nd
departing leave one or two of their live-stock on the island. It had
thus become stocked with goats, which ran wild about the hills and
craggy rocks, free from any danger of pursuit and capture.

This was not the first time that the _Clinque Ports_ had touched at Juan
Fernandez, for not long before she had left there two seamen who were
unable to continue their voyage, and now she had anchored to reship
these men, to take in water, and to refit for the long and perilous
voyage to the English shore.

The two seamen, coming on board, told strange stories to their comrades
of the pleasant life they had led on the island, of the hunt for goats,
of the abundance of shell-fish, of the delicious fruits and vegetables,
and of the cool waters of the place.

Of all the eager listeners to these tales of plenty and delight, there
was one who never failed to fasten on each word that was said, and by
constant questioning, to learn every detail of the life on the green
island which lay before them. This sailor was a Scotsman, named
Alexander Selkirk or Selcraig. He was of an impatient, overbearing
temper, and no favorite with his captain, who was not wise enough to
discern the good sense and honesty which lay hidden under his rough and
uncourteous manner. Thus it chanced that the Scotch Sailor was often in
trouble and disgrace, and resenting bitterly a harshness he did not
think he had deserved, he began to long to leave the ship at any cost.

But perhaps the beginning of his misery and discomfort must be sought
farther back in his life. His surly speech, his unsocial temper, spoke
of a mind ill at ease,--the remembrance of the past made the present
sad.

He had been religiously and strictly brought up by his father, a Scotch
Puritan, but he had broken loose from the restraints which his parents
sought to throw around him, and had led, if not a vicious, at least an
irreligious life, without thought of God, or of the lessons of truth and
goodness which he had been taught. Yet his conscience was not so
hardened that he could be happy in this neglect of God, and he felt ill
at ease, dissatisfied with himself, and with all around him.

He shrank, too, from the prospect of the voyage to England in a vessel
but half repaired, exaggerating to his own mind the perils before him,
and fearful of his own temper with his hard and prejudiced commander.

Weighing all these things, he determined on asking the captain to set him
on shore,