This is not fair to Rogers; he was entirely within his rights in sacking and ransoming Guayaquil, as a subject of a Power at war with Spain, and armed with a commission from his sovereign. It may not appear to be a very high-class sort of business, but it was conducted in this instance with great humanity, though not probably without some of the "regrettable incidents" which are inseparable from warfare--to adapt the saying of the French general at Balaclava, "Ce n'est pas magnifique, mais c'est la guerre." Rogers does not deserve to be dubbed "pirate," or classed with a gang of cut-throat ruffians like the buccaneers. William Dampier apparently had no more sea-adventures; he died in London in March 1715. Alexander Selkirk, returning to Scotland early in 1712, was received by his people with affectionate enthusiasm; but, after a time, he took to living entirely alone, and sometimes broke out in a passion of regret over his island home: "Oh, my beloved island! I wish I had never left thee! I never was before the man I was on thee! I have not been such since I left thee! and, I fear, never can be again!" One day, in his solitary wanderings, he came across a young girl, seated alone, tending a single cow; their meetings became frequent, and eventually he persuaded her--Sophia Bruce was her name--to elope with him to London. In 1718 he made a will in her favour, under her maiden name, and it is said that, after his death, Sophia Selcraig (for this was the original form of Selkirk's name), represented herself as his widow, but could produce no evidence of marriage; so it is to be feared that she remained Sophia Bruce to the end, while Selkirk married a widow named Candis, to whom he left everything by another will. He died, a mate on board the _Weymouth_ man-of-war, in 1721. A monument was erected to his memory on Juan Fernandez, in 1868, by Commodore Powell and the officers of the _Topaze_. Thus, by a pure accident, he becomes a well-known character and a sort of hero; certainly, he displayed some heroic attributes during his sojourn on Juan Fernandez. [Footnote 6: Why this young man is alluded to in the "Dictionary of National Biography" and elsewhere as Thomas Rogers, I am at a loss to understand. Woodes Rogers alludes to him as "my brother John," and a manuscript note in one edition of Rogers's cruise tells us that "John, son of Woodes Rogers and Frances his wife, was baptized Nov. 28th, 1688; _vide_ Register of Poole, Coun. Dorset."] [Footnote 7: The piece of eight was of equal value to a dollar, and was probably worth more than this; forty years later it was valued at 6_s._ Rogers, however, in distributing plunder, placed it at 4_s._ 6_d._, so the ransom money was probably reckoned upon that basis.] CHAPTER VI GEORGE SHELVOCKE AND JOHN CLIPPERTON