Page "Alexander Selkirk" Paragraph 16

Early in 1717 Selkirk returned to Lower Largo but stayed only a few months.

There he met Sophia Bruce, a sixteen-year-old dairymaid.

They eloped to London but apparently did not marry.

In March 1717 he again went off to sea.

While on a visit to Plymouth, he married a widowed innkeeper.

According to the ship's log, Selkirk died at 8 p. m. on 13 December 1721 while serving as a lieutenant on board the Royal ship Weymouth.

He probably succumbed to the yellow fever that had devastated the voyage.

He was buried at sea off the west coast of Africa.