About 400 miles west of Valparaiso, Chile sits Robinson Crusoe Island, an 18 square mile piece of land in the South Pacific. Originally called Más a Tierra, the island is the second largest of the Juan Fernández Islands, named after the Spanish navigator who discovered the archipelago by accident in 1563.
Here, the Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk lived alone for 4 years among the barren jagged cliffs and lush subtropical lowlands, providing the basis for Daniel Defoe's famous 1719 novel, Robinson Crusoe.
The island was briefly settled by Juan Fernandez, who stocked the island with goats and pigs before eventually abandoning the place. Later Jesuit attempts to settle the island proved equally unsuccessful, and it became a refuge for English pirates who used it as a base from which to conduct raids upon Spanish ships in the ensuing years. By the time Selkirk was put ashore in 1704, only the goats remained as a sign of previous habitation.
