ABSTRACT
In the mid-seventeenth century, a young middle-class Englishman goes to sea against his parents’ wishes. Seized off the coast of North Africa, he endures slavery, escapes and makes his way by boat along the west coast of Africa accompanied by a young boy. Rescued by Europeans, they set forth to Brazil where he sells the boy and begins a profitable new life as a plantation owner. Ever restless, he joins neighboring plantation owners in outfitting a trading and slaving vessel bound for Africa. The boat is shipwrecked on the reefs of an uninhabited desert isle off the coast of South America, with our Englishman the sole survivor. Utilizing his wits, his religious faith and material salvaged from the wreck, he manages to impose a one-man civilization on the island for twenty-six years. His isolation from human companionship is broken when he rescues and civilizes a young cannibal. After three years together, they escape to Europe where he finds his Brazilian property has made him wealthy. Back in England, he assumes the settled life of a family man but, as the narrative ends, he is off adventuring again.
