In 1968, the Chilean government renamed a remote and precipitious island four-hundred miles from the mainland “Robinson Crusoe Island” to commemorate its pivotal role in one of the most famous novels in the world. But from 1705 to 1709, when the island was the solitary home of Scottish pirate named Alexander Selkirk, it was still known by its Spanish name, Isla Mas a Tierra.

Whatever you wish to call it by today, this fish hook-shaped land mass was the setting for the real life adventure that inspired Daniel Dafoe’s 1719 literary masterpiece. Since its original publication, Robinson Crusoe has been translated into almost every world language and is said to be outsold only by the Holy Bible. The adventures of Alexander Selkirk were slightly different from his literary counterpart, however.

Robinson Crusoe tells the tale of an English sailor who defies his father to seek adventure at sea and becomes marooned on a remote Carribean island, the features of which were based on Isla Mas a Tierra. Crusoe’s ingenuity and meticulousness helps him to survive on the island for twenty-eight years. One major difference between the fictional and historical accounts of the Selkirk story is the introduction of a second person, a Carribean native Crusoe rescues from cannibals and subsequently names “Friday.”

Crusoe described Friday: “He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with straight strong limbs, not too large, tall and well shaped, and as I reckon, about twenty-six years of age…”

Friday becomes Crusoe’s willing lapdog, despite his own cannibalistic background, thanks to daily instruction in Christian virtue. Plenty of literary analysts have cast Friday as everything from a symbol of English imperialism to a homoerotic icon for Crusoe, a man who suddenly found his solitude interrupted by a “perfectly well made” and obedient companion. Regardless of how you interpret Friday’s presence in the novel, Selkirk was not as lucky as Crusoe and had to console himself with the company of a band of feral cats.

Dafoe also took some literary license in depicting Friday as a cannibal [SEE Enewsletter: Who Ate Jean-Francois? for more information on cannibalism in the South Pacific], a phenomenon that was comparatively rare in the Caribbean but stories of which kept sailors in the South Seas awake at night. Selkirk never encountered any cannibals during his time on Isla Mas A Tierra. Most cannibalistic activity was centered on the western end of the South Pacific, although there is some evidence of cannibalistic activity on Rapa Nui (Easter Island, about 2,000 miles away from Isla Mas A Tierra) during times of famine.

Isla Mas a Tierra is one of three islands and part of the Juan Fernandez archipelago, named for the Spanish sailor who discovered it in 1574 while sailing between Chile and Peru. Its concealed location and proximity to the Spanish Main made the island chain a natural hideout for pirates… and this may have been Selkirk’s occupation at the time he was stranded on the largest of the three islands.

To be accurate, Selkirk’s isolation was self-imposed. The young man voluntarily left his ship when he became convinced that it was no longer sea-worthy. Almost immediately he had second thoughts about living alone in so remote a place, but by the time he ran back down to the beach, his crewmates had raised anchor and turned a deaf ear to his cries for rescue. For the next four years, Selkirk survived among the rugged mountaintops and lush forests by wearing goatskins and cooking his meals in a salvaged iron kettle.

Dafoe tried to capture the seeming hopelessness of Selkirk’s situation in his novel when he wrote in Crusoe’s voice: “I now began to consider seriously my condition, and the circumstances I was reduced to, and I drew up the state of my affairs in writing… and as my reason began now to master my despondency, I began to comfort myself as well as I could…”

According to local legend, Selkirk made his original island home in a cave off the Puerto Ingles beach. Although the location has an excellent view of the ocean and passing ships, the cave’s cold, tacky interior would seem to be an inhositible place to live for even the hardiest of sailors. No one has ever claimed to find any artifacts that would indicate that Selkirk occupied the cave for long and his own accounts state that he built timber huts for shelter.

A steep and somewhat treacherous trail leads from Cumberland Bay on the island’s north shore to the second historical spot associated with Selkirk, Mirador de Selkirk (or Selkirk’s Lookout). Although there’s a commemorative marker at the top of the peak, it seems unlikely that this vantage point would have been of much use to the stranded Scotsman. From Mirador de Selkirk the view to the west is blocked by other mountaintops, which means the sailor’s ability to spot potential rescue ships would have also been obscured. Whatever means Selkirk used to spot passing vessels, in 1709 he was lucky enough to attract the attention of The Duke, an English privateer ship. When the Duke’s crew brought him aboard, they were astounded by his appearance, describing him as a “hairy ape.” Although in good health, his time in isolation appears to have affected Selkirk’s mental faculties and he babbled incoherently to the crew for days after his rescue. Selkirk was eventually returned to England where his story was published in local newspapers. The resulting notoriety made him a very wealthy man, but the sea continued to call to him. About ten years after his rescue from Isla Mas a Tierra, Selkirk returned to sailing and ultimately died of disease off the coast of Africa.

It was the published accounts of his amazing experience on Isla Mas a Tierra that inspired Dafoe to write what is generally lauded to be the world’s first true novel. Today, Isla Mas a Tierra (or officially Robinson Crusoe Island) is open for tourist trade, despite the difficulty in reaching such a remote spot. For those not interested in tracking down Selkirk’s old haunts, there are a variety of natural and recreational attractions including scuba diving, sportfishing and horseback riding. Cumberland Bay is also the site of the World War I wreck, SMS Dresden. The Dresden was a German war cruiser that was chased into the bay by British ships and was scuttled by her captain. The wreck sits in two hundred feet of water and is accessible to scuba divers.

[This information was originally transmitted as an enewsletter on November 30, 2006.]