Endnotes

  1. Mr. J. Cuthbert Hadden, in the Century Magazine for July, , shows that the tablet is in error as to Selkirk’s death. It should be . ↩

  2. Akbar was not her registered name, which need not be told ↩

  3. The Murrumbidgee is a small river winding among the mountains of Australia, and would be the last place in which to look for a whale. ↩

  4. Mr. Andrew J. Leach, reporting, , through Governor Kynnersley of Singapore, to Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary, said concerning the Iphegenia’s visit to the atoll: “As we left the ocean depths of deepest blue and entered the coral circle, the contrast was most remarkable. The brilliant colors of the waters, transparent to a depth of over thirty feet, now purple, now of the bluest sky-blue, and now green, with the white crests of the waves flashing tinder a brilliant sun, the encircling⁠ ⁠… palm-clad islands, the gaps between which were to the south undiscernible, the white sand shores and the whiter gaps where breakers appeared, and, lastly, the lagoon itself, seven or eight miles across from north to south, and five to six from east to west, presented a sight never to be forgotten. After some little delay, Mr. Sidney Ross, the eldest son of Mr. George Ross, came off to meet us, and soon after, accompanied by the doctor and another officer, we went ashore.” “On reaching the landing-stage, we found, hauled up for cleaning, etc., the Spray of Boston, a yawl of 12.70 tons gross, the property of Captain Joshua Slocum. He arrived at the island on the , twenty-three days out from Thursday Island. This extraordinary solitary traveler left Boston some two years ago single-handed, crossed to Gibraltar, sailed down to Cape Horn, passed through the Strait of Magellan to the Society Islands, thence to Australia, and through the Torres Strait to Thursday Island.” ↩

  5. In the accounts given in Findlay’s Sailing Directory of some of the events there is a chronological discrepancy. I follow the accounts gathered from the old captain’s grandsons and from records on the spot. ↩

  6. Guinea-hen ↩

  7. Colonel Saunderson was Mr. Krüger’s very best friend, inasmuch as he advised the president to avast mounting guns. ↩

  8. The Bishop of Melbourne (commend me to his teachings) refused to set aside a day of prayer for rain, recommending his people to husband water when the rainy season was on. In like manner, a navigator husbands the wind, keeping a weather-gage where practicable. ↩