[12] During the voyage Rogers paid particular attention to the religious requirements of the men. Even his prisoners were “allowed liberty of conscience,” and they had “the Great Cabbin for their Mass, whilst we used the Church of England service over them on the Quarter-deck,” and in consequence he humorously remarks that “the Papists were the Low Church men.”
[13] Over thirty years later Anson experienced the same difficulty, and he records that not finding the island “in the position in which the charts had taught us to expect it” they feared they had gone too far to the westward.
[14] Rogers’s account of Selkirk created an appetite that was speedily fed by other writers. In the same year Captain Edward Cooke (who sailed with Rogers) brought out his “Voyage to the South Sea,” in which he included an account of Selkirk. In 1712 there also appeared a tract entitled “Providence Displayed; or a surprising account of one Alexander Selkirk,” which is practically a verbatim transcript from Rogers. In “The Englishman” for the 3rd December, 1713, Sir Richard Steele, who was a friend of Rogers, and had met Selkirk, published an account of Selkirk which follows in the main the story given by Rogers. Before the publication of the first part of Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” in 1719, two editions of Rogers’s book had been published. It is possible that the introduction of the character of Friday into “Robinson Crusoe” was inspired by the incident of the Mosquito Indian mentioned on p. 95 of Rogers’s book. Selkirk returned to his native Largs in Fifeshire in the spring of 1712, and eventually went to sea again. In 1720 he was Master’s Mate of H.M.S. Weymouth. He died in the following year.
[15] A piece-of-eight was equivalent in value to 4s. 6d.
[16] Anson emulated Rogers by capturing the galleon in 1743.
[17] She was named Nuestra Señora de la Incarnacion Disenganio, and was of 400 tons burden. Her Commander was Don John Pichberty, by birth a Frenchman, and brother-in-law of the French Governor in Hispaniola.
[18] The Spanish prisoners were released, including the Commander, Pichberty, and after providing them with provisions, they were despatched to Acapulco, and “parted very friendly.”
[19] The actual value of the plunder is stated in a contemporary petition to have amounted to £800,000 (Mariner’s “Mirror,” 1924, p. 377). Two large silver candlesticks taken during the cruise are now in Bristol Cathedral.
[20] Cooke, “Voyage to the S. Sea,” i, 345, and Introduction to vol. i. The shares were apportioned as follows: Captain 24 shares, Second Captain 20, First Lieutenant 16, Master and Surgeon 10, Pilot 8, Boatswain, Gunner and Carpenter 6, Cooper 5, Midshipmen 4, Quartermasters 3, Sailors 2-1/2, Landsmen 1-1/2.
[21] It is interesting to note that the South Sea Company was incorporated in 1711, under the title of “The Governor & Company of the Merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas & other parts of America.”