London, under the command of John Eaton. In July, Captain Cook died, and was succeeded as chief officer by Edward Davis, and in September Eaton and Davis parted companythe former, with whom went Cowley, sailing for the East Indies, and the latter remaining in the South Sea. Shortly after this event, Davis was joined by the Cygnet, Captain Swan, as also by a small bark, manned by bucaniers; and with this united force, which was still further augmented by French adventurers, the rovers continued to carry on their depredations with varying success until August, 1685. At that time serious dissensions arose, and Swan, leaving his consorts, determined to sail northward to the Californian coast, with the intention of proceeding to the East Indies. In this voyage he was accompanied by Dampier, who has left a narrative of the expedition. It was the 31st of March, 1686, before they quitted the American coast and stood westward across the Pacific, nor did they reach the Ladrones until May. After departing from these, they visited in succession the Bashee Islands, the Philippines, Celebes, Timor, and New Holland. In April, 1688, they were at the Nicobar Islands, and here Dampier quitted the expedition, and found his way to England in 1691. The Cygnet afterward perished off Madagascar. In the career of Davis, who, as has been mentioned, remained in the South Sea, the most remarkable event was the discovery of an island mamed after him, and now generally identified with Easter Island. In 1688, this bold mariner returned to the West Indies.*

The last ten years of the seventeenth century are almost entirely barren of discovery. In 1690, an expedition, fitted out partly for privateering partly for trading purposes, and placed under the command of Captain John Strong, brought to light, in their course to the South Sea, the passage between the two larger islands of the Falkland group. He named this channel Falkland Sound-a term which has since been generally applied to the islands themselves. In 1699, M. de Beauchesne Gouin, a French commander, detected an island to the east of Tierra del Fuego, and bestowed on it his own name, which it still retains. The same year was

*For a minute narrative of this voyage, and an account of the rise and history of the bucaniers, the reader is referred to the Lives and Voyages of Drake, Cavendish, and Dampier.-[No. XXX. of the Family Library.]

marked by a voyage under the auspices of the British government, expressly for the extension of geographical science. It was placed under the direction of Dampier, and its object was the more minute examination of New Holland and New Guinea. It added much to our knowledge of these countries, and is the most important contribution to science made by that navigator.

In reviewing the progress of discovery in the seventeenth century, it will be seen that enterprise languished during its latter years, and that almost every addition made to our knowledge was effected in the earlier portion of it. During that time were made the important acquisitions of Staten Island, Strait Le Maire, and Cape Horn, and of several harbours and islands of Tierra del Fuego. In the more central parts of the Pacific were visited the New Hebrides, the groups of the Society and Friendly Islands, and many of the smaller isles scattered over the great ocean. On the Asiatic side, some information had been obtained of New Holland, Van Diemen's Land, and New Zealand. The coasts of New Guinea were more accurately examined, and many of the islands which stretch along its shores were explored. The existence of a strait between New Guinea and New Holland was ascertained; though, from accidental circumstances, the memory of this achievement was soon lost. Such were the advances made in geographical science during the first forty years of the century: the remaining portion was undistinguished by any acquisition of great importance. In this long space we have to enumerate only the discoveries of one of the Carolines, which gave its name to the group, of New Georgia, Easter and Beauchesne Islands, Falkland Sound, and a survey of some parts of Australia.

Of the three circumnavigations made in the course of this age, all were performed by the Dutch.* Spain had now

* We have followed Burney and Bougainville in not assigning the title of circumnavigations to the expeditions of the bucaniers between 1683 and 1691, above narrated. We may here also state, that we can neither rank Gemelli Careri (1697) nor M. de Pagès (1767-1776) among circumnavigators, because that word can hardly be applied to travellers who, indeed, encircled the globe, but did so by crossing the Isthmus of Darien and several parts of Asia. M. de Pagès can have been styled a circumnavigator only by those who had read no further than the title-page of his book, and were ignorant of the meaning attached

withdrawn from the field of enterprise into which she was the first to enter; and during the seventeenth century but one expedition for South Sea discovery of any note was fitted out from her ports. England, distracted by the great civil war and other events, had neglected to follow up the career so boldly begun by Drake and Cavendish; and, with the exception of Dampier's voyage to New Holland, her only adventurers in the Pacific were the lawless bucaniers. Το the United Provinces is due the honour of having, during this period, kept up the spirit of investigation, and widely extended the limits of geographical knowledge.

by the French to the word voyage.-"Voyages autour du Monde et vers les deux Poles. Par M. de Pagès." Paris, 1782, 2 vols. 8vo.

CHAPTER V.

Circumnavigations from the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century to the Reign of George III.

Circumnavigation of Dampier and Funnel, of Woodes Rogers, of Clipperton and Shelvocke, of Roggewein.-Easter Island.-Pernicious Islande.-Circumnavigation of Anson.-Objects of the Expedition.Passage of Cape Horn.-Severe Sufferings of the Crew.-Juan Fernandez.-Cruise on the American Coasts.-Burning of Payta.-Loss of the Gloucester.-Tinian.-Capture of the Manilla Galleon.-Return of the Centurion to England.-Fate of the Wager.

THE early part of the eighteenth century was marked by numerous privateering voyages to the South Sea, generally undertaken by English merchants; expeditions which, indeed, served little to advance either maritime science or the reputation of British seamen. The principle which almost invariably regulated them was, "No prizes no pay," and this led to continual disorder and insubordination. The commanders, too frequently, were men of no education, of dissipated habits, and of violent and avaricious dispositions. Altogether, the narrative of these bucaniering adventures is one of the least creditable in the naval annals of the country.

The first of them which we have to notice, was directed by one whom Captain Basil Hall has not unjustly styled "the prince of voyagers,"-William Dampier. This skilful navigator sailed from Kinsale in Ireland, on the 11th September, 1703, in command of two ships, the St. George and the Cinque Ports galley, and entered the South Sea in the beginning of the following year. But even his talents and resolution were unable to preserve order among his boisterous crews, and the history of their proceedings accordingly is an unbroken series of dissension and tumult. On the 19th of May, these disputes had reached such a height that the vessels agreed to part company. The Cinque Ports, which sailed to the southward, was eventually run ashore, and the people taken prisoners by the Spaniards. In September another quarrel broke out on board the St. George, which

led to the desertion of the chief mate, John Clipperton, with twenty-one of the seamen. In January, 1705, differences again occurred, and the remainder separated into two parties. One of these immediately sailed for the East Indies, and, returning to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope, arrived in the Texel in July, 1706: a narrative of their voyage has been left by Funnel. Shortly after this secession, Dampier was forced to abandon the St. George, and to embark in a prize which had been taken from the Spaniards. In this he proceeded to the East Indies; but, being unable to produce his commission, which had been stolen from him, it is said, by his mate Clipperton, his vessel was seized by the Dutch, and he himself detained some time a prisoner.

In 1708 we again meet this bold seaman as a circumnavigator, in the capacity of pilot to Woodes Rogers, who sailed from Cork on the 1st September, in the command of two ships, fitted out by the merchants of Bristol to cruis against the Spaniards in the South Sea. In December th squadron reached the Falkland Islands, and after being driver to the latitude of 62° south in doubling Cape Horn, arrived in January, 1709, at Juan Fernandez, the well-known rendezvous of the bucaniers. Their visit was the means of restoring to civilized life the celebrated Alexander Selkirk, whose residence on this island upwards of four years became, as has been already hinted, the groundwork of Defoe's romance of Robinson Crusoe. After this nearly a twelvemonth was spent in cruising on the coasts of Peru, Mexico, and California. In January, 1710, they sailed across the Pacific, and in March made the Ladrone Islands. They arrived in the Thames on he 14th of October, 1711, loaded with a booty which rendered the enterprise highly lucrative to the owners. With this voyage closed the long and checkered life of Dampier; on his return to England he sunk into an obscurity which none of his biographers has yet succeeded in removing.*

The success of this expedition led soon afterward to another of a similar description. In 1718, the war which was then waged between Spain and the German empire appeared to some "worthy gentlemen of London, and persons of distinc

* For an account of the voyages and circumnavigations in which Dampier bore a part, more full and detailed than was compatible with the plan of the present volume, the reader is referred to "Lives and Voyages of Drake, Cavendish, and Dampier."-(Family Library, No. XXX.)