Robinson Crusoe's Pot

In September of 1704, the English privateer Cinque Ports took in water at an uninhabited archipelago west of Chile. The sailing master, Alexander Selkirk, decided to stay behind rather than risk further travel on such a leaky vessel -- a wise move, as the ship later foundered off Colombia and its surviving crew was imprisoned by the Spanish. Selkirk remained a castaway for over four years before being found again. In that time, he was observed to have retained not only excellent health but a remarkable peace of mind. This didn't last, though, as he returned quickly to piracy, was a temporary celebrity back home in England, and finally died at sea in 1721 at the age of 55. By then The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe had been published, and few doubted Selkirk was the model.

A hundred forty years after this, in 1849, some passengers bound for California took a longboat off their becalmed vessel and rowed over the horizon to visit the famous island. It was still uninhabited but for the occasional American whaler and Chilean pirate and the ghosts of an abandoned penal colony. J. Ross Browne later published a memoir, and of his and his companions' exploration of what had become known as "Robinson Crusoe's Cave", he wrote:

In rooting about the fireplace, so as to get away the loose rubbish that lay over it, one of our party brought to light an earthen vessel, broken a little on one side, but otherwise perfect. It was about eight inches in diameter at the rim, and an inch or two smaller at the bottom, and had some rough marks upon the outside, which we were unable to decipher, on account of the clay which covered it. Afterward we took it out and washed it in a spring near by, when we contrived to decipher one letter and a part of another, with a portion of the date. The rest unfortunately was on the piece which had been broken off, and which we were unable to find, although we searched a long time; for, as may be supposed, we felt curious to know if it was the handiwork of Alexander Selkirk. For my own part, I had but little doubt that this was really one of the earthen pots made by his own hands, and the reason I thought so was that the parts of the letters and date which we deciphered corresponded with his name and the date of his residence, and likewise because it was evident that it must have been imbedded in the ground out of which we dug it long beyond the memory of any living man. I was so convinced of this, and so interested in the discovery, that I made a rough drawing of it on the spot, of which I have since been very glad, inasmuch as it was accidentally dropped out of the boat afterward and lost in the sea.

In this day of scientific archaeology, when every scrap and shard and square nail is carefully cleaned and treated and laid in an hermetic glass case, it's a little disheartening to read of such mistreatment. But that was the way of the day, and besides there is no shortage of modern "explorers" who are as destructive to the treasures they find in old caves and abandoned dwellings. We can only wonder at the unpredictable manner in which objects travel the earth, and go from handiwork to hearth to burial and finally the bottom of the sea.