Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
even more attractive to the enemies of his country by introducing
goats, which had multiplied and flourished. Dampier had been be-
fore to this pleasant, lonely Eden destined to win itself a place in his-
tory and literature. He now expatiated lovingly upon its virtues. Its
grass was 'kindly, thick and flourishing'. Its trees afforded 'large and
good timber for building but none fit for masts'. The cabbage trees
had 'a good head and very sweet'. Meat was to be had in abundance
from goats, seals and sea lions and the fish were so plentiful 'that
two men in an hour's time will take with hook and line as many as
will serve 100 men'.
10
A fortnight's rest was enough to make the crew impatient to be
away up the coast in search of prizes. They were soon in luck; a con-
voy of three ill-armed merchant vessels fell into their clutches. But
the cargo proved something of a disappointment - flour and quince
marmalade! A consignment of 800,000 pieces of eight the ships were
to have carried was removed at the last moment when the rumour
went around that pirates were in the vicinity. Cook put prize crews
aboard the merchantmen and made for the Galapagos Islands. Such
uninhabited, secluded places as Galapagos, Cocos and Juan Fernan-
dez were the natural temporary habitats of buccaneers and have be-
come the very stuff of pirate legend. Few of them were ever 'treasure
islands', where maritime thieves concealed vast fortunes of stolen
gold and jewels for no very good reason. But they did serve as in-
valuable, secure havens where captains 'on the account' could stop
for watering, revictualling and careening and where they could es-
tablish depots of surplus items that might prove useful later. So, at
the Galapagos Islands Cook unloaded most of the stolen flour to act
as a reserve supply if needed.
What interested Dampier about the Galapagos, as we might
imagine, was the giant turtles. He devoted four pages to describing
these creatures and comparing them with species he had seen in the
