Marooned(14)

Selkirk's grand adventure was over. There had been days on a faraway island when he had expected never to see England again. Wherever he looked now there were English warships, merchantmen, fishing smacks, the gold-trimmed barges of the wealthy. Life must have seemed very good.



"[He] frequently bewailed his return to the world, which could not ...

with all its enjoyments, restore him to the tranquility of his solitude."





SIX


Marooned in London


Selkirk had left London with little more than the clothes in his sea chest. Now, some eight years later, he returned to the city a wealthy man.

The sale of the treasure aboard the Manila galleon, the booty from twenty merchant ships, and the plunder from the raid on Guayaquil brought 147,975 pounds sterling (£). Investors—those wealthy merchants, lawyers, and physicians who, for £13,000, had bought the Duke and Duchess and provided the cannons, muskets, and cutlasses—took two-thirds of the profit. The remaining third was shared by the two crews according to rank and duties.

Rogers's share came to £1,600. Selkirk received £800, about the yearly income of a banker or leading merchant in London.

Each share was an enormous sum of money. Seamen on cargo ships typically earned one pound per month. A carpenter's wages for the same period amounted to a little more than two pounds, and plumbers received about four pounds a month for workdays that lasted ten to thirteen hours, six days a week.

***

Selkirk rented rooms in the home of John and Katherine Mason, a tailor and his wife. This would be his home for the next two and a half years. He slept in a feather bed under a thick comforter smelling of fresh herbs. He had money and good health, but he soon became restless and discontented.

On some mornings, half awake, he listened for the clang of a ship's bell, the cries of the officer on watch, the whoom of sails catching wind. Instead, from the street came the rattle of wagons and coaches on paving stones, horses' hoofs clopping, dogs barking, the cries of vegetable sellers and knife grinders. Housemaids going about their duties padded by in the hall.

He may have wondered what a wealthy mariner back from a successful privateering voyage should do with his days. He had no need to find work. Like most newcomers to the city, he probably wandered. London's busy street life was always entertaining.

There were jugglers and acrobats to watch, as well as cockfights, dogfights, and sometimes a circle of men whipping a chained bear to the cheers of bystanders.

Taverns posted signs offering to make a man drunk for a penny. And there were games—cricket, tennis, bowling, and boxing matches between women as well as men. Peddlers playing hand organs offered rabbits for sale and pots of milk and water. Crowded streets often made way for firemen dashing to a burning house, hauling a water pump and shouting, "Hi! Hi! Hi!"

He may have visited the Wax Works, 140 lifelike figures of notable Londoners, and walked streets known for the occupations of merchants: goldsmiths in Guthron's Lane, butchers in East Cheap, shoemakers in Cordwainer Street, candlemakers in Lochbury.

On Mondays, Londoners hastened to hangings in the Tyburn district. Stands for spectators and a special gallows had been erected to send twenty-four men and women criminals to their just rewards at one drop. Tyburn was a popular public spectacle.

Days dawdled away. He strolled wharves where ships were loading and unloading. The waterfront was being filled in so wharves could be built to bring more goods—furs, wools, grain, beer, iron, wax, and more—for the city's growing population.

Selkirk was a reader, so no doubt he stopped at booksellers' shops and bought a daily newspaper to read in one of London's many coffeehouses. Shopkeepers, real estate agents, journalists, lawyers, and doctors sat at tables talking business and politics and smoking long clay pipes.

Everyone seemed to have a purpose, a destination, an occupation. Selkirk's Scottish character urged that he account for each day with some useful work. He was free, but he needed an occupation.

When no other distraction offered itself and the day hung heavy, he found a tavern. There he whiled away hours drinking beer or ale and feeding his discontent with gin and brandy.

But his life was about to change.

***

Sometime in 1712 Woodes Rogers published a book.

A Cruising Voyage Round the World was an account of the privateering voyage Rogers had commanded. Sections told about the rescue of Selkirk on Juan Fernández and the capture of the Manila galleon.

The book became the most popular travel book of the year and was reprinted in French, Dutch, and German.

Selkirk, the man who had survived four years alone on an island, became a celebrity. Rogers escorted him about town and introduced him to rich friends. He was invited to dinner parties.