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# A Pirate of Exquisite Mind
I started to read the diaries of William Dampier, a 17th century buccaneer, naturalist, explorer, and while they're entertaining and very readable (and I've since read three of them), I just kind of dove in without knowing a whole lot about Dampier, other than, if you do some research on 17th century explorers, he comes up a lot. I found this book, which offers some context.
If you ever want to feel incredibly soft, read some books about European explorers of the 17th century. They're journals of deprivation and suffering. Half the time that deprivation and suffering is brought on by the ego and arrogance of the explorer, usually unwilling to listen to
"[I believed] no proposal for seeing any part of the world which I had never seen before could possibly come amiss." -- William Dampier
His own, more unyielding, philosophy was that “men as cannot comply with any custom or cannot endure hardships or hard fare … should endeavour to live at home for they are apt to make mountains of molehills.”
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