HOW I FOUND THE ISLAND. 3 



want to go to Juan Fernandez, but to Tobago, in the 

 Caribbean Sea." 



" You do ? What do you want to go there 

 for ? " 



" Because that is Crusoe's island." 



" Nonsense, boy ; Crusoe's island is Juan Fernan- 

 dez, in latitude 30° and some minutes south of the 

 equator; while Tobago is only 11^ north — right at 

 our doors, as one might say." 



" Well, captain, I don't want to contradict you, 

 but you are making the same mistake everybody else 

 has made for nearly two hundred years. You have 

 confounded Robinson Crusoe with Alexander Selkirk, 

 when they are two entirely different individuals, no 

 more alike than you and 1 are." 



" Do you mean to say that Defoe didn't steal his 

 story from Selkirk ? I was always told that he did. 

 If he didn't where did he get it ? " 



" Where did he get it ? Perhaps from the old 

 navigators who had lived before him, and had pub- 

 lished accounts of their voyages, such as Drake the 

 Sea King, Sir Walter Ealeigh, and many others, who 

 sailed to the West Indies and coasted the Spanish 

 Main." 



" That sounds all right ; but it'll take pretty strong 

 evidence to make me believe that Tobago is the 

 island, even if Juan Fernandez isn't. I'll tell you 

 what I'll do: I'm going down to Trinidad next 

 month, after a cargo of asphalt, and if you'll prove to 

 me that Tobago was the island Crusoe lived on, I'll 

 take you there for nothing." 



