A Pirate of Exquisite Mind

by Diana Preston (Author), Diana Preston (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2004

  $3.40

  In 1676, William Dampier started his career as a buccaneer preying on ships on the Spanish Main and struggling through the impenetrable jungle of the Isthmus of Panama in search of gold. He could easily have ended up on the gallows. Poor and obscure yet determined to sail the world and to make his fortune, he was to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe three times. He had a uniquely questing and, in Coleridge's words, 'exquisite' mind, and recorded with passion and dedication all that he discovered about the new world around him. Among his many extraordinary and pioneering achievements, Dampier mapped the winds and the currents of the world's oceans for the first time. He landed in Australia eighty years before Cook and brought back the first scientific specimens. He inspired Darwin a hundred and fifty years later with his notes on the wildlife of the Galapagos Islands and elsewhere. He wrote the first bestselling travel books, which influenced Defoe's ROBINSON CRUSOE and Swift's GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, and enriched the English language with many new words, from 'barbecue', 'avocado' and 'chopsticks' to 'sub-species'. A curious man in a curious age, once courted by Samue

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $3.40

  William Dampier, (1651-1715), was an English adventurer and pirate who preyed on ships on the Spanish Main. Poor and ill-educated and determined to make his fortune, he nonetheless had a passion for exploration and scientific research. Dampier was the first to map the winds and currents of the world's oceans; led the first recorded party of Englishmen to set foot on Australia - 80 years before Cook; wrote about Galapagos wildlife 150 years before Darwin, who drew on Dampier's notes in his own work; was the first travel writer: A NEW VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD was instant bestseller when it was published in 1697 - said to have influenced the novels of Swift and Defoe. A man full of contradictions: he who achieved so much 'blew it' later in life, declining into scandal, failure and even farce. A unique man ahead of his time, he lived a large part of his life among pirates yet managed to preserve what Coleridge called his exquisite refinement of mind. A classic example of the best narrative history

• New

  Paperback
  2005

  $13.14

  William Dampier, (1651-1715), was an English adventurer and pirate who preyed on ships on the Spanish Main. Poor and ill-educated and determined to make his fortune, he nonetheless had a passion for exploration and scientific research. Dampier was the first to map the winds and currents of the world's oceans; led the first recorded party of Englishmen to set foot on Australia - 80 years before Cook; wrote about Galapagos wildlife 150 years before Darwin, who drew on Dampier's notes in his own work; was the first travel writer: A NEW VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD was instant bestseller when it was published in 1697 - said to have influenced the novels of Swift and Defoe. A man full of contradictions: he who achieved so much 'blew it' later in life, declining into scandal, failure and even farce. A unique man ahead of his time, he lived a large part of his life among pirates yet managed to preserve what Coleridge called his exquisite refinement of mind. A classic example of the best narrative history