The Solitary of Juan Fernandez, or the Real Robinson Crusoe

egroes-California. -The Eldorado.-Revolt of Sel

North Sea, passed Ireland, France and Spain, the Azores, Canaries, and Cape Verd Islands on the coast of Africa, and, after h

vast regions of the Pacific Ocean, pursued the route which had been marked out by the exploring ship of William Dampier in 1686. Like that, the Swordfish remained a few days at the Island of St. P

the bold enterprises which had preceded. The Spanish and Portuguese, in their discoveries of new continents, had thought less of glory than of riches; they had conquered the New World only to pillage it; the vanquished who escaped extermination, were forced to dig their native s

s whom he expected to sell in America. At Borneo, the opportunity presented itself for an advantageous disposal of the greate

ere floating on the surface of the wave; Stradling encountered them, made the rowers enter his ship, and obligingly took the barques in

tle mirrors, a few glass beads, half a dozen useless guns, and some gallons of brandy, for men still young and vigorous, torn from their country and their families. Their skin was of another color, their heads

ied the captain, without emotion;

ere rubbed with a mixture of tar and dragon's blood, dissolved in a caustic oil, to give to their olive skins a deeper shade, and their flat nose

g not less mean and dishonorable than

to shave and besmear with tar the monkey you have just

at him askance, and shrugged h

ginning to growl

n his course through the Southern Sea, Str

etrating all the bays of the Vermilion Sea; he hoped to find there a passage to an unkn

ery of the immense mines of gold buried beneath the hills of California has aroused the entire world, that the name alone of Sacramento see

f the Vermilion Sea, a famed land, whose rivers rolled over gold, and whose mountains rested on golden foundations; the treasures of Mexico and Per

pe from the

try had been named,

not subdue. This land of gold some had located in New Biscay or New Mexico; others, in the pretended kingdoms of Sonora and Quivira; then, after several ineffectual attempts, the possibility of reaching it was denied; learned men, from t

ctionary of Alcedo, nothing had been discovered but mines of pewter! where Jacques Baegert had indeed acknowledged the presence of gold, but in meagre veins; where Raynal had named as curiosities only fishes and pearls, declaring, in California, the sea richer than the land; where in our own times M. Hum

n he found an opportunity for traffic with the natives, colonists or savages; now under the English flag, when he wished to exercise his tr

f the conquest, the subjects of the Incas and Montezuma before the soldiers of Cortez and Pizarro. The time was not already far passed, when a few bands of freebooters, from

ing in the footsteps

sistance, a threatened attack, a parley, and capitulation; in this affair, the young mate had nobly distinguished himself bot

in the Old; but he compared his present chief, Captain Stradling, with his former commander, the noble and brave Admiral Rooke; the parallel extended in his mind to his old companions in the royal navy, all so frank, so gay, so loyal,-among whom he had yet never

could remain some time alone in his cabin, or gaze upon the sea from a retired

exacting towards his chief officer; he imposed upon him rude labors foreign

ucce

ted his subjects of complaint. The other paid no more at

hat there should no longer be any thing in common between them, and

touched hi

dea,' said he, an

vorable for ridding yourself of me, and me of you,' said he to the captain; 'let the boat convey me to the shore; I

ely, then shaking his head and winking his eye

great haste to be

relative to Catherine during this long voyage,

er voyage, Selkirk interposed his authority, ordered th

h, and commanded the young man to bring the log-boo

utinied and attempted to desert to the enemy, we have deprived him of his t

he sentence t

is subordinates of yesterday, to-day his equals, indemnified themselves for the authority he had e

w to renew her supplies of provisions and water, now to exchange with the Indians, nails, hatchet

tural life; this fact was known to all. At Coquimbo in Chili, some English and Dutch pirates had formed a settlement of this kind, now in the full tide of prosperity. Selkirk, who, during an en

, our countrymen and allies whom I wish to join! Do you still suspect me? Well, do not content yourself

significantly;

on board, to crush me beneath this humiliation! I consented to serve under your orders

wards the shore, where his people were enga

head and fol

return to England, where the laws protect all; there, I shall have th

le God save the Queen; then he called h

exasperated, 'I will not endure your infamous treatment another week! If you refuse to consent to my demand, I will leave without your permission; were the v

ling ordered him to be

endured for her sake, how many tears would her fine eyes shed over thy fate! But who knows whether she w

newly discovered island; you who dreamed of scientific walks in vast prairies and under the arches of virgin forests, you have shared only in the career of a t

s an ornament; here, numerous families of the orchis, with their singular forms, showy and variegated blossoms, climb along the knotty stems of the tall monarchs of the forests; from their feet spring up, as if to enlace them with a magic network, the brilliant passiflora, the vanilla with its intoxicating perfume, the banisteria whose roots seem to have dived into mines of gold and borrowed from thence the color

is to listen to the dashing of the waves against the ship, or now

rned to abhor mankind, and he loves to be alone

s passed in

prow diminished, and the Swordfish, suddenly furling its sails, after having slightl

as a stairway to those above who would communicate with his

ed on the deck, surround

but you have been sufficiently punished by the time you have passed below there,'-and he

metimes hovered on his lips

er,' replied Selk

ds disembarked on a green shore, where the waves, as they brok

sail, coasted along Chili and Patagonia, and re-en