On the 15th June. 1686, Cowley sailed from the Cape, the homeward-bound
Dutch fleet consisting of three ships, when at the same time other three
sailed for Bolivia. On the 22d of June they passed the line, when Cowley
computed that he had sailed quite round the globe, having formerly
crossed the line nearly at the same place, when outward-bound from
Virginia in 1683. On the 4th August they judged themselves to be within
thirty leagues of the dangerous shoal called the _Abrolhos_, laid down
in lat. 15° N. in the map: but Cowley was very doubtful if any such
shoal exist, having never met with any one who had fallen in with it,
and he was assured by a pilot, who had made sixteen voyages to Brazil,
that there was no such sand. The 19th September, Cowley saw land which
he believed to be Shetland. They were off the Maes on the 28th
September, and on the 30th Cowley landed at Helvoetsluys. He travelled
by land to Rotterdam, whence he sailed in the Ann for England, and
arrived safe in London on the 12th October, 1686, after a tedious and
troublesome voyage of three years and nearly two months.

SECTION III.

_Sequel of the Voyage, so far as Dampier is concerned, after the
Separation of the Nicholas from the Revenge._[160]

This is usually denominated Captain William Dampier's _first_ Voyage
round the World, and is given at large by Harris, but on the present
occasion has been limited, in this section, to the narrative of Dampier
after the separation of Captain Cowley in the Nicholas; the observations
of Dampier in the earlier part of the voyage, having been already
interwoven in the first section of this chapter.