The Solitary of Juan Fernandez, or the Real Robinson Crusoe by Joseph Xavier Saintine
page 53 of 144 (36%)
page 53 of 144 (36%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
localities. To the shore upon which he landed, he gives the name of
_Swordfish Beach_; the pile of white and red rocks, which he saw through the fog, is the _False Coquimbo_; he calls _Toucan Forest_, the wood where he saw that bird for the first time; the _Defile of Attack_, is that where Marimonda assaulted him with stones; upon these arid rocks, furrowed by deep ravines and abounding in precipices, he has imposed the odious name of _Stradling_! In his mountains he has the _Oasis_; it is a little shady valley, enlivened by the murmur of a streamlet, and with one extremity opening to the sea. There he often goes to watch the game and the goats, which come to drink at the brook. Above it rises the table-land, with difficulty scaled by him on the day of his arrival, and from whence he became convinced that he had landed on an island. This table-land, he has named _The Discovery_. The two streams which meander over his lawn, and before his grotto, have also received names. This, commissioned to feed the fish-pond, and which gently warbles through the grass, he calls _The Linnet_; the other, interrupted by little cascades, and whose course is more rapid and impetuous, he calls _The Stammerer_. He has now destroyed the noxious animals, administered government, opened ways of communication, given a name to every part of his island. How many great rulers have done no more! But his labors have not been confined to his fish-pond, his bed of water-cresses, his hunting, fishing, building, felling of trees; it has become necessary to procure that essential element of civilization, of comfort, fire. |
|