84 The V Q Y 
turers, the Praftice of granting exclufive Charters to trading 
Companies, which prevailed here as well as in Holland , had 
put an End to all Difcbveries, and thereby extinguiffied that 
Spirit, which is the Life and Soul of Navigation, without 
which all maritime Power muft fink and decay, or at leaft 
be tranfported to other Nations, where this kind of cir- 
cumfcribing Policy has not yet taken Place. The Number 
of Seamen bred up in thefe kind of Veffels was incredi- 
ble *, and, as many of them were difperfed over our Colo- 
nies, and fome of them returned into Europe , the Accounts 
they gave contributed to keep up a Defire of undertaking 
fomething in thofe Parts, either by fettling Colonies, or 
making Conquefts from the Spaniards. Here, in England , 
fomething of that fort fell often under the Conlideration of 
our Miniftry ; and King William gave all imaginable En- 
couragement to a Proportion that was made for eftabliffiing 
an Englijh Settlement on the River Mijfifippi ; but the Af- 
fair met with fuch Delays, and that King found himfelf fo 
cramped in all his Refolutions for the public Service, that 
tho’, for fome time, this was his favourite Scheme, yet 
he was at laft forced to lay it afide ; which afterwards gave 
the French an Opportunity of working upon that Plan, 
which they have done with wonderful Induftry, and have 
received all the Helps from their Government, that it was 
in the Power of the Government to give. I cannot for- 
bear obferving, upon this Occafion, that it was from the 
French Buccaneers, that Nation received all her Lights 
with refpeft to the Commerce of the Weft Indies and to 
thefe People, likewife, they owe the very bell Settlement 
they have, which is that in Hifpaniola , the Hiftory of 
which we lhall give at large in another Place. It were, in- 
deed, to be wilhed, that the Accounts we have of thefe 
Expeditions were better and more carefully written than 
we find them 5 and yet, all Things confidered, we have no 
great Reafon to expedt this from fuch fort of Men. It is 
one thing, to have the Skill of navigating a Ship ; and 
quite another, to be able to write a clear and fatisfactory 
Account of what happens in fuch a Voyage. The keeping 
of a Sea Journal is a Thing reduced to a fettled Method, 
and is as much the Bufinefs of a Navigator, as the Care of 
the Ship •, neither, indeed, is it pofiible for him to attend one, 
and negledt the other. But the turning that Journal into an 
hiftorical Relation of the Voyage, and the Circumftances 
attending it, is a thing quite out of his Way, and which very 
few Seamen can do without Afliftance. In relpedt to this, 
again, various Accidents may happen ; for a Perfon may 
have proper Abilities for executing another Hiftory well, 
that may, notwithftanding, be altogether unfit for putting 
Memoirs of this fort into proper Order. It is very pot- 
fible, that a Hiftory of this kind may be over, as well as 
under- written ; and the florid Stile of the Affiftant ruin the 
plain honeft Account of the Mariner. It was the Misfor- 
tune of our Author Captain Cowley , that he had not either 
the publifhing of his own Journal, or the Choice of an 
Affiftant nay, he was not fo much as acquainted with the 
Defign of publiffiing it ; and therefore the Deficiencies 
which appear in it are the more excufable. I have cor- 
AGES of Boole I: 
redfced feveral, efpecially with regard to Figures 1 for it can- 
not be imagined, that a Man who is, generally fpeaking, 
very exact, ffiould ever fall into grofs Miftakes 5 and there- 
fore, when thefe occur, they ought to be attributed to the 
Tranfcriber of his Journal, who was, perhaps, unacquainted 
with the Subject : But, however. Captain Cowley 3 % Voyage 
has a great deal of Merit : It is written with the greateft 
Honefty and Freedom, that I have evermetwithin a" Work 
of this kind. He never diffembles the Defign in which he 
was embarked ; but fairly owns, that they intended to take 
the Ships of any Nation they were able to mafter ; and, if it 
had not been for his Account, we ffiould never have known 
how the Revenge , which originally carried eight, or at moft 
eighteen Guns, came afterwards to carry forty ; but he ex- 
plains the Myftery, by ffiewing us, that the final! Ship 
helped them to the great one. His Account alfo of the 
Gallapagos Blands, is alfo very accurate in every refpedl ; and 
tho* Dampier has given us a much larger, and more cir- 
cumftantial. Relation of this Part of the Voyage, yet he 
comes very ffiort of him in this Particular. His Obfer- 
vations, as to the Defigns of the Dutch at that Juncture, 
are very judicious, and clifcover a great Share of public 
Spirit, which is the moft laudable Quality in every Writer. 
I cannot help thinking, that it would be of great Benefit 
to the Public, if we had a fair and impartial Hiftory of 
our Difputes with the Dutch in regard to Trade, with a 
clear Account of what each Nation has gained from the 
other ; for, as, on the one hand, it is certain, that fome of 
the Writers, in the Reign of King Charles II. carried their 
Rancor againft the Dutch too far, and charged them with 
many Things, of which they were not guilty ; fo, on the 
other hand, fome People have extenuated Things too much 
fince, and have thereby rendered the Nation blind to her 
own Intereft. In the Profecution of this Work, I ffiall 
do my utmoft Endeavour to fet fuch Points, as ffiall fall 
in my Way, in a fair Light •, but ftill, I do not think this 
would render fuch a Work as I hint unneceffary. Our Trade 
is our great national Concern ; and we never can have it 
too fully explained, or too minutely treated ; for though 
the Traffick of private Perfons may fuffer from too free an 
Examination, yet it is otherwife with the Commerce of a 
great People : The more that is fifted and inquired into, 
the better, as appears in the particular Cafe of Intereft of 
Money, which, till it was thoroughly handled, and all the 
Queftions that arofe about it freely and frequently debated, 
was never perfectly underftood, to the great Difcourage- 
ment of Trade, and our infinite Lofs as a People. But 
let us at prefent return to the Thread of our Difcourfe, 
and take a View of Captain Dampier 3 s Obfervations, as 
well in that Part of the Voyage he made together with 
our Author Cowley , as in the Remainder of it, after Cap- 
tain Davis quitted Captain Eaton , and Mr. Dampier quitted 
Davis, and purfued his Voyage Home the beft Way he 
could. Thefe Voyages have, indeed, been publiffied be- 
fore *, but they appear, for the firft time, in their natural 
Order, and purged from a Multitude of Errors, by which 
an unwary Reader might have been eafily milled. 
SECTION XIII. 
Captain William Dampier 5 .? ftrfi Voyage round the Worlds colleEied from his own Account . 
1. The Method obferved in digejling this Account , 2. A concife Hiftory of Captain Dampier, and his Ad- 
ventures, to the Dime of his Return to England, after his fecond Expedition to the Bay of Campeachy. 
3. His fecond Voyage to America, and his Exploits with the Buccaneers from 16 79 to 1681. 4. Conti - 
filiation of his Adventures , to the Time of his undertaking this Voyage, Auguft 23. 1683. y. Defcription 
of the If and of Salt, and its Inhabitants. 6. Account of the IJland of St. Nicolas, and of the Treachery 
of Captain Bond to its Inhabitants, y. Arrive at the Sebaldine Iflands. 8. Pafs into the Cape of Good 
Hope round the South Seas. 9. Anchor before the If and c/'Juan Fernandez. 10. Ample Defcription of 
that If and. 11. Obfervations on the Weather in the Pacific Sea. 12. Defcription of the If and of Lobes. 
13. Three Spanifh Prizes taken. 14. Account of their Stay at the Gallapagos Ifands . iy. A Digref- 
jion concerning the feveral Kinds of Tortoifes . 16. Return to the Continent, where they find themfehes 
difeovered by the Spaniards. 17=, Are obliged to lay afide their Defign upon Rio Leja. ' 18. Defcription 
of the Gulph and Iflands of Amapalla. 19. Tranfaffiions there, and their Separation from Captain Eaton, 
20. Account of the IJland of Plate, and its Inhabitants. 21. Precautions taken by the Spaniards to prevent 
their Landing . 22. Join with Captain Swan and Captain Harris. 23. Account of the Town of Paita, 
