Their skilful and talented pilot probably landed here, but from that day forward nothing of his history is known. Owing to the falsehoods and misstatements published by Clipperton and Funnell, his character has been much maligned. He, too, probably died in poverty, as he was already advanced in life on his return from his last voyage; and the prize money obtained was not distributed until eight or nine years afterwards. He bitterly repented of his early life among the buccaneers; even when with them his conduct was always humane; and he was induced to remain in their company more for the sake of adventure than for obtaining booty. He at all events escaped from that hardness of moral feeling which is too generally the consequence of associating with abandoned companions. Few voyagers have added so much to our knowledge of distant parts of the world, and the accuracy of his remarks has been acknowledged by all those who have visited the countries he describes. His conduct must not be judged by the opinions of the present day, when even privateering is looked down upon and condemned by all right thinking men. Whatever his countrymen may have thought of him, foreign voyagers speak of him in the highest terms. Humboldt says that no navigator could be compared to him. Malte-Bran terms him the learned Dampier, and French and Dutch discoverers style him the incomparable, the eminent, the skilful, the exact Dampier. CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR. ANSON'S VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEA--A.D. 1740.