Greetings, dear readers! It's been a long time since I wrote interesting posts. The problem with Sagittarius-Monitoring is to blame, I wrote more about this and. It seems that the service organization did something, I’ll tell you later what exactly. And today I suggest you talk about the prototype of Robinson Crusoe.
Surely you all remember this breathtaking novel by Daniel Defoe, which many of us have read. And those who have not read it must have seen the adaptation of this work. So, I suddenly became interested, why did Defoe suddenly write his novel, were there any real examples of such autonomy on a desert island.
Readers of Daniel Defoe's famous novel about the adventures of Robinson Crusoe are sure that the author wrote this entertaining story after learning about the journey of the Scot Alexander Selkirk, who was on a desert island for more than four and a half years. However, he was not the only non-fictional Robinson.
Probably, not everyone was given to survive the difficult trials that befell Selkirk. He was born in 1679 in an ordinary large family of a shoemaker. Willful and unbridled, he ran away early from home, and in 1703 became a sailor on the frigate Loe Cinco Puertos, owned by the sea robber William Dampier.
In search of prey, the flotilla rounded the southern tip of Africa, crossed the Indian Ocean, visited the island of Java and, having crossed the Pacific Ocean, approached South America.
Since 1704, Selkirk was appointed to the position of boatswain on the sailing ship Five Ports, commanded by Stradling. The ship was off the coast of Chile when the sailors discovered a leak. The boatswain considered the hole to be quite large and suggested mooring for the necessary repairs to the nearest island. The captain had a completely different opinion - we need a dock and we need to head to the port. Selkirk's words that the ship might not reach him, having such a hole, caused only a sarcastic laugh from the captain. He called his opponent a coward and a reinsurer.
There was a loud skirmish. The boatswain, in response, called Stradling "damn captain" and demanded to land him on the nearest shore. The captain willingly complied with this requirement, wishing to free himself from the obstinate sailor. Moreover, he ordered to supply the rebel with some useful things. In a small sailor's chest were clothes, food for the first time, a pound of tobacco, a knife, a kettle, a flint and an ax. In addition, Selkirk had a flintlock gun, gunpowder and bullets. The date on the calendar was October 27, 1704.
How Selkirk lived on a desert island
Only after going ashore did Selkirk realize the tragedy of his situation. He hoped that he would land on the mainland, not far from populated areas, from where it would be easy for him to return to his native Scotland. Alas, the land turned out to be a small island, lying six hundred kilometers from the coast of Chile.
Selkirk screamed, begging to return. But he was not heard. The boat left, and then the sailing ship disappeared from view. Smiling unkindly, the captain wrote in the ship's log that Alexander Selkirk was missing...
But Selkirk was worried about the scandal in vain, the ship sank in a terrible hurricane just a few hours later. According to some reports, the pirates died. Some claimed that the entire crew was picked up by a Spanish ship that was nearby in those places. Subsequently, pirates for sea robbery. It can be said that the boatswain won, but he had to spend many days alone, looking for the sail of some ship. He knew well that this islet was away from the busy sea route, and he had to arrange his life.
Selkirk was a courageous young man and was able to overcome despair. He carefully examined his possessions and soon found fresh water. With great excitement, the hermit noticed that near the spring there were piles of stones that had been laid out by human hands. But when examining the entire small area, he did not see a single dwelling. As Selkirk later said, loneliness did not oppress him, he could keep his mind in the absence of communication. There is also no need to talk about boredom. If desired, there are things to do and help drive away longing and unnecessary thoughts.
There were no predatory animals here, the islander was only annoyed by rats that began to devour his meager supplies, and sometimes ran over his body when he slept. But some ship landed several cats on the shore and they bred. The hermit caught the kittens and after a while they protected him from the long-tailed creatures. There were also goats roaming here, there were many turtles and birds. Near the shore it was possible to catch a crab without much difficulty, and also to collect shellfish. In addition, trees with edible fruits grew, so only a lazy person would manage to starve.
He built himself a dwelling, began to hunt goats, and used their skins to make clothes. Before gunpowder and bullets ran out, the islander began to tame wild goats and set up a corral for them, spread a herd. Although he liked to hunt.
With a club, he ran after the goats, regular exercise kept him in shape. Once, while hunting, he fell into a deep crevice. Earlier, a goat driven by him fell there. The hermit fell on her, was seriously injured and was unconscious for about three days. Then, experiencing severe pain, he got out of the pit and crawled to his dwelling. The "domestic" goats helped, for more than a week he lay almost motionless, and the goats themselves approached him. Only a month later, his strength slowly began to return.
The miraculous rescue of Alexander Selkirk
Probably, Selkirk would have lived out his life, but on February 1, 1709, the pirate frigate Duchess anchored off the coast under the command of the Englishman Woods Rogers. The ship was heading for the coast of South America. The team was given rest and the sailors, wandering along the shore, suddenly noticed an unusual humanoid creature overgrown with hair. Several authors report that the sailors caught him and brought him bound to the ship. However, this is highly doubtful, Selkirk was young, healthy and knew the island well, so he could easily hide.
Captain Rogers, recalling the incident of that day, wrote: “After a short time the barge returned with lobsters and a man dressed in goatskins, who looked wilder than these animals. His name was Alexander Selkirk. By the will of Providence and thanks to the strength of youth (when we took him on board, he was only about thirty years old), he overcame all the difficulties of his sad situation and managed to live in solitude safely and to his own pleasure.
But is it for pleasure? Selkirk stayed on a desert island for 4 years and 5 months. He almost forgot English language, and Captain Rogers had to learn his native language again. For more than two years, Selkirk sailed on the Duchess, becoming a pirate, like his saviors. Only in 1711 did he return to England, but, strange to say, he yearned for his island until the end of his life.
In 1712, W. Rogers's book "A Journey Around the World" was published in Great Britain, which describes the author's meeting with Selkirk. This story has become very famous. The interview of the hero of the book, which he gave to journalist Richard Steele, was published by the English edition. As the journalist noted, a nostalgic note repeatedly slipped through the conversation.
His dreams of visiting the island again were not destined to come true. He died at the age of forty-two from a tropical fever on a ship. In 1719 Daniel Defoe's novel was published.
Robinson Crusoe Island
As already mentioned, it was believed that Defoe "copied" his hero from Selkirk. The novel has become one of the most beloved books of young people. A monument was erected to him 165 years after his death. In 1960, Fr. Mas-a-Tierra became the island of Crusoe, another name for about. Mas-a-Fuera, now it bears the name of A. Selkirk. On about. Crusoe in a small village of just over six hundred residents who serve the arrivals on the island and get seafood. The Aldea de Daniel Defoe hotel and the Friday cafe were built, there is the Crusoe bridge and the Selkirk cave. You can climb to the platform, from where he looked into the distance for many hours to see a sailing ship on the horizon.
Here is a beautiful virgin nature, there are huts where there are no benefits of civilization. True, getting here is not easy, there are no regular flights to the "mainland". But perhaps this is its own charm, there are no tourist groups and fuss, only romantics come here.
Pedro Serrano - another poor fellow on a desert island
However, later literary scholars raised some doubts about the validity of the assumption that the writer used the story of Selkirk. The author of the famous book could have known another story that happened much earlier, around 1540 with a sailor from Spain, Pedro Serrano.
This story took place off the coast of Chile. As a result of the shipwreck, Pedro threw away huge wave on a completely deserted, deserted island. It was a sandy spit of about 8 km without a single blade of grass! There was no fresh water either - only yellow sand, dry algae and wooden fragments thrown out by the sea waves. Serrano had only the clothes that were on him, and a knife tied to his belt. There was nothing to light a fire.
For the first days, the unfortunate man ate raw shrimp and shells dug out of the sand. The future promised nothing but death. Serrano even considered suicide. But suddenly he noticed large turtles slowly crawling out of the sea. He rushed towards them, stopped one and turned it around, then cut the prisoner's throat and drank blood. Tortoise meat dried in the hot sun was tasty and very nutritious. In the shells of these reptiles, he collected rainwater.
Yet Serrano was constantly thinking about fire. He would allow not only to cook normal hot food, but would also give at least the slightest hope: the smoke from the fire could become a signal for a ship passing by the island.
Diving in search of edible underwater inhabitants, the islander closely scanned the seabed. Once, at great depths, he noticed what he was looking for: stones! At the risk of drowning, he dived and with difficulty grabbed a few stones. One he was able to use as flint. Soon the first fire blazed on the island!
Exactly three years had passed when the evil fate threw the Spaniard to this island. During this time, he several times noticed the sail of ships passing in the distance. But no one approached - perhaps they did not notice the signal given by Serrano.
Serrano had a comrade in misfortune
Hope was increasingly replaced by despair. But then one fine morning something happened that Serrano could not have expected: he saw on his deserted island ... a man! The man was normally dressed and walked around the island without noticing Serrano. The sailor was dumbfounded with surprise. At that moment, the stranger saw Serrano - overgrown with hair, half-naked, ragged. With a wild cry, the stranger ran away. Serrano also rushed to run, crying loudly: "Jesus, deliver me from the devil's obsession!" He decided that the devil himself appeared on the island in human form!
The man, having heard Serrano's spell, suddenly stopped and shouted: “Brother, don't run away! I'm a Christian just like you!" Then Serrano came to his senses. They approached and hugged. It turned out that the man (his name, unfortunately, remained unknown) also survived the shipwreck and, clinging to the board, reached the island.
Serrano shared with him everything he had. They did all the work together now. However, the time came when friendship suddenly cracked, and then generally changed into hatred. Mutual recriminations and even fights began. To prevent murder, they decided to live separately. Both suffered incredibly. One can imagine how joyful the day of reconciliation was for them.
Pedro has lived on the island for 7 years. Finally, his smoke signal was noticed on a ship that entered these places. But when the boat sent from the sailboat approached the island and the sailors sitting in it saw two shaggy figures resembling gorillas, they turned back with fear. In vain did the islanders shout: “Come back! We are people! Save us." In vain! And then Serrano, together with his comrade in misfortune, loudly sang a prayer. The boat slowed down and then turned around.
Half an hour later the hermits were on the ship. Comrade Serrano, unable to stand the test, died. And Serrano returned to Spain.
You can argue for a long time about who, after all, Daniel Defoe wrote his image of Robinson Crusoe, but will an unequivocal answer change something? But if you subscribe to my blog updates, then very soon you will be among the first to know about the release of new interesting articles. By the way, tell your friends about real hermits by sharing a link to this article on social networks. Until we meet again, bye bye.
He spent 4 years and 4 months (in 1704-1709) on the uninhabited island of Mas a Tierra (now Robinson Crusoe as part of the Juan Fernandez archipelago) in the Pacific Ocean, 640 kilometers from the coast of Chile.
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✪ The real story of Robinson Crusoe
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Biography
Life on the island
Alexander Selkirk had some things necessary for survival: an ax, a gun, a supply of gunpowder, etc. Suffering from loneliness, Selkirk got used to the island and gradually acquired the necessary survival skills. At first, his diet was meager - he ate shellfish, but over time he got used to it and found feral domestic goats on the island. Once upon a time, people lived here who brought these animals with them, but after they left the island, the goats became wild. He hunted them, thereby adding much-needed meat to his diet. Soon Selkirk tamed them and received milk from them. From vegetable crops, he found wild turnips, cabbage and black pepper, as well as some berries.
Rats were a danger to him, but fortunately for him, wild cats, previously brought by people, also lived on the island. In their company, he could sleep peacefully without fear of rodents. Selkirk built himself two huts out of pymenta wood. His gunpowder supplies ran low and he was forced to hunt goats without a gun. While pursuing them, he once became so carried away by his pursuit that he did not notice the cliff from which he fell and lay like that for some time, miraculously surviving.
In order not to forget the English speech, he constantly read the Bible aloud. Not to say that he was a pious person - that's how he heard a human voice. When his clothes began to wear out, he began to use goatskins for them. As the son of a tanner, Selkirk knew well how to dress skins. After his shoes wore out, he did not make himself new ones, because his feet, rough with calluses, allowed him to walk without shoes. He also found old barrel hoops and was able to make something like a knife out of them.
One day, two ships arrived on the island, which turned out to be Spanish, and England and Spain were enemies in those days. Selkirk could have been arrested or even killed, since he was a privateer, and he made the difficult decision for himself to hide from the Spaniards.
Salvation came to him on February 1, 1709. It was the English vessel the Duke, under the command of Captain Woods Rogers, who named Selkirk the governor of the island. He writes that the boat sent to the island returned, carrying with it "a man dressed in goat skins, who looked wilder than their previous owners." Next to Rogers was the former commander of the Selkirk, William Dampier. The sailor did not like him, and agreed to join the ship only after he learned that Rogers was not leading the expedition.However, Dampier gave excellent recommendations to Selkirk, so Rogers immediately decided to accept him as an assistant on board the ship.
The life of Robinson Crusoe in Defoe's novel of the same name was more colorful and eventful. After many years of loneliness, the hermit managed to make a friend, which did not happen with Selkirk. Alexander did not meet the bloodthirsty cannibal Indians, as described in the book, although he almost became a victim of the Spaniards, who, having landed on the island, staged a formal hunt for him. Many researchers note that, despite the similarity of individual episodes of Defoe's novel with the story of a Scottish sailor, they were too different people, and it is unlikely that Selkirk could become the prototype of Robinson.
Thanks to the writer Daniel Defoe, everyone knows Robinson Crusoe, the conqueror of the wild nature of an uninhabited island, where he ended up due to a shipwreck. Much less famous is his real prototype - the Scotsman Alexander Selkirk, who spent almost five years on the same piece of land after he, not agreeing with the captain, was decommissioned from the ship "of his own free will" - right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Freebooters and adventurers
Now it is difficult to understand which of them is more real: Robinson, a native of the city of York, the darling of the family, or Alexander, the son of a shoemaker from the town of Largo on the North Sea coast. The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Chile and Scotland are fighting for the right to be called the place where the real Robinson spent years in solitude. 
But back to the origins.
The Scot, like his literary counterpart, according to Defoe, undoubtedly had a "passion for wandering" and "a desire to get rich sooner than circumstances allowed."
Having heard enough stories of experienced sailors, filibusters and other cheerful rabble about storms, distant lands, adventures and how easy gold is mined in the local Red Lion tavern, Alexander left home at the age of 18. Well, there were plenty of adventures: sailing on a ship to Africa, pirates, captivity, slavery ...
Here in the stories of Selkirk there is a gap, but he returned home, it seems, on a horse - with a gold earring in his ear and with money.
At home, in Largo, everything seemed insipid and boring to Alexander, and the opportunity to continue a life full of adrenaline soon turned up: William Dampier, a hydrograph scientist, corsair, author of travel books, went on two ships to the West Indies for gold.
England then encouraged the attack on Spanish merchant ships in the southern seas and allowed privateers (individuals using armed ships) to plunder the enemy using the "right of war" - there was a permit from the authorities for this.
Thus, in 1704, Selkirk, from a sea robber operating at his own peril and risk, turned into a completely legitimate representative of Great Britain - the boatswain of the 16-gun Sankpore galley, which accompanied the 26-gun frigate St. George, where Dampier himself was the captain.
Rebels - in the boat!
With varying success, they boarded ships, plundered coastal cities, attacked, fled, cursed and suspected each other of hiding booty. From the Atlantic went to the Pacific Ocean. They hit a big jackpot - the Spanish ship, full of brandy, flour, sugar, fabrics, surrendered without resistance.
But the luck of the corsairs did not rally - discontent and distrust grew more and more, and after a year and a half of joint navigation, the ships went in different directions: Dampier, still hoping to capture the Manila galleon with gold, remained in the Gulf of Panama, and the Selkirk galley headed for the deserted islands of the archipelago Juan Fernandez, where the crew was going to stock up on fresh water and firewood.
It was then that the scene played out, which later gave us the opportunity to read about the amazing adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Over the years, it is impossible to know whether the galley captain was such a tyrant, as some claim, or, as others insist, the boatswain turned out to be unbearably stubborn, but the result is obvious: an entry appeared in the ship's log that Alexander Selkirk was decommissioned from the ship "of his own free will" directly in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Among the corsairs, who were not distinguished by a special trepidation of feelings, it was in the order of things to resolve the misunderstandings that arose in this way and get rid of the objectionable. The necessary things were loaded into the boat: portable items, a flintlock gun, gunpowder, tobacco, an ax, a bowler hat, a Bible, and the Scot went on the most important journey in his life - to the rocky island of Mas a Tierra, located 670 km west of Chile and part of the Juan Fernandez archipelago.
The quick-tempered boatswain hoped that he would soon be picked up by some ship that had come in to replenish fresh water supplies. In the meantime, it was worth examining your temporary place of residence.
He became hardy, dexterous and wild
The archipelago, consisting of three islands: Mas a Tierra ("closer to the earth" - Spanish), Mas a Fuera ("farther from the earth") and Santa Clara - was discovered by the Spanish navigator Juan Fernandez in 1574 and named after him. In memory of this event, Fernandez, who himself lived on Mas-a-Tierra for three years, left specially brought goats there - as a living supply of provisions for random guests. And the guests came. Once there lived an Indian forgotten by pirates, and as many as nine sailors, who were put off the ship for their love of gambling, swam corsairs for fresh water ... In a word, not an island, but a passage yard. But by the time the Selkirk appeared, there was not a single living soul there. Including in the real story of Robinson there was no Friday - he was later invented by Defoe.
The main enemy of our hero was fear - the fear of loneliness, which will never end. At first, he daily climbed the highest peak and peered into the horizon, even settled in a cave on the shore so as not to miss a random ship. About a year and a half, as Alexander later recalled, it took him to get used to his position and somehow come to terms with it. The rest, as it turned out, was manageable.
He built himself a sleeping hut and a kitchen hut, learned how to make fire, how to make dishes from coconuts. Seals and lobsters were found in coastal waters, turtles laid their eggs, Fernandez's feral goats galloped along the mountain paths - Alexander was clearly not in danger of starving to death. When the gunpowder ran out, he tried to catch goats with his hands, fell into a crevice and spent three days unconscious. Since then, he has clipped the tendons of the goats to make them easier prey. Clothes were worn out, and then I had to remember the skill acquired in my father's house - dressing skins, and after that the outfit itself was sewn with a rusty nail. For four and a half years of his island life, Selkirk became hardy, agile and wild, like those same goats. In order not to become completely savage and not to forget human speech, he read the Bible aloud to himself every day.
How fame came
Salvation came on February 1, 1709, in the form of the English ship Duke. His captain, Woods Rogers, later described this meeting as follows: “At seven in the morning we approached the island of Juan Fernandez. Together with huge amount crayfish our boat delivered to the ship a man in goat skins.<…>It was a Scot named Alexander Selkirk. For lack of practice, he forgot his language so much that we could hardly understand him, he seemed to pronounce the words halfway. ” Only once on board, the boatswain somehow found the gift of speech and told about what had happened to him. The saviors had their own plans, and Selkirk, before returning to the mainland, had to make a long and dangerous raid on the seven seas with them, so he only got home in October 1711 - already as the captain of a sailboat captured on the campaign.
After the release of Woods Rogers's book "A Journey Around the World", in which he described the story of Alexander, the Scot, as they say, woke up famous. An interview with him was printed in a London newspaper that caught the eye of Daniel Defoe. What he read was the impetus for the birth of the concept of the book, which would later be called the prototype of the newest European novel. So at one point, at the peak of fame, the fates of the English writer, the Scottish boatswain and the island lost in the ocean converged.
After that, everyone's life went on as usual. Defoe, on the wave of success, publishes The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, and a year later, a collection of essays, Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe, which, however, did not arouse much reader interest. Selkirk, unable to find a place in "peaceful" life, returns to the fleet - the captain of the Weymaus ship, owned by the British Navy. In 1720, on a voyage to West Africa, he died of a tropical fever. It is said that the last words of the Scot were: "My dear island, why did I leave you?"
Landing in frozen lava
The inhabitants of three islands on Earth consider themselves direct descendants of Robinson: Largo, where Alexander Selkirk was born, Tobago, where, according to all signs, Defoe placed his hero (“off the coast of America near the mouths of the Orinoco River”), and, finally, Mas-a-Tierra, where "robinsonil" Selkirk is a direct prototype of the famous hermit. For the right to be called the island of Robinson Crusoe, there was a stubborn struggle between Mas-a-Tierra and Tobago - it is clear that not only out of love for art, but also with the hope of attracting more tourists. 
Tobago suited everyone except uninhabited: when Robinson "stepped onto this shore on September 30, 1659", there were already two colonies on the island - Courland and Dutch. So half a century ago, Mas-a-Tierra won and was officially renamed the island of Robinson Crusoe, and the neighboring, smaller one, began to bear the name of Alexander Selkirk.
Settlers landed on the island at the end of the 19th century and formed the settlement of San Juan Batista, which, the only one in the entire archipelago, still exists today. To travelers coming from big cities, the island may now seem almost uninhabited: only 630 inhabitants (almost without exception bearing the names Robinson, Friday and Daniel) on 96 km² of land, two dirt roads and two dozen cars at most.
Otherwise, little has changed over the centuries: the same dry land, cut by mountain ranges, palm-sized ferns, giant tortoises, hummingbirds, seals, and small brown goats of Juan Fernandez habitually jumping over the mountains - this is the official name of this subspecies. Residents catch lobsters every day. Visiting treasure hunters roam the island from time to time in search of pirate treasures.
Getting to Robinson Crusoe is not easy. From a private airfield in Santiago, a 10-seat aircraft does not fly regularly, only with a full load. After three hours of churning over the ocean, the aircraft lands on a runway carved into hardened lava between mountain peaks. This place is not connected with the rest of the island by any communications, except for the mountain goat trail. A waiting jeep will lower things and people along the serpentine to the water, where a crowd of fur seals will greet the guests. Now on the boat, and then another two hours along the coast, to the inhabited part of the island.
By the way, in 2008, archaeologists discovered the site of the original Robinson: the remains of two huts located near fresh water, navigational instruments and other artifacts. The story of the real Robinson lives on. This, no doubt, would have amused the exuberant pride of the son of a Scottish shoemaker.
Which of us did not read in childhood, voluntarily or "under duress" (as required by the school curriculum), Daniel Defoe's adventure novel about Robinson Crusoe? The novel is written in the relatively rare genre of "fictional autobiography" or "Robinzoad", so it is not surprising that the name of the protagonist became a household name two hundred years ago. Defoe himself wrote not one novel, but four. Moreover, the latter tells about the adventures of the already elderly Robinson in Siberia ... However, the last novels of the series have not been fully translated into Russian.
The adventures of Robinson and his faithful companion Friday are so realistically written that no one doubts the reality of the "autobiography". However, alas, the real Robinson Crusoe never existed.
"Robinson" is a collective image of many stories about survivors on uninhabited islands of sailors, of which there were many in that era.
Pirates in Her Majesty's Service
The fact is that, although Defoe avoids this topic in his novel, all (or almost all) real prototypes of his novel were pirates. In extreme cases - by privateers, i.e. the same pirates, only working under a contract for one of the warring countries (most often they were used by Great Britain to rob the Spanish "golden caravans").
Since pirate ships were not equipped with guardhouses, for misconduct such sailors were either killed or left on a desert island "for the judgment of God." In the latter case, the islands were used as "natural prisons". Indeed, you can’t escape from such an island, and it’s not easy to survive there. This was the “divine court”: if after a year or a couple of years the sailor remained alive, then he was again taken away by his own “colleagues” in the pirate “shop”, if not ... No, as they say, there is no court.
Alexander Selkirk
It is believed that the story of the survival of the Scot had the greatest influence on Defoe. Alexandra Selkirk. It was a sailor who served on a galley (small warship)" Sank Por", where he was a boatswain. In 1704, he, as part of a small flotilla of marque under the leadership of the famous captain Dampier, was supposed to rob Spanish ships off the coast of South America. However, like a true Scottish privateer, Selkirk had a bad temper and violent temper, because of which he constantly quarreled with other sailors and superiors (and arguing with pirate captain- more expensive). Because of one of these quarrels, he was demoted in rank, after which he “in his hearts” declared that he now had no place on this ship. The captain took his words literally and ordered to land on the nearest uninhabited island ...
Despite the fact that the unfortunate boatswain repented and asked to cancel the order, the captain equipped the sailor with everything necessary and landed on the small island of Mas a Tierra, 600 km from the coast of Chile.
A good start to Robinson's story
I must say that Selkirk received excellent equipment for those times. He was given spare clothes and underwear (a luxury for those times), tobacco, a cooking cauldron, a knife and an axe. And most importantly, our hero was supplied with a completely modern flintlock gun with a pound of gunpowder, bullets and flint. They also included the Bible, without which "God's judgment" would not have been a judgment. After 300 years, archaeologists, at the site of his camp in the tropics, also found navigational instruments, thanks to which Selkirk probably watched the stars, thus determining the day and month.
Note that the boatswain himself was a seasoned man, although he was only 27 years old at the time of the landing. Alexander is the son of a shoemaker, at the age of 18 he fled to the ship as a sailor. However, his ship was almost immediately captured by French pirates, who sold Selkirk into slavery. However, the brave young man fled, joined the pirates himself and returned home as an experienced sailor with a voluminous wallet full of gold coins obtained by unrighteous means ...
Once on a desert island, our sailor started a stormy activity. He built an observation post and two huts: an "office" and a "kitchen". At first, he ate local fruits and roots (he found, for example, a local variety of turnip), but then he discovered a small population of goats, which he hunted with his gun. Then, when the gunpowder began to run out, he tamed goats, began to receive milk, meat and skins from them. The latter came in handy when a couple of years later his clothes fell into disrepair. Using the found nail, he sewed himself simple clothes from goatskins. The experience of working in my father's shoe shop came in handy. From half a coconut he made himself a “cup” on a leg, “furniture”, etc. That is, Selkirk settled down on the island quite thoroughly.
Keep humanity in solitude
Alexander Selkirk never met his "Friday", so he suffered most from loneliness. The main tests, by his own admission, were precisely loneliness and the struggle with the rats that flooded this island. The rats ate food and ruined everything else in his possessions. Selkirk even made a chest (which he decorated with carvings) on his own to protect things from bad weather and rats.
However, the boatswain found wild cats on the island, which he tamed, and thus protected himself from tailed pests. The presence of goats, rats and feral cats suggested that this island was once inhabited, but Selkirk never found traces of other people. In order not to forget human speech, he talked to himself and read the Bible aloud. Despite the fact that the boatswain was not the most righteous person, it was the Bible, as he himself later admitted, that helped him remain a man in a wild environment.
One day, two Spanish ships arrived on the island, probably in search of fresh water, but Selkirk, who was a British privateer, was afraid to go out to them. the Spaniards probably would have hung him on yardarms for piracy. The ships left, and the boatswain was again left alone with the goats and cats.
Saving Robinson and the end of the story
But he was still saved. Four years after he hit the island, on February 1, 1709, his own flotilla under the leadership of Dampier returned for Selkirk. However, its composition was already different, and the Sank Por ship was not there. It is noteworthy that Woods Rogers, the captain of the Herzog ship, which was directly involved in the evacuation of the Robinson, indicated in his ship's log that he was rescuing the "governor of the island."
Once on civilized land, Alexander Selkirk became a regular in taverns, where he told stories of his adventures on a desert island over a mug of beer. Probably one of the witnesses of his drunken speeches was Daniel Defoe. The Scot himself did not stay long on land. Some time later, he returned to privateering, but ten years later, off the coast of West Africa, he died of yellow fever and was “buried at sea” (i.e. thrown overboard with all honors). Thus ended the story of the real Robinson.
By the way, the island where Alexander Selkirk lived was called " Robinson Crusoe", and the neighboring -" Alexander Selkirk". But this happened already after the inglorious death of the brave Scottish boatswain with a bad character, who died without knowing that he had become a legend.
Alexander Selkirk lived in the 18th century, was a Scottish sailor and spent almost four and a half years on a desert island. The stories of his adventures inspired Daniel Defoe to write the book Robinson Crusoe.
The fate of the sailor
Alexander Selkirk was born in 1676. From childhood, he had a stubborn character and beat his brothers every now and then. When Alexander was 27 years old, he hired on the ship of William Dampier, who was on an expedition to South America. Despite his relatively young age, Selkirk received the position of boatswain.
Alexander was quick-tempered and constantly clashed with the captain of the ship. Once he declared that he would rather go to the shore of a desert island than continue to swim on a vessel that was about to go to the bottom. The captain did not take long to wait - he ordered Selkirk to land on the island of Mas-a-Tiera, located 670 km from the coast of Chile.
Life on the island
The island became Selkirk's home for a long 4 years and 4 months. At first he lived on the coast, but was soon forced to go inland due to aggressive sea lions. There he discovered feral goats and cats, and began growing wild turnips and cabbages. Goats supplied Selkirk with milk, and cats protected from the raids of rats, which were also found here in abundance.
From the hoop of an old barrel thrown by the surf, Alexander made himself a knife. From the leaves of pepper trees, he built two huts - in one he slept, and in the other he cooked. Alexander's father worked as a leather tanner, so he could easily make himself clothes from goatskins.
Ships appeared twice near the island. Unfortunately, every time they turned out to be Spanish. Being a Scot and a hired buccaneer, Selkirk understood that he should not expect anything good from the Spaniards. The team of one of the ships noticed Selkirk hiding in the rocks and sent a search team to the island - but Alexander knew how to hide well, and the Spaniards sailed away.
The rescue
Selkirk's epic ended on February 2, 1709, when the Duke ship, belonging to another expedition of William Dampier, moored to his island. The ship's captain was so impressed with the vitality and fortitude of Alexander Selkirk that he made him his second mate.
In 1711 Selkirk returned to England, where he had not been for eight years. Newspapers wrote about his adventures. For some time, Alexander lived on the mainland, but then again went to sea. In 1719, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe was published. The story of Robinson was very much like the story of Selkirk. On the cover of the book was a picture of a man wearing goat skins, clothes very unsuitable for hot tropical islands. However, it was not possible to prove the plagiarism of Daniel Defoe. Yes, no one demanded this, in 1721 Selkirk died of yellow fever on board the Weymouth ship off the coast of West Africa.
