Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-02-04
A VISIT TO CRUSOE's ISLAND.

Sailing along the coast Of Chill, we
fell in with another whaler, commanded
by friend of our captain. We deter.
mined to sail for some little time in com
pany, and to put in at the Island Of Juan
Fernandez, to supply our larder with
good stock of fisk for which its shores
are celebrated. We steered westward,
the weather was fine, and after pleas
ant voyage of several days, we heard one
night the wished-for-cry, Land ahead. "
Before us on the horizon hung a dark
mass, looking like cloud bank in the
uncertain light, but every hour standing
out higher and clearer There the
Scotchman, Alexander Selkirk, had
lived, the hero of the popular story. He
was sailor on board the ship Cinque
Ports, and in consequence of a quarrel
was landed by his captain, Stradling, on
this island in SepteF Der, l104, where he
lived in solitude till Febrnary, 1909, in
which year Captain Wood Rogers dis
covered him and brought him back to
England. The recital of Alexander Sci.
kirk adventures formed the ground
work of Defoe's celebrated romance
Juan Fernandez, also called by the
Chilians Mesatierra, lies in the Pacific
ocean, some three hundred and fifty
miles from the mainland. It is about
four miles broad and two long. The
island is named after its disvoverer,
Spaniard, who first landed here in 1868.
He found it uninhabited, but, attracted
by its beauty, he settled on it, He it
was who introduced the goats WHICH are
now so numerous on the island,
William Dampier, an Englishman,
and the boldest navigator of the seven
teenth century, who himself lived long
time among the buccaneers, relates that
a man of his ship, Mosquito Indian,
was left in 1868 on Juan Fernandez, and
remained there till 1854, in which year
Dampier himself fetched him away.
This Indian was thus the first Robinson
Crusoe who lived on the island, and
who. like Selkirk, sustained his life by
the wild goats. AS these had increased
very much, and furnished meat to the
buccaneers every time they landed, the
Spaniards thought that they would best
iniure their bold aud formidable enc
mics by destroying all these goats.
For this purpose they sent over some
immense bloodhounds, which they let
loose upon the island. But the plan
failed, for when another celebrated
navigator, Lord George Anson, the
British admiral, landed in the yesr l74l,
he found several dogs, but also a great
many goats. During his voyage round
Cane Horn his feet had been scattered
in a violent storm, and Anson found
himself afterward With only three ships
in very bad condition. Tbs crew was
suffering from scurvy and other als,
eases, and the admiral was compelled
to remain with them some time on the
beautiful island, whero they quickly
recovered. Naturally, in their letters
to England, the sailors described the
island in glowing eolors. The Span
iards. who heard of this, end fearing
the English would take possession OF
Juan Fernandez, hsstened to form q
settlement there in l75l. But 1t was
soon after visited by an earthquake,
which led them TO abandon It. The
island remained uninhabit0d till 1873,
when Chill established a penal colony
there, which existed till 1895, when the
island was again deserted.
Two years after Chilisn from Valpa-
raiso settled there, several men and
women soon followed him, and these and
their posterity we're living on the island
at the time Of our visit in 1866. The
little colony numbered about fifteen per
sons, several Of the younger men being
absent on the whale fishery.
Juan Fernandez consists Of q single
mountain ridge, which in the center
rises to lofty peak three thousand feet
high; to the west other mountains sur
round il. all Of which from the base to
the summit are covered with vegetation;
between them are dark ravines, which
form little shady valleys which open out
10 the sea.
To the east Of the central peak" the
anvil" as il is called from its peculiar
shape-extends a vide plain, which
slopes down toward the cliffs against
which the sea beats. Il is covered with
grass and shrubs. On il, with the help