apped her up in all her clothes, as well as in two new pieces of
chintz which Mr Moody had given her, and she was thus buried.

Growing weary of his life at Bencoulin, and pining to return home, being
also anxious to carry out his project of making a voyage to Meangis,
Dampier requested his discharge.

This was granted by the Governor and Council, and the _Defence_, Captain
Heath, bound for England, coming into the roads, he agreed to ship on
board her. Mr Moody had made over his share of the Painted Prince to
Mr Goddard, her chief mate. When, however, Dampier was about to
embark, the Governor, who was an ill-tempered, tyrannical man, refused
to allow him to go. In vain he pleaded, and at last, having arranged
with Mr Goddard to be received on board at night, leaving all his
property, with the exception of his journals and a few other papers, he
crept through one of the port-holes, and got into the boat which was
waiting for him. He lay concealed until the last boat from the shore
had left the ship, which then set sail for the Cape of Good Hope on the
25th of January, 1691.

Owing to the bad nature of the water, fever, which carried off many of
the men and reduced others to the greatest state of weakness, broke out
on board. To so helpless a condition was the crew reduced that they
were unable to carry the ship into Cape Town Harbour, and would have had
to keep at sea had not a Dutch captain sent a hundred men on board to
take in her sails and bring her to an anchor. Here she remained some
weeks, while the crew regained their strength. On the 23rd of May the
_Defence_ sailed from the Cape, and after touching at Saint Helena,
without further mishap arrived in the Channel. Here, convoyed by some
men-of-war, she got off Plymouth, and thence, parting with several ships
which had kept her company, she ran into the Downs, where she anchored
on the 16th of September, 1691.

Dampier, poor as he had been when he first joined the buccaneers, had to
part with his share in the Painted Prince to obtain the means of
reaching his home. The unfortunate Jeoly, after being carried about for
some time to be shown as a sight, died of small-pox at Oxford.

From the time he left England in 1679, on board the _Loyal Merchant_,
until his return in the _Defence_, upwards of twelve years had elapsed,
during which period he had circumnavigated the globe, and visited more
strange countries and gone through more hazardous adventures th