JOURNAL ON PIRATE SHIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19720, 20 August 1927, Page 7 (Supplement)

JOURNAL ON PIRATE SHIP.

A MYSTERIOUS ENTRY. " A New Voyage Round the World," by William Dampier, with an introduction by Sir Albert Gray, K.C., has been published by the Argonaut Press, London. The Sunday Times ~says of the volume: ' A most valuable feature of this edition is the learned introduction from the pen of Sir Albert Gray. Dampier, he tells us, was a born observer, and never failed to note down in his journal descriptions of all birds, beasts, fishes, and plants which were new to him. How he managed to do this aboard a pirate ship amid a crew of noisy, drunken messmates, it is difficult to imagine;' but to preserve his manuscript from damage by water ho used to keep it in a hollow piece of bamboo, closed at each end with wax. " Reference is made to a passago in the journal which has always baffled all attempts at elucidation. This is the mysterious entry in 1681, which states that in that year Dampier was in Virginia, and fell into trouble there of some sort. Documentary evidence has lately turned up which goes to prove that at this time Dampier Was arrested by the Governor of Virginia and tried on a charge of piracy "