Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-11-14
CRUSOE'S ISLAND.
News Received from Far Off Juan
Fernandez.

The recent visit to the northwest of
Eddie Foy's company, presenting a
burlesque version of the story of Rob-
inson Crusoe, makes quite apropos the
publication of a little recent news
from the far-off island where that
famous navigator is supposed to have
been cast away.
There has quite recently been re-
ceived news from Chill which will not
be regarded as joyful intelligence by
the friends of Daniel Defoe. Poor old
Robinson Crusoe's hut on the island of
Juan Fernandez is to be torn down
and in it's place will be erected a
prison station to be used as auxiliary
to the Chilean penitentiary at San
tiago. Juan Fernandez is to be thrown
open to settlers, and rumor is eXtant
that Mocho island will also be adver-
tised as a splendid place for poor
man to make his fortune" Mocho
island is mentioned in connection with
the story of Juan Fernandez, because,
according to South American hiStoT-
ians, the spot was probably the land
ing place of Sailor Alexander Selkirk,
whose adventures Defoe elaborated
into chapters of marvellous narrative.
instead of the lonely rock several hun
dred miles in a southwesterly direc-
ton from the port of Valparaiso.
Doubts still exists in the minds of
number of Chilean writer's as to the
! identity of the island on which Selkirk
spent four years of lonely existence.
Juan Bautista Pastene, the Italian
explorer, is alleged to have visited
Crusoes isle before he did the lake of
Mocho. The records do not bear out
this statement, although in the gov
eminent library at Santiago there is a
! volume of correspondence which refers
to Juan Fernandez. Pastene did visit
Mocho in 1914 and again in 1850. He
is alleged to have reported that he be-
| lieved that Defoe's hero was really
marooned on Mocho instead of Juan
Fernandez. However, on Nocho Pas
tene found a superior race of savages
who were of a much higher order of
intelligence than those spoken of in
: Crusoe's library. On the other hand,
there really were signs of cannibalis-
tic feasts of days gone by in the high
sands of the more remote island.
, Selkirk's hut faces on the Southern
ocean, and is a diminutive wooden af
fair. Directly under the little house
IS broad beach, partly protected from
the winds by high bluff which COM
mands from its crest a splendid view
OF the island and the surrounding Pa
cifc. Selkirlz, it is said. used the top
of this bluff for q signal station. At
the base of the cliff a long reef runs
seward, marked here and there by
sharp-pointed rocks over which the
surf dashes necessarily.
One word about Selkirk himself
English record Keepers and historians
aver that the man was a seaman who
was marooned for mutiny; but South
Americans claim that the fellow de-
serted from an English trader in
bound to Valparaiso, and, after steal
ing a boat, sailed for what he thought
was the mainland. He landed on Juan
Fernandez, and there found a semi
fertile island, visited frequently by
heavy rain showers, the home of water
fowl, and anything but tropical para
disc such as Defoe portrayed in his
remarkable record of human magma
ton. The interior of the island was
very rocky, and the flora and fauna of
the land were of that limited character
ascribed to Treasure island by Robert
Louis Stevenson.
The visits of cannibals to the beach
of Juan Fernandez are supposed to
have been related by Defoe in Robin
son Crusoe" simply to lend interest to
the story. The truth of the matter is
! that Defoe had little to learn from
Alexander Selkirk or the island of
Juan Fernandez that might have aided
him in the foundation of the character
of Crusoe. The evolution of a tradi-
ton developed Selkirk into the Defoe
Crusoe; at least, that is what the
Chileans say.