376 
Ai.EXaNDER SELKIRK. 
ploying himself in decorating his huts, chasing the goats, which he 
equalled in speed, and scarcely ever failed of catching. He also 
tamed young kids, and kept a guard of tame cats round him, to 
defend him when asleep from the rats, which were very troublesome. 
When his clothes were w'orn out, he made others of goat-skins, but 
could not succeed in making shoes, with the use of which, however, 
habit in time enabled him to dispense. His only liquor was water. 
He computed that he had caught 1000 goats during his abode in this 
island ; of which he had let go 500, after marking them by slitting 
their ears. Commodore Anson’s people, who were there about thirty 
years after, found the first goat they shot upon the. island was thus 
marked, and, as it appeared to be very old, concluded that it had been 
under the power of Selkirk. He made companions of his tame goats 
and cats, often dancing and singing with them ; but he dreaded 
nothing so much as the thoughts of being eaten by his cats when he 
should be dead. 
Though he constantly performed his devotion at stated hours, and 
read aloud; yet when he was taken off the island, his language, from 
disuse of conversation, was become scarcely intelligible. In this 
solitude he continued four years and four months ; during w'hich time 
only two incidents happened which he thought worth relating, the oc- 
currences of every day being in his circumstances nearly similar. The 
one was, that pursuing a goat eagerly, he caught it just on the edge 
of a precipice, which was covered with bushes, so that he did not 
perceive it, and he fell over to the bottom, where he lay, according 
to Capt. Roger’s account, twenty-four hours senseless ; but, as he 
related it to R. Steele, he computed, by the alteration of the moon, that 
he had lain three days. When he came to himself, he found the goat 
lying under him dead. It was with great difficulty that he could 
crawl to his habitation, whence he was unable to stir for ten days, 
and did not recover of his bruises for a long time. The other event 
was the arrival of a ship, which was at first supposed to be French ; 
and such is the natural love of society in the human mind, that he 
was eager to abandon his solitary felicity, and surrender himself to 
them, although enemies ; but upon their landing, he found them to 
be Spaniards, of whom he had too great a dread to trust himself in 
their hands : they were by this time so near, that it required all his 
agility to escape, which he effected by climbing into a thick tree, 
being shot at several times as he ran off. Fortunately, the Spaniards 
did not discover him, though they stayed some time under the tree 
w here he was hid, and killed some goats just by. 
In this solitude Selkirk remained until the second of February 1709, 
when he saw two ships come into the bay, and knew them to be Eng- 
lish. Fie immediately lighted a fire as a signal, and on their coining 
on shore, found they were the Duke, captain Rogers, and the Duchess, 
captain Courtnay, two privateers from Bristol. He gave them the 
best entertainment he could afford ; and as they had been a long 
time at sea without fresh provisions, his goats w^ere highly acceptable. 
His habitation, consisting of two huts, one to sleep in, the other to 
dress his food in, was so obscurely situated, and so difficult of access^, 
that only one of the ship’s officers would accompany him to it. Dam- 
