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"It was not convenient to stay longer there," says Dampier. They got aboard their ship without loss of time, and ran out of the river "with the Tide of Ebb," resolved to get ashore at the first handy creek they came to.
When dusk was falling, Charly went on deck to say that Wyllard, who seemed perfectly conscious, insisted on seeing the skipper, and with some misgivings Dampier went down into the little cabin. The lamp was lighted, and when he sat down Wyllard, who raised himself feebly on his pillow, turned a pallid face to him. "Charly tells me you picked the boat up," he said. "We did," answered Dampier.
On board were Wyllard, Dampier, and two other white men. A week later the Selache sailed into a deep, rock-walled inlet on the western coast of Vancouver Island. At the settlement the storekeeper made no difficulty about selling Wyllard all his flour and canned goods at higher figures than there was any probability of obtaining from the local ranchers.
This he did not know to be an island; he drew it on his maps as if it were a peninsula belonging to the mainland of Australia. Dampier.# The discoveries that had so far been made were very imperfect, for the sailors generally contented themselves with looking at the land from a safe distance.
I say Captain Dampier describes what he saw in the following words: "The country hereabouts is mountainous and woody, full of rich valleys and pleasant fresh-water brooks; the mould in the valleys is deep and yellowish, that on the sides of the hills of a very brown colour, and not very deep, but rocky underneath, yet excellent planting land; the trees in general are neither very straight, thick, nor tall, yet appear green and pleasant enough; some of them bear flowers, some berries, and others big fruits, but all unknown to any of us; cocoa- nut trees thrive very well here, as well on the bays by the sea-side, as more remote among the plantations; the nuts are of an indifferent size, the milk and kernel very thick and pleasant; here are ginger, yams, and other very good roots for the pot, that our men saw and tasted; what other fruits or roots the country affords I know not; here are hogs and dogs, other land animals we saw none; the fowls we saw and knew were pigeons, parrots, cocadores, and crows, like those in England; a sort of birds about the bigness of a blackbird, and smaller birds many.
There was mad confusion, and a frantic banging of canvas as the schooner came up beam to the wind, with her rent mainsail flogging itself to tatters. Its ponderous boom was broken, and the mainmast-head had gone, but it was not the first time the sealers had grappled with similar difficulties, and Dampier kept his head.
Although Alexander Selkirk, afterwards found by Dampier, was the true original of Robinson Crusoe, Defoe appears to have taken some of his descriptions from the adventures of the Mosquito Indian just mentioned. The hills of Juan Fernandez are partly covered with woods, and partly open, intersected by fertile valleys, the grass being rich and delicate.
To commemorate his escape, he named the place Providence Island. Crossing the Line and passing Admiralty Islands, a mountainous land was approached, well wooded with large plantations, and cleared patches on the hill-sides. Numerous boats and proas came off, and as Dampier was anxious to establish an intercourse with the natives, he endeavoured to induce them to come alongside.
Although Tasman's journal of this voyage has never been found, we have pretty good evidence that he safely accomplished it. Dampier, in his volume of voyages, mentions having in his possession a chart laid down by Tasman, and an outline copy of the same was inlaid in the floor of the Groote Zaal, in the Stadhuys in Amsterdam.
Thus he discovered a passage between Timor and Anamabao, in a locality in which his map only indicated a bay. The arrival of Dampier in a port known only to themselves, astonished and greatly displeased the Dutch. They imagined that the English could only have reached it by means of charts taken on board a ship of their own.
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