A Voyage to New Holland Part 1

A Voyage to New Holland.

by William Dampier.

DEDICATION.

To the Right Honourable Thomas, Earl of Pembroke,

Lord President of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.

My Lord,

The honour I had of being employed in the service of his late Majesty of ill.u.s.trious memory, at the time when Your Lords.h.i.+p presided at the Admiralty, gives me the boldness to ask your protection of the following papers. They consist of some remarks made upon very distant climates, which I should have the vanity to think altogether new, could I persuade myself they had escaped Your Lords.h.i.+p's knowledge. However I have been so cautious of publis.h.i.+ng any thing in my whole book that is generally known that I have denied myself the pleasure of paying the due honours to Your Lords.h.i.+p's name in the Dedication. I am ashamed, My Lord, to offer you so imperfect a present, having not time to set down all the memoirs of my last voyage: but, as the particular service I have now undertaken hinders me from finis.h.i.+ng this volume, so I hope it will give me an opportunity of paying my respects to Your Lords.h.i.+p in a new one.

The world is apt to judge of everything by the success; and whoever has ill fortune will hardly be allowed a good name. This, My Lord, was my unhappiness in my late expedition in the Roebuck, which foundered through perfect age near the island of Ascension. I suffered extremely in my reputation by that misfortune; though I comfort myself with the thoughts that my enemies could not charge any neglect upon me. And since I have the honour to be acquitted by Your Lords.h.i.+p's judgment I should be very humble not to value myself upon so complete a vindication. This and a world of other favours which I have been so happy as to receive from Your Lords.h.i.+p's goodness, do engage me to be with an everlasting respect,

My Lord,

Your Lords.h.i.+p's most faithful and obedient servant,

WILL. DAMPIER.

THE PREFACE.

The favourable reception my two former volumes of voyages and descriptions have already met with in the world gives me reason to hope that, notwithstanding the objections which have been raised against me by prejudiced persons, this third volume likewise may in some measure be acceptable to candid and impartial readers who are curious to know the nature of the inhabitants, animals, plants, soil, etc. in those distant countries, which have either seldom or not at all been visited by any Europeans.

It has almost always been the fate of those who have made new discoveries to be disesteemed and slightly spoken of by such as either have had no true relish and value for the things themselves that are discovered, or have had some prejudice against the persons by whom the discoveries were made. It would be vain therefore and unreasonable in me to expect to escape the censure of all, or to hope for better treatment than far worthier persons have met with before me. But this satisfaction I am sure of having, that the things themselves in the discovery of which I have been employed are most worthy of our diligentest search and inquiry; being the various and wonderful works of G.o.d in different parts of the world: and however unfit a person I may be in other respects to have undertaken this task, yet at least I have given a faithful account, and have found some things undiscovered by any before, and which may at least be some a.s.sistance and direction to better qualified persons who shall come after me.

It has been objected against me by some that my accounts and descriptions of things are dry and jejune, not filled with variety of pleasant matter to divert and gratify the curious reader. How far this is true I must leave to the world to judge. But if I have been exactly and strictly careful to give only true relations and descriptions of things (as I am sure I have) and if my descriptions be such as may be of use not only to myself (which I have already in good measure experienced) but also to others in future voyages; and likewise to such readers at home as are more desirous of a plain and just account of the true nature and state of the things described than of a polite and rhetorical narrative: I hope all the defects in my style will meet with an easy and ready pardon.

Others have taxed me with borrowing from other men's journals; and with insufficiency, as if I was not myself the author of what I write but published things digested and drawn up by others. As to the first part of this objection I a.s.sure the reader I have taken nothing from any man without mentioning his name, except some very few relations and particular observations received from credible persons who desired not to be named; and these I have always expressly distinguished in my books from what I relate as of my own observing. And as to the latter I think it so far from being a diminution to one of my education and employment to have what I write revised and corrected by friends that, on the contrary, the best and most eminent authors are not ashamed to own the same thing, and look upon it as an advantage.

Lastly I know there are some who are apt to slight my accounts and descriptions of things as if it was an easy matter and of little or no difficulty to do all that I have done, to visit little more than the coasts of unknown countries, and make short and imperfect observations of things only near the sh.o.r.e. But whoever is experienced in these matters, or considers things impartially, will be of a very different opinion. And anyone who is sensible how backward and refractory the seamen are apt to be in long voyages when they know not whither they are going, how ignorant they are of the nature of the winds and the s.h.i.+fting seasons of the monsoons, and how little even the officers themselves generally are skilled in the variation of the needle and the use of the azimuth compa.s.s; besides the hazard of all outward accidents in strange and unknown seas: anyone, I say, who is sensible of these difficulties will be much more pleased at the discoveries and observations I have been able to make than displeased with me that I did not make more.

Thus much I thought necessary to premise in my own vindication against the objections that have been made to my former performances. But not to trouble the reader any further with matters of this nature; what I have more to offer shall be only in relation to the following voyage.

For the better apprehending the course of this voyage and the situation of the places mentioned in it I have here, as in the former volumes, caused a map to be engraven with a p.r.i.c.ked line representing to the eye the whole thread of the voyage at one view, besides charts and figures of particular places, to make the descriptions I have given of them more intelligible and useful.

Moreover, which I had not opportunity of doing in my former voyages; having now had in the s.h.i.+p with me a person skilled in drawing, I have by this means been enabled, for the greater satisfaction of the curious reader, to present him with exact cuts and figures of several of the princ.i.p.al and most remarkable of those birds, beasts, fishes and plants, which are described in the following narrative; and also of several which, not being able to give any better or so good an account of, as by causing them to be exactly engraven, the reader will not find any further description of them, but only that they were found in such or such particular countries. The plants themselves are in the hands of the ingenious Dr. Woodward. I could have caused many others to be drawn in like manner but that I resolved to confine myself to such only as had some very remarkable difference in the shape of their princ.i.p.al parts from any that are found in Europe. I have besides several birds and fishes ready drawn, which I could not put into the present volume because they were found in countries to the description whereof the following narrative does not reach. For, being obliged to prepare for another voyage sooner than I at first expected, I have not been able to continue the ensuing narrative any further than to my departure from the coast of New Holland. But if it please G.o.d that I return again safe, the reader may expect a continuation of this voyage from my departure from New Holland till the foundering of my s.h.i.+p near the island of Ascension.

In the meantime to make the narrative in some measure complete I shall here add a summary abstract of the latter part of the voyage, whereof I have not had time to draw out of my journals a full and particular account at large. Departing therefore from the coast of New Holland in the beginning of September 1699 we arrived at Timor September 15 and anch.o.r.ed off that island. On the 24th we obtained a small supply of fresh water from the governor of a Dutch fort and factory there; we found also there a Portuguese settlement and were kindly treated by them. On the 3rd of December we arrived on the coast of New Guinea; where we found good fresh water and had commerce with the inhabitants of a certain island called Pulo Sabuda. After which, pa.s.sing to the northward, we ranged along the coast to the easternmost part of New Guinea, which I found does not join to the mainland of New Guinea, but is an island, as I have described it in my map, and called it New Britain.

It is probable this island may afford many rich commodities, and the natives may be easily brought to commerce. But the many difficulties I at this time met with, the want of convenience to clean my s.h.i.+p, the fewness of my men, their desire to hasten home, and the danger of continuing in these circ.u.mstances in seas where the shoals and coasts were utterly unknown and must be searched out with much caution and length of time, hindered me from prosecuting any further at present my intended search.

What I have been able to do in this matter for the public service will, I hope, be candidly received; and no difficulties shall discourage me from endeavouring to promote the same end whenever I have an opportunity put into my hands.

May 18 in our return we arrived at Timor. June 21 we pa.s.sed by part of the island Java. July 4 we anch.o.r.ed in Batavia Road, and I went ash.o.r.e, visited the Dutch General, and desired the privilege of buying provisions that I wanted, which was granted me. In this road we lay till the 17th of October following, when, having fitted the s.h.i.+p, recruited myself with provisions, filled all my water, and the season of the year for returning towards Europe being come, I set sail from Batavia, and on the 19th of December made the Cape of Good Hope, whence departing January 11 we made the island of St. Helena on the 31st; and February the 21st the island of Ascension; near to which my s.h.i.+p, having sprung a leak which could not be stopped, foundered at sea; with much difficulty we got ash.o.r.e where we lived on goats and turtle; and on the 26th of February found, to our great comfort, on the south-east side of a high mountain, about half a mile from its top, a spring of fresh water. I returned to England in the Canterbury East India s.h.i.+p. For which wonderful deliverance from so many and great dangers I think myself bound to return continual thanks to Almighty G.o.d; whose divine providence if it shall please to bring me safe again to my native country from my present intended voyage; I hope to publish a particular account of all the material things I observed in the several places which I have now but barely mentioned.

A VOYAGE TO TERRA AUSTRALIS.

1699.

CHAPTER 1. DEPARTURE AND PROVISIONING EN ROUTE.

THE AUTHOR'S DEPARTURE FROM THE DOWNS.

I sailed from the Downs early on Sat.u.r.day, January 14, 1699, with a fair wind, in His Majesty's s.h.i.+p the Roebuck; carrying but 12 guns in this voyage and 50 men and boys with 20 months' provision. We had several of the King's s.h.i.+ps in company, bound for Spithead and Plymouth, and by noon we were off Dungeness.

A CAUTION TO THOSE WHO SAIL IN THE CHANNEL.

We parted from them that night, and stood down the Channel, but found ourselves next morning nearer the French coast than we expected; Cape de Hague bearing south-east and by east 6 leagues. There were many other s.h.i.+ps, some nearer, some farther off the French coast, who all seemed to have gone nearer to it than they thought they should. My master, who was somewhat troubled at it at first, was not displeased however to find that he had company in his mistake: which as I have heard is a very common one, and fatal to many s.h.i.+ps. The occasion of it is the not allowing for the change of the variation since the making of the charts; which Captain Halley has observed to be very considerable. I shall refer the reader to his own account of it which he caused to be published in a single sheet of paper, purposely for a caution to such as pa.s.s to and fro the English Channel. And my own experience thus confirming to me the usefulness of such a caution I was willing to take this occasion of helping towards the making it the more public.

Not to trouble the reader with every day's run, nor with the winds or weather (but only in the remoter parts, where it may be more particularly useful) standing away from Cape la Hague, we made the start about 5 that afternoon; which being the last land we saw of England, we reckoned our departure from thence: though we had rather have taken it from the Lizard, if the hazy weather would have suffered us to have seen it.

HIS ARRIVAL AT THE CANARY ISLANDS.

The first land we saw after we were out of the Channel was Cape Finisterre, which we made on the 19th; and on the 28th made Lancerota, one of the Canary Islands of which, and of Allegrance, another of them, I have here given the sights, as they both appeared to us at two several bearings and distances.

SANTA CRUZ IN TENERIFE; THE ROAD AND TOWN, AND SPANISH WRECK.

We were now standing away for the island Tenerife where I intended to take in some wine and brandy for my voyage. On Sunday, half an hour past 3 in the afternoon, we made the island and crowded in with all our sails till five; when the north-east point of the isle bore west-south-west distance 7 leagues. But, being then so far off that I could not expect to get in before night, I lay by till next morning, deliberating whether I should put in at Santa Cruz, or at Oratavia, the one on the east, the other on the west side of the island; which lies mostly north and south; and these are the princ.i.p.al ports on each side. I chose Santa Cruz as the better harbour (especially at this time of the year) and as best furnished with that sort of wine which I had occasion to take in for my voyage: so there I come to an anchor January 30th, in 33 fathom water, black slimy ground; about half a mile from the sh.o.r.e; from which distance I took the sight of the town.

In the road s.h.i.+ps must ride in 30, 40, or 50 fathom water, not above half a mile from the sh.o.r.e at farthest: and if there are many s.h.i.+ps they must ride close one by another. The sh.o.r.e is generally high land and in most places steep too. This road lies so open to the east that winds from that side make a great swell, and very bad going ash.o.r.e in boats: the s.h.i.+ps that ride here are then often forced to put to sea, and sometimes to cut or slip their anchors, not being able to weigh them. The best and smoothest landing is in a small sandy cove, about a mile to the north-east of the road, where there is good water, with which s.h.i.+ps that lade here are supplied; and many times s.h.i.+ps that lade at Oratavia, which is the chief port for trade, send their boats. .h.i.ther for water. That is a worse port for westerly than this is for easterly winds; and then all s.h.i.+ps that are there put to sea. Between this watering-place and Santa Cruz are two little forts; which with some batteries scattered along the coast command the road. Santa Cruz itself is a small unwalled town fronting the sea, guarded with two other forts to secure the road. There are about 200 houses in the town, all two stories high, strongly built with stone and covered with pantile. It hath two convents and one church, which are the best buildings in the town. The forts here could not secure the Spanish galleons from Admiral Blake, though they hauled in close under the main fort. Many of the inhabitants that are now living remember that action in which the English battered the town, and did it much damage; and the marks of the shot still remain in the fort walls. The wrecks of the galleons that were burnt here lie in 15 fathom water: and it is said that most of the plate lies there, though some of it was hastily carried ash.o.r.e at Blake's coming in sight.

LAGUNA TOWN LAKE AND COUNTRY; AND ORATAVIA TOWN AND ROAD.

Soon after I had anch.o.r.ed I went ash.o.r.e here to the Governor of the town, who received me very kindly and invited me to dine with him the next day.

I returned on board in the evening, and went ash.o.r.e again with two of my officers the next morning; hoping to get up the hill time enough to see Laguna, the princ.i.p.al town, and to be back again to dine with the Governor of Santa Cruz; for I was told that Laguna was but 3 miles off.

The road is all the way up a pretty steep hill; yet not so steep but that carts go up and down laden. There are public houses scattering by the wayside, where we got some wine. The land on each side seemed to be but rocky and dry; yet in many places we saw spots of green flouris.h.i.+ng corn.

At farther distances there were small vineyards by the sides of the mountains, intermixed with abundance of waste rocky land, unfit for cultivation, which afforded only d.i.l.d.o-bushes. It was about 7 or 8 in the morning when we set out from Santa Cruz; and, it being fair clear weather, the sun shone very bright and warmed us sufficiently before we got to the city Laguna; which we reached about 10 o'clock, all sweaty and tired, and were glad to refresh ourselves with a little wine in a sorry tippling-house: but we soon found out one of the English merchants that resided here, who entertained us handsomely at dinner, and in the afternoon showed us the town.

Laguna is a pretty large well-compacted town, and makes a very agreeable prospect. It stands part of it against a hill, and part in a level. The houses have mostly strong walls built with stone and covered with pantile. They are not uniform, yet they appear pleasant enough. There are many fair buildings; among which are 2 parish churches, 2 nunneries, a hospital, 4 convents, and some chapels; besides many gentlemen's houses.

The convents are those of St. Austin, St. Dominick, St. Francis, and St.

Diego. The two churches have pretty high square steeples, which top the rest of the buildings. The streets are not regular, yet they are mostly s.p.a.cious and pretty handsome; and near the middle of the town is a large parade, which has good buildings about it. There is a strong prison on one side of it; near which is a large conduit of good water, that supplies all the town. They have many gardens which are set round with oranges, limes, and other fruits: in the middle of which are pot-herbs, salading, flowers, etc. And indeed, if the inhabitants were curious this way, they might have very pleasant gardens: for as the town stands high from the sea on the brow of a plain that is all open to the east, and hath consequently the benefit of the true tradewind, which blows here and is most commonly fair; so there are seldom wanting at this town brisk, cooling, and refres.h.i.+ng breezes all the day.

On the back of the town there is a large plain of 3 or 4 leagues in length and 2 miles wide, producing a thick kindly sort of gra.s.s, which looked green and very pleasant when I was there, like our meadows in England in the spring. On the east side of this plain, very near the back of the town, there is a natural lake or pond of fresh water. It is about half a mile in circ.u.mference; but being stagnant, it is only used for cattle to drink of. In the wintertime several sorts of wildfowl resort hither, affording plenty of game to the inhabitants of Laguna. This city is called Laguna from hence; for that word in Spanish signifies a lake or pond. The plain is bounded on the west, the north-west and the south-west with high steep hills; as high above this plain as this is above the sea; and it is from the foot of one of these mountains that the water of the conduit which supplies the town is conveyed over the plain in troughs of stone raised upon pillars. And indeed, considering the situation of the town, its large prospect to the east (for from hence you see the Grand Canary) its gardens, cool arbors, pleasant plain, green fields, the pond and aqueduct, and its refres.h.i.+ng breezes; it is a very delightful dwelling, especially for such as have not business that calls them far and often from home: for, the island being generally mountainous, steep, and craggy, full of risings and fallings, it is very troublesome travelling up and down in it, unless in the cool of the mornings and evenings: and mules and a.s.ses are most used by them, both for riding and carriage, as fittest for the stony, uneven roads.

Beyond the mountains, on the south-west side, still further up, you may see from the town and plain a small peaked hill, overlooking the rest.

This is that which is called the Pike of Tenerife, so much noted for its height: but we saw it here at so great a disadvantage, by reason of the nearness of the adjacent mountains to us, that it looked inconsiderable in respect to its fame.