Robinson Crusoe's Island

Tuesday, November 25 th , at daylight we saw the island of Juan Fernandez directly ahead, rising like a deep blue cloud out of the sea. We were then probably nearly seventy miles from it. So high and so blue did it appear that I mistook it for a cloud, resting over the island under it, until it gradually turned to a deader and greener color, and I could see the land upon its surface. At length, we could distinguish trees and rocks. By the afternoon this beautiful island lay…

I was called on deck to stand my watch at about three in the morning. I shall never forget the peculiar sensation that I experienced finding myself once more surrounded by land, feeling the night breeze coming from offshore, and hearing the frogs and crickets. The mountains seemed almost to hang over us. From apparently the very heart of them, at regular intervals, came a loud echoing sound that sounded hardly human to me. We saw no lights. We could not understand the sound, until the mate, who had been…