SELKIRK, A lexander, whose adventures gave rise to Defoe’s well-known historical romance of Robinson Crusoe, was born at Largo, in Fifeshire, Scotland, about the year 1676. He was bred a seaman, and went from England in 1703, in the capacity of sailing-master of a small vessel called the Cinque-Ports galley, Charles Pickering captain. In September the same year he sailed from Cork, in company with another ship called the St George, commanded by the celebrated navigator William Dampier, intended to cruise against the Spaniards in the South Sea. On the coast of Brazil, Pickering died, and was succeeded in the command by his lieutenant Thomas Stradling. They proceeded on their voyage round Cape Horn to the island of Juan Fernandez, whence they were driven by the appearance of two French ships of thirty-six guns each, and left five of Stradling’s men there on shore, who were taken off by the French. From this they sailed to the coast of America, where Dampier and Stradling quarrelled, and separated by agreement, on the 19th of May 1704. In September following, Stradling came again to the island of Juan Fernandez, where Selkirk and his captain had a difference, which, with the circumstance of the ship’s being very leaky, and in bad condition, induced him to determine upon staying there alone; but when his companions were about to depart, his resolution was shaken, and he desired to be taken on board again. The captain, however, refused to admit him, and he was obliged to remain, having nothing but his clothes, bedding, a gun, and a small quantity of powder and ball; a hatchet, a knife, and a kettle; with his books, and mathematical and nautical instruments. He kept up his spirits tolerably till he saw the vessel put off, when, as he afterwards related, his heart yearned within him, and melted at parting at once with his comrades and all human society.

Thus left sole monarch of the island, with plenty of the necessaries of life, he found himself in a situation which was hardly supportable. He had fish, goats’ flesh, turnips and other vegetables; yet he grew dejected, languid, and melancholy, to such a degree, as to be scarcely able to refrain from doing violence to himself. Eighteen months passed before he could, by reasoning, reading his Bible, and study, be thoroughly reconciled to his condition. At length he grew happy, employing himself in decorating his huts, chasing the goats, whom he equalled in speed, and scarcely ever failed in catching. He also tamed young kids, laming them to prevent their becoming wild; and he kept a guard of tame cats about him, to defend him when asleep from the rats, that were very troublesome. When his clothes were worn out, he made others of goat-skins, but could not succeed in making shoes, with the use of which, however, habit, in time, enabled him to dispense. His only liquor was water. He computed that during his abode in the island he had caught a thousand goats, of which he had let go five hundred, after marking them by slitting their ears. Commodore Anson’s people, who were there about thirty years afterwards, found the first goat which they shot upon landing was thus marked, and, as it appeared to be very old, concluded that it had been under the power of Selkirk. But it appears by Captain Carteret’s account of his voyage in the Swallow sloop, that other persons practised this mode of marking, as he found a goat with his ears thus slit on the neighbouring island of Mas-a-fuera, where Selkirk never was. He made companions of his tame goats and cats, often dancing and singing with them. Although he constantly performed his devotions at stated hours, and read aloud, yet, when he was taken off the island, his language, from disuse of conversation, had become scarcely intelligible. In this solitude he continued four years and four months, during which time only two incidents happened which he thought worth relating, the occurrences of every day being in his circumstances nearly similar. The one was, that, pursuing a goat eagerly, he caught it just on the edge of a precipice, which was covered with bushes, so that he did not perceive it; and he fell to the bottom, where he lay, according to Captain Rogers’s account, twenty-four hours senseless; but, as he related to Sir Richard Steele, he computed, by the alteration of the moon, that he had lain three days. When he came to himself, he found the goat lying under him dead. It was with great difficulty that he could crawl to his habitation, whence he was unable to stir for ten days, and did not recover of his bruises for a long time. The other event was the arrival of a ship, which he at first supposed to be French. And such is the natural love of society in the human mind, that he was eager to abandon his solitary felicity, and surrender himself to them, although enemies; but upon their landing he found them to be Spaniards, of whom he had too great a dread to trust himself in their hands. They were by this time so near that it required all his agility to escape, which he effected by climbing into a thick tree, being shot at several times as he ran off. Fortunately the Spaniards did not discover him, though they stayed some time under the tree where he was hidden, and killed some goats just by. In this solitude Selkirk remained until the 2d of February 1709, when he saw two ships come into the bay, and knew them to be English. He immediately lighted a fire as a signal; and on their coming on shore, found they were the Duke, Captain Rogers, and the Duchess, Captain Courtney, being two privateers from Bristol. He gave them the best entertainment he could afford; and as they had been a long time at sea without fresh provisions, the goats which he caught were highly acceptable. His habitation, consisting of two huts, one to sleep in, and the other for dressing his food, was so obscurely situated, and so difficult of access, that only one of the ship’s officers would accompany him to it. Dampier, who was pilot on board the Duke, and knew Selkirk very well, told Captain Rogers that, when on board the Cinque-Ports, he was the best seaman in the vessel, upon which Captain Rogers appointed him master’s mate of the Duke-After a fortnight’s stay at Juan Fernandez, the ships proceeded on their cruize against the Spaniards; plundered a town on the coast of Peru; took a Manilla ship off Califor-[7:20:84] nia; and returned by way of the East Indies to England, where they arrived on the 1st of October 1711; Selkirk having been absent, on the day of his arrival in London, eight years one month and three days, more than half of which time he had spent alone on the island. The public curiosity being excited respecting him, he was induced to put his papers into the hands of Defoe, to arrange and form them into a regular narrative. These papers must have been drawn up after he left Juan Fernandez, as he had no means of recording his transactions there. Captain Cooke remarks, as an extraordinary circumstance, that he had contrived to keep an account of the days of the week and the month; but this might be done, as Defoe makes Robinson Crusoe do, by cutting notches in a post, or many other methods. From this account of Selkirk, Defoe adopted the notion of writing a more extensive work, the romance of Robinson Crusoe, and very dishonestly defrauded the original proprietor of his share of the profits. After his return to England he waited in London till he got his effects realized, and then proceeded, in the spring of 1712, to his native village Largo. For a few days he enjoyed the society of his relatives and friends; but, from long habit, he soon felt averse to society, and was most happy in being alone. In the upper part of the garden attached to his father’s house, he formed a kind of cave or grotto, which commanded an extensive and delightful view of the bay of Largo, and the shores of the Forth. In musing here, or wandering through a secluded and solitary valley called Keil’s Den, and fishing in the bay, he spent the greater part of his time. How long he remained here cannot be ascertained, but he eloped some time afterwards with a girl of the neighbourhood, named Sophia Bruce, and proceeded with her to London. He never returned to Largo, and but little is known of him during the latter part of his life. Sophia Bruce appears to have died between 1717 and 1720; for in the latter year he again married Frances Candis, who survived him. Selkirk died lieutenant on board his majesty’s ship Weymouth, some time in the year 1723; and it is believed that he had no children by either of his wives.^[1. Life and Adventures of Alexander Selkirk, by John Howell, Edinburgh. ]

S elkirk, an ancient royal burgh, and chief town of the county of Selkirk, in Scotland. It is situated on an elevation overlooking the valley of the river Ettrick, and commands an extensive view. It consists chiefly of one street, which expands at the market-place into an open space; and in it is the ancient tolbooth. In addition to this main street, there are a few small streets that diverge from it. The town has not increased in size or in importance for centuries; but it has been much improved of late years, and now contains many good houses, with a town-hall, having an elegant spire 110 feet in height, and in which there are apartments for the burgh and sheriff courts. There are two places of worship, one belonging to the established church, and the other to the United Associate Synod. A new prison has been erected at the north side of the town; and it also possesses several excellent schools, in which the classics, French, Italian, and the more usual branches, are taught.

Selkirk was formerly famed for the manufacture of shoes, in which it had an extensive trade; but it has now no manufactures of any consequence, the restrictions on trade, and the jealousy of the burghers or freemen, preventing young men of small capital from pushing business, and forcing them to repair to places more open to enterprise. The property of the burgh extends to 1784 acres, and its yearly income amounts to nearly L.1100. In 1833, its debts amounted to L. 16,088. It is governed by a provost, two bailies, a treasurer, and twenty-nine councillors; and it votes with the county in returning a member to parliament. The population of the burgh and parish in 1821 amounted to 2728, and in 1831 to 2833. The population of the burgh alone in the latter year was 1880.

During the wars between England and Scotland the citizens of Selkirk were famed for their courage. A party of them, amounting to between eighty and a hundred, under the command of the town-clerk, William Brydone, proceeded to the battle of Flodden, and fought with such gallantry that only a few returned. Brydone was afterwards knighted for his conduct; and the town received from James V. a grant of a thousand acres, as a recompense for the courage of the burghers, and for the town being totally burned by the English, in revenge for the bravery displayed by them at that battle. Brydone’s sword is still in the possession of his lineal descendants; and a pennon, taken, it is believed, from the Percys, by a person of the name of Fletcher, is still kept by the successive deacons of the weavers, and displayed on all civic occasions by that corporation. A mile north from the town is Philiphaugh, where the celebrated Marquis of Montrose was defeated by the covenanters under General Leslie.