The island Selkirk found himself on was called Más a Tierra, he slept on the beach, ate shellfish and watched the horizon wistfully for a rescue boat. He suffered big time with depression, remorse and loneliness but there he was little he could do about it. He tried to keep his spirits up and avoided completely losing the plot by singing psalms and reading from his Bible aloud.

One day a bunch of very loud and very feisty sea lions came onto shore to mate so he had to move into the islands forested interior to sleep which was a good move. There were feral goats on the island that had been introduced by past sailors, and these provided him with meat and milk which he supplemented with wild turnips, cabbage leaves and dried pepper berries.

Selkirk was having some issues with rats biting him whilst he slept so he bribed feral cats with goat meat and they protected him whilst he slept.

If you’d left me on an island on my own I would have been completely buggered, I’m about as practical as a dyslexic moose with dengue fever. Selkirk, however, was made of sterner, handier stuff. He made a knife from discarded barrel hoops on the island, built two huts (one for cooking, one for sleeping) and used his musket to shoot goats. As his gunpowder ran out he had to chase the goats on foot at which he became somewhat of a master. Although one day he fell off of a cliff during a chase, his prey broke his fall which probably saved his life but he reported that he had to lay where he fell, unable to move, for a whole day.

His father was a tanner and the skills he had taught him came in handy. As his clothes got worn out he made new ones from goat skin. His shoes wore out but he had developed calluses so did without them.

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