Australian History: English Explorers
William Dampier was a buccaneer - a sailor who was permitted to rob other ships as long as they shared the money and goods with their government when they returned home. They differed from pirates in that pirates robbed from everyone.
Voyage on the Cygnet
In 1687 he was aboard the buccaneer ship called the Cygnet, (a ship that was captured, leaving the Captain, Swan, at the shores of Mindanao) travelled the Pacific Ocean, robbing other ships of other countries. When the Cygnet needed repairs in 1688, Dampier and his men landed on a quiet beach on the north west coast of Australia. They stayed for about two months to rest and repair the ship. During this time Dampier made notes about what he saw. He described the land as:
“New Holland is a very large Tract of Land. It is not yet determined whether it is an Island or a main Continent; but I am certain that it joins neither to Asia, Africa, nor America…..The Land is of a dry sandy soil, destitute of water,….. yet producing diverse sorts of trees; but the woods are not thick, nor the trees very big..….The leaves are of a dark colour; the gum distils out of the knots or cracks that are in the bodies of the trees. We compared it with some gum dragon, or dragon's blood, that was aboard, and it was of the same colour and taste……
We saw no sort of animal, nor any track of beast, but once; and that seemed to be the tread of a beast as big as a great mastiff-dog. There are a few small land-birds, but none bigger than a blackbird; and but few sea-fowls. Neither is the sea very plentifully stored with fish, unless you reckon the manatee and turtle as such. Of these creatures there is plenty; but they are extraordinary shy; though the inhabitants cannot trouble them much, having neither boats nor iron.”
Dampier was the first European to meet with the local Aboriginal people, which he described as:“The inhabitants of this country are the miserablest people in the world..…. who have no houses and skin garments, sheep, poultry, and fruits of the earth, ostrich eggs, etc., They are tall, straight-bodied, and thin, with small long limbs. They have great heads, round foreheads, and great brows. Their eye-lids are always half closed, to keep the flies out of their eyes; they being so troublesome here, that no fanning will keep them from coming to ones face;……. They have great bottle noses, pretty full lips, and wide mouths….. Their hair is black, short and curled…… They have no sort of clothes, but a piece of the rind of a tree tied like a girdle about their waists , and a handful of long grass, or 3 or 4 small green boughs full of leaves, thrust under their girdle, to cover their nakedness.
They have no houses, but lie in the open air, without any covering; the earth being their bed, and the heaven their canopy….they do live in companies, 20 or 30 men, women, and children together…..I did not perceive that they did worship any thing… Some of them had wooden swords, others had a sort of lances. The sword is a piece of wood shaped somewhat like a cutlass. The lance is a long strait pole sharp at one end, and hardened afterwards by heat. I saw no iron, nor any other sort of metal…. These people speak somewhat through the throat; but we could not understand one word that they said.”
His encounters with the Aboriginal people are described as:
“We anchored, as I said before, January the 5th, and seeing men walking on the shore, we presently sent a canoe to get some acquaintance with them: for we were in hopes to get some provision among them. But the inhabitants, seeing our boat coming, run away and hid themselves. We searched afterwards 3 days in hopes to find their houses; but found none: yet we saw many places where they had made fires. At last, being out of hopes to find their habitations, we searched no farther; but left a great many toys ashore, in such places where we thought that they would come. In all our search we found no water, but old wells on the sandy bays.
At last we went over to the islands and there we found a great many of the natives: I do believe there were 40 on one island, men, women, and children. The men at our first coming ashore, threatened us with their lances and swords; but they were frightened by firing one gun, which we fired purposely to scare them. The island was so small that they could not hide themselves: but they were much disordered at our landing, especially the women and children: for we went directly to their camp. The lustiest of the women snatching up their infants ran away howling, and the little children run after squeaking and bawling; but the men stood still. Some of the women, and such people as could not go from us, lay still by a fire, making a doleful noise, as if we had been coming to devour them: but when they saw we did not intend to harm them, they were pretty quiet, and the rest that fled from us at our first coming, returned again.”
Voyage on the RoebuckLater Dampier would put these notes into a book called “A New Voyage Around the World” which described his travels and adventures. When it was published in 1697, the king of England was so interested in what Dampier had to say about Australia that he sent him back to discover more about it. This time Dampier was given command of a navy ship the “Roebuck” and its crew. Dampier sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to catch the Roaring Forties that took the ship to Shark Bay where Dirk Hartog had landed.
“As soon as I came to anchor in this bay (of which i have given a plan) I sent my boat ashore to seek for fresh water: but in the evening my men returned having found none. The next morning I went ashore myself, carrying pick-axes and shovels with me, to dig for water; and axes to cut wood. We tried in several places for water, but finding none after several trials, nor in several miles compass, we left any farther search for it, and spending the rest of the day in cutting wood, we went aboard at night.”
Searching for fresh water he sailed north along the coastline up to Lagrange Bay, just south of what is now called Roebuck Bay. Along the way he began recording the animals and vegetation that he saw
“There were but few land-fowls; we saw none but eagles, of the larger sort of birds; but 5 or 6 sorts of small birds. The biggest sort of these were not bigger than larks, some no bigger than wrens, all singing with great variety of fine shrill notes; and we saw some of their nests with young ones in them. .…... The land-animals that we saw here were only a sort of raccoons, different from those of the west-indies, chiefly as to their legs; for these have very short fore-legs,. but go jumping upon them as the others do, (and like them are very good meat”
Dampier planned to continue his route along the coastline to eventually examine the east coast of New Holland, but the crew disliked him and threatened mutiny. Furthermore, the ship was old and so badly rotten that he had to abandon his plan and turn back. But Dampier managed to reach Australia and explored the northwest coast and part of New Guinea. The Roebuck eventually sank off an island in the Atlantic Ocean, but Dampier and his notes survived.
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