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We left the Gulf of Amapalla on the 1st February, 1705, where Captain Dampier remained at anchor in the St George, having a fine gale of wind at N.E. While in any of the harbours on the coast of Mexico, we were seldom allowed any thing except flour, only that we used to go on shore, and found on the rocks plenty of concks, oysters, muscles, and other shell-fish, on which we made many a hearty meal.
"Dampier was right about that topsail; it won't be quite as easy getting off," he said. "You'll stand by, Charly, and watch the schooner. If the surf gets steeper you can make some sign. I'll leave one of the Siwash on the rise yonder." Then he walked up the beach, and stopped awhile on the crest of the low rise a mile or two behind it, gazing out at what seemed to be an empty desolation.
She came round with a thrashing of canvas, stretched out seawards, and came back again with her deck sharply slanted and little puffs of bitter spray blowing over her weather rail, for there was no doubt that the breeze was freshening fast. Then Dampier sent a man up into the foremast shrouds, and looked at Wyllard afterwards.
"Well, my dear, her view the view, let me remind you, of a sensible woman who, I fancy, has seen a good deal of life is that Mr. Dampier did accompany his wife here, as far as the hotel, that is. That then, as the result of what our good landlady calls a 'querelle d'amoureux, he left her knowing she would be quite safe of course in so respectable a place as the Hotel Saint Ange."
This land was sighted on January 4th, 1688, in what Dampier says was "latitude 16·50 S. About three leagues to the eastward of this point there is a pretty deep bay, with abundance of islands in it, and a very; good place to anchor in or to haul ashore. About a league to the eastward of that point we anchored January the 5th, 1688, two miles from the shore."
She had seemed rather unnecessarily distressed at not being able to make the hotel people understand her: she had evidently been much disappointed that her husband had not left a message for her. "My son thinks it possible that Mr. Dampier may have met with an accident on his way to the studio."
The ice glimmered in the growing light, but in one or two places stretches of blue-gray water seemed to penetrate it, and Dampier, who strode aft when he saw Wyllard, said he believed that there must be an opening somewhere. "By the thickness of it, that ice has formed some time, and as we've seen nothing but a skin it must have come from further north," he added.
Coming so close to the date of Dampier's voyage, it is worth noting that he does not allude to the book, and so probably, notwithstanding the little knowledge Englishmen then had of the southern continent, Dampier was shrewd enough to detect the imposture. The Roebuck struck soundings on the night of August 1st, 1699, upon the northern part of the Abrolhos.
He endeavoured to land there, but he was surrounded by canoes carrying more than 200 natives, and the shore was covered by a large crowd. Seeing that it would be imprudent to send a boat on shore, Dampier ordered the ship to be put about.
In the same vessel with Dampier, he made another three years' voyage, visited Mexico, California, and the greater part of North America; after which, still in company with Dampier, and possessor of a pretty fortune, he returned to England, where the recital of his adventures, already made public, secured him the most honorable patronage and friendship.
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