DAM 
out from the main groove, they often fee a round thing 
hanging, nie the bignefs of a foot-ball, covered wit i a 
thicknefs and coiour of a cob-web. ‘This, 
ay ny accident, as the {pliuter of a tone, 
or the like, eiipeet ifelf immediately, and fuffocates ail 
the company. Therefore, to prevent cafualties, as foon as 
they have efpied it, they have a way, by the help of a flick 
and long rope, of breaking it at a diftanee; which done, 
they purify the lies weil with fire, before they dare enter 
a bis re me oi ae truth of this ftory in all its 
om 
an 
-oO 
aay 
cr 
co 
2 
parti es eras neither any | g 
been fee n hanging on the roof, fince I have heard many af- 
rm it.’ 
DAMPIER, Wii14M, in Biography, an eminent naviga- 
it, was defcended om a refpeétable family in ta ean 
was born int 1652. Having ‘the misfortune to 
lofe his parents ear cs e was bound ace a the cap- 
tain of a t Newfoundland trader, the age of 17. His - 
voyage was to France; and in the following year he went 
to Newfoundland, - The Ce of the climate, and es ate 
tendant hard fhips ee the voyage, made him almoft refolve 
that he would aban ndon for ever the difficulties of a maritime 
oon offering itfelf, he 
In this fitva- 
ag antam, and was pe atisfied 
with the experience which he obtained by the event. 
1573 he ferved in the ie ch war, under fir Edward Sprague, 
and was intwo engagements, Sicknefs obliged him to land, 
he {pent fome months _ his brothers, after which be 
amaica, as under manager in a plantation. From 
the Welt Indies he went Campeachy, and engaged a 
the logwood-cutter ommon workman. en he was 
tired ee ae bulinels he revurned to aica, and nee to 
a) 
~ 
join fome pirates of diff v lundered a 
people over whom they could take advantage. With thele 
Dampier crofled the ithmus of Darien in 1680, and fp 
that year in roving about the Peruvian coaft,. making at 
tempts he feveral towns, for-e which proved fuc 
cefsful, and in others they were repuifed with confiderable 
lofs. In 1681 he recroffed the ifthmus, and joi another 
fleet fe pirates which was cruifing on the Spani 
mai 
inextricable an overwhelming 
They agr a to “furl their erie and give themfelves 
to he ‘fury of the element, whic 
avoid, nor power to contend with. " reacaiGat being 
DAM 
made, they waited the impending form with anxious and 
gloomy apprchentions, The event was more Byhsanacle 
than they had even anticipated. The fea m 
high, and breaking over their canoe, every mome ee 
ed to overwhelm ve inthe deep. Dreadful as the fituation 
pofed, were not to be abe to oe “ The fly e ys 
he, “looked very black, being wrapped in fable ae 
wind blew hard, and the fea was Bn ned iuto foam aroun 
us, A dark night was comin g on no lan 
us, and cur little bark in danger of lag {wallowed up by 
What gave a deeper tinge to our diitrefs, was 
ame 
mind: other came out upon me with fuch dreadful 
mnity. A fudden bekeaay or engagement was bee 
when - bloo was m, and invigorated the hea 
{er y Dampier with admirable force; never« 
thelefs, they lacuna them all, and landed fafely at 
matra. ng continued ficknefs was, however, the co a 
quence of their want of reft, and of neceflary food, from the 
effects of which fome 
691 he r p! 
gation of the As his property, he brought home 
ative of the {pice iflands, wh I f 
ftrange cht, sd length died of the {mall-pox 
ford. fe) e i 
Brazi!s, and h de to the weftern coaft of Ne 
Holland, where he arrived on the firft of Auguft. He next 
ailed to Timor, and thence to the coaft of New Guinea. 
This he found terminated by ifland, which he failed 
round, and named New Britain. He returned to Timor in 
Aay, and proceeding by the Cape ef Good Hope, arrived 
off the ifle of Afcenfion, -in a ruary 170t. Here his vef- 
fel became leaky, and foundered; but he and his crew reach- 
ed the ifland, where t ng nana till they were brought 
away by an Eaft India {hi ip. 
voyages has been very frequently reprinted; and the fub- 
ftance of them has been incorporated in a hundred dian 
His own v 
ortrait 
