Robinson Crusoe's Island Inhabited

1893

The People Who Now Inhabit the Refuge of DeFoe's Hero

It is not generally known that Juan Fernandez — the island on which Alexander Selkirk, the Robinson Crusoe of romance, lived for so many years — is at the present time inhabited.

Two valleys, winding down from different directions, join a short distance back from the shore and here now stands a little village of small huts scattered round a long, low, one storied building, with a veranda running its whole length. In this house lives a man who rents the island from the Chilean government, and the village is made up of a few German and Chilean families.

The tiny town is called San Juan Bautista, and the craterlike arm of the sea on which it is situated and where Alexander Selkirk first landed is now called Cumberland bay. The island is rented for about £200 a year. The rent is paid partly in dried fish. Catching and drying the many varieties of fish and raising cattle and vegetables wholly occupy the contented settlers, and much of their little income is obtained from the cattle and vegetables sold to passing vessels.

The cattle need no care, and the vegetables almost grow wild. Turnips and radishes, first sown here by Selkirk himself, now grow rank and wild in the valleys like weeds. There is also a race of wild dogs which completely overrun the island, depending for existence mainly upon seals. They are the descendants of a breed left by the Spaniards.

At the back of the little town in the first high cliffs is a row of caves of remarkable appearance hewn into the sandstone. An unused path leads to them, and a short climb brings one to their dark mouths. About 40 years ago the Chilean government thought that a good way to be rid of its worst criminals would be to transport them to the island of Juan Fernandez. Here, under the direction of Chilean soldiers, these poor wretches were made to dig caves to live in. In 1854 they were taken back again, however, and the caves have since been slowly crumbling away.

The narrow ridge where Selkirk watched is now called "the saddle," because at either end of it a big rocky hummock rises like a pommel. On one of these is now a large tablet with inscriptions commemorating Alexander Selkirk's long and lonesome stay on the island. It was placed there in 1868 by the officers of the British ship Topaz.

A small excursion steamer now runs from Valparaiso to Juan Fernandez island. The round trip is made in six days, and three of these may he spent on the island in fishing and visiting those lonely but beautiful spots which, nearly 200 years ago, were the haunts of Robinson Crusoe. — Melbourne Argus.