Selkirk is astonished; he applauds the tricks of Marimonda, the sports and combats of his other subjects.  Meanwhile, his eyes having turned towards the sea, his brow is suddenly overclouded.  At the expiration of a few moments of an uneasy and agitated observation, he utters an exclamation, springs from his hammock, runs to his cabin, then to the shore, where he prostrates himself with his hands clasped and raised towards heaven.

He has just perceived a sail.

Provided with his glass, he seeks the sail upon the waves, he finds it.  ‘It is without doubt a barque,’ said he to himself; ’a barque from the neighboring island, or some point of the continent!’ And looking again through his copper tube, he clearly distinguishes three masts well rigged, decorated with white sails, which are swelling in the east wind, and gilded by the oblique rays of the declining sun.

’It is a brig!  The Swordfish, perhaps!  Yes, Stradling has prolonged his voyage in these regions.  The time which he had fixed for my exile has rolled away!  He is coming to seek me.  May he be blessed!’

The movement which the brig made to double the island, had increased more and more the hopes of Selkirk, when the Spanish flag, hoisted at the stern, suddenly unfolded itself to his eyes.

‘The enemy!’ exclaimed he; ’woe is me!  If they land on this coast, whither shall I fly, where conceal myself?  In the mountains!  Yes, I can there succeed in escaping them!  But, the wretches! they will destroy my cabin, my inclosure, my garden! the fruit of so much anxiety and labor!’

And, with palpitating heart, he again watches the manoeuvres of the brig.  The latter, having tacked several times, as if to get before the wind, hastily changed her course and stood out to sea.

Selkirk remains stupefied, overwhelmed.  ‘These are Spaniards,’ murmured he, after a moment’s hesitation; ’what matters it!  Am I now their enemy?  I am only a colonist, an exile, a deserter from the English navy.  They owe me protection, assistance, as a Christian.  If they required it, I would serve on board their vessel!  But they have gone; what method shall I employ to recall them, to signalize my presence?’

There was but one; it was to kindle a large fire on the shore or on the hill.  He needs hewn wood, and his supplies are exhausted; what is to be done?

For an instant, in his disturbed mind, the idea arises to tear the lattice-work from his inclosure, the pillars and the roof from his shed, to pile them around his cabin, and set fire to the whole.

This idea he quickly repulses, but it suffices to show what passed in the inner folds of the heart of this man, who had just now forced himself to believe that happiness was yet possible for him.

On farther reflection, he remembers that behind his grotto, on one of the first terraces of the mountain, there is a dense thicket, where the trees, embarrassed with vines and dry briers, closely interwoven, calcined by the burning reflections of the sun on the rock which surrounds them, present a collection of dead branches and mouldy trunks, scarcely masked by the semblance of vegetation.