Marooned(9)

He was a strange sight—clothed in goatskins, beard hanging to his waist.





FOUR


The Duke and Duchess Arrive


From his high lookout Selkirk watched the two ships enter the bay. He saw their flags through his spyglass: English!

He ran down the slope and through the woods. At the beach he thrust his hiking staff into his goatskin cap and waved frantically. A boat was lowered. As it neared shore, he heard English voices, saw English faces. Eight men waded ashore and pointed muskets at him.

He was a strange sight—clothed in goatskins, beard hanging to his waist, unable to speak, managing only to grunt and mutter words that sounded like "marooned ... marooned."

To the seamen he must have looked like a half-wit, a castaway too long alone, no doubt the survivor of a shipwreck. An officer pointed to the boat. Selkirk stepped in. The boat returned to the larger of the two ships.

Seamen crowded the rail and stared. The strange man climbed a rope ladder hung from the ship's side. The deck rose and fell on the long swells. He staggered, gripped the rail.

"At his first coming on board us," Captain Woodes Rogers commented, "he had so much forgot his language for want of use, that we could scarce understand him, for he seem'd to speak his words by halves."

Noting Selkirk's cap, breeches, and jacket of goatskin, Rogers said, "He looked wilder than the first owners of them."

He offered the castaway a cup of rum but was refused. After drinking only water and goat's milk on his island, Selkirk was sure rum would be too strong for his stomach.

Rogers ordered a plate of food. Selkirk's nose wrinkled in disgust. He would not touch the beef or the biscuits holed by weevils.

One of the officers, William Dampier, recognized Selkirk—"the best man on the Cinque Ports," he stated.

But Rogers had little time for the castaway. He was needed elsewhere. Nearly half the 225 men on the two ships were ill. It was the seamen's disease: scurvy. Weeks of feeding on salt beef and biscuits, and a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables, brought on pale skin, sunken eyes, infected gums, and loose teeth. Bleeding under the skin left red-and-black blotches. The men coughed constantly; their breath stank like sewage. (It was not yet known that the disease is caused by a lack of vitamin C, which is found in citrus fruits, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, and green peppers—food not generally available to seamen on long ocean voyages.)

The sick men were lifted from the lower deck on canvas slings—some still in their hammocks—and lowered over the side into boats. At the rail others patiently waited their turn.

Selkirk, in a frenzy of gratitude for being rescued, made known to Rogers that he would go ashore and help care for the sick men.

He dashed up a slope and caught three goats. On the beach tents made from old sails were being set up for the suffering crewmen. There Selkirk built a fire and showed the crew how to roast the meat.

Leading a party of six seamen, he cut sweet-smelling grass for the sick men to lie on and gathered turnips, cabbages, sorrel, and watercress. With the fresh greens he used a large ship's kettle to make a gentle broth.

Within three days, Rogers saw his men gaining strength and struggling to their feet.

A seaman who had been a barber in England cut off Selkirk's beard and trimmed his shaggy hair and scraggly eyebrows. Selkirk selected clothes from the Duke's stores—shirt, woolen stockings, breeches, shoes with buckles. But, having gone barefoot for so long, he found the shoes uncomfortable. "It was some time before he could wear shoes after we found him," Rogers noted. "For not being used to any for so long, his feet swelled when he came first to wear 'em again."

As the health of the crew improved, Rogers was able to join Selkirk for meals on shore. Within days, Selkirk's ability to speak returned, and the two talked about the hazards of navigation. Juan Fernández, Rogers said, was " [a] small island, we [were] in some doubts of striking it. Not one chart agrees with another."

Intently he listened to the marooned mariner's tales of survival on the island. Selkirk impressed him as an interesting and likable man, pleasant to talk with. Selkirk confided that he "was a better [man] while in this solitude than ever ... before."

Curious officers and men visited Selkirk's huts in the grove of trees. They found goatskins hung on the walls, matted grass on the floor, a turtle shell filled with fresh water and covered by a cabbage-palm leaf. No litter, like most seamen's lodgings, no untidiness. Altogether pleasant, cool, and shaded.

***

Rogers commanded the Duke and the Duchess, two privateers. He was thirty years of age, tall, well built, and self-assured. Unlike most captains, he respected his crew and addressed them courteously. Each day he insisted they attend Church of England services on the quarterdeck.