1708-1711

the voyage with woodes rogers [24]

dampier probably obtained the next berth we find him filling through the influence of woodes rogers. there is no doubt that it was owing to dampier's influence and representations that the expedition under rogers was equipped and despatched. harris tells us that he addressed himself to the merchants of bristol, who listened to his proposals with patience and interest. at all events his experience would enable him to submit to them that his own, and indeed the failures of others, were owing, not to the voyage being a dangerous or difficult one, not to the courage nor to the superior strength of the enemy, not to any lack of the right kind of qualities amongst the crews, but simply to those undertakings having been badly organised at the start, unwisely [pg 139] officered, and injudiciously conducted. the bristol merchants fully agreed with him, and illustrated the spirit of their concurrence by fitting out two ships and refusing him any post of command. he and rogers had long been acquainted, as may be gathered from several passages in his voyages. there is little question that it was dampier's reputation which procured him his appointment as pilot to his friend; but i take it that rogers warmly supported dampier's solicitations, and that the advocacy of the chief commander proved powerful enough to neutralise, or at least to qualify, the prejudice which our hero's misfortunes as a freebooter and his half-heartedness as an explorer had excited against him.

as a pilot there was no man then living better qualified. he had spent long months of his life in the south seas, and his knowledge of indian and pacific waters was varied and extensive. his name was also formidable to the spaniards, a detail of considerable moment in the catalogue of privateering merits. his dignity could suffer nothing by his acceptance of the post of pilot to the expedition. many sea-words have changed their old signification, and when we now talk of a pilot we think of a man whose business it is to navigate ships through short spaces of dangerous waters. there were of course pilots of this kind in dampier's day. but in addition there were mariners selected for their knowledge of distant parts to accompany ships in voyages round the world, or to the ports of remote nations. the post was an honourable one; the pilot stood alone; he had not indeed the captain's general powers, but his duties were attended with many privileges, and he was looked up to as a person of authority and distinction. it was [pg 140] such a position then as dampier would have been willing to accept even though he had earned the value of an estate by his last voyage.

the expedition was promoted, as has already been said, by a number of bristol merchants. twenty-two names are given as representing only a portion of this very large committee of adventurers. the chief command was entrusted to captain woodes rogers, a man who had suffered much from the french, and who was eager to repair as well as to avenge his injuries by reprisals. he had long been known as an intelligent officer and an excellent seaman. he had also a name as a disciplinarian, and he was further remarkable for the swiftness and sagacity of his decisions in moments of difficulty and peril. in point of literary merit his book is worthy to rank with shelvocke's narrative, though the form and spirit of both are manifestly inspired by dampier's volumes. the captain next in command was stephen courtney, who was also a member of the committee and the holder of a considerable share in the speculation. rogers's second captain, or chief mate as he would now be called, was thomas dover, a physician by profession, who in his old age wrote a work called dr. dover's last legacy to his country, in which he so effectually recommended the use of quicksilver that “ladies as well as gentlemen of rank and fortune bespangled the floors and carpets with this metal, and scattered their diamonds wherever they went to dance or to play.” [25] it is strange to hear of a doctor of medicine going as lieutenant of a buccaneering craft; [pg 141] but it is stranger yet to read that dover's bad temper was the cause of his being chosen. yet his chief recommendation lay in his violent tongue, which, it was argued, would effectually prevent him from winning adherents, so that there was no chance of his weakening the expedition by heading or creating a party! [26] the captain under courtney was edward cooke, a person of talent and observation and of no small literary ability, whose hatred of the french was only equalled by rogers.

the venture was thoroughly matured before it was launched. stringent rules and regulations serving as articles of war were drawn up and signed by the promoters, who called the document “the constitution.” the experiences as well as the advice of dampier may be traced in these rules. it was required that in case of death, sickness, or desertion, a council should be called of all the officers of the ships, that the person selected should be the unanimous choice, and that all attacks by sea or land should first be generally debated by the whole body of officers. in case of the votes for and against being equal, captain dover, as president of the council, was to have the “double-voice.” the manifest object of these articles was to stop the bickerings which commonly attended the undertakings of the privateers, and which were often the cause of their failures and defeats, by importing the general voice into every decision. the ships were the duke, of three hundred tons, thirty guns, and one hundred and seventy men, with rogers and dover as first and second captains; and the dutchess, of [pg 142] two hundred and seventy tons, twenty-six guns, and one hundred and fifty-one men, whose first and second in command were courtney and cooke. both vessels were commissioned by prince george of denmark to cruise on the coasts of peru and mexico against the queen's enemies, the french and spaniards.

dampier was on board woodes rogers: the story of the expedition, therefore, must be followed to its conclusion, though, unfortunately, our hero has no longer an individuality. his name indeed occasionally occurs, but he vanishes as a figure, and we are merely conscious as we follow the narrative that we are in his company, and that though he is lost to view he is sharing in the exploits and dangers, in the hopes and fears, of the crowd of resolute men whom he pilots.

the two ships set sail from bristol, or rather from kingroad, at the mouth of the river avon, on monday, august 1st, 1708, and arrived at cork on the 9th in company with several other ships which had sailed under the convoy of a man-of-war called the hastings. until the 27th they were busy in thoroughly preparing the ships for the voyage. here also they received a number of men to take the place of others who had been brought from bristol, but who, even in the short trip across the st. george's channel, had proved themselves worthless as sailors. when they weighed on the morning of the 28th their crews were unusually strong. rogers says that he doubled the number of officers as a provision against mutinies, and also that there might be plenty of qualified persons to take command in case of death. the duke indeed was so full of men that she was obliged to leave a portion of the boatswain's stores behind to [pg 143] make room for the people. the proverbial qualities of the sailor show humorously at the outset of this voyage. all hands knew that they were to sail immediately, yet we read that “they were continually marrying whilst we staid at cork.” an instance is given of a dane whom a roman catholic priest had united in holy wedlock to an irishwoman. neither understood the other's tongue, and they were forced to hire an interpreter before they could tell each other how fond they were. the inconvenience of unintelligibility, however, did not cool their fervour; on the contrary, it was noticed that this dane and his irish wife were more affected by their parting than any of the other couples, “and,” says the narrative, “the fellow continued melancholy for several days after we were at sea. the rest understanding each other, drank their cans of flip till the last minute, concluded with a health to our good voyages and their happy meeting, and then parted unconcerned.” the number of sailors in both ships when they weighed was three hundred and thirty-three, one-third of whom were foreigners. many of them were by trade tinkers, tailors, haymakers, pedlars, and fiddlers; there were also a negro and ten boys.

rogers was glad at the start to sail under convoy of a man-of-war. the holds of both the duke and the dutchess were flush to the hatches with provisions; the 'tween-decks were crowded with cables, with bags of bread, and casks of water; so that it would have been impossible to engage an enemy without throwing a large quantity of the stores overboard. there were one hundred and eighty-two men aboard the duke and one hundred and fifty-one aboard the dutchess, and the crowding, when the tonnage of the ships is thought of side by side [pg 144] with their choked holds and 'tween-decks, must have rendered life at the start intolerable to the privateersmen. despite their condition, however, they agreed to the proposal of the captain of the man-of-war that they should cruise a few days off cape finisterre; the crews of the vessels were thereupon mustered, and the nature and intention of the expedition explained to them, in order that such of the men as should show themselves discontented might be sent home as mutineers in the hastings. all professed themselves satisfied with the exception of “one poor fellow,” says rogers, “who was to have been tything-man that year, and was apprehensive his wife would be obliged to pay 40 shillings for his default. but when he saw everybody else easy, and strong hopes of plunder, he likewise grew quiet by degrees, and drank as heartily as anybody to the good success of the voyage.” yet, despite the assurances of the men, a mutiny happened whilst rogers was on board a swedish vessel he had chased, whose papers exempted her. the ringleaders were the boatswain and three of the inferior officers. ten of the men were put in irons, and a sailor seized to the “jeers” (as the tackles were called which hoisted and lowered the fore and main yards) and punished by the usual process of whipping and pickling. the outbreak was so serious that all the officers went armed, not knowing what was next to happen. after some further trouble and much anxiety the mutiny was quelled, but it needed all rogers's valuable qualities as a commander to deal with it.

i do not doubt, had dampier been in charge, that the disturbance would have ended in the ruin of the voyage. of the unruliness of the crews of that day, hundreds of [pg 145] examples may be gathered from the contemporary records. the seaman of dampier's age was undeniably a lion-hearted man, incomparably intrepid in his conflicts whether with the elements or with the enemies of his country; but it is equally true that most of his characteristics were those of the savage. he was a ruffian in his behaviour, he was a brute in his tastes, he conversed in a dialect that was almost wholly formed of oaths, and he pursued his calling in a skin soaked with the liquor that was served out to him by the gallon at the time. the average merchant-sailor of the last century has been sketched by fielding in his voyage to lisbon. “it is difficult,” he says, “i think, to assign a satisfactory reason why sailors in general should of all others think themselves entirely discharged from the common bands of humanity, and should seem to glory in the language and behaviour of savages! they see more of the world, and have most of them a more erudite education, than is the portion of landmen of their degree.... is it that they think true courage (for they are the bravest fellows upon earth) inconsistent with all the gentleness of a humane carriage, and that the contempt of civil order springs up in minds but little cultivated at the same time, and from the same principles, with the contempt of danger and death? is it——? in short, it is so.” happily we may now say it was so! but the reason is not hard to find. roderick random is a full and satisfying reply to fielding's interrogatory. the sailor of that day was a brute because his life was that of a brute. he was for long months at a time absent from every possible refining influence. he was fed on provisions such as a dog would recoil from. his sea-parlour was a black, wet [pg 146] hole, filled with vermin and loathsome with bad smells. his punishments were beyond expression inhuman; he was whipped until his back became a bloody mass, into which brine was rubbed that his sufferings might be rendered more exquisite. he was hoisted to a yard-arm, then dropped suddenly into the water and hauled violently under the ship's keel, and this was repeated until he was nearly drowned. he was lashed half-naked to the mast, and so left to stand for a period often running into days, insulted by his shipmates, and exposed to the scorching heat or the frosty sting of the parallels in which the ship happened to be; he was loaded with irons and immured for weeks in a dark and poisonous forepeak, whose only tenants besides himself were the huge rats of the vessel's hold. it was not, then, that the sailor regarded himself discharged, as fielding suggests, from the common bands of humanity; he knew nothing of humanity, whether during his brief and roaring orgies ashore or during his long and bitter servitude upon the high seas. the traditions of those days still linger, and the sailor of our own times suffers to a certain extent from prejudices which were excited and perpetuated by the bold and reckless savages of the age of dampier and, later on, of fielding. but i am speaking of the average merchantman; it is readily conceivable that the buccaneer or privateersman should have gone far beyond him. he recognised no restrictions save those which were absolutely essential to his safety at sea; his profession of piracy rendered him insensible to cruelty by familiarising him with many of the most violent forms of it; he slept like a wild animal upon the hard deck, with a rug for his cover and nothing [pg 147] else between him and the stars. dampier grimly says in his chapter on the winds: “'tis usual with seamen in those parts to sleep on the deck, especially for privateers; among whom i made these observations. in privateers, especially when we are at an anchor, the deck is spread with mats to lye on each night. every man has one, some two; and this, with a pillow for the head and a rug for a covering, is all the bedding that is necessary for men of that employ.” for one day the freebooter might feast on the fifty delicacies of a plundered ship, and for weeks his food would be so coarse and innutritious as to fill his eyes with the fires of famine and pale his cheek to the haggardness of the corpse. it needed exceptional and extraordinary powers of command to control such wretches. the qualities of the men in charge of rogers and courtney are significantly expressed by their early mutiny. many of them were seasoned buccaneers—ruffians whom not even the common hope could keep straight. fortunately for his employers, rogers knew how to handle them.

on the 18th the two vessels captured a small spanish ship which they carried to teneriffe. there were some male and female passengers on board, and she was laden with what would now be called a general cargo. the english merchants, to whom possibly a portion of this cargo was consigned, objected to the capture, and represented that they would be in danger if the bark were not restored. the agent of the privateers, a man named vanbrugh, went ashore and was detained, and it came very near to rogers and courtney bombarding the town of oratava. when the inhabitants saw the vessels standing in with tompions out and all hands at quarters, [pg 148] they offered to satisfy the demands of the buccaneers, who thereupon sold the prize for four hundred and fifty dollars and then made haste to sail away, very glad of the chance to once more “mind their own concerns,” as rogers puts it. on the last day of september they dropped anchor in the harbour of st. vincent, one of the cape de verde islands. scarcely were they arrived when fresh disturbances arose amongst the men. the mutiny originated in altercations touching the distribution of plunder, and with the hope of terminating these incessant and perilous brawls, the commanders went to work to frame such articles as they believed would inspire the seamen with confidence in the intentions of their superiors. the paper they drew up is preserved, and it is of interest as illustrating a form of marine life that for generations has been as extinct as the ships in which the privateersmen sailed. first of all it was settled that the plunder taken on board any prize by either ship should be equally divided between the companies of both ships. any man concealing booty exceeding the value of a dollar during twenty-four hours after the capture of a prize was to be severely punished, and to lose his share of the plunder. article the fourth provided that “if any prize be taken by boarding, then whatsoever is taken shall be every man's own as follows: viz. a sailor 10 pounds, any officer below a carpenter 20 pounds, a mate, gunner, boatswain, and carpenter 40 pounds, a lieutenant or master 80 pounds, and the captains 100 pounds each, above the gratuity promised by the owners to such as shall signalise themselves.” it was further agreed that twenty pieces of eight should be given to him who first saw a prize of good value. another [pg 149] article provided that every man on board, after the capture of a prize, should be searched by persons appointed for that purpose. this agreement was signed by the officers and men of both ships, and was perhaps the best, if indeed it was not the only, expedient that rogers could have hit upon for silencing the constant mutinous growlings of the rapacious rogues under his command, unavailing as it subsequently proved.

they weighed on october 8th and steered for the coast of brazil. in spite of thoughtfully-framed articles, handsome concessions on the part of the captains, and the taut discipline of the quarter-deck, the spirit of mutiny continued strong. the men were too numerous; the ship's work made demands upon only a portion of them at a time; the crew had therefore plenty of leisure, which they employed in haranguing one another into insubordination. as an example of the difficulty of dealing with these men, it is related that a fellow named page, who was second mate of the dutchess, was ordered on board the duke to exchange posts with a man similarly rated. captain cooke was sent to fetch him; page refused to come; a dispute followed, fists were doubled up and the men fell to blows. they managed at last to convey the mutinous mate to the duke, but before they had time to charge him with his offence, he sprang into the sea and started to swim back to his ship. he was recaptured, lifted over the side and punished—probably spread-eagled and man-handled, after the old fashion. disturbances of this kind were not calculated to gild the prospects of the sober-headed. in the dutchess they had eight of the ringleaders of a party (who had proposed [pg 150] to run away with the ship) under hatches in irons. there were repeated attempts to desert after the vessels had come to an anchor on november 18th off the coast of brazil. two sailors escaped into the woods, but were so terrified by the sight of a number of monkeys and baboons which they mistook for tigers, that they plunged into the water to the depth of their waists, and stood bawling for help until a boat was sent to fetch them aboard. one thinks of dampier, hot-tempered and prone to despondency, talking with his friend rogers about the troublesome posture of the crew, expressing many doubts as to the practicability of the voyage, and perhaps suggesting adventures remote from the prescription of the bristol merchants. an incident peculiar to the old piratical life steals out in this part of the story. early one morning the people who were on the look-out on the quarter-deck sighted a canoe gliding silently and shadow-like shorewards. it was hailed and ordered to come aboard; but no other answer was returned than the swifter plying of the oars. the pinnace and yawl were manned and sent in pursuit, and on approaching the canoe one of them fired into it to bring it to. it held on bravely nevertheless, but was captured as its stem smote the beach. one of her people was a friar, who with quivering knees instantly owned to possessing a little store of gold, obtained, as the rough sailors surmised, “by his trade of confessing the ignorant.” the father was very politely treated, but he did not seem to value the attention paid him by captain rogers. what he wanted was his gold, which there is no reason whatever to suppose he ever received. he talked of obtaining justice in portugal or england, [pg 151] and was answered by the hurricane shout to the forecastle to get the ship under-weigh.

the vessels were now fairly bound for the passage of the horn. the crew, who in the torrid zone growled continuously and piratically in their gizzards, were no sooner in the high latitudes than they grew reasonable. it was the summer season in that hemisphere, but dampier carried them so far south that all hands nearly perished of cold. at least a third of the people of both ships were down with sickness; and they barely escaped a languishing and miserable end by the good fortune of prosperous winds, which blew them swiftly northwards under more temperate heights. it was necessary to make land speedily for the sake of the men's health, and juan fernandez was fixed upon. they steered for the island, but the charts differed and they could not find it. dampier was as much at a loss as the rest, and wondered at not being able to hit it, telling how often he had been there, and how he carried a most accurate map of the island about with him in his head. in order to find it they were forced to sail in sight of the coast of chili, so as to obtain “a departure,” and then stretch away west upon the parallel of it, or thereabouts. they fell in with it at last, but not until after much fruitless scouring of the seas.

the name of dampier is intimately associated with the passage that now follows. there is nothing, perhaps, in what may be termed the romantic chapters of the maritime annals more picturesque and impressive than the discovery by the duke and dutchess of alexander selkirk on the island of juan fernandez. the accentuation the story obtained from the genius of defoe makes [pg 152] it immortal. but even as a mere anecdote, without better skill brought to bear upon it than is found in the plain relations of rogers and cooke, its interest is so remarkable, it is so brimful of fascinating inspiration, that of all sea-stories it bids fair to be the longest remembered. indeed it must be said that a great number of people, otherwise pretty well informed, are familiar with the name of dampier only in connection with the strange, surprising adventures of mr. alexander selkirk. the narrative belongs peculiarly to dampier's experiences. selkirk was mate of the cinque ports when her captain, stradling, was dampier's consort, and he was still that ship's mate when stradling quarrelled with dampier at king's island in the bay of panama. the tale is related by woodes rogers and by cooke, [27]—an old-world tale indeed, which every schoolboy has by heart; yet i cannot satisfy myself that its omission on the score of triteness only would be desirable in a volume that professes to recount the most striking passages in the naval career of william dampier. cooke's version is fuller than rogers's—that is to say, he wrote two accounts of it, his reference to it in his first volume being deemed meagre and unsatisfactory by the public, who had been set agape by the wonderful yarn; but rogers's narrative is the better written; besides, as dampier is aboard the duke, it is proper to allow his captain to speak. the full story is much too long for quotation at large in these pages; i therefore select the following as [pg 153] amongst the most striking passages. they were off the island on february 1st, 1709, and sent the pinnace ashore with captain dover in charge.

“as soon as it was dark, we saw a light ashore. our boat was then about a league from the island, and bore away for the ships as soon as she saw the lights: we put our lights aboard for the boat, tho' some were of opinion the lights we saw were our boat's lights: but as night came on it appeared too large for that. we fired our quarterdeck gun and several musquets, shewing lights in our mizen and fore shrouds, that our boat might find us whilst we were in the lee of the island: ... all this stir and apprehension arose, as we afterwards found, from one poor naked man who passed in our imagination, at present, for a spanish garrison, a body of frenchmen, or a crew of pirates.”

next day they sent their yawl ashore, and as this boat did not return, they despatched the pinnace to seek her. rogers then continues:

“immediately our pinnace returned from the shore and brought abundance of crayfish with a man cloathed in goat-skins, who looked wilder than the first owners of them. he had been on the island four years and four months, being left there by captain stradling in the cinque ports; his name was alexander selkirk, a scotsman who had been master of the cinque ports, a ship that came here last with captain dampier, who told me that this was the best man in her, and i immediately agreed with him to be a mate on board our ship: 'twas he that made the fire last night when he saw our ships, which he judged to be english.... the reason of his being left here was a difference between him and [pg 154] his captain; which, together with the ship's being leaky, made him willing rather to stay here, than go along with him at first; and when he was at last willing to go the captain would not receive him.... he had with him his cloaths and bedding, with a firelock, some powder, bullets, and tobacco, a hatchet, a knife, a kettle, a bible, some practical pieces, and his mathematical instruments and books. he diverted and provided for himself as well as he could; but for the first eight months had much ado to bear up against melancholy and the terror of being left alone in such a place. he built two huts with pimento-trees, covered them with long grass, and lined them with the skins of goats, which he killed with his gun as he wanted, so long as his powder lasted, which was but a pound; and that being almost spent, he got fire by rubbing two sticks of pimento wood together upon his knee. in the lesser hut, at some distance from the other, he dressed his victuals; and in the larger he slept, and employed himself in reading, singing psalms, and praying, so that he said he was a better christian while in this solitude than ever he was before, or than he was afraid he should ever be again. at first he never eat anything till hunger constrained him, partly for grief and partly for want of bread and salt: nor did he go to bed till he could watch no longer; the pimento wood, which burnt very clear, served him both for fire and candle, and refreshed him with its fragrant smell.... by the favour of providence and vigour of his youth, being now but thirty years old, he came at last to conquer all the inconveniences of his solitude and to be very easy. when his cloaths were out he made himself a coat and a cap of goat-skins, [pg 155] which he stitched together with little thongs of the same that he cut with his knife. he had no other needle but a nail; and when his knife was worn to the back he made others as well as he could of some iron hoops that were left ashore, which he beat thin, and ground upon stones. having some linen cloth by him, he sewed him some shirts with a nail, and stitched them with the worsted of his old stockings, which he pulled out on purpose. he had his last shirt on when we found him in the island. at his first coming on board us he had so much forgot his language for want of use that we could scarce understand him; for he seemed to speak his words by halves. we offered him a dram; but he would not touch it, having drank nothing but water since his being there; and it was some time before he could relish our victuals.”

it is easy to imagine the interest with which dampier would listen to the recital of his old associate's strange adventures. cooke tells us that selkirk had conceived “irreconcilable aversion to an officer on board the cinque ports, who, he was informed, was on board the duke, but not being a principal in command, he was prevailed upon to waive that circumstance and accompany captain dampier, for whom he had a friendship.” whoever the person may have been, the scotchman's dislike of him was bitter, and it was to dampier's persuasions that rogers owed the services of a man who proved of the utmost use to him whilst lying at the island by enabling him to supply the ships with fresh provisions and by facilitating the business of taking in wood and water. it is observable that rogers styled selkirk the governor of the island, a half-humorous and [pg 156] half-pathetic fancy (when one thinks of the desperate loneliness of the unhappy man), which defoe afterwards adopted when making robinson crusoe speak of his possessions and territories, his castles and his dependents.

the vessels arrived, as we have seen, on february 1st, and by the 3rd a smith's forge had been conveyed ashore, the coopers were hard at work, and there were tents, or “pavilions,” erected for the commanders and the sick. but it was their business not to lose time, for they had long before—that is to say, when they were at the canaries—heard that five large french ships were coming to search for them in the south sea; so that very quickly, all the sick men happily recovering rapidly with the exception of two who died, they had refitted their ships, taken in wood and water, and boiled down and stowed away about eighty gallons of sea-lions' oil to use for the lamps, that they might save the candles. this done they set sail, after holding a consultation, which resulted in further regulations for the preservation of discipline; and on may 15th captured a little vessel of sixteen tons, whose master furnished them with the reassuring news that seven french ships, which had been cruising off this part of the coast for some time, had six months previously gone away for the horn, and it was added they were not likely to return. there was other news besides of a kind to make their mouths water, particularly that the widow of the deceased viceroy of peru would shortly embark for acapulco with her family and the whole of her fortune, and probably break her journey at payta. they were also told that some months previously a ship had sailed from payta for acapulco with two hundred thousand pieces of eight on board, together with a [pg 157] rich cargo of liquors and flour. more useful information was conveyed in the statement that a certain se?or morel was waiting in a stout ship filled with dry goods for a vessel expected from panama richly laden, with a bishop aboard, and that both craft would put to sea together. the idea of a bishop was commonly associated in the buccaneering mind with visions of the sacred splendours of the altar and the fruits of long years dedicated to painful hoarding. so it was straightway resolved by rogers and his people to start for a cruise off payta, meanwhile exercising all possible precaution against discovery lest larger designs should be spoilt.

a few days after they had come to this determination captain rogers and captain dover fell out. rogers says that dover charged him with insolence; captain cooke, on the other hand, takes dover's part in his story of this passage. difficulties of this kind were incessantly occurring amongst the buccaneers, and on the eve, too, very often of the execution of big projects. the quarrel, however, is not dwelt upon at length; probably the disputants quickly saw the wisdom of calling a truce that they might attend to the serious business of what is grandiloquently termed “the conquest of guayaquil.” the great undertaking was settled thus: dover was to command a company of seventy marines, rogers another company of seventy-one officers and sailors, courtney a third company of seventy-three men, and dampier was to have charge of the artillery, with a reserve force of twenty-two seamen. meanwhile cooke was to command the dutchess with forty-two men, and captain robert fry the duke with forty men; bringing up the whole force to a total of three hundred and twenty. in [pg 158] addition there were blacks, indians, and prisoners, to the number of two hundred and sixty-six; forming an army of five hundred and eighty-six people for the captains and officers to look after. the appetites of the buccaneers were shrewdly sharpened by the understanding that bedding, wearing apparel, gold rings, buttons, buckles, gold or silver crucifixes, watches, liquors, and provisions, should be reckoned fair plunder to be equally divided; but money, women's earrings, loose diamonds, pearls, and precious stones, were to be held as belonging to the merchants. on the 15th there was a smart engagement between the privateersmen's boats and a spanish ship, in which rogers lost his brother, who was second lieutenant on board the duke. the vessel was captured, and proved to be the craft in which the bishop had sailed; but he had gone ashore at point st. helena, leaving the ship to carry his property to lima. she had seventy blacks and a number of passengers on board. the lading consisted of bale goods, and a considerable quantity of pearls were found in her. captain cooke took charge, and the prisoners were divided between the duke and dutchess.

the little bark of sixteen tons which they had taken some time previously they named the beginning, and on april 21st in the morning she was sent to cruise close inshore to see all clear for the landing of the men. the report she brought was that there was a vessel riding close under the point whose crew, on sighting the beginning, had hurried ashore and vanished. on this the privateersmen rowed towards the town of guayaquil. the night drew down dark; the men pulled stealthily with muffled oars; an hour before midnight [pg 159] they saw a light suddenly spring up in the town, towards which they continued to row very softly until they were within a mile of it; when on a sudden they were brought to a halt by hearing a sentinel call to another and talk to him. concluding they were discovered, the buccaneers pulled across the river, and lay still and very quiet, waiting and watching. in a few minutes the whole town flashed out into lights, the resonant notes of a great alarm-bell swang through the soft wind, several volleys of musketry were discharged, and a large fire was kindled on the hill to let the town know that the enemy was in the river. the officers in charge of the boats, confounded by this unexpected discovery of their presence, fell to a hot argument and grew so angry that their voices were heard ashore. the spaniards, who could not understand them, sent post-haste for an englishman who was then living in the town, and brought him, very secretly, close to the boats that he might interpret what was said. but before he arrived the privateersmen had concluded their arguments. [28] they remained all night in the river, and next day contented themselves with capturing a number of vessels, and receiving the governor under a flag of truce to treat with him about the ransom of the town and ships. but nothing came of the interview; and at four o'clock in the afternoon, on april 23d, the whole force of the buccaneers landed and attacked the place. the spaniards fired a single volley and fled; the english pressed forward and seized the enemy's cannon, from which every gunner had run saving one, an irishman, [pg 160] who gallantly stuck to his post until he dropped mortally wounded. the seamen marched through both towns—the spaniards flying pell-mell before them firing the houses as they tramped forwards, and leaving gangs of men behind them to guard the churches. there was a thick wood on the right of the place, and all night long the enemy continued to fire from among the trees at the english sentries, but without injuring a man. from time to time bodies of horse and foot showed themselves, but only to wheel about and fly to the first musket levelled at them. meanwhile a party of twenty-two men went in the dutchess's pinnace up the river, and sacked every house they came across. the enemy was easily kept at bay, and the buccaneers had no trouble in sending booty and provisions in quantities to their ships. in due course messengers, flourishing flags of truce, came to talk about ransoming the town, and after much discussion, the offer of thirty thousand dollars was accepted, of which twenty-five thousand were paid.

the depredations of the buccaneers had been indeed serious enough to threaten the townspeople with absolute ruin if the sacking was not speedily arrested. scarcely had they withdrawn from guayaquil when they took a ship full of meal, sugar, and other commodities, making the fourteenth prize they had captured in those seas! the town itself handsomely repaid the labour and danger of assaulting it; about twelve hundred pounds' worth of plate and jewellery, many bales of valuable dry goods, and a great store of merchandise of all kinds, exclusive of wines, waggon-loads of cocoa, several ships on the stocks, and two freshly-launched vessels of four hundred tons each, valued at eighty thousand crowns. but [pg 161] for their approach having been discovered they might have found even a handsomer account than this in the capture of the place, for it afterwards came to their ears that the inhabitants in their flight carried away with them money, plate, and jewels to the value of two hundred thousand pieces of eight. indeed the unhappy spaniards seem to have been plundered on all sides, for in going the rounds the privateersmen took a number of negroes and indians laden with goods, which they promptly confessed were stolen, “and we were afterwards informed that in the hurry the inhabitants had given plate and money to blacks to carry out of the town, and could never hear of it after.”

on may 11th we find rogers, dampier, and their companions running before a strong gale of wind for the galapagos islands. a number of the crew were prostrated with a malignant fever contracted at guayaquil, where, about a month before the buccaneers' arrival, there had raged an epidemic disease of which ten or twelve persons perished every day; until the floors of the churches being filled with bodies, the people dug a great hole close to one of the structures where sailors had been stationed as guards. in this hole lay a pile of putrefied corpses, and the seamen only quitted their posts to return to their ships poisoned. on the 18th they were off a couple of large islands, and sent boats to seek for fresh water. the errand was fruitless, though the searchers went three or four miles into the country in their hunt. their business now was to go where fresh water was to be had, for of the two crews there were no less than one hundred and twenty men down with fever; captain courtney was dangerously ill, and captain dover was [pg 162] devoting his leisure to prescribing for him. so they made sail for gorgona, capturing a few vessels as they proceeded, and, anchoring on june 13th, at once distributed their sick amongst the prizes, and set to work to careen and repair the duke and dutchess. by the 28th they had restored their provisions and mounted their guns, having in fourteen days caulked, rigged, discharged, and reloaded their ships; a smart piece of work that greatly astonished the spanish prisoners, who said that their people usually took a couple of months to careen a vessel at ports where every necessary appliance for this business was to be had. the unhappy captives indeed, whilst watching or assisting the english, would scarcely marvel at their triumphs by land and sea when they observed their ceaseless and vigilant activity,—how, without regard to the climate, they worked from the break of day till darkness stopped their hands, and how, with swift and unerring judgment, they devised expedients for the remedying of difficulties which in the eyes of their astonished prisoners appeared at the time to be insurmountable. “the natives of old spain,” says rogers, “are accounted but ordinary mariners; but here they are much worse, all the prizes we took being rather cobbled than fitted out for the sea; so that had they such weather as we often meet with in the european seas in winter, they could scarce ever reach a port again as they are fitted; but they sail here hundreds of leagues.” admissions of this kind are as good as saying that seizures in the south sea went, as achievements, but a very little way beyond the mere act of hailing a ship and bidding her strike. the boldness of the english buccaneers is not very conspicuous in such encounters. most of the vessels they took were [pg 163] navigated by crews of yellow, nervous men, utterly worthless as seamen, with neither heart nor muscle as combatants; whilst the cabins were crowded with priests, women, and sea-sick merchants, who increased the disorder caused by the appearance of a privateer by lamentations and tears, by wild appeals to the saints, and passionate adjurations to the shivering crew. the capture of such craft was as easy as catching flies. the qualities of the english south seamen of those days must be sought in the records of their assaults on land, their boarding of tall and powerfully armed galleons, their murderous resistance to the attacks of ships-of-state of great tonnage crowded with soldiers and sailors and carrying ten guns to the rover's one.

whilst rogers and his people were at gorgona they equipped one of their prizes named the havre de grace as a third ship to act with the duke and dutchess. she was called the marquis, and captain cooke took command of her. the business of fitting her out as a war vessel occupied them from june 29th to july 9th, and when she was finished they made a holiday of it, sitting down to a hearty meal and drinking the queen's health with loud huzzas, and then the health of the owners with more huzzas, and then their own healths until their eyes danced in their heads. spite of the general joy, however, the marquis proved something of a failure, for cooke says that her masts were new and too heavy for her, and that being badly stowed she was exceedingly tender, by which is meant that she heeled or lay over unduly to light pressures, and scarcely made headway when on a wind, “so that the duke and dutchess were fain to spare a great deal of sail for me to [pg 164] keep up with them.” before lifting their anchors the commanders and officers of the ships met together to value the plunder in order to divide it. one kind of commodities they appraised at four hundred pounds; the silver-hilted swords, buckles, snuff-boxes, buttons, and silver plate at seven hundred and forty-three pounds fifteen shillings, taking the piece of eight at four shillings and sixpence. by this time there were upwards of eighty thousand pounds' worth of property and treasure on board destined for the owners. dampier, we may well suppose, shared in the high hopes and good spirits of his shipmates. this was the only promising privateering expedition he had ever been engaged in, and if their luck continued he might reasonably flatter himself with the belief that he would even yet snatch an independency out of the reluctant maw of the sea. they had rid themselves of their prisoners by sending them away in some of the prizes. the female captives spoke well of the treatment they had received, and ingenuously confessed that they had met with far more courtesy and civility than their own countrymen would have extended to persons in their condition. the honourable and humane behaviour of the english buccaneers towards their female prisoners became a tradition, which was perpetuated and confirmed by the wise policy of commodore anson. [29]

they sailed on august 11th, and nothing noteworthy happened till september 6th, on which date we find dampier dining with captain rogers on board the duke in company with cooke and courtney. cooke [pg 165] complained bitterly of the crankness of his ship the marquis, and objected to the evolutions of the other vessels which obliged him to tack. they were bound to the galapagos, and he affirmed that they could have made the islands without beating to windward. dampier said, no; he knew where those islands were, and had described them in one of his voyages; and he asserted that they were now to the westward of them. the others agreed with cooke, but dampier was pilot, and was therefore suffered to have his way. they were right and he was wrong; but an error of a hundred miles or so was reckoned a very trifling blunder in those hearty, plodding times. a curious old sea-picture is suggested by this discussion in the cabin of the duke. the rough bulkheads, the low upper deck, the quaint lanthorn swinging over the table from a beam, and indicating by its oscillations the ponderous rolling of the tall, squab, round-bowed fabric; the privateersmen sitting round the table attired in the wild and picturesque apparel of the early south seamen—these are features to bring the scene in clear outlines before the eye of the imagination. one beholds them poring upon their old-fashioned charts, pointing to the singular configurations of the mainland and islands with hairy hands, and disputing with little anxiety on a difference between easting and westing measuring as many leagues as the space from the lizard to the western islands. indeed the real flavour and charm of the buccaneer's life are not to be expressed by any mere method of historical treatment. the hand of the artist is wanted, with imagination vigorous and discerning enough to strictly correspond with the traditionary truth.

[pg 166]

on their arrival at the galapagos they took in a good supply of turtle, many of which were upwards of four hundred pounds in weight. rogers writes of the turtle as if he had never seen it before. “i do not,” he says, “affect giving relations of strange creatures, so frequently done by others; but where an uncommon creature falls in my way i cannot omit it.” this is how the captain describes the “uncommon creature.”

“the creatures are the ugliest in nature; the shell, not unlike the top of an old hackney-coach, as black as jet; and so is the outside skin, but shriveled and very rough. the legs and neck are long and about the bigness of a man's wrist; and they have clubbed feet as big as one's fist, shaped much like those of an elephant, with five nails on the forefeet and but four behind, and the head little, and visage small like snakes; and look very old and black. when at first surprised they shrink their head, neck, and legs, under their shell.”

this is the kind of simplicity that makes the perusal of the old voyages wonderfully refreshing and delightful. the old fellows looked at life with the eyes of a child but with the intelligence of a man; and so it happens that their representations combine a most perfect and fascinating simplicity with the highest possible qualities of acuteness and sagacity.

on october 1st the ships were off the mexican coast. when the form of the land grew visible dampier told rogers that it was hereabouts he attacked the manila ship in the st. george. he might have been right, but rogers does not speak as if he thought so, for he says: “captain dampier indeed had been here, but [pg 167] it was a long time ago, and therefore he seemed to know but little of the matter; yet when he came to land in places he recollected them very readily.” they suffered much from scarcity of fresh water, and sent the pinnace to explore some islands—the tres marias—lying off cape corrientes. on one of them they found a human skull, which was supposed to have belonged to an indian who, with another poor wretch of his own race, had been left there by captain swan some twenty-three years before. dampier of course well remembered the circumstance; he had been with swan in the cygnet at the time, and could recollect that provisions being scarce they had left the unhappy indians to make, as rogers says, a miserable end on a desert island. to judge, however, from the refreshments these uninhabited spots yielded, the indians could not have perished from starvation. the buccaneers met with hares, turtle-doves, pigeons, and parrots, on all of which they fared sumptuously. the sick thrived, and the general health of the crews was never better. on november 1st they were in view of the high coast of california. it was much about the date when sir thomas candish had taken the manila ship, and, strangely enough, their keels ploughed the very tract of water in which that remarkable feat had been achieved. the memory, aged to us, but lacking nothing of its old lustre, was to those men comparatively recent, and the recollection was one to animate them with great hopes and stern resolves. they were indeed bent now on the adventure whose successful issue had loaded candish's ship with treasure. they were on the look-out for the galleon, and that nothing might be omitted to render fortune propitious, [pg 168] they again put in force the rules which had formerly been laid down for cruising, established fresh regulations, and made clear every dubious item in their programme of proceedings and plunder. it was this galleon that was to make their fortunes; she it was also that formed the grand hope of the bristol committee of merchant adventurers; and the design of capturing her was the mainspring of the whole expedition. after a consultation it was agreed that they should dispose themselves thus: the marquis was to keep off the land at a distance of from six to nine leagues at least; the duke was to cruise at a range that would cover forty-five miles; and the dutchess was to occupy the waters between her consorts. there were, of course, false alarms; as, for instance, on the 28th the marquis fired a gun, which was promptly answered by the dutchess, on which the duke hauled her wind for the coast. it then turned out that the marquis had mistaken the duke for the manila ship, and fired as a signal for the dutchess to chase. they had to wait a long time before the vessel they wanted hove in sight. it was now a month later than the usual time of her appearance in this part of the sea where she was being waited for, and the anxiety of the buccaneers was increased by their inability to obtain any intelligence of her. provisions were again scarce, and even on short allowance there was barely bread enough to last for seventy days,—a serious matter in the face of the inevitable run later on to the ladrone islands, which promised to occupy fifty days at the very least. this most unfortunate dearth of stores, coupled with the growing dejection and mutinous sulkiness of the men, determined rogers and his brother commanders to give themselves another week's chance, [pg 169] and then, if the galleon did not appear, to sail away to the indies.

in order to save time the dutchess was despatched to a convenient bay to take in water and wood, etc., that as one ship obtained these stores another might take her place, thus always leaving two on the look-out. by the 4th she had taken in what was necessary, and the marquis replaced her to refit. until december 21st nothing happened; then on the morning of that day, when the duke was in the act of shifting her helm for the place where the marquis was refitting, the look-out man aloft hailing the deck, shouted that he saw a sail bearing west about twenty miles distant. the english ensign was immediately hoisted, and in a few minutes both the duke and the dutchess were standing towards the stranger; but on a sudden it fell stark calm, and as conjecture was hopeless and expectation insupportable, the pinnace was manned and sent to see what she could make of the distant ship. in reading rogers's account, you find your sympathies curiously enlisted on behalf of those two stagnated buccaneering vessels, and witness with but little effort of imagination the crowds of weather-darkened, fiery-eyed men, some in the rigging, some at the masthead, some leaning in impetuous pose against the rail, staring their very hearts out under the sharp of their hands at the cotton-white outline, glimmering like the tip of a sea-bird's pinion on the edge of the distant gleaming horizon, whence the swell rolls in folds of oil to the wet and flashing sides of the ships; the officers on the quarter-deck peering their hardest through the lean and unsatisfying perspective-glasses of those days; dampier and rogers together rehearsing their [pg 170] intentions and recalling their experiences in voices subdued by excitement; above all, the old, worn, but gallant duke wearily dipping her faded, blistered bends to the swing of the breathless sea, making in anticipation of the withering roar of her ordnance, now grinning mutely along her sides, a little thunder of her own with the beating of her dark and well-patched canvas against the huge tops and massive cross-trees of her swaying masts. “all the rest of the day,” says rogers, “we had very little wind, so that we made no great way; and the boat not returning, kept us in a languishing condition, not being able to determine whether the sail was our consort, the marquis, or the acapulco ship. our pinnace was still in sight, and we had nothing to do but to watch her motions: we could see that she made towards the dutchess's pinnace, which rowed to meet her. they lay together some time, and then the dutchess's pinnace went back to their ship which gave us great hopes.” an officer was sent to the dutchess to ascertain what the stranger was, and to concert measures, if she should prove an enemy, for engaging her. when he was gone rogers hoisted the french colours and fired a gun; the strange vessel answered, which satisfied them that she was not the marquis. it is manifest from this that these privateersmen had no private code of signals amongst them. indeed detection seems to have been entirely a matter of the exhibition of the national bunting, in which there was just the same sort of deception then as there was in later years, and as there ever will be. shortly after the ship had responded, the officer returned with the report that she was the manila galleon. the statement fired the spirits of the crew; [pg 171] they hove all their melancholy reflections on the shortness of their provisions overboard, and could think of nothing but the figures they would make when they arrived home with the vast treasure out yonder, stowed snugly away under their hatches. “every moment,” says rogers, “seemed an hour till we came up with her.” it was arranged that the two pinnaces should stick to her skirts all night and burn flares, that their own and the position of the chase might be known; and it was further settled that if the duke and dutchess were so fortunate as to come up with her together they were to board her at once: a resolution which dampier, recalling his experiences in the st. george, was pretty sure to strengthen by his advice.

at dawn the chase was upon the weather-bow of the duke, about three miles away, and the dutchess within a couple of miles to leeward of her. rogers threw his sweeps over and rowed his ship for above an hour; a light breeze then sprang up and softly blew the vessel towards the enemy. there was no liquor in the ship, nothing to fortify the spirits in the shape of a dram; so a large kettle of chocolate was boiled and served out to the crew, who, when they had emptied their pannikins, went to prayers. but whilst they were in the midst of their devotions they were interrupted by a broadside from the spaniards. it is not often that one reads of the english buccaneers going to prayers before falling to their business of slaughtering and plundering. perhaps they had learnt to despise this kind of ceremony from the behaviour of the french freebooters, who were wont to sing te deum and force captive priests to celebrate mass in the cathedrals and churches which they [pg 172] had despoiled. if the spaniards saw rogers's privateersmen on their knees, something of irony might have been intended by their manner of cutting short their worship and supplications. the don was fully prepared; his guns loaded, his little army of men at stations, and casks of gunpowder hanging at his yard-arms ready to fall and explode when the attempt should be made to board. the action began at eight o'clock, and the duke for some time fought the galleon single-handed. the conflict was a brief one. the spaniards had no stomach, and after rogers had poured in a few broadsides the enemy “struck her colours two-thirds down.” his flag was thus flying when the dutchess came up and fired five guns at the big ship along with a volley of small shot. it was mere waste of powder; the galleon had already submitted and was silent. the victory, it must be admitted, was cheaply earned, yet there is little doubt that such was the temper of the buccaneers they would have fought to the last man for this golden prize. she was a large vessel named nostra seniora de la incarnacion disenginao, mounting twenty guns and twenty swivels, and carrying one hundred and ninety-three men, of whom nine were killed and several wounded. the fight lasted three glasses, that is three hours. rogers was shot through the left cheek; the bullet destroyed the greater part of his upper jaw, and some of his teeth were found upon the deck where he fell. he was obliged to give his orders in writing to hinder the flow of blood, and to escape the agony of attempting to articulate. only one man besides himself was wounded. having repaired the trifling damage they had sustained, they steered for the harbour where the marquis lay, and anchored. they found [pg 173] their consort fully equipped and ready to sail, and her people in good spirits and eager for action. at night a consultation was held respecting the disposal of the hostages, and as a second manila ship was daily expected, they debated plans for capturing her. after some talk it was agreed that the hostages should be set at liberty; but the discussion about the expected galleon ended in something like a quarrel. rogers, speaking in the heat of the moment, had censured courtney for not having shown the promptitude that was necessary in attacking the nostra seniora. this courtney of course resented as a reflection upon his honour. when, then, rogers proposed to cruise in the dutchess for the coming manila ship, courtney insisted upon making the search in the marquis. the question was put to the vote, rogers's proposal overruled, and his people obliged, to their great mortification, to remain in the harbour. this incident is related so obscurely both by cooke and rogers that i confess i do not fully understand it. the duke was in good condition, and why the three instead of the two ships did not start on a cruise which, as the sequel proves, demanded even more than their united strength, is a riddle i am unable to solve.

on christmas day the dutchess and the marquis put to sea, and when they were gone rogers posted two sentinels on the top of a hill that he might instantly be apprised of a third sail heaving in sight. before twenty-four hours had elapsed the signal was made, and in hot haste rogers started to the assistance of his consorts, though the stout-hearted sailor was in no condition for further adventures just then. he was indeed so weak from loss of blood that he could scarcely stand. his [pg 174] head and throat were swollen, and the effort to speak caused him excruciating pain; but he turned a deaf ear to the entreaties of the officers and surgeons that he would remain in harbour on board the prize. the galleon was in sight at daybreak, and by noon the marquis had succeeded in bringing her to an engagement. the wind was light, and it was almost impossible to man?uvre the vessels; so that though the dutchess and the marquis continued at intervals to fire at the manila ship until dusk, the duke even at midnight was still at a considerable distance from the enemy. when the day broke the wind shifted, and rogers was able to bring his guns to bear. the fighting was now severe, and continued so for four hours; the galleon was hotly defended, though her people lay so concealed in their close quarters that the privateersmen could scarcely make any use of their small arms. it was only when a head appeared or a port was opened that they found a mark for their muskets. the eagerness of the buccaneers defeated their seamanship. their vessels were repeatedly falling foul of one another and throwing the crews into disorder. the guns of the marquis were so small that her firing was to little or no purpose. at last it came to rogers signalling to courtney and cooke to come on board him with other officers; and then every man telling of the injuries his ship had sustained, and all admitting that it would jeopardise too many lives to board or attempt to board the lofty galleon, it was resolved to let her go—that is to say, they agreed to keep her company till night, and then in the darkness to lose her, and make the best of their way back to the prize they had already secured. in sober truth the [pg 175] enemy had proved too many for them. the duke's mainmast was so wounded that rogers expected every moment to see it go by the board. her rigging, too, was so shattered by shot that she had to sheer off in order to knot and splice, being scarcely manageable. the dutchess also had her foremast badly wounded, her sails were in rags, and the ends of her standing rigging were trailing overboard. further, there were not above one hundred and twenty men in all three ships fit for boarding, “and those but weak,” says rogers, “having been very short of provisions;” and that nothing might be wanting to complete the list of the reasons of their failure, their ammunition was very nearly expended. rogers was again wounded, this time in his left foot. in the dutchess they had twenty men killed and disabled. the marquis, on the other hand, came off without the loss of a single person. the galleon was a handsome ship, very large, carrying the flag of the admiral of manila. she was making the voyage for the first time. her name was the vigonia; she was pierced for sixty guns, forty of which were mounted, along with an equal number of brass swivels. her crew numbered over four hundred and fifty men, and there were many passengers besides. it was supposed that she was worth ten millions of dollars; but it is doubtful whether, even if the buccaneers had succeeded in boarding, they would have taken her, for rogers says: “after my return into europe i met in holland with a sailor who had been on board the large ship when we engaged her; and he let us into the secret that there was no taking her; for the gunner kept constantly in the powder-room, declaring that he had taken the sacrament to blow the [pg 176] ship up if we boarded her; which made the men, as may be supposed, exceedingly resolute in her defence. i was the more ready to credit what this man told me because he gave as regular and circumstantial account of the engagement as i could have done from my journal.” [30]

on the first day of the new year, 1710, they were again in harbour alongside their great prize; and now being anxious to leave these seas, they put their prisoners on board one of the smaller captures with water and provisions enough to last them for a voyage to acapulco, and then addressed themselves to the urgent business of repairing and making all ready for their departure. they renamed the galleon the batchelor, and a quarrel arose touching the appointment of a commander for her, a post regarded by them all as of dignity and importance. captain dover, asserting his claims as a merchant adventurer, and representing the considerable sum of money he had risked in this expedition, demanded the berth. rogers and others, among whom, no doubt, would be dampier, objected that dover knew nothing whatever of navigation, and voted for cooke. finally, at the cost of many high words and much strong feeling, it was decided at a full council that captain fry and captain stretton should have entire control of the navigation of the batchelor under captain dover, alexander selkirk to be the master and joseph smith the chief mate. the island of guam was then fixed upon as a rendezvous, and on january 10th the buccaneers weighed for a run to the east indies.

[pg 177]

they were when they started in no very enviable condition. their stores were scanty; their live stock consisted of four hens; and of wine or spirits they had barely the contents of a dozen bottles. the rations were limited to a pound and a half of flour and a small piece of meat for a mess of five men, with three pints of water a man on twenty-four hours for drink and cooking. rogers was ill with his wounds, and many of the crew were sick and weak and unfit to do the work of the ship. hunger drove the men into robbery. a few days after they sailed some pieces of pork were missed. fortunately, in the interests of justice, the thieves were discovered, and punished by every man of the watch giving them a stroke of the cat-o'-nine-tails.

what follows now is little more than a journal of the voyage, rendered for the most part tedious by description and by the introduction of incidents of little or no interest. dampier's name seldom occurs; when it is mentioned it is always in reference to something that helps to accentuate characteristics noticeable in his own account of his adventures. for instance, in april, when they were off a point of land which they took to be the north-east point of celebes, the vessel was proving very leaky; which, added to the general ignorance of the ship's situation, filled the crew with melancholy and irritation. “captain dampier,” says rogers, “discouraged us very much: he had been twice here, and therefore what he said among the seamen passed without dispute, and he laid it down as a thing certain that if we could not reach ternate or find the island of tula it was impossible for us to get any refreshment, there being nothing to be met with on the coast of new [pg 178] guiney.” it had been thus with dampier whilst buccaneering off the new holland shore; thus had it been with him too when hunting for water on the sand-hills of the western australian seaboard, his foot on the margin of a vast region of earth which he had neither temper nor heart to explore, though he had travelled many thousands of miles in a crazy ship and with a troublesome crew for no other purpose. this trick of discouraging the people he led, or was one of, is the secret of his failure as a commander and explorer. rogers, a bolder and more hopeful, and certainly in many respects an equally sagacious man, was not likely to feel grateful for dampier's melancholy shakes of the head, and his gloomy, prognosticating countenance; but his own experiences left him nothing to say, for though the ships spent the best part of the month of may off the coast of new guinea, all that rogers could observe that seemed to him worth mentioning was, “it is most certain these islands, which are scattered through the streights, and few or none of which are peopled, would all of them bear spice, and afford immense riches to this nation, if they were settled.”

they were in great distress whilst they were in these seas. the men mutinously resented the wise reduction in the quantity of the food served out to them; and to save serious disturbance rogers was forced to return to the old scale. they sighted land, but did not know what it was, nor could dampier help them. having searched for borou, an island of the indian archipelago, they resolved to steer to batavia, touching at bouton for provisions. accordingly they stood away to the south-west before a strong [pg 179] gale of wind at east. but their progress was obstructed by some small islands, into one of which they must have run in the dead of night had the weather not cleared suddenly and discovered it to them. it was not until tuesday, june 17th, 1710, that they arrived at batavia. at sight of the town the crews were so rejoiced that they could do nothing but hug and shake one another by the hand, and bless their stars and question if there was such a paradise in all the world; “and this,” says rogers, “because they had arrack for eight pence a gallon, and sugar at a penny a pound.”

the ships were in a deplorable condition, particularly the marquis, which was so rotten with worms and wear that it became necessary to hire another craft to carry her lading. they sailed from batavia on october 14th, and proceeded direct to the cape of good hope, where they arrived without misadventure and without any incident occurring in the passage that is worth repeating. shortly after they had entered table bay twelve sail of dutch ships came in, which, with the english vessels then at anchor, made altogether twenty-three ships riding in the spacious and beautiful haven. the picture is about one hundred and seventy years old, and it is difficult to realise that the ocean traffic of those dim times to the indies by way of the cape should have been considerable enough to crowd the spacious surface of the waters on whose margin stand the ivory-white structures of cape town. retrospect is often corrective. we have a right to compliment ourselves upon what we have done and are doing; but it does not seem to me that our marine achievements can be compared as illustrations of human skill and determination with the examples of the adventurous genius of an age [pg 180] when the greater portion of the antipodean world lay in darkness; when navigation was little better than guesswork; when the art of shipbuilding was crude, rude, and primitive; when there was nothing but the heavens to consult for weather; when the tyranny of the winds was only to be dominated by a kind of perseverance that must be ranked among the lost qualities of human nature. despite these conditions the early mariner crowded the oceans with fabrics laden with the produce of the known continents, and rolled stubbornly to his hundred ports, often in suffering and often in distress indeed; yet on the whole freer, in his valiant ignorance, from disaster than is the sailor of the current hour. there is no longer need for ships to halt and bait at table bay. the propeller thrashes them to their destination with the punctuality of the railway-train; or they are wafted by pyramids of canvas—the graceful and elegant result of centuries of experiment—on a journey to new zealand or japan, which they complete in less time than the old seafarer took to find his way from the english channel to madeira. but the very existence of the facilities of the engine-room, of the nimbleness of the clipper-moulded keel, of the capacity of the towering and exquisitely-calculated heights of cloths to snatch a desired power of propulsion from the teeth of the antagonistic gale, is, i take it, an admission of our own weakness when we contrast the ocean-machinery with which science has dowered us with the contrivances with which the early seamen triumphed over the forces of nature and created new worlds as heritages for a self-complacent posterity. those twenty-three ships at anchor in table bay, surveyed by the eyes of dampier [pg 181] and his toil-worn comrades, make but a little part of a great marine pageant; yet it is a detail to constrain the gaze. fancy reconstructs them; they cease to be visionary; they float before us as substantial fabrics, brave with pennons and the glitter of brass guns and the gay raiment of their time. they illustrate the most strenuous of all the periods of the world's maritime life; for the infancy of navigation was over, and it had already put on the proportions of a youthful giant, the impulse of whose unripened vitality was urging it to extraordinary efforts.

before the ships under rogers sailed, six more vessels entered the bay, along with several english indiamen and a large portuguese carrack from brazil; and when the hour of departure came the homeward-bound (in all, english and dutch, numbering twenty-five) rolled stately under swelling canvas out of table bay,—a spectacle that, remote as it is, and visible only to the gaze of fancy, cannot but stir the imagination when one thinks of the floating castles, with their swelling sails and their brilliant streamers, as the van of the ever-growing procession that was in time to whiten the remotest seas, and crowd the harbours of countries of which some were then without the impress of a european foot.

the ships progressed merrily. they touched at st. helena, and seven days later at ascension, and after a passage of three months from the cape of good hope dropped anchor in the texel. rogers and his brother commanders had now to act with much circumspection; they were informed by letters from their owners that the english east india company, jealous of their success, had appointed a secret committee to inspect their charter [pg 182] as to privileges; they were also enjoined to exercise the utmost caution in respect of the dutch east india company, and strict orders were issued that no officer or sailor should on any pretence whatever be suffered to take any goods on shore, or purchase the least trifle from any stranger who visited the ships. they remained in holland until september 30th, 1711, then sailed from the texel under convoy of four of her britannic majesty's ships, and on october 14th the duke and dutchess arrived off erith, at which place the batchelor had come to an anchor some short time before. thus ended one of the most memorable of all the voyages ever undertaken by the english buccaneers. the cargo and treasure obtained by this expedition were valued at between three and four hundred thousand pounds, and cooke tells us that, after allowing for all deductions, such as cost of convoy, agency, lawsuits, and thefts, the net profits amounted to one hundred and seventy thousand pounds.