DAMPIER, WILLIAM, was born in 1652, of a Somersetehire family; he want early to pea, served in the war against the Dutch, and afterwards became overseer of a plantation in Jamaica. lie thence weut to the Bay of Casapenchy with other logwo.xl cutters, and remained there several years. Ho kept a journal of his adventures and observations on that coast, which was afterward. published ; Voyages to the Bay of Caunpeachy,' London 1729, with a ' Treatise on Winds and Tides :' Dampier, besides being a bold seaman, had also studied navigation as a science. In 1679 he joined a party of buccaneers, with whom he crossed the Isthmus of D arien, and having embarked in canoes and other small craft on the Pacific, Ocean, they captured several Spanish vessels, in which they cruieed along the coast of Spanish America, waging a war of extermination both by sea and land against the subjects of Spain. In 1684 Dampier railed genii] from Virginia with another expedition, whioh doubled Cape Horn and cruised along the coast, of Chile, Peru, and Mexico, making depredations upon the Spaniards. From the count of Mexico they steered for the East Indies, touched at Australia, and after sere sal adventures in the Indian Saes, Dampier emit ou shore at Beoeoolen, from whence he found his way back to England in 1691, when he published his' Voyage round the World,' a most iutcre-tiog account, and which attracted considerable attention. Ills abilities becoming
known, he was appointed commander of a sloop of war in the tines service, and was sent on a voyage of discovery to the South Seas. Dampier explored the west and north-west coasts of Australia, sur veyed Shark's Bay, and gave his name to a small archipelago east of North-west Cape. He also explored the coasts of New Guinea, Ncw Britain, and New Ireland, and gave his name to the straits which separate the two former; on his homeward voyage he was wrecked on the Isle of Ascension. lie at last returned to Eneland in 1701, when be published the account of this voyage. In 1707 he published a Vindication of his Voyage to the South Seas in the ship St. George,' with which. ha had sailed from Virginia in his former marauding expedition. Dampier went to sea again till 1711, but the particulars of the latter part of his life are little known. He ranks among the most enterprising navigators of England. Ile was acquainted with botany, and was poaeessed of considerable information and general knowledge. his style of narrative is vivid, and bears the marks of truth. His voyages were published together in 3 vols. Svo, London, 1697-1709.