Title: The history of William Dampier
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Expiration_date: 9998-12-31 00:00:00
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 William Dampier was a pirate, but a good guy. 
He was an Englishman, and an explorer. Okay, so he didn't rob and pillage, and do all that pirate stuff, but he was a buccaneer.
He was one of those guys, who were sent by the king in the 1600's to do spying, fighting, gaurding, ect.

 In 1622, he was the first to make substantive English contanct with Nova Hollandia. (New Holland)
He was first to land on the contenent and make observations
In 1688, he was beached somwhere in the Austrailian Coast, where it was called Christmas Island. Dampier sent his crew to get water, food, wood, ect. from the island. They were the first to set foot on it, even though the island had been discovered many years before, and named Christmas, for the day it was discovered.

 Dampier traveled the Orient, and Timor. He wrote in a journal, writing his thoughts, and facts about the places he visited.
He left New Holland, and was seperated from his shipmates in the Nicobar Islands and sailed in a smallship with seven men to get off those islands, and to get to Sumatra. 

 He eventually went back to London, with nothing but his journals, which he had kept of all the places he'd been. He decided to publish his journals, and made them into a book, titled: New Voyage Round the World, which was a big hit, since it had only been done once before, by a man named Tasman.
The government soon gave Dampier a ship, the *HMS Roebuck*, and told him to go explore. What fool would say no?

 He was supossed to go to Cape Horn, and from there, go to New Holland from the east coast, and then go north to New Guinea. But the departure was delayed, and it was decided to go do a winter cruise to Horn. 
But Dampier knew this was a stupid thing to do, since he was experienced in this type of thing.
So he redrew the map, in which he used a famillair Dutch route, that went along 
Africa and through the Indian ocean, and into the west side of the globe.

 But he did have problems. His crew didn't think he should be captain, because he had a pirate record, even though Dampier thought that pirtae ships were a faster way to travel.
The crew disobeyed regularly, and the ship that he had been commisioned, was leakey. Even so, he got them safley to Hartog Island. He serched for good waters in a small bay behind the island. He called the bay, Shark's Bay, because he saw a large number of them.

 His immeadiate concern, was to find good water. He couldn't find any in the Hartog reigon, so he left for the Northwest Cape, which this Tasman guy had gone before. Dampier was certain that ther was a passage, in between the South Seas, and where he was at the north coast of Austrailia.
It became apparent, when he had set sail again, that he would not be able to go any further, because his ship was about to fall apart. He hoped he would be able to reach the place he had once been beached in 1688, Christmas Island.
He hoped to find the right materials to repair his ship.

 Instaed, when he came to Roeback Bay, he turned away from the west coast, and decided to go to New Guinea instead. He sighted it on the first day of 1700.
He sailed away from it, then he came to New Hanover, at the east side of New Guinea, where he found that New Guinea was indeed an island, as some practiced mapmakers had guessed.

 Dampier had ideas about sailing south, but the condition of his ship was so poor, he had no choice but to forget the expedition, and return to England.
On thier return trip, the critical planks gave out, and the ship sunk.
Amazingly, the entire crew survived, along with most of thier supplies.
They managed to swim to some nearby islands, and lived off the supplies for four months, until they were found by some British ships.

 There was a man named Fisher, who had been put in a Brazilian jail in the early stages of the voyage of the *Roebuck*, and upoun his return, he went to England, and told the government belivable lies, so Dampier was court martialled, and fined of all his pay he had recieved for exploration, and he wasn't allowed a ship out of the royal Navy, or any other ships for that matter.

 Dampier returned to sailing, though. He was hired as a privateer, to harrass the Spanairds, and did again explore around the known globe again. But it's his writing that makes himself known to the future generations.

 All in all, he did very little 'pirate things' and was one of the not-so-known explorers. But he did find out some things, which, in my opinoin, is better than nothing.