The Solitary of Juan Fernandez, or the Real Robinson Crusoe

oval.-Winter under the Tropics-Plans for the Future.-

of repose during the heat of the day seem more endurable since something, besides his shadow, keeps him company; he has resumed his taste for labor

dients, a thousand tricks of the agility peculiar to her race; she goes, she comes, she runs, she leaps, she bounds, she chatters at his side; she tries to people his solitude,

ds a habit, as in the case of honest countrymen, who, secluded from the world, by degrees admit their servants in

es the bench, the servant humbly seats herself on the stool, ready, at the first signal, to leave her place and assist in serving. Have we no

with the products of her hunting. If the dessert fails, she hastily interrupts her repast, leaves the master to continue his alone, buries herself in the su

f the singular facility with wh

ing forced to quench her thirst in the presence of her master, by going to the banks of the stream and lapping there, like a vulgar animal; or whether the reprimand had painfully affected her, she abstained from drinking and remained for some time quiet and dreamy; but at the following repast, wit

intelligent Marimonda, after having borrowed from the numerous vegetables of the island their leaves, to ameliorate her sufferings, to heal her wounds;

1

ed by Professor Richard, and whose singular fruits bear, in P

aching; he suffered in anticipation, from the idea that during this time his gentle companion would not be able to retain her habitual shelter, beneath the foliage of the trees; he conceived the project of giving up to her his grotto, and co

already sees the principal part of his frame; the myrtles will remain in their places, their roots serving as a foundation. He removes the shrubs, the plants, the brushwood from the thicket, leaving only a heliotrope which, at a later period, may twine around his house and at evening shed its perfumes. He has become reconciled to its fragrance. He trims the trees, cuts off their tops eight feet above the ground, leaving the middle o

herself seems to share in his admiration, and in her joy climbing up the new building, she begins to l

le to content himself so long with such an abode, more suitable for a troglodyte or a monkey! He will no longer be obliged to lift up his curtain of vines, and to peep through the fans of his palm-trees, in or

walls; upon another partition, his assortment of pipes are arranged on a shelf according to their size; on his central pillar, he suspends his game-bag, his gourd, his tobacco-pouch, and various articles of daily use. As for his iron

ats, one for himself, the other for Marimonda, when she comes from her grotto to visit his cabin; for

lovingly drank in by the earth; Selkirk no longer thinks of his table and seats; ano

was alone, absolutely alone; and one loses courage when thinking of self only. A garden, at once an orchard and a vegetable garden, will be at least as useful to me as my fish-pond and bed of water-cresses; I will make one around my cabin; it will set it off and give it a more home-like appearance! Is not the stream placed here expressly to traverse it and water it? Afterwards, if God assist me, I will raise little kids which will become goats and give me milk, butter, cheese! Why have I not thoug

as yourself. What is property, without the power of improvement? Can the earth become the domain of a single person, when the true limits of his possessions must always be those of the field which affords him subsistence? Envy not t

to him far otherwise than the twelve or fifteen square leagues of his island; to his private domain he now intends to add a gar

ins to be penetrated, facilitates his

ufactured, clearing the ground, digging, transplanting young fruit-trees, or sowing the seed

bles, and especially the coca and petunia-nicotiana, Selkirk, with his arms folded on his

f compelling them to yield the honey of which they have just stolen from him the essence. It is a settled thing, on his farm he will have hives! After his bees, still in his dream, come flocks of humming-birds to plunder in their turn. The happy possessor of the garden will exact no tribute f

by thinking that they aid in the germination of his seeds, in the rooting of his young plants. Sometimes, between two deluges, he can scarcely find time to procure himself suff

table and his seats finished, he undertakes to

terials? Has he not the choice between seal-skins and goat-skins? He gives the preference to the latter, as more pliable, and behold him a tailor, cuttin

eaps, she gambols around him, now rolling at his feet, and uttering little cries of joy, now suspended over his head, at the top of the central pillar, and turning her wild and restless eyes. When she has thus inspected him from head to foot, she runs and crouches in a c

of her joyous excitement, or whether she is emboldened by the species of fraternity which costume establishes between them, Marimonda, without hesitation, directs herself to the little shelf, chooses from it a pipe in her turn, places it

pipe from her hands, fills it with his most s

ipe, overturning the table, emitting the smoke through her mouth and nostrils, s

e in the island, laughs so loudly, that the echo follows the fugitive to the grotto, where she had take

ment, a terrible disaster is taking place without his knowledge;