406 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



The name of the prize was changed from Our Lady, &c. to The 

 Bachelor, and she was equipped as a member of the squadron, 

 which now sailed immediately for the Ladrone Islands. 



They arrived at Guam on the 10th of March, 1710, where 

 their wants were amply supplied, cocoanuts being furnished in 

 abundance at the rate of one dollar a hundred. Captain Rogers 

 bought one of the sailing proas of the islanders, which he had 

 seen sail at the rate of twenty miles an hour. He carried it to 

 England, intending to put it in the canal at St. James' Park as 

 a curiosity. At the Cape of Good Hope they joined a number 

 of homeward-bound ships, and sailed in company, early in April, 

 forming a fleet of sixteen Dutch and nine English ships. Rogers 

 and his consorts anchored at Erith, in the Thames, on the 14th 

 of October. 



This voyage is the last in which Dampier is known to have 

 been engaged, and what became of him afterwards has never 

 been ascertained. It would not be easy to name, before the 

 time of Cook, a navigator to whom the merchant and mariner 

 are so much indebted. His style was unassuming, as free from 

 affectation as was the narrative itself from invention. Dean 

 Swift made Captain Lemuel Gulliver hail Dampier as cousin. 



The outfit of this voyage amounted to <£15,000, and the gross 

 profits to £170,000. One third of this, or £57,000, was divided 

 among the officers and seamen. In view of this enormous return 

 for a two years' voyage, we can hardly wonder at the fact that 

 in this age, and during a long succeeding period, nearly all navi- 

 gation was privateering, and that all ventures upon the seas 

 appear to the reader of the present day as little better than the 

 marauding excursions of corsairs and buccaneers. 



This is the proper place for speaking of the famous Company 

 formed for carrying on trade with the Spanish possessions in 

 the Pacific, which received, upon its calamitous failure, the name 

 of South Sea Bubble. This Company was formed, chartered, 

 and prospered and fell, soon after the return of Rogers and 



