3 io 



THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



of Robinson Crusoe, though for some reason he chose 

 to shipwreck him, not on his proper home, but on an island 

 in the estuary of the Orinoco. The pirates were told that 

 many years ago a ship had been cast away on the island. 

 Only one man had survived, who had lived alone for 

 five years before a ship came : Robinson Crusoe the 

 First. And now the pirates themselves provided the 

 island with Robinson Crusoe the Second. Three Spanish 

 ships suddenly appeared. The pirates hurried away, 

 leaving an Indian who happened to be on shore hunting 

 goats. They did not return. Trade went from bad to 

 worse. Failures led to quarrels, and Dampier joined a 

 party who marched back over the isthmus to the " North 

 side." Here they joined various gangs of ruffians, Dutch 

 and French as well as English, and sailed about the West 

 Indies in the ordinary dull and dirty routine of the trade, 

 while Dampier busily wrote notes in his precious Journal ; 

 four pages, for example, on the manatee or sea-cow, and 

 two on the cocoa-tree. At last the gang broke up, and 

 Dampier went with his share to Virginia in 1682. 



Dampier lived in Virginia for thirteen months. Then 

 came a ship under a captain who, says Dampier, " was 

 a sensible man and had been some years a privateer." 

 He and his friends had now " a ship of good force in which 

 they resolved to make a new expedition into the South 

 Seas." Dampier and his " fellow travellers " were easily 

 persuaded to travel with them. His motive was as plain 

 as could be. The " trade " he regarded as " lawful " 

 but uninteresting. But he came into these seas the second 

 time, he says in plain and honest language, " more to 

 indulge in my curiosity than to get wealth." One feels, 

 in fact, that Dampier was hardly treating his friends 

 fairly, and they also felt this. Piracy is a serious trade, 

 and a man who undertakes it should undertake it in a 

 piratical spirit. A man who has no particular objection 

 to the ten commandments, and cannot even raise a thirst 

 when in the Tropics, has no right to be a pirate. Dampier 

 was making use of an honourable trade to serve his personal 

 convenience. When he should have been thinking about 



