Dampier stayed eight days in the bay, then ran northward along the coast,
discovering the archipelago named after him, and himself naming Rosemary
Island, which lies off the coast close to Roeburne, the chief town of the
north province of the colony. From here he continued his course north till
he reached Roebuck Bay, a few leagues to the south of the scene of his
first visit, and where is now the town of Broome. The Eastern Extension
Telegraph Cable Company's alternative cable from Banjoewangi comes in
here, and the town has additional importance as being the harbour for a
large pearling fleet.
Dampier left here on September 5th, intending again to land further north,
but he abandoned the idea and directed his course for Timor. After he left
Timor he called at New Guinea, discovered and named New Britain, now a
German colonial possession, spent some weeks upon the New Guinea coast,
and then returned to Timor, whence he began his voyage home. Off Ascension
the _Roebuck_ sprang a leak and foundered. Her company, who with
difficulty saved their lives, landed upon Ascension, where they remained
till they were rescued and brought to England in the _Canterbury_, East
Indiaman.
During his stay on the coast of New Guinea Dampier, besides those
discoveries already enumerated, made others, and the frequent appearance
of his name on a modern chart of this coast still commemorates them.
Of Dampier's personality his writings give us little insight. As a good
writer should, he keeps his private affairs out of his book, but how much
we should have been interested in knowing something of the man's shore
life! Mr. Clark Russell in his admirable sketch of Dampier, for example,
takes it for granted that he never married, at any rate during his sea
career. Dampier himself tells us he was married, and gives us a very good
idea of when, but he so seldom, after once getting to work upon his
narrative, gives us a glimpse of himself that it is easily understood how
Mr. Russell came to miss that passage in the _Voyage round the World_ in
which the old sailor tells us how in 1687 he named an island the Duke of
Grafton's Isle "as soon as we all landed on it, having married my wife out
of the Duchess's family and leaving her at Arlington House at my going
abroad."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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