Robinson Crusoe is one of the most popular novels of all time. Written by the 17th-century Englishman Daniel Defoe, its story of a castaway surviving by his own ingenuity on a desert island has been widely read in many different languages. Of course, the story itself is just fiction. But did you know that an island called Robinson Crusoe exists today and that Daniel Defoe based his famous story on the adventures of a real man on that island? Let us find out something about it.

Robinson Crusoe Enters the Story

But what about Robinson Crusoe? Well, a Scotsman named Alexander Selkirk was aboard a ship that called on the Más a Tierra island in 1704. Reportedly, he had dreamed that he was going to be shipwrecked, and he had also quarreled with the captain. Hence, Selkirk asked to be left ashore. His adventures there provided the inspiration for Defoe’s novel, Robinson Crusoe.

At first Selkirk felt a deep loneliness and read the Bible for consolation. Soon the problem of survival demanded that he use all his resourcefulness. He invented a number of utensils to make life more tolerable, and some of these are still preserved in Edinburgh, Scotland. The umbrella is said to have been one of his inventions. Reportedly, he made the first one from the skin of a female sea lion.

After more than four lonely years, two English ships under the command of Captain Woodes Rogers arrived, and Selkirk was taken aboard and returned to England. Seemingly he missed the tranquillity of his Pacific island, however, and he is reported to have said: “Oh my beloved island! I wish I had never left thee!” It is doubtful that he would have said that if he could have foreseen future developments.