THE RESCUE OF ROBINSON CRUSOE

Southland Times, Issue 23502, 7 May 1938, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE RESCUE OF ROBINSON CRUSOE

You have heard of Robinson Crusoe; you know he was a real man who was marooned on the island of Juan Fernandez more than 200 years ago. Here you may read the story of his rescue.

When Captain Woodea Rogers went into an office in London to get the papers called “letters of marque," so that he could be ■ a privateer, his son, Roderick, went with him. , ~ „ nn It was a London of more than 200 years ago, very different from the city of to-day; and when they came out of the building the fashionable ladies and gentlemen whom they saw on the street were bewigged and beribboned and befeathered in a fashion that would seem very St ßoferic°k U asked his father what they were going to do, and what a privateer was. . "First of all,” the captain replied, “we are going down to Bristol. My two ships the Duke and the Duchess are wafting there for us. You and I are going to be the captains on one, and Captain William Dampier will be in command of the other. We three should be able to manage very well, I think. Dampier is one of the best seamen in England; nes been round the world twice, already —and we’re not so bad ourselves, are we?" Captain Rogers nudged Roderick’s side with a big elbow and chuckled at the joke. Roderick had never been to sea in his Hie oef°“But what is a privateer, father?” persisted Roderick. "Shall we have to “Certainly we shall have to fight. That is a privateer’s business. Every time we see a ship, we shall chase it. find out what kind of ship it is, and which country it belongs to; then, if it is an enemy, we capture it as a prize.” x . Roderick soon found out now truly his father had spoken when he said they would have to fight. Every three or four days after they had put out to sea a vessel was captured and added to the squadron of privateers. There was a big Spanish ship, with a cargo of hogs and grapes; a small Chilean frigate; and several other ships, which the captains soon rigged to look like English men-o’-war.

It was no idle life, for there was a great deal to do in order to keep the privateers in good condition. Now and again they had to stop for water and wood, or to clean the boats below the waterline. One of the things Roderick liked especially to watch was the tallowing of tiie ship’s sides to make them slip through the water easily. Off the coast of Chile, Captain Rogers decided to stock up some extra oil. Roderick was glad when the refining was finished, because his father had promised that as soon as there were 80 gallons of sea lion s oil on board, he could go ashore in one of the pinnacles. They needed the oil for cooking and for candles, and they also needed provisions for their men. That was why Captain Rogers sent the open boat ashore to find out what could be obtained from the island of Juan Fernandez. Roderick left the rest of the men to collect crayfish—there were thousands of them —while he walked inland. Just round a small headland he came face to face with a wild-looking man dressed in goat skins’ “Who are you? What are you doing here?" cried Roderick, but the man had forgotten how to talk properly, and Roderick couldn’t understand what he said, although the words seemed like English. On board the Duke the strange man gradually learned to talk again, and to say the Whole of the words instead of only half, as he had done when Roderick first saw him. Captain Rogers introduced him to the much travelled Captain Dampier. “But I already know this man very Well,” said Captain Dampier. "He sailed with me five years ago in a privateer called the Cinque Ports.” , • . "How did he come to be marooned on Juan Fernandez?” asked Roderick. “He was a member of my squadron, under the command of Captain Stradling, and this man quarrelled with him so violently that he asked to be put ashore oh

the island rather than continue the voyage. Captain Stradling agreed to the arrangement.” Later, Captain Dampier told Rogers that Stradling was a poor sailor, who would better have been marooned, himself. Roderick had never met anyone in his life so interesting as the man with the goat-skin coat. All day long the boy sat near him on the deck of the frigate and coaxed mm to tell about his life on the how he built himself two huts with pimento trees, covered them with long grass, and lined them with goat skins; how he got fire by rubbing two sticks together; how we lived on crayfish and goats flesh; how the island was over-run with cats and rats which had ashore from ships in days gone by. The man told how he lad made nw coat and cap out of goat skin, which he sewed with thongs cut with b penknife; and how he made a needle out of an old nail He was, indeed, a wonderful man, and on Captain Dampier’s recommendation, Roderick’s father made him first mate of the Duke on the homeward voyage. He proved himself to be a perfect seaman as well as a very adventurous man. . “But what is your name, sirr asked Roderick when the shipwas coming back into Bristol Harbour once more. “My name is Alexander Selkirk, and I am sailing into my own home port at this minute! It was Ho 3— nearly six years ago—when I «*•» it." This man, Alexander Selkirk, was the original Robinson Crusoe. For he toldhis remarkable story to Daniel Defoe, who combmed it with a lot of political discussion into two big volumes for grown people to re The political discussions were out of date long ago, and grown people no longer read the bodk But, far generations of children, the stsayo* Selkirk and his island of Juan Fer-

nandez, of Man Friday and his pets, is as living as it was when first it was told to Roderick on board the Duke as it came sailing into Bristol Harbour, in 1709.