William Dampier, who had crewed with buccaneers…
March 1688 CE
William Dampier, who had crewed with buccaneers on the Spanish Main of Central America in the 1670s, twice visiting the Bay of Campeche, had accompanied a raid across the Isthmus of Darién in Panama and captured Spanish ships on the Pacific coast of that isthmus; the pirates then raided Spanish settlements in Peru before returning to the Caribbean.
Dampier had made his way to Virginia, where he engaged with the privateer John Cook (or Cooke) in 1683.
Cook had entered the Pacific via Cape Horn and spent a year raiding Spanish possessions in Peru, the Galapagos Islands, and Mexico.
This expedition had collected buccaneers and ships as it went along, at one time having a fleet of ten vessels.
Cook died in Mexico, and a new leader, Captain Edward Davis, was elected captain by the crew.
Dampier had transferred to Captain Charles Swan's ship, the Cygnet, and on March 31, 1686, they set out across the Pacific to raid the East Indies, calling at Guam and Mindanao.
Leaving Swan and thirty-six others behind, the rest of the pirates had sailed to Manila, Pulo Condore, China, the Spice Islands, and New Holland (Australia).
Cygnet is beached on the northwest coast of Australia, near King Sound, early in 1688.
While the ship is being careened, Dampier makes notes on the fauna and flora he finds here.
Locations
People
Commodities
Subjects
Regions
Australasia
View →Subregions
