There is a tradition that he was known to Defoe, which Sir Walter Scott traces to a passage in the _Review_. Whether Defoe knew Dampier in the flesh or not, his literary obligations to him appear considerable. _Captain Singleton_, published in 1720; the nautical passages in _Colonel Jack_, published in 1722; _A New Voyage Round the World_, published in 1725; together with a variety of ocean incidents to be met with in _Roxana_, _Moll Flanders_, and in others of the voluminous publications of this master, seem to me directly inspired by Dampier's writings. There were indeed Cowley, Wafer, Ringrose, Cooke, and the contemporary buccaneering authors to consult; but it is only necessary to contrast Defoe's tales of the sea, the marine passages in his shore stories, and his accounts of foreign countries, with the descriptions of Dampier, and more particularly the reflections with which he interpolates his narratives, to perceive the true source of some of the finest of the imaginations of the author of _Captain Singleton_ and _Robinson Crusoe_. Defoe exhibited his gratitude in an odd form. Here are some opening passages in his _New Voyage Round the World_: “It has for some ages been thought so wonderful a thing to sail the tour or circle of the globe, that when a man has done this mighty feat he presently thinks it deserves to be recorded, like Sir Francis Drake's. So, as soon as men have acted the sailor, they come ashore and write books of their voyage, not only to make a great noise of what they have done themselves, but, pretending to show the way to others to come after them, they set up for teachers and chart-makers to posterity. Though most of them have had this misfortune, that whatever success they have had in the voyage they have had very little in the relation, except it be to tell us that a seaman, when he comes to the press, is pretty much out of his element, and that a very good sailor may make but a very indifferent author.”