This book is a biography of the life of William Dampier as written by W. Clark Russell. Dampier
was an English explorer pirate privateer navigator and naturalist who became the first
Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia. He was also the first person to
circumnavigate the world three times and has been described as Australia's first natural
historian as well as one of the most important British explorers of the period between Francis
Drake (16th century) and James Cook (18th century). His expeditions were among the first to
identify and name a number of plants animals foods and cooking techniques for a European
audience being among the first English writers to use words such as avocado barbecue and
chopsticks. In describing the preparation of avocados he was the first European to describe
the making of guacamole named the breadfruit plant and made frequent documentation of the
taste of numerous foods foreign to the European palate such as flamingo and manatee.
