Daniel Defoe's famous castaway has been etched into the popular imagination for three centuries, but what of his island? Naval historian Andrew Lambert identifies the real place—the Juan Fernández Islands in the South Pacific—and chronicles the archipelago's colorful and often violent history from the 1500s to World War I. Through journals, maps, and illustrations Lambert brings to life the sailors, scientists, writers, and artists who visited Juan Fernández, while charting the curiously rich relationship between the British and this remote spot on the other side of the world.