In your edition of Jan. 21st, 1897, you wrote of the swallowing
up by the sea of Robinson Crusoe's Island, or the island of Juan
Fernandez. Now I have always heard this island called "Robinson
Crusoe's Island," and I think the reason is, that Alexander
Selkirk was cast away there, and on his adventures the story of
Robinson Crusoe was written by Daniel Defoe. But I have read
"Robinson Crusoe," and the island as described by him cannot be
the Island of Juan Fernandez, but must be one of the Windward
Islands in the Caribbean Sea, off the mouth of the great Orinoco
River in South America, and I think is the Island of Tobago;
this best fits the careful description of Daniel Defoe.
In Crusoe's first exploration of the island he says:
"I came in view of the sea to the west, and it being a very
clear day, I fairly descried land,... extending from the W. to
the W.S.W.... It could not be less than fifteen or twenty
leagues off."
There is no land situated W.S.W. from Juan Fernandez. W.S.W.
from the island of Tobago lies the great island of Trinidad.
When Crusoe attempts to sail around the island he says:
"I perceived a strong and most furious current."
This could be no other than the current from the mouth of the
great Orinoco River.
But what settles the matter is that after Crusoe had taught
Friday to speak English, he had a conversation with him, in
which Crusoe asks Friday:
"How far it was from our island to the shore, and whether the
canoes were not often lost. He told me there was no danger; no
canoes ever lost; but after a little way out to sea, there was a
current and wind always one way in the morning, the other in the
afternoon. This I understood to be no more than the sets of the
tide, as going out or coming in; but I afterward understood it
was occasioned by the great draft and reflux of the mighty river
Oroonoko, in the mouth of which river, as I thought afterwards,
our island lay; and that this land which I perceived to the
W.S.W. was the great island Trinidad."
I like your GREAT ROUND WORLD, Mr. Editor, but I like
Robinson Crusoe, too. I like to know just where he was cast
away, and hope if I am right you will tell other boys who read
"Robinson Crusoe" the true place, where Daniel Defoe describes
poor Crusoe as living all those weary years.
EDGAR B.
Aged twelve years.
CHICAGO, ILL.