Romsey, John, 122
Rosario (Spanish treasure ship), 104–5,111
St Andrew (ship), 52, 54
St George (ship): fitted out for voyage, 32, 44–6; officers and crew, 45–7; departs, 47; food and diet on, 47–8, 60, 66; disagreements and mismanagement on, 56; leaves Kinsale, 56; Selkirk navigates, 56–7; sickness aboard, 61–3, 66; crosses equator, 63; Barnaby leads mutiny on, 64–5; rounds Cape Horn, 66; at Island, 68–9; attacks French merchantman, 70–2; in attack on Santa Maria, 77; captures Assumsion, 80; Cinque Ports parts from, 81; damaged by shipworms, 102, 182–3; in fight against Spanish warship, 102–3; attacks and loses Rosario galleon, 104–5, 112; repaired at St Lucas, 104; Dampier abandons, 113
St Jago (Sao Tiago), Cape Verde Islands, 59–60
St John, Henry, 185
St Vincent, 127
Salisbury, HMS, 62
San Juan Bautista, Juan Fernandez island, 216, 221
Santa Ana (Spanish treasure ship), 152
Santa Clara (islet), 95, 221
Santa Josepha see Increase
Santa Maria, Panama, 72, 76–80
Santa Maria (Spanish ship), 75
Say, Revd, 209
scurvy, 61–3, 126–7, 136
sea lions, 24, 40, 69, 100, 213
seals: prevalence on Island, 23, 68, 90, 98; fur (Arctocephalus philippi), 24, 39, 213, 218; attacked and killed, 40 & n, 69–70, 137; Selkirk eats, 100, 106
Selcraig, Alexander (Selkirk’s nephew), 190, 192
Andrew (brother), 55
David (brother), 190
Euphan (mother), 49, 53, 96, 189–90
John (brother), 50, 55, 190
John (father), 49, 50, 55, 192
Margaret see Bell, Margaret
Selkirk, Alexander: as Master of Cinque Ports, 48, 51; birth and background, 49 & n, 50; misbehaviour and violence, 50, 54–6, 184, 191, 193; on Darien scheme, 51–2, 54; navigates St George, 56–8; criticises Dampier and Stradling, 63, 67, 72, 75, 81; and attack on Santa Maria, 77; on capture of Assumsion, 80; joins Stradling on Cinque Ports, 81–2; shares booty, 81; on effect of shipworms, 83; quarrels with Stradling, 83; marooned on Island, 84–5, 89–90; possessions, 91; life on Island, 92–100, 105–11, 115–18, 175; Island’s spiritual/emotional effect on, 95–6, 105–6, 110–11, 175, 190, 223; personal care and appearance, 100, 111; sexual practices, 106–7, 201; injured in fall, 108, 172; makes and keeps fire, 108–9, 117; flees from Spaniards on Island, 116–17, 172; possessions destroyed, 117; signals to rescue ships, 129–31; found and rescued, 132–6; leaves Island, 138; as Master of Increase, 139, 147, 149, 153; in plunder of Guayaquil, 144–5; clears superfluous prisoners from ships, 152; as Master of Batchelor, 158, 166; returns to England, 166; Cooke writes on in Voyage, 170–2; popular interest in, 171; Rogers writes on, 174; Steele writes on, 176–8; claims share of plunder, 178, 180; testifies against Dampier, 181–3; relations with Katherine Mason, 182; on 1712 expedition, 183–4; charged with assaults, 184, 191; drinking, 184, 190–1, 201–2; returns to Largo, 184, 189–90; marriage to Sophia Bruce, 190–3, 201, 207–8; leaves Largo for London, 191–2; first will in favour of Sophia Bruce, 192; naval service, 192–3, 201–3; inspires Robinson Crusoe, 194–6; marriage to Frances Candis (Hall), 202–3, 206–9; second will, 202–3; death and burial at sea, 205; wills contested, 206–10
Selkirk’s Cave (Juan Fernandez), 22n, 216
Selkirk’s Lookout (Juan Fernandez), 23
Serrano, Pedro de, 93
sex: sailors’, 35, 40, 107; Selkirk’s on Island, 106–7, 201
Sharp, Captain Bartholomew, 30n, 39–40
Sheltram, William, 114–15, 183–4
shipboard life, 46–8, 56, 60–3, 65–6, 147–9, 151, 160; see also scurvy
shipworms (Teredo navalis), 83–4 & n, 100–1, 122, 161, 182
Shuter, Christopher, 122
Sidirie, Jaimie, 107n
Skottsberg, Carl, 21n, 219
Sotomayor, Don Alonso de, 43
South Sea Company, 165, 184–6
Spain: monopoly on trade in South Seas, 30–1, 115, 122; war with Britain, 32, 115; closes South Sea ports to foreigners, 46; opposes Scots Darien scheme, 51–2; sailors land on Island, 116; on Guam, 160; threat to Batchelor on return voyage, 163; peace settlements with Britain, (1712), 184; (1748), 214; and Chilean independence, 215
Spectator (journal), 170
Speedwell (privateer), 214
Starkey, David J.: British Privateering Enterprise in the Eighteenth Century, 179n
Steele, Sir Richard: Rogers meets and consults on return, 170, 173–4; physical condition, 173 & n; Selkirk meets, 173–4, 189; debts, 175–6, 194; journalism, 176; writes on Selkirk, 176–8; home life, 177–8
Stradling, Thomas: sails on Cinque Ports, 48; and Dampier’s quarrel with Huxford, 60; takes command of Cinque Ports, 63–4; secretiveness, 65; at Island, 67–8; criticised and mistrusted by crew, 67, 72; in attack on Santa Maria, 77–9; quarrel with and separation from Dampier, 80–2; captures and burns Manta de Cristo, 81–2; returns to Island for repairs, 82; quarrels with and abandons Selkirk on Island, 83–4, 90, 94–5, 129, 134, 136; escapes from sinking Cinque Ports, 101; imprisonment, escape and return to Britain, 101–2, 150n; Selkirk condemns, 182
Stretton, Lieut. William, 127, 146
Swift, Jonathan, 36, 176
Tatler (journal), 176n
tattoos, 36–8
Tenerife, 126
Texel, 164, 166
tortoises, giant, 150–1
Trinity (ship), 39, 41, 51
UNESCO, 220–1
Unicorn (ship), 52–4
Utrecht, Treaty of (1712), 185
Valparaiso, 43, 93, 130, 217–18
Vanbrugh, Carleton: sails on 1708/9 expedition, 123; detained in Tenerife, 126; hostility with Rogers, 127, 162; shoots and kills slave, 128; at rescue of Selkirk, 134; Rogers accuses of cowardice at Guayaquil, 147; burned in attack on Begona, 157; on quarrels among officers, 162; death, 163
Vera Cruz, Mexico, 31
Vos, Admiral Pieter de, 164
Wafer, Lionel, 51–3
Waghenaer, L.J., 30n
Wasse, James, 123, 146, 148; death, 163
Watling, John, 40–1
Welbe, John: on Dampier’s quarrels with Huxford, 59–60; and Dampier’s attack on French merchantman, 71; complains of Dampier and Stradling, 72; on Dampier’s egotism, 77; in fight against Spanish warship, 103; in attack on Rosario, 104–5; deserts Dampier, 112
Weymouth, HMS, 201, 203–8
Whetstone, Admiral William, 122, 173
Will (Miskito Indian), 40–2, 93, 130
Woolf, Virginia, 199
Acknowledgments
ALL THANKS to Peter Campbell for his illumining design, to Rebecca Wilson at Weidenfeld for her publishing skills, and to my agent Georgina Capel for her acumen and watchful eye. Thanks, too, to Pat Chetwyn for copy editing the manuscript, and to Douglas Matthews, who compiled the index.
I am indebted to Peter LeFevre for rescuing me in the archives of the Public Record Office at Kew. He steered me through ships’ logs, muster rolls, depositions, Letters of Marque and worse. And when I struggled with seemingly illegible manuscripts, he deciphered them with ease.
I have pillaged from the faultless scholarship of the maritime historian Glyn Williams, author of The Great South Sea and The Prize of All the Oceans. I am grateful for essential help to librarians at the Wellcome Institute, the Royal Geographical Society, the London Library, the British Library and the Natural History Museum, and to Brian Thynne, Curator of Hydrography at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, for making eighteenth-century charts and sailing directions available to me.
On the island I thank Pedro and Fabiana Niada for guided treks over impossible terrain, and for a memorable millennium-eve party; Manolo Chamorro for renting me a log cabin that looked out over the Pacific Ocean at the point where Selkirk was abandoned and rescued; Jaimie Sidirie who became my protector and translator; the painter Valer
ia Saltzman for her profound conversations; Ilke Paulentz for taking me on a terrifying journey in a small boat on Christmas Day to The Island’s seal colonies; Ivan Leiva Silva at CONAF for explaining conservation issues to me; Oscar the chivalrous cook on the supply ship Navarino for looking after me on a two-day voyage to remote parts of the archipelago; Diamante at the Café Remo for cooking me so many fishes, and her husband for mixing those amazing pisco sours.
Back home, my deep thanks to Sheila Owen-Jones for rescuing me from the island when I felt powerless to leave, and for encouraging me through dark times as well as good. And once more and of course, for her unstinting kindness, my heartfelt thanks to Naomi Narod, my best friend for is it really thirty-four years.
Footnotes of passing interest are marked with an asterisk and appear on the text pages. References are marked with a dagger and appear as endnotes, beginning on page 223. Most of the engravings are taken from A Voyage Round the World by William Funnell (1707).
About the Author
Diana Souhami is the author of many highly acclaimed books: Selkirk’s Island, winner of the 2001 Whitbread Biography Award; The Trials of Radclyffe Hall, shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Biography and winner of the Lambda Literary Award; the bestselling Mrs. Keppel and Her Daughter, winner of the Lambda Literary Award and a New York Times Notable Book of 1997; Natalie and Romaine; Gertrude and Alice; Greta and Cecil; Gluck: Her Biography; and others. She lives in London and Devon.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
Copyright © 2001 by Diana Souhami
Cover design by Kathleen Lynch
ISBN: 978-1-4976-8374-7
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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DIANA SOUHAMI
FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA
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