Daniel Defoe’s book “Robinson Crusoe” is regarded as the first true English novel. It is also the first novel with a first-person narrator. Crusoe ends up on an uninhabited island where, after some time, he experiences various adventures with his native friend ‘Friday’. Defoe’s work was published in 1719 and was inspired by the story of the shipwrecked Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk who was rescued in 1709 after a four-year stay on a desert island and whose adventures were recorded by William Dampier, a largely forgotten figure who was the most important English maritime adventurer of the 17th century. Dampier was the first person to circumnavigate the world three times, the first Englishman to reach and map parts of Australia and New Guinea, and the first English best-selling travel writer.
Ascension Island produced a set of stamps in 2015, the 300th anniversary of the death of William Dampier (1651–1715). His ship, the Roebuck, foundered and sank close to Ascension Island in 1701.
Robinson Crusoe’s Island (originally Más a Terra and also called Juan Fernandez Island) is the largest island within the Juan Fernandez Archipelago. The other two islands are Alejandro Selkirk and Santa Clara, about 674 km. off the coast of Chile. The Chilean government changed Más a Terra to Isla Robinson Crusoe, with the intention of attracting tourists.
Above, the Juan Fernandez Archipelago stamps show the islands and some of the flora and fauna found there. Below, from Chile in 1965, the stamp shows Robinson Crusoe looking out from the Juan Fernandez Archipelago. There is said to be a huge treasure on the island (from 1715) which has caused great controversy over the years between treasure hunters and the Chilean authorities.
Finally we have a postcard with Robinson Crusoe Island franking.
