An Account of a Book

VII. An Account of a BOOK. An Account of a New Voyage round the World, by William Dampier. Printed at London for James Knapton, at the Crown in St Paul's Church-yard. 1697. Containing 558 Pages in Octavo, and Five Plates of Maps. The Author dedicates it to the Right Honourable Charles Mountague, Esq; President of the Royal Society, Chancellor of the Exchequer, &c. And in his Preface gives an Account, that from the beginning to the end of his Voyages, he kept a constant Journal of what occurred remarkable, of which this Relation contains a brief Account, without being filled with Transcripts out of others, too frequently done by such as would be Voluminous. And as he had the opportunity of visiting many Ports and places, scarce described in any Voyages, and for the most part unknown to English Navigators; to the East or West Indies; so he was the more diligent in his Observations, and the more particular in his Descriptions of their Situations, Soyls, Products, &c. the greatest part of which are made from his own Experience, and the others from particular informations he received from credible and knowing Persons. His Style is very Intelligible and Expressive. His Maps are in part taken from Spanish Manuscripts, and partly from his own Observations. He designed to have added an Appendix about about Winds, the Bay of Campechy, the South-west Coast of America, and his particular Voyage from Achin to Sumatra, Tunquin, Malacca, &c. But finding it would swell his Book too much, he has promised the Publick to give it in another Volume. In this Volume he has in Twenty Chapters, given an Account of the Voyages he made during near Twelve Years, i.e. from the beginning of 1679, when he left England, to the middle of September, 1691, when he returned hither; for the doing of which he was the better qualified, as having before that been in several long and distant Voyages. And first he relates his passage to Jamaica, thence to Porto Belo, thence cross the Isthmus of Darien, passing in sight of Panama into the South-Sea, thence Coasting Southward, as far as the Island of John Fernando, and stay there some time; his return to cross back again the said Isthmus into the North Sea. Of this Expedition he is the more brief, because Ringrose has already Publish'd many Passages of it. However, in his first Chapter he relates what was remarkable at Sea, after his parting from Sharp; giving by the by also a description of the Moskito Indians; and in the Second Chapter he relates what occurred in his Journey by Land back again over the Isthmus into the North-Sea, the way of which is traced by a prickt line in his Map of that Country; but a more particular Account of it (he says) we may expect from Mr. Wafer's Relation of it, now fitted for the Press. The Third Chapter relates his Remarks in Cruising on the North Sea-Coast, and amongst the Islands, from May 1681. to July 1682. where are described the Isles of St. Andreas, Quirisao, Bonaire, Av Rocas, Tortuga, Blanco, &c. together with several Coasts, as of Caraccas, &c. and of several Rivers, as that of Darien, Blewfeilds, &c. and several Towns, as that of Santa Martha, of Rio Lattacha, Comana, Varina, &c. and the Inhabitants of them. By the way also you have a Description of a Mountain near St. Martha, which the Author thinks much higher than that of Tenarif. You will here also find several Animals described, as the Manati, the Sea-Tortoise or Turtle, the Remora, the Guano, the Booby, the Man of War Bird, the Noddy and Tropick Bird, the Egg Bird, &c. the Souldier Insect, and several Vegetables, as the Cedars, the Sapadillas, the Maho, the Manchineel, the Black, Red, and White Mangroves, the Cacao, Trees and Fruit, and the Varinas Tobacco. He finishes this Chapter with his Arrival at Virginia. In the Fourth Chapter, the Author begins the Account of the first part of his New Voyage towards the South-Sea, which proved afterwards to be a Circumnavigation of the whole Globe of the Earth. He began it in August, 1683. from Virginia, and continues the Account of it in the Sixteen following Chapters, till September the 16th, 1691. when he arrived at the Downes. To particularize in all the Islands, Ports, Coasts, Rivers, Towns, and Places he visited, Surveyed and Describes; together with the Natives, their Shapes, Manners, Customs, Clothing, thing, Diet, Art, &c. and the Natural and Artificial Products of them, as Fish, Birds, Beasts, Insects, Trees, Plants, Fruits, Roots, Minerals, Metals, Houses, Utensils, Ships or Vessels, &c. would be too long for this Account, for they are very numerous, and many of them very Curious, Remarkable and New, and nowhere else to be found in Print: I shall therefore to shorten it, give the Names only of the Principal of those he hath taken notice of in the whole Course of this long Voyage; referring the Reader for the particulars, to the Book itself. In this Fourth Chapter then he gives an Account of his setting out from Virginia, and his passage from Cape Verd, and the Coasts of Africa, his passage through the Streight of le Mair, and Coasting the South-side of Terra del Fuego, into the South-Sea, and thence Northwards to John Fernando's Island. In the Fifth is continued his Course thence, in sight of the Andes and Western American Shoars, to the Island Lobos de la Mar; and thence to the Gallapagos Islands, under or near the Equator; thence to Cape Blanco, and the Bay of Caldera, the Island and Harbour of Realejo, the Islands and Gulf of Amapalla, &c. In the Sixth is an Account of his Coasting from Amapalla, Southwards by Cape St. Francisco, and the Island la Plata towards Peru. And in the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth of his Return, and Coasting Northwards, as far as under the Tropick of Cancer, and his return thence to Cape Corrientes, in 20° 28' of North Latitude: And by the way he gives a Description of the Bark Logs, of the Catfish, of the Cotton, Cabbage, Mamme, Sappadillo, Avogato gato Pear, Mammea-sapota, and Star-Apple, Trees and their Fruit, and of divers other Fruits and Drugs' as of Cochineel, Silvester, Sarsaparilla, &c. as also of divers Fish, Birds and Beasts; and a particular Discourse about the North-west and North-east Passages, to the Indies from Europe, and another of the Trade between Acapulco and the Manillas, you will here also find an Account of the Soyles, Mountains, Mines, &c. of the places visited, and of the Inhabitants Native or Strangers. The Tenth Chapter relates his passage from Cape Corrientes to Guam, one of the Ladrones along the South-Sea, which he thinks much longer East and West then all the Maps usually make it. Here you will find the Arack Drink, the Coire Cabels, the Bread Fruit, the Guam Prous, &c. Described, as also the Cocos Plantane and Limes. The Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Chapters are spent in the Description of the Philipinas and Mindanao; for in the Eleventh after, he has given a Description of the Philippina Islands, Towns, Inhabitants, Trade, &c. He relates his arrival at Mindanao, and then gives a Description of it, and of the natural Products it affords, as amongst other he Describes the Libbe Trees, and how they make Bread and Sago of them: The Plantane Trees, and how they naturally yield brown or white Thread, ready Spun as it were, of which the Natives make Cloath, the Bonanoes Cloves, and Clove Bark. Nutmegs, Arecca or Betele Nuts, Jaccas, &c. the Beasts, Fowle, Fish, Insects, the Seasons, temperature of the Air, Winds, &c. In the Twelfth are Described the Natives, their Habitations, their Prowess, Arts, Trade, Manners, Customs, Language, Religion, &c. In the Thirteenth the Remarkable Occurrents during their stay there. And by the by, there is inserted a Discovery of some part of the Terra Australis Incognita, in South Lat. 27. and about Five Hundred Leagues from Copayapo on the Coast of Chili. The Fourteenth Chapter gives an Account of their Departure thence, and of the further progress of their Voyage about the Island of Batts, (where are found Batts of a prodigious bigness) by Panay, Mindora, the Pracells, &c. to Pulo Condore, which is here described, together with its Vegetables, Animals, &c. as the Tartree, the Mango, the Grape-tree, the Bastard Nutmeg, &c. and the Cochin China Inhabitants, their Imployment, Language, Customs, &c. Then of their Excursion thence to the Isles of the Bay of Siam, by Pulo Uby and their Return to Pulo Condor; and by the by are interspersed many considerable Remarks. The Fifteenth Chapter relates their Departure thence towards the Manillas, but their failing therein, and falling on the Coast of China, (where, by the by, are related many remarkable Particulars concerning those People, &c.) their stay at St. John's Island, and its Description, their arrival at the Piscador Islands near Formosa, and the remarkable occurrents there met with. By the way are described Amoy, Macao, Formosa, the Bashee Islands and their Inhabitants, Soyle, Produce; their Customs The Sixteenth Chapter relates their progress thence to Two Islands near Mindanao, then their Coasting along the East Shoar of Celebes, which together with Ternate, Tidor, and other Spice-Islands are here Described, as also vast great Cocks, strange Trees, &c. And by the way also Macassar, Callesung, as also their passage among other Islands, as Omba, Pentare, Timor, &c. from which they bend their Course for Nova Hollandia, and find there a sad Country and miserable Inhabitants, yet divers things Remarkable. The Seventeenth gives an Account of their Voyage by the Island Locos, and another woody Island (where they found large Craw-fish) to the Island Triste in 4° South Latitude, and to the West of Sumatra. ('Tis full of Cocos, though overflowed every Spring Tide by the Sea) from thence to Nicobar Island (where much Ambergrease is found) these are more particularly described, and the Inhabitants, Trade, &c. here the Mellory or Bread-Tree is also described; and the Accident the Author here met with, are recounted, as his leaving his Companions and going upon other Designs, which are related in the Eighteenth Chapter; as his Voyage to Achin, and from thence to Tunquin, Malacca, Madrasse, and Bancouli, &c. Here is also some Account of what happened to the Company he left; and also of Prince Jeoly, who was brought brought and shewed in London, and of the Island Meangis, where he was Prince. In the Nineteenth Chapter he relates his leaving Bancouli, and his Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, and what he there observed remarkable. And in the Twentieth is an Account of his Voyage thence for England, after he has Described the Hottentots or Natives of the Cape; and by the way the Island of St. Helena, now Peopled by the English. VIII. An II. Almagestum Botanicum s. Phytographiae Plucentianae, Onomasticon, &c. Fol. Londin. Edit. 1696. This Excellent Botanist, Dr. Leonard Plukenet, having with indefatigable industry, at the single Stock of his own Expence, already Published a Set of Phytographick Tables, which, without flattery may deserve the Name of a Performance to the improvement of so great a part of the Universal History of Nature, as hath not been done by the whole Complex of precedent Ages, goes on to oblige the curious World with his Almagestum Botanicum. Wherein are contain'd the proper and descriptive Names of about Six Thousand Plants, a part of his Herbarium Vivum, digested into an Order as well Alphabetical as Classical, Five Hundred of them nowhere to be found but in this Work, which may very well serve instead of a Pinax, or General Index Plantarum. To which Seventy Copper Plates, with various Sculpts of the more rare, exotick, new Plants are annexed, for the satisfaction of the lovers of Botanie. Here it is indeed our Author seems to lead us into the delights of both the Indies, and by an artful Adumbration entertains the curious Eye with another World of Vegetables, of some whereof we shall give a Specimen. There you will find a Genuine figure of the Arabian Thorn from Mascat, which bears the true Gum-Arabick, and is the Acacia Candida of Theophrastus, and Amgailem of Avicenna. A Tree-Sorrel from the Canaries, which is no other than the Magicians Moon-wort of the Arabians in Lobel, and which our Author pronounces the very same with Ribes Arabum Rauwolfii, since that which Clusius saw found in Dr. Coolmans Pannier, and propos'd in his Exoticks, for the Plant was nothing but an imperfect Branch of Orellana, or the Achiote from America. A wonderful strange Heath-leaf'd Tetrapetalous prickly Plant from Mauritania, several curious Maidenhairs, both from Ethiopia and the Island of Jamaica, Alcea's, Aloes, and Althea's from the Canaries, Madraspatan, Bengal, Zeylon, Ethiopia, Malabar, and Jamaica. A Tree Apocynum from the Canaries, called Cornicar by the Inhabitants, whose gemellous Pods stand opposite, are large, but small at ends turn'd up like a Mustachoe, and Seed cylindrical; not flat, but destitute of a silky Down. There's another Apocinum branch'd from Virginia, whose very slender, long, gemellous Pods are joined at both ends, and make out a pretty Figure, of a stringed Bow that's always bent. Amaranthos from America, Sicily, and Madraspatan. An odd sort of Aquifolium from the Canaries; various Trees from Malabar, Africa, and Jamaica. The Chrysidendros Americana, or Star-apple, the Nasebury Tree; the Mamee, and Mamee Sappota, the Spanish Pear, or Shell-Pear, the same with the Agnacat Scaligeri: Cujus fructus validos adeò efficit ad coitum, ut proprius miraculo sit ejus efficacia. The Cacao Tree, Two sorts; the Snap-tree of the Canaries, ries, the Arbor tristis of Malabar; the Caragna-tree of New Spain, from whence the Gum-Caranna, or the Arbor Infaniæ Hernandez, with many more, from several parts of Africa and the Indies. The Dock-leaf'd Arum, or greater Dragons of Matthiolus, never seen to Caspar Bauhine, who employed a great part of his life in Botanie, whose Existence was much doubted by Dodonæus, denyed by Lobel in his Adversaria, and plainly affirmed in Guilandinus to be seign'd by the Senenian, yet we have had it both from Virginia and Surinam; there's also an Arisarum or Fryers Cowle, with the leaves of Dracontium, that frequently grows in several parts of Virginia. A pretty Aster from Æthiopia, and a Plant like the Bears-ear, bestudded with starry prickles on the upper side of the divarication of its Leaves from the same Place. A most accurate cut of a Branch of the Coffee-Tree, with its Fruit from Arabia Felix, a Mexican Bryonie, and a Daisie-Flowring Pyrethrum from the Fortunate Islands. The Bangue, or True Indian Dreamer, a Carduus and two Carlines, from the fertile Shoars of Æthiopia. An Aromatick Clove-Tree from the Coast of Mala-bar, with Leaf, Flower and Fruit much differing from the common, whose taste and smell is like that of Roses. The Cedar of Mount Atlas called Kitra by the Arabians, as Goropius informs; The true Thuya Theophrasti, of whole Wood, under the name of Citra among the Romans, were made those Celebrated Tables of inestimable value recorded in Pliny; a strange Caryophyllus or Julysflower of a Celestial hue, perhaps an Epidendron A Royal Campanula from the Fortunate Islands, with a large open mouth'd Flame-like dependent Flower. Two Platanoide Fig-trees of the Papaia kind, with Fruit as big as Pompions, from America. A delicate Elichryson, whose Flowers shine like so many Carbuncles; with various sort of Heath from Ethiopia. A singular kind of Euonymo adfinis, or a Cognate to our Spindle-Tree, from Ethiopia; which our sagacious Author makes the Paliurus filiquata of Theophrastus; and Three other sorts of Euonymi from the same Parts. Very strange Ferns in abundance, from Jamaica and the Charibbee Islands: Wonderful Shrubs, with Leaves, like those of Butchers Broom; as also Genista's from the Cape of Good Hope. Cudweeds, and some Grasses from the same Place, as also from Maderaspatan, Malabar, and Virginia. The Χειμωνάρα, or Golden Cotton-Grass from Virginia; and a Gossipium from the Isle of Barboutba, that produces a most white Cotton, and as fine as any Silk. A curious Horminum from the Isle of Gomera. A large Tutsan St. Johns-wort from the Canaries, and another with narrow Rosemary-leaves from Aleppo. A Gnaphaloide Knapweed from Æthiopia; and several Jacobæas from the same place. A Trifoliate Jasmine from the Maderas, and two others very differing from the Kingdom of Malabar. A new sort of Lavender from the Canaries; and a strange Leucadendros, or Silver Tree from Mount Atlas. Some Indian Box-Thorns from Malabar and Maderaspatan. A most elegant Æthiopic hoary Yarrow, with the Leaves of Heath; and a perennial large strong scented Basil from both the Indies. The true Oenoplia spinosa of Honorius Belli, a kind of Jujube, the Nabca Paliurus Athenæi credita of Prosp. Alpinus; and Sadar Adhal of Serapio. A Xeranthemoide Scabious immarcescible from Africa; and another Globe-headed one, from the Oriental Indies. The Tamarisk of Egypt, call'd Atle; that of Ethiopia, with a prickly roundish Fruit including a soft Down, no other than the Frutex cinericeus muscosus Capitis Bon. Spei of Breynius; and that Piluliferous one of Monomopata, esteemed by our Author the true Acalalis of Dioscorides and Paulus; and perhaps that very Cypress-like Atlas Tree, whose Branches were covered with a Cobweb Lawne, observ'd by Suetonius Paulinus, whom Pliny does remember to have seen a Consul; and was the first Roman General that passed some Miles beyond the Atlantick Mountain. The Tithymalus aphyllus, or naked Tree-Spurge, which our Author makes the same with Fefel of Alpinus, and Egyptian Long Pepper of Vellingius. The Aizoide Tithymal, and true Euphorbium of the Canaries, with a lively Figure of the Vanillia's, which often grow upon the Panaroma, or Jamaica Pepper upon that Island. But we shall here present the Reader with a more particular account at large, of a very considerable Plant which our Author calls by the Name of Nymphæa glandifera Indiae paludibus gaudens, &c. which is the true Faba Ægyptia, and Colocasia of the Ancients; a Plant that has lain in darkness perhaps for above Two Thousand Years, ever since the time of old Herodotus; who, as some have conceived, gave the first occasion of its being mistaken, which has been derived even to our own times; inasmuch as many famous Botanists of these latter Centuries, suspected Antiquity to have been deceiv'd in the History of this Bean; and some were so bold to assert, the Ancients were fabulous in their Accounts of it. Thus Bellonius, Alpinus, Camerarius, Dalechampe, Daleschampæ; and Clusius, concluded, that the Plant which the Egyptians call Culcas, which is the Arum Aegyptium in Pliny, must needs be the Faba Aegyptia of Dioscorid. and Theophr. However, this did not answer their Description, since they could not conceive any Plant within the Line of their Knowledge, to make so near an approach to it; both from the Affinity and sound of its Name in Colocasia; as also, the ancient use of feeding upon its Root, continued among those Nations of Egypt, Syria, Arabia and Africa, time immemorial, where, 'tis said, this Faba also was in use: But the Fruit or Nuts was their Food, and not the Roots; the Teeth of Time having inverted both Name and Use. Now this Nymphaea glandifera of our Author does exactly answer all the Notes of the first Describer, I mean Theophrastus; and proves, that he gave a rational and true Account of this Plant, contrary to the suspicions of Modern Botanists: Dioscorides indeed gives alike account almost in totidem verbis; and Pliny supposed to have borrowed from both, though he never names the latter, must be alike congruous in his Account. But here Matthiolus was indeed to blame, when, rather than be thought ignorant of so celebrated a Plant as this Egyptian Bean (which otherwise he does well enough distinguish from the Arum of that Countrey) he proposed to the World a false and fictitious icon, accommodated to the Description from his own Imagination and Fancy, but hath mightily fail'd in the structure of its Fruit, not considering how little it resembled a Honeycomb. Guilandinus will have it, that what he there propos'd, was a kind of Arum, that grows frequently in many parts of Italy; though, as himself affirms, Odoardius shew'd it him at Trent, with many many other rare Plants, which he brought out of Syria and Egypt. In this he hath been followed by Lacuna Lugdunensis, Caistor Durantes, they calling it, and picturing it for the Egyptian Bean: Lonicera, as also Durantes; but only calling it Colocasia; which, however false that may be, is here by our Author illustrated from the truth of things, and curiously expressed by the Graver, in Phytogr. Tab. 322. fig. 1. I shall add no more, but refer you to the Book itself; only with this Remark upon the Age wherein Matthiolus liv'd, which was so very agreeable for the improvement of Sciences, that I cannot but observe, in his Preface to the Comment upon the Anazarbean, how deservedly he glories at the vast Assistances he received from no less than Two Emperours, a Pope, Cardinals, Dukes and Republics, to the compleating his Botanick Labours, which yet fall very short of what our Author has perform'd; who had he but the favour of one single Mecenas to Encourage him, what might not the Curious expect from such an elaborate and approved Industry as his. LONDON: Printed for Sam. Smith, and Benj. Wallford, Printers to the Royal Society, at the Princes Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard. 1697.