CRUSOE'S ISLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 68, 20 March 1915, Page 14

CRUSOE'S ISLAND.

- WHERE TOE DRESDEN WAS ■DAK.. AN IDEAL SOLITUDE IN THE PACIFIC. (By FRANK G. CARPENTER.) \ VALPARAISO, Chile. g I dined the other night on lobsters i caught on the shores of the island where s Alexander Selkirk, the real Robinson t Crusoe, was cast away. They were large. I tender, and juicy, and I doubt if better 1 can be found in the world! Robinson i Crusoe's island is becoming a great fish- a ing ground. It has fine cod in its waters, i and it is noted for its lobsters and other f shellfish. It has also a large Chilean 1 fishing colony, and the Japanese, who i are organising a fishing industry in nor- I thern-Chile, are considering the exploita- ' tion of that territory. t Robinson Crusoe's island is known on r the maps as Juan Fernandez. It belongs * to Chile, and it lies about 400 miles west ' of Valparaiso and 2,600 miles south of ' the Panama Canal. It is reached by * government steamers, which go there to * supply the colony at certain time s of the < year, and it is ruled by officers of the ' Chilean Government. During my stay ' here I have met men who know the island well. KEPT COOL BY CURRENT. They describe it' as a paradise. It has plenty of rain and i 3 covered with a ' luxuriant vegetation. It is affected by 1 the antarctic current, which' keeps it ' perpetually cool, and the northern half, ' on which .the rains fall, is covered with ' green. ' . .' ' The island is only twelve miles long by ' seven miles wide. It consists of a. great : mass of rocks rising but of the ocean to ' a height of more than ,4,000 ft. - It' is i made up of hills and with ' riiany ravines and short valleys. The most of the shores are inaccessible, but at Cumberland Bay there 13 an excellent landing place. Behind this, is a settlement of cottages and huts made of cane wattled with straw. Xbe . houses have garden's, about thenv arid- at one - time there wa s an attempt to start a stock raising industry. There are wild-fruits which have reproduceli-'themselves from the .trees- planted;by'Alexander Selkirk, and f rom-.-the same source;there are .wild grapes as delicious a.s-those .which; Robinsou. Crusoe dried, for'■'rakins.'."". " --, • TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO. . Alexander Selkirk was the hero of Defoe's -story and, the real Robinson Crusoe. ;He was cast, away on this island more "jthan2oo''years ago," and there is a monument to him, consisting of a'marble tablet -set in the rocks on one of the"higher'^partsl of.-the island; The place: is kiiowri as Rpbinsori Crusoe's I-ookout, and it is' where.Jhe is supposed to have kept >vatcli-ilre3 burning.. to attract, the attention" of any ship might.pass. ; 'The monument was erected in 1868. by some; English - naval. officers. I have a. photograph-of-it.- The inscription reads as follows:—r IN 3IEIIORY OF ' * ALEXANDER SELKIRK, MARINER-;-A native in the .county of Fife; Scotland, .who lived on this Island, in complete solitude," four; years' and four months. * ■ -. : -.:.".','" .. "'H&nvas landed from:,the Cinque, Ports gallcyi 98 .tons, 18 guns,' A.D. 1704f and was .taken'"off hr- the' Duke, privateer, 12th February, 1709. ■ . • ' He. died lieutenant- of ;H3l.s. Weymouth, 'AD.".1723,jaged'"47> years.-. ; This- tablet ;k 'erected sneaT/ Selkirk's Lookout hy .Commodore Tow'ell arid" the officers of;H3ir.s. Tppak,~A.D:; 1863;;- -~ After : his- rescue," just- a little-more than. : 2oO years VSelkirk -'-went----to London and there -met Defoe, many talks witli. hini, and tberefrofn'got the 'idea and- background of his story. The Work 1 . "Robinson Crusoe"-.was "published ten years later." It rari through four' editions ,in *» many;■'months;-'and was the-big seller of its time. • It is one of .the- biggest sellers of 'to-day, -arid- it rarik's with the Bible and John Bunyan's "Pilgrim.'s. : Progress as' the greatest sellers of-hUtoryJ ''Robinson Crusoe* has. been translated into nearly every" known language. It:hasbeeri-prfriiedin Spanish, German, . -Russian, .Italian, Greek, arid' Arabic. .11 is brie of the boys' books, of Japan, arid a Chinese edition has .been .issued which is having an enormous sale. ( : SPECIAL STEAMER TOUR; Now that the Panama Canal 13 com pleted there probably, will be some special steamship excursions to Robinson" Crusoe's island The round trip. : from Valparaiso'; can' be made in three or four days,'and it might include a look at the cave; in .which Alexander Selkirk lived, .at; where" jfor-four, long, years he ,; Bcanned ! '.the seia ' fOr., ships and, I doubt not,- at vestiges; of: Crusoe's man Friday,andperhaps a.petrified;.fppt--pririt-"of that -which tlie savage., made upon the sand. - Selkirk was found by a ship; that had seen .the'fire on the Lookout. According to the narrative of the captain who took him to England, he was clad in goatskins arid was running about as though crazy. When he reached-London, 'his: talk ..was' the wonder of the coffee houses, and his adventures -were' discuased'hyf everyone. Sir 'Richard Steele.tbld.of Cthehi.iri.' one of his papers, arid; Selkirk, published a twelve I ing his watiderings. ' ."