is a fair substantial cave, it can not be compared for
a moment with the cave which Crusoe had on his own island, and which he
enlarged with so much perseverance.

[Illustration]

The island belongs to Chili, and more than a hundred years ago the
Chilian government sent convicts to Juan Fernandez as a punishment. A
fort was built, which has now crumbled away, and cells were dug in the
solid rock on the side of a hill, and the convicts were locked up in
them every night. The convicts, not liking their treatment, rebelled,
killed their guards, and seizing on a vessel that had visited the
island, escaped to Peru. Since then Juan Fernandez, or Mas-a-tierra, as
the Chilians call it, has been inhabited by a few Chilian farmers, who
raise, with very little labor, food enough to live on. They also catch
fish, which they send to the mainland, and at certain seasons of the
year they kill large quantities of seals, which frequent a little rocky
island half a mile from Juan Fernandez. At the present time the island
is governed by a Mr. Rhode, who rents it from the Chilian government,
and proposes to raise quantities of cattle.

In 1868 the British man-of-war _Topaz_ touched at Juan Fernandez, and
her officers erected an iron tablet in honor of Selkirk. It bears the
following inscription:

In memory of Alexander Selkirk,
Mariner,
a native of Largo, in the County of Fife, Scotland,
who lived on this island in complete solitude for four years and four
months.
He was landed from the _Cinque Ports_ galley, 96 tons, 16 guns, A.D.
1704, and was taken off in the _Duke_ privateer, 12th February, 1709.
He died Lieutenant of H. M. S. _Weymouth_, A.D. 1722, aged 47 years.
This tablet is erected near Selkirk's Look-out by Commodore
Powell and the officers of H. M. S. _Topaz_, A.D. 1868.

As there is excellent water at Juan Fernandez, vessels occasionally
touch there to fill their casks, but it has no regular communication
with the rest of the world.

Of course Juan Fernandez will always continue to be called Robinson
Crusoe's island, though it is certain that Crusoe was never within
three or four thousand miles of it. As for the unbelieving people who
pretend that Robinson Crusoe never lived, nobody should listen to them
for a moment. There never was anybody more thoroughly real than Robinson
Crusoe. Selkirk was not half so real; and in comparison with the
shipwrecked mariner of Hull, Julius Caesar was grossly