DAMPIER 311 



murder and loot, he was thinking about crocodiles and 

 beetles. No wonder his exasperated comrades talked of 

 eating him. And, looking at his portrait and remembering 

 his habits, no wonder they didn't. 



The " travellers " sailed round Cape Horn, and made Business 

 for Juan Fernandez. The Indian, who had been left and science - 

 behind on the earlier voyage, came down to the sea-side 

 to " congratulate our safe arrival." He had lived a 

 Robinson Crusoe life for three years, in such picturesque 

 detail that Defoe had little to do but describe and elaborate. 

 Then they got down to business on the coasts of Chili 

 and Peru. Dampier gives only enough trade, detail to 

 make the story hang together. But he has several pages 

 about the varieties of turtles in the Gallapagos Islands. 

 Business was still bad. The wicked Spaniards, when 

 attacked, defended themselves. The pirates waited for 

 a treasure ship, and, when it came, had to run away from 

 it, glad to escape. 



Then Dampier joined the Cygnet of London under The Cygnet. 

 Captain Swan. Swan had been sent by London merchants 

 to trade with Spaniards and Indians, but his men had 

 forced him to turn pirate. They suspected, however, 

 and with good reason, that Swan was on the look-out 

 for some opportunity to return to London as honest trader. 

 He was now persuading his pirates that a good plan would 

 be to sail North to Mexico, thence take the Spanish route 

 to the Philippines, and " cruise off Manila." Dampier 

 welcomed the new opportunity to indulge his curiosity. 



In Mexico the Spaniards caught fifty pirates in an Voyage from 

 ambush, and killed every one ; but Dampier was happy, 

 and wrote page after page about Mexican indigo, cochineal, 

 and vinello. The discouraged pirates came to like Swan's 

 idea of a cruise off Manila. But they were " almost 

 daunted " by the thought of the long unbroken voyage 

 from Mexico to Guam in the Ladrones, the half-way place 

 of call for Spanish ships. The Spaniards estimated the 

 distance, with fair accuracy, at two thousand three hundred 

 to two thousand four hundred leagues, and the length 

 of the voyage at sixty days. But the pirates had less 



