so harshly, that they were in a much worse situation than Selkirk, and continued in it a longer time. Some months after Selkirk had left the South Sea in the Duke privateer, Capt. Stradling was sent a prisoner to Europe on board a French ship, and by that means got to England. Thus left sole monarch of the island, with plenty of the necessaries of life, he found himself in a situation hardly supportable. He had fish, goat's flesh, turnips, and other vegetables; yet he grew dejected, languid, and melancholy, to such a degree, as to be scarcely able to refrain from doing violence to himself. Eighteen months passed before he could, by reasoning, reading his Bible, and study, be thoroughly reconciled to his condition. At length he grew happy, employing himself in decorating his huts, chasing the goats, whom he equalled in speed, and scarcely ever failed of catching. He also tamed young kids, laming them to prevent their becoming wild; and he kept a guard of tame cats about him, to defend him when asleep from the rats, which were very troublesome. When his clothes were worn out, he made others of goats skins, but could not succeed in making shoes, which, however, habit, in time, enabled him to dispense with the use of. His only liquor was water. He computed that he had caught one thousand goats during his abode there; of which he had let go five hundred, after marking them by slitting their ears. Commodore Anson's people, who were there about thirty years after, found the first goat, which they shot upon landing, was thus marked, and, as it appeared to be very old, concluded that it had been under the power of Selkirk; but it appears by Captain Carteret's account of his voyage in the Swallow sloop, that other persons practised this mode of marking, as he found a goat with his ears thus slit on the neighbouring island of Mas-a-fuera, where Selkirk never was. He made companions of his tame goats and cats, often dancing and singing with them. Though he constantly performed his devotions at stated hours, and read aloud; yet, when he was taken off the island, his language, from disuse of conversation, was become scarcely intelligible. In this solitude he continued four years and four months, during which time only two incidents happened which he thought worth relating, the occurrences of every day being in his circumstances nearly similar. The one was, that, pursuing a goat eagerly, he caught it just on the edge of a precipice, which was covered with bushes, so that he did not perceive it, and he fell over to the bottoni where he lay (according to Captain Rogers's account) twenty-four hours senseless; but, as he related to

Sir R. Steele, he computed, by the alteration of the moon, that he had lain three days. When he came to himself, he found the goat lying under him dead. It was with great difficulty that he could crawl to his habitation, whence he was unable to stir for ten days, and did not recover of his bruises for a long time. The other event was, the arrival of a ship, which he at first supposed to be French and such is the natural love of society in the human mind, that he was eager to abandon his solitary felicity, and surrender himself to them, although enemies; but, upon their landing, approaching them, he found them to be Spaniards, of whom he had too great a dread to trust himself in their hands. They were by this time so near, that it required all his agility to escape, which he effected by climbing into a thick tree, being shot at several times as he ran off. Fortunately, the Spaniards did not discover him, though they stayed some time under the tree where he was hid, and killed some goats just by. In this solitude Selkirk remained until the 2d of February, 1709, when he saw two ships come into the bay, and knew them to be English. He immediately lighted a fire as a signal, and, on their coming on shore, found they were the Duke, Captain Rogers, and the Duchess, Captain Courtney, two privateers from Bristol. He gave them the best entertainment he could afford; and, as they had been a long time at sea without fresh provisions, the goats which he caught were highly acceptable. His habitation, consisting of two huts, one to sleep in, the other to dress his food in, was so obscurely situated, and so difficult of access, that only one of the ship's officers would accompany him to it. Dampier, who was pilot on board the Duke, and knew Selkirk very well, informed Captain Rogers, that, when on board the Cinque Ports, he was the best seaman on board that vessel; upon which Captain Rogers appointed him master's mate of the Duke. After a fortnight's stay at Juan Fernandes, the ships proceeded on their cruise against the Spaniards; plundered a town on the coast of Peru; took a Manilla ship off California; and returned by way of the East Indies to England, where they arrived the 1st of Oct. 1711; Selkirk having been absent eight years, more than half of which time he had spent alone on the island. The public curiosity being excited respecting him, he was induced to put his papers into the hands of Defoe, to arrange, and form them into a regular narrative. These papers must have been drawn up after he left Juan Fernandes, as he had no means of recording his transactions there. Captain Cooke remarks, as an extraordinary circumstance, that he

had contrived to keep an account of the days of the week and month; but this might be done, as Defoe makes Robinson Crusoe do, by cutting notches in a post, or many other methods. From this account of Selkirk, Defoe took the idea of writing a more extensive work, the romance of Robinson Crusoe, and very dishonestly defrauded the original proprietor of his share of the profits. I conclude this story with Selkirk's observation to Sir R. Steele, only remarking, that it is a proof how apt we mortals are to imagine, that happiness is to be found in any situation except that in which we happen to be. To use his own words, "I am now (says he) worth eight hundred pounds, but shall never be so happy as when I was not worth a farthing."

Yours, &c.

MR. URBAN,

H. D.

Dublin, Feb. 25.

In the course of a late conversation with a nobleman of the first consequence and information in this kingdom, he assured me, that Mr. Benjamin Holloway, of MiddletonStony, assured him, some time ago, that he knew for fact, that the celebrated romance of "Robinson Crusoe" was really written by the Earl of Oxford, when confined in the tower of London; that his Lordship gave the manuscript to Daniel Defoe, who frequently visited him during his confinement; and that Defoe, having afterwards added the second volume, published the whole as his own production. This anecdote I would not venture to send to your valuable Magazine, if I did not think my information good, and imagine it might be acceptable to your numerous readers, notwithstanding the work has heretofore been generally attributed to the latter.

1788, March.

W. W.

XLVI. Anecdotes of the BLENCOWES.

MR. URBAN,

Bath, July 2.

I HAD the honour to be nearly related to Mr. Justice Blencowe, the father of Mr. William Blencowe, who was the

first person to whom government allowed a salary as decy pherer; and I will tell you how he obtained it; it was by going to the minister unknown, and, I believe, unrecommended, and asking for it. The minister, surprised, asked him, what pretensions he, a stranger, had to ask such a boon of him? Because, Sir," said he, " I am qualified to execute it." "Can you," said the minister, "then decypher these two letters" (for the want of a decypherer of those letters occasioned the proposed recompence.) Mr. Blencowe soon returned with the letters properly decyphered, and had the employment, and, I think, two or three hundred pounds a year. He was soon after seized with a vio lent fever, from which no man could have shewn more anxiety to get over, and did so; but soon relapsed, and shot himself, having previously written an inscription for his monument, which I forget, only there was the following singular expression in it-he died, however, satisfied with life.The good old judge, his father, outliving his faculties, conceived that he had found out the longitude, and wrote several reams of paper upon that subject; and his dutiful son, the decypherer, rather than tell his father it was all absurdity, was at the pains of copying all he had written out, fair, to be laid before the parliament. The judge too had bequeathed a considerable part of the reward, in his will, to a sister of mine. Some time before he died, he told his old trusty servant that he was dead, and bid John lay him out. John, who knew his trim, laid him out upon the carpet; and after he had lain as dead for some time, John observed, that he thought his Honour was coming into life again; the Judge thought so too, and soon after arose from the dead. He died, however, in reality, about the year 1726, for I well remember going to see his lead coffin at Brackley. And now, Mr. Urban, let me give you a specimen of his head and his heart before his faculties left him. An old man, who had been a hewer of stones for the Judge many years, lived to be upwards of ninety, and for some years had daily spoiled the stones instead of rendering them fit for use. Lady Blencowe, perceiving it, desired the Judge to conti-' nue him his eight-pence a day, and let him stay at home. No, no," said the Judge, let him spoil on; he has a pleasure in thinking he earns his daily bread at fourscore years and ten: but, if you turn him off, he will soon die with grief." And that was the case; for, when the Judge died, he was discharged, and followed his humane and considerate master a few days after.

Though this account of Mr. William Blencowe does not tally with Dr. Wallis's exactly, I am confident all the Blencowe family of Marston related it as I have done.

1788, July.

Yours, &c.

P. T.

XLVII. Anecdotes of the Rev. WILLIAM BICKERSTAFFE, from Original Letters.

MR. URBAN,

As one instance out of many that I could produce in proof of the justice of the character you have given to an old correspondent, I send you a copy of three of his letters, in recommendation of what with him was a favourite scheme, the foundation of a Sunday School. To that foundation, let me add, he subscribed, out of his scanty pittance, the annual sum of two guineas, and stood forth a volunteer teacher, Subjoined is a short history of himself, in a letter to the Lord Chancellor; the substance of one to the worthy master of Emanuel college; another to a private friend; and a specimen of the good old curate's versi fication.

Yours, &c.

M. GREEN.

1. To Mr. Adjutant Farmer, at the Hall, Ayleston,

SIR,

Leicestershire.

Leicester, Jan.... 1786

As my absence from Ayleston on the common week days makes it an indispensable duty to spend my time, as much as possible, on a Sunday, among the parishioners, and assist them in private as well as in public; I think the method I have adopted very convenient for that purpose, I bring with me bread and butter, and, with half a pint of friend Chamberlain's beer, take an expeditious refreshment before the family dines, and then go out among the cottagers. I might dine, if I chose it, every Sabbath-day, at Mr. Chamberlain's cost; but that would frustrate my designs.