Robinson Crusoe's Isle...

Tobago is adamant that it and no other island is Robinson Crusoe's true isle. In the Tobago Museum, an old barrack guardhouse at Fort King George, located high above the main town of Scarborough, I bought a little book titled Crusoe's Only Isle. It was written by a one-time director of the museum.

For many decades, the introduction noted, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, "Tobagonians have been plagued by self-styled 'debunkers' who claim that Tobago was not the site of Crusoe's adventures at all, but that a Juan Fernandez island off the coast of Chile was the venue.... We ought not to tolerate such 'mental cruelty' to human beings to persist. Hence the following studies." The author also made his case that Tobago's topography and location qualified it uniquely as Crusoe's fictional island.

A banner day for fishermen? At Buccoo Point, a boatman checks his gear.

The fact that Robinson Crusoe himself never actually existed was a small irrelevance, as was the fact that the fictional castaway hardly liked his isle. The story of Crusoe, who spends his time gradually taming the wild island, is a parable not about man in earthly paradise but man toiling outside its gates. Crusoe is a paragon of the Protestant work ethic.

Yet, curiously, it does seem a fitting tale for Tobago just now, because Tobago is in the middle of a minor revolution of industriousness. For years the island has dozily welcomed tourists who preferred it to the frenetic bustle of Port of Spain on neighboring Trinidad.

But recently Tobago has found a new enthusiasm for visitors, and everywhere the spirit of growth and expansion is evident. Luxury hotels have opened, others are being planned, and new guest houses abound. The small-scale private emporium is the Tobagonian's ideal, something like Parrotman's burgeoning business. A guest house, a restaurant, a shop - a manageable operation with the potential to grow. Everyone seems to be getting into business. Robinson Crusoe would certainly have approved.