LIVES AND VOYAGES

OF

DRAKE, CAVENDISH, AND DAMPIER:

INCLUDING

AN INTRODUCTORY VIEW

OF THE

EARLIER DISCOVERIES IN THE SOUTH SEA;

AND THE

HISTORY OF THE BUCCANEERS.

WITH PORTRAITS ENGRAVED BY HORSBURGH.

EDINBURGH:

OLIVER & BOYD, TWEEDDALE-COURT;

AND SIMPKIN & MARSHALL, LONDON.

MDCCCXXXI.

PREFACE.

THIS Volume is devoted to the LIVES of three of the most eminent men that England has ever sent forth into the field of her highest achievement. The relation of their Voyages, Discoveries, and Adventures, is in so far the history of the rise of her naval power. If it be that the first inspiring thoughts of British youth are inseparably connected with maritime enterprise, with the perils, vicissitudes, new scenes, romantic incidents, the boldness, fortitude, and endurance of men tasked to the utmost of man's physical and moral powers, which are displayed in the narratives of the elder voyagers,—this work cannot want interest. It contains, from the very nature of the subject, much curious and valuable information, gleaned from many sources, and in every instance verified by scrupulous examination and reference to the fountain-head; while it is believed that, together with the voyages, fuller and more accurate personal memoirs of Drake, Cavendish, and Dampier, are given here than any that have yet been submitted to the public. Early Spanish discovery in the South Sea, and the first circumnavigation of the globe in the ever-memorable Voyage of Magellan, form a subordinate, but it is hoped an appropriate branch of

the work: And the History of the Buccaneers, those daring rovers, whose wild adventures afford so much to charm the youthful mind, is so closely interwoven with the Memoirs of Dampier, as to form one tissue. Instead of proving a blemish, it is therefore presumed that the brief history of this remarkable fraternity may be found no incongruous episode in a volume intended by the author as a contribution to popular nautical history, of which the subject, though complete in itself, forms also an interesting chapter in the annals of maritime enterprise and adventure.

EDINBURGH, November, 1831.