blows." Sir Walter Scott says, "The fertility of De Foe was astonishing. He wrote on all occasions and on all subjects, and seemingly had little time for preparation on the subject in hand, but treated it from the stores which his memory retained of early reading, and such hints as he caught up in society, not one of which seems to have been lost upon him. His language is genuine English, often simple, even unto vulgarity, but always so distinctly impressive, that its very vulgarity has an efficacy in giving an air of truth or probability to the facts or sentiments it conveys. Exclusive of politics, De Foe's studies led chiefly to those popular narratives which are the amusement of children and the lower classes; those accounts of travellers who have visited remote countries; of voyagers who have made discoveries of new lands and strange nations; of pirates and buccaneers who have acquired great wealth by their desperate adventures on the ocean. There is reason to believe, from a passage in his Review, that he was acquainted with Dampier, a mariner, whose scientific skill in his profession, and power of literary composition were at that time rarely found in that profession, especially among those rough sons of the ocean who acknowledged no peace beyond the line, and had as natural an enmity to a South American Spaniard as a greyhound to a hare, and who, though distinguished by the somewhat milder term of buccaneer, were little better than absolute pirates. The English government, it is well known, were not, however, very active in destroying this class of adventurers, while they confined their depredations to the Dutch and Spaniards, and indeed seldom disturbed them if they returned from the roving life and sat down to enjoy their ill-gotten gains. The courage of these men, the wonderful risks they incurred, their hairbreadth escapes, the romantic countries through which they travelled, seemed to have had infinite charms for De Foe. All his works on this topic are entertaining in the highest degree, and remarkable for the accuracy with which he personates the character of a buccaneering adventurer. De Foe's general acquaintance with nautical affairs has not been doubted, as he is said never to misapply the various sea phrases, or display an ignorance unbecoming the character under which he wrote. He appears also to have been familiar with foreign countries, their produce, their manners, and government, and whatever rendered it easy or difficult to enter into trade with them. We may therefore conclude that Purchas's Pilgrims, Hakluyt's Voyages, and the other ancient authorities, had been curiously examined by him, as well as those of his friend Dampier, of Wafer, and others, who had been in the South Seas, whether as privateers, or, as it was then called, 'upon the account.'