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Crusoe's Island: A Ramble in the Footsteps of Alexander Selkirk / With Sketches of Adventure in California and Washoe cover

Crusoe's Island: A Ramble in the Footsteps of Alexander Selkirk / With Sketches of Adventure in California and Washoe

Chapter 61: FOOTNOTE
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About This Book

The narrative blends seafaring travelogue and frontier sketches, following voyages to a remote South Pacific island associated with Alexander Selkirk and explorations of California and Washoe. It records perilous landings, storms, shipwreck rescues, visits to caves and alleged buccaneer haunts, and discoveries of local relics, combining vivid landscape description with encounters among sailors, settlers, and convicts. Separate sections present dramatic episodes of desert rides, mirage and outlaw attacks, and practical observations from an official's experience, including mining-town society, indigenous peoples, and administrative controversies. Tone alternates between adventurous anecdote, natural description, and wry social observation.

THE END.

FOOTNOTE

[1]"It has already been mentioned that in many parts of the island the soil was loose, and undermined by holes, and the rock weathered almost to rottenness. Pursuing a goat once in one of these dangerous places, the bushy brink of a precipice to which he had followed it crumbled beneath him, and he and the goat fell together from a great height. He lay stunned and senseless at the foot of the rock for a great while—not less than twenty hours, he thought, from the change of position in the sun, but the precise length of time he had no means of ascertaining. When he recovered his senses he found the goat lying dead beside him. With great pain and difficulty he made his way to his hut, which was nearly a mile distant from the spot; and for three days he lay on his bed enduring much suffering. No permanent injury, however, had been done him, and he was soon able to go abroad again.—[Life of Alexander Selkirk.]