ALEXANDER SELKIRK
[To the Editor of THE- SPECTATOR] SIRS I am writing a biography of the Fifeshire Scot, Alexander Selkirk, who was marooned on Mas a Tierra in the Juan Fernandez Group from 1704 to 1709, and thereby became the original model of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Selkirk's own story was more interesting than the famous fictive hero's, and I am anxious to obtain further details not in available printed records, that may still survive in old letters or unpublished memoirs. If any readers, whether descendants or not, can help -me to detail more fully Selkirk's life in Largo and London, and - possibly Bristol, I shall be most grateful.
His family, whose name was Selcraig, lived at Largo, on the Fifeshire coast: After his return in 17" with Captain Woodes Rogers' buccaneering expedition, which rescued him, he went home, and shortly afterwards left again for London, taking with him Sophia Bruce. They eloped, because he did not want to face any scenes at home. Does anyone know if Sophia eventu- ally returned to Scotland, or if Selkirk came back home again before his presumed death at sea in 1723 ?
Selldrk's- widow, whose name was Frances Candis before Selkirk married her, is said to have come to Largo after his disappearance to claim his house and property, armed with legal documents. Are there any of her descendants alive today ? Or of Captain Rogers, who in A Cruising Voyage Round the World wrote down Selkirk's story of his lonely sojourn on
the island ?—Yours, &c., R. L. MEGROZ. Tufnell Park Road, London, N.7
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