![]() ![]() The buzz about Dampier’s first volume reached the British Admiralty. The Pacific Winds box in the Pacific Ocean section.) In his preface, he acknowledged that he was “Choosing to be more particular than might be needful, with respect to the intelligent Reader, rather than omit what I thought might tend to the information of persons no less sensible and inquisitive, tho not so Learned or Experienced.” And without vanity, he boasted that the reader could “expect many things wholly new to him.” In 1699, Dampier followed it with Voyages and Descriptions, which contained a significant technical work, “A Discourse of Trade-Winds, Breezes, Storms, Tides, and Currents.” Included for the first time were maps of the winds across all the world’s oceans, produced from his own experience. ĭampier’s book about his exploits, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), was a unique combination of seafaring adventure and natural history not seen before, which the public loved and the Royal Society respected. Klein's letter and map were frequently reprinted, bearing the natives' inconsistencies in spelling and inaccuracies in location. The natives used a set of 87 pebbles to describe their islands, indicating in numbers the days needed to sail around or between them. In it, he described how a group of natives had been stranded on the northern coast of the Philippine island of Samar in December of the preceding year. He is credited with putting Palau on the map for Europeans, a sketch of which accompanied a letter he sent to his superior in 1697. Born in Bohemia, Jesuit Pavel Klein (Pablo Clain) arrived in the Philippines in 1682. Ī curious map of Palau, including some of the area traversed by Dampier in the 1680s. Copperplate map, with added color, 18 × 20 cm. “Carte des Nouvelles Philippines” (Paris, 1757). After all of this, he still had his journals.īellin, Jacques Nicolas, 1703–1772. Returned, penniless, to England in 1691, having completed his first circumnavigation. He crossed the Pacific to the Philippines and Spice Islands (Moluccas), explored the northwest coast of New Holland (Australia), was marooned in the Bay of Bengal, and finally A major part of his early life was spent in the Caribbean region, ultimately joining buccaneers in their raids on Spanish shipping, then sailing with privateers around South America to continue attacks on the Spanish along the continent’s west coast. He sailed to France and to Newfoundland by 1670, he was sailing to Java in the East Indies by way of the Cape of Good Hope, learning the art of navigation and studying the patterns of wind and weather that would become his forte. By age seven, he had lost both parents and was apprenticed to a shipmaster-beginning a lifelong love of the sea. ![]() Little is known of Dampier’s early life, except that he was born in East Coker, Somerset, England, the second son of a tenant farmer, and received a good, basic education that included Latin and arithmetic. His contributions were numerous and his influence far-reaching. Bookended by the careers of Sir Francis Drake in the 1500s and Captain James Cook in the 1700s, Dampier's exploits fused the rakish plundering of the former with the scientific inquiry of the latter. Though he has been largely forgotten, Dampier was the most important English maritime adventurer of the seventeenth century: he was the first person to circumnavigate the world three times, the first Englishman to reach and map parts of Australia and New Guinea, and the first English best-selling travel writer. What do the words avocado, barbecue, breadfruit, cashew, catamaran, and chopsticks have in common? They, and hundreds of others, were introduced into the English language by the explorer/naturalist/buccaneer William Dampier. Johnstone’s Lives and Voyages of Drake, Cavendish, and Dampier, Including an Introductory View of the Earlier Discoveries in the South Sea, and the History of the Bucaniers (New York, 1832) Legacy of Dampier’s name: Dampier Archipelago, Dampier Land, Dampier Strait (all near Australia) Expedition (1699–1701): One ship ( Roebuck), 50 menĬharge (by British Admiralty): To explore the east coast of New Holland (Australia)Īccomplishments: Instead explored the west coast of Australia, discovered and named New Britain, and made the first detailed record of Australian flora and fauna ![]()
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