A roaring tale ... remains as vivid and exciting today as it was on publication in 1697 GuardianThe pirate and adventurer William Dampier circumnavigated the globe three times and took notes wherever he went. This is his frank vivid account of his buccaneering sea voyages around the world from the Caribbean to the Pacific and East Indies. Filled with accounts of raids escapes wrecks and storms it also contains precise observations of people places animals and food including the first English accounts of guacamole mango chutney and chopsticks. A bestseller on publication this unique record of the colonial age influenced Robinson Crusoe Gullivers Travels and consequently the whole of English literature.Edited with an Introduction by Nicholas Thomas