E X T E N S I O N THE ORIGIN OF THE NOVEL Robinson Crusoe is based on a true story about a Scottish sailor, Alexander Selkirk. In 1695, when he was 19 years old, he went to sea with a pirate expedition to the Pacific Ocean. He did not return to England because he had a bad discussion with the captain and Selkirk stopped on the island of Mas a Tierra in the Juan Fernandez Islands not far from the coast of Chile. No one lived on the island. He stayed there for four and a half years until February 1709. After two years of raids1 on the coast of Peru and Chile, he returned to London with a considerable fortune. He met the essayist2 Richard Steele who wrote and published his story with the title The Englishman . Selkirk returned to sea and died near the coast of Africa in 1721. There are some differences between Robinson and Selkirk. Robinson stayed on his island for twenty-eight years; the islands were different; Robinson had a shipwreck3 and Selkirk wanted to stop on Mas a Tierra; Selkirk lived alone while Robinson found companions. Another inspiration was the experience of a castaway4 surgeon5 whose name was Henry Pitman. He was an employee6 of the Duke of Monmouth. Pitman escaped from a Caribbean penal colony7. He was there because he played a part in Monmouth s Rebellion and was marooned8 on a desert island. When he returned to England, he probably met Defoe and told him of his experiences. 1. raids: short sudden attacks. 2. essayist: a person who writes short pieces of writings (essays) on a particular subject. 3. shipwreck: an accident in which a ship is destroyed during a voyage. 4. castaway: a person whose ship has sunk. 5. surgeon: a doctor who operates. 6. employee: a person who is paid to work for someone. 7. penal colony: a type of prison, which is often in a place far away from other people. 8. marooned: left in a place from which you cannot escape. Juan Fernandez Islands.