In 1718 Defoe was nearly sixty years old. He had lived a full and interesting life by that time. He was to many
countries, tried many professions, wrote many books. That year London discovered Alexander Selkirk, a sailor, who had spending more than four years
on a desert island off the coast of Chili. He was living alone on that
island all those years and managed not only to stay alive, but also to make
himself fairly comfortable. At last he was rescued by the sailors of a
ship that had arrived at that island for water. When Alexander Selkirk returned to London he was speaking much about what had happened to him. Some of
his stories were published,(were) read and (were) soon forgotten. A few years later
practically nobody remembered what Alexander Selkirk had been spoken about or
who he had been.
But Defoe didn`t forget. He turned to writing a story of
a shipwrecked man. He chose an island in a different part of the
world for his story and created an imaginary character- Robinson
Cruise. With his skill of a journalist he made his story seemed
absolutely true. The book was a great success.
Nowadays there is
hardly a person who hasn`t heard of Robinson Cruise, while the true story
of Selkirk isn`t known to many people.