His Next Scheme Was To Sail For The English Settlement Of
Pulo Condore, In Lat 8 Deg.
40' N. off the river of Cambadia, and actually
came there:
But finding that the English had been massacred by their
Indian soldiers on the 3d March, 1705, for which reason no relief or
safety could be expected there, he bore away for Macao, a port belonging
to the Portuguese on the coast of China, where he and his people
separated, every one shifting for himself as well as they could. Some
went to Benjar,[215] in order to enter into the service of the English
East India Company, while others went to Goa to serve the Portuguese,
and some even entered into the service of the Great Mogul, being so bare
after so long a voyage, that any means of providing for themselves were
desirable. Clipperton returned to England in 1706, and afterwards made
another voyage round the world in the Success, of which an account will
be found in its proper place.
[Footnote 215: This is perhaps an error for Bombay; yet it may have been
Benjarmassin, on the southern coast of Borneo. - E.]
It is not easy to conceive a worse situation than that in which Captain
Dampier was left at the close of the year 1704, when Mr Funnell and his
people separated from him, being only able to retain twenty-eight of his
men, and even these were prevailed upon to stay, by representing that it
was easy to surprise some Spanish village, and that the fewer they were,
each would have the greater share in the plunder. After some
consultation, they resolved to attack Puna, a hamlet or village of
thirty houses and a small church, the inhabitants of which are well to
pass, and are under the command of a lieutenant. Dampier landed here in
a dark night, and, surprizing the inhabitants in their beds, got
possession of the place with very little trouble.
After plundering this town, they repaired to the island of Lobos de la
Mar, and took a small Spanish bark by the way, well furnished with
provisions. They now resolved to quit their own ship, and to endeavour
to sail for the East Indies in this small bark; and accordingly left the
St George at anchor under the island of Lobos, after taking every thing
valuable out of her. They then sailed across the Pacific Ocean to the
East Indies, and arrived at the Dutch settlements, where their bark was
seized, and they were turned adrift to shift for themselves as they best
might. Dampier returned naked to his owners, with a melancholy relation
of his unfortunate expedition, occasioned chiefly by his own strange
temper, being so self-sufficient and overbearing that few or none of his
officers could bear with him; and when once disputation gets in among
those who have the command, success is not to be expected. Even in this
distress, he was received as an eminent man, notwithstanding his
faillings, and was introduced to Queen Anne, having the honour to kiss
her hand, and to give her majesty some account of the dangers he had
undergone.
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