But Cowley was very doubtful if any such
shoal exist, having never met with any one who had fallen in with it,
and he was assured by a pilot, who had made sixteen voyages to Brazil,
that there was no such sand. The 19th September, Cowley saw land which
he believed to be Shetland. They were off the Maes on the 28th
September, and on the 30th Cowley landed at Helvoetsluys. He travelled
by land to Rotterdam, whence he sailed in the Ann for England, and
arrived safe in London on the 12th October, 1686, after a tedious and
troublesome voyage of three years and nearly two months.
SECTION III.
Sequel of the Voyage, so far as Dampier is concerned, after the
Separation of the Nicholas from the Revenge.[160]
This is usually denominated Captain William Dampier's first Voyage
round the World, and is given at large by Harris, but on the present
occasion has been limited, in this section, to the narrative of Dampier
after the separation of Captain Cowley in the Nicholas; the observations
of Dampier in the earlier part of the voyage, having been already
interwoven in the first section of this chapter.
[Footnote 160: Dampier's Voyages, Lond. 1729, vol. I. and II. Harris,
II. 84.]
This voyage is peculiarly valuable, by its minute and apparently
accurate account of the harbours and anchorages on the western coast of
South America, and has, therefore, been given here at considerable
length, as it may become of singular utility to our trade, in case the
navigation to the South Sea may be thrown open, which is at present
within the exclusive privileges of the East India Company, yet entirely
unused by that chartered body.
