Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1894 — REAL CRUSOE ISLAND. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

REAL CRUSOE ISLAND.

JUAN FERNANDEZ IS WHERE SELKIRK LIVED. Che A»«umption that He Paaeed Hie Wear; Year* of Exile on Tobago Island In the West Indies Is Uawarranted-The Cave Where He Sheltered Himself. Tab'et to His Memory. Upon Juan Fernandez, or MassaTerra, a rock-bound, sea girt island in the Pacific Ocean, may the name of Kobinson Crusoe's Island be fairly bestowed. For here did that hardy buccaneer, Alexander Selkirk, of

Largo, Scotland, spend more than four dreary years, thereby suggesting to Defoe his immo tai narrative. It must be remembered, however, that other spots upon the earth’s surface lay claim to Robinson Crusoe, too. Thus Tobago, in the West Indies, is held to be the true Crusoe’s

Isle, and during the last colonial and Indian exhibition held in London there was sent as an exhibit from little Tobago a skull actually purporting to be that of Robinson Cru soe’s historic goat. But the Scotch pirate certainly suggested his romance jto Defoe, wherever that author may pave chosen to lay his plot, and tor this reason Juan Fernandez must be interesting to all readers, from the crowns of its volcanic peaks to the silver surf which breaks eternally upon its shores. Amidst the island’s forest of tree fern did Selkirk live, build him a habitation and cultivate the soil; from its mountain caps must his weary eyes have sought a sail through the long years of lonely waiting, says the Philadelphia Record. “Selkirk’s Lookout” is a ragged mountain draped in foliage, thinning toward the last rounded peak, and in 1868 the tablet, which forms an illustration, was placed in its present position upon the mountain’s side at

a point judged to be sacred for many a weary month of the forlorn exile’s solitude. Scratched and cut about it are to be read the names of innumerable nonenties who have since visited the spot. Nothing is sanctified, no tract of ground too celebrated or too sacred for Smith, Jones and Robinson. Given a stump of lead pencil, and they would gleefully inscribe their historical names in the holy of holies, together with the date and their addresses in Peckham Rye, Brixton, or elsewhere. But while denying such as these the satisfaction of their names in print, we may copy the memorial. Thus it runs:

* In Memory of J ALEXANDER SELKIRK, : A Native of Largo, in the County of Fife, : I Scotland. : Who Lived on This Island in Complete : Solitude for Four Years and jfour Months. He W\. landed from the Cinque Ports Galley, 96 T>jh, 16 Guns. A. D. 1704, And Was 2’aken Off in the Duke, 1 Privjceer, Feb. 12. 1709. ; I Hi Died Lieutenant of H. M. S. Wey- • i .month, a. D., 1728, ; • Aged 47 Years. This Tablet Is Erected Near Selkirk’s Lookout by . Commodore Powell I And the officers of H. M. S. Topaze, ! A. D. 1868. ’

Selkirk’s cave is also a point of interest, though it may be doubted whether there is much more thon an imaginary connection between this

cavern and the solitary sailor. The history of Juan Fernandez presents new features of particular interest. The island was discovered in 1593 by the Spaniard whose name it bears, and between that date until its occupation by Spain in 1750 appears to have been little more than a sort of headquarters for the bold buccaneers *ho roamed all the Pacific over. Juan Fernandez passed to Chili when Spain lost her South American possessions and from 1819 until 1835 her new owner used the islet as a penal settlement To-day Chilian sportsmen—amateur and professional —wander upon Juan Fernandez seeking and slaying seal or sea lion when opportunity offers.

CRUSOE'S LONELY LOOKOUT.

TABLET ON JUAN FERNANDEZ ISLAND.