of us.  We sent our yawl ashore about noon, with Captain Dover, Mr. Fry, and six men, all armed:  Mean while we and the Duchess kept turning to get in, and such heavy flaws came off the land, that we were forced to let go our top sail sheet, keeping all hands to stand by our sails, for fear of the winds carrying them away:  But when the flaws were gone, we had little or no wind.  These flaws proceeded from the land; which is very high in the middle of the island.  Our boat did not return; we sent our pinnace with the men armed, to see what was the occasion of the yawl’s stay; for we were afraid, that the Spaniards had a garrison there, and might have seized them.  We put out a signal for our boat, and the Duchess showed a French ensign.  Immediately our pinnace returned from the shore, and brought abundance of cry-fish, with a man clothed in goats skins, who looked wilder than the first owners of them.  He had been on the island four years and four months, being left there by Captain Stradling in the Cinque-ports, his name was Alexander Selkirk, a Scotchman, who had been master of the Cinque-ports, a ship that came here last with Captain Dampier, who told me, that this was the best man in her.  I immediately agreed with him to be a mate on board our ship:  It was he that made the fire last night when he saw our ships, which he judged to be English.  During his stay here he saw several ships pass by, but only two came in to anchors:  As he went to view them; he found them to be Spaniards, and retired from them, upon which they shot at him:  Had they been French, be would have submitted; but choose to risque his dying alone on the island, rather than fall into the hands of Spaniards in these parts; because he apprehended they would murder him, or make a slave of him in the mines; for he feared they would spare no stranger that might be capable of discovering the South Seas.

The Spaniards had landed, before he knew what they were; and they came so near him, that he had much ado to escape; for they not only shot at him, but pursued him to the woods, where he climbed to the top of a tree, at the foot of which they made water, and killed several goats just by, but went off again without discovering him.  He told us that he was born at Largo, in the county of Fife, in Scotland, and was bred a sailor from his youth.  The reason of his being left here was difference between him and his captain; which together with the ship’s being leaky, made him willing rather to stay here, than go along with him at first; but when he was at last willing to go, the captain would not receive him.  He had been at the island before, to wood and water, when two of the ship’s company were left upon it for six mouths, till the Ship returned, being chased thence by two French South-sea ships.  He had with him his cloaths and bedding, with a firelock, some powder, bullets and tobacco, a hatchet, a knife, a kettle, a bible, some practical pieces, and his mathematical instruments and books.  He diverted and provided