water. If hard-pressed, they will turn about, raising their bodies on their fore-fins, and face you with their mouths wide open; so that we used to clap a pistol to their mouths and fire down their throats. Sometimes five or six of us would surround one of these monsters, each having half a pike, and so prick him dead, which commonly was the sport of two or three hours."* Selkirk little thought, while cutting the branches of the cabbagetrees, and hunting sea-lions with Funnel and the other sailors on the beach of Juan Fernandez, that in a short time this island was to be his solitary home.

The life of comparative idleness which the crews of the two ships were leading on the island was not favourable to goodhumour or harmony, especially as, hitherto, they had not succeeded in attaining the object of their expedition. The sailors of the Cinque Ports quarrelled with their captain, Stradling; and the dispute at length ran so high, that forty-two men, or more than two-thirds of the crew, went ashore, and threatened to remain. Whether Selkirk, who, as sailing-master, was next in rank to Stradling on board the Cinque Ports, was one of those who revolted, is not ascertained; but the sequel renders it probable that he was. At length Dampier succeeded in reconciling the sailors with their captain, order was restored, and matters went on as usual.

On the 29th of February the idle crews were roused to activity by the sight of a sail. In their hurry to give chase, they left behind them one of their boats, their anchors, a quantity of oil, and other materials, and, what was more alarming, five sailors and a negro, who happened to be straggling in a part of the island distant from the beach at the time when the sail was seen. Bearing out to sea, they found the strange ship to be a Frenchman of thirty guns. After a long pursuit, they came up with her next day, and engaged her very close, the St George keeping her broadside to broadside for seven hours. A gale then sprang up, and the Frenchman escaped, disappointing the privateers of their expected booty. Nine of the St George's men had been killed, and many more wounded in the action. The crews were, nevertheless, exceedingly anxious to continue the chase; but Dampier opposed them, saying it was not worth while, and "they did not need to care for merchantmen, as he could get them a prize of £500,000 any day of the year." They therefore returned, in no very good-humour, to Juan Fernandez, which they came in sight of on the 3d of March. To their surprise they found two French vessels at anchor off the island, each of thirty-six guns: a sight which made them glad to sheer off, leaving the boat, the anchors, the oil, and the six sailors to their fate. It afterwards appeared that the Frenchmen, on landing, had taken possession of all the stores they found on the island,

*Funnel's Narrative.

and made prisoners of four of the six men, the other two managing to conceal themselves.

Prevented from again taking up their station at Juan Fernandez, the St George and the Cinque Ports bore away northeast for the coast of Peru, which they came in sight of on the 11th of March. "Coasting northward along the shore," says Funnel, "which is the highest and most mountainous I ever saw, we were surprised, on the 19th of March, to see the waves changed to a red colour for seven or eight leagues, though, on sounding, we had no ground at one hundred and seventy fathoms; but on drawing up some of the water, we found the colour to be owing to a vast quantity of fish-spawn swimming on the surface." Keeping a constant look-out for vessels to attack, they saw, on the 22d of March, two at some distance, the sternmost of which proved to be the Frenchman which they had chased and fought off Juan Fernandez. They were very eager to capture this vessel, not merely on account of her value, but because, if she reached Lima -the port she seemed to be bound for her crew would communicate the intelligence that two bucaneering ships were on the coast, and so prevent the merchantmen in that port from sailing. Captain Dampier, however, was averse to attack her; and she escaped, greatly to the discontent of the men, whose fears were in great part realised, and who were only kept from breaking out in rebellion by the capture of two considerable prizes a few days afterwards. Clearing these vessels of the valuable part of their cargo, as well as a barque laden with plank and cordage, which they fell in with on the 11th of April, they let them go, and began to meditate a descent upon some settlement on the coast north of Lima. Santa Maria was the town they resolved to attack, as they expected there to find a great quantity of gold collected from the adjacent mines. On their way to this town from the island of Gallo, which they left on the 17th of April, they captured a small Spanish vessel, on board of which they found a Guernsey man, who had long been a prisoner among the Spaniards. In high spirits with these omens of success, they sailed for Santa Maria, Captain Dampier telling them that, on a former occasion, one hundred and twenty pounds weight of gold had been carried off by a bucaneer from that town, and that, as it was now much larger, the quantity of gold in it must be enormous. They reached the town, and commenced the attack in the night-time. "The design, however," says Funnel, 66 miscarried, whether from fear, confusion, or the enemy having early intelligence of our motions, which enabled them to cut off many of our men. This is certain, that we became quite sick of our fruitless attempts before the 1st of May, and immediately re-embarked. We were now so short of provisions, that five boiled green plantains were allotted for six men; but when almost out both of hope and patience, a vessel came and anchored close beside us at midnight, which we took without resistance. This proved a

most valuable prize, being a ship of one hundred and fifty tons, laden with flour, sugar, brandy, wine, about thirty tons of marmalade of quinces, a considerable quantity of salt, and several tons of linen and woollen cloth: so that we had now a sufficient supply of provisions even for four or five years."

On board of this rich prize, to secure an equitable division of the spoil among the crews of the two ships, were placed William Funnel and Alexander Selkirk: the former on behalf of the crew of the St George, the latter on behalf of the crew of the Cinque Ports.

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The bucaneers carried their prize into the Bay of Panama, and anchored with her under the island of Tobago on the 14th of May. "Here," says Funnel, Captains Dampier and Stradling disagreed, and the quarrel proceeded to such a length, that they could not be reconciled, so that at last it was determined to part company, all the men of both crews being at liberty to go with which captain they pleased. Five of our men went over to Captain Stradling, and five of his men came to us." It would therefore seem that our hero, Selkirk, had here an opportunity of changing his captain; and as it is certain that he had no special friendship for Stradling, his not availing himself of the opportunity would indicate that, bad as Stradling was, he preferred him to Dampier. Probably he thought that, by remaining with Stradling, who was more unhesitating in his measures than_Dampier, he would sooner grow rich. At all events, he and Funnel, on quitting the prize, resumed their old stations in their respective ships. The prize was abandoned after all that was considered valuable had been taken out of her; and on the 19th of May 1704 the two ships parted company, never to meet again the St George sailing away in quest of more prizes, the Cinque Ports remaining behind. It is with the fate of the latter that we are now to be further concerned; and as Funnel went with the St George, we have no longer his narrative to guide us. SELKIRK LEFT BY THE CINQUE PORTS ON JUAN FERNANDEZDESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND.

For three months the Cinque Ports kept cruising along the shores of Mexico, Guatemala, and Equatorial America, like a villanous vulture watching the horizon for its prey. No ships, however, appeared to reward the greedy activity of the crew; and at length, in the end of August, Stradling resolved to turn southward, and make for Juan Fernandez, to take in provisions and refit. Meanwhile, as was natural among so many men of savage character cooped up idle in a vessel, all was dissension on board. Stradling and Selkirk especially were, to use a common phrase, at daggers-drawing; now in loud and angry dispute below, now scowling sullenly at each other on deck. Selkirk resolved to leave the vessel as soon as an opportunity offered. Accordingly, when in the beginning of September they came in sight of Juan Fernandez, and the two men who had been living on the island

since the beginning of March-when, it will be remembered, the St George and Cinque Ports had been obliged to sheer off without being able to pick them up-made their appearance, healthy and strong as ever, and delighting their old companions with an account of how they had spent the seven months of their solitary reign, eating fruit in abundance, chasing goats, and hunting seals, the idea flashed across his mind that he would take their place, and leaving the vessel to sail away without him, remain the possessor of Juan Fernandez. By what process of imagination he flattered himself that such a life would be agreeable; whether he finally adopted his resolution in a fit of unthinking enthusiasm, such as sometimes leads to strange and whimsical acts, or whether his differences with Stradling, and his disgust with his situation on board the Cinque Ports, were really such that escape by any method seemed advisable, cannot now be known; but at all events, the conclusion was, that when the vessel was ready to leave the island, Selkirk signified his intention of remaining. Stradling made no objections; a boat was lowered, Selkirk descended into it with all his effects, three or four men rowed him ashore under the direction of the captain, the crew of the Cinque Ports looking on from the deck. Selkirk leaped on the beach, his effects were lifted out after him by the sailors, and laid in a heap; they shook hands with him heartily, the captain standing in the boat, and bidding them make haste. The sailors jumped in, and the boat was pushed off. Poor Selkirk! he had felt a bound, an exultation of spirit at the moment of stepping on shore; but now, as the boat was shoved off, and the men sat down to the oars with their faces toward him, pride, anger, resolution, all gave way; the horrors of his situation rose at once to his view, and rushing into the surf up to the middle, he stretched out his hands towards his comrades, and implored them to come back and take him on board again. With a jeering laugh the brutal commander bade him stick to his resolution, and remain where he was, adding that it was a blessing for the crew to have got rid at last of so troublesome a fellow. The boat accordingly went off to the ship, and in a short time the Cinque Ports was out of sight. Selkirk remained on the beach beside his bundles, gazing after her till it grew dark.

Juan Fernandez, the island on which our poor Scotchman was thus cast ashore, is situated in latitude 33 degrees 40 minutes south, and longitude 79 degrees west, about four hundred miles west of the coast of Chili. The name is properly applied to a group of islands consisting of two larger and a few smaller; and the name now given to that inhabited by Selkirk, and which is the largest of the group, is Mas-a-tierra. The island was first discovered in 1572 by a Spanish navigator, who conferred on it his own name of Juan Fernandez; and for a short time it was inhabited by a small colony of Spaniards, who ultimately aban

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doned it, however, to settle on the mainland. Afterwards, as we have already seen, it became a resort of such bucaneering vessels as required, during their cruises on the west coast of America, to put in to some safe harbour to victual and refit. Once or twice, by a similar accident to that which we have described in the case of the six sailors who were left by the St George and the Cinque Ports in their hurry to give chase to the French merchantman, the island had become the residence of a castaway bucaneer, who was afterwards picked off by a passing ship. Thus, says a voyager whom we shall have yet to quote more at large, "Ringrose, in his account of the voyage of Captain Sharp and other bucaneers, mentions one who had escaped ashore on this island out of a ship, which was cast away with all the rest of the company, and says he lived five years alone, before he had the opportunity of another ship to carry him off. Captain Dampier also talks of a Mosquito Indian that belonged to Captain Watlin, who, being a hunting in the woods when the captain left the island, lived there three years alone, till Captain Dampier came hither in 1684 and carried him off." Whatever amount of truth there may be in these particular statements as to Juan Fernandez, it is certain that Selkirk's solitary residence on this island was by no means the first instance of the kind. It does not appear to have been an uncommon thing for a bucaneer in those days to be either cast ashore on a desert island by the chances of shipwreck, or to be purposely left upon one by his captain out of savage ill-will, or as a punishment for mutinous conduct. Perhaps, if the records of old voyages were thoroughly searched, instances might be found of the kind as extraordinary as Selkirk's, if not more so. The magic touch, however, of the hand of a genius has conferred a celebrity on the history of the Fifeshire mariner which distinguishes him from all other Crusoes.

To proceed with our description of Juan Fernandez. The island is of an irregular form, from ten to twelve miles long, and about six broad, its area being about seventy square miles-somewhat less than that of the island of Bute. "The south-west side," says the voyager already quoted, "is much the longest, and has a small island about a mile long lying near it, with a few visible rocks close under the shore. On this side begins a ridge of high mountains, that run across from the south-west to the north-west of the island; and the land that lies out in a narrow point to the westward appears to be the only level ground in it. On the north-east side it is very high land, and under it are the two bays where ships always put in to recruit. The best bay is all deep water, and you may carry in ships close to the rocks, if occasion require. The wind blows always over the land, and at worst along shore, which makes no sea. Near the rocks there are very good fish of several sorts, particularly large crawfish under the rocks, easy to be caught; also cavalloes, gropers, and