Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of buccaneers the men of the
Cygnet
made a remarkable tour which
took them across the South China Sea to Canton, into the Gulf of
Siam for a brief stay on the Cambodian coast, to the Spice Islands,
and, through the dangerous channels around Celebes, southwards to
the shores of Australia. Everywhere the fascinated chronicler went
he made notes of what he saw: a man buried alive for theft in For-
mosa; the brilliant cockatoos and parakeets of Pulau Butung; a wa-
terspout off Celebes; a boy with four rows of teeth on Butung; the
Australian aborigines - 'the miserablest people in the world'. With-
in the space of a few months Dampier encountered representatives
of one of the world's oldest civilisations and also the Stone Age ab-
original culture. He bought dishes of tea from silk-robed ladies in
the streets of Canton and admired exquisite Chinese lacquer work.
He ate roasted locusts in Bashi (south of Formosa). He visited an-
cient temples. He was particularly interested in the customs of the
Chinese, or, at least, he devoted several pages of his memoir to them.
Europe was currently in the grip of the chinoiserie craze. Fashion
decreed that furniture, wall-hangings and tableware should reflect
oriental influence. East-Indiamen brought home lacquered cabinets
and fine porcelain for wealthy customers. For those whose pockets
were not so deep, factories at Delft, Bristol, Lambeth and other pro-
vincial centres produced passable imitations. Dampier pandered to
this fascination with all things Chinese by describing in detail their
dress, their junks, their manners and such curiosities as the way the
women bound their daughters' feet to keep them small and dainty.
Nor was he above exaggeration:
The Chinese are very great gamesters, and they will never be tired
with it, playing night and day, till they have lost all their estates. Then
it is usual with them to hang themselves . . . The Spaniards, themselves,
are much addicted to gaming and are very expert at it, but the Chinese
are too subtle for them, being in general a very cunning people
.
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