they soon placed me with a master of a ship at
Weymouth, complying with the inclinations I had very early of seeing the
world."

Dampier made several voyages in merchantmen; then he shipped as able
seaman on the _Royal Prince_, Captain Sir Edward Spragge, and served under
him till the death of that commander at the end of the Dutch war in 1673.
Soon after he made a voyage to the West Indies; then began an adventurous
life--ashore cutting logwood in the Bay of Campeachy when not fighting;
afloat a buccaneer--of which he has given us details in his _Voyage round
the Terrestrial Globe_.

In March, 1686, Dampier in a little barque, the _Cygnet_, commanded by
Captain Swan, quitted the American coast and sailed westward across the
Pacific. On this voyage the _Cygnet_ touched at the Ladrones, the Bashee
Islands, the Philippines, Celebes, Timor, New Holland, and the Nicobar
Islands. Here Dampier left his ship and worked his way to England, which
he reached in 1691. (The _Cygnet_ was afterwards lost off Madagascar.) He
had brought home with him from Mindanao a tattooed slave, whom he called
the "Painted Prince Jeoey," and who was afterwards exhibited as the first
painted savage ever seen in England. "Jeoey," who died at Oxford, is the
"painted Prince Job" mentioned by Evelyn.

It has been stated that the _Cygnet_ touched at New Holland. This land was
sighted on January 4th, 1688, in what Dampier says was "latitude 16.50 S.
About three leagues to the eastward of this point there is a pretty deep
bay, with abundance of islands in it, and a very; good place to anchor in
or to haul ashore. About a league to the eastward of that point we
anchored January the 5th, 1688, two miles from the shore."

A modern map of West Australia will show the West Kimberley goldfield. To
the west of the field is the district of West Kimberley, and upon the
coast-line is the Buccaneer Archipelago. The bay in which Dampier anchored
is still called Cygnet Bay, and it is situated in the north-west corner
of King's Sound, of which "that point" to which "we went a league to the
eastward" is named Swan Point, while a rock called Dampier's Monument more
particularly commemorates the buccaneer's visit.

The ship remained in Cygnet Bay until March 12th, and during that time the
vessel was hove down and repaired. Dampier's observations on the
aboriginal inhabitants during his stay is summed up in his description of
the natives whom he saw, and who were, he sa