The Flaws Came Heavy Off The Land, And We
Were Forced To Reef Our Top-Sails When We Opened The Middle Bay, Where
We Expected To Have Found Our Enemy, But Saw All Clear, And No Ships
Either There Or In The Other Bay Near The N.E. End.
These are the only
bays in which ships can ride that come here for refreshments, the middle
one being the best.
We now conjectured that there had been ships here,
but that they had gone away on seeing us. About noon of the 2d February,
we sent our yawl on shore, in which was Captain Dover, Mr Fry, and six
men, all armed; and in the mean time we and the Duchess kept turning in,
and such heavy squalls came off the land that we had to let fly our
top-sail sheets, keeping all hands to stand by our sails, lest the winds
should blow them away. These flaws proceed from the land, which is very
high in the middle of the island; but when they passed by, we had little
or no wind. As our yawl did not return, we sent the pinnace well armed,
to see what had occasioned the yawl to stay, being afraid there might be
a Spanish garrison on the island, who might have seized her and our men.
Even the pinnace delays returning, on which we put up a signal for her
to come back, when she soon came off with abundance of cray-fish,
bringing also a man cloathed in goat-skins, who seemed wilder than the
original owners of his apparel. His name was Alexander Selkirk, a
Scotsman, who had been left here by Captain Stradling in the
Cinque-ports, and had lived alone on the island for four years and four
months. Captain Dampier told me he had been master of the Cinque-ports,
and was the best man in that vessel; so I immediately agreed with him to
serve as a mate in the Duke. During his stay, he had seen several ships
pass by, but only two came to anchor at the island, which he found to be
Spaniards, and therefore retired from them, on which they fired at him,
but he escaped into the woods. Had they been French, he would have
surrendered to them; but chose rather to run the risk of dying alone on
the island than fall into the hands of the Spaniards, as he suspected
they would either put him to death, or make him a slave in their mines.
The Spaniards had landed before he knew what they were, and came so near
him that he had much ado to escape; for they not only shot at him, but
pursued him into the woods, where he climbed up a tree, at the foot of
which some of them made water, and killed several goats just by, yet
went away without discovering him.
He told us that he was born in Largo, in the county of Fife in Scotland,
and was bred a sailor from his youth.
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