Posted
on November 22, 2014
How
do you spot little dots of land out in an enormous ocean?
Many
islands are easily seen because they lie quite close to a continent.
But the islands that Spanish sailor Juan Fernandez spotted on this
date in 1574 lie hundreds of miles off the coast of what is now
Chile, in South America.
The
truth is, Fernandez probably spotted the islands because of his
handy-dandy southward sea route.
You
see, near the west coast of South America, from Chile to northern
Peru, there is a cold current that runs northward. Fernandez wanted
to sail southward, so he went far out, away from the coast – and
that's when he spotted the islands.
There
are three Juan Fernandez Islands (as the group is now called).
Fernandez named the outermost island Mas Afuera, which roughly
translates to “Farther Out to Sea,” the innermost island Mas a
Tierra, which roughly translates to “Closer to Land,” and the
middle island Santa Clara (“Saint Claire”).
For
hundreds of years, the islands were rarely visited by humans other
than pirates in hiding. In 1703, some privateers (pirates working for
their country) ran into problems with a leaky ship. One of the
sailors, the sailing master named Alexander Selkirk, demanded that he
be put ashore one of those islands (Mas a Tierra)--even though the
island was completely uninhabited.
Selkirk
was indeed put to shore on that island...and marooned there. He lived
on that island alone for about four years!
Later,
after Selkirk was rescued and returned to England, he became famous
for surviving alone for so long. Scholars believed that Selkirk's
exploits were the inspiration for Daniel Dafoe's famous book Robinson
Crusoe.
Actually,
the name of the book is The Life and Surprising Adventures of
Robinson Crusoe.
Because
of the fame of that books, the Juan Fernandez Islands were renamed:
Mas a Tierra (the
island where Selkirk lived for four years) became Robinson Crusoe
Island.
Mas Afuera became
Alejandro Selkirk Island.
Santa Clara, however,
remained Santa Clara.
 |
| Notice that the "fur seals" are not true seals, but are in fact sea lions. (You can tell because they have external ears!) |
There
are very few land animals on the islands, with no native land
mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. Some mammals such as goats and
rats have been brought to the accident either on purpose or on
accident. (I will leave it to you to guess which was brought
accidentally!) The native animals are mostly birds, including some
nesting penguins! Also, some fur seals live on the islands.
Nowadays,
however, some people live on the islands. Alejandro Selkirk is home
to around 57 people, and Robinson Crusoe is home to around 843. Santa
Clara is still uninhabited.
Also
on this date:
Plan ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
No comments:
Post a Comment