"The inhabitants of this Country are the miserablest People in the world.  The Hodmadods of Monomatapa, though a nasty people, yet for Wealth are Genlemen to these; who have no houses, and skin garments, Sheep, Poultry and Fruits of the Earth, Ostrich Eggs, &c as the Hodmadods have: And setting aside their Human Shape, they differ but little from brutes.  They are tall, straight-bodied, and thin, with small long limbs.  They have great Heads, round Foreheads, and great Brows.  Their Eyelids are always half closed, to keep the Flies out of their Eyes; they being so troublesome here, that no fanning will keep them from coming to one’s Face; and without the Assistance of both Hands to keep them off, they will creep into ones Nostrils, and Mouth too, if the lips are not shut very close; so that from their Infancy being thus annoyed with these Insects, they do never open their Eyes as other People: and therefore they cannot see far, unless they hold up their Heads, as if they were looking at somewhat over them.

They have great Bottle-Noses, pretty full Lips, and wide Mouths.  The two Fore-teeth of their Upper-jaw are wanting in all of them, Men and Women, old and young; whether they draw them out, I know not: Neither have they any beards.  They are long-visaged, and of a very unpleasing Aspect, having no one graceful Feature in their Faces.  Their hair is black, short, and curl’d, like that of the negroes; and not long and lank like the common Indians.  The Colour of their Skins, both of their Faces and the rest of their Body, is Coal-black, like that of the Negroes of Guinea.

They have no sort of Cloaths, but a piece of the Rind of a Tree tied like a Girdle about their Waists, and a handful of long Grass, or three or four small green Boughs of Leaves, thrust under their Girdle, to cover their nakedness."

-- William Dampier, The Discovery of New Holland, Chapter 16

I fell into a beaten road, where I saw many tracks of human feet, and some of cows, but most of horses.  As last I beheld several animals in a filed, and one or two of the same kind sitting in trees.  Their shape was very singular, and deformed, which a little discomposed me, so that I lay down behind a thicket to observe them better.  Some of them coming forward near the place where I lay, gave me an opportunity of distinctly marking their form.  Their heads and breasts were covered with a thick hair, some frizzled and others lank; they had beards like goats, and a long ridge of hair down their backs, and the foreparts of their legs and feet, but the rest of their bodies were bare, so that I might see their skins, which were of a brown buff color.  They had no tails, nor any hair at all on their buttocks, except about the anus; which, I presume, nature had placed their to defend them as they sat on the ground; for this posture they used, as well as lying down, and often stood on their hind feet.  They climbed high trees, as nimbly as a squirrel, for they had strong extended claws before and behind, terminating in sharp points, and hooked.  They would often spring, and bound, and leap with prodigious agility.  The females were not so large as the males; they had long lank hair on their heads, and only a sort of down on the rest of their bodies, except about the anus, and pudenda.  Their dugs hung between their fore-feet, and often reached almost to the ground as they walked.  The hair of both sexes was of several colours, brown, black, red, and yellow.  Upon the whole, I never beheld in all my travels so disagreeable an animal, or one against which I naturally conceived so strong antipathy.  So that thinking I had seen enough, full of contempt and aversion, I got up and pursued the beaten road, hoping it might direct me to the cabin of some Indian.  The ugly monster, when he saw me, distorted several ways every feature of his visage, and stared as at an object he had never seen before; then approaching nearer, lifted up his forepaw, whether out of curiosity or mischief, I could not tell: but I drew my hanger, and gave him a good blow with the flat side of it, for durst I not strike him with the edge, fearing the inhabitants might be provoked against me, if they should come to know that I had killed or maimed any of their cattle.

            --Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels Book IV, page 215-216

William Dampier, a pirate and navigator, first visited the South Seas in 1680.  Eight years later he returned aboard the Cygnet, and first encountered New Holland.  He spent two months in the area dubbed Cygnet Bay, after the ship.  By 1703 he published A Voyage Round the World and A Voyage to New Holland.  These works served Europe and Britain in particular as both voyage/travel narratives and as ethnographies.  While Dampier was not the first European to explore New Holland and the South Seas, his record had the most affect on the empire.

The year after publication Dampier was awarded a fleet of his own to command.  The voyage itself was unsuccessful, for it ended in a disastrous mutiny and the marooning of Alexander Selkirk, captain of Clinique Ports.  Selkirk’s misadventure provided Daniel Defoe with the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe (Exploration & Exchange 10).

Jonathan Swift likewise took his inspiration for Book IV of Gulliver’s Travels from Dampier’s stories.  His description of the yahoos comes directly from Dampier’s description of the natives (Exploration & Exchange 9).  This may also explain why Swift structured his novel as a travel narrative.  Isaac Asimov, author of The Annotated Gulliver’s Travels, writes, “This piece of Swiftian natural history is purely imaginary” (260).  What is interesting is that Asimov views Gulliver’s Travels as a fictional ethnography, a text of the science of natural history.  Swift is attempting to replicate the science of Dampier’s piece.  If one holds Dampier’s description side by side with Swift’s one can see a similarity that cannot be explained by mere coincidence.  The primary difference is that Dampier knows his subjects are human, while Swift’s fiction tries to convince the reader that the creatures are lesser primates, completely inhuman.  Both authors agree that their subjects are remarkable because they are the meanest eyesores in the entire world.  Also both choose the same topics of facial features, hair, color, and clothes to describe their subjects.  This similarity is so striking it even overrides minor differences in the appearance of the subjects.