William+Dampier

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William Dampier was an English pirate who visited the shores of Western Australia (called New Holland) in a ship called the //Roebuck//, and wrote about it in his diary.



Here is a link to his diary, transcribed for the internet: []

Here are two passages from his diary describing the sailors' contacts with the Indigenous people. As you can read, the groups on the mainland ran and hid.

These people speak somewhat through the throat; but we could not understand one word that they said. We anchored, as I said before, January the 5th and, seeing men walking on the shore, we presently sent a canoe to get some acquaintance with them: for we were in hopes to get some provision among them. But the inhabitants, seeing our boat coming, ran away and hid themselves. We searched afterwards three days in hopes to find their houses; but found none: yet we saw many places where they had made fires. At last, being out of hopes to find their habitations, we searched no farther; but left a great many toys ashore in such places where we thought that they would come. In all our search we found no water but old wells on the sandy bays.

The sailors had more luck with the groups on the islands just off shore. These people did let the sailors make contact with them, although the islanders were clearly scared.

At last we went over to the islands and there we found a great many of the natives: I do believe there were 40 on one island, men, women, and children. The men at our first coming ashore threatened us with their lances and swords; but they were frightened by firing one gun which we fired purposely to scare them. The island was so small that they could not hide themselves: but they were much disordered at our landing, especially the women and children: for we went directly to their camp. The lustiest of the women, snatching up their infants, ran away howling, and the little children ran after squeaking and bawling; but the men stood still. Some of the women and such people as could not go from us lay still by a fire, making a doleful noise as if we had been coming to devour them: but when they saw we did not intend to harm them they were pretty quiet, and the rest that fled from us at our first coming returned again. This their place of dwelling was only a fire with a few boughs before it, set up on that side the winds was of. After we had been here a little while the men began to be familiar and we clothed some of them, designing to have had some service of them for it: for we found some wells of water here, and intended to carry 2 or 3 barrels of it aboard. But it being somewhat troublesome to carry to the canoes we thought to have made these men to have carried it for us, and therefore we gave them some old clothes; to one an old pair of breeches, to another a ragged shirt, to the third a jacket that was scarce worth owning; which yet would have been very acceptable at some places where we had been, and so we thought they might have been with these people. We put them on them, thinking that this finery would have brought them to work heartily for us; and, our water being filled in small long barrels, about six gallons in each, which were made purposely to carry water in, we brought these our new servants to the wells, and put a barrel on each of their shoulders for them to carry to the canoe. But all the signs we could make were to no purpose for they stood like statues without motion but grinned like so many monkeys staring one upon another: for these poor creatures seem not accustomed to carry burdens; and I believe that one of our ship-boys of 10 years old would carry as much as one of them. So we were forced to carry our water ourselves, and they very fairly put the clothes off again and laid them down, as if clothes were only to work in. I did not perceive that they had any great liking to them at first, neither did they seem to admire anything that we had. At another time, our canoe being among these islands seeking for game, espied a drove of these men swimming from one island to another; for they have no boats, canoes, or bark-logs. They took up four of them and brought them aboard; two of them were middle-aged, the other two were young men about 18 or 20 years old. To these we gave boiled rice and with it turtle and manatee boiled. They did greedily devour what we gave them but took no notice of the ship, or anything in it, and when they were set on land again they ran away as fast as they could. At our first coming, before we were acquainted with them or they with us, a company of them who lived on the main came just against our ship, and, standing on a pretty high bank, threatened us with their swords and lances by shaking them at us: at last the captain ordered the drum to be beaten, which was done of a sudden with much vigour, purposely to scare the poor creatures. They hearing the noise ran away as fast as they could drive; and when they ran away in haste they would cry "Gurry, gurry," speaking deep in the throat. Those inhabitants also that live on the main would always run away from us; yet we took several of them. For, as I have already observed, they had such bad eyes that they could not see us till we came close to them. We did always give them victuals and let them go again, but the islanders, after our first time of being among them, did not stir for us.

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