William Dampier: Buccaneer Explorer edited and introduced by Gerald Norris

Book Description

Secondhand. Near fine condition. Slipcase has some scuffing.

William Dampier (1652-1715) is the most remarkable seaman that England produced in the century and a half between Drake and Captain Cook. They each circumnavigated the world once; Dampier did so three times. He commanded the first government-funded voyage of discovery with a specific mission to report on matters of government and science.

A good seaman, but a bad commander, he spent most of his life as a privateer, buccaneer, or pirate, and his career culminated in the capture of the great treasure galleon sent each year from the New World to Spain.

He was also a great writer, author of the first major English travel book, A New Voyage Round the World, and of scientific treatises and descriptions of natural history.

His expedition to Australia was in many ways disastrous, with his ships being lost, but the book that came out of it, A Voyage to New Holland, is an evocative account of the peoples and places he had found or visited.

This edited account of his voyages gives an admirable picture of this fascinating and unorthodox figure in his own words. (Introduction)