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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and one of the most famous of the old 

 South Sea captains, William Dampier, a man 

 who knew more of the Spanish Main and of 

 the Pacific than any one living. He was en- 

 gaged to accompany the expedition as pilot. 

 They started in 1*708, and the voyage lasted 

 three years. In February, 1709, while lying 

 off the island of Juan Fernandez, they ob- 

 served a light on the shore, and several days 

 later, after the abatement of a storm, which 

 prevented their earlier landing, they went on 

 shore, where they found the original of De- 

 foe's Robinson Crusoe. He was clothed in 

 goat skins, and "seemed wilder than the 

 original owners of his apparel." His name 

 was Alexander Selkirk, a Scotchman, who had 

 lived alone on the island for four years and 

 four months. Captain Thomas Dover re- 

 turned from the South Seas in 1711, a wealthy 

 man; his subsequent career is only imper- 

 fectly known. In 1*721, however, he was ad- 

 mitted licentiate of the Royal College of 

 Physicians, a qualification which enabled a 

 man at that time to practice in and six miles 

 around Westminster. In 1732 he published 

 a work entitled The Ancient Physician's 

 Legacy to his Country, in which, he says 

 on the title-page " the extraordinary effects 

 of mercury are more particularly considered." 

 On page 18 is given the formula of his fa- 

 mous powder : " Take opium one ounce, salt- 

 petre and tartar vitriolated each four ounces, 

 ipecacuanha one ounce. Put the saltpetre and 

 tartar in a red-hot mortar, stirring them with 

 a spoon until they have done flaming. Then 

 powder them very fine ; after that slice in 

 your opium, grind them to a powder, and then 

 mix the other powders with these. Dose, 

 from forty to sixty or seventy grains in a 

 glass of white wine posset, going to bed, cov- 

 ering up warm, and drinking a quart or three 

 pints of the posset. Drink while sweating." 

 He says that some apothecaries have desired 

 their patients to make their wills and settle 

 their affairs before they venture upon so 

 large a dose as sixty or seventy grains. " As 

 monstrous as they may represent this, I can 

 produce undeniable proofs where a patient 

 of mine has taken no less a quantity than a 

 hundred grains and yet has appeared abroad 

 the next day." Dover continued to practice 

 in London, and in the seventh edition of The 

 Ancient Physician's Legacy there is a letter 

 to him from Catherine Hood, in which she 



speaks of having consulted him in 1737. 

 He is stated by Munk to have died in 1741 

 or 1742. 



Sisal in the Bahamas. Sisal fiber which 

 is next in importance to hemp in rope-mak- 

 ing, derived its commercial name from the 

 port of Sisal, from which it was originally 

 shipped in the Bahamas. In Yucatan the 

 plant is called hencqucn. Agave sisalana, 

 which is its botanical name, had its original 

 home in Mexico; it belongs to the same 

 family as the well-known century plant. On 

 account of its value as a fiber-producer it 

 has now been widely distributed in tropical 

 and subtropical countries. It does not re- 

 quire a rich soil, and can get along with sur- 

 prisingly little water. The plant is best 

 propagated by means of suckers, which it 

 produces abundantly ; they are allowed to 

 reach sixteen or twenty inches in height 

 and are then " lifted " and the roots trimmed 

 and some of the lower leaves removed be- 

 fore resetting. Leaves fit for cutting are 

 produced in three or four years. During the 

 first season of yielding, however, only a few 

 of the larger leaves are removed ; subse- 

 quently ten or fifteen leaves are cut from 

 each plant. The cutting is done from one 

 to three times a year. The leaves are 

 cleaned by a machine which turns out from 

 one half to one ton of fiber a day ; the clean- 

 ing should be done within a few hours after 

 the leaves are harvested, as the fermentation 

 which soon starts up in the saccharine mat- 

 ters surrounding the fiber very soon dis- 

 colors and seriously weakens it. When 

 cleaned before fermentation has set in, the 

 fiber is perf ectly white ; after passing through 

 the machine it is hung out in the sun to dry, 

 and when dry tied up into bales of three 

 hundred and fifty to four hundred pounds 

 each. An acre of land with six hundred 

 and fifty plants will yield from twelve hun- 

 dred to fifteen hundred pounds of fiber per 

 annum, the price of which ha3 varied from 

 50 per ton in 1889 to 13 in 1895. In 

 March, 1896, it was quoted at 17. A plan- 

 tation lasts about fifteen years, if carefully 

 cared for. It is necessary, however, to be 

 continually replacing individuals that have 

 " poled." This is the supreme effort in 

 the life of many plants of the agave tribe, 

 and with it they complete their life history. 



