Note 167 — Chapter XXI · THE PANAMA CANAL.
Reading edition
Dampier was born in Somersetshire in 1652. In 1673 he served in the Dutch war under Sir Edward Sprague. He was afterwards for some years overseer of a plantation in Jamaica. Several vicissitudes of fortune followed, and it is stated that for a time he was one of a band of pirates who roved about the Peruvian coasts. He made several voyages to the northern coast of Mexico, to the East Indies, and to the islands in the Pacific. His ‘Voyages’ have been many times reprinted.