CRUSOE’S ISLAND

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 October 1939, Page 2

CRUSOE’S ISLAND

TOBAGO CLAIMS HONOUR. Where is Robinson Crusoe Island? As a matter of fact there are two of them with just claim to the title. One is the island of Juan Fernandez off the coast of Chile where Alexander Selkirk was marooned for font years during the early part of the 18th .century. The other is the tiny island of Tobago,, pronounced Tobaygo. 20 miles northeast of Trinidad. Of the two Tobago has a little better right to the name, says M. Le Tour.” It is quite true that Daniel Defoe based the story of Robinson on the adventures of the hapless Selkirk, but there Juan Fernandez Island’s claim must cease. Defoe wanted to tell the story of the buccaneer, which caught his fancy but he had no background against which to set it, since he had never been to South America. It is here that Tobago comes into the picture. Somewhere in the course of his up-and-down career, he had come across a minute description of the little island off Trinidid. Evidently it satisfied both his imagination and his need for detail. With the licence of all literary gentlemen he solved his problem by the simple expedient of transferring the exploit of Mr. Selkirk from Juan Fernandez to Tobago, with which someone had made him familiar. For a. long time the island was booted back and forth among the major Powers interested in the West Indies. All of them left it relatively untouched. The beginning of the 19th century found it in the possession of England. And there it has remained ever since—nominally English. Actually it remained Tobagon—the southernmost of the West Indies and the only totally unspoiled one of them all. It is reached from Port of-Spain Trinidad, by means of a small, clean but far from commodious steamer which plies back and forth between the two islands three times a week. One goes aboard in Trinidad at nine o’clock at night and wakes up at daybreak as one approached Tobago. And Tobago at sunrise is something worth waking up for even by those who do not. like early morning risings. It is everything’ that a jewel of a tropical, volcanic island should be.

Augmenting the small original planter population have come a few foreigners to build homes. They are simple people who like a simple life devoid of effort, show, or excitement. They are as solicitous as the natives that Tobago shall remain as it is. To that end they are stubbornly unmoved by the antics of outlanders. The motto of the entire people of the island might well bo “We Are Unimpressed."