Dampier's Voyages
William Dampier--the surname, like so many in England, is of
French origin--was born, the son of a farmer, at East Coker, near
Yeovil, in the south of Somersetshire. His attention no doubt was
directed to a seafaring life by the constant intercourse which at
that time went on between Yeovil and Weymouth; and when Dampier was
about seventeen years old, at his own desire he was apprenticed to
the master of a ship at Weymouth, with whom he made a voyage to
Newfoundland. But the cold experienced in this voyage so disgusted
him that he managed to get his indentures cancelled, and in 1671
engaged himself as an able seaman on a great vessel of the East
India Company which was leaving England for Java. He soon returned
from the Malay Archipelago, however, and enlisted on board a ship
of the British navy, in which he took a small part in the naval
war with Holland. Then he was sent out to Jamaica as a plantation
manager by the lord of the manor of East Coker (the village in
which he was born). Except for a brief visit to England in 1678,
when his marriage took place, he lived chiefly in the West Indies
and on the coast of Central America. He had soon left the work on
a plantation to join the buccaneers, or English, French, and Dutch
pirates, who were attempting to break down the supremacy of Spain in
the waters of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. With a party
of these buccaneers he established himself on the coast of Yucatan
to cut log-wood, and after his return to and residence in England
between 1675-9 he came back to the neighbourhood of what is now
British Honduras. Together with a party of buccaneers he crossed
the Isthmus of Panama, and, reaching the Pacific littoral, embarked
in Indian canoes. And in these they ranged up and down the coast of
Central and South America, attacking Spanish towns and shipping.
Apparently they must have captured from the Spaniards something more
serviceable for ocean traffic than Indian dug-out canoes, because in
1680 they voyaged across the Pacific as far as the lonely island of
Juan Fernandez, on which Alexander Selkirk was afterwards stranded
by an English buccaneering captain. Some of his adventures in this
direction will be described in another volume of the present series
dealing with that region. The success of these bold pirates in
capturing Spanish treasure ships and seizing Spanish towns on the
coasts of Mexico and Peru, and holding them to ransom, was so great
that they decided to return in force and renew their operations to
the west coast of South America. Thus with bigger ships they passed
through the Straits of Magellan and navigated the Pacific Ocean
unopposed.
It is interesting to note that on these truly remarkable voyages,
which few living seamen would be heroic enough to undertake, their
chief means of sustenance were flour (probably from maize) and
chocolate mixed with sugar, besides the fish obtained for them by
their Indian companions. The buccaneers afterwards recrossed Central
America, and rested for a time in the English colony of Virginia.
From this region Dampier accompanied a captain, John Cook, in the
_Revenge_ (a privateer or buccaneering ship), on a voyage to the
Pacific. They sailed first to the Cape Verde Islands in the eastern
Atlantic.
On one of the easternmost of this still-little-known archipelago
Dampier made some most interesting and truthful observations
regarding the nesting of flamingoes, though he jumped to a wrong
conclusion as to the attitude in which the female flamingo hatches
her eggs; but he observes that a dish of flamingoes' tongues is
fit for a prince's table, the tongue of this bird being very
large and fat. From the Cape Verde Islands they passed on to the
Sherboro River (near Sierra Leone), even in those days an English
trading settlement. Then, boldly leaving the West African coast,
they steered right across the Atlantic to the extremity of South
America, helped by a succession of tornadoes to cross the region
of equatorial calms till the trade winds blew them over to the
Falkland Islands and round Cape Horn. Soon after entering the
Pacific Ocean they fell in with other English ships, quite a number
of which were now being dispatched round the extremity of South
America to the Pacific Ocean, not so much to make discoveries in
that direction as to trade with or to plunder the west coast of
South America. To all such the Islands of Juan Fernandez[51] were a
favourite and safe rendevous for repairs and for obtaining supplies
of fresh water. But that the Spaniards became during the seventeenth
century perfectly inept in the matter of defending their monopolist
pretensions in seas which they attempted to forbid to the rest of
the world, they would have occupied and garrisoned at an early
date the principal island of the Juan Fernandez group.[52] On
this island--Mas-a-tierra--goats and pigs had been landed by the
Spanish pilot, Juan Fernandez himself, in the sixteenth century.
They had increased and multiplied, and furnished excellent mutton
and pork for ships that called there. There were only two bays in
Mas-a-tierra Island (which was about 36 miles in circumference and
of very broad, diversified surface, "high hills and small pleasant
valleys") wherein ships might anchor. In the vicinity of each
harbour there were rivulets of good fresh water. In course of time
the goats multiplied to such an extent that they began to destroy
the forests, which still in Dampier's time were a prominent feature
in the landscapes, and which included not only good timber trees
but an Areca cabbage-palm, the head of which formed an excellent
vegetable for seafaring people, badly in need of such an addition
to their diet. The sea round about Mas-a-tierra swarmed with fish,
and was thronged by seals and sea-lions, which came ashore to breed
or to bask in the sun. Dampier states that there were possibly
"millions of seals", "either sitting on the shore of the bays or
going and coming in the sea round the island". Both seals and
sea-lions provided the ships with quantities of train-oil, but the
flesh of these aquatic mammals was not liked. [Dampier notes with
correctness the abundance of seals along the coasts of North and
South America, but their relative absence from the seas washing the
East Indies, where indeed they only reappear in the far south along
the coasts of Australia and New Zealand.]
[51] The largest of these islands was long associated in our minds
with Alexander Selkirk and the story of _Robinson Crusoe_, though
this wonderful piece of fiction was really concerned with the
islands off the delta of the Orinoco River.
[52] The group consisted of two islands and an islet. The largest
of the three was called Mas-a-tierra ("more towards the mainland"),
and was 425 miles from the coast of Chile; the next largest was 100
miles farther west and called Mas-a-fuera ("farther away"). The
islet near Mas-a-tierra was named Santa Clara. Mas-a-tierra was
garrisoned by Spain in 1750.
From the Juan Fernandez Islands Dampier's ship made its way to the
Galapagos archipelago, where Dampier duly noted the large, fat, and
tame land-lizards--a species of iguana--and, above all, the enormous
tortoises "extraordinarily large and fat; so sweet that no pullet
eats more pleasantly". A very large tortoise might weigh as much as
200 pounds. He also observed the abundance of turtle of four kinds
in the sea round the coasts of this archipelago.[53]
[53] The three species of real turtle belonged two to the genus
_Chelone_ and one to _Thallassochelys_, viz. the Hawksbill Turtle,
the shell of which is the tortoiseshell of commerce; the Green
Turtle, which makes turtle soup, and is delicious to eat; and the
musky-smelling useless Loggerhead Turtle. The fourth kind was the
quite unrelated Leathery Turtle (_Sphargis_), which grows to a great
size, 7 to 8 feet long.
After their stay at the Galapagos Islands Captain John Cook died,
and his place was taken by a commander named Davis. Two other
English buccaneering ships had joined Dampier's vessel at the
Galapagos, and the adventurers spent months which became years in
various piratical adventures up and down the west coast of Central
and South America from California to Peru. At last a Captain Swan,
to whose ship the _Cygnet_ Dampier had transferred himself on 25
August, 1685, decided, probably on Dampier's advice, to return
to England by way of the East Indies. Accordingly they steered
right across the Pacific from Cape Corrientes on the coast of
Mexico to Guam in the Ladrone Islands, a passage in which they had
been preceded by Francis Drake in 1580 and Sir Thomas Cavendish
in 1588. Of course the terrors of this voyage across some seven
thousand miles of sea was diminished by this time owing to the
frequent passages made by the Spanish ships between Mexico and the
Philippine Islands. Apparently this somewhat northern track across
the tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean was relatively free from
violent tempests, and at the right season of the year provided with
continuously favourable winds in one direction or the other. At
any rate, the two ships of the expedition, under Captain Swan and
Captain Teat (Dampier being with Swan), set out from Cape Corrientes
on 31 March, 1686, and reached Guam on 21 May with only three days'
provisions left for the ships' crews. The somewhat strict allowance
of food and drink on which all were placed was thought by Dampier to
have cured him of a dropsy from which he was suffering at the time
of his departure from Cape Corrientes. Their sustenance consisted of
ten spoonfuls of boiled Indian corn a day, together with a little
water for those who were thirsty; but Dampier noticed that some of
the seamen did not drink for nine or ten days at a time, and one man
went without any liquid for seventeen days, declaring he was not
thirsty. For such as these the moisture in the boiled maize seems
to have sufficed. But the men had grimly resolved that they would
not long grow hungry if Captain Swan's estimate was at fault. It had
been decided that, as soon as victuals failed, Captain Swan should
be killed and eaten!
[Illustration: AUSTRALASIA
on Mercator's Projection]
Of course the arrival at the Island of Guam (or Guahan, as it was
called by the natives) did not mean necessarily that they would at
once obtain provisions, because the island, unlike Mas-a-tierra
(Juan Fernandez), was strongly fortified and garrisoned by the
Spaniards, who kept it, naturally, for the relief and refreshment
of Spanish ships alone, those engaged in the transit between the
Philippine Islands and the west coast of America. Guam produced in
those days rice, pineapples, melons, oranges, limes, bread-fruit,
and, above all, coconuts. Upon their first arrival Captain Swan
pretended that he and his men were Spaniards. By this means they
induced a Spanish priest with three natives of the island to
come on board. These they held as hostages, sending word, through
them, to the governor of the island of Guam that Captain Swan was
badly in want of provisions, was of peaceable intent, and prepared
to purchase the same on reasonable terms. Meantime the seamen,
including Dampier, landed with little ceremony and brought off
quantities of coconuts--as to which Dampier wrote in rapturous
terms, noting the delicious liquid preserved in the cavity of the
coconut, the flesh of the nut, and the sweet sap drawn from the tree
which made either a kind of wine "very sweet and pleasant if it is
to be drunk within twenty-four hours after being drawn" and capable
of becoming a very alcoholic liquid when fermented. "The kernel", he
writes, "is much used in making broth. When the nut is dry they take
off the husk, and giving two good blows on the middle of the nut it
breaks in two equal parts, letting the water fall on the ground;
then with a small iron rasp made for the purpose the kernel or nut
is rasped out clean, which being put into a little fresh water,
makes it become white as milk. In this milky water they boil a fowl
or any other sort of flesh, and it makes very savoury broth. English
seamen put this water into boiled rice, which they eat instead of
rice-milk, carrying nuts purposely to sea with them. This they learn
from the natives."
The Governor of Guam, partly through fear, but also pleased at the
presents sent to him by Captain Swan, furnished the two ships with
a variety and an abundance of provisions, so that they were able to
go on their way to the Philippine Islands, of which Dampier wrote an
excellent description, which may be read in his book.[54]
[54] The best edition of Dampier's travels is that edited by John
Masefield and published (in 1906) by E. Grant Richards.
The powerful chiefs of the large islands in the Philippine
archipelago in those days had not been subdued by the Spaniards,
and therefore considered themselves quite free to trade with the
English ships. But during the long stay off the island of Mindanao
the seamen got out of hand, and mutinied against Captain Swan's
projects of founding some establishment for trading purposes in the
Philippine Islands. A section of the expedition elected John Read, a
young navigator, with Captain Teat as sailing master of the ship, to
command them. With Dampier amongst them they then sailed away from
Mindanao leaving Swan[55] and thirty-six of his men behind. After
cruising about the rest of the Philippine Islands and visiting the
coasts of Tonquin, Siam, the Island of Formosa, and southern China,
they made for the Island of Timor, intending to pass out that way
from the Malay Archipelago into the Indian Ocean, and so return to
England by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. On their way thither
they anchored before the Dutch fort of Macassar on the remarkable
island of Celebes. Here an allusion is made to buffaloes[56] (which
they did not see), and to "crockadores" (cockatoos) "as big as a
parrot, shaped like it, and with a smaller bill, but as white as
milk, with a bunch of feathers on its head like a crown."
[55] Swan was afterwards murdered by the natives.
[56] Dampier also alludes to the wild oxen of the Philippine
Islands, which were in reality the very interesting Tamarao
buffalo. The only wild buffaloes in Celebes would be the still more
interesting Anoa peculiar to that island. Both the Tamarao and the
Anoa offer resemblances in the horns and skull to extinct buffaloes
once living in northern India. The Anoa is the smallest of the Ox
tribe, and the most generalized type of living oxen; that is to
say, the type which most resembles antelopes. It is quite a small
creature, not much bigger than a very large sheep, and the horns are
perfectly straight and directed backwards in a line with the nasal
bones of the skull. The Anoa generally shows two white spots on each
side of the cheeks, and white markings on the throat and legs (which
reappear also in the Tamarao of the Philippine Islands), similar to
the white spots and stripes in the Tragelaphine antelopes, like the
Bush-buck, Kudu, and Nilghai.
In the month of December, 1687, Dampier, with his companions, had
passed the Island of Timor, which he described as long, high, and
mountainous, and already a part of the Malay Archipelago specially
appropriated by the Portuguese. The commanders of the vessel (Read
and Teat) now proposed to "touch at New Holland, a part of Terra
Australis Incognita, to see what that country would afford us".
After avoiding with great care shoals and reefs, they anchored on
5 January, 1688, two miles from the shore, at the mouth, probably,
of King Sound on the north-west coast of Australia; an inlet in
which there were numerous islands, at that time somewhat densely
inhabited by the aborigines. Dampier must have landed with many of
his companions, otherwise he could not have given such a realistic
description of this part of Australia and its inhabitants. He
describes the land (which he, like the Dutch discoverers who had
preceded him, guessed at once to be of continental extent) as having
a dry, sandy soil, and being very destitute of water, though it was
possible to sink wells and obtain it not far from the surface, yet
this part of Tropical Australia produced various kinds of trees
growing separately and sparsely, and not in forests. The most
prominent tree in the region he visited was a species of Dracæna or
tree-lily, which was the biggest seen in that neighbourhood. He at
once saw the resemblance between these tree-lilies and the Dragon
tree of Tropical Asia, which produced the dark-coloured gum known
as dragons' blood. Under the trees grew long, thin grass, but both
animals and birds seem to have been scarce; in fact, Dampier and his
companions saw no beast, but only the track of one, which suggested
the existence of something as big as a "great mastiff dog". This may
have been the footprints of a dingo. On the beach there were turtle
and also dugongs.[57]
[57] Called by Dampier _manati_, see pp. 40 and 165.
Dampier writes more about the natives of Australia rather than its
products or landscapes. He describes them as "the miserablest people
in the world", beside whom the Hodmadods (Hottentots) of South
Africa were gentlemen. These aboriginal Australians had no houses
or skin garments, no domestic animals, and no cultivated forms of
vegetable food. They had great bottle noses, pretty full lips and
wide mouths, from which the two middle incisor teeth of the upper
jaw were wanting, having been extracted from the people of both
sexes whilst they were still children. Their faces were long and
their heads disproportionately big, with very projecting brows.
The eyelids were kept half-closed because of the pest of flies for
ever trying to get into their eyes. The head-hair was black, short,
and curled, like that of Negroes, and (curiously enough) they had
no beards. (This is a strange remark on the part of Dampier, and
almost suggests that at this time that broad portion of north-west
Australia which he visited was inhabited by a Papuan race from New
Guinea, for if there is one thing for which the typical Australian
aborigine is noteworthy it is the abundance of the beard in the
men. Even the women of middle age frequently grow short whiskers
and a tuft of beard at the chin.) The colour of their skins was
coal black, like that of the Negroes of Guinea. They were tall,
slender people, with somewhat delicate limbs. They had no sort of
clothing, but round the waist was tied a girdle of bark, and into
this was thrust occasionally a handful of long grass or three or
four small green boughs full of leaves. There were no signs of any
houses, the people sleeping on the ground in the open air. But they
generally slept round about a fire, and would sometimes stick a few
branches in the ground as a shelter from the prevailing wind. From
his description they evidently possessed the wooden boomerang and
wooden lances or spears, the ends of which were hardened by heat.
They seemed to have no boats or even rafts, but they were good
swimmers, and were observed swimming from one island to another.
Their food seemed to consist almost entirely of fish, which they
caught by making weirs of stones across little inlets of the sea,
in such a way that the high tides brought the fish up these inlets
and left them stranded behind the weirs. They also sought diligently
for shellfish along the shore. They were acquainted with the use
of fire, and boiled the fish, the clams, the mussels, oysters,
and periwinkles which they obtained from the seashore, carefully
distributing all the food they thus acquired amongst the old people
and the children as well as the able-bodied who procured it. After
eating they would lie down and sleep until it was necessary to sally
out again at low water and obtain fresh supplies of fish food. Their
language seemed to be very guttural.
Dampier and his companions sailed away from north-west Australia
to the Cocos or Coconut Islands in the Indian Ocean, which long
afterwards were settled by enterprising Scotsmen, and have become
a British possession of some little value. From the Cocos Islands
they made their way back to Sumatra and the mainland of Indo-China.
By this time he had become thoroughly sick of the buccaneers and
their piratical ways, and, after making one or two vain attempts to
escape, he, with two companions, extorted an unwilling permission
from Captain Read to be left behind on the Nicobar Islands (between
Sumatra and the Andamans). One of the seamen who rowed them ashore
out of kindliness stole an axe and gave it to the party of three
Englishmen, "knowing it was a good commodity with the Indians".[58]
[58] The after career of the _Cygnet_ and her crew, with her two
captains, Read and Teat, was sufficiently remarkable to be briefly
sketched. Some more of her men left her at the Philippines and
entered the Royal Navy, wherein at least one of them rose to a very
honourable command. Captain Teat, and thirty to forty stout seamen,
quitted the _Cygnet_ on the Coromandel coast and made their way
to Agra, where they entered the bodyguard of the Mughal emperor.
Read, joined by some more adventurers, took the _Cygnet_, over to
Madagaskar, where, in alliance with a Sakalava chief, he played
the pirate successfully. Wearying of this, he and some of his men
turned slavers, and joined a ship which had come from New York to
convey slaves from Madagaskar and East Africa to America. Read and
his men went to New York, and quite possibly became the ancestors
of excellent citizens of the United States. Other adventurers then
proposed patching up the old _Cygnet_, whose bottom was honeycombed
with the attacks of the Teredo boring worm, and sailing her back
to England. They were obliged, however, to abandon her in St.
Augustine's Bay (Southern Madagaskar), where she foundered.
When they landed it was dark, so Dampier lighted a candle and
conducted his companions to one of the native houses, where they
hung up their hammocks. They were later joined by a Portuguese
interpreter and four Achin Malay seamen. "It was a fine, clear
moonlight night in which we were left ashore, therefore we walked
on the sandy bay to watch when the ship should weigh and be gone,
not thinking ourselves secure in our new gotten liberty till then."
However, at midnight the pirate vessel sailed away, and Dampier
and his companions went peacefully to sleep. The next day they
bought from their native landlord a canoe for the axe, and, putting
their chests and clothes in it, decided to go to the south of the
island and wait there till the monsoon had shifted and the wind was
favourable for a passage across to the north end of Sumatra. But no
sooner was their canoe launched, with all their goods and men in it,
than it capsized and the party were obliged to save their lives
by swimming. Their boxes and clothes were also saved, and Dampier
applied himself most assiduously to the drying of his precious
journal and drawings. During the next three days the Achinese
seamen of their party (who had been members of the crew of a native
vessel seized by the pirates) had arranged outriggers to the canoe,
fitted her with a good mast, and made a substantial sail of mats.
Their canoe thus steadied, they put off once more to sea, and so
sailed southwards to another island. Here, through an unfortunate
accident, they caused the natives to think that they came as
enemies. By a bold manœuvre, organized by Dampier, friendship was
concluded with them and "all very joyfully accepted of a peace.
This became universal over all the islands, to the great joy of the
inhabitants.... Gladness appeared in their countenances, and now
we could go out and fish again without fear of being taken. This
peace was not more welcome to them than to us.... They again brought
their mellory to us, which we bought for old rags." The loaves of
mellory, of which Dampier writes so much and so gratefully, for
it was sometimes the only sustenance he had in these adventures,
were derived from the local bread-fruit, either identical with the
species of the Pacific islands or belonging to an allied kind of
_Artocarpus_[59].
[59] Several plants and animals which are found in Austro-Malaysia
and the Western Pacific islands, but not in India or Further India,
make their appearance in the Nicobars; amongst others the Megapode
gallinaceous birds.
"On 15 May, 1688, about four o'clock in the afternoon, we left
Nicobar Island, directing our course towards Achin, being eight
men of us in company, namely, three Englishmen, four Malayans
(Achinese), and a mongrel Portuguese." Their vessel, the Nicobar
canoe, was about the size (he writes) of a London wherry, coming to
a sharp point at either end, rather narrower than a wherry, and so
thin and light that when empty four men could launch her or pull her
ashore. She would have easily capsized but for the outriggers made
of strong poles and lashed fast and firm on each side of the vessel.
The gunwale of the little vessel was not more than 3 inches above
the water when she was loaded.
In the middle of their passage from Nicobar to Achin a terrible
storm arose, with a violent wind. The sea rose higher and higher,
but at first did them no damage, for the steersman kept the little
vessel at right angles to the great waves and the crew baled
incessantly. What they feared most was that the violence of the
ups and downs would smash the outriggers; there would then be no
hope for them, as the canoe would promptly capsize. The evening of
18 May was very dismal, the sky looked black, being covered with
dark clouds, the wind blew hard and the seas ran high and roared
in a white foam about the canoe. The still darker night was coming
on, no land was in sight, and it seemed as though their little ark
must be swallowed up by each great wave in succession. "What was
worst of all, none of us thought ourselves prepared for another
world. I have been in many imminent dangers before now, but the
worst of them all was but a play game in comparison to this." In the
middle of the night heavy rain fell, which not only lessened the
wind but gave the wretched crew fresh water to drink. Then again
arose a fresh hurricane. It was again abated by another torrential
downpour, so that in addition to other miseries the occupants of
the canoe had not one dry patch in their clothing and were chilled
extremely. At length the day appeared, but with such dark, black
clouds near the horizon that it brought little comfort. However, the
weather began to improve, and on the second day after this violent
storm they landed safely at the mouth of a river in Achin. "The
gentlemen of Sumatra were extraordinarily kind to us", providing the
fever-stricken party with everything that they had need of--young
buffaloes, goats, coconuts, plantains, fowls, eggs, fish, and rice.
They were afterwards conveyed to the town of Achin and put up at
the English factory there. The Portuguese and one of the English
companions of Dampier died of the fever which afflicted all the
party, and which made Dampier himself so ill that he was long in
recovering his strength. After spending nearly three years with
the English traders in different parts of Sumatra and the Malay
Peninsula, he managed to smuggle himself on board a British East
Indiaman, and thus returned, after many adventures, round the Cape
of Good Hope to England.
He brought back with him to England, as the only asset of property
acquired after his tremendous adventures, a "painted prince" named
Jeoly. This was a man born on the little island of Meangis (north
of Jilolo), whom Dampier had purchased at the fort of Benkulen,
an English factory on the south-west coast of Sumatra, where he
(Dampier) had served for five months as a gunner. Jeoly claimed
to be the son of the chief of his island, and was most remarkably
tatued, or, as Dampier phrases it, "painted", all over his body, the
decoration being made by minute punctures of the skin into which
was rubbed the powdered gum of a tree. Jeoly and his relations had
been driven in their canoes by a strong wind on to the coast of
Mindanao (Philippine Islands), where they were sold as slaves, and,
having been bought by an Englishman, were transferred to Benkulen
in Sumatra. Here Dampier made the acquaintance of this man, whom
he seems to have treated with great kindness when he was ill. At
his own request he acquired a right over Jeoly by purchase. When he
reached England with Jeoly, whom he had managed to convey away on
the ship which had given him a return passage, he supported himself
for some time by exhibiting Jeoly at country fairs as a painted
prince. It is sad to relate, however, that, either because of his
necessity or for profit, he sold the faithful Jeoly to another
master, and then took up a sea life again. Jeoly--no doubt catching
cold by being constantly exhibited without clothes at English
fairs--died at Oxford about 1696.
Meantime Dampier was steadily working away at his journals, and in
1697 he published his first book on his truly remarkable adventures
and his circumnavigation of the globe. It met with a well-merited
success, being, indeed, superior to any work of travel published up
to that time in the English tongue; and apparently the excellence
of his book obtained for him a small position in the service of the
Customs House in London. Having by these means got into touch with
the Admiralty, he proposed that he should be put in command of an
expedition to explore the coasts of New Holland (Australia), and on
this voyage, commanding the _Roebuck_, he started on 14 January,
1699.
After touching at Brazil, which was almost obligatory as part of
the sailing voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, he sailed on a direct
course from South Africa to the west coast of Australia, which he
reached at the place christened by himself Sharks Bay. The land
everywhere appeared generally low, flat, and even, but with steep
cliffs to the sea--a desolate coast, without trees, shrubs, or
grass. After coming to an anchor in what is now called Dampier Bay
he went on shore with his men, carrying pickaxes and shovels to dig
for water, and axes to cut wood. They found no water, but the soil
was less sterile than had seemed at a distance, a reddish sand in
which grew grasses, plants, and shrubs. The grass grew in great
tufts as big as a bushel basket, and intermixed with much heather.
The low trees or shrubs were evidently some kind of Eucalyptus, with
reddish timber and strong-scented leaves. In the brackish water of
the coast lagoons there were quantities of water-fowl, pelicans,
cormorants, ducks, curlews, various kinds of oyster-catcher and
plover, and gulls. On the land were a few singing birds, some of
them no bigger than wrens, all singing with a great variety of
fine, shrill notes. Eagles soared in the blue heaven and apparently
preyed on the few beasts and reptiles which were to be seen in the
neighbourhood. Amongst these was a sort of racoon, "different from
those of America in that it had very short forelegs but powerful
hind limbs on which it jumped". This was probably one of the smaller
species of kangaru. Then there was a lizard (described wrongly as
an iguana) with a large and ugly head, and a very short, thick
tail, which seemed another head at the other end of the animal,
but without mouth or eyes. These were speckled black and yellow
like toads, with scales and knobs on their backs similar to those
of crocodiles. They were very slow in motion, but when a man came
near them they would stand still and hiss, and not endeavour to get
away.[60]
[60] These were, perhaps, the Moloch lizards (_Moloch horridus_).
There was no river, lake, or pond of fresh water to be seen
here, but the sea water along the coast abounded with fish, and
especially with sharks and rays. On the beach were many kinds of
shellfish--mussels, periwinkles, limpets, cockles, oysters--both
edible and of the kind which produces pearls. The shore was lined
thick with many other sorts of strange and beautiful shells, most
finely spotted with red, black, or yellow. There were also green
turtle weighing about 200 pounds each, two of which the party caught
when they were stranded on shore by the ebbing tide, and which were
a most welcome sustenance to the crew, though he speaks of their
meat as only being indifferently good. On the other hand, his seamen
ate most heartily of the sharks. One of these was 11 feet long, and
its maw, or stomach, was like a leather sack, very thick, and so
tough that a sharp knife could scarcely cut it. In this they found
the head and bones of a "hippopotamus",[61] the hairy lips of which
were still sound and not putrefied, the jaw also firm, out of which
they plucked a great many teeth, two of them very large, as big as a
man's thumb, small at one end, and a little crooked.
[61] It was not, of course, a hippopotamus, this creature never
having penetrated, even in bygone ages, farther eastwards than
India, but a dugong. The dugong is a near relation of the manati,
which frequents the tropical rivers and estuaries of West Africa,
the West Indies, and South America. The place of the manati is
taken in the waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans by the dugong,
which differs from the manati chiefly in having retained in the
upper jaw two of the incisor teeth. The manati has only molars,
and no front teeth. These incisors of the male dugong develop
sometimes into tusks of considerable size--an inferior kind of
ivory in the commerce of the Pacific Ocean. The manati, the dugong,
and the extinct rhytina of Kamchatka are surviving members of the
Sirenian order of aquatic mammals, creatures distantly related to
the Ungulate or Hoofed mammals, which adopted an existence in the
water ages ago, and gradually lost their hind limbs from disuse.
The Sirenians feed only on vegetable food, and the two surviving
members of this order, the manati and the dugong, live chiefly on
seaweed and the shore vegetation at the mouths of rivers. The manati
frequents the coasts of the Atlantic and the dugong those of the
Indian Ocean and the Pacific.
During Dampier's stay in the vicinity of Shark's Bay (in or about
which he anchored at three separate places searching in vain for
fresh water) his company were well refreshed with the flesh of
kangarus, turtle, shark, ducks, and plovers. Pursuing his course
farther he explored the waters of Freycinet Harbour and realized
that the great promontory to the west of it was really an island
(Dirk Hartog's Island), but finding no means of getting on shore to
search for water (owing to the dangers of the shoals and the rocks)
he sailed northwards, and was impressed by the noise made by the
whales (blowing through their nostrils, or even uttering sounds more
vocal) at night-time, and by the beautiful sea snakes during the
day. Of these they saw two different kinds, one was yellow, about
the bigness of a woman's wrist, and 4 feet long, with a flat tail,
and the other much smaller and shorter, and spotted black and yellow.
About the twentieth degree of south latitude they found themselves
sailing through an archipelago of islands, since named after
Dampier. Here again they landed in their eager search after fresh
water, but were once more disappointed. The islands were dry, rocky,
and barren, of a general rusty-yellow colour, yet supporting a fair
amount of vegetation, shrubs like rosemary, and others with blue
and yellow flowers, creeping peas and beans, some with beautiful
deep-red flowers. On these islands, besides the ordinary sea birds,
they beheld large flocks of white parrots (cockatoos). They also
enjoyed the abundance of small oysters, which were delicious eating.
Here and there smoke rose from the islands, showing that they were
inhabited by man, and this was the characteristic of the distant
mainland. But it was not until the vessel had sailed as far north
as the eighteenth degree of south latitude that Dampier was able
to approach near enough to the shore to land on it in his search
for water. Here at last they came into contact with the Australian
aborigines. As they neared the shore they saw three tall, black,
naked men, who fled at their approach. These they pursued with
amicable intentions till they reached something which looked like
a human settlement and was marked as such by its "haycocks" or
shelters, which were possibly adaptations of tall anthills. But
they found no water here, so they returned to the seashore and
there dug into the sand. The natives followed them at a distance,
making threatening noises and gestures. In the afternoon Dampier
made another attempt to get into touch with the people, and one of
his seamen, an active young man named Alexander Beal, outran them.
They turned and fought him with their wooden lances and wounded
him. In order to save his life Dampier was obliged to come to his
rescue and shoot one of the natives with his gun, after which the
rest ran away, carrying off their wounded companions. Amongst these
natives was one who by his appearance and carriage seemed to be a
chief amongst them. He was a brisk young man, not very tall, or
even as good-looking as some of the others, but more active and
courageous. He alone was painted, and his face was decorated with
a circle of white paste round his eyes, a white streak down his
forehead and nose, while white patterns were painted on his breast
and arms. He and his people had unpleasant looks, and seemed to
Dampier more savage than any human race he had ever met with. They
were rendered additionally ugly by their blinking eyes, due to the
flies which gathered round the eyelids in teasing numbers. Their
skins were black and the hair bushy and frizzled. It was found
that at their camps, when they did not use the shelter of anthills,
they would stick three or four leafy boughs into the ground against
the prevailing wind blowing off the sea. Near these they made
their fireplaces, and thus obtained shelter and warmth during the
night. At each fireplace were great heaps of the shells of oysters,
mussels, cockles, &c., the chief sustenance of these savages. Unlike
the natives whom Dampier had encountered farther north, in his
first glimpse of Australia, these people seemed to live entirely on
shellfish, and made no weirs to catch fish at the ebbing of the tide.
From this place they obtained only four hogsheads of brackish water
by digging wells in the sand, while engaged in which work they
were pestered with the flies, whose attentions they felt far more
than the blazing sun. Indeed, by inference, we may gather that
Dampier experienced on the tropical coast of West Australia the
same immunity from sunstroke as is characteristic of other parts of
Australia.
The land of this region (which would be the southern part of the
vast Kimberley district) was level, and although terribly waterless
by no means devoid of vegetation, being more or less covered with
flowering shrubs and bushes and bright with red, white, blue, and
yellow flowers, most of them belonging to some kind of pea or bean,
which also bore ripened seeds in pods. He notes the number of
"rocks" in the vast plains, 5 or 6 feet high, round at the top, like
a haycock, red, or in some cases white. These were obviously the
anthills built by a termite or "white ant". Farther inland beyond
these plains was a thin forest, and along the creeks of the seashore
grew a few dwarf mangrove trees. Animals were scarce and consisted
chiefly of lizards, snakes, and a few marsupial mammals (probably
kangarus) and wandering dingoes "like hungry wolves". As to birds,
there were "crows just like ours in England" (see p. 41), small
hawks and kites, turtle-doves, and a variety of small birds about
the size of larks.
In despair of finding fresh water in this inhospitable country,
Dampier directed his course towards the Island of Timor. On their
way thither they saw more sea snakes, some of which were all black,
whilst another large one had a red head. At last, "to our great
joy", they saw the tops of the high mountains of Timor peeping
above the clouds, and came to an anchor on the south side of the
island about 200 yards from the shore.[62] The land by the sea was
full of tall, straight-bodied trees like pines (Casuarinas), but
they were again balked, for the approach to land which might yield
fresh water was hindered by a long mangrove creek. Much of the south
coast of Timor proved "barricaded with mangroves", though beyond
the land appeared pleasant enough to the eye, the sides and tops of
lofty mountains covered with large forests and meadows, and obvious
plantations in which they could see coconut palms growing. The weary
mariners, suffering terribly from scurvy, were obliged to turn the
ship about and sail to the west end of the island in order to get on
its north coast.
[62] An admirable description of the Island of Timor is given by
Dampier, much of which might be applicable to this region at the
present day. This large island (some 12,500 square miles in area,
300 miles long, and an average 40 miles broad) lies, as he remarks,
nearly north-east and south-west, and consequently somewhat out
of the general direction of the other Sunda Islands in the long
string between Java on the west and Wetar on the east. Of all the
islands of the Malay Archipelago (except the New Guinea group) it
is the one which approaches nearest to the Australian continent.
On its southern side are tremendously high mountains rising to a
culminating altitude of more than 12,000 feet close to the seashore.
But a great deal of the actual coastline is obstructed for the
access of mariners, especially on the south, by an obstinate fringe
of mangroves. The mangrove is a tree which grows out of the mud and
shallow sea water, supporting itself by innumerable roots. It is
practically impossible for anyone to make their way by land through
the mangrove swamps. Beyond the mangroves, before the land rises
into mountains, is a stretch of sandy country sparsely clothed with
a tree which Dampier describes as a pine, which was more probably
the Casuarina. The mountains form an almost continuous chain running
through the middle of Timor from one extremity to the other, without
outlying mountains of great height in the southern districts. The
indigenous inhabitants of Timor are mainly of Papuan or Negroid
stock, with a considerable intermixture of Mongolian Malay. As in
Dampier's time, so at the present day, the island was practically
divided between the Portuguese and the Dutch. What first drew the
attention of Portuguese navigators to this out-of-the-way island
of the Malay Archipelago is not known to us. They found their way
to Timor in 1520, being followed soon afterwards by the ships of
Magellan's expedition. The Portuguese have stuck to Timor through
all the changing circumstances of their history, even after the
Dutch had turned them out of all the other Malay islands. They now
are admitted by Holland and the rest of Europe to be the rulers over
nearly two-thirds of the island.
Here they found themselves approaching a Dutch fort--Concordia--and
a Dutch ship came to meet them, greatly surprised at the arrival of
Englishmen from such a direction, especially as they had found their
way between the islands at the south-west extremity of Timor. The
discourse between the two parties was in French, as there was no
one on board the English ship who could speak Dutch. The Hollanders
proved most inhospitable, as they suspected Dampier and his men of
being pirates. Grudgingly they were allowed to obtain water from
the Dutch fort at Kupang. Passing round the north coast (stopping
here and there to get fresh water, buffalo meat, and cockatoos)
they reached the region of the Portuguese settlements. Here they
were much more hospitably treated than they had been by the Dutch,
and the Deputy-Governor of Lifau sent them a most welcome present
of young buffaloes, goats, kids, coconuts, ripe mangoes, and
jack-fruit. The only pure-blooded Portuguese at this place were a
priest and a lieutenant; the rest were mostly Christianized natives
of Timor, "copper coloured, with black, lank hair". The Portuguese
lieutenant was named Alexis Mendoza. Dampier was informed that at
the east end of Timor (Dilli) there was a good harbour and a large
Portuguese town where he could get plenty refreshments for his men
and pitch for his ship, the Governor of the place (Capitão Môr)
being a very courteous gentlemen and glad to entertain English
ships. For some reason he turned back to the west and camped on
the coast in a region called Babao, near the Dutch settlement of
Kupang. Here he obtained the pitch with which he caulked the planks
of his leaking ship, and cleaned the sides of weed and shells,
giving them afterwards a coating of lime. Every now and again his
men went inland and hunted buffaloes, afterwards roasting, smoking,
or drying the flesh. The Dutch visited them here to find out what
they were doing. After some misunderstandings Dampier went to dine
with the Governors of the Dutch fort of Concordia in Kupang Bay.
Here he found plenty of very good victuals well dressed, the linen
being white and clean, the dishes and all plate being fine china.
Nowhere on this voyage did he meet with better entertainment or so
much decency and order. With their meals they drank wine, beer,
or rum and water. The Dutch Governor had formed an interesting
collection of beautiful shells. Still, their treatment by the Dutch
was grudging. They were denied stores, and though offered fresh
provisions, realized that these would be much dearer than the things
they could obtain at little cost to themselves by hunting.
From Timor Dampier sailed between the islands of Ombai and Wetar or
Vetta and past the small island of Gunong Api,[63] which consists
mainly of one huge, active volcano, sloping up from the sea towards
the top, where it is divided into two peaks, between which issued
more smoke than Dampier had ever seen from any other volcano. Most
of this island was burnt up and desolate from the devastating
effect of the streams of red-hot lava. Thence he sailed through
the Banda Sea till on New Year's Day, 1700, he first descried the
coast of New Guinea, probably the country of Baaik, the southern
part of that extraordinary western projection of New Guinea--the
Arfak Peninsula--which is nearly cut into two large islands by
M'Clure Inlet and Geelvink Bay. Here, nearly opposite the big
island of Ceram, his men landed to obtain fresh water. The country
was mountainous and well clothed with magnificent forests, which
appeared very green. The seamen brought back with them from the
shore a variety of wild fruits which they found in the forest, and
"a stately land fowl of a sky colour", with white and red spots on
the wings, and on the crown a large bunch of long feathers. The bill
was like that of a pigeon, but the red legs and feet resembled those
of fowls. The men had also discovered the nest of this bird with
one egg in it as large as that of a hen. It was the now well-known
Victoria Crowned Pigeon, sometimes styled the Goura. Some 150 years
afterwards it was rediscovered in what is now British New Guinea,
and named after Queen Victoria. From this point Dampier seems to
have shaped his course to a small island off M'Clure Inlet, which
he calls by its Malay name of Pulo Sabuda. Here he saw more of
these large Goura pigeons and enormous fruit-bats (of the genus
_Pteropus_), the bodies of which were as big as those of rabbits,
while in a general way they looked exactly what their name implies
"flying foxes", with a stretch of wing from tip to tip measuring 4
feet. The inhabitants of this island were of two distinct types--the
Malayan, with tawny skin and long, lank, black hair, and "curl-pated
New Guinea negroes", many of which were slaves to the people of
Malayan type. The Malays possessed large sailing boats with which
they visited the coasts of New Guinea, where they obtained Papuan
slaves, parrots, and Paradise-birds, which they carried over to the
Dutch settlements in Ceram and exchanged for European trade goods.
[63] Quite distinct from the Gunong Api of the Banda Islands.
After stopping at Pulo Sabuda Dampier rounded the north-western
promontory of New Guinea, calling at some of the small islands for
wood and water and shellfish, some of which were "cockles" weighing
10 pounds each, and other huge bivalves, clams, weighing 78 pounds.
At most of these islands they saw the same large fruit-bats. One
of these islands off Waigiu (in what is still called the Dampier
Strait) he named after King William III. After that he continued to
sail round the north coast of New Guinea, past islands which he knew
to have been previously discovered by the Dutch.
At last he reached the vicinity of the two great islands now known
as New Mecklenburg and New Pomerania. He took them to be one island,
to which he gave the name of Nova Britannia (New Britain), a name
which it bore down to the days of Captain Cook, who christened the
northern portion, which was found to be a separate island, New
Ireland. Dampier, landing on the northern coast of New Ireland (now
New Mecklenburg), described it as high and mountainous, adorned with
tall, flourishing trees, possessing many plantations and patches
of cleared land. The natives, however, flung stones at them with
their slings, so Dampier renounced any attempt to obtain water
there. For this purpose he called at Gerrit Denys Island, one of an
archipelago lying to the north of New Ireland, and here the natives
were more friendly. The island was thickly populated, the people
being very black, strong, and stout-limbed. Their hair was short and
curly; besides being clipped into different patterns, it was dyed
or bleached a variety of colours, red, white, or yellow, besides
its original black. These people had broad, round faces, with big,
bottle noses, yet looked agreeable enough until they disfigured
themselves by tatuing[64] and by wearing things through the septum
of the nostrils as big as a man's thumb and 4 inches long. Sometimes
these objects were passed actually through the cheeks, and not
through the nostrils. They also made holes in their ears into which
they thrust pieces of bone or wood. They were very dexterous with
their canoes, which were fitted with outriggers on one side. The bow
and the stern rose high and were carved into extraordinary painted
devices resembling birds, fish, or a man's hand. Dampier, noticing
these people had no knowledge of metal utensils, and knowing nothing
of their stone weapons, wondered how they could carve this work
so elaborately. Their speech was clear and distinct, and for a
sign of friendship they would hold up the bow of a tree full of
leaves. Continuing his circumnavigation of "Nova Britannia", Dampier
discovered and named the entrance to St. George's Channel, but he
believed it to be only a deep indentation, and did not realize
it was a passage between New Ireland and New Britain. Calling at
Port Montague, off the south coast of New Britain, where the land
was mountainous, woody, full of rich valleys and pleasant water
brooks, Dampier found this part of the great island abounded in
food--coconuts, yams,[65] ginger; hogs, pigeons, and fish. The
natives proved to be friendly. The men were finely decked with
feathers of various colours. The women wore nothing but a bunch of
small green leaves. Pigs swarmed in their villages and ran wild in
the woods.
[64] Really marking their faces and bodies with huge blobs of skin
or scars.
[65] Probably the Taro, the tuberous root of a species of Arum.
Reaching the western extremity of New Britain, Dampier sailed
through the strait which still bears his name, into the sea of the
Bismarck Archipelago. Off this part of the New Guinea coast there
are several small islands which still contain active volcanoes.
One of these amazed the crew of Dampier's ship by vomiting fire
and smoke with dreadful noises and explosions all through the
night at intervals of about half a minute. These convulsions were
alternately slight and tremendous, and when they were severe
great volumes of flame rose into the sky above the crater, while
red-hot streams of lava could be seen running down to the seashore.
Why Dampier should have turned to the north and rounded New
Britain, instead of pursuing his course southwards to discover
the connection--if any--between New Guinea and Australia, it is
difficult to understand. Perhaps he thought that the indentation
of Huon Gulf indicated the eastern extremity of New Guinea; but
even then one would have thought that he would have sailed in that
direction in order to circumnavigate this island, and so regain the
Malay Archipelago or the coast of Australia. But instead of this
he contented himself with once more sailing past the north of New
Guinea, till he regained the known regions about Ceram.
He landed on that large island and noticed how it abounded in
strange or beautiful birds: cassowaries, pigeons, parrots, and
cockatoos. One of the seamen killed two hornbills. From Ceram
they made their way back to Timor, calling again at the Dutch
settlements. He then thought of revisiting the coast of Australia,
but owing to contrary winds made his way instead to Java, from which
he voyaged back to the Cape of Good Hope and so towards England. But
when off the island of Ascension their ship sprang a leak and they
were obliged to abandon it. To their great thankfulness they found
a spring of fresh water on the high mountain of Ascension, while
plenty of turtle visited the beach. There was also an abundance of
goats running wild, and there were edible land-crabs. The hollow
rocks afforded a convenient lodging in the mild and equable climate,
and before they had spent more than a week on this refuge there
arrived a British ship which gave them a passage back to England.
On his return to England he was charged by his officers and men
with cruelty, and was found guilty of this charge by a court of
enquiry, who decided he was not a fit person to command a king's
ship, and fined him all his pay. There must have been some truth in
these charges, and friction between him and his men was probably
the reason why Dampier ceased his explorations after rounding New
Britain. But he soon afterwards obtained the command of a ship
belonging to a company of merchants, and in this he made his way
back to the Pacific Ocean round Cape Horn. This ship was little else
than a pirate vessel, which, under the guise of privateering in
the French wars, was sent out to prey on foreign commerce off the
west coast of South America. They met with varying fortunes after
calling at the island of Juan Fernandez, and Dampier quarrelled with
his officers and men, some of whom deserted him. Dampier eventually
made his way back across the Pacific Ocean to the Dutch East Indies,
where he was imprisoned for some months. But in 1707 he got back
to England and attempted to vindicate himself from the further
charges brought against him by members of his crew, who had reached
England after deserting him. In 1708 he obtained a position as pilot
on another privateer, and this voyage stands out in history
from the interesting fact that the captain under whom he sailed
(Woodes-Rogers) called at the island of Juan Fernandez, and there
took away the celebrated Alexander Selkirk, who had been landed on
that island more than four years previously, and had lived there,
like Robinson Crusoe, in solitude.
[Illustration: DAMPIER AND HIS CREW WATCHING A VOLCANIC ERUPTION]
The two privateers, on one of which Dampier made this voyage, were
very successful in preying on Spanish shipping and plundering the
rich towns on the west coast of South America, so that when Dampier
returned to England, in 1711, he probably obtained, as an advance of
his share in the profits, enough money on which to subsist for the
remainder of his life, which terminated in London in 1715.
For the age in which he lived he was--as his most recent biographer
(Mr. John Masefield) points out--a very remarkable man. Although
his life was spent amongst pirates, semi-savage mahogany cutters,
drunken and ignorant sailors, he was temperate and refined, with
a passionate love of the wild nature around him, never failing to
observe the flowers, the fish, the birds, or the beasts of the
strange countries he visited. His descriptions of native manners
and customs are remarkably accurate, and he has been the first to
record the existence of many a strange beast and bird, such as the
Mountain Tapir of Tropical America (which he thought was a kind of
hippopotamus) and the Victoria Crowned Pigeon of New Guinea.