Evening star., 1897-03-05
ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND.
1t Was TOGabO, Near Trinidad, an
Not Juan Fernandez.

Not Juan Fernandez.
From the New York SUM-
A late dispatch in the newspapers through
out the country refers to a reported sinking
OF Juan Fernandez and to this island as
the tabled home of Robinson Crusoe
later dispatch says that the government of
Chile has decided hereafter to call Juan
Fernandez Crusoe's Island
1t takes but moment to show that Juan
Fernandez is not Crusoe's island. The story
Defoe first published in 1719 tells Just where
Crusoe's island lies. The hero was on his
way from Brazil to Guiana when the bur
rlcane wrecked him and cast him on a
lonely coast. 1t was near the mouth of the
Orinoco. - '-Ae
as he could" said Crusoe, "and found that
ne was In about II degrees north latitude
put that he was - degrees of longitude
iurther west from Capt St. Augustine so
tnat ne found he was upon the coast of
Guiana. on the north part of Rrazil he
yond the river Amazon, toward that of the
river Orinoco, commonly called the Great
RlVer, and began to consult with me what
course he should take for the shin was
leaky and very much disabled. and he was
going directly back to the coast of Brazil
l was positively against that; and looking
over the charts of the seacoast of America
with MIN, We concluded there was no in
nablted country for us to have recourse 70
till We came within the circle of the Carib-
bee Islands. and we therefore resolved 70
stand away for Barbados
Again, says Defoe toward the end of the
tale in reference to the tide about his is
land: Il afterward understood it was occa-
stoned by the great draught and refiux of
the mighty river Orinoco. i'm the mouth of
which river, as / found afterward our is-
land lay and that this island. which per-
ceiveu to be west and northwest was the
great Island of Trinidad on the north point
OF the mouth of the river. l asked Friday
thousand questions about the country.
the inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and
what nations were near. He told me all
he knew with the greatest openness imagin-
able. l asked him the names of the several
no other name than Caribs. / easily under
stood that these were the Caribbees, which
our maps place on the part of America
which reaches from the mouth of the ORR
This disposes of the fiction that Juan
Fernandez. on the other side of South
America. Is Robinson Crusoe's Island. Cru
soes island is In reality Tobago. the more
southerly of the Windward group of Brit
ish West Indian island. 1t is twenty miles
northeast from Trinidad. and is twenty-six
miles long and seven and one-half at It's
greatest breadth. Today it has a capital,
Scarborough. with nearly 1000 Inhabitants.
.;Tobago is not wanting in q legend of q
castaway. an original Of Robinson Crusoe,
for In the History OF Tobago." by Chief
Justice Woodcock. we find an account of a
there alone twenty-one years.
Two men have at different times lived for
years quite alone on the Island of Juan
Fernandez off the coast Of Chile One was
an Indian, who was left there in 1851 and
rescued in 1854, whose adventures the buc-
cancer, Captain Dampier. describes in his
New Voyage Round the World" The
other was the celebrated Alexander Selkirk,
who was found by Captain Woodes Rogers,
and by him taken from the island in 1903.
after solitary life of -four years and four
months. After Selkirk's arrival in London
he was much written about and talked of.
His experiences inspired Cowper when he
wrote his beautiful verses beginning Il am
monarch of all l survey" Defoe's Robin
striking resemblance to both the Indians s
and Scotchman's experiences. as detailed
by their rescuers. With Selkirk Crusoe has
been especially identified. and a late writer
of the life of Defoe even relates the legend
of visit of the true-born Englishman to
Selkirk at Bath.