The authors reveal the life of William Dampier, explorer, naturalist, and pirate-genius who inspired Darwin, Defoe, and Cook.

Intelligent and able, William Dampier spent years as a pirate before sailing with the Royal Navy. This is his own account of his remarkable voyages and groundbreaking scientific observations"

This fascinating travel and adventure book tells of pirate life and offers a rare look at the 17th-century botany and anthropology of Central and South America and the East Indies. 7 illustrations.

From the first people to leave Africa to the first to leave the planet, the urge to explore the unknown has driven human progress. Explorers tells the story of humanity's explorations, taking the reader into the lives of some of the most intrepid people ever known. Throughout history, exploration has arisen from a wide range of impulses, from trade and the search for lands to colonize, to scientific curiosity and missionary zeal. This book tells the story of explorers of every type, from those chasing glory to those seeking enlightenment. In its pages, readers will meet some of history's most famous trail blazers-people whose courage opened frontiers, turned voids into maps, forged nations, connected cultures, and added to humankind's knowledge of the world by leaps and bounds. Each life is captured in context, by considering the knowledge of the world in which the explorers lived, the factors that gave rise to their expeditions, and the technology available to them at the time. Their discoveries, and the consequences, are also considered in depth, and highlighted with beautiful maps, photographs, and illustrations. The tales of the explorers' assistants and companions are woven into the overall story, along with an examination of the qualities that made the them drop everything in pursuit of discovery.

The first sailors braved the North Sea and the Baltic in open wooden boats: their aims were varied - to fish, to trade, to conquer and plunder. Without maps or compasses, they steered by the sun or by landmarks on the coast. Nevertheless they discovered Iceland and North America and explored the rivers that flowed through Europe and Russia into the Black Sea. With the Frisians and the Vikings, extensive trade routes, better ships, larger harbours and wealthy coastal towns developed. The pinnacle of these advances was the Hansa, a commercial network that ran from Bruges to Riga. In recent years archaeologists have discovered much about the development of their ships: the elegant Viking longboat, the ubiquitous cog, the carrack and the caravel. Much, too, has been revealed about life in Viking settlements and the bustling Hanseatic cities. In this engaging and highly-illustrated volume, Dirk Meier brings to life the world of the medieval seaman, based on evidence from ship excavations and contemporary accounts of voyages. Dr Dirk Meier teaches ancient and medieval history and is Head of Coastal Archaeology at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany.

This innovative guide will lead you through the birthplace of the blues, covering the world-famous attractions, historic sites, funky shops, and gold record legacies of Memphis and the surrounding Mississippi Delta. With a strong focus on modern-day arts and music enclaves, as well as the storied sites where the blues got their start; hundreds of top-notch dining, lodging, and recreational recommendations; over one hundred illuminating photos and maps; and travel logistics, this is the most comprehensive guide to the region to-date.

From an acclaimed naval historian, Crusoe's Island charts the curious relationship between the British and an island on the other side of the world: Robinson Crusoe, in the South Pacific.The tiny island assumed a remarkable position in British culture, most famously in Daniel Defoe's novel. Andrew Lambert reveals the truth behind the legend of this place, bringing to life the voices of the visiting sailors, scientists and artists, as well as the wonders, tragedy and violence that they encountered.

On July 29, 1681, a band of English buccaneers that had been terrorizing Spanish possessions on the west coast of the Americas captured a Spanish ship, from which they obtained a derrotero, or book of charts and sailing directions. When they arrived back in England, the Spanish ambassador demanded that the buccaneers be brought to trial. The derrotero was ordered to be brought to King Charles II, who apparently appreciated its great intelligence value. The buccaneers were acquitted, to the chagrin of the king of Spain, who had the English ambassador expelled from the court at Madrid on a seemingly trumped-up charge. The derrotero was subsequently translated, and one of the buccaneers, Basil Ringrose, added a text to the compilation and information to the Spanish charts. The resulting atlas, consisting of 106 pages of charts and 106 pages of text, is published in full for the first time in this volume. Covering the coast from California to Tierra del Fuego, the Galapagos, and Juan Fernandes, Basil Ringrose's south sea waggoner is a rich source of geographical information, with observations on navigational, physical, biological, and cultural features as well as on ethnography, customs, and folklore. After almost exactly three hundred years, this secret atlas is now made available to libraries and individuals. The editors have provided an extensive introduction on historical, geographical, and navigational aspects of the atlas, as well as annotations to the charts and text, and they have plotted the coverage of the charts on modern map bases. On July 29, 1681, a band of English buccaneers that had been terrorizing Spanish possessions on the west coast of the Americas captured a Spanish ship, from which they obtained a derrotero, or book of charts and sailing directions. When they arrived back in England, the Spanish ambassador demanded that the buccaneers be brought to trial. The derrotero was ordered to be brought to King Charles II, who apparently appreciated its great intelligence value. The buccaneers were acquitted, to the chagrin of the king of Spain, who had the English ambassador expelled from the court at Madrid on a seemingly trumped-up charge. The derrotero was subsequently translated, and one of the buccaneers, Basil Ringrose, added a text to the compilation and information to the Spanish charts. The resulting atlas, consisting of 106 pages of charts and 106 pages of text, is published in full for the first time in this volume. Covering the coast from California to Tierra del Fuego, the Galapagos, and Juan Fernandes, Basil Ringrose's south sea waggoner is a rich source of geographical information, with observations on navigational, physical, biological, and cultural features as well as on ethnography, customs, and folklore. After almost exactly three hundred years, this secret atlas is now made available to libraries and individuals. The editors have provided an extensive introduction on historical, geographical, and navigational aspects of the atlas, as well as annotations to the charts and text, and they have plotted the coverage of the charts on modern map bases.

This guide covers all of North Florida and the Panhandle south through Gainesville, including Pensacola, Panama City, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine. Whether you’re looking for a vacation spot on the Gulf Coast, a wild river to paddle, a dramatic waterfall, or a historic homestead to visit, seasoned travel writers Friend and Wolf show you the best of everything in the region. Coverage includes Gainesville, Pensacola, Panama City, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine, with hundreds of authoritative and dependable lodging and dining recommendations for the entire area.

A man born with few advantages, William Dampier's single-minded determination to see the world bore all before it. A self-taught geographer, hydrographer and navigator, Dampier was also a keen natural historian who showed his contemporaries then-unknown regions of the world, and vividly described the exotic creatures and plants that inhabited them without exaggeration. Impressing the Admiralty with his book, A New Voyage round the World, Dampier was given command of the infamous Roebuck expedition and became the first Englishman to explore parts of Australia. But Dampier's past reared its head when he employed acquaintances from his buccaneering days, and numerous problems beset him along the way; upon his eventual return Dampier was court-martialled for cruelty. Though he lived and worked like a buccaneer Dampier filled in blank spaces on the map, and in pioneering the seaways he opened up the oceans for exploration, thus laying the foundations for the British Empire. Although lauded in his day and going on to influence many in both literary and scientific spheres, Dampier died in obscurity and his name, associated with piracy, disappeared for many years. Comprehensive and compellingly told, Anton Gill's biography charts the life and endeavours of William Dampier, his successes and his failings, and reinstates him into the pantheon of great explorers. Anton Gill has been a freelance writer since 1984, specialising in European contemporary history but latterly branching out into historical fiction. He is the winner of the H H Wingate Award for non-fiction for 'The Journey Back From Hell'. He is also the author of 'Into Darkness', 'Dance Between the Flames' and 'An Honourable Defeat'. 'The Devil's Mariner' was his first biography.