The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-12-11
HE RAN TO THE SHORE.

cant spot. This is the historic island which
Alexander Selkirk trOd monarch of all be
surveyed" the island which afforded the
color locale of the immortal Life and Ad-
ventures Of Robinson Crusoe," the island
which has attracted and now keeps as will
ing prisoner a restless Swiss nobleman,
Alfred de Rodt, and it is the spot of earth
which, almost alone, seems absolutely to
resist the domination of man.
In the nature of things, since on Juan
Fernandez no flourishing colony has ever
taken root and no event of benefit either
il precept or practice has TRANSFERRED, one
would have expected interest in the island
itself to have grown fitful and cold. Yet
people, with or without reason, have taken
a quite different view of it. No traveller
ever visits Valparaiso without looking out
eagerly for the Robinson Crusoe island,
ard when shipping bound from Chill
round Cape Horn or from California, as
we'll as vessels sailing between Chill and
Australia, ceased to break their voyage
there loud and wide spread was the disap-
pointment expressed by passengers and
sailors alike.
History touches Juan Fernandez at arm 8
length. Its discovery may reasonably be
associated with the exploratory period of
the Pacific. Who was the first Spanish or
the first English navigator to set foot there
is not positively known, but it is generally
accepted that about 1863 Spanish pilot
named Juan Fernandez visited and gave
his name to the island. Us0n him the fer
tile valleys and delightful climate made so
deep an impression that ne obtained from
the Spanish government grant of the
island and stocked it with goats and pigs,
meaning, no doubt, to make there home
for his old age.
He never carried out this plan, however,
and the island soon reduced to it's own
state of wildness the animals he had
brought Previous to that time no quad
ruped had lived there. 1t is to Juan Fer
nandez therefore, rather than to his own
exertions although both he and his biog-
rapher, Defoe, have made much of them)
that Alexander Selkirk owed his ability to
live there. At the time of his landing on
the island the irregular surface and the
mountains-one of which, FL Yunque, rises
5000 feet above the sea-were overrun with
the descendants of Juan Fernandez live
stock.
So we come 10 Robinson Crusoe, the
hlilb VI l-lS lsidflu MS SlOTN CduuOt De
told too often. The book of his life will
never die, but its perpetuity depends more
on the innate curiosity mankind has for
strange modes of life than on its SNIP =,
direct and absolutely admirable style
Alexander Selkirk, a native of the fish
ing village Largo, in Fifeshire, Scotland,
sailed in September, l704 as sailing master
of the ship St. George, commanded by
Thomas Stradling, on voyage TO the
coast of America. There is little doubt in
the minds of even the kindest historians
that this was a buccaneering voyage. That
was buccaneering age.
The ship put in the bay now called Cum
berland bay, on the northeast side of the
island, for fresh water. Juan Fernandez.
it should be stated, was favorite resort Of
the Pacific freebooter and known TO all
initiates
While on shore Selkirk and his captain
quarreled. They were only restrained
from exchanging blows by the fear of the
mutiny their example might precipitate,
but Selkirk, whose disposition seemed to
be to ha-bor malice, decided to abandon
the ship and remain on the island alone.
Resolution failed him, however, when he
saw the ship about to put to sea; he rau to
the shore and pleaded to be taken on
board, but the captain hardened his heart
and sailed away, leaving Selkirh; alone on
the island.
He had his clothes and bedding, gun, a
small quantity of powder and ball,