D a m m e r P i t c h .
little Condore, lying off the north end, in which is fufficient
depth of water and fafe anchorage. Dampier * in 1686 careened
and refitted his fhip here, and has given us a good account of
many particulars. He. fays that the foil is rich and black, the
hills craggy, the eaftern part o f the ifland fandy, but cloathed
with trees o f various kinds; fome o f the ihcres are rocky, others
low and fandy. ' All the iflands are finely watered with fmall rivulets
during ten months of the year, which begin to fail towards
the latter end of March, in the dry feafon; but on digging,
water may be found in many places.
T h e vegetables obferved by Dampier + were mangoes in aftateof
nature; the Areca Oleracea, or cabbage palm; the coco palm, wild
nutmegs, grape trees, and a large tree four feet in diameter,
which, on incifion, yields a clammy juice, that, being boiled,
proves an excellent tar, and on farther boiling becomes hard
as pitch; this probably is the Dammer %■ Captain Gore, in
Cook's laft voyage ||, adds to the lift of plants, water melons, potatoes,
gourds, plantains, oranges, ihaddocks, pomegranates,
rice, and black beans. Thefe, poflibly, were acquifitions fince
the days o f Dampier, and introduced by the French, who humanely
and politically wiihed to render thefe iflands ufeful to
navigators in their way to or from "Japan, China, Manilla, Ton-
quin, Cochin-China, and many parts o f India with which the
Europeans have intercourfe. At the time Captain Gore vifited
this ifland, a Mandarine from Saigore, came here with a
certificate in French, from the bifhop o f Adran, a Frenchman,
certifying that he was fent in order to give his affiftance
* Vny. 288. f DampierVol, i. p. 314.
X Ibid. Vol. i. p. 514. )j Voy. iii. 458.
to
to any European fhip which might touch at this port. Dampier
recommended the ereition o f a fort, and mentions, among
other advantages, that fhips might in this ifland be fupplied
with mafts and yards, poflibly from the fame tree which fur-
nifhes the tar and pitch.
T h e animals, when Dampier refided on the ifland, were only
hogs, lizards, and guanoes. Before Captain Gore reached Pulo
Condore, it was plentifully flocked with buffaloes, tranfported
from the continent, which increafe here very fuccefsfully.
Numbers o f monkies inhabit the woods, and two fpecies of
fquirrels, one o f a beautiful fhining black, the other 'o f the
kind called flying, ftriped brown and white, and probably a new
fpecies. Gaubil alfo obferved rats with pendulous ears. To the
reptiles we add, that father Gaubil faw here, in 1722, the flying
dragon, ocDraeo-volans; a fcaly fpecies o f lizard called Koka, from
its piercing note refembling in found that word; it refides in
hollow trees; its bite is mortal. From thefe circumftances I
fufpeft it to be the Gekko.
H e r e are a variety of parrots, paroquets, and pigeons, and in
the woods numbers of poultry, in a ftate o f nature. I refer the
reader, for a further account, to page 262. vol. ii. of the Outlines
o f the Globe. The thruih, called by Mr. Latham* the Longtailed,
may be added to the lift of birds.
Dampier found on the ihores great plenty o f the green turtle;
thefe he fuppofes to have been in a ftate of migration, being of
opinion, that for want of food it is impoffible for them to ftay
the whole year in the neighboring feas. Opr great navigator
* Vol. ii. p. 72.
V o l . IIL I found
A n im a l s .
T o r t o is e s .