APPENDIX. 267 



young shepherdess, and suddenly startled his people by an 

 unannounced departure with her for London. He went 

 to sea in 1717, executing a will in. her favor before taking 

 his departure. Another surprise came to the Selkirk 

 family in 1724, w4ien a woman appeared in Largo to claim 

 the property of Alexander Selkirk, as his widow. This 

 she did by means of a will drawn by him and dated De- 

 cember 12, 1720, and by a certificate of the death of ' Lieu- 

 tenant Alexander Selkirk,' who, according to that docu- 

 ment, passed away on his Majesty's ship Weymouth, in 

 1723, at the age of forty-seven years. 



" The Museum of the Society of Antiquaries, in Edin- 

 burgh, now has the chest and cocoanut shell dipper which 

 he used on the island. The family of S. R Lumsdaine, 

 Esq., of Lathallan, Scotland, owns his stoneware 'flip- 

 can,' and his ' fire-lock ' is in the possession of his own 

 descendants. The old Selkirk place in Largo is still 

 known as the ' Craggy Wall.' " 



To conclude : The authentic account of Selkirk's rescue 

 from Juan Fernandez is contained in Captain Woodes 

 Rogers's book, published in 1712, A Cruising Voyage 

 around the World, under date of February 2, 1709, as 

 follow^s : " Immediately our Pinnace return'd from the 

 Shore and brought abundance of Crawfish, with a Man 

 cloth'd in Goat Skins, who looked wilder than the first 

 owners of them, . . . His name was Alexander Selkirk.*' 



DOCTOR DOVER AND JUAN FERNANDEZ. 



'" There is a well-known drug called " Dover's powder,' 

 which doctors use frequently to break up colds, and to 

 'sweat' patients who have fevers. It is not generally 

 known that the man who invented this powder was not 

 only a physician of some little local reputation, nearly 

 two hundred years ago, but also a notorious pirate. 



" Thomas Dover was born in Warwickshire, England, 



