. Returning to England in 1678, he did not remain long at
home, for in the beginning of 1679 he sailed for Jamaica in a vessel named
the _Loyal Merchant_. Shortly after reaching the West Indies, he chanced
to meet with several well-known buccaneers, including Captains Coxon,
Sawkins, and Sharp. Joining with these, he sailed on March 25th, 1679, for
the Province of Darien, "to pillage and plunder these parts." Dampier says
strangely little about his adventures for the next two years, but a full
description of them is given by Ringrose in his "Dangerous Voyage and Bold
Adventures of Captain Sharp and Others in the South Sea," published as an
addition to the "History of the Buccaneers of America" in 1684.

This narrative tells how the buccaneers crossed the isthmus and attacked
and defeated the Spanish Fleet off Panama City. After the death of their
leader, Sawkins, the party split up, and Dampier followed Captain Sharp on
his "dangerous and bold voyage" in May, 1680.

In April, 1681, after various adventures up and down the coast of Peru and
Chile, further quarrels arose amongst the buccaneers, and a party of
malcontents, of which number Dampier was one, went off on their own
account in a launch and two canoes from the Island of Plate, made famous
by Drake, and landed on the mainland near Cape San Lorenzo. The march
across the Isthmus of Darien has been amusingly recounted by the surgeon
of the party, Lionel Wafer, in his book entitled "A New Voyage and
Description of the Isthmus of America," published in London in 1699.

[Illustration: A PAGE FROM THE LOG-BOOK OF CAPTAIN DAMPIER.

To face p. 98.]

On reaching the Atlantic, Dampier found some buccaneer ships and joined
them, arriving at Virginia in July, 1682. In this country he resided for a
year, but tells little about it beyond hinting that great troubles befell
him. In April, 1683, he joined a privateer vessel, the _Revenge_, but
directly she was out of sight of land the crew turned pirates, which had
been their intention all along. Two good narratives have been written of
this voyage, one by Dampier, and the other by Cowley, the sailing-master.
This venture ended in the famous circumnavigation of the world, and
Dampier described every object of interest he met with, including the
country and natives of the north coast of Australia, which had never been
visited before by Europeans. Dampier must have found it very difficult to
keep his journal so carefully and regul