(*Note. Alexander Selkirk (1676 to 1721) was an adventurous sailor who
joined Dampier's privateering expedition to the South Seas in 1703. He
quarrelled with his captain, Stradling, and requested to be landed on the
uninhabited island of Juan Fernandez. He immediately repented of his
request, and begged to be taken off; but his prayers were disregarded,
and he remained on the island from September, 1704, until he was picked
up in 1709 by Dampier's new expedition. An account of his adventures was
published, which apparently gave Defoe his idea of Robinson Crusoe.)

We were now extremely occupied in sending on shore materials to raise
tents for the reception of the sick, who died apace on board. But we had
not hands enough to prepare the tents for their reception before the
16th. On that and the two following days we sent them all on shore,
amounting to a hundred and sixty-seven persons, besides at least a dozen
who died in the boats on their being exposed to the fresh air. The
greatest part of our sick were so infirm that we were obliged to carry
them out of the ship in their hammocks, and to convey them afterwards in
the same manner from the waterside to their tents, over a stony beach.
This was a work of considerable fatigue to the few who were healthy; and
therefore the Commodore, with his accustomed humanity, not only assisted
herein with his own labour, but obliged his officers, without
distinction, to give their helping hand.

The excellence of the climate and the looseness of the soil render this
place extremely proper for all kinds of vegetation; for if the ground be
anywhere accidentally turned up, it is immediately overgrown with turnips
and Sicilian radishes; and therefore, Mr. Anson having with him garden
seeds of all kinds, and stones of different sorts of fruits, he, for the
better accommodation of his countrymen who should hereafter touch here,