A Voyage to New Holland

William Dampier was a buccaneer, an explorer and a naturalist. He was the first person to circumnavigate the world three times and the first Englishman to map parts of Australia and New Guinea. He was a celebrated and best-selling travel writer and achieved wide fame for his vivid descriptions of the various lands and people he encountered. In 1699 Dampier was offered the command of an expedition aimed at proving that New Holland was a continent on its own and not connected to Asia or the Americas. Sailing from England in the Roebuck, Dampier touched at Bahia in Brazil before rounding the Cape of Good Hope. After crossing the Indian Ocean, the Roebuck anchored at the entrance to the inlet Dampier named Shark Bay. A week later Dampier started cruising north along the coast of New Holland to find fresh water. Stopping at many places along the way Dampier made extensive notes on what he saw and collected many specimens, leading some to describe him as ‘Australia’s first natural historian’. Failing to find any water he left the coast near Roebuck Bay in early September and set a course for Timor and then home. This work, A Voyage to New Holland, is Dampier’s account of the voyage of the Roebuck, which was the British Navy’s first expedition wholly devoted to science and exploration. In his book Dampier describes the difficulties he had with his officers and crew, his brush with the Inquisition in Brazil, and his encounters with the indigenous peoples of the lands he visited. He also provides many fascinating first descriptions of a wealth of flora and fauna. Dampier’s words are lively, immediate and exciting, and they provide an immensely valuable insight into the life of one of the seventeenth century’s most interesting, adventurous, and well-travelled men.