance, within the fort. The 
 orations and songs were renewed and prolonged ; and 
 the chief, placing one of his crowns upon the head of 
 the captain-general, and investing him with the other 
 imagined insignia of royalty, courteously tendered him 
 his whole dominions, and hailed him king ! Songs of 
 triumph were raised, as if in confirmation of this
 
 84 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 solemn cession of territory and sovereignty. Such is 
 the interpretation which the old voyagers put upon a 
 ceremony that has been more rationally conjectured to 
 resemble the interchange or exchange of names, which 
 in the South Sea islands seals the bonds of friendship ; 
 or as something equivalent to a European host telling 
 his visitor that he is master of the house. "The 
 admiral," it is shrewdly observed, "accepted of this 
 new-offered dignity in her majesty's name, and for her 
 use; it being probable that, from this donation, whether 
 made in jest or earnest by these Indians, some real 
 advantage might hereafter redound to the English 
 nation and interest in these parts." We are expressly 
 informed that the natives afterwards actually wor- 
 shipped their guests, and that it was necessary to 
 check their idolatrous homage. They roamed about 
 among the tents, admiring all they saw, and expressing 
 attachment to the English in their own peculiar fashion. 
 It was for the youngest of the company these fondnesses 
 were imbibed. To express affection, the Indians sur- 
 rounded and gazed upon them, and then began to howl 
 and tear their flesh till they streamed in their own 
 blood, to demonstrate the liveliness and strength of 
 their affection. The same unnatural and uncouth 
 shows of regard continued to be made while the English 
 remained on the coast; and obeisances and homage 
 were rendered which, being considered as approaching 
 to sacrifice or worship, were strenuously and piously 
 disclaimed. These people are described as an amiable
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 85 
 
 race ; of a free, tractable, kindly nature, without guile 
 or treachery. To mark their esteem of the English, 
 and confidence in their skill and superiority, it may be 
 noticed that they applied for medicaments for their 
 wounds and sores. 
 
 The men, as has been noticed, were generally naked ; 
 but the women, besides the short petticoat woven of 
 peeled bulrushes, wore deer-skins, with the hair on, 
 round their shoulders. They were remarked to be 
 good wives, very obedient and serviceable to their 
 husbands. The men were so robust and powerful that 
 a burden which could hardly be borne by two of the 
 seamen, a single native would with ease carry up and 
 down hill for a mile together. Their weapons were 
 bows and arrows, but of a feeble, useless kind. Their 
 dwellings were constructed in a round form, built of 
 earth, and roofed with pieces of wood joined together 
 at a common centre, somewhat in form of a spire. 
 Being partly under ground, they were close and warm. 
 The fire was placed in the middle, and beds of rushes 
 were spread on the floor. 
 
 Before sailing, Drake made an excursion into the 
 interior. Immense herds of deer were seen, large and 
 fat; and the country seemed one immense warren of 
 a species of cony of the size of a Barbary rat, " their 
 heads and faces like rabbits in England, their paws 
 like a mole, their tails like a rat. Under their chin on 
 each side was a pouch, into which they gathered meat 
 to feed their young, or serve themselves another time."
 
 86 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 The natives ate the flesh of those animals, and greatly 
 prized their skins, of which the state robes worn by 
 the king at his interview with Drake were made. 
 
 The admiral named this fair and fertile country New 
 Albion, and erected a monument of his discovery, to 
 which was nailed a brass plate, bearing the name, effigy, 
 and arms of her majesty, and asserting her territorial 
 rights, and the date of possession being taken. 
 
 Drake had spent thirty-six days at this place, a 
 long but necessary sojourn ; but the repairs of the ship 
 being completed, on the 23rd July he bore away from 
 Port Drake the kind-hearted natives deeply bewail- 
 ing the departure of their new friends. The regret, 
 good -will, and respect were indeed mutual. The 
 Indians entreated the English to remember them ; and 
 as a farewell offering or homage, secretly provided 
 what is called a sacrifice. While the ship remained in 
 sight they kept fires burning on the heights. It is 
 delightful at this time to hear of Europeans leaving 
 grateful remembrances of their visits on any coast, and 
 the pleasure is enhanced by being able to claim this 
 honour for our countrymen. It was from some fancied 
 resemblance to the white cliffs of England that Drake 
 bestowed on the coast he had surveyed the name of 
 New Albion.* 
 
 Next day a store of seals and birds were caught at 
 
 * After passing Punta de los Reyes, Captain Beechey awaited the 
 return of day off some white cliffs, which he believed must be those 
 which made Sir Francis Drake bestow on this tract of country the name 
 of New Albion.
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 87 
 
 some small islands, which are now supposed to be the 
 Farellones of modern charts. 
 
 Thus far had Drake boldly explored in search of a 
 passage homeward, either through an undiscovered 
 strait or around the northern extremity of the continent 
 of America ; but now this design, so honourable to his 
 enterprise, and even to his sagacity, was for the present 
 abandoned, the winds being adverse, and the season 
 too far advanced to prosecute further so perilous an 
 adventure. Leaving the scene of his discoveries on 
 the western coast of America, which are reckoned to 
 begin immediately to the north of Cape Mendocino 
 and to extend to 48 N., Drake, with the unanimous 
 consent of his company, having formed the design of 
 returning home by India and the Cape of Good Hope, 
 sailed westwards for sixty-eight days without coming 
 in sight of land. On the 13th September he fell in 
 with some islands in 8 N. As soon as the Golden 
 Hind appeared, the natives came off in canoes, each 
 containing from four to fourteen men, bringing cocoa- 
 nuts, fish, and fruits. Their canoes were ingeniously 
 formed, and prettily ornamented, hollowed out of a 
 single tree, and so high at the stern and prow as to be 
 nearly semicircular. The islanders were not yet suf- 
 ficiently enlightened in mercantile affairs to have 
 learned that honesty is the dealers' best policy. Drake, 
 however, instead of imitating the conduct of Magellan, 
 and instantly shooting them for thieving, or burning 
 their houses, endeavoured to bring them to a sense of
 
 88 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 propriety, merely by refusing to traffic with those who 
 were found dishonest. This excited their displeasure, 
 and a general attack of stones was commenced. A 
 cannon, not shotted, fired over their heads to scare 
 them away, had only this effect for a short time. The 
 general was at last compelled to adopt more severe 
 measures of retaliation, and we are told, in vague 
 terms, that "smart was necessary as well as terror." 
 The natives of those Islands of Thieves, as they were 
 named by the English, had the lobes of their ears cut 
 out into a circle, which hung down on their cheeks. 
 Their teeth were black as jet, from the use of a powder 
 which they constantly employed for the purpose of 
 staining them. This powder they carried about with 
 them in a hollow cane. Another peculiarity observed 
 was the length of their nails, which was above an inch. 
 It has been conjectured, with every mark of probability, 
 that Drake's Islands of Thieves are the islands named 
 De Sequeira, discovered by Diego da Rocha, and the 
 Pelew Islands of our own times. If so, the morals of 
 the inhabitants must have improved greatly in the long 
 interval which elapsed between this first visit of the 
 English and that made by Captain Wilson in the Duff. 
 The wind coming fair, on the 3rd October the Golden 
 Hind stood westward, and on the 16th of the month 
 made the Philippines in 7 5' north of the Line. They 
 first fell in with four islands having a thick population, 
 or the appearance of it. These they visited, and after- 
 wards anchored in Mindanao. Sailing hence on the 22nd,
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 89 
 
 they kept a southerly course, and passed between two 
 islands, about six or eight leagues south of Mindanao, 
 supposed to be Sarangan and Candigar. 
 
 On the 3rd November the Moluccas were seen, and 
 they steered for Tidore: but in coasting along Motir 
 a boat came off, from which Drake learned that the 
 Portuguese, expelled from Terrenate (or Ternate) by the 
 king of that island, had fixed their headquarters at 
 Tidore. In this boat was the Viceroy of Motir, which 
 island was under the sovereignty of the powerful and 
 warlike King of Ternate. As soon as the viceroy 
 understood that Drake had no reason either to love or 
 trust the Portuguese, he entreated him to change his 
 destination; and the ship accordingly steered for the 
 port of Ternate. 
 
 Previous to coming to an anchor before the town, a 
 courteous offer of friendship was made by the general, 
 through a messenger whom he sent on shore, with a 
 velvet cloak as a present to the king, and who was 
 instructed to say that the English came hither only to 
 trade, and to procure refreshments. The Viceroy of 
 Motir had previously disposed the king to give Drake 
 a favourable reception. To the general's message a 
 gracious answer was returned. All that the territories 
 of the King of Ternate afforded was at the disposal of 
 the English ; and that prince was ready to lay himself 
 and his whole dominions at the feet of so glorious a 
 princess as the Queen of England. By some of the 
 voyagers this flourish of Oriental hyperbole was most
 
 90 DRAKE 'S CIRCUMNA VIGA TION. 
 
 literally interpreted. The English envoy was received 
 with great pomp ; and as credentials, or safe-conduct, 
 a signet, we are not told in what form, was transmitted 
 through him to the captain-general. Before the ship 
 came to anchor the king put off to pay it a visit of 
 welcome and ceremony. The royal equipment con- 
 sisted of three state barges or canoes, filled with the 
 most distinguished persons of his retinue. They wore 
 dresses of white muslin, "white lawn, of cloth of 
 Calicut." Over their heads was a canopy or awning 
 of perfumed mats, supported on a framework of reeds. 
 Their personal attendants, also dressed in white, stood 
 next them ; and beyond these were ranks of warriors, 
 armed with dirks and daggers ; these again were en- 
 circled by the rowers, of whom there were eighty to 
 each barge, placed in galleries raised above the other 
 seats, three on each side. They rowed, or rather paddled, 
 in cadence to the clashing of cymbals, and altogether 
 made a gallant show. The king, who advanced in the 
 last barge, was saluted with a discharge of all the great 
 guns; and the martial music which Drake employed 
 on occasions of ceremonial struck up. The canoes 
 paddled round and round the ship, the king appearing 
 delighted with the music, and gratified by the signs of 
 wealth and magnificence exhibited by his visitors. He 
 was himself a tall, stout, graceful man, and celebrated 
 as a conqueror and warrior. By policy and force of 
 arms he had not only expelled the Portuguese from this 
 island, but had subdued many others, so that seventy
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 91 
 
 islands now owned his sway. He professed the faith of 
 Mohammed, which was now become the religion of all 
 his dominions. It is worthy of remark that, in the 
 ceremonies and external observances of royalty, the 
 native princes of these Indian islands might have vied 
 with the most polished courts of Europe. Elizabeth, 
 whose board was daily spread with lowly bends and 
 reverences, was not more punctilious in ceremonial and 
 etiquette than the sovereign of Ternate. His courtiers 
 and attendants approached the royal presence with the 
 most profound respect, no one speaking to the king 
 save in a kneeling posture. As soon as the ship came 
 to an anchor the king took leave, promising another 
 visit on the following day. 
 
 That same evening a present of fowls, rice, sugar, 
 cloves, and frigo, was received, and "a sort of fruit," 
 says the " Famous Voyage," " they call sago, which is 
 a meal made out of the tops of trees, melting in the 
 mouth like sugar, but eating like sour curd, but yet 
 when made into cakes will keep so as to be very fit 
 for eating at the end of ten years." It is pleasant to 
 come thus upon the first simple notice of those pro- 
 ductions of other climes which have so long contributed 
 to the comfort, variety, or luxury of European com- 
 munities. 
 
 Instead of coming on board next day, the king sent 
 his brother to bear his excuses, and to remain as a 
 hostage for the safe return of the cap tain -general, who 
 was invited to land. The invitation was not accepted,
 
 92 DRA KE 'S GIRCUMNA V1GATION. 
 
 the English having some doubts of the good faith of 
 the fair-promising sovereign of Ternate. But some of 
 the gentlemen went on shore ; their first acquaintance, 
 the Viceroy of Motir, remaining as a hostage as well as 
 the king's brother. On landing they were received 
 with the pomp which had been intended to grace the 
 entrance of Drake into the capital. Another brother of 
 the king and a party of the nobles conducted them to 
 the palace, which stood near the dismantled fort of the 
 expelled Portuguese. There they found an assembly 
 of at least a thousand persons, sixty of them being 
 courtiers or privy councillors, " very grave persons ; " 
 and four Turkish envoys in robes of scarlet and turbans, 
 who were then at the court of Ternate concluding a 
 treaty of commerce. The king was guarded by twelve 
 lances. "A glorious canopy, embroidered with gold, 
 was carried over his head." His garb was a robe of 
 cloth of gold hanging loose about his person ; his legs 
 were bare, but on his feet he wore slippers of Cordovan 
 leather. Around his neck hung a weighty chain of 
 gold, and fillets of the same metal were wreathed 
 through his hair. On his fingers " were many fair 
 jewels." At the right side of his chair of state stood 
 a page cooling him with a fan, two feet in length 
 and one in breadth, embroidered and adorned with 
 sapphires, and fastened to a staff three feet long, by 
 which it was moved. His voice was low and his aspect 
 benign. 
 
 Drake did not afterwards land ; and the offers made
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 93 
 
 of exclusive traffic with the English were, it appears, 
 received by him with indifference. 
 
 Having procured a supply of provisions and a con- 
 siderable quantity of cloves, the Golden Hind left 
 the Moluccas on the 9th November, and on the 14th 
 anchored at a small island near the eastern part of 
 Celebes, which they named Crab Island. This place 
 being uninhabited and affording abundance of wood, 
 though no water was found, tents were erected on 
 shore, and fences formed around them ; and here they 
 resolved effectually to repair the ship for her homeward 
 voyage. This proved a pleasant sojourn. The island 
 was one continued forest of a kind of trees, large, lofty, 
 and straight in the stem, nor branching out till near 
 the top ; the leaves resembling the broom of England. 
 About these trees flickered innumerable bats " as big as 
 hens." There were also multitudes of shining flies, no 
 bigger than the common fly in England, which, skim- 
 ming up and down in the air between the trees and 
 bushes, made them appear " as if they were burning." 
 There were also great numbers of land-crabs, described 
 as a sort of cray-fish, " which dig holes in the earth 
 like conies, and are so large that one of them will dine 
 four persons, and very good meat." 
 
 At a small neighbouring island water was procured, 
 and on the 12th December, having lain at Crab Island 
 about a month, the Hind sailed for the west, and soon 
 got entangled among islets and shoals, which induced 
 them to steer for the south to get free of such dangerous
 
 94 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 ground. At this time occurred the most imminent 
 peril and providential escape that attended this re- 
 markable voyage, an incident as much resembling a 
 visible interposition of divine aid, where human hope 
 was perished, as any to be found among the almost 
 miraculous records of preservation contained in the 
 relations of maritime adventure. 
 
 After being teased for many days, on the 9th January 
 they flattered themselves that the shoals were at last 
 cleared. On that same evening, early in the first 
 watch, while the Golden Hind, with all her sails set, 
 was running before a fair wind, she came suddenly 
 upon a shelving rock, and stuck fast. Violent as 
 was the shock, she had sprung no leak, and the boats 
 were immediately lowered to sound, and ascertain if 
 an anchor could be placed in such a situation as would 
 permit the ship to be drawn off into deep water. But 
 the rock in which she was as it were jammed shelved 
 so abruptly that at the distance of only a few yards 
 no bottom could be found. A night of great anxiety 
 was passed; and when the dawn permitted a second 
 search for anchorage-ground, it only ended in more 
 confirmed and bitter disappointment. There seemed 
 no help of man; yet in the midst of their calamity 
 several fortunate, or more properly providential, cir- 
 cumstances intervened. No leak had been sprung; and 
 though the ebb-tide left the ship in only six feet of 
 water, while (so deeply was she treasure-laden) thirteen 
 were required to float her, a strong and steady gale,
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. ' 95 
 
 blowing from the side to which she must have heeled 
 as the tide gradually receded, supported her in this 
 dangerous position. In this dreadful situation, instead 
 of giving themselves up to despair or apathy, Drake and 
 his company behaved with the manliness, coolness, and 
 resolution which have ever in the greatest perils char- 
 acterized British seamen. The crew were summoned 
 to prayers; and this solemn duty fulfilled, a last united 
 effort was made for the common safety. A quantity 
 of meal, eight of the guns, and three tons of cloves 
 were thrown overboard. This partial lightening pro- 
 duced no visible effect ; the ship stuck as fast as before. 
 The simple language of the original narrative is so 
 much more forcible and touching than any modern 
 paraphrase that we at once adopt it. In a single 
 sentence it displays the manly and self -depending 
 character of Drake, and the veneration and implicit 
 confidence with which his crew regarded him. " Of 
 all other days," says one old relation, "on the 9th 
 January, in the yeere 1579 (1580), we ranne upon a 
 rocke, where we stuck fast from eight of the clocke at 
 nighte till four of the clocke in the afternoon of next 
 day, being indeed out of all hope to escape the danger ; 
 but our generall, as hee had alwayes shown himself 
 couragious, and of a good confidence in the mercie and 
 protection of God, so now he continued in the same ; 
 and lest he should seem to perish wilfully, both hee 
 and wee did our best endevour to save ourselves, which 
 it pleased God so to bless that in the ende wee cleared
 
 96 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 ourselves most happily of the danger." It was, how- 
 ever, by no effort of their own that they were finally 
 extricated, though nothing that skill and courage could 
 suggest or accomplish was wanting. The wind slackened 
 and fell with the tide, and at the lowest of the ebb 
 veered to the opposite point, when the vessel suddenly 
 heeled to her side. The shock loosened her keel, and 
 at the moment of what appeared inevitable destruction 
 she plunged into the deep water, once more as freely 
 afloat as when first launched on the ocean. The 
 thankfulness of the ship's company may be imagined. 
 This dangerous shoal or reef is not far from the coast 
 of Celebes, in 1 56' S. 
 
 Their perilous adventure made them afterwards very- 
 wary, and it was not till some weeks had elapsed that, 
 cautiously exploring their way, they finally extricated 
 themselves from this entangled coast. 
 
 On the 8th February they fell in with the island of 
 Baratane, probably the island now called Booton, a 
 pleasant and fruitful place. It afforded gold, silver, 
 copper, and sulphur. The fruits and other natural 
 productions were ginger, long-pepper, lemons, cocoas, 
 cucumbers, nutmegs, frigo, sago, etc., etc. Ternate 
 excepted, this island afforded better and greater variety 
 of refreshments for the mariner than any land at which 
 our navigators had touched since they had left England. 
 The inhabitants were worthy of the fertile region they 
 inhabited. In form and features they were a hand- 
 some people ; in disposition and manners, mild and
 
 DBA KE 'S CIRCUMNA VI G A TION. 97 
 
 friendly; fair in their dealings, and obliging in their 
 behaviour. The men were naked, save a small turban, 
 and a piece of cloth about their waists; but the women 
 were clothed from the middle to the feet, and had their 
 arms loaded with bracelets, fashioned of bone, horn, 
 and brass. The men universally wore ornaments in 
 their ears. These islanders received the English with 
 kindness and civility, and gladly supplied their wants. 
 
 Leaving Baratane, with very favourable impressions 
 of the country and the people, they made sail for Java, 
 which was reached on the 12th of March. Here the 
 navigators remained for twelve days in a course of 
 constant festivity. The island was at this time gov- 
 erned by five independent chiefs or rajahs, who lived 
 in perfect amity, and vied with each other in showing 
 hospitality and courtesy to their English visitors. 
 
 The social condition of the Javans at this compara- 
 tively early period exhibits a pleasing and attractive 
 picture of semi-barbarous life, if a state of society may 
 be thus termed which appears to realize many of our 
 late Utopian schemes of visionary perfection. The 
 Javans were of good size and well formed, bold and 
 warlike. Their weapons and armour were swords, 
 bucklers, and daggers of their own manufacture, the 
 blades admirably tempered, the handles highly orna- 
 mented. The upper part of their bodies was entirely 
 naked, but from the waist downwards they wore a 
 flowing garment of silk, of some gay and favourite 
 colour. In every village there was a house of assembly 
 
 (829) 7
 
 98 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 or public ball, where these social and cheerful people, 
 whom we may call the French of the Indian islands, 
 met twice a day to partake of a kind of picnic meal, 
 and enjoy the pleasures of conversation. To this 
 common festival every one contributed at his pleasure 
 or convenience, bringing fruits, boiled rice, roast fowls, 
 and sago. On a table raised three feet the feast was 
 spread, and the party gathered round, "every one 
 delighting in the company of another." While the 
 Hind lay here, a constant intercourse and interchange 
 of kindnesses and civilities were maintained between 
 the sea and shore the rajahs coming frequently on 
 board, either singly or together. 
 
 But the delights of Java could not long banish the 
 remembrance of England, to which every wish was 
 now directed. Making sail from Java, the first land 
 seen was the Cape of Good Hope, which they passed 
 on the loth June. The Spaniards had not more studi- 
 ously magnified the real dangers of Magellan Strait 
 than the Portuguese had exaggerated and misrepre- 
 sented the storms and perils which surround the Cape ; 
 and it required the characteristic intrepidity and con- 
 summate skill of Drake to venture, with his single 
 bark, on this doubtful and almost untried navigation. 
 It is, however, probable that he suspected the craft 
 which suggested this attempt to hoodwink and delude 
 all other maritime nations, that Portugal might lon<r 
 
 o o o 
 
 retain a monopoly of her important discovery. Certain 
 it is that the ship's company were surprised that close
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 99 
 
 by the Cape, "the most stately thing and goodliest 
 cape seen in the circumference of the whole earth," 
 no violent tempests or awful perils were encountered, 
 and they accordingly shrewdly concluded the report of 
 the " Portugals most false." 
 
 Deeming it unsafe or inexpedient to halt here, Drake 
 stood for land of which he had better knowledge ; and 
 on the 22nd July arrived at Sierra Leone. Water was 
 obtained, and the refreshment of fruits and oysters, of 
 which we are told "one kind was found on trees, 
 spawning and increasing wonderfully, the oyster suf- 
 fering no bud to grow." It was imagined the 26th of 
 September 1580, when, without touching at other 
 land, Captain Drake, after a voyage of two years and 
 ten months, came to an anchor in the harbour of Ply- 
 mouth, whence he had set out. The day of the week 
 was Monday, though, by the reckoning kept by the 
 voyagers, Sunday, and the 25th the true time; the 
 same loss of a day having befallen them which had 
 puzzled Magellan's crew, a mystery now clear to the 
 most juvenile student in geography. 
 
 The safe return of the expedition, the glory attend- 
 ing so magnificent an enterprise, and the immense mass 
 of wealth brought home, made the arrival of Drake be 
 hailed throughout England as an event of great national 
 importance. Such in fact it was, as his success gave 
 an incalculable impetus to the rapidly-increasing mari- 
 time spirit of the country. 
 
 The bravery, the exploits, and the wonderful ad-
 
 100 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 ventures of Drake immediately became the theme of 
 every tongue. Courtiers patronized and poets praised 
 him, and, to complete his celebrity, envious detractors 
 were not wanting, who, with some plausibility, re- 
 presented that England and Spain, though cherishing 
 the bitterest national antipathy, being still nominally 
 at peace, his enterprises were at best but those of a 
 splendid corsair, and that his spoliation of the subjects 
 of Spain must provoke reprisal on such merchants as 
 had goods and dealings in that country. It was urged 
 that, of all countries, a trading nation like England 
 should carefully avoid offending in a kind which laid 
 her open to speedy punishment, and must frustrate the 
 advancement of her maritime prosperity. On the 
 other hand, the friends and admirers of the navigator 
 contended that he of all men, who had been so deep a 
 sufferer from their perfidy, was entitled to take the 
 punishment of the Spaniards into his own hands ; and 
 that his gallant enterprise, while it inspired foreign 
 nations with a high opinion of the maritime talent and 
 power of England, would at home excite the noblest 
 emulation, an effect which it already had, the island, 
 from the one extreme to the other, being now inflamed 
 with the ardour that his splendid achievements had 
 kindled, and which was soon to be manifested in a 
 series of actions emanating directly from his expedition. 
 In the meanwhile Drake lost no time in repairing 
 to court. Elizabeth, who with all her faults never 
 favoured the despicable, was more purely the fountain
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH KNIGHTING DRAKE. 
 
 Page 104.
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 103 
 
 of all favour and honour than any preceding sovereign, 
 and her personal regard more the object of ambition. 
 Drake was graciously received, but not yet openly 
 countenanced. The queen permitted the first fervours 
 of both his admirers and enemies to abate before she 
 openly declared her own sentiments. A show of cold- 
 ness was also a necessary part of the subtle game she 
 was still playing with Spain. 
 
 The complaints of the Spaniards were violent and 
 loud ; and the queen deemed it prudent to place the 
 wealth brought home under sequestration till their 
 claims should be investigated, or, more correctly, till 
 the complainers could be either baffled or wearied 
 out in solicitation. It was the policy of Elizabeth to 
 protract the long-impending hostilities between the 
 countries, and among other means the plundered gold 
 was employed. As a foretaste, or a bribe to purchase 
 peace a little longer, several small sums were paid to 
 the agent for Spanish claims ; but when tired of the 
 game of diplomacy, which the queen relished as much 
 for the enjoyment of the play as the value of the stakes, 
 she suddenly took the resolution of openly countenanc- 
 ing the daring navigator, whose boldness, discretion, 
 and brilliant success were so happily adapted to gain 
 her favour. 
 
 On the 4th of April 1581, the queen went in state to 
 dine on board the Golden Hind, now lying at Deptf ord ; 
 and Drake, who naturally loved show and magnificence, 
 spared no pains in furnishing a banquet worthy of his
 
 104 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 
 
 royal guest. After dinner the queen conferred upon 
 him the honour of knighthood, enhancing the value 
 of the distinction by politely saying " that his actions 
 did him more honour than the title which she con- 
 ferred." The queen also gave orders that his ship 
 should be preserved as a monument of the glory of the 
 nation and of the illustrious commander. This was done, 
 and when it would no longer hold together a chair was 
 made of one of the planks, and presented as a relic to 
 the University of Oxford. On the day of the queen's 
 visit, in compliment to her majesty's scholarship, a 
 variety of Latin verses, composed by the scholars of 
 Winchester College, were nailed to the mainmast, in 
 which the praises of the ship and of the queen were 
 alternated and intermingled. The Golden Hind after- 
 wards became the theme of the muse of Cowley. One 
 translation of a Latin epigram on the ship we select 
 from a multitude of verses, as its quaintness is redeemed 
 by its elegance : 
 
 " The stars above will make thee known, 
 
 If man were silent here ; 
 The Sun himself cannot forget 
 His fellow-traveller. " 
 
 The reputation of Sir Francis Drake had now ob- 
 tained that court -stamp which, without increasing 
 value, gives currency. Though Elizabeth had so far 
 temporized as to sequestrate for a time the wealth 
 brought home, the Spanish complaints of the English 
 sailing in the South Sea she scornfully dismissed,
 
 DRAKE'S CHAIR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. 
 
 Page 104-
 
 DRAKE'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. 107 
 
 denying "that, by the Bishop of Rome's donation or 
 any other right, the Spaniards were entitled to debar 
 the subjects of other princes from these new countries 
 the gift of what is another's constituting no valid 
 right; that touching here and there, and naming a 
 river or cape, could not give a proprietary title, nor 
 hinder other nations from trading or colonizing in those 
 parts where the Spaniards had not planted settlements." 
 One objectionable part of Drake's conduct thus obtained 
 royal vindication; and as the war, long impending, 
 was no longer avoidable, his alleged depredations were 
 forgotten even by his envious detractors, and his fame 
 became as universal as it was high. Envy itself had 
 even been forced to acknowledge not merely his mari- 
 time skill and genius for command, but the humanity 
 and benevolence that marked his dealings with the 
 Indians, and the generosity with which he uniformly 
 treated his captives of that nation, of all others the 
 most hateful to Englishmen, and in some respects the 
 most injurious to himself. 
 
 But the further achievements of the Nelson of the 
 reign of Elizabeth demand a new chapter, the life of 
 Drake from this point being intimately blended with 
 the public history of England.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 
 
 HOSTILITIES with Spain, so long protracted by the 
 policy of Elizabeth, were now about to commence in 
 good earnest, and Drake may be said to have struck 
 the first blow. War was not formally declared when 
 he projected an expedition in concert with Sir Philip 
 Sydney, the two most popular men of their time 
 being to command, the one the land and the other the 
 sea force. On the part of Sir Philip the design was 
 abandoned at the express command of the queen, who 
 required his services in the Netherlands, where he had 
 already been usefully employed for the public cause, 
 and where, in the following year, he met his early and 
 glorious death. Sir Francis Drake's armament con- 
 sisted of twenty-five sail, of which two vessels were 
 queen's ships. His force amounted to two thousand 
 three hundred seamen and soldiers. Under his command 
 were several officers of experience and high reputation. 
 His lieutenant-general was Christopher Carlile ; his 
 vice-admiral, the celebrated navigator Martin Frobisher; 
 and Captain Francis Knollys and other officers of
 
 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 109 
 
 celebrity were among his coadjutors in an enterprise 
 the object of which was to unite public advantage with 
 private emolument. 
 
 The fleet stood at once for the coast of Spain, where 
 Drake meditated a bold stroke at the enemy's naval 
 force in passing to his ulterior objects in the West 
 Indies; and this without very rigid preliminary inquiry 
 whether war had been declared or not. His demand 
 to know why an embargo had been laid upon the goods 
 of certain English merchants was answered in terms so 
 pacific that, finding it impossible to fasten a quarrel 
 upon the Spaniards which would justify reprisal, the 
 fleet cruised from St. Sebastian to Vigo, capturing 
 some small tenders. They next stood for the Cape de 
 Verd Islands, where, landing one thousand men in the 
 night, Drake, with a handful of them, surprised and 
 took St. Jago, which the inhabitants hastily abandoned. 
 This was on the 17th November 1585, the anniversary of 
 Elizabeth's accession, which was celebrated by the guns 
 of the castle firing a salute, to which those of the fleet 
 replied. The conquest had proved easy, but the booty 
 was in proportion inconsiderable, consisting chiefly of 
 trifling merchandise, and the tawdry, worthless wares 
 employed in trading with the Indians of the islands 
 and on the shores of the continent of America. If 
 there had been any treasure in the place, it was either 
 carried away or effectually concealed ; and the threats 
 of the invaders to burn and slay, unless the terms of 
 ransom which they dictated were complied with, pro-
 
 110 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 
 
 duced no effect. The islanders seemed determined 
 either to weary or to starve out the invaders; and 
 their easy conquest soon became no desirable possession. 
 On the 24th, a village twelve miles in the interior, 
 named St. Domingo, was taken. But the islanders still 
 kept aloof; and, posting placards denouncing the 
 former cowardice and cruelty of the Portuguese and 
 their present pusillanimity, the English prepared to 
 depart. Then, for the first time, a force appeared 
 hanging off and on, as if to annoy their retreat. 
 Burning the town, and every place within reach, the 
 English re-embarked in good order, and stood for the 
 West Indies. 
 
 In palliation of what may appear useless severity, 
 it must be stated that, besides refusing the terms of 
 ransom offered them, the Portuguese had perpetrated 
 the most wanton cruelty on an English boy who had 
 straggled, and whose corpse was found by his country- 
 men torn, disfigured, and dismembered, as if he had 
 rather fallen into the hands of the most ferocious tribe 
 of cannibals than among a Christian people. The 
 islanders had also, five years before, murdered, under 
 the protection of a truce, the crew of a Bristol vessel 
 commanded by Captain William Hawkins. The 
 vengeance which may afterwards be taken by their 
 countrymen forms a strong protection to a single ship's 
 company or to a weak crew on a distant coast ; and if 
 there may not be strict equity, there is at least com- 
 mendable policy in a commander showing that neither
 
 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. Ill 
 
 former kindness nor yet treachery to the people of his 
 nation is either unknown or forgotten. 
 
 While the fleet lay here, that malignant fever which 
 proves the scourge of soldiers and seamen in these 
 climes broke out with great inveteracy, and carried off 
 between two and three hundred of the men. 
 
 They next touched at St. Christopher and Dominica, 
 where they had a friendly interview with some of the 
 aborigines, at which the toys and wares of St. Jago 
 were liberally exchanged for tobacco and cassada. 
 
 Attracted by the fame of the "brave city" of St. 
 Domingo, one of the oldest and wealthiest of the 
 Spanish settlements in the West Indies, it was deter- 
 mined to carry it. Drake's common plan of attack 
 was simple and uniform : a party was landed in the 
 night to make the assault from the land side, while 
 the ships co-operated from the water. On New-Year's 
 day the English landed ten miles to the westward of 
 the town, and, forming into two divisions, made the 
 attack at opposite gates ; and, to save themselves from 
 the guns of the castle, rushed forward sword in hand, 
 pell-mell, till according to agreement they met in the 
 market-place in the centre of the town, and changed 
 the fight of the Spaniards into precipitate retreat. 
 Here they hastily barricaded themselves, resolved to 
 maintain their post, and confidently expecting an attack. 
 But the Spaniards gave them little trouble. Struck 
 with panic, they next night abandoned the castle to 
 the invaders, and escaped by boats to the other side of
 
 112 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 
 
 the haven. The following day the English strengthened 
 their position, planting the ordnance which they took 
 within their trenches ; and, thus secured, they held the 
 place for a month, collecting what plunder was to be 
 found, while they negotiated with the Spaniards for 
 the ransom of the city. The terms were such that the 
 inhabitants were unable to redeem the town; and 
 burning and negotiation went on simultaneously and 
 leisurely. Two hundred seamen, and as many soldiers 
 forming their guard, were employed daily in the work 
 of destruction. But the buildings being lofty piles, 
 substantially constructed of stone, their demolition 
 proved a fatiguing duty to the men ; and after much 
 labour, spent with little loss to the enemy and no 
 profit to themselves, the ransom of twenty -five thou- 
 sand ducats was finally accepted for the safety of what 
 remained of the city. The plunder obtained was very 
 inconsiderable for the size and imagined riches of the 
 place. 
 
 A little episode in the history of this enterprise 
 against St. Domingo deserves notice, as it places the 
 energetic character of Drake in a striking point of 
 view. A negro boy, sent with a flag of truce to the 
 leading people while the negotiation for ransom was 
 pending, was met by some Spanish officers, who furi- 
 ously struck at him, and afterwards pierced him 
 through with a horseman's spear. Dreadfully wounded 
 as he was, the poor boy tried to crawl back to his 
 master ; and while relating the cruel treatment he had
 
 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 113 
 
 received, he fell down and expired in the presence of 
 Drake. The insult offered to his flag of truce, and 
 the barbarous treatment of the lad, roused the captain- 
 general to the highest pitch of indignation. He com- 
 manded the provost-marshal, with a guard, to carry 
 two unfortunate monks, who had been made prisoners, 
 to the place where his flag was violated, there to be 
 hanged. Another prisoner shared the same fate ; and 
 a message was sent to the Spaniards announcing that, 
 until the persons guilty of this breach of the law of 
 nations were given up, two Spanish prisoners should 
 suffer daily. Next day the offenders were sent in; 
 and to make their merited punishment the more igno- 
 minious and exemplary, their own countrymen were 
 compelled to become their executioners. 
 
 Among other instances of Spanish boasting and vain- 
 glory, recorded by the historians of the voyage, is an 
 account of an escutcheon of the arms of Spain, found 
 in the town-hall of the city, on the lower part of which 
 was a globe, over which was represented a horse 
 rampant, or probably volant, with the legend Non 
 sufficit orbis. This vaunt gave great offence at this 
 particular time to the national pride of the English, 
 who told the negotiators that, should their queen be 
 pleased resolutely to prosecute the war, instead of the 
 whole globe not satisfying his ambition, Philip would 
 find some difficulty in keeping that portion of it which 
 he already possessed. 
 
 Their next attempt was directed against Carthagena,
 
 114 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 
 
 which was bravely defended and gallantly carried 
 Carlile making the attack on the land side, while 
 Drake's fleet presented itself before the town. The 
 governor, Alonzo Bravo, was made prisoner ; and after 
 holding the place for six weeks, and destroying many 
 houses, the trifling ransom of eleven thousand ducats 
 was accepted for the preservation of the rest of the 
 town. The Spaniards might not have got off on such 
 easy terms, but that the fearful pest, the deadly bilious 
 fever, which has so often proved fatal to English ex- 
 peditions in the very same locality, now raged in the 
 fleet, and compelled the commanders to revise their 
 plans and lower their demands. About seven hundred 
 men perished in this expedition of the calentura alone, 
 as the disease, since described by Smollett and Glover 
 and others, was then named. Those who struggled 
 through this frightful malady, if we may fully credit 
 the early accounts, were even more to be pitied than 
 those that sunk under the disease. Though they sur- 
 vived, it was with loss of strength, not soon if ever 
 recovered; and many suffered the decay of memory 
 and impaired judgment, so that, when a man began to 
 talk foolishly and incoherently, it became a common 
 phrase in the fleet to say that such an one had been 
 seized with the calenture. 
 
 The design of attempting Nombre de Dios and 
 Panama, "there to strike the stroke for treasure," of 
 which they had hitherto been disappointed, was aban- 
 doned in a council of war ; and, sailing by the coast of
 
 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 115 
 
 Florida, they burned St. Helena and St. Augustin, two 
 forts and small settlements of the Spaniards, and 
 brought off from Virginia Mr. Lane, the governor, with 
 the remains of an unfortunate colony sent out under 
 the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh in the former year. 
 
 It was July 1586 before the armament returned, 
 bringing two hundred brass and forty iron cannon, and 
 about 60,000 in prize-money, of which 20,000 was 
 divided among the men, and the remainder allotted 
 to the adventurers. Though the private gains result- 
 ing from the expedition were trifling, the dismantling 
 of so many fortresses at the beginning of a war was a 
 service to the country of no inconsiderable value. It 
 was but the first of many which our navigator per- 
 formed in its progress. 
 
 The next exploit of Drake was wholly for the public 
 service. The rumour of that formidable armament 
 fitted out by Spain to invade England, and first in 
 fear, though afterwards in jest, named the Invincible 
 Armada, had spread general alarm. In a noble spirit 
 of patriotism, the merchants of London, at their own 
 expense, fitted out twenty-six vessels of different sizes, 
 to be placed under the command of Drake, to annoy 
 the enemy, and, if possible, frustrate or delay the 
 boasted design of invading England. To this arma- 
 ment the queen added four ships of the royal fleet; and 
 with this considerable force Drake bore for Lisbon, and 
 afterwards for the harbour of Cadiz, where he had the 
 good fortune to burn and destroy ten thousand tons
 
 116 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 
 
 burden of shipping, either destined for the threatened 
 invasion or subservient to this purpose. Here he re- 
 mained for a short time, annoying the enemy's galleys, 
 which he destroyed piecemeal, though his great enter- 
 prise had been accomplished in one day and two nights. 
 Drake having thus happily accomplished his public 
 duty, was impelled by gratitude and gallantry to 
 attempt a stroke which might enable him to reward 
 the spirited individuals who had enabled him so essen- 
 tially to serve their common country. Having private 
 information that the St. Philip, a Portuguese carack 
 from the East Indies, was about this time expected at 
 Terceira, he sailed for the Azores. Before he fell in 
 with the prize the fleet became short of provisions; 
 but, by dint of promises and threats, Drake prevailed 
 with his company to bear up against privations, and 
 soon had the felicity of bringing in triumph to England 
 the richest prize that had ever yet been made, and the 
 first-fruits of the numerous captures to which his success 
 soon led the way both among the Dutch and English. 
 The name of the prize was hailed as an omen of future 
 victory to England. Drake is blamed for discovering 
 undue elation at the close of this triumphant expedition. 
 He is said to have become boastful of his own deeds, 
 though the only ground of charge is gaily describing 
 his bold and gallant service as " burning the Spanish 
 king's beard." But surely this may well be forgiven 
 to the hero who, delaying the threatened Armada for a 
 year, laid the foundation of its final discomfiture. Nor
 
 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 117 
 
 were Drake's eminent services to his country limited 
 to warlike operations. In the short interval of leisure 
 which followed this expedition he brought water into 
 the town of Plymouth, of which it was in great want, 
 from springs eight miles distant, and by a course 
 measuring more than twenty miles. 
 
 In the following year his distinguished services re- 
 ceived the reward to which they were fully entitled, 
 in his appointment of vice-admiral under Lord Charles 
 Howard of Effingham, high-admiral of England. 
 
 Drake had hitherto been accustomed to give orders, 
 not to obey them; and his vivacity under command 
 had nearly been productive of serious consequences. 
 Positive information had been received of the sailing 
 of the Invincible Armada, but it was likewise known 
 that the fleet had been dispersed in a violent tempest ; 
 and believing that the attempt would be abandoned at 
 this time, orders were despatched to the lord-high- 
 admiral to send four of his best ships back to Chatham, 
 as the frugal government of Elizabeth grudged the 
 expense of keeping them afloat an hour longer than 
 they were positively required. This order had hardly 
 been given when Howard was made aware by the 
 information of Thomas Fleming, the captain of an 
 English pinnace, of the close approach of the fleet; and 
 it soon after passed Plymouth, where he lay taking in 
 supplies after cruising on the Spanish coasts looking 
 out for it. It was four in the afternoon of the 19th 
 July 1588, when the intelligence of Fleming put the
 
 118 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 
 
 lord -high-admiral upon the alert ; and by next day at 
 noon his ships were manned, warped out, and in fight- 
 ing trim. At the same hour the Spanish fleet came 
 in sight ; and on the 21st, Howard, with his greatly 
 inferior force, ventured the attack which, by the blessing 
 of Heaven on the valour and skill of the English, was 
 continued from day to day in various quarters, till the 
 proud Armada was swept from the English Channel. 
 On the night of the 21st, Drake, who had been ap- 
 pointed to carry the lantern, forgot this duty, and gave 
 chase to several hulks which were separated from the 
 fleet, and thus so far misled the high-admiral that, 
 following the Spanish lantern under the idea that it 
 was carried by his own vice-admiral, when day dawned 
 he found himself in the midst of the enemy's ships. 
 The high-admiral instantly extricated himself; and 
 Drake amply atoned for this oversight by the dis- 
 tinguished service performed by his squadron in 
 harassing, capturing, and destroying the Spaniards. 
 On the day following this erring night he performed 
 a memorable action. Among the fleet was a large 
 galleon commanded by Don Pedro de Valdez, a man of 
 illustrious family and high official rank, with whom 
 nearly fifty noblemen and gentlemen sailed. His ship 
 had been crippled and separated from the fleet, and 
 Howard, in hot pursuit, had passed it, imagining that 
 it was abandoned. There was on board a crew of four 
 hundred and fifty persons, who, when summoned to 
 surrender in the formidable name of Drake, attempted
 
 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 121 
 
 no resistance. Kissing the hand of his conqueror, Don 
 Pedro said they had resolved to die in battle, had they 
 not experienced the good fortune of falling into the 
 hands of one courteous and gentle, and generous to the 
 vanquished foe ; one whom it was doubtful whether 
 his enemies had greater cause to admire and love for 
 his valiant and prosperous exploits, or dread for his 
 great wisdom and good fortune ; whom Mars, the god 
 of war, and Neptune, the god of the sea, alike favoured. 
 To merit this high eulogium, Drake behaved with the 
 utmost kindness and politeness to his involuntary 
 guests, who were sent prisoners to England. Two 
 years afterwards he received 3,500 for their ransom. 
 In the ship fifty-five thousand ducats were found, and 
 liberally divided among the crew. The broken, running 
 fight between the fleets was renewed from day to day, 
 and from hour to hour, as the superior sailing of the 
 light English vessels promised advantage, till the 
 Spaniards were driven on that line of conduct which 
 ended in the complete destruction of their mighty 
 armament. In the fight of the 29th, which was 
 desperate on both sides, Drake's ship was pierced with 
 forty shot, two of which passed through his cabin. Of 
 one hundred and thirty-four ships which left the coast 
 of Spain, only fifty-three returned. 
 
 In the following year, Drake, as admiral, commanded 
 the fleet sent to restore Don Antonio of Portugal, while 
 Sir John Norris led the land-forces. Differences arose 
 between the commanders about the best mode of pro-
 
 122 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 
 
 secuting their joint enterprise. The failure of Norris's 
 scheme gives probability to the assertion that the plan 
 of operations suggested by Drake would, if followed, 
 have been successful. It is at least certain that the 
 expedition miscarried, which had never happened to 
 any single-handed undertaking in which Drake engaged. 
 Don Antonio, taken out to be made a king by the 
 prowess of the English, returned as he went. Before 
 the queen and council Drake fully justified his own 
 share of the affair, and the confidence placed in his 
 ability and skill remained undiminished. This was 
 the first check that the fortunes of Drake had ever 
 received ; and it would have been happy for him, it 
 has been said, had he now withdrawn his stake. The 
 principal and fatal error of his succeeding expedition 
 was once more undertaking a joint command. 
 
 The war in 1595, though it languished for want of 
 fuel to feed the flame, was not yet giving any prospect 
 of drawing to a conclusion; and in conjunction with 
 Sir John Hawkins, Drake offered his services in an 
 expedition to the West Indies, to be undertaken on a 
 scale of magnificence which must at once crush the 
 Spanish power in that quarter, where the enemy had 
 already been so often and effectually galled by the 
 same commanders. Elizabeth and her ministers re- 
 ceived the proposal with every mark of satisfaction. 
 The fleet consisted of six of the queen's ships and 
 twenty-one private vessels, with a crew, in seamen and 
 soldiers, amounting to two thousand five hundred men
 
 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 123 
 
 and boys. They sailed from Plymouth in August, 
 having been detained for some time by the reports of 
 another Armada being about to invade England. This 
 rumour was artfully spread to delay the fleet, of which 
 one object was known to be the destruction of Nombre 
 de Dios and the plunder of Panama. They had hardly 
 put to sea when the demon of discord, which ever 
 attends conjunct expeditions, appeared in their councils. 
 Sir John Hawkins wished at once to accomplish an 
 object recommended by the queen ; but time was lost 
 in an attempt, suggested by Sir Thomas Baskerville, to 
 invade or capture the Canaries, and again at Dominica. 
 All these delays were improved by the enemy in the 
 colonies, in preparing for the reception of the English. 
 A few days before sailing, information had been sent 
 to the fleet of a Spanish galleon richly laden, that had 
 been disabled and separated from those ships which 
 annually brought plate and treasure from the Indies to 
 Spain; and the capture of this vessel was recommended 
 to the commanders by the English government as an 
 especial service. The galleon now lay at Porto Rico; 
 but before this time five frigates had been sent by the 
 Spaniards to convoy it away in safety. On the 30th 
 October, Sir John Hawkins made sail from the coast of 
 Dominica, where the ships had been careened, and had 
 taken in water ; and on the same evening he sustained 
 the misfortune of having the Francis, one of his vessels, 
 captured by the enemy's frigates. This stroke, which 
 appeared fatal to the enterprise, by informing the
 
 124 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 
 
 Spaniards of his approach and putting them on their 
 guard, gave him inexpressible chagrin. He immediately 
 fell sick, and on the 12th November, when the fleet had 
 got before Porto Rico, died of combined disease and 
 grief. He was succeeded by Sir Thomas Baskerville, 
 who took command in the Garland, the queen's ship in 
 which Hawkins had sailed. The English fleet, medi- 
 tating an instant attack, now lay within reach of the 
 guns of Porto Rico; and while the officers, on the night 
 of Sir John Hawkins's death, were at supper together, 
 a shot penetrated to the great cabin, drove the stool 
 on which Drake sat from under him, killed Sir Nicolas 
 Clifford, and mortally wounded Mr. Brute Browne and 
 some other officers. An attack, this night decided 
 upon, was attempted next day, with the desperate 
 valour which has ever characterized the maritime 
 assaults of the English. But the enemy were fully 
 prepared; the treasure had been carefully conveyed 
 away, and also the women and children. The fortifi- 
 cations had been repaired and placed in good order; 
 and though the hot, impetuous attack of the English 
 inflicted great suffering on the Spaniards, to themselves 
 there remained but a barren victory. After lying two 
 or three days before the place, it was judged expedient 
 to bear off and abandon this enterprise. They stood 
 for the Main, where Rio de la Hacha, La Rancheria, 
 and some other places were taken, and, negotiations for 
 their ransom failing, burned to the ground. The same 
 course was followed with other petty places; but
 
 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 125 
 
 Drake began seriously to find that, while giving the 
 enemy this trifling annoyance, he was gradually re- 
 ducing his own force without gaining any substantial 
 advantage. His health was injured by this series of 
 disappointments, and from the first misunderstanding 
 with Hawkins his spirits had been affected. On the 
 morning of the assault on Porto Rico, in taking leave 
 of Mr. Brute Browne, then breathing his last, he ex- 
 claimed, " Brute, Brute, how heartily could I lament 
 thy fate, but that I dare not suffer my spirits to sink 
 now." 
 
 The Spanish towns, from which everything of value 
 was taken away, were rather abandoned to the occupa- 
 tion than taken by the arms of the English. In this 
 way Santa Martha and Nombre de Dios fell into their 
 hands with scarce a show of resistance. They were 
 both burned. On the 29th December, two days after 
 the capture of Nombre de Dios, Sir Thomas Baskerville, 
 with seven hundred and fifty soldiers, attempted to 
 make his way to Panama through the fatiguing and 
 dangerous passes of the Isthmus of Darien, the Spaniards 
 annoying his whole line of march by a desultory fire 
 of musketry from the woods. At certain passes forti- 
 fications had been thrown up to impede their progress ; 
 and coming upon these unexpectedly, they were exposed 
 to a sudden fire, by which many fell. About midway 
 the design was abandoned, and the party turned back, 
 still exposed in the retreat to the fire of the Spaniards 
 from the woods. Destitute of provisions, and suffering
 
 126 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 
 
 great privation and fatigue, they returned to the ships 
 depressed and disheartened. This last and most 
 grievous of the train of disappointments that had 
 followed Drake throughout an expedition from which 
 the nation expected so much, and wherein he had 
 embarked much of his fortune and risked his high re- 
 putation, threw the admiral into a lingering fever, 
 accompanied by a flux, under which he languished for 
 three weeks. He expired while the fleet lay off Porto 
 Bello. The death of Admiral Drake took place on the 
 28th January 1596, and in his fifty-first year. His 
 remains were placed in a leaden coffin, and committed 
 to the deep with all the pomp attending naval obsequies. 
 Unsuccessful as his latest enterprises had been, his 
 death was universally lamented by the nation. The 
 tenderness of pity was now mingled with admiration 
 of the genius and valour of this great man, "whose 
 memory will survive as long as the world lasts, which 
 he first surrounded." 
 
 Drake is described as low in stature, but extremely 
 well made, with a broad chest and a round, compact 
 head. His complexion was fair and sanguine ; his 
 countenance open and cheerful, with large and lively 
 eyes ; his beard full, and his hair of a light brown. 
 From the lowest point and rudiments of his art, Drake 
 was a thorough-bred seaman, able in his own person to 
 discharge every duty of a ship, even to attending the 
 sick and dressing the wounded. In repairing and 
 watering his ships, as readily as in what are esteemed
 
 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 129 
 
 higher offices, he at all times bore an active part ; and 
 to his zealous superintendence and co-operation in these 
 subordinate duties, much of the facility and celerity of 
 his movements, and of his consequent success, is to be 
 attributed. The sciences connected with navigation, 
 as they were then known, he thoroughly understood, 
 and particularly that of astronomy. Whatever he 
 attempted on his own judgment, without being con- 
 trolled by the opinions of others, he accomplished with 
 success. He has been charged with ambition; but it 
 is well remarked that no man's ambition ever took a 
 happier direction for his country. His example did 
 more to advance the maritime power and reputation of 
 England than that of all the navigators who preceded 
 him. He indicated or led the way to several new 
 sources of trade, and opened the career of commercial 
 prosperity which his countrymen are still pursuing. 
 Among the many natural gifts of this lowly-born sea- 
 man was a ready and graceful eloquence. He was 
 fond of amassing wealth, but in its distribution was 
 liberal and bountiful. Among other deeds of enlight- 
 ened benevolence was his establishment, in conjunction 
 with Sir John Hawkins, of the CHEST at Chatham for 
 the relief of aged or sick seamen, by the honourable 
 means of their own early providence. Drake sat in 
 two Parliaments, in the first for a Cornish borough, 
 and in the next for the town of Plymouth in the 
 thirty-fifth of Elizabeth. Though often described as a 
 bachelor, it is ascertained that he married the daughter 
 
 (829) 9
 
 130 EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST INDIES. 
 
 and sole heiress of Sir George Sydenham, of Coombe 
 Sydenham in Devonshire, who survived him. He left 
 no children, but bequeathed his landed estate, which 
 was considerable, to his nephew Francis Drake, after- 
 wards created a baronet by James the First. Three 
 quarters of the globe had contributed to its acquisition ; 
 yet there is certainly no ancient family estate in the 
 south of England of the title-deeds of which the 
 proprietors have less cause to be ashamed than that 
 still held by the heirs of the son of the honest mariner 
 of Tavistock.
 
 CAVENDISH
 
 CAVENDISH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 THE reign of Elizabeth is by nothing more honourably 
 distinguished than the manliness and dignity which 
 characterized the pursuits of her courtiers, and, through 
 their example, those of the entire body of English 
 gentry. A period illustrious in the national annals 
 owes much of its glory and felicity to this single cause. 
 To the queen herself belongs the praise of having, 
 during her long reign, studiously kept alive the flame 
 of public spirit; and of having striven, by her influence 
 and public acts, to inspire the flower of the youth of 
 her kingdom with that ardent thirst of glory which in 
 so many ways redounded to the national advantage. 
 Distinguished personal merit, whether displayed in the 
 field or at the council-board, was the certain road to 
 the favour of Elizabeth ; and though her favourites 
 might have possessed very different degrees of moral 
 worth, all of them were celebrated for ability or
 
 134 VOYAGE ROUND THE WOULD. 
 
 patriotism. It was thus, in the age of Elizabeth, 
 nothing unusual for men of the highest rank to devote 
 their private fortunes and personal services to the 
 advancement of the national interests, either by under- 
 taking or promoting voyages of discovery, establishing 
 colonies, opening up new branches of trade, or protect- 
 ing the state against the aggressions of the Spaniards. 
 At that period it was considered as nothing wonderful 
 that the Earls of Essex and Cumberland, and such men 
 as Raleigh, Dudley, Grenville, Gilbert, and many other 
 persons of family and condition, should, in pursuit of 
 honourable distinction, court fatigue and hardship, from 
 which their degenerate successors in the reigns of the 
 Stuarts would have shrunk in dismay. 
 
 Of this class was Thomas Cavendish, the second 
 Englishman that circumnavigated the globe. He was 
 of an ancient and honourable family of Suffolk, the 
 ancestor of which had come into England with the 
 Conqueror. The residence of Cavendish, or Candish, 
 as the name was then written, was at Trimley St. 
 Martin, and his estates lay near Ipswich, at that period 
 a place of considerable trade. From this vicinage to a 
 maritime town he is said to have imbibed an early 
 inclination for the sea. 
 
 His father died while Cavendish was still a minor ; 
 and coming early into the possession of his patrimony, 
 he is reported to have squandered it " in gallantry, and 
 following the court," and to have been compelled to 
 embrace the nobler pursuits to which his subsequent
 
 THOMAS CAVEN DISH.
 
 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 137 
 
 years were devoted to redeem his shattered fortunes. 
 Truth may lie between the contradictory statements of 
 the motives which determined this gentleman to follow 
 the career of Sir Francis Drake, in seeking fortune and 
 reputation on the western shores of America and in the 
 South Sea. 
 
 Though the relations of his voyages are ample and 
 complete, the truth is that very little is known of the 
 personal history of Cavendish. In the year 1585, he 
 accompanied Sir Richard Grenville's expedition to 
 Virginia, in a vessel equipped at his own expense. 
 This voyage, undertaken to plant the unfortunate 
 colony which was brought home by Sir Francis Drake 
 in 1586 (see page 115), was both profitless and difficult; 
 but it enabled Cavendish to obtain nautical experience, 
 and in its progress he had seen the Spanish West India 
 settlements, and conversed with some of those who had 
 accompanied Drake into the South Sea. The youthful 
 ambition of Cavendish was thus roused to emulate the 
 glory of so eminent a navigator in this rich and newly- 
 opened field of enterprise. 
 
 Grenville's- fleet, which sailed for Virginia in April, 
 returned in October, and from the wrecks of his fortune 
 and the remains of his credit, Mr. Cavendish, in six 
 months afterwards, had equipped a small squadron for 
 his projected voyage. While the carpenters were at 
 work he procured every draught, map, chart, and 
 history of former navigations that might be useful to 
 him ; and having, through the patronage or recommen-
 
 138 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 dation of Lord Hunsdon, procured the queen's com- 
 mission, he sailed from Plymouth on the 21st July 
 1586. His light squadron consisted of the Desire, a 
 vessel of one hundred and twenty tons burden, in 
 which he sailed himself as admiral and commander of 
 the expedition ; the Content, of sixty tons ; and the 
 Hugh Gallant, a light bark of forty tons. A crew of 
 one hundred and twenty-three soldiers, seamen, and 
 officers manned this little fleet, which was provided 
 with every requisite for a long voyage in latitudes 
 with which the navigation of Drake had now made 
 the English somewhat familiar. 
 
 If so much interest is still awakened by the maritime 
 undertakings of contemporary navigators, who set out 
 in a familiar track under the guidance of former ex- 
 perience and observation, with the advantage of instru- 
 ments nearly perfect, and with all appliances and 
 means to boot, how much more must attach to the 
 relation of the adventures of one who, like Cavendish, 
 could have no hope or dependence, save in his own 
 capacity and courage ! 
 
 The squadron first touched at Sierra Leone, where 
 the conduct of the young commander was not wholly 
 blameless. On a Sunday, part of the ships' companies 
 went on shore, and spent the day in dancing and 
 amusing themselves with the friendly negroes, their 
 secret object being to gain intelligence of a Portuguese 
 vessel that lay in the harbour, and which Cavendish 
 intended to capture. This was found impracticable,
 
 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 139 
 
 and next day the English landed, to the number of 
 seventy, and made an attack on the town, of which 
 they burned one hundred and fifty houses, almost the 
 whole number, and plundered right and left. It was 
 but little that they found. The negroes fled at their 
 landing, but on their retreat shot poisoned arrows at 
 the marauders from the shelter of the woods. This 
 African village is described as neatly built, enclosed by 
 mud walls, and kept, both houses and streets, in the 
 cleanest manner. The yards were paled in, and the 
 town was altogether trim and comfortable, exhibiting 
 signs of civilization, of which at this point the slave- 
 trade subsequently destroyed every trace. A few days 
 afterwards a party of the sailors landed to wash linen ; 
 and repeating the visit next day, a number of negroes 
 lying in ambush in the woods nearly surprised and 
 cut them off. A soldier died of a shot from a poisoned 
 arrow ; though the case, as described, appears more 
 like mortification of the parts than the effects of poison. 
 Several of the men were wounded, but none mortally 
 save the soldier. On the 3rd of September a party 
 went some miles up the river in a boat, caught a store 
 of fish, and gathered a supply of lemons for the fleet, 
 which sailed on the 6th. No reason is assigned for the 
 unprovoked devastation on this coast, save "the bad 
 dealing of negroes with all Christians." 
 
 On the 16th December the squadron made the coast 
 of America, in 47J S. The land, stretching west, was 
 seen at the distance of six leagues, and next day the
 
 140 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 fleet anchored in a harbour in 48 S. This harbour 
 they named Port Desire, in honour of the admiral's 
 ship. Seals were found here of enormous size, which 
 in the fore part of their body resembled lions; their 
 young was found delicate food, equal, in the taste of 
 the seamen, to lamb or mutton. Sea-birds were also 
 found in great plenty, of which the description given 
 seems to apply to the penguin. In this excellent 
 harbour the ships' bottoms were careened. On the 
 24th December, Christmas eve, a man and boy belong- 
 ing to the Content went on shore to wash their linen, 
 when they were suddenly surrounded and shot at by 
 fifty or more Indians. Cavendish pursued with a 
 small party, but the natives escaped. "They are as 
 wild as ever was a buck," says an old voyager, " as 
 they seldom or never see any Christians." Their foot- 
 prints were measured, and found to be eighteen inches 
 in length. The squadron left Port Desire on the 28th, 
 and halted at an island three leagues off, to cure and 
 store the penguins that had been taken. On the 30th, 
 standing to sea they passed a rock about fifty miles 
 from the harbour they had left, which resembled the 
 Eddystone Rock near Plymouth. About the first day 
 of the year they saw several capes, to which no names 
 are given, and on the 6th, without further preparation, 
 entered Magellan Strait, which the Spaniards had 
 lately attempted to fortify and colonize. At twilight 
 the squadron anchored near the first Angostura; and 
 in the night lights were observed on the north side of
 
 VOYAGE BOUND THE WORLD. 141 
 
 the Strait, which were supposed to be signals. Re- 
 cognition was made by lights from the ships, and a 
 boat was sent off in the morning, to which three men 
 on the shore made signs by waving a handkerchief. 
 These were part of the survivors of a wretched Spanish 
 colony. 
 
 The history of the misfortunes and sufferings of the 
 first settlers in different parts of America would make 
 one of the most melancholy volumes that ever were 
 penned ; nor could any portion of it prove more heart- 
 rending than that which should record the miseries of 
 this colony, left by Pedro Sarmiento in the Strait of 
 Magellan. It may be recollected that, on the appear- 
 ance of Drake on the coast of Peru, this commander 
 was despatched by the viceroy to intercept the daring 
 interloper on his return by the Strait. Sarmiento 
 afterwards bestowed much pains in examining the 
 western shores of Patagonia and the coast of Chili, and 
 the many inlets, labyrinths, and intricate channels of 
 the islands and broken lands of Tierra del Fuego, 
 which, as he conjectured, must communicate with the 
 Strait of Magellan by one or more passages. After a 
 long time had thus been consumed fruitlessly he entered 
 the Strait, and passed through eastward in about a 
 month, minutely examining the coast on both sides. 
 When this discoverer reached Spain, his exaggerated 
 statements, the desire of checking the progress of the 
 English in this quarter, and an apprehension that they 
 were preparing to seize this master-key to the South
 
 142 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Seas (the passage by the Cape of Good Hope being 
 still monopolized by the Portuguese, and that by Cape 
 Horn not yet discovered), induced Philip to listen to 
 the proposals of Sarmiento, an enthusiast in the cause, 
 and to colonize and fortify this important outlet of his 
 American dominions. A powerful armament of twenty- 
 three ships with three thousand five hundred men. 
 destined for different points of South America, was in 
 the first place to establish the new colony. This ex- 
 pedition, undertaken on so magnificent a scale, was 
 from first to last unfortunate. While still on the 
 coast of Spain, from which the fleet sailed on the 25th 
 September 1581, five of the ships were wrecked in a 
 violent gale, and eight hundred men perished. The 
 whole fleet put back, and sailed a second time in 
 December. Misfortunes followed in a thick train. 
 Sickness thinned their numbers; and at Rio Janeiro, 
 where they wintered, many of the intended settlers 
 deserted. Some of the ships became leaky ; the bottoms 
 of others were attacked by worms ; and a large vessel, 
 containing most of the stores of the colonists of the 
 Strait, sprung a leak at sea, and before assistance 
 could be obtained went down, three hundred and 
 thirty men and twenty of the settlers perishing in her. 
 Three times was Sarmiento driven back to the Brazils 
 before he was able to accomplish his purpose ; and it 
 was February 1584 before he at last arrived in the 
 Strait, and was able to land the colonists. Nor did 
 his ill fortune close here. His consort, Riviera, either
 
 VOYAGE HOUND THE WORLD. 143 
 
 wilfully abandoned him, or was forced from his an- 
 chorage by stress of weather. He stood for Spain, 
 carrying away the greater part of the remaining stores 
 which were to sustain the people through the rigour of 
 the winter of the South, which was now commencing, 
 and until they were able to raise crops and obtain 
 provisions. The foundation of a town was laid, which 
 was named San Felipe, and bastions and wooden edifices 
 were constructed. Another city, named Nombre de 
 Jesus, was commenced. These stations were in favour- 
 able points of the Strait, and at the distance of about 
 seventy miles from each other. In the meanwhile the 
 southern winter set in with uncommon severity. In 
 April snow fell incessantly for fifteen days. Sarmiento, 
 who, after establishing the colonists at these two points, 
 intended to go to Chili for provisions, was driven from 
 his anchors in a gale, and forced to seek his own safety 
 in the Brazils, leaving the settlers without a ship. He 
 has been accused of intentionally abandoning this 
 helpless colony, which he was the instrument of estab- 
 lishing, and of which he was also the governor. The 
 accusation appears unjust, as he made many subsequent 
 efforts for its relief, which his ill fortune rendered 
 abortive. The governors at the different settlements 
 at length refused to afford further assistance to a pro- 
 ject which had lost the royal favour; and in return- 
 ing to Spain to solicit aid, Sarmiento was captured 
 by three ships belonging to Sir Walter Raleigh, 
 luckily, in all probability, for himself, as the indigna-
 
 144 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 tion of King Philip at the failure of so expensive and 
 powerful an expedition, and at the misrepresentations 
 of this officer, might not have been easily appeased. 
 Of the wretched colonists, about whom neither Old 
 Spain nor her American settlements gave themselves 
 any further trouble, many died of famine and cold 
 during the first winter. The milder weather of the 
 spring and summer allowed a short respite of misery, 
 and afforded the hope of the return of Sarmiento, or 
 some ship with provisions and clothing. But the year 
 wore away, and no vessel appeared, and the colonists 
 at San Felipe, in their despair, contrived to build two 
 boats, in which all who remained alive, fifty men and 
 five women, embarked with the hope of getting out of 
 the Strait. One of their boats was wrecked, and the 
 design was abandoned, as there were no seamen among 
 their number, nor any one capable of conducting the 
 perilous navigation. Their crops all failed; the natives 
 molested them; and out of four hundred men and 
 thirty women landed by Sarmiento, only fifteen men 
 and three women survived when Mr. Cavendish entered 
 the Strait. In San Felipe many lay dead in their 
 houses and in their clothes, the survivors not having 
 strength to bury them; and along the shores, where 
 these miserable beings wandered, trying to pick up a 
 few shell-fish or herbs, they often came upon the body 
 of a deceased companion who had perished of famine, 
 or of the diseases caused by extreme want. 
 
 It was, as has been said, part of these forlorn wan-
 
 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 145 
 
 derers whom Cavendish saw on the morning after he 
 entered the Strait. A passage to Peru was offered 
 them, but they at first hesitated to trust the English 
 heretics ; though afterwards, when willing to accept 
 the generous offer, their resolution came too late, and 
 before they could be mustered, a fair wind offering, 
 Cavendish sailed on, having tantalized these wretched 
 Spaniards with hopes which the safety of his own crew 
 in this precarious navigation, and the success of his 
 expedition, did not permit him to fulfil. The offer had 
 likewise been made in ignorance of their numbers. If 
 Cavendish be blamed for abandoning these wretched 
 victims to their fate, what shall be said of the nation 
 which, having sent out this colony, left it to perish 
 of famine and cold ? One Spaniard was brought off, 
 named Tome' Hernandez, who became the historian of 
 the miserable colony of the Strait. 
 
 The squadron of Cavendish, after passing both the 
 Angosturas, as the Spaniards named the narrowest 
 points of the Strait, anchored first at the island of 
 Santa Magdalena, where in two hours they killed and 
 salted two pipes full of penguins; and afterwards at 
 San Felipe, the now desolate station of the Spanish 
 colonists, some of whom the English found still lying 
 in their houses, " where they had died like dogs." 
 Here they brought on board six pieces of ordnance 
 which the settlers had buried. This place Cavendish 
 named Port Famine ; it was found to be in 53 S. On 
 the 22nd a few natives were seen ; but the Spaniard, 
 
 (829) 10
 
 14G VOYAGE ROUND THE WOULD. 
 
 Hernandez, cautioned the English against all inter- 
 course, representing them as a treacherous people, a 
 character which European knives and swords seen in 
 their possession, converted into darts, confirmed; and 
 when they again approached, Cavendish carried his 
 precautions to so extravagant a length as to order a 
 discharge of muskets, by which many of them were 
 killed, and the rest took to flight, certainly not corrected 
 of their bad propensities by this harsh discipline. They 
 were represented as cannibals, who had preyed upon 
 the Spanish colonists, and this excused all wrong. 
 
 For the next three weeks the fleet lay in a sheltered 
 port, unable to enter the South Sea from a continuance 
 of strong westerly winds ; but on the 24th February, 
 after a favourable though a tedious passage, they 
 finally emerged from the Strait. To the south was a 
 fair high cape with a point of low land adjoining it ; on 
 the other side were several islands, with much broken 
 ground around them, at about six leagues off from the 
 mainland. On the 1st of March the stormy Spirit of 
 the Strait, which no fleet ever wholly escaped, over- 
 took Cavendish ; and the Hugh Gallant was separated 
 from the larger vessels, one of which was found so 
 leaky that the crew were completely exhausted in 
 working the pumps for three days and nights without 
 ceasing. On the 15th the Hugh Gallant rejoined her 
 consorts at the Isle of Mocha, on the coast of Chili. 
 They were here taken for Spaniards, and landing on 
 the Main experienced but a rough reception from the
 
 VOYAGE HOUND THE WORLD. 147 
 
 Indians, who bore no good will to the natives of Spain. 
 But a similar mistake sometimes operated to their 
 advantage; and next day, when the captain with a 
 party of seventy men landed on the island of Santa 
 Maria, they were received as Spaniards, with all kind- 
 ness and humility, by the principal people of the island; 
 and a store of wheat, barley, and potatoes, ready pre- 
 pared, and presumed by the voyagers to be a tribute to 
 the conquerors, was unscrupulously appropriated. To 
 this the islanders added presents of hogs, dried dog-fish, 
 fowls, and maize, and received in return an entertain- 
 ment on board the captain's ship. These Indians are 
 represented as being in such subjection that not one 
 of them durst eat a hen or hog of his own rearing, all 
 being sacred to their task-masters, who had, however, 
 made the whole of the islanders Christians. When 
 they came to understand that their visitors were not 
 Spaniards, it was believed that they attempted to in- 
 vite them to an assault upon their enslavers ; but for 
 want of an interpreter their meaning was imperfectly 
 comprehended. The squadron, thus refreshed at the 
 expense of the Spaniards, sailed on the 18th, but over- 
 shot Valparaiso, at which place they intended to halt. 
 On the 30th they anchored in the Bay of Quintero, 
 seven leagues to the north of Valparaiso. A herdsman 
 asleep on a hill-side awaking, and perceiving three 
 strange ships in the bay, caught a horse grazing beside 
 him, and fled to spread the alarm. Cavendish, unable 
 to prevent this untoward movement, landed with a
 
 148 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 party of thirty men, and Hernandez, the Spaniard 
 whom he had brought from the Strait, and who made 
 strong protestations of fidelity. Three armed horse- 
 men appeared, as if come to reconnoitre. With these 
 Hernandez conferred, and reported that they agreed to 
 furnish as much provision as the English required. A 
 second time the interpreter was despatched to a con- 
 ference ; but on this occasion, forgetting all his vows of 
 fidelity to his benefactors, he leaped up behind one of 
 his countrymen, and they set off at a round gallop, 
 leaving Cavendish to execrate Spanish bad faith. The 
 English filled some of their water-casks, and attempted 
 in vain to obtain a shot at the wild cattle, which were 
 seen grazing in great herds. Next day a party of from 
 fifty to sixty marched into the interior in the hope of 
 discovering some Spanish settlement. They did not 
 see one human being, native or European, though 
 they travelled till arrested by the mountains. The 
 country was fruitful and well watered with rivulets, 
 and abounded in herds of cattle and horses, and with 
 hares, rabbits, and many kinds of wild-fowl. They 
 also saw numerous wild dogs. The party did not sleep 
 on shore. The boats were sent next day for water, 
 which was found a quarter of a mile from the beach. 
 While the seamen were employed in filling the casks, 
 they were suddenly surprised by a party of two hun- 
 dred horsemen, who came pouncing down upon them 
 from the heights, and cut off twelve of the party, some 
 of whom were killed, and the rest made prisoners. The
 
 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 149 
 
 remainder were rescued by the soldiers, who ran from 
 the rocks to support their unsuspecting comrades, and 
 killed twenty-four of the Spaniards. Notwithstanding 
 this serious misadventure, Cavendish, keeping strict 
 watch and ward, remained here till the watering was 
 completed. Of the nine prisoners snatched off in this 
 affray, it was afterwards learned that six were executed 
 at Santiago as pirates, though they sailed with the 
 queens commission, and though the nation to which 
 they belonged was at open war with Spain. 
 
 The discipline which the Spaniards had taught the 
 natives was again found of use to our navigators, who, 
 after leaving Quintero, came on the loth to Morro 
 Moreno, or the Brown Mountain, where the Indians, on 
 their landing, met them with loads of wood and water, 
 which they had carried on their backs down the rocks. 
 These slaves of the Spaniards were found to be a very 
 degraded race, almost at the lowest point in the scale 
 of civilization. Their dwellings consisted of a few 
 sticks placed across two stakes stuck in the ground, on 
 which a few boughs were laid. Skins spread on the 
 floor gave a higher idea of comfort. Their food con- 
 sisted of raw, putrid fish ; yet their fishing-canoes were 
 constructed with considerable ingenuity. They were 
 made of skins " like bladders." Each boat consisted of 
 two of these skins, which were inflated by means of 
 quills, and sewed or laced together with gut, so as to 
 be perfectly water-tight. In these they fished, paying 
 large tribute of their spoils to their conquerors. When
 
 150 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 
 
 any one died, his bows and arrows, canoe, and all his 
 personal property, were buried along with him, as the 
 English verified by opening a grave. 
 
 On the 23rd a vessel, with a cargo of Spanish wine, 
 was captured near Arica, and also a small bark, the 
 crew of which escaped in their boat. This vessel was 
 permanently added to the squadron, and named the 
 George. Another large ship, captured in the road of 
 Arica, proved but a worthless prize, the cargo having 
 been previously taken away, and the ship deserted by 
 the crew. A design of landing and storming the 
 town was abandoned, as, before the squadron could be 
 mustered, the Spaniards were apprised of their danger, 
 and prepared to stand on the defensive. A third vessel 
 was taken close by the town; and the English squadron 
 and the batteries even exchanged a few harmless shots ; 
 after which Cavendish, in hopes of relieving some of 
 the English prisoners made at Quintero, sent in a flag 
 of truce inviting the Spaniards to redeem their vessels; 
 but proposals of this nature were, by order of the vice- 
 roy at Lima, in all cases rejected. 
 
 On the 25th, while the squadron still rode before 
 the town, a vessel from the southward was perceived 
 coming into the port. Cavendish sent out his pinnace 
 to seize this bark ; while the towns-people endeavoured 
 from the shore to make the crew sensible of their 
 danger. They understood the signals, and rowed in 
 among the rocks, while a party of horsemen advanced 
 from the town to protect the crew and passengers.
 
 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 151 
 
 Among these were several monks, who had a very 
 narrow escape. The deserted vessel, when searched, 
 afforded nothing of value ; and burning their prizes, 
 early on the 26th they bore away northward from Arica. 
 Next day they captured a small vessel which had been 
 despatched from Santiago with intelligence to the viceroy 
 that an English squadron probably Drake himself 
 was upon the coast. Great severity was used to make 
 the crew reveal the nature of their despatches, which 
 were thrown overboard while the English gave chase. 
 They had solemnly sworn not to tell their errand ; but 
 their fidelity was barely proof against the torture to 
 which Cavendish thought it necessary to subject them to 
 extort their secret. An old Fleming whom he threat- 
 ened to hang, and actually caused to be hoisted up, 
 stood the test, and chose rather to die than to perjure 
 himself by betraying his trust. At last one of the 
 Spaniards confessed; and burning the vessel, Cavendish 
 carried the crew along with him as the safest way to 
 prevent tale-telling. In this vessel was found a Greek 
 pilot well acquainted with the coast of Chili. 
 
 On the 3rd May they landed at a small Spanish 
 town, where they obtained a supply of bread, wine, 
 figs, and fowls. This cruise was continued for a fort- 
 night, and several prizes were made, from which needful 
 supplies were obtained, but none that afforded the 
 species of wealth which the captors valued. On the 
 20th they landed at Payta, to the amount of seventy 
 men, took the town, drove out the inhabitants, and
 
 152 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 continued the pursuit till they came to the place 
 whither the towns-people had conveyed their most 
 valuable goods. Here they found twenty-five pounds 
 of silver, with other costly commodities. Cavendish, 
 however, expecting an attack, had the prudence not to 
 allow his men to encumber themselves with much spoil 
 on their return to the ships. The town, which was 
 regularly built and very clean, consisted of two hundred 
 houses. It was burned to the ground, with goods to 
 the value of five or six thousand pounds. A ship in 
 the harbour was also burned ; and the fleet held a course 
 northward, and anchored at the island of Puna in a 
 good harbour. A Spanish sloop of two hundred and 
 fifty tons burden, which they found here, was sunk. 
 They landed forthwith at the dwelling of the cacique, 
 who was found living in a style of elegance and even 
 magnificence rarely seen among the native chiefs. His 
 house stood near the town, by the water's edge, and 
 contained many handsome apartments, with verandas 
 commanding fine prospects seaward and landward. 
 The chief had married a beautiful Spanish woman, who 
 was regarded as the queen of the island. She never 
 set her foot upon the ground, holding it " too low a 
 thing for her," but was earned abroad on men's shoulders 
 in a sort of palanquin, with a canopy to shelter her 
 from the sun and wind, and attended by native ladies 
 and the principal men of the island. The cacique and 
 his lady fled on the first approach of the English, 
 carrying with them one hundred thousand crowns,
 
 VOYAGE MOUND THE WORLD. 153 
 
 which, from the information of a captive scout, were 
 ascertained to have been in their possession. Induced 
 by the information of the Indian captive, Cavendish 
 landed on the Main with an armed party, intending to 
 surprise the fugitives ; but they once more fled, leaving 
 the meat roasting at their fires, and their treasures 
 could not be discovered. In a small neighbouring 
 island the cacique had previously for safety deposited 
 his most valuable furniture and goods, consisting of 
 hangings of Cordovan leather, richly painted and gilded, 
 with the tackling of ships, nails, spikes, etc., of which 
 the English took a large supply. At Puna sail-cloth 
 of sea-grass was manufactured for the use of the ships 
 in the South Sea. The island was about the size of 
 the Isle of Wight, and contained several towns ; the 
 principal one, near which was the cacique's palace, 
 consisted of two hundred houses, with a large church. 
 This the English burned down, carrying away the bells. 
 The Indian chief of Puna had been baptized previous 
 to his marriage; and the Indians were all obliged to 
 attend Mass. Adjoining the dwelling of the cacique 
 was a fine garden laid out in the European style, with 
 a fountain. In it were cotton-plants, fig-trees, pome- 
 granates, and many varieties of herbs and fruits. An 
 orchard, with lemons, oranges, etc., ornamented the 
 other side of this pleasant dwelling, the under part of 
 which consisted of a large hall, in which goods of all 
 kinds were promiscuously stored. Cattle and poultry 
 were seen in great abundance, with pigeons, turkeys,
 
 154 VOYAGE HOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 and ducks of unusual size. Though the general, both 
 from personal observation and report, was aware that 
 a force was to be sent against him from Guayaquil, he 
 hauled up his ship to have her bottom cleaned, keeping 
 vigilant watch in the chief's house, where the English 
 had established their headquarters. 
 
 The ship was again afloat, and the squadron about 
 to sail, when, by one of those mischances which prove 
 the danger of indulging for a single moment in false 
 security, the English suffered a severe loss. On the 
 2nd of June, before weighing anchor, a party were 
 permitted to straggle about the town to amuse them- 
 selves and forage for provisions. Thus scattered, they 
 were suddenly assailed in detached groups by a hundred 
 armed Spaniards; and of the twenty thus dispersed, 
 seven were killed, three made prisoners, and two 
 drowned, while eight escaped. Forty-six Spaniards 
 and Indians fell in this skirmish. Cavendish imme- 
 diately landed with an armed band, drove the Spanish 
 soldiers from the town, and burned it completely down, 
 together with four ships then building. He also de- 
 stroyed the gardens and orchards. Persisting in main- 
 taining his ground, Cavendish next day laid up the 
 other ship to be careened, and did not sail till the 5th, 
 when they went to Bio Dolce, where they watered. 
 Here they sunk the Hugh Gallant, all the hands being 
 now required for the other vessels. They also sent on 
 shore their Indian prisoners, and without touching at 
 any other land, held a northerly course for nearly a
 
 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 155 
 
 month. On the 9th July they captured a new ship of 
 one hundred and twenty tons, which, first taking away 
 her ropes and sails, they immediately burned. In this 
 vessel was a Frenchman, Michael Sancius, who gave 
 information of the Manilla ship then expected from the 
 Philippines. This was a prize worth looking after; 
 and they were so far fortunate as to intercept a small 
 bark sent to give her warning. On the 27th, by day- 
 break, they entered the harbour of Guatulco, and 
 burned the town, the church, and custom-house, in 
 which was found a quantity of dye-stuffs and cocoas. 
 Some trifling adventures marked the following day, in 
 which they by mistake oversailed Acapulco. Landing 
 at Puerto de Navidad, they burned two ships, each 
 of two hundred tons, then on the stocks, and made 
 prisoner a mulatto, who earned letters of advice of 
 their progress along the coast of New Galicia. In 
 this manner they proceeded northward, often landing 
 small detachments, and spreading alarm along the 
 shores. On the 8th they came into the bay of 
 Chaccalla (supposed Compostella), described as being 
 eighteen leagues from Cape de los Corrientes, and to a 
 harbour presumed to be that known in modern geog- 
 raphy as San Bias. Next morning an officer with 
 forty men, and Michael Sancius as their conductor, 
 marched two leagues into the interior, by "a most 
 villainous and desert path through the woods and 
 wilderness," and came to a place where they found 
 three Spanish families, a carpenter of the same nation,
 
 156 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 a Portuguese, and a few Indians. Their ordinary mode 
 of proceeding on such occasions is told in few words : 
 "We bound them all, and made them to come to the 
 seaside with us." The general, however, set the women 
 free; and on their bringing to the ships a supply of 
 pine-apples, lemons, and oranges, allowed their husbands 
 to depart, as there was nothing to be obtained from 
 them. The carpenter and the Portuguese were kept, 
 and next day the fleet sailed. On the 12th September 
 they reached the Isle of St. Andrew, where they laid 
 in a store of wood, and of dried and salted wild-fowl. 
 Seals were also found, and iguanas a species " of ser- 
 pent, with four feet and a long sharp tail, strange to them 
 who have not seen them," but which, nevertheless, made 
 very palatable food to the keen appetites of seamen. In 
 their frequent exigencies these hardy voyagers never 
 scrupled to act upon the opinion of the old Symeron 
 chief in the Isthmus of Darien. When Drake, with the 
 natural disgust of an Englishman, showed some tokens of 
 aversion to otter's flesh, the Indian is reported to have 
 thus addressed him: "Are you a warrior and in want, 
 and yet doubt if that be food which hath blood in it ? " 
 On the 24th September they put into the Bay of 
 Mazatlan, and at an island a league to the northward 
 careened the ships, new-built the pinnace, and by 
 digging deep in the sands found water, of which they 
 stood much in need, as without this seasonable supply 
 they must have been compelled to turn back, and thus 
 might have missed their prey.
 
 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 157 
 
 The squadron sailed from this island on the night of 
 the 9th of October for the Cape of St. Lucas, which 
 was made on the 14th. Here they lay in wait for the 
 anticipated prize, cruising about the headland, without 
 going far off, till the 4th of November, on the morning 
 of which day the trumpeter from the mast-head de- 
 scried a sail bearing in for the cape. Chase was 
 immediately given, and continued for some hours, when 
 the English came up with the Santa Anna, gave her a 
 broadside, poured in a volley of musketry, and prepared 
 to board. The attempt was bravely repelled by the 
 Spaniards, who courageously repulsed the assailants, 
 with the loss of two men killed and five wounded. 
 The most formidable weapons of the Spaniards were 
 stones, which, from behind their protecting barricades, 
 they hurled upon the boarders. "But we new-trimmed 
 our sails," says the early relation, "and fitted every 
 man his furniture, and gave them a fresh encounter 
 with our great ordnance, and also with our small-shot, 
 raking them through and through, to the killing and 
 wounding of many of their men. Their captain still, 
 like a valiant man, with his company, stood very 
 stoutly into his close-fights, not yielding as yet. Our 
 general, encouraging his men afresh with the whole 
 
 O ' O O 
 
 voice of trumpets, gave them the other encounter with 
 our great ordnance and all our small -shot, to the great 
 discouragement of our enemies, raking them through in 
 divers places, killing and wounding many of their men. 
 They being thus discouraged and spoiled, and their
 
 158 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 ship being in hazard of sinking by reason of the great 
 shot which were made, whereof some were under water, 
 within five or six hours' fight, sent out a flag of truce, 
 and parleyed for mercy, desiring our general to save 
 their lives and to take their goods, and that they would 
 presently yield. Our general, of his goodness, promised 
 them mercy, and called them to strike their sails, and 
 to hoist out their boat and come on board; which news 
 they were full glad to hear of, and presently struck 
 their sails, hoisted out their boat, and one of their 
 chief merchants came on board unto our general, and, 
 falling down upon his knees, offered to have kissed 
 our general's feet, and craved mercy. Our general 
 graciously pardoned both him and the rest, upon 
 promise of their true dealing with him and his com- 
 pany concerning such riches as were in the ship ; and 
 sent for their captain and pilot, who, at their coming, 
 used the like duty and reverence as the former did. 
 The general, out of his great mercy and humanity, 
 promised their lives and good usage." 
 
 The Santa Anna was a prize worth the trouble 
 bestowed in securing her. She was of seven hundred 
 tons burden, and the property of the King of Spain. 
 Besides a rich cargo of silks, satins, damasks, wine, 
 preserved fruits, musk, etc., there were on board one 
 hundred and twenty-two thousand pesos in gold. The 
 provision made for the passengers was also of the 
 best kind, and afforded luxuries to the English ships' 
 companies to which they had hitherto been strangers.
 
 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 159 
 
 Cavendish carried his prize into a bay within Cape 
 St. Lucas, named by the Spaniards Aguada Segura, or 
 the Safe Watering-place, where he landed the crew 
 and passengers to the number of one hundred and 
 ninety persons, among whom were some females. 
 
 The captain-general deemed it impolitic to allow 
 these persons to proceed direct to New Spain; and 
 the place on which he landed them afforded water, 
 wood, fish, fowl, and abundance of hares and rabbits. 
 He presented them with part of the ship's stores, with 
 wine, and with the sails of their dismantled vessel to 
 construct tents for their shelter. He also gave the 
 seamen weapons for their defence against the natives, 
 and planks, of which they might build a bark to 
 convey the whole party to the settlements. 
 
 Among the passengers by the Santa Anna were two 
 lads, natives of Japan, who could both read and write 
 their own language ; and three boys from Manilla. 
 These, with a Portuguese who had been in Canton, 
 the Philippines, and the islands of Japan, Cavendish 
 carried with him, and also a Spanish pilot. 
 
 The division of the spoils occasioned great discontent, 
 particularly among the crew of the vice-admiral's ship, 
 who imagined that Cavendish favoured the company 
 of the Desire. But the dissatisfaction was apparently 
 suppressed ; and by the 17th November, " the Queen 's- 
 day," all business being completed, a few hours were 
 devoted by the loyal English to gaiety and festivity ; 
 and a discharge of the great guns and a display of
 
 160 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 fire-works proclaimed to these lonely shores the glory 
 of Elizabeth of England. As the completion of their 
 rejoicing, the Santa Anna, with all of her goods that 
 could not be stowed into the English ships, was set on 
 fire, and left burning ; and, firing a parting salute to 
 the deserted Spaniards, the Desire and the Content 
 bore away for England, which before they could again 
 arrive at, so much of the circumference of the globe 
 must be traversed. Before coming to St. Lucas, the 
 George, the Spanish prize, had been abandoned ; and 
 now, in coming out of the bay, the Content lagged 
 astern, and was never again seen by her consort. 
 
 The Desire thus left alone, as the Golden Hind had 
 been before her, holding her solitary course across the 
 Pacific, on the 3rd January 1588 came in sight of 
 Guahan, one of the Ladrones. For forty-five days 
 the English had enjoyed fair winds, and had sailed a 
 distance roughly estimated at between seventeen and 
 eighteen hundred leagues. When within five or six 
 miles of Guahan, fifty or more canoes full of people 
 came off to meet the ship, bringing the commodities 
 with which they were now in the habit of supplying 
 the Spaniards, namely, fish, potatoes, plantains, and 
 cocoas, which were exchanged for pieces of iron. This 
 traffic was plied so eagerly that it became trouble- 
 some, and Cavendish, who was never distinguished for 
 patience or forbearance, with five of his men, fired to 
 drive the natives back from the ship. They dived 
 so nimbly to evade the shot that it could not be
 
 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 161 
 
 ascertained what execution was done. The people 
 here were of tawny complexion, corpulent, and of 
 taller stature than ordinary-sized Englishmen. Their 
 hair was long, but some wore it tied up in one or two 
 knots on the crown of the head. The construction of 
 their canoes greatly excited the admiration of the 
 English seamen, formed as they were without any 
 "edge-tool." These canoes were from six to seven 
 yards in length, but very narrow, and moulded in the 
 same way at prow and stern. They had square and 
 triangular sails of cloth made of bulrushes, and were 
 ornamented with head-figures carved in wood, "like 
 unto images of the devil." The natives appeared in the 
 canoes entirely naked, and were dexterous divers and 
 excellent swimmers. 
 
 On the 14th January the Desire made Cape Spirito 
 Santo, the first point of the Philippines which was 
 seen; and on the same night entered the strait now 
 named the Strait of San Bernardino. Next morning 
 they came to anchor in a fine bay and safe harbour in 
 the island then named Capul. Though the Spanish 
 settlement at Manilla was still comparatively recent, 
 it had risen and flourished so rapidly that it was 
 already become a place of great wealth and commercial 
 importance. Besides the annual fleet to New Spain, 
 it possessed a very considerable trade with China and 
 the Indian islands in the most valuable commodities. 
 The people with whom Manilla enjoyed this trade, and 
 particularly a people they name the Sanguelos, are 
 
 (829) 11
 
 162 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 described by the voyagers as "of great genius and 
 invention in handicrafts and sciences; every one so 
 expert, perfect, and skilful in his faculty, as few or no 
 Christians are able to go beyond them in that they 
 take in hand. For drawing and embroidery upon 
 satin, silk, or lawn, either beast, fowl, fish, or worm ; 
 for liveliness and perfectness, both in silk, silver, gold, 
 and pearl, they excel." 
 
 As soon as the Desire came to anchor off Capul, one 
 of the chiefs, of whom there were seven in the island, 
 came on board, presuming the ship to be Spanish. 
 His people brought a supply of potatoes, which they 
 called camotaes, and green cocoas. The rate of ex- 
 change, or the prices, would now be thought high. 
 A yard of linen was given for four cocoas, and the 
 same quantity for about a quart of potatoes. These 
 roots were thought good either boiled or roasted, and 
 were much relished by the crew. The cacique was 
 "carved" (tattooed) in various streaks and devices. 
 He was requested to remain on board, and a message 
 of invitation being sent to the other chiefs, they also 
 repaired to the ship, bringing hogs and hens to ex- 
 change. The rate, which was uniform, was, for a hog 
 eight ryals of plate, and for a fowl one. This trade 
 went on all day, and the ship, after her long run, was 
 well supplied with refreshments. On the same night 
 a fortunate discovery was made by the Portuguese 
 taken out of the Santa Anna on account of his 
 knowledge of the Philippines and of China. The
 
 VOYAGE SOUND THE WORLD. 163 
 
 Spanish pilot had, it appeared, prepared a letter, which 
 he hoped secretly to convey to the governor at Manilla, 
 informing him of the English ship, which it would not 
 be difficult to surprise and overpower. If this vessel 
 was allowed to escape with impunity, he pointed out 
 that the settlement might next year be taken by those 
 who had now the audacity, with so small a force, to 
 approach its vicinity. He described in what manner 
 the English ship might be taken where she now rode. 
 This crime, or act of patriotism, was clearly brought 
 home to the pilot, who was next morning hanged for 
 doing his duty to his native country and sovereign. 
 
 Cavendish remained here nine days for the refresh- 
 ment of the ship's company, and to obtain a store of 
 provisions. Some singular customs are ascribed to the 
 natives of Capul. They practised circumcision. By 
 an opinion not rare " of the heathen " in those days, 
 nor yet altogether exploded among persons better 
 instructed than the early navigators, the islanders are 
 alleged to have "wholly worshipped the devil, and often- 
 times to have conference with him, who appeareth 
 unto them in a most ugly, monstrous shape." On the 
 23rd January the captain-general caused the seven 
 chiefs of this island, " and of a hundred islands more," 
 to appear before him and pay him tribute in hogs, 
 poultry, cocoas, and potatoes; at which-,.ceremony he 
 informed them of his country, spread the banner of 
 England from his mast-head, and sounded the drums 
 and trumpets. Due homage and submission were
 
 164 VOYAGE BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 made to the representative of England and the enemy 
 of Spain ; and this being all that was required, the 
 value of the tribute was paid back to the natives in 
 money. The Indians, at parting, promised to assist 
 the English in conquering the Spaniards at any future 
 time, and, to amuse their new friends, showed feats of 
 swift rowing round the ship. The general fired off a 
 piece of ordnance as a farewell, and the new tributaries 
 went away contented and pleased. The "hundred 
 islands more" look like a flourish of the narrator, 
 thickly as islands are clustered together at this place. 
 
 Next day they ran along the coast of Manilla, and 
 on the 28th chased a frigate, which escaped into some 
 inlet. Chase was given by the boat in those places 
 which were so shallow that the ship could not approach. 
 The crew was afterwards shot at by a party of Spanish 
 soldiers from the shore ; and a frigate was manned by 
 them and sent in pursuit, which chased the English 
 boat till within reach of the guns of the Desire. The 
 boat's crew had previously made a Spaniard prisoner, 
 whom they found in a canoe from which the natives 
 escaped ; and next day Cavendish sent a message by 
 him to the captain of the Spanish party, who at 
 different stations kept watch along the coast, desiring 
 that officer to provide a good store of gold, as he 
 intended to visit him at Manilla in a few years, and, 
 if his boat had been larger, would have visited him 
 then. 
 
 About the middle of February Cavendish passed
 
 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 165 
 
 near the Moluccas, but did not touch at these islands. 
 Fever now visited the ship's company, which had 
 hitherto been very healthy ; but only two of the men 
 died, and one of these had long been sick, so that his 
 death could not be attributed to the climate and the 
 excessive heat which occasioned the illness of the 
 others. On the 1st of March the Desire passed through 
 the strait at the west end of Java Minor, and on the 
 5th anchored in a bay at the west end of Java Major. 
 A negro found in the Santa Anna was able to con- 
 verse with some natives who were here found fishing. 
 Through this interpreter, who spoke the Morisco or 
 Arabic language, they were informed that provisions 
 might be obtained ; and in a few days afterwards two 
 or three canoes arrived laden with fowls, eggs, fresh 
 fish, oranges, and limes. That the ship might be more 
 conveniently victualled, they stood in nearer the town, 
 and were visited by the king's secretary, who brought 
 the general a present, including, among other things, 
 " wine as strong as aqua vitse, and as clear as rock- 
 water." This distinguished official, who promised that 
 the ship should be supplied in four days, was treated 
 with all the magnificence that Cavendish could com- 
 mand. The wines and preserves of the Spanish prize 
 were produced for his entertainment, and the English 
 musicians exerted their skill. The secretary, who 
 remained on board all night, saw the watch set and 
 the guns fired off, and was informed that the ship's 
 company were Englishmen, natives of a country which
 
 166 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 already traded with China, and that they were come 
 hither for discovery and traffic. The Portuguese had 
 already established a factory on the island, where they 
 traded in cloves, pepper, sugar, slaves, and other mer- 
 chandise of the East. Two of these Portuguese mer- 
 chants afterwards visited the ship, eager to obtain 
 news of their country and of Don Antonio their prince. 
 They were informed that he was then in England, 
 honourably entertained by the queen; and were de- 
 lighted to hear of the havoc Cavendish had made 
 among the Spanish shipping in the South Sea, as he 
 told them that he was " warring upon them (the 
 Spaniards) under the King of Portugal." The Euro- 
 peans who met on this distant coast were mutually 
 delighted with their short intercourse. Cavendish 
 banqueted the Portuguese merchants, and entertained 
 them with music as well as with political intelligence ; 
 and to him they described the riches of Java, and the 
 most remarkable customs observed by the natives. 
 The reigning king or rajah was named Bolamboam, 
 and was reported to be one hundred and fifty years of 
 age. He was held in great veneration by his subjects, 
 none of whom durst trade with any nation without his 
 license under pain of death. The old king had a 
 hundred wives, and his son fifty. In Bolamboam the 
 old voyagers give a perfect picture of an absolute 
 prince. The Javans paid him unlimited obedience. 
 Whatever he commanded, be the undertaking ever so 
 dangerous or desperate, no one durst shrink from
 
 VOYAGE SOUND THE WORLD. 167 
 
 executing it ; and their heads were the forfeit of their 
 failure. They were " the bravest race in the south-east 
 parts of the globe, never fearing death." The men 
 were naked, and dark in colour ; but the women were 
 partly clothed, and in complexion much fairer. When 
 the king died his body was burned, and the ashes were 
 preserved. Five days afterwards his queen, or principal 
 wife, threw a ball from her with which she was pro- 
 vided, and wherever it ran thither all the wives re- 
 paired. Each turned her face eastward, and, with a 
 dagger as sharp as a razor, stabbed herself to the heart, 
 and, bathed in her own blood, fell upon her face, and 
 thus died. " This thing," we are assured, " is as true 
 as it may seem to any hearer to be strange." The 
 Portuguese factors, before parting with Cavendish, 
 proposed that their acknowledged king, Don Antonio, 
 should come out and here found an empire, which 
 should comprehend the Moluccas, Ceylon, China, and 
 the Philippines. They were assured that all the 
 natives of these countries would declare for him. A 
 kind reception was also promised to the English at 
 their return ; and Cavendish, having fully satisfied 
 them for the supplies furnished to his ship, fired a 
 parting salute of three guns, and on the 16th March 
 sailed for the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 The rest of this month and the month of April were 
 spent " in traversing that mighty and vast sea between 
 the island of Java and the main of Africa, observing 
 the heavens, the Crosiers or South Pole, the other
 
 168 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 stars, and the fowls, which are marks unto seamen ; 
 fair weather, foul weather, approaching of lands or 
 islands, the winds, tempests, the rains and thunders, 
 with the alteration of the tides and currents." On 
 the 10th of May a storm arose, and they were after- 
 wards becalmed ; and, in the thick hazy weather of 
 the calm, mistook Cape False for the Cape of Good 
 Hope, which they passed on the 16th, having run 
 one thousand eight hundred and fifty leagues in nine 
 weeks. 
 
 On the 8th June the island of St. Helena was seen, 
 and on the 9th they anchored in the harbour. The 
 description of this station, so important to navigators, 
 would apply with perfect accuracy even at this day, 
 so far as regards external appearance or the natural 
 productions of that delicious resting-place, of which at 
 that time the Portuguese still enjoyed sole possession. 
 They had now held this island for upwards of eighty 
 years ; and, though it had never been regularly colon- 
 ized, they had done much to store it with everything 
 necessary to the refreshment of seamen on a long voy- 
 age. Already it abounded in all sorts of herbs, and in 
 delicious fruits. Partridges, pheasants, turkeys, goats, 
 and wild hogs, were also obtained in abundance. 
 
 At St. Helena Cavendish remained till the 20th, 
 cleaning the ship, and obtaining refreshments, when 
 the Desire once more got under way for England. 
 About the end of August they passed the Azores, and 
 on the 3rd September met a Flemish hulk from Lisbon,
 
 VOYAGE HOUND THE WOULD. 169 
 
 which informed them of the defeat of the Spanish 
 Armada, to their "great rejoicing." In the Channel 
 they were overtaken by the same terrible tempest that 
 made such havoc among the Spanish ships which were 
 driven round the coast of Ireland and to the north of 
 Scotland; but were so fortunate as to complete the 
 third circumnavigation of the globe at Plymouth on 
 the 9th September, 1588, two years and fifty days 
 from the time they had left the same harbour, and in a 
 considerably shorter time than either Magellan or Drake 
 had made the same voyage. 
 
 Very copious nautical notes and remarks on this 
 voyage were published by Mr. Thomas Fuller of 
 Ipswich, the sailing-master of the Desire. They must 
 have been of great value at the time, but have been 
 superseded by more modern charts, in forming which, 
 though the observations may not be more accurate, 
 the navigators have had the advantage of more perfect 
 instruments. The only geographical discovery made 
 by Cavendish in this navigation was Port Desire, on 
 the Patagonian coast, the landmarks of which Fuller 
 has accurately described, though it has frequently 
 been made the subject of dispute among modern 
 voyagers. 
 
 The fame of the exploits of Cavendish, and of the 
 great wealth which he had brought home, " enough to 
 buy a fair earldom," almost rivalled the accounts of 
 Drake's wonderful voyage. Among other rumours it 
 was said that when he entered the harbour of Ply-
 
 170 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 inouth his sails were all of silk. In the tempest which 
 overtook them in the Channel the sails were lost ; and 
 it is probable that Cavendish might have been com- 
 pelled to employ some of his rich Indian damasks in 
 the homely office of rigging his vessel ; though it is 
 conjectured, with more feasibilit} 7 ', that his new suit of 
 sails was canvas fabricated of the silk-grass used in 
 the South Seas, which, being very lustrous, might 
 easily be mistaken for silk. 
 
 The earliest leisure of Cavendish was employed in 
 writing to his patron, Lord Hunsdon, giving an account 
 of his prosperous expedition. Whatever blame may in 
 a more enlightened age be imputed to this navigator, 
 for the wanton outrages committed on the Spanish 
 settlements and on the subjects of Spain, he appears 
 to have thought himself entitled to credit for their 
 performance. Instead, therefore, of trying to conceal 
 these deeds, in setting forth his services for her majesty, 
 he makes them his boast; and doubtless they were 
 highly esteemed. No better recapitulation of the 
 events of this celebrated voyage can be found than 
 that contained in his letter to Lord Hunsdon, an 
 extract of which may form an appropriate conclusion 
 to this chapter. "It hath pleased Almighty God," 
 says the writer, " to suffer me to circumpass the whole 
 globe of the world, entering in at the Strait of Magellan, 
 and returning by the Cape de Buena EsperanQa; in 
 which voyage I have either discovered or brought 
 certain intelligence of all the rich places of the world
 
 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 171 
 
 which were ever discovered by any Christian. I 
 navigated along the coast of Chili, Peru, and New 
 Spain, where I made great spoils. I burned and sunk 
 nineteen sails of ships small and great. All the 
 villages and towns that ever I landed at I burned and 
 spoiled. And had I not been discovered upon the 
 coast, I had taken great quantity of treasure. The 
 matter of most profit unto me was a great ship of the 
 king's, which I took at California ; which jship came 
 from the Philippines, being one of the richest of mer- 
 chandise that ever passed those seas From the 
 
 Cape of California, being the uttermost part of all 
 New Spain, I navigated to the islands of the Philip- 
 pines, hard upon the coast of China, of which country 
 I have brought such intelligence as hath not been 
 heard of in these parts; the stateliness and riches of 
 which I fear to make report of, lest I should not be 
 
 credited I found out by the way homeward the 
 
 island of Santa Helena, where the Portuguese used 
 to relieve themselves ; and from that island God hath 
 suffered me to return into England. All which services, 
 with myself, I humbly prostrate at her majesty's feet, 
 desiring the Almighty long to continue her reign 
 among us ; for at this day she is the most famous and 
 victorious princess that liveth in the world."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 
 
 THE second and final expedition of Cavendish to the 
 South Sea was as remarkable for ill fortune as his 
 first voyage had been distinguished by uninterrupted 
 prosperity. This fortunate voyage, however, which 
 gave such strong confirmation to the hopes excited by 
 the adventure of Drake, encouraged many to a similar 
 attempt, and during the two years following his return 
 several expeditions were fitted out from England, 
 though none of them proved successful. 
 
 In three years after his return, Cavendish having, 
 according to some accounts, spent the greater part of 
 the riches he had acquired in the South Sea, planned 
 an expedition for China by Magellan Strait, and 
 upon an extensive scale. It is asserted, with as much 
 probability, that his wealth was laid out in equipping 
 the new squadron, with which he put to sea on the 
 26th August 1591. It consisted of "three tall ships" 
 and two barks. As admiral of the fleet Cavendish 
 sailed in the Leicester galleon; and his old ship, the 
 Desire, was commanded by the celebrated pilot, navi-
 
 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 173 
 
 gator, and fortunate discoverer, Captain John Davis. 
 The Roebuck, commanded by Mr. Cook, the Black 
 Pinnace, and a small bark named the Dainty, which 
 belonged to Mr. Adrian Gilbert, a gentleman of Devon- 
 shire, who had been among the promoters of the 
 discovery of the North-west Passage, completed the 
 fleet. The two Japanese youths, captured in the 
 Acapulco ship on the former voyage, accompanied 
 Cavendish in this. 
 
 Under the equinoctial line they were becalmed for 
 twenty-seven days, burning beneath a hot sun, and 
 exposed to the deadly night-vapours, which threw 
 many of the men into the scurvy. Their first capture 
 was a Portuguese vessel, on the 2nd December, off the 
 coast of Brazil. It was laden with sugar, small-wares, 
 and slaves. 
 
 On the 5th they pillaged Placenzia, a small Portu- 
 guese settlement ; and on the 16th surprised the town 
 of Santos, where the inhabitants were at Mass when 
 the party landed. Though Cavendish, both from 
 principle and from natural disposition, never lost an 
 opportunity of spoiling the enemy, the object of this 
 attack was to obtain provisions ; but this design, from 
 the negligence of the captain of the Roebuck, was 
 completely frustrated. The Indians carried everything 
 away ; and next day the prisoners in the church were 
 either set free or contrived to escape, four old men 
 being retained as hostages till the supplies came in. 
 They never appeared; and the consequence of mis-
 
 174 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 
 
 management and delay was, that in lying five weeks 
 before this place the provisions were wasted which 
 should have sustained them in passing the Strait, 
 and the voyage was delayed, by this and other causes, 
 till they found themselves, in the beginning of the 
 southern winter, distant from the Strait, and short of 
 stores. 
 
 On the 22nd January they left Santos, burned St. 
 Vincent on the 23rd, and next day bore for the Strait 
 of Magellan; Port Desire, which Cavendish had dis- 
 covered on his former voyage, being appointed as a 
 rendezvous in case of separation. On the 7th February 
 the fleet was overtaken by a violent gale, and next 
 day they were separated. Davis, in the Desire, made 
 for the appointed harbour, and on the way fell in with 
 the Roebuck, which had suffered dreadfully. On the Gth 
 of March these two ships reached Port Desire together, 
 and in ten days afterwards were joined by the Black 
 Pinnace. The Dainty, the volunteer bark, returned 
 to England, having stored herself with sugar at Santos 
 while the other ships lay idle : her captain was in the 
 meanwhile on board the Roebuck, and was left without 
 anything save the clothes which he wore. 
 
 In the gale, which scarcely abated from the 7th of 
 February to the middle of March, Cavendish suffered 
 severely, and his officers and men had shown a dis- 
 position to mutiny; so that, on rejoining the other 
 ships on the 18th, he left the Leicester galleon in 
 displeasure, and remained in the Desire with Captain
 
 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 175 
 
 Davis. Cavendish did not at this time complain more 
 bitterly of the gentlemen of his own ship than he 
 afterwards violently accused Davis of having betrayed 
 and abandoned him. His subsequent misfortunes 
 affected his temper, and, it may be presumed, perverted 
 his sense of justice. Though his company had not 
 recovered from the excessive fatigue and exhaustion 
 caused by the late continued tempest, the galleon sailed 
 with the fleet on the 20th, and after enduring fresh 
 storms all the ships made the Strait on the 8th April, 
 and on the 14th passed in. In two days they had beat 
 inward only ten leagues. 
 
 An account is given in Purchas's Pilgrims of this 
 most disastrous voyage, drawn up at sea by Cavendish 
 in his last illness. It is addressed to Sir Tristram 
 Gorges, whom the unfortunate navigator appointed his 
 executor, and is one of the most affecting narratives 
 that ever was written, the confession, wrung in 
 bitterness of heart, from a high-spirited, proud, and 
 headstrong man, who having set his all upon a cast, 
 and finding himself undone, endured the deeper morti- 
 fication of believing he had been the dupe of those he 
 implicitly trusted. Though we cannot admit the force 
 of many of his allegations, nor the justice of his 
 unmeasured invective, it is impossible to withhold 
 sympathy from his extreme distress. " We had been 
 almost four months," says this melancholy relation, 
 "between the coast of Brazil and the Strait, beimr in 
 
 O 
 
 distance not above six hundred leagues, which is
 
 176 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 
 
 commonly run in twenty or thirty days ; but such was 
 the adverseness of our fortune, that in coming thither 
 we spent the summer, and found the Strait, in the 
 beginning of a most extreme winter, not durable for 
 
 Christians After the month of May was come in, 
 
 nothing but such flights of snow, and extremity of 
 frosts, as in all my life I never saw any to be compared 
 with them. This extremity caused the weak men (in 
 my ship only) to decay ; for in seven or eight days in 
 this extremity, there died forty men and sickened 
 seventy, so that there were not fifteen men able to 
 stand upon the hatches." Another relation of the 
 voyage, written by Mr. John Jane, a friend of Captain 
 Davis, even deepens this picture of distress. The 
 squadron, beating for above a week against the wind 
 into the Strait, and in all that time advancing only 
 fifty leagues, now lay in a sheltered cove on the south 
 side of the passage, and nearly opposite Cape Froward, 
 where they remained till the loth May, a period of 
 extreme suffering. "In this time," says Jane, "we 
 endured extreme storms with perpetual snow, where 
 many of our men died of cursed famine and miserable 
 cold, not having wherewith to cover their bodies, nor 
 to fill their belly, but living by mussels, water, and 
 weeds of the sea, with a small relief from the ship's 
 stores of meal sometimes." Nor was this the worst. 
 "All the sick men in the galleon were most uncharitably 
 put on shore into- the woods, in the snow, wind, and 
 cold, when men of good health could scarcely endure
 
 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 177 
 
 it, where they ended their lives in the highest degree 
 of misery." Though Cavendish was still on board the 
 Desire, it is impossible to free him of the blame of this 
 inhuman abandonment of the sick. A consultation 
 was now held, at which Davis, who had had great 
 experience of the severities of the seasons in his north- 
 west voyages, declared for pushing forward, as the 
 weather must speedily improve ; while Cavendish pre- 
 ferred the attempt of reaching China by doubling the 
 Cape of Good Hope. For this voyage, however, the 
 other commanders thought there were neither pro- 
 visions nor equipments. At length, on a petition by 
 the whole company being presented to Cavendish, he 
 agreed to return to the coast of Brazil for supplies, and, 
 thus furnished, again to attempt the Strait. 
 
 On the 15th May they accordingly sailed eastward, 
 and on the midnight of the 20th, Davis in the Desire, 
 and the Black Pinnace, were separated from the galleon, 
 to which Cavendish had now returned. They never 
 met again, and Cavendish, to the last moment of his 
 unhappy life, accused Davis of having wilfully aban- 
 doned him. This treacherous desertion, if such it was, 
 and by the. friends of Davis it is strenuously denied, 
 took place in the latitude of Port Desire, for which 
 harbour Davis stood in, and also the Black Pinnace, 
 expecting, as they at least pretended, to find the 
 general. Here they took in water, and obtained at 
 ebb-tide mussels, and with hooks made of pins caught 
 smelts, and thus spared their slender stock of provisions. 
 
 (829) 12
 
 178 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 
 
 An effort made by Davis to go in search of the 
 captain-general in the pinnace was overruled, it is 
 alleged, by the ship's company, who would not permit 
 its departure. They are even charged with open 
 mutiny, and two ringleaders are named. 
 
 To clear himself of all suspicion, Davis, on the 2nd 
 June, drew up a relation of the voyage, of the separa- 
 tion, and of the state of the two ships lying here, 
 which all the men subscribed. It certainly goes far to 
 exonerate him. They remained in Port Desire till the 
 6th of August, keeping watch on the hills for the 
 galleon and the Roebuck; one part of the company 
 foraging for provisions of any kind that could be 
 obtained, while others made nails, bolts, and ropes 
 from an old cable, and thus supplied their wants in the 
 best manner they could devise. There are, however, 
 surmises that all this labour was undertaken that 
 Davis might be able to accomplish his great object of 
 passing the Strait, whatever became of the general, 
 and whatever might have been his wishes or orders. 
 After this refitting was accomplished, it was accord- 
 ingly resolved to await the coming of Cavendish in the 
 Strait, for which, having at Penguin Isle salted 
 twenty hogsheads of seals, they sailed on the night 
 of the 7th August, "the poorest wretches that ever 
 were created." 
 
 Several times they obtained a sight of the South 
 Sea, but were driven back into the Strait. While 
 tossed about, they were on the 14th driven in "among
 
 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 179 
 
 certain islands never before discovered by any known 
 relation, lying fifty leagues or better off the shore, east 
 and northerly from the Strait." These were the 
 Falkland Islands, of which Captain Davis certainly has 
 the honour of being the original discoverer, as he had 
 already been of the Strait which still goes by his name, 
 and of other ports in the North Seas. This discovery 
 was shortly afterwards claimed by Sir Richard Haw- 
 kins, who gave these islands the name of Hawkins's 
 Maiden Land, " for that it was discovered in the reign 
 of Queen Elizabeth, my sovereign lady, and a maiden 
 queen." The discovery of these islands has been 
 claimed by the navigators of other countries, and a 
 variety of names have been imposed upon them. 
 Burney christens them anew, "Davis's Southern Isl- 
 ands," a distinction to which that celebrated navigator 
 is fully entitled, though it will not be easy to change 
 a name so established as that of the Falkland Islands. 
 On the 2nd October they got into the South Sea once 
 more, and in the same night encountered a severe gale, 
 which continued with unabated violence for many 
 days. On the 4th the pinnace was lost: on the 5th 
 the fore-sail was split and all torn ; " and the mizzen 
 was brought to the fore-mast to make our ship work, 
 the storm continuing beyond all description in fury, 
 with hail, snow, rain, and wind, such and so mighty as 
 that in nature it could not possibly be more ; the sea 
 such and so lofty, with continual breach, that many 
 times we were doubtful whether our ship did sink
 
 180 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 
 
 or swim." The relation proceeds thus with earnest 
 pathetic simplicity : " The 10th of October, being, by 
 the account of our captain and master, very near the 
 shore, the weather dark, the storm furious, and most 
 of our men having given over to travail, we yielded 
 ourselves to death without further hope of succour. 
 Our captain (Davis) sitting in the gallery very pensive, 
 I came and brought him some Rosa Solis to comfort 
 him ; for he was so cold he was scarce able to move 
 a joint. After he had drunk, and was comforted in 
 heart, he began for the ease of his conscience to make 
 a large repetition of his forepassed time, and with 
 many grievous sighs he concluded in these words : 
 'Oh most glorious God, with whose power the mightiest 
 things among men are matters of no moment, I most 
 humbly beseech thee, that the intolerable burden of 
 my sins may through the blood of Jesus Christ be 
 taken from me ; and end our days with speed, or show 
 us some merciful sign of thy love and our preservation.' 
 Having thus ended, he desired me not to make known 
 to the company his intolerable grief and anguish of 
 mind, because they should not thereby be dismayed ; 
 and so, suddenly before I went from him, the sun 
 shined clear ; so that he and the master both observed 
 the true elevation of the Pole, whereby they knew by 
 what course to recover the Strait." The narrative 
 goes on to relate a wonderful instance of preservation 
 in doubling a cape at the mouth of the Strait on the 
 llth of October.
 
 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 181 
 
 They at last put back into the Strait in a most 
 pitiable condition, the men "with their sinews stiff, 
 their flesh dead," and in a state too horrible to be de- 
 scribed. They found shelter and rest in a cove for a 
 few days, but famine urged them on, and the weather, 
 after a short interval of calm, became as stormy as 
 before. "The storm growing outrageous, our men 
 could scarcely stand by their labour; and the Strait 
 being full of turning reaches, we were constrained, 
 by the discretion of the captain and master in their 
 accounts, to guide the ship in the hell-dark night when 
 we could not see any shore." In this extremity they 
 got back to Port Desire, and obtained wood and water ; 
 and in Penguin Island found abundance of birds. One 
 day, while most of the men were absent on their several 
 duties, a multitude of the natives showed themselves, 
 throwing dust upon their heads, " leaping and running 
 like brute beasts, having vizards on their faces like 
 dogs' faces, or else their faces are dogs' faces indeed. 
 We greatly feared lest they should set the ship on fire, 
 for they would suddenly make fire, whereat we much 
 marvelled. They came to windward of our ship, and 
 set the bushes on fire, so that we were in a very stink- 
 ing smoke ; but as soon as they came within reach of 
 our shot we shot at them, and striking one of them in 
 the thigh they all presently fled, and we never saw 
 them more." At this place a party of nine men were 
 killed by the Indians, or were presumed to be so, as 
 they went on shore, and were never again heard of.
 
 182 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 
 
 The relation points out that " these were the mutineers, 
 and this the place at which they had formerly devised 
 mischief" against Davis and his officers. Here they 
 made salt by pouring salt water in the hollows of the 
 rocks, which in six days was granulated from evapora- 
 tion by the heat of the sun. They found abundance of 
 food in eggs, penguins, seals, and young gulls; and 
 with train-oil fried scurvy-grass with eggs, "which 
 (herb) took away all kinds of swellings, whereof many 
 had died, and restored us to perfect health of body, so 
 that we were in as good case as when we left England." 
 " Thus God did feed us as it were with manna from 
 heaven." 
 
 On the 22nd December they sailed for Brazil with a 
 stock of fourteen thousand dried penguins, of which 
 they had an ample allowance, though their other pro- 
 vision was scantily dealt out. In the beginning of 
 February, in attempting by violence to obtain some 
 provisions at the Isle of Placenzia, on the coast of 
 Brazil, thirteen of the men were killed by the Indians 
 and Portuguese; and of an original company of seventy 
 only twenty-seven were now left in the Desire. They 
 were again the sport of baffling winds ; the water ran 
 short ; and in the warm latitudes the penguins, their 
 sole dependence for food, began to corrupt, " and ugly 
 loathsome worms of an inch long were bred in them." 
 The account of this plague is painfully striking. " This 
 worm did so mightily increase, and devour our victuals, 
 that there was in reason no hope how we should avoid
 
 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 183 
 
 famine, but be devoured of the wicked creatures. 
 There was nothing that they did not devour, iron only 
 excepted our clothes, hats, boots, shirts, and stockings. 
 And for the ship, they did eat the timbers ; so that we 
 greatly feared they would undo us by eating through 
 the ship's side. Great was the care and diligence of 
 our captain, master, and company to consume these 
 vermin; but the more we laboured to kill them, the 
 more they increased upon us, so that at last we could 
 not sleep for them, for they would eat our flesh like 
 mosquitoes." The men now fell into strange and 
 horrible diseases, and some became raging mad. A 
 supply of water was, however, obtained from the heavy 
 rains which fell ; and this was the only solace of this 
 most miserable voyage. Eleven died between the coast 
 of Brazil and Bear Haven in Ireland: and of the 
 sixteen that survived only five were able to work the 
 ship. If the design of Davis had been treacherously to 
 abandon Mr. Cavendish, he was subjected to speedy 
 and severe retribution. 
 
 To this unfortunate commander we must now return; 
 and brief space may suffice to relate a series of cala- 
 mities which might weary the attention and exhaust 
 the sympathies of even the most compassionate reader. 
 The conjecture which Cavendish formed of the pro- 
 ceedings of Davis and the captain of the Black Pinnace 
 was perfectly correct. He states in his letter that he 
 believed they would return to Port Desire a safe 
 place of anchorage for ships of small burden, though
 
 184 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 
 
 not such as he could safely approach and there refresh 
 themselves, lay in a store of seals and birds, and seize 
 a favourable season to pass the Strait. And they did 
 so. In speaking of Davis, and of his conduct, Cavendish 
 exclaims : " And now to come to that villain, that hath 
 been the death of me and the decay of this whole 
 action I mean Davis whose only treachery in run- 
 ning from me hath been utter ruin of all, if any good 
 return by him, as ever you love me, make such friends, 
 as he, least of all others, may reap least gain. I assure 
 myself you will be careful in all friendship of my last 
 requests. My debts which be owing be not much ; but 
 I (most unfortunate villain !) was matched with the 
 most abject-minded and mutinous company that ever 
 was carried out of England by any man living." " The 
 short of all is this Davis's only intent was utterly to 
 overthrow me, which he hath well performed." 
 
 After the Desire and the Black Pinnace separated 
 from the fleet, the Leicester galleon and Roebuck shaped 
 their course for Brazil, keeping sight of each other. 
 In 36 S. they encountered a dreadful storm, and were 
 parted. For some time the galleon lay at anchor in 
 the Bay of St. Vincent; and while here a party, 
 almost in open defiance of the orders of Cavendish, 
 landed to forage for provisions, and plunder the houses 
 of the Portuguese farmers on the coast. They were 
 wholly cut off, to the number of twenty-four men and 
 an officer; and the only boat which Cavendish had 
 now left was thus lost.
 
 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 185 
 
 The Roebuck, about this time, returned without 
 masts or sails, and "in the most miserable case ever 
 ship was in." The captain-general felt the want of 
 the boats and pinnace doubly severe, from being unable 
 in the larger ships to enter the harbours, which were 
 often barred, to be revenged on the " base dogs " who 
 had killed his men. At some risk he made an attempt 
 to go up the river before the town, that he might have 
 the gratification of razing it ; but was compelled by his 
 company to desist from an attempt which " was both 
 desperate and most dangerous." With some difficulty 
 they got back into deep water, and with the boat of 
 the Roebuck, and a crazy boat seized from the Portu- 
 guese, a party landed which destroyed a few of the 
 farm-houses and got some provisions. It was now the 
 intention of Cavendish to break up the Roebuck, and 
 with the Leicester galleon, as Davis never appeared, 
 return to the Strait alone. But of this purpose he did 
 not venture to inform his company, lest they might 
 have broken out into open mutiny. So great was 
 their horror of returning, " that all of the better sort," 
 he says, "had taken an oath upon the Bible to die 
 rather than go back." St. Helena was therefore the 
 point now talked of ; and in the meanwhile an attempt 
 was made to seize three Portuguese ships in the harbour 
 of Spirito Santo. The plan of attack was unsuccessful. 
 Of eighty armed men who left the ship on this ill- 
 starred expedition, about thirty-eight were killed and 
 forty wounded. Among the killed was Captain Morgan,
 
 186 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 
 
 an officer whom Cavendish highly esteemed, who in 
 this expedition was taunted into the commission of 
 acts of foolhardy daring by the insulting speeches of 
 those whom he led ; a weakness which, despite of their 
 better judgment, has often proved fatal to brave men, 
 as well as to the rash persons themselves whose ignor- 
 ance and vanity tempt them to become the critics and 
 censors of enterprises of which they cannot comprehend 
 the danger. Inability to endure the imputation of 
 cowardice is indeed one of the most lamentable in- 
 firmities of noble minds. On the present occasion 
 some of the seamen swore "that they never thought 
 other than that Morgan was a coward that durst not 
 land upon a bauble ditch ; " upon which, wilfully run- 
 ning upon what he saw to be certain destruction, he 
 declared that he would land happen what would, and 
 though against the counsel of his commander, who 
 remained in the ship. The consequences have been 
 told. 
 
 One circumstance strongly moved the generous in- 
 dignation of Cavendish. A party with the great boat 
 called to another, which were attempting to storm a 
 fort, to come and help them to hasten off, as they were 
 exposed to a galling fire. The numbers that rushed 
 into the boat ran her aground, and ten men were 
 obliged to leave her, who, to save themselves from the 
 Indian arrows which flew thick, again ran in under the 
 fort, and poured in a volley of musketry. Meanwhile 
 the boat was got afloat, " and one that was master of
 
 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 187 
 
 the Roebuck (the most cowardly villain that ever was 
 born of a woman), caused them in the boat to row 
 away, and so left those brave men a spoil for the 
 Portugals. Yet they waded up to their necks in the 
 water to them ; but those merciless villains in the boat 
 would have no pity on them. Their excuse was, that 
 the boat was so full of water, that had they come in 
 she would have sunk with them all in her. Thus 
 vilely were those poor men lost." 
 
 By the fatal adventure which he has thus narrated, 
 Cavendish, already in want of every necessary, was 
 left with hardly as many efficient men as could raise 
 the anchor. To add to his already accumulated mis- 
 fortunes, the Roebuck forsook him, the company of that 
 ship being resolved to return home; and though the 
 wounded lay in his vessel, they carried off the two 
 surgeons and a great part of the common stores. In 
 these distressing circumstances he got to the small un- 
 inhabited island of St. Sebastian, where he mended 
 the old boats, and obtained a seasonable supply of 
 water, of which they were in great want. Again 
 Cavendish spoke of returning to the Strait, and used 
 all the arts of persuasion with his company; but in 
 vain. He showed them that they could " relieve them- 
 selves by salting seals and birds, etc. ; and further, 
 should they get through the Strait (which they might 
 easily perform, considering they had the chiefest part 
 of the summer before them), they could not but make 
 a most rich voyage ; and that we should be the most
 
 188 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 
 
 infamous in the world, being within six hundred 
 leagues of the place where we so much desired to 
 return home again so far being most infamous and 
 beggarly. These persuasions," continues Cavendish, 
 " took no place with them ; but most boldly they all 
 affirmed that they had sworn they would never again 
 go to the Strait ; neither by no means would they. 
 And one of the chiefest of this faction most proudly 
 and stubbornly uttered these words to my face, in 
 presence of all the rest; which I seeing, and finding 
 mine own faction to be so weak (for there were not 
 any favoured my side but my poor cousin Locke, and 
 the master of the ship), I took this bold companion by 
 the bosom, and with mine own hands put a rope about 
 his neck, meaning resolutely to strangle him, for 
 weapon about me I had none. His companions seeing 
 one of their chief champions in this case, and perceiving 
 me go roundly to work with him, they all came to the 
 master and desired him to speak, affirming they would 
 all be ready to take any course I thought good of ; so 
 I, hearing this, stayed myself, and let the fellow go." 
 
 Having now boldly avowed his intention of return- 
 ing to the Strait, Cavendish landed on the island with 
 a party of his soldiers and the carpenters, to new-build 
 the boat, while the sailors on board mended and patched 
 up the rigging and tackle of the ship. But he still 
 suspected his men of treachery, and of the intention of 
 deserting, and was in constant anxiety to get them 
 once more on board, that the ship might depart for the
 
 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 189 
 
 Strait. Before this could be accomplished, Cavendish, 
 whom fortune never wearied of persecuting, sustained 
 another severe mischance. The wounded men were on 
 shore on the island, which lay about a mile from the 
 mainland, from whence the Portuguese watched all the 
 proceedings of the ship's company during the building 
 of the boat. Before all the wood and water were got 
 in, and while some soldiers and seamen were still on 
 the island, an Irishman, " a noble villain," contrived to 
 go over to the continent upon a raft, and betray his 
 defenceless comrades to the Portuguese. This was 
 done in the night-time ; and besides those employed on 
 the island and the sick, there chanced to be several 
 men ashore, who frequently stole away from the ship 
 at night to enjoy the freedom of the land. All were 
 indiscriminately butchered. One of the few remaining 
 sails which lay here was also seized, and in their 
 distressed circumstances proved another serious loss. 
 " Thus," says the luckless adventurer, " I was forced to 
 depart, Fortune never ceasing to lay her greatest ad- 
 versities upon me. And now I am grown so weak that 
 I am scarce able to hold the pen in my hand ; where- 
 fore I must leave you to inquire of the rest of our most 
 unhappy proceedings. But know this, that for the 
 Strait I could by no means get my company to give 
 their consent to go. In truth, I desired nothing more 
 than to attempt that course, rather desiring to die in 
 going forward than basely in returning back again ; 
 but God would not suffer me to die so happy a man."
 
 190 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 
 
 These " unhappy proceedings " to which he refers may, 
 so far as they are known, be very briefly noticed. An 
 attempt was made to reach the island of St. Helena, 
 for which the company had reluctantly consented to 
 steer only on Cavendish solemnly declaring that to 
 England he would never go, and that, if they refused 
 to take such courses as he intended, the " ship and all 
 should sink in the seas together." This for a time 
 made them more tractable ; but having beat to the 20 
 S. they refused to proceed further, choosing rather to 
 die where they were " than be starved in searching for 
 an island which could never be found again." They 
 were, however, once more induced to proceed south- 
 ward, and in dreadful weather beat back to 28 S., and 
 stood for St. Helena, which was most unhappily missed, 
 owing to contrary winds and the unskilfulness of the 
 sailing-master. One more effort this unfortunate com- 
 mander made to induce his mutinous crew to regain 
 the island, alarming them with the scarcity of pro- 
 visions ; but they unanimously replied, " that they 
 would be perished to death rather than not make for 
 England." 
 
 It is believed that Cavendish did not long sur- 
 vive the events recorded above ; and it is certain that 
 he died before the ship reached England. His letter, 
 from which we have quoted, was not closed when 
 the galleon reached 8 N. From its commencement 
 and it must have been written at many different 
 sittings Cavendish had considered himself a dying
 
 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 191 
 
 man. It opens with great tenderness : " Most loving 
 friend, there is nothing in this world that makes a 
 truer trial of friendship than at death to show mind- 
 fulness of love and friendship, which now you shall 
 make a perfect experience of ; desiring you to hold my 
 love as dear dying poor as if I had been most infinitely 
 rich. The success of this most unfortunate action, the 
 bitter torments whereof lie so heavy upon me, as with 
 much pain am I able to write these few lines, much 
 less to make discourse to you of all the adverse haps 
 that have befallen me in this voyage, the least whereof 
 is my death." He adverts to the illness of "a most 
 true friend, whom to name my heart bleeds," who, like 
 himself, became the victim of the complicated distresses 
 of this voyage. After the crowning misfortune of 
 missing St. Helena, he says : " And now to tell you of 
 my greatest grief, which was the sickness of my dear 
 kinsman John Locke, who by this time was grown in 
 great weakness, by reason whereof he desired rather 
 quietness and contentedness in our course than such 
 continual disquietness as never ceased me. And now 
 by this, what with grief for him and the continual 
 trouble I endured among such hell-hounds, my spirits 
 were clean spent, wishing myself upon any desert place 
 in the world, there to die, rather than thus basely 
 return home again. Which course, I swear to you, I 
 had put in execution, had I found an island which the 
 cardes (charts) make to be in 8 S. of the line. I swear 
 to you I sought it with all diligence, meaning there to
 
 192 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 
 
 have ended my most unfortunate life. But God suf- 
 fered not such happiness to light upon me, for I could 
 by no means find it ; so, as I was forced to go towards 
 England, and having got eight degrees by the north of 
 the Line, I lost my most dearest cousin. And now con- 
 sider whether a heart made of flesh be able to endure 
 so many misfortunes, all falling upon me without inter- 
 mission. And I thank my God, that in ending me he 
 hath pleased to rid me of all further troubles and 
 mishaps." The rest of the letter refers to his private 
 concerns, and especially to the discharge of his debts 
 and the arrangement of his affairs for this purpose an 
 act of friendship which he expected from the kindness 
 of the gentleman he addressed. It then takes an 
 affecting farewell of life and of the friend for whom 
 he cherished so warm an affection. 
 
 In his two voyages Cavendish experienced the great- 
 est extremes of fortune, his first adventure being even 
 more brilliant and successful than the last (chiefly 
 through the bad discipline and evil dispositions of his 
 company) was disastrous and unhappy. Cavendish 
 was still very young when he died. No naval com- 
 mander ever more certainly sunk under the disease to 
 which so many brave men have fallen victims a 
 broken heart. In many things his conduct discovered 
 the rashness and impetuosity of youth, and the want 
 of that temper and self-command which are among the 
 first qualities of a naval chief. The reproach of cruelty. 
 or at least of culpable indifference to the claims of
 
 SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA. 193 
 
 humanity, which, from transactions in both voyages, 
 and especially in the first, must rest upon his memory, 
 ought in justice to be shared with the age in which he 
 lived, and the state of moral feeling among the class to 
 which he belonged by birth. By the aristocracy, " the 
 vulgar," "the common sort," were still regarded as 
 creatures of a different and inferior species; while 
 among seamen the destruction of Spaniards and 
 "Portugals" was regarded as a positive virtue. By 
 all classes, negroes, Indians, and Gentiles were held in 
 no more esteem than brute animals human life as 
 existing in beings so abject being regarded as of no 
 value whatever. But if Cavendish was tinged with 
 the faults of his class, he partook largely of its virtues 
 high spirit, courage, and intrepidity. Those who 
 might be led to judge of some points of his conduct 
 with strictness, will be disposed to lenity by the re- 
 collection of his sufferings. As an English navigator 
 his name is imperishable. On the authority of the 
 accurate and veracious Stowe, we may in conclusion 
 state that Thomas Cavendish "was of a delicate wit 
 and personage." 
 
 13
 
 DAM PIER.
 
 D A M P I E R. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OP AMERICA. 
 
 CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAMPIER, the remarkable person 
 whose eventful life forms the subject of the remaining 
 portion of this volume, was so long and so intimately 
 associated with the buccaneers of America, that an 
 account of this extraordinary brotherhood forms an 
 almost indispensable introduction to the adventures 
 and discoveries of this eminent navigator. 
 
 The buccaneers owed their origin to the monopolizing 
 spirit and selfish and jealous policy with which Spain 
 administered the affairs of her West India colonies. 
 Early in the sixteenth century, both English and 
 French ships, bound on trafficking adventures, had 
 found their way to these settlements ; but it was not 
 till after the enterprises of Drake, Raleigh, and Cum- 
 berland that they became frequent. The jealousy of 
 Spain had been alarmed by their first appearance ; and 
 the adoption of that system of offensive interference
 
 198 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 with the vessels of every nation that ventured near 
 the tropic, soon gave rise to the well-known maxim of 
 the buccaneers " No peace beyond the Line." 
 Though the name 
 
 " Linked to one virtue and a thousand crimes" 
 
 by which the freebooters came to be distinguished, is 
 of much later date than the era of Drake and his daring 
 
 o 
 
 follower John Oxnam, there is no great violation of 
 historical truth in ascribing to them the character which 
 it signified, of indiscriminate plunderers of the Spaniards 
 by sea and land, and in peace as well as in war. 
 
 To the gradual rise of the extraordinary association, 
 of which Drake and Oxnam were only the precursors, 
 many causes contributed. The diminished population 
 and decayed manufactures of Old Spain could no 
 longer supply her wealthy and rapidly - increasing 
 settlements with those commodities which the West 
 Indies and South America still continue to receive 
 from the workshops and looms of France, England, 
 and the Low Countries; nor could the strictness and 
 severity of the Spanish laws for regulating trade 
 prevent the settlers on many parts of the coast and 
 the islands from cheaply supplying themselves with 
 luxuries and necessaries brought direct from these 
 countries. Thus the contraband trade, eagerly fol- 
 lowed by the ships of England, France, and Holland, 
 and encouraged by the colonists, increased in defiance 
 of prohibitions and of guarda costas, as the ships
 
 WILLIAM DAMPIER. 
 
 Page iyj.
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 201 
 
 armed to protect the exclusive commerce of Spain 
 were named, and became a thriving seminary for the 
 growth of maritime freebooters, self-defence leading 
 the contraband traders to retaliation, injustice to re- 
 prisal, and spoliation to actual piracy. 
 
 Another collateral branch of the buccaneering system 
 sprung up at the same time in a different quarter. No 
 portion of the New World had suffered more from the 
 injustice and enormous cruelty of the Spaniards than 
 the fine islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. About the 
 beginning of the sixteenth century, the mines and 
 plantations of these islands had been abandoned for 
 the more productive new settlements and richer mines 
 of Mexico ; and the desolated and depopulated tracts, 
 from which the aboriginal inhabitants had been extir- 
 pated, were soon overrun by immense herds of cattle, 
 which, originally introduced by the Spaniards, had 
 multiplied so rapidly that it was become a profitable 
 employment to hunt them for the hides and tallow 
 alone. While the matadores, or Spanish hunters, pur- 
 sued this avocation, a more peaceful description of 
 settlers began to form plantations around them, and to 
 both classes the stolen visits of the French and English 
 traders became every year more welcome. From 
 trafficking on the coast, and occasionally foraging for 
 provisions for their vessels on these uninhabited shores, 
 the smugglers from time to time adopted the hunter's 
 life, and ranged at will, though regarded by the 
 Spanish government and settlers as interlopers.
 
 202 THE B UCCA NEERS OF A ME RICA . 
 
 The first predatory hunters of Cuba and Hispaniola, 
 if men following the chase in a desert may be so harshly 
 termed, were natives of France. From the customs 
 connected with their vocation in the woods arose the 
 formidable name of Buccaneer, by which the association 
 came to be distinguished, whether pirates or forayers, 
 on shore or in the wilderness. The term was adopted 
 from the Carib Indians, who called the flesh which 
 they prepared boucan, and gave the hut, where it was 
 slowly dried and smoked on wooden hurdles or bar- 
 becues, the same appellation. To the title by which 
 the desperadoes of England were known the French 
 preferred the name of Flibustier, said to be a corruption 
 of the English word " freebooter." The Dutch named 
 the natives of their country employed in this lawless 
 mode of life Sea-rovers. Brethren of the Coast was 
 another general denomination for this fraternity of 
 pirates and outlaws; till all distinctions were finally 
 lost in the title of Buccaneers of America. But the 
 same feeling which induced men of respectable family 
 to lay aside their real names on entering this associa- 
 tion, led others of them to sweeten their imaginations 
 with a term less intimately allied with every species 
 of crime and excess; and Dampier, among others, 
 always spoke of the individual members of the brother- 
 hood as "privateers," while their vocation of piracy 
 was named " privateering." 
 
 The depredations of this fortuitous assemblage of 
 bold and dissolute men had been carried on in time of
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 205 
 
 peace as hunters, smugglers, and pirates, and in time 
 of war as privateers holding commissions from their 
 respective countries, for a long series of years before 
 they attempted to form any regular settlement. During 
 this time they had acted as the rude pioneers of the 
 European states to which they respectively belonged, 
 clearing the way for the industrious and peaceful 
 settlers of France and England, both of which countries 
 secretly cherished, while they ostentatiously disclaimed, 
 the buccaneers. From the era of the discovery of 
 Columbus, both of these nations had cast longing eyes 
 upon the West India Islands, and if not under the 
 auspices, yet by the assistance of their bold though 
 lawless offspring the buccaneers, settlements were at 
 last effected. At the beginning of the seventeenth 
 century, a point on which to rest their levers was all 
 that was required ; and by a previous treaty of joint 
 occupation and partition, the French and English, in 
 1625, on the same day, landed at opposite points of the 
 island of St. Christopher, and took possession. The 
 rights of the Caribs, whom the Spaniards had neither 
 been able to enslave nor wholly to extirpate, do not 
 appear to have obtained a moment's consideration from 
 the statesmen of either France or England. Though 
 the Spaniards had no settlement upon this island them- 
 selves, their policy and interests did not quietly permit 
 the natives of two active and industrious nations to 
 obtain a permanent footing at a point whence they 
 might quickly extend their territory ; and instead of
 
 206 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 patiently waiting the result of misunderstanding be- 
 tween the colonists, which would more effectually have 
 fought their battle, in 1629 they expelled the intruders 
 by force of arms, after a residence of above three years. 
 The settlers only waited the departure of the Spanish 
 armament to return to their old possessions, though 
 some of them, thus cruelly expelled from their new- 
 formed homes, and rendered desperate by poverty and 
 hatred of the Spaniards, had meanwhile augmented the 
 bands of the freebooters, and to the reckless bravery of 
 these lawless vagabonds brought their own knowledge 
 and experience, and the habits of social life. 
 
 It was thus that step by step the narrow policy and 
 oppression of the Spaniards raised up those predatory 
 hordes, haunting the ocean and the coasts, which, from 
 infringing their absurd commercial laws, or shooting a 
 wild bullock in the forests, came at last continually to 
 infest their trade, and to destroy and pillage their 
 richest settlements. 
 
 As a convenient mart for their trade, which had 
 been prodigiously increased by the settlement of St. 
 Christopher and other causes, the hunters of His- 
 paniola and Cuba seized the island of Tortuga by 
 surprising the small Spanish garrison which defended 
 it, and here built magazines for their hides, tallow, and 
 boucan or dried meat, established their headquarters, 
 and opened a place of retreat for all buccaneers. In 
 the course of a few years European adventurers of 
 every nation save Spain flocked to Tortuga; and
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 207 
 
 French and English settlements were rapidly planted, 
 almost at random, on different islands, the new colonists 
 being the natural allies and also the best customers of 
 the buccaneers, whom they on the other hand supplied 
 with powder, shot, rum, tobacco, hatchets, and every- 
 thing necessary to their wild and irregular mode of life. 
 As these new colonies rose into consequence, they were 
 severally claimed by the mother-country of the settlers, 
 who, whether French or English, were not unfrequently 
 turned out to make way for new proprietors who had 
 been able iniquitously to obtain or purchase, from the 
 venal government at home, the lands cleared and im- 
 proved by the industry of the original adventurers. 
 Many of the French settlers, indignant at the unmerited 
 injustice of their distant government, who had left 
 them unprotected in the first instance and pillaged 
 them in the last, retired to other deserts, or joined the 
 ranks of their friends the buccaneers. 
 
 The buccaneer settlement of Tortuga, situated at the 
 very threshold of Hispaniola, was on every account 
 obnoxious to the Spaniards, who took the first oppor- 
 tunity of destroying it. This was effected while the 
 boldest of the population were absent in the chase, 
 which they often followed for months and even years 
 together on the western shores of Hispaniola, without 
 once visiting the scene of comparative civilization 
 which they had created on the smaller island. Of the 
 more peaceful of the settlers of Tortuga, who had 
 already formed plantations, and begun with success to
 
 208 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 cultivate tobacco, which turned out of excellent quality, 
 many were massacred; those who fled to the woods 
 and afterwards surrendered themselves were hanged; 
 while only a few escaped to their brethren in the 
 forests of Hispaniola. Thus every new occurrence 
 tended to inflame the mutual hatred which had so long 
 subsisted between the Spaniards and all other Euro- 
 peans, and to propagate outrage. Tortuga was soon 
 abandoned by the Spaniards, who took so much pains 
 to destroy the nest that they flattered themselves the 
 hornets would not again congregate. In this they 
 were deceived. The buccaneers returned almost im- 
 mediately, and became more formidable than ever, 
 giving Spain a practical lesson on the impolicy of 
 converting those who were in the fair way of becoming 
 peaceful and industrious neighbours into active enemies, 
 regularly banded and organized, and cordially united 
 against a common foe. 
 
 Above three hundred of the hunters returned to 
 Tortuga after it had been thus desolated and aban- 
 
 O 
 
 doned by the Spaniards; and their ranks were speedily 
 recruited by constant levies of the young, the brave, 
 and the enterprising of different European countries. 
 
 From about this time cruising upon the Spaniards 
 became more and more frequent, and as the diminished 
 number of cattle made the chase a less profitable 
 occupation, piratical excursions increased, and became 
 more bold and alarming. The Brethren of the Coast 
 had now been long known as a distinct association, and
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 209 
 
 their laws, manners, and customs had become the 
 subject of speculation and curiosity. Though their 
 peculiarities have been egregiously magnified by the 
 natural love of the marvellous, from which even phil- 
 osophic historians are not altogether exempt, many of 
 their customs were sufficiently remarkable to deserve 
 notice. Like the laws and customs of other com- 
 munities, the "statutes of the buccaneers" originated 
 in the necessities and exigencies of their condition. 
 Property, so far as regarded the means of sustenance, 
 whether obtained in the chase or by pillage, was in 
 common among this hardy brotherhood ; and as they 
 had no domestic ties, neither wife nor child, brother 
 nor sister being known among the buccaneers, the want 
 of family relations was supplied by strict comrade- 
 ship, one partner occasionally attending to household 
 duties while the other was engaged in the chase. It 
 has been said that the surviving partner in this firm, 
 whether seaman or hunter, became the general heir ; 
 and this was probably often the case, though not a 
 fixed law, as the buccaneers frequently bequeathed 
 property to their relatives in France or England. 
 Their chief virtue was courage, which, urged by des- 
 peration, was often carried to an extreme unparalleled 
 among other warlike associations. The fear of the 
 gallows, which has frequently converted the thief into 
 a murderer, made the buccaneer a hero and a savage. 
 Hardihood, the habit and the power of extreme en- 
 durance, might also, if exerted in a better cause, be 
 
 (829) H
 
 210 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 reckoned among the virtues of the buccaneers, had not 
 their long seasons of entire privation been always fol- 
 lowed by scenes of the most brutal excess. Their 
 grand principle, the one thing needful to their existence, 
 was fidelity ; and so far, at least, as regarded the 
 Spaniards, the maxim of " Honour among thieves " was 
 never more scrupulously observed than among them. 
 As their associations were voluntary, their engagements 
 never extended beyond the cruise or enterprise on 
 hand, though they were frequently renewed. The 
 ablest, the most brave, active, fortunate, and intriguing 
 of their number, was elected their commander ; but all 
 the fighting-men appear to have assisted at councils. 
 The same power which chose their leader could displace 
 him, which was frequently done, either from caprice or 
 expediency. They sometimes settled personal quarrels 
 by duel ; but offences against the fraternity were visited 
 by different punishments, as in extreme cases death, 
 abandonment on a desert island, or simply banishment 
 from the society. There appears to have been no 
 obstacle to voluntarily quitting the brotherhood as 
 often as inclination dictated such a step. Many of the 
 peculiar habits of the buccaneers are so fully detailed 
 in the adventures of Dampier, that it is unnecessary to 
 expatiate upon them in this place. In the division of 
 their booty, one main concern of all banditti, they 
 appear, as soon as buccaneering became a system, to 
 have followed nearly the same laws which regulate 
 privateers ; the owners' shares being of course included
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 211 
 
 in those of the company, who were themselves the 
 owners. A party being agreed upon a cruise, the day 
 and place for embarkation were fixed, and every man 
 repaired on board the ship with a specified quantity of 
 powder and shot. The next concern was to procure 
 provisions, which consisted mostly of pork. Many of 
 the Spaniards raised large herds of swine for the supply 
 of the planters, and from their yards abundance was 
 procured with no trouble save that in which the fero- 
 cious buccaneers delighted robbery often accompanied 
 by murder. Turtle slightly salted was another article 
 of the food which they stored ; and for beeves and 
 wild hogs they trusted to their fire-arms. Bread they 
 seldom tasted, and at sea never thought about, though 
 in later periods they sometimes procured supplies of 
 cassada, maize, and potatoes. Of this food every man 
 ate generally twice a day, or at his own pleasure, and 
 without limitation, there being in this respect no dis- 
 tinction between the commander and the meanest sea- 
 man. The vessel fairly victualled, a final council was 
 held, which determined the destination of the cruise 
 and the plan of operations ; and articles were generally 
 drawn up and subscribed, which regulated the division 
 of the spoils. The carpenter, the sail-maker, the sur- 
 geon, and the commander, were in the first place paid 
 out of the common stock. Wounds were next con- 
 sidered the value of the right arm, the most useful 
 member of the buccaneer's body, being reckoned equal 
 to six slaves, or six hundred pieces of eight. It is
 
 212 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 worthy of notice that the eye and finger of the buc- 
 caneer had the same value, which was one slave, or a 
 hundred pieces of eight. The remainder was equally 
 shared, save that the captain, besides his specific agree- 
 ment, had five shares, and his mate two. Boys received 
 a half -share. The first maxim in the code of the bucca- 
 neer, dictated by necessity, was " no prey, no pay." An 
 oath was sometimes taken, to prevent desertion before 
 the cruise was ended, and against concealment of booty. 
 In their cruises the freebooters often put into remote 
 harbours to careen or refit their ships, to obtain fruits 
 and fish, to lie in wait for the Spanish traders, and to 
 plunder either natives or Spaniards. The former they 
 sometimes carried away, selling the men as slaves, 
 while the women were compelled to labour among 
 those of the buccaneers who followed the chase. The 
 dress of these ruffians assorted well with their brutal 
 and ferocious character. It has been described as a 
 fixed costume, though there is little doubt that the same 
 necessity which dictates to the savage his clothing of 
 skins, prescribed to the buccaneer his filthy and terrific 
 garb. This consisted of a shirt dipped in the blood of 
 the cattle hunted and killed ; trowsers prepared in the 
 same rude manner; buskins without stockings, a cap 
 with a small front, and a leathern girdle, into which 
 were stuck knives, sabres, and pistols. The bloody 
 garments, though attributed to design, were probably 
 among the hunters the effect of chance and slovenliness. 
 Such was the complete equipment of the buccaneer.
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 213 
 
 Among some few of the French buccaneers, who had 
 been driven to adopt an outlaw's life by the severity 
 and injustice of the colonial government and other 
 causes, there sometimes existed sentiments of honour, 
 and even a perverted sense of religion. Prayers were 
 occasionally put up for the success of a piratical ex- 
 pedition, and thanks given for victory. We hear of 
 one buccaneer commander who shot a seaman for be- 
 having indecently during the performance of Mass, but 
 never once of the chalices and images belonging to 
 any church being spared, whether the plunderers were 
 French Catholics or English heretics. One rare instance 
 is mentioned, where a buccaneer carried his notions of 
 honour to so overstrained a height as to punish breach 
 of faith with a Spaniard, and to repress symptoms of 
 treachery to the common foe with the most prompt 
 severity. Under a humane commander these lawless 
 bands were occasionally less brutal and remorseless; 
 though, taking them as a whole, more unfavourable 
 specimens of humanity could not be selected. In the 
 buccaneer were united the cruelty and ferocity of the 
 savage with the circumvention and rapacity which are 
 among the worst consequences of an imperfect civiliza- 
 tion. The buccaneers, however, have their admirers. 
 They are said to have been open and unsuspecting 
 among themselves, liberal in their dealings, and guided 
 in their private intercourse by a frank and strictly 
 honourable spirit. The French fondly name them 
 " nos braves ; " the English boast of their unparalleled
 
 214 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 exploits ; and writers of fiction grace the character 
 with many brilliant traits of generosity and delicacy 
 of feeling. We confess that there appears little in their 
 actual history to vindicate the elevated character given 
 by those who from bravoes and lawless ruffians would 
 fashion heroes of romance, and convert the buccaneers 
 of America into a new order of chivalry ; yet there is a 
 wild and vivid interest about their roving adventures, 
 independently of the powerful curiosity naturally felt 
 to learn how men placed in circumstances so different 
 from the ordinary modes and usages of social life in 
 civilized communities thought and acted. They afford 
 another lesson. All forms of privation and endurance, 
 with which the vicissitudes of maritime adventure 
 bring us acquainted, sink into insignificance when 
 compared with the hardships voluntarily and heroically 
 sustained by the buccaneers from the love of a life of 
 boundless license and rapacity for Spanish gold. Base 
 as were their governing motives, and ruthless as was 
 their trade, it is impossible not to admire their manly 
 hardihood and unconquerable perseverance. 
 
 The buccaneers had not long regained Tortuga, when 
 it was betrayed by certain Frenchmen of their number 
 into the hands of the French governor of the West 
 Indies, who took possession of the island for the crown 
 of France, and expelled the English buccaneers, who 
 had domineered over their associates. From that time 
 the English pirates began to frequent the islands which 
 were now reckoned to belong; to their own nation.
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 215 
 
 These they enriched by the lavish expenditure of their 
 spoils. In 1655, the buccaneers lent powerful aid to 
 their countrymen in the conquest of Jamaica, which 
 thenceforth became their principal haunt when not 
 cruising upon the enemy. There, in a few weeks or 
 nights, they disgorged the plunder or gains of months 
 and years in a course of riotous excess and the most 
 dissolute profligacy. 
 
 In a few years after the capture of Jamaica, the 
 French freebooters had increased amazingly on the 
 western shores of Hispaniola. The first remarkable 
 exploits of the buccaneers at sea were chiefly performed 
 by these Frenchmen. Ships were their primary want ; 
 but from small Indian canoes, in which they at first 
 embarked, the naval power of the pirates soon rose to 
 large fleets. Among their first brilliant exploits, which 
 led the way to many others, was the capture of a 
 richly-laden galleon, vice-admiral of the yearly Spanish 
 fleet. This was achieved by Pierre Legrand, a native 
 of Dieppe, who by one bold stroke gained fame and 
 fortune. With a boat carrying four small pieces, which 
 proved of no use to him, and twenty resolute followers, 
 Pierre surprised this ship. For days and weeks he 
 and his comrades had lain in wait for a prey, burning 
 under a tropical sun. They were almost exhausted by 
 suffering and disappointment, when the galleon was 
 descried separated from the fleet. The manner in 
 which the capture was made offers a fair specimen of 
 buccaneering daring and strategy. The boat in which
 
 216 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 the men lay concealed had been seen by the galleon all 
 day, and one of the company had warned the captain 
 of his suspicion of a nest of pirates lurking in the 
 distant speck. The Spaniard haughtily and carelessly 
 replied, " And what then ? shall I be afraid of so pitiful 
 a thing ? No, though she were as good a ship as my 
 own." He probably thought no more of the circum- 
 stance till, seated at cards with his friends in the same 
 evening, he saw the buccaneers rush into his cabin, 
 having already overpowered the crew. Nor had the 
 task proved difficult. 
 
 Pierre and his company had kept aloof till dusk, 
 when they made for the galleon with all the force of 
 oars. The game was for death ignominious and cruel 
 death ; slavery in the mines or victory and fortune : 
 they must make good their attempt to board the 
 galleon or perish. To render their courage desperate, 
 Pierre ordered the surgeon to bore holes in the side of 
 the boat, that no other footing might be left to his 
 men than the decks of the Spaniard. This was directly 
 performed, while each man, armed with a sword and 
 pistols, silently climbed the sides of the ship. While 
 one party rushed into the great cabin, and presented 
 their pistols to the officers who sat at cards, another 
 seized the gun-room, cutting down whoever stood in 
 their way. As the Spaniards had been completely 
 surprised, little opposition was offered. The ship sur- 
 rendered, and was carried into France by Pierre, who, 
 by a rare instance of good sense and moderation, from
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 217 
 
 the time of obtaining this prize gave up the vocation 
 of a buccaneer, in which, if fortunes were sometimes 
 quickly acquired, they were as often rapidly lost or cer- 
 tainly squandered. Legrand appears to have exercised 
 no unnecessary cruelty, and all of the Spanish seamen 
 not required in navigating the vessel were sent on shore. 
 The enterprise by which Pierre Legrand had in one 
 night gained fame and fortune was a signal for half 
 the hunters and planters of Tortuga to rush to the sea. 
 In their small canoes they cruised about, lying in wait 
 for the barks in which the Spaniards conveyed to 
 Havannah, and other adjacent ports, hides, tobacco, and 
 the produce of the boucan. These cargoes, together 
 with the boats, were sold at Tortuga, and with the 
 proceeds the freebooters were enabled to procure and 
 equip larger vessels. Campeachy and even the shores 
 of New Spain were now within their extended range 
 of cruising, and their expeditions became daily more 
 distant and bold. The Spaniards now found it necessary 
 to arm ships to protect the coast-trade, as well as the 
 galleons and flota. The Indian fleet and the treasure- 
 ships were always the especial mark of the pirates, 
 who found no species of goods so convenient either for 
 transport or division as pieces of eight, though their 
 friends and correspondents in the islands did all in 
 their power to relieve them of the embarrassment of 
 heavier cargoes. The merchants of Jamaica and Tor- 
 tuga might at this time have not inaptly been termed 
 the brokers of the buccaneers.
 
 218 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 Among other brilliant acts, Pierre Fra^ois, another 
 Frenchman, with a handful of men in a boat, surprised 
 and captured the vice-admiral of the pearl fleet ; and 
 was no sooner possessed of this ship than he raised his 
 ambitious thoughts to the capture of the ship of war 
 which formed the convoy. In this bold project he was 
 disappointed, and his prize retaken ; but not before he 
 had stipulated for honourable conditions to himself 
 and his company, and that they should be safely set 
 on shore. About this time another noted buccaneer, 
 Bartholomew Portugues, cruising from Jamaica with a 
 boat carrying four small pieces and a crew of thirty 
 men, captured a large ship of twenty great guns, with 
 a crew of seventy men. This prize also was retaken 
 in a few days by three Spanish ships, and the pirate 
 carried into Campeachy; whence, however, he con- 
 trived to escape, burning for vengeance upon the 
 Spaniards for the severity with which he had been 
 treated. The ingenuity of the Portuguese in evading 
 the jail and the gallows, and his hair-breadth escapes 
 and stratagems to extricate himself from the con- 
 sequences of his crimes, may vie with those of any 
 hero in the Newgate calendar. 
 
 The Spanish coasting-vessels, taught by experience, 
 now ventured cautiously to sea, and the number of 
 buccaneers at the same time increasing, land-expedi- 
 tions were first undertaken, and villages, towns, and 
 cities pillaged, sacked, and held to ransom. The first 
 land-pirate was named Lewis Scot, who stormed and
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 219 
 
 plundered Campeachy, and obtained a large sum for 
 its ransom. Mansvelt, and John Davies, a renowned 
 buccaneer born in Jamaica, next followed this new 
 career with success. In these attempts Mansvelt con- 
 ceived the design of forming an independent buccaneer 
 establishment, holding neither of France, England, nor 
 Holland, which should form a place of safe retreat to 
 the freebooters of every nation. His success will be 
 seen in the course of the narrative. 
 
 In the annals of the sea-rovers no names are to 
 be found more terrible than those of Lolonnois and 
 Montbar, natives of France, and distinguished among 
 the fraternity by pre-eminence in crime. The former 
 was rather a monster in human form than a merely 
 cruel man ; the latter appears to have had a taint of 
 constitutional madness, which, however, took a most 
 diabolical character. The nom de guerre of Lolonnois 
 was borrowed from the native place of this fiend, 
 which was near the Sands of Olone. Little, however, 
 is known about the ancestry of the pirate, who after- 
 wards became so celebrated for the variety and vicissi- 
 tudes of his life, for desperate courage, and for in- 
 satiable cruelty. He had either been kidnapped when 
 young, or had left France under a form of engagement, 
 then in common use in several countries of Europe, 
 by which the adventurer agreed to serve for a certain 
 number of years in the colonies. This practice, which 
 was termed indenting, was indeed common till a very 
 recent period, and was liable to great abuses. From
 
 220 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 this servitude Lolonnois escaped, and entered with the 
 buccaneers. His address and courage soon rendered 
 him conspicuous, and in a few years he was the owner 
 of two canoes, and commanded twenty-two freebooters. 
 With this small force he captured a Spanish frigate 
 off the coast of Cuba. This buccaneer commander, of 
 whom almost incredible atrocities are related, is said 
 to have frequently thrown overboard the crews of the 
 ships which he took. He is said to have struck off the 
 heads of eighty prisoners with his own hand, refreshing 
 himself by sucking the blood of the victims as it 
 trickled down his sabre. It is even related that, in 
 transports of frantic cruelty, he has been known to 
 tear out and devour the hearts of those who fell by his 
 hand, and to pluck out the tongues of others. To this 
 monster cruelty was an affair of calculation as well as 
 of delight, and he reckoned the terror inspired by his 
 name among the best means of success. 
 
 With the fruits of rapine Lolonnois extended his range 
 of depredation, and at last joined forces with another no- 
 torious brother of the order, Michael de Basco. With 
 a force of eight ships and six hundred and fifty men 
 they stormed and plundered the towns of Gibraltar 
 and Maracaibo; the former place being burned on 
 ransom not being paid, and the latter pillaged though 
 terms of safety had been agreed upon. We shall not 
 dwell upon the atrocities which distinguish this ex- 
 pedition, the most lucrative that had yet been under- 
 taken, as many ships were captured during the cruise,
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 221 
 
 besides the plunder and ransom obtained in the towns. 
 In this affair many of the French hunters had joined ; 
 and the booty divided among the whole band, at the 
 island to which they retired for this purpose, amounted 
 to four hundred thousand pieces of eight in money, 
 plate, merchandise, household furniture, and clothes, 
 for nothing escaped the ravages of the buccaneers. 
 The name of Fra^ois Lolonnois, already so formidable 
 on the Spanish Main and the islands, now became a 
 word of deeper horror to the miserable settlers, who 
 lived in continual dread of a descent. 
 
 After the plunder had been obtained and divided, 
 the next stage of a regular buccaneering voyage was 
 to some friendly island, Tortuga or Jamaica, where a 
 market might be obtained for the divided spoils, and 
 an opportunity given for the indulgence of the un- 
 bridled and gross licentiousness in which the pirates 
 squandered their gains. This was either in gaming, to 
 which the buccaneers were strongly addicted, in the 
 most brutal debauchery, or in those freaks of profligate 
 extravagance which more or less characterize all un- 
 educated seamen after long voyages. " Some of them," 
 says their brother and historian, Exquemelin, " will 
 spend three thousand pieces of eight in one night, not 
 leaving themselves, peradventure, a shirt to wear on 
 their backs in the morning." He tells of one who 
 would place a pipe of wine in the streets of Jamaica, 
 and, offering his pistols at their breast, force all who 
 passed to drink with him. " At other times he would
 
 222 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 do the same with barrels of ale and beer ; and very 
 often with both his hands he would throw these liquors 
 about the streets, and wet the clothes of such as passed 
 by, without regarding whether he spoiled their apparel 
 or not, were they men or women." Of Roche Brazi- 
 liano, a pirate somewhat less cruel than many of the 
 fraternity, and of great courage and capacity in the 
 affairs of his command, the chronicler states, " Howbeit 
 in his domestic and private affairs he had no good 
 behaviour nor government over himself; for in these 
 he would oftentimes show himself either brutish or 
 foolish. Many times, being in drink, he would run up 
 and down the streets, beating or wounding whom he 
 met, no person daring to oppose him or make any 
 resistance." Such was the buccaneer in his moments 
 of relaxation and social enjoyment, and such the 
 delights, which in a few weeks left the companions 
 of Lolonnois penniless, and eager for the new expedi- 
 tion in which that detestable monster met a death 
 worthy of his enormous crimes. 
 
 The reputation which Lolonnois had gained by his last 
 expedition made many new adventurers eager to swell 
 his armament. Cruising along the coast of Cuba, and 
 wherever he went making rapid descents on Indian vil- 
 lages or Spanish settlements, he at last experienced re- 
 verses, and on proposing to go to Guatemala many of 
 the leading buccaneers left him upon projects of their 
 own. Finally, after a train of disasters, Lolonnois fell 
 into the hands of certain of the Indians of the Darien,
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 223 
 
 a fierce and cruel tribe, who were not unacquainted with 
 the atrocities of the buccaneers. By them he was torn 
 alive limb from limb, his body consumed, and the 
 ashes scattered abroad, " to the intent," says his his- 
 torian, "that no trace nor memory might remain of 
 such an infamous creature." Many of his companions 
 shared the same fate. 
 
 The character of Montbar, the other French bucca- 
 neer formerly mentioned, is more romantic, if not more 
 humane. He appears to have been one of those un- 
 happy though detestable beings, to whom the soil of 
 France occasionally gives birth, who are created with a 
 raging thirst for blood, and with whom cruelty is a 
 passion and appetite. Montbar was a gentleman of 
 Languedoc, who, from reading in his youth of the hor- 
 rible cruelties practised by the Spaniards upon the Mexi- 
 cans and Caribs, imbibed a hatred of the whole Spanish 
 nation which possessed him like a frenzy. It is, how- 
 ever, somewhat strange that the impulse which led this 
 singular person to join the ranks of the buccaneers 
 urged him to the commission of worse cruelties than 
 those which he reprobated. His comrades were often 
 merciless from the lust of gold ; but Spanish blood was 
 the sole passion of Montbar. It is related by Raynal 
 that while at college, in acting the part of a Frenchman 
 who quarrels with a Spaniard, he assaulted the youth 
 who personated an individual of that hated nation with 
 such fury that he had well-nigh strangled him. His 
 imagination was perpetually haunted by the shapes of
 
 224 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 multitudes of persons butchered by monsters from 
 Spain, who called upon him to revenge them. While 
 on his passage outward to league himself with the 
 Brethren of the Coast, the inveterate enemies of Spain, 
 the vessel in which he sailed fell in with a Spanish 
 ship and captured it. No sooner had the Frenchmen 
 boarded the vessel, than Montbar, with his sabre 
 drawn, twice rushed along the deck, cutting his 
 frantic way through the ranks of Spaniards, whom 
 he swept down. While his comrades divided the 
 booty acquired by his prowess, Montbar gloated over 
 the mangled limbs of the detested people against 
 whom he had vowed everlasting and deadly hate. 
 From this and similar actions he acquired the name 
 of the Exterminator. 
 
 The buccaneers of America had now become so 
 numerous and powerful, and had been so successful 
 in their depredations upon the richest and best fortified 
 places, both on the Main and the Spanish islands, that 
 several settlements were compelled to submit to the 
 degradation of purchasing their forbearance by paying 
 them contributions, equivalent in principle to the 
 black-mail formerly levied by banditti in Scotland. 
 This, however, merely increased their gains, and par- 
 tially changed the scene of havoc. Their predatory 
 excursions were immediately carried further into the 
 interior, and stretched more extensively along the 
 coasts of the continent. It was about this time that 
 the popular buccaneer commander named Mansvelt
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 225 
 
 formed the design before alluded to, of establishing 
 a buccaneer independent empire, a project which was 
 afterwards entertained by his lieutenant, the famous 
 or infamous Morgan, and reluctantly abandoned by 
 such of the fraternity as were endowed with more 
 foresight or greater ambition than their associates. 
 The intended seat of an empire, which might easily 
 have been extended on all sides, was the island of 
 Santa Katalina, now known by the name of Old 
 Providence Island. For this point Mansvelt sailed 
 from Jamaica in 1664, stormed the fort, and garrisoned 
 the place with his own men ; but the English governor 
 of Jamaica, who thought the buccaneers more profit- 
 able as customers than desirable as independent allies, 
 looked coldly upon the project of a settlement so far 
 beyond his control. He forbade recruiting in Jamaica 
 in furtherance of this project, and Mansvelt died 
 suddenly before it could otherwise be effected. He 
 was succeeded by the most renowned of the English 
 buccaneers, Captain Sir Henry Morgan. The new 
 buccaneer generalissimo, though equally brave and 
 daring with his predecessor, was of a more sordid and 
 brutal character, selfish and cunning, and without any 
 spark of the reckless generosity which sometimes 
 graced the freebooter and contrasted with his crimes. 
 He was a native of Wales, and the son of a respectable 
 yeoman. Early inclination led him to the sea; and 
 embarking for Barbadoes, by a fate common to all 
 unprotected adventurers, he was sold for a term of 
 
 (829) 15
 
 226 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 years. After effecting his escape, or emancipation, 
 Morgan joined the buccaneers, and in a short time 
 saved a little money, with which, in concert with a 
 few comrades, he equipped a bark, of which he was 
 chosen commander. The adventurers made a fortunate 
 cruise in the Bay of Campeachy ; after which Morgan 
 joined Mansvelt in the assault on Santa Katalina or 
 Providence, and by a lucky stroke, at the death of 
 Mansvelt, succeeded, as has been noticed, to the chief 
 command. Notwithstanding the efforts of Morgan to 
 retain Old Providence, as the governor of Jamaica still 
 refused to allow recruits to go from that island, and 
 the merchants of Virginia and New England declined 
 sending him supplies, it fell once more into the hands 
 of the Spaniards, and the buccaneers were driven to 
 seek a new place of refuge. The Cayos, or islets near 
 the south coast of Cuba, had for some time been 
 their haunting-place. At these Keys, as they were 
 corruptly termed by the English, they mustered from 
 all quarters as often as a joint expedition was contem- 
 plated; and here they watered, refitted, held their 
 councils in safety, and waited till their fleet had been 
 victualled either by pillage or purchase. 
 
 To the Keys on the south of Cuba, the rendezvous 
 appointed by Morgan, about twelve sail in ships and 
 boats had now repaired, with above seven hundred 
 fighting-men, French and English. The disposal of 
 this armament and force was the cause of difference 
 of opinion, some wishing to attack Havannah, while
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 227 
 
 others, deeming this enterprise too formidable for 
 their numbers, declared for Puerto del Principe in 
 Cuba, which was accordingly taken and plundered, 
 after a desperate assault and brave resistance. The 
 buccaneers, as soon as they became masters, shut up 
 the principal inhabitants in the churches, as the easiest 
 way of disposing of them while they pillaged the city. 
 Many of these unfortunate persons died of hunger; 
 others were put to the torture to compel them to 
 discover concealed treasures, which probably had no 
 existence save in the rapacious desires and extrava- 
 gant fancies of the brutal and ignorant buccaneers. 
 The booty obtained, or wrung from the inhabitants, 
 was, however, considerable. Five hundred bullocks 
 formed part of the ransom, which the insolent free- 
 booters compelled the Spaniards to kill and salt for 
 them. A characteristic quarrel between a French and 
 an English buccaneer, which took place at this time, 
 crippled the strength of Morgan, from whom, in con- 
 sequence of this difference, many of his Gallican 
 followers withdrew. The occasion of this national 
 quarrel was an English buccaneer snatching the mar- 
 row-bones which the Frenchman had carefully pre- 
 pared for his own repast. A challenge was the 
 consequence; and the Frenchman was unfairly or 
 treacherously stabbed by his opponent. His country- 
 men embraced his cause, and Morgan put the murderer 
 in chains, and afterwards had him hung in Jamaica for 
 this breach of the laws of honour and of brotherhood.
 
 228 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 In the meanwhile the pillage of Puerto del Principe 
 being divided, the French buccaneers, indignant at the 
 murder of their countryman, left Morgan in spite of 
 his entreaties, and the English were obliged to pursue 
 their fortunes alone. 
 
 The enterprises of Morgan, who was at once am- 
 bitious and greedy, display capacity, coolness, and 
 daring. His next attempt combined all these qualities 
 in a remarkable degree. With nine ships and boats, 
 and four hundred and sixty of his countrymen, he 
 resolved to assault Porto Bello ; but did not venture to 
 disclose so bold a design, till it was no longer advisable 
 to conceal it. To those who then objected that their 
 force was inadequate to the attack, Morgan boldly 
 replied, " that though their numbers were small, their 
 hearts were good; and the fewer the warriors the 
 larger the shares of plunder." This last was an irre- 
 sistible argument ; and this strongly -fortified city was 
 carried by a handful of resolute men, who never 
 scrupled at cruelty needful to the accomplishment of 
 their object, and often revelled in the wantonness of 
 unnecessary crime. The first fort or castle was de- 
 liberately blown up by fire being set to the powder 
 magazine, after many miserable prisoners, whose man- 
 gled limbs soon darkened the air, had been huddled 
 into one room. Resistance was still attempted by the 
 Spaniards, which greatly exasperated the besiegers, as 
 it was into the forts which held out that the wealthy 
 inhabitants had retired with their treasure and valu-
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 229 
 
 ables. One strong fort it was necessary to carry 
 without delay; and broad scaling-ladders being con- 
 structed, Morgan compelled his prisoners to fix them 
 to the walls. Many of those employed in this office 
 were friars and nuns, dragged for this purpose from 
 the cloisters. These it was thought their countrymen 
 would spare ; while under their protection the buc- 
 caneers might advance without being exposed to the 
 fire of the castle. In these trying circumstances, 
 forgetting the claims of country, and the sacred char- 
 acter of the innocent persons exposed to suffering so 
 unmerited, the Spanish governor consulted only his 
 official duty ; and while the unhappy prisoners of the 
 buccaneers implored his mercy, he continued to fire 
 upon all who approached the walls, whether pirates or 
 the late peaceful inhabitants of the cloisters, his stern 
 answer being that he would never surrender alive. 
 Many of the friars and nuns were killed before the 
 scaling-ladders could be fixed; but that done, the 
 buccaneers, carrying with them fire-balls and pots full 
 of gunpowder, boldly mounted the walls, poured in 
 their combustibles, and speedily effected an entrance. 
 All the Spaniards demanded quarter except the gover- 
 nor, who died fighting, in presence of his wife and 
 daughter, declaring that he chose rather to die as a 
 brave soldier than be hanged like a coward. The 
 next act in the horrid drama of buccaneering conquest 
 followed rapidly, pillage, cruelty, brutal license, 
 the freebooters giving themselves up to so mad a
 
 230 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 course of riot and debauchery that fifty resolute men 
 might have cut them off and regained the town, had 
 the panic -struck Spaniards been able to form any 
 rational plan of action or to muster a force. During 
 these fifteen days of demoniac revel, interrupted only 
 by torturing the prisoners to make them give up 
 treasures which they did not possess, many of the 
 buccaneers died from the consequences of their own 
 brutal excesses, and Morgan deemed it expedient to 
 draw off his force. Information had by this time 
 reached the governor of Panama ; and though aid was 
 distant from the miserable inhabitants of Porto Bello, 
 it might still come. Morgan, therefore, carried off a 
 good many of the guns, spiked the rest, fully supplied 
 his ships with every necessary store, and having 
 already plundered all that was possible, insolently 
 demanded an exorbitant ransom for the preservation 
 of the city and for his prisoners, and prepared to 
 depart from the coast. These terms he even sent 
 to the governor of Panama, who was approaching the 
 place, and whose force the buccaneers intercepted in a 
 narrow pass, and compelled to retreat. The inhabitants 
 collected among themselves a hundred thousand pieces 
 of eight, which Morgan graciously accepted, and retired 
 to his ships. 
 
 The astonishment of the governor of Panama at so 
 small a force carrying the towi; and the forts, and 
 holding them so long, induced him, it is said, to send 
 a message to the buccaneer leader, requesting a speci-
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 231 
 
 men of the arms which he used. Morgan received the 
 messenger with civility, gave him a pistol and a few 
 bullets, and ordered him to bid the president to accept 
 of so slender a pattern of the weapons with which he 
 had taken Porto Bello, and to keep it for a twelve- 
 month, at the end of which time he (Morgan) proposed 
 to come to Panama to fetch it away. The governor 
 returned the loan with a gold ring, and requested 
 Morgan not to give himself the trouble of travelling 
 so far, certifying to him that he would not fare so well 
 as he had done at Porto Bello. 
 
 On this subject Morgan formed and afterwards acted 
 upon his own opinions. In the meanwhile, the spoils 
 were divided at the Keys of Cuba. The booty amounted 
 to two hundred and fifty thousand pieces of eight, 
 besides goods of all kinds, including silks, linen, cloth, 
 and many things that found a ready market in Jamaica, 
 for which buccaneers' paradise the fleet next sailed, 
 to fit themselves for a fresh expedition by a month's 
 carousing, and the prodigal expenditure of the fruits of 
 their toils and crimes. 
 
 This brilliant exploit, in which so few men, and 
 these armed only with pistols and sabres, had taken 
 a large fortified city, raised the character of Morgan as 
 a commander higher than ever; and his invitation to 
 the Brethren of the Coast to meet him at the Isla de 
 la Vaca, or Cow Island, which was appointed as a ren- 
 dezvous preparatory to another cruise, was so eagerly 
 accepted that he found himself at the head of a con-
 
 232 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 siderable force. A large French buccaneering vessel, 
 which refused to join in this expedition, he obtained 
 by fraud. Inviting the commander and several of the 
 best men to dine with him, under some frivolous 
 pretext he made them prisoners. But Morgan did not 
 reap much advantage from this act of treachery. 
 While the men whom he had placed in the ship were 
 carousing, celebrating the commencement of another 
 cruise, it suddenly blew up, and three hundred and 
 fifty Englishmen and the French prisoners perished 
 together. This accident, so disastrous to Morgan, was 
 imputed to the revengeful spirit of the Frenchmen 
 confined in the hold. The true character of the sordid 
 buccaneer was never more strongly displayed than in 
 the way in which Morgan tried to make the best for him- 
 self of this mischance. When eight days of mourning 
 had elapsed, he made the dead bodies be fished up, 
 stripped of clothes, linen, and of the gold rings which 
 buccaneers often wore, and then be thrown back into 
 the sea to feed the sharks. 
 
 Morgan had now a fleet of fifteen ships, some of 
 which he owed to the kindness of the governor of 
 Jamaica, who connived at, or took a share in, such 
 adventures. His force consisted of one thousand fight- 
 ing-men. Several of his vessels were armed, and his 
 own carried fourteen guns. With these, which, how- 
 ever, through discontent, diminished a full half on the 
 way, he shaped his course for the devoted cities of 
 Gibraltar and Maracaibo, formerly visited by Lolonnois,
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 233 
 
 which were once more taken and plundered. At the 
 former place the cruelties of Morgan exceeded, if that 
 were possible, the enormities of the French pirate. 
 Such of the inhabitants as fled to the woods and were 
 retaken were tortured with fiend-like ingenuity to 
 make them discover their wealth. It would be painful 
 and revolting to dwell upon the black record of the 
 atrocities perpetrated here. 
 
 So much time had been consumed at Gibraltar that 
 Morgan, when about to withdraw, found himself in a 
 snare, from which it required all his talent and pres- 
 ence of mind to extricate the buccaneer fleet. Coolness 
 and readiness were, however, the familiar qualities of 
 men whose lives were a series of perils and escapes, 
 and whose natural element was danger; and they 
 never were more admirably displayed than by Morgan 
 and his men at this time. 
 
 In the interval spent by the buccaneers in pillage 
 and debauchery at Gibraltar, the Spaniards had repaired 
 the fort which protected the passage of the lake or 
 lagoon of Maracaibo, and stationed three men-of-war 
 at the entrance, whose vigilance it was conceived im- 
 possible the pirates could escape. These vessels carried 
 one twenty, another thirty, and the third forty guns. 
 Putting a bold face upon his embarrassing situation, 
 Morgan, with the audacity natural to him, and which 
 was one of his instruments of success, sent a message to 
 the Spanish admiral, demanding a ransom as the only 
 condition on which the city could be preserved. To
 
 234 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 this insolent vaunt the Spaniard replied, that though 
 the buccaneer commander had taken the castle from 
 a set of cowards, it was now in a good state of defence; 
 and that he not only intended to dispute the egress 
 from the lagoon, but to pursue the pirates everywhere. 
 If, however, they chose to give up the prisoners and 
 the slaves they had taken, they would be permitted to 
 pass forth unmolested. 
 
 This reply was as usual submitted to a council of 
 buccaneers, and at this assembly one of their number 
 suggested the stratagem by which Morgan destroyed 
 the Spanish men-of-war. One of the buccaneer vessels 
 was prepared as a fire-ship, and at the same time was 
 made to wear the appearance of a vessel ready for 
 action. Logs were placed in rows on the deck, on 
 which clothes, hats, and montero caps were placed ; 
 and these decoy-figures were also armed with swords 
 and muskets. When this was done, the plate, jewels, 
 female prisoners, and whatever was of most value to 
 the buccaneers, were placed in their large boats, each 
 of which carried twelve armed men. These boats 
 were to follow the fire-ship, which led the van ; an oath 
 was exacted from each buccaneer of resistance to the 
 last, and the refusal of quarter from the Spaniards; and 
 ample rewards were promised for valour and firmness. 
 
 Next evening the fleet sailed, and about dusk 
 came up with the Spanish ships riding at anchor in 
 the middle of the lagoon. The buccaneer vessels also 
 anchored, resolved to await here the effect of their
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 235 
 
 stratagem, and either to fight, escape, or perish. No 
 attack was offered that night, and they lay in quiet 
 till dawn, when the anchors were weighed, and they 
 steered directly towards the Spanish ships, which 
 advanced as if to meet them. The fire-ship, still in 
 advance, with all her decoys of armed men as before, 
 came up with the largest of the Spanish vessels and 
 grappled to her ; then the deception was first dis- 
 covered, but too late for escape. The conflagration 
 commenced. The Spanish ship caught fire in tackling 
 and timbers, and the fore part of her hull soon went 
 down. The second Spanish vessel escaped under the 
 guns of the castle, and was sunk by her own company 
 as a fate preferable to falling a prey to the buccaneers. 
 The third vessel was taken. The crew of the burning 
 ship endeavoured to escape to the shore, and all chose 
 rather to perish in the sea than accept of the quarter 
 offered by the pirates. The triumphant buccaneers, 
 without losing a moment, gave chase, and immediately 
 landed, resolving forthwith to attempt the castle ; but 
 as they were ill-armed for such an assault, and the 
 place was well-fortified and manned, they desisted 
 from the attempt, and returned to their ships, having 
 lost in that day's work thirty men killed and many 
 more wounded. 
 
 Though the Spanish ships were destroyed, the castle 
 still remained to be passed; and the Spaniards had 
 laboured all night in completing its defences. Morgan 
 again had recourse to stratagem. All day long, in
 
 236 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 sight of the garrison, he affected to be sending boats 
 filled with men to a point of the shore concealed from 
 view of the castle by trees. These men returned on 
 board lying flat in the boats, where, in going back, 
 only the rowers were visible. They mounted their 
 ships at a side on which the Spaniards could not 
 perceive their return. This mano3uvre was repeated, 
 till the Spaniards believed that from the number of 
 men landed an attack upon the castle was meditated. 
 This seemed the more probable, as Morgan, who had 
 now hoisted his flag in their captured war-ship, again 
 sent a message demanding a ransom for Maracaibo as 
 the condition of his departure. To meet the presumed 
 movement of the buccaneers, the guns of the castle 
 were changed from a position which commanded the 
 lagoon, and pointed to landward. As soon as he was 
 aware of this arrangement, Morgan raised his anchors 
 by moonlight, and favoured by the ebb-tide, the wind 
 also being favourable, pressed past the castle the 
 mortified Spaniards trying in vain to hasten back 
 with their pieces to bear upon him. He gave them a 
 parting volley from his great guns, so lately their own, 
 and bore away for Jamaica, exulting in good fortune, 
 enhanced likewise by what he learned of the mis- 
 adventures of those who had forsaken him in the 
 early part of the cruise. 
 
 Money and credit were, as usual, quickly outrun in 
 the taverns of Port Royal by the dissolute companions 
 of Morgan, and another expedition was concerted,
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 237 
 
 which was to exceed all the former achievements of the 
 sea-rovers. And no time was to be lost, as a pending 
 treaty between Great Britain and Spain threatened for 
 ever to put an end to what their admiring countrymen 
 termed the " unparalleled exploits of the buccaneers." 
 Letters were despatched by the commander to every 
 noted buccaneer, and the south side of the island of 
 Tortuga was named as the rendezvous. Early in 
 October 1670 Morgan found himself surrounded by 
 pirates, hunters, cultivators, English, French, and Dutch, 
 who, from land and sea, the plantation and the wilder- 
 ness, had nocked to the standard of him who was to 
 lead them to fortune and victory. The first duty was 
 to victual the fleet, and this was done by pillaging the 
 hog-yards, and with the boucan sent in by hunters 
 who either joined in the expedition or traded with the 
 pirates. The buccaneer fleet, consisting of thirty-seven 
 vessels fully provisioned, next sailed for Cape Tiburon, 
 on the west coast of Hispaniola, the fighting-men 
 amounting to two thousand. At the general council 
 now held three places of attack were deliberated upon, 
 Vera Cruz, Carthagena, and Panama. The last and 
 most difficult was that which was chosen, recommended 
 by the extravagant notions entertained in Europe and 
 the West Indies of its amazing wealth, and of the 
 great riches of Peru. 
 
 Morgan had never renounced the idea, which origin- 
 ated with Mansvelt, of a buccaneer settlement on the 
 conveniently-situated island of Providence. Once more
 
 238 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 it was captured on his way, the Spanish governor 
 making a farce of resistance. From this point Morgan 
 detached a force of four hundred men to attack the 
 castle of Chagre, the possession of which he judged 
 necessary to the success of his future operations against 
 Panama. It was eventually carried by the accident of 
 fire communicating with the powder-magazine, which 
 blew up part of the defences. 
 
 While the Spaniards were occupied in suppressing 
 the conflagration, the buccaneers laboured hard to in- 
 crease the confusion, by setting fire to the palisades 
 in several places. At last they effected a breach, in 
 defiance of the liquid combustibles which the Spaniards 
 poured down among them, and which occasioned con- 
 siderable loss of their numbers. But the attack and 
 resistance were still continued throughout the whole 
 night, the buccaneers directing an incessant fire towards 
 the breaches, which the Spanish governor pertinaciously 
 defended. 
 
 By noon the next day the buccaneers had gained 
 a breach, which was defended by the governor himself 
 and twenty-five soldiers. The Spanish soldiers fought 
 with desperate valour, despair lending them super- 
 natural courage. But nothing could resist the im- 
 petuosity of the pirates : they burst their way through 
 every obstacle, and the unfortunate Spaniards who 
 survived, preferring death to the dishonour of either 
 falling into the hands of these infuriated ruffians, or 
 of begging quarter, precipitated themselves into the
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 239 
 
 sea. The governor had retired into the corps du 
 garde, before which he planted two pieces of cannon, 
 and bravely maintained the hopeless and unequal con- 
 flict till he fell by a musket-shot which entered the 
 brain. Of the garrison of three hundred and fourteen 
 men only thirty remained alive, and of these few 
 twenty were wounded. Not a single officer escaped. 
 
 From the survivors of the siege the buccaneer party 
 learned that the governor of Panama was already 
 apprised of their design against that place ; that all 
 along the course of the Chagre ambuscades were laid, 
 and that a force of three thousand six hundred men 
 awaited their arrival. But this did not deter Morgan, 
 who pressed forward for Chagre the instant that he 
 received intelligence of the capture of the castle, carry- 
 ing with him all the provisions that could be obtained 
 in Santa Katalina, to which island he intended to 
 return after the capture of Panama. 
 
 The English colours flying upon the castle of Chagre 
 was a joyful sight to the main body of the buccaneers 
 upon their arrival. Morgan was admitted within the 
 fort by the triumphant advanced troop with all the 
 honours of conquest. Before his arrival, the wounded, 
 the widows of the soldiers killed in the siege, and the 
 other women of the place, had been shut up in the 
 church, and subjected to the most brutal treatment. 
 To their fate Morgan was entirely callous ; but he lost 
 no time in setting the prisoners to work in repairing 
 the defences and forming new palisades. He also
 
 240 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 seized all the craft in the river, many of which carried 
 from two to four small pieces. 
 
 These arrangements concluded, Morgan left a garrison 
 of five hundred men in his castle of Chagre, and in the 
 ships one hundred and fifty; while at the head of 
 one thousand two hundred buccaneers, he, on the 18th 
 January 1671, commenced his inland voyage to Panama, 
 indifferent about or determined to brave the Spanish 
 ambuscades. His artillery was carried by five large 
 boats, and thirty-two canoes were filled with part of 
 the men. Anxious to push forward, Morgan committed 
 one capital blunder in carrying almost no provisions, 
 calculating upon a shorter period being consumed on 
 the march than it actually required, and on foraging 
 upon the Spaniards. Even on the first day their 
 provisions failed ; and on the second they were com- 
 pelled to leave the canoes, the lowness of the river, 
 and the fallen trees lying across it, making this mode 
 of travelling tedious and nearly impracticable. Their 
 progress was now continued by land and water alter- 
 nately, and was attended with great inconvenience, the 
 extremity of famine being of the number of their 
 hardships. Their best hopes were now placed in 
 falling in with the threatened ambuscades, as there 
 they might find a store of provisions. So extremely 
 were they pinched with hunger, that the leathern bags 
 found at a deserted Spanish station formed a delicious 
 meal. About this delicacy they even quarrelled, and, 
 it is said, openly regretted that no Spaniards were
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 241 
 
 found, as, failing provisions, they had resolved to have 
 roasted or boiled a few of the enemy to satisfy their 
 ravenous appetites. 
 
 Throughout the wiiole track to Panama, the Spaniards 
 had taken care not to leave the smallest quantity of 
 provisions, and any other soldiers than the buccaneers 
 must have perished long before even a distant view 
 was obtained of the city; but their powers of endurance, 
 from their hardy modes of life, were become almost 
 superhuman. At nightfall, when they reached their 
 halting-place, " happy was he who had reserved since 
 morn any small piece of leather whereof to make his 
 supper, drinking after it a good draught of water for 
 his greatest comfort." Their mode of preparing this 
 tough meal deserves to be noticed. The skins were 
 first sliced, then alternately dipped in water and beat 
 between two stones to render them tender ; lastly, the 
 remaining hair was scraped off, and the morsel broiled, 
 cut into small bits, and deliberately chewed, w r ith 
 frequent mouthfuls of water to eke out and lengthen 
 the repast. 
 
 On the fifth day, at another deserted ambuscade, 
 a little maize was found, and also some wheat, wine, 
 and plantains. This, scanty as it was, proved a season- 
 able supply to those who drooped, and it was thriftily 
 dealt out among them. Next day a barn full of maize 
 was discovered, which, beating down the door, the 
 famished buccaneers rushed upon and devoured with- 
 out any preparation. Yet all this hardship could not 
 
 (829) 16
 
 242 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 turn them aside from the scent of prey, though symp- 
 toms of discontent became visible in their ranks. At a 
 village called Cruz, perceiving from a distance a great 
 smoke, they joyfully promised themselves rest and re- 
 freshments; but on reaching it found no inhabitant, 
 and every house either burned down or in flames, so 
 determined were the Spaniards to oppose the onward 
 march of the terrible beings, presented to their im- 
 aginations under every shape of horror. The only 
 animals remaining, the dogs and cats of the village, fell 
 an immediate sacrifice to the wolfish hunger of the 
 buccaneers. 
 
 Morgan had now some difficulty in preserving dis- 
 cipline, and in keeping his companions or followers 
 from falling into the hands of the Spaniards or Indians 
 when straggling about in search of anything they 
 could devour. In this way one man was lost. 
 
 They were now within eight leagues of Panama, and 
 the nearer they approached, the more anxious and 
 vigilant was Morgan in looking out for the threatened 
 ambuscades of the enemy, who, he naturally con- 
 jectured, might have retired to consolidate his forces. 
 On the eighth day, they were surprised by a shower of 
 Indian arrows poured upon them from some unseen 
 quarter, and advancing into the woods, maintained 
 a sharp, short contest with a party of Indians, many 
 of whom fell, offering a brave though vain resistance. 
 Ten of the freebooters were killed in this skirmish. 
 The buccaneers, who had already three Indian guides,
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 243 
 
 runaways found in Santa Katalina, endeavoured at 
 this place to make some prisoners for the purpose of 
 procuring intelligence ; but the Indians were too swift 
 of foot. 
 
 After another twenty-four hours of suffering, under 
 which only freebooters or Indians could have borne 
 up, on the morning of the ninth day of the march, 
 from a high mountain, the majestic South Sea was 
 joyfully descried, with ships and boats sailing upon 
 its bosom, and peacefully setting out from the con- 
 cealed port of Panama. Herds of cattle, horses, and 
 asses, feeding in the valley below the eminence on 
 which they stood, formed a sight not less welcome. 
 They rushed to the feast, and, cutting up the animals, 
 devoured their flesh half-raw, " more resembling can- 
 nibals than Europeans at this banquet, the blood many 
 times running down from their beards unto the middle 
 of their bodies." 
 
 This savage meal being ended the journey was 
 resumed, Morgan still endeavouring to gain infor- 
 mation by taking prisoners, as on his whole line of 
 march he had obtained speech of neither Spaniard nor 
 Indian. 
 
 In the same evening the steeple of Panama was 
 beheld at a distance; and, forgetting all their sufferings, 
 the buccaneers gave way to the most rapturous exulta- 
 tion, tossing their caps into the air, leaping, shouting, 
 beating their drums, and sounding their trumpets at 
 the sight of so glorious a plunder, and as if victory
 
 244 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 were already consummated. They encamped for the 
 night near the city, intending to make the assault 
 early in the morning. The same night, a party of 
 fifty Spanish horsemen came out as if to reconnoitre, 
 advanced within musket-shot of the pirates, scornfully 
 challenged "the dogs" to come on, and then retired, 
 leaving six or eight of their number to watch the 
 enemy's motions. Upon this the great guns of the 
 town began to play on the camp, but were too distant 
 or ill-directed to do any execution ; and instead of 
 betraying alann, the buccaneers, having placed sen- 
 tinels around their camp, made another voracious meal 
 preparatory to the next day's business, threw them- 
 selves upon the grass, and, lulled by the Spanish 
 artillery, slept soundly till the dawn. 
 
 The camp was astir betimes, and the men being 
 mustered and arrayed, with drums and trumpets sound- 
 ing they advanced towards the city; but instead of 
 taking the ordinary route, which the Spaniards were 
 prepared to defend, by the advice of one of the Indian 
 guides they struck through a wood, by a tangled and 
 difficult path, in which, however, immediate obstruction 
 could not be apprehended. Before the Spaniards could 
 counteract this unexpected movement, the buccaneers 
 had advanced some way. The governor of Panama, 
 who led the forces, commanded two hundred cavalry 
 and four regiments of infantry; and a number of 
 Indian auxiliaries conducted an immense herd of wild 
 bulls, to be driven among the ranks of the buccaneers,
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 245 
 
 and which were expected to throw them into disorder. 
 This extraordinary arm of war was viewed by the 
 hunters of Hispaniola and Campeachy with indiffer- 
 ence ; but they were somewhat alarmed at the regular 
 and imposing array of the troops drawn up to receive 
 them. It was, however, too late to retreat. They 
 divided into three detachments, two hundred dexterous 
 marksmen leading the advance. They now stood on 
 the top of a little eminence, whence the whole Spanish 
 force, the city, and the champaign country around, 
 were distinctly seen. As they moved downward, the 
 Spanish cavalry, shouting " Viva el Rey," immediately 
 advanced to meet them ; but the ground happened to 
 be soft and marshy, which greatly obstructed the 
 manosuvres of the horsemen. The advance of the 
 buccaneers, all picked marksmen, knelt and received 
 them with a volley, and the conflict instantly became 
 close and hot. The buccaneers, throwing themselves 
 between the Spanish horse and foot, succeeded in 
 separating them, and the wild bulls, taking fright from 
 the tumult and the noise of the guns, ran away, or 
 were shot by the buccaneers before they could effect 
 any mischief. 
 
 After a contest of two hours the Spanish cavalry 
 gave way. Many were killed, and the rest fled ; 
 which the foot -soldiers perceiving, fired their last 
 charge, threw down their muskets, and followed the 
 example of the cavaliers. Some of them took refuge 
 in the adjoining thickets ; and though the buccaneers
 
 246 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 did not continue the pursuit, they took a savage 
 pleasure in shooting without mercy all who accident- 
 ally fell into their hands. In this way several priests 
 and friars who were made prisoners were pistolled 
 by the orders of Morgan. A Spanish officer who was 
 made prisoner gave the buccaneers minute intelligence 
 of the force of the enemy and the plan of defence, 
 which enabled them to approach the town from the 
 safest point; but the advance was still attended with 
 difficulty. 
 
 After the rout which had taken place in the open 
 field, and the slaughter which followed, the buccaneers 
 rested for a little space, and during this pause solemnly 
 plighted their honour, by oaths to each other, never 
 to yield while a single man remained alive. This done, 
 carrying their prisoners with them, they advanced upon 
 the great guns planted in the streets, and the hasty 
 defences thrown up to repel them. In this renewed 
 assault the buccaneers suffered severely before they 
 could make good those close quarters in which they 
 ever maintained a decided superiority in fighting. Still 
 they resolutely advanced to the final grapple, the 
 Spaniards keeping up an incessant fire. The town 
 was gained after a desperate conflict of three hours, 
 maintained in its open streets. 
 
 In this assault the buccaneers neither gave nor ac- 
 cepted quarter, and the carnage on both sides was great. 
 Six hundred Spaniards fell on that day : nor was the 
 number of the buccaneers who perished much less ; but
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 247 
 
 to those who survived a double share of plunder was at 
 all times ample consolation for the loss of companions 
 whose services were no longer required in its acquisition. 
 The city was no sooner gained than Morgan, who saw 
 the temper of the inhabitants in the obstinate nature of 
 the resistance they had offered, and who well knew the 
 besetting sins of his followers, prudently prohibited 
 them from tasting wine ; and, aware that such an order 
 would be very little regarded were it enforced by noth- 
 ing save a simple command, he affirmed that he had 
 received private intelligence that all the wine had been 
 poisoned. They were therefore enjoined not to touch 
 it under the dread of poisoning and the penalties of 
 discipline. Neither of these motives was sufficient to 
 enforce rigid abstinence among the buccaneers, though 
 they operated till indulgence became more safe. 
 
 As soon as possession of the city was gained guards 
 were placed; and, at the same time, fires broke out 
 simultaneously in different quarters, which were attri- 
 buted by the Spaniards to the pirates, and by them to 
 the inhabitants. Both assisted in endeavouring to ex- 
 
 O 
 
 tinguish the dreadful conflagration, which raged with 
 fury ; but the houses, being built of cedar, caught the 
 flames like tinder, and were consumed in a very short 
 time. The inhabitants had previously removed or 
 concealed the most valuable part of their goods and 
 furniture. 
 
 The city of Panama consisted of about twelve thou- 
 sand houses, many of them large and magnificent. It
 
 248 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 contained also eight monasteries and two churches, all 
 richly furnished. The concealment of the church-plate 
 drew upon the ecclesiastics the peculiar vengeance of 
 the heretical buccaneers, who, however, spared no one. 
 The conflagration which they could not arrest they 
 seemed at last to take a savage delight in spreading. 
 A slave-factory belonging to the Genoese was burned to 
 the ground, together with many warehouses stored with 
 meal. Many of the miserable Africans, whom the 
 Genoese brought for sale to Peru, perished in the 
 flames, which raged or smouldered for nearly four 
 weeks. 
 
 For some time the buccaneers, afraid of being sur- 
 prised and overpowered by the Spaniards, who still 
 reckoned ten for one of their numbers, encamped with- 
 out the town. Morgan had also weakened his force by 
 sending a hundred and fifty men back to Chagre with 
 news of his victory. Yet by this handful of men the 
 panic-struck Spaniards were held in check and subjec- 
 tion, while the buccaneers either raged like demons 
 through the burning town, or prowled among the 
 ruins and ashes in search of plate and other valu- 
 able articles. 
 
 The property which the Spaniards had concealed in 
 deep wells and cisterns was nearly all discovered, and the 
 most active of the buccaneers were sent out to the 
 woods and heights to search for and drive back the 
 miserable inhabitants, who had fled from the city with 
 their effects. In two days they brought in about two
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 249 
 
 hundred of the fugitives as prisoners. Of those un- 
 happy persons many were females, who found the 
 merciless buccaneers no better than their fears had 
 painted them. 
 
 In plundering the land Morgan had not ' neglected 
 the sea. By sea many of the principal inhabitants had 
 escaped ; and a boat was immediately sent in pursuit, 
 which brought in three prizes, though a galleon, in 
 which were embarked all the plate and jewels belonging 
 to the King of Spain and the wealth of the principal 
 nunnery of the town, escaped, from the buccaneers in- 
 dulging in a brutal revel in their own bark till it was 
 too late to follow and capture the ship. The pursuit 
 was afterwards continued for four days, at the end of 
 which the buccaneers returned to Panama with another 
 prize, worth twenty thousand pieces of eight in goods, 
 from Payta. 
 
 Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, the ships' companies 
 left at Chagre were exercising their vocation, and had 
 captured one large Spanish vessel, which, unaware of 
 the hands into which the castle had fallen, ran in under 
 it for protection. 
 
 While the buccaneers were thus employed at sea, and 
 at Panama and Chagre, parties continued to scour the 
 surrounding country, taking in turn the congenial duty 
 of foraying and bringing in booty and prisoners, on 
 whom they exercised the most atrocious cruelties, un- 
 scrupulously employing the rack, and sparing neither 
 age, sex, nor condition. Religious persons were the
 
 250 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 subjects of the most refined barbarity, as they were 
 believed to direct and influence the rest of the inhabit- 
 ants, both in their first resistance and in the subsequent 
 concealment of property. During the perpetration of 
 these outrages, Morgan fell in love with a beautiful 
 Spanish woman, his prisoner, and the wife of one of 
 the principal merchants. She rejected his infamous 
 addresses with firmness and spirit ; and the buccaneer 
 commander, alike a ruffian in his love and hate, used 
 her with severity that disgusted even those of his own 
 gang who had not thrown aside every feeling of man- 
 hood, and he was fain to charge his fair prisoner with 
 treachery, to excuse the baseness of the treatment she 
 received by his orders. This alleged treachery con- 
 sisted in corresponding with her countrymen, and en- 
 deavouring to effect her escape. 
 
 In the meanwhile a plan had entered the minds of a 
 party of the buccaneers, which did not suit the views 
 nor meet the approbation of their leader. They had 
 resolved to seize a ship in the port, cruise upon the 
 South Sea on their own account till satiated with booty, 
 and then either establish themselves on some island or 
 return to Europe by the East Indies. Captain Morgan 
 could neither spare equipments nor men for this pro- 
 ject, of which he received private information. He 
 immediately ordered the mainmast of the ship to be 
 cut down and burned, together with every other vessel 
 in the port, thus effectually preventing desertion on this 
 side of America. The arms, ammunition, and stores,
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 251 
 
 secretly collected for this bold cruise on the South Sea, 
 were applied to other purposes. 
 
 Nothing more was to be wrung from Panama, which, 
 after a destructive sojourn of four weeks, Morgan 
 resolved to leave. Beasts of burden were therefore 
 collected from all quarters to convey the spoils to the 
 opposite coast. The cannon were spiked, and scouts 
 sent out to learn what measures had been taken by the 
 governor of Panama to intercept the return to Chagre. 
 The Spaniards were too much depressed to have made 
 any preparation either to annoy or cut off the retreat of 
 their inveterate enemies; and on the 24th February the 
 buccaneers, apprehensive of no opposition, left the ruins 
 of Panama with a hundred and seventy -five mules 
 laden with their spoils, and above six hundred prisoners, 
 including women, children, and slaves. The misery of 
 these wretched captives, driven on in the midst of the 
 armed buccaneers, exceeds description. They believed 
 that they were all to be carried to Jamaica, England, or 
 some equally wild, distant, and savage country, to be 
 sold for slaves ; and the cruel craft of Morgan height- 
 ened these fears, the more readily to extort the ransom 
 he demanded for the freedom of his unhappy prisoners. 
 In vain the women threw themselves at his feet, sup- 
 plicating for the mercy of being allowed to remain 
 amidst the ruins of their former homes, or in the woods 
 in huts with their husbands and children. His answer 
 was, "that he came not there to listen to cries and 
 lamentations, but to get money, which unless he ob-
 
 252 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 tained, he would assuredly carry them all where they 
 would little like to go." Three days were granted in 
 which they might avail themselves of the conditions 
 of ransom. Several were happy enough to be able to 
 redeem themselves, or were rescued by the contributions 
 sent in ; and with the remaining captives the pirates 
 pushed onward, making new prisoners and gathering 
 fresh spoils on their way. 
 
 The conduct of Morgan at this time disproves many 
 of the extravagant notions propagated about the high 
 honour of the buccaneers in their dealings with each 
 other. Halting at a convenient place for his purpose, 
 in the midst of the wilderness, and about half-way to 
 Chagre, he drew up his comrades, and insisted that, 
 besides taking an oath declaring that all plunder had 
 been surrendered to the common stock, each man should 
 be searched, he himself submitting in the first place to 
 the degrading scrutiny, though it was suspected that 
 the leading motive of the whole manoeuvre was the 
 desire of concealing his own peculation and fraudulent 
 dealing with his associates. The French buccaneers 
 who accompanied the expedition were indignant at 
 treatment so much at variance with the maxims and 
 usages of the gentlemen rovers ; but being the weaker 
 party, they were compelled to submit. 
 
 The buccaneers and their prisoners performed the 
 remainder of the journey by water, and when arrived 
 at Chagre, Morgan, who knew not how to dispose of 
 his unredeemed prisoners, shipped them all off for Porto
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 253 
 
 Bello, making them the bearers of his demand of ransom 
 from the governor of that city for the castle of Chagre. 
 To this insolent message the governor of Porto Bello 
 replied that Morgan might make of the castle what he 
 pleased, not a ducat should be given for its ransom. 
 
 There was thus no immediate prospect of any more 
 plunder in this quarter, and nothing remained to be 
 done but to divide the spoils already acquired. The 
 individual shares fell so far short of the expectations of 
 the buccaneers that they openly grumbled, and accused 
 their chief of the worst crime of which in their eyes he 
 could be guilty, secreting the richest of the jewels for 
 himself. Two hundred pieces of eight each man was 
 thought a very small return for the plunder of so 
 wealthy a city, and a very trifling reward for the toil 
 and danger that had been undergone in assaulting it. 
 Matters were assuming so serious an aspect among the 
 fraternity, that Morgan, who knew the temper of his 
 friends, deemed it advisable to steal away with what 
 he had obtained. He immediately made the walls of 
 Chagre be destroyed, carried the guns on board his 
 own ship, and, followed by one or two vessels com- 
 manded by persons in his confidence, sailed for Jamaica, 
 leaving his enraged associates in want of every necessary. 
 Those who followed him were all Englishmen, who, 
 as the French buccaneers fully believed, connived at 
 the frauds and shared in the gains of Morgan. They 
 would instantly have pursued him to sea, and the Span- 
 iards might have enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing the
 
 254 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 buccaneer fleet divided and fighting against itself, had 
 they, with a force so much weaker, dared to venture so 
 unequal an encounter. The vessels deserted by Morgan 
 separated here, and the companies sought their fortunes 
 in different quarters, none of them much the richer for 
 the misery and devastation they had carried to Panama. 
 Morgan, on arriving at Jamaica laden with plunder, 
 and exulting in his late exploit, endeavoured once more 
 to levy recruits for the independent state he still longed 
 to establish at Santa Katalina, and of which he himself, 
 already admiral and generalissimo of the buccaneers, 
 was to be the prince or governor. But circumstances 
 were still unfavourable. Lord John Vaughan, the newly- 
 appointed governor of Jamaica, had orders strictly to 
 enforce the treaty with Spain formed in the previous 
 year, but to proclaim pardon and indemnity, and offer 
 a grant of lands to such of the buccaneers as chose to 
 become peaceful cultivators. Future depredations on 
 the trade or settlements of Spain were forbidden by the 
 royal proclamation, and under severe penalties. But 
 it was not a proclamation, however strongly worded, 
 that could at once tame down the lawless buccaneer 
 into a planter, or confine to thirty-seven acres of ground 
 him who had for years freely roamed through sea and 
 land, with his sword reaping his harvest wherever men 
 of greater industry had sown it. To adopting the 
 habits of peaceful life many of the English buccaneers 
 preferred joining the flibustiers at Tortuga, or becoming 
 logwood-cutters in the Bay of Campeachy; and, luckily
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 255 
 
 for the remainder, in the next year a war broke out 
 between Great Britain and Holland, which enabled 
 some of them to follow their old vocation as privateers, 
 buccaneers and flibustiers alike exercising their in- 
 dustry for a short time against the Dutch, instead of 
 their old enemies the Spaniards. 
 
 Before quitting this part of the subject, it may be 
 proper to notice the conclusion of the adventures of the 
 notorious Morgan. In the years which elapsed between 
 the plunder of Panama and 1680, he had sufficient 
 address and interest, or, more probably, skill in the 
 appliance of his ill-gotten wealth, to obtain from 
 Charles II. the honour of knighthood, and afterwards 
 to be appointed deputy -governor of Jamaica. Though 
 it was believed that he still secretly shared in the 
 plundering adventures of the buccaneers, Morgan treated 
 many of his old comrades with very great severity. 
 Several of them were hanged under his administration, 
 and others he delivered up to the Spaniards at Cartha- 
 gena, as was believed, for the price of blood ,- nor does 
 the character of Morgan make this suspicion improbable. 
 The strict justice and severity exercised by the deputy- 
 governor on his old friends and countrymen did not, 
 however, dispose the Spaniards to unlimited confidence 
 in Morgan; and suspecting him of secretly favouring 
 the buccaneers, who had once more increased, they were 
 able, after the accession of James II., to get him re- 
 moved from his office and committed for a time to 
 prison in England.
 
 256 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 The same unwise restrictions, and troublesome inter- 
 ference with the cultivation and commerce of the 
 colonies, which had encouraged the system of buccan- 
 eering in its commencement, fostered it once more, 
 though France, instead of Spain, was become the agent 
 in this mistaken policy. The regulations adopted by 
 the government of France for the West India trade, 
 and the partial and oppressive administration of colonial 
 affairs, tended more than any other circumstance to 
 recruit the ranks of the freebooters, men, disturbed 
 in their peaceful industry by vexatious and annoying 
 prohibitions and monopolies, readily placing themselves 
 beyond the law, which was more their torment than 
 protection. Thus, though the freebooters were at 
 length crushed by the express prohibitions of their 
 several countries, they were incited by causes more 
 powerful, originating in the same source. 
 
 In 1683, the buccaneers, led by three noted chiefs, 
 Van Horn, Grammont, and Laurent de Graff, by a 
 stratagem took the city of Vera Cruz in the Gulf of 
 Mexico. Many of the English buccaneers were engaged 
 in this expedition, though none of them held high com- 
 mand. This was reckoned the most brilliant exploit 
 that had yet been achieved by the flibustiers. Their 
 mode of attack was similar to that which had been 
 practised by Drake a century before. In the darkness 
 of night a sufficient force was landed, which marched 
 three leagues over-land, and before dawn surprised and 
 captured the city. The inhabitants were shut up in
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 257 
 
 the churches, the usual prison of the buccaneers, at the 
 door of each of which barrels of gunpowder were 
 placed, and sentinels beside them, holding a lighted 
 match, ready to produce an explosion at a moment's 
 notice, or on the slightest symptom of revolt. The 
 city was thus pillaged without molestation from the 
 inhabitants; and the famished prisoners in the churches 
 were afterwards glad to purchase their freedom on any 
 terms their conquerors chose to dictate. Ten millions 
 of livres were demanded as a ransom ; and the half of 
 it had been raised and paid in, when the appearance of 
 a body of troops, and a fleet of seventeen ships, caused 
 the freebooters to make a precipitate but well-ordered 
 retreat, carrying off one thousand five hundred slaves. 
 Loaded with their booty and prisoners, they boldly 
 sailed through the fleet sent to attack them, which 
 did not venture to fire a single gun. They might 
 probably have roused the Spaniards from their fear 
 or lethargy by an assault, had they not been more 
 careful to preserve the plunder they had obtained than 
 desirous of a barren naval victory over ships carrying 
 no cargoes. 
 
 Fortunately for the freedom and repose of the 
 Spanish colonists, no buccaneer corps ever agreed or 
 acted in harmony for any length of time. Their law- 
 less unions fell to pieces even more rapidly than they 
 were formed ; and those of the French and English 
 seldom adhered even to the conclusion of a joint ex- 
 pedition. On the present occasion they separated in 
 
 (829) 17
 
 258 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 wrath, the Frenchmen employing the pretext of the 
 quarrel they artfully fomented to withhold the English- 
 men's share of the pillage. The later cruises of the 
 buccaneers were in few respects distinguished by the 
 honour and integrity among themselves which were 
 said to have marked their first exploits. The French 
 flibustier now sought but a shallow excuse to plunder 
 the English buccaneer, who, on the other side, lost no 
 opportunity of retaliation. 
 
 The tardy though now earnest efforts of France and 
 Britain to crush the Brethren of the Coast, the increas- 
 ing military and maritime strength of the Spanish 
 colonists, and above all a field too narrow and exhausted 
 for the numerous labourers, together with wild and 
 magnificent ideas of the wealth of Peru, were so many 
 powerful motives urging the buccaneers, whether French 
 or English, upon enterprises in a new and wider region. 
 Among them an estimate was formed of the riches of 
 the western shores from the single circumstance that, 
 in a few years after the visit of Morgan, a new city of 
 Panama had arisen, which in splendour and wealth 
 eclipsed the desolated town. The Peruvian coast and 
 the South Sea, in all their riches and extent, presented 
 a field which neither the long arm of France nor the 
 powerful hand of England could reach ; and of the 
 opposition to be feared from the indolent and effem- 
 inate inhabitants, the expedition of Morgan had 
 afforded a very satisfactory specimen. In the new 
 design of crossing the continent, and searching for
 
 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 259 
 
 untried regions of conquest and spoliation, the buc- 
 caneers were rather urged by personal motives of 
 rapacity, and the desire of escaping from the colonial 
 officials of the West India Islands who latterly either 
 shared their booty or treated them with great severity, 
 and not unfrequently did both than influenced by 
 any enlightened or comprehensive plan of operations. 
 The wealth of this new region, and the ease with 
 which it might be acquired, were primary reasons; 
 personal security was merely secondary ; and beyond 
 these motives this chaotic banditti never once looked 
 all their ideas of conquest being limited to the plunder 
 of a city or a ship, to plate, silks, and pieces of eight ; 
 nor were their enjoyments and pleasures of a more 
 liberal or elevated kind. We may therefore, without 
 much regret, here close this general sketch of the buc- 
 caneers. All that is interesting in their subsequent 
 career, from the plundering of Vera Cruz in the Bay of 
 Mexico to their decay and suppression, is closely inter- 
 woven with the personal adventures of Dampier, on 
 which we are now to enter. And in the narrative of 
 this remarkable navigator, instead of monotonous de- 
 tails of fraud, rapacity, and cruelty, on which it has 
 been painful to linger, the reader is gratified with the 
 researches and discoveries of natural science, and with 
 pictures of life and manners, curious, novel, and at- 
 tractive, which have never yet, among the multitude 
 of succeeding European navigators, fallen under the 
 notice of a more acute and accurate observer, or ob-
 
 260 THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 tained a delineator more faithful and lively, and 
 occasionally more glowing and poetical, than the ex- 
 traordinary man whose history we are now to follow, 
 commencing with his early wanderings among the 
 buccaneers.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ADVENTURES AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND 
 BUCCANEERS. 
 
 To Captain Dampier himself the world is indebted 
 for the only record of his early history which can be 
 considered authentic. He was born about 1652, at 
 East Coker, near Yeovil, a considerable market-town 
 in Somersetshire. His father was probably a farmer ; 
 and we learn incidentally that his mother, when a 
 widow, along with whatever other property she might 
 possess, held the lease of a small farm at East Coker 
 from Colonel Hellier, the lord of the manor. The 
 small farms in this parish were held for lives, and 
 varied in rent from 20 to 50. By a singular but 
 probably a then common arrangement, each occupier 
 had a patch of land of every different kind of soil, 
 lying apart or scattered throughout the parish, as black- 
 loam, clayey, and sandy ground, which varied in rent 
 from forty, thirty, and twenty shillings an acre, down 
 to ten groats for the poorest. On these scattered 
 patches every yeoman raised wheat, oats, barley, beans, 
 rye, hemp, and flax, for the consumption of his own
 
 262 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 family. The statistics of East Coker afford a curious 
 picture of English agriculture, and of that race of 
 primitive cultivators who have long since disappeared, 
 and will ever be regretted. 
 
 Before the death of his parents, which happened 
 while he was very young, Dampier had begun to re- 
 ceive the elements of a classical education ; but on this 
 event taking place his studies were suspended, and he 
 was sent to acquire writing and arithmetic, to qualify 
 him for some humbler employment than might have 
 been originally designed ; and in a short time after the 
 death of his mother he was placed with a shipmaster 
 belonging to Weymouth. Slender as his advantages of 
 early education appear to have been, he profited so 
 largely by them as to afford one more proof that the 
 best part of a man's learning is that which he acquires 
 by himself. 
 
 William Dampier's first voyage was to France, his 
 next to Newfoundland, in which he suffered so severely 
 from the climate that he almost resolved against re- 
 turning to sea ; but this determination was commuted 
 into a resolution not to try the same ungenial quarter. 
 Dampier, now about eighteen, was already animated 
 by the restless activity, the curiosity, love of vicis- 
 situde, adventure, and peril, which form the strong and 
 marking characteristics of the youth who is born a 
 seaman. " The offer," he says, " of a long voyage and a 
 warm one soon carried me to sea again." He entered 
 as a foremastman on board the Martha East Indiaman,
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 263 
 
 which sailed direct from London to Bantam; from 
 whence, after a stay of two months, he returned within 
 little more than the year. From his early childhood 
 Dampier had been a keen observer. On his former 
 voyages he had gained some nautical experience, which 
 he enlarged during the present, diligently studying the 
 practical part of his profession, though he had not yet 
 commenced a journal, the keeping of which came to be 
 the solace of his roaming, unconnected life, and the 
 means of great mental improvement. 
 
 The summer after his return from India D'ampier 
 spent with his brother in Somersetshire, whose house, 
 in early life, seems to have been his home while on 
 shore. His next service was on board the Royal Prince, 
 in which he enlisted, England being then at war with 
 Holland. He was in two engagements ; but of a third 
 fought by the ship, in which the commander, Sir 
 Edward Sprague, was killed, he was not a witness, 
 having previously fallen into bad health. From the 
 ship he was sent to Harwich Hospital, and finally to 
 his brother's, where he slowly recovered. 
 
 With returning health the love of the sea recurred ; 
 but Dampier meanwhile accepted the offer of Colonel 
 Hellier, and went to Jamaica as under-manager of a 
 plantation belonging to that gentleman, forming a 
 special agreement with the captain to protect himself 
 from the frauds of the kidnappers. The ship went 
 " merrily along," steering for Barbadoes, which was the 
 first of the islands that Dampier beheld. He was at
 
 264 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTEES AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 this time twenty-two years of age, active, intelligent, 
 and full of an instinctive curiosity, already under the 
 guidance of a strong, clear, and prompt understanding. 
 
 St. Lucia was next seen, and afterwards Tobago 
 and St. Vincent. He whose glance was ever quick and 
 sure for every natural production of a new country, 
 was not likely to neglect its people. The condition of 
 the Carib Indians, the aborigines of the islands, forcibly 
 arrested the attention of the young voyager ; and he 
 relates a contemporary incident in a manner which 
 betrays rather than states the soundness and, when the 
 era is considered, the liberality of his opinions and the 
 correctness of his moral feelings, while it places the 
 Indian character in a favourable and also in a fair 
 light, as contrasted with the European of the colonies. 
 
 In passing St. Lucia, the captain of the vessel seeing 
 a smoke on the shore, the usual token of inhabitation, 
 sent off a boat to purchase those fruits with which the 
 Indians often supplied English vessels sailing by. Three 
 Indians came to the ship's side in a canoe laden with 
 sugar-canes, and also with plantains, pine-apples, and 
 other tropical fruits. They seemed much agitated, and 
 often repeated the name of " Captain Warner." It 
 proved that this Captain Warner was the son of 
 Governor Warner of Antigua, by an Indian woman. 
 He had been bred in his father's family as an English 
 youth, but had acquired the language of his mother's 
 tribe. As he grew up, finding himself ill-treated and 
 despised, he fled to St. Lucia, and living among his
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 265 
 
 Carib kinsmen, adopted their manners, and became one 
 of their chiefs, roving with them from island to island, 
 making inroads upon the planters, not sparing even 
 Antigua. To avenge these injuries the legitimate son 
 of the governor went out at the head of a party to 
 encounter the Indians, and accidentally met with his 
 Carib brother. The young man affected great joy at 
 the meeting, and invited his half-blood elder brother 
 with his warriors to a feast, at which, on a preconcerted 
 signal, the chief and all the Indians were treacherously 
 slaughtered. It was said that the murdered Warner 
 had been the friend of the English, and that pride 
 alone instigated the young Creole to this perfidious 
 butchery. " Such perfidious doings as these," says 
 Dampier, "are great hinderances to our gaining an 
 interest with the Indians, besides the baseness of 
 them." 
 
 As a planter Dampier was " clearly out of his 
 element;" and after spending some time in this un- 
 congenial occupation, he engaged with different traders 
 belonging to Port Royal, who coasted round Jamaica, 
 carrying goods from the plantations to that port. In 
 these coasting voyages he became thoroughly acquainted 
 with all the harbours and bays of the island, and with 
 the land and sea winds and currents. Availing himself 
 of every opportunity and means of acquiring know- 
 ledge, Dampier appears through life to have become 
 wearied of every scene the moment he had exhausted 
 the information it afforded, and to have longed for
 
 266 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 change as soon as he had overmastered its difficulties. 
 His next voyage, undertaken in August 1675, was to 
 the island of Trist, in the Bay of Campeachy, for a 
 cargo of logwood. In these later voyages he acted in 
 the capacity of a common sailor in a small vessel ; but 
 he now kept a regular journal, and was no common 
 observer. On this voyage to Campeachy, his nautical 
 remarks, and observations on the appearances and bear- 
 ings of the coasts, the headlands, bays, and islands, are 
 ample and exact distinguished by the clearness and 
 perspicuity which are visible in all his subsequent re- 
 lations. They anchored at One-Bush-Key, an islet 
 about a mile from the shore, and so named from having 
 a single stunted tree. 
 
 The life of the logwood-cutters of the Bay of Cam- 
 peachy, free and unrestrained, had many charms for 
 the young adventurer; and their jovial manners and 
 frank hospitality, with the lucrative nature of the 
 occupation of these merry foresters, made him resolve 
 to return and join their ranks as soon as his present 
 engagement terminated. 
 
 Logwood-cutting had now in many instances taken 
 the place of hunting wild cattle, which were become 
 scarce. Some adventurers pursued both vocations, and 
 others were wood-cutters alone. A third class occa-' 
 sionally added the variety and profit of a privateering 
 cruise to their quieter employments. 
 
 The logwood-cutters in the Bay of Campeachy at 
 this time amounted to about two hundred and fifty
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 267 
 
 men, mostly natives of England, though there were 
 also Scotchmen and Irishmen among their number. 
 By Spain they were considered interlopers, and the 
 trade contraband ; but this did not much disturb their 
 consciences. Their general practice was to make up a 
 cargo in joint-stock companies, the partnership lasting 
 till the contract for the number of tons agreed on was 
 completed. 
 
 The traders who bought the dye-wood carried the 
 wood-cutters rum, sugar, tobacco, and other things 
 necessary to them. The trade was usually opened by 
 a solemn drinking-match on board the ships, where 
 healths were pledged, and salvoes fired in honour of 
 each pledge, with all the customary demonstrations of 
 buccaneer banqueting. The trader who was the most 
 liberal of his rum -punch on such festive occasions 
 might assure himself of the best bargain of logwood 
 the cutters priding themselves upon cheating those 
 they thought niggardly of their liquor and good cheer. 
 
 While taking in the cargo Dampier was often on 
 shore, and frequently visited the cabins of the wood- 
 men, who hospitably entertained him with the rough 
 substantial fare which abounded among them pork 
 and pease; or beef, for which they hunted in the 
 savannas; with dough -boys, a kind of thick un- 
 leavened cake, which, when on shore, the buccaneers 
 and hunters often kneaded for themselves. They were 
 equally profuse of their liquor while the supply lasted. 
 
 The returning voyage of Dampier to Jamaica was
 
 268 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 singularly disastrous, and between Trist and Port- 
 Royal the passage occupied thirteen weeks. Of the 
 adventures and perils of this voyage he has left a very 
 lively account. A passenger who returned with them 
 to Jamaica a prisoner who had escaped from the 
 Spaniards from his experience of this coast, was the 
 means of saving them from being captured by a Span- 
 ish vessel, which gave chase to their bark. Though 
 the crew had both fished and hunted at several places 
 before they reached Jamaica, they were during most 
 part of the passage greatly pinched for provisions ; and 
 on coming to anchor after so many hardships, they 
 sent ashore for a supply, made a feast, and were just 
 compounding a flowing bowl of punch, when the captain 
 of a New England trader came on board to visit them, 
 and was invited to share in the carouse. What follows 
 is an amusing trait of the nautical manners of the 
 place and time : " Mr. Hooker being drank to by 
 Captain Rawlins, who pledged Captain Hudswell, and 
 having the bowl in his hands, said that he was under 
 an oath to drink but three draughts of strong liquor in 
 one day, and putting the bowl to his head turned it off 
 at one draught, and so making himself drunk, dis- 
 appointed our expectations till we made another bowl. 
 I think it might contain six quarts." 
 
 As soon as he was discharged, Dampier returned to 
 the Bay of Campeachy to try his fortunes among the 
 logwood-cutters. Preparatory to this voyage he had 
 provided himself with hatchets, knives, axes, saws,
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 269 
 
 wedges, the sleeping -pavilion necessary for defence 
 against the insects in this climate, and a gun, with a 
 supply of powder and shot. A power of attorney, 
 lodged with a merchant who acted as factor for the 
 logwood-cutters, completed his arrangements. 
 
 The logwood-forest, in which the men laboured who 
 were joined by Dampier, was on the west lagoon of 
 Trist Island, in the Bay of Campeachy. 
 
 The first wood-cutters were men who had adopted 
 this occupation when buccaneering was overdone from 
 the number of competitors, and become dangerous from 
 prohibitory edicts. They originally settled near the 
 forests of the dye-wood at Cape Catoch. When these 
 were exhausted, they had removed to the Isle of Trist, 
 the first intimation to the Spaniards of their arrival 
 on a new point being the strokes of their axes on the 
 trees, or the report of their guns in the woods and 
 savannas. These wood -cutters were divided into 
 parties of from three to ten or twelve. The company 
 which consented to receive Dampier as a helper, 
 ignorant as he still was of their employment, consisted 
 of six individuals, who had a cargo of logwood of a 
 hundred tons already felled and chipped, and ready to 
 be brought to the creek, whence it was to be shipped 
 for New England. His wages were to be the price of a 
 ton of wood per month. 
 
 The wood-cutters had constructed their cabins close 
 by the sides of the creeks of the east and west lagoons 
 of Trist, for the enjoyment of the refreshing sea-breezes,
 
 270 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 and to be as near the dye-wood groves as was found 
 convenient. As the nearest trees gradually fell beneath 
 their axes, they frequently, instead of abandoning a 
 favourite habitation, repaired to the scene of their 
 daily labours in their canoes. To each company be- 
 longed a canoe, pirogue or large boat, which was 
 necessary in conveying their lading to the traders, and 
 also in the chase ; for they hunted cattle by water as 
 well as land, for this purpose driving them into narrow 
 creeks. Their cabins were of fragile construction, but 
 thickly thatched with palm-leaves, to shelter the in- 
 mates from the violent rains of the wet season. Above 
 the floor a wooden frame was raised three or four feet, 
 and this barbecue, with the pavilion or mosquito- 
 curtains stretched and supported over it, formed the 
 sleeping-place of the wood-cutters ; another, equal in 
 height, covered with earth, formed the domestic hearth; 
 and a third served as seats. 
 
 The first adventurers who frequented the Bay, after 
 the existence and the value of the dye-wood in this 
 tract had been accidentally discovered by an English 
 ship, were actual buccaneers, " who, though they could 
 work well enough, yet thought it a dry business to 
 toil at cutting wood." They were, moreover, good 
 marksmen, and took great delight in hunting, though 
 piracy was still their favourite pursuit. Besides plun- 
 dering on the seas, they often sallied out among the 
 nearest Indian villages, which they pillaged without 
 remorse, carrying off the Indian women to serve in
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 271 
 
 bearing wood and other drudgery, while their husbands 
 were sold to the logwood-merchants who visited the 
 Bay, and resold at Jamaica. To these ruffians the 
 cabins of the ships, which came to minister to their 
 pleasures and necessities, were now what the taverns 
 of Port-Royal, from which they were banished, had 
 been. In these vessels they would gather at a grand 
 drinking-match, and spend 30 or 40 at a sitting, 
 carousing and firing off guns for three or four days 
 successively. Whatever might have been the pre- 
 vailing character of the wood-cutters at the time of 
 Dampier's visit, the small company to which he was 
 attached appear to have been of a more respectable 
 description than ordinary. Two or three of them were 
 natives of Scotland, who, if not actuated by higher 
 motives, were restrained from falling into the extrav- 
 agance and riot of their companions by the desire of 
 accumulating money sufficient to enable them to enter 
 upon a better way of life. 
 
 The logwood groves were near the sea this wood 
 growing and thriving best in low wet ground, and 
 among timber of lower growth. The trees were from 
 two to six feet in circumference. They resembled the 
 white thorn of England save in size. The heart of the 
 trunk, which is red, is alone used as a dye-stuff, the 
 spongy outer part being chipped away. It is a heavy 
 wood, and burns well ; and for this reason the hunters, 
 wood-cutters, and buccaneers always, when it could be 
 obtained, preferred it for hardening the steel of their
 
 272 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 fire-arms. Bloodwood, another dye-stuff much esteemed, 
 was found in the Gulf of Nicaragua, and sold at double 
 the price of the logwood the latter selling at 15 per 
 ton, when the bloodwood cost 30. 
 
 Through five days, the logwood-cutters, while the 
 industrious fit was upon them, plied their labours in 
 the groves, and on Saturday hunted in the savannas 
 as a recreation, and also to store their larders for the 
 ensuing week. When a bullock was shot, it was cut 
 up where it lay, divided into quarters, and the large 
 bones taken out, when each man thrust his head 
 through a portion, and trudged home. If his load 
 became too weighty, part was cut off and flung to the 
 beasts and birds of prey which ever prowled and 
 hovered near the hunter. But this mode of lightening 
 their burdens was rarely resorted to from necessity. 
 The wood-cutters were sturdy, robust fellows, accus- 
 tomed to carry loads of wood of from three to four 
 hundredweight, though their burdens, like everything 
 else, were regulated by their own pleasure and dis- 
 cretion. During the rainy season, when the logwood- 
 grounds were flooded, they would step from their high 
 bed-frames into two feet of water, and remain thus all 
 day improving this cool season as that most favour- 
 able to a good day's work. If there were more than 
 four about the killing of a bullock, while two or three 
 dressed the meat the others went in search of more 
 game a carcass being the ordinary weekly allowance 
 of four persons.
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 273 
 
 In this part of the Bay of Campeachy, the dry 
 season commences in September and continues till 
 April or May, when the wet weather sets in with 
 fierce tornadoes, and continues thus till June, from 
 which period rain falls almost incessantly till the end 
 of August. By this time the rivers have risen, and the 
 savannas and all the low grounds are overflowed; and 
 in this state they remain, the savannas appearing like 
 inland lakes, till December and January, when the 
 water begins visibly to drain off, and by the middle 
 of February leaves the land dry. About the beginning 
 of April the pools in the savannas are dried up, and 
 the whole country is so parched that, but for a bounti- 
 ful provision of Nature, the human beings and the 
 birds and beasts, so lately surrounded with water, must 
 perish of thirst. 
 
 During the fervid consuming heats of this season, 
 the wood-cutters betook themselves to the forests in 
 search of the wild pine, which afforded them a hearty 
 and refreshing draught. This interesting plant is 
 minutely described by Dampier, in that clear and 
 succinct manner which characterizes all his notices of 
 natural productions. " The wild pine," he says, " is a 
 plant so called because it somewhat resembles the bush 
 that bears the pine ; they are commonly supported, or 
 grow from some bunch, knot, or excrescence of the tree, 
 where they take root and grow upright. The root is 
 short and thick, from whence the leaves rise up in folds 
 one within another, spreading off at the top. They are 
 
 (829) IS
 
 274 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 of a good thick substance, and about ten or twelve 
 inches long. The outside leaves are so compact as to 
 contain the rain-water as it falls. They will hold a 
 pint and a half, or a quart ; and this water refreshes 
 the leaves and nourishes the root. When we find these 
 pines we stick our knives into the leaves just above the 
 root, and that lets out the water, which we catch in our 
 hats, as I have done many times to my great relief." 
 Dampier's account of all the natural productions of 
 this country is equally curious. The animals, besides 
 those termed domestic, were the squash, the waree, and 
 peccary, a species of wild-hog, the opossum, tiger-cat, 
 monkeys, ant-bears, armadilloes, porcupines, land-turtle, 
 and the sloth, besides lizards, snakes, and iguanas of 
 many varieties. 
 
 The general features of the country in this part 
 of the Bay are, the land near the sea, and the la- 
 goons, always wet and "mangrovy." A little way back 
 from the shore the soil is a strong yellow clay, with 
 a thin surface of black mould. Here logwood-trees 
 and low-growing timber of many kinds thrive. As it 
 recedes further from the sea, the land rises, and trees 
 of taller growth are met with, till the forests terminate 
 in large savannas covered with long grass. These flats 
 or natural meadows are generally three miles wide, and 
 often much more. The soil of the savannas is black, 
 deep, and rich, and the grass luxuriant in growth, but 
 of a coarse kind. As an easy mode of husbandry which 
 suited them well, the cattle-hunters at the close of the
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 275 
 
 dry season set fire to the grass of the savannas, which, 
 immediately after the setting in of the rains, were 
 covered by a new and delicate herbage. These plains are 
 bounded by high ridges and declivities of the richest 
 land, covered with stately trees; and these alternate 
 ridges and flats, fine woodlands and grassy plains, stretch 
 from ten to twenty miles into the interior, which was 
 as far as Dampier's knowledge extended. 
 
 In the woods, monkeys abound, ranging in bands of 
 from twenty to thirty, leaping from tree to tree, inces- 
 santly chattering with frightful noise, making antic 
 gestures, and throwing sticks and other missiles at the 
 passers-by. When first alone in the woods Dampier 
 felt afraid to shoot at them. They accompanied him 
 on his ramble, leaping from branch to branch, swinging 
 overhead with threatening gestures, as if about to leap 
 upon him, and only took leave at the wood-cutters' huts. 
 Though they were easily shot, it was difiicult to take 
 them, as after being wounded they pertinaciously clung 
 to the high branches by their tails or claws while life 
 remained. " I have pitied," says our navigator, " the 
 poor creature, to see it look on and handle the wounded 
 limb, and turn it about from side to side." The sloths 
 feed on leaves, and are very destructive to trees, never 
 forsaking one on which they have pitched till it is 
 stripped as bare as winter. A sloth requires eight or 
 nine minutes to move one of its feet three inches 
 forward, and it can neither be provoked nor frightened 
 to move faster. Of some of the species of snakes,
 
 276 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 Darapier relates that they lurk in trees, "and are so 
 mighty in strength as to hold a bullock fast by one of 
 his horns," if it comes so near the tree as to allow the 
 snake to twist itself about the horn and a limb of the 
 tree at the same time. The buccaneers sometimes ate 
 them, though Dampier makes no favourable report of 
 this kind of food. An anecdote, which he relates of a 
 snake in the Bay, gives a rational account of what is 
 termed fascination in birds. The green-snake, which 
 is from four to five feet long and no thicker than a 
 man's thumb, lurked among green leaves, from which 
 it could hardly be distinguished, and preyed upon 
 small birds. Dampier was one day about to take hold 
 of a bird, which, to his astonishment, though it fluttered 
 and cried, did not attempt to fly away. He discovered 
 that about the upper part of the poor bird a green- 
 snake had twisted itself. Spiders of prodigious size 
 were seen here, some almost as big as a man's hand, 
 with long small legs like the spiders of Europe: 
 " They have two teeth, or rather horns, an inch and a 
 half in length, and of a proportionable bigness, which 
 are black as jet, smooth as glass, and their small end 
 sharp as a thorn." These the buccaneers and wood-cut- 
 ters used as tooth-picks, as they were said to cure tooth- 
 ache. They also used them to pick their tobacco-pipes. 
 The country abounded in ants of different species, some 
 of which had a sting " sharp as a spark of fire." They 
 build their habitations between the limbs of great trees; 
 and some of the hillocks were " as large as a hogshead."
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-GUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 277 
 
 In this manner the ants provide against the consequences 
 of the rainy season, when their hillocks, if on the 
 ground, must be overflowed. One species marched in 
 troops, always in haste, as if in search of something, 
 but steadily following their leaders wherever they 
 went. Sometimes a band of these ants would march 
 through the cabins of the wood-cutters, over their 
 beds, or into their chests, wherever the foremost went 
 the rest all following. The logwood-cutters let them 
 pass on, though some hours might be spent in the 
 march. 
 
 Frequently as the humming-bird has been described 
 since it was seen by Dampier, his account of this, the 
 most delicate and lovely of the feathered tribes, is as 
 fresh and beautiful as when the young seaman, charmed 
 with its loveliness, first entered a description of it into 
 his rude journal : " The humming-bird is a pretty 
 little feathered creature, no bigger than a great over- 
 grown wasp ; with a black bill no bigger than a small 
 needle, and with legs and feet in proportion to his body. 
 This creature does not wave its wings like other birds 
 when it flies, but keeps them in a continued quick 
 motion, like bees or other insects ; and like them makes 
 a continued humming noise as it flies. It is very quick 
 in motion, and haunts about flowers and fruit like a 
 bee gathering honey ; making many addresses to its 
 delightful objects, by visiting them on all sides, and 
 yet still keeps in motion, sometimes on one side, some- 
 times on the other, as often rebounding a foot or two
 
 278 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 back on a sudden, and as quickly returns again, keep- 
 ing thus about one flower five or six minutes or more." 
 The wood-cutters and hunters, in their out-door and 
 silvan life, became familiar with all the living creatures 
 of these prolific regions, and gave them English names 
 significant of their habits. They adopted the super- 
 stition of the Spaniards against killing the carrion- 
 crows, which were found so useful in clearing the 
 country of the putrid carcasses of animals. Trains of 
 these birds gathered from all quarters about the hunters, 
 and regularly followed them into the savannas for 
 their own share of the prey. A bird which they named 
 the Subtle Jack was about as big as the pigeons of the 
 Bay. It suspended its nest from the boughs of lofty 
 trees, choosing such as, up to a considerable height, 
 were without limbs. The branches selected were those 
 that spread widest; and of these the very extremity 
 was chosen. The nests hung down two or three feet 
 from the twigs to which they were fastened, and looked 
 like " cabbage-nets stuffed with hay." The thread by 
 which it is suspended, like the nest itself, is made of 
 long grass ingeniously twisted and interwoven, small at 
 the twig, but thickening as it approaches the nest. 
 On trees that grow singly and apart the birds build all 
 round; but where the trees stand in proximity to others, 
 the Subtle Jack chooses only those that border upon a 
 savanna, pool, or creek ; and of these, the limbs that 
 stretch over the water or the grass, avoiding such as may 
 be easily approached from neighbouring trees. The
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 279 
 
 nest has a hole at the side for the bird to enter. 
 " Tis pretty," says Dampier, " to see twenty or thirty of 
 them hanging round a tree." 
 
 In these savannas and primeval forests, an endless 
 variety of birds and insects engaged the attention of 
 the young seaman, to which we cannot now advert. 
 The creeks, rivers, and lagoons, as well as the open 
 shores, were equally prolific of fishes unknown in the 
 English waters. No place in the world was better 
 stored with alligators than the Bay of Campeachy. 
 These the buccaneers, who scrupled at no sort of food, 
 never ate save in cases of great necessity, as even their 
 intrepid stomachs were offended by the strong musky 
 flavour of the flesh of this hideous creature. The 
 alligators of the Bay were generally harmless when not 
 molested ; though accidents sometimes occurred, of which 
 one is recorded by Dampier that merits notice. In the 
 height of the dry season, when in those torrid regions 
 all animated nature pants with consuming thirst, a party 
 of the wood-cutters, English and Irish, went to hunt 
 in the neighbourhood of a lake called Pies Pond in Beef 
 Island, one of the smaller islands of the Bay. To this 
 pond the wild cattle repaired in herds to drink, and here 
 the hunters lay in wait for them. The chase had been 
 prosecuted with great success for a week, when an 
 Irishman of the party, going into the water during the 
 day, stumbled upon an alligator, which seized him by 
 the knee. His cries alarmed his companions, who, 
 fearing that he had been seized by the Spaniards, to
 
 280 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 whom the island belonged, and who chose the dry 
 season to hunt and repel their unwelcome neighbours, 
 instead of affording assistance, fled from the huts which 
 they had erected. The Irishman seeing no appearance 
 of help, with happy presence of mind quietly waited 
 till the alligator loosened its teeth to take a new and 
 surer hold ; and when it did so, he snatched away his 
 knee, interposing the butt-end of his gun in its stead, 
 which the animal seized so firmly that it was jerked out 
 of the man's hand and carried off. He then crawled 
 up a neighbouring tree, again shouting after his com- 
 rades, who now found courage to return. His gun was 
 found next day dragged ten or twelve paces from the 
 place where it had been seized by the alligator. 
 
 At the same place, Pies Pond in Beef Island, Dampier 
 had a remarkable escape from an alligator. Passing 
 with some of his comrades through a small savanna, 
 where the water lay two or three feet deep, in search 
 of a bullock to shoot for supper, a strong scent of an 
 alligator was perceived, and presently Dampier stumbled 
 over one and fell down. He cried out for help, but his 
 companions ran towards the woods to save themselves. 
 No sooner had he scrambled up to follow them, than in 
 the agitation of the moment he fell a second and even 
 a third time, expecting every instant to be devoured, 
 and yet escaped untouched ; but he candidly says, " I 
 was so frighted, that I never cared to go through the 
 water again as long as I was in the Bay." 
 
 On the first Saturday after he commenced wood-
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 281 
 
 cutter Dampier followed his employers in the humble 
 capacity of raising and driving the cattle out of the 
 savannas into the woods, where the hunters lay in 
 wait to shoot them. The following Saturday his am- 
 bition took a higher flight. He thought it more 
 honourable to have a shot himself than to drive the 
 game for others ; and, after going five miles by water 
 and one by land to the hunting-ground, he gave his 
 companions the slip, and rambled so far into the woods 
 that he lost himself, going at every step further astray 
 through small strips of savanna and skirts of wood- 
 land a maze of plain and forest which seemed inter- 
 minable. The rest of this youthful adventure, from 
 which Dampier drew a beneficial lesson for the regula- 
 tion of his future life, cannot be better narrated than 
 in his own words : " This was in May (the dry season), 
 and it was between ten o'clock and one when I began 
 to find that I was, as we call it, marooned, or lost, 
 and quite out of the hearing of my comrades' guns. 
 I was somewhat surprised at this ; but, however, I knew 
 that I should find my way out as soon as the sun was 
 a little lower. So I sat down to rest myself, resolving, 
 however, to run no further out of my way, for the sun 
 being so near the zenith I could not distinguish how 
 to direct my course. Being weary and almost faint for 
 want of water, I was forced to have recourse to the 
 wild pines, and was by them supplied, or else I must 
 have perished with thirst. About three o'clock I 
 went due north, or as near as I could judge, for the
 
 282 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 savanna lay east and west, and I was on the south 
 side of it. 
 
 "At sunset I got out into the clear open savanna, 
 being about two leagues wide in most places, but how 
 long I know not. It is well stored with bullocks, but by 
 frequent hunting they grow shy, and remove further up 
 into the country. There I found myself four or five miles 
 to the west of the place where I had straggled from my 
 companions. I made homewards with all the speed I 
 could; but being overtaken by the night I lay down 
 on the grass a good distance from the woods, for the 
 benefit of the wind to keep the mosquitoes from me ; 
 but in vain, for in less than an hour's time I was so 
 persecuted, that though I endeavoured to keep them off 
 by fanning myself with boughs, and shifting my quar- 
 ters three or four times, yet still they so haunted me 
 that I could get no sleep. At daybreak I got up and 
 directed my course to the creek where we landed, from 
 which I was then about two leagues. I did not see 
 one beast of any sort whatever in all the way, though 
 the day before I saw several young calves that could not 
 follow their dams ; but even these were now gone away, 
 to my great vexation and disappointment, for I was 
 very hungry. But, about a mile further, I espied ten or 
 twelve quaums perching on the boughs of a cotton-tree. 
 These were not shy : therefore I got well under them, 
 and, having a single bullet but no shot about me, fired 
 at one of them and missed it, though I had often before 
 killed them so. Then I came up with and fired at five
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 283 
 
 or six turkeys with no better success, so that I was 
 forced to march forward, still in the savanna, toward 
 the creek ; and when I came to the path that led to it 
 through the woods, I found to my great joy a hat stuck 
 upon a pole, and when I came to the creek another. 
 These were set up by my consorts, who had gone home 
 in the evening, as signals that they would come and 
 fetch me. Therefore I sat down and waited for them ; 
 for although I had not above three leagues home by 
 water, yet it would have been very difficult, if not 
 impossible, for me to have got thither overland, by 
 reason of those vast impassable thickets abounding 
 everywhere along the creek's side, wherein I have 
 known some puzzled for two or three days, and have 
 not advanced half a mile, although they laboured 
 extremely every day. Neither was I disappointed of 
 my hopes, for within half an hour after my arrival in 
 the creek my consorts came, bringing every man his 
 bottle of water and his gun, both to hunt for game and 
 to give me notice by firing, that I might hear them ; 
 for I have known several men lost in the like manner, 
 and never heard of afterwards." 
 
 Dampier had the more reason to congratulate himself 
 on the issue of this adventure, that shortly before the cap- 
 tain and six of the crew of a Boston ship had wandered 
 into the woods, part of whom were never again heard of. 
 The captain, who was found in a thicket in a state of 
 extreme exhaustion, stated that his men had dropped one 
 by one, fainting for thirst in the parched savannas.
 
 284 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 When his first month's service was ended, Dampier 
 received as pay the price of a ton of wood, with which 
 he bought provisions, and entered into a new engage- 
 ment, on the footing of comradeship, but with other 
 partners. Of the former company to which he had 
 been attached, some went to Beef Island to hunt bul- 
 locks for their skins, which they prepared for sale by 
 pegging them strongly down to the ground, turning 
 first the fleshy and then the hairy side uppermost, till 
 they were perfectly dry. It required thirty-two pegs, 
 each as thick as a man's arm, to stretch one hide; after- 
 wards, they were hung in heaps upon a pole, that they 
 might not touch the ground, and from time to time 
 well beat with sticks to drive out the worms which 
 bred in the skins and spoiled them. Before being 
 shipped off, they were soaked in salt water to kill the 
 remaining worms. While still wet they were folded 
 up, left thus for a time, and once more thoroughly dried 
 and packed for exportation. 
 
 To this trade Dampier preferred wood-cutting. His 
 partners were three Scotchmen, Price Morrice, Duncan 
 Campbell, and a third, who is called by his Christian 
 name of George only. The two latter were persons of 
 education, who had been bred merchants, and liked 
 neither the employment nor the society of the Bay ; 
 they therefore only waited the first opportunity of 
 getting away by a logwood-ship. The first vessel that 
 arrived was from Boston, and this they freighted with 
 forty tons of dye-wood, which it was agreed Duncan
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 285 
 
 Campbell should go to New England to sell, bringing 
 back flour and other things suited to the market of the 
 Bay, to exchange for hides and logwood ; while George 
 remained making up a fresh cargo against Campbell's 
 return. And here Dampier makes an observation on 
 the character of his associates, which deserves to be 
 noticed as the result of the experience of a man who 
 had seen and reflected much upon life and manners. 
 " This," he says, " retarded our business, for I did not 
 find Price Morrice very intent on work ; for 'tis like he 
 thought he had logwood enough. And I have particu- 
 larly observed there, and in other places, that such as 
 had been well-bred were generally most careful to 
 improve their time, and would be very industrious and 
 frugal when there was any probability of considerable 
 gain. But, on the contrary, such as had been inured to 
 hard labour, and got their living by the sweat of their 
 brows, when they came to have plenty, would extrava- 
 gantly squander away their time and money in drinking 
 and making a bluster." 
 
 To make up for the indolence of his comrade Dampier 
 kept the closer to work himself, till attacked by a very 
 singular disease. A red and ill-conditioned swelling or 
 boil broke out upon his right leg, which he was directed 
 to poultice with the roasted roots of the white lily. This 
 he persisted in doing for some days, " when two white 
 specks appeared in the centre of the boil, and on squeez- 
 ing it two small white worms spurted out, about the 
 thickness of a hen's quill and three or four inches long.'"'
 
 286 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 These were quite different from the Guinea-worm, com- 
 mon in some of the West India Islands, and in the time 
 of Dampier very common in Curagoa. From the latter 
 he afterwards suffered severely. 
 
 Shortly after his recovery from this attack the Bay 
 was visited by one of those tremendous hurricanes 
 known only in tropical countries, which raged for 
 twenty-four hours without intermission. This was in 
 June 1676. Two days before the storm came on the 
 wind " whiffled " about to the south and back again to 
 the east, but blew faintly, while the weather continued 
 very fair, though it was remarked that the men-of-war 
 birds came trooping towards the shore in great numbers, 
 and hovered over the land. The hunters and logwood- 
 cutters, among their numerous superstitions, augured 
 the arrival of ships from the appearance of those birds, 
 and imagined that as many birds as hovered overhead 
 so many vessels might be expected. At this time there 
 appeared whole flocks. 
 
 It was noticed by Dampier that for two days the 
 tide kept ebbing, till the creek by which the wood- 
 men's huts stood was left nearly dry. In it there was 
 commonly at ebb-tide seven or eight feet of water, 
 but now scarcely three remained even in the deepest 
 places. At four o'clock, in the afternoon following this 
 strange ebbing of the waters, the sky looked very black, 
 the wind sprung up at south-east, fresh and rapidly 
 increasing, and in less than two hours blew down all 
 the cabins of the woodmen save one : this they propped
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 287 
 
 with posts, and as it were anchored by casting ropes 
 over the roof, which were then made fast on both sides 
 to stumps of trees. In this frail shed they all huddled 
 together while the hurricane raged abroad. It rained 
 in torrents during the whole period of the tempest; and 
 in two hours after the wind had risen the water flowed 
 so fast into the creek that it was as high as the banks. 
 Though the wind now blew off-shore, the waters con- 
 tinued to rush in ; nor did the rain abate ; and by ten 
 o'clock next morning the banks of the creek were over- 
 flowed. 
 
 The situation of the woodmen now became perilous. 
 They brought their canoe to the side of the hut, and 
 fastened it to the stump of a tree as a means of escape 
 this being their only hope of safety, as beyond the 
 banks which edged the creek the land fell, and there "was 
 now no walking through the woods because of the 
 water. Besides, the trees were torn up by the roots, 
 and tumbled down so strangely across each other that 
 it was almost impossible to pass through them." In 
 this violent tempest many fish were either cast alive 
 upon the shore or found floating dead in the lagoons. 
 It was remarkable that the hurricane, as was afterwards 
 ascertained, did not extend ninety miles to windward. 
 
 Of four ships riding at anchor at One -Bush Key, 
 three were driven from their moorings, and one of them 
 was carried up into the woods of Beef Island. 
 
 The wood-cutters suffered in many ways. The whole 
 country was laid under water to a considerable depth,
 
 288 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 there being three feet even on the highest land ; so that 
 they could not for some time prosecute their labours. 
 Much of their provision was destroyed, and what re- 
 mained they had no way of cooking save in their 
 canoes. 
 
 As soon as the storm abated, Dampier's company 
 embarked in the canoe and made for One-Bush Key, 
 about four leagues distant, hoping to procure assistance 
 from the ships there. These, as has been noticed, had 
 all been driven from their anchors save one ; and the 
 kindness of the crew of this fortunate vessel had already 
 been severely taxed by an influx of the flooded wood- 
 cutters from different points. Dampier and his com- 
 panions could get "neither bread nor punch, nor so 
 much as a dram of rum, though they offered to pay for 
 it." From this inhospitable quarter they rowed for 
 Beef Island, their singular landmark being the flag of a 
 ship displayed in the woods. The vessel herself was 
 found two hundred yards from the sea, from which she 
 had cut her way in the storm, levelling the trees on 
 each side, and making a clear path before her through 
 the forest. In this transit the stumps had gone through 
 her bottom, and there was no way of saving her. 
 Meanwhile she held together, and the forlorn woodmen 
 were well entertained with victuals and punch, and 
 invited to remain for the night ; but hearing a signal- 
 gun fired from a distant lagoon, they concluded that 
 one of the ships was driven in there by distress, and 
 rowed off to her assistance. With a Captain Chandler,
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 289 
 
 whom they found here greatly in want of their services, 
 Dampier and his partners laboured for two days, and 
 then went to Beef Island to hunt for cattle. This island 
 is about seven leagues long, and in breadth from three 
 to four: at the east end "low drowned land;" the 
 middle is one large savanna, bordered with trees ; the 
 south side, between the savannas and the mangrove- 
 belt or swampy ground, is very rich. 
 
 But the social condition of Beef Island, at the time 
 specified, is more an object of interest than its natural 
 productions. It had been lately settled by a colony of 
 Indians. " It is no new thing," says Dampier, " for the 
 Indians of these woody parts of America to fly away, 
 whole towns at once, and settle themselves in the unfre- 
 quented woods to enjoy their freedom ; and if they are 
 accidentally discovered, they will remove again ; which 
 they can easily do, their household goods being little 
 else but their hammocks and their calabashes. They 
 build every man his own house, and tie up their 
 hammocks between two trees, wherein they sleep till 
 their houses are made. The woods afford them some 
 subsistence, such as pecaree and waree ; but they that 
 are thus strolling, or marooning as the Spaniards call 
 it, have plantain-walks that no man knows but them- 
 selves, and from thence have their food till they have 
 raised plantation-provision near their new-built town. 
 They clear no more ground than what they actually 
 employ for their subsistence. They make no paths; 
 but when they go far from home they break now and 
 
 (829) 19
 
 290 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 then a bough, letting it hang down, which serves as a 
 mark to guide them in their return. If they happen to 
 be discovered by other Indians inhabiting among the 
 Spaniards, or do but distrust it, they immediately shift 
 their quarters to another place, this large country 
 affording them good fat land enough, and very woody, 
 and therefore a proper sanctuary for them." 
 
 It was some of these fugitive Indians that came 
 to settle at Beef Island, where, besides gaining their 
 freedom from the Spaniards, they might see their 
 friends and acquaintances, that had been taken some 
 time before by the privateers and sold to the log- 
 wood-cutters, with whom some of the women lived 
 still, though others had been conducted by them to 
 their own habitations. It was these women, after 
 their return, that made known the kind entertainment 
 they met with from the English, and persuaded their 
 friends to leave their dwellings near the Spaniards 
 and settle on this island. They had been here almost 
 a year before they were discovered by the English, 
 and even then were accidentally found out by the 
 hunters as they followed their game. "They were 
 not very shy all the time I was there," continues 
 Dampier; "but I know that upon the least disgust 
 they would have been gone." This avoidance of their 
 "kind entertainers," the English, does not look as if 
 the Indians had been peculiarly anxious to cultivate 
 their further acquaintance. The poor Indians were 
 undoubtedly equally anxious to conceal themselves and
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 291 
 
 their plantations from the Spaniards, from whom they 
 fled, and the English hunters and log wood -cutters, 
 whom they shunned. 
 
 John d'Acosta, a Spaniard of the town of Campeachy, 
 who held a grant of this island, managed better than 
 any of his countrymen in securing his property from 
 the depredations of the buccaneers. In the dry season 
 he spent usually a couple of months here with his 
 servants, " hocksing " cattle for their hides and tallow. 
 Beef was to him of course of small value ; and happen- 
 ing at one time to encounter the logwood-men hunting 
 in his savannas, he requested them to desist, saying 
 that firing made the cattle wild; but that if they 
 wanted beef he would supply them with as much as 
 they pleased by hocksing. They accepted the offer, 
 and acted with honour to John d'Acosta, who soon 
 became very popular among them, though their friend- 
 ship did him no good with his own countrymen. He 
 was thrown into prison upon suspicion of conniving 
 with the buccaneers, and forfeited his right to Beef 
 Island, which henceforth the Spaniards abandoned to 
 the English hunters and freebooters. 
 
 The manner of hunting wild cattle, termed hocksing 
 or houghing, was peculiar to the Spaniards, the English 
 always using fire-arms in the chase. The Spanish 
 hocksers, in the course of many years' practice, became 
 dexterous at their art. They were always mounted on 
 good horses, which were as diligently and early trained 
 to the sport as the rider, and as well aware when to
 
 292 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 advance and retreat with advantage. The hunter was 
 armed with a hocksing-iron in the shape of a crescent, 
 about seven inches in length, and having a very sharp 
 edge. This was fastened to a pole about fourteen feet 
 in length, which the hunter laid over the horse's head, 
 the instrument projecting forward. Riding up to his 
 prey, with this he strikes, and seldom fails to ham- 
 string it, when the horse instantly wheels to the left to 
 avoid the attack of the wounded animal. If the stroke 
 has not quite severed all the sinews, the animal soon 
 breaks them himself by continually attempting to leap 
 forward. While limping thus, and somewhat exhausted, 
 the hunter rides up to him again, and at this time 
 attacks him in front, striking the iron into the knee of 
 one of his fore legs. The animal usually drops, when 
 the hunter dismounts, and with a sharp-pointed knife 
 strikes into the head a little behind the horns so 
 dexterously that at one stroke the head drops as if 
 severed from the neck, and the poor beast is dead. 
 The hunter remounts and pursues other game while 
 the skinners take off the hide. 
 
 The English hunters had so greatly thinned the 
 numbers of wild cattle on Beef Island, that it was now 
 dangerous for a single man to hunt them, or to venture 
 through the savannas, so desperate and vicious had 
 they become. An old bull, once shot at, never failed 
 to remember the attack and to offer battle ; and the 
 whole herd sometimes drew up in array to defend 
 themselves. The account which Dampier gives of the
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 293 
 
 tactics of the wild cattle almost borders upon the 
 marvellous, though he is one of the most veracious and 
 unpretending of travellers, rather diminishing than 
 exaggerating the dangers he had passed and the 
 wonders he had seen. The old bulls led the van, 
 behind them were ranged the cows, and next in order 
 the young cattle. Wherever the hunters attempted 
 to break the line, the bulls opposed their embattled 
 front, wheeling round in every direction to face the 
 enemy. The aim of the hunter was therefore rather 
 an animal detached from the herd than a general or 
 open attack. If the prey was desperately wounded, 
 in its rage it made for the hunter ; but if only slightly, 
 it scampered off. These assaults of the infuriated 
 animals were sometimes attended by fatal accidents. 
 
 The hurricane had deprived Dampier of his slender 
 stock of provisions, and having neither money nor 
 credit to obtain a fresh supply from the traders who 
 arrived from Jamaica, he was forced, for immediate 
 subsistence, to join a company of " privateers " then in 
 the Bay. With these buccaneers he continued for 
 nearly a year, rambling about the Bay of Campeachy, 
 visiting its numerous creeks, islands, and rivers, and 
 making with them frequent descents upon Indian 
 villages and Spanish settlements. At these places 
 they obtained supplies of Indian corn, which, with the 
 beef for which they hunted, turtle, and 'manatee, 
 formed their principal subsistence, Dampier, in every 
 passing hour, adding to his stores of knowledge.
 
 294 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 The manatee or sea-cow, as seen by Dampier in 
 the Bay of Campeachy, the river Darien, at Mindanao, 
 and on the coast of New Holland, he describes as of 
 the thickness of a horse, and in length ten or twelve 
 feet. The mouth is like that of a cow; the lips are 
 very thick, the eyes no bigger than a pea, and the ears 
 two small holes. It frequents creeks, inlets, and 
 mouths of rivers, and never leaves the water for any 
 length of time. It lives on a sort of grass which 
 grows in the sea. The flesh is white, sweet, and 
 wholesome. The tail of a young cow was esteemed 
 a delicate morsel by the buccaneers, and so was a 
 sucking-calf, which they cooked by roasting. The 
 tough thick skin of the manatee they applied to 
 various uses. 
 
 The Mosquito Indians were peculiarly dexterous in 
 fishing, and also in striking manatee and catching 
 turtle ; for which purpose the buccaneers always tried 
 to have one or two natives of the Mosquito Shore 
 attached to their company as purveyors on their 
 cruises. 
 
 In the river of Tobasco, near its mouth, abundance 
 of manatee was found, there being good feeding for 
 them in the creeks. In one creek which ran into the 
 land for two or three hundred paces, and where the 
 water was so shallow that the backs of the animals 
 were seen as they fed, they were found in great 
 numbers. On the least noise they dashed out into the 
 deep water of the river. There was also a fresh-water
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 295 
 
 species resembling those of the sea, but not so large. 
 The banks of the creek which they frequented were 
 swampy and overgrown with trees, and the same place 
 afforded great abundance of land-turtle, the largest 
 Dampier ever saw save at the Gallapagos Islands in 
 the South Sea, the very head-quarters of turtle. On 
 the borders of the Tobasco lie ridges of dry rich land, 
 covered with lofty "cotton and cabbage-trees, which 
 make a pleasant landscape," and in some places guava- 
 trees, bearing large and finely -flavoured fruit; there 
 were also cocoa-plums and grapes. The savannas, on 
 which herds of deer and bullocks were seen feeding, 
 especially in the mornings and evenings, were fenced 
 with natural groves of the guava. Dampier appears 
 to have been delighted with the aspect of this "delicious 
 place." While he was here, a party hunting in the 
 savannas late in the evening shot a deer. One of 
 them, while skinning the animal, was shot dead by a 
 comrade, who in the twilight mistook him for another 
 deer. 
 
 For above twenty miles up the river there was no 
 settlement; after which there was a small fort, with 
 a garrison consisting of a Spaniard, and eight or ten 
 Indians whom he commanded, whose business was 
 rather to spread alarm into the interior if the buc- 
 caneers approached, than to resist their attacks. Their 
 precautions were, however, useless when opposed to 
 the address and activity of the buccaneers, who had 
 frequently pillaged the towns and villages on this
 
 296 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 river, though latterly they had sometimes been repulsed 
 with loss. In some of these towns there were mer- 
 chants and planters, cocoa-walks being frequent on 
 both sides of the river. Some parts along the banks 
 were thickly planted with Indian towns, each having 
 a padre, and also a cacique, or governor. These 
 Indians were free labourers in the cocoa-walks of the 
 Spanish settlers, though a few of them had plantations 
 of maize, plantain-walks, and even small cocoa-walks 
 of their own. Some of the natives were bee-hunters, 
 searching in the hollow trees in the woods for hives, 
 and selling the wax and honey. These Indian bee- 
 hunters were so ingenious as to supply the wild bees 
 with trees artificially hollowed, and thus increased 
 the number of hives and the profits of their traffic. 
 " The Indians inhabiting these villages live like gentle- 
 men," says Dampier, "in comparison of many near 
 any great towns, such as Campeachy or Merida; for 
 there even the poorer and rascally sort of people that 
 are not able to hire one of these poor creatures, will 
 by violence drag them to do their drudgery for 
 nothing, after they have worked all day for their 
 masters." 
 
 The Indians of the villages on the Tobasco lived 
 chiefly on maize, which they baked into cakes ; and 
 from which they also made a sort of liquor, which, 
 when allowed to sour, afforded a pleasant refreshing 
 draught. When a beverage for company was wanted, 
 a little honey was mixed with this drink. A stronger
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 297 
 
 liquor was made of parched maize and anotta, which 
 was drunk without straining. The Indians reared 
 abundance of turkeys, ducks, and fowls, the padre 
 taking such strict account of the tithe that it was 
 necessary to procure his license before they durst kill 
 one. They also raised cotton, and manufactured their 
 own clothing, which for both sexes was decent and 
 becoming. 
 
 Under the sanction of the village-priest all marriages 
 were contracted, the men marrying at fourteen, the 
 women at twelve. If at this early age they had made 
 no choice, then the padre selected for them. These 
 early marriages were one means of securing the power 
 and increasing the gains of the priest ; and the young 
 couples themselves were contented, happy, and affec- 
 tionate. They inhabited good houses, lived comfortably 
 by the sweat of their brows, and on holy eves and 
 saints' days enjoyed themselves under the direction of 
 their spiritual guides, who permitted them the re- 
 creation of pipe and tabor, hautboys and drums, and 
 lent them vizards and ornaments for the mummings 
 and other amusements which they practised. The 
 village churches were lofty, compared with the ordinary 
 dwelling-houses, and ornamented with coarse pictures 
 of tawny or bronze -coloured saints and madonnas, 
 recommended to the Indians by the tint of the native 
 complexion. To their good padres, notwithstanding 
 the tithe-fowls, the Indian flocks were submissive and 
 affectionate.
 
 298 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 We cannot here follow the minute account which 
 Dampier has given of all the rivers of Campeachy 
 during his cruise of eleven months around this rich 
 country. The farthest west point which he visited 
 was Alvarado, to which the buccaneers with whom 
 he sailed went in two barks, thirty men in each. 
 The river flows through a fertile country, thickly 
 planted with Spanish towns and Indian villages. At 
 its mouth was a small fort, placed on the declivity 
 of a sand-bank, and mounted with six guns. The 
 sand-banks are here about two hundred feet high on 
 both sides. 
 
 This fort the buccaneers attacked; but it held out 
 stoutly for five hours, during which time the country 
 was alarmed, and the inhabitants of the adjoining town 
 got off in their boats, carrying away all their money 
 and valuables, and the best part of their goods. The 
 buccaneers lost ten men killed or desperately wounded; 
 and when they landed next morning to pillage, it being 
 dark before the fort yielded, little booty was found. 
 Twenty or thirty bullocks they killed, salted, and sent 
 on board, with salt-fish, Indian corn, and abundance of 
 poultry. They also found and brought away many 
 tame parrots of a very beautiful kind, yellow and 
 scarlet curiously blended ; the fairest and largest birds 
 of their kind Dampier ever saw in the West Indies. 
 " They prated very prettily." 
 
 Though little solid booty was obtained, what with 
 provisions, chests, hen-coops, and parrots' cages, the
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 299 
 
 ships were filled and lumbered ; and while in this state, 
 seven Spanish armadilloes from Vera Cruz, detached 
 in pursuit of the buccaneers, appeared coming full sail 
 over the bar into the river. Not a moment was to be 
 lost. Clearing their decks of lumber, by throwing all 
 overboard, the buccaneers got under full sail, and drove 
 over the bar at the river's mouth, before the enemy, 
 who could with difficulty stem the current, had scarcely 
 reached it. The Spanish vessels were to windward, 
 and a few shots were of necessity exchanged ; and now 
 commenced one of those singular escapes from tre- 
 mendous odds of strength of which buccaneer history 
 is so full. The Toro, the admiral of the Spanish barks, 
 was of itself more than a match for the freebooters. 
 It carried ten guns and one hundred men, while their 
 whole force was now diminished to fifty men in both 
 ships, one of which carried six, the other two guns. 
 Another of the Spanish vessels carried four guns, with 
 eighty men, and the remaining five, though not mounted 
 with great guns, had each sixty or seventy men armed 
 with muskets. " As soon," says Dampier's journal, " as 
 we were over the bar, we got our larboard tacks aboard, 
 and stood to the eastward as nigh the wind as we could 
 lie. The Spaniards came quartering on us, and our 
 ship being the headmost the Toro came directly to- 
 wards us, designing to board us. We kept firing at 
 her, in hopes to have lamed either a mast or a yard ; 
 but failing, just as she was sheering aboard we gave 
 her a good volley, and presently clapped the helm
 
 300 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 
 
 aweather, wore our ship, and got our starboard tacks 
 aboard, and stood to the westward, and so left the 
 Toro ; but were saluted by all the small craft as we 
 passed them, who stood to the eastward after the Toro, 
 that was now in pursuit and close to our consort. We 
 stood to the westward till we were against the river's 
 mouth, then we tacked, and by the help of the current 
 that came out of the river we were near a mile to 
 windward of them all. Then we made sail to assist 
 our consort, who was hard put to it; but on our 
 approach the Toro edged away toward the shore, as 
 did all the rest, and stood away for Alvarado; and 
 we, glad of the deliverance, went away to the east- 
 ward, and visited all the rivers in our return again 
 to Trist." 
 
 These visits produced little booty. They also searched 
 the bays for munjack, "a sort of bitumen which we 
 find in a lump washed up by the sea, and left dry on 
 all the sandy bays of the coast." This substance the 
 buccaneers, who were compelled to find substitutes 
 for many necessary things, tempered with tallow or 
 oil, and employed as pitch in repairing their ships and 
 canoes. 
 
 On the return of Dampier to the island of Trist, the 
 effects of the dismal hurricane of the former year had 
 disappeared, and he resumed his labours among the 
 woodmen. This employment was probably more pro- 
 fitable than his buccaneering cruise ; as in the course 
 of the following season he was able to visit England,
 
 AMONG THE WOOD-CUTTERS AND BUCCANEERS. 301 
 
 intending to return to the Bay when he had seen his 
 friends. He sailed for Jamaica in April 1678, and in 
 the beginning of August reached London. 
 
 Cutting dye-wood was still a profitable though a 
 laborious trade; and Dampier shrewdly remarks, "that 
 though it is not his business to say how far the English 
 had a right to follow it, yet he was sure that the 
 Spaniards never received less damage from the persons 
 who usually followed that trade than when they had 
 exchanged the musket for the axe, and the deck of the 
 privateer for the logwood-groves." 
 
 During his short residence in England at this time 
 Dampier must have married ; for though a trifling 
 matter of this kind is too unimportant to be entered in 
 a seaman's journal, we long afterwards, while he lay 
 off the Bashee or Five Islands, learn that he had left 
 a wife in England, as, in compliment to the Duke of 
 Grafton, he named the northernmost of the Bashee 
 group Graf ton's Isle, " having," as he says, " married 
 my wife out of his duchess's family, and leaving her at 
 Arlington House at my going abroad."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 
 
 AFTER spending five or six months with his wife and 
 his friends, Dampier, in the beginning of 1679, sailed 
 as a passenger for Jamaica, intending immediately to 
 return to his old trade and companions in the Bay of 
 Campeachy. He took out goods from England, which 
 he meant to exchange at Jamaica for the commodities 
 in request among the wood-cutters. Instead, however, 
 of prosecuting this design, Dampier remained in Jamaica 
 all that year, and by some means was enabled to pur- 
 chase a small estate in Dorsetshire. This new possession 
 he was about to visit, when he was induced to engage 
 in a trading voyage to the Mosquito Shore. It promised 
 to be profitable, and he was anxious to realize a little 
 more ready money before returning to England to 
 settle for life. He accordingly sent home the title- 
 deeds of his estate, and embarked with a Mr. Hobby. 
 
 Soon after leaving Port-Royal, they came to anchor 
 in a bay at the west end of the island, in which they 
 found Captains Coxon, Sawkins, Sharp, and "other 
 privateers," as Dampier gently terms the most noted
 
 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 303 
 
 buccaneer commanders of the period. Hobby's crew 
 deserted him to a man to join the buccaneer squadron ; 
 and the Mosquito voyage being thus frustrated, Dampier 
 " was the more easily persuaded to go with them too." 
 
 Their first attempt was on Porto Bello, of which 
 assault Dampier gives no account, and he might not 
 have been present at the capture. Two hundred men 
 were landed, and, the better to prevent alarm, at such 
 a distance from the town that it took them three days 
 to march upon it, as during daylight they lay concealed 
 in the woods. A negro gave the alarm, but not before 
 the buccaneers were so close upon his heels that the 
 inhabitants were completely taken by surprise, and 
 fled in every direction. The buccaneers plundered for 
 two days and two nights, in momentary expectation of 
 the country rising upon them, and overpowering their 
 small number, but, from avarice and rapacity, they 
 were unable to tear themselves away. 
 
 To the shame of the Spaniards they got clear off, 
 and divided shares of one hundred and sixty pieces of 
 eight a-head. Inspired by this success, they resolved 
 immediately to march across the Isthmus. They knew 
 that such strokes of good fortune as this at Porto Bello 
 could not longer be looked for on the eastern shores of 
 America, and for some time their imaginations had 
 been running upon the endless wealth to be found in 
 the South Sea. They remained for about a fortnight 
 at the Samballas Isles, and during this time, preparatory 
 to their grand attempt, endeavoured to conciliate the
 
 304 ADVENTURES WITH THE. BUCCANEERS. 
 
 Indians of the Darien by gifts of toys and trinkets 
 and many fair promises. They also persuaded some of 
 the Mosquito-men to join them, who on account of 
 their expertness in fishing, and striking turtle and 
 manatee, besides their warlike qualities, were useful 
 auxiliaries either in peace or war. Of this tribe, so 
 long the friends, and, as they named themselves, the 
 subjects of Britain, Dampier has given an exceedingly 
 interesting account. In his time the clan or sept, 
 properly called Mosquito-men, must have been very 
 small, as he says the fighting-men did not amount to 
 one hundred. They inhabited a tract on the coast 
 near Cape Gracios Dios, stretching between Cape Hon- 
 duras and Nicaragua. " They are," says our navigator, 
 who appears partial to these Indians, " very ingenious 
 at throwing the lance, fisgig, harpoon, or any manner 
 of dart, being bred to it from their infancy; for the 
 children, imitating their parents, never go abroad with- 
 out a lance in their hands, which they throw at any 
 object till use hath made them masters of the art. 
 Then they learn to put by a lance, arrow, or dart ; the 
 manner is thus : Two boys stand at a small distance, 
 and dart a blunt stick at one another, each of them 
 holding a small stick in his right hand, with which he 
 strikes away that which is darted at him. As they 
 grow in years they become more dexterous and coura- 
 geous; and then they will stand a fair mark to any 
 one that will shoot arrows at them, which they will 
 put by with a very small stick no bigger than the rod
 
 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 305 
 
 of a fowling-piece; and when they are grown to be 
 men they will guard themselves from arrows though 
 they come very thick at them, provided they do not 
 happen to come two at once. They have extraordinary 
 good eyes, and will descry a sail at sea, and see any- 
 thing, better than we. Their chiefest employment in 
 their own country is to strike fish, turtle, or manatee. 
 For this they are esteemed and coveted by all privateers, 
 for one or two of them in a ship will maintain one 
 hundred men; so that when we careen our ships we 
 choose commonly such places where there is plenty of 
 turtle or manatee for these Mosquito-men to strike, and 
 it is very rare to find a privateer destitute of one or 
 more of them, when the commander and most of the 
 crew are English ; but they do not love the French, 
 and the Spaniards they hate mortally. 
 
 "They are tall, well-made, raw-boned, lusty, strong, 
 and nimble of foot, long-visaged, lank black hair, look 
 stern, hard-favoured, and of a dark copper complexion. 
 When they come among the privateers they get the use 
 of fire-arms, and are very good marksmen. They 
 behave themselves very bold in fight, and never seem 
 to flinch nor hang back ; for they think that the white 
 men with whom they are know better than they do 
 when it is best to fight, and, let the disadvantage of 
 their party be never so great, they will never yield nor 
 give back while any of their party stand. I could 
 never perceive any religion nor any ceremonies or su- 
 perstitious observations among them, being ready to 
 
 (829) 20
 
 306 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 
 
 imitate us in whatsoever they saw us do at any time. 
 Only, they seem to fear the devil, whom they call 
 Willesaw ; and they say he often appears to some 
 among them, whom our men commonly call their priests, 
 when they desire to speak with him on urgent business. 
 They all say they must not anger him, for then he 
 will beat them ; and he sometimes carries away these 
 their priests. They marry but one wife, with whom 
 they live till death separates them. At their first 
 coming together the man makes a very small planta- 
 tion They delight to settle near the sea, or by some 
 
 river, for the sake of striking fish, their beloved em- 
 ployment ; for within land there are other Indians with 
 whom they are always at war. After the man hath 
 cleared a spot of land, and hath planted it, he seldom 
 minds it afterwards, but leaves the managing of it to 
 his wife, and he goes out a-striking. Sometimes he 
 seeks only for fish, at other times for turtle or manatee, 
 and whatever he gets he brings home to his wife, and 
 never stirs out to seek for more till it is eaten. When 
 hunger begins to bite, he either takes his canoe and 
 seeks for more game at sea, or walks out into the woods 
 and hunts for pecaree and waree, each a sort of wild- 
 hogs, or deer, and seldom returns empty-handed, nor 
 seeks any more as long as it lasts. Their plantations 
 have not above twenty or thirty plantain-trees, a bed 
 of yams and potatoes, a bush of pimento, and a small 
 spot of pine-apples, from which they make a sort of 
 drink, to which they invite each other to be merry.
 
 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 307 
 
 Whoever of them makes pine-drink treats his neigh- 
 bours, providing fish and flesh also." 
 
 At their drinking-matches they often quarrelled, but 
 the women prevented mischief by hiding their weapons. 
 The Mosquito-men were kind and civil to the English, 
 who endeavoured to retain the regard of such useful 
 allies. For this purpose it was necessary to let them 
 have their own way in everything, and to return home 
 the moment they desired it, for if contradicted there 
 was an end of their services ; and though turtle and 
 fish abounded, they would manage to kill nothing. 
 They called themselves, as has been noticed, subjects 
 of the King of England, and liked to have their chiefs 
 nominated by the Governor of Jamaica, which island 
 they often visited. Pity that in subsequent periods the 
 fidelity and regard of this brave and ingenious tribe 
 were so ill and ungratefully requited by their powerful 
 and ungenerous allies. 
 
 The buccaneers commenced their march across the 
 Isthmus on the 5th April 1680, about three hundred 
 and thirty strong, each man armed with a hanger, fusil, 
 and pistol, and provided with four cakes of the bread 
 which they called dough-boys. Their generalissimo 
 was Captain Sharp ; and the men, marshalled in divi- 
 sions, marched in something like military order, with 
 flags and leaders. They were accompanied by those 
 Indians of Darien who were the hereditary enemies 
 of the Spaniards, whom they had subsidized with the 
 hatchets, knives, beads, and toys, with which they pro-
 
 308 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 
 
 vided themselves at Porto Bello. These auxiliaries 
 furnished them with plantains, venison, and fruit, in 
 exchange for European commodities. The march was 
 easily performed, and in nine days' journey they reached 
 Santa Maria, which was taken without opposition, 
 though this did not prevent the exercise of cruelty. 
 The Indians cruelly and deliberately butchered many 
 of the ^inhabitants. The plunder obtained falling far 
 short of the expectations of the buccaneers, made them 
 the more desirous to push forward. They accordingly 
 embarked on the river of Santa Maria, which falls into 
 the Gulf of St. Michael, in Indian canoes and pirogues, 
 having previously, in their summary way, deposed 
 Captain Sharp, and chosen Captain Coxon commander. 
 
 On the same day that they reached the Bay, whither 
 some of the Darien chiefs still accompanied them, they 
 captured a Spanish vessel of thirty tons burden, on board 
 of which a large party planted themselves, happy after 
 the march, and being cramped and huddled up in the 
 canoes, again to tread the deck of a ship of any size. 
 At this time they divided into small parties, first 
 appointing a rendezvous at the island of Chepillo, in 
 the mouth of the river Cheapo. Dampier was with 
 Captain Sharp, who went to the Pearl Islands in search 
 of provisions. 
 
 In a few days the buccaneers mustered for the attack 
 of Panama, and on the 23rd April did battle for the 
 whole day with three Spanish ships in the road, of 
 which two were captured by boarding, while the third
 
 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 309 
 
 got off. The action was fierce and sanguinary : of the 
 buccaneers, eighteen men were killed and thirty 
 wounded. The resistance was vigorous and brave, and 
 the Spanish commander with many of his people fell 
 before the action terminated. Even after this victory 
 the buccaneers did not consider themselves strong 
 enough to attack the new city of Panama, but they 
 continued to cruise in the Bay, making valuable prizes. 
 In the action with the Spanish ships Captain Sawkins 
 had greatly distinguished himself by courage and con- 
 duct ; and a quarrel breaking out among the buccaneers, 
 while Coxon returned to the North Sea, he was chosen 
 commander. He had not many days enjoyed this office, 
 when, in an attack on Puebla Nueva, he was killed 
 leading on his men to the assault of a breast-work ; and 
 on his death Sharp, the second in command, showing 
 faint heart, the buccaneers retreated. New discontents 
 broke out, and the party once more divided, not being 
 able to agree in the choice of a leader ; of those who 
 remained in the South Sea, among whom was Dampier, 
 Sharp was chosen commander. For some months he 
 cruised off the coast of Peru, occasionally landing to 
 pillage small towns and villages; and on Christmas-day 
 anchored in a harbour of the Island of Juan Fernandez 
 to rest and refit. Here they obtained abundance of cray- 
 fish, lobsters, and wild -goats, which were numerous. 
 
 Sharp, who had always been unpopular, was once 
 more formally deposed, and Captain Watling elected in 
 his stead.
 
 310 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 
 
 Having enjoyed themselves till the 12th of January, 
 the buccaneers were alarmed by the appearance of three 
 vessels, which they concluded to be Spanish ships of 
 war in pursuit of them. They put off to sea in all 
 haste, in the hurry leaving one of their Mosquito Indians 
 named William upon the island. 
 
 They again cruised along the coast, and the attack of 
 the Spanish settlements by hasty descent was resumed. 
 In attempting to capture Arica, Captain Watling was 
 killed, and the buccaneers were repulsed, having had 
 a narrow escape from being all made prisoners. For 
 want of any more competent leader, Sharp was once 
 more raised to the command; and the South Sea had so 
 greatly disappointed their hopes, that it was now agreed 
 to return eastward by recrossing the Isthmus. But 
 another quarrel broke out: one party would not con- 
 tinue under Sharp, and another wished to try their 
 fortunes further on the South Sea. It was therefore 
 agreed that the majority should retain the ship, the 
 other party taking the long-boat and canoes. Sharp's 
 party proved the more numerous. They cruised in the 
 South Sea, off the coast of Patagonia and Chili, for the 
 remainder of the season of 1681, and early in the 
 following year returned to the West Indies by doubling 
 Cape Horn, but durst not land at any of the English 
 settlements. Sharp, soon afterwards going home, was 
 tried in England with several of his men for piracy, but 
 escaped conviction. 
 
 In the minority which broke off from Sharp was
 
 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 311 
 
 William Dampier, who appears at this time to have 
 been little distinguished among his companions. The 
 party consisted of forty-four Europeans and two Mos- 
 quito Indians. Their object was to recross the Isthmus, 
 an undertaking of no small difficulty, from the 
 nature of the country and the hostility of the Spaniards. 
 Before they left the ship they sifted a large quantity of 
 flour, prepared chocolate with sugar, as provision, and 
 entered into a mutual engagement, that if any man sank 
 on the journey he should be shot by his comrades, as 
 but one man falling into the hands of the Spaniards 
 must betray the others to certain destruction. In a 
 fortnight after leaving the ship near the island of Plata, 
 they landed at the mouth of a river in the Bay of St. 
 Michael, where, taking out all their provisions, arms, 
 and clothing, they sank their boat. While they spent 
 a few hours in preparing for the inland march, the 
 Mosquito-men caught fish, which afforded one plentiful 
 meal to the whole party ; after which they commenced 
 their journey late in the afternoon of the 1st of May. 
 At night they constructed huts in which they slept. 
 On the 2nd they struck into an Indian path, and 
 reached an Indian village, where they obtained refresh- 
 ments ; but were uneasy on understanding the closeness 
 of their vicinity to the Spaniards, who had placed ships 
 at the mouths of the navigable rivers to look out for 
 them, and intercept their return eastward. Next day, 
 with a hired Indian guide, they proceeded, and reached 
 the dwelling of a native, who received them with
 
 312 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 
 
 sullen churlishness, which in ordinary times the bucca- 
 neers would ill have brooked; "though this," says 
 Dampier, "was neither a time nor place to be angry 
 with the Indians, all our lives lying at their hands." 
 Neither the temptation of dollars, hatchets, nor long- 
 knives, would operate on this intractable Indian, till 
 one of the seamen, taking a sky-coloured petticoat from 
 his bag, threw it over the lady of the house, who was 
 so much delighted with the gift that she soon wheedled 
 her husband into better humour, and he now not only 
 gave them information, but found them a guide. It 
 rained hard and frequently on both days, but they 
 were still too near the Spanish garrisons and guard- 
 ships to mind the weather or to dally by the way. The 
 country was found difficult and fatiguing, without any 
 trace of a path, the Indians guiding themselves by the 
 rivers, which they were sometimes compelled to cross 
 twenty or thirty times in a day. Rainy weather, hard- 
 ship, and hunger soon expelled all fear of the Span- 
 iards, who were, besides, not likely to follow their foes 
 into these intricate solitudes. 
 
 On the 5th they reached the dwelling of a young 
 Spanish Indian, a civilized person, who had lived with 
 the Bishop of Panama, and spoke the Spanish language 
 fluently. He received them kindly, and though unable 
 to provide for the wants of so many men, freely gave 
 what he had. At this place they rested to dry their 
 clothes and ammunition, and to clean their fire-arms. 
 While thus employed, Mr. Wafer, the surgeon of the
 
 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 315 
 
 buccaneers, who had been among the malcontents, had 
 his knee so much scorched by an accidental explosion 
 of gunpowder, that, after dragging himself forward 
 during another day, he was forced to remain behind his 
 companions, together with one or two more who had 
 been exhausted by the march. Among the Indians of 
 the Darien, Wafer remained for three months, and he 
 has left an account which is considered the best we 
 yet possess of those tribes. 
 
 The march was continued in very bad weather, this 
 being the commencement of the rainy season, and 
 thunder and lightning frequent and violent. As the 
 bottoms of the valleys and the river-banks were now 
 overflowed, instead of constructing huts every night for 
 their repose, the travellers were often obliged to seek 
 for a resting-place, and to sleep under trees. To add to 
 their hardships their slaves deserted, carrying off what- 
 ever they could lay their hands upon. 
 
 Before leaving the ship, foreseeing the difficulties of 
 the journey, and the necessity of perpetually fording the 
 rivers, Dampier had taken the precaution to deposit his 
 journal in a bamboo closed at both ends with wax. 
 In this way his papers were secured from wet, while 
 the journalist frequently swam across the rivers which 
 so greatly impeded the progress of the march. In cross- 
 ing a river, where the current ran very strong, one 
 man, who carried his fortune of three hundred dollars 
 on his back, was swept down the stream and drowned ; 
 and so worn out were his comrades that, fond as they
 
 316 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 
 
 were of gold, they would not at this time take the 
 trouble to look for or burden themselves with his. 
 
 It was the eighteenth day of the march before the 
 buccaneers reached the river Conception, where they 
 obtained Indian canoes, in which they proceeded to La 
 Sound's Key, one of the Samballas Islands, which were 
 much frequented by buccaneers. Here they entered a 
 French privateer, commanded by Captain Tristian ; 
 and, with better faith than buccaneers usually displayed, 
 generously rewarded their Indian guides with money, 
 toys, and hatchets, and dismissed them. The bucca- 
 neers of this time were somewhat less ferocious in man- 
 ners than those under Morgan and Lolonnois, though it 
 never entered into their thoughts that there could be 
 any wrong in robbing the Spaniards. Sawkins and 
 Watling maintained stricter discipline than had been 
 customary in former periods, approximating their dis- 
 cipline and regulations to those of privateers or ships of 
 war. They even made the Sabbath be observed with out- 
 ward signs of respect. On one occasion when Sawkins's 
 men, who like all buccaneers were inveterate gamblers, 
 played on Sunday, the captain flung the dice overboard. 
 
 In two days after Dampier and his friends had gone 
 on board the French vessel, it left La Sound's for 
 Springer's Key, another of the Samballas Islands, where 
 eight buccaneer vessels then lay, of which the companies 
 had formed the design of crossing to Panama. From 
 this expedition they were, however, diverted by the 
 dismal report of the newly-arrived travellers ; and the
 
 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 317 
 
 assault of other places was taken into consideration. 
 From Trinidad to Vera Cruz the buccaneers had now 
 an intimate knowledge of every town upon the coast, 
 and for twenty leagues into the interior ; and acquaint- 
 ance with the strength and wealth of each, and with 
 the number and quality of the inhabitants. The 
 preliminary consultations now held lasted for a week, 
 the French and English not agreeing ; but at last they 
 sailed for Carpenter River, going first towards the 
 Isle of St. Andreas. In a gale the ships were separated ; 
 and Dampier being left with a French captain, con- 
 ceived such a dislike to his shipmates that he, and his 
 fellow-travellers in crossing the Isthmus, induced a 
 countryman of their own, named Captain Wright, to fit 
 up and arm a small vessel, with which they cruised 
 about the coast in search of provisions, still, however, 
 keeping their jackals, the Mosquito-men, who caught 
 turtle while the buccaneers hunted in the woods for 
 peccaries, waree, deer, quaums, parrots, pigeons, and 
 curassow birds, and also monkeys, which in times of 
 hardship they esteemed a delicate morsel. At one 
 place several of the men were suddenly taken ill from 
 eating land-crabs which had fed upon the fruit of the 
 manchineel-tree. All animals that fed on this fruit 
 were avoided by the freebooters as unwholesome, if not 
 poisonous. In selecting unknown wild-fruits the buc- 
 caneers were guided by the birds, freely eating whatever 
 kind had been pecked, but no bird touched the fruit of 
 the manchineel.
 
 318 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 
 
 On returning to La Sound's Key from this cruise, 
 they were joined by Mr. Wafer.' He had been for three 
 months kindly entertained by an Indian chief, who had 
 offered him his daughter in marriage, and grudged him 
 nothing save the liberty of going away. From this 
 kind but exacting chief he escaped under pretence of 
 going in search of English dogs to be employed in 
 hunting, the Indian being aware of the superiority 
 which dogs gave the Spaniards in the chase. Mr. Wafer 
 had been painted by the women of the Darien, and his 
 own clothes being worn out, he was now dressed, or 
 rather undressed, like the natives; whom, under this 
 disguise, he resembled so much that it was some time 
 before Dampier recognized his old acquaintance the 
 surgeon. 
 
 From the Samballas they cruised towards Carthagena, 
 which they passed, having a fair view of the city, and 
 casting longing eyes upon the rich monastery on the 
 steep hill rising behind it. This monastery, dedicated 
 to the Virgin, is, says Dampier, " a place of incredible 
 wealth, by reason of the offerings made here continually; 
 and for this reason often in danger of being visited by 
 the privateers, did not the neighbourhood of Carthagena 
 keep them in awe. 'Tis, in short, the very Loretto of 
 the West Indies, and hath innumerable miracles related 
 of it. Any misfortune that befalls the privateers is 
 attributed to this Lady's doing; and the Spaniards 
 report that she was abroad that night the Oxford man- 
 of-war was blown up at the isle of Vaca, and that she
 
 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 319 
 
 came home all wet; as belike she often returns with 
 her clothes dirty and torn with passing through woods 
 and bad ways when she has been upon an expedition, 
 deserving doubtless a new suit for such eminent pieces 
 of service." 
 
 The company of Captain Wright pillaged several 
 small places about Rio de la Hacha and the Rancheries, 
 which was the head-quarters of a small Spanish pearl- 
 fishery. The pearl-banks lay about four or five leagues 
 off the shore. In prosecuting this fishery, the Indian 
 divers, first anchoring their boats, dived, and brought 
 up full the baskets previously let down; and when 
 their barks were filled, they went ashore, and the 
 oysters were opened by the old men, women, and 
 children, under the inspection of a Spanish over- 
 seer. 
 
 In a short time afterwards the buccaneers captured, 
 after a smart engagement, an armed ship of twelve 
 guns and forty men, laden with sugar, tobacco, and 
 marmalade, bound to Carthagena from St. Jago in 
 Cuba. From the disposal of this cargo, some insight 
 is afforded into the mysteries of buccaneering. It was 
 offered first to the Dutch governor of Cura^oa, who 
 having, as he said, a great trade with the Spaniards, 
 could not openly admit the freebooters to this island, 
 though he directed them to go to St. Thomas, which 
 belonged to the Danes, whither he would send a sloop 
 with such commodities as the buccaneers required, and 
 take the sugar off their hands. The rovers, however,
 
 320 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 
 
 declined the terms offered by the cautious Dutchman, 
 and sailed from St. Thomas to another Dutch colony, 
 where they found a better merchant. From hence they 
 sailed for the isle of Aves, which, as its name imports, 
 abounded in birds, especially boobies and men-of-war 
 birds. The latter bird was about the size of a kite, 
 black, with a red throat. It lives on fish, yet never 
 lights in the water, but soaring aloft like the kite, 
 "when it sees its prey, darts down, snatches it, and 
 mounts, never once touching the water." 
 
 On a coral reef off the south side of this island the 
 Count d'Estre'es had shortly before lost the French 
 fleet. Firing guns in the darkness to warn the ships 
 that followed him to avoid the danger on which he 
 had run, they imagined that he was engaged with the 
 enemy, and crowding all sail ran upon destruction. 
 The ships held together next day, till part of the men 
 got on shore, though many perished in the wreck. 
 Dampier relates that those of the ordinary seamen who 
 got to land died of fatigue and famine, while those who 
 had been buccaneers and were wrecked here, "being 
 used to such accidents, lived merrily, and if they had 
 gone to Jamaica with 30 in their pockets, could not 
 have enjoyed themselves more ; for they kept a gang 
 by themselves, and watched when the ships broke up 
 to get the goods that came out of them ; and though 
 much was staved against the rocks, yet abundance of 
 wine and brandy floated over the reef, where they 
 waited to take it up." The following anecdote of the
 
 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 321 
 
 wrecked crew is horribly striking: " There were about 
 forty Frenchmen on board one of the ships, in which 
 was good store of liquor, till the after-part of her broke, 
 and floated over the reef, and was carried away to sea, 
 with all the men drinking and singing, who, being in 
 drink, did not mind the danger, but were never heard 
 of afterwards." 
 
 In a short time after, this island was the scene of a 
 clever buccaneering trick, which Dampier relates with 
 some glee. The wreck of the French fleet had left 
 Aves Island a perfect arsenal of masts, yards, timbers, 
 and so forth, and hither the buccaneers repaired to 
 careen and refit their ships, and among others Captain 
 Pain, a Frenchman. A Dutch vessel of twenty guns, 
 despatched from Cura9oa to fish up the guns lost on 
 the reef, descried the privateer, which she resolved to 
 capture before engaging in the business of her voyage. 
 The Frenchman abandoned his ship, which he saw no 
 chance of preserving, but brought ashore some of his 
 guns, and resolved to defend himself as long as possible. 
 While his men were landing the guns, he perceived at 
 a distance a Dutch sloop entering the road, and at 
 evening found her at anchor at the west end of the 
 island. During the night, with two canoes, he boarded 
 and took this sloop, found considerable booty, and 
 made off with her, leaving his empty vessel as a prize 
 to the Dutch man-of-war. 
 
 At this island Dampier's party remained for some 
 time, careened the largest ship, scrubbed a sugar-prize 
 
 (829) 21
 
 322 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 
 
 formerly taken, and recovered two guns of the wreck 
 of D'Estrdes' fleet. They afterwards went to the Isles 
 of Rocas, where they fell in with a French ship of 
 thirty -six guns, which bought ten tons of their sugar. 
 The captain of this vessel was a Knight of Malta. To 
 Dampier both he and his lieutenant were particularly 
 attentive and kind, and oifered him every encourage- 
 ment to enter the French navy. This he declined from 
 feelings of patriotism. 
 
 Here he saw, besides men-of-war birds, boobies, and 
 noddies, numbers of the tropic-bird. It was as big as 
 a pigeon, and round and plump as a partridge, all 
 white, save two or three light-gray feathers in the 
 wing. One long feather or quill, about seven inches in 
 length, growing out of the rump, is all the tail these 
 birds have. They are never seen far without the tropics, 
 but are met with at a great distance from land. After 
 taking in what water could be obtained, they left 
 Rocas and went to Salt Tortuga, so called to distinguish 
 it from Dry Tortuga near Cape Florida, and from the 
 Tortuga of the first buccaneers, near Hispaniola, which 
 place was now, however, better known as Petit Guaves. 
 They expected to sell the remainder of their sugar to 
 the English vessels which came here for salt ; but not 
 succeeding, they sailed for Blanco, an island north of 
 Margarita, and thirty leagues from the Main. It was 
 an uninhabited island, flat and low, being mostly 
 savanna, with a few wooded spots, in which flourished 
 the lignum vitce. Iguanas, or guanoes, as they were
 
 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 323 
 
 commonly called in the West Indies, abounded on 
 Blanco. They resembled the lizard species, but were 
 bigger, about the size of the small of a man's leg. 
 From the hind quarter the tail tapers to a point. If 
 seized by the tail near the extremity, it broke off at a 
 joint, and the animal escaped. They are amphibious crea- 
 tures. Both their eggs and flesh were highly esteemed 
 by the buccaneers, who made soup of the latter for their 
 sick. There were many species found here, living on 
 land or water, in the swamps, among bushes, or on trees. 
 Green-turtle frequented this island in numbers. 
 
 From Blanco they returned to Salt Tortuga, and 
 went from thence, after four days, to the coast of the 
 Caraccas on the Main. 
 
 While cruising on this coast, they landed in some of 
 the bays, and took seven or eight tons of cocoa, and 
 afterwards three barks, one laden with hides, another 
 with brandy and earthen ware, and a third with European 
 goods. With these prizes they returned to the Rocas to 
 divide the spoil; after which Dampier, and other nineteen 
 out of a company of sixty, took one of the captured vessels, 
 and with their share of the plunder held their course 
 direct for Virginia, which was reached in July 1682. 
 
 Of the thirteen months which our navigator spent in 
 Virginia he has left no record ; but from another portion 
 of his memoirs it may be gathered that he suffered from 
 sickness during most of the time. His disease was not 
 more singular than was the mode of cure practised by 
 a negro Esculapius, whose appropriate fee was a white
 
 324 ADVENTURES WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 
 
 cock. The disease was what is called the Guinea- 
 worm. " These worms," says Dampier, " are no bigger 
 than a large brown thread, but (as I have heard) five 
 or six yards long, and if it break in drawing out, that 
 part which remains in the flesh will putrify, and en- 
 danger the patient's life, and be very painful. I was 
 in great torment before it came out. My leg and 
 ankle swelled, and looked very red and angry, and I 
 kept a plaster to it to bring it to a head. Drawing oft 
 my plaster, out came about three inches of the worm, 
 and my pain abated presently. Till then I was ig- 
 norant of my malady, and the gentlewoman at whose 
 house I lodged took it (the worm) for a nerve, but I 
 knew well enough what it was, and presently rolled it 
 upon a small stick. After that I opened it every 
 morning and evening, and strained it out gently, about 
 two inches at a time, not without pain." The negro 
 doctor first stroked the place affected; then applied 
 some rough powder to it, like tobacco-leaves crumbled ; 
 next muttered a spell ; blew upon the part three times ; 
 waved his hands as often, and said that in three days 
 it would be well. It proved so, and the stipulated fee 
 of the white cock was gladly paid. 
 
 The next adventure of Dampier was the circumnavi- 
 gation of the globe a voyage and ramble extending 
 to about eight years, which, in point of interest and 
 variety, has never yet been surpassed. To it we 
 dedicate the following chapter.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 AMONG the companions of Dampier in his journey 
 across the Isthmus, and in his subsequent cruise, was 
 Mr. John Cook, a Creole, born in St. Christopher's, and 
 a man of good capacity. He had acted as quarter- 
 master, or second in command, under Captain Yanky, 
 a French flibustier, who at this time held a commission 
 as a privateer. By the ordinary laws of the buccaneers, 
 when a prize fit for a piratical cruise was taken, the 
 second in command was promoted to it ; and in virtue 
 of this title Cook obtained an excellent Spanish ship. 
 At this, however, the French commanders were secretly 
 discontented, and on the first opportunity they seized 
 the ship, plundered the crew, who were Englishmen, of 
 their arms and goods, and turned them ashore. The 
 French captain, Tristian, either took compassion on 
 some of the number, or hoped to find them serviceable, 
 for he carried eight or ten of them with him to Petit 
 Guaves, among whom were Cook and Davis. They 
 had not lain long here when Captain Tristian and part 
 of his men being one day on shore, the English party,
 
 326 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 in revenge of the late spoliation, overmastered the rest 
 of the crew, took the ship, and sending the Frenchmen 
 ashore, sailed for Isle a la Vache, where they picked up 
 a straggling crew of English buccaneers, and before 
 they could be overtaken, sailed for Virginia, where 
 Dampier now was, taking two prizes by the way, one 
 of which was a French ship laden with wine. Having 
 thus dexterously swindled Tristian out of his ship, 
 which might, however, be considered as but a fair act 
 of reprisal, and having afterwards committed open 
 piracy on the French commerce, the West Indies was 
 no longer a safe latitude for these English buccaneers. 
 The wines were therefore sold with the other goods, 
 and two of the ships; and the largest prize, which 
 carried eighteen guns, was new-named the Revenge, and 
 equipped and provisioned for a long voyage. Among 
 her crew of seventy men were almost all the late 
 fellow-travellers across the Isthmus, including William 
 Dampier, Lionel Wafer the surgeon, Ambrose Cowley, 
 who has left an account of the voyage, and the com- 
 mander, Captain John Cook. Before embarking on this 
 new piratical expedition, they all subscribed certain 
 rules for maintaining discipline and due subordination, 
 and for the observance of sobriety on their long voyage. 
 They sailed from the Chesapeake on the 23rd August 
 1683, captured a Dutch vessel, in which they found six 
 casks of wine and a quantity of provisions, and near 
 the Cape de Verd Islands encountered a storm which 
 raged for a week, "drenching them all like so many
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 327 
 
 drowned rats." After this gale they had the winds 
 and weather both favourable, and anchored at the Isle 
 of Sal, one of the Cape de Verd group, so named from 
 its numerous salt-ponds. 
 
 A Portuguese at this place, by affecting the mystery 
 which gives so much zest to clandestine bargains, pre- 
 vailed with one of the buccaneers to purchase from him 
 a lump of what he called ambergris, which Dampier 
 believed to be spurious. Of the genuine substance 
 Dampier relates that he was once shown a piece which 
 had been broken off a lump weighing one hundred 
 pounds, found in a sandy bay of an island in the Bay 
 of Honduras. It was found by a person of credit, a 
 Mr. Barker of London, lying dry above high-water 
 mark, and in it a multitude of beetles. It was of a 
 dusky black colour, the consistence of mellow ordinary 
 cheese, and of a very fragrant scent. 
 
 At the Isle of Sal, Dampier first saw the flamingo. 
 It was in shape like the heron, but larger, and of a red 
 colour. The flamingoes kept together in large flocks, 
 and standing side by side by the ponds at which they 
 fed, looked at a distance like a new brick wall. Their 
 flesh was lean and black, but not unsavoury nor fishy- 
 tasted. A knob of fat at the root of the tongue "makes 
 a dish of flamingoes' tongues fit for a prince's table." 
 
 From this island they went to St. Nicholas, where 
 the governor and his attendants, though not quite so 
 tattered as those seen at the Isle of Sal, were not very 
 splendidly equipped. Here they dug wells, watered
 
 328 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 the ship, scrubbed its bottom, and went to Mayo to 
 obtain provisions, but were not suffered to land, as, 
 about a week before, Captain Bond, a pirate of Bristol, 
 had entrapped the governor and some of his people, 
 and carried them away. 
 
 From the Cape de Verd Isles the Revenge intended 
 to keep a direct course to the Strait of Magellan ; but 
 by adverse weather was compelled to steer for the 
 Guinea coast, which was made in November, near 
 Sierra Leone. They anchored in the mouth of the 
 river Sherborough, near a large Danish ship, which 
 they afterwards took by stratagem. While in sight of 
 the Dane, which felt no alarm at the appearance of a 
 ship of the size of the Revenge, most of the buccaneer 
 crew remained under deck, no more of the hands ap- 
 pearing above than were necessary to manage the sails. 
 Their bold design was to board the ship without dis- 
 covering any sign of their intention, and the Revenge 
 advanced closely, still wearing the semblance of a 
 weakly-manned merchant-vessel. When quite close, 
 Captain Cook in a loud voice commanded the helm to 
 be put one way, while by previous orders and a pre- 
 concerted plan the steersman shifted it into a quite 
 opposite direction; and the Revenge, as if by accident, 
 suddenly fell on board the Dane, which by this dexter- 
 ous manoeuvre was captured with only the loss of five 
 men, though a ship of double their whole force. She 
 carried thirty-six guns, and was equipped and vic- 
 tualled for a long voyage.
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 329 
 
 This fine vessel was, by the exulting buccaneers, 
 named the Bachelors Delight, and they immediately 
 burned the Revenge, that she "might tell no tales," 
 sent their prisoners on shore, and steered for Magellan 
 Strait. 
 
 On the voyage to the Strait, the Bachelors Delight 
 encountered frequent tornadoes, accompanied by thunder, 
 lightning, and rain. Many of the men were seized 
 with fever, and one man died. Having little fresh 
 animal food of any kind, they caught sharks during 
 the calms between the gusts of the tornadoes, which 
 they prepared by first boiling and afterwards stewing 
 them with pepper and vinegar. About the middle of 
 January they lost one of the surgeons, who was greatly 
 lamented, as there now remained but one for the long 
 voyage which was meditated. On the 28th they made 
 John Davis's Southern Islands, or the Falkland Isles, 
 then, however, more generally known as the Sebald de 
 Weert Islands. 
 
 In the course of their voyage, Dampier, who pos- 
 sessed more geographical and nautical knowledge than 
 his companions, had been persuading Captain Cook to 
 stop here to water, and afterwards to prosecute the 
 voyage to Juan Fernandez by doubling Cape Horn, 
 avoiding the Strait altogether, which, he judiciously 
 says, " I knew would prove very dangerous to us, the 
 rather because our men being privateers, and so more 
 wilful and less under command, would not be so ready 
 to give a watchful attendance in a passage so little
 
 330 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 known. For although these men were more under 
 command than I had ever seen any privateers, yet I 
 could not expect to find them at a moment's call, on 
 coming to an anchor, or weighing anchor." The Falk- 
 land Islands are described by Dampier as rocky and 
 barren, without trees, and having only some bushes 
 upon them. Shoals of small lobsters, which coloured 
 the sea red in spots for a, mile round, were seen here. 
 They were only of the size of the tip of a man's little 
 finger, yet perfect in shape, and naturally of the colour 
 that other lobsters assume after they are boiled. 
 
 The advice of Dampier was not taken ; but westerly 
 winds prevented Cook from making the entrance of 
 the Strait, and on the 6th February they fell in with 
 the Strait of Le Maire, high land on both sides, and 
 the passage very narrow. They ran in for four miles, 
 when a strong tide setting in northward " made such 
 a short cockling sea," which ran every way, as if in a 
 place where two opposing tides meet; sometimes break- 
 ing over the poop, sometimes over the waist and the 
 bow, and tossing the Bachelors Delight " like an egg- 
 shell." 
 
 In the same evening they had a breeze from west- 
 uorth-west, bore away eastward, and having the wind 
 fresh all night, passed the east end of Staten Island next 
 day. Our navigator, on the 7th at noon, found the lati- 
 tude to be 54 52' S., and the same night they lost sight 
 of Tierra del Fuego, and saw no other land till they 
 entered the South Sea. In doubling Cape Horn they
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 331 
 
 were so fortunate as to catch twenty -three barrels of 
 rain-water, besides an abundant supply for present 
 consumption. 
 
 On the 3rd March they entered the South Sea with 
 a fair fresh breeze, which from the south had shifted to 
 the eastward. On the 9th they were in latitude 47 
 10', and on the 17th in latitude 36, still bearing for 
 Juan Fernandez. On the 19th a strange sail was seen 
 to the southward, bearing full upon them, which was 
 mistaken for a Spaniard, but proved to be the Nicholas 
 of London, commanded by Captain Eaton, fitted out as 
 a trader, but in reality a buccaneer ship. Captain 
 Eaton came on board the Bachelors Delight, related his 
 adventures, and, like a true brother, gave the company 
 water, while they spared him a supply of bread and 
 beef. Together they now steered for Juan Fernandez, 
 and on the 23rd anchored in a bay at the south end of 
 the island, in twenty -five fathoms water. From Eaton 
 they had heard of another London vessel, the Cygnet, 
 commanded by Captain Swan, which was really a trader, 
 and held a license from the then Lord High Admiral of 
 England, the Duke of York, afterwards James II. With 
 this ship the Nicholas had entered the South Sea, but 
 they had been separated in a gale. 
 
 It may be remembered that when Captain Watling 
 and his company escaped from Juan Fernandez three 
 years before, they had left a Mosquito Indian on the 
 island, who was out hunting goats when the alarm 
 came. This Mosquito man, named William, was the
 
 332 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 first and the true Robinson Crusoe, the original hermit 
 of this romantic solitude. Immediately on approaching 
 the island, Dampier and a few of William's old friends, 
 together with a Mosquito-man named Robin, put off for 
 the shore, where they soon perceived William standing 
 ready to give them welcome. From the heights he 
 had seen the ships on the preceding day, arid, knowing 
 them to be English vessels by the way they were 
 worked, he had killed three goats, and dressed them 
 with cabbage of the cabbage-tree, to have a feast ready 
 on the arrival of the ships. How great was his de- 
 light, as the boat neared the shore, when Robin leaped 
 to the land, and running up to him, fell flat on his 
 face at his feet. William raised up his countryman, 
 embraced him, and in turn prostrated himself at 
 Robin's feet, who lifted him up, and they renewed 
 their embraces. " We stood with pleasure," says Dam- 
 pier, " to behold the surprise, tenderness, and solemnity 
 of their interview, which was exceedingly affecting 
 on both sides; and when these their ceremonies of 
 civility were over, we also that stood gazing at them 
 drew near, each of us embracing him we had found 
 here, who was overjoyed to see so many of his old 
 friends, come hither, as he thought, purposely to fetch 
 him." 
 
 At the time William was abandoned, he had with 
 him in the woods his gun and knife, and a small 
 quantity of powder and shot. As soon as his ammuni- 
 tion was expended, by notching his knife into a saw
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 333 
 
 he cut up the barrel of his gun into pieces, which he 
 converted into harpoons, lances, and a long knife. To 
 accomplish this he struck fire with his gun-flint and a 
 piece of the barrel of his gun, which he hardened for 
 this purpose in a way he had seen practised by the 
 buccaneers. In this fire he heated his pieces of iron, 
 hammered them out with stones, sawed them with his 
 jagged knife, or ground them to an edge, and tempered 
 them ; " which was no more than these Mosquito-men 
 were accustomed to do in their own country, where 
 they make their own fishing and striking instruments 
 without either forge or anvil, though they spend a 
 great deal of time about them." Thus furnished, 
 William supplied himself with goat's flesh and fish, 
 though, till his instruments were formed, he had been 
 compelled to eat seal. He built his house about a half- 
 mile from the shore, and lined it snugly with goat- 
 skins, with which he also spread his couch or barbecue, 
 which was raised two feet from the floor. As his 
 clothes wore out he supplied this want also with goat- 
 skins, and, when first seen, he wore nothing save a 
 goat's skin about his waist. Though the Spaniards, 
 who had learned that a Mosquito-man was left here, 
 had looked for William several times, he had always, 
 by retiring to a secret place, contrived to elude their 
 search. 
 
 The island of Juan Fernandez was hilly, and inter- 
 sected by small pleasant valleys ; the mountains were 
 partly savanna and partly woodland; the grass of
 
 334 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 the flat places being delicate and kindly, of a short 
 thick growth, unlike the coarse sedgy grass of the 
 savannas of the West Indies. The cabbage-tree was 
 found here, and well-grown timber of different kinds, 
 though none that was fit for masts. There were in 
 the island two bays, both at the east end, where ships 
 might anchor, and into each of them flowed a rivulet 
 of good water. Water was also found in every valley. 
 Goats, which according to Dampier were originally 
 brought to the island by the discoverer, were now 
 found in large flocks, and seals swarmed about the 
 island " as if they had no other place in the world to 
 live in, every bay and rock being full of them." Sea- 
 lions were also numerous, and different kinds of fish 
 were found. The seals were of different colours 
 black, gray, and dun with a fine thick short fur. 
 Millions of them were seen sitting in the bays, going 
 or coming into the sea, or, as they lay at the top of the 
 waves, sporting and sunning themselves, covering the 
 water for a mile or two from the shore. When they 
 come out of the sea "they bleat like sheep for their young; 
 and though they pass through hundreds of others' 
 young, yet they will not suffer any of them to suck." 
 The sea-lion is shaped like a seal, but is six times as 
 big, with " great goggle eyes," and teeth three inches 
 long, of which the buccaneers sometimes made dice. 
 
 The buccaneers remained for sixteen days at this 
 island getting in provisions, and for the recovery of the 
 sick and those affected with scurvy, who were placed
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 337 
 
 on shore, and fed with vegetables and fresh goat's 
 flesh, which regimen was found beneficial. On the 
 8th April they sailed for the American coast, which 
 they approached in 24 S. ; but stood off at the distance 
 of fourteen or fifteen leagues, that they might not be 
 observed from the high grounds by the Spaniards. 
 
 The nautical and geographical observations of Dam- 
 pier in this tract of the Pacific are important. The 
 land from the 24th to the 10th degree south was of 
 prodigious height. " It lies generally in ridges parallel 
 to the shore, and three or four ridges, one within an- 
 other, each surpassing the other in height ; those that 
 are farthest within land being much higher than the 
 others. They always appear blue when seen at sea." 
 To the excessive height of the mountain-ridges Dampier 
 imputes the want of rivers in this region. 
 
 The first capture of the buccaneers, made on the 3rd 
 of May, was a Spanish ship bound for Lima, laden with 
 timber from Guayaquil ; from which they learned that 
 it was known in the settlements that pirates were on 
 the coast. 
 
 On the 9th they anchored at the Isle of Lobos de 
 la Mar with their prize. Lobos de la Mar is properly 
 a cluster of small islets, divided by narrow channels. 
 They are sandy and barren, destitute of water, and 
 frequented by sea-fowl, penguins, and a small black 
 fowl that our navigator never saw save here and at 
 Juan Fernandez, which made holes in the sand for a 
 night-habitation. This black fowl made good meat. 
 
 (829) 22
 
 338 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 At this place the ships were scrubbed, and the prisoners 
 rigidly examined, that from their information the voy- 
 agers might guide their future proceedings. Truxillo 
 was the town at last fixed upon for making a descent. 
 The companies of both ships were mustered, for Eaton 
 and Cook had now agreed to hunt in couples, and the 
 arms were proved. The men amounted to one hundred 
 and eight fit to bear arms, besides the sick. Before 
 they sailed on this expedition, three ships were seen 
 steering northward. Cook stood after one of them, 
 which made for the land, and Eaton pursued the other 
 two to sea, and captured them on the same day. They 
 contained cargoes of flour from Lima for the city of 
 Panama, whither they carried intelligence, from the 
 governor, of the formidable buccaneer force which now 
 threatened the coast. One of the ships carried eight 
 tons of quince-marmalade. The buccaneers were deeply 
 mortified to learn that they had narrowly missed a 
 prize containing eight hundred thousand pieces of eight, 
 which had been landed at an intermediate port, upon a 
 rumour that English ships were cruising off the coast 
 of Peru. 
 
 The design against Truxillo was now abandoned, as 
 they learned that it had lately been fortified, and a 
 Spanish garrison established for its defence; and on 
 the evening of the 19th they sailed with their flour- 
 prizes for the Galapagos Islands, which they descried 
 on the 31st, " some appearing on the lee-bow, some on 
 the weather-bow, and others right ahead." The Gala-
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 339 
 
 pagos Islands were still very little known at the time 
 the buccaneers made this visit. They lie under the 
 equator, are numerous, and were uninhabited, and 
 abounded in iguanas and large land-turtle ; otherwise 
 they are rocky and barren, and mostly destitute of water, 
 though in some of them this article, so essential to the 
 mariner, was found of excellent quality both in brooks 
 and ponds. Several of the isles are seven or eight 
 leagues long, and from three to four broad, and partially 
 wooded. Land-turtle were found, here in such multi- 
 tudes that Dampier says "five hundred or six hundred 
 men might subsist on them for several months without 
 any other sort of provision." Some of them weighed 
 from one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds, 
 and were two feet or two feet six inches over the 
 calipee, and sweet as a young pullet. The islands 
 also abounded in sea-turtle, the creeks and shallows 
 being filled with the turtle-grass on which the green- 
 turtle feed. The sea-turtle were of four kinds the 
 green-turtle, the loggerhead, the trunk-turtle, and the 
 hawksbill; on the back of this last species is found 
 the shell so much valued in commerce. The largest of 
 them afforded about three pounds and a half of this 
 shell. 
 
 At the Galapagos Isles the buccaneers remained for 
 ten days, and deposited a store of their prize-flour 
 against future necessity. Salt was found here, pigeons 
 abounded, the sea teemed with fish, and the leaves of 
 the mammee-tree furnished them with vegetables ; so
 
 340 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 that the Galapagos were in all respects well adapted 
 for a buccaneer station. 
 
 By the advice of an Indian, one of their prisoners, 
 the buccaneers were induced to visit Ria Lexa, his 
 native place, where he promised them a rich harvest in 
 plunder. 
 
 At Juan Fernandez, Captain Cook had been taken 
 ill ; he now died somewhat suddenly as they stood off 
 Cape Blanco, and, as a mark of respect, was buried on 
 shore. While his men were digging the grave they 
 were seen by three Spanish Indians, who held aloof, 
 but asked them many questions ; " and one man," says 
 Dampier, "did not stick to sooth them up with as 
 many falsehoods, purposely to draw them into our 
 clutches; and at length drilled them by discourse so 
 near that our men laid hold on all three at once." 
 One escaped before the burial of Cook was over, and 
 the other two were taken on ship-board. When ex- 
 amined, notwithstanding their pretended simplicity, 
 they confessed that they had been sent out as spies by 
 the governor of Panama, who had received intelligence 
 of the buccaneer squadron. 
 
 The voyagers were informed by these prisoners that 
 large herds of cattle were reared in this neighbourhood, 
 which was welcome news to seamen who had seen no 
 fresh meat since their run from the Galapagos. Two 
 boats were immediately sent to the shore with an 
 Indian guide to bring off cattle ; but the enterprise 
 appeared dangerous, and Dampier with twelve men
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 341 
 
 returned on board. Those who were more foolhardy, 
 and who even slept on shore, found themselves next 
 morning watched by forty or fifty armed Spaniards, 
 and their boat burned. The cowardly Spaniards, afraid 
 to come forward, still lurked in their ambush ; and one 
 of the seamen on landing, having noticed an insulated 
 rock which just appeared above water, they made off 
 for this fortress, and holding fast by each other, and 
 wading to the neck, they reached the rock, while the 
 Spanish shot whistled after them. In this perilous 
 condition they had remained for seven hours, the tide, 
 which was at the ebb when they took refuge here, 
 rising around them, and gaining on the rock so rapidly, 
 that, had not help come from the ships, in another hour 
 they must have been swept away. The Spaniards, 
 who relished bush-fighting better than the open field, 
 meanwhile lay in wait for the catastrophe ; but when 
 the canoe from the English ships bore off the men, they 
 offered no resistance. 
 
 The quarter-master, Edward Davis, was now elected 
 commander in the room of Captain Cook; and after 
 taking in water, and cutting lancewood for handles to 
 their oars, they bore away for Ria Lexa, and on the 
 23rd July were opposite the harbour. The situation 
 of the town is known by a high-peaked volcanic 
 mountain, which rises within three leagues of the 
 harbour, but may be seen at the distance of twenty 
 leagues. A small flat island, about a mile long and a 
 quarter of a mile broad, forms the harbour, in which
 
 342 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 two hundred sail can ride. It may be entered by a 
 channel at each end. 
 
 The Spaniards had here also got the start of their 
 enemy. They had thrown up a breastwork on a strong 
 position, and stationed sentinels to give instant alarm ; 
 and the buccaneers, who wished to surprise and plunder, 
 and not to fight against great odds, deemed it prudent 
 to steer for the Gulf of Amapalla, an arm of the sea 
 running inland eight or ten leagues, and made remark- 
 able by two headlands at the entrance, Point Casivina 
 on the south side, in latitude 12 40" N., and on the 
 north-west Mount St. Michael. 
 
 At a previous consultation it had been agreed that 
 Captain Davis should advance first, in two canoes, and 
 endeavour to seize some Indians to labour at careening 
 the ships, and also a prisoner of better condition, from 
 whom intelligence might be obtained. On the Island 
 of Mangera the padre of a village, from which all the 
 other inhabitants had fled, was caught while endeavour- 
 ing to escape, and with him two Indian boys. With 
 these Davis proceeded to Amapalla, where, having 
 previously gained over or frightened the priest, he told 
 the Indians drawn up to receive him that he and his 
 company were Biscayners, sent by the King of Spain 
 to clear the seas of pirates, and that his business in the 
 bay of this island was only to careen his ships. On 
 this assurance Davis and his men were well received, 
 and they all marched together, strangers and natives, 
 to church, which was the usual place of public assembly,
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 343 
 
 whether for business or amusement. The images in 
 the churches here, like those in the Bay of Campeachy, 
 were painted of the Indian complexion; and the people, 
 under the sway of their padres, lived in much the 
 same condition as the tribes described on the banks of 
 the Tobasco, cultivating maize, rearing poultry, and 
 duly paying the priest his tithe. Here, too, they were 
 indulged in masques and other pastimes, with abun- 
 dance of music, on saints' eves and holidays. " Their 
 mirth," says Dampier, " consists in singing, dancing, 
 and using as many antic gestures. If the moon shine, 
 they use but few torches ; if not, the church is full of 
 light. They meet at these times all sorts of both 
 sexes. All the Indians that I have been acquainted 
 with who are under the Spaniards seem to be more 
 melancholy than other Indians who are free; and at 
 these public meetings, when they are in the greatest of 
 their jollity, their mirth seems to be rather forced than 
 real. Their songs are very melancholy and doleful ; so 
 is their music." 
 
 In attending them to the church under the guise of 
 friendship, Davis intended to ensnare these unsuspect- 
 ing people and make them all his prisoners, till he had 
 dictated his own terms of ransom, the padre having, 
 probably from compulsion, promised his aid in entrap- 
 ping his flock. This hopeful project was frustrated 
 by one of the buccaneers rashly and rudely pushing 
 a man into the church before him. The alarm was 
 given, the Indian fled, and his countrymen "sprung
 
 344 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 out of the church like deer." Davis and his men im- 
 mediately fired, and killed a leading man among the 
 natives. 
 
 The buccaneers were, however, afterwards assisted 
 by several of the natives in storing the ships with 
 cattle plundered from an island in the gulf belonging 
 to a nunnery in some distant place ; and, from some 
 feelings of remorse, on leaving this quarter Davis pre- 
 sented the islanders of Amapalla with one of his prize- 
 ships, and a considerable part of the cargo of flour 
 which it contained. The ships here broke off consort- 
 ship. The crews had quarrelled, Davis's party, in 
 right of priority in marauding, claiming the larger 
 share of the spoils. Eaton left the gulf on the 2nd of 
 September, and Davis, with whom Dampier continued, 
 on the day following, having previously set the padre 
 on shore. They stood for the coast of Peru, having 
 almost every day tornadoes accompanied with thunder 
 and lightning, weather of this kind generally pre- 
 vailing in these latitudes from June to November. 
 When these gusts were over, the wind generally shifted 
 to the west. Near Cape San Francisco they had settled 
 weather and the wind at south. About this place they 
 again fell in with Eaton, who had encountered terrible 
 storms " such tornadoes as he and his men had never 
 before seen; the air smelling very much of sulphur, 
 and they fancying themselves in great danger of being 
 burned by the lightning." Captain Eaton had touched 
 at Cocos Island, where he laid up a store of flour, and
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 345 
 
 took in water and cocoa-nuts. Cocos Island, as de- 
 scribed by Eaton, is nearly surrounded by rocks ; but 
 at the north-east end there is one small and secure 
 harbour, a brook of fresh water flowing into it. The 
 middle of the island is high, and, though destitute of 
 trees, looks verdant and pleasant from the abundance 
 of an herb which the Spaniards called gramadiel grow- 
 ing upon the high grounds. Near the shore all round 
 the island were groves of cocoas. 
 
 At the Island of La Plata so named, according to 
 Dampier, from Sir Francis Drake having divided upon 
 it the plunder of the plate-ship the Cacajuego the 
 buccaneers found water, though but a scanty rivulet, 
 and plenty of small sea-turtle. Captain Eaton's com- 
 pany would again have joined their former consorts ; 
 but Dampier relates that Davis's men, his own comrades, 
 were still so unreasonable that they would not consent 
 to new-comers having an equal share of what they 
 pillaged; so the Nicholas held southward, while the 
 Bachelors Delight steered for Point Santa Elena in 
 2 15' S., pretty high but flat land, naked of trees and 
 overgrown with thistles. There was no fresh water on 
 the Point, and this article the inhabitants brought from 
 four leagues' distance, from the river Colanche, the 
 innermost part of the bay. Water-melons, large and 
 very sweet, were the only things cultivated on the 
 Point. Pitch was the principal commodity of the 
 inhabitants. It boiled out of a hole in the earth, at 
 five paces above high-water mark, and was found
 
 346 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 plentifully at flood-tide. When first obtained it was 
 like thin tar, but was boiled down to the consistence of 
 pitch. 
 
 Davis's men landed at Manta, a village on the main- 
 land, about three leagues to the east of Cape San 
 Lorenzo, where they made two old women prisoners, 
 from whom they learned that many buccaneers had 
 lately crossed the Isthmus from the West Indies, and 
 were cruising off the coast in canoes and pirogues. 
 The viceroy had taken every precaution against this 
 new incursion. On all the uninhabited islands the 
 goats had been destroyed ; ships were burned to save 
 them from the buccaneers ; and no provisions were 
 allowed to remain at any place on the coast, but such 
 as might be required for the immediate supply of the 
 inhabitants. Davis returned to La Plata, at a loss 
 what course to take ; when, on the 2nd October, he 
 was joined by the Cygnet of London, commanded by 
 Captain Swan, who, ill-treated by the Spaniards, and 
 disappointed of peaceful traffic, for which he had come 
 prepared with an expensive cargo, had been compelled 
 by his men to receive on board a party of buccaneers, 
 and in self-defence to commence freebooter. Before he 
 had adopted this course some of his men had been 
 killed by the Spaniards at Baldivia, where he had 
 attempted to open a trade. With this small buccaneer 
 party, which had come by the Darien, plundering by 
 the way, Swan fell in near the Gulf of Nicoya. It 
 was led by Peter Harris, the nephew of a buccaneer
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 347 
 
 commander of the same name who had been killed in 
 the battle with the Spanish ships in the Bay of Panama 
 three years before. Harris took command under Swan, 
 in a small bark wholly manned by buccaneers. 
 
 This was a joyful meeting of old associates ; and the 
 departure of Eaton was now deeply regretted, as their 
 united force might have insured success to more im- 
 portant undertakings than any they had yet ventured 
 to contemplate. While the ships were refitting at La 
 Plata, a small bark, which Davis had taken after the 
 Spaniards had set it on fire, was sent out to cruise, and 
 soon brought in a prize of four hundred tons burden, 
 laden with timber, and gave intelligence that the viceroy 
 was fitting out a fleet of ten frigates to sweep them 
 from the South Seas. Again the loss of Eaton was 
 felt, and this bark was despatched to search for him on 
 the coast of Lima. It went as far as the Isle of Lobos. 
 Meanwhile Swan's ship, which was still full of English 
 goods, was put in better fighting trim, and made fit to 
 accommodate her additional crew. The supercargo sold 
 his goods on credit to every buccaneer who would pur- 
 chase, taking his chance of payment, and the bulky 
 commodities which remained were pitched overboard, 
 silks, muslins, and finer goods, and iron bars, which 
 were kept for ballast, being alone retained. In lieu of 
 these sacrifices, the whole buccaneers on board the 
 Cygnet agreed that ten shares of all booty should be set 
 aside for Swan's owners. 
 
 The men-of-war were now scrubbed and cleaned, a
 
 348 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 small bark was equipped as a fire-ship ; and the vessel 
 which had been cruising after Eaton not having re- 
 turned, the squadron sailed without it on the 20th 
 October, and on the 3rd November landed at Payta, 
 which was found nearly abandoned, but left without 
 "money, goods, or a meal of victuals of any kind." 
 They anchored before the place, and demanded ransom 
 for its safety, ordering in the meanwhile three hundred 
 pecks of flour, three thousand pounds of sugar, twenty- 
 five jars of wine, and one thousand of water, to be 
 brought off to the ships ; but, after wasting six days, 
 they obtained nothing, and in revenge burned the town. 
 The road of Payta was one of the best in Peru roomy, 
 and sheltered from the south-west by a point of land. 
 The town had no water except what was carried thither 
 from Golan, from whence the place was also supplied 
 with fruits, hogs, plantains, and maize. Dampier says 
 that on this coast, from about " Cape Blanco to 30 S.. 
 no rain ever falls that he ever observed or heard of." 
 He calls this range " the dry country." Wafer states 
 that heavy nightly dews fertilize the valleys. The 
 country around it was mountainous and sterile. 
 
 From information obtained here, it was gathered 
 that Captain Eaton had been before them, and had 
 burned a large ship in the road, and landed all his 
 prisoners. They also learned that a small vessel, 
 which they concluded to be their own bark, had 
 approached the harbour, and made some fishermen 
 bring out water.
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 349 
 
 Harris's small vessel being found a heavy sailer, was 
 burned before leaving Payta, from which the squadron 
 steered for Lobos de Tierra, and on the 14th anchored 
 near the east end of the island, and took in a supply of 
 seals, penguins, and boobies, of which they ate " very 
 heartily, not having tasted flesh in a great while be- 
 fore." To reconcile his men to what had been the best 
 fare of the crews of Drake, Cavendish, and the earlier 
 navigators, Captain Swan commended this food as of 
 extraordinary delicacy and rarity, comparing the seals 
 to roasting pigs, the boobies to pullets, and the penguins 
 to ducks. On the 19th the fleet reached Lobos de la 
 Mar, where a letter was found deposited at the rendez- 
 vous by the bark, which was still in search of Eaton. 
 It was now feared he had sailed for the East Indies, 
 which turned out to be the fact. 
 
 Here the Mosquito -men supplied the companies of 
 both ships with turtle ; while the seamen laboured to 
 clean and repair, and provide them with fire-wood, 
 preparatory to an attempt upon Guayaquil. For this 
 place they sailed on the morning of the 29th. According 
 to Dampier, Guayaquil was then one of the chief ports 
 of the South Seas. The commodities it exported were 
 hides, tallow, cocoa, sarsaparilla, and a woollen fabric 
 named Quito cloth, generally used by the common 
 people throughout all Peru. The buccaneers left the 
 ships anchored off Cape Blanco, and entered the bay 
 with their canoes and a bark. They captured a small 
 vessel laden with Quito cloth, the master of which
 
 350 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 informed them of a look-out being kept at Puna, which 
 lay in their way, and that three vessels with negro 
 slaves were then about to sail from Guayaquil. One 
 of these vessels they took shortly afterwards, cut clown 
 her mainmast, and left her at anchor, and next momma- 
 
 ' O 
 
 captured the other two, though only a few negroes 
 were picked out of this to them useless cargo. 
 
 From mismanagement, and disagreement between 
 the commanders and the men in the two ships, the 
 expedition against Guayaquil misgave. It was ima- 
 gined that the town was alarmed and prepared to 
 receive them warmly ; and after having landed, lain in 
 the woods all night, and made their way with consid- 
 erable difficulty, they abandoned the design before one 
 shot had been fired, and while the place lay full in 
 view of them at a mile's distance without manifesting 
 any appearance of opposition being intended. 
 
 Dampier, whose ideas took a wider and bolder range 
 than those of his companions, deeply lamented their ill 
 conduct upon the fair occasion which offered at this 
 time of enriching themselves at less expense of crime 
 than in their ordinary pursuits. "Never," he says, 
 " was there put into the hands of men a greater oppor- 
 tunity to enrich themselves." His bold and compre- 
 hensive plan was, with the one thousand negroes found 
 in the three ships, to have gone to Santa Martha and 
 worked the gold-mines there. In the Indians he 
 reckoned upon finding friends, as they mortally hated 
 the Spaniards ; for present sustenance they had two
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 351 
 
 hundred tons of flour laid up at the Galapagos Islands ; 
 the North Sea would have been open to them; 
 thousands of buccaneers would have joined them from 
 all parts of the West Indies, and, united, they might 
 have been a match for all the force Peru could muster, 
 masters of the richest mines in this quarter and of all 
 the west coast as high as Quito. Whether Dampier 
 unfolded this "golden dream" at the time does not 
 appear. The buccaneers, at all events, sailed to La 
 Plata, where they found the bark, and divided the 
 cloth of Quito equally between the companies of Swan 
 and Davis, converting the vessel in which it had been 
 taken into a tender for the Cygnet. 
 
 This ship had since joining depended almost wholly 
 upon the Bachelor's Delight for provisions, as it had 
 neither Mosquito purveyors nor a store of flour ; and 
 the original buccaneer company of Davis now mur- 
 mured loudly at feeding the cowards who they alleged 
 had balked the attempt on Guayaquil. But neither 
 could afford to part consortship, and they sailed in com- 
 pany on the 23rd December to attack Lavelia, in the 
 Bay of Panama. In this cruise, from the charts and 
 books found in their prizes, they supplied the ignorance 
 and deficiencies of the Indian and Spanish pilots whom 
 they had as prisoners on board, these drafts being 
 found surer guides. Their object was in the first place 
 to search for canoes the want of boats being greatly 
 felt in rivers where the Spaniards had no trade with 
 the natives, nor settlements of any kind, as conceal-
 
 352 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 ment was most important to the success of their opera- 
 tions. From the equinoctial line to the Gulf of St. 
 Michael the coast abounded in unfrequented rivers 
 where boats might be found. When five days out from 
 La Plata, they made a sudden descent upon a village 
 named Tomaco, where they captured a vessel laden 
 with timber, in which was a Spanish knight with a crew 
 of eight Spaniards, and also took, what the buccaneers 
 valued much more, a canoe with twelve jars of old wine- 
 A canoe with a party that rowed six leagues further 
 up the river, which Dampier names St. Jago, came to 
 a house belonging to a Spanish lady of Lima, whose 
 servants at this remote station traded with the natives 
 for gold. They fled ; but the buccaneers found several 
 ounces of gold left in their calabashes. The land on 
 the banks of this river was a rich black mould, pro- 
 ducing tall trees. The cotton and cabbage trees flour- 
 ished here on the banks ; and a good way into the 
 interior, Indian settlements were seen, with plantations 
 of maize, plantain-walks, hogs, and poultry. At To- 
 maco a canoe with three natives visited the strangers, 
 whom they did not distinguish from Spaniards. They 
 were of middling stature, straight, and well-limbed, 
 " long-visaged, thin-faced, with black hair, ill-looked 
 men of a very dark copper complexion." The buc- 
 caneers presented them with wine, which they drank 
 freely. 
 
 On the 1st of January the Cygnet and Bachelors 
 Delight sailed for the Island of Gallo, carrying with
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 353 
 
 them the Spanish knight, Don Pinas, and two canoes. 
 On the way one of their boats captured the packet- 
 boat from Lima, and fished up the letters which the 
 Spaniards when pursued had thrown overboard at- 
 tached to a line and buoy. From these despatches 
 they learned the welcome and important fact .of the 
 Governor of Panama hastening the sailing of the trien- 
 nial plate-fleet from Callao to Panama, previous to the 
 treasure being conveyed across the Isthmus to Porto 
 Bello on mules. To intercept this fleet would enrich 
 every man among them at one stroke; and to this 
 single object every faculty was now bent. As a fit 
 place to careen their ships, and at the same time lie in 
 wait for their prey, they fixed upon the Pearl Islands, 
 in the Bay of Panama, for which they sailed from Gallo 
 on the morning of the 7th two ships, three barks, a fire- 
 ship, and two small tenders, one attached to each ship. 
 On the 8th they opportunely captured a bark with 
 flour, and then "jogged on with a gentle gale" to 
 Gorgona, an uninhabited island, well -wooded and 
 watered with brooklets issuing from the high grounds. 
 Pearl-oysters abounded here. They were found in 
 from four to six fathoms water, and seemed flatter in 
 the shell than the ordinary eating oyster. The pearl 
 was found at the head of the oyster, between the shell 
 and the meat, sometimes one or two pretty large in 
 size, and at other times twenty or thirty seed-pearls. 
 The inside of the shell was " more glorious than the 
 pearl itself." 
 
 (829) 23
 
 354 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 Landing most of their prisoners at Gorgona, the 
 squadron, now consisting of six sail, steered for the 
 Bay of Panama, and anchored at Galera, a small, bar- 
 ren, uninhabited island, from which they again sailed 
 on the 25th to one of the southern Pearl Islands, as a 
 place more suitable to hale up and clean the ships. 
 While this was in progress, the small barks cruised, and 
 brought in a prize laden with beef, Indian corn, and 
 fowls, which were all highly acceptable. They next 
 took in water and fire- wood, and were at last in fit 
 order to fight as well as to watch the plate-fleet, which 
 they did cruising before Panama, between the Pearl 
 Islands and the Main, where, says Dampier, " it was very 
 pleasant sailing, having the Main on one side, which 
 appears in divers forms. It is beautified with many 
 small hills, clothed with wood of divers sorts of trees, 
 which are always green and flourishing. There are 
 some few small high islands within a league of the 
 Main, scattered here and there one, partly woody, partly 
 bare, and they as well as the Main appear very plea- 
 sant." Most of the Pearl Islands were wooded and 
 fertile ; and from them were drawn the rice, plantains, 
 and bananas which supplied the city of New Panama, 
 " a fair city standing close by the sea, about four miles 
 from the ruins of the old town," encompassed behind 
 with a fine country of hill and valley, beautified with 
 groves and spots of trees appearing like islands in the 
 savannas. The new city had been walled in since 
 the visit which Dampier had made it with Sawkins,
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 355 
 
 Coxon, and Sharp, and the walls were now mounted 
 with guns pointing seaward. 
 
 As Davis lay nearly opposite the city, its supplies 
 from the islands were completely cut off, while his 
 people every day fished, hunted, or pillaged among 
 them. At this time Davis negotiated for an exchange 
 of prisoners, giving up forty, of whom he was very 
 glad to be rid, in return for one of Harris's band and a 
 man who had been surprised by the Spaniards while 
 hunting in the islands. Attention to the safety of the 
 meanest individual of their company was at all times 
 one of the fundamental principles of the buccaneers; 
 and it is stated on good authority that, when they first 
 hunted in the wilds of Hispaniola, if at nightfall one 
 comrade was missing, all business was suspended till 
 he was either found or his disappearance satisfactorily 
 accounted for. 
 
 The Lima fleet proved tardy in making its appear- 
 ance, and the buccaneers again moved, and came to 
 anchor near Taboga, an island of the bay abounding in 
 cocoa and mammee, and having fine brooks of pure 
 water gliding through groves of fruit-trees. About this 
 time they were nearly ensnared by a stratagem of the 
 Spaniards, who, under pretence of clandestine traffic, sent 
 a fire-ship among them at midnight ; but the treachery 
 was suspected in time, and avoided. This fire-ship had 
 been fitted up by the same Captain Bond of whom they 
 had heard at the Cape de Verd Islands. He was an 
 English pirate who had deserted to the Spaniards.
 
 356 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 The squadron, which had been scattered through the 
 night from alarm of the fire-ship, had scarcely returned 
 to its station, and looked about for the cut anchors, 
 when the freebooters were thrown into fresh consterna- 
 tion by seeing many canoes, full of armed men, passing 
 through an island channel and steering direct for them. 
 They also bore up ; but the strangers proved to be a 
 party of two hundred and eighty buccaneers, French 
 and English, in twenty-eight canoes, who had just 
 crossed the Isthmus on an expedition to the South Sea. 
 The English seamen, eighty in number, entered with 
 Swan and Davis ; and the flour prize was given to the 
 French flibustiers, who entered it under the command 
 of Captain Groignet, their countryman. These strangers 
 announced another party of one hundred and eighty, 
 under Captain Townley, all English, who were at this 
 time constructing canoes to bring them down the rivers 
 into the South Sea ; and on the 30th of March these 
 joined the fleet, not, however, in canoes, but in two 
 ships which they had taken as soon as they entered 
 the bay, laden with flour, wine, brandy, and sugar. 
 The squadron was further increased by the arrival of a 
 vessel, under the command of Mr. William Knight; 
 and the Indians of Santa Martha brought intelligence 
 that yet another strong party, French and English, 
 were on the way. These also arrived, to the number 
 of two hundred and sixty-four men, with three com- 
 manders ; one of whom, Le Picard, was a veteran who 
 had served under Lolonnois and Morgan at Porto Bello.
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 357 
 
 The buccaneer force now amounted to about one 
 thousand men, and the greatest want was coppers to 
 cook provisions for so many. The few kettles which 
 they had were kept at work day and night, and a 
 foraging party was sent out to bring in coppers. 
 
 From intercepted letters it was ascertained that the 
 Lima fleet was now at sea ; and the design upon the 
 city was suspended till the plate -ships were first 
 secured, though, as it chanced, in counting on their 
 easy capture, the buccaneers reckoned without their 
 host. 
 
 It was now the latter end of May, and for six 
 months the buccaneers had concentrated their attention 
 on this single enterprise. Their fleet now consisted of 
 ten sail ; but, save the Bachelors Delight, which carried 
 thirty-six guns, and the Cygnet, which was armed, 
 none were of force, though all were fully manned. 
 The Spanish fleet, it was afterwards learned, mustered 
 fourteen sail two of forty guns, one of thirty-six, 
 another of eighteen, and one of eight guns, with large 
 companies to each ship. Two fire-ships attended the 
 Spanish fleet. 
 
 Before the buccaneers had finished consultation on 
 their plan of operations the Spanish fleet advanced upon 
 them, and battle was resolved on. And, " lying to 
 windward of the enemy," says Dampier, " we had it not 
 in our choice whether to fight or not. It was three 
 o'clock in the afternoon when we weighed, and being 
 all under sail, we bore down right afore the wind on
 
 358 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 our enemies, who kept close on a wind to come to us ; 
 but night came on without anything besides the ex- 
 changing of a few shot on each side. When it grew 
 dark the Spanish admiral put out a light as a signal 
 for his fleet to come to an anchor. We saw this light 
 at the admiral's top for about half an hour, and then it 
 was taken down. In a short time after we saw the 
 light again, and being to windward we kept under sail, 
 supposing the light had been in the admiral's top ; but, 
 as it proved, this was only a stratagem of theirs, for 
 this light was put out the second time at one of the 
 barks' topmast-head, and then she was sent to leeward, 
 which deceived us, for we thought still the light was in 
 the admiral's top, and by that means ourselves to wind- 
 ward of them." At daybreak the buccaneers found 
 that by this stratagem the Spaniards had got the 
 weather-gage of them, and were bearing down full sail, 
 which compelled them to run for it; and a running 
 fight was maintained all day, till, having made a turn 
 almost round the bay, they anchored at night whence 
 they had set out in the morning. Thus terminated 
 their hopes of the treasure-ships, though it was after- 
 wards learned that the plate had been previously 
 landed. The French captain, Groignet, had kept out 
 of the action, for which he and his crew were after- 
 wards cashiered by their English associates. The com- 
 mon accusation which the English buccaneers brought 
 against their allies was reluctance to fight ; while the 
 latter blamed their indecent contempt of the Catholic
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 359 
 
 religion, displayed as often as they entered the Spanish 
 churches, by hacking and mutilating everything with 
 their cutlasses, and firing their pistols at the images of 
 the saints. Next morning the Spanish fleet was seen 
 at anchor three leagues to the leeward, and as the 
 breeze sprung up it stood away for Panama, contented 
 with safety and the small advantage obtained on the 
 former day. The buccaneers were equally well satis- 
 fied to escape a renewed engagement, and after con- 
 sultation they bore away for the Keys of Quibo to 
 seek Harris, who had been separated from them in the 
 battle or flight. At this appointed rendezvous they met 
 their consort, and a fresh consultation made them re- 
 solve to march inland and assault Leon, first securing 
 the port of Ria Lexa. 
 
 The assault and conquest of these places offers 
 nothing of interest or novelty ; they were carried by 
 the united buccaneer force, amounting to six hundred 
 and forty men, with eight vessels, three of them being 
 tenders, and one a fire-ship. In this assault Dampier 
 was left with sixty men to guard the canoes in which 
 the party had been landed. At Leon they lost a 
 veteran buccaneer of the original breed, whom Dampier 
 thus eulogizes: " He was a stout, old, gray-headed 
 man, aged about eighty-four, who had served under 
 Oliver (Cromwell) in the Irish rebellion ; after which 
 he was at Jamaica, and had followed privateering 
 ever since. He would not accept the offer our men 
 made him to tarry ashore, but said he would venture
 
 360 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 as far as the best of them ; and when surrounded by 
 the Spaniards, he refused to take quarter, but dis- 
 charged his gun amongst them, keeping a pistol still 
 charged ; so they shot him dead at a distance. His 
 name was Swan. He was a very merry, hearty old 
 man, and always used to declare he would never take 
 quarter." 
 
 A Mr. Smith, a merchant or supercargo, who had 
 sailed with Captain Swan from London to trade in the 
 South Sea, was made prisoner on the march to Leon. 
 This city, situated near the Lake of Nicaragua, Dam- 
 pier describes as one of the most healthy and pleasant 
 in all South America. No sooner were the buccaneers 
 masters of it than they demanded a ransom of three 
 hundred thousand dollars, which was promised but 
 never paid ; and becoming suspicious that the Spaniards 
 were dallying with them merely to gain time and draw 
 their force to a head, the town was set on fire, and they 
 returned to the coast, first supplying themselves with 
 beef, flour, pitch, tar, cordage, and whatever Leon and 
 Ria Lexa afforded. One Spanish gentleman, who had 
 been released on engaging to send in one hundred and 
 fifty head of cattle, redeemed his parole with scrupu- 
 lous honour. Mr. Smith was exchanged for a female 
 prisoner, and Ria Lexa was left burning. 
 
 The buccaneer squadron now separated, and the 
 fraternity broke into several small detachments Dam- 
 pier choosing to follow Captain Swan, who intended 
 first to cruise along the shores of Mexico, the country
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 361 
 
 of the mines, and then, sailing as high as the south- 
 west point of California, cross the Pacific, and return to 
 England by India. This plan presented many tempta- 
 tions to Dampier, whose curiosity and thirst of know- 
 ledge were insatiable ; and he might also have shared 
 in the hopes of his comrades, who promised themselves 
 a rich booty in the towns in .the neighbourhood of the 
 mines before they turned their faces westward. Cap- 
 tain Townley had kept by Swan when they separated 
 from Eaton, and each ship had now a tender belonging 
 to it. They put to sea on the 3rd September, and 
 encountered frequent and fierce tornadoes till near the 
 end of the month. Early in October they were off the 
 excellent harbour of Guatalco, the mouth of which may 
 be known by a great hollow rock, from a hole in 
 which every surge makes the water spout up to a 
 considerable height, like the blowing of a whale. 
 
 From the sea the neighbouring country looked 
 beautiful. Here they found some provisions, and 
 landed their sick for a few days. 
 
 The Cygnet and her consort advanced slowly along 
 the coast, landed near Acapulco, plundered a carrier 
 who conducted sixty laden mules, and killed eighteen 
 beeves. They next passed on to Colima, their object 
 being that tempting prize which for generations had 
 quickened the avarice of maritime adventurers the 
 Manilla ship for which they kept watch at Cape Cor- 
 rientes. After quitting Ria Lexa many of the men 
 had been seized with a malignant fever ; and as the
 
 362 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 same kind of disease broke out in Davis's squadron, it 
 was with some feasibility imputed to infection caught 
 at the place mentioned, where many of the inhabitants 
 had been carried off by a disorder of the same kind 
 some months before the buccaneers visited the town. 
 
 To victual the ship for the long voyage in view was 
 one main object of the continued cruise <of Captain 
 Swan on this coast; but the attempts made for this 
 purpose were often baffled with loss, and so much time 
 had now elapsed that it was concluded the Manilla ship 
 had eluded their vigilance. About the beginning of 
 January, Townley left them in the Bay of Vanderas, 
 and returned towards Panama, carrying home a few 
 Indians of the Darien who had accompanied Swan thus 
 far. The Mosquito-men remained in the Cygnet. 
 
 To obtain provisions, Swan captured the town of St. 
 Pecaque, on the coast of New Galicia, where large 
 stores were kept for supplying the slaves who worked 
 in the neighbouring mines. He brought off on the first 
 day a considerable quantity of provisions on horseback, 
 and on the shoulders of his men. These visits were 
 repeated, a party of buccaneers keeping the town, till 
 the Spaniards had collected a force. Of this Captain 
 Swan gave his men due warning, exhorting them, on 
 their way to the canoes with the burdens of maize and 
 other provisions which they carried, to keep together 
 in a compact body ; but they chose to follow their own 
 course, every man straggling singly while leading his 
 horse or carrying a load on his shoulders. They
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 363 
 
 accordingly fell into the ambush the Spaniards had laid 
 for them, and, to the amount of fifty, were surprised 
 and mercilessly butchered. The Spaniards, seizing 
 their arms and loaded horses, fled with them, before 
 Swan, who heard the distant firing, could come to the 
 assistance of his men. Fifty-four Englishmen and 
 nine blacks fell in this affair, which was the most 
 severe the buccaneers had encountered in the South 
 Sea. It is in consonance with the spirit of that age to 
 find Dampier relating that Captain Swan had been 
 warned of this disaster by his astrologer.* Many of 
 the men had also, he states in his manuscript journal, 
 foreboded this misfortune, and in the previous night, 
 while lying in the church of St. Pecaque, " had been 
 disturbed by grievous groanings, which kept them from 
 sleeping." 
 
 This disheartening affair determined Swan and his 
 diminished company to quit this coast, and they ac- 
 cordingly steered for Cape St. Lucas, the south point of 
 California, to careen and to refresh themselves before cross- 
 ing the Pacific ; but by adverse winds they were com- 
 pelled to put into a bay at the east end of the middle 
 island of the Tres Marias, where they found iguanas, 
 racoons, rabbits, pigeons, and deer, fish of various kinds, 
 turtle, and seals. There they careened the ship, divided 
 and stowed the provisions between it and the tender, 
 and went over to the mainland for water, having previ- 
 ously landed the prisoners and pilots, who were now of 
 
 * It was then customary, before undertaking a voyage, to consult an astrologer.
 
 364 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 no use save to consume provisions. That they were 
 abandoned on an uninhabited island is said to have 
 been in revenge of the fatal affair of St. Pecaque. 
 
 While they lay here, Darapier, who had escaped the 
 contagious fever, languished under a dropsical com- 
 plaint, of which several of the men had died. The 
 method of cure was singular, but the patient believed 
 it successful. " I was," he says, " laid and covered all 
 but my head in the hot sand. I endured it near half 
 an hour, and was then taken out and laid to sweat in a 
 tent. I did sweat exceedingly while I was in the sand, 
 and I do believe it did me much good, for I grew well 
 soon after." 
 
 While careening the ship, Swan had more fully laid 
 before his company his plan of going to the East Indies, 
 holding out to them hopes of plunder in a cruise among 
 the Philippines. Dampier describes many of them as 
 so ignorant that they imagined it impossible to reach 
 India from California ; others entertained more reason- 
 able fears of their provisions failing before they could 
 reach the Ladrones. Maize, and the fish which the 
 Mosquito-men caught, some of which were salted for 
 store, now constituted the whole provision of above 
 one hundred and fifty men, and of this but a short 
 allowance could be afforded daily, calculating on a run 
 of at least sixty days. 
 
 On the 31st March, having all agreed to attempt the 
 voyage, and consented to the straitened allowance, 
 the Cygnet and the tender commanded by Captain
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 365 
 
 Teat sailed from the American coast, steering south- 
 west till she arrived at 13 N., in which parallel she 
 held due west for the Ladrones. The men received 
 but one meal a day ; and there was no occasion, Dam- 
 pier says, to call them to their victuals, which were 
 served out by the quartermaster with the exactness of 
 gold. Two dogs and two cats which were on board 
 soon learned to attend daily for their respective shares. 
 The Cygnet enjoyed a fair fresh-blowing trade- wind, 
 and went on briskly, which was some consolation for 
 scanty fare. At the end of twenty days they had 
 made so much progress that the men began to murmur 
 at being still kept upon such short allowance ; and by 
 the time they reached Guahan they were almost in 
 open mutiny, and had, it was said, resolved to kill and 
 eat Swan in the first place, and afterwards, in regular 
 order, all who had promoted this voyage. In the long 
 run of five thousand miles, they had seen no living 
 thing, whether bird, fish, or insect, save in longitude 18 3 
 a flock of boobies, presumed to be the denizens of some 
 cliffs or islands, though none were seen. On the 21st 
 of May, near midnight, they had the happiness of 
 coming to anchor on the west side of Guahan, about a 
 mile from the shore, after a run which Dampier cal- 
 culated at seven thousand three hundred and two miles. 
 At this island the Spaniards had a small fort and a 
 garrison of thirty men. Presuming that the Cygnet 
 was a Spanish vessel from Acapulco, a priest came off, 
 and was detained as a hostage till terms of obtaining
 
 366 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 provisions were arranged ; and as these were dictated 
 by fair principles of exchange, no difficulty was ex- 
 perienced, both the Spaniards and the few natives on 
 the island gladly bringing their goods to a safe and 
 profitable market. 
 
 The natives and the Spaniards here lived in a state 
 of constant hatred, if not in open hostility ; and Cap- 
 tain Eaton, who had touched at Guahan on his voyage 
 to India, after parting with Davis on the coast of Peru, 
 had been instigated by the governor to plunder and 
 practise every cruelty upon the islanders. This advice 
 neither himself nor his men were slow to follow. " He 
 gave us leave," says Cowley's manuscript narrative of 
 the voyage, " to kill and take whatever we could find in 
 one half of the island where the rebels lived. We then 
 made wars," as Cowley chooses to term wanton, un- 
 provoked aggression, " with these infidels, and went on 
 shore every day, fetching provisions, and firing among 
 them wherever we saw them ; so that the greater part 
 of them left the island. The Indians sent two of their 
 captains to treat with us, but we would not treat with 
 them. The whole land is a garden." 
 
 Dampier reckons that at this time there were not 
 above one hundred Indians on the whole island, as 
 most of those who had escaped slaughter destroyed 
 their plantations, and went to other islands remote 
 from the tender mercies of the Spaniards and their new 
 allies the buccaneers. While a friendly and brisk trade 
 was going on between the shore and the Cygnet, the
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 369 
 
 Acapulco vessel came in sight of the island, but was 
 warned off in time by the governor, without, luckily 
 for herself, having been descried by the buccaneers. 
 In the eagerness of flight she ran upon a shoal, where 
 her rudder was struck off, nor did she get clear for 
 three days. As soon as the natives informed the buc- 
 caneers of this prize they " were in a great heat to be 
 after her; " but Swan, who disliked his present vocation, 
 and still hoped to open an honest traffic at Manilla, 
 though he found it prudent, under present circum- 
 stances, to keep this design secret, persuaded, or as 
 probably frightened his wild crew out of this humour 
 by representing the dangers of the chase. 
 
 Suitable presents were exchanged between the gov- 
 ernor and the priest and the English captain, and pre- 
 parations were made to depart. Here Dampier first 
 saw the bread-fruit the staff of life of so many of the 
 insulated tribes of Polynesia. Of the flying-proas, or 
 sailing-canoes of these islands, so often described, he 
 expresses the highest admiration. " I believe," he says, 
 " they sail the best of any boats in the world." One 
 that he tried would, he believed, "run twenty-four 
 miles an hour ; " and one had been known to go from 
 Guahan to Manilla, a distance of four hundred and 
 eighty leagues, in four days. 
 
 It took the Cygnet nineteen days to reach the coast 
 of Mindanao, for which she sailed on the 2nd June ; 
 and after beating about through several channels and 
 islands, she came to anchor on the 18th July opposite 
 
 (829) 24
 
 370 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 the river's mouth, and before the city of Mindanao. 
 They hoisted English colours, and fired a salute of 
 seven or eight guns, which was returned from the 
 shore by three. The island of Mindanao was divided 
 into small states, governed by hostile sultans the gov- 
 ernor of this territory and city being the most powerful 
 of their number. The city stood on the banks of the 
 river, about two miles from the sea. It was about a 
 mile in length, but narrow, and winded with the curve 
 of the stream. The houses were built on posts, from 
 fourteen to twenty feet high ; and as this was the 
 rainy season they looked as if standing in a lake, the 
 inhabitants plying about from house to house in canoes. 
 They were of one story, which was divided into several 
 rooms, and were entered by a ladder or stair placed 
 outside. The roofs were covered with palm or palmetto 
 leaves. There was a piazza, generally lying in a state 
 of great filth, under each house, some of them serving 
 for poultry -yards and cellars. " But at the time of the 
 land-floods all is washed very clean." The floors were 
 of wicker-work of bamboo. 
 
 Captain Swan had many reasons for desiring to 
 cultivate the friendship of the ruling powers at Min- 
 danao. Immediately after the Cygnet came to anchor, 
 Rajah Laut, the brother and prime minister of the 
 sultan, and the second man in the state, came off in 
 a canoe, rowed with ten oars, to demand whence they 
 were. One of the sultan's sons, who spoke the Spanish 
 language, accompanied his uncle. When informed that
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 371 
 
 the strangers were English, they were welcomed, though 
 Rajah Laut appeared disappointed that they were not 
 come to establish a factory, for which proposals had 
 already been made to him by the East India Company. 
 The conversation -was carried on by Mr. Smith, the late 
 prisoner at Ria Lexa, and the sultan's son, who, with 
 his uncle, remained all the while in the canoe. They 
 promised to assist the English in procuring provisions, 
 and were rowed off without more passing at this time. 
 
 Dampier regrets that the offer of a settlement here 
 was not accepted, " by which," he says, " we might 
 better have consulted our own profit and satisfaction 
 than by the other roving loose way of life. So it 
 might probably have proved of public benefit to our 
 nation, and been a means of introducing an English 
 settlement and trade, not only here but through several 
 of the Spice Islands which lie in its neighbourhood." 
 They had not lain long here when they received an- 
 other invitation to settle in a different island, the sultan 
 of which sent his nephew to Mindanao to negotiate 
 secretly with Captain Swan. 
 
 The Cygnet's company had not been aware of the 
 dignity of their first visitors till they were gone, when 
 the government officer informed them ; who, according 
 to the custom of the ports of China and other parts in 
 the East, came on board to measure the ship a prac- 
 tice of which Dampier could not conceive the reason, 
 unless the natives wished to improve their knowledge 
 of ship-building.
 
 372 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 In the same afternoon Captain Swan sent Mr. More, 
 one of the supercargoes, to the city with a present for 
 the sultan, consisting of three yards of scarlet cloth, 
 three yards of broad gold lace, a Turkish scimitar, and 
 a pair of pistols ; and to the Rajah Laut, the dignitary 
 they had already seen, three yards of the same cloth 
 with silver lace. After some preliminary ceremonies, 
 the English envoy was at night admitted to an audience, 
 to which he was conducted by armed men, accompanied 
 by servants bearing torches. The sultan, with ten 
 privy councillors all seated on carpets, awaited his 
 arrival. The present was graciously accepted, a con- 
 ference took place in Spanish, after which Mr. More 
 and his attendants, being first treated with supper, 
 returned on board. Next day Captain Swan was in- 
 vited on shore, whither he went, preceded by two 
 trumpeters. He was conducted to an audience, and 
 entertained with betel and tobacco. Two letters were 
 shown him, sent by East India merchants to the sultan, 
 demanding liberty to build a factory and fort, and 
 specifying the terms of traffic, rates of exchange, and 
 of weights and measures. One letter was beautifully 
 written, and between each line there was drawn a line 
 of gold. Another letter, left by a Captain Goodlud, 
 who had lately visited Mindanao, and directed generally 
 to any of the English who might touch there, concluded, 
 " Trust none of them, for they are all thieves ; but tace 
 is Latin for a candle." 
 
 After the interview with the sultan, Captain Swan
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 373 
 
 visited Rajah Laut, who, being rather in disgrace with 
 his brother at this time, had not been present at the 
 audience. He entertained the English captain with 
 boiled fowls and rice, and strongly urged him to bring 
 the ship into the river, as stormy weather was at this 
 season to be expected. He also advised him to warn 
 his men against offending the natives by infringing 
 their customs, and altogether appeared very familiar and 
 friendly. To impress Swan with an idea of his justice, 
 he ordered a man who had formerly robbed Captain 
 Goodlud to be now punished ; and the miserable wretch 
 was accordingly publicly exposed bound to a post, and 
 stripped naked, with his face opposite the scorching 
 sun, while he was shifted round and kept in torture, 
 following its course all day, stung by the gnats and 
 mosquitoes. This was a usual mode of punishment. 
 His life was at nightfall left at the mercy of the En- 
 glish captain, who informed Rajah Laut that he had 
 no right to take cognizance of any crime which had 
 not been committed by his own men and in his own 
 ship. 
 
 The letters from the Company's agents, by convincing 
 Swan that there was a serious intention of establishing 
 a factory at this place, gave him confidence to enter 
 the river, trusting also to the friendly professions of 
 Rajah Laut. The Cygnet was accordingly lightened 
 of part of her cargo, and with the help of sixty native 
 fishermen, Rajah Laut directing their operations in 
 person, she crossed the bar with the first spring-tide,
 
 374 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 and was moored within the mouth of the river. The 
 buccaneers remained here so long upon a footing of 
 daily intimate intercourse with the townspeople, that 
 Dampier has been enabled to give a very full and 
 minute account of the Mindanaians. A singular custom 
 of the country facilitated easy intercourse with the 
 natives, though seamen, having their pockets stored 
 with gold and their ships with desirable commodities, 
 who are neither suspected of any sinister intention by 
 the people nor viewed with jealousy by the govern- 
 ment, have rarely found the half -civilized tribes of the 
 Indian islands difficult of access. 
 
 The custom common in the South Sea Islands of 
 exchanging names and forming a comradeship with a 
 native, whose house is thenceforward considered the 
 home of the stranger, extended in Mindanao to the 
 other sex, and "an innocent platonic female friend, 
 named a pagally" was offered to each of the English- 
 men, besides his male comrade. These friendships were, 
 however, not so perfectly disinterested as not to require 
 the cement of presents on the one side and flatteries on 
 the other. In Mindanao, as in more refined parts of 
 the world, those who were best dressed and furnished 
 with gold most readily obtained companions and pa- 
 gallies. Under the sanction of this singular national 
 custom the wives of the greatest men might choose 
 friends among the strangers, or be selected as pagallies, 
 and allowed to converse in public with the persons who 
 distinguished them by their choice.
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 375 
 
 On their first arrival for they soon declined in 
 favour, owing probably to their own reckless and 
 dissolute manners the seamen could not pass along 
 the streets without being compelled to enter the houses, 
 where they were presented with betel and tobacco, the 
 cordial hospitality of the givers atoning for the scanti- 
 ness of this Oriental entertainment. To express the 
 vivacity and degree of their affection, the natives would 
 place the forefingers of both hands close together, saying 
 the English and themselves were like this ; the Dutch 
 were signified by holding the same fingers six inches 
 apart, and the Spaniards at double that distance. 
 Captain Swan, who still had a large quantity of iron 
 and lead, as well as other goods belonging to his owners, 
 meanwhile traded with Rajah Laut, at whose house he 
 dined every day till he established himself at a dwelling 
 which he hired in the town. Those of the buccaneers 
 who had money also took houses on shore, lived a jovial 
 life among their comrades and pagallies, and hired 
 female servants from their masters as temporary house- 
 keepers. 
 
 The most important division of this island, the largest 
 save Luconia of the Philippine group, was, as has been 
 mentioned, under the sway of the Sultan of Mindanao, 
 who was often at war with the tribes that occupied 
 the interior and the opposite coasts, and were less 
 civilized and wealthy than his subjects. The soil of 
 the island was deep and black, producing great varieties 
 of timber ; and among others the tree named by the
 
 376 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 natives the libby, from the pith of which sago is manu- 
 factured. Rice was raised in some places, and on the 
 hilly land potatoes, yams, and pumpkins. The fruits 
 were the plantain, which Dampier names the " king of 
 fruits," guavas, bananas, musk, and water-melons, betel- 
 nuts, cocoa-nuts, jacas, durions, cloves, nutmegs, oranges, 
 etc. From the fibres of the plantain the common people 
 of Mindanao manufactured the only cloth which they 
 wore, making webs of seven or eight yards long. The 
 betel-nut, so much esteemed in most places of India, 
 grew here on a tree like the cabbage-tree, but smaller. 
 At the top of these trees the nuts grow on a tough 
 stem, as thick as a man's finger, in clusters of forty or 
 fifty. The fruit resembles the nutmeg, but is rather 
 larger and rounder. When to be chewed, the nut was 
 cut into four bits, one of which was wrapped up in an 
 areca-leaf spread with a soft paste made of lime. 
 Every native carried his lime-box by his side, into 
 which he dipped his finger, spread his areca-leaf, 
 wrapped up his nut, and proceeded to chew. Where 
 there are no betel-vines the leaves are imported for 
 this purpose. The nut is most admired when young, 
 and while it is green and juicy. It tastes rough in 
 the mouth, dyes the lips red and the teeth black, but 
 at the same time preserves them. Those who are not 
 accustomed to its use become giddy at first, especially 
 if the nuts are old. 
 
 The religion of the Mindanaianswas the Mohammedan; 
 and the children were taught to read and write, though
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 377 
 
 business was generally transacted by Chinese, the na- 
 tives being indifferent accountants. Besides what was 
 supposed their native language, they spoke a dialect of 
 the Malay, which was among them the language of 
 commerce. Many of them also understood Spanish, as 
 the Spaniards had only been expelled during the reign 
 of the present sultan's father. Rajah Laut both 
 spoke and wrote Spanish ; and had, from reading and 
 conversation, acquired a considerable knowledge of 
 European countries. The natives were of middle size, 
 with small limbs, particularly the females. They had 
 straight bodies, with small heads. Their faces were 
 oval, but those of the women were round. Their fore- 
 heads were low, with small black eyes, short low noses, 
 their lips thin and red, their skins tawny, but inclining 
 to a brighter yellow than some of the other Indians, 
 especially among the women. Young females of rank 
 were often much fairer than the other women, and 
 their noses rose to a more aristocratic prominence than 
 those of meaner females. In female children the nose, 
 or rise between the eyes, was sometimes scarcely per- 
 ceptible. The natives all walked with a stately air, 
 and the women, though barefooted, had very small 
 feet. The nail of the left thumb was allowed to grow 
 very long. The men wore a small turban, the laced 
 ends hanging down, with trowsers and a frock, but 
 neither stockings nor shoes. The women tied up their 
 hair in a knot, which hung down on the crown of the 
 head. They wore a petticoat, and a frock that reached
 
 378 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 below the waist, with very long sleeves, which, pushed 
 up, sat in puckered folds, and were a source of great 
 pride to the wearers. They were also adorned with 
 ear-rings and bracelets, which the pagally would some- 
 times beg from her English friend. The clothing of 
 the higher class was made of long cloth, but the lower 
 universally wore the saggan or plantain-cloth. They 
 used no chairs, but sat cross-legged on the floor or on 
 mats. The common food of the people was sago or 
 rice, with occasionally a fish or two; but the better 
 classes had often fowls and buffaloes' flesh. In some 
 things their habits were very filthy, and in others very 
 cleanly. Like all Oriental tribes they washed them- 
 selves frequently in the rivers, and took great delight 
 in swimming, to which exercise both sexes are accus- 
 tomed from infancy. The trades practised here were 
 those of goldsmiths, blacksmiths, and carpenters, every 
 man being more or less of a carpenter, and handling 
 with dexterity their scanty tools, which consisted of the 
 axe and the adze alone, saws and planes being altogether 
 unknown. Yet the ships and barks they built were 
 stout and serviceable, and in them the natives made 
 war, or traded to Manilla, and sometimes to Borneo 
 and other distant places, exchanging the gold and bees'- 
 wax found in the interior of the island for calicoes, 
 silks, and muslins. They had also a traffic with the 
 Dutch in tobacco, which in Mindanao was of excellent 
 quality, and sold so low as twelve pounds for a rial. 
 The Mindanaians were resolute in fight, though they
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 379 
 
 avoided the open field, erecting forts and small works, 
 on which they mounted guns. These forts they would 
 defend and besiege for months together, sometimes 
 making a sally. Their weapons were lances, swords, 
 and what Dampier calls hand-cressets, resembling a 
 bayonet, which they wore at all times, whether in war, 
 at work, or pastime. When likely to be overcome, 
 they sell their lives dearly, and seldom either give or 
 take quarter, the conqueror hewing down his antagonist 
 without mercy. 
 
 The people here were liable to a leprous disease, the 
 skin becoming blotched and scurfy, and rising in white 
 scales from the continual rubbing induced by intolerable 
 itchiness. Some had the skin white, in spots over their 
 body, though smooth ; and these Dampier conjectured 
 were patients who had been cured. Polygamy was 
 common. The sultan had one queen and twenty-nine 
 inferior wives, of whom one was called the war-queen, 
 as she always attended her lord to battle. The daughter 
 of the sultan by his queen was kept in strict seclusion ; 
 but his other children in patriarchal numbers roamed 
 about the streets, often begging things which they 
 fancied from the buccaneer seamen. It was said that 
 the young princess had never seen any man save her 
 father the sultan, and Rajah Laut ; though all the other 
 women were occasionally allowed to appear abroad in 
 pageants, or upon public festivals. 
 
 The sultan was an absolute prince, who, in Oriental 
 fashion, encouraged the industry and commercial enter-
 
 380 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 prise of his subjects by borrowing sums, however small, 
 which he discovered they had accumulated by trade. 
 By way of varying this system of arbitrary exaction, 
 he would at other times first compel them to purchase 
 goods belonging to himself, which had probably been 
 confiscated, and afterwards find some occasion of state 
 to reclaim those goods for the public service. He was 
 a little man, now between fifty and sixty, and altogether 
 inferior to his brother and grand vizier, the Rajah Laut, 
 who, though only equal in trickery, was superior to all 
 his compeers in capacity and intelligence. It was he 
 who led the military forces of the sultan, managed the 
 foreign policy, and regulated the internal affairs of 
 Mindanao. Without the license of Rajah Laut no one 
 could either buy or sell, nor could the common fisher- 
 men enter or leave the port without his permission. 
 The Rajah Laut was altogether the hero of Mindanao, 
 the women in the public dances and festivals singing 
 his praises and celebrating his exploits. 
 
 Besides being the wet season, it was Ramadan time 
 when the Cygnet came to anchor in the river, and 
 amusement and pleasure were nearly suspended in 
 Mindanao ; but as soon as this solemn period was past, 
 the Rajah Laut entertained his friend Captain Swan 
 every night with dances, those bands of regularly- 
 trained dancing-women being seen here which are com- 
 mon over all India. But all the females of Mindanao 
 were fond of dancing, which they practised in a ring of 
 forty or fifty, who joined hand -in -hand, singing in
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 381 
 
 chorus, and keeping time, and, though they never 
 moved from the same spot, making various gestures, 
 throwing forward one leg, and clapping their hands at 
 the close of the verse. The Rajah Laut was in return 
 entertained by Captain Swan's men, who performed 
 English dances to the music of violins, in a ball-room 
 fitted up with gold and silver lace, and illuminated by 
 a profusion of wax-candles. Dampier relates the very 
 natural mistake into which the rajah fell regarding one 
 of these quarter-deck performers. John Thacker, a 
 common buccaneer, though he could neither read nor 
 write, had acquired the accomplishment of dancing about 
 some "of the music -houses of Wapping," and coming 
 into the South Sea with Captain Harris, had been so 
 fortunate in acquiring booty that he now wore fine 
 clothes, and by his superior dress and dancing was sup- 
 posed by the natives to be a person of noble extraction. 
 When the rajah, to satisfy his curiosity on this im- 
 portant point, put the question to one of the company, 
 the seaman replied humorously, that the conjecture as 
 to Jack's quality was quite correct ; and that most of 
 the ship's company were of like extraction, at least all 
 who wore good clothes and had money, those meanly 
 clad being but common seamen. The rajah from this 
 time portioned out his civilities according to the garb 
 of his new friends. 
 
 Captain Swan was by this time deeply chagrined at 
 the result of his voyage. Most of his crew were 
 turbulent and lawless those who had money revelling
 
 382 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 on shore, and continually involving themselves in 
 quarrels with the natives, while those who were poor 
 were growling on board at the privations they suffered 
 and the time wasted in inaction. In the number of the 
 penniless was Dampier, who had no means of recreation 
 and no source of enjoyment save the faculty of a power- 
 ful and quick observation, and the delight of entering 
 his remarks in his journal. The single and undivided 
 object of the rest of the crew of the Cygnet was gold, 
 the plunder of the Manilla ship ; nor durst the com- 
 mander reveal his dislike to their project. About the 
 same time that his crew grew violently discontented, 
 he became himself suspicious of the good faith of his 
 friend Rajah Laut, who for the iron and lead which he 
 had procured continued to pay with fair promises. 
 
 Beef was one of the articles which the rajah had 
 promised to the English, and a party went a-hunting 
 with him, but found no prey. Dampier, a practised 
 hunter, was always of these parties, and used the op- 
 portunities they afforded to extend his knowledge of 
 the country. In these distant hunting-excursions the 
 rajah carried his wives, children, and servants along 
 with him in the proas of the country, which were fitted 
 up with rooms. They settled at some village in the 
 neighbourhood of the hunting-ground, the chief and his 
 family occupying one end of the house and the English- 
 men the other. While he and his men, who always 
 hunted from dawn till late in the afternoon, were abroad, 
 the Englishmen were frequently left at home with the
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 383 
 
 women and children. Though these ladies never quitted 
 their own apartment while the chief remained at home, 
 he was no sooner gone than they usually flocked to the 
 strangers' room, asking a thousand questions about the 
 condition of the women and the fashions and customs 
 of England. These were the subject of long and earnest 
 argument among themselves, some condemning and 
 others applauding the custom, which all allowed to be 
 singular, of even the king and chiefs having but one 
 wife. Among the proselytes to monogamy was the 
 war-queen or wife, the lady who enjoyed the privilege 
 of attending the rajah to battle ; and her reasons, if 
 they did not convince, at least silenced her opponents. 
 
 During this excursion, Dampier, from the conversa- 
 tion of the women, considerably increased his acquaint- 
 ance with the character and customs of the people. 
 They bathed daily, and washed after every meal ; and 
 if they became unclean from touching accidentally any 
 forbidden thing, they underwent scrupulous purification. 
 Though associating so intimately with the English, they 
 did not like to drink with nor after them. Wild-hogs 
 abounded, but swine's flesh, and every part of that filthy 
 animal, was held in the utmost abhorrence by the Min- 
 danaians ; and though they invited the seamen to de- 
 stroy the animals that came to the city during the night 
 to feed on garbage under the houses, they were ordered 
 to take the swine on board, and those who had touched 
 these abominable creatures were ever afterwards loathed 
 and avoided by the natives, and forbidden their houses.
 
 384 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 This superstitious dislike was carried to so great a 
 length, that the Rajah Laut returned in a rage a pair 
 of shoes made in the English fashion, of leather he had 
 furnished, and in which he had taken great pride, till 
 he learned that the thread with which they were sewed 
 had been pointed with hog's bristles. The shoemaker 
 got more leather, and made a quite unexceptionable 
 pair, with which the rajah was satisfied. 
 
 At this hunting-village, in the evenings, the women 
 danced before the rajah ; and before the party broke 
 up to return to Mindanao, he entertained the English- 
 men with a jar of " rice-drink," a fermented liquor, on 
 which he and his attendants got very merry. He drank 
 first himself, and then his men ; " and they all," says 
 Dampier, " were as drunk as swine before they suffered 
 us to drink." 
 
 That balance in human affairs which pervades all 
 conditions was now turning the scale in favour of the 
 less fortunate portion of the Cygnet's crew. The Min- 
 danaians, though hospitable and kind, were, when 
 offended, vindictive and deadly in their resentments. 
 The conduct of these dissolute and openly profligate 
 seamen had given them deep offence, and sixteen of 
 the buccaneers were in a short time taken off by poison, 
 to which more afterwards fell victims. The islanders 
 were skilled in subtle poisons, which had not their full 
 operation till a long while after they were administered. 
 Some of the men, after they were conscious of having 
 been poisoned, lingered on for months. When they
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE, 385 
 
 died, their livers were found black, dry, and shrivelled 
 " like cork." 
 
 The ship had not lain long in the river when it had 
 been discovered that her bottom was eaten with worms, 
 which bred in such great numbers in this place that 
 shortly before a Dutch vessel had been destroyed by 
 them in two months, while the Rajah Laut became heir 
 to her great guns. It began to be suspected that he 
 entertained the hope of being equally fortunate in a 
 legacy from the Cygnet, as he had given no intimation 
 of a danger which the Mindanaians always avoided by 
 placing their barks and boats in a dry-dock the moment 
 they came into port, even when only returned from 
 fishing. He shook his head and seemed displeased 
 when he saw that the sheathing of the vessel had pre- 
 vented serious damage, and gravely remarked, " that he 
 never did see a ship with the cunning device of two 
 bottoms before." Dampier had seen the same kind of 
 worms in myriads in the Bay of Campeachy and in the 
 Bay of Panama, and in smaller numbers in Virginia. 
 They are never seen far out at sea. 
 
 This alarming damage was repaired in time, though, 
 taken with other circumstances, it strengthened the 
 suspicions of Captain Swan, and excited the discontent 
 of the men by increasing their alarm. Rajah Laut also, 
 if he did not absolutely refuse, still delayed to furnish 
 the beef and rice necessary to their subsistence, and 
 which were to be the price of the commodities with 
 which Captain Swan had so largely furnished him. 
 
 (829) 25
 
 386 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 His English friend had also lent the rajah twenty ounces 
 of gold, to defray the expenses of a solemn ceremonial 
 observed shortly before, when his son had been circum- 
 cised. This splendid ceremony, at which the English 
 assisted, had been celebrated with music, dances, the 
 singular war-dance of the country, banquets, pageants, 
 and processions by torchlight. The rajah, in a manner 
 not uncommon in Eastern countries, not only refused to 
 repay the gold, but when urged, insisted that it had 
 been a present, and finally demanded payment for all 
 the victuals Swan and his men had consumed at his 
 hospitable board. 
 
 While the rajah thus refused to discharge his debts, 
 the buccaneer crew clamoured to be gone, and becoming 
 openly mutinous, a party of them resolved to carry off 
 the ship. Neither Dampier, who happened to be on 
 board, nor the surgeon's mate, approved of this treach- 
 erous design, but they were reluctantly compelled to go 
 with the rest, leaving Captain Swan and thirty -six 
 men at Mindanao, from whence the Cygnet sailed on 
 the 14th January 1687, intending to cruise off Manilla. 
 A buccaneer of Jamaica, named Read, was chosen com- 
 mander. The first intimation Swan had of his abandon- 
 ment was the gun which was fired as the ship got under 
 way. To his own irresolution, bad temper, and want 
 of firmness, Dampier imputes this misfortune. If, when 
 apprised of the design of the mutineers, he had come 
 on board and behaved with prudence and courage, he 
 might have brought back the greater part of the men
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 387 
 
 to their duty, and taken his own measures with the 
 ringleaders, to some of whom he had certainly given 
 just cause of discontent. 
 
 After leaving Mindanao, the Cygnet, with a crew now 
 reduced by various causes to eighty men, coasted to the 
 westward. They fell in with a great many " keys," or 
 small low islets, between which and Mindanao there 
 was a good channel. On the east of these keys they 
 anchored and obtained green-turtle. At different places 
 they cut ratans, such as were used in England for walk- 
 ing-canes. They saw here large bats, " seven or eight 
 feet from tip to tip" of the extended wings, which 
 regularly at dusk took their flight from the smaller 
 islands to the main island in swarms like bees, and re- 
 turned like a cloud before sunrise. On the 23rd they 
 reached Luconia, having captured a Spanish vessel, 
 laden with rice and cotton cloth, bound for Manilla. 
 The master had been boatswain of the Acapulco ship 
 which had escaped them at Guahan, and which now 
 lay safe in port. Nothing, therefore, of consequence 
 could be hoped for this season, and to beguile the time, 
 and wait a more favourable opportunity, they resolved 
 to sail for the Pulo Condore or " Islands of Calabashes," 
 a group of small islands off the coast of Cambodia. 
 They anchored at Condore on the 14th March. Two 
 of the cluster are pretty large and high. They were 
 tolerably well wooded, and on the largest of them was 
 found a tree from which the inhabitants extracted a 
 pith or viscid juice which they boiled up into good tar,
 
 388 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 and which, if kept boiling long enough, became pitch. 
 The mangoes of which the Indian pickle is made were 
 found here. They were now ripe, and were betrayed 
 to the seamen by their delicious fragrance. The grape- 
 tree was also seen, with the wild or spurious nutmeg, 
 and many sorts of beautiful birds, as parrots, paroquets, 
 pigeons, and doves. The inhabitants of Pulo Condore 
 resembled the Mindanaians, but were darker in com- 
 plexion. Their chief business was to make tar of the 
 pith of the trees mentioned above, which they exported 
 to Cochin - China, from which these islanders were 
 originally a colony. The oil of the turtle was another 
 article of their commerce with their mother -country. 
 The islanders were idolaters. In a temple Dampier 
 saw the image of an elephant and of a horse, which they 
 were supposed to worship. 
 
 At this place the buccaneers remained for a month ; 
 after which they cruised in the Gulf of Siam and in 
 several parts of the China Seas, taking all barks that 
 fell in their way, whether Spanish, Portuguese, or native 
 vessels. From the crew of a junk belonging to the 
 island of Sumatra they learned that the English had 
 established a factory on that island. The surgeon and 
 Dampier, who had accompanied "this mad crew" against 
 their inclination, " and were sufficiently weary of them," 
 would have escaped here, and taken their chance of 
 getting to this or some other English factory, but they 
 were constrained to remain in the Cygnet. 
 
 The next destination of the buccaneers was the
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 389 
 
 Ponghou Islands, which in no respect answered their 
 purpose of quiet and security. At the place where 
 they anchored there were a large town and a Tartar 
 garrison. 
 
 In the charts which they possessed there were laid 
 down, marked by the figure 5, a group of islands 
 situated between Luconia (the cynosure of their hopes) 
 and Formosa ; and these, which offered a tolerably con- 
 venient station, they hoped might be either uninhabited 
 or only peopled by tribes from whom they might with 
 impunity plunder provisions, without danger of the 
 outrage being heard of in the Philippines. They steered 
 for them, and on the 6th August reached the interest- 
 ing group now known as the Bashee Islands. They 
 approached by the westernmost and largest of the 
 group, on which they had the felicity to see goats 
 browsing; but safe anchorage was not obtained till 
 next day in a bay at the east side of the easternmost 
 island. The sails were not furled when a hundred small 
 boats swarmed round the Cygnet, each carrying from 
 three to six men, with whom the deck was soon crowded. 
 The pirates, alarmed by the numbers of the islanders, 
 got their fire-arms in readiness; but iron, the most 
 precious of metals with the savage, for which he freely 
 and gladly gives gold in exchange, wondering at the 
 folly or simplicity that induces the European to the 
 unequal barter, and leaving the philosopher to decide 
 which gains most by the bargain, iron was the only 
 thing that captivated the Basheeans, who quickly
 
 390 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 picked up all the little pieces they could find, but were 
 otherwise perfectly quiet and orderly. Waxing bolder 
 by indulgence, one of them tried to wrench out an iron 
 pin from the carriage of a gun. He was laid hold of, 
 and his cries made all his countrymen scamper off in a 
 fright. The man was, however, kindly treated, and, 
 being first made sensible of his error in attempting to 
 steal, was presented with a piece of iron, with which he 
 swam to his comrades. Thus reassured, the islanders 
 returned, and a brisk trade was opened, which was re- 
 newed daily. Ever after this slight check they con- 
 tinued honest, and they had always been civil. A hog 
 was now got for two or three pounds of iron, a fat goose 
 for an old iron hoop, and the liquor of the islands, the 
 Baskee-dririk, from the name of which the pirates gave 
 the whole group their general appellation, for old nails, 
 spikes, and bullets. 
 
 These five islands were more particularly named : 
 1. Orange Island, so called by the Dutchmen among 
 the crew in honour of their native prince. It is the 
 largest and most westerly of the group, and was unin- 
 habited. 2. Grafton Island was so named by Dampier 
 in compliment to the noble family in whose household 
 he had, as has been mentioned, left his wife. 3. Mon- 
 mouth Island was named by the seamen after the un- 
 fortunate Duke of Monmouth, the son of Charles II. 
 The other two were called the Goat and the Bashee 
 Island, from the number of goats seen on the one, and 
 the abundance of the beverage which gained the appro-
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 391 
 
 bation of the seamen that was made on the other. The 
 two latter are small islands, lying to the south, in the 
 channel which divides Orange Island from Grafton and 
 Monmouth Islands. Monmouth Island is high, and so 
 fenced with steep rocks and precipitous cliffs that the 
 buccaneers did not land upon it as they did upon all 
 the other islands. Grafton and Monmouth Islands were 
 thickly inhabited, and on Bashee there was one village. 
 The natives were " short squat people, generally round- 
 visaged, with low foreheads and thick eyebrows ; their 
 eyes small and hazel-coloured, yet bigger than those of 
 the Chinese; short low noses; their lips and mouths 
 middle - proportioned ; their teeth white; their hair 
 black, thick, and lank, which they wore cut short it 
 will just cover their ears, and so is cut round very 
 even," says Dampier, and to this fashion they seemed 
 to attach great importance. Their skins are a dark 
 copper colour. They wear neither hat, cap, turban, nor 
 anything to keep off the heat of the sun. The men 
 had a cloth about their middle, and some wore jackets 
 of plantain-leaves, "as rough and bristly as a bear's 
 skin." The women were clothed with a short cotton 
 petticoat which fell below the knees, of " a thick stub- 
 born " cloth that they manufactured themselves. Both 
 men and women wore large ear-rings of a yellow glister- 
 ing metal, found in the mines in their own mountains, 
 resembling gold, but paler in colour. These rings, and 
 this metal, completely baffled the science of the pirates, 
 who had rather an instinctive love of gold than much
 
 392 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 knowledge of its natural properties. When first pol- 
 ished the rings made of this yellow metal looked 
 peculiarly brilliant; but they soon faded and became 
 quite dim, when it was necessary to throw them into 
 the fire, first casing them in a soft paste made of a red 
 earth. After being heated red hot they were cooled in 
 water, and the paste rubbed off, when the glistering 
 lustre was found renewed. Our navigator was, unfor- 
 tunately, too poor to be able to purchase any of this 
 metal ; or rather too honest to reckon any part of the 
 iron belonging to Captain Swan's owners, of which 
 there was still a good quantity on board, his property, 
 though his companions were much less scrupulous. The 
 language of the people of the Bashee Isles was quite 
 strange to the pirates, though they were now tolerably 
 well acquainted with the Malay tongue, the dialect of 
 Mindanao, and the Chinese language. 
 
 No foreign commodities of any kind were seen among 
 the Basheeans, nor anything that could have been in- 
 troduced by sea, save a few bits of iron and pieces of 
 buffalo-hides. In all points they appeared an unmixed 
 race, in their dispositions singularly mild, amiable, and 
 peaceful. Their islands produced plantains, bananas, 
 pumpkins, and plenty of yams, which made the prin- 
 cipal part of their food. They had no grain of any 
 kind, and consequently but few fowls, which Dampier 
 never saw in plenty where there was not either maize, 
 rice, or grain of some sort. Some cotton-plants were 
 seen, and sugar-canes, from the boiled juices of which
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 393 
 
 the natives made the liquor so agreeable to their visitors. 
 The boiled juice, with which a small black berry was 
 mixed, was allowed to ferment for three or four days, 
 and when it had settled, was poured off clear from the 
 lees, and was fit to drink. It was much like English 
 beer, both in taste and colour, and, as Dampier verily 
 believed, a perfectly wholesome beverage, many of the 
 men who drank it copiously every day, and were often 
 drunk with it, being never once sick in consequence of 
 their liberal potations. The natives sold it cheaply, 
 and when the seamen visited at their houses freely 
 gave them Bashee-drink, and sometimes bought a jar 
 from a neighbour to entertain their guests. These 
 purchases were made with small crumbs of the glister- 
 ing metal above described, which, wrapped in plantain- 
 leaves, served as a substitute for coin. Though cleanly 
 in their persons and habitations, the inhabitants of the 
 Bashee Isles were in some respects very filthy in their 
 eating. They were not seen at this time to kill any 
 animals for their own use ; but of the goats purchased 
 by the buccaneers they begged the skin and garbage, 
 and when the surly seamen threw them into the sea, 
 they would take them out. With the hogs they never 
 meddled. The goat's skin they broiled and gnawed, 
 and of the paunch made what to them appeared a 
 delicious dish. The whole crude contents of the stomach 
 were emptied into a pot, and stewed with any small 
 fish they had caught, which they took what Dampier 
 thought very superfluous trouble in cleaning and mine-
 
 394 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 ing, considering the nature of the substances with which 
 the fish were mixed. This mess was eaten as the people 
 of the Philippines did their rice, he being reckoned the 
 best -bred among the Mindanaians who, wetting his 
 hands to prevent the boiled rice from sticking to them, 
 could most dexterously roll up and swallow the largest 
 ball. The people of these islands had another singular 
 dish made of locusts, which at this season attacked the 
 potato-leaves in multitudes, and in their ravages spared 
 no green thing. They were about an inch and a half 
 in length, and as thick as the tip of a man's little finger, 
 with large thin wings and long small legs. The 
 Basheeans caught them in small nets, a quart at one 
 sweep. When enough were obtained for a dish, they 
 were parched in an earthen pot over the fire, till the 
 legs and wings dropped off, when from brown they be- 
 came red. Their bodies were succulent, though the 
 heads crackled under the teeth of the eater. 
 
 The dwellings of the islanders, and the places upon 
 which they had perched them, were among the most 
 singular features of their social condition. In describ- 
 ing them we adopt the words of Dampier: "These 
 people made but low, small houses. The sides, which 
 were made of small posts wattled with boughs, are 
 not above four feet and a half high ; the ridge-pole is 
 about seven or eight feet high. They have a fireplace 
 at one end of their houses, and boards placed on the 
 ground to lie on. They inhabit together in small vil- 
 lages built on the sides and tops of rocky hills, three
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 395 
 
 or four rows of houses one above another, under such 
 steep precipices that they go up to the first row with a 
 wooden ladder, and so with a ladder still from every 
 story up to that above it, there being no other way 
 to ascend. The plain on the first precipice may be so 
 wide as to have room both for a row of houses, which 
 stand all along the edge or brink of it, and a very 
 narrow street running along before their doors between 
 the row of houses and the foot of the next precipice, 
 the plain of which is in a manner level with the roofs 
 of the houses below, and so for the rest. The common 
 ladder to each row, or street, comes up at a narrow 
 passage, left purposely about the middle of it, and the 
 street being bounded with a precipice also at each 
 end, it is but drawing up the ladder if they be as- 
 saulted, and then there is no coming at them from 
 below but by climbing a perpendicular wall. And that 
 they may not be assaulted from above, they take care 
 to build on the side of such a hill whose back hangs 
 over the sea, or is some high, steep, perpendicular 
 precipice, altogether inaccessible." These precipices 
 and regular terraces appeared quite natural. Graf ton 
 and Monmouth Islands abounded in these rocky for- 
 tresses, in which the natives felt themselves secure 
 from pirates, and from enemies whether foreign or 
 domestic. 
 
 The boats of the islanders were ingeniously con- 
 structed, somewhat like Deal yawls, and some of them 
 so large that they could carry forty or fifty men.
 
 396 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 They were impelled by twelve or fourteen oars on 
 each side. Though scantily provided with iron, the 
 Basheeans could work this metal, employing the same 
 sort of bellows, remarkable for rude ingenuity, which 
 Dampier had seen at Mindanao. This primitive bel- 
 lows was formed of two hollow cylinders, made of the 
 trunks of trees, like our wooden water-pipes. They 
 were about three feet long, and were placed upright in 
 the ground, near the blacksmith's fire, which was made 
 on the floor. Near the bottom of each cylinder, on 
 the side next the forge, a hole was bored, into which 
 a tube was exactly fitted. These tubes met in a com- 
 mon centre or mouth opposite the fire. The bellows 
 being thus prepared, a man stood between the hollowed 
 trunks with a brush of feathers in each hand, which 
 he worked alternately in the cylinders, like the piston 
 of a pump, thus impelling the air through the small 
 pipes below, which by this means kept up a blast that 
 played continually upon the fire. 
 
 The men of the Bashee Islands, while the Cygnet 
 lay there, were generally employed in fishing, leaving 
 the plantations to the care of the women. Their 
 weapons were wooden lances, of which only a few 
 were headed with iron ; their armour a buffalo's hide, 
 as thick as a board, which covered them to the knees, 
 having holes for the head and arms. No form of 
 worship was observed among this tribe, nor did any 
 one seem to have more authority than another. Every 
 man had one wife, and ruled his own household, the
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 397 
 
 single wife appearing affectionate and happy, and the 
 children respecting and honouring their parents. The 
 boys went out to fish with their fathers, while the 
 girls attended to domestic duties with their mothers. 
 Their plantations were in . the valleys, where each 
 family had one ; and thither the young girls, as soon 
 as they were able for the task, descended every day 
 from their rocky abodes to dig yams and potatoes, 
 which they carried home on their heads for the use of 
 the family. 
 
 In no part of the world had Dampier seen people so 
 perfectly quiet and civil as these islanders. " They 
 dealt justly and with great sincerity," he says, " and 
 made us very welcome to their houses with Bashee- 
 drink." 
 
 Meanwhile the cruise off Manilla was not forgotten. 
 Eighty hogs were salted, and yams and potatoes laid 
 up for sea-store. The crew had taken in water, and 
 now only waited the settling of the eastern monsoon 
 to take their departure. On the 24th September the 
 wind shifted to the east, and by midnight blew so 
 fiercely that they were driven to sea, leaving six of 
 their men on the island. It was the 1st October 
 before they were able to recover their anchoring- 
 ground. The natives immediately rowed their com- 
 rades on board. As soon as the ship was out of sight, 
 the islanders increased in hospitality and kindness to 
 the strangers left among them. They only stipulated 
 that the buccaneers should cut their hair in the Bashee
 
 398 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE, 
 
 fashion ; and on this condition offered each of them a 
 wife, and, as a dowry, a plantation and implements of 
 labour. 
 
 The late storm, their long and profitless cruise, now 
 extending with some of them to years, and the penal- 
 ties to which their criminal acts made them all alike 
 liable in every civilized country, combined to depress 
 the spirits of the crew of the Cygnet ; and once more 
 every man heartily wished himself at home, " as they 
 had done a hundred times before." They were, how- 
 ever, persuaded by the captain and master to try one 
 more chance, and agreed to steer for Cape Comorin, for 
 ever renouncing the long-indulged dream of capturing 
 the Manilla ship. Dampier believed that the ultimate 
 object of the pirate commanders was to cruise in the 
 Red Sea, and by one more desperate effort to make or 
 for ever mar their fortunes. Of all the company none 
 was more heartily tired than our navigator, who had 
 been betrayed into this voyage, and whose thoughts, 
 since leaving Mindanao, had run continually on mak- 
 ing his escape to some English settlement. To avoid 
 the danger of meeting English or Dutch ships, with 
 which, in taking the best and most direct course, they 
 were in danger of falling in, they agreed, instead of 
 steering for the Strait of Malacca, to go round the 
 east side of the Philippines, and, keeping south to the 
 Spice Islands, pass these, and enter the Indian Ocean 
 about Timor. To Dampier all routes were alike. " I 
 was well enough satisfied," he says, " knowing that
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 399 
 
 the further we went the more knowledge and experi- 
 ence I should get, which was the main thing I re- 
 garded, and should also have the more variety of places 
 to attempt an escape from them." 
 
 On the 3rd October they sailed from the Bashee 
 Isles, leaving for the first time a somewhat favourable 
 impression of their characters, and bearing away grate- 
 ful and affectionate remembrances of this gentle and 
 amiable tribe. They steered south-south-west, with 
 the wind at west and fair weather ; and passed certain 
 islands which lie by the north end of Luconia. Leav- 
 ing the coast of this island, and with it " all their 
 golden prospects," they steered southward, keeping to 
 the east of the Philippines, and on the 15th anchored 
 between the two small islands named Candigar and 
 Sarangan, near the south-east end of Mindanao; and 
 next day, at the north-west end of the most easterly 
 of the islands, found a fit place to careen and refit the 
 ship. While they lay here the nephew of the sultan, 
 who, in name of his uncle, had formerly been treating 
 with Captain Swan to visit and garrison his island and 
 take in a cargo of spice, came on board and requested 
 a passage home, as they were understood to be going 
 southward. From him they obtained intelligence of 
 Captain Swan and their deserted comrades, who had 
 been fighting under Rajah Laut with a hostile tribe in 
 the interior. The Englishmen had conducted them- 
 selves so bravely in fight that they were now in high 
 favour at Mindanao, though it was feared they had
 
 400 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 been found too powerful and useful as allies to be per- 
 mitted easily to leave their new service. Swan had 
 for some time been attempting, unsuccessfully, to hire 
 a vessel to convey him to Fort St. George. 
 
 At this time Dampier took an opportunity of per- 
 suading the men to return to their duty, to carry the 
 ship back to the river of Mindanao, and give her up to 
 the true commander ; but before this could be effected, 
 one man, who seemed the most zealously to embrace 
 the proposal, gave information, and Captain Read 
 deemed it prudent to weigh anchor with all expedi- 
 tion, and without waiting the arrival of the prince, to 
 whom a passage had been promised. Read held a 
 course south-west, and once more disappointed the 
 hopes of Dampier, who believed that, by carrying 
 home the young chief, they might, at his uncle's isl- 
 and, establish a factoiy and a lawful traffic. 
 
 The ultimate fate of Captain Swan, of whom we are 
 now to lose sight, was not a little painful. Two super- 
 cargoes or merchants of the ship, Harthop and Smith, 
 died at Mindanao ; and when the commander, after a 
 series of vexations and disappointments, was going out 
 to a Dutch vessel which lay in the river, hoping to get 
 away at last, the boat was run down by the emissaries 
 of Rajah Laut, and Swan and the surgeon were either 
 drowned or killed in the water. The property of the 
 English captain was immediately seized by the per- 
 fidious chief, who justified his conduct by imputing as 
 crimes to the unfortunate Englishman the idle, impo-
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 401 
 
 tent threats wrung from him by hope deferred, irrita- 
 tion, and grief. 
 
 The Cygnet continued her bootless voyage among 
 the islands and channels of the Philippines on to the 
 Spice Isles, and anchored off Celebes, where the sea- 
 men obtained a supply of turtle, and found among 
 other shell-fish cockles of so monstrous a size that the 
 meat of one of them made a meal for seven or eight 
 persons. It was palatable and wholesome. Here they 
 also found a vine, of which the leaves, pounded and 
 boiled with lard, made an infallible sea-salve. One of 
 the company had formerly learned its uses from the 
 Indians of the Darien; and most of the seamen now 
 laid up a store, such as had ulcers finding great benefit 
 from its healing properties. On the 29th November 
 they left this place ; and after encountering the dangers 
 of the shoals which surround Celebes, and experiencing 
 fierce tornadoes, on the 1st December they saw, and on 
 the 5th approached, the north-west end of the island 
 of Bouton. On the evening of the 30th they had seen 
 at a distance two or three water-spouts, but escaped 
 them all. 
 
 An Indian, who spoke the Malay tongue, came on 
 board at this time with some of the turtle-strikers, 
 and informed them of a good harbour on the east side 
 of Bouton, for which they sailed. They came to anchor 
 within a league of Callasusung, a clean and handsome 
 town, situated upon a hill in the middle of a fertile 
 plain, surrounded with cocoa-trees. The people re- 
 
 (829) 26
 
 402 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 sembled the inhabitants of Mindanao, and their houses 
 were built in the same style ; but they appeared in all 
 respects more "neat and tight." They were Moham- 
 medans, and spoke the Malay language. The same de- 
 scription seems to fit every sultan whom the voyagers 
 saw, " a little man about forty or fifty, with a great 
 many wives and children." Unaware of the exact 
 character of his visitors, the Sultan of Bouton was 
 pleased to hear that they were English, and made them 
 a visit in a handsomely-ornamented proa, with a white 
 silk Hag displayed at the mast-head, edged with red, 
 and having in the centre, neatly painted, the device of 
 the prince, a green griffin trampling upon a dragon 
 or winged serpent. 
 
 They had no object in remaining here, and as a for- 
 lorn hope, or from curiosity, resolved to steer for New 
 Holland, " to see what that country could afford them." 
 In leaving Bouton they got among shoals, and it was 
 about three weeks before they passed Timor and got 
 clear of all the dangers of this chain. They stood off 
 south, and on the 4th January fell in with the north- 
 west coast of New Holland in 16 50". They ran close 
 in, but found no safe anchoring ground, as the coast 
 lay open to the north-east. They steered for about 
 twelve leagues north-east by east, keeping close in by 
 the shore, and reached a point three leagues to the 
 eastward of which they found a deep bay with many 
 islets, and finally anchored at about a mile from the 
 land. Seeing people walking on the shore, a canoe
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 403 
 
 was sent off, but the natives ran away and hid them- 
 selves ; and though traces of fires were seen, no habi- 
 tation could be discovered. Toys and trinkets were 
 left on the shore at such places as the people were 
 likely to find them. 
 
 The coast here was low and level, with sandbanks. 
 No water could be found, though at several places old 
 wells were seen dry in the sandy bays. Having failed 
 of their object on the mainland, neither provisions nor 
 water being found, nor a hope of them, some of the 
 boats visited the islands in the bay, and surprised a 
 party of the natives. The men at first threatened the 
 intruders, and showed their lances and swords; but 
 the noise of a single gun frightened them, and the 
 women seemed in very great alarm. Screaming, they 
 ran away with their children, while the men stood to 
 parley. Those who, from sickness or feebleness, were 
 unable to follow, lay still by their fires uttering doleful 
 lamentations ; but when it was seen that no harm was 
 intended them, they became tranquil, and many of the 
 fugitives returned. 
 
 The buccaneers had entertained no design against 
 these wretched people more flagitious than to make 
 them labour in carrying the water-casks to the boats. 
 To this they tried to bribe them with ragged shirts 
 and old breeches, finery which could have charmed 
 some of the insular families of the Pacific, though they 
 were totally disregarded by the inert natives of New 
 Holland, whose first associations with European finery
 
 404 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 were connected with hard and compulsory labour. 
 " We put them on them," says Dampier, speaking of 
 the tattered rags of the buccaneers, " thinking this 
 finery would make them work heartily for us ; and 
 our water being filled in barrels of about six gallons, 
 we brought these new servants to the wells, and put 
 a barrel on each of their shoulders to carry to the 
 canoe. But all the signs we could make were to no 
 purpose; for they stood like statues without motion, 
 but grinned like so many monkeys, staring upon one 
 another." It was found that they had not even 
 strength sufficient for the task of being carriers of 
 
 O O 
 
 water; and Dampier believed that an English ship- 
 boy of ten years old would have been able to bear 
 heavier burdens than these feeble savages. " So we 
 were forced," he says, " to carry our water ourselves ; 
 and they very fairly put the clothes off" again, and 
 laid them down, as if clothes were only to work in. 
 I did not perceive," he adds, " that they had any great 
 liking to them at first; neither did they seem to 
 admire anything we had." In the estimation of Dam- 
 pier, the natives of New Holland were lower in the 
 scale of humanity than any tribe of which he had 
 ever heard, the Hottentots not excepted. " Setting 
 aside their human shape," he says, "they differ but 
 little from brutes. They are tall, straight-bodied, and 
 thin, with long, small limbs. They have great heads, 
 round foreheads, and great brows. Their eyelids are 
 always half closed to keep the flies out of their eyes,
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 405 
 
 so that they never open their eyes like other people; 
 and therefore they cannot see far, unless they hold up 
 their heads as if they were looking at something over 
 them. They have great bottle-noses, pretty full lips, 
 and wide mouths. The two fore teeth of their upper 
 jaw are wanting in all of them, men and women, old 
 and young. Whether they draw them out I know 
 not; neither have they any beards. They are long- 
 visaged, and of a very unpleasant aspect, having no 
 one graceful feature in their faces. Their hair is 
 black, short, and curled, like that of negroes ; and the 
 colour of their skins coal-black, like that of the negroes 
 in Guinea. They have no sort of clothes, but a piece 
 of the rind of a tree tied as a girdle about their waists, 
 into which is thrust a handful of long grass or small 
 green leafy boughs. They have no houses, lying in the 
 open air without covering, the earth their bed, the 
 heaven their canopy." They lived in groups or fami- 
 lies of from twenty to thirty, men, women, and chil- 
 dren ; their only food being a small kind of fish which 
 they caught at flood-tide in a sort of weirs. Few shell- 
 fish were seen among them. Yet even these miserable 
 people were redeemed to humanity by the possession 
 of some good qualities. Whatever they caught was 
 fairly divided. Were it little or much every one had 
 a share of the bounty that Providence had sent, " the 
 old and feeble who were unable to go abroad, as well 
 as the young and lusty." This disinterestedness, with 
 their bold defence of the women and children on the
 
 406 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 first appearance of the Europeans and the startling 
 report of fire-arms, is, however, all that can be said in 
 praise of apparently the most abject and wretched 
 tribe of the great human family. When they had con- 
 sumed what was caught, they lay down till next low 
 water, and then all who were able to crawl, be it night 
 or day, went to examine the weirs. No iron was seen 
 among these people ; but they had wooden swords, and 
 a kind of lance like a long pole, sharpened at the upper 
 end, and hardened by heat. 
 
 No sort of quadruped was seen here ; but there were 
 a few land and sea birds, and plenty of manatee and 
 turtle, though the natives had never learned to strike 
 them. They had neither boats, canoes, nor rafts, but 
 could swim between the islands of the bay. No form 
 of worship was discerned among them ; and though 
 they greedily devoured rice, manatee, or whatever was 
 given them, their minds never once appeared awakened 
 to any feeling of interest or curiosity. Four men who 
 were caught swimming, and brought on board the ship, 
 were sensible to nothing but the food which they 
 devoured and the delight of getting away. The 
 wonders around them, the British ship and her 
 strange company, which would have charmed many 
 of the tribes of Polynesia to an ecstasy of surprise, 
 were unnoticed by the savages of this part of New 
 Holland. 
 
 The Mosquito-men were busily employed during the 
 time that the ship was cleaned and the sails repaired :
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 407 
 
 nor did Dampier miss the opportunity of once again 
 persuading his messmates to go to some English fac- 
 tory and surrender the vessel and themselves. The 
 threat of being left on this barren and melancholy 
 coast, among the most wretched of the human race, 
 compelled him to consult his prudence rather than his 
 duty, and to wait a fairer chance of escape. 
 
 The destination of the Cygnet was still Cape Como- 
 rin; and on the 4th of May they made the Nicobar 
 Islands, the chief commodities of which were ambergris 
 and fruits, which the inhabitants disposed of to any 
 European vessels that chance^ to visit them. Dampier 
 now openly expressed his intention of leaving the ship ; 
 and Captain Read, believing that he could not more effec- 
 tually punish his refractory shipmate than by grant- 
 ing his wish, and leaving him at one of these islands, 
 at once gave him leave to go on shore. Lest Read 
 might change his mind, Dampier immediately lowered 
 his bedding and chest, and got some one to row him 
 to the land. He had not been long on shore when a 
 party were sent from the ship to bring him back, and 
 he complied, aware that if he persisted in going away 
 against their will, the buccaneers would not hesitate 
 to make a descent on the coast and kill some of the 
 natives, who would in turn revenge themselves on him. 
 On returning to the ship, he found that his spirited 
 example had moved some of the other persons who 
 had long entertained a similar design of effecting their 
 escape, and three of them now joined his party, of
 
 408 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 whom the surgeon was one. The captain and crew 
 refused on any terms to let the surgeon depart; but 
 after some altercation Dampier and his two compan- 
 ions, on a fine clear moonlight night, were landed and 
 left in a sandy bay of this unknown island. One of 
 the seamen who rowed them ashore stole an axe and 
 gave it to them, as the means of propitiating the 
 natives or of buying provisions. They were speedily 
 joined by four Acheenese previously found in a cap- 
 tured proa, whom Captain Read refeased before setting 
 sail ; and now they fancied themselves strong enough 
 to row to Sumatra. A Portuguese, taken prisoner by 
 the buccaneers long before, was also landed, and the 
 party of eight considered itself able for defence if 
 attacked by the natives, though no one offered to dis- 
 turb them. 
 
 From the owner of an empty hut in which they 
 slept they bought a canoe with the stolen axe, and, 
 placing their goods in it, embarked for Acheen. It 
 upset as soon as under way, and though no life was 
 lost, their clothes were wetted, and what to Dampier 
 was of far greater importance, the journals of many 
 years and his drafts were damaged. Three days were 
 spent in drying their things, and altering the canoe 
 into a sailing-boat, which was expertly done by the 
 Acheenese, who fitted her with a mast, outriggers, and 
 a suit of mat-sails. With the natives, who watched all 
 their movements, though more from curiosity than sus- 
 picion, they bartered rags and strips of cloth for inel-
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 409 
 
 lory, a fruit the size of the bread-fruit, shaped like 
 a pear, with a tough, smooth, light-green rind, which 
 Dampier asserts is confined to these islands. They also 
 obtained cocoa-nuts, which the Acheenese gathered, 
 and might have had hogs, but that they did not 
 choose to disgust their Malayan friends, who were 
 Mohammedans. Once more they embarked in their 
 frail vessel, their only guides a pocket-compass, with 
 which Dampier had provided himself, and a sketch of 
 the Indian Seas, which, contemplating escape, he had 
 previously, from a chart in the ship, copied into his 
 pocket-book. 
 
 They had been out three days when the weather 
 became threatening, and soon rose to a tempest. We 
 shall employ the striking language of Dampier himself 
 to describe what followed, nor, while it reveals so 
 much of his true character and feelings, could a better 
 specimen of his more elevated and earnest style be 
 easily selected : " The wind continued increasing all 
 the afternoon, and the sea still swelled higher and 
 often broke, but did us no damage; for the ends of 
 the vessel being very narrow, he that steered received 
 and broke the sea on his back, and so kept it from 
 coming in, which we were forced to keep heaving out 
 continually. The evening of this day was very dismal. 
 The sky looked very black, being covered with dark 
 clouds. The wind blew hard, and the seas ran high. 
 The sea was already roaring in a white foam about 
 us; a dark night coming on, no land to shelter us,
 
 410 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 and our little bark in danger to be swallowed by every 
 wave ; and, what was worst of all, none of us thought 
 ourselves prepared for another world. I had been in 
 many imminent dangers before now, but the worst of 
 them all was but play-game in comparison with this. 
 I had long before this repented me of that roving 
 course of life, but never with such concern as now. I 
 did also call to mind the many miraculous acts of God's 
 providence towards me in the whole course of my life, 
 of which kind I believe few men have met the like. 
 And for all these I returned thanks in a peculiar 
 manner, and once more desired God's assistance, and 
 composed my mind as well as I could in the hopes of 
 it ; and, as the event showed, I was not disappointed of 
 my hopes. Submitting ourselves therefore to God's 
 good providence, and taking all the care we could to 
 preserve our lives, Mr. Hall and I took turns to steer, 
 and the rest to heave out the water; and thus we 
 provided to spend the most doleful night I ever was 
 in." 
 
 The pious trust of Dampier and his companions did 
 not fail them. After enduring great hardship, they 
 reached a small fishing-village in a river's mouth of 
 the island of Sumatra, at which their companions, the 
 Malays of Acheen, were previously acquainted. They 
 were so much exhausted when they arrived here as to 
 be unable to row their canoe to the village, another 
 example of the sudden prostration of strength to which 
 persons who have been in imminent jeopardy are liable
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 411 
 
 as soon as the danger appears to be past. The people 
 of the place assisted them in, and a chief who came to 
 see them, being given to understand that they were 
 prisoners escaped like the Acheenese from pirates, 
 treated them with great kindness. A house was pro- 
 vided for their reception, and far more provisions were 
 sent to it than they could use, as they were all sick from 
 excessive fatigue, and the cold and heat to which they 
 had alternately been exposed, now scorching unshel- 
 tered in the noontide sun, and again bleaching in the 
 chill rains of midnight. After resting for ten days, 
 though not yet restored to health, they entreated to be 
 allowed to proceed to Acheen to their countrymen ; and 
 they were provided with a large proa, and permitted to 
 depart. On their arrival at Acheen they were strictly 
 examined by the native magistrate, and then given up 
 to the care of an Irish gentleman connected with the 
 factory. The Portuguese died, and Ambrose, one of 
 the Englishmen who left the Cygnet, did not long sur- 
 vive him. Dampier, originally robust, and whose con- 
 stitution was now by his hardy mode of life almost 
 invincible, recovered, though slowly ; the remedies of a 
 Malay doctor, to whose care he was committed, having 
 proved worse than the original disease. 
 
 When his health was somewhat re - established, 
 Dampier made a voyage to Nicobar with Captain 
 Bowry, an English captain who traded to different 
 parts of India. His next voyage was to Tonquin with 
 Captain Weldon, with whom he afterwards went to
 
 412 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 Malacca, and thence to Fort St. George, where he 
 remained for five months, and then returned to Ben- 
 coolen, to a factory lately established by the English 
 on what was at that time called the Westcoast. Here 
 he also officiated for five months as gunner of the 
 fort. 
 
 While at Acheen, after returning from Malacca, 
 Dampier met with Mr. Morgan, a former shipmate in 
 the Cygnet, from whom he learned the fortunes of the 
 buccaneers. After he had left them at Nicobar, they 
 steered for Ceylon, but by streas of weather were com- 
 pelled to seek refreshments upon the coast of Coro- 
 mandel. Half the crew at this time left the ship, part 
 of whom afterwards found their way to Agra, and 
 entered the service of the Mogul as guards ; but upon 
 the offer of a pardon from the English governor at 
 Fort St. George, they repaired to that garrison. The 
 Cygnet reached Madagascar, where the pirates entered 
 the service of some petty prince then at war with a 
 neighbouring chief. 
 
 We may here take a farewell glance of the buc- 
 caneers, and especially of those left by Dampier in the 
 South Sea. In pursuing their old vocation they be- 
 came more successful after the Cygnet crossed the 
 Pacific. They captured many vessels, and revelled in 
 the plunder of several towns; sometimes cruising to- 
 gether, but as often in detached bands. Townley was 
 so far fortunate as to obtain with ease at Lavelia the 
 treasure and merchandise landed from the Lima ship
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 413 
 
 in the former year, for which Swan had watched so 
 long in vain, and for which the whole buccaneer force 
 had battled in the Bay of Panama. Townley after- 
 wards died of wounds received in another attack. The 
 French party stormed Granada; and Groignet, dying 
 of his wounds, was succeeded by Le Picard. Harris 
 followed Swan across the Pacific ; and Knight, satiated 
 with plunder, returned by Cape Horn to the West 
 Indies, those of his party who had in gambling lost 
 their share of the pillage remaining in the Bachelors 
 Delight. The narrative of the traverses of this vessel 
 on the coasts of Peru and New Spain, written by 
 Lionel Wafer, who remained with Davis while Dampier 
 followed Swan, possesses considerable interest. Davis 
 generally kept apart from the French freebooters, but 
 joined them in an attack on Guayaquil, where the 
 buccaneers amicably divided a rich booty. The 
 French party, among whom, however, there- were 
 many Englishmen, afterwards made their way over- 
 land, and with great difficulty, from the Bay of Ama- 
 palla to the head of a river which falls into the Carib- 
 bean Sea, each man with his silver and gold on his 
 back, the fortunate and cunning hiring as porters the 
 comrades they had previously stripped at the gaming- 
 table. 
 
 Davis, who during his long cruise had frequently 
 remained for weeks at Cocos Island and the Galapagos 
 group, now sailed from Guayaquil to these islands, to 
 careen and victual his ship previous to leaving the
 
 414 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 South Sea by Cape Horn. The Galapagos* were be- 
 come to the buccaneers in the South Sea what Tortuga 
 had been to their predecessors in the West Indies. In 
 his run south from the Galapagos, Davis discovered 
 Easter Island, though the merit of the discovery was 
 afterwards claimed by the Dutch Admiral Roggewein, 
 and is still a matter of dispute. Davis at this time 
 left five of his men with five negro slaves on Juan 
 Fernandez. They had lost every farthing which they 
 possessed at the gaming-table, and were unwilling to 
 leave the South Sea as poor as they entered it. The 
 Baclielor'a Delight successfully doubled Cape Horn, 
 and Davis, who among the buccaneers stood high in 
 point of character both for capacity and worth, reached 
 the West Indies just in time to avail himself of the 
 pardon offered by royal proclamation. Dampier after- 
 wards in England met with his old commander, whom 
 he highly esteemed. 
 
 Though the French flibustiers, countenanced by 
 their government, continued to flourish during the war 
 which followed the accession of William III. to the 
 throne of England, and did brave service to their 
 country in the West Indies, buccaneering, already 
 severely checked, ceased among the English from this 
 time, or shifted into the legitimate channel of privateer 
 adventure; yet for more than twenty years a few 
 
 * The captain of an English ship, which made a voyage in the Pacific in 1794, 
 one hundred and ten years after the retreat of the buccaneers from the South Sea, 
 relates that he found the remains of their seats, made of turf and stones, empty 
 jars like those in which the Peruvian wine is kept, and nails, daggers, and other 
 articles left by them.
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 415 
 
 desperate characters, English or English Creoles, out- 
 laws or deserters, pretending to be the true successors 
 of the old rovers, who had strictly limited their depre- 
 dations to the Spanish West Indies, continued to infest 
 the commerce of every nation, and haunted every sea 
 from Cape Wrath to the islands of the Indian Ocean, 
 wherever robbery could be practised with impunity 
 whether on land or water. The better to forward or 
 conceal their designs, these lawless ruffians often allied 
 themselves with native princes, as the new commander 
 of the Cygnet had done at Madagascar. Of these 
 degenerate descendants of the buccaneers of America, 
 the numerous crew of a pirate-ship named the Revenge, 
 which was captured among the Orkney Isles, suffered 
 by the sentence of the Court of Admiralty so late as 
 1724.* 
 
 While Dampier was at Fort St. George an English 
 vessel arrived from Mindanao laden with clove-bark, 
 having on board an Indian prince he had formerly 
 seen a slave at that place, and whom Mr. Moody, the 
 supercargo of the ship, had purchased from his owner. 
 This prince was from the islands named Meangis, which 
 he said abounded in gold and cloves ; and it had been 
 a favourite speculation with Dampier to establish a 
 factory and open a trade there, which might have been 
 managed from Mindanao. This scheme was, however, 
 blown to air ; and Prince Jeoly, whom Dampier while 
 
 * We need scarcely remind the reader of Sir Walter Scott's romance "The 
 Pirate."
 
 416 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 at that island had proposed to purchase from his master 
 to be his guide and introducer, was now on the way to 
 England to be exhibited as a show. Mr. Moody, who 
 had purchased Jeoly, was meanwhile appointed to the 
 factory of Indrapoor, then just established on the west 
 coast of Sumatra, and to induce Dampier to accompany 
 him to this station, and take charge of the guns, 
 promised that a vessel should be purchased in which 
 he might realize his old scheme of going to Meangis 
 with the native prince, and establishing a commerce in 
 cloves and gold. Being afterwards unable to fulfil this 
 promise, Moody not only released his friend from the 
 engagement to serve at Indrapoor, but presented him 
 with a half-share of the " painted prince," leaving him 
 meanwhile under his charge. As Prince Jeoly was the 
 first tattooed man ever seen in Europe, the account 
 given of him by Dampier is still curious. The islands 
 from which he came lay about twenty leagues from 
 Mindanao, bearing south-east. They were three in 
 number, small but fertile, and abounding, according to 
 the report of the prince, in gold. The abundance of 
 cloves and spice Jeoly, using a common Oriental figure, 
 described by showing the hairs of his head. His father 
 was rajah of the island on which they lived. On it 
 were about thirty men and a hundred women, of whom 
 five were Jeoly's wives. By one of his wives he had 
 been "painted." He was tattooed down the breast, 
 between the shoulders, and on the thighs ; and also 
 round the arms and legs in the form of broad rings
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 417 
 
 and bracelets. The figures Dampier could not compare 
 to either the outline of animals or plants } but they 
 were full of ingenious flourishes, and showed a variety 
 of lines and checkered work in intricate figures. Upon 
 the shoulder-blades the lines and pattern were pecu- 
 liarly elegant. Most of the men and women of Jeoly's 
 island were thus " painted." They wore gold bracelets 
 and anklets, had canoes, and lived upon potatoes, yams, 
 fruits, and fish. They had also plenty of fowls. His 
 native language was quite different from the Malayan, 
 which he had acquired during his slavery. In passing 
 with some of his relations from one island to another, 
 their canoe had been driven by a violent tempest to- 
 wards the coast of Mindanao, and they were all made 
 prisoners by the Mindanaian fishermen, who stripped 
 them of their golden ornaments, and sold them for 
 slaves. 
 
 With his situation at the fort of Bencoolen Dampier 
 found much reason to be dissatisfied, though the 
 character of the governor was his principal grievance. 
 But besides his disgust with this official, from whose 
 treatment of others Dampier drew no favourable 
 augury for himself, he began strongly to experience 
 the stirrings of that longing after his native country 
 to which every wanderer is at last subjected ; and 
 though his pecuniary affairs were in greater disorder 
 than on the day he embarked with the buccaneers, and 
 he had been glad to earn two dollars, his sole treasure, 
 by teaching plain sailing to the lads of Weldon's ship, 
 
 (829) 27
 
 418 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 he sanguinely promised himself a fortune from Prince 
 Jeoly, and hoped that in England he might be able to 
 obtain a ship to carry back the chief to his native isl- 
 and, where, thus introduced, he could not fail to estab- 
 lish a lucrative trade in gold and spices. Mr. Moody 
 had meanwhile disposed of the share which he retained 
 of the unfortunate captive to the mate of an India 
 ship bound for England, and with this vessel Dampier 
 wished to return home himself, though the capricious 
 and tyrannical governor, who had at first consented 
 to his departure, at the time of the ship's sailing re- 
 voked the permission, nor yielded to any entreaties, 
 though the captain and others importuned him to let 
 the long-absent wanderer return to his country. The 
 day before the ship sailed Dampier crept at midnight 
 through a port-hole of the fort, abandoning all his 
 property, save his journal and manuscripts, for the 
 chance of freedom and of reaching home. The mate of 
 the ship, his new partner in Jeoly, by previous agree- 
 ment waited for him with a boat, and kept him con- 
 cealed on board till the vessel sailed, which it did on 
 the 25th January 1691. 
 
 The voyage, from the illness of the crew, proved 
 tedious and troublesome, but it was completed at last ; 
 though the same bad fortune which had attended 
 Dampier at so many turns of life deprived him of all 
 advantage from bringing home Jeoly. He arrived in 
 the Thames in utter poverty, and was compelled by 
 necessity to sell his share of "the painted prince;"
 
 CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 419 
 
 thus for ever renouncing the romantic project of cany- 
 ing him back to Meangis, which poor Jeoly was des- 
 tined never again to revisit. After being seen by many 
 " eminent persons," he caught the smallpox at Oxford, 
 and died. 
 
 Of Dampier at this time we hear no more. The 
 narrative of his eight years' ramble round the globe 
 breaks off abruptly by saying, " We luffed in for the 
 Downs, where we anchored September 16th, 1691." 
 
 All that can now be learned all, perhaps, that is 
 desirable or important is, that in the following year 
 Dampier published his " New Voyage round the 
 World," and afterwards a Supplement, which he en- 
 titled "Voyages and Descriptions." The work was 
 dedicated to Charles Montague, Esquire, President of 
 the Royal Society, and a Commissioner of the Treasury, 
 with whom it appears he had no previous acquaintance. 
 Its intrinsic merits, the charm of the narrative, and the 
 style, soon brought the author into notice, and the 
 work ran rapidly through several editions, and was 
 translated into French and Dutch. Among other dis- 
 tinctions, Captain Lemuel Gulliver, at that period a 
 navigator of very great celebrity, hailed Dampier, from 
 whom he borrowed many hints, as " Cousin."
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 IN 1699, the country being in profound peace, an 
 expedition of discovery, highly honourable to the royal 
 projector, was ordered by William III., the conduct of 
 which the Earl of Pembroke, who was then at the head 
 of the Admiralty, committed to Dampier, who was re- 
 commended solely by his qualifications as a seaman, 
 his large experience, and evident capacity. The coun- 
 tries which he was particularly recommended to 
 examine in this voyage were New Holland and New 
 Guinea. 
 
 The vessel in which Dampier undertook the voyage 
 to New Holland was a king's ship named the Roebuck, 
 old and crazy before she left the port. She carried 
 twelve guns, and a crew of fifty men and boys, with 
 provisions for twenty months, and the equipments 
 necessary to the accomplishment of a voyage under- 
 taken for the future promotion of traffic, but of which 
 the immediate object was discovery. Dampier, who 
 had always been fond of natural history, at this time 
 carried a draftsman with him. The Roebuck left the
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 421 
 
 Downs on the 14th January 1699, and proceeded pros- 
 perously to the Cape de Verd Islands, and afterwards 
 to the coast of Brazil, where Dampier thought it neces- 
 sary to put into some port, as he intended at the next 
 stretch at once to reach New Holland. On the 25th 
 March they anchored at Bahia de todos los Santos, 
 where thirty large European vessels then lay, besides 
 other ships and a multitude of craft. The governor 
 was named Don John de Lancaster, and, claiming to be 
 of high English extraction, was exceedingly courteous 
 to the countrymen of his ancestors. 
 
 They sailed on the 23rd April, and on the following 
 days caught small sharks, which they cooked in the 
 buccaneer fashion, and called good fish. On their way 
 to the Cape of Good Hope they saw nothing more 
 remarkable than the carcass of a whale, about which 
 hovered " millions " of sea-fowl, darkening the air far 
 around. They also saw the stormy petrel, a bird 
 resembling a swallow, but smaller, and which skims 
 like a swallow. Seamen, naturalists say most unjustly, 
 call them foul-weather birds, and at all times dislike 
 their appearance. " In a storm they will hover under 
 the ship's stern, in the wake or smoothness which the 
 ship's passing has made on the sea ; and there, as they 
 fly gently, they pat the water alternately with their 
 feet, as if they walked upon it, though still on the 
 wing. Hence the seamen gave them their name, from 
 Peter walking on the Lake of Gennesareth." 
 
 The voyage proceeded favourably. On 4th July
 
 422 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 they frequently made soundings, and ninety leagues 
 from New Holland often saw whales, and at thirty 
 leagues bones of the scuttle-fish floating, and also sea- 
 weed. They were now close upon the western coast 
 of New Holland, and constantly sounded. On the 
 morning of the 1st August they descried land at the 
 distance of six leagues, but were unable to find a safe 
 harbour, and from foul weather were compelled to 
 stand off till the 5th, when they again approached the 
 same coast. Next morning they ran into an opening, 
 keeping a boat sounding before the ship, and anchored 
 at two miles from the shore, in the harbour named 
 Dirk Hartog's Reede, from the first discoverer, who in 
 1616 had anchored here. To this bay Dampier gave 
 the name of Sharks' Bay. He lays it down as in 25 
 S. at the mouth. 
 
 The land here is rather high, and from sea appears 
 level, but is found to be gently undulating. On the 
 open coast the shore is bluff ; but in the bay the land 
 is low, and the soil sandy, producing a species of 
 samphire. " Farther in " (we now adopt Dampier 's 
 description) " it is a reddish mould, a sort of sand pro- 
 ducing grass, plants, and shrubs. Of trees and shrubs 
 are various sorts, but none above ten feet high. Some 
 of the trees were sweet-scented, and reddish within the 
 bark like sassafras, but redder. The blossoms of the dif- 
 ferent sorts of trees were of several colours, but mostly 
 blue, and smelt very sweet and fragrant. There were 
 also beautiful and fragrant flowers growing on the
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 423 
 
 ground, unlike any I had ever seen elsewhere." There 
 were eagles, but no other large birds; and of small 
 singing-birds great variety, with fine shrill notes. Be- 
 sides the ordinary sea-birds there were many strange 
 kinds, quite new to the voyager. The kangaroo he 
 describes as a sort of racoon, differing from those of 
 the West Indies chiefly in the legs ; what he calls the 
 racoons of New Holland having very short fore-legs, 
 with which they go jumping about. Of the iguanas 
 of this country Dampier gives a striking description. 
 They were inferior as food to those with which he had 
 been familiar in the West Indies and the South Sea, 
 and when killed and opened were very offensive in 
 smell. Nothing can be more loathsome and disgusting 
 than the picture Tie gives of this large species of lizard 
 (Scincus tropicurus). In Sharks' Bay, besides an 
 abundance of sharks, large green-turtle were found, 
 both of which furnished welcome refreshment to the 
 seamen. The fish were skate, rays, and other flat 
 kinds, with mussels, oysters, and small shell -fish. 
 " The shore was lined with strange and beautiful 
 shells." 
 
 They had anchored at three different places to search 
 for water; and on the llth, for this purpose, and also 
 to prosecute discovery, they stood further into the bay, 
 but, after several abortive attempts, again bore out to 
 sea, having previously scrubbed the ship. Sea-snakes 
 were seen of different kinds, one sort yellow with 
 brown spots, about four feet in length and of the
 
 424 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 thickness of a man's wrist, with a flat tail; another 
 kind smaller, shorter, and round, spotted black and 
 yellow. 
 
 It was the 14th August when they sailed out of this 
 bay or bight, and plied off and on northward, keeping 
 about six or seven leagues from the shore, and fre- 
 quently sounding. On the 15th they were in latitude 
 24 41' S. ; on the 16th in 23 22', "jogging on north- 
 ward," seeing in their progress many small dolphins 
 and whales, and abundance of scuttle-n'sh shells and 
 water-serpents. On the afternoon of the 18th, off a 
 shoal in 22 22", of which Dampier kept clear, numer- 
 ous whales were seen on all sides of the ship " blowing 
 and making a very dismal noise." When the Roebuck 
 got into deeper water these alarming fellow-voyagers 
 left her. 
 
 On the 20th they were carried out of sight of land, 
 which was recovered on the 21st, visible only from the 
 mast, bearing south-east by east, and appearing at the 
 distance of nine leagues like a bluff headland. Around 
 this place was an archipelago of islands, of good height, 
 which Dampier believed to be a range stretching from 
 east-north-east to west-south-west for about twenty 
 leagues, or probably to Sharks' Bay, and of considerable 
 depth, which he presumed might possibly afford a passage 
 to the great South Sea eastward. Next day he ran in 
 among these islands, the boat sounding before. The 
 water was of very unequal depth, and the arid appear- 
 ance of the shores and yellow rusty colour of the rocks
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 425 
 
 made them despair of finding water, though Dampier, 
 hoping that they might either discover a new channel 
 leading through to the mainland of New Holland or 
 find some sort of rich mineral or ambergris, for which 
 this was a favourable latitude, was unwilling to turn 
 back. The island near which he rode he named Rose- 
 mary Island, as a plant that seemed of that kind grew 
 here in abundance, but was destitute of smell. Two 
 kinds of beans were found ; the one growing on bushes, 
 the other on a creeping plant that ran along the ground. 
 Cormorants and gulls were seen, and a kind of white 
 parrot, which flew in large flocks. 
 
 They left this place on the 23rd, and for some time 
 coasted on with the land-breeze, having had, since 
 leaving Sharks' Bay, fine clear weather, which still 
 continued. Water-snakes, whales, noddies, and boobies 
 were seen. On the 27th and 28th they were out of 
 sight of land, which was recovered on the 30th in lati- 
 tude 18 21' S., great smokes being seen on the shore. 
 This night there was an eclipse of the moon. 
 
 Early next day an armed party of ten men landed 
 to search for water, carrying with them pickaxes and 
 shovels. Three tall black naked men were seen on the 
 beach, but they went away. The boat, lying at anchor 
 a little way out in the water to prevent seizure, was left 
 in the care of two sailors, while the rest of the party fol- 
 lowed the natives, who were soon joined by eight or nine 
 men. They stood posted on an eminence, from which, 
 however, they fled on the approach of the Englishmen.
 
 426 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 From this height the party descried a savanna 
 studded with what they at first fancied to be huts, but 
 discovered to be only rocks and no water near them. 
 They returned to the place at which they had landed, 
 and began to dig, but were menaced by another party 
 of natives collected on an adjoining height, who vocif- 
 erated with angry gestures, as if they ordered the 
 strangers to be gone. One of them at length ventured 
 to approach, and the rest followed at a cautious dis- 
 tance. Dampier went forward to meet them, making 
 signs of peace and friendship ; but the leader fled, and 
 the others kept aloof. The want of water made it 
 absolutely necessary to establish a communication with 
 the natives, whether by fair or violent means ; and an 
 attempt was made to catch some of them, a nimble 
 young man who was with Dampier trying to run them 
 down. As soon as he overtook them they faced about 
 and fought him ; and Dampier, who was himself as- 
 sailed, was compelled to fire off his musket in defence 
 of his man, who, though armed with a cutlass, was un- 
 able to beat back so many wooden lances. The first 
 shot, intended to scare but not to injure, was treated, 
 after a momentary alarm, with indifference or contempt. 
 They tossed up their arms, exclaiming, " Pooh, pooh, 
 pooh !" and pressed closer upon the seaman ; and Dam- 
 pier durst no longer withhold his fire. One native fell ; 
 his friends paused in alarm, and the young seaman 
 escaped. " I returned back," says Dampier, " with my 
 man, designing to attempt the natives no further, being
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 427 
 
 very sorry for what had happened." The young 
 Englishman was wounded in the cheek by a lance. 
 Among the attacking party there was one young man 
 who, from his appearance and dignity of demeanour, 
 was imagined a chief or leader. Yet this impression 
 was given by something distinct from either height of 
 stature or personal beauty ; for the New Hollander was 
 neither so tall nor well-made as some of the others, but 
 " a brisk young man," active and courageous. He was 
 the only one of the group that was painted. A circle 
 drawn with some sort of white pigment surrounded 
 each of his eyes, and a white streak reached from the 
 forehead to the tip of the nose. His breast and part 
 of his arms were also stained, " not for beauty or orna- 
 ment," it was very rationally concluded, " but that he 
 seemed thereby to design the looking more terrible, 
 this his painting adding very much to his natural de- 
 formity." Dampier imagined these New Hollanders 
 to be of the same nation with those he had seen when 
 the Cygnet had touched on this coast. " They were the 
 same blinking creatures," he says, " with the most un- 
 pleasant looks and worst features of any people I had 
 ever seen." He did not get near enough to discover if 
 this tribe also wanted the two fore-teeth, as that tribe 
 did. By the old fire-places quantities of shells were 
 found of the kinds of shell-fish on which the other 
 island-tribe lived; and their lances were similar in 
 shape. The general features of the country at the 
 places visited on this coast were the same as those
 
 428 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 already described low, with chains of sand-hills, the 
 land round the shore dry and sandy, bearing many 
 shrubs with beautiful blossoms of various colours and 
 of delicate fragrance. Farther on, the land was mixed 
 woodland and savanna. The plains were studded 
 with detached rocks resembling haycocks at a distance, 
 some red and others white. By subsequent voyagers 
 these have been taken for large ant-hillocks. Some 
 animals were seen resembling hungry wolves, lean as 
 skeletons. 
 
 Brackish water was at last obtained, which was 
 employed to boil the oatmeal, in order to save what 
 remained in the casks. Our navigator on the 5th Sep- 
 tember left this arid and sterile coast ; on the 7th, in 
 latitude 16 9' S., and out of sight of land, stood out to 
 sea; and on the 8th, in 15 37', shaped his course for 
 the island of Timor. On the 22nd he came to anchor 
 in Coepang Bay, near the Dutch fort Concordia, but 
 afterwards went to Laphao, a Portuguese settlement 
 on the opposite side of the island. 
 
 After resting and refitting at this fine island, the 
 voyage was prosecuted to New Guinea. The Roebuck 
 sailed on the 20th December ; and on the 1st January 
 1700, they descried the western coast of this country 
 high level land covered with thriving trees. Near the 
 land they were assailed by tornadoes, and black clouds 
 hovered over it, while at sea the weather was clear and 
 settled. On the 7th they landed, caught at one haul 
 above three hundred mackerel, and next day anchored
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 429 
 
 in the mouth of a river, where they took in water. 
 Fruits of unknown kinds were brought on board by 
 the pinnace ; and one of the men shot a stately land- 
 fowl about the size of the dunghill cock, sky-coloured, 
 but with a white blotch and reddish spots about the 
 wings, and a long bunch of feathers on the crown. 
 From Freshwater Bay, which they named this place, 
 they sailed out by White Island, which was in 3 4' S., 
 and is distinguished by white cliffs. The Roebuck beat 
 up to the northward against currents and adverse winds, 
 and passed many islets and dangerous shoals, occasion- 
 ally anchoring to obtain wood and water. At an island 
 named by the natives Sabuda, in 2 43' S., Dampier 
 found a tawny race closely resembling his old friends 
 at Mindanao. Negroes were also seen here, of the 
 curly-haired blacks which had originally obtained for 
 this country the name of New Guinea. Some of these 
 Oceanic negroes appeared to be slaves of the yellow or 
 Malay race. The weapons were the same as in Min- 
 danao, the lances pointed with bone. These inlanders 
 had a very ingenious way of making the fish rise. A 
 block of wood carved like a dolphin was let down into 
 the water by a line, to which a weight was attached in 
 order to sink it. When they had waited the effect of 
 their stratagem, the decoy was rapidly raised by the 
 line, the fish followed it, and the strikers stood ready 
 prepared. 
 
 Still plying northward, on the 4th February they 
 reached the north-west cape of New Guinea, called by
 
 430 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 the Dutch Cape Mabo. A small wooded island lies off 
 the cape, and to the north and north-east islets are 
 numerous. The land is generally high, and covered 
 with tall healthy timber. Near one of these islands, 
 which, from the enormous size of the cockles found at 
 it, he named Cockle Island, Dampier had almost run 
 upon a shoal, but got off; and coming to anchor, de- 
 spatched the boats to the island, from whence pigeons 
 were brought, and cockles of the moderate weight of ten 
 pounds. The shell alone of one formerly found weighed 
 fifty-eight pounds. Bats of the large kind were seen 
 here. 
 
 The Roebuck stood onward four or five leagues, 
 shaping her course to the east, and at a small wooded 
 island found ordinary-sized cockles in prodigious abun- 
 dance, and numerous pigeons. On the 7th they anchored 
 at an island finely wooded with tall "straight trees 
 fit for any use," which Dampier loyally named King 
 William's Island. From the time of passing Cape 
 Mabo till the 12th, the Roebuck, owing to easterly 
 winds, had not advanced above thirty leagues to the 
 eastward. When they got to 2 S. the easterly winds 
 increased, and, as they approached the Equinoctial, 
 hung still more easterly. On the afternoon of the 12th 
 the wind shifted to a more favourable point, with heavy 
 rain, which continued for some days. They descried, 
 at the distance of six leagues from the shore, two head- 
 lands about twenty miles apart, one to the east, the 
 other to the west. The last they named the Cape of
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 431 
 
 Good Hope. On the morning of the 15th they were 
 in danger of running upon an island not laid down in 
 their charts, which Dampier, in commemoration of the 
 escape, named Providence Island. Large trees and logs 
 were this day seen floating, which Dampier concluded 
 had come out of some of the rivers of New Guinea. 
 On the 16th they crossed the Line. The Roebuck was 
 steered for an island seen on the 25th at the distance 
 of fifteen leagues, supposed to be that called Vischer's 
 Island by the Dutch ; but as it was to him unknown 
 land, Dampier named it Matthias Island. It was about 
 ten leagues long, hilly and wooded, but intersected by 
 savannas and open places. Another island low, level 
 land, seven or eight leagues to the eastward of this 
 was named Squally Island, as they here encountered 
 tornadoes so violent and frequent that they durst not 
 venture to stand in. 
 
 Dampier afterwards stood for the mainland, encoun- 
 tering frequent and violent squalls, and steered for a 
 part of the coast where he saw many smokes arising. 
 The islands he had at first passed were those now 
 known as the Admiralty Islands. His course had lain 
 to the northward of them. 
 
 The land he approached was mountainous and well- 
 wooded, with large plantations and cleared patches 
 lying on the hill-sides. The discoverer wished to have 
 some intercourse with the natives here, and was glad 
 to see boats and proas come off in great numbers. 
 They approached near enough to make signs and to be
 
 432 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 heard, but their language was totally unknown to the 
 voyagers. They could not be induced to approach the 
 ship any closer not even by the allurement of beads, 
 knives, or glasses, though some beads floated to them 
 in a bottle were readily picked up, and they seemed 
 pleased with the gift. They often struck their left 
 breast with the right hand, and held a black truncheon 
 over their heads, as if in token of friendship. It was 
 impossible, from the state of the current, to get the ship 
 into the bay to which the natives pointed ; and when 
 she wore off, they appeared angry, though they still 
 followed in their proas, which were now increased to a 
 formidable fleet. The bays were also lined with men. 
 The crew got ready their small-arms; and when the 
 ship fairly stood out, the natives became so ill-pleased 
 that they launched showers of stones after her from 
 slings. One gun was tired off, and some of the slingers 
 were conjectured to be killed or wounded. Dampier 
 named this place Slingers' Bay. 
 
 Next day the Roebuck passed an island where smokes 
 were seen and men in the bays, who followed in three 
 canoes, but could not overtake the ship. This island is 
 the Gerrit Denys or Gerard Dynas of the Dutch. It is 
 high, mountainous, and wooded. The hill-sides were 
 covered with plantations, and in the sheltered bays 
 there were cocoa-nut trees. It seemed very populous ; 
 the natives were black, with crisp hair, which they 
 shaved in different figures, and dyed of various hues. 
 They were strong and well-limbed, with broad round
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 433 
 
 faces and large flat noses ; yet the expression of their 
 countenance, when not disfigured by their singular 
 taste in ornament, was not unpleasant. Besides being 
 painted, they wore some kind of ornament through 
 their noses, about four inches long, and as thick as a 
 man's thumb. Their ears were perforated with large 
 holes rilled with similar decorations. The weapons 
 seen were swords, lances, slings, bows and arrows. The 
 proas were ingeniously built, and ornamented with 
 carved figures, though they had neither sail nor anchor, 
 and the natives were expert and fearless in managing 
 them. Their language was clear and distinct. The 
 black truncheon, used as at Slingers' Bay, or a fresh - 
 gathered leafy bough, was their symbol of friendship. 
 These they placed upon their heads, to which they 
 often lifted their hands. 
 
 Dampier next day reached Anthony Kaan's Island, 
 which in its external features and social condition 
 closely resembled the neighbouring group. It lies in 
 3 25" S. As the Roebuck held along the coast, other 
 natives approached; and three ventured on board, to 
 whom the captain gave a knife, a looking-glass, and 
 beads, showing them pumpkins and cocoa-nut shells, 
 and by signs requesting them to bring similar things 
 to the ship. They understood this language, and out 
 of one of the canoes took three cocoa-nuts, which they 
 presented to him. When nutmegs and gold-dust were 
 shown them, they appeared to intimate that such 
 things were to be obtained on their island. The na- 
 
 (829) 28
 
 434 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 tives here, like those already seen, were black, tall, 
 strong, and well made, with crisp hair, and their nose 
 and ears were ornamented in the same fashion as those 
 seen the former day. 
 
 Dampier's next stage was St. John's, an island about 
 ten leagues long, abounding in plantations and cocoa- 
 nut trees, with groves of palms by the shores and in the 
 bays. All these islands appeared so populous that the 
 navigator feared to send a party on shore for wood or 
 water, unless he could have found anchoring ground 
 where the ship might have been brought up to protect 
 them, and he now again stood for the mainland of New 
 Guinea to supply his wants. On the 8th he approached 
 the coast so near that smokes were seen, with the land 
 high and wooded, and thinly interspersed with savan- 
 nas. Canoes came off to the ship, in which were 
 natives exactly resembling those they had last seen. 
 A headland lay to the south, in latitude 5 5' S., from 
 which point Dampier concluded that the shore trended 
 to the westward, as no land was seen beyond it. This 
 headland he named Cape St. George, the meridian dis- 
 tance of which from Cape Mabo is twelve hundred and 
 ninety miles. An island off this cape he named St. 
 George's Island, and the bay between it and the west 
 point St. George's Bay. Great quantities of smoke 
 arose in sight, and next day a volcano was discovered 
 burning. The south-west cape of the bay Dampier 
 named Cape Orford, in compliment to his noble patron. 
 It is a bluff point, of medium height, and flat at the
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 435 
 
 top. In advancing on the 14th, a cluster of islands 
 were seen in a bay in which Darapier hoped to find 
 anchorage. He ran in, and saw smokes, and, having 
 got up with the point of the bay, houses, plantations, 
 and cocoa-nut trees. He approached within a few 
 miles of the shore, and several proas, with about forty 
 men, came out to view the ship, but would not venture 
 on board. The ship now lay becalmed, and as other 
 proas full of men approached from different points, one 
 of them of very large size, the commander became un- 
 easy. He made the first party signs to return to the 
 shore ; but they either could not understand or would 
 not obey, and he "whistled a shot over their heads," 
 which made them pull away. Two boats, which had 
 started from different points, intended, it was appre- 
 hended, to effect a junction and attack the ship. Of 
 these, one was a large boat, with a high head and stern, 
 painted, and full of men. At this formidable bark 
 Dampier fired another shot, which made it sheer off, 
 though it afterwards pulled but the more vigorously 
 to join the other advancing boat. To prevent this 
 junction, and overawe the natives in their suspected 
 design, the gunner was directed to fire a shot between 
 these boats as they approached each other; which he 
 did with so true an aim, using round and partridge 
 shot, that they instantly separated and made for the 
 shore with all speed. The Roebuck, which had been 
 for a short time becalmed, bore after them into the bay 
 with a gentle favouring breeze ; and when it reached
 
 436 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 the point, a great many men were seen lurking about 
 the rocks and peeping out. Another shot was fired 
 against the point, as a necessary measure of intimida- 
 tion. The shot grazed between the ship and the point, 
 flew over it, and grazed a second time very near the 
 ambushed party. A number of the natives were still 
 seen sitting under the cocoa trees, whom Dampier, who 
 knew the people here to be inhospitable, distrustful, 
 and treacherous (a character which the Oceanic negroes 
 had obtained from all previous navigators), deemed it 
 necessary to scare and disperse ; and a third gun was 
 fired among the wood, but over their heads, before the 
 boat was sent out to sound. The Roebuck followed the 
 boat, and found good anchorage at a quarter of a mile 
 from the shore, and opposite the mouth of a small 
 river, where they hoped to find water, the true and 
 only object of all this seeming harshness. A group 
 stationed on a small point at the river's mouth was 
 scattered by the former means, though this shot and 
 all that were fired were aimed aside and harmless. 
 The seamen then rowed for the shore, and before they 
 landed, the Indians rushed into the water, and placed 
 cocoa-nuts in their boat as a present or a propitiatory 
 offering. 
 
 Water was obtained one boat's crew keeping watch 
 while the other filled the casks and an attempt was 
 made to commence a trade by exchanging axes and 
 hatchets for yams, potatoes, and other articles. The 
 natives were not insensible to the value of the goods
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 437 
 
 offered in exchange, but they would part with nothing 
 save cocoa-nuts, which they climbed the trees to gather, 
 and gave to the seamen, at the same time making signs 
 to them to be gone. 
 
 Having obtained a tolerable quantity of both wood 
 and water, Dampier held a consultation with his officers 
 on the propriety of putting to sea, or of remaining here 
 some time longer, to fish, and endeavour to obtain hogs, 
 goats, yams, and whatever refreshments the place 
 afforded. It was agreed to remain. While the men 
 were employed in cutting wood, a party of about forty 
 natives, men and women, passed near them. They at 
 first appeared frightened, but were somewhat reassured 
 by the signs of friendship made by the sailors, and 
 passed quietly on. The men were finely bedecked with 
 feathers of gay colours stuck in their hair, and carried 
 lances ; while the women trudged behind totally naked, 
 save for a few green boughs stuck into the string tied 
 round their waists. On their heads they carried large 
 baskets full of yams. "And this," says Dampier, "I 
 have observed of all savages I have known that they 
 make their women carry the burdens, while the men 
 walk before without any other load than their arms 
 and ornaments." 
 
 When the boats went next ashore, some of the sea- 
 men entered the dwellings of the natives, who, instead 
 of becoming more familiar on further acquaintance, got 
 more and more shy and distrustful. They had now 
 gathered all the cocoas, and driven away their hogs to
 
 438 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 a place in the bottom of the bay. Dampier himself 
 landed, carrying with him articles proper for presents 
 and trade; but he was unable to inspire the natives 
 with any degree of confidence. Few of them ap- 
 proached him, and those with reluctance ; and a promise 
 which an Indian made of bringing cocoa-nuts was prob- 
 ably never intended to be kept. He visited three dif- 
 ferent villages, and uniformly found the huts abandoned 
 and the furniture and live-stock carried off. When 
 Captain Dampier returned to the ship, he found all the 
 officers and men most importunate to obtain his per- 
 mission to visit the place whither the hogs had been 
 driven. They extorted a reluctant consent, and de- 
 parted, furnished with commodities for traffic, strictly 
 enjoined to deal fairly with the natives, and for their 
 own security to act with caution. The bay was two 
 miles distant, and Dampier, who had great misgivings 
 of the consequences of the enterprise, prepared, in case 
 of the worst, to assist them with the ship's guns, as the 
 natives were now seen assembling on the shore in large 
 groups, prepared to resist the landing, shaking their 
 lances and using threatening gestures. The English 
 displayed their tempting wares, and made signs which 
 were disregarded by the natives, some of whom plunged 
 into the sea with their lances and targets to commence 
 the attack. But the seamen were resolved in every 
 event to obtain provisions ; and since fair means were 
 repulsed, they made no scruple at using violence and 
 severity. The first fire of the muskets made the greater
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 439 
 
 part of the warriors run off, though a few stood with 
 great resolution, still in the attitude of repelling the 
 landing. The boldest at last dropped his target it 
 was conjectured that he was hit in the arm and the 
 whole took to flight. Dampier acknowledges that 
 "some felt the smart of our bullets, but none were 
 killed; our design being rather to fright than to kill 
 them." The seamen shot nine hogs, besides wounding 
 many that escaped, and in the evening made a second 
 trip and brought off eight more. As a sort of compen- 
 sation for the injury done, Dampier sent a captured 
 canoe back to the shore, and deposited in it two axes, 
 two hatchets, six knives, six looking-glasses, four bottles, 
 and a quantity of beads. 
 
 This bay, in 6 10' S., and one hundred and fifty-one 
 miles west of Cape St. George, Dampier named Port 
 Montague, in honour of the President of the Eoyal 
 Society. Of the appearance and nature of the coun- 
 try here he makes a very favourable report. "It is 
 mountainous and wooded, with rich valleys and pleasant 
 fresh-water brooks." The rivers abounded in fish; 
 cocoa-nut trees sprung and throve on every island, and 
 many fruits of unknown kinds were seen. Ginger was 
 among the spontaneous productions. 
 
 The Roebuck was now well supplied with wood and 
 water, and the hogs had been salted as soon as brought 
 on board. On the 22nd March they left Port Mon- 
 tague, and on the 24th, in the evening, saw high land 
 bearing north-west, "half -west, and no land visible
 
 440 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 more to the west." They steered west -north -west, 
 coasting along under easy sail, and at two o'clock saw 
 a pillar of fire. At daylight this was discovered to be 
 a burning island, for which they bore, seeing many 
 other islands, two of them pretty high. They passed 
 through a channel about five leagues broad, lying be- 
 tween the Burning Island and the mainland. All the 
 night of the 25th, being still in this strait, they saw 
 the volcano, "which," Dainpier relates, "vomited fire 
 and smoke very amazingly." 
 
 On the night of the 26th the Roebuck had shot to 
 the westward of the Burning Island, whence the fire 
 could no longer be seen, the crater lying on its south 
 side. This volcano lies at meridian distance three hun- 
 dred and thirty-two miles west from Cape St. George. 
 And now Dampier had attained an important stage in 
 his voyage of discovery. " The easternmost part," he 
 says, " of New Guinea lies forty miles to the westward 
 of this tract of land, and by hydrographers they are 
 made joining together." This he found to be a mis- 
 take, and discovered that it was a channel he had 
 passed through here, in which were many islands. Be- 
 fore entering this strait, he named the promontory on 
 the north-east of this coast part of what was then all 
 named New Guinea King William's Cape. It is high 
 and mountainous. Smokes were seen upon it. Leav- 
 ing it upon the larboard side, the Roebuck bore away 
 close upon the east land, which ends with two remark- 
 able capes, distant from each other about six leagues,
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 441 
 
 with two fine and very high mountains rising from the 
 sea within these headlands. The country appeared 
 finely mingled with woodland and savanna, as smooth 
 and verdant as an English meadow. Smokes were 
 again seen; but Dampier, who wished to repair his 
 pinnace, which was so crazy as to be unserviceable, 
 chose rather to anchor near an uninhabited than a 
 peopled island, as he wished to avoid the natives. He 
 stood over to the islands, and kept a look-out for land 
 to the north, but saw none. The navigator was now 
 assured that he had passed through a strait, and that 
 this eastern land did not join the mainland of New 
 Guinea. He named this island, which he had now 
 nearly circumnavigated, Nova Britannia, the north- 
 west point of the strait Cape Gloucester, and the south- 
 west Cape Anne. The mountain most to the north- 
 west of the two which rose between those headlands, 
 being very remarkable in appearance, the discoverer 
 chose to give it also a name, and called it Mount 
 Gloucester. 
 
 The passage thus discovered is now known in geo- 
 graphy as Dampier's Strait. The island of Nova Bri- 
 tannia, in productions and inhabitants, resembled New 
 Guinea. The people were negroes, strong-limbed, bold, 
 and daring. They had been closely observed at Port 
 Montague, and the remarks made on them there applied 
 with equal propriety to the few that were afterwards 
 seen. 
 
 Advancing in his course, Dampier fell in with several
 
 442 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 islands. One eleven leagues in length he named Sir 
 George Rooke's Island. On the 31st he shot in between 
 two islands, the southernmost long, with a hill at 
 each end. This he named Long Island. The one to 
 the north was named Crown Island, from its eminences. 
 Both were pleasant, and seemed fertile, savanna and 
 woodland interspersed, the trees green and flourishing, 
 and many of them covered with white blossoms. Cocoa- 
 nut trees were frequent in the bays of that island 
 which from its conformation Dampier named Crown 
 Island. It was believed to be inhabited, but thinly. 
 A boat was seen, which just peeped forth from the 
 shore of this island, and drew back ; but neither planta- 
 tions nor smokes were discovered. In the afternoon of 
 the 31st another island was seen bearing north-west by 
 west ; and next morning, the ship having steered away 
 north-west to get to the northward of it, lay about mid- 
 way between it and Crown and Long Islands. The 
 mainland of New Guinea, lying to the southward, was 
 seen rising very high. From this new island, which 
 the navigator named Sir R. Rich's Island, four canoes 
 came off, which from a distance reconnoitred the ship. 
 One advanced within call, but when invited the men 
 would not approach closer. The Roebuck bore onward 
 and discovered four more islands, and land to the south- 
 ward, which might either be another island or part of 
 the mainland of New Guinea. These islands were 
 generally high, full of trees, mixed with clear spots; 
 all, even the Burning Island, were fertile. On the 2nd
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 443 
 
 April they passed by its north side, and saw that the 
 land near the sea was rich, and good for two-thirds of 
 the height of the mountains. Among this group of 
 islands three small vessels with sails were seen, though 
 the inhabitants of Nova Britannia appeared quite un- 
 acquainted with the use of sails. Another island was 
 descried that sent forth smoke, which, however, soon 
 dispersed. This is presumed to have been the Bran- 
 dende Berg of Schouten. Different observations made 
 at this time showed a variation in the ship's reckoning, 
 for which the navigator was at a loss to account. On 
 the 14th April they passed Schouten's Island, and on 
 the 17th observed a volcano on the mainland, which had 
 either not been smoking or had been passed unnoticed 
 when they sailed round King William's Island. This 
 island, discovered in passing round about two months 
 before, was seen in the same afternoon, and they 
 crowded sail to reach it before dark. But the wind 
 fell, and they were becalmed within two miles of the 
 shore. The night was one of bright moonlight, and a 
 delightful fragrance was wafted from the island to the 
 ship. Next morning they were becalmed two leagues 
 to the westward of the island, and met such whirling 
 tides that the ship refused to obey the helm, and fre- 
 quently turned round in the whirlpools. A gale for- 
 tunately sprung up and carried her off. 
 
 The voyage was prosecuted to the island of Ceram, 
 which they reached on the 26th April. Here they 
 obtained a supply of rice from a Dutch vessel, and
 
 444 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 next went to Timor, from whence Dampier intended 
 once more to attempt New Holland in about 20. 
 Here he found soundings at forty fathoms, but did not 
 see the land, and steered westward to search for the 
 Trial Rocks,* which were supposed to lie in this paral- 
 lel, and about eighty leagues westward of the coast. 
 But Captain Dampier was sick and unable to maintain 
 perpetual watch himself, and the officers were inefficient 
 and careless, so that this important point was not ascer- 
 tained ; nor could more be attempted at this time for 
 purposes of discovery, many of the crew being affected 
 with scurvy, and the ship hardly seaworthy. The 
 Roebuck accordingly sailed for Java, and on the 3rd 
 July anchored in the road of Batavia, where Dampier 
 supported the dignity of his mission by making the 
 only English vessel found in the harbour strike her 
 pendant. On the 17th October they sailed for Europe, 
 and without any remarkable adventure, having touched 
 at the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena, approached 
 the island of Ascension on the 21st February, and 
 stood in for it, now reckoning themselves almost at 
 home. On the evening of the 22nd the ship, old and 
 damaged before the voyage had commenced, sprung a 
 leak, and it was with difficulty that the pumps kept 
 her afloat till daylight, when they made for the bay 
 and came to anchor. Every exertion was made to stop 
 the leak and save the ship, while the pumps were kept 
 
 * So named from an English ship called the Trial baring been wrecked upon 
 them many years before Dampier's voyage.
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 445 
 
 hard at work. The carpenters showed great want of 
 judgment, if not want of skill in their business, and in 
 spite of all the ingenious contrivances resorted to by 
 Dampier, their improvidence and the damaged condi- 
 tion of the ship rendered every effort abortive. Dam- 
 pier remained on board till the very last. He had to 
 regret the loss of many of his books and papers, and a 
 collection of shells gathered at New Holland. The 
 plants he contrived to save. The condition of the 
 party was more fortunate than that which generally 
 falls to the lot of shipwrecked seamen. They were 
 most happy to discover a spring of good water, though 
 eight miles distant from their tents and across a very 
 high mountain, and Dampier thankfully relates that 
 " they were now by God's providence in a condition to 
 subsist for some time, having plenty of good turtle by 
 their tents, and water for the fetching." Here Dam- 
 pier and his company remained for about five weeks. 
 During that time they had seen several ships and fleets 
 pass ; but none touched till the 2nd April, when an 
 Indiaman and three English ships of war came into the 
 bay. Dampier went on board one of them with thirty- 
 five of his men, and the rest of the crew were accom- 
 modated in the other vessels. 
 
 Though the purpose of his voyage had been accom- 
 plished, and though many important additions were 
 made by it to geography, the loss of the ship and of 
 his papers depressed the spirits of the navigator, and 
 but too probably lessened his merit with those fortu-
 
 446 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 nate persons in high places who rarely judge of any 
 undertaking save by its apparent success. He was 
 now to suffer for the ignorance or mistaken economy 
 of those who, projecting a voyage of discovery distant 
 and perilous, imagined that it might be accomplished 
 by a useless crazy ship unfit for what was considered 
 better service. The marvel was that it had not foun- 
 dered long before. 
 
 It is to be feared that neither rewards nor even 
 soothing promises awaited the return of Dampier from 
 his public enterprise. His original patron, or at least 
 the person who officially gave him his appointment to 
 the Roebuck, no longer presided at the Admiralty. To 
 this nobleman, the Earl of Pembroke, he, however, in- 
 scribed his relation of the VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 About his own private affairs, and his personal feel- 
 ings, Dampier is at all times modest and reserved, and 
 we can only surmise his disappointment from an inci- 
 dental remark into which he is betrayed in the dedica- 
 tion of his history of that voyage, which ought to have 
 been regarded from the first as useful to science and 
 honourable to the navigator. "The world," he says, 
 " is apt to judge of everything by success, in so much 
 that whoever has ill-fortune will hardly be allowed a 
 good name." " Such," he continues, " was my unhappi- 
 ness in my late expedition in the Roebuck, which foun- 
 dered through perfect age, though I comfort myself 
 with the thoughts that no neglect can be charged 
 against me." Justly, no neglect could be charged
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 447 
 
 against him. On the contrary, he was entitled by his 
 conduct of this voyage, independently of his other 
 merits, to future employment ; but we hear no more of 
 Captain Dampier in the public service. His voyage in 
 the Roebuck is the last of his published writings, and 
 the history of the remainder of his eventful life, which 
 we gather from others, as it is painful, may be brief. 
 
 Captain Dampier had not been long at home when 
 the death of King William III. took place, and was 
 followed by the war of the Succession. Among the 
 private enterprises attending this war with France and 
 Spain was extensive privateering ; and he obtained the 
 command of the St. George and Cinque Ports, two ves- 
 sels equipped by a company of English merchants, and 
 intended to cruise against the Spaniards in the South 
 Seas. The St. George left the Downs in April 1703, 
 with Captain Dampier on board ; but it was September 
 before both vessels left Kinsale. The basis of the expe- 
 dition was the old buccaneer maxim, No prey, no pay, 
 a principle ill adapted to the maintenance of disci- 
 pline or order in a ship. In this voyage Dampier had 
 in view three special objects, namely, the capture of 
 the Spanish galleons that sailed from Buenos Ayres; 
 and, failing that, to pass the Strait of Magellan, or 
 double Cape Horn, and lie in wait for the ship that 
 carried gold from Baldivia to Lima ; or, finally, the oft- 
 attempted exploit of the seizure of the Manilla galleon. 
 The St. George carried twenty-six guns, and a crew of 
 one hundred and twenty.
 
 448 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 The character of Dampier has been subjected to 
 many rash and unfounded imputations drawn from 
 histories of this voyage published without his sanction. 
 The principal one, written by Funnel, who, till he de- 
 serted, sailed as Dampier's steward, is full of evident 
 misstatements regarding the navigation, as well as the 
 private transactions in the ship. So far as these mis- 
 representations regarded geographical and nautical facts, 
 Dampier afterwards corrected them, though he took 
 little notice of the allegations against himself, further 
 than in one or two instances to point out their glaring 
 falsehood. Before the voyage was well begun quarrels 
 broke out among these irresponsible officers, and some 
 of them quitted the ship ; while the commander, with- 
 out being invested with salutary power to restrain 
 them, was left to bear the blame of the misconduct of 
 the whole company. 
 
 The ships doubled Cape Horn, and reached Juan 
 Fernandez without any remarkable adventure. While 
 lying here a strange sail was seen, to which both ships 
 gave chase. She proved to be a French ship cruising 
 in these seas, and so strongly did the old buccaneer 
 associations influence Dampier, that he acknowledged 
 it was with reluctance he attacked a European vessel 
 of whatever nation. He, however, engaged, and after 
 a fight of seven hours, in which both ships suffered 
 considerably, they parted. 
 
 Before the proper latitude was reached, the Baldivia 
 treasure-ships had sailed. Though Dampier was the
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 449 
 
 nominal commander, Stradling, in the Cinque Ports, 
 acted independently ; and as they differed about their 
 future operations, the ships parted company. A design 
 to surprise Santa Maria in the Bay of Panama failed ; 
 and though Dampier captured a few small vessels, he 
 obtained no prize of any value. 
 
 While lying in the Gulf of Nicoya, the commander 
 and his chief mate, John Clipperton, quarrelled, and 
 the latter, with twenty-one of the crew, seized the ten- 
 der, in which were most of the ammunition and stores, 
 and put out to sea. It is alleged that Clipperton at this 
 time stole his commander's commission. No captain 
 ever sailed with a worse disposed and more turbulent 
 set of men and officers than those whom Dampier 
 now commanded. They had all the bad qualities of 
 buccaneers without their bravery, experience, and 
 hardihood. 
 
 The St. George bore northward, and on the 6th De- 
 cember, while only a short way beyond Port de Navidad, 
 descried a sail, which proved to be the Manilla galleon. 
 The Manilla ship had no suspicion of any enemy being 
 on this coast, and she received several broadsides from 
 the St. George before being cleared for action. Even 
 taken thus at disadvantage, when her guns, which were 
 of far heavier metal, were brought into play, they at 
 once drove in the rotten planks of the St. George, and 
 obliged Dampier to sheer off. The galleon also held on. 
 It is presumed that the number of her men quadrupled 
 those of the English ship, and her guns were eighteen 
 
 (829) 29
 
 450 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 and twenty -four pounders, while those of the St. 
 George were only five-pounders. 
 
 This proved a bitter disappointment, and the men 
 became more and more impatient to end so profitless 
 and fatiguing a voyage. In hopes of better fortune, 
 they were, however, induced to continue the cruise for 
 a few weeks longer on the coast of New Spain; but 
 this produced nothing, and it was agreed to part com- 
 pany. One party, instigated by Funnel, the mendacious 
 historian of the voyage, resolved to sail for India, and 
 by this route return home. A brigantine of seventy 
 tons which had been captured was given up to him 
 and the thirty-four men who chose to follow his coun- 
 sels ; and the stores, small-arms, and ammunition were 
 divided, four of the St. Georges guns being also given 
 to this party. Dampier's crew was thus left reduced 
 to twenty-nine. After refitting his crazy, disabled ship, 
 he returned to the coast of Peru. They plundered the 
 town of Puna, and cruised along till their ship was no 
 longer fit to keep the sea, when they abandoned her 
 riding at anchor at Lobos de la Mar, and, embarking 
 in a brigantine which they had captured from the 
 Spaniards, crossed the Pacific. 
 
 Of this voyage, and of the subsequent misfortunes of 
 Dampier in India, there remain no certain or distinct 
 accounts. It is, however, known that, not having a 
 commission to show, he was thrown into prison by the 
 Dutch. Before he obtained his freedom and got back 
 to England, Funnel, his unworthy subaltern, had re-
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 451 
 
 turned ; and a London bookseller, named Knapton, the 
 publisher of Dampier's former voyages, had been in- 
 duced by their popularity to print this person's narrative 
 of the voyage of the St. George, under the false title of 
 the fourth volume of the works of the celebrated navi- 
 gator. Dampier, on coming home, published a few 
 pages of explanation, entitled " Captain Dampier's Vin- 
 dication of his Voyage in the Ship St. George, with some 
 small Observations on Mr. Funnel's chimerical Rela- 
 tion." Funnel's account, however, as no other was ever 
 published, keeps its place as the history of this voyage, 
 though its palpable misrepresentations, and the bad and 
 malevolent spirit in which it is written, have drawn 
 upon the writer the reprobation of every lover of justice 
 and impartial inquirer after truth. 
 
 The fortunes of Dampier must have been at a very- 
 low ebb when he returned to England after this dis- 
 astrous voyage, and it is with pain we find this veteran 
 navigator, as much distinguished by superiority of 
 understanding as by nautical skill and experience, 
 obliged, in 1708, to act as a pilot under younger and 
 very inferior commanders. This, which was Dampier's 
 last voyage, again proved to be one round the world, 
 and was undertaken in the Duke and Duchess, two 
 privateers fitted out by several Bristol merchants. 
 
 Copious narratives of this voyage are written by the 
 commanders, Woodes Rogers and Cook ; but it is only 
 incidentally that we learn anything from them of their 
 distinguished pilot.
 
 452 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 At Juan Fernandez, Woodes Rogers, on this voyage, 
 brought off the celebrated Alexander Selkirk, who had 
 been left or rather abandoned here by Dampier's violent 
 and tyrannical consort, Captain Stradling, four years 
 previously. On the recommendation of Dampier, Sel- 
 kirk was made second mate of the Duke. 
 
 The cruise of the privateers was successful. At 
 Guayaquil, where Dampier commanded the artillery, 
 they obtained plunder to the value of 21,000, and 
 27,000 dollars as ransom of the town. They afterwards, 
 off Cape Lucas, captured a Manilla ship richly laden 
 with merchandise, and 12,000 in gold and silver. They 
 brought their prize into Puerto Segura, and prepared 
 to look for the richer and larger Manilla galleon ; 
 which they encountered, but, after a protracted and 
 severe engagement, were beaten off. In this fight the 
 Duchess alone lost twenty-five men. The natives of 
 Puerto Segura were blacker than any other people seen 
 in the South Sea by Woodes Rogers. They were of 
 disagreeable aspect ; their language harsh and guttural. 
 They carried bows six feet long, strung with the silk- 
 grass. Their arrows were of cane, tipped with flint or bone. 
 
 The privateers now turned their thoughts homeward, 
 and, keeping the usual track of the galleons, reached 
 Guahan on the 10th March, after a run of exactly two 
 months, and anchored under Spanish colours. Apart 
 from this venial deception, employed to facilitate the 
 purchase of supplies, the conduct of the English priv- 
 ateers was unexceptionable. They rested for ten days,
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 453 
 
 and made the north of Gilolo in about a month after- 
 wards. At Bouton they stopped to take in provisions 
 and water, and next sailed for Batavia, where they ex- 
 perienced those noxious effects of climate from which 
 hardly any ship's company escapes at that most un- 
 healthy station. 
 
 They sailed from Batavia in the end of October, 
 waited long at the Cape for a homeward-bound fleet, 
 and coming round the north of Scotland, five and 
 twenty sail, Dutch and English, anchored in the Texel 
 in July of the following year, and in October 1711 
 came to the Thames with booty in money and merchan- 
 dise valued at 150,000. From this date we hear no 
 more of Captain Dampier, whose name appears less 
 frequently in the narrative of Rogers than, from the 
 eminent nautical abilities of the man who bore it, it 
 ought to have done. In difficulties he was, it appears, 
 constantly applied to, and his former knowledge and 
 experience were taken as guides. At Bouton, where he 
 had been in the Cygnet, he was intrusted to carry the 
 present to the sultan ; and, from respect to his judgment 
 and integrity, he was also chosen umpire in the very 
 delicate affair of deciding what was plunder for im- 
 mediate division, and in allotting the respective shares. 
 
 Dampier was of the number of those men distinguished 
 above their fellows, " who are not without honour save 
 in their own country;" or if at home his merits were 
 appreciated, wanting the most worthless quality of 
 success, the glare and show, they failed of their reward.
 
 454 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 By French and Dutch navigators and men of science 
 he has been uniformly regarded with the warmest ad- 
 miration, as a man to whose professional eminence his 
 own country has scarce done justice. They delight to 
 style him the " eminent," the " skilful," the " exact," the 
 " incomparable Dampier." Humboldt has borne testi- 
 mony to his merits, placing the buccaneer seaman above 
 those men of science who afterwards went over the 
 same ground; Malte-Brun terms him "the learned 
 Dampier ;" and the author of the " Voyages to Australia" 
 inquires, "Mais oil trouve-t-on des navigateurs corn- 
 parables a Dampier?" The acuteness, accuracy, and 
 clearness of his nautical observations, and of his descrip- 
 tions and general remarks, have made his voyages be 
 assumed by foreign navigators as unerring guides and 
 authorities in all subsequent expeditions ; and his ra- 
 pidity and power of observation are fully as remarkable 
 as his accuracy. His hasty glance at the places of New 
 Holland where he touched has left subsequent voyagers 
 little to do save to verify his descriptions. Dampier's 
 veracity has in no instance been questioned, even by 
 those most disposed to cavil at facts which, being re- 
 mote from their limited experience, appear extraor- 
 dinary or impossible. Other writers, combining into 
 one the relations of many different travellers, have 
 amplified his descriptions; but there is no detached 
 account of the countries he visited more full of vital 
 interest and exact information than the voyages of this 
 wandering seaman.
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 455 
 
 The succession of brilliant discoveries which illus- 
 trated the early part of the reign of George III. for a 
 time threw the adventures of Dampier, and of every 
 previous navigator, into the shade ; but they are again 
 emerging into popularity. Compared with the voyages 
 of recent navigators, his long solitary rambles are as 
 the emprises of the single knightly combatant, bearing 
 no proportion to the magnitude and splendour of a 
 regular battle-field, but, from their individuality, often 
 commanding a more intense and powerful, because a 
 more concentrated, interest. 
 
 The cloud which rested on the personal character of 
 Dampier from the ignorance or misrepresentations of 
 envious contemporaries, and the carelessness and haste 
 with which writers for the press copy from each other 
 and adopt current statements, is fast clearing away. 
 By Pinkerton he is termed " the Cook of a former age;" 
 and Burney has taken a generous pleasure in doing 
 justice to his professional merits, and shown a more 
 generous indignation in rebuking the thoughtless repeti- 
 tion of unfounded calumnies. " It is," he says, " matter 
 of regret, and not less of dissatisfaction, to see that 
 some late writers have been so little conscious of the 
 merits of Dampier as to allow themselves to speak of 
 him with small respect, for no other cause than that it 
 appears he had disagreements with some of his ship- 
 mates, the particular circumstances of which are not 
 known, further than that he had to deal with a quarrel- 
 some and mutinous crew. Such petty considerations
 
 456 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 should never have been lifted up against the memory 
 of such a man as Dampier." " It is not easy to name 
 another voyager or traveller who has given more useful 
 information to the world, or to whom the merchant and 
 the mariner are more indebted." To these Burney 
 might have added the philosopher and the naturalist, 
 who have rarely been so much indebted to any advent- 
 urer whose pursuits were so entirely remote from their 
 subjects of speculation. This honourable testimony will 
 remain to the credit of the writer, when the vague 
 statements and unsifted calumnies, which other authors 
 have allowed themselves to repeat to the disadvantage 
 of Dampier, are for ever forgotten. 
 
 Though the life of this navigator was spent in inces- 
 sant action, his natural genius appears to have been 
 rather speculative than enterprising. He liked to reason 
 and to scheme, and lost sight of present small but cer- 
 tain advantage in extensive and brilliant plans for the 
 future, which his evil fortune forbade him to realize. 
 If, indeed, there be such things as good and bad fortune 
 in human affairs independent of skill and exertion, 
 Dampier may be pointed out as an example of what 
 the world calls an unlucky man, one to whom every 
 event proves adverse, who seems singled out for mis- 
 fortune. Except the capital error of the mode of life 
 upon which he entered, none of his misadventures can 
 be traced to himself; and this lawless life enriched 
 many of his contemporaries, while it kept him in poverty 
 and left him a beggar. In relating its incidents, he has
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 457 
 
 never once attempted to justify or palliate his manner 
 of existence for so many years. Amidst the vicissitudes 
 and temptations to which it exposed him, his excellent 
 understanding, and the principles he had imbibed in 
 the virtuous household of a Somersetshire yeoman, pre- 
 served him, if not entirely spotless from evil contagion, 
 yet from that decay and deadness of moral feeling 
 which are among the worst consequences of vicious com- 
 panionship. He was humane, just in the most strict 
 and also in the most liberal sense, candid and charitable 
 in his judgments, and rare virtues in a buccaneer 
 orderly and temperate, detesting the riotous excess of 
 his associates. Get over the stumbling-block of his 
 early life being squared by "the good old rule," and 
 Dampier the buccaneer was a virtuous man. In the 
 South Sea, and afterwards in the Cygnet, he might have 
 obtained command, such was the respect his shipmates 
 entertained for his abilities ; but the love of adventure 
 was his strongest passion, and his sole ambition the 
 acquisition of knowledge. 
 
 He appears latterly to have deeply felt the disgrace 
 and galling servitude of his lawless life; and serious 
 reflection and remorseful feelings pressed upon his mind 
 with great force long before he was able to get free of 
 his wild associates in the Cygnet. 
 
 By the time that Dampier returned to England with 
 Woodes Rogers, he was far advanced in life ; and his 
 
 O ' 
 
 career for forty years had been one of unremitting 
 hardihood and professional exertion. It is therefore
 
 458 VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND. 
 
 probable that he never embarked in any subsequent 
 voyage ; and as the remaining part of his life, whether 
 long or short, is involved in complete obscurity, there 
 is but too much reason to believe that it was passed in 
 neglect, if not in poverty. Of this eminent seaman and 
 traveller, though little more than a century can have 
 elapsed since his death, no one is able now to tell how 
 the evening of his life was spent, when he died, or 
 where he was buried. Had he expired in some remote 
 island of the Pacific, or perished in the element on 
 which so great a portion of his life was passed, some 
 imperfect record might have remained to satisfy our 
 natural desire to know the last of the worn-out and 
 veteran navigator ; but it was his fate to sink unheeded 
 amidst the conflicting waves and tides of society, and 
 no memorial or tradition remains of his death in whose 
 remarkable life the adventures of Selkirk, Wafer, and 
 the buccaneer commanders of the South Sea appear 
 but as episodes. So much for human fame ! 
 
 THE END.
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 305 De Neve Drive -Parking Lot 17 Box 951388 
 
 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 
 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. 
 
 AC MAY 1 2002 
 m ?flt
 
 UC SOUT 
 
 001 196630 6