After the very careful work you have done on Robinson Crusoe, and the
evident affection you have for him, it seems a shame to have to tell you
that no such person as Crusoe existed.
As we told in THE GREAT ROUND WORLD, No. 11, a Scotchman named
Alexander Selkirk was put ashore on the island of Juan Fernandez, and
lived there four years and four months.
When he was rescued and brought back to England, he wrote an account of
his life there.
An English writer named Daniel Defoe saw this book of Selkirk's, and
thought it would make a wonderful story if it was well handled. Selkirk's
was a mere statement of what had happened to him, and while intensely
interesting, was not written to amuse people.
Defoe created an imaginary person, whom he called Robinson Crusoe, dressed
up Selkirk's facts to suit the purpose of his story, and wrote the
wonderful and undying story of Robinson Crusoe.
His geographical facts, no doubt, were purposely altered from Selkirk's,
and were made as graphic as possible, in order to add the semblance of
truth to his story. In the early years of the seventeenth century
geography was very little understood. The connection between Selkirk's
sufferings on Juan Fernandez, and the adventures of Robinson Crusoe have
always been so thoroughly understood that, as you read in your GREAT
ROUND WORLD, the island of Juan Fernandez has been called Crusoe's
Island, and Selkirk's cave and hut, Crusoe's. THE EDITOR.