The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-08-18

"Is this not peculiar? Seel Here is
the print of human foot, small and deli.
cate, and oddly enough, with toes clearly
markedP' replied Ryder.
"Oh, some of those little picaninnies
have been around staring at the ship. We
will come across them bsfore long proba
bly,"
Ryder's face fell. Picaninniesl what
or who were they? But the midshipman
had not advance hundred feet, when
several little dark-skinned children ap-
peared coming slowly and shyly toward
them.
"They b slong here on the island" ex-
planned Hubb ard. Don't you see those
thatched cottages on the skirts of the for
eet?''
Ryder's air-castles we're beginning to
totter. "What business had Robinson
Crusoe's island to be inhabited?" he
thought Indignantly. He supposed, in
common with most boys. that the island
was still lone, solitary spot, dreary with
"How do they come to be here?" he
asked at last.
"Well, the island is leased by Mr..
Ledysrd, who uses it as a sort of huge
potato patch, but finds it rather unprof-
table business. The entire population
consists of about twenty Chilians seven
women, eight men, and half dozen chill
dren."
1t should be understood that this visit
took place in 1873, or theresbouts, when
Juan Fernandez was in Mr.. Ledyard's
possession. His lease expired in 1875,
and since then, the boys may like to know,
it has been taken by one HERR Won Rodt'
whose career has been adventurous
enough to make him a worthy successor
OF Robinson Crusoe himself. Distin
guished by his valor as lieutenant of
cuirassiers, in the Austrian service, and
later, having won renown in the Franco
Prussian war in 1871; he emigrated to
Chill, where he became equally successful
as business man. A short time ago he
obtained from the Republic long lease
of the island Of Juan Fernandez, pur-
chased steamer, and carried to it a
small colony of agriculturists and stock
men. There he raised cattle and vege-
tables wherewith to supply whaling ships
with fresh provisions. Herr Won Rodt
governs his subjects in truly Crusonian
manner; serves out their rations in per-
son, and exercises patriarchal control
over their morals and manners.
Ryder felt, when Hubbard had fin
ished speaking, as though a good deal Of
life's glamour had departed forever. AL
most on the instant, to his dismay, he
ceased to imagine the hairy hunter, with
his gun and goat, scaling the wooded
heights, or to look for Man Friday be-
hind every tree. His days pleasure was
spoiled at the very outset.
"I'n tell you what" said Hubbard,
when they had come to a halt, "we'll
climb first to Alexander Selkirk's look
out. It's a notch on the top OF this
mountain, and we're right in the path
that leads to it,"
The ascent was not difficult; along a
winding path overgrown with grass and
weeds, past hemlock and pine, through
underbrush and over the cracking leaves.
After the young middies had tramped for
half an hour, talking of everything un-
der the sun; Hubbard said suddenly, as
they came to clearing:
ssDo you see that ruined fertilization on
our left? That is Fort Juan Baptiste,
now innocent of soldiery or cannon. 1t
was held and abandoned by the Spaniards
many years ago. Those weather-best
en-, broken-down doors In the side of the
mountain are entrances to small caves
where the Chilians who occupied the
fort after the Spaniards, confined revolu-
tionary prisoners"
They paused to view the queer old
crumbling ruins, the ramparts overgrown
with grass. and the two antiqugted guns
which had lain there in rusty solitude for
two centuries, and then toiled on again
upward. Hubbard related the story on
which he believed De Foes Robinson
Crusoe to be founded.
"In 1884," he said, "a Mosquito Indian
was left on the island of Juan Fernandez
by Captain Waiting, when his ship was
chased from Cumberland Bay by two
Spanish men.of war. The poor fellow
had much harder time than Selkirk,
for he was left with only his knife and
gun. The ship went northward to Pana-
ma, and her crew being blu ,caneers, they
there became scattered, some coming as
far north as the eastern shore of Virginia.
In 1851, privateering expedition was
fitted out at what is now known as Acco-
mack, Virginia, under Captain Cooke,
who made his way around the Horn, and
finally anchored in Cumberland Bay,
where he found Will, the Mosquito In
dian, who had bsen there for three years,
all alone. Will appears to have been as
tenacious of life as most mosquitoes p
drily concluded the narrator.
"Don't believe it. Where did you pick
it up?"
"Ifound the story in an old work call I'd
early English Circumn avigators,' which
by the way, l advise you to read. It will
strengthen your mind, sonny, and en-
large your understanding, and tone your
imagination" dIy suggested Hubbard,
patting his companion on the head.