SELKIRK, ALEXANDER, the name of a celebrated Scottish traveller, whose adventures form the subject of Robinson Crusoe, was born at Largo in the county of Fife, about 1676, and was brought up to the pro fession of a sailor. As sailing master of the Cinque Ports galley, he left England in 1703, and in Septem ber of the same year, he set sail from Cork in com pany with the St. George of twenty six gulls, Captain Dampier, with a view of cruising against the Spaniards in the South Seas. Pickering, the captain of Selkirk's ship, died on the coast of Brazil, and was succeeded by Lieutenant Stradling. From Juan Fernandez, to which they proceeded after doubling Cape Horn, they were compelled to fly by the sight of two French ships of thirty-six guns each, and left on the island five of Stradling's men, who were taken by the French.
Dampier and Stradling having separated on the coast of America, in consequence of a quarrel in AIay 1704, Stradling returned to Juan Fernandez in Sep tember. Here Selkirk and he had a quarrel, in con sequence of which the former resolved to remain on the island.
When the galley was about to leave the island, Sel kirk's resolution began to fail, but though he request ed Stradling to receive him on board, this inhuman officer denied his request, and left him behind, with his clothes, some bedding, a gun, with a little powder and ball, and a few books, and mathematical instru meats.
In this solitary situation, " the monarch of all he surveyed," he was seized with melancholy, and often resolved to put an end to his life. After enduring this species of wretchedness for 18 months, his mind be gan to reconcile itself to the sadness of its condition, and he chased away the weary hours by building huts and hunting the wild goats of the island. He amused himself with training young kids and other animals as his companions, and when his drapery had lost its folds, he replaced it by the skins of the goats whose flesh had served him for food. In this desolate con dition Selkirk spent four years and four months. During that time he had caught 1000 goats, half of whom he had set free after slitting them in the ear.*
While pursuing a goat )vith great eagerness, he caught it at the edge of a precipice, over which he fell through a great height. After lying, as he com puted, three days senseless, he recovered, and found himself so much bruised, that he was scarcely able to crawl to his habitation. The only other adventure which happened to him was the arrival of a Spanish ship, the crew of which saw him at a distance. Dreading, however, to fall into their hands, he exert ed himself to escape, and, by climbing a tree with much foliage, he succeeded with great difficulty, af ter having been shot at by the Spaniards. On the 2d February 1709, Selkirk was delighted with the sight of two ships approaching the island. Having recog nised them to be English, he lighted a signal fire, and he. had even the happiness of finding that they were English privateers, the Duke and the Duchess from Bristol, commanded by Captains Rogers and Court ney. Selkirk was kindly received by his countrymen; and, after continuing a fortnight at the island, they all embarked, and sailed by the way of the East Indies for England, where they arrived on the 1st October 1711; after plundering a town on the coast of Persia, and taking a Alanilla ship off California. During this cruise, Selkirk was appointed by Captain Rogers mas ter's mate of the Dukc. Although Selkirk had per formed his devotions with great regularity. yet his language had become scarcely intelligible when he was first taken from the island. The curiosity of the public having been greatly excited by the narration of his extraordinary adventures, Selkirk put an ac count of them into the hands of that celebrated writer Daniel Defoe, who, in place of publishing them as a true narrative, made them the ground work of the in teresting story of Robinson Crusoe. The future his tory of Selkirk is not known, but so late as 1798, the chest and musket which Selkirk had with him on the island of Juan Fernandez, were in the possession of his grand-nephew, John Selkirk, a weaver at the vil lage of Largo.