History of Alexander Selkirk, Mariner

[18--]

de Beer Eb 1800 G

Tewkesbury: Printed and sold by Dyde and Lewis

‘William Dampier became the most important explorer before Cook to sustain the nation’s [Great Britain] interest in the south Pacific’ (Joel Baer, ODNB). This buccaneer-cum-pirate, who circumnavigated the globe three times, wrote books about his travels that had an enormous influence on the English reading public. In August 1704, Dampier was in the Pacific when Captain Stradling, commander of the Cinque Ports, put ashore Alexander Selkirk on Juan Fernández. In February 1709, Dampier returned to the island as Woodes Roger’s pilot on the Duke. There they found Selkirk, alive and well. Selkirk’s tale of the four years and four months he spent marooned was immortalized in Daniel Defoe’s <i>Robinson Crusoe</i> (1719).