Surgeon, buccaneer, and author.

Believed to have been born about the year 1660.

He could speak Gaelic and also Erse, which languages he had learnt during his childhood, which was spent partly in the Highlands of Scotland and partly in Ireland.

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Surgeon, buccaneer, and author.

Believed to have been born about the year 1660.

He could speak Gaelic and also Erse, which languages he had learnt during his childhood, which was spent partly in the Highlands of Scotland and partly in Ireland.

In 1677 he sailed as mate to the surgeon of the Great Ann, of London (Captain Zachary Browne), bound for Java.

Two years later, he again sailed as surgeon's mate on a voyage to the West Indies. He deserted his ship at Jamaica and set himself up as a surgeon at Port Royal, but one day meeting with two noted buccaneers, Captain Linch and Captain Cook, he agreed to sail with them as ship's surgeon.

Wafer's subsequent adventures are recounted by Basil Ringrose in his "Dangerous Voyage and Bold Assaults of Captain Bartholomew Sharp and Others," and by William Dampier in his "New Voyage Round the World." After taking part in 1679 in the futile expedition of the buccaneers to Panama, Wafer joined the party of malcontents who left Captain Sharp and returned on foot across the Isthmus of Darien. Wafer was accidentally wounded in the knee by an explosion of gunpowder on May 5th, 1681, which he recounts in his narrative as follows: "I was sitting on the ground near one of our Men, who was drying of Gunpowder in a Silver Plate: But not managing it as he should, it blew up and scorch'd my knee to that degree, that the bone was left bare, the Flesh being torn away, and my Thigh burnt for a great way above it. I applied to it immediately such Remedies as I had in my knapsack: and being unwilling to be left behind by my companions, I made hard shift to jog on."

The whole story of these adventures is told by Wafer in a book he wrote, and which was published in London in 1699. It is called "A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America, giving an Account of the Author's Abode there," and is illustrated by some quaint copperplates.

Wafer and his companions suffered extreme hardships as they struggled through the dense tropical jungle during the wettest season of the year.

On one occasion when in danger of his life, Wafer was spared by the Indians owing to his skill as a phlebotomist, after he had been allowed to exhibit his skill to an Indian chief called Lacentra, when he bled one of his wives so successfully that the chief made Wafer his inseparable companion, to the no little discomfort of the buccaneer, who wished to reach the Atlantic and rejoin his companions who had left him behind.

Wafer described the birds, animals, fishes, and insects with considerable minuteness, although it is obvious that he had no special training in, or great gift for, natural history. Wafer eventually reached Philadelphia, where he availed himself of King James's general pardon to pirates.