SELKIRK

SELKIRK, ALEXANDER, whose adventures gave rise to a well-known historical romance, was born at Largo, in Fife-shire in Scotland, about the year 1676, and was bred a seaman. He went from England, in 1703, in the capacity of sailing-master of a small vessel called the Cinque-Ports Galley, Charles Pickering captain, burthen about 90 tons, with 16 guns and 63 men; and in September the same year sailed from Cork, in company with another ship of 26 guns and 120 men, called the St George, commanded by that famous navigator William Dampier, intended to cruise against the Spaniards in the South sea. On the coast of Brazil, Pickering died, and was succeeded in his command by his lieutenant Thomas Stradling. They proceeded on their voyage round Cape Horn to the island of Juan Fernandes, whence they were driven by the appearance of two French ships of 36 guns each, and left five of Stradling's men there on shore, who were taken off by the French. Hence 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 Fernandes, 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 on 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, knife, and kettle; 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 with his comrades and all human society at once,

" — Yet believe me, Arcas,
Such is the rooted love we bear mankind,

All rustians as they were, I never heard
A sound so dismal as their parting oars.”
Thomson's Agamemnon.

Thus left sole monarch of the island, with plenty of the necessaries of life, he found himself in a situation hardly supportable. He had fish, goat's flesh, turnips and other vegetables; yet he grew dejected, languid, and melancholy, to such a degree, as to be scarce 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 of 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, who were very troublesome. When his clothes were worn out, he made others of goat skins, but could not succeed making shoes, with the use of which, however, habit, in time, enabled him to dispense. His only liquor was water. He computed that he had caught 1000 goats during his abode in the island; of which he had let go 500, after marking them by slitting their ears. Commodore Anson's people, who were there about 30 years after, 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. Though 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 over to the bottom, where he lay (according to Captain Rogers's account) 24 hours senseless; but, as he related to Sir R. 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, approaching them, 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 hid, 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, 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, the other to dress his food in, 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 cruise against the Spaniards; plundered a town on the coast of Peru; took a Manilla ship off California; and returned by way of the East Indies to England, where they arrived the 1st of October 1711; Selkirk having been absent eight years, more than half of which time he had spent alone in 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 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 took the idea of writing a more extensive work, the romance of Robinson Crusoe, and very dishonestly defrauded the original proprietor of his share of the profits. Of the time or place or manner of this extraordinary man's death we have received no account; but in 1798 the chest and musket which Selkirk had with him on the island were in the possession of his grand-nephew, John Selkirk weaver in Largo.

The circumstances of Selkirk's seclusion from human society during his stay on Juan Fernandez, and the sentiments which that situation naturally inspired, have been so finely and characteristically depicted by Mr Cowper, that many of our readers, we doubt not, will be gratified if we give the verses alluded to a place here.

I am monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute:
From the centre all round to the sea,
I am lord of the fowl and the brute.
Oh, solitude! where are the charms
That sages have seen in thy face?
Better dwell in the midst of alarms,
Than reign in this horrible place.
I am out of humanity's reach,
I must finish my journey alone,
Never hear the sweet music of speech;
I start at the sound of my own.

The beasts that roam over the plain,
My form with indifference see;
They are so unacquainted with man,
Their tameness is shocking to me.
Society, friendship, and love,
Divinely bestow'd upon man,
Oh, had I the wings of a dove,
How soon would I taste you again!
My sorrows I then might assuage
In the ways of religion and truth,
Might learn from the wisdom of age,
And be cheer'd by the sallies of youth.
Religion! what treasure untold
Resides in that heavenly word!
More precious than silver and gold,
Or all that this earth can afford.
But the sound of the church-going bell
These valleys and rocks never heard,
Ne'er sigh'd at the sound of a knell,
Or smile'd when a Sabbath appear'd.
Ye winds that have made me your sport,
Convey to this desolate shore
Some cordial endearing report
Of a land I shall visit no more.
My friends, do they now and then send
A wish or a thought after me?
O tell me I yet have a friend,
Though a friend I am never to see.
How fleet is a glance of the mind!
Compar'd with the speed of its flight,
The tempest itself lags behind,
And the swift-winged arrows of light.
When I think on my own native land,
In a moment I seem to be there;
But alas! recollection at hand
Soon hurries me back to despair.
But the sea-fowl is gone to her nest,
The beast is laid down in his lair,
Ev'n here is a season of rest,
And I to my cabin repair.
There's mercy in every place;
And mercy, encouraging thought!
Gives even affliction a grace,
And reconciles man to his lot.