Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Divinely bestowed upon man,
Oh, had I the wings of a dove,
How soon would I taste you again!
My sorrows I then might assuage
In the ways of religion and truth,
Might learn from the wisdom of age,
And be cheered by the sallies of youth . . .
Ye winds, that have made me your sport,
Convey to this desolate shore
Some cordial endearing report
Of a land I shall visit no more.
My friends, do they now and then send
A wish or a thought after me?
O tell me I yet have a friend,
Though a friend I am never to see
Many visitors have eulogised about the remote beauty of Juan
Fernandez but to the man who had spent fifty-two months of
solitude there the island was indeed a 'horrible place'. Selkirk was
frantic to be taken off and pathetically grateful to Dampier, who per-
suaded Rogers to appoint him mate aboard the
Duke.
A marauding trip along the Pacific coast of South and Central
America culminated in the capture of one of the Manila galleons.
Thus, when Dampier returned in October 1711 from his third cir-
cumnavigation it was as a member of an extremely successful voy-
age. The profit amounted to some £200,000. Unfortunately Dampier
was not destined to receive his share. The wheels of the Admiralty
ground slowly and though Dampier lived for another three and a half
years the distribution of the booty had not by then taken place. This
extraordinary man died at his London lodgings in March 1715, 'dis-
eased and weak of body but of sound and perfect mind', as his will
declared. It would be unwise to attempt a summary of a life so full of
