manager of a plantation belonging to a Colonel Hellier. His restless
spirit soon revolted against this humdrum life on a plantation, and
Dampier again went to sea, sailing in a small trading vessel amongst the
islands.
Dampier's first step towards buccaneering was taken when he shipped
himself on a small ketch which was sailing from Port Royal to load logwood
at the Bay of Campeachy. This was an illegal business, as the Spanish
Government claimed the ownership of all that coast, and did their best to
prevent the trade. Dampier found some 250 Englishmen engaged in cutting
the wood, which they exchanged for rum. Most of these men were buccaneers
or privateers, who made a living in this way when out of a job afloat.
When a ship came into the coast, these men would think nothing of coming
aboard and spending thirty and forty pounds on rum and punch at a single
drinking bout.
Dampier returned afterwards to take up logwood cutting himself, but met
with little success, and went off to Beef Island. He had by this time
begun to take down notes of all that appeared to him of interest,
particularly objects of natural history. For example, he described, in his
own quaint style, an animal he found in this island.
"The Squash is a four-footed Beast, bigger than a Cat. Its Head is much
like a Foxes, with short Ears and a long Nose. It has pretty short Legs
and sharp Claws, by which it will run up trees like a Cat. The flesh is
good, sweet, wholesome Meat. We commonly skin and roast it; and then we
call it pig; and I think it eats as well. It feeds on nothing but good
Fruit; therefore we find them most among the Sapadillo-Trees. This
Creature never rambles very far, and being taken young, will become as
tame as a Dog, and be as roguish as a Monkey."
Dampier's first act of actual piracy was when he joined in an attack on
the Spanish fort of Alvarado, but although the fort was taken, the
townspeople had time to escape with all their valuables before the pirates
could reach them. Returning to England in 1678, he did not remain long at
home, for in the beginning of 1679 he sailed for Jamaica in a vessel named
the _Loyal Merchant_. Shortly after reaching the West Indies, he chanced
to meet with several well-known buccaneers, including Captains Coxon,
Sawkins, and Sharp. Joining with these, he sailed on March 25th, 1679, for
the Province of Darien, "to pillage and plunder these parts." Dampier says
strangely little about his adventures for the next two years, but a full
description of them is given by Ringrose in his "Dangerous Voyage and Bold
Adventures of Captain Sharp and Others in the South Sea," published as an
addition to the "History of the Buccaneers of America" in 1684.
This narrative tells how the buccaneers crossed the isthmus and attacked
and defeated the Spanish Fleet off Panama City. After the death of their
leader, Sawkins, the party split up, and Dampier followed Captain Sharp on
his "dangerous and bold voyage" in May, 1680.
In April, 1681, after various adventures up and down the coast of Peru and
Chile, further quarrels arose amongst the buccaneers, and a party of
malcontents, of which number Dampier was one, went off on their own
account in a launch and two canoes from the Island of Plate, made famous
by Drake, and landed on the mainland near Cape San Lorenzo. The march
across the Isthmus of Darien has been amusingly recounted by the surgeon
of the party, Lionel Wafer, in his book entitled "A New Voyage and
Description of the Isthmus of America," published in London in 1699.
[Illustration: A PAGE FROM THE LOG-BOOK OF CAPTAIN DAMPIER.
To face p. 98.]
On reaching the Atlantic, Dampier found some buccaneer ships and joined
them, arriving at Virginia in July, 1682. In this country he resided for a
year, but tells little about it beyond hinting that great troubles befell
him. In April, 1683, he joined a privateer vessel, the _Revenge_, but
directly she was out of sight of land the crew turned pirates, which had
been their intention all along. Two good narratives have been written of
this voyage, one by Dampier, and the other by Cowley, the sailing-master.
This venture ended in the famous circumnavigation of the world, and
Dampier described every object of interest he met with, including the
country and natives of the north coast of Australia, which had never been
visited before by Europeans. Dampier must have found it very difficult to
keep his journal so carefully and regularly, particularly in his early
voyages, when he was merely a seaman before the mast or a petty officer.
He tells us that he carried about with him a long piece of hollow bamboo,
in which he placed his manuscript for safe keeping, waxing the ends to
keep out the sea water.
After almost endless adventures and hardships, he arrived back in England
in September, 1691, after a voyage of eight years, and an absence from
England of twelve, without a penny piece in his pocket, nor any other
property except his unfortunate friend Prince Jeoly, whom he sold on his
arrival in the Thames, to supply his own immediate wants. Dampier's next
voyage was in the year 1699, when he was appointed to command H.M.S.
_Roebuck_, of twelve guns and a crew of fifty men and boys, and victualled
for twenty months' cruise. The object of this voyage was to explore and
map the new continent to the south of the East Indies which Dampier had
discovered on his previous voyage. Had he in this next voyage taken the
westward course, as he originally intended, and sailed to Australia round
the Horn, it is possible that Dampier would have made many of the
discoveries for which James Cook afterwards became so famous, and by
striking the east coast of Australia would very likely have antedated the
civilisation of that continent by fifty years. But he was persuaded,
partly by his timid crew, and perhaps in some measure by his own dislike
of cold temperatures, to sail by the eastward route and to double the Cape
of Good Hope. The story of this voyage is given by Dampier in his book,
published in 1709, "A Voyage to New Holland, etc., in the Year 1699."
After spending some unprofitable weeks on the north coast of Australia,
failing to find water or to make friends with the aboriginals, scurvy
broke out amongst his somewhat mutinous crew, and he sailed to New Guinea,
the coast of which he saw on New Year's Day, 1700.
By this time the _Roebuck_ was falling to pieces, her wood rotten, her
hull covered with barnacles. Eventually, using the pumps day and night,
they arrived, on February 21st, 1701, at Ascension Island, where the old
ship sank at her anchors. Getting ashore with their belongings, they
waited on this desolate island until April 3rd, when four ships arrived,
three of them English men-of-war.
I was told, only the other day, by a friend who lives in the Island of St.
Helena, and whose duties take him at least once each year to Ascension
Island, that a story still survives amongst the inhabitants of these
islands that there is hidden somewhere in the sandhills a treasure, which
Dampier is believed to have put there for safe keeping, but for some
reason never removed. But poor Dampier never came by a treasure in this or
any other of his voyages, and though the legend is a pleasant one, it is a
legend and nothing more. Dampier went on board one of the men-of-war, the
_Anglesea_, with thirty-five of his crew. Taken to Barbadoes, he there
procured a berth in another vessel, the _Canterbury_, in which he sailed
to England.
Dampier had now made so great a name for himself by his two voyages round
the globe that he was granted a commission by Prince George of Denmark to
sail as a privateer in the _St. George_, to prey on French and Spanish
ships, the terms being: "No purchase, no pay." Sailing as his consort was
the _Cinque Ports_, whose master was Alexander Selkirk, the original of
Robinson Crusoe. This voyage, fully recounted in Dampier's book, is a long
tale of adventure, hardship, and disaster, and the explorer eventually
returned to England a beggar. However, his travels made a great stir, and
he was allowed to kiss the Queen's hand and to have the honour of relating
his adventures to her.
Dampier's last voyage was in the capacity of pilot or navigating officer
to Captain Woodes Rogers in the _Duke_, which sailed with another Bristol
privateer, the _Duchess_, in 1708. The interesting narrative of this
successful voyage is told by Rogers in his book, "A Cruising Voyage Round
the World," etc., published in 1712. Another account was written by the
captain of the _Duchess_, Edward Cooke, and published in the same year.
This last voyage round the world ended at Erith on October 14th, 1711, and
was the only one in which Dampier returned with any profit other than to
his reputation as an explorer and navigator.
Dampier was now fifty-nine years of age, and apparently never went to sea
again. In fact, he henceforth disappears from the stage altogether, and is
supposed to have died in Colman Street in London, in the year 1715. Of
Dampier's early life in England little is known, except that he owned, at
one time, a small estate in Somersetshire, and that in 1678 he married "a
young woman out of the family of the Duchess of Grafton." There is an
interesting picture of Dampier in the National Portrait Gallery, painted
by T. Murray, and I take this opportunity to thank the directors for
their kind permission to reproduce this portrait.
One other book Dampier wrote, called a "Discourse of Winds," an
interesting work, and one which added to the author's reputation as a
hydrographer. There is little doubt that Defoe was inspired by the
experiences and writings of Dampier, not only in his greatest work,
"Robinson Crusoe," but also in "Captain Singleton," "Colonel Jack," "A New
Voyage Round the World," and many of the maritime incidents in "Roxana"
and "Moll Flanders."
DAN, JOSEPH.
One of Avery's crew. Turned King's witness at his trial in 1696, and was
not hanged.
DANIEL, CAPTAIN. A French filibuster.
The name of this bloodthirsty pirate will go down to fame as well as
notoriety by his habit of combining piracy with strict Church discipline.
Harling recounts an example of this as follows, the original account of
the affair being written by a priest, M. Labat, who seems to have had
rather a weak spot in his heart for the buccaneer fraternity:
"Captain Daniel, in need of provisions, anchored one night off one of the
'Saintes,' small islands near Dominica, and landing without opposition,
took possession of the house of the curé and of some other inhabitants of
the neighbourhood. He carried the curé and his people on board his ship
without offering them the least violence, and told them that he merely
wished to buy some wine, brandy and fowls. While these were being
gathered, Daniel requested the curé to celebrate Mass, which the poor
priest dared not refuse. So the necessary sacred vessels were sent for and
an altar improvised on the deck for the service, which they chanted to the
best of their ability. As at Martinique, the Mass was begun by a
discharge of artillery, and after the Exaudiat and prayer for the King,
was closed by a loud 'Vive la Roi!' from the throats of the buccaneers. A
single incident, however, somewhat disturbed the devotions. One of the
buccaneers, remaining in an indecent attitude during the Elevation, was
rebuked by the captain, and instead of heeding the correction, replied
with an impertinence and a fearful oath. Quick as a flash Daniel whipped
out his pistol and shot the buccaneer through the head, adjuring God that
he would do as much to the first who failed in his respect to the Holy
Sacrifice. The shot was fired close by the priest, who, as we can readily
imagine, was considerably agitated. 'Do not be troubled, my father,' said
Daniel; 'he is a rascal lacking in his duty and I have punished him to
teach him better.'" A very efficacious means, remarks Labat, of preventing
his falling into another like mistake. After the Mass the body of the dead
man was thrown into the sea, and the curé was recompensed for his pains by
some goods out of their stock and the present of a negro slave.
DANIEL, STEPHEN.
One of Captain Teach's crew. Hanged for piracy in Virginia in 1718.
DANSKER, CAPTAIN.
A Dutch pirate who cruised in the Mediterranean in the sixteenth century,
using the North African coast as his base. He joined the Moors and turned
Mohammedan. In 1671 Admiral Sir Edward Spragge was with a fleet at Bougie
Bay, near Algiers, where, after a sharp fight, he burnt and destroyed a
big fleet of the Moorish pirates, amongst those killed being the renegade
Dansker.
DARBY, JOHN.
A Marblehead fisherman, one of the crew of the ketch _Mary_, of Salem,
captured by Captain Pound. He joined the pirates, and was killed at
Tarpaulin Cove.
DAVIS, CAPTAIN EDWARD. Buccaneer and pirate.
Flourished from 1683-1702. According to Esquemiling, who knew Davis
personally, his name was John, but some authorities call him Edward, the
name he is given in the "Dictionary of National Biography."
In 1683 Davis was quartermaster to Captain Cook when he took the ship of
Captain Tristian, a French buccaneer, of Petit Guave in the West Indies.
Sailed north to cruise off the coast of Virginia. From there he sailed
across the Atlantic to West Africa, and at Sierra Leone came upon a Danish
ship of thirty-six guns, which he attacked and took. The pirates shifted
their crew into this ship, christening her the _Bachelor's Delight_, and
sailed for Juan Fernandez in the South Pacific, arriving there in March,
1684. Here they met with Captain Brown, in the _Nicholas_, and together
sailed to the Galapagos Islands. About this time Captain Cook died, and
Davis was elected captain in his place. Cruising along the coasts of Chile
and Peru, they sacked towns and captured Spanish ships. On November 3rd
Davis landed, and burnt the town of Paita. Their principal plan was to
waylay the Spanish Fleet on its voyage to Panama. This fleet arrived off
the Bay of Panama on May 28th, 1685, but the buccaneers were beaten and
were lucky to escape with their lives. At the Gulf of Ampalla, Davis had
to put his sick on shore, as spotted fever raged amongst the crew. Davis
then cruised for a while with the buccaneer Knight, sacking several
towns.
Deciding to return to the West Indies with their plunder, several of the
crew, who had lost all their share by gambling, were left, at their own
request, on the Island of Juan Fernandez. Davis then sailed round the
Horn, arriving safely at Jamaica with a booty of more than 50,000 pieces
of eight, besides quantities of plate and jewels.
At Port Royal, after he had accepted the offer of pardon of King James
II., Davis sailed to Virginia and settled down at Point Comfort. We hear
no more of him for the next fourteen years, until July 24th, 1702, when he
sailed from Jamaica in the _Blessing_ (Captain Brown; twenty guns,
seventy-nine men), to attack the town of Tolu on the Spanish Main, which
was plundered and burnt. Davis next sailed to the Samballoes, and, guided
by the Indians, who were friendly to the buccaneers, but hated the
Spaniards, they attacked the gold-mines, where, in spite of most cruel
tortures, they got but little gold. The crew next attacked Porto Bello,
but found little worth stealing in that much harassed town.
Davis is chiefly remarkable for having commanded his gang of ruffians in
the Pacific for nearly four years. To do this he must have been a man of
extraordinary personality and bravery, for no other buccaneer or pirate
captain ever remained in uninterrupted power for so long a while, with the
exception of Captain Bartholomew Roberts.
DAVIS, CAPTAIN HOWEL.
This Welsh pirate was born at Milford in Monmouthshire. He went to sea as
a boy, and eventually sailed as chief mate in the _Cadogan_ snow, of
Bristol, to the Guinea Coast. His ship was taken off Sierra Leone by the
pirate England, and the captain murdered. Davis turned pirate, and was
given command of this old vessel, the _Cadogan_, in which to go "on the
account." But the crew refused to turn pirate, and sailed the ship to
Barbadoes, and there handed Davis over to the Governor, who imprisoned him
for three months and then liberated him. As no one on the island would
offer him employment, Davis went to New Providence Island, the stronghold
of the West India pirates.
Arrived there, he found that Captain Woodes Rogers had only lately come
from England with an offer of a royal pardon, which most of the pirates
had availed themselves of. Davis got employment under the Governor, on
board the sloop, the _Buck_, to trade goods with the French and Spanish
settlements. The crew was composed of the very recently reformed pirates,
and no sooner was the sloop out of sight of land than they mutinied and
seized the vessel, Davis being voted captain, on which occasion, over a
bowl of punch in the great cabin, the new captain made an eloquent speech,
finishing by declaring war against the whole world. Davis proved himself
an enterprising and successful pirate chief, but preferred, whenever
possible, to use strategy and cunning rather than force to gain his ends.
His first prize was a big French ship, which, although Davis had only a
small sloop and a crew of but thirty-five men, he managed to take by a
bold and clever trick. After taking a few more ships in the West Indies,
Davies sailed across the Atlantic to the Island of St. Nicholas in the
Cape Verde Islands. Here he and his crew were a great social success,
spending weeks on shore as the guests of the Governor and chief
inhabitants. When Davis reluctantly left this delightful spot, five of his
crew were missing, "being so charmed with the Luxuries of the Place, and
the Conversation of some Women, that they stayed behind."
Davis now went cruising and took a number of vessels, and arrived
eventually at St. Jago. The Portuguese Governor of this island did not
take at all kindly to his bold visitor, and was blunt enough to say he
suspected Davis of being a pirate. This suspicion his crew took exception
to, and they decided they could not let such an insult pass, so that very
night they made a sudden attack on the fort, taking and plundering it.
Davis sailed away next morning to the coast and anchored off the Castle of
Gambia, which was strongly held for the African Company by the Governor
and a garrison of English soldiers. Davis, nothing daunted, proposed to
his merry men a bold and ingenious stratagem by which they could take the
castle, and, the crew agreeing, it was carried out with so much success
that they soon had the castle, Governor, and soldiers in their possession,
as well as a rich spoil of bars of gold; and all these without a solitary
casualty on either side. After this brilliant coup, many of the soldiers
joined the pirates. The pirates were attacked shortly afterwards by a
French ship commanded by Captain La Bouse, but on both ships hoisting
their colours, the Jolly Roger, they understood each other and
fraternized, and then sailed together to Sierra Leone, where they attacked
a tall ship they found lying there at anchor. This ship also proved to be
a pirate, commanded by one Captain Cocklyn, so the three joined forces and
assaulted the fort, which, after a sharp bombardment, surrendered. Davis
was then elected commander of the pirate fleet, but one night, when
entertaining the other captains in his cabin, all having drunk freely of
punch, they started to quarrel, and blows were threatened, when Davis,
with true Celtic eloquence, hiccupped out the following speech:
"Hearke ye, you Cocklyn and La Bouse. I find by strengthening you I have
put a rod into your Hands to whip myself, but I'm still able to deal with
you both; but since we met in Love, let us part in Love, for I find that
three of a Trade can never agree." Alone once more, Davis had prodigious
success, taking prize after prize, amongst others the _Princess_, the
second mate in which was one Roberts, soon to become a most famous pirate.
Off Anamaboe he took a very rich prize, a Hollander ship, on board of
which was the Governor of Accra and his retinue, as well as £15,000
sterling and rich merchandise. Arriving next at the Portuguese Island of
Princes, Davis posed as an English man-of-war in search of pirates, and
was most warmly welcomed by the Governor, who received him in person with
a guard of honour and entertained him most hospitably. Davis heard that
the Governor and the chief persons of the island had sent their wives to a
village a few miles away, so the pirate and a few chosen spirits decided
to pay a surprise visit on these ladies. However, the ladies, on
perceiving their gallant callers, shrieked and ran into the woods and, in
fact, made such a hullabaloo that the English Don Juans were glad to slink
away, and "the Thing made some noise, but not being known was passed
over."
Davis, ever a cunning rogue, now formed a pretty scheme to take the
Governor and chief inhabitants prisoners and to hold them for a big
ransom. This plan was spoilt by a Portuguese slave swimming to shore and
telling the Governor all about it, and worse, telling him about the little
affair of Davis and his visit to the ladies in the wood. The Governor now
laid his plans, and with such success that Davis walked unsuspecting into
the trap, and was "shot in the bowels," but it is some consolation to know
that he "dyed like a game Cock," as he shot two of the Portuguese with his
pistols as he fell.
Thus died a man noted during his lifetime by his contemporaries for his
"affability and good nature," which only goes to show how one's point of
view is apt to be influenced by circumstances.
DAVIS, GABRIEL.
Tried for piracy at the Star Tavern in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1704.
DAVIS, WILLIAM.
A Welshman.
Arrived at Sierra Leone in honest employ in the _Ann_ galley. Quarrelling
with the mate, whom he beat, he deserted his ship and went to live ashore
with the negroes, one of whom he married, with whom he settled down. One
evening, the weather being hot, and Davis being very thirsty, he sold his
bride for some punch. His wife's relations, being indignant, seized Davis,
who told them, being, perhaps, still a little under the influence of the
punch, that he did not care if they took his head off. But his "in-laws"
knew a more profitable way of being revenged than that, and sold him to
Seignior Joffee, a Christian black. Soon afterwards Captain Roberts, in
the _Royal Fortune_, arrived in the bay, and Davis ran away and joined the
pirates.
Hanged at the age of 23.
DAWES. Corsair.
An English renegade.
When Roberts was cast away on June 12th, 1692, in Nio, a small island in
the Grecian Archipelago, in His Majesty's hired ship the _Arcana_ galley,
most of the crew escaped in a French prize they had taken. Roberts
remained behind, hoping to save some of his valuables, which were in the
_Arcana_. But on June 15th a crusal, or corsair, appeared in the harbour,
which Roberts's five companions went on board of. Various designs were
made by the corsair captain to induce Roberts to come aboard. Eventually
an Englishman named Dawes (a native of Saltash in Cornwall) was sent
ashore. He had served for eight years in the corsair until taken out of
her a short time previously by the _Arcana_. Roberts writes, in his frank
style: "But Dawes, like a Dog returning to his Vomit, went on Board
again." Eventually a party of the corsair's landed under the leadership of
Dawes, and captured Roberts and carried him on board the pirate craft,
where for many years he worked as a slave.
DAWES, ROBERT.
One of the mutineers on the brig _Vineyard_ in 1830. It was the full
confession of Dawes that brought about the conviction and execution of the
ringleader, Charles Gibbs.
DAWSON, JOSEPH.
One of Captain Avery's crew of the _Charles the Second_. Tried at the Old
Bailey in 1696 for piracy, and convicted. He pleaded to be spared and to
be sent to servitude in India, but was hanged at Execution Dock.
DEAL, CAPTAIN ROBERT.