Note 14 — INTRODUCTION

Rogers’s account of Selkirk created an appetite that was speedily fed by other writers. In the same year Captain Edward Cooke (who sailed with Rogers) brought out his “Voyage to the South Sea,” in which he included an account of Selkirk. In 1712 there also appeared a tract entitled “Providence Displayed; or a surprising account of one Alexander Selkirk,” which is practically a verbatim transcript from Rogers. In “The Englishman” for the 3rd December, 1713, Sir Richard Steele, who was a friend of Rogers, and had met Selkirk, published an account of Selkirk which follows in the main the story given by Rogers. Before the publication of the first part of Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” in 1719, two editions of Rogers’s book had been published. It is possible that the introduction of the character of Friday into “Robinson Crusoe” was inspired by the incident of the Mosquito Indian mentioned on p. 95 of Rogers’s book. Selkirk returned to his native Largs in Fifeshire in the spring of 1712, and eventually went to sea again. In 1720 he was Master’s Mate of H.M.S. Weymouth. He died in the following year.