A Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland, Etc. in the Year 1699

Dampier, William, 1652-1715Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.9

Word count: 240K words
Chapters: 24

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.A Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland, Etc. in the Year 1699 by William DampierAuthor: Dampier, William, 1652-1715,Language: English, Class: G: Geography, Anthropology, Recreation, Release Date: Apr 22, 2005

Editor's review

This is William Dampier's continuation of his 1699 voyage to New Holland, a public-domain work of geography and travel. Dampier was a navigator and observer of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and this book extends his descriptions of coasts, islands, winds, products, and the condition of local inhabitants, combining the features of a ship's log and a natural history. Its value lies in the texture of first-hand testimony: routes, anchorages, victualling, encounters, and observations interweave in detail, letting readers sense the uncertainty and the accumulation of experience in early ocean exploration. For readers interested in the history of geographical discovery, maritime history, and early natural history, it offers citable original narrative. A caution: the book carries the observational perspectives and judgments of its era, and should be read with critical distance, distinguishing factual record from personal evaluation. As a public-domain e-book it suits thematic selected reading or comparison with historical sources rather than continuous popular travel reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Researchers and enthusiasts in maritime history and the history of geographical discovery
Readers interested in early natural history and travel writing
Writers seeking public-domain original voyage records for source comparison
Readers who enjoy first-hand testimony and can accept older prose styles

Not a good fit for

General readers expecting a modern translation with detailed annotation
Readers of travel literature who prefer tightly plotted, strongly narrative works
Readers sensitive to the era's biases in colonial-period texts

Reading tips

Familiarize yourself with the background of Dampier's previous voyage before reading this continuation, so routes and relationships are clearer.
Keep a map at hand to locate the coasts and islands mentioned, which helps in understanding the route and geographical descriptions.
Record factual observations separately from the author's evaluative statements to facilitate later critical citation.
You may read selectively the chapters on products, inhabitants, and navigational practice rather than insisting on reading from cover to cover.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

How does this book relate to Dampier's other voyage records?

According to its title, this book is a "continuation" of Dampier's 1699 voyage to New Holland, following his earlier narrative of the same region. Knowing the basic route and background of the previous voyage before reading helps in understanding the places, people, and events referred to here. The precise connection should be determined from the original preface and chapter contents.

What are the main contents recorded in the book?

Judging from the title and classification, this book is a geographical and travel record, mainly concerning descriptions of coasts and islands, routes and anchorages, victualling and encounters, products, and the condition of local inhabitants during the 1699 voyage. It has features of a ship's log and early natural history; specific chapter contents should be based on the original book, and details should not be inferred from a summary.

What should be noted when reading this kind of early maritime text?

Two points deserve attention: first, old spellings, place-name renderings, and units of measure may differ from today's, so reading with maps and reference works is advisable; second, the text carries the perspectives of the late seventeenth century, and its descriptions of local inhabitants may contain bias. Distinguish empirical observation from the author's judgments, read critically, and do not treat the book's evaluations as objective fact.

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About the author

Dampier, William, 1652-1715 Author · British · 1652–1715

William Dampier (1652–1715) was an English navigator and explorer who made several voyages around the world and left detailed nautical journals. His two accounts of the 1699 voyage, A Voyage to New Holland, Etc. in the Year 1699 and A Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland, Etc. in the Year 1699, record the journey's observations, geographical notes, and exotic sights from a first-hand perspective, combining the value of a voyage log with natural-history inquiry. His writing favors factual record and plain language, offering later readers primary material on ocean voyages and southern waters of the time. The library currently holds two of his works; public information on his life is limited, and readers may chiefly come to know his observational and documentary contribution through these voyage accounts.