CRUSOE’S ISLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 5 October 1920, Page 3

CRUSOE’S ISLAND

LONDON, Although Defoe himself described Crusoe’s island as being off the mouth of the “Oroonoque,” and thousands of miles from Juan Fernandez, yet it seems to be taken fpr granted that the actual original of Crusoe was Alexander Selkirk, who passed four lonely years on this lonely spot of land in the Pacific.

Juan Fernandez, which the Chilian Government now propose to turn into a kind of health resort, is 420 miles west of Valparaiso, and though rocky is by no means barren. It is 13 miles long, and 4 broad, and its peaks rise up to 3,000 ft in height.

The vegetation is wonderful. The native growth is mostly tree ferns, but the quinces, pears, peaches, and grapes which Selkirk himself or other early settlers planted, have run wild and cover the valleys.

There is plenty of life-, too, for not only goats, but also pigs and ponies run wild. The sea swanns with fish, especially a species of cod, which is an excellent food fish. There are also quantities of seals. Some fifty years ago the Chilian authorities formed a plan for colonising the island, and gave free passage-to a number of emigrants. But the scheme was a failure, and to-day the island has only about fifty inhabitants, most of them of German origin. Earlier still the island and used by Chili as a penal settement? hut ships were scarce, and more than once the convicts and warders too were left without supplies. Selkirk himself was one of a crew of buccaneers. He. quarrelled with hia skipper and was marooned at his own request. That was in 1704. He remained on the island for four years and four months, when he was rescued by Captain Rogers ,who described him as ai “man dressed in goat-skins, and uilder in appearance than the goats themsel-

ves.” '' . Selkirk really did have a man Friday,” an Indian who he found in the woods and' rescued from death. But the poor, fellow was drowned while fishing. , The cave or grotto which Selkirk used as a house is till to be seen. Around the walls are the shelves and a cupboard which ho made. The visitor is also shown a look-out point, a lofty spur of rock which the castaway is said to have climbed every day in the hope of attracting the attention of a passing ship. Some years ago a Chilean surveying party discovered on this point the, remains of an old flagstaff deeply embedded in the earth, probably the very one which Selkirk put up. In 1868 one of our own warships visited the island and erected a tablet to Selkirk’s memory,