<p>William Dampier, the &lsquo;devil&rsquo;s mariner&rsquo; as he has been called, a far voyager and&nbsp;traveller extraordinaire, lived in an era when, more truly than in other periods&nbsp;of history, the past was being put behind the present, and everything was new&nbsp;&ndash; a new world discovered by the first stirrings of the new science, under a new&nbsp;political and economic formation.</p><p><em>Dampier&rsquo;s Monkey </em>examines the late-17th century ways of comprehending an&nbsp;expanding world by re-evaluating the travel narratives of the buccaneer William&nbsp;Dampier. Included in this book is Dampier&rsquo;s journal of his voyage in the South&nbsp;Seas from 1681 to 1691, complete with his annotations and illustrations,&nbsp;published here for the first time.</p>