There is yet another kind of interest attached to Juan Fernandez. It was on Mas a Tierra that, in 1704, the celebrated English navigator, Dampier, landed his coxswain, Alexander Selkirk, with whom he had quarrelled, and left him there with a small quantity of provisions, and a few tools. Selkirk had lived four years and four months on this uninhabited island, when he was found there by the bucaneers Woods and Rogers, and brought back to Europe. From the notes which he made during his solitary residence, the celebrated Daniel Defoe composed his incomparable work, ROBINSON CRUSOE.
The weather continued favorable, and in about a week we doubled the west point of San Lorenzo Island, where some Chilian cruizers were watching the coast. We soon entered the fine bay of Callao, and cast anchor in the harbor of the _Ciudad de los Reyes_. While rounding the island, an American corvette spoke us. She had left Valparaiso on the same day with us, and sailed also through the strait between San Lorenzo and the main land; yet, during the whole passage, we never saw each other.
No signals were exchanged between us and the shore, and no port-captain came on board. We were exceedingly anxious to know the issue of the Chilian expedition. Hostile ships of war lay off the port, but the Peruvian flag waved on the fort. At last a French naval cadet came on board, and informed us that the Chilians had landed successfully, and had taken Lima by storm two days previously. They were, at that moment, besieging the fortress. We immediately went on shore.
The town presented a melancholy aspect. The houses and streets were deserted. In all Callao we scarcely met a dozen persons, and the most of those we saw were negroes. Some of the inhabitants came gradually back, but in the course of a month scarcely a hundred had returned, and for safety they slept during the night on board merchant ships in the bay. At the village of Bella Vista, a quarter of a mile from Callao, the Chilians had erected their batteries for bombarding the fortress. As it was difficult to obtain provisions, the commanders of the foreign ships of war sent every morning a small detachment of sailors with a steward to Bella Vista, to purchase meat and vegetables. The merchant-ships joined in the practice, so that early every morning a long procession of boats with flags flying proceeded to the Chilian camp. But a stop was soon put to this, as an English butcher in Callao found means to go with the boats for the purpose of purchasing large quantities of meat, which he afterwards sold at an immense profit, to the fortress. Though the besieged did not suffer from want, they were far from having superfluity.