William Dampier describes the hand-to-mouth existence of the aborigines of northwest Australia, and reveals a people far advanced in charity.
From January 5th to March 12th 1688, Englishman William Dampier, on the first of his record-breaking three circumnavigations of the globe, explored the northwest coast of Australia (or as he knew it, New Holland) aboard the ‘Cygnet’. He declared the natives ‘the miserablest people in the world’, but testified to their remarkable unselfishness.