claimed to have the command of this ship, and, according to the usage among privateers in such cases, she was allotted to him, with a crew composed of men who volunteered to sail with him. Dampier was of the number, as were several others who had returned from the South Sea; division was made of the prize goods, and Cook entered on his new command.
1683. This arrangement took place at Isla Vaca, or Isle a Vache, a small Island near the South coast of Hispaniola, which was then much resorted to by both privateers and Buccaneers. It happened at this time, that besides Yanky's ship, some French privateers having legal commissions, were lying at Avache, and their Commanders did not contentedly behold men without a commission, and who were but Buccaneers, in the possession of a finer ship than any belonging to themselves who cruised under lawful authority. The occasion being so fair, and remembering what Morgan had done in a case something similar, after short counsel, they joined together, and seized the buccaneer ship, goods, and arms, and turned the crew ashore. A fellow-feeling that still existed between the privateers and Buccaneers, and probably a want of hands, induced a Captain Tristian, who commanded one of the privateers, to receive into his ship ten of the Buccaneers to be part of his crew. Among these were Cook, and a Buccaneer afterwards of greater note, named Edward Davis. Tristian sailed to Petit Guaves, where the ship had not been long at anchor, before himself and the greatest part of his men went on shore. Cook and his companions thought this also a fair occasion, and accordingly they made themselves masters of the ship. Those of Tristian's men who were on board, they turned ashore, and immediately taking up the anchors, sailed back close in to the Isle a Vache, where, before notice of their exploit reached the Governor, they collected and took on board the remainder of their old company,
and sailed away. They had scarcely left the Isle a Vache, when they met and captured two vessels, one of which was a ship from France laden with wines. Thinking it unsafe to continue longer in the West Indies, they directed their course for Virginia, where they arrived with their prizes in April 1683.
August, 1683. Buccaneers under John Cook sail for the South Sea. In Virginia they disposed of their prize goods, and two vessels, keeping one with which they proposed to make a voyage to the South Sea, and which they named the Revenge. She mounted 18 guns, and the number of adventurers who embarked in her, were about seventy, the major part of them old Buccaneers, some of whose names have since been much noted, as William Dampier, Edward Davis, Lionel Wafer, Ambrose Cowley, and John Cook their Captain. August the 23d, 1683, they sailed from the Chesapeak.
Dampier and Cowley have both related their piratical adventures, but with some degree of caution, to prevent bringing upon themselves a charge of piracy. Cowley pretended that he was engaged to sail in the Revenge to navigate her, but was kept in ignorance of the design of the voyage, and made to believe they were bound for the Island Hispaniola; and that it was not revealed to him till after they got out to sea, that instead of to the West Indies, they were bound to the coast of Guinea, there to seek for a better ship, in which they might sail to the Great South Sea. William Dampier, who always shews respect for truth, would not stoop to dissimulation; but he forbears being circumstantial concerning the outset of this voyage, and the particulars of their proceedings whilst in the Atlantic; supplying the chasm in the following general terms; "August the 23d, 1683, we sailed from Virginia under the command of Captain Cook, bound for the South Seas. I shall not trouble the reader with an account of every day's run, but hasten to the less known parts of the world."
Cape de Verde Islands. Whilst near the coast of Virginia they met a Dutch ship, out of which they took six casks of wine; and other provisions; also two Dutch seamen, who voluntarily entered with them. September. Some time in September they anchored at the Isle of Sal, where they procured fish and a few goats, but neither fruits nor good fresh water. Only five men lived on the Island, who were all black; but they called themselves Portuguese, and one was styled the Governor. Ambergris. These Portuguese exchanged a lump of ambergris, or what was supposed to be ambergris, for old clothes. Dampier says, 'not a man in the ship knew ambergris, but I have since seen it in other places, and am certain this was not the right; it was of a dark colour, like sheep's dung, very soft, but of no smell; and possibly was goat's dung. Some I afterwards saw sold at the Nicobars in the East Indies, was of lighter colour, and very hard, neither had that any smell, and I suppose was also a cheat. Mr. Hill, a surgeon, once shewed me a piece of ambergris, and related to me, that one Mr. Benjamin Barker, a man I have been long well acquainted with, and know to be a very sober and credible person, told this Mr. Hill, that being in the Bay of Honduras, he found in a sandy bay upon the shore of an Island, a lump of ambergris so large, that when carried to Jamaica, it was found to weigh upwards of 100 lbs. When he found it, it lay dry above the mark of the sea at high water, and in it were a great multitude of beetles. It was of a dusky colour, towards black, about the hardness of mellow cheese, and of a very fragrant smell. What Mr. Hill shewed me was some of it, which Mr. Barker had given him[32].'
The Flamingo. There were wild-fowl at Sal; and Flamingos, of which, and their manner of building their nests, Dampier has given a description. The flesh of the Flamingo is lean and black, yet
good meat, 'tasting neither fishy nor any way unsavory. A dish of Flamingos' tongues is fit for a Prince's table: they are large, and have a knob of fat at the root which is an excellent bit. When many of them stand together, at a distance they appear like a brick wall; for their feathers are of the colour of new red brick, and, except when feeding, they commonly stand upright, exactly in a row close by each other.'
Cape de Verde Islands. From the Isle of Sal they went to other of the Cape de Verde Islands. At St. Nicholas they watered the ship by digging wells, and at Mayo they procured some provisions. They afterwards sailed to the Island St. Jago, but a Dutch ship was lying at anchor in Port Praya, which fired her guns at them as soon as they came within reach of shot, and the Buccaneers thought it prudent to stand out again to sea.