William Dampier

Welcome to. 

The curiosity of. 

A child. 

Episode 41 

Been a while since we've done our last step as a, hasn't it? 

It is, yeah, which we've been away to London. I was really good. Went to the big museums. Didn't we? 

That was really fun. It was only a couple of days, but my feet ached after all The Walking round. 

Yeah, you did really well. Forget how big it is when you leave this little island and go somewhere else. But unfortunately when we came back we we had something didn't we covert? Yeah, which we've managed to avoid up until now. But yeah, yeah we had kayboard, so that's why we're late. Well, it's international talk like a pirate. Day are. A very good impression and we've actually got a story of a pirate for you today and it's being said that he had an exquisite mind. He's not your regular pirate. And the story that we're going to have state. Is of a man who. During the late 1600s and early 1700s, he circumnavigated the world three times. And he not only plundered Spanish shipping and the colonies in the Americas, but he also inspired writers. Scientists over the coming decades. In his day, he was famous throughout much of England. Because he was the world. 's first travel writer and there's also a natural historian and his books were counted not just out of daring but also of careful observation and the study of amazing distant exotic land. Today, however, he's little remembered. But he has contributed over 1000 words to English, so a little bit of him lives on in our language each day. And this man is. 

Williams exact date of birth is unknown, but he was baptised 5th of September 1651 in the village of East Coker in Somerset. 

His parents, George and they were tenant farmers, but he did receive a reasonably good education, learning Latin and arithmetic. However, when he was only seven, his father died and he was orphaned at 14 when played, killed his mother, he would become an apprentice to a shipmaster in Weymouth, and during that time he travelled to France and you found him where he found he really disliked the cold climate, and they see, and everybody goes anywhere cold again after that or not to the same level. Damn, his nautical education would continue, as in the 1670s at a is just 19. He sailed from London, still heavily suffering from the effects of the great Fire just a few years previous and he went on a warm voyage and a long one all the way to Java on an E Indian man called John and Martha. That's the name of. The ship. And then he would join the Royal Navy in 1672. And then with the outbreak of the third Dutch war, he served under Sir Edward Sprague aboard the Royal Prince, where one of his shipmates would be the future pirate. William Kidd. However, he fell ill, and in August 1673 he actually watched the last engagement of the war from a hospital ship. And it took him several months to recover, but by April of the next year he was aboard another ship called the Content. This time he was going to sail to Jamaica to work on a sugar plantation, having accepted a seasonal offer from Colonel William. Hell yeah, he was the Squire of East Corcoran, his father's landlord. 

Think that you pronounced Colonel William. Hell yeah, wrong hell yeah. Hell yeah. 

He was worried that when he was going to go on this vessel all the way across the Atlantic so he's only what 19 or something? But I am. He thought that he might be sold as an indentured servant and do you know what? They are no. So it's basically somebody. And it buys you as a servant to an employee for a set period. So it's not quite like slavery, but isn't really much better. So you'd have agents and they would roam the streets of London looking for drunk to vulnerable people. And then they would sign them up and get them aboard a ship and they'd be sailing away before they could protest. And then once you reached America or wherever you're travelling, UM, you'd be sold and to a new owner, their new employers. They would basically have control over your lives, and they often extended. The indenture period for. Whatever reason they wanted just. To keep keep. Ownership of you really. Hell yeah. Provided Dampier with supplies for the voyage on the understanding that he would work in exchange for what had been given, but no formal agreement had been written up regarding the duration of the terms. So Dampier was a little. Bit suspicious about what's going on and how his agents actually tried to get him to sign in an indenture, and they complains that William Dampier has been very extravagant after he demanded he be provided with paper, ink, quills, Shoebat, soap, nutmeg and sugar for the sea voyage. And Danby started protesting at this, but other passengers joined in probably fearing the same fates that they can be indentured as well, and one of them was a doctor and he was travelling with a young boy, but it was discovered that this young boy was actually a woman and his mistress. And now, with this commotion aboard the ship, which they're saying down the Thames at the moment, it attracted the attention of customs officials. And how his agents come. They gave up on their attempts to do what they're trying to do. And one of them here is called Rex Rock. It's a great name. 

It's as good as hell. Yeah though. This is going to be a name rating forecast. 

And he actually drew up a fake marriage certificate for the doctor and he raised it by rubbing on his shoe. Anyway, with that drama over the content reached Jamaica by the end of June and now the capital of Jamaica is called Port Royal, and it was known as a haven for pirates and ill behaviour. 

One cleric was so disgusted by what he saw. He left on the same ship as he had arrived saying. The town is the Sodom of the New World. The majority of its population, pirates, cutthroats, horrors and some of the vilest persons in the whole of the world. 

I just think he gave it a chance, really. I mean if he got to know the people there now, it was a thriving port and capable of holding hundreds of ships full of all different types of commodities. Now dumpier he wasn't staying at Port Royal, but instead he travelled in land to the plantation where he'd work back in England, had impressed Colonel William Hell yeah. Yeah, with his knowledge and he expected to be given a prominent role in the sugar plantation, bites manager William Whaley. That all called William now Whaley, had different ideas. Fearing that Daniel had actually been sent as a spy to report on him, and he suggested that maybe he should learn the trade of. Boiling sugar sounds fun. But to do that he would have to indenture himself to Whaley for a year. Now dampeer refused. But after a couple of months he was released with six weeks wages B they just did not get on. Uhm, but Dampier he found it impossible for work to come by as well. He told the other plantation owners that he was too lofty to be useful, and he was a self conceited young man that understands little or nothing. There may be shades of truth here, not that he knows nothing. Quite the opposite in fact, but rather that he thought maybe a little bit too highly of his knowledge. 

So Dampier not being able to find work would next join a vessel sailing under a Captain Huddle for the Bay of Compassion. To collect logwood. 

Do you know what look? 

Good is, UM, obviously it's Houma matters, Illum compatriot Nomnom. 

So for those non Latin speakers, it's actually a tree that's native to southern Mexico, and it's a really important source for dice, and it's nicknamed bloodwood because when you cut it, it bleeds red SAP like blood, and it's actually used make purple dyes. So remember back in episode 21 where we spoke about different dyes. Purple was a really expensive colour, wasn't it even come from brushing up? See sales? Yes no. One tonne of logwood would fetch about £110 in London in the 1670s and stay that's nearly £15,000. After trading with the log Widders, Hadsel began the return trip to Jamaica, but they were pursued by two Spanish ships. And the Spanish weren't exactly happy with the British and the other nations getting in on the log would trade after all the Pape had given them all these lands as their own in the Treaties of Dorsey US, where remember, this divided up the well between Spain and Portugal. Luckily, a change in wind directions allowed. Dump your own code to escape. But he wasn't particularly best with Captain Hadsel, and with good reason, because they're actually running low on food and water, and they just had two barrels of rotting beef left 'cause it didn't last very long in the heat, and he rapes that they would make us choose, which did not stink. Yet it was very unsavoury and black without the least sign of fat in it, so not particularly great. Food aboard and now despite the troubles, Dampier did find time to study the local wildlife as they drifted between the various small islands and he raids. 

The Man of war, as it was called by the English, is about the bigness of a kite and its shape, like it but black, and the neck is red. It lives on fish, yet never lights on the water, but sorsor loft like a kite and when it sees its prey it flies down. Head foremost to the water's edge very swiftly, takes its prey out of the sea with its bill, and immediately mounts again as swiftly, never touching the water with its. 

And he also described how the man of war birds, which today vehicles frigatebirds terrorised *******. And I mean birds, OK? 

I've seen a man of war fly directly at her booby and give it one blow which has caused it to cast up a large fish and the man of war fine directly down after it has taken the fish. In the air before it reached the water. 

Now they did make it back to Jamaica where they sold their cargo, but damn, he was seen on his next adventure, this time to join the log words as one of their own as he sought is a good way to make money and he purchased the required equipment and was soon back in the term lagoon. In February 1676, the camp consisted of about 270 men, including Henry Avery, who would go on to be one of the most successful pirates ever. So I think you. Know that, don't you? 

I've even heard of that name, yeah? 

Now logging it sounds like really hard work because they spend a lot of their day standing in water. There's a quote from dampier's book here. Some felled trees, others saw and cut them into convenient logs and one chips off the SAP when the tree is so thick that after being logged, it remains 2 greater burden for one man. We blow up with gunpowder. And there's little else to do. There's there's no towns, and they were alone, except for the alligators and occasional attacks from the Spanish. Now each Saturday they go out and hunt wild cattle and pigs and Dampier wrote. The cattle in this country are large fat. In February, March and April, at other times of the year, they're fleshy, not fat, yet sweet enough when they have killed a beef, they cut it into four quarters and take out all the bones. Each man makes a hole in the middle of his quarter, just big enough for his head to go through, then puts it on like a frock and tragic home. And if he chances to tyre, he cuts them off. And flings it away so they are wearing a meat dress. I mean it got there before Lady Gaga. And it sounds like they have a really good BBQ with this, and in fact the logwood as did have barbecues. But the word at the time just meant like a raised wooden frame or platform on which they'd sleep. 

Dampier introduced a lot of words to English including avocado, breadfruit, cashew catamaran, chopsticks, possibly settlement Sapper. Swampy thundercloud snug tortilla and 1000. 

More yeah, amazing. 

I need to make a rap just with those words. 

You do, yeah, I'm finding more. 

Especially as there's tutear in there. 

There have been dampers there. Hit find time to explore and describe porcupines, turtles, lizards, sloths and monkeys that scattered their urine and dung about him. 

Is that right? 

It's like they were howler monkeys thing and they were like. Chuckle there, Steven. 

I have that. For some reason, I thought he said donkeys and then I was thinking, wait, there's some monkey that throws Pearl as well, but he did actually say monkeys anyway, yeah? 

I did said, well, I hope I did. He said about armadillos, that they tasted very sweet, much like the land turtle. He also wrote about lines of marching ants that took hours to pass, and giant spiders whose fangs the member dues as toothpicks in a more gruesome episode. He described a time when he had this big boil in his leg and it became really painful and after several days he squeezed it and two small white worms spurted out at the bigness of his quill. And they also had three rows of black short hairs, so even then he was describing so much detail. What's going on? 

I'm just imagining him like. Screaming and like. Ah, it really hurts, but he's just telling someone to write this while she screams. Like ah, they have 3 hairs don't. 

Yeah, I reckon he squeeze you one hand and jot it down with the other. 

Drink white worms. 

Oh, and he's got some of the juice. Smeared on his paper now so. 

Yeah, keep with the. Evidence, Yep. So it must have seemed like a really like a different world to his readers back home in England. But all this hard work must be for nothing, as in June, a hurricane struck and destroyed the camp and dampness description would be the first accurate account, complete with the tide retreating before the surge. And they would. Also be the first person to recognise that hurricanes and typhoons are actually the same phenomenon. In the weeks. After the storm, the log loaders took refuge on Beef Island, so again, that's where the wild cattle lived and they were near a population of Waco Indians. And here eight of them, that they are a very harmless sort of person, kind to any strangers even to the Spaniards, by whom they are so much kept under that they are worse than slaves. This makes them very melancholy and thoughtful sometimes when they're imposed on by the Spanish beyond their ability to bear their March of whole towns, men, women, and children. 

He noted how they only killed the older wild cattle and not from the young. By which means they always preserve their stock entire. Compared to the. Folly of the English and the French who killed them without distinction. 

Sadly with no money and all his belongings washed away, his options were limited so Dampier ended up joining a band of Buccaneers. So do you know what? 

Buccaneers are right yet type of pirate or something. 

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, they're basically pirates. I think it referred to something else originally, and they certainly seems like interesting company. Here's a note taken from one of the books I used for research called a pirate of exquisite mind. Their garments were entrusted with blood from all the skinning and butchering, and stained with marrow, which they called their Brandy. And they sucked from the bones as they worked. A coated their exposed skin with lard as protection against the innumerable insects that bit and sucked the blood from bare flesh. So it's a real ragtag bunch of like hard and tough and men. 

I think the the scariest thing that I. Took from that is that you said they have bare flesh bears like gerter, grizzly bears, yeah. 

Oh Blimey, yes. There Harry terrifying. After spending about a year with the Buccaneers and taking part in some minor raids in the Spanish, then a brief stint back with the logwood as Dampier returned to Jamaica and then to England in August 1678. And guess what he did next? 

I'm not sure. 

He got married to a woman called Judith who was a lady in waiting for the Duchess of Grafton. And guess what he did? Next, uhm got divorce mate. By spring of 1679, he left Judith for a short trading trip to Jamaica. But how short round the world short 12 years short. He had, however, purchased a small state indorse. So back in Jamaica he met a trader by the name of Hobby, who invited him on a short. Voyage to trade with the Mosquito Indians. And so it's. 

Sketo Indians. 

Yeah, the Mosquito coast and always curious to see more of the world. He gladly accepted the offer and off they sailed now during the voyage they encountered a blocking air fleet of nearly a dozen ships and 500 men, and all of hobbies men. They decided to be much more exciting to join them. So obviously Dampier had to. Do the same. So finally we might get to some piracy which the whole point of this episode, as it is in such a pirate day. Very good. Uhm, now, after surviving a storm, the Pirates decided to attack the Spanish town of Portobello on the Atlantic Coast. Now each year there be a fleet that would sail from Spain to collect treasure that are being carried across outta Portobello from the South and Central American Empire. So they bring it up under the lantic based from. And this is really great occasion and there be merchants selling spices, silks, gold, silver and all different types of commodities. It was also really hot and the air was filled with illness and hundreds of people would die each year. But it didn't stop the partying, so it. Was like star hive of activity, so in early February Dumpier led by Captain Cox and set out. The 250 men in canoes and they made landfall six days March from Portobelo and their doors had been joined by 80 French privateers. I'm creeping through the dense jungle. They approached the undefended rear of the town. And then in the 7th of February, they began their attack when a small boy cried. 

Out d'arms Christian stealing lesser coming. 

Can you do that in Spanish, please? 

To arms, Christy. The English are coming the best Spanish accent. 

Wow, I got worse with every word. 

Go ahead. That that that's not meant to be Spanish anymore. I I bet you're not even. Gonna cut out. OK yeah, I'm hoping. 

Anyway, back to our story. So assaulting rapidly and with the full. Benefit of surprise. Well, almost surprised the Buccaneers quickly took the town with minimum casualties and the Spanish. They did say they killed 30, however the Buccaneers there's only five or six had been injured. So how many do you reckon? 

100 

100 OK, there's a lot of there. 250 people dead OK. Now join 2 days of plundering. They took all that they could and laid out into small bites or cadivi land to rendezvous point all the time. They're dodging musket fires there, like different forts and things along the along the case there the day after he left. There is a group of 700 Spanish soldiers. They entered the town, but they were too late so they burned an Indian village and replies. This isn't very nice, is it? And for his part, Dampeer received 100 pieces of eight, which is enough to keep a pirate very happy. 

OK. 

You misspelt pirate. 

No, it was enough to keep a parrot very happy, but pirates made pirates. They want more. Now the local Cuna Indians had actually been encouraging the Buccaneers for a while to cross the Isthmus of Panama and attack the Spanish settlements and fleets in the South Seas, which we now know as the Pacific. So if you actually look at that bit of the land bridge where Panama is, you've got the Atlantic on the north and the Pacific on the South. So that's we've got N seas in the South seas. Now the is really difficult and dangerous, and there'd be no successful attacks there for nearly a decade. Since the pirate Henry Morgan had successfully raided the Spanish in in 1671, and they've actually been 2 French attempts since then, and they both failed I, I guess retreating. 

Yep. Yep, no run away. Oh yeah, no run away I. I have a YouTube channel. There we go. We'll just plug that in the middle. 

Yeah nice yeah good plug. 

Cursed at the curiosity of gaming. 

Yeah, take it out. Take it out. Now coxswain he understood the risks but he also understood saw there was great opportunity here. And they've actually intercepted merchants letters. Speaking of an open door to the South seas, and they feared a British attack, so they plan to prey upon those fears and to get across the isthmus the CUNA would be their guides leading across this really difficult land. Dampier rates being here at anchor. Many of the Indians, both men and women. Came to see us some brought plantains. Are this fruits and venison to exchange with us for beads, needles, knives and any trifling verbal whereof they stand in need? But what they most chiefly covert is axes and hatchets to fell timber. 

The men here go almost naked, having only a sharp and hollow tip made either of gold, silver or bark and which to come. Into which they thrust their private remembers. 

Yeah, special peenis where yeah, there's an ornament in their nose is. A golden or silver plate in the shape of 1/2 moon, which when they drink they hold. 

They paint them themselves, sometimes with streaks of black, as the women do in like manner with red. These having their noses a pretty thick ring of gold or silver and for clothing they cover themselves with a blanket. 

There gently well featured women among them. I saw several fairer than the fairest of Europe that their hair, like the finest flax. Of these it's reported that they can see far better in the dark than in the light. So the fair people of which he wrote here, they're actually our being aids, and the Q, and as people they have won the highest numbers. Of our being aids in the world. We can also see a subscription there, how it's amazing there's they're not wearing much clothing, so they seem in one way poor, but they've also got that. They're wearing gold and silver and again being really descriptive. So if you're a reader back in England and you've never. Kind of gone anyway, it's amazing. 

Isn't it? They don't value the gold and silver the same way. 

Over 300 Pirates Rd ashore forming into companies led by various captains, each with their own flag as they set off in early April 16, eight. If it rain up in England, spent many months or years at sea, then being LED into these deep, dark hot and humid jungles surrounded by strange sounds, giant snakes and persistent swarms of insects, and any hope of survival are people unlike any you've encountered before. They say natural and comfortable in this environment. The complete opposite of you as they effortlessly navigate. What you only see is this dark, dense and Celtic jungle. But it's one bucking error rate that which often Spurs men onto. The undertaking of the most difficult adventure is that sacred hunger of gold, and this was gold that they saw the Kuna casually wearing. That's probably more than they'd ever dreamt up in their lives, and it was also what they were there to plunder from the Spanish. And then be right several times of his desire to find treasure and riches. So far from having to go along with these Buccaneers and hobbies, men deserted. He was here for adventure T. Now the path, but as he started going up through the mountains it got really narrow and steep and it's only one man could go at a time. And they eventually arrived at a cleaner settlement where they were met by a local king and they ate and they drank and they partied. And in fact, like you know, really loved the Buccaneers drums. However, the king told. How his eldest daughter had been kidnapped by the Spaniards and so he sent 250 Indians along with the Buccaneers. So that they could rescue her and enact revenge on the Spanish, and one of them was actually his son, and he was nicknamed King Golden Cap on account for this golden hat. They were. 

In his head, where's this special penis piece? 

Oh, he's he's more important that he. Gets to wear more. Yeah yeah. 

He gets clothes. 

And as they travelled deeper across the country and they would something across rivers up to 50 times a day. All the while trying to keep their provisions and guns dry. And they gunpowder and everything. And even here, Dampier found time to record the patterns of the weather and the wind. He kept his notes dry by storing them in a large piece of bamboo. And as we're recording the 18th, it's actually international bamboo day and he sealed this at both ends, up with some wax to keep it watertight. Now do you remember when we made the paint and pigments? It's not a fast process, is it? So whenever damping wanted to write, it have to do something similar so it wasn't just a case of picking, prepending, writing one of the observations he made when his crossing this. Myth was to disprove a common and what's really odd to us theory of the day, and that's up the water of the Seas actually flowed beneath the land. Of Central America. So they flowed from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

So they thought it's like a a Natural Bridge. 

And Dambis work on Asian currents and wind patterns. They were the most complete of the day. He was also the first person to fully map that labelled trade winds and the first to identify that the winds affect the currents. So do you remember when we visited the Cutty Sark? Uhm, you play that little game where you had to sail back? To England In record time and he followed the trade winds didn't you? It wasn't the most direct route. 

We did follow the trade winds, but most of it and we sort of cut across. 

But yeah, exactly yeah. So you you might go, although across the Atlantic and then sail back across it again later. So that was actually the quickest way, so mapping and understanding these label rhythms of the oceans was essential to the continual growth and exploration of the world. And Dampeer pays a really important part of that. Joining his voyages around the world and a really big thank you to Alex. From casting lots, podcast, Bradia and Greenwich. 

Thank you. 

Anyway, back to her. 

Story eventually they crossed the. Myths, myths. And were within striking distance of the town of Santa Maria. Sneaking close and laying low, they spent the night waiting for sunrise and their raid to begin, but they were woken by drums and gunfire from the town. Somehow the Spanish had learned of the attack. Rushing the town, they quickly took it as the Spanish surrendered, but many of the prominent citizens who they had hoped to ransom had already fled with their valuables. Even worse, they had missed a ship that carried 140 kilogrammes of gold by three days gold worth millions in today's money. 

They also found. The King's daughter, but she was pregnant. The furious schooners rounded up the Spanish captives and took them into. The jungles where they speared them to death. 

Yes, that's the right answer. 

Now Frustrators are their limited successors, but also nervous about being save vulnerable in the case they decided on their next move. It would be to attack Panama. That city being the receptacle of all plate jewels and gold that is dug out of the mountains of Potsie and Peru. Now there's a story here of how a group of the Buccaneers they got separated from the main party and they came across him, shipwrecked Spaniards and both hungry and desperate. They actually. Ate together. 

Should have spared them to. 

Death, well, that's what the Indians wanted to do now because when they inquired who they were, the Buccaneers said we told them they were white. Is deep, which is the name they commonly give to the Spaniards in their own language. I'm not sure that's the root of the word originally. Yeah, so the the Indians wanted to kill them, but when Ringrose? Who is one of dump his friends and also write back his adventures, he managed to save the Spanish. However, was kept as a slave by the Indians and this is just as well. It's not longer afterwards the small party came across a larger group of Spanish and they would've surely killed ring raising K in revenge for the attack on Santa Maria. But the Spanish slave who they kept with them, have told how merciful ring roads have been and. They were spared and they seemed caught up with the main party. So they did. They didn't spare them. 

Oh, OK. 

23rd of April and Panama is insight, and the city still under construction after being sacked by Captain Morgan 1671. But still no easy target. The booking is they didn't have any large ships under their command and they saw out. Sure there are five large Spanish vessels and then another three ships are barks. They were sailing their way. 30 battle commence down. It would last three hours. The smaller, more nimble pirate ships which they were just which they're rowing. They're able to avoid the Spanish attacks, and striking at Admiral Barna ownership that actually Monster Jam its rudder. Then they killed him in the pilot and slaughtered 2/3 of the crew taking the ship. Then another. 

Yes, they stopped them with Spears. 

Now, this Buccaneers about their muskets. 

They stopped them with muskets. 

On another deep router, 2 powder magazines exploded, killing many of the crew, and then the third ship fled the scene. So the Buccaneers decided to assault the five anchor chips, finds them undefended. Now the largest was the 400 tonne La Santisima Trinidad and had been hold and set on fire as the Spanish didn't want their captured. However, they managed to save this Yep, and then they renamed it the Trinity and all the other ships they burnt to and took T. So a bit. Of pirate action going on here now. And that's where their success, Captain Cox. And he had been accused of being a coward, and another captain, Captain Sharp, wrote this night, Captain Coxon came aboard my vessel to see if he could work upon me. I would by no means condescend to any action so dirty and inhumane as to leave porting their souls to the mercy of a bloodthirsty people. So he departed this night and carried away with him the best of our doctors and medicines. So he basically left with the the doctors at Captain Coxon and he left twenty of his injured Buccaneers behind. For these guys. Look after they didn't dare to do a full attack on Panama. But they did write to the governor who asked from whom they had their Commission, to which the pirates replied. We will bring guard commissions on the muscles of our guns, at which time he should read them as plain as the flame of the gunpowder. Should make. Them say threatening talk. It didn't work though, so the pirates departed. And they sent the next few months leading up and down the case in the series of mostly unsuccessful raids. And one thing I like though. Is that damn peel quite often mentioned? Then drinking chocolate before battle? And it's so odd how we see hot chocolate today. Something nice in KZ and relaxing, but there's these really tough men about to. 

Just chugging the chocolate like warm. And did she drink for the battle? 

Yes, it's good for scurvy. Apparently there's one story that it was raining so heavily that as they were drinking their chocolate. On the deck of the ship. The cops are filling up fast and they could drink them. 

Raining chocolate 

Oh, I wish no just raining water. OK. Now there's Spanish all up and down the case where alerted to their presence. So as I said, most the raids failed and. Most of the treasure that they hoped defines had either been moved away or hidden somewhere, and on one larger raid on Las Arena they tried runts, me in the town, which they captured for 95,000 pieces of eight. However, the Spanish came pinned the irrigation sluices and and flooded the town. Rather than have it taken so the pirates burnt down what remains and revenge being raised rate of 1 daring caver attack by the Spanish, they blew up a horses hide like a bladder and upon this float a man ventured to swim from the shore and come under the stone of our ship. Being there, he found Oakman Brimstone and other combustible matter between the rudder and the sternpost. Having done this, he fired it with a match, so that in a small time our rudder was on fire and the ship pool in smoke. So needing to repair and Korean their vessels, they sailed for Han Fernandez, which is an island off the taste of chilli in the Pacific. And it was now December. And having very little to show for their year of raiding, they elected a new leader and we spoke, I think on a previous episode about our democracy, didn't they? And how they would? 

Oh yeah, I remember that. 

Yeah, they had to elect their leaders and. So next year, on the 12th of January, they needed to make a faster parts. When Spanish warships were cited, but they left behind a mosquito engine and he was all alone in the islands. But guess what? His name was. 

Well, it's William. 

It is William. How is everybody called William? Even the local engines are called William. But you might know him better as. Man Friday as it's believed. That he was the inspiration. And he'd actually be rescued by damping K3 years later in 1684. And he's amazing. He's dampeer rate how he had evaded the Spanish save all these years because they knew him to be on the island, but he wants to hide from them. And after he ran out of ammunition, uhm, he heated up his gun so he could use the metal to make knives and saws and hooks and he had to use some sealskin for fishing line, said laser seals on the island. There's also laser goats as well, which the Spanish had left there years before. And his heart was lined with their skins, but when he saw the English ships arriving after seeing many years alone, he killed 3 gates and dressed with cabbage to treat us when we came ashore. And he was greeted by another mosquito engine called Robin and he threw himself flat on his face at his feet. Then they hugged and they embraced and then William threw himself on his face and it's kind of the reason that they had and Dampier rate of. 

This we stood with pleasure to behold the surprise and the tenderness which was exceedingly affectionate on both sides. And when their ceremonies of civility were over, we also drew nearer each of us embracing him. He was overjoyed to see many of his old friends come hither. 

Yeah, it's really touching, isn't it? And it's also shows. How close they must have come like the Buccaneers and like the local people's was at the DNC night. There's much judgement. There back to 1681 after more failed attacks and the death of their new commander temperature really getting frayed and the relationship stretched to breaking point. So another group. With Buccaneers split off, I went the wrong way. And Dampier I went with the group who decided to return to the Smith of Panama. So I'm going to quickly skip over a lot of dampers life now because we're getting the feel of his pirating his pirate life, so they reached the isthmus and there's another difficult overland crossing and they had to deal with this really awkward Cunard chief, so they ended up appealing to his wife and dampeer rate. One of our men. Took a sky coloured petticoat out of his bag and put it on. The wife here. Say much pleased to the President that she immediately began to chatter to her husband and soon brought him to better Jima. He ended up helping them. Yeah, so they crossed Dave and reached the Atlantic side. Now he damn beard spends some time in Virginia in 1682 and three. He then joined a Captain, John Cook on revenge and then they had sailed to Africa where see flamingos on the Cape Verde Islands, of which he wrote a really rich description that spans several pages. And he noted that their tongues were fit for Princess. Table has a delicious. Then in 1684, let's sail background Cape Horn to the Pacific, where they do more raiding of towns and shipping, and they stop off at the Galapagos Islands too. Repair and refit their ship. And here he wrote about how tame in abundance the animals were, and of the tortoises. He says that they were, say, sweet, that no pull. It eats more pleasantly. Although another group of French Buccaneers who arrived a year later, they would comment on how many tortoises the English had eaten Dampier. He also wrote the first English description of the islands flora and fauna. And they compared green turtles from here with others he saw in his travels. And they look at the differences. He was the first person to write of sub species of animals and postulate that their location in their local environment to influence their development so far from just being this man who went around raiding. As we've just been talking about. Is such a keen and acute observer. And he was. Really trying to understand the world around him and Darwin. Would actually take Dampier's books with him on his voyage on the Beagle, but the Pirates they the next plan to capture the Spanish Manila galleon. Now this is really important ship that would carry precious cargoes. Of silk and spice and gold and silver. More between the Philippines and the Americas, so crossed right across the Pacific. So big journey in these days. However, they had failed in their attempt at doing this. Uhm, but we will talk about the Manila Galleons again in the future Guernsey Crates episode. 

Oh yeah. 

But after just missing out on this great treasure, they set out across the Pacific, which was a really difficult journey because they wanted to then go raid around the Philippines and everywhere. And then Dampier had spent several years exploring the East Indies and Thailand. The South China Seas, and they'd even see the coast of Australia. And he spent some time as a gunner in an East India company, Pepper factory in Sumatra, and that's where I first come. Discovered Dampier whilst researching our Pepper episode. 

Episode 36, listen to that after this. 

OK. 

One yes. 

And he had eventually returned to England in the summer of 1691, so I'm not sure what his wife, Judith, thought about his a short trading trip. Not that I'd say that long though, because he had seen command a Royal Navy expedition to Australia. Then get court martialed and then go on even more privateering adventures sail around the world two more times. And of course published his famous books, most famous of which is called a new voyage around the way. And I feel really bad for skipping of these parts of his life. But it's pirate day. It's our pirate episodes. That's what I've concentrated on, but also talking about how is this remarkable man? It should be better known than. He is alright alright? And here's it's great work and your voyage around the world was published in 1697, and his writings that she made him a bit of a celebrity. So even later voyages where he wasn't the captain, the papers would write of dambis voyage and his return, and that he's still alive. He says all this hype and excitement around him. And his books. They brought the wonders of a strange and exotic world to the masses so. This is a time when voyages of piracy were starting to be replaced by ones of science, so damper he straddled this change. And here's rich and colourful writings. Would really. Via and. Excite the imaginations. And he gave the clearest and most vivid picture of the wider world. But it wasn't just adventure. It was incredibly detailed studies and innovative thinking and learning and observing and understanding the world. Which I I hate. We have managed to. Touch on and then. During all this time, he kept his notes in his inks and his writing safe and drying, and. Spoilt in his. Bamboo tube going on adventures that we can't even dream of today. He also write about many of the people who he met and to the modern ear. Some of his descriptions might feel a little bit dated, but underneath there seems to be a. True respect and fascination there. He wasn't particularly impressed with the Australian Aboriginals, but I think there's more due to a language barrier and that it was like such an alien world of these people meeting. For the first time. He also seemed to despise how colonial rule degraded local people and took away some of their freedoms. He saw real virtue in how they lived, their lives and respect. Nature and the kind. Of the simplicity of their life. And some of this might have come down to his experiences with the Royal Navy and also among the pirates, with the former being very strict and quick to punish, and the latter more reasoned and democratic, and they're running up their ships, so he might see that reflected in the different cultures and societies which she saw. Now Dampier he would inspire Darwin, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Alexander von Whole Bolt, UM used his writing when he was making his encyclopaedia. 200 years later he was even invited to talk at the Royal Society. And and his writings were the best meteorological observations of their day and the accuracy led them to being used for a long time afterwards. I mean, they were praised by Captain Cook, the famous one and even Lord Nelson. Writing in the 1800s, Admiral James Burney said. 

It is not easy to name another Voyager or traveller who has given more useful information to the world to whom the merchant and the Mariner are so indebted or who has communicated his information in a more unembarrassed way and intelligible manner. 

Yes, it's high praise, isn't it? But at times, since he could also be an awkward man, he wasn't a natural leader and he struggled when he was in charge of the rayback for the Royal Navy, and he often rate disparagingly of the mistakes made by others who should have taken him and followed his advice and also abandoned his wife for years. And he also very rarely. Wrote about his personal feelings. He was like all people, flawed, even mere new Anton. Flawed yeah me no. And this may be his record with the Royal Navy and his legacy as a pirate that caused him over time to be forgotten and not celebrated for all of his achievements. So I think it's too easy to see things in black and white and then take the bad instances and use those to judge his character rather than or to look at all the amazing achievements that you. Had so yes Stampede. Members goals and departed in brutal pirate raids. But there was no other way that he could seat his appetite for the curiosity of the world. I think that he gave the world more than he ever took from it. He died in March seventeen, 51863, in debt. His place of burial is unknown. I think that's really sad. 

And it's an unmarked grave or something. 

I think some yeah it might be unmarked. Yeah, so I don't know where he is for somebody who think of who he inspired and how celebrate all these people were but because he came from a rougher background maybe. And he did do some terrible things in it. Time, he wasn't really remembered in the same way I hope through this episode people will go and read more about him. Some excellent biographies of him which we're having these Unix. 

Hopefully we'll, well, we should change the world and how people view him with our 10s of listeners now. 

Yeah, we have changed the world. So what do you? Think of him then. 

I I I quite like him, I I have no idea how people don't know about him so much. Oh, they should know a lot more. But then I think it's very important and I I wanna look at with the words that he introduced. Yeah, 'cause I I haven't seen all of them yet. And like I said I I might I. 

Says he 

Might make. A ramp maybe? 

But I think it's a really interesting character who it's sad he's not a better name. And when I read in the book and I. His biographies and saw that he was yeah don't know where he's buried. I found that really sad, but he was in a way a bit of a wanderer throughout his life maybe. Uhm, but amazing. Amazing kind of curious man who. Thought so like very intelligent. Despite all his pirate days as well so. I'd love to touch more on his life in the future please. I feel a. Little bit bad. Racing through those. Later years of his life. 

Maybe another episode? 

Anyway, that is William Dampier. Very interesting man. 

But if you liked that and you like our podcast, you can leave us a review. 

Yes, we shouldn't be forgotten like here's yeah so please review us they. 

No, we shouldn't be buried in an unmarked grave. We should be the while the hosts of the caress of a child. 

You're going to have that engraved upon your team stain, yes? Yeah, so please review us on Apple Podcasts or podchaser or wherever you are listening to this please. Also speaking podcast please cheque out casting lots, which is a cannibalism podcast which we were interviewed by and where we got to recreate a little bit of cannibalism with them. Yeah so cheque that out which should be. Out next month. Yes, and making you find us. Twitter Curie Jar pod Instagram QHR pod Facebook Jelly jar pod. 

We try YouTube channel I guess. 

Unusual why your YouTube channel is the? Big one yeah. 

At time of recording 257 subscribers. 

That's impressive and you last made a German World War Two Tiger one tank in Minecraft in a complete with history of facts people love. 

I know, I know, I am amazing. You know, you know when you said I was floored earlier. I still don't believe it. 

Oh, you're flawed, believe me. Wow, wow, well you got some of my jeans. You must be. But I'm a very flawed individual. Anyway, thank you very much for listening and enjoy Pirate day and come. Oh my heart is ah, sharing my Timbers. You landlubbers 

Oh, I got 2 facts there showing my Timbers means like splintering boat or something. My votes splintering. And that we only do that accent because an actor in a film. He he just had an accent like that. I think he was had like a farm, a sort of accent and the pirates didn't really sound like that. 

He did, yes, let's say stepfather. Probably, actually, that splintering of Bates. That reminds me when I was reading the book. It's the best descriptions I've had of people travelling around the world in in like the 1600s. When they went up to careen their ships that they would talk of how they could basically put their fist, sometimes through the whole of the ship. Because I've been so. Eaten away by worms and I wish picture at this horrible kind. Of spongy of these worms and stuff, and it's disgusting. 

Oh my, we've scared our listeners. 

Yeah, sorry about that. Yeah so cheque out the show notes where you can find links to all the research here and please please go read more about William Dampier and thank you and goodbye and we love you. 

We always love you. 

We do. We love our listeners.