This slideshow features illustrations of some of the plants and animals that William Dampier, a naturalist and pirate, observed in Australia (then known as New Holland) and New Guinea. Learn more about Dampier in the Ocean Portal article The Pirate Who Collected Plants.
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Discoveries in Australia and New Guinea
Australian Plants
Credit: Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, D.C.As soon as Dampier set foot in Australia, he began making observations and collecting specimens of plants, which he carefully pressed between the pages of books to be studied by the “ingenious” and “curious” upon his return to England. As Dampier conducted his investigations, his artist made detailed sketches like these.
New Guinea Bat
Credit: Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, D.C.In 1699, accompanied by a shipboard artist, William Dampier conducted the first scientific investigation of the plants and animals of Australia (then known as New Holland). From there he and his crew sailed to New Guinea, where Dampier had his artist draw this bat with a four-foot wingspan and gamey smell. For more about William Dampier's travels, visit our featured story The Pirate Who Collected Plants.
More Australian Plants
Credit: Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, D.C.As Dampier studied the plants he encountered in Australia, he wrote that they were “for the most part unlike any I had seen elsewhere.” In fact, nearly all the plants Dampier observed were entirely unknown to botanists at that time.
Australian Fish and Cuttlefish
Credit: Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, D.C.Dampier was not able to collect specimens of fishes and other ocean life. But he had his shipboard artist carefully record the species that Dampier found new and unusual.
New Guinea Birds
Credit: Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, D.C.After leaving Australia, Dampier and his men reached the western coast of New Guinea on New Year’s Day 1700. There Dampier observed birds that he had never seen before, like the “stately land-fowl” shown here.
New Guinea Fish and Crab
Credit: Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, D.C.The waters of New Guinea teemed with exotic fishes and crabs, which were faithfully depicted by William Dampier’s artist. When Dampier’s book A Voyage to New Holland was published in 1703, illustrations like these—along with Dampier’s vivid prose—introduced enthusiastic readers to plants, birds, and fish they had never seen before. The book became a bestseller.