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Island gives up secret of real Robinson Crusoe

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From: The Scotsman
Date: 20050922
Author:Stephen McGinty

A GLINT of metal in the soil marked the end of a 13-year quest by a Japanese explorer to locate the base camp of Alexander Selkirk, the marooned 18th-century mariner, whose ordeal inspired the book Robinson Crusoe.

As a teenager, Daisuke Takahashi read the classic novel by Daniel Defoe and when he discovered it was based on the life of a Scottish sailor, an obsession was ignited which has carried him across the globe to the island of Mas-a-Tierra, 416 miles off the coast of Chile, where Selkirk was abandoned in 1704.

An expedition led by Mr Takahashi has now uncovered clinching evidence of ...

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