ROBINSON CRUSOE'S DOMAIN

Evening Star, Issue 20253, 14 August 1929, Page 12

ROBINSON CRUSOE'S DOMAIN

THE ISLE OF JUAH FERHAHDEZ Sometimes called John Fernando’s Isle, and situated in the South Pacific not far from the coast of Chile, to which republic it now belongs, the isle of Juan Fernandez must rank as one of those spots of the world which, left upon the shelf by fickle incidence ot the cyclonic human dance,' seem _tc have withdrawn themselves in seclusion to the very hinterland of the political globe (writes P.J.8., in the Melbourne ‘ Age ’). Nevertheless, at one time the diminutive island played a part by no means .unimportant in those grimly real schemes of seafaring men, the picturc.sqe features of which alone have survived in a regrouped association to stimulate our modern imaginations. Two hundred years ago they stimulated the imagination of Daniel Defoe, and provided him with the conception which eventually developed into that famous masterpiece now regarded as 11 one of the few immortal books of English literature.”

The discovery of the isle, quite by chance, in 1563 by the Spanish navigator whoso name it bears gave a flying start to the amazing romance of its history. Of an analytical turn of mind, this viking sailed forth to discover the genii of the prevailing southerly winds. Instead he found only Juau Fernandez and the strong, hitherto unknown ocean winds which boro him swiftly homo to port and to prison for witchcraft. An attempt to found a colony upon the .isle by the Jesuits, who procured the prisoner’s release, though unsuccessful, had an important bearing upon subsequent events, for during the enterprise goats and turnips readily established themselves among the native fauna and flora.

’These were the stirring, days of pirates and buccaneers, who scoured the seas in search of galleons homeward bound with treasure trom the colonies, a pastime practised more often than not under tho thinly-veneered fiction of an honourable profession by English engaged in expeditions of plunder nnuer the ajgis of their monarch. The Spaniards, who were the principal victims, strove in vain to counter this wholesale piracy of their wealth by scouring tho seas with a myriad warships. Thus we have at the convenient isle of Juan Fernandez tho staple institution of a kind of halfway house, frequented by friend and foe alike, and presenting a comjKiiidious assortment of ever-ready surprises that called for an observance of the utmost caution on the part of all ■ who elected to dally on its shores. Often would brave men-o’-war heave in sight in tho offing and bear down upon tho enemy who had forestalled them; obliging him to hurriedly slip his cables ami stand out to sea.

One such occasion provides us with tho first authentic chronicle of a marooned mariner—that of the Moskito Indian, William, who, little influenced by the intellectual complexes of a flaccid mutiny, found himself left behind whilst hunting goats in tho woods. The unfortunate man had with him only the clothes on his back and his hunting accessories; yet his half-savage selfreliance enabled him to overcome the exigencies of his lonely .situation for three years, and so establish a j recedent for more civilised ‘ell >v-unn

Several years later five Englishmen wcro-ieft.au the isle at their own rc-

gambling resources. From the very quest, in order that they might pick up with some other enterprise in the hope of reinforcing their sorely depleted first they evinced strong symptoms of an elongated sense of geograpnical dominion, and conducted their daily routine on strictly parochial lines, dividing tho islo out into districts and carefully husbanding all supplies, a semi-consti-tutional state of existence which had all the essential and few of tho non-essen-tial elements of more substantial .States, as witness the need for constant martial readiness to repel frequent attacks upon their Utopian stronghold by great bodies of Spaniards who came to destroy them

The'next prolonged inhabitant of the isle was the ociebrtaed Alexander Selkirk, a Scotchman, generally accredited as the prototype of Robinson Cru-. soc. After a difference with his commander Selkirk abandoned the ship, in tho company of his effects and a libera! supply of provisions. Without doubt he knew tho history of tho isle, and expected to be picked up ere long by some friendly vessel. Four years and four months elapsed before that cherished event transpired. We who sit in our civic atmosphere can scarcely realise the forlornness of Selkirk’s situation. His dejection at first so overpowered him that for a long time he could cat only when hunger constrained him. Ho never wont to sleep till he could “watch no longer,” invariably awakening to find a host ct rats gnawing ravenously at his feet. This problem ho solved by the medium of some goats’ ilesh, whereby he acquired tho confidence of a number of kittens, and eventually enlisted in his cause a small garrison of half-wild cats. This served him by exterminating the rats from the hut, although during a long subsequent illness they haunted him incessantly with their constantly' watchful and expectant eyes. Eventually Selkirk observed two English privateers approaching tho isle, and signalled to them with a great fire. The episode is graphically recounted by Captain Woodes-Ilogers in'his ‘Voyages.’ “Our pinnace,’’ he wrote, “returned from the shore and brought abundance of crayfish, with a man clothed in goatskins who looked wilder than the first owners of them.” He could scarcely make himself understood, having “ so much forgot his language for want of-use,” Officers and men alike spontaneously invested him with tho title of “Governor,” ami promptly set him about the business of catching goats to replenish the depleted larder, it was perceived that ho ran “ with wonderful swiftness through the woods and up tho rocks and hills,” and easily outdistanced a bulldog and some men who' were helping him. The subsequent history of “ John Fernando’s Isle ” betrays an activity which makes ample compensation for the slothful period of Selkirk’s solitude. Tho savage, irregular beauty of tho romantic spot became the scene of sanguinary conflicts between “ buccaneers ” and Spaniards*, and men were stranded upon the isle at various times. Tho pr(vateers came to rely upon it so much as a rendezvous that the Spaniards conceived tho idea of putting ashore numbers of large, ferocious dogs, which, propagating rapidly, eventually destroyed all tho goats, and with them to a largo extent the isle’s utility, until the year 1759, when the “ colony ’’ was given a primary industry by the Erection of a Spanish political prison. Today romance is kept at bay by a tall wireless aerial, which broods in lonely dominion over a Tew solemn cattle f.arms, i