Rescued

Selkirk lay low until he could ascertain the visitors' nationality. A landing party sent ashore after Robers' crew sighted a light ashore at night time returned towards nightfall with 'a Man cloth'd in Goat-Skins, who look'd wilder than the first Owners of them [who] had so much forgot his Language for want of Use, that we could scarce understand him, for he seem'd to speak his words by halves'. 

As some of Rogers' men suffering from scurvy recovered, the process was assisted by two or three goats a day caught by the man that Rogers was playfully referring to as the 'governour' of the island. 

When they set sail again on 13 February Rogers appointed the former castaway second mate on the Duke, based on Dampier's rating of him as the best man on the Cinque Ports.

Selkirk was subsequently appointed as master of a prize taken near the Isle of Lobos on 26 March and renamed the Increase and formed part of a detachment exploiting areas beyond the town when the privateers launched their assault on Guayaquil on 25 April. 

After the privateers withdrew from the town on 28 April, Selkirk continued in command of the Increase until the Spanish authorities came up with a ransom for the vessel. 

After a spell in the Galapagos in late September to refit ships that were becoming worm-riddled, Rogers moved on to Cape St Lucas in November to intercept the inbound Manila galleon. 

When she had not appeared by 20 December, Rogers' three ships were about to head for Guam and the Marianas, but the richly laden 450-ton frigate, Nuestra Senora de la Disengano came into sight the following day. She proved to be no match for the privateers, and by 22 December she was in their hands. 

Across the Pacific

© Ian Hughes 2017