ears,"
edging in to the shore, to escape, with her fleet after her. They made
no fight of it, but tacked and hauled to the wind "and stood away for
Alvarado." The pirates were very glad to see the last of them; "and we,
glad of the Deliverance, went away to the Eastward." On the way, they
visited all the sandy bays of the coast to look for "munjack," "a sort
of Pitch or Bitumen which we find in Lumps." When corrected with oil or
tallow this natural pitch served very well for the paying of the seams
"both of Ships and Canoas."

After this adventure, Dampier returned to the lumber camp, and passed
about a year there, cutting wood. Then, for some reason, he determined
to leave the Indies, and to visit England; and though he had planned to
return to Campeachy, after he had been home, he never did so. It seems
that he was afraid of living in that undefended place, among those
drunken mates of his. They were at all times at the mercy of a Spanish
man-of-war, and Dampier "always feared" that a Spanish prison would be
his lot if he stayed there. It was the lot of his imprudent mates, "the
old Standards," a few months after he had sailed for the Thames.

After a short stay in England, Dampier sailed for Jamaica, with a
general cargo. He sold his goods at Port Royal, but did not follow his
original plan of buying rum and sugar, and going west as a logwood
merchant. About Christmas 1679 he bought a small estate in Dorsetshire,
"of one whose Title to it" he was "well assured of." He was ready to
sail for England, to take charge of this estate, and to settle down as a
farmer, when he met "one Mr Hobby," at a tavern, who asked him to go "a
short trading voyage to the Country of the Moskito's." Dampier, who was
a little short of gold at the moment, was very willing to fill his purse
before sailing north. He therefore consented to go with Mr Hobby, whose
ship was then ready for the sea. He "went on board Mr Hobby," and a fair
wind blew them clear of Port Royal. A day or two of easy sailing brought
them to Negril Bay, "at the West End of Jamaica," where Dampier had
anchored before, when the valorous captain drained the punch-bowl. The
bay was full of shipping, for Captains Coxon, Sawkins, Sharp, and other
buccaneers, were lying there filling their water casks. They had the red
wheft flying, for they were bound on the account, to raid the Main. The
boats alongside them were full of meat and barrels. Mr Hobby's men did
not wait to learn