SE i, K I R K * S P, See AND MISLAN Dal = The Trucand Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoe$24.00 Higherin Cana SELKIRK'S ISLAND The true story behind the solitary endurance of the sailor who inspired Robinson Crusoe wr was the real Robinson Crusoe? 1d what did he teally experience during his solitary stay on a desert island? Souhamis “The scarlet shafts of sunrise bueno sil led Lond Tenaya et ry Boston, MA 02116 yal, and revelatory account of piracy b survival inthe eighteenth century lead us answers to both these questions Born a poor Scotsman, Alexander Selick sig with William Dampier pirate as famous for his sel promotion as fr his naval success, on an dLfaced quest to sack che famous Manila galleo, tone of the richest prizes on the southern seas. Put ashore on an island thrce hundred miles west of South America, Seki to survive with litte more than his bare hard. By using accounts from Selki, his fellow sailors, to women who claimed to be brs and her own experiences of spending three months ‘on the island, acclaimed biographer Diana ‘Souhami evokes all che strangeness and wonder ‘of his story and interprets the hace created by time, literature, and legend The result i a bilianly | Toei and lyrical recovery and discovery of a forgotten man and his unforgetable experience. s £ =] 2 3 a s § g spent four years learning Se mamDIANA SOUHAMI Selkirk’s Island The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson CrusoeDeka emer No patel btn a ba pad namie yom ob any ene elec o ech lnc phos cri oa i prin wo coi ny prt the wa Ree Sebi, Alene 6-7. 3 Sev her nplan cide jan Fernand a Tide ie Dosgety Peter Camptell Fen US elon inten the Unned Stato Ameren ons: The liland 17 ‘two: The Journey 27 suns: The Arival &> FOUR: The Rescue 119 vives London Scribbler 16> six: Home 18 seven: The leland 10 Endnotes 2 Index 237‘Aus rma to Peter Campbell forisillmining design, to Re- ‘esca Wilson at Weidenel for her publishing skill, and to my agent Georgina Capel fore acumen and wachfuleye. Thanks, too, to Pat Cherwya for copy editing the manuscript, and 10 ‘Douglas Mathews, who compiled theinder. 1am indebted to Peter LeFevre for rescuing me in the archives of the Public Record Offce at Kew: He steered me through ships logs, muster ols, depositions, Leners of Marque and worse. And when I struggled with seemingly illegible man scripts, he deciphered them with ae, have piled from th faults scholarship ofthe markime bistrian Glyn Willams, author of The Great South Sex nd The Pri of Alf he Oceans am gratefl for essential help to ibrai- ans at she Welleome nstiue, dhe Royal Geographical Socery, the London Library, the Bris Library andthe Natural Mistry Museum, and to Brian Thynne, Curator of Hydrography’ athe National Mariime Museum, Greentch, for making cightconth- century charts and sling drsetions available to me, (On the island I thane Pedro and Fabiana Niada for guided trcks over impossible train, and fora memorable milemnim= ‘eve party: Manolo Chamorro for renting. me slog eabin that looked out over the Pacific Ocean athe pint where Selkitk was abandoned and escud: Jaimie Sidiie who became my peotestor and translator; the painter ‘conversations; ke Paulenz for aking me ona tersfying jour- ‘ey in a small boat on Christmas Day to The Island's sal colonies; van Leiva Silva at CONAF fr explaining conserva- tom sues me; Oscar the chivalows cook on the supply ship ‘Nevarina for loking afer me on a two-day voyage to remote sera Saltaman for her profoundprsof the archipelago; Diamanteat the Café Remo for cooking ‘me so many fishes, and et husband for mixing those amazing, ‘pisces, Back home, my deep thanks 10 Sheila Owen-Jones for rescuing me from the island when | fet powerless 10 leave, and for encouraging me through dark times as well as good. And once mote and of course, or her unsining Kindnes, my hearflthaks 9 Naomi Nared, my bes fiend fri i realy shinysfour years Footnotes of pasing interest are marked with an atriak and appear am the text pages References are marked witha dagger andl appear a endnotes, beginning on page 225. Most of the engravings ate taken rom 4 Vonage Rand the ld by Wiliam, Funnel (1707. The land on which Alexander Selkirk wos ‘maroned forfour solitary yeas lis nthe eaten Pacific Oct of ltitde 34° south, eee handed cand ity miles we of the vast of Chile I 0085 the Cheon government named it Rebinon Craae ‘Mand, in tribute to Selik, th real Rebinon Cuoe, who inpted Donel Def 0 wrt his Famous navel 1. Bet Cnsoe ws ftin a his island wot smal place. Ha and Selick, though book mare one, at men were no like x iinng the realy of Soltis abandonment, Have rfered 1 his own cantina, thas of is mere ad fellow commen, 0 conempariy cighsnt Se ee sho cach claimed be i wif hove ured alo (19.The ds tr oe oenig rains ‘ve the ordeal of salen sarvive or foe than archives of inventories and depositions, othe jouenal of privcres who veyaged the word in ‘eodon sling ship in serch of old The iltratons that follow are of The bland ap- proached from the west (photo Gabriel Pere), the ‘euthorothowand fet above sea level and he view" ‘from Selkir's Lookout (phoor Pere Kenyon).THE ISLAND‘THE ISLAND Molten Scuff Derixen ay the vast South Sea, The Island ftom a wooden craft, farout, was a destination, aplace of refuge. At frst sight i looked no more than a grey blur. Plyng the sea against sarong tides aed capricious winds, the blur turned to jagged ‘mountains looming from the water. Dark cloud hung aver the eastern end. They promised clear steams, meat, and ‘respite from thejourney'sstorms. ‘Ranging beneath the le, searching for anchorage, the broken, cragay prcipices revealed forests, cutby lsh alleys, ssatered by cascades and streams, The ays of boulders and shingle became harbours of safety. ‘Spewed in the earth’ heat, once The Island had been molten suff beneath the earth’ crust. Formed of columns of basal, it was a causeway of mountain peaks, the highest, shaped like a huge anvil sing three thousand fet above the ‘ocean. Its rocks were grey, scoriaceous, saggy, veined witholivine and picrte, coded with skeleton crystals of feldspar, aluminium, potas, lime... Its coas escarpment high forest ed ridges and the dy seaward slopes of ts wally, were lava ‘beds, relies from a magmatic Hw: magma fom the Greek to ‘knead’ By its shores were lumps of back porous lava, like burn-out likes like a dead fe. “The ire could eekidle. The sland changed with the scud- ding clouds, the waxing moon, a fll of rain. Sounds that czacked in echo round the mountains, warned of its awesome ‘energy: Mariners told ofthe earths explosion, of ‘A Vuln ‘casting out Stones as igas a House of column that spout- ed fom the sea filled with smoke and Hames, of how the sea swept back great rollers that ef the bay dry then surged in at such a eight shat tees uprooted and goats drowned. CClasiiers gave their views on geotectonic connections ‘between The Island and the continent of South America and the movement of continental plates. They picked up pieces ‘of rock, sled home with them in boxes, identified the grains of colour these rocks contained as augte, magnetite and Amenite and speculated on when the voleano had erupted and the manner in which ime turns one thing ito another. Their analyses made The Island less remote. If they named it, lasted it they could in a sense possess it and tame ito theie wll. Mountains and Gorges Inv rie scteaeof things it wasa chip of land twelve miles. Tong, four across, thirty-four miles round, four million years ‘old. At the low parched western end only dwarf tees grew (Dendrite Res puna)" By headland was rocky bay, shaped ikea horseshoe, whete a small boat might land on sand and shingle “The eastern cls ose shee from the sea Moss and algae grew where sur drained from thea’ edge. The seainder ‘ined the coastal wal and hollowed it 5 eaves. Along the south-east shore were tfedgrases wih high culms (Spa fernandeyana), Wtcflls washed soit these that stained the surf spi. Beside a sll by, strewn with ava beds and furrowed by sony steams, two mountains rose, sculpted ‘with hanging allies Sea winds met the cas, jing water after every rin one high over the mountain