The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1876-03-25
Truth Il Stranger than Fiction.

Some two or three years since, a gun
boat of the French Navy was cruising in
the Southern Pacific, and making the
islet or rock of Salas y Gomez, a barren
nionolith, about two hundred miles from
Easter Island, the commander Thought,
as it was an unusually calm day, he
would 20 ashore and take an observation
from the rock itself, thus getting the ex4l
act position Of the spot and correcting
its bearings upon the chart, providing
they differed from his own, as he never
had heard Of anybody having been upon
the rock, and, like true navigator,
the benefit OF all who might sail
those waters in all time to come. Man
ming asboat they pulled for the rock, and
discovered that there was but one land
ng-a small Shelving piace-the rest Of
the islet being bold and precipitous.
The entire length Of this lonely place
was not more than q quarter Of mile,
without Vegetation Of any kind. Walk
lng- up the ascent they found the
bleached skeleton OF a man lying upon a
l level space, and near by they noticed a
broad, fiat, upright formation of the rock,
covered with figures or letters, which, on
examination, proved to be the Journal of
the unfortunate iIian whose bones were
Lying before the terribly pathetic record
| Of his isolation.s H&
with some sharp-poiuted stone or
she'll he had cut into the surface of this
natural tablet the date OF his shipwreck,
the name of the vessel, the year, month
and day of the commencement OF his
miserable imprisonment, each day
scratching one more little notch to the
terrible record, marking of each 36j
notehes with O. longer, deeper line, to
tell the weary, hopeless years that had
dragged along since Fate had led him to
the expiaton of her cruel sentence.
In this awful record were notes of
passing sails, sometimes years inter.
Yening between those days when the
monotOny of his existence was changed
| to the wild emotions OF hope by the sight
oil these passing ships, bearing his tel
lby-nien In tull life and hope and health
before his straining vision, and then his
dull despair as they passed on, ignorant
| Of his existence. We can imagine the
frantic energy with which he ranup and
down his narrow prison, shouting, ges-
| ticulating and wildly endeavoring to at
tract their attention, until, conscious OF
| the utter futility of all his efforts, he
threw himself upon his face and gave
Way to the bitterness OF his life.
| From the record, it seemed he had
been entirely naked since the second
| wear OF his shipwreck, aud had been on
! The island thirty-eight years ana six
months, the last marks having been
made about six months before the gun,
boat had touched at the lonely tAeater
Of this sad drama in a human life.
| : During all these thirty-eight years
this unfortunate man had lived upon
raw sheil-fish and birds. The birds be
caught at night, creeping upon them
while they slept. There was no wood,
or any kind OF vegetation, nothing to
make signal-fire or cloud OF smoke
to attract the passing ship. The
man was more completely cut of
| from any Of the means oil
escape, or of personal comfort, than any
human being Of whom history tells us
Selkirk had fruits, running streams
birds and animals, and during half o.
/ his comparatively short isolation the
society OF his man Friday. But this
pitiable human creature lived upon un
cooked fish and repulsive birds, an(
drank water from hollows in the rocks
lsupplied by the frequent rains OF those
llatitudes; butt all those years he never
tasted bread or vegetables, nor looked
upon q human face; never heard any
sound save the scream OF sea-birds anC
the ceaseless murmur OF the remorseless
sea, that forever surrounded him ani
kept him prisoner.
| There is a terrible emphasis in tbs
mute eloquence OF that which met the
eyes Of those who stepped upon this
scene Of suffering, past and gone. The
bleached skeleton lying before thal
touching record ofso many years Of suf
fering and despair, with occaslona
glimpses OF hope lifting his spirit fol
awhile, onlg to sink it into more uttel
lhoDelessness, must have drawn sudder
tears from those who read at glance
this most pathetic page In the book o
human suffering.
According to the latest definition,