THE REAL ROBINSON CRUSO!

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 42, 1 June 1917, Page 7

THE REAL ROBINSON CRUSO!

One la sometimes tempted to pap ody Kipling’s famous words, an 4 ask, "What do they know of Crusoe, who only Crusoe know ?” For it a sad fact that, apart from a hazy notion that the' original of thU world-famous character was drawn from one Alexander Selkirk, little or nothing is known of a most extraordinary man. Selkirk was born in the little Fifeshire village of Largo, in 1676, and from almdst his earliest days the unconventional and adventurous* spirit of the boy brought forth th* wrath of his neighbours. When ho was about eighteen he decided that he would go to sea, and, having refused utterly to follow his father’s trade of shoe-making, he quitted his native village. Two years later we find him (at • his own request !) being.marooned on a lonely island after a violent quarrel with the captain of the ship on which he was making his second voyage. For four years and four months he remained there, but finally turned up again in Largo while his parents were at church, So to church went Alexander, and seated himself directly behind his father and mother. The good lady, on turning round and recognising her son, caused the service to be interrupted by her cries of astonishment f While at home, Selkirk fell in love with, and married, Sophie Druce. But he did not settle down. After a very short while they noth disappeared from Largo. Nothing more was heard Of them until one day, years later, a young woman arrived in Largo, saying she wis Alexander "Selkirk’s second wife, and had come to claim his belongings. She proved that Sophie Druce had died some years previously, and that now Alexander himself had also passed away on board his Majesty’s ship Weymouth, on which he Was a lieutenant.