The Complete Works of William Dampier: Containing Particular Descriptions of Life in the Torrid Zone at the Dawn of Modern Science and at the Intersec, Paperback/William Dampier

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Contributor(s):Author: William Dampier The Complete Works of William Dampier: Containing Particular Descriptions of Life in the Torrid Zone at the Dawn of Modern Science and at the Intersection of the Golden Age of Sail, the Golden Age of Exploration, and the Golden Age of Piracy THE PIRATE-SCIENTIST WILLIAM DAMPIER (1651-1715) lived at a remarkable time in human history: at the dawn of modern science and at the intersection of three golden ages: the golden ages of sail, exploration, and piracy. Curious to see the world and keen to add to the world's sum total of useful knowledge, he ventured out upon the high seas. He kept a careful account of his adventures in the world's Torrid Zone, describing as he went the soil, rivers, harbours, tides, currents, winds, plants, fruits and animals of the lands he visited, together with the inhabitants, their customs, religion, government and trade. WILLIAM DAMPIER sailed the great southern Pacific ocean four times, was the third Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, was the first person to circumnavigate the globe three times, was the first person to visit six continents, captained England's first scientific expedition, and touched Australian shores nearly 100 years before Captain James Cook. His writing immediately made him famous throughout Europe and impacted England's great poets and writers: Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Daniel Defoe, and Jonathan Swift. His scientific efforts influenced the work of Charles Darwin, Alexander von Humboldt, Edmund Halley, and Matthew Flinders. His writing inspired the English to challenge the Spanish and Dutch dominance in the South Seas. He wrote of free trade a century before Adam Smith. He introduced important new words to the English language, words like: banana, barbeque, castaway, sea-breeze, and subspecies. He was once left for dead by a crew of vicious mutineers, but survived against all odds. Dampier was a poor pirate, but precisely because he was a pirate he was able to tra