EARLY DISCOVERIES. 



the coast. They sailed a thousand miles and often landed, but only once obtained fresh 

 water. Then, in order to ascertain where springs or running streams might be found, 

 they tried, but unsuccessfully, to catch one or two of the natives, who were too shy to 

 come within speaking distance. To Dampier it seemed that a longer stay on this 

 desolate coast would be wholly fruitless ; he considered that he had discovered the most 

 miserable spot on the face of the earth, and therefore continued his course along the 



shores of New Guinea, 

 and among the adjacent 

 islands. However, the 

 prevalence of scurvy on 

 board, and a sickness 

 which attacked Dampier 

 himself, induced him to begin his 

 homeward passage; but at the island 

 of Ascension the Roebuck went ashore 

 and became a total wreck, and all 

 the relics of the voyage were lost. 



The shipwrecked crew were res- 

 cued by an English vessel after having 

 been five weeks on the island, and 

 upon their arrival in England, Dampier 

 published a full account of the voy- 

 age and dedicated it to his patron, 

 .the Earl of Pembroke. He received 

 no acknowledgement of his services, 

 and he has no historical record after 

 this date, but he is said to have been 

 connected with the expedition of 



\Yoodes Rodgers which, in 1709, rescued Alexander Selkirk, the prototype of De Foe's 

 immortal " Robinson Crusoe," from his solitary exile on the island of Juan Fernandez. 



Dampier's discoveries added considerably to the knowledge of geography, but they 

 did not settle the problem of the Great South Land ; and the report he took back of 

 this poverty-stricken country and its wretched inhabitants deterred the seamen or the 

 Governments of Europe from further investigations. His works were eagerly read, but 

 when the public saw, among the glowing and picturesque accounts of the tropical 

 regions and the lovely islands of the South that he had visited, this uninviting descrip- 

 tion of the north-west coast of Australia, curiosity was satisfied, and for seventy years 

 the exploration of the newly-found Continent was practically at an end. 



Between Dampier's first and second voyages an accident caused a close investigation 

 of the western coasts to be made by the Dutch. In 1684 the Riddcrschap had sailed 

 from Holland, rounded the Cape, and had never afterwards been heard of. She had on 

 board many passengers and a valuable cargo ; and in 1696 the East India Company 

 ordered Commander Vlamingh, when on his way out to Batavia, to examine the coasts 

 of Australia, and to discover if by some chance the crew might still be living there. 



A NORTH AUSTRALIAN NATIVE. 



