272 CRUSOE'S ISLAND. 



surveillance and equipped with supplies, led to several 

 outbreaks on the part of the prisoners, culminating in a 

 massacre of both warders and troops. After this had oc- 

 curred several times, the Chilian Government decided to 

 abandon Juan Fernandez as a convict settlement. 



" It was not until 1873 that the island was once more 

 inhabited, when it was leased for a long term of years by 

 a Swiss patrician named Baron von Rodt, who, having 

 served in the Austrian cavalry, had been so badly wounded 

 at the battle of Sadowa as to be unable to continue in 

 active service as an officer of cavalry. He took part in 

 the Franco-German War on the French side — not, how- 

 ever as a combatant, but as a member of the ambulance 

 department — and, being possessed of a considerable for- 

 tune, quitted Europe for Valparaiso. Being of a misan- 

 thropical turn of mind, he established himself on the island 

 of Juan Fernandez, and, finding that the fisheries were of 

 a character to constitute a source of revenue, he leased the 

 island and engaged the services of a number of fishermen 

 and laborers of one kind and another. For a time all 

 went well, and periodically his tiny steamer might be seen 

 casting anchor off Valparaiso laden with lobsters and 

 fruit of various kinds, as well as other island produce. 

 But at the time of the Chilian war with Peru, which in- 

 terrupted communication with the mainland, all sorts of 

 difficulties arose, and from a financial point of view the 

 enterprise came to grief, the baron being compelled to sur- 

 render his lease of the island to the Chilian Government. 

 He returned to Europe, but found himself so little adapted 

 for civilized life after his island experience, and so home- 

 sick for his ocean home, that he set sail for Juan Fer- 

 nandez again, taking along with him a charming lady, 

 whom he had induced to share his lot. 



" And it is there on the pretty green island, far away 

 from everywhere in the most important of the dozen villas 

 that have been erected on the slope leading down to Cum- 



