1699-1701

the voyage of the “roebuck.” [14]

dampier tells us nothing of his private and home-going life after he carries us to sea with him in the loyal merchant, and so little is known of that side of his career that there is no means of supplying his omissions except by conjecture. it is pretty certain that he was very needy when he returned from his first voyage round the world. the value of his dorsetshire estate cannot be guessed, but even if he still retained it, his views and endeavours are at this time those of a poor man. in the first volume of his travels, as we have seen, he treats of new holland as a privateersman would,—glances, to use his own metaphor, at the fringe of the carpet without desire to examine the texture or the body of it, and quickly shares the disgust of his shipmates, whose dreams are wholly of plunder. but on coming home and reflecting, whilst setting about the writing of his travels, on the land he had sighted in the distant southern ocean, it is conceivable that ambitious thoughts should begin slowly to fill his mind. the world at large at that time [pg 86] barely credited the existence of a continent south of the east indies. the draughts of tasman, the relations of de quiros, le maire, and others, were regarded for the most part as travellers' tales. dampier might justly hope in an age when the colonising instincts of the english were never keener, that money and honour must be the reward of the man who should be the first to open out a country fabulous yet in the judgment of mankind, and, by the light of discovery, resolve what was still visionary and dark into a magnificent reality.

his next step, at all events, was to seek ministerial and official help for a voyage of discovery to new holland. he lived in the days of dryden and of the patron, and his dedications exhibit him as possessed in a high degree of the art of literary congeeing. this undesirable but profitable capacity of cringing serviceably supplemented the reputation he had made for himself as a traveller. he found patrons in charles montague, afterwards earl of halifax, president of the royal society, and one of the lord commissioners of the treasury; in edward, earl of oxford, one of the principal lords of the admiralty; and in thomas herbert, earl of pembroke, who filled the office of lord high admiral. his representations were successful, probably beyond his own expectations, and in the beginning of the year 1699 he was appointed to the command of his majesty's ship roebuck of twelve guns, manned by a crew of fifty men and boys, and victualled for a twenty months' cruise. confidence, such as this trust implies, in the character and qualifications of a man whose rating even as a privateersman was but that of an able seaman, handsomely testifies to the very high opinion in which dampier was held.

[pg 87]

the nature of the soil, climate, and the general character of terra australis, dampier could only conjecture. the ideas he had formed of this unknown continent were, that it was a vast tract of land situated in the richest climates in the world, having in it especially all the advantage of the torrid zone, so that in coasting it the navigator might be sure of meeting with broad areas productive of the rich fruits, the drugs and spices, and perhaps the minerals discoverable in other parts in, as he concluded, the same parallels of latitude. his scheme was to narrowly survey all islands, shores, capes, bays, creeks, and harbours, fit for shelter as well as defence, to take careful soundings as he went, to note tides, currents, and wind, and the character of the weather, with a special view to the settling of the best districts. he also proposed to closely observe the disposition and commodities of the natives, though he candidly admits that after his experience of their neighbours “he expected no great matters from them.” the course he originally designed to take was to the westward by way of the straits of magellan, so as to strike the eastern coast of australia; and there is very little doubt that had he pursued his first intention he would have anticipated nearly every discovery of importance in those waters subsequently made by his celebrated successor james cook. unhappily his judgment erred in one essential direction. he was of opinion that the lands lying nearest the equator would best repay the explorer. nor perhaps could he guess how far he would have to penetrate the high latitudes if he stood south; and having passed the greater portion of his seafaring life in mexican, pacific, and indian seas, his love of the sun, fortified by [pg 88] recollection of the cold of the horn and of the one bitter voyage he took to newfoundland, might suffice to determine him on pinning his faith as an explorer and on limiting his curiosity as a sailor to the summer regions of the globe. yet his great knowledge of the equatorial climates should certainly have warned him against a northern australian and new guinea quest. further, there were the experiences of tasman to help him, whose relations are as finger-posts in the extracts of dirk rembrantz. had he steered westwards, the sighting of the new zealand coast to the south, or of the shining islands of the paumotu and other groups to the north, would have borne in the truth upon his ready and sagacious mind, corrected his fears of cold weather, given him clear views as to the southernmost extension of the terra incognita, and perhaps have antedated the civilisation of australia by half a century. in an evil moment, intimidated by thoughts of the ice of tierra del fuego, and worried by the murmurs and half-heartedness of a crew, the majority of whom were quite young seamen, “only two in the ship ever having passed the line, and those two none of the oldest,” he determined to prosecute his voyage to new holland by way of the cape of good hope.

he sailed from the downs on january 14th, 1699. his intention was to proceed to pernambuco, and thence directly to the coast of new guinea; but scarcely had a month elapsed when the crew began to give trouble, to mutter their dislike of the proposed voyage, and even to talk of obliging him to return to england. at pernambuco, owing to the distance of the anchorage from the town, the men would have found it easy to slip the [pg 89] vessel's cables and run away with her; and not choosing to venture any risk of this kind, dampier steered for bahia de todos los santos. this was a considerable trading-port in his time, formed of about two thousand houses. he found upwards of thirty large ships lying in the bay, and speaks of a busy traffic in linen and woollen goods, in hats and silk stockings, in biscuit, wheat, flour, and port wine. his closeness of observation is once again exhibited in all that he has to say about this place. nothing escapes him. he gives you a long catalogue of all the vegetables and fruits of the district, of the birds, beasts of prey, dogs, monkeys, hogs, and the like, and then comes to the sea, from which he produces a list of twenty-three different kinds of fish. he sailed on april 3rd, and made a fair course for the coast of new holland. the quality of the reckoning of even an expert mariner in those days may be gathered from his telling us that, seeing a large black bird flying near the ship, he suspected that he was much nearer the cape of good hope than he had imagined, since it was well understood that this sort of bird is never to be met with farther than ninety miles from land. by his own account, he was two hundred and seventy miles from the cape; but next day, meeting a vessel named the antelope, bound to the east indies from table bay, he found that l'agulhas bore only twenty-five leagues distant. the inaccuracy of the computations of those times must needs excite the wonder of our own age of exact science. in matthew norwood's system of navigation, “teaching the whole art in a way more familiar, easie and practical than hath been hitherto done,” published in 1692, though [pg 90] from internal evidence i gather it to have been compiled in 1683-84, there is a catalogue of the longitudes and latitudes “of the most principal places in the world, beginning from the meridian of the lizard of england.” the latitude, as a rule, is tolerably approximate, but the longitude is very much otherwise. for instance, the cape of good hope is said to be in 34° 24′ s. latitude, and in 25° 33′ e. longitude. cape frio is put down as in 22° 55′ s. latitude, and 33° 59′ w. longitude. cape blanco is entered as 47° 30′ s. latitude, 62° 52′ w. longitude! [15] these are representative of the whole of this singular table of calculations. yet norwood was greatly esteemed as a navigator, and his book was to be found in most ships' cabins. it is amazing that the early mariners were not perpetually blundering ashore. by what secret instincts they were advised i know not; yet it is certain they made as little of being a hundred miles out of their course without knowing it, as we should in these days of an error of the length of a ship's cable.

dampier continued to sail to the eastwards, and on july 25th signs unmistakable of the neighbourhood of land were witnessed in the form of quantities of floating seaweed and moss; but it was apparently not until august 2nd that the coast hove into view, on which date dampier says, “we stood in towards the land to look for an harbour to refresh ourselves, after a voyage of 114 degrees from brazil.” they coasted for a few days in vain search of a secure anchorage, and then observing an opening of the land they made for it, and [pg 91] brought up in two fathoms and a half of water. this opening dampier called shark's bay, a name it has ever since retained. [16] he makes this bay to lie in 25° s. latitude and 87° longitude e. from the cape of good hope, “which is less,” he says, “by a hundred and ninety-five leagues than is laid down in the common draughts.” he paints a pretty picture of his first view of this place, telling us of sweet-scented trees, of shrubs gay as the rainbow with blossoms and berries, of a many-coloured vegetation, red, white, yellow, and blue, the last preponderating, and all the air round about very fragrant and delicious with the perfumes of the soil. the men caught sharks and devoured them with relish,—a hint not only of very bad stores, but of provisions growing scarce; for disgusting as the salt-beef of the sea becomes after a long course of it, he must have a singular stomach and a stranger appetite who will choose shark in preference. one of the fish they captured was eleven feet long, and inside of it they found the head and bones of a hippopotamus, the hairy lips of which were still sound “and not putrefied.” the jaw was full of teeth, two of them eight inches long and as big as a man's thumb; “the flesh of it was divided among my men, and they took care that no waste should be made of it, but thought it as things stood, good entertainment.”

they remained in shark's bay till the 10th, fruitlessly searching for fresh water; then coasting north-east, they fell in with a number of small rocky isles called dampier's archipelago, in latitude south about 20° 30′, and about 116° 30′ e. longitude. here dampier was so [pg 92] much struck with the character of the tides that he concluded there must be a passage to the south of new holland and new guinea to the eastward into the great south sea. his meaning is not clear, but then he is in the situation of a man who fires at a mark in the night; he misses, but the ball speeds in the right direction. their pressing want was fresh water. gangs of men were repeatedly sent ashore to seek it, but to no purpose. their first sight of the natives was on august 31st. all sorts of signs of peace and friendship were made, but their gesticulations were probably too violent, and might even have grown alarming as contortions, and the wild men fled, menacing dampier and his people as they ran. the only sort of intercourse they succeeded in establishing was a conflict. one of the barbarians was shot dead and an english sailor wounded. dampier says, speaking of these natives, that they had the most unpleasant looks and the worst features of any people he ever saw, “though,” says he, “i have seen a great variety of savages.” he judges that these new hollanders were of the same race as the people he had previously met with in his first voyage round the globe, “for,” he exclaims, “the place i then touched at was not above forty or fifty leagues to the n.e. of this, and these were much the same blinking creatures; here being also abundance of the same kind of flesh-flies teasing them, and with the same black skins and hair frizzled, tall, thin, etc., as these were; but we had not the opportunity to see whether these, as the former, wanted two of their fore teeth.” it seems to me that he blackened his portraits of these uncomely people for the same reason that we find him later on describing [pg 93] the country sourly as though there had been little or nothing to admire; i mean with the wish to render the failure of his voyage less disappointing to his patrons at home. in short, he writes as if he would have people suppose that new holland is a savage and worthless land, inhabited by loathsome monsters. one of the native princes he describes as painted with a circle of white pigment about his eyes, and a white streak down his nose, from the forehead to the tip of it. the breast and a portion of the arms were also whitened with the same paint. if dampier do not exaggerate, then these embellishments which he portrays, supplementing the natural hideousness of the savages, might well cause the youthful jack tars who filled his forecastle to imagine themselves upon one of those enchanted, demon-haunted lands, from which the ancient mariner of the legends was wont to sail away with trembling despatch, his hair on end and his eyes half out of his head.

“if it were not,” writes dampier, “for that sort of pleasure which results from the discovery even of the barrenest spot upon the globe, this coast of new holland would not have charmed me much.” there is little of the enthusiasm of the explorer in this avowal; all through his career, in fact, dampier exhibits himself as a man of caprices easily diverted from his first intentions, quickly sickened by failure, though never discomfited by the harshest sufferings or by the most formidable difficulties, so long as he can keep himself in spirits by the assurance of some approach to good fortune attending the issue of his adventure. probably he was now willing to believe of new holland, despite the wise conjectures with which he vitalised his early scheme, that all that remained to [pg 94] be seen was no better than what he was now viewing. or, the length of time his voyage had already occupied had provided him with plenty of leisure for the contemplation of his prospects, and he was beginning to think that he had been misled by his original impulse, and that there was neither dignity nor profit to be got out of a toilsome survey of an obscure, remote, inhospitable coast. one sometimes likes to think of the return amongst us of such a man as this. if one could summon the dead from their sleep of centuries that they might behold the issue of the labours of the generations whose processions filled the time between their then and our now, it would be such old navigators as dampier whom one would best like to arouse. think of cabot and cartier going a tour through the united states, of columbus taking ship by an ocean mail-steamer to the west indies, of bartholomew diaz listening to the eloquence of south african legislators in the house of assembly at cape town, of mark de niza at san francisco, of tasman at hobart town! as we watch dampier digging for water amid the sand-hills of the western australian seaboard, the reality of the living present becomes a wonder even to us who are familiar with it. the shining cities, the flourishing towns, the radiant congregation of ships flying the flags of twenty different nationalities, every fruitful, every busy condition of commerce, manufacture, science, art, literature, entering into and stimulating the life of the highest form of human civilisation, are as miracles and as dreams to us standing in imagination by the side of the lean figure of this buccaneer, quaintly apparelled in the boots, belt, and broad hat of his old calling, and gazing with him [pg 95] upon a land whose silence is broken only by the cries of unfamiliar creatures, by the murmur of the wind among the leaves of a nameless vegetation, and by the solemn wash of the ocean surge arching in thunder upon a shore that, to the minds of hundreds and thousands away in far-off europe, is as unreal and illusive as the islands of plato and more. what heart would have come to our stout navigator with but the briefest of all possible prophetic glimpses into the future of that great continent on whose western sands he searches for water, reluctant, dubious, half-dismayed!

there was much, however, it must be admitted, to dishearten him. the behaviour of his crew was causing him anxiety; and about this time the scurvy broke out amongst the men. moreover, though his people hunted diligently for fresh water, their labours were unrewarded. so dampier determined to shape a course for timor, if, to use his own language, he “met with no refreshment elsewhere.” he had spent altogether about five weeks in cruising off the coast, covering in all, as he calculates, a range of 900 miles, but without making any sort of discovery that was in the least degree satisfactory to himself. he started afresh with the intention to steer north-east, keeping the land aboard, as sailors say. his chief and perhaps only desire at that time was to fill his casks with fresh water. they once again then lifted their anchor on december 5th, 1699, but had not measured many miles when they discovered that the numerous shoals along the coast would render an inshore voyage impracticable. dampier thereupon bore away seawards and deepened his water from eleven to thirty-two fathoms. next day but the merest film of land was [pg 96] in sight, and on the 7th nothing of the coast was visible, even from the masthead. by this time he was heartily weary of new holland. he confesses his disgust very honestly, and laments the weeks he has wasted on the coast, which he believes he could have employed with greater satisfaction to himself and with larger promise of success had he pushed straight on to new guinea. his men were drooping; the scurvy was being helped by the brackish water they were obliged to drink, and he could think of no better remedy than to shift his helm and steer away for the island of timor.

he gives a very close and interesting description of this island. he had certainly plenty of leisure for inspection, for he did not get under weigh again until december 12th, whence, though he does not date his arrival at timor, we may gather that he must have stayed there for at least three months. he now headed on a straight course for new guinea—the coast of which he discovered in the form of very high land on new year's day, 1700. islands studded the water on all sides, from one of which some days afterwards they saw smoke rising. at sight of this dampier bore away for it before a brisk gale, and anchored in thirty-five fathoms of water at the distance of about two leagues from what proved a large island. thus they remained during the night, whilst all through the hours of darkness they observed many fires burning ashore. in the morning they weighed again and sailed closer to the land, anchoring within a mile of the beach; whereupon a couple of canoes came off to within speaking distance of the ship. the savages called to them, but their language was as unintelligible as their gestures. dampier invited [pg 97] them by motions to step on board, but this they declined to do, though they approached so close that they were able to see the beads, knives, hatchets, and the like, which were held up with the idea of tempting them to enter the ship. dampier then got into his pinnace and rowed shorewards. he hailed the people there in the malay language, but they did not understand him. numbers of the wild men lurked in ambush behind the bushes, but on dampier throwing some knives and toys ashore they ran out, and, wading to the boat, poured water on to their heads as a sign of friendship. he describes these people as a sort of tawny indians with long black hair, differing but slightly from the inhabitants of mindanao. he also noticed amongst them a number of woolly-headed new guinea negroes, most of whom he suspected were slaves to the others. the crew gave them brandy, which they drank with relish,—a behaviour that caused dampier to suppose that, let their religion be what it would, they were not mahometans. it is noteworthy that tasman differs from dampier to the extent of describing these natives as resembling the savages of new zealand. he speaks of them as being armed with slings, darts, and wooden swords, decorated with bracelets and rings of pearl, with rings in their noses. schouten had long previously found them a very ferocious and intractable people, who would have made themselves masters of his vessel if he had not fired upon them and put them to flight. but as in these so in those days. the world was somewhat kaleiodoscopic, and the combination of colours seen by the peering traveller at one time was by no means the same assemblage of hues viewed by other eyes at another time.

[pg 98]

on february 4th the roebuck was off the north-west coast of new guinea. here dampier found some very pleasant islands richly wooded and full of wild pigeons, and sweetened to the sight by vast spaces of white, purple, and yellow flowers, which so perfumed the wind that the fragrance could be tasted at a great distance from the shore. on one of them he stood surrounded by a portion of his crew, and after drinking the king's health, christened the spot king william's island. crossing the equator they proceeded to the eastward, and then, partly with the idea of escaping the perils of a navigation among shoals and islands, and partly with the hope of being rewarded for their sufferings and disappointments by some discovery of magnitude and importance, they steered the ship for the mainland. they were now within sight of a high and mountainous country, green and beautiful with tropical vegetation, and dark with forests and groves of tall and stately trees. a number of canoes came out to them, but the brief intercourse terminated in the usual way: the intentions of the natives were misunderstood; a gun was fired and several savages killed. dampier's narrative at this point deals for some pages chiefly with the natives of new guinea, though he shortly describes the islands and the aspect of the mainland as he sails along. so far his tone is one of disappointment, but nevertheless he keeps a very steady, honest eye upon the object of his voyage to these unknown waters. “i could have wished,” he says, “for some more favourable opportunities than had hitherto offered themselves as well for penetrating into the heart of the new discovered country as for opening a trade with its inhabitants, both of which [pg 99] i very well knew, could they be brought about, must prove extremely beneficial to great britain.” happily the conduct of his officers and men had improved, and they seemed as willing as he to explore the new land; but he writes with knowledge of the issue, and it is impossible to miss in this narrative of his the subdued and faltering language of a discouraged heart. on march 14th he was within view of what he terms a well-cultivated country. he observed numbers of cocoa-trees, plantations apparently well ordered, and many houses. his method of opening communication with the natives was by firing a shot over a fleet of canoes, which sent them paddling away home as fast as their crews could drive them. presently three large boats put off, one of which had about forty men in her. the roebuck lay becalmed, and it looked as if the blacks meant to attack the ship. a round shot was sent at the canoes, the savages turned about, and a light breeze springing up, the ship followed them into the bay. when close to the shore dampier noticed the eyes of innumerable dusky-faced people peeping at the vessel from behind the rocks. a shot was fired to scare them, but they continued peeping nevertheless. dampier seems surprised after this that the natives were unwilling to trade. the utmost they consented to do was to climb the trees for cocoanuts, which they contemptuously flung at the english with passionate signs to them to be gone.

the crew were now finding plenty of fresh water, and the ship's casks were soon filled. in spite of the defiant posture of the savages, it was agreed, after a consultation amongst the officers and men, to remain where they were [pg 100] and attempt a better acquaintance with the people of the coast. next day whilst the boats were ashore, forty or fifty men and women passed by; they moved on quietly without offering any violence. says dampier, speaking of them: “i have observed among all the wild nations i have known that they make the women carry the burdens, while the men walk before without carrying any other load than their arms.” extremes meet, and assuredly in some respects the most polished nation in the world is within a very measurable distance of the most savage. it does not appear that the obligation of having occasionally to kill a few natives greatly interfered with the friendly relations between them and dampier's men. the ship's company went ashore and slaughtered and salted a good load of hogs, whilst the savages peered at them from their houses. “none offered to hinder our boats landing,” writes dampier; “but, on the contrary, were so amicable, that one man brought ten or twelve cocoanuts, left them on the shore, after he had shewed them to our men, and went out of sight. our people, finding nothing but nets and images, brought them away; these two of my men brought in a small canoe; and presently after, my boats came off. i ordered the boatswain to take care of the nets, the images i took into my own custody.” thus they requited the friendly disposition of these poor savages by plundering them. who can doubt that most of the massacres of european crews by the inhabitants of countries often as beautiful and radiant as earthly paradises, the glory and sweetness of which might easily be deemed to have subdued the human beings found upon them to the tenderness and lovableness of the inspirations [pg 101] of the soil, the fruit, the majestic forests, the shining birds, should be the effect of traditions whose origin may be found in the barbarities practised by the early mariner?

dampier describes the country hereabouts as mountainous and wooded, full of rich valleys and pleasant fresh-water brooks. he named it port montague, in honour of the patron to whom he had dedicated his first volume. the roebuck sailed from this place on march 22nd, and two days afterwards, in the evening, dampier, who was indisposed and lying down in his cabin, was hastily called on deck to behold what the crew regarded as a miracle. the wonder was no more than a burning mountain, but then those were days when enchanted islands [17] were to be met with at sea, and this great flaming scene was at once a prodigy and a terror to the sun-tanned mariners, who stared at it over the rail with every superstitious instinct in them astir. tasman had viewed it, but the honest old batavian did not wield dampier's pen. it was a grand sight indeed,—a large pillar of fire crimsoning the north-west blackness, rearing its blood-red blaze higher and higher for three or four minutes at a time, then sinking till it seemed to have died, then rising afresh flaming furiously. they got a better view of this volcano a little later. “at every explosion we heard a dreadful noise like thunder, and saw a flame of fire after it the most terrifying that ever i beheld.” streams of liquid light ran down to [pg 102] the foreshore and overflowed the beach with incandescent lakes. the description of this burning mountain is, i think, one of the finest passages in dampier's writings.

all this while he supposed that he was still off the coast of new guinea; but following the trend of the shore, he arrived at those straits which still bear his name, and then discovered that the little country whose seaboard he had been exploring was an island. this land he called nova britannia, or, as we now know it, new britain. happy would it have been for the reputation of dampier if, instead of steering east through his straits, he had continued to skirt the new guinea coast to the south-east, for by so doing he must have rounded into the gulf of papua, struck the channel called torres straits, and, catching sight of cape york, have been encouraged to pursue his exploration of the coast of new holland on that side of the great continent whose fruitfulness, beauty, and conveniency have courted the civilisation of europe. it is true that the roebuck was provisioned for twenty months only, but an ardent and ambitious navigator would have made little or nothing of such a condition of his voyage as this when close aboard of him were lands filled with fruit, hogs, fowls, and fresh water. but there is no question that dampier had long grown weary of this business. he could see nothing but honour (and little enough of that, as things went) to be got out of this journey, and as a poor man, with the heart of a buccaneer in him besides, he would appreciate the need of something more substantial than fame. be this as it may, he had now, it being april 26th, 1700, started on his return home, intending on [pg 103] the way to call at batavia to careen and doctor his crazy ship for the long voyage to england. when clear of the straits a vessel hove in sight at dusk, and as her man?uvrings were puzzling they loaded their guns, lighted the matches, and made ready to fight her. she sheered off, but was in sight at daybreak, and then proved to be nothing more dangerous than a chinese junk laden with tea, porcelain, and other commodities, and bound for amboyna. the roebuck's progress was very slow; she was coated with weeds and barnacles, and in a sea-way her timbers worked like a basket. it was not until june 23rd that they arrived at the straits of sunda, and at the close of the month they dropped anchor off batavia. here dampier stayed for three months whilst his ship was careened and repaired. her condition was such that one can only wonder that he and his crew ventured to sail home in her. we might scarcely credit that dampier's patrons honestly felt much faith in his representations, and in the hopes he held out of vast and important discoveries, when we find them putting him and his crew of boys into a ship which time had made rotten probably some years before she was equipped for this voyage, if it were not that the later experiences of anson exhibit the same profound departmental indifference and neglect on an occasion which we may assume was regarded as far more significant than dampier's expedition. of all the wonderful accomplishments of the english sailor, nothing to my mind is so amazing as the triumphs with which he crowns the cause of his country in defiance of the miserable indifference of the british admiralty to him and to his labours. the best that dampier could do [pg 104] with his ship was so to patch her up as to enable her to carry her people home with the pumps going day and night. they sailed from batavia on october 17th, arrived at the cape of good hope on december 30th, and brought up at the island of ascension in a sinking condition on february 21st, 1701. even whilst ascension was in sight the roebuck had sprung a fresh leak, and when she anchored both hand and chain pumps were going. there was still a long stretch of ocean for them to traverse, and a ship like a sieve to measure it with. the tinkering of the carpenters apparently increased the mischief, and whilst dampier was waiting below to receive the news of the leak being stopped, the boatswain arrived with a long face to tell him that the vessel was sinking. “the plank was so rotten,” says dampier, “it broke away like dirt, and now it was impossible to save the ship; for they could not come at the leak because the water in the run was got above it. i worked myself to encourage my men, who were very diligent, but the water still increased, and we now thought of nothing but saving our lives: wherefore i hoisted out the boat that if the ship should sink we might be saved; and in the morning we weighed our anchor and warped in nearer the shore, tho' we did but little good.” the men with their clothes and bedding were sent ashore on rafts; the sails were unbent and converted into tents for the use of dampier and his officers; fresh water and rice had been landed for the use of all, “but,” writes the unfortunate commander, “great part of it was stolen away before i came ashore, and many of my books and papers lost.” luckily there was no lack of turtle, but those who have [pg 105] visited ascension will understand the distresses of a numerous crew cast away upon an uninhabited island of cinders and volcanic cones, with one green hill only far away in the middle of the calcined heap for the eye to find refreshment in. they were fortunate enough to discover a spring of fresh water; the men carried their beds into the hollows of the rocks, and perhaps thought themselves better off than in the wet, dark, half-drowned, cockroach-laden forecastle of the roebuck. moreover, in addition to turtle there were crabs, goats'-flesh, and sea-birds for food; and as the air of ascension is about the sweetest and most wholesome in the world, the castaways kept their health and spirits, and managed on the whole very well indeed.

their imprisonment did not last long. on april 3rd four vessels hove in sight, and in the course of the day anchored off the island. three of them proved english men-of-war—the anglesea, hastings, and lizard; the fourth was an east indiaman named the canterbury. dampier went on board the anglesea with thirty-five of his crew, and the remainder were divided between the other men-of-war. the ships proceeded to barbadoes, but dampier, with a keen sense of his misfortunes, and anxious to justify himself to his patrons, accepted an offer to return to england in the canterbury. “the same earnest desire,” he says, “to clear up mistakes, to do myself justice in the opinion of the world, and to set the discoveries made in this unfortunate voyage in their proper light, that it may be of use to the world, how unlucky soever it proved to me, is the reason that induced me to publish it; and i persuade myself that such as are proper judges of these sort of performances [pg 106] will allow that i have delivered many things new in themselves, capable of affording much instruction to such as meditate future discoveries, and which in other respects may be of great utility to the present age and to posterity.”