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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:36:58 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:36:58 -0700 |
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diff --git a/11441-h/11441-h.htm b/11441-h/11441-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..192277c --- /dev/null +++ b/11441-h/11441-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4322 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Solitary of Juan Fernandez; + or, The Real Robinson Crusoe, by the Author of Picciola. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + <!-- + .title {float: left; margin-left: 8%; } + .title1{float: left; margin-left: 8%; font-size: 2.0em; font-weight:bold;} + .title2{float: left; margin-left: 8%; font-size: 1.5em; font-weight:bold;} + .title3{float: left; margin-left: 8%; font-size: 1.3em; font-weight:bold;} + + H1,H2,H3 { text-align: center; } + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; background-color: white} + .toc {text-align: center;} + // --> + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11441 ***</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="title"> + <a name="image-1"></a> + <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="42" height="357" + alt="The Solitary." > +</p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="title1"> + THE SOLITARY OF<br> + JUAN FERNANDEZ;<br><br> + OR, THE REAL<br> + ROBINSON CRUSOE +</p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="title2"> + BY THE AUTHOR OF PICCIOLA. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="title3"> + TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH<br> + BY ANNE T. WILBUR. +</p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h3> +MDCCCLI. +</h3> + + + +<p> </p> + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#CHAPTER_I"> +CHAPTER I.</a></p> +<h4>The Royal Salmon.—Pretty Kitty.—Captain Stradling.—William Dampier. +—Reveries and Caprices of Miss Catherine.</h4> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#CHAPTER_II"> +CHAPTER II.</a></p> + +<h4>Alexander Selkirk.—The College.—First Love.—Eight Years of Absence. +—Maritime Combats.—Return and Departure.—The Swordfish.</h4> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#CHAPTER_III"> +CHAPTER III.</a></p> + +<h4>The Tour of the World.—The Way to manufacture Negroes.—California. +—The Eldorado.—Revolt of Selkirk.—The Log-Book.—Degradation. +—A Free Shore.</h4> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"> +CHAPTER IV.</a></p> + +<h4>Inspection of the Country.—Marimonda.—A City seen through the Fog. +—The Sea every where.—Dialogue with a Toucan.—The first Shot. +—Declaration of War.—Vengeance.—A Terrestrial Paradise.</h4> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#CHAPTER_V"> +CHAPTER V.</a></p> + +<h4>Labors of the Colonist.—His Study.—Fishing.—Administration. +—Selkirk Island.—The New Prometheus.—What is wanting to Happiness. +—Encounter with Marimonda.—Monologue.</h4> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"> +CHAPTER VI.</a></p> + +<h4>The Hammock.—Poison.—Success.—A Calm under the Tropics.—Invasion +of the Island.—War and Plunder.—The Oasis.—The Spy-Glass. +—Reconciliation.</h4> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"> +CHAPTER VII.</a></p> + +<h4>A Tête-a-tête.—The Monkey's Goblet.—The Palace.—A Removal.—Winter +under the Tropics—Plans for the Future.—Property.—A burst of +Laughter.—Misfortune not far off.</h4> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"> +CHAPTER VIII.</a></p> + +<h4>A New Invasion.—Selkirk joyfully meets an ancient Enemy.—Combat on +a Red Cedar.—A Mother and her Little Ones.—The Flock.—Fête in the +Island; Pacific Combats, Diversions and Swings.—A Sail.—The Burning +Wood.—Presentiments of Marimonda.</h4> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"> +CHAPTER IX.</a></p> + +<h4>The Precipice.—A Dungeon in a Desert Island.—Resignation.—The passing +Bird.—The browsing Goat.—The bending Tree.—Attempts at Deliverance. +—Success.—Death of Marimonda.</h4> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#CHAPTER_X"> +CHAPTER X.</a></p> + +<h4>Discouragement.—A Discovery.—A Retrospective Glance.—Project of +Suicide.—The Last Shot.—The Sea Serpent.—The <i>Porro</i>. +—A Message.—Another Solitary.</h4> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"> +CHAPTER XI.</a></p> + +<h4>The Island of San Ambrosio.—Selkirk at last knows what Friendship is. +—The Raft.—Visits to the Tomb of Marimonda.—The Departure.—The two +Islands.—Shipwreck.—The Port of Safety.</h4> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"> +CHAPTER XII.</a></p> + +<h4>The Island of Juan Fernandez.—Encounter in the Mountains.—Discussion. +—A New Captivity.—Cannon-shot.—Dampier and Selkirk.—<i>Mas a Fuera</i>. +—News of Stradling.—Confidences.—End of the History of the real +Robinson Crusoe.—Nebuchadnezzar.</h4> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#CONCLUSION"> +CONCLUSION.</a></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#NEWBOOKS"> +NEW BOOKS.</a></p> +<p> </p> + +<h2>THE SOLITARY OF JUAN FERNANDEZ,<br> +OR THE REAL ROBINSON CRUSOE.</h2> + + + +<p> </p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<h4>The Royal Salmon.—Pretty Kitty.—Captain Stradling.—William Dampier. +—Reveries and Caprices of Miss Catherine.</h4> + +<p>About the commencement of the last century, the little town of St. +Andrew, the capital of the county of Fife, in Scotland, celebrated then +for its University, was not less so for its Inn, the Royal Salmon, +which, built in 1681 by a certain Andrew Felton, had descended as an +inheritance to his only daughter, Catherine.</p> + +<p>This young lady, known throughout the neighborhood under the name of +pretty Kitty, had contributed not a little, by her personal charms, to +the success and popularity of the inn. In her early youth, she had been +a lively and piquant brunette, with black, glossy hair, combed over a +smooth and prominent forehead, and dark, brilliant eyes, a style of +beauty much in vogue at that period. Though tall and slender in +stature, she was, as our ancestors would have said, sufficiently <i>en bon +point</i>. In fine, Kitty merited her surname, and more than one laird in +the neighborhood, more than one great nobleman even,—thanks to the +familiarity which reigned among the different classes in Scotland,—had +figured occasionally among her customers, caring as little what people +might say as did the brave Duke of Argyle, whom Walter Scott has shown +as conversing familiarly with his snuff merchant.</p> + +<p>At present Catherine Felton is in her second youth. By a process common +enough, but which at first appears contradictory, her attractions have +diminished as they developed; her waist has grown thicker, the roses on +her cheek assumed a deeper vermilion, her voice has acquired the rough +and hoarse tone of her most faithful customers; the slender young girl +is transformed into a virago. Fortunately for her, at the commencement +of the eighteenth century, and especially in Scotland, reputations did +not vanish as readily as in our days. Notwithstanding her increasing +size and coarser voice, Catherine still remained pretty Kitty, +especially in the eyes of those to whom she gave the largest credit.</p> + +<p>Besides, if from year to year her beauty waned, a circumstance which +might tend to diminish the attractions of her establishment, like a +prudent woman she took care that her stock of ale and usquebaugh should +also from year to year improve in quality, to preserve the equilibrium.</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly the visits of lairds and great noblemen at her bar were less +frequent than formerly, but all the trades-people in town, all the +sailors in port, from the Gulf of Tay to the Gulf of Forth, still +patronized the pretty landlady.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Catherine was not yet married. The gossips of the town were +surprised, because she was rich and suitors were plenty; they fluttered +around her constantly in great numbers, especially when somewhat +exhilarated with wine. When their gallantry became obtrusive, Kitty was +careful not to grow angry; she would smile, and lift up her white hand, +tolerably heavy, till the offenders came to order. Catherine possessed +in the highest degree the art of restraining without discouraging them, +and always so as to forward the interests of her establishment.</p> + +<p>To maintain the discipline of the tavern, nevertheless, the presence of +a man was desirable; she understood this. Besides, the condition of an +old maid did not seem to her at all inviting, and she did not care to +wait the epoch of a third youth, before making a choice. But what would +the unsuccessful candidates say? Would not this decision be at the risk +of kindling a civil war, of provoking perhaps a general desertion? Then, +too, accustomed as she was to command, the idea of giving herself a +master alarmed her.</p> + +<p>She was vacillating amid all these perplexities, when a certain sailor, +with cold and reserved manners, whose face bore the mark of a deep sabre +cut, and who had for some time past, frequented her inn with great +assiduity, without ever having addressed to her a single word, took her +aside one fine morning and said:</p> + +<p>'Listen to me, Kate, and do not reply hastily. I came here, not like +many others, attracted by your beautiful eyes, but because I wished to +obtain recruits for an approaching voyage which I expected to undertake +at my own risk and peril. I do not know how it has happened, but I now +think less about sailing; I seem to be stumbling over roots. Right or +wrong, I imagine that a good little wife, who will fill my glass while I +am tranquilly smoking my pipe before a blazing fire, may have as many +charms as the best brig in which one may sometimes perish with hunger +and thirst. Right or wrong, I imagine to myself again that the prattle +of two or three little monkeys around me, may be as agreeable as the +sound of the wind howling through the masts, or of Spanish balls +whistling about one's ears. All this, Kate, signifies that I mean to +marry; and who do you suppose has put this pretty whim into my head? +who, but yourself?'</p> + +<p>Catherine uttered an exclamation of surprise, perfectly sincere, for if +she had expected a declaration, it was certainly not from this quarter.</p> + +<p>'Do not reply to me yet,' hastily resumed the sailor; 'he who pronounces +his decree before he has heard the pleader and maturely reflected on the +case, is a poor judge. To continue then. You are no longer a child, +Kate, and I am no longer a young man; you are approaching thirty----'</p> + +<p>At these words the pretty Kitty made a gesture of surprise and of +denial.</p> + +<p>'Do not reply to me!' repeated the pitiless sailor. 'You are thirty! I +have already passed another barrier, but not long since. We are of +suitable age for each other. The man should always have traversed the +road before his companion. You are active and genteel; that does very +well for women. You have always been an honest girl, that is better +still. As for me, my skin is not so white as yours, but it is the fault +of a tropic sun. It is possible that I may be a little disfigured by the +scar on my cheek; but of this scar I am proud; I had the honor of +receiving it, while boarding a vessel, from the hand of the celebrated +Jean Bart, who, after having on that occasion lost a fine opportunity of +being honorably killed, has just suffered himself to die of a stupid +pleurisy; but it is not of him but of myself that we are now to speak. +After having fought with Jean Bart, I have made a voyage with our not +less celebrated William Dampier, whom I may dare call my friend. You may +therefore understand, Kate, that if you have the reputation of an honest +girl, I have that of a good sailor. The name of Captain Stradling is +favorably known upon two oceans, and it will be to your credit, if ever, +with your arm linked in mine, we walk as man and wife, through any port +of England or Scotland. I have said. Now, look, reflect; if my +proposition suits you, I will settle for life on <i>terra firma</i>, and bid +adieu to the sea; if not, I resume my projected expedition, and it will +be to you, Kate, that I shall say adieu.'</p> + +<p>Catherine opened her mouth to thank him, as was suitable, for his good +intentions.</p> + +<p>'Do not reply to me!' interrupted he again; 'in three days I will come +to receive your decision.'</p> + +<p>And he went out, leaving her amazed at having listened to so long a +speech from one, who until then, seated motionless in a distant corner +of the room, had always appeared to her the most rigid and silent of +seamen.</p> + +<p>That very day Catherine has come to a decision concerning the captain; +she thinks him ugly and disagreeable, coarse and ignorant; he has dared +to tell her that she is thirty years old, and she will hardly be so at +St. Valentine's Day, which is six weeks ahead, at least. Besides the +scar which he has received from the celebrated Jean Bart, his +countenance has no beauty to boast of: his face is long and pale, his +temples are furrowed with wrinkles, and his lips thick and heavy; his +eyebrows, at the top of his forehead, seem to be lost in his hair; his +eyes are not mates, his nose is one-sided; his form is perhaps still +worse; he walks after the fashion of a duck. Fie! can such a man be a +suitable match for the rich landlady of the Royal Salmon, for the +beautiful Kitty; for her who, among so many admirers and lovers, has had +but the difficulty of a choice?</p> + +<p>The next day towards nightfall, Catherine, seated in her bar, in the +large leathern arm-chair which served as her throne, with dreamy and +downcast brow, and chin resting on her hand, was still thinking of +Captain Stradling, but her ideas had assumed a different aspect from +those of the evening before.</p> + +<p>She was saying to herself: 'If he has thick and heavy lips, it is +because he is an Englishman; if he walks like a duck, it is because he +is a sailor; if he has taken me to be thirty years old, that proves +simply that he is a good physiognomist, and I shall have one painful +avowal the less to make after marriage. As for his scar, he has a +thousand reasons to be proud of it, and, upon close examination, it is +not unbecoming. It would be very difficult for me to choose a husband, +on account of the discontented suitors who will be left in the lurch; +but I will relinquish my business, and that will put an end to all +inconvenience. He is rich, so much for the profit; he is a captain, so +much for the honor. Come, come, Mistress Stradling will have no reason +to complain!'</p> + +<p>At this moment, Catherine Felton could meditate quite at her ease, +without fear of being noticed; for the tobacco smoke, three times as +dense and abundant as usual, enveloped her in an almost opaque cloud. +There was this evening a grand <i>fête</i> at the tavern of the Royal Salmon. +The concourse of customers was immense, and this time, it was neither +the beauty of the hostess, nor the quality of the liquors which had +attracted them thither.</p> + +<p>The serving-men and lasses were going from table to table, multiplying +themselves to pour out, not only the golden waves of strong beer and +usquebaugh, but the purple waves of claret and port; all faces were +smiling, all eyes sparkling, and in the midst of the huzzas and <i>vivas</i>, +was heard, with triple applause, the name of William Dampier.</p> + +<p>This celebrated man, now a corsair, now a skilful seaman, who had just +discovered so many unknown straits and shores, who had just made the +tour of the world twice, in an age when the tour of the world did not +pass, as at present, for a trifling matter; who had published, upon his +return, a narrative full of novel facts and observations; this pitiless +and intelligent pirate, who studied the coasts of Peru while he +pillaged the cities along its shores, and meditated, in the midst of +tempests, his learned theory of winds and tides, William Dampier, had +landed, this very day at the little port of St. Andrew.</p> + +<p>At the intelligence of his arrival, the whole maritime population of the +coast was in commotion; the society of the <i>Old Pilots</i>, with that of +the <i>Sea Dogs</i>, had sent to him deputations, headed by the principal +ship-owners in the town. Captain Stradling had not failed to be among +them, happy at the opportunity of once more meeting and embracing his +former friend. Speeches were made, as if to welcome an admiral, speeches +in which were passed in review all his noble qualities and the great +services rendered by him to the marine interest. To these Dampier +replied with simplicity and conciseness, saying to the orators:</p> + +<p>'Gentlemen and dear comrades, you must be hoarse, let us drink!'</p> + +<p>This first trait of eccentricity could not fail to enlist universal +applause.</p> + +<p>Commissioned by him to lead the column, Stradling could not do otherwise +than to take the road to the Royal Salmon. It was on this occasion that +he appeared there before the expiration of the three days: but he had +not addressed a word to Catherine, scarcely turned his eyes towards her. +Nevertheless the circumstances were favorable to his suit.</p> + +<p>Then a millionaire, William Dampier had immediately declared his +intentions to treat at his own expense the whole company and even the +whole town, if the town would do him the honor to drink with him. +Catherine at once took him into favor. When she heard him praise his +friend and companion, the brave Captain Stradling, she felt for the +latter, not an emotion of tenderness, but a sentiment of respect and +even of good-will. Dampier, excited by his audience, did not fail, like +other conquerors by land and sea, to recount some of his great deeds. +Among others, he recapitulated a certain affair in which he and his +friend Stradling had captured a Spanish galleon, laden with piastres. +From this moment the beautiful Kitty became more thoughtful, and began +to see that the scar was becoming to the face of this good captain. +After drinking, when Dampier, still escorted by his <i>fidus Achates</i>, +came to settle his account with the hostess, he chucked her familiarly +under the chin, as was his custom with landladies in the four quarters +of the globe. From any one else, the proud Catherine would not have +suffered such a liberty; to this, she replied only by a graceful +reverence, and, while the hero and paymaster of the <i>fête</i> shook a +rouleau of gold upon her counter, she said, hastily bending towards +Stradling:</p> + +<p>'To-morrow!' accompanying this word with an expressive look and her most +gracious smile.</p> + +<p>The enamored Stradling, always impassible, contented himself with +replying:</p> + +<p>'It is well!'</p> + +<p>The day following, the third, the important day, that which Catherine +already regarded as her day of betrothal, early in the morning, she +dressed herself in her best attire, not doubting the impatience of the +captain. Before noon, the latter entered the inn and went directly up to +the landlady.</p> + +<p>She received him carelessly and coldly; she was nervous, she had not +had time for reflection; she did not know what the captain wished; if he +would let her alone for the present, by and by she would consider.</p> + +<p>'Boy! a new pipe and some ale!' exclaimed Stradling, addressing a +waiter.</p> + +<p>And, perfectly calm in appearance, he sauntered to his accustomed place +at the farther end of the bar-room. However, before leaving the Royal +Salmon, approaching Catherine, he said:</p> + +<p>'Yesterday, by your voice and gesture you said, or almost said, yes; we +sailors know the signals; to-day it is no, or almost no. Very well, I +will wait; but reflect, my beauty, we are neither of us young enough to +lose our time in this foolish game.'</p> + +<p>But what had thus unexpectedly changed, from white to black, the good +intentions of Catherine in the captain's behalf? The presence of a young +boy whom she had not seen for many years, and towards whom she had, +until then, felt only a kindly indifference.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> +<br> + +<p>Alexander Selkirk.—The College.—First Love.—Eight Years of Absence. +—Maritime Combats.—Return and Departure.—The Swordfish.</p> + +<p>Alexander Selkirk,—the name of the principal personage in this +narrative,—was born at Largo, in the county of Fife, not far from St. +Andrew. Entered as a pupil in the university of the town, he at first +distinguished himself by his aptitude and his intelligence, until the +day when, hearing of the beauty of the landlady of the Royal Salmon, he +was seized with an irresistible desire to see her: he saw her, and +became violently enamored. It was one of those youthful passions, +springing rather from the effervescence of the age, than from the merit +of the object; one of those sudden ebullitions to which the young +recluses of science are sometimes subject, from a prolonged compression +of the natural and affectionate sentiments.</p> + +<p>From this moment, all the words in the Greek and Latin dictionaries, all +the principles of natural philosophy, mathematics and history, suddenly +taken by storm, whirled confusedly and pell-mell in the head of Selkirk, +like the elements of the world in chaos, before the day of creation.</p> + +<p>His professors had predicted that at the annual exhibition he would +obtain six great prizes; he obtained not even a premium.</p> + +<p>As a punishment, he was required to remain within the college grounds +during the vacation. But its gates were not strong enough, nor its walls +high enough to detain him.</p> + +<p>Condemned, for the crime of desertion, to a classic imprisonment, he was +shut up in a cellar; he escaped through the window; in a garret; he +descended by the roof.</p> + +<p>Then, pronounced incorrigible, he was expelled from the university.</p> + +<p>He left it joyous and happy, escaped from the tutor commissioned to +conduct him to his father, and at last wholly free, his own master, he +took lodgings in a cabin, not far from the Royal Salmon, and thought +himself monarch of the universe.</p> + +<p>As soon as the doors of the inn were opened, he penetrated there with +the earliest fogs of morning, with the first beams of day; in the +evening he was the last to cross the threshold, after the extinction of +the lights.</p> + +<p>All day long, seated at a little table opposite the bar, between a pipe +and a pewter pot, he watched the movements of Kitty, and followed her +with admiring eyes.</p> + +<p>Catherine was not slow to perceive this new passion; but she was +accustomed to admiring eyes, and therefore paid but little heed to them. +She was then at the age of twenty-two, in all the glory of her transient +royalty; he, scarcely sixteen, was in her eyes a boy, a raw and awkward +boy, like almost all the other students, and she contented herself with +now and then bestowing a slight smile upon him, in common with her other +customers.</p> + +<p>But this mechanical smile, this half extinguished spark, did but +increase the flame, by kindling in the young man's soul a ray of hope.</p> + +<p>At this age, passion has not yet an oral language; it is in the heart, +in the head especially, but not on the lips; one comprehends, +experiences, dreams, writes of love in prose and verse, but does not +talk of it. Selkirk had twenty times attempted to confess his affection +to Catherine; he had as yet succeeded only in a few simple and hasty +meteorological sentences, on the rain and fine weather. He therefore +wrote.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, Catherine could not easily read writing; she applied to +him to interpret his letter. This was a hard task for the poor boy, who, +with a tremulous and hesitating voice, saw himself forced to stammer +through all that burning phraseology which seemed to congeal under the +breath of the reader.</p> + +<p>The result however was that Catherine became his friend; she encouraged +his confidence, and gave him good advice as an elder sister might have +done. She even called him by the familiar name of Sandy, which was a +good omen.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile his scanty resources became exhausted; he had no longer means +to pay for the pot of ale which he consumed daily. The idea of asking +credit of his beloved, of opening with her an account, which he might +never have means to pay, was revolting to him. On the other hand, the +thought of returning home, and asking pardon of his father, was not +less repugnant to his feelings. He was endowed with one of those haughty +and imperious natures which recognize their faults, not to repair them, +but to make of them a starting point, or even a pedestal.</p> + +<p>He was rambling about the port, reflecting on his unfortunate situation, +when he heard mention made of a ship ready to set sail at high tide, and +which needed a reinforcement of cabin-boys and sailors. This was for him +an inspiration; he did not hesitate, he hastened to engage. That very +evening he had gained the open sea, beyond the Isle of May, and, with +his eyes turned towards the Bay of St. Andrew, was attempting, in vain, +to recognize among the lights which were yet burning in the city, the +fortunate lantern which decorated the sacred door of the Royal Salmon.</p> + +<p>At present, Alexander Selkirk is twenty-four years old. He has become a +genuine sailor, and he loves his profession; the sea is now his +beautiful Kitty. Besides, it is long since he has troubled himself about +his heart. It is empty, even of friendship, for, among his numerous +companions, the proud young man has not found one worthy of him. After +having served two years in the merchant marine, he has entered the navy. +Thanks to the war kindled in Europe for the Spanish succession, he has +for a long time cruised with the brave Admiral Rooke along the coasts of +France; with him, he has fought against the Danish in the Baltic Sea, +and in 1702, in the capacity of a master pilot, figured honorably in the +expedition against Cadiz, and in the affair of Vigo. Finally, under the +command of Admiral Dilkes, he has just taken part in the destruction of +a French fleet.</p> + +<p>But all these expeditions, rather military than maritime, and +circumscribed in the narrow circle of the seas of Europe, have not +satisfied the vast desires of the ambitious sailor. He experiences an +invincible thirst to apply his knowledge, to exercise his intelligence +on a larger scale; he is impatient for a long voyage, a voyage of +discovery.</p> + +<p>The terrific hurricane of the twenty-seventh of November, 1703, which +drove the waves of the Thames even into Westminster, Hall, and covered +London almost entirely with the fragments of broken vessels, appeared to +Selkirk a favorable occasion for asking his dismissal. He easily +obtained it. So many sailors had just been thrown out of employment by +the hurricane.</p> + +<p>Once more, the undisciplined scholar found himself free and his own +master! He profited by this to pay a visit to his birthplace in +Scotland. His father was dead, but he had some business to regulate +there.</p> + +<p>On reaching Largo he learned the arrival of William Dampier at St. +Andrew. He set sail for that port immediately.</p> + +<p>'Ah!' said he on his way, 'if this brave captain should be about to +undertake a voyage to the New World, and will let me accompany him, no +matter in what capacity, all my wishes will be gratified. I thirst to +see tattooed faces, other trees besides beeches, oaks and firs; other +shores than those of the Baltic, Mediterranean and Atlantic. Who knows +whether I may not aid him in the discovery of some new continent, some +unknown island which shall bear my name!'</p> + +<p>And, cradled by the wave in the frail canoe that bore him, he dreamed of +government, perhaps of royalty, in one of those archipelagoes which he +imagined to exist in the bosom of the distant Southern seas, long +afterwards explored by Cook, Bougainville and Vancouver.</p> + +<p>Once in port, he hastened to inquire for the dwelling occupied by +Dampier. The latter was absent; he was in the harbor.</p> + +<p>While awaiting his return, our young sailor thought of his old friend +Catherine, his pretty black-eyed Kitty, and directed his steps towards +the inn.</p> + +<p>He found her already enthroned in her leathern arm-chair, her hair +neatly braided, with two small curls on her temples; in a toilette which +the early hour of the morning did not seem to authorize; but it was the +famous third day, and she was awaiting Stradling.</p> + +<p>On seeing Selkirk enter, she exclaimed to the boy, pointing to the +newly-arrived: 'A pot of ale!'</p> + +<p>'No,' cried the young man smiling; 'the ale which I once drank here was +for me a philter full of bitterness; a glass of whiskey, if you +please,----' and, pointing to the little table opposite the bar at which +he was formerly accustomed to place himself, he said:</p> + +<p>'Serve me there; I will return to my old habits.'</p> + +<p>Catherine looked at him with astonishment.</p> + +<p>'Does not pretty Kate recognize me?' said he in a caressing tone, +approaching her.</p> + +<p>'How! Is it possible! is it you, indeed, Sandy?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, Alexander Selkirk, formerly a fugitive from the University of St. +Andrew; recently a master pilot in the royal marine; now, as ever, your +very humble servant.'</p> + +<p>And they shook hands, and examined each other closely, but the +impression on both sides was far from being the same.</p> + +<p>Catherine finds Selkirk much changed, but for the better; time and +navigation have been favorable to him. He is no longer the raw student +with embarrassed air, awkward manner, bony frame and dilapidated +costume; but a stout young man, with a broad chest, active and graceful +form; though his features are decidedly Scotch, they are handsome; his +eyes, less brilliant than formerly, are animated with a more attractive +thoughtfulness, and the naval uniform, which he still wears, sets off +his person to advantage.</p> + +<p>On his part, Selkirk finds Catherine also much changed; the rosy +complexion, the soft voice, the youthful look, the twenty-two years, all +are gone. Her form has assumed a superabundant amplitude.</p> + +<p>They drop each other's hands and utter a sigh; he, of regret; she, of +surprise.</p> + +<p>Both close their eyes, at the same time; she, with the fear of gazing +too earnestly; he, to recall the being of his imagination.</p> + +<p>However this may be, she is not yet a woman to be despised by a sailor. +He therefore prolongs his visit: they come to interrogations, to +confidences.</p> + +<p>Catherine acquaints him with the situation of her little business +affairs; her fortune is improving; she gives him an estimate of it in +round numbers, as well as of the suitors she has rejected; but she does +not mention Captain Stradling, whose arrival she yet fears every moment.</p> + +<p>Selkirk relates to her his campaigns, his combats against the French, +against the Danish, the victorious attack of the English ships against +the great boom of Vigo; but, when she asks him what motive has brought +him back to St. Andrew, he replies boldly that he came to see her and no +one else, and says not a word of Captain Dampier, whom he is even now +impatient to meet.</p> + +<p>At last the old friends say adieu.</p> + +<p>Then the gallant sailor, with an apparent effort, goes away, not +forgetting, however, to drink his glass of whiskey.</p> + +<p>And this is the reason why, on the third day, Catherine has the vapors; +this is the reason why, notwithstanding her soft words of the evening +before and her grand morning toilette, she receives so coldly the +scarred adversary of the celebrated Jean Bart.</p> + +<p>During the whole of the week following, Stradling, Dampier and Selkirk, +did not fail to meet at the Royal Salmon. Selkirk came to see Dampier; +Dampier came to see Stradling; Stradling came to see Catherine Felton.</p> + +<p>The latter thought the young man already knew the two others, that he +had sailed with them, and was not surprised at their intimacy.</p> + +<p>Sometimes Selkirk, leaving his companions in the midst of their bottles +and glasses, would describe a tangent towards the counter, and come to +converse with the pretty hostess. He no longer felt love for her, and +notwithstanding this, perhaps for this very reason, he now talked +eloquently.</p> + +<p>Kitty blushed, was embarrassed, and poor Captain Stradling, listening +with all his ears to the narratives of his illustrious friend William +Dampier, or pre-occupied with his pipe, lost in its cloud, saw +nothing,—or seemed to see nothing.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless one evening, he went, in his turn, to lean on the counter:</p> + +<p>'Kate,' said he, 'when is our marriage to take place?'</p> + +<p>'Are you thinking of that still?' replied she, with an air of levity +which would once have became her better; 'I hoped this fancy had passed +out of your head.'</p> + +<p>'I may then set out on my voyage, Kate?'</p> + +<p>'Why not? We will talk of our plans on your return.'</p> + +<p>'But I am going to make the tour of the world, as well as my friend +Dampier. Kate, it is the affair of three years!'</p> + +<p>'So much the better! it will give us both time for reflection.'</p> + +<p>'It is well!' replied the phlegmatic Englishman, and nothing on his +polar face betokened an afterthought.</p> + +<p>The doors closed, the lights extinguished, Catherine retired to rest the +happiest woman in the world. She said to herself: 'Alexander loves me, +and has loved me for eight years! he deserves to be rewarded. He has +less money than the other, it is a misfortune; but he has more youth and +grace, that balances it. As to rank, a master pilot of twenty-four is +as far advanced as a captain of forty. Between Selkirk and myself, if +the wealth is on my side, on his will be gratitude and little +attentions. At all events, I prefer a young husband who will whisper +words of love in my ear, to amusing myself by pouring out drink for my +lord and master, while he smokes his pipe, with his feet on the brands. +Was it not thus that icicle, dressed in blue, called Stradling, talked +to me of the pleasures of marriage? And what a name! But Mistress +Selkirk!—that sounds well. In our Scotland, there is the county of +Selkirk, the town of Selkirk; there is even a great nobleman of this +name, who is something like minister to our Queen Anne, I believe. Who +knows? we are perhaps of his family! As for walking about the port +arm-in-arm with a captain, I am sure my very dear friends and neighbors +would die with jealousy if I took, instead of this scarred captain, a +young and handsome man. It is settled. I will marry Alexander; to-morrow +I will myself announce it to him. I hope he will not die of joy!'</p> + +<p>On the morrow she attired herself as on the day of Selkirk's return, in +her beautiful dress of cloth and silk, with the two little curls upon +her temples. She thus waited a great part of the day. At last, about +four o'clock, Selkirk arrives in haste, his face beaming with joy, and a +gleam of triumph in his eye.</p> + +<p>'Has he then,' thought Catherine, 'a presentiment of the happiness in +store for him?'</p> + +<p>'Congratulate me, pretty Kitty,' said the young man, almost out of +breath; 'I am appointed mate of the brig Swordfish, which I am to join +at Dunbar.'</p> + +<p>'How! you are going?'</p> + +<p>'In an hour.'</p> + +<p>'For a long time?'</p> + +<p>'For three years at least. In a fortnight we set sail for the East +Indies. It will be a great commercial voyage and a voyage of discovery. +Unfortunately William Dampier does not accompany us; but he furnishes +funds to the brave Captain Stradling.'</p> + +<p>'Stradling!'</p> + +<p>'Yes, it is he who has just engaged me, and with whom I am to sail. Our +agreement is signed,—I am mate! I am going to explore the New World! +Ah! I would not exchange my fate for that of a king. But time presses; +adieu, Kitty, till I see you again!'</p> + +<p>'Three years!' murmured Catherine.</p> + +<p>And her curls grew straight beneath the cold perspiration that covered +her forehead.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_III"></a><h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> +<br> + +<p>The Tour of the World.—The Way to manufacture Negroes—California. +—The Eldorado.—Revolt of Selkirk.—The Log-Book.—Degradation. +—A Free Shore.</p> + +<p>The Swordfish, well provisioned, even with guns and ammunition, left +Dunbar one morning with a fresh breeze, sailed down the North Sea, +passed Ireland, France and Spain, the Azores, Canaries, and Cape Verd +Islands on the coast of Africa, and, after having stopped for a short +time in the harbors of Guinea and Congo, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, +amid the traditional tempest.</p> + +<p>Entering the Indian Ocean, and passing through the Straits of Sunda, she +touched at Borneo, and at Java, reached the Southern Sea by the Gulf of +Siam, passed the Philippine Isles, then, through the vast regions of the +Pacific Ocean, pursued the route which had been marked out by the +exploring ship of William Dampier in 1686. Like that, the Swordfish +remained a few days at the Island of St. Pierre, before launching into +that immensity where, during nearly two months, wave only succeeded to +wave; at last she reached the coasts of South America, and cast anchor +in the Gulf of California.</p> + +<p>This gigantic voyage, which seemed as if it must have been attempted +under the inspiration of science and with the hope of the most important +discoveries, had been undertaken by Stradling with no object but of +traffic and even of rapine. These had been the great ends of most of the +bold enterprises which had preceded. The Spanish and Portuguese, in +their discoveries of new continents, had thought less of glory than of +riches; they had conquered the New World only to pillage it; the +vanquished who escaped extermination, were forced to dig their native +soil, not to render it more fruitful, but to procure from it, for the +profit of the vanquisher, the gold it might contain. Among the European +nations, those who had had no part in the conquest now sought to share +the spoils. For this the least pretext of war or commerce sufficed.</p> + +<p>Stradling availed himself of both these pretences; when he touched at +the coasts of Guinea and Congo, it was to obtain negroes whom he +expected to sell in America. At Borneo, the opportunity presented itself +for an advantageous disposal of the greater part of his black +merchandize; as he was a man of resources and not at all scrupulous, he +soon found means to replace them.</p> + +<p>In the Straits of Sunda, several barques, manned by negroes and Malays, +had become entangled in the masses of seaweed which are every where +floating on the surface of the wave; Stradling encountered them, made +the rowers enter his ship, and obligingly took the barques in tow, to +extricate them from their difficulty. But those who ascended the side of +the Swordfish, descended only to be sold in their turn.</p> + +<p>Although he had received an education superior to that of his +companions, Selkirk shared in the prejudices of his times; he had +therefore found nothing objectionable in seeing his captain exchange at +Congo little mirrors, a few glass beads, half a dozen useless guns, and +some gallons of brandy, for men still young and vigorous, torn from +their country and their families. Their skin was of another color, their +heads woolly; this was a profitable traffic, recognized by governments; +but when he saw Stradling seize the property of others to refill his +empty hold, he could not control his indignation and boldly expressed +it:</p> + +<p>'It is for their salvation,' replied the captain, without emotion; 'we +will make Christians of them.'</p> + +<p>On approaching the Vermilion Sea, a deep gulf which separates California +from the American continent, and makes it almost an island, the Malays +were rubbed with a mixture of tar and dragon's blood, dissolved in a +caustic oil, to give to their olive skins a deeper shade, and their flat +noses and silky hair making them pass for Yolof negroes, they were +exchanged at Cape St. Lucas, along with the rest, for pearls and native +productions.</p> + +<p>The young mate thought this proceeding not less mean and dishonorable +than the first; he made new observations.</p> + +<p>'Nothing now remains to be done, captain,' said he, 'but to shave and +besmear with tar the monkey you have just bought, and to include it +among your new race of negroes.'</p> + +<p>This time, the captain looked at him askance, and shrugged his shoulders +without replying.</p> + +<p>The storm was beginning to growl in the distance.</p> + +<p>It was not without a secret object that, in his course through the +Southern Sea, Stradling had first of all aimed at California.</p> + +<p>He devoted an entire month to cruising along both shores of this almost +island, and penetrating all the bays of the Vermilion Sea; he hoped to +find there a passage to an unknown land, then predicted and coveted by +all navigators. What was this land? The <i>Eldorado</i>!</p> + +<p>Although I would hasten over these details of the voyage to arrive at +the more important events of this history; now that the recent discovery +of the immense mines of gold buried beneath the hills of California has +aroused the entire world, that the name alone of <i>Sacramento</i> seems to +fill with gold the mouth which pronounces it, there is a curious fact, +perhaps entirely unknown, which I cannot pass over in silence.</p> + +<p>After the middle of the sixteenth century, and long before the +seventeenth, a vague rumor, a confused tradition, had located, in the +neighborhood of the Vermilion Sea, a famed land, whose rivers rolled +over gold, and whose mountains rested on golden foundations; the +treasures of Mexico and Peru were nothing in comparison with those which +were to be gathered there. An ingot of native gold was talked of, of a +<i>pepite</i> or eighty pounds weight.</p> + +<p>It was a grape from the promised land.</p> + +<p>This marvellous country had been named, in advance, <i>Eldorado</i>.</p> + +<p>Among the bold Argonauts of these two centuries, there was a contest as +to who should first raise his flag over this new Colchis, defended, it +was said, by the Apaches, a terrible, sanguinary and cannibal race, whom +Cortez himself could not subdue. This land of gold some had located in +New Biscay or New Mexico; others, in the pretended kingdoms of Sonora +and Quivira; then, after several ineffectual attempts, the possibility +of reaching it was denied; learned men, from the various academies of +Europe, proved that the <i>Eldorado</i> was not a country, but a dream; on +this subject the Old World laughed at the New; the Argonauts became +discouraged, and during a century the subject was named only to be +ridiculed.</p> + +<p>And yet, in spite of sceptics and scoffers, the <i>Eldorado</i> existed. It +existed where tradition had placed it, on the shores of this Vermilion +Sea, now the Gulf of California. For once, popular opinion had the +advantage over scientific dissertations and philosophic denials; there, +where, according to the Dictionary of Alcedo, nothing had been +discovered but mines of pewter! where Jacques Baegert had indeed +acknowledged the presence of gold, but <i>in meagre veins</i>; where Raynal +had named as curiosities only fishes and pearls, declaring, in +California, <i>the sea richer than the land</i>; where in our own times M. +Humboldt discovered nothing but cylindrical cacti, on a sandy soil, +remained buried, as a deposit for future ages, this treasure of the +world, which seemed to be waiting in order to leave its native soil, the +moment of falling into the hands of a commercial and industrious people, +that of the United States.</p> + +<p>This <i>Eldorado</i>, Stradling sought in vain; he therefore decided to +pursue his route along the coast of Mexico, now under the French flag, +when he found an opportunity for traffic with the natives, colonists or +savages; now under the English flag, when he wished to exercise his +trade of corsair, an easy profession, for since the disaster of Vigo, +the Spanish had abandoned their transatlantic possessions to themselves.</p> + +<p>The Spanish soldiery of America then found themselves, in the presence +of European adventurers, in that state of pusillanimous inferiority in +which had been, at the period of the conquest, the subjects of the Incas +and Montezuma before the soldiers of Cortez and Pizarro. The time was +not already far passed, when a few bands of freebooters, from France, +England and Holland, had well nigh wrested from his Majesty, the King of +Spain and the Indies, the most extensive and wealthy of his twenty-two +hereditary kingdoms.</p> + +<p>Stradling was following in the footsteps of these freebooters.</p> + +<p>Recently, two little cities on the coast had been put under contribution +for the supplies of the Swordfish; there had been resistance, a +threatened attack, a parley, and capitulation; in this affair, the young +mate had nobly distinguished himself both as a combatant and a +negotiator, and yet the captain had not deigned to give him a share in +his distribution of compliments.</p> + +<p>Selkirk felt an irritation the more lively that this shore life began to +be irksome. Not that his conscience disturbed him any more than in the +treatment of the blacks; he thought it as honorable to war with the +Spaniards in the New World, as to be beaten by them in the Old; but he +compared his present chief, Captain Stradling, with his former +commander, the noble and brave Admiral Rooke; the parallel extended in +his mind to his old companions in the royal navy, all so frank, so gay, +so loyal,—among whom he had yet never found a friend,—and his new +companions of to-day, recruited for the most part in the marshy lowlands +of the merchant marine of Scotland; his thoughts became overshadowed, +and his desires for independence, which dated from his college life, +returned in full force.</p> + +<p>As much as his duties permitted, he loved to isolate himself from all; +when he could remain some time alone in his cabin, or gaze upon the sea +from a retired corner of the deck and watch the ploughing of the vessel, +then only he was happy.</p> + +<p>As if to increase his uneasiness, Stradling became daily more severe and +more exacting towards his chief officer; he imposed upon him rude labors +foreign to his station. It seemed as if he were determined to drive him +to desperation.</p> + +<p>He succeeded.</p> + +<p>Selkirk protested against such treatment, and recapitulated his subjects +of complaint. The other paid no more attention than he would have done +to the buzzing of a fly.</p> + +<p>Irritated by this outrageous impassibility, the young man declared that +there should no longer be any thing in common between them, and that, +whatever fate might await him, he demanded to be set on shore.</p> + +<p>Stradling touched his forehead:</p> + +<p>'That is a good idea,' said he, and he turned away.</p> + +<p>The next day, they reached the Isthmus of Panama; the persevering +Selkirk returned to the charge: 'The moment is favorable for ridding +yourself of me, and me of you,' said he to the captain; 'let the boat +convey me to the shore; I will cross the Isthmus, reach the Gulf of +Darien, the North Sea, and return to Scotland, even before the +Swordfish!'</p> + +<p>This time the honest corsair listened attentively, then shaking his head +and winking his eye, with the smile of a hungry vampire, replied:</p> + +<p>'You are then in great haste to be married, comrade.'</p> + +<p>It was the first word he had addressed to him relative to Catherine +during this long voyage, and this word Selkirk had not even understood.</p> + +<p>They were about passing Panama: the vessel continuing her voyage, +Selkirk interposed his authority, ordered the men to put about, take in +sail and approach the shore.</p> + +<p>This Stradling prohibited, uttered a formidable oath, and commanded the +young man to bring the log-book. When it was brought, he made the +following entry:</p> + +<p>'To-day, Sept. 24th, 1704, Alexander Selkirk, mate of this vessel, +having mutinied and attempted to desert to the enemy, we have deprived +him of his title and his office; in case of obstinacy we shall hang him +to the yard-arm.'</p> + +<p>And he read the sentence to the offender.</p> + +<p>From this day, the rebel saw himself compelled to serve in the Swordfish +as a simple sailor, and his subordinates of yesterday, to-day his +equals, indemnified themselves for the authority he had exercised over +them, which did not cure him of that native contempt he had always felt +for mankind.</p> + +<p>A month passed away thus, during which the Swordfish several times +touched the shores of Peru, now to renew her supplies of provisions and +water, now to exchange with the Indians, nails, hatchets, knives, and +necklaces of beads, for gold dust, furs, and garments trimmed with +colored feathers.</p> + +<p>During one of these pauses, Selkirk, left on the ship, accosted the +captain once more. He knew that the remains of some bands of freebooters +were colonized there, leading a peaceful and agricultural life; this +fact was known to all. At Coquimbo in Chili, some English and Dutch +pirates had formed a settlement of this kind, now in the full tide of +prosperity. Selkirk, who, during an entire month, had not spoken to the +captain, now demanded, in a voice which he attempted to render calm and +almost supplicating, to be landed at Coquimbo, from which they were only +a few days sail.</p> + +<p>'You will not this time accuse me of wishing to desert to the enemy; +they are the English, Scotch, Dutch, our countrymen and allies whom I +wish to join! Do you still suspect me? Well, do not content yourself +with setting me on shore; place me in the hands of the chief men of the +settlement. Will that suit you?'</p> + +<p>Stradling winked significantly; but this was all.</p> + +<p>'Ah!' resumed the young man with increasing emotion, 'do not think to +detain me longer on board, to crush me beneath this humiliation! I +consented to serve under your orders as mate, and you have made me the +lowest of your sailors; this you had no right to do.'</p> + +<p>Stradling took his glass and directed it towards the shore, where his +people were engaged in trafficking their beads and hardware.</p> + +<p>Raising his head and folding his arms:</p> + +<p>'Captain,' pursued Selkirk with vehemence, 'some day or other we shall +return to England, where the laws protect all; there, I shall have the +right of complaint, and Queen Anne loves to render justice; beware!'</p> + +<p>Stradling, still spying, began to whistle <i>God save the Queen</i>; then he +called his monkey and made it gambol before him.</p> + +<p>'I will depart, I will free myself from your presence, and that of your +worthy companions; I will do so at all events, do you understand!' +exclaimed Selkirk exasperated, 'I will not endure your infamous +treatment another week! If you refuse to consent to my demand, I will +leave without your permission; were the vessel twenty miles from the +land, and were I to perish twenty times on the way, I will attempt to +swim ashore. Will you land me at Coquimbo, yes or no? Reply!'</p> + +<p>By way of reply, Stradling ordered him to be confined in the hold.</p> + +<p>Poor Selkirk! Ah! if pretty Kitty, if the beautiful landlady of the +Royal Salmon could know all thou hast endured for her sake, how many +tears would her fine eyes shed over thy fate! But who knows whether she +will ever hear of thee? Who can tell whether any human being will learn +the sufferings in reserve for thee?</p> + +<p>Poor Selkirk! you who painted to yourself so smiling a picture of this +grand voyage to America; who hoped to leave, like Dampier, your name to +some strait, some newly discovered island; you who dreamed of scientific +walks in vast prairies and under the arches of virgin forests, you have +shared only in the career of a trafficker and a pirate; of this New +World, full of marvellous sights, you have seen only the shore, the +fringe of the mantle, the margin of this last work of God!</p> + +<p>Poor Selkirk, must you then return to your cold and foggy Scotland, +without having contemplated at your ease, beneath the brilliant sun of +the tropics, one of those Edens overshadowed by the luxuriant verdure of +palm-trees, bananas, mimosas and gigantic ferns? In your country, the +bark of the trees is clad with lichens and mosses, and the parasite +mistletoe suspends itself to the branches, more as a burden than as an +ornament; here, numerous families of the orchis, with their singular +forms, showy and variegated blossoms, climb along the knotty stems of +the tall monarchs of the forests; from their feet spring up, as if to +enlace them with a magic network, the brilliant passiflora, the vanilla +with its intoxicating perfume, the banisteria whose roots seem to have +dived into mines of gold and borrowed from thence the color of its +petals! Hither the birds of Paradise and Brazilian parrots come to build +their nests; here the bluebird and the purple-necked wood-pigeon coo and +sing; here, like swarms of bees, thousands of humming-birds of mingled +emerald and sapphire, warble and glitter as they suck the nectar from +the flowers. This was what you hoped to contemplate, poor Selkirk! and +this joy, like many others, is henceforth forbidden.</p> + +<p>In his floating prison, in his submarine cell, his only employment is to +listen to the dashing of the waves against the ship, or now and then to +catch a glimpse of the blue sky through the hatchways.</p> + +<p>What cares he? He does not complain; he has learned to abhor mankind, +and he loves to be alone, in company with himself and his own thoughts.</p> + +<p>Several days passed in this manner.</p> + +<p>One morning he felt the brig slacken its speed; the dashing of the wave +against the prow diminished, and the Swordfish, suddenly furling its +sails, after having slightly rocked hither and thither, stopped. They +had just cast anchor. Where? he knows not.</p> + +<p>Soon he hears the rattling of the rope-ladder which serves as a stairway +to those above who would communicate with his prison. They come, on the +part of the captain, to seek him.</p> + +<p>He finds the latter seated on the deck, surrounded by his principal men.</p> + +<p>'Young man,' said Stradling, 'I have been obliged to be severe for the +sake of an example; but you have been sufficiently punished by the time +you have passed below there,'—and he pointed to the ship's hold. 'Now, +your wish shall be granted. You shall be allowed to land.'</p> + +<p>And the rare smile which sometimes hovered on his lips, stole over his +rigid face.</p> + +<p>'So much the better,' replied Selkirk, laconically.</p> + +<p>The boat was let down; he entered it, and ten minutes afterwards +disembarked on a green shore, where the waves, as they broke upon it, +seemed to murmur softly in his ear the word, <i>liberty</i>!</p> + +<p>The boat immediately rejoined the ship, which set sail, coasted along +Chili and Patagonia, and re-entered the Northern Sea by the Straits of +Magellan.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<h3> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> +<br> + +<h4>Inspection of the Country.—Marimonda.—A City seen through the Fog. +—The Sea every where.—Dialogue with a Toucan.—The first Shot. +—Declaration of War.—Vengeance.—A Terrestrial Paradise.</h4> + +<p>While watching the departure of the Swordfish, Alexander Selkirk felt +the same sensation as on that day when he had seen the doors of the +college of St. Andrew thrown open for his exit; once more he was his own +master. Now, however, it is at some thousands of miles from his country +that he must reap the benefits of his independence, and this idea +embitters his emotions of joy.</p> + +<p>But is he not about to find countrymen at Coquimbo? And if their society +should be unpleasing?—if their habits, their mode of life, their +persons, should become objects of antipathy to the misanthropic Selkirk, +as it is but natural to fear? Well! after all, no engagement binds him +to them; he will be always free to enter, in the capacity of a sailor, +the first vessel which may leave for Europe.</p> + +<p>Determined to act as shall seem good to him,—to make some excursions +into the interior of the continent, if an opportunity presents itself, +and he will know how to make one,—he casts a first glance at the land +of his adoption.</p> + +<p>Before him extends a vast shore, studded with groves of trees, covered +with fine turf and little flowers joyfully unfolding their petals to the +sun: two streams, having their source at the very base of the opposite +hills, after having meandered around this immense lawn, unite almost at +his feet.</p> + +<p>He bends down to one of these streams, fills the hollow of his hand with +water, and tastes it, as a libation, and as a toast to the generous land +which has just received him; the water is excellent; he plucks a flower, +and continues his inspection.</p> + +<p>On his left rise high mountains, terraced and verdant, excepting at +their summits, on one of which he perceives a goat, with long horns, +stationed there immovable like a sentinel, and whose delicate profile is +clearly defined on the azure of the sky. On the side towards the sea, +the mountains, bending their gray and naked heads, resemble stone +giants, watching the movements of the wave which dashes at their feet.</p> + +<p>On his right, where the land declines, he sees little valleys linked +together with charming undulations; but on the mountains at his left, in +the valleys at his right, among the hills in the distance, his eye +vainly seeks the vestige of a human habitation.</p> + +<p>He sets out in search of one. The boat from which he landed has +deposited on the shore his effects—his arms, his nautical instruments, +his charts, a Bible, and provisions of various kinds. Notwithstanding +his piratical sentiments, the captain of the Swordfish has not designed +to precede exile by confiscation. Selkirk takes his gun, his gourd; but, +unable to carry all his riches, he conceals them behind a stony thicket, +well defended by the darts of the cactus, and the sword-like leaves of +the aloe, not caring to have the first comer seize them as his booty.</p> + +<p>As he is occupied with this duty, he feels himself suddenly clasped by +two long hairy arms; he turns his head, it is Marimonda, the captain's +monkey, a female of the largest species.</p> + +<p>How came she there? Selkirk does not know.</p> + +<p>Disgusted with her sea-voyages, with the intelligence natural to her +race, Marimonda has undoubtedly profited by the moment of the boat's +leaving the ship to conceal herself in it and gain the shore along with +the prisoner, which she might easily have done, unseen by all, during +the transporting of the effects and provisions.</p> + +<p>However this may be, Selkirk begins by freeing himself from her grasp, +repulses the monkey and sets out: but the latter perseveres in +following, and after having, by her most graceful grimaces, sought to +conciliate him, marches beside him. Not caring to arrive at Coquimbo +escorted by such a companion, which would give him in a city the +appearance of a mountebank and showman of monkeys, Selkirk, this time, +repulses her rudely, not with his hand, but with the butt of his gun.</p> + +<p>Struck in the breast by this home thrust, the poor monkey stops, rolls +up her eyes, moves her lips, and growling confusedly her complaints and +reproaches, crouches beneath a tuft of the sapota, leaving the man to +pursue his way alone.</p> + +<p>Selkirk has at first directed his steps toward the valleys; after having +traversed these, he arrives at the margin of a sandy plain, and as far +as the eye can reach, perceives neither city, village, house, tent nor +hut, nothing which can indicate the presence of inhabitants.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, a little grove which he has just traversed, seems to have +recently, in its principal path, passed under the shears of a gardener; +the foliage presents a certain symmetry; fragments of branches are +strewed, on the ground, which seem to have been freshly cut; he even +thinks he sees vestiges of the passage of a flock. On the lawn of the +shore, he has seen, and still sees around him, trees with tufted heads, +which must owe this form to art. He continues his researches.</p> + +<p>At last, in the distance, beneath a fog which is just beginning to +dissolve, he perceives a vast mass of white and red houses, some with +terraced roofs, others covered with thatch; through the humid veil which +envelopes them, he sees the glistening of the glass in the windows; +already he hears at his feet the confused noise of cities; murmuring +voices reply; the measured sound of hammers and of mills even reaches +his ear.</p> + +<p>It is Coquimbo! he cannot doubt it, and shortening his route by a path +across the hill, he quickens his pace.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile an east wind arises, the fog disappears; when he thinks he has +reached the suburbs of the city, Selkirk sees before him only an +irregular assemblage of calcareous stones, crowned with dry herbs, or +reddish, arid, angular rocks, flattened at their summits, tessellated +with fragments of silex and mica, on which the sun is just pouring his +rays; a company of goats, which the mist had condemned to a momentary +repose, are bounding here and there, startling flocks of clamorous +black-birds and plaintive sea-gulls; the fearless and yellow-crested +woodpeckers alone do not stir, but continue to hammer with their sharp +beaks at some old stunted trees.</p> + +<p>The disenchantment is painful for our sailor; the fog has deceived him +with the semblance of a city, as it has more than once deluded us in the +midst of plains and woods, by the appearance of an ocean with its white +waves, its great capes, its bold shores, and its vessels at anchor.</p> + +<p>Perhaps Coquimbo is still beyond. Fearing to lose himself if he ventures +farther in an unknown land, he resolves to explore it first by a look. +Returning to the shore upon which he had landed, he scales the mountains +on the north, reaches the first platform, and from thence seeks to +discover some indications of a city. Nothing! he still ascends, the +circle enlarges around him, but with no better result. Summoning all his +courage, through a thousand difficulties, climbing, drawing himself up +by the arid and abrupt rocks, piled one upon another, he at last attains +a culminating point of the mountain. He can now embrace with his eye an +immense horizon, but this immense horizon is the sea! On his right, on +his left, before him, behind him, every where the sea!</p> + +<p>He is not on the continent, but on an island.</p> + +<p>This evening, exhausted with fatigue, he lies down in a grotto at the +foot of the mountain, where he passes a night full of agitation and +anxiety.</p> + +<p>Rising with the sun, his first care, the next morning, is to examine +his riches and his provisions. He returns to the thicket of cactus and +aloes.</p> + +<p>Besides two guns, two hatchets, a knife, an iron pot, a Bible and +nautical instruments, all articles belonging to him, he finds there a +quantity of nails, a large fragment of a sail, several horns of powder +and shot; a bag of ship biscuit, a salted quarter of pork, a little cask +of pickled fish, and a dozen cocoa-nuts.</p> + +<p>The night before, at sight of these articles, he had supposed a +sentiment of justice and humanity to exist in the soul of the corsair. +Just now, he had said to himself that Stradling, deceived by a false +reckoning of latitude, had landed him on an island, perhaps believing it +to be a projecting shore of the continent. Now, the abundance of his +supplies, this biscuit, these salt provisions, these fruits of the +cocoa, all valueless if he had really landed at Coquimbo, lead him to +suspect that the vindictive Englishman has designedly chosen the place +of his exile.</p> + +<p>But this exile, is it complete isolation? Is the island inhabited or +deserted? If it is inhabited, as he still believes he has reason to +suppose, by whom is it so?</p> + +<p>That he may obtain a reply to this double question, he resolves to +traverse the country in its whole extent. At the very commencement of +his journey, the immobility of a bird suffices to give to the doubt, on +which his thoughts vacillate, the appearance almost of a certainty.</p> + +<p>This bird is a toucan, of brilliant plumage and monstrous beak. Selkirk +passes near it, with his eyes fixed on the branch which serves as a +perch, and the toucan, without stirring, looks at him with a species of +calm and placid astonishment.</p> + +<p>Selkirk stops; he comprehends the mute language of the bird.</p> + +<p>'You do not know then what a man is! He is the enemy of every creature +to whom God has given life, the enemy even of his kind! You have then +never been threatened by the arms that I bear!'</p> + +<p>And with the palm of his hand, striking the butt of his gun, he made the +hammer click.</p> + +<p>At the sound of his voice, as at the noise of the hammer, the bird +raised its head, manifesting new and redoubled surprise, but without any +other movement. It seemed to think that the man and the gun were one, +and that its strange interlocutor possessed two different voices.</p> + +<p>At last, by way of reply, it uttered a few shrill and prolonged cries, +accompanied by the rattling of its two horny mandibles. After which, +acting the great nobleman, cutting short the audience he has deigned to +grant, the toucan is silent, turns its head, proudly raises one of its +wings and busies itself in smoothing, with the point of its large beak, +its beautiful greenish feathers, variegated with purple.</p> + +<p>At some distance from this spot, still following the margin of a wooded +hill, Selkirk sees other birds, some in their nests, others warbling in +the shade; all manifesting no more alarm at his presence than did the +toucan. Crested orioles, hooded bullfinches, alight to pick up little +grains or insects almost at his feet; humming-birds, variegated +cotingas, red manaquins flutter before him in the sunbeams, pursuing +invisible flies; little wood-peckers, black or green, hop around the +trunks of the trees, stopping a moment to see him pass and then resuming +their spiral ascent.</p> + +<p>The confidence which he inspires is not confined to these winged people. +Upon a hillock of turf he perceives an animal, with pointed nose, brown +fur enamelled with red spots, and of the size of a hare; seated on its +hind paws, longer than those in front, it uses these, after the manner +of squirrels, to carry to its mouth some nuts of the maripa, which +constitute its breakfast. It is an +agouti,<a href="#Footnote_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> a mother, +her little ones +are near. At sight of the stranger they run to her, but quickly +re-assured, quietly finish their morning repast.</p> + +<p>Farther on, coatis,<a href="#Footnote_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> with +short ears, and long tails; companies of +little Guinea pigs; armadillos, a species of hedge-hog without the +quills, but covered with an armor of scales, more compact and impervious +than that of the ancient knights of the Middle Ages, arrange themselves +along the line of his route, as if to pass him in review.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_1"></a><sup>[1]</sup></p> +<blockquote> <i>Agouti</i>. An animal of the bigness of a rabbit, with bright +red hair, and a little tail without hair. He has but two teeth in each +jaw; holds his meat in his forepaws like a squirrel, and has a very +remarkable cry: when he is angry, his hair stands on end, and he strikes +the earth with his hind feet; and when chased, he flies to a hollow +tree, whence he is expelled by smoke.—<i>Trevoux</i>.</blockquote> + +<p><a name="Footnote_2"></a><sup>[2]</sup></p> +<blockquote> The <i>coati</i> is a native of Brazil, not unlike the racoon in +the general form of the body, and, like that animal, it frequently sits +up on the hinder legs, and in this position carries its food to its +mouth. If left at liberty in a state of tameness, it will pursue +poultry, and destroy every living thing that it has strength to conquer. +When it sleeps it rolls itself into a lump, and remains immovable for +fifteen hours together. His eyes are small, but full of life; and when +domesticated, this creature is very playful and amusing. A great +peculiarity belonging to this animal is the length of his snout, which +resembles in some particulars the trunk of the elephant, as it is +movable in every direction. The ears are round, and like those of a rat; +the forefeet have five toes each. The hair is short and rough on the +back, and of a blackish color; the tail is marked with rings of black, +like the wild cat; the rest of the animal is a mixture of black and +red.</blockquote> + +<p>Alas! this general quiet does but deepen in the heart of Selkirk the +certainty of his isolation.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, yesterday, said he to himself, in this thick wood, did I +not see alleys trimmed with the shears, trees shaped by the +pruning-knife?</p> + +<p>And the little grove which he visited the evening previous, at that +instant presents itself before him. He examines the trees; they are +myrtles of various heights; but among their glossy branches, he in vain +seeks traces of the pruning-knife or shears; nature alone has thus +disposed in spheroids or umbels the extremities of this rich vegetation.</p> + +<p>The same disappointment awaits him in the underwood. The only pruners +have been goats, or other animals, daintily cropping the green shoots.</p> + +<p>Then only does the complete and terrible certainty of his disaster fall +on him and crush him. Behold him blotted from the number of men, perhaps +condemned to die of misery and of hunger! more securely imprisoned, more +entirely forgotten by the world than the most hardened criminal plunged +in the lowest depths of the Bastile! He at least, has a jailor! +Miserable Stradling!</p> + +<p>At this moment he hears a noise above his head: it is the monkey.</p> + +<p>Marimonda, on her side, has also inspected the island; she has already +tasted its productions. Whether she is satisfied with her discoveries, +or whether forgiveness and forgetfulness of injuries are natural to her, +on perceiving her old companion, wagging her head in token of good-will, +she descends towards him from the tree on which she is perched.</p> + +<p>But Marimonda is the captain's monkey; she has been his property, his +favorite, his flatterer! In the disposition of mind in which Selkirk +finds himself, he does not need these thoughts to make him pitiless. +Marimonda reminds him of Stradling; the monkey shall pay for the man!</p> + +<p>He lowers his gun, and fires. The monkey has seen the movement and +divined his intentions; she has only time to retreat behind her tree, +which does not prevent her receiving in her side a part of the charge.</p> + +<p>This detonation of fire-arms, the first perhaps which has resounded in +this corner of the earth since the creation of the world, as it is +prolonged from echo to echo, even to the highest mountains, awakens in +every part of the island as it were a groan of distress. Instinct, that +sublime prescience, has revealed to all that a great peril has just been +born.</p> + +<p>To the cries of affright from birds of every species, to the uneasy and +distant bleating of the goats, succeeds a plaintive moaning, like the +voice of a wailing infant.</p> + +<p>It is Marimonda lamenting over her wound.</p> + +<p>At nightfall, after an entire day of walks and explorations, Selkirk is +returning to his grotto on the shore, when he sees a stone fall at his +feet, then another.</p> + +<p>While he, astonished, is seeking to divine the direction from which this +invisible battery plays, a little date-stone hits him on the cheek. He +immediately hears as it were a joyous whistling in the foliage, which is +agitated at his right, and sees Marimonda leaping from tree to tree, +using for this movement her feet, her tail, and one hand; for she holds +the other to her side. It is a compress on her wound.</p> + +<p>War is already in the island! Selkirk has a declared enemy here! And +this island, is it deserted? He has just traversed it in every direction +without seeing any thing which betokens the existence of a human being.</p> + +<p>His disaster is then complete; henceforth not a doubt of it can exist. +And yet his forehead wears rather the character of hope and fortitude +than of discouragement; it is more than resignation, it is pride.</p> + +<p>He has just visited his empire. The island, irregular in form, is from +four to five leagues in length; in breadth it is from one and a half to +two leagues. This abode to which he is condemned, is the most enchanting +retreat he could have chosen; a luxuriant park cradled upon the waves.</p> + +<p>If sometimes, in the mountainous parts, he has encountered sterile and +rugged rocks, even abysses and precipices, they seem to be placed there +only as a contrast to the fresh and green valleys which encircle them. +If he has seen some dark, dense, inaccessible forests, entangled in the +thousand arms of interwoven vines, he has not discovered a single +reptile.</p> + +<p>Every where, springs of living water, little streams which are lost +under a thick verdure, or fall in cascades from the summits of the +hills; every where a luxuriant vegetation; esculent and refreshing +plants, celery, cresses, sorrel, spring in profusion beneath his feet; +over his head, and almost within reach of his hand, palm-cabbages, and +unknown fruits of succulent appearance: on the margin of the shores, +muscles, periwinkles, shell-fish of every species, crabs crawling in the +moist sand; beneath the transparent waters, innumerable shoals of fishes +of all colors, all forms. Will game be wanting here? After what he has +seen this morning, he will not even need his gun to obtain it. Oh! his +provision of powder will last him a long time.</p> + +<p>What has he to desire more in this terrestrial Paradise? The society of +men? Why? That he may find a master, a chief, under whose will he must +bend? Men! but he despises, detests them! Is he not then sufficient for +himself? Yes! this shall be his glory, his happiness! To live in entire +liberty, to depend only upon himself, will not this impart to his soul +true dignity? Besides, this island cannot be so far from the coast, but, +from time to time, ships, or at least boats must come in sight. This is +then for him but a transient seclusion; but were he even condemned to +eternal isolation, this isolation has ceased to terrify him, he accepts +it! Has he not almost always lived alone, in spirit at least? When he +was in the depths of the hold, was he not better satisfied with his fate +than when surrounded by those coarse sailors who composed the worthy +crew of the Swordfish?</p> + +<p>To-day he is no longer the prisoner of Stradling, he is the prisoner of +God! and this thought reassures him.</p> + +<p>A sailor, he has never loved but the sea; well! the sea surrounds him, +guards him! He has then only thanks to render to God.</p> + +<p>Arrived at his grotto, he takes his Bible, opens it; but the sun, +suddenly sinking below the horizon, permits him to read only this +passage on which his finger is placed: 'Thou shalt perish in thy pride!'</p> + + +<p> </p> +<h3> +<a name="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> +<br> + +<h4>Labors of the Colonist.—His Study.—Fishing.—Administration. +—Selkirk Island.—The New Prometheus.—What is wanting to Happiness. +—Encounter with Marimonda.—Monologue.</h4> + +<p>Three months have passed away.</p> + +<p>Thanks to Selkirk, the shore which received him at his disembarkation, +presents to-day an aspect not only picturesque, but animated. The hand +of man has made itself felt there.</p> + +<p>The bushes and tufts of trees which hid the view of the hills in the +distance, have been uprooted and cut down; pretty paths, covered with +gravel, wind over the vast lawn; one in the direction of the valleys at +the right, another towards the mountains at the left; a third leads to a +tall mimosa, whose topmost boughs and dense foliage spread out like a +parasol. A wooden bench, composed of some round sticks, driven into the +earth, with branches interwoven and covered with bark, surrounds it; a +rustic table, constructed in the same manner, stands at the foot of the +tree. This is the study and place of meditation of the exile; here also +he comes to take his meals, in sight of the sea.</p> + +<p>All three paths terminate in the grotto which Selkirk continues to make +his residence. This grotto he has enlarged, quarried out with his +hatchet, to make room for himself, his furniture, and provisions. He +has even attempted to decorate its exterior with a bank of turf, and +several species of creeping plants, trained to cover its calcareous +nudity. At the entrance of his habitation, rise two young palm-trees, +transplanted there by him, to serve as a portico. But nature is not +always obedient to man; the vines and palm-trees do not prosper in their +new location, and now the long flexible branches of the one, and the +broad leaves of the other, droop half withered above the grotto, which +they disfigure rather than decorate.</p> + +<p>By constant care, and with the aid of his streams, Selkirk hopes to be +able to restore them to life and health. He has imposed on his two +streams another duty, that of supplying a bed of water-cresses and a +fish-pond, both provident establishments, the first of which has +succeeded perfectly. As for the second, his most arduous task has been, +not to dig the fish-pond, but to people it. For this purpose he has been +compelled to become a fisherman, to manufacture a net. He has succeeded, +with some threads from his fragment of a sail, the fibres of his +cocoa-nuts, and tough reeds, woven in close meshes; unfortunately those +fine fishes, breams, eels and angel-fish, which show themselves so +readily through the limpid wave, are not as easy to catch as to see. +Under the surface, almost at a level with the water, there is a ledge of +rocks, upon which the net cannot be managed. After several fruitless +attempts, he is obliged to content himself with the insignificant +employment of fishing with a line; a nail flattened, sharpened and bent, +performs the office of a hook. Success ensues, but only with time and +patience; fortunately the sea-crabs allow themselves to be caught with +the hand, and the fish-pond does not long remain useless and deserted.</p> + +<p>Besides, has not our fortunate Selkirk the resource of hunting? The +chase he had commenced generously, like a wise monarch, who wages war +only for the general interest. It is true, that as it happens with most +wise monarchs, his own private interest is also to be consulted, at +least he thinks so.</p> + +<p>Wild cats existed in the island, destroying young broods, agoutis, and +other small game; he has almost entirely rid it of these pirates, +reserving to himself only the right of levying upon his subjects the +tribute of blood. He has already signalized his administration by acts +of an entirely different nature.</p> + +<p>This king without a people, is ignorant in what part of the great ocean, +and at what distance from its shores, is situated his nameless kingdom.</p> + +<p>Armed with his spy-glass, by the aid of his nautical charts, he attempts +to ascertain, by the position of the stars, its longitude and latitude. +He at first believes himself to be in one of the islands forming the +group of Chiloe; his calculations rectified, he afterwards thinks it the +Island of Juan Fernandez, then San Ambrosio, or San Felix. Unable to +determine the location exactly, for want of correct instruments, he +persuades himself that the country he inhabits has never been surveyed, +that it is really a land without a name, and he gives it his own; he +calls it Selkirk Island.</p> + +<p>Ambitious youth, thou hast thus realized one of thy brightest dreams! +Dost thou remember the day when, on the way from Largo to St. Andrew, to +join William Dampier, thou didst already see thyself the chief of a new +country, discovered and baptized by thee?</p> + +<p>Well! has he not more than discovered this country? He inhabits it, he +governs it, he reigns in it! Not satisfied with giving his name to the +island, he soon creates a special nomenclature for its various +localities. To the shore upon which he landed, he gives the name of +<i>Swordfish Beach</i>; the pile of white and red rocks, which he saw through +the fog, is the <i>False Coquimbo</i>; he calls <i>Toucan Forest</i>, the wood +where he saw that bird for the first time; the <i>Defile of Attack</i>, is +that where Marimonda assaulted him with stones; upon these arid rocks, +furrowed by deep ravines and abounding in precipices, he has imposed the +odious name of <i>Stradling</i>! In his mountains he has the <i>Oasis</i>; it is a +little shady valley, enlivened by the murmur of a streamlet, and with +one extremity opening to the sea. There he often goes to watch the game +and the goats, which come to drink at the brook. Above it rises the +table-land, with difficulty scaled by him on the day of his arrival, and +from whence he became convinced that he had landed on an island. This +table-land, he has named <i>The Discovery</i>.</p> + +<p>The two streams which meander over his lawn, and before his grotto, have +also received names. This, commissioned to feed the fish-pond, and which +gently warbles through the grass, he calls <i>The Linnet</i>; the other, +interrupted by little cascades, and whose course is more rapid and +impetuous, he calls <i>The Stammerer</i>.</p> + +<p>He has now destroyed the noxious animals, administered government, +opened ways of communication, given a name to every part of his island. +How many great rulers have done no more!</p> + +<p>But his labors have not been confined to his fish-pond, his bed of +water-cresses, his hunting, fishing, building, felling of trees; it has +become necessary to procure that essential element of civilization, of +comfort, fire.</p> + +<p>What could the opulent proprietor of this enchanting abode do without +fire? Is it not necessary, if he would open a passage through the dense +woods? Is it not indispensable to his kitchen? Some of his trees, it is +true, afford fruits in abundance; but most of these fruits are of a dry +and woody nature; besides, young and vigorous, easily acquiring an +appetite by labor and exercise, can he content himself with a dinner +which is only a dessert? Surrounded with fishes of all colors, with +feathered and other game, must he then be reduced to dispute with the +agoutis, their maripa-nuts?</p> + +<p>He reflects; armed with a bit of iron, he strikes the flinty rocks of +the mountains, to elicit from them useless sparks. He then remembers +that savages obtain fire without flint and matches, by the friction of +two pieces of dry wood; he tries, but in vain; he exhausts the strength +of his arms, without being discouraged; he tries each tree, wishing even +that a thunderbolt might strike the island, if it would leave there a +trace of burning. At last, almost discouraged, he attacks the +pimento-myrtle; +<a href="#Footnote_3"><sup>[1]</sup></a> he recommences +his customary efforts of rubbing. The +twigs grow warm with the friction; a little white smoke appears, +fluttering to and fro between his hands, rapid and trembling with +emotion. The flame bursts forth! He utters a cry of triumph, and, +hastily collecting other twigs and dry reeds, he leaps for joy around +his fire, which, like another Prometheus, he has just stolen, not from +heaven, but from earth!</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_3"></a><sup>[1]</sup></p> +<blockquote> <i>Myrtus aromatica</i>; its berries are known under the name of +Jamaica pepper.</blockquote> + +<p>Afterwards, in his gratitude, he runs to the myrtle, embraces it, kisses +it. An act of folly, perhaps; perhaps an act of gratitude, which +ascended higher than the topmost branches of the trees, higher than the +culminating summits of the mountains of the island.</p> + +<p>But this fire, must he, each time he may need it, go through the same +tedious process? Not far from his grotto, in a cavity which a projecting +rock protects from the sea breeze, he piles up wood and brush, sets fire +to it, keeps it alive from time to time, by the addition of +combustibles, and comprehends why, among primitive nations, the earliest +worship should have been that of fire; why, from Zoroaster to the +Vestals, the care of preserving it should have been held sacred.</p> + +<p>At a later period, in the ordinary course of things, he simplified his +means of preservation. With some threads and the fat of his game, he +contrived a lamp; still later, he had oil, and reeds served him for +wicks.</p> + +<p>Dating from this moment, the entire island paid tribute to him; the +crabs, the eels, the flesh of the agouti, savory like that of the +rabbit, by turns figured on his table. When he seasoned them with some +morsels of pork, substituting ship biscuit for bread, his repasts were +fit for an admiral.</p> + +<p>Although the goats had become wild, like the other inhabitants of the +island, since all had learned the nature of man, and of the thunder, +which he directed at his will, Selkirk still surprised them within +gun-shot. Not only was their flesh profitable for food; their horns, +long and hollow, served to contain powder and other small articles +necessary to his house-keeping; of their skins he made carpets, +coverings, and bags to protect his provisions from dampness. He even +manufactured a game-pouch, which he constantly carried when hunting.</p> + +<p>His salt fish, his biscuit, some well smoked quarters of goat's flesh, +and the productions of his fish-pond, at present constitute a store on +which he can live for a long time, without any care, but to ameliorate +his condition.</p> + +<p>He is now in possession of all the enjoyments he has coveted, abundance, +leisure, absolute freedom.</p> + +<p>And yet, his brow is sometimes clouded, and an unaccountable uneasiness +torments him; something seems wanting; his appetite fails, his courage +grows feeble, his reveries are painfully prolonged. But, by mature +reflection, he has discovered the cause of the evil.</p> + +<p>What is it that is so essential to his happiness? Tobacco.</p> + +<p>Our factitious wants often exercise over us a more tyrannical empire, +than our real ones; it seems as if we clung with more force and tenacity +to this second nature, because we have ourselves created it; it +originates in us; the other originates with God, and is common to all!</p> + +<p>Selkirk now persuades himself that tobacco alone is wanting to his +comfort; it is this privation which throws him into these sorrowful +fits of languor. If Stradling had only given him a good stock of +tobacco, he would have pardoned all; he no longer feels courage to hate +him. What to him imports the plenty which surrounds him, if he has no +tobacco? of what use is his leisure, if he cannot spend it in smoking? +what avails even this fire, which he has just conquered, if he is +prevented from lighting his pipe at it?</p> + +<p>Careworn and dissatisfied, he was wandering one morning through his +domains, with his gun on his shoulder, his hatchet at his belt, when he +perceived something dancing on a point of land, shadowed by tall canes.</p> + +<p>It was Marimonda.</p> + +<p>At sight of her enemy, she darted lightly and rapidly behind a woody +hillock. An instant afterwards, he saw her tranquilly seated on the +topmost branch of a tree, holding in each of her hands fruits which she +was alternately striking against the branch, and against each other, to +break their tough envelope.</p> + +<p>The sight of Marimonda has always awakened in Selkirk a sentiment of +repulsion; she not only reminds him of Stradling, but with her withered +cheeks, projecting jaw, and especially her dancing motion, he now +imagines that she resembles him; and yet, pausing before her, he +contemplates her not without a lively emotion of surprise and interest.</p> + +<p>He had already encountered her within gun-shot, when engaged in the +destruction of the wild cats, and had asked himself whether he should +not reckon her among noxious animals. But then Marimonda, with her hand +constantly pressed against her side, was with the other seizing various +herbs, which she tasted, bruised between her teeth, and applied to her +wound; useless remedies, doubtless, for, grown meagre, her hair dull and +bristling, she seemed to have but a few days to live, and Selkirk +thought her not worth a charge of powder and shot.</p> + +<p>And here he finds her alert and healthy, holding in the same hand which +had served as a compress, no longer the plant necessary for her cure, +but the fruit desirable for her sustenance.</p> + +<p>'What,' said Selkirk to himself, 'in an island where this frightful +monkey has never before been, she has succeeded in finding without +difficulty the <i>herba sacra</i>, that which has restored her to health and +strength! and I, Selkirk, who have studied at one of the principal +universities of Scotland, I am vainly sighing for the plant which would +suffice to render me completely happy! Is instinct then superior to +reason? To believe this, would be ingratitude to Providence. Instinct is +necessary, indispensable to animals, because they cannot benefit by the +traditions of their ancestors. The monkey has consulted her instinct, +and it has inspired her; if I consult reason, what will be her counsel? +She will advise me to do like the monkey; to seek the herb of which I +feel so great a want, or at least to endeavor to substitute for it +something analogous; to choose, try, and taste, in short, to follow the +example of Marimonda! I will not fail to do so; but it is nature +reversed, and, for a man, it is too humiliating to see himself reduced +to imitate a monkey!'</p> + + +<p> </p> +<h3> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> +<br> + +<h4>The Hammock.—Poison.—Success.—A Calm under the Tropics.—Invasion +of the Island.—War and Plunder.—The Oasis.—The Spy-Glass. +—Reconciliation.</h4> + +<p>Do you see, upon a carpet of fresh verdure, the sandy margin of which is +bathed by a caressing wave, that hammock suspended to the branches of +those fine trees? What happy mortal, during the heat of the day, is +there gently rocked, gently refreshed, by a light sea breeze? It is +Selkirk; and this hammock is his sail, attached to his tall myrtles by +strips of goat-skin. Perhaps he is resting after the fatigues of the +day? No, it is the day of the Lord, and Selkirk now can consecrate the +Sabbath to repose. With his eyes half closed, he is inhaling, +undoubtedly, the perfume of his myrtles, the soft fragrance of his +heliotropes? No, something sweeter still pre-occupies him. Is he +dreaming of his friends in Scotland, of his first love? He has never +known friendship, and the beautiful Catherine is far from his memory. +What is he then doing in his hammock? He is smoking his pipe.</p> + +<p>His pipe! Has he a pipe? He has them of all forms, all sizes—made of +spiral shells of various kinds, of maripa-nuts, of large reeds; all set +in handles of myrtle, stalks of coarse grain, or the hollow bones of +birds. In these he is luxurious; he has become a connoisseur; but this +has not been the difficulty. Before every thing else, tobacco was +wanting.</p> + +<p>In consequence of his encounter with Marimonda, he ransacked the woods +and meadows, seeking among all plants those which approximated nearest +to the nature of the nicotiana. As it was necessary to judge by their +taste, he bit their leaves—chewed them, still in imitation of the +monkey: but, to his new and profound humiliation, less skilful or less +fortunate than the latter, he obtained at first no other result than a +sort of poisoning: one of these plants being poisonous.</p> + +<p>For several days he saw himself condemned to absolute repose and a spare +diet. His mouth, swollen, excoriated, refused all nourishment; his +throat was burning; his body was covered with an eruption, and his +languid and trembling limbs scarcely permitted him to drag himself to +the stream to quench there the thirst by which he was devoured.</p> + +<p>He believed himself about to die; and grief then imposing silence on +pride, with his eyes turned towards the sea, he allowed a long-repressed +sigh to escape his heart. It was a regret for his absent country.</p> + +<p>Very soon these alarming symptoms disappeared; his strength returned; +his water-cresses and wild sorrel completed the cure. Would he have +dared to ask it of the other productions of his island? He had become +suspicious of nature; these, at least, he had long known.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had he recovered, when the want of tobacco made itself felt +anew with more force than ever. What to him imports experiment, what +imports danger? Is it not to procure this precious, indispensable +herb,—which the world had easily done without for thousands of years?</p> + +<p>This time, nevertheless, become more prudent, he no longer addresses +himself to the sense of taste; but to odor, to that of smell. He has +resolved to dry the different plants which appear to him most proper for +the use to which he destines them, and to submit them afterwards to a +trial by fire. Will not the smoke which escapes from them easily enable +him to discover the qualities which he requires, since it is in smoke +that they are to evaporate, if he succeeds in his researches?</p> + +<p>Of this grand collection of aromatics, two plants, at last, come off +victorious. One is the petunia, that charming flower which at present +decorates all our gardens, whence the enemies of tobacco may one day +banish it; so it is only with trembling that I here announce its +relationship to the nicotiana; the other, which, like the petunia, grows +in profusion in the islands as well as on the continent of Southern +America, is the herb <i>coca</i>, improperly so called, for its precious +leaves, which are to the natives of Peru and Chili, what the <i>betel</i> is +for the Indians of Malabar, grow on an elegant shrub. +<a href="#Footnote_4"><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_4"></a><sup>[1]</sup></p> +<blockquote>The <i>erythroxylum coca</i>.</blockquote> + +<p>These two plants, separately or together, composed, thanks to a slight +amalgam of chalk, sea-water, and bruised pepper-corns, the most +delicious tobacco.</p> + +<p>Now, half awake, Selkirk smokes, as he busies himself with constructing +some necessary article, such as a ladder, a stool, a basket of rushes, +with which he is completing the furniture of his house; he smokes while +fishing, and while hunting; on his return to his dwelling, he lies down +at the entrance of his grotto, on his bank of turf, re-lights his pipe +at his fire, and smokes; at the hour of breakfast or of dinner, seated +beneath the shade of his mimosa, his elbow on the table, his Bible open +before him, he smokes still.</p> + +<p>Well! notwithstanding these pleasures so long desired, notwithstanding +this addition to his comfort, notwithstanding his pipe, this vague +uneasiness sometimes assails him anew.</p> + +<p>He ascribes it to enfeebled health; and yet he remains active and +vigorous; he ascribes it to the powerful odors of certain trees which +affect his brain. These trees he destroys around him, but his uneasiness +continues; he ascribes it to his food, the insipidity of the fish which +he has eaten without salt, since his quarter of pork is consumed, and +his stores of pickled fish exhausted. In fact, the flesh of fish has for +some time given him a nausea, occasioned frequent indigestions; he +renounces it; his stomach recovers its tone; but his fits of torpor and +melancholy continue.</p> + +<p>This state of suffering is most painful at those moments of profound +calm, common between the tropics, when the birds are silent, when from +the thickets and burrows issue no murmurs, when the insect seems to +sleep within the closed corollas of the flowers; when the leaves of the +mimosa fold themselves; when the tree-tops are not swayed by the +slightest breath of air, and the sea, motionless, ceases to dash against +the shore. What an inexpressible weight such a silence adds to +isolation! And yet it is not an unbroken silence, for then a shrill and +harsh sound seems to grate upon the ear. It is as if in this muteness of +nature, one could hear the motion of the earth on its axis; then, above +his head, in the depths of immensity, the whirling of the celestial +spheres and myriads of worlds which gravitate in space. Thought becomes +troubled and exhausted before this overwhelming and terrible immobility, +and the man who, at such a moment, cannot have recourse to his kind, to +distract or re-assure him, is overpowered with his own insignificance.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the solitary calls on himself to break this oppressive and +painful silence; he articulates a few words aloud, and his voice +inspires him with fear; it seems formidable and unnatural.</p> + +<p>During one of these sinister calms, in which every thing in creation +seemed to pause, even the heart of man, seated on the shore, not having +even strength to smoke, Selkirk was vainly awaiting the evening breeze; +nothing came, but the obscurity of night. The moon, delaying her +appearance, submitting in her turn to the sluggishness of all things, +seemed detained below the circle of the horizon by some fatal power; the +sea was dull, gloomy, and as it were congealed.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, though there was not a breath of air, Selkirk saw at his +right, on a vast but limited tract of ocean, the waves violently +agitated and foaming. He thought he distinguished a multitude of barques +and canoes furrowing the surface of the waters; not far from Swordfish +Beach, the flotilla enters a little cove running up into the mountains.</p> + +<p>He no longer sees any thing; but he hears a frightful tumult of +discordant cries.</p> + +<p>There is no room for doubt! some Indian tribes, pursued perhaps by new +conquerors from Europe, have just disembarked on the shore. Wo to him! +he can hope from them neither pity nor mercy. A cold sweat bathes his +forehead; he runs to his grotto, takes his gun, puts in his goatskin +pouch some horns of powder and shot, a piece of smoked meat, not +forgetting his Bible! and passes the night wandering in the woods, in +the mountains, a prey to a thousand terrors; hearing without cessation +the steps of pursuers behind him, and seeing fiery eyes glaring at him +through the thickets.</p> + +<p>At day-break, with a thousand precautions, he returns to his grotto. He +finds the beach covered with seals.</p> + +<p>These were the enemies whose invasion had so alarmed him.</p> + +<p>It is now the middle of the month of February, the period of the +greatest tropical heats, and these amphibia, having left the shores of +Chili or Peru, are accomplishing one of their periodical migrations. +They have just taken possession of the island, one of their accustomed +stations. But the island has now a master.</p> + +<p>Where he expected to encounter a peril, Selkirk finds amusement, a +subject of study, perhaps a resource.</p> + +<p>A long time ago he has read, in the narratives of voyagers, singular +stories concerning these marine animals, these <i>lions</i>, these +<i>sea-elephants</i>, flocks of old Neptune, who have their chiefs, their +pacha; who are acquainted with and practise the discipline of war; +stationing vigilant sentinels in the spots they occupy, communicating to +each other a pass-word, and attentive to the <i>Qui vive</i>?</p> + +<p>He spies them, he watches them, he takes pleasure in examining their +grotesque forms,—half quadruped, half fish; their feet encased in a +sort of web, and terminated by crooked claws, with which they creep on +the earth; their skins, covered with short and glossy hair; their round +heads and eyes.</p> + +<p>He is a witness of their sports, their combats; but very soon their +frightful roaring and bellowing annoys him, and makes him regret the +silence of his solitude. Another cause of complaint against them soon +arises.</p> + +<p>One morning, Selkirk finds his fish-pond and bed of water-cresses +devastated.</p> + +<p>Exasperated, he declares war against the invaders: during three days he +tracks them, pursues them; ten of them fall beneath his balls, leaving +the shore bathed in their blood. The rest at last take flight, and the +army of seals, regaining the sea with despairing cries, goes to +establish itself at the other extremity of the island.</p> + +<p>This war has been profitable to the conqueror. With the skin of the +vanquished he makes himself a new hammock, which permits him to employ +his sail for other uses; he also makes leather bottles, in which he +preserves the oil which he extracts in abundance from their fat. Now he +can have a lamp constantly burning, even by night. He has all the +comforts of life. Of the hairy skin of the seals, he manufactures a +broad-brimmed hat, which shields him from the burning rays of the sun. +He tastes their flesh; it appears to him insipid and nauseous, like that +of the fish; but the tongue, the heart, seasoned with pepper, are for +him quite a luxury.</p> + +<p>Days, weeks, months roll away in the same toils, the same recreations. +Whatever he may do to drive it away, this apathetic sadness, this +sinking of soul, which has already tormented him at different periods, +becomes with Selkirk more and more frequent; he cannot conquer it as he +did the seals. His seals, he now regrets. When they were encamped on the +shore, they at least gave him something to look at, an amusement; +something lived, moved, near him.</p> + +<p>When he finds himself a prey to these fits, which, in his pride, he +persists in attributing to transient indisposition, he goes to walk in +the mountains, taking with him only his pipe, his Bible, and his +spy-glass.</p> + +<p>He often pursues his journey as far as the oasis; there, he seats +himself at the extremity of the little valley, opposite the sea, from +which his eye can traverse its immense extent. He opens the holy book, +and closes it immediately; then, his brow reddening, he seizes his +spy-glass, levels it, and remains entire hours measuring the ocean, wave +by wave.</p> + +<p>What is he looking for there? He seeks a sail, a sail which shall come +to his island and bear him from his desert, from his <i>ennui</i>. His +<i>ennui</i> he can no longer dissimulate; this is the evil of his solitude.</p> + +<p>One day, while he was at this spot, the setting sun suddenly illuminated +a black point, against which the waves seemed to break in foam, as +against the prow of a ship; his eyes become dim, a tremor seizes him. +He looks again—keeps his glass for a long time fixed on the same +object, but the black point does not stir.</p> + +<p>'Another illusion!' said he to himself; 'it is a reef, a rock which the +tide has left bare.'</p> + +<p>He wipes the glasses of his spy-glass, he examines again; he seems to +see the waves whiten and whirl for a large space around this rock.</p> + +<p>'Can it be an island? If an island, is it inhabited? I will construct a +barque, and if God has pity on me I will reach it.'</p> + +<p>At this moment he hears footsteps resound on the dry leaves which the +wind has swept into the little valley. He turns hastily.</p> + +<p>It is Marimonda.</p> + +<p>Marimonda has no longer her lively and dancing motions; she also seems +languid, sad. At sight of Selkirk, she makes a movement as if to flee; +but almost immediately advances a little, and, sorrowful, with bent +brow, sits down on a bank not far from him.</p> + +<p>Has she then remarked that he is without arms?</p> + +<p>On his side, Selkirk who had not met her for a long time, seemed to have +forgotten his former aversion.</p> + +<p>At all events, is she not the most intelligent being chance has placed +near him? He remembers that, in the ship, she obeyed the voice, the +gesture of the captain, and that her tricks amused the whole crew. This +resemblance to the human form, which he at first disliked, now awakens +in him ideas of indulgence and peace. He reproaches himself with having +treated her so brutally, when the poor animal, who alone had accompanied +him into exile, at first accosted him with a caress. And now she +returns, laying aside all ill-will, forgetting even the wound which she +received from him in an impulse of irritation and hatred, of which she +was not the object, for which she ought not to be responsible.</p> + +<p>He therefore makes to her a little sign with the head.</p> + +<p>Marimonda replies by winks of the eye and motions of the shoulders, +which Selkirk thinks not wholly destitute of grace.</p> + +<p>He rises and approaches her, saluting her with an amicable gesture.</p> + +<p>She awaits him, chattering with her teeth and lips with an expression of +joy.</p> + +<p>Selkirk gently passes his hand over her forehead and neck, calling her +by name; then he starts for his habitation, and Marimonda follows him. +The man and the monkey have just been reconciled. Both were tired of +their isolation.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<h3> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3> +<br> + +<h4>A Tête-a-tête.—The Monkey's Goblet.—The Palace.—A Removal.—Winter +under the Tropics—Plans for the Future.—Property.—A burst of +Laughter.—Misfortune not far off.</h4> + +<p>Tranquility of mind has returned to our solitary; now, his reveries are +more pleasant and less prolonged; his walks through the woods, his +moments of repose during the heat of the day seem more endurable since +<i>something</i>, besides his shadow, keeps him company; he has resumed his +taste for labor since there is <i>somebody</i> to look at him; speech has +returned to him since <i>somebody</i> replies to his voice. This <i>somebody</i>, +this <i>something</i>, is Marimonda.</p> + +<p>Marimonda is now the companion of Selkirk, his friend, his slave; she +seems to comprehend his slightest gestures and even his <i>ennui</i>. To +amuse him, she resorts to a thousand expedients, a thousand tricks of +the agility peculiar to her race; she goes, she comes, she runs, she +leaps, she bounds, she chatters at his side; she tries to people his +solitude, to make a rustling around him; she brings him his pipes, rocks +him in his hammock, and, for all these cares, all this attention, +demands only a caress, which is no longer refused.</p> + +<p>She is often a spectator of her master's repasts; sometimes even shares +them. This was at first a favor, afterwards a habit, as in the case of +honest countrymen, who, secluded from the world, by degrees admit their +servants into their intimacy. Selkirk had not to fear the importunate, +unexpected visit of a neighbor or a curious stranger.</p> + +<p>So it is in the open air, on the latticed table, in the shade of his +great mimosa, that these repasts in common take place; the master +occupies the bench, the servant humbly seats herself on the stool, +ready, at the first signal, to leave her place and assist in serving. +Have we not seen in India, ourang-outangs trained to perform the office +of domestics? and Marimonda was in nothing inferior in intelligence and +activity.</p> + +<p>She is now fond of the flesh of the goat, of that of the coatis and +agoutis, for monkeys easily become carnivorous; but the table is also +sometimes covered with the products of her hunting. If the dessert +fails, she hastily interrupts her repast, leaves the master to continue +his alone, buries herself in the surrounding woods, reaches in three +bounds the tops of the trees, and quickly returns with a supply of +fruits which he can fearlessly taste, for she knows them.</p> + +<p>Selkirk was one day a witness of the singular facility with which she +could supply her wants.</p> + +<p>At the morning repast, seeing him use one of his cocoa-nuts which he had +fashioned in the form of a cup to drink from; in her instinct of +imitation, she had attempted to seize the cup in her turn; a look of +reprimand stopped her short in her attempt. Whether she felt a species +of humiliation at being forced to quench her thirst in the presence of +her master, by going to the banks of the stream and lapping there, like +a vulgar animal; or whether the reprimand had painfully affected her, +she abstained from drinking and remained for some time quiet and dreamy; +but at the following repast, with lifted head and sparkling eye she +resumed her place on the stool, provided with a goblet, a goblet +belonging to her, lawfully obtained by her, and, with an air of triumph +presented it to Selkirk, who, wondering, did not hesitate an instant to +share with the monkey the water contained in his gourd.</p> + +<p>This goblet was the ligneous and impermeable capsule, the fruit, +naturally and deeply hollowed out, of a tree called <i>quatela</i>. +<a href="#Footnote_5"><sup>[1]</sup></a> It was +thus that the intelligent Marimonda, after having borrowed from the +numerous vegetables of the island their leaves, to ameliorate her +sufferings, to heal her wounds; their fruits for her nourishment and +even for her sports, also found means to obtain the divers utensils for +house-keeping of which she stood in need.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_5"></a><sup>[1]</sup></p> +<blockquote> The <i>lecythis quatela</i>, of the family of the <i>lecythidées</i>, +created by Professor Richard, and whose singular fruits bear, in Peru as +well as in Chili, the denomination of <i>monkey's goblets</i>.</blockquote> + +<p>Charmed with her gentleness, her docility, the affection she seemed to +bear him, Selkirk grew more and more attached to her. Winter, that is, +the rainy season which usually lasts in these regions during the months +of June and July, was approaching; he suffered in anticipation, from the +idea that during this time his gentle companion would not be able to +retain her habitual shelter, beneath the foliage of the trees; he +conceived the project of giving up to her his grotto, and constructing +for himself a new habitation, spacious and commodious. It is thus that +our most generous resolutions, whatever we may design to do, +encountering in their way personal interest, often turn to the increase +of our own private welfare.</p> + +<p>At a little distance from the grotto, but farther inland, on the banks +of the stream called the <i>Linnet</i>, there was a thicket of verdure shaded +by five myrtles of from fifteen to twenty feet in height, and whose +stems presented a diameter more than sufficient to insure the solidity +of the edifice. Four of these myrtles formed an irregular square; the +fifth arose in the midst, or nearly so; but our architect is not very +particular. He already sees the principal part of his frame; the myrtles +will remain in their places, their roots serving as a foundation. He +removes the shrubs, the plants, the brushwood from the thicket, leaving +only a heliotrope which, at a later period, may twine around his house +and at evening shed its perfumes. He has become reconciled to its +fragrance. He trims the trees, cuts off their tops eight feet above the +ground, leaving the middle one, which is to sustain the roof, a foot +higher; for this roof reeds and palm-leaves furnish all the materials. +The walls, made of a solid network of young branches interwoven, and +plastered with a mixture of sand, clay, and chopped rushes, he takes +care not to build quite to the top, but to leave between them and the +roof a little space, where the air can circulate freely through a light +trellis formed of branches of the blue willow.</p> + +<p>Then, having finished his work in less than a fortnight, he contemplates +it and admires it; Marimonda herself seems to share in his admiration, +and in her joy climbing up the new building, she begins to leap, to +dance on the roof of foliage, which bears her, and thus gives to Selkirk +an additional triumph.</p> + +<p>He now proceeds to furnish his palace; he transports thither his bed of +reeds and his goatskin coverings. How much better will he be sheltered +here than under the gloomy vault of his grotto! How has he been able to +content himself so long with such an abode, more suitable for a +troglodyte or a monkey! He will no longer be obliged to lift up his +curtain of vines, and to peep through the fans of his palm-trees, in +order to behold the beneficent rays of the new-born day; they will come +of themselves to find him and rejoice him at his awakening, as the +sea-breezes will at evening breathe on him, to refresh him in his +repose.</p> + +<p>Already has the interior of his cabin, of his palace, assumed an aspect +which charms him; his guns, his hatchets, his spy-glass, his instruments +of labor, well polished and shining, suspended in racks, upon wooden +pegs, decorate the walls; upon another partition, his assortment of +pipes are arranged on a shelf according to their size; on his central +pillar, he suspends his game-bag, his gourd, his tobacco-pouch, and +various articles of daily use. As for his iron pot, his smoked meat, his +stock of skins, and bottles of seal-oil, he leaves them under the +guardianship of Marimonda in the grotto which he will now make his +store-house, his kitchen: he will not encumber with them his new +dwelling.</p> + +<p>He now sets himself to prepare new furniture; he will construct a small +portable table, two wooden seats, one for himself, the other for +Marimonda, when she comes from her grotto to visit his cabin; for he has +now a neighborhood. Besides, during the rainy season, they will be +forced to dine under cover.</p> + +<p>The first rains have commenced, gentle, fertilizing rains, falling at +intervals and lovingly drank in by the earth; Selkirk no longer thinks +of his table and seats; another project has just taken the place of +these, and seems to deserve the precedence.</p> + +<p>Marimonda has just returned from a tour in the woods, bringing fruits of +all sorts, among them some which Selkirk has never before seen. He +tastes them with more care and attention than usual; then, becoming +thoughtful, with his chin resting on his hand says to himself: 'Why +should I not make these fruits grow at my door, not far from my +habitation? Why should I not attempt to improve them by cultivation? +This is a very simple and very prudent idea which should have occurred +to me long since; but I was alone, absolutely alone; and one loses +courage when thinking of self only. A garden, at once an orchard and a +vegetable garden, will be at least as useful to me as my fish-pond and +bed of water-cresses; I will make one around my cabin; it will set it +off and give it a more home-like appearance! Is not the stream placed +here expressly to traverse it and water it? Afterwards, if God assist +me, I will raise little kids which will become goats and give me milk, +butter, cheese! Why have I not thought of this before? It would have +been too much to have undertaken at once. I shall then have tame goats; +I will also have Guinea-pigs, agoutis, and coatis. My house shall be +enlarged, I will have a farm, a dairy! But the time has not yet come; +let us first prepare the garden. Why has it not been already prepared? I +am impatient to render the earth productive, fruitful by my cares, to +walk in the shade of the trees I may plant; it seems to me that I shall +be at home there, more than any where else!'</p> + +<p>You are right, Selkirk; to possess the entire island, is to possess +nothing; it is simply to have permission to hunt, a right of promenade +and pasture, which the other inhabitants of the island, quadrupeds or +birds, can claim as well as yourself. What is property, without the +power of improvement? Can the earth become the domain of a single +person, when the true limits of his possessions must always be those of +the field which affords him subsistence? Envy not then the happiness of +the rich; they are but the transient holders and distributors of the +public fortune; we possess, in reality, only that which we can ourselves +enjoy; the rest escapes us, and contributes to the well-being of others.</p> + +<p>Selkirk comprehends that his streams, his bank of turf, his fish-pond, +his bed of water-cresses, his grotto, his cabin, belong to him far +otherwise than the twelve or fifteen square leagues of his island; to +his private domain he now intends to add a garden, and this garden, this +orchard, will be to him an increase of his wealth, since it will aid in +the satisfaction of his wants.</p> + +<p>The humidity with which the earth begins to be penetrated, facilitates +his labors; he sets himself to the work.</p> + +<p>Behold him then, now armed with his hatchet, now with a wooden shovel, +which he has just manufactured, clearing the ground, digging, +transplanting young fruit-trees, or sowing the seeds which he is soon to +see spring up and prosper. Every thing grows rapidly in these climates.</p> + +<p>When the garden-spot is marked out, dug, sown, planted, not forgetting +the kitchen vegetables, and especially the <i>coca</i> and <i>petunia-nicotiana</i>, +Selkirk, with his arms folded on his spade, thanks God with all his +heart,—God who has given him strength to finish his work.</p> + +<p>He has never felt so happy as when, with his hands behind his back, he +walks smoking, among his beds, in which nothing has as yet appeared; but +he already sees, in a dream, his trees covered with blossoms; around +these blossoms are buzzing numerous swarms of bees; he reflects upon the +means of compelling them to yield the honey of which they have just +stolen from him the essence. It is a settled thing, on his farm he will +have hives! After his bees, still in his dream, come flocks of +humming-birds to plunder in their turn. The happy possessor of the +garden will exact no tribute from them, but the pleasure of seeing them +suspend, by a silken thread, to the leaves of his shrubs, the elegant +little boat in which they cradle their fragile brood. Nothing seems to +him more beautiful than his embryo garden; here, he is more than the +monarch of the island; he is a proprietor!</p> + +<p>Thanks to the garden, Selkirk sees with resignation the two long months +of the rainy season pass away. When the heavy torrents render the paths +impassable, he consoles himself by thinking that they aid in the +germination of his seeds, in the rooting of his young plants. +Sometimes, between two deluges, he can scarcely find time to procure +himself sufficient game; what matters it! he lives on his provisions: he +is forcibly detained within; but has he not now good cheer, good +company, and occupation, during his leisure hours?</p> + +<p>It is now that he completes his furniture. His table and his seats +finished, he undertakes to provide for another want, equally +indispensable.</p> + +<p>Worn out by the weather, and by service, his garments are becoming +ragged. He must shield himself from the humidity of the air; where shall +he procure materials? Has he not the choice between seal-skins and +goat-skins? He gives the preference to the latter, as more pliable, and +behold him a tailor, cutting with the point of his knife; as for thread, +it is furnished by the fragment of the sail; and two days afterwards, he +finds himself flaming in a new suit.</p> + +<p>To describe the delirious stupefaction of Marimonda, when she perceives +her master under this strange costume, would be a thing impossible. She +finds him almost like herself, clad like her, in a hairy suit. Never +tired of looking at him, of examining him curiously, she leaps, she +gambols around him, now rolling at his feet, and uttering little cries +of joy, now suspended over his head, at the top of the central pillar, +and turning her wild and restless eyes. When she has thus inspected him +from head to foot, she runs and crouches in a corner, with her face +towards the wall, as if to reflect; then, whirling about, returns +towards him, picks up on the way the garment he has just laid aside, +looking alternately at this and at the other, very anxious to know which +of the two really made a part of the person.</p> + +<p>After having enjoyed for a few moments the surprise and transports of +his companion, Selkirk takes his Bible and his pipe, and, placing the +book on the table, bends over it, preparing to read and to meditate. +But, whether in consequence of her joyous excitement, or whether she is +emboldened by the species of fraternity which costume establishes +between them, Marimonda, without hesitation, directs herself to the +little shelf, chooses from it a pipe in her turn, places it gravely +between her lips, astonished at not seeing the smoke issue from it in a +spiral column; and, with an important air, still imitating her master, +comes to sit opposite him, with her brow inclined, and her elbow resting +on the table.</p> + +<p>Willingly humoring her whim, Selkirk takes the pipe from her hands, +fills it with his most spicy tobacco, lights it, and restores it to her.</p> + +<p>Hardly has Marimonda respired the first breath, when suddenly letting +fall the pipe, overturning the table, emitting the smoke through her +mouth and nostrils, she disappears, uttering plaintive cries, as if she +had just tasted burning lava.</p> + +<p>At sight of the poor monkey, thus thrown into confusion, Selkirk, for +the first time since his residence in the island, laughs so loudly, that +the echo follows the fugitive to the grotto, where she had taken refuge, +and is prolonged from the grotto to the <i>Oasis</i>, from the Oasis to the +summit of the <i>Discovery</i>.</p> + +<p>The exile has at last laughed, laughed aloud, and, at the same moment, +a terrible disaster is taking place without his knowledge; a new war is +preparing for him, in which his arms will be useless.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<h3> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> +<br> + +<h4>A New Invasion.—Selkirk joyfully meets an ancient Enemy.—Combat on +a Red Cedar.—A Mother and her Little Ones.—The Flock.—Fête in the +Island; Pacific Combats, Diversions and Swings.—A Sail.—The Burning +Wood.—Presentiments of Marimonda.</h4> + +<p>The next morning the sun has scarcely touched the horizon, Selkirk is +still asleep, when he is awakened by a sort of tickling at his feet. +Thinking it some caress or trick of Marimonda, risen earlier than usual, +he half opens his eyes, sees nothing, and places himself again in a +posture to continue his nap. The same tickling is renewed, but with more +perseverance, and very soon something sharp and keen penetrates to the +quick the hard envelope of his heel. The tickling has become a bite.</p> + +<p>This time wide awake, he raises his head. His cabin is full of rats!</p> + +<p>Near him, a company of them are tranquilly engaged in breakfasting on +his coverings and the rushes of his couch; they are on his table, his +seats, along his pillow and his walls; they are playing before his door, +running hither and thither through the crevices of his roof, multiplying +themselves on his rack and shelf; all biting, gnawing, nibbling—some +his seal-skin hat, his tobacco-pouch, the bark ornaments of his +furniture; others the handles of his tools, his pipes, his Bible, and +even his powder-horn.</p> + +<p>Selkirk utters a cry, springs from his couch, and immediately crushes +two under his heels. The rest take flight.</p> + +<p>As he is pursuing these new invaders with the shovel and musket, he +perceives at a few paces' distance Marimonda, sorrowful and drooping, +perched on the strong branch of a sapota-tree. By her piteous and chilly +appearance, her tangled and wet hair, he doubts not but she has passed +the whole night exposed to the inclemency of the weather. But he at +first attributes this whim only to her ill-humor the evening before.</p> + +<p>On perceiving him, Marimonda descends, from her tree, sad, but still +gentle and caressing, and with gestures of terror, points to the grotto. +He runs thither.</p> + +<p>Here another spectacle of disorder and destruction awaits him; the rats +are collected in it by thousands; his furs, his provisions of fruit and +game, his bottles formerly filled with oil, every thing is sacked, torn +in pieces, afloat; for the water has at last made its way through the +crevices of the mountain. To put the climax to his misfortune, his +reserve of powder, notwithstanding its double envelope of leather and +horn, attacked by the voracious teeth of his aggressors, is swimming in +the midst of an oily slime.</p> + +<p>The solitary now possesses, for the purpose of hunting, for the renewal +of these provisions so necessary to his life, only the few charges +contained in his portable powder-horn, and in the barrels of his guns. +The blow which has just struck him is his ruin! and still the hardest +trial appointed for him is yet to come.</p> + +<p>In penetrating the ground, the rains of winter have driven the rats +from their holes; hence their invasion of the cabin and the grotto.</p> + +<p>Against so many enemies, what can Selkirk do, reduced to his single +strength?</p> + +<p>He succeeds, nevertheless, in killing some; Marimonda herself, armed +with the branch of a tree, serves as an ally, and aids him in putting +them to flight; but their combined efforts are ineffectual. An hour +after, the accursed race are multiplying round him, more numerous and +more ravenous than ever.</p> + +<p>He comprehends then what an error he has committed in the complete +destruction of the wild cats which peopled the island. With the most +generous intentions, how often is man mistaken in the object he pursues! +We think we are ridding us of an enemy, and we are depriving ourselves +of a protector. God only knows what he does, and he has admitted +apparent evil, as a principle, into the admirable composition of his +universe; he suffers the wicked to live. Selkirk had been more severe +than God, and he repents it. If his poor cats had only been exiled, he +would hasten to proclaim a general amnesty. Alas! there is no amnesty +with death. But has he indeed destroyed all? Perhaps some still exist in +those distant regions which have already served as a refuge for that +other banished race, the seals.</p> + +<p>The rains have ceased; the storms of winter, always accompanied by +overpowering heat and dense fogs, no longer sadden the island by +anticipated darkness, or the gloomy mutterings of continual thunder. The +sun, though <i>garué</i><a href="#Footnote_6"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +absorbs the remainder of the inundation. +Followed by Marimonda, Selkirk, for the first time, has ventured to the +woods and thickets between the hills beyond the shore and the False +Coquimbo, when a sound, sweeter to his ear than would have been the +songs of a siren, makes him pause suddenly in ecstasy: it is the mewing +of a cat.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_6"></a><sup>[1]</sup></p> +<blockquote> In Peru and Chili, they call <i>garua</i> that mist which +sometimes, and especially after the rainy season, floats around the disk +of the sun.</blockquote> + +<p>This cat, strongly built, with a spotted and glossy coat, white nose, +and brown whiskers, is stationed at a little distance, on a red cedar, +where she is undoubtedly watching her prey.</p> + +<p>She is an old settler escaped from the general massacre; the last of the +vanquished; perhaps!</p> + +<p>Without hesitation, Selkirk clasps the trunk of the tree, climbs it, +reaches the first branches; Marimonda follows him and quickly goes +beyond. At the aspect of these two aggressors, like herself clad in +skin, the cat recoils, ascending; the monkey follows, pursues her from +branch to branch, quite to the top of the cedar. Struck on the shoulder +with a blow of the claw, she also recoils, but descending, and declaring +herself vanquished in the first skirmish, immediately gives over the +combat, or rather the sport, for she has seen only sport in the affair.</p> + +<p>Selkirk is not so easily discouraged; this cat he must have, he must +have her alive; he wishes to make her the guardian of his cabin, his +protector against the rats. Three times he succeeds in seizing her; +three times the furious animal, struggling, tears his arms or face. It +is a terrible, bloody conflict, mingled with exclamations, growlings, +and frightful mewings. At last Selkirk, forgetting perhaps in the ardor +of combat the object of victory, seizes her vigorously by the skin of +the neck, at the risk of strangling her; with the other hand he grasps +her around the body. The difficulty is now to carry her. Fortunately he +has his game-bag. With one hand he holds her pressed against the fork of +the tree; with the other arm he reaches his game-bag, opens it; the +conquered animal, half dead, has not made, during this manoeuvre, a +single movement of resistance. But when the hunter is about to close it, +suddenly rousing herself with a leap, distending by a last effort all +her muscles at once, she escapes from his grasp, and precipitates +herself from the top of the cedar, to the great terror of Marimonda, +then peaceably crouched under the tree, whom the cat brushes against in +falling, and to the great disappointment of Selkirk, who thinks he has +the captive in his pouch.</p> + +<p>Sliding along the trunk, Selkirk descends quickly to the ground; but the +enemy has already disappeared, and left no trace. In vain his eyes are +turned on all sides; he sees nothing, neither his adversary nor +Marimonda, who has undoubtedly fled under the impression of this last +terror.</p> + +<p>As he is in despair, a whistling familiar to his ear is heard, and at +two hundred paces distant he perceives, on an eminence of the False +Coquimbo, his monkey, bent double, in an attitude of contemplation, +appearing very attentive to what is passing beneath her, and changing +her posture only to send a repeated summons to her master.</p> + +<p>At all hazards he directs himself to this quarter.</p> + +<p>What a spectacle awaits him! In a cavity at the foot of the eminence +where Marimonda is, he finds, crouching, still out of breath with her +struggle and her race, his fugitive. She is a mother! and six kittens, +already active, are rolling in the sun around her.</p> + +<p>Selkirk, seizing his knife, kills the mother, and carries off the little +ones.</p> + +<p>A short time after, the rats have deserted the shore. But their +departure, though it prevents the evil they might yet have done, does +not remedy that already accomplished.</p> + +<p>The provisions of the solitary are almost entirely destroyed, and the +little powder which remains is scarcely sufficient for a reserve which +he no longer knows where to renew.</p> + +<p>The moment at last comes when he possesses no other ammunition than the +only charge in his gun. This last charge, his last resource, oh! how +preciously he preserves it to-day. While it is there, he can still +believe himself armed, still powerful; he has not entirely exhausted his +resources; it is his last hope. Who knows?—perhaps he may yet need it +to protect his life in circumstances which he cannot foresee.</p> + +<p>But since his gun must remain suspended, inactive, to the walls of his +cabin, it is time to think of supplying the place of the services it has +rendered; it is time to realize his dream, and, according to the usual +course of civilization, to substitute the life of a farmer and shepherd +for that of a hunter.</p> + +<p>Already is his colony augmented by six new guests, domesticated in his +house; already, on every side, his seeds are peeping out of the ground +under the most favorable auspices; his young trees, firmly rooted, are +growing rapidly beneath the double influence of heat and moisture; at +the axil of some of their leaves, he sees a bud, an earnest of the +harvest. He must now occupy himself with the means of surprising, +seizing and retaining the ancestors of his future flock.</p> + +<p>Here, patience, address or stratagem can alone avail.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding his natural agility, he does not dream of reaching them +by pursuit. Since his last hunts, goats and kids keep themselves usually +in the steep and mountainous parts of the island. To leap from rock to +rock, to attempt to vie with them in celerity and lightness appears to +him, with reason, a foolish and impracticable enterprise. Later, +perhaps,... Who knows?</p> + +<p>He manufactures snares, traps; but suspicion is now the order of the day +around him; each holds himself on the <i>qui vive</i>. After long waiting +without any result, he finds in his snares a coati, some little Guinea +pigs; here is one resource, undoubtedly, but he aims at higher game, and +the kids will not allow themselves to be taken by his baits.</p> + +<p>He remembers then, that in certain parts of America, the hunters, in +order to seize their prey living, have recourse to the lasso, a long +cord terminated by a slip-noose, which they know how to throw at great +distances, and almost always with certainty.</p> + +<p>With a thread which he obtains from the fibres of the aloe, with narrow +strips of skin, closely woven, he composes a lasso more than fifty feet +long; he tries it; he exercises it now against a tuft of leaves +detached from a bush, now against some projecting rock; afterwards he +tries it upon Marimonda, who often enough, by her agility and swiftness, +puts her master at fault.</p> + +<p>In the interval of these preparatory exercises, Selkirk occupies himself +with the construction of a latticed inclosure, destined to contain the +flock which he hopes to possess; he makes it large and spacious, that +his young cattle may bound and sport at their ease; high, that they may +respect the limits he assigns them. In one corner, supported by solid +posts, he builds a shed, simply covered with branches; that his flock +may there be sheltered from the heat of the day. The inclosure and the +shed, together with his garden, form a new addition to his great +settlement.</p> + +<p>When, his kids shall have become goats, when the epoch of domesticity +shall have arrived for them, when they shall have contracted habits of +tameness, when they have learned to recognize his voice, then, and then +only, will he permit them to wander and browse on the neighboring hills, +under the direction of a vigilant guardian. This guardian, where shall +he find? Why may it not be Marimonda? Marimonda, to whose intelligence +he knows not where to affix bounds!</p> + +<p>Dreams, dreams, perhaps! and yet but for dreams, but for those gentle +phantoms which he creates, and by which he surrounds himself, what would +sustain the courage of the solitary?</p> + +<p>When Selkirk thinks he has acquired skill in the use of the lasso, he +buries himself among the high mountains situated towards the central +part of his island. Several days pass amid fruitless attempts, and when +the delicately-carved foliage of the mimosa announces, by its folding, +that night is approaching, he regains his cabin, gloomy, care-worn, and +despairing of the future.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, by his very failures, he has acquired experience. One +evening, he returns to his dwelling, bringing with him two young kids, +with scarcely perceptible horns, and reddish skin, varied with large +brown spots. Marimonda welcomes her new guests, and this evening all in +the habitation breathes joy and tranquillity.</p> + +<p>The week has not rolled away, when the number of Selkirk's goats exceeds +that of his cats; and he takes pleasure in seeing them leap and play +together in his inclosure; his mind has recovered its serenity.</p> + +<p>'Yes,' said he, with pride, 'man can suffice for himself, can depend on +himself only for subsistence and welfare! Am I not a striking proof? Did +not all seem lost for me, when an unforeseen catastrophe destroyed the +remnant of the provision of powder which I owed to the pity of that +miserable captain? Ah! undoubtedly according to his hateful +calculations, he had limited the term of my life to the last charge +which my gun should contain; this last charge is still there! Of what +use will it be to me? Why do I need it? Are not my resources for +subsistence more certain and numerous to-day than before? What then is +wanting? The society of a Stradling and his fellows? God keep me from +them! The best member of the crew of the brig Swordfish came away when I +did. I have received from Marimonda more proofs of devotion than from +all the companions I have had on land and on sea. What have I to regret? +I am well off here; may God keep me in repose and health!'</p> + +<p>After this sally, he thought of his hives, which were still wanting, and +of the methods to be employed to seize a swarm of bees.</p> + +<p>A month after, Selkirk, who religiously kept his reckoning on the margin +of his Bible, resolved to celebrate the New Year. It was now the first +of January, 1706.</p> + +<p>On this day he dined, not in his cabin, nor under his tree, but in the +middle of the inclosure, surrounded by his family; fruits and good cheer +were more abundant than usual; Marimonda, as was her custom, dined at +the same table with himself: the cats shared in the feast; the goats +roved around, stretching up to gaze with their blue eyes on the baskets +of fruits, and returning to browse on the grass beneath the feet of the +guests. Selkirk, as the master of the house, and chief of the family, +generously distributed the provisions to his young and frolicksome +republic, and Marimonda assisted him as well as she could, in doing the +honors.</p> + +<p>After the repasts, there were races and combats; the remains of the +baskets were thrown to the most skilful and the most adroit; then came, +diversions and swings.</p> + +<p>Lying in his hammock, where he smoked his most excellent tobacco in his +best pipe, Selkirk smilingly contemplated the capricious bounds, the +riotous sports of his cats and kids, their graceful postures, their +fraternal combats, in which sheathed claws and the inoffensive horn +were the only weapons used on either side.</p> + +<p>To give more variety to the fête, Marimonda developes all the resources +of her daring suppleness; she leaps from right to left, clearing large +spaces with inconceivable dexterity. Attaining the summit of a tree, she +whistles to attract her master's attention, then, with her two fore-paws +clasped in her hind ones, she rolls herself up like a ball and drops on +the ground; the foliage crackles beneath her fall, which seems as if it +must be mortal; for her, this is only sport. Without altering the +position of her limbs, she suddenly stops in her rapid descent, by means +of her prehensile tail, that fifth hand, so powerful, with which nature +has endowed the monkeys of America. Then, suspended by this organ alone, +she accelerates her motions to and fro with incredible rapidity, quickly +unwinds her tail from the branch by which she is suspended, and with a +dart, traversing the air as if winged, alights at a hundred paces +distance on a vine, which she instantly uses as a swing.</p> + +<p>Selkirk is astonished; he applauds the tricks of Marimonda, the sports +and combats of his other subjects. Meanwhile, his eyes having turned +towards the sea, his brow is suddenly overclouded. At the expiration of +a few moments of an uneasy and agitated observation, he utters an +exclamation, springs from his hammock, runs to his cabin, then to the +shore, where he prostrates himself with his hands clasped and raised +towards heaven.</p> + +<p>He has just perceived a sail.</p> + +<p>Provided with his glass, he seeks the sail upon the waves, he finds it. +'It is without doubt a barque,' said he to himself; 'a barque from the +neighboring island, or some point of the continent!' And looking again +through his copper tube, he clearly distinguishes three masts well +rigged, decorated with white sails, which are swelling in the east wind, +and gilded by the oblique rays of the declining sun.</p> + +<p>'It is a brig! The Swordfish, perhaps! Yes, Stradling has prolonged his +voyage in these regions. The time which he had fixed for my exile has +rolled away! He is coming to seek me. May he be blessed!'</p> + +<p>The movement which the brig made to double the island, had increased +more and more the hopes of Selkirk, when the Spanish flag, hoisted at +the stern, suddenly unfolded itself to his eyes.</p> + +<p>'The enemy!' exclaimed he; 'woe is me! If they land on this coast, +whither shall I fly, where conceal myself? In the mountains! Yes, I can +there succeed in escaping them! But, the wretches! they will destroy my +cabin, my inclosure, my garden! the fruit of so much anxiety and labor!'</p> + +<p>And, with palpitating heart, he again watches the manoeuvres of the +brig. The latter, having tacked several times, as if to get before the +wind, hastily changed her course and stood out to sea.</p> + +<p>Selkirk remains stupefied, overwhelmed. 'These are Spaniards,' murmured +he, after a moment's hesitation; 'what matters it! Am I now their enemy? +I am only a colonist, an exile, a deserter from the English navy. They +owe me protection, assistance, as a Christian. If they required it, I +would serve on board their vessel! But they have gone; what method +shall I employ to recall them, to signalize my presence?'</p> + +<p>There was but one; it was to kindle a large fire on the shore or on the +hill. He needs hewn wood, and his supplies are exhausted; what is to be +done?</p> + +<p>For an instant, in his disturbed mind, the idea arises to tear the +lattice-work from his inclosure, the pillars and the roof from his shed, +to pile them around his cabin, and set fire to the whole.</p> + +<p>This idea he quickly repulses, but it suffices to show what passed in +the inner folds of the heart of this man, who had just now forced +himself to believe that happiness was yet possible for him.</p> + +<p>On farther reflection, he remembers that behind his grotto, on one of +the first terraces of the mountain, there is a dense thicket, where the +trees, embarrassed with vines and dry briers, closely interwoven, +calcined by the burning reflections of the sun on the rock which +surrounds them, present a collection of dead branches and mouldy trunks, +scarcely masked by the semblance of vegetation.</p> + +<p>Thither he transports all the brands preserved under the ashes of his +hearth; he makes a pile of them; throws upon it armfuls of chips, bark +and leaves. The flame soon runs along the bushes which encircle the +thicket; and, when the sun goes down, an immense column of fire +illuminates all this part of the island, and throws its light far over +the ocean.</p> + +<p>Standing on the shore, Selkirk passes the night with his eyes fixed on +the sea, his ear listening attentively to catch the distant sound of a +vessel; but nothing presents itself to his glance upon the luminous and +sparkling waves, and amid their dashing he hears no other sound but +that of the trees and vines crackling in the flames.</p> + +<p>At morning all has disappeared. The fire has exhausted itself without +going beyond its bounds, and the sea, calm and tranquil, shows nothing +upon its surface but a few flocks of gulls.</p> + +<p>A week passes away, during which Selkirk remains thoughtful and +taciturn; he rarely leaves the shore; he still beholds the sports of his +cats and his kids, but no longer smiles at them; Marimonda, by way of +amusing him, renews in his presence her surprising feats, but the +attention of the master is elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, he cannot allow himself time to dream long with impunity; +his reserve of smoked beef is nearly exhausted; to save it, he has again +resorted to the shell-fish, which his stomach loathes; to the sea-crabs, +of which he is tired; he needs other nourishment to restore his +strength. He shakes off his lethargy, takes his lasso, his game-bag. His +plan now is, not to hunt the kids, but the goats themselves.</p> + +<p>As he is about to set out, Marimonda approaches, preparing to accompany +him. In his present frame of mind, Selkirk wishes to be alone, and makes +her comprehend, by signs, that she must remain at home and watch the +flock; but this time, contrary to her custom, she does not seem disposed +to obey. Notwithstanding his orders, she follows him, stops when he +turns, recommences to follow him, and, by her supplicating looks and +expressive gestures, seeks to obtain the permission which he persists in +refusing. At last Selkirk speaks severely, and she submits, still +protesting against it by her air of sadness and depression. Was this, +on her part, caprice or foresight? No one has the secret of these +inexplicable instincts, which sometimes reveal to animals the presence +of an invisible enemy, or the approach of a disaster.</p> + +<p>At evening, Selkirk had not returned! Marimonda passed the night in +awaiting him, uttering plaintive cries.</p> + +<p>On the morrow the morning rolled away, then the day, then the night, and +the cabin remained deserted, and Marimonda in vain scaled the trees and +hills in the neighborhood to recover traces of her master.</p> + +<p>What had become of him?</p> + + +<p> </p> +<h3> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3> +<br> + +<h4>The Precipice.—A Dungeon in a Desert Island.—Resignation.—The passing +Bird.—The browsing Goat.—The bending Tree.—Attempts at Deliverance. +—Success.—Death of Marimonda.</h4> + +<p>In that sterile and mountainous quarter of the island to which he has +given the name of Stradling,—that name, importing to him +misfortune,—Selkirk, venturing in pursuit of a goat, has fallen from a +precipice.</p> + +<p>Fortunately the cavity is not deep. After a transient swoon, recovering +his footing, experiencing only a general numbness, and some pain caused +by the contusions resulting from his fall, he bethinks himself of the +means of escape.</p> + +<p>But a circle of sharp rocks, contracting from the base to the summit, +forms a tunnel over his head; no crevice, no precipitous ledge, +interrupts their fatal uniformity. Only around him some platforms of +sandy earth appear; he digs them with his knife, to form steps. Some +fragments of roots project here and there through the interstices of the +stones; he hopes to find a point of support by which to scale these +abrupt walls. The little solidity of the roots, which give way in his +grasp; his sufferings, which become more intense at every effort; these +thousand rocky heads bending at once over him; all tell him plainly that +it will be impossible for him to emerge from this hole—that it is +destined to be his tomb.</p> + +<p>Poor young sailor, already condemned to isolation, separated from the +rest of mankind, could he have foreseen that one day his captivity was +to be still closer! that his steps would be chained, that the sight even +of his island would be interdicted! and that in this desert, where he +had neither persecutor nor jailer to fear, he would find a prison, a +dungeon!</p> + +<p>After three days of anguish and tortures, after new and ineffectual +attempts,—exhausted by fatigue, by thirst, by hunger,—consumed by +fever, supervened in consequence of all his sufferings of body and soul, +he resigns himself to his fate; with his foot, he prepares his last +couch, composed of sand and dried leaves shaken from above by the +neighboring trees; he lies down, folds his arms, closes his eyes, and +prepares to die, thinking of his eternal salvation.</p> + +<p>Although he tries not to allow himself to be distracted by other +thoughts, from time to time sounds from the outer world disturb his +pious meditations. First it is the joyous song of a bird. To these +vibrating notes another song replies from afar, on a more simple and +almost plaintive key. It is doubtless the female, who, with a sort of +modest and repressed tenderness, thus announces her retreat to him who +calls; then a rapid rustling is heard above the head of the prisoner. It +is the songster, hastening to rejoin his companion.</p> + +<p>Selkirk has never known love. Once perhaps,—in a fit of youth and +delirium; and it was this false love which tore him from his studies, +from his country!</p> + +<p>Ah! why did he not remain at Largo, with his father? To-day he also +would have had a companion! In that smiling country where coolness +dwells, where labor is so easy, life so sweet and calm, the paternal +roof would have sheltered his happiness! Oh! the joys of his infancy! +his green and sunny Scotland.</p> + +<p>The regrets which arise in his heart he quickly banishes; his dear +remembrances he sacrifices to God; he weaves them into a fervent prayer.</p> + +<p>Very soon an approaching bleating rouses him again from his +abstractions. A goat, with restless eye, has just stretched her head +over the edge of the precipice, and for an instant fixes on him her +astonished glance. Then, as if re-assured, defying his powerlessness, +with a disdainful lip she quietly crops some tufts of grass growing on +the verge of the tunnel.</p> + +<p>On seeing her, Selkirk instinctively lays his hand on the lasso which is +beside him.</p> + +<p>'If I succeed in reaching her, in catching her,' said he, 'her blood +will quench the thirst which devours me, her flesh will appease my +hunger. But of what use would it be? Whence can I expect aid and succor +for my deliverance? This would then only prolong my sufferings.'</p> + +<p>And, throwing aside the end of the lasso which he has just seized, he +again folds his arms on his breast, and closes his eyes once more.</p> + +<p>I know not what stoical philosopher—Atticus, I believe, a prey to a +malady which he thought incurable,—had resolved to die of inanition. At +the expiration of a certain number of days, abstinence had cured him, +and when his friends, in the number of whom he reckoned Cicero, +exhorted him to take nourishment, persisting in his first resolution, +'Of what use is it!' said he also, 'Must I not die sooner or later? Why +should I then retrace my steps, when I have already travelled more than +half the road?'</p> + +<p>Selkirk had more reason than Atticus to decide thus; besides, his +friends, where are they, to exhort him to live? Friends!—has he ever +had any?</p> + +<p>Night comes, and with the night a terrific hurricane arises. By the +glare of the lightning he sees a tree, situated not far from the tunnel, +bend towards him, almost broken by the violence of the wind.</p> + +<p>'Perhaps Providence will send me a method of saving myself!' murmured +Selkirk; 'should the tree fall on this side, if its branches do not +crush me, they will serve as steps to aid me to leave this pit! I am +saved!'</p> + +<p>But the tree resists the storm, which passes away, carrying with it the +last hope of the captive.</p> + +<p>Towards the morning of the fourth day his fever has ceased; the tortures +of hunger and thirst are no longer felt; the complete annihilation of +his strength is to him a kind of relief; sleep seizes him, and with +sleep he thinks death must come.</p> + +<p>Soon, in his dream, in a hallucination springing undoubtedly from the +weakness of his brain, plaints, confused and distant groans, reach him +from different points of the island. These sorrowful cries, almost +uninterrupted, afterwards approach, and are repeated with increasing +strength. He awakes, he listens; the bushes around him crackle and +rustle; even the earth emits a dull sound, as beneath the bounding of a +goat; the cries are renewed and become more and more distinct, like the +sobs of a child. Selkirk puts his hand to his forehead. These plaints, +these sobs, he thinks he recognizes, and, suddenly raising himself with +a convulsive effort, he exclaims:</p> + +<p>'Marimonda!'</p> + +<p>And Marimonda runs at her master's voice, changes, on seeing him, her +cries of distress for cries of joy, leaps and gambols on the edge of the +cavity, and, quickly finding a way to join him, suspends herself by her +tail to one of the branches on the verge, and springs to his side.</p> + +<p>Then contortions, caresses, winks of the eyes, motions of the head, +whining, whistling, succeed each other; she rolls before him, embraces +him closely, seeking by every method to supply the place of that speech +which alone is wanting, and which she almost seems to have. Good +Marimonda! her humid and shivering skin, her bruised and bleeding feet, +her in-flamed eyes, plainly tell Selkirk how long she has been in search +of him, how she has watched, run, to find him, and, not finding him, +what she has suffered at his absence.</p> + +<p>Her first transports over, by his pale complexion, by his dim eye, she +quickly divines that it is want of food which has reduced him to this +condition. Swift as a bird she climbs the sides of the tunnel; she +repeatedly goes and returns, bringing each time fruits and canes full of +savory and refreshing liquid. It is precisely the usual hour for their +first repast, and once more they can partake of it together.</p> + +<p>Revived by this repast, by the sight of his companion in exile, Selkirk +recovers his ideas of life and liberty. This abyss, from which she +ascends with so much facility, who knows but with her aid he may be able +in his turn to leave it? He remembers his lasso; he puts one end of it +into Marimonda's hand. It is now necessary that she should fix it to +some projection of the rock, some strong shrub, which may serve as a +point of support.</p> + +<p>It was perhaps presuming too much on the intelligence which nature has +bestowed on the race of monkeys. At her master's orders, Marimonda would +seize the end of the cord, then immediately abandon it, as she needed +entire freedom of motion to enable her to scale the walls of the tunnel.</p> + +<p>After several ineffectual attempts, Selkirk, as a last resort, decided +to encircle Marimonda with the noose of the lasso, and, by a gesture, to +send her towards those heights where he was so impatient to join her.</p> + +<p>She departs, dragging after her the chain, of which he holds the other +extremity: this chain, the only bridge thrown for him between the abyss +and the port of safety, between life and death!</p> + +<p>With what anxiety he observes, studies its oscillations! Several times +he draws it towards him, and each time, as if in reply to his summons, +Marimonda suddenly re-appears at the brow of the precipice, preparing to +re-descend; but he repulses her with his voice and gestures, and when +these methods are insufficient,—when Marimonda, exhausted with +lassitude, seated on the verge of the tunnel, persists in remaining +motionless, he has recourse to projectiles. To compel her to second him +in his work, the possible realization of which he himself scarcely +comprehends, he throws at her some fragments of stone detached from his +rocky wall, and even the remains of that repast for which he is indebted +to her. Even when she is at a distance, informed by the movements of the +lasso of the direction she has taken, he pursues her still.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the cord tightens in his hand. He pulls again, he pulls with +force; the cord resists! Fire mounts to his brain; his sluggish blood is +quickened; his heart and temples beat violently; his fever returns, but +only to restore to him, at this decisive moment, his former vigor. He +hastily digs new steps in the interstices of the rock; with his hands +suspending himself to the lasso, assisted by his feet, by his knees, +sometimes turning, grasping the projecting roots, the angles of his +wall, he at last reaches the top of the cliff.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he feels the lasso stretch, as if about to break; a mist passes +over his eyes: his head becomes dizzy, the cord escapes his grasp. But, +by a mechanical movement, he has seized one of the highest projections +of the tunnel, he holds it, he climbs,—he is saved.</p> + +<p>And during this perilous ascension, absorbed in the difficulties of the +undertaking, attentive to himself alone, staggering, with a buzzing +sound in his ears, he has not heard a sorrowful, lamentable moaning, not +far from him.</p> + +<p>Dragging hither and thither after her the rope of leather and fibre of +aloes, Marimonda, rather, doubtless, by chance than by calculation, had +enlaced it around the trunk of the same tree which the night before, +during the storm, had agitated its dishevelled branches above the deep +couch of the dying man. This trunk had served as a point of resistance; +but, during the tension, the unfortunate monkey, with her breast against +the tree, had herself been caught in the folds of the lasso.</p> + +<p>When Selkirk arrives, he finds her extended on the ground, blood and +foam issuing from her mouth, and her eyes starting from their sockets. +Kneeling beside her, he loosens the bonds which still detain her. +Excited by his presence, Marimonda makes an effort to rise, but +immediately falls back, uttering a new cry of pain.</p> + +<p>With his heart full of anguish, taking her in his arms, Selkirk, not +without a painful effort, not without being obliged to pause on the way +to recover his strength, carries her to the dwelling on the shore.</p> + +<p>This shore he finds deserted and in confusion.</p> + +<p>Deprived of their daily nourishment during the prolonged absence of +their master, the goats have made a passage through the inclosure, by +gnawing the still green foliage which imprisoned them; the hurricane of +the night has overthrown the rest. Before leaving, they had ravaged the +garden, destroyed the promises of the approaching harvest, and devoured +even the bark of the young trees. The cats have followed the goats. +Selkirk has before his eyes a spectacle of desolation; his props, his +trellises, the remains of his orchard, of his inclosure, of his shed, a +part even of the roof of his cabin, strew the earth in confusion around +him.</p> + +<p>But it is not this which occupies him now. He has prepared for Marimonda +a bed beside his own; he takes care of her, he watches over her, he +leaves her only to seek in the woods, or on the mountains, the herb +which may heal her; he brings all sorts, and by armfuls, that she may +choose;—does she not know them better than himself?</p> + +<p>As she turns away her head, or repulses with the hand those which he +presents, he thinks he has not yet discovered the one she requires, and +though still suffering, though himself exhausted by so many varying +emotions, he re-commences his search, to summon the entire island to the +assistance of Marimonda. From each of his trees he borrows a branch; +from his bushes, his rocks, his streams—a plant, a fruit, a leaf, a +root! For the first time he ventures across the <i>pajonals</i>—spongy +marshes formed by the sea along the cliffs, and where, beneath the shade +of the mangroves, grow those singular vegetables, those gelatinous +plants, endowed with vitality and motion. At sight of all these +remedies, Marimonda closes her eyes, and reopens them only to address to +her friend a look of gratitude.</p> + +<p>The only thing she accepts is the water he offers her, the water which +he himself holds to her lips in his cocoa-nut cup.</p> + +<p>During a whole week, Selkirk remains constantly absorbed in these cares, +useless cares!—Marimonda cannot be healed! In her breast, bruised by +the folds of the lasso, exists an important lesion of the organs +essential to life, and from time to time a gush of blood reddens her +white teeth.</p> + +<p>'What!' said Selkirk to himself, 'she has then accompanied me on this +corner of earth only to be my victim! To her first caress I replied +only by brutality; the first shot I fired in this island was directed +against her. I pursued for a long time, with my thoughtless and stupid +hatred, the only being who has ever loved me, and who to-day is dying +for having saved me from that precipice from which I drove her with +blows of stones! Marimonda, my companion, my friend,—no! thou shalt not +die! He who sent thee to me as a consolation will not take thee away so +soon, to leave me a thousand times more alone, more unhappy, than ever! +God, in clothing thee with a form almost human, has undoubtedly given +thee a soul almost like ours; the gleam of tenderness and intelligence +which shines in thine eyes, where could it have been lighted, but at +that divine fire whence all affection and devotion emanate? Well! I will +implore Him for thee; and if He refuse to hear me, it will be because He +has forgotten me, because He has entirely forsaken me, and I shall have +nothing more to expect from His mercy!'</p> + +<p>Falling then upon his knees, with his forehead upon the ground, he prays +God for Marimonda.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, from day to day the poor invalid grows weaker; her eyes +become dim and glassy; her limbs frightfully emaciated, and her hair +comes off in large masses.</p> + +<p>One evening, exhausted with fatigue, after having wrapped in a covering +of goat-skin Marimonda, who was in a violent fever, Selkirk was +preparing to retire to rest; she detained him, and, taking his hand in +both of hers, cast upon him a gentle and prolonged look, which resembled +an adieu.</p> + +<p>He seated himself beside her on the ground.</p> + +<p>Then, without letting go his hand, she leaned her head on her master's +knee, and fell asleep in this position. Selkirk dares not stir, for fear +of disturbing her repose. Insensibly sleep seizes him also.</p> + +<p>In the morning when he awakes, the sun is illuminating the interior of +his cabin; Marimonda remains in the same attitude as the evening before, +but her hands are cold, and a swarm of flies and mosquitoes are +thrusting their sharp trunks into her eyes and ears.</p> + +<p>She is a corpse.</p> + +<p>Selkirk raises her, uttering a cry, and, after having cast an angry look +towards heaven, wipes away two tears that trickle down his cheeks.</p> + +<p>Thou thoughtest thyself insensible, Selkirk, and behold, thou art +weeping!—thou, who hast more than once seen, with unmoistened eye, men, +thy companions, in war or at sea, fall beneath a furious sword, or under +the fire of batteries! Among the sentiments which honor humanity, which +elevate it notwithstanding its defects, thou hadst preserved at least +thy confidence in God and in his mercy, Selkirk, and to-day thou +doubtest both!</p> + +<p>Why dost thou weep? why dost thou distrust God?</p> + +<p>Because thy monkey is dead!</p> + + +<p> </p> +<h3> +<a name="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3> +<br> + +<h4>Discouragement.—A Discovery.—A Retrospective Glance.—Project of +Suicide.—The Last Shot.—The Sea Serpent.—The <i>Porro</i>.—A Message. +—Another Solitary.</h4> + +<p>His provisions are exhausted, and Selkirk thinks not of renewing them; +his settlement on the shore is destroyed, and he thinks not of +rebuilding it; the fish-pond, the bed of water-cresses are encroached +upon by sand and weeds, and he thinks not of repairing them. His mind, +completely discouraged, recoils before such labors; he has scarcely +troubled himself to replace the roof of his cabin.</p> + +<p>In the midst of his dreams, Selkirk had not counted enough on two +terrific guests, which must sooner or later come: despair and <i>ennui</i>.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, he had read in his Bible this passage: 'As the worm +gnaweth the garment and rottenness the wood, so doth the weariness of +solitude gnaw the heart of man.'</p> + +<p>One day, as he was descending from the Oasis, where he had dug a tomb +for Marimonda, he bethought himself of visiting the site of his burning +wood.</p> + +<p>Around him, the earth, blackened by the ravages of the fire, presented +only a naked, gloomy and desolate picture. To his great surprise, +beneath the ruins, under coal dust and half-calcined trunks of trees, +he discovered, elevated several feet above the soil, the partition of a +wall, some stones quarried out and placed one upon another; in fine, the +remains of a building, evidently constructed by the hand of man.</p> + +<p>Men had then inhabited this island before him! What had become of them? +This wood, impenetrably choked, stifled with thorny bushes, briars and +vines, and which he had delivered over to the flames, was undoubtedly a +garden planted by them, on a sheltered declivity of the mountain; the +garden which surrounded their habitation, as he had himself designed his +own to do.</p> + +<p>Ah! if he could have but found them in the island, how different would +have been his fate! But to live alone! to have no companions but his own +thoughts! amid the dash of waves, the cry of birds, the bleating of +goats, incessantly to imagine the sound of a human voice, and +incessantly to experience the torture of being undeceived! What elements +of happiness has he ever met in this miserable island? When he dreamed +of creating resources for a long and peaceful future, he lied to +himself. A life favored by leisure would but crush him the oftener +beneath the weight of thought, and it is thought which is killing him, +the thought of isolation!</p> + +<p>What import to him the beautiful sights spread out before his eyes? The +vast extent of sky and earth has repeated to him each day that he is +lost, forgotten on an obscure point of the globe. The sunrises and +sunsets, with their magic aspects, this luxuriant tropical vegetation, +the magnificent and picturesque scenery of his island, awaken in him +only a feeling of restraint, an uneasiness which he cannot define. +Perhaps the emotions, so sweet to all, are painful to him only because +he cannot communicate them, share them with another. It is not the noisy +life of cities which he asks, not even that of the shore. But, at least, +a companion, a being to reply to his voice, to be associated with his +joys, his sorrows. Marimonda! No, he recognizes it now! Marimonda could +amuse him, but was not sufficient; she inhabited with him only the +exterior world, she communicated with him only by things visible and +palpable; her affection for her master, her gentleness, her admirable +instinct, sometimes succeeded in lessening the distance which separated +their two natures, but did not wholly fill up the interval.</p> + +<p>He had exaggerated the intelligence which, besides, increased at the +expense of her strength, as with all monkeys; for God has not willed +that an animal should approximate too closely to man; he had overrated +the sense of her acts, because he needed near him a thinking and acting +being; but with her, confidences, plans, hopes, communication, the +exchange of all those intimate and mysterious thoughts which are the +life of the soul, were they possible? Even her eyes did not see like his +own; admiration was forbidden to her; admiration, that precious faculty, +which exists only for man,—and which becomes extinct by isolation.</p> + +<p>How many others become extinct also!</p> + +<p>Self-love, a just self-esteem, that powerful lever which sustains us, +which elevates us, which compels us to respect in ourselves that +nobility of race which we derive from God, what becomes of it in +solitude? For Selkirk, vanity itself has lost its power to stimulate. +Formerly, when in the presence of his comrades at St. Andrew or of the +royal fleet, he had signalized himself by feats of address or courage, a +sentiment of pride or triumph had inspired him. Since his arrival in the +island, his courage and address have had but too frequent opportunities +of exercising themselves, but he has been excited only by want, by +necessity, by a purely personal interest. Besides, can one utter an +exclamation of triumph, where there is not even an echo to repeat it?</p> + +<p>After having thus painfully passed in review all of which his exile from +the world had deprived him, he exclaimed:</p> + +<p>'To live alone, what a martyrdom! to live useless to all, what a +disgrace! What! does no one need me? What! are generosity, devotion, +even pity, all those noble instincts by which the soul reveals itself, +for ever interdicted to me? This is death, death premature and shameful! +Ah! why did I not remain at the foot of that precipice?'</p> + +<p>With downcast head, he remained some time overwhelmed with the weight of +his discouragement; then, suddenly, his brow cleared up, a sinister +thought crossed his mind; he ran to his cabin, seized his gun. This last +shot, this last charge of powder and lead, which he has preserved so +preciously as a final resource, it will serve to put an end to his days! +Well, is not this the most valuable service he can expect from it? He +examines the gun; the priming is yet undisturbed; he passes his nail +over the flint, leans the butt against the ground, takes off the thick +leather which covers his foot, that he may be able to fire with more +certainty. But during all these preparations his resolution grows +weaker; he trembles as he rests the gun against his temples; that +sentiment of self-preservation, so profoundly implanted in the heart of +man, re-awakens in him. He hesitates—thrice returning to his first +resolution, he brings the gun to his forehead; thrice he removes it. At +last, to drive away this demon of suicide, he fires it in the air.</p> + +<p>Scarcely has he thus uselessly thrown away this precious shot before he +repents. He approaches the shore; it is at the moment when the tide is +at its lowest ebb; the sun touches the horizon. Selkirk lies down on the +damp beach:—'When the wave returns,' said he, 'if it be God's will, let +it take me!'</p> + +<p>Slumber comes first. Exhausted with emotion, yielding to the lassitude +of his mind, he falls asleep. In the middle of the night, suddenly +awakened by the sound of the advancing wave, he again flees before the +threat of death; he no longer wishes to die. Once in safety, he turns to +contemplate that immense sea which, for an instant, he had wished might +be his tomb.</p> + +<p>By the moonlight, he perceives as it were a long and slender chain, +which, gliding upon the crest of the waves, directs itself towards the +shore. By its form, by its copper color, by the multiplicity of its +rings, unfolding in the distance, Selkirk recognizes the sea-serpent, +that terror of navigators, as he has often heard it described.</p> + +<p>The mind of the solitary is a perpetual mirage.</p> + +<p>Filled with terror, he flies again; he conceals himself, trembling, in +the caverns of his mountains; he has become a coward; why should he +affect a courage he does not feel? No one is looking at him!</p> + +<p>The next day, instead of the sea-serpent, he finds on the beach an +immense cryptogamia, a gigantic alga, of a single piece, divided into a +thousand cylindrical branches, and much superior to all those he has +observed in the Straits of Sunda. The rising tide had thrown it on the +shore.</p> + +<p>While he examines it, he sees with surprise all sorts of birds come to +peck at it; coatis, agoutis, and even rats, come out of their holes, +boldly carrying away before his eyes fragments, whence issues a thick +and brown sap. Emboldened by their example, and especially by the +balsamic odor of the plant, he tastes it. It is sweet and succulent.</p> + +<p>This plant is no other than that providential vegetable called by the +Spaniards <i>porro</i>, and which forms so large a part of the nourishment of +the poor inhabitants of +Chili.<a href="#Footnote_7"><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_7"></a><sup>[1]</sup></p> +<blockquote> It is the <i>Durvilloea utilis</i>, dedicated to Dumont +d'Urville, by Bory de St. Vincent, and classed by him in the +laminariées, an important and valuable family of marine cryptogamia.</blockquote> + +<p>The sea, which had already sent Selkirk seals to furnish him with oil +and furs in a moment of distress, had just come to his assistance by +giving him an easily procured aliment for a long time.</p> + +<p>Another surprise awaits him.</p> + +<p>Between the interlaced branches of his alga, he discovers a little +bottle, strongly secured with a cork and wax. It contains a fragment of +parchment, on which are traced some lines in the Spanish language.</p> + +<p>Although he is but imperfectly acquainted with this language, though the +characters are partially effaced or scarcely legible, Selkirk, by dint +of patience and study, soon deciphers the following words:</p> + +<p>'In the name of the Holy Trinity, to you who may read'—(here some words +were wanting,)—'greeting. My name is Jean Gons—(Gonzalve or Gonsales; +the rest of the name was illegible.) After having seen my two sons, and +almost all my fortune, swallowed up in the sea with the vessel <i>Fernand +Cortes</i>, in which I was a passenger, thrown by shipwreck on the coasts +of the Island of San Ambrosio, near Chili, I live here alone and +desolate. May God and men come to my aid!'</p> + +<p>At the bottom of the parchment, some other characters were perceptible, +but without form, without connection, and almost entirely destroyed by a +slight mould which had collected at the bottom of the bottle.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<h3> +<a name="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3> +<br> + +<h4>The Island San Ambrosio.—Selkirk at last knows what Friendship is.—The +Raft.—Visits to the Tomb of Marimonda.—The Departure.—The two +Islands.—Shipwreck.—The Port of Safety.</h4> + +<p>As he read this, Selkirk was seized with intense pity for the +unfortunate shipwrecked. What! on this same ocean, undoubtedly on these +same shores, lives another unhappy being, like himself exiled from the +world, enduring the same sufferings, subject to the same wants, +experiencing the same <i>ennui</i>, the same anguish as himself! this man has +confided to the sea his cry of distress, his complaint, and the sea, a +faithful messenger, has just deposited it at the feet of Selkirk!</p> + +<p>Suddenly he remembers that rock, that island, discerned by him, on the +day when at the Oasis, he was reconciled to Marimonda.</p> + +<p>That is the island of San Ambrosio; it is there, he does not doubt it +for an instant, that his new friend lives; yes, his friend! for, from +this moment he experiences for him an emotion of sympathetic affection. +He loves him, he is so much to be pitied! Poor father, he has lost his +sons, he has lost his fortune and the hope of returning to his country; +and yet there reigns in his letter a tone of dignified calmness, of +religious resignation which can come only from a noble heart. He is a +Spaniard and a Roman Catholic; Selkirk is a Scotchman and a +Presbyterian; what matters it?</p> + +<p>To-day his friend demands assistance, and he has resolved to dare all, +to undertake all to respond to his appeal. Like a lamp deprived of air, +his mind has revived at this idea, that he can at last be useful to +others than himself. The inhabitant of San Ambrosio shall be indebted to +him for an alleviation of his sorrows; for companionship in them. What +is there visionary about this hope? Had he not already conceived the +project of preparing a barque to explore that unknown coast? God seems +to encourage his design, by sending him at once this double manna for +the body and soul, the <i>porro</i>, which will suffice for his nourishment, +and this writing, which the wave has just brought, to impose on him a +duty.</p> + +<p>He immediately sets himself to the work, and obstacles are powerless to +chill his generous excitement. Of the vegetable productions of the +island, the red cedar and myrtle are those which grow of the largest +size;<a href="#Footnote_8"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +but yet their trunks are not large enough to serve when +hollowed out for a barque. Well! he will construct a raft.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_8"></a><sup>[1]</sup></p> +<blockquote> The <i>myrtus maximus</i> attains 13 metres (a little more than +42 feet) in height.]</blockquote> + +<p>He fells young trees, cuts off their branches, rolls them to the shore, +on a platform of sand, which the waves reach at certain periods; he +fastens them solidly together with a triple net-work of plaited leather, +cords woven of the fibre of the aloe, supple and tough vines; he +chooses another with diverging and horizontal roots, the habitual +direction taken by all the large vegetables of this island, the sand of +which is covered only by two feet of earth. This shall be the mast. He +plants it in the middle of the raft, where it is kept upright by its +roots, knotted and interwoven with the various pieces which compose the +floor. For a sail, has he not that which was left him by the Swordfish? +and will not his seal-skin hammock serve as a spare sail?</p> + +<p>He afterwards constructs a helm, then two strong oars, that he may +neglect no chance of success. He fastens his structure still more firmly +by all that remains to him of his nails and bolts, and awaits the high +tide to launch his skiff upon the sea.</p> + +<p>He has never felt calmer, happier, than during the long time occupied in +these labors; their object has doubled his strength. The moments of +indispensable repose, he has passed at the Oasis, beside the tomb of +Marimonda, of that Marimonda, who by her example, opened to him the life +of devotedness in which he has just engaged. Thence, with his eye turned +upon that island where dwells the unknown friend from whom he has +received a summons, he talks to him, encourages him, consoles him; he +imparts to him his resolution to join him soon, and it seems as if the +same waves which had brought the message will also undertake to transmit +the reply.</p> + +<p>At present, Selkirk finds some sweetness in pitying evils which are not +his own; he no longer dreams of wrapping himself in a cloak of +selfishness; that disdainful heart, hitherto invincibly closed, at last +experiences friendship, or at least aspires to do so.</p> + +<p>At last, the day arrives when the sea, inundating the marshes, bending +the mangroves, reaches, on the sandy platform, one of the corners of his +raft.</p> + +<p>Selkirk hastens to transport thither his hatchets, his guns, his +seal-skins and goat-skins, his Bible, his spy-glass, his pipes, his +ladder, his stools, even his traps; all his riches! it is a complete +removal.</p> + +<p>On taking possession of the island, he had engraved on the bark of +several trees the date of his arrival; he now inscribes upon them the +day of his departure. For many months his reckoning has been +interrupted; to determine the date is impossible; he knows only the day +of the week.</p> + +<p>When the wave had entirely raised his barque, aiding himself with one of +the long oars to propel it over the rocky bottom, he gained the sea. +Then, after having adjusted his sail, with his hand on the helm, he +turned towards his island to address to it an adieu, laden with +maledictions rather than regrets.</p> + +<p>Swelled by a south-east wind, the sail pursues its course towards that +other land, the object of his new desires. At the expiration of some +hours, by the aid of his glass, what from the summit of his mountains +had appeared to him only a dark point, a rock beaten by the waves, seems +already enlarged, allowing him to see high hills covered with verdure. +He has not then deceived himself! There exists a habitable +land,—habitable for two! It has served as a refuge to the shipwrecked +man, to his friend! Ah! how impatient he is to reach this shore where he +is to meet him!</p> + +<p>Several hours more of a slow but peaceful navigation roll away. He has +arrived at a distance almost midway between the point of departure and +that of arrival. Looking alternately at the islands Selkirk and San +Ambrosio, both illuminated by the sunset, with their indefinite forms, +their bases buried in the waves, their terraced summits, veiled with a +light fog, they appear like the reflection of each other. But for the +discovery which he had previously made of the second, he would have +believed this was his own island, or rather its image, represented in +the waters of the sea.</p> + +<p>But in proportion as he advances towards his new conquest, it increases +to his eyes, as if to testify the reality of its existence, now by a +mountain peak, now by a cape. He had seen only the profile, it now +presents its face, ready to develope all its graces, all its +fascinations; while its rival, disdained, abandoned, becomes by degrees +effaced, and seems to wish to conceal its humiliation beneath the wave +of the great ocean.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, without any apparent jar, without any flaw of wind, on a calm +sea, the stem of the tree serving as a mast vacillates, bends forward, +then on one side; the roots, which fasten it to the floor of the raft, +are wrenched from their hold; the sail, diverging in the same direction, +still extended, drags it entirely down, and it is borne away by the +wave.</p> + +<p>Struck with astonishment, Selkirk puts his foot on the helm, and seizes +his oars; but oars are powerless to move so heavy a machine. What is to +be done?</p> + +<p>He who has not been able to endure isolation in the midst of a +terrestrial paradise, from which he has just voluntarily exiled +himself, must he then he reduced to have for an asylum, on the immensity +of the ocean, only a few trunks of trees scarcely lashed together?</p> + +<p>The situation is frightful, terrific; Selkirk dares not contemplate it, +lest his reason should give way. He must have a sail; a mast! He has his +spare sail; for the mast, his only resource is to detach one of the +timbers which compose the frame-work of his raft. Perhaps this will +destroy its solidity; but he has no choice.</p> + +<p>He takes the best of his hatchets, chooses among the straight stems of +which his floating dwelling is composed, that which seems most suitable; +he cuts away with a thousand precautions, the bonds which fasten it; he +frees it, not without difficulty, from the contact of other logs to +which it has been attached. But while he devotes himself to this task, +the raft, obedient to a mysterious motion of the sea, has slowly drifted +on; the surface is covered with foam, as if sub-marine waves are lashing +it. Selkirk springs to the helm; the tiller breaks in his hands; he +seizes the oars, they also break. An unknown force hurries him on. He +has just fallen into one of those rapid currents which, from north to +south, traverse the waters of the Pacific Ocean.</p> + +<p>Borne away in a contrary direction from that which he has hitherto +pursued, the land of which he had come in search seems to fly before +him. Whither is he going? Into what regions, into what solitudes of the +sea is he to be carried, far from islands and continents?</p> + +<p>To add to his terror, in these latitudes, where day suddenly succeeds +to night and night to day, where twilight is unknown, the sun, just now +shining brightly, suddenly sinks below the horizon.</p> + +<p>In the midst of profound darkness, the unhappy man pursues this fatal +race, leading to inevitable destruction. During a part of this terrible +night, he hears the frail frame-work which supports him cracking beneath +his feet. How long must his sufferings last? He knows not. At last, +jostled by adverse waves, shaken to its centre, the raft begins to whirl +around, and something heavier than the shock of the wave comes +repeatedly to give it new and rude blows. The first rays of the rising +moon, far from calming the terrors of the unhappy mariner, increase +them. In his dizzy brain, these wan rays which silver the surface of the +sea, seem so many phantoms coming to be present at his last moments. +Pale, bent double, with his hair standing upright, clinging to some +projection of his barque, he in vain attempts to fix his glance on +certain strange objects which he sees ascending, descending, and rolling +around him.</p> + +<p>They are the trunks of the trees which formed a part of his raft, limbs +detached from its body, and which, now drawn into the same whirlpool, +are by their repeated shocks, aiding in his complete destruction.</p> + +<p>In face of this imminent, implacable death, Selkirk ceases to struggle +against it. He has now but one resource; the belief in another life. The +religious instinct, which has already come to his assistance, revives +with force. Clinging with his hands and feet to these wavering timbers, +which are almost disjoined, half inundated by the wave, which is +encroaching more and more upon his last asylum, he directs his steps +towards the spot where he had deposited his arms and furs; he takes from +among them his Bible, not to read it, but to clasp it to his heart, +whose agitation and terror seem to grow calm beneath its sacred contact.</p> + +<p>He then attempts to absorb his thoughts in God; he blames himself for +not having been contented with the gifts he had received from Him; he +might have lived happily in Scotland, or in the royal navy. It is this +perpetual desire for change, these aspirations after the unknown, which +have occasioned his ruin.</p> + +<p>At this moment, raising his eyes towards heaven, he sees, beneath the +pale rays of the moon, a mass of rocks rising at a little distance, +which he immediately recognizes. There is the bay of the Seals, the peak +of the Discovery. That hollow, lying in the shadow, is the valley of the +Oasis! As on the first day of his arrival, on one of the steepest +summits of the mountain, he perceives stationed there, immovable, like a +sentinel, a goat, between whose delicate limbs shines a group of stars, +celestial eyes, whose golden lids seem to vibrate as if in appeal. It is +his island! He does not hesitate; suddenly recovering all his energies, +he springs from the raft, struggles with vigor, with perseverance +against the current, triumphs over it, and, after prolonged efforts, at +last reaches this haven of deliverance, this port of safety; he lands, +fatigued, exhausted, but overcome with joy and gratitude. Profoundly +thanking God from his heart, he prostrates himself, and kisses with +transport the hospitable soil of this island,—which, on the morning of +the same day, he had cursed.</p> + +<p>Alas! does not reflection quickly diminish this lively joy at his +return and safety? From this shipwreck, poor sailor, thou hast saved +only thyself: thy tools, thy instruments of labor, even thy Bible, are a +prey to the sea!</p> + +<p>It is now, Selkirk, that thou must suffice for thyself! It is the last +trial to which thou canst be subjected!</p> + + +<p> </p> +<h3> +<a name="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3> +<br> + +<h4>The Island of Juan Fernandez.—Encounter in the Mountains.—Discussion. +—A New Captivity.—A Cannon-shot.—Dampier and Selkirk.—<i>Mas a Fuera</i>. +—News of Stradling.—Confidences.—End of the History of the real +Robinson Crusoe.—Nebuchadnezzar.</h4> + +<p>On the 1st of February, 1709, an English vessel, equipped and sent to +sea by the merchants of Bristol, after having sailed around Cape Horn, +in company with another vessel belonging to the same expedition, touched +alone, about the 33d degree of south latitude, at the Island of Juan +Fernandez, from a hundred and ten to a hundred and twenty leagues +distant from the coast of Chili.</p> + +<p>The second ship was to join her without delay. Symptoms of the scurvy +had appeared on board, and it was intended to remain here for some time, +to give the crew opportunity of recovering their health.</p> + +<p>Their tents pitched, towards evening several sailors, having ventured +upon the island, were not a little surprised to see, through the +obscurity, a strange being, bearing some resemblance to the human form, +who, at their approach, scaling the mountains, leaping from rock to +rock, fled with the rapidity of a deer, the lightness of a chamois.</p> + +<p>Some doubted whether it was a man, and prepared to fire at him. They +were prevented by an officer named Dower, who accompanied them.</p> + +<p>On their return to their companions, the sailors related what they had +seen; Dower did not fail to do the same among the officers; and this +evening, at the encampment on the shore, in the forecastle as well as on +the quarter-deck, there were narratives and suppositions that would +'amuse an assembly of Puritans through the whole of Lent,' says the +account from which we borrow a part of our information.</p> + +<p>At this period, tales of the marvellous gained great credence among +sailors. Not long before, the Spaniards had discovered giants in +Patagonia; the Portuguese, sirens in the seas of Brazil; the French, +tritons and satyrs at Martinique; the Dutch, black men, with feet like +lobsters, beyond Paramaribo.</p> + +<p>The strange individual under discussion was unquestionably a satyr, or +at least one of those four-footed, hairy men, such as the authentic +James Carter declared he had met with in the northern part of America.</p> + +<p>Some, thinking this conclusion too simple, adroitly insinuated that no +one among the sailors who had met this monster, had noticed in him so +great a number of paws. Why four paws?—why should he not be a +monopedous man, a man whose body, terminated by a single leg, cleared, +with this support alone, considerable distances? Was not the existence +of the monopedous man attested by modern travellers, and even in +antiquity and the middle ages, by Pliny and St. Augustine?</p> + +<p>Others preferred to imagine in this singular personage the acephalous +man, the man without a head, named by the grave Baumgarthen as existing +on the new continent. They had not discovered many legs, but neither had +they discovered a head; why should he have one?</p> + +<p>And the discussion continued, and not a voice was raised to risk this +judicious observation; if neither head nor limbs have been +distinguished, it may perhaps be because he has been seen only in the +dark.</p> + +<p>The next day, each wished to be satisfied; a regular hunt was organized +against this phenomenon; they set out, invaded his retreat, pursued him, +surrounded him, at last seized him, and the brave sailors of Great +Britain discovered with stupefaction, in this monopedous, acephalous +man, in this satyr, this cercopithecus, what? A countryman, a Scotchman, +a subject of Queen Anne!</p> + +<p>It was Selkirk; Selkirk, his hair long and in disorder, his limbs +encased in fragments of skins, and half deprived of his reason.</p> + +<p>His island was Juan Fernandez, so called by the first navigator who +discovered it; this was Selkirk Island.</p> + +<p>When he was conducted before Captain Woodes Rogers, commander of the +expedition, to the interrogations of the latter, the unfortunate man, +with downcast look, and agitated with a nervous trembling, replied only +by repeating mechanically the last syllables of the phrases which were +addressed to him by the captain.</p> + +<p>A little recovered from his agitation, discovering that he had +Englishmen to deal with, he attempted to pronounce some words; he could +only mutter a few incoherent and disconnected sentences.</p> + +<p>'Solitude and the care of providing for his subsistence,' says Paw, 'had +so occupied his mind, that all rational ideas were effaced from it. As +savage as the animals, and perhaps more so, he had almost entirely +forgotten the secret of articulating intelligible sounds.'</p> + +<p>Captain Rogers having asked him how long he had been secluded in this +island, Selkirk remained silent; he nevertheless understood the +question, for his eyes immediately opened with terror, as if he had just +measured the long space of time which his exile had lasted. He was far +from having an exact idea of it; he appreciated it only by the +sufferings he had endured there, and, looking fixedly at his hands, he +opened and shut them several times.</p> + +<p>Reckoning by the number of his fingers, it was twenty or thirty years, +and every one at first believed in the accuracy of his calculation, so +completely did his forehead, furrowed with wrinkles, his skin blackened, +withered by the sun, his hair whitened at the roots, his gray beard, +give him the aspect of an old man.</p> + +<p>Selkirk was born in 1680; he was then only twenty-nine.</p> + +<p>After having replied thus, he turned his head, cast a troubled look on +the objects which surrounded him; a remembrance seemed to awaken, and, +uttering a cry, stepping forward, he pointed with his finger to a cedar +on his left. It was the tree on which, when he left the Swordfish, he +had inscribed the date of his arrival in the island. The officer Dower +approached, and, notwithstanding the crumbling of the decayed bark, +could still read there this inscription:</p> + +<p>'Alexander Selkirk—from Largo, Scotland, Oct. 27, 1704.'</p> + +<p>His exile from the world had therefore lasted four years and three +months.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the interest excited by his misfortunes, by his name, +his accent, more than by his language, Captain Rogers, an honorable and +humane man, but of extreme severity on all that appertained to +discipline, recognized him as a British subject, suspected him to be a +deserter from the English navy, and gave orders that he should be put +under guard, pending a definitive decision.</p> + +<p>The sailors commissioned to this office did not find it an easy thing to +guard a prisoner who could climb the trees like a squirrel, and outstrip +them all in a race. As a precaution, they commenced by binding him +firmly to the same cedar on which his name was engraved. There the +unfortunate Selkirk figured as a curious animal, ornamented with a +label.</p> + +<p>Afterwards, more for pastime than through mischief, they tormented him +with questions, to obtain from him hesitating or almost senseless +replies, which bewildered him much; then they began to examine, with +childish surprise, the length of his beard, of his hair and nails; the +prodigious development of his muscles; his bare feet, so hardened by +travel, that they seemed to be covered with horn moccasins. Having found +beneath his goat-skin rags, a knife, whose blade, by dint of use and +sharpening, was almost reduced to the proportions of that of a +penknife, they took it away to examine it; but on seeing himself +deprived of this single weapon, the only relic of his shipwreck, the +prisoner struggled, uttering wild howls; they restored it to him.</p> + +<p>At the hour of repast, Selkirk had, like the rest, his portion of meat +and biscuit. He ate the biscuit, manifesting great satisfaction; but he, +who had at first suffered so much from being deprived of salt, found in +the meat a degree of saltness insupportable. He pointed to the stream; +one of his guards courteously offered him his gourd, containing a +mixture of rum and water; he approached it to his lips, and immediately +threw it away with violence, as if it had burned him.</p> + +<p>At evening, he was transported on board.</p> + +<p>A few days after he began to acquire a taste for common food; his ideas +became more definite; speech returned to his lips more freely and +clearly; but liberty of motion was not yet restored to him, a new +captivity opened before him, and his irritation at this was presenting +an obstacle to the complete restoration of his faculties, when God, who +had so deeply tried him, came to his assistance.</p> + +<p>One morning, as the crew of the ship were occupied, some in caulking and +tarring it, others in gathering edible plants on the island, a +cannon-shot resounded along the waves. The caulkers climbed up the +rigging, the provision-hunters ran to the shore, the officers seized +their spy-glasses, and all together quickly uttered a <i>huzza</i>! The +vessel which had sailed in company with that of Captain Rogers, the +Duchess, of Bristol, had arrived. This vessel, commanded by William +Cook, had, for a master-pilot, a man more celebrated in maritime annals +than the commanders of the expedition themselves;—this was Dampier, the +indefatigable William Dampier, who, a short time since a millionaire, +now completely ruined in consequence of foolish speculations and +prodigalities, had just undertaken a third voyage around the world.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had he disembarked, when he heard of the great event of the +day—of the wild man. His name was mentioned, he remembered having known +an Alexander Selkirk at St. Andrew, at the inn of the Royal Salmon. He +went to him, interrogated him, recognized him, and, without loss of +time, after having had his hair and beard cut, and procured suitable +clothing for him, presented him to Capt. Rogers; he introduced him as +one of his old comrades, formerly an intrepid and distinguished officer +in the navy, one of the conquerors of Vigo, who had been induced by +himself to embark in the Swordfish, partly at his expense.</p> + +<p>Restored to liberty, supported, revived, by the kind cares of Dampier, +his old hero, Selkirk felt rejuvenated. His first thought then is for +that other unfortunate man, still an exile perhaps in his desert island. +After having informed the old sailor that he had found a little bottle, +containing a written parchment, he said: 'Dear Captain, it would be a +meritorious act, and one worthy of you, to co-operate in the deliverance +of this unhappy man. A boat will suffice for the voyage, since the +Island of San Ambrosio is so near this. Oh! how joyfully would I +accompany you in this excursion!'</p> + +<p>'My brave hermit,' replied Dampier, shaking his head, 'the neighboring +island of which you speak is no other than the second in this group, +named <i>Mas a Fuera</i>. As for the other, that San Ambrosio which you think +so near, if it has not become a floating island since my last voyage, if +it is still where I left it, under the Tropic of Capricorn, to reach it +will not be so trifling a matter; besides, your little bottle must be a +bottle of ink. There is here confusion of place and confusion of time; +not only is <i>Mas a Fuera</i> not <i>San Ambrosio</i> but this latter island, far +from being a desert, as your correspondent has said, has been inhabited +more than twenty years by a multitude of madmen, fishermen and pirates, +potato-eaters and old sailors, who, when I visited them, in 1702, +politely received me with gun-shots, and whose politeness I returned +with cannon-shots. Therefore, my boy, he who wrote to you must have been +dead when you received his letter. What date did it bear?'</p> + +<p>'None,' said Selkirk; 'the last lines were effaced;' and he trembled at +the idea of all the dangers he had run in pursuit of this friend, who no +longer existed, and of a land which he had never inhabited.</p> + +<p>After having satisfied a duty of humanity, that which he had regarded as +a debt contracted towards a friend, Selkirk, among other inquiries, let +fall the name of Stradling. This time, it was hatred which asked +information.</p> + +<p>His hatred was destined to be gratified.</p> + +<p>In pursuing his voyage, after having coasted along the shores of the +Straits of Magellan, Stradling, surprised by a frightful hurricane, had +seen his vessel entirely disabled. Repulsed at five different times, +now by the tempest, now by the Spaniards, from the ports where he +attempted to take refuge, he was thrown, near La Plata, on an +inhospitable shore. Attacked, pillaged by the natives, half of his crew +having perished, with the remains of his ship he constructed another, to +which he gave the name of the Cinque Ports, instead of that of the +Swordfish, which it was no longer worthy to bear. This was a large +pinnace, on which he had secretly returned to England. For several years +past, Dampier had not heard of him.</p> + +<p>Selkirk thought himself sufficiently avenged; his present happiness +silenced his past ill-will. He even became reconciled to his island.</p> + +<p>Each day he traversed its divers parts, with emotions various as the +remembrances it awakened. But he was now no longer alone! Arm and arm +with Dampier, he revisited these places where he had suffered so much, +and which often resumed for him their enchanting aspects.</p> + +<p>His companion was soon informed of his history. When he had related what +we already know, from his landing to the construction of his raft, and +to his frightful shipwreck, he at last commenced, not without some +mortification, the recital of his final miseries, which alone could +explain the deplorable state in which the English sailors had found him.</p> + +<p>By the loss of his hatchets, his ladder, his other instruments of labor, +condemned to inaction, to powerlessness, he had nothing to occupy +himself with but to provide sustenance. But the sea had taken his snares +along with the rest. He at first subsisted on herbs, fruits and roots; +afterwards his stomach rejected these crudities, as it had repulsed the +fish. Armed with a stick, he had chased the agoutis; for want of +agoutis, he had eaten rats.</p> + +<p>By night, he silently climbed the trees to surprise the female of the +toucan or blackbird, which he pitilessly stifled over their young brood. +Meanwhile, at the noise he made among the branches, this winged prey +almost always escaped him.</p> + +<p>He tried to construct a ladder; by the aid of his knife alone, he +attempted to cut down two tall trees. During this operation his knife +broke—only a fragment remained. This was for him a great trial.</p> + +<p>He thought of making, with reeds and the fibres of the aloe, a net to +catch birds; but all patient occupation, all continuous labor, had +become insupportable to him.</p> + +<p>That he might escape the gloomy ideas which assailed him more and more, +it became necessary to avoid repose, to court bodily fatigue.</p> + +<p>By continual exercise, his powers of locomotion had developed in +incredible proportions. His feet had become so hardened that he no +longer felt the briers or sharp stones. When he grew weary, he slept, in +whatever place he found himself, and these were his only quiet hours.</p> + +<p>To chase the agoutis had ceased to be an object worthy of his efforts; +the kids took their turn, afterwards the goats. He had acquired such +dexterity of movement, and such strength of muscle, such certainty of +eye, that to leap from one projection of rock to another, to spring at +one bound over ravines and deep cavities, was to him but a childish +sport. In these feats he took pleasure and pride.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, in the midst of his flights through space, he would seize a +bird on the wing.</p> + +<p>The goats themselves soon lost their power to struggle against such a +combatant. Notwithstanding their number, had Selkirk wished it, he might +have depopulated the island. He was careful not to do this.</p> + +<p>If he wished to procure a supply of provisions, he directed his steps +towards the most elevated peaks of the mountain, marked his game, +pursued it, caught it by the horns, or felled it by a blow from his +stick; after which his knife-blade did its office. The goat killed, he +threw it on his shoulders, and, almost as swiftly as before, regained +the cavernous grotto or leafy tree, in the shelter of which he could +this day eat and sleep. He had for a long time forsaken his cabin, which +was too far distant from his hunting-grounds.</p> + +<p>If he had a stock of provision on hand, he still pursued the goats as +usual, but only for his personal gratification. If he caught one, he +contented himself with slitting its ear; this was his seal, the mark by +which he recognized his free flock. During the last years of his abode +in the island, he had killed or marked thus nearly five +hundred.<a href="#Footnote_9"><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_9"></a><sup>[1]</sup></p> +<blockquote> Long after his departure from Juan Fernandez, the ship's +crews, who came there for supplies, or the pirates who took refuge +there, found goats whose ears had been slit by Selkirk's knife.</blockquote> + +<p>In the natural course of things, as his physical powers increased, his +intelligence became enfeebled.</p> + +<p>Necessity had at first aroused his industry, for all industry awakes at +the voice of want; but his own had been due rather to his recollections +than to his ingenuity. He thought himself a creator, he was only an +imitator.</p> + +<p>Whatever may have been said by those who, in the pride of a deceitful +philosophy, have wished to glorify the power of the solitary man—if the +latter, supported by certain fortunate circumstances, can remain some +time in a state hardly endurable, it is not by his own strength, but by +means which society itself has furnished. This is the incontestable +truth, from which, in his pride, Selkirk had turned away.</p> + +<p>Deprived of exercise and of aliment, his thoughts, no longer sustained +by reading the Holy Book, were day by day lost in a chaos of dreams and +reveries.</p> + +<p>A prey to terrors which he could not explain, he feared darkness, he +trembled at the slightest sound of the wind among the branches; if it +blew violently, he thought the trees would be uprooted and crush him; if +the sea roared, he trembled at the idea of the submersion of his entire +island.</p> + +<p>When he traversed the woods, especially if the heat was great, he often +heard, distinctly, voices which called him or replied. He caught entire +phrases; others remained unfinished. These phrases, connected neither +with his thoughts nor his situation, were strange to him. Sometimes he +even recognized the voice.</p> + +<p>Now it was that of Catherine, scolding her servants; now that of +Stradling, of Dampier, or one of his college tutors. Once he heard thus +the voice of one of his classmates whom he least remembered; at another +time it was that of his old admiral, Rourke, uttering the words of +command.</p> + +<p>If he attempted to raise his own to impose silence on these choruses of +demons who tormented him, it was only with painful efforts that he could +succeed in articulating some confused syllables.</p> + +<p>He no longer talked, but he still sang; he sang the monotonous and +mournful airs of his psalms, the words of which he had totally +forgotten. His memory by degrees became extinct. Sometimes even, he lost +the sentiment of his identity; then, at least, his state of isolation, +and the memory of his misfortunes ceased to weigh upon him.</p> + +<p>He nevertheless remembered, that about this time, having approached +Swordfish Beach, attracted by an unusual noise there, he had seen it +covered with soldiers and sailors, doubtless Spaniards. The idea of +finding himself among men, had suddenly made his heart beat; but when he +descended the declivity of the hills in order to join them, several +shots were fired; the balls whistled about his ears, and, filled with +terror, he had fled.</p> + +<p>Once more he had found himself there, but without intending it, for then +he could no longer find his way, by the points of the compass, through +the woods and valleys leading to the shore. Ah! how had his ancient +abode changed its aspect! How many years had rolled away since he lived +there! The little gravelled paths, which conducted to the grotto and the +mimosa, were effaced; the mimosa, its principal branches broken, seemed +buried beneath its own ruins; of his fish-pond, his bed of +water-cresses, not a vestige remained; his grotto, veiled, hid beneath +the thick curtains of vines and heliotropes, was no longer visible; his +cabin had ceased to exist,—overthrown, swept away doubtless, by a +hurricane, as his inclosure had been. He could discover the spot only by +the five myrtles, which, disembarrassed of their roof of reeds and their +plaster walls, had resumed their natural decorations, green and glossy, +as if the hatchet had never touched them. At their feet tufts of briers +and other underbrush had grown up, as formerly. The two streams, the +<i>Linnet</i> and the <i>Stammerer</i>, alone had suffered no change. The one with +its gentle murmur, the other with its silvery cascades, after having +embraced the lawn, still continued to flow towards the sea, where they +seemed to have buried, with their waves, the memory of all that had +passed on their borders.</p> + +<p>At sight of his shore, which seemed to have retained no vestige of +himself, Selkirk remained a few moments, mournful and lost in his +incoherent thoughts, in the midst of which this was most prominent:—Yet +alive, already forgotten by the world, I have seen my traces disappear, +even from this island which I have so long inhabited!</p> + +<p>A rustling was heard in the foliage; he raised his eyes, expecting to +see Marimonda swinging on the branch of a tree. Perceiving nothing, he +remembered that Marimonda reposed at the Oasis; he took the road from +the mountain which led thither, but when he arrived there, when he was +before her tomb, covered with tall grass, he had forgotten why he came.</p> + +<p>One of those unaccountable fits of terror, which were now more frequent +than formerly, seized him, and he precipitately descended the mountain, +springing from peak to peak along the rocks.</p> + +<p>The religious sentiment, which formerly sustained Selkirk in his trials, +was not entirely extinct; but it was obscured beneath his darkened +reason. His religion was only that of fear. When the sea was violently +agitated, when the storm howled, he prostrated himself with clasped +hands; but it was no longer God whom he implored; it was the angry +ocean, the thunder. He sought to disarm the genius of evil. The +lightning having one day struck, not far from him, a date-palm, he +worshipped the tree. His perverted faith had at last terminated in +idolatry.</p> + +<p>This was, in substance, what Alexander Selkirk related to William +Dampier; what solitude had done for this man, still so young, and +formerly so intelligent; this was what had become of the despiser of +men, when left to his own reason.</p> + +<p>Dampier listened with the most profound attention, interrupting him in +his narrative only by exclamations of interest or of pity. When he +ceased to speak, holding out his hand to him, he said:</p> + +<p>'My boy, the lesson is a rude one, but let it be profitable to you; let +it teach you that <i>ennui</i> on board a vessel, even with a Stradling, is +better than <i>ennui</i> in a desert. Undoubtedly there are among us +troublesome, wicked people, but fewer wicked than crack-brained. +Believe, then, in friendship, especially in mine; from this day it is +yours, on the faith of William Dampier.'</p> + +<p>And he opened his arms to the young man, who threw himself into them.</p> + +<p>On their return to the vessel, Dampier presented to Selkirk his own +Bible. The latter seized it with avidity, and, after having turned over +its leaves as if to find a text which presented itself to his mind, read +aloud the following passage:</p> + +<p>'He was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the +beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses; they fed him with +grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven.'—DANIEL +v. 21.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<h3> +<a name="CONCLUSION"></a>CONCLUSION.</h3> +<br> + +<p>Capt. Rogers, in his turn, learned the misfortunes of Selkirk and became +attached to him; from this moment, the sailors themselves showed him +great deference; he was known among them by the name of <i>the governor</i>, +and this title clung to him.</p> + +<p>To do the honors of his island, the governor one day gave to the crews +of the two vessels, the spectacle of one of his former hunts. Resuming +his ancient costume, he returned to the high mountains, where, before +their eyes, he started a goat, and darting in pursuit of it, over a +thousand cliffs, sometimes clearing frightful abysses, by means of a +vine which he seized on his passage,—this method he owed to +Marimonda,—he succeeded in forcing his game to the hills of the shore. +Arrived there, exhausted, panting, drawing itself up like a stag at bay, +the goat stopped short. Selkirk took it living on his shoulders, and +presented it to Capt. Rogers. Its ear was already slit.</p> + +<p>By way of thanks, the captain announced that he might henceforth be +connected with the expedition, with his old rank of mate, which was +restored to him. For this favor Selkirk was indebted to the +solicitations of Dampier.</p> + +<p>In the same vessel with Dampier, he made another three years' voyage, +visited Mexico, California, and the greater part of North America; +after which, still in company with Dampier, and possessor of a pretty +fortune, he returned to England, where the recital of his adventures, +already made public, secured him the most honorable patronage and +friendship. Among his friends, may be reckoned Steele, the co-laborer, +the rival of Addison, who consecrated a long chapter to him in his +publication of the Tatler.</p> + +<p>Selkirk did not fail to visit Scotland. Passing through St. Andrew, +could he help experiencing anew the desire to see his old friend pretty +Kitty? Once more he appeared before the bar of the Royal Salmon. This +time, on meeting, Selkirk and Catherine both experienced a sentiment of +painful surprise. The latter, stouter and fuller than ever, fat and +red-faced, touched the extreme limit of her fourth and last youth; the +solitary of Juan Fernandez, with his gray hair, his copper complexion, +could scarcely recall to the respectable hostess of the tavern the +elegant pilot of the royal navy, still less the pale and blond student, +of whom she had been, eighteen years before, the first and only love.</p> + +<p>'Is it indeed you, my poor Sandy,' said she, with an accent of pity; 'I +thought you were dead.'</p> + +<p>'I have been nearly so, indeed, and a long time ago, Kitty. But who has +told you of me?'</p> + +<p>'Alas! It was my husband himself.'</p> + +<p>'You are married then, Catherine. So much the better.'</p> + +<p>'So much the worse rather, my friend; for, would you believe it, the old +monster, bent double as he is with age and rheumatism, was bright enough +to dupe me finely; to dupe me twice. In the first place, by making me +believe you were dead when you were not. But he well knew, the cheat, +that if I refused him once, it was because my views were turned in your +direction.'</p> + +<p>Selkirk made a movement which escaped Catherine; she continued:</p> + +<p>'His second deception was to arrive here in triumph, in the midst of the +cries of joy and embraces of the <i>Sea-Dogs</i> and <i>Old Pilots</i>. One would +have thought he had in his pockets all the mines of Guinea and Peru. He +did not say so, but I thought it could not be otherwise; and I married +him, since I believed you no longer living. His trick having succeeded, +he then told me of his shipwreck, his complete ruin. Ah! with what a +good heart would I have sent him packing! But it was too late, and it +became necessary that the Royal Salmon, founded by the honorable Andrew +Felton, should furnish subsistence for two; and this is the reason why, +Mr. Selkirk, you find me still here, a prisoner in my bar, and cursing +all the captains who make the tour of the world only to come afterwards +and impose upon poor and inexperienced young girls!'</p> + +<p>Selkirk had not at first understood the lamentations of Catherine; but a +twilight commenced to dawn in his ideas; he divined that his name had +been used for an act of baseness; and, without being able to account for +it, he felt the return of an old leaven of spite, an old hatred revived.</p> + +<p>'Who is your husband? What is his name?' asked he, in a loud voice and +with a tone of authority.</p> + +<p>'Do not grow angry, Sandy? Do not seek a quarrel with him now. What is +done, is done; I am his wife, do you understand? It is of no use to +recall the past.'</p> + +<p>'And who thinks of recalling it? I simply asked you who he was?'</p> + +<p>'You will be prudent; you promise me? Well! do you see him yonder, in +the second stall, at the same place he formerly occupied? He has just +poured out some gin to those sailors, and is drinking with them. It is +he who is standing up with an apron on.'</p> + +<p>'Stradling!' exclaimed Selkirk, with sparkling eyes. But at the sight of +this apron, finding his old captain become a waiter, his hatred and +projects of vengeance were suddenly extinguished.</p> + +<p>Alexander Selkirk returned to England in 1712. The history of his +captivity in the Island of Juan Fernandez had appeared in the papers; +several apocryphal relations had been already published, when in 1717, +Daniel De Foe published his <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>.</p> + +<p>He is really the same personage; but in this latter version, the Island +of Juan Fernandez, in spite of distance and geographical +impossibilities, is peopled with savage Caribs; Marimonda is transformed +into the simple Friday; history is turned into romance, but this romance +is elevated to all the dignity of a philosophical treatise.</p> + +<p>Rendering full justice to the merit of the writer, we must nevertheless +acknowledge that he has completely altered, in a mental view, the +physiognomy of his model. Robinson is not a man suffering entire +isolation; he has a companion, and the savages are incessantly making +inroads around him. It is the European developing the resources of his +industry, to contend at once with an unproductive land and the dangers +created by his enemies.</p> + +<p>Selkirk has no enemies to repulse, and he inhabits a fruitful country. +He needs, before every thing else, the presence of man, one of those +fraternal affections in which he refuses to believe. His sufferings +originate in his very solitude. In solitude, Robinson improves and +perfects himself; Selkirk, at first as full of resources as he, ends by +becoming discouraged and brutified.</p> + +<p>Which of the two is most true to nature?</p> + +<p>The first is an ideal being, for in no quarter of the globe has there +ever been found one analogous to the Robinson of De Foe; the other, on +the contrary, is to be met with every where, denying the dependence of +an isolated individual; but this dependence, even in the midst of a +prodigal nature, if it is not to the honor of man, is to the honor of +society at large.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding all that has been said, the solitary is a man imbruted, +vegetating, deprived of his crown. 'Solitude is sweet only in the +vicinity of great +cities.'<a href="#Footnote_10"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +By an admirable decree of Providence, the +isolated being is an imperfect being; man is completed by man.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_10"></a><sup>[1]</sup></p> +<blockquote> Bernardin de St. Pierre. Seneca had said: <i>Miscenda et +alternanda sunt solitudo et frequentia</i>.</blockquote> + +<p>Notwithstanding the false maxims of a deceitful philosophy, it is to the +social state that we owe, from the greatest to the least, the courage +which animates and sustains us; God has created us to live there and to +love one another; it is for this reason that selfishness is a shameful +vice, a crime! It is, so to speak, an infringement of one of the great +laws of Nature.</p> +<br> + +<p>THE END.</p> + +<br><hr style="width: 45%;"><br> + +<p> </p> +<h3> +<a name="NEWBOOKS"></a>NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS</h3> + +<center> +<p>PUBLISHED BY +TICKNOR, REED, AND FIELDS</p> +</center> +<p> </p> + +<h4>HENRY W. LONGFELLOW</h4> + +<p>COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS [Transcriber's Note: missing text.] +the six Volumes mentioned below, and [Tr. Note: missing text.]<br> +the market. In two volumes, 16mo, $2.00.</p> + +<p>In separate Volumes, each [Tr. 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