Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
policies in London and Madrid, it was generally accepted that there
was 'no peace beyond the line' (i.e. the treaty of Tordesillas demarc-
ation line). To a twenty-seven-year-old, eager for new experiences,
the buccaneering life seemed to offer freedom, travel, excitement
and wealth. Dampier tells us that he only joined a band of these
seaborne brigands after the crew of a ship he was travelling in de-
fected en
bloc.
That may or may not be true. What
is
clear is that
he scarcely gave a thought to his wife, his domestic responsibilit-
ies or the small Dorset estate he was in the process of buying. All
were abandoned for the opportunity of seeing new lands and being
a member of the 'brotherhood'.
Years later, when he was writing the account of his wanderings,
he offered no justification for a decision many would regard as reck-
less and immature, beyond that simple statement that he had 'in-
clinations to see the world'. Doubtless, that inner compulsion was,
for him, its own justification. He was an obsessive voyager and a fas-
cinated observer, and life aboard a pirate ship offered the only op-
portunity for relative freedom to travel to unknown shores. Such an
overriding compulsion is far from unique, even to-day:
I travelled in much the same way that other people stayed still
- it was the way of life that suited me. As for purpose and goals
in life, I didn't have any. Purpose sounded too single-minded for me,
too restricted by fixed ideas. I preferred to be flexible. Also I rejected
the concept of goals and ambitions; they implied success or failure.
I wasn't interested in measuring myself against others or competing
with them.
4
Three years of the unruly democracy of the brotherhood took
him, under various leaders, on marauding raids along the Atlantic
and Pacific seaboards of Central and South America. By the summer
of 1683 he had fetched up in Virginia. Here he learned that a Creole
