Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/792

 758 j u A J U A The four Juan Fernandez birds are a thrush, a tyrant, and two humming-birds (Eustephanus fernandensis and E. yalerites). The thrush and Eustephanus fernandensis are special to the island, and the latter has the great peculiarity of having the male of a bright cinnamon colour while the female is green. Both sexes are green in E. galerites. Of the shrubs in. the jungle bordering the ravine, there seems scarcely a plant of myrtle, or of a bignoniaceous plant with long dark bells associated with the myrtle, which is not inhabited by a pair of humming birds, so that the whirring and buzzing of the brilliant flutterers over the flowers is singularly attractive. Juan Fernandez was discovered by a Spanish pilot of that name (who was also the discoverer of the island of Mas-a-Fuera) in 1563. Fernandez obtained from the Spanish Government a grant of the islands, where he resided for some time, stocking them with goats .and pigs. Ho soon, however, appears to have abandoned his possessions, which were afterwards for many years only visited occasionally by fishermen from the coasts of Chili and Peru, who found the sea round the island well stocked with fish. In 1616 Le Maire and Schouten called at Juan Fernandez for water and fresh provisions. Pigs and goats were then abundant on the island, and the valleys coming down to the anchorage were filled with herbage and the sea with excellent fish. Sandal-wood was plentiful, and near the anchorage there was a grove of wild quince trees. The fleet under the command of Admiral 1 Ermite next visited the island. Three soldiers and three gunners remained behind when the fleet left ; what became of these is altogether unknown. In the year 1668 the buccaneer Sharp anchored off Juan Fernandez, at first apparently on the south side of the island and afterwards in Cumberland Bay. At the time of his visit seals and sea-lions frequented the shores in large numbers, and pigs, the descendants of those originally imported by Fernandez, were so abundant that a hundred were salted down in addition to those killed for immediate use. At the end of 1687 five men voluntarily remained at Juan Pernandez from another buccaneer commanded by Captain Edward Davis. They remained on the island until October 1690, when the English ship &quot;Welfare,&quot; Captain John Story, took them off. In February 1700 Dampier called at Juan Fernandez, and whilst there Captain Straddling of the &quot;Cinque Porte&quot; galley quarrelled with his men, forty-two of whom deserted but were afterwards taken on board by Dampier ; five seamen, however, remained on shore. In October 1704 the &quot; Cinque Porte&quot; returned and found two of .these men, the others having been apparently captured by the French. On this occasion Captain Straddling had a disagreement with his master, Alexander Selkirk, who insisted upon being put on shore rather than serve longer with Straddling. Selkirk s desire was complied with, and he was sent on shore with a few ordinary .necessaries. Before the ship left he begged to be readmitted ; but this was refused, with the curious result that, with little merit of his own, Selkirk has become a hero for all time, and &quot; Robinson -Crusoe s Island &quot; the cynosure of all boys eyes. It is extremely im probable that Alexander Selkirk ever actually placed his journal in the hands of Defoe, but his story excited some public interest, and in catering for the public amusement that prince of raconteurs was most likely to have adopted Selkirk s tale for combination with other material in one of his wonderful &quot;realistic novels.&quot; Many of the incidents in the Adventures of Robinson Crusoe are evi dently inconsistent with the narrative of Selkirk, and are un doubtedly taken from other sources ; fcr example, the footprint on the sand, and the decidedly tropical description of &quot;Robinson Crusoe s Island,&quot; would agree better with one of the outlying islands of the West Indies. Alexander Selkirk was relieved from what appears to have been a by no means unbearable exile in 1709 by the ship &quot;Duke,&quot; Captain Wood Rogers, and in 1868 the officers of II. M.S. &quot; Topaze &quot; erected a tablet at a point on the hill road called &quot;Selkirk s Look-out,&quot; just where in a gap in the trap rock a magnificent view may be had of the whole island, and of the sea north and south, over which the exile must have often and eagerly watched for an approaching sail. It bears the following inscription : &quot; In memory of Alexander Selkirk, mariner, a native of Largo in the county of Fife, Scotland, who was on this island in complete solitude for four years and four months. He was landed from the Cinque Porte galley, 96 tons, 16 guns, 1704 A.D., and was taken off in the Duke privateer, 12th February 1709. He died lieutenant of the Weymouth, 1723 A.U., nged forty-seven years. This tablet is erected near Selkirk s look-out by Commodore Powell and officers of H.M.S. Topaze, 1868 A.D.&quot; After Selkirk s relief, visits, especially from buccaneers, to the island of Juan Fernandez became more frequent. In June 1741 Commodore Anson anchored in Cumberland Bay in the &quot; Cen turion.&quot; During Alison s stay the &quot; Trial &quot; visited Mas-a-Fuera, and found the anchorage more exposed than at Juan Fernandez. Anson found vegetables, of which the scurvy-strnck crew of the &quot;Centurion &quot; stood greatly in need, much as formerly, the cabbage palm, celery, water-cresses, and radishes being abundant. After having added to the resources of the island by sowing the stones of fruit trees and garden seeds, some of which did well, Anson con tinued his voyage in September. On Anson s return home it was proposed to form an English settlement on Juan Fernandez, but the Spaniards hearing that the matter had been mooted in England gave orders to occupy the island, and it was garrisoned accordingly in 1750. Carteret first observed this settlement in May, 1767, and on account of the hostility of the Spaniards preferred to put in at Mas-a-Fuera. After the revolutionary wars Juan Fernandez passed into the possession of the Chilians, and has remained theirs ever since. Shortly after 1818 it was used as a state prison by the Chilian Government. In 1820 there appear to have been 300 convicts on the island, with 100 regular troops. In that year the island was swarming with wild horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats, and vegetables and fruit were in abundance. In 1830 Juan Fernandez was visited by Captain King in H.M.S. &quot;Adventure.&quot; There were then no convicts on the island. There was a small garrison of forty persons, and provisions were scarce. In 1833 Juan Fernandez was again used as a convict station by the Chilians. In 1835 the island appears to have been governed by a Mr Sutcliffe, an Englishman in the Chilian service. He was present when an earthquake took place on the 20th February of that year, of which he gives a description. In November 1875 H.M.S. &quot;Challenger,&quot; Captain F. T. Thomson, called at Juan Fernandez for two days, lying as usual in Cumberland Bay. Shortly after 1835 Juan Fernandez was abandoned as a convict settlement, and since that time it has been leased by the Chilian Government to such as cared to occupy it for the supply of whalers and other passing ships, and for such remains of sea-lion hunting and fur-sealing as still exist. The speculation docs not appear to be very profitable ; and the island is likely to be by and by left so far as may be in the busier world of to-day to its pristine solitude. (C. W. T.) JUAEEZ, BENITO PABLO (180G-1872), president of Mexico, was born near Ixtlan, in the state of Oajaca, Mexico, March 21, 1806, of full Indian blood. Early left in poverty by the death of his father, he received from a charitable friar a good general education, and afterwards the means of studying law. Beginning to practise in 1834, Juarez speedily rose to professional distinction, and in the stormy political life of his time and country took a pro minent part as an exponent of liberal views. In 1832 he sat in the state legislature; in 1846 he was one of a legis lative triumvirate for his native state and a deputy to the republican congress, and from 1847 to 1852 he was governor of Oajaca. Banished in 1853 by Santa Anna, he returned to Mexico in 1855, and joined Alvarez, who, after Santa Anna s defeat, made him minister of justice. Under Comonfort, who succeeded Alvarez in December 1855, Juarez was made president of the supreme court of justice and minister of the interior ; and, when Comonfort was unconstitutionally replaced by Zuloaga in 1858, the chief justice, in virtue of his office, claimed to be legal president of the republic. It was not, however, till the beginning of 1861 that he succeeded in finally defeating the unconstitu tional party and in being duly elected president by congress. His decree of July 1861, suspending for two years all pay ments on public debts of every kind, led to the landing in Mexico of English, Spanish, and French troops. The first two powers were soon induced to withdraw their forces; but the French remained, declared war in 1862, placed Maximilian upon the throne as emperor, and drove Juarez and his adherents to the northern limits of the republic. Juarez maintained an obstinate resistance, taken at Quaretero, and shot ; and in August Juarez was once more elected president. His term of office was far from tranquil ; discontented generals stirred up ceaseless revolts and insurrections ; and, though he was re-elected in 1871, his popularity seemed to be on the wane. He died of apoplexy in the city of Mexico, July 18, 1872. In him Mexico lost a statesman of integrity, ability, and deter-
 * vhich resulted in final success. In 1867 Maximilian was