Notable Voyagers, From Columbus to Nordenskiold

by William Henry Giles Kingston; Henry Frith

During the four years he had been on the island he had not conversed with a single human being. On his first coming on board the Duke, he had so greatly forgotten his language that it was difficult to understand him, for he seemed to speak his words by halves. He was offered a dram, but would not touch it, having drunk nothing but water since his being left there. It was some time, indeed, before he could even relish the ship’s provisions.

He had, during his stay, seen several vessels pass by, but only two came to an anchor. As he cautiously approached to discover their nationality, he found them to be Spaniards, and immediately retired; but having been seen, he was pursued, and had great difficulty in escaping from them. They followed him into the woods, where he climbed to the top of a tree close to the foot of which they passed in chase of some goats, which they shot, but failed to discover him.

When landed, he had with him his clothes and bedding, with a gun, some powder, bullets, and a hatchet, a knife, a kettle, and his Bible, besides some mathematical instruments and books. For the first eight months he had great difficulty in bearing up against the melancholy feelings which oppressed him at being left alone in so desert a place. He occupied himself, however, in building two huts with pimento-trees, which he covered with long grass, and lined with the skins of goats he had killed with his gun. He had, however, but a pound of powder, and when that was nearly expended he produced fire by rubbing two sticks of pimento-tree on his knee. The lesser hut served him as kitchen, and in the larger he slept and employed himself in reading, singing psalms, and praying; so that, as he remarked, he was a better Christian while in this solitude than he had ever been before.

At first he never ate until hungry, partly because his grief took away his appetite, and partly because he had neither bread nor salt. He also never went to bed until he could watch no longer. From the pimento wood he manufactured torches, which served him as a light at night, while he enjoyed its fragrant smell. He might have caught fish, but he could not eat them for want of salt, as they disagreed with him, except crayfish, which were as large as English lobsters, and very good. These he sometimes boiled, at others broiled, as he did his goat’s flesh, with which he made very good broth.

He kept an account of five hundred goats which he had killed, and of as many more which he caught, and, having marked them on the ear, let go. When his powder failed, he caught the animals, nimble as they were, by chasing them, and from constant practice he ran with wonderful swiftness through the woods and up the rocks and hills. On one occasion, while thus engaged, he nearly lost his life by falling over a precipice. When he came to his senses, he found the goat dead under him. He there lay for twenty-four hours, and was then scarcely able to crawl to his hut, which was about a mile off. On reaching it he did not move again for ten days. He at last got accustomed to eat his meat without bread or salt. During the season he had plenty of good turnips, which had been sown by Captain Dampier’s crew, and now covered several acres of ground. Cabbage-trees also afforded him good cabbage. He seasoned his food with the fruit of the pimento-trees, which is similar to Jamaica pepper. He also found black pepper, which had some useful medicinal qualities. On wearing out his shoes, not thinking it necessary to manufacture fresh ones, he went barefooted, and thus his feet became so hard that he could run over the roughest ground without suffering. When he first took to wearing them on board his feet swelled and caused him considerable uneasiness. He employed part of his time in cutting his name on trees, with the date of his landing, and other particulars. At first he was greatly annoyed by cats and rats, which had been landed from some ships touching there, and had now greatly increased. The rats gnawed his feet and clothes while he was asleep, so he bethought himself of encouraging the cats by giving them the goats’ flesh. By this means so many of them became tame that they would assemble round him in hundreds, and kept the rats at bay. He likewise tamed some kids, and, to amuse himself, would now and then dance and sing with them and his cats.

When his clothes wore out, he made himself a coat and cap of goat-skins, which he stitched together with thongs of the same material. A nail served him for a needle. When, in time, his knife wore out from constant grinding, he made others of some iron hoops which had been left on shore. Finding in his chest some linen cloth, he manufactured some shirts, using a nail as a needle, and employing the worsted of an old stocking to stitch them, and he had his last shirt on when discovered. Had the vessels he had seen been Frenchmen he would have gone among them, but he preferred the risk of dying on the island to falling into the hands of Spaniards, who would, he believed, have murdered him, or made him a slave in the mines, as they were supposed to treat all the strangers they could get hold of.

He described the climate as genial, the winter lasting only during June and July, when there was but little frost, though occasionally heavy rains. He saw no venomous or savage creature on the island, the only beasts, besides rats and cats, being goats, the ancestors of which had been left there by Juan Fernandez, the discoverer. Besides the pimento-trees, some of which were sixty feet high, and some large cotton-trees, the only trees of value were some bearing black plums, which, however, growing among the mountains and rocks, were difficult to get at. The trees and grass were verdant all the year round, and it was evident that the soil was fertile in the extreme.

Alexander Selkirk was the true original of Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe.” He afterwards entered the Royal Navy as a lieutenant, but obtained no higher rank.

Many of the men who had been suffering from scurvy were here landed and sheltered in tents, and by means of two or three goats which Selkirk caught for them each day, and the vegetables with which they were supplied, they soon recovered.

Sailing from Juan Fernandez, a look-out was kept for Spanish vessels. Quarrels and disputes arose among the officers, but they were settled by the judicious management of the captain, and by the sensible regulations laid down for their government.