FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. S, 1906. 
368 
Crusoe La^nd. 
Its Tragic Fate—Its Thrilling Past. 
BY DR. A. J. WOODCOCK. 
Juan Fernandez, the inspiration of^ Daniel 
Defoe, and therefore the true Robinson Crusoe's 
island, disappeared beneath the waves of the 
great western ocean in the terrible earthquake 
which convulsed the Chilean coast in the month 
of August of the current year. Such was the 
import of a message flashed round the world 
over the electric telegraph wires. This sub¬ 
sidence of land in the southern Pacific was pre¬ 
ceded by the emergence of land in the northern 
in the month of June, in the Bogoslof group of 
islands. This volcanic, montane unheaval has 
attained an altitude of 900 feet and is still rising. 
It lies fifty miles west of Dutch Harbor, between 
Castle and Fire islands. The ocean boils around 
it and the steam clouds still hang and float 
above it. 
The three Robinson Crusoe islands, Mas-a- 
Tierra, Mas-a-Fuera and Santa Catalina (Goat 
Island), of which the former is the true Crusoe 
island, have been earthquake riven for centuries, 
and were themselves volcanic peaks which in the 
remote past had risen above the waters of the 
South Pacific Ocean some 400 miles from the 
coast of Chile. The seismic quakes of 1751 and 
1835 were unusually severe. During the latter, 
at a distance of one mile from the Crusoe land 
and in upward of 50 fathoms of water, smoke 
and water were ejected by day and the spot was 
marked at night by fire in the midst of a boiling 
ocean. The early navigators of those then un¬ 
known seas located the islands in latitude 33 0 
40' South, longitude 79 0 West. They found evi¬ 
dences of former visits of the native South 
Americans, long antedating their discovery by 
Juan Fernandez in 1563. These primitive navi¬ 
gators, canoe men, were no doubt attracted by 
the great abundance of fish and seals. In re¬ 
gard to this abundance of fish, J. Ross Brown 
says in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine for 
February, 1853, page 309: “Boat loads of the 
finest cod, rock-fish, mullet, lobsters and 
lamprey eels can be caught in a few hours. 
Some of the smaller ones will nibble at one’s 
hand if it be put in the water alongside the 
boat, and a slight ripple made to attract their 
attention.” 
At a distance of seventy miles in the offing 
the highest peak of Mas-a-Tierra, or Juan 
Fernandez proper, which lies nearest to the 
coast of Chile, can be made out, and as the good 
ship holds her course, the flat-topped El Yunka 
peak, the Anvil, stands boldly out at an altitude 
of 3,000 feet. It appears to be inaccessible, by 
reason of the light, shallow, tufa, badlands soil, 
overlying the eldest formation of trap, basalt 
and green-stone rocks, which renders mountain 
scrambling exceedingly fatiguing, dangerous and 
difficult. From a mass of most interesting facts 
and grotesque fiction in regard to Mr. Brown’s 
visit to these islands in May, 1849, which ap¬ 
peared as stated above, in the early Harper’s 
under caption of “Crusoe Life,” the writer has 
made the following excerpts: 
The discoverer, himself, was the first settler, 
taking some families from Lima, with whom he 
resided for a short time. Eventually the colony 
was broken up, but the goats and pigs from 
Lima speedily stocked the island. For many 
▼ears subsequently this group was the resort of 
pirates and buccaneers, who found it convenient 
in their cruising in the South Pacific to touch 
there for food and water. Capt. Tasman, a 
Dutch navigator, sailed from Batavia in 1642, 
and visited Juan Fernandez in 1643. 
Ringrose, in his account of the voyages of 
Captain Sharpe and other buccaneers, mentions 
that a vessel was cast away here, from which 
only one man out of the whole ship’s company 
escaped; and that this man lived five years alone 
upon this island, before he had any opportunity 
of getting away in another vessel. 
Captain Waltin was chased from Juan Fernan¬ 
dez in 1681 by three Spanish ships. He left on 
the island a Musquito Indian, who was out 
hunting goats when the alarm was given, and 
was unable to reach the shore before the ship 
got under way and put to sea. This Indian, ac¬ 
cording to Dampier, whose narrative I quote, 
“had with him his gun and a knife, with a small 
horn of powder, and a few shot, which being 
spent, he contrived a way, by notching h'is 
knife, to saw the barrel of his gun into small 
pieces, wherewith he made harpoons, lances, 
hooks and a long knife, heating the pieces first 
in the fire, which he struck with his gun-flint 
and a piece of the barrel of his gun which he 
hardened, having learned to do that among the 
English.” With such rude instruments as he 
made in that manner, he procured an abundant 
supply of provisions, chiefly goats and fish. In 
1684, three years after, when Dampier again 
visited the island, they put out a canoe from the 
vessel and went to look for the Musquito man. 
When they saw him, “he had no clothes left, 
having worn out those he brought from Waitin’s 
ship, but only a skin about his waist. 
“He saw our ship, the day before we came 
to an anchor, and did believe we were English, 
and therefore killed two goats in the morning 
before we came to an anchor and dressed them 
with cabbage, to treat us when we came ashore. 
He came then to the seaside to congratulate our 
safe arrival. And when we landed, a Musquito 
Indian, named Robin, first leaped ashore, and 
running to his brother Musquito man, threw 
himself flat on his face on the ground at his 
feet, who, helping him up and embracing him, 
fell flat on his face on the ground at Robin’s 
feet, and was by him taken up also. We stood 
with pleasure,” continues the famous buccaneer, 
“to behold the surprise and tenderness and 
solemnity of the interview, which was exceed¬ 
ingly affectionate on both sides; and when their 
ceremonies of civility were over, we also, that 
stood gazing at them drew near, each of us em¬ 
bracing him we had found here, who was overjoy- 
,ed to see so many of his old.friends come hither, 
as he thought, purposely to fetch him.” (The 
writer believes that the two Musquito Indians 
were father and son, of whom the son was the 
Crusoe, and that, to distinguish them, the sailors 
called the younger man Robin's son, which 
Defoe changed to Robinson, using the new, 
strange term of Crusoe as a surname for his 
hero.) 
Five Englishmen were left on the island at 
another time by Captain Davis. After the vessel 
had sailed they were attacked by a large body 
of Spaniards, who landed in one of the bays; 
but in consequence of the facilities for defense 
afforded by the cliffs, they were enabled suc¬ 
cessfully to maintain their position, although 
one of the party deserted and joined the 
Spaniards. They were afterward taken away by 
Captain Storey, of London. 
Captain Woods Rodgers, commander of the 
Duke and Duchess, privateers belonging to 
Bristol, visited Juan Fernandez in February, 
1709. The original, and perhaps most authentic 
account of the adventures of Alexander Selkirk 
is contained in a very curious and entertaining 
narrative of the voyage, written by Captain 
Rodgers himself, from which it appears that 
when the ships came near the land, a light was 
discovered, which, it was thought, must be on 
board of a ship at anchor. Two French vessels 
had been cruising in search of Captain Rodgers’ 
vessel, and these vessels they supposed to be 
lying in wait for them close to the shore. The 
boats which had started for the shore returned, 
and preparations were made for action. On the 
following day, seeing no vessel there, they went 
ashore, where they found a man clothed in goat 
skins, looking, as the narative says, “wilder than 
the first wearers of them.” He had been on the 
island four years and four months. His name 
was Alexander Selkirk, a Scotchman, who had 
been master of the Cinque Ports. Having 
quarreled with Captain Straddling, under whose 
command he sailed, he was left ashore at his 
own request, preferring solitude on an unknown 
island to the life he led on board this vessel. 
Before the boat that put him ashore left the 
beach, he repented of his resolution, and begged 
to be taken back again, but his companions 
cruelly mocked him, and left him to his fate. 
It was he that made the fire which had at¬ 
tracted the attention of the two privateers. They 
took him on board, and being a good officer, 
well recommended by Captain Dampier, lie was 
appointed mate on board Captain Rodgers’ 
vessel and taken to England. The account of 
his adventures during his long residence on the 
island is supposed to have formed the founda¬ 
tion of Robinson Crusoe, the most popular 
romance ever published in any language. A 
brief but very curious and graphic narrative of 
his adventures was published in London, soon 
after his arrival in England, under the quaint 
title of: 
“Providence displayed. Or a very 
Surprising Account of one Alexander 
Selkirk, Master of a Merchantman called 
The Cinque Ports; who dreaming that 
the Ship would soon after be lost, he 
desired to be left on a desolate Island 
in the South Seas, where he lived Four 
Years and Four Months, without seeing 
the Face of Man, the ship being after¬ 
wards cast away as he dreamed. As, 
also, How he* came afterward to be 
miraculously preserved and redeemed 
from that fatal Place, by two Bristol 
Privateers, called the Duke and Duchess, 
that took the rich Acapulco Ship, worth 
one hundred ton of Gold, and brought 
it to England. To which is added, An 
Account of his Birth and Education. 
His description of the. Island where he 
was cast; how he subsisted; the several 
strange things lie saw, and how he used 
to spend his Time. With some pious 
Ejaculations that he used during his 
melancholly Residence there. Written 
by his own Hand, and attested by most 
of the eminent Merchants upon the 
Royal Exchange.” Quarto, containing 
Twelve pages. 
In 1868 the officers of H. M. S. “Topaze” 
erected a tablet at a point on the hill road 
called “Selkirk’s Lookout,” just where in a gap 
