266 CRUSOE'S ISLAND. 



pointment, compeared before the pulpit, and made ac- 

 knowledgment of his sin in disagreeing with his brothers, 

 and was rebuked in the face of the congregation for it, 

 and promised amendment in the strength of the Lord, and 

 so was dismissed.' 



" With the spring of 1702 began the real career of the 

 famous adventurer, who joined the buccaneering expe- 

 dition of William Dampier as sailing master of the Cinque 

 Ports." 



His subsequent adventures have been narrated in the 

 preceding pages. 



" It was not until October, 1711, that Selkirk reached 

 England, as a long and very successful cruise under Cap- 

 tain Rogers had occupied him in the meantime. His 

 share from the booty valued at a hundred and seventy 

 thousand pounds, which the expedition captured from the 

 Spaniards, was eight hundred pounds. This sum was, at 

 that time, regarded as a substantial fortune. The follow- 

 ing spring found Selkirk in the guise of a richly dressed 

 stranger sitting in a back seat of the little Largo kirk, in 

 which he had suffered such humiliation at the hands of 

 the session, some nine years before. He had been to the 

 old shoemaker's home, and finding no one within, had 

 rightly concluded that his aged parents had gone to 

 church. All eyes were fastened upon him, and before the 

 service was over his mother startled the congregation 

 with the cry : * It's Sandie ! it's Sandie ! ' A moment later 

 she was in the arms of the returned prodigal. 



" He made a brave attempt to settle down in his native 

 village, but he constantly shunned all human society, 

 dwelt in a cave which he constructed in a cliff back of the 

 old family home, and perpetually sighed for the peace and 

 solitude of his island. He was much given to long sailing 

 excursions to Kingscraig Point and rambles through the 

 lonely valley of Keil's Den. 



"In the course of the latter he met Sophia Bruce, a 



