At First He Was Much Pestered With Cats And Rats, Which Had Bred There In Great Numbers From Some Of Each Species Which Had Got On Shore From Ships That Had Wooded And Watered At The Island.

The rats gnawed his feet and clothes when he was asleep, which obliged him to cherish the cats, by feeding them with goats flesh, so that many of them became so tame that they used to lie beside him in hundreds, and soon delivered him from the rats.

He also tamed some kids, and for his diversion would at times sing and dance with them and his cats: So that, by the favour of Providence and the vigour of his youth, for he was now only thirty years of age, he came at length to conquer all the inconveniences of his solitude, and to be quite easy in his mind.

When his clothes were worn out, he made himself a coat and a cap of goat skins, which he stitched together with thongs of the same, cut out with his knife, using a nail by way of a needle or awl. When his knife was worn out, he made others as well as he could of some old hoops that had been left on the shore, which he beat out thin between two stones, and grinded to an edge on a smooth stone. Having some linen cloth, he sewed himself some shirts by means of a nail for a needle, stitching them with worsted, which he pulled out on purpose from his old stockings, and he had the last of his shirts on when we found him. At his first coming on board, he had so much forgotten his language, for want of use, that we could scarcely understand him, as he seemed to speak his words only by halves. We offered him a dram, which he refused, not having drank any thing but water all the time he had been on the island, and it was some time before he could relish our provisions. He could give us no farther account of the productions of the island than has been already, except that there were some very good black plums, but hard to come at, as the trees which bear them grow on high mountains and steep rocks. There are many pimento trees, some of them being sixty feet high and two yards round; and we saw cotton trees still higher, and near four fathoms round the stems. The climate is excellent, and the trees and grass are quite verdant the whole year. The winter lasts no longer than June and July, and is not then severe, there being then only slight frosts and a little hail, but sometimes very great rains. The heat of summer is equally moderate, and there is not much thunder or tempestuous weather. He saw no venomous, or savage creature on the island, nor any other beasts besides goats, bred there from a few brought by Juan Fernandez, a Spaniard, who settled there with a few families, till the continent of Chili began to submit to the Spaniards when they removed to that country as more profitable. This island, however, might maintain a good many people, and is capable of being made so strong that they could not be easily dislodged.

We got our smith's forge ashore on the 3d February, and set our coopers to work to repair our water casks. They made a little tent also for me on shore, to enjoy the benefit of the land air. The two ships also set up tents for their sick, so that we had presently a kind of small town, in which all who were able were busily employed. A few men supplied us with excellent fish, in such abundance that they could take as many in a few hours as would serve 200 men for a meal. There were some sea-fowl in the bay, as large as geese, but they eat fishy. The governor, for so we called Mr Selkirk, never failed to procure us two or three goats every day for our sick men, by which, with the help of cabbages and other vegetables, and the wholesome air, our men soon recovered from the scurvy, and we found this island exceedingly agreeable, the weather being neither too hot nor too cold. We spent our time till the 10th in refitting our ships, taking wood on board, and laying in a stock of water, that which we brought from England, St Vincents, and Isla Grande, being spoilt by the badness of our casks. We also boiled up and refined eighty gallons of oil of sea-lions, which we used in lamps to save candles, and might have prepared several tons, if we had been provided with vessels. The sailors sometimes used this oil to fry their fish, for want of butter, and found it sufficiently agreeable. The men who worked ashore in repairing our rigging, eat the young seals, which they preferred to our ship's provisions, alleging that it was as good as English lamb. We made all the haste we could to get every thing on board, as we learnt at the Canaries that five stout French privateers were coming in company into the South Sea.

This island of Juan Fernandez is about fifteen English miles in length from E. to W. and five miles where broadest, but averaging little more than two miles in breadth, and is mostly composed of high rugged land. I know of nothing in its neighbourhood which may endanger a ship, except what is distinctly visible. We anchored in the great bay, [La Baia or Cumberland harbour] on the N.E. side, about a mile from the bottom of the bay, our best bower being dropt in forty fathoms, and the stream anchor carried in with the shore, where it was laid in about thirty fathoms. We here had plenty of several sorts of fish, as silver-fish, snappers, bonitoes, cavallos, pollocks, old wives, and cray-fish of great size.

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