Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Nothing could now stop a mutiny. Captain Teat took over the
Cygnet.
He sent boats ashore to round up all those who wished to
sail. Swan made no attempt to regain the initiative. Instead of return-
ing to his ship he sent threatening and cajoling messages by subor-
dinates. On 14 January 1687, the
Cygnet
sailed away from Mindanao,
leaving behind Swan and thirty-six others. The ex-captain's temper
was not improved by this incident. Dampier later discovered that he
had fallen out with his hosts, although he stayed at Mindanao for
several months or years after most of his companions had died or
left. At last he decided to take passage on a Dutch ship but, while he
was being rowed out to it, his boat was intercepted by two canoes of
warriors who hacked him to death.
From the time of the departure from Mindanao the piratical
cruise disintegrated into factionalism and conflicting objectives. Teat
was soon displaced as captain by a rival. Some of the crew wanted
to set course for Europe. Others were for lingering in the Philippines
until the Manila galleon set sail for Mexico laden with porcelain, silk,
spices and other rich oriental wares. Dampier who, by his own ac-
count, had been opposed to deserting Swan, was increasingly disen-
chanted with his companions. He tells us that he asked them to re-
turn for the deposed captain and that, having failed in this, he looked
for an opportunity to leave the ship. He recorded his disapproval of
his colleagues' frequent drunkenness and noted, with prudish satis-
faction, how some of them had been poisoned in Mindanao for mak-
ing too free with the local women. Whether or not this high moral
tone was for the benefit of his readers in England we cannot know.
Certainly, for some eighteen months he was content to stay aboard
the
Cygnet,
his justification being that 'the farther we went, the more
knowledge and experience I should get, which was the main thing
that I regarded'.
Those eighteen months certainly enabled him to fill his journal
with a catalogue of novelties and strange events. For an aimless set
