[27] In A Voyage to the South Sea trade, and round the World. “Wherein an Account is given of Mr. Alexander Selkirk, his manner of Living, and taming some Wild Beasts, during the four years and four months he lived upon the uninhabited Island of Juan Fernandez,” 1712.
[28] The Englishman afterwards joined the privateersmen, and told them this story.
[29] In speaking of the English buccaneers it is necessary to distinguish them from the pirates pure and simple, such as Morgan, Teach, and the other beauties whose lives are given in Captain Charles Johnson's delectable volumes.
[30] Moreover, there was a number of pirates on board with their booty, for the preservation of which, we may take it, they intended to fight hard.
[31] A Voyage Round the World, by Captain George Shelvocke, p. 38. The “certain gentleman” was probably Captain Dover.
[32] Since this was written I have been reminded of the discovery of Dampier's will at Somerset House many years ago. This proves him to have died in Coleman Street, in the parish of St. Stephen, London, early in March 1714-15. The bulk of his property was left to his cousin Grace Mercer, spinster, of London, and the remainder to his brother George. His wife is not mentioned, nor the value of the property. See an article by Admiral Smyth in the United Service Journal, 1837, and The Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xiv. Art. “Dampier,” which, I may perhaps add, was not published till some time after my volume had passed through the press.
[33] The former writer observes with great justice: “We are perhaps too much accustomed to rely on our instruments nowadays, and we neglect those signs which must after all have been the barometers and simpiesometers of Drake, Cavendish, Dampier, and all our daring band of naval and commercial navigators up to the end of the last century, and still are so for our hardy fishermen and coasters.” The Sailor's Horn Book, p. 240, 1851.
[34] Captain William Snelgrave, in his A New Account of Guinea and the Slave-Trade, 1754, paints a lively picture of the behaviour and conversation of privateersmen. “I took leave of the Captain and got into my Hammock, tho' I could not sleep in my melancholy Circumstances. Moreover the execrable Oaths and Blasphemies I heard among the Ship's Company shock'd me to such a degree, that in Hell itself I thought there could not be worse; for tho' many seafaring men are given to swearing and taking God's Name in vain, yet I could not have imagined human Nature could ever so far degenerate, as to talk in the manner those abandoned wretches did.” P. 217.
English Men of Action.