11

One day walking up the same hill, but the weather being hazy at sea, so that we could not see the continent, I called to him, and said, ‘Friday, do not you wish yourself in your own country, your own nation?’ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘he be much O glad to be at his own nation.’ ‘What would you do there?’ said I. ‘Would you turn wild again, eat men's flesh again, and be a savage as you were before?’ He looked full of concern, and shaking his head said, ‘No, no, Friday tell them to live good, tell them to pray God, tell them to eat corn-bread, cattle-flesh, milk, no eat man again.’ ‘Why then,’ said I to him, ‘they will kill you.’ He looked grave at that, and then said, ‘No, they no kill me, they willing love learn.’ He meant by this, they would be willing to learn. He added, they learned much of the bearded mans that come in the boat. Then I asked him if he would go back to them. He smiled at that, and told me he could not swim so far. I told him I would make a canoe for him. He told me he would go, if I would go with him. ‘I go?’ says I. ‘Why, they will eat me if I come there.’ ‘No, no,’ says he, ‘me make they no eat you; me make they much love you.’ He meant he would tell them how I had killed his enemies, and saved his life, and so he would make them love me; then he told me as well as he could, how kind they were to seventeen white men, or bearded men, as he called them, who came on shore there in distress.

From this time I confess I had a mind to venture over, and see if I could possibly join with these bearded men, who I made no doubt were Spaniards or Portuguese; not doubting but if I could we might find some method to escape from thence; being upon the continent, and a good company together; better than I could from an island forty miles off the shore, and alone without help. So after some days I told Friday I would give him a boat to go back to his nation; and I took him to my frigate which lay on the other side of the island, and having cleared it of water, for I always kept it sunk in the water, I brought it out, showed it him, and we both went into it.

I found he was a most dextrous fellow at managing it, would make it go almost as swift and fast again as I could; so when he was in, I said to him, ‘Well, now, Friday, shall we go to your nation?’ He looked very dull at my saying so, which it seems was because he thought the boat too small to go so far. I told him we would go and make one bigger and he should go home in it. He answered not one word, but looked very grave and sad. I asked him what was the matter with him. He asked me thus, ‘Why you angry mad with Friday, what me done?’ I asked him what he meant; I told him I was not angry with him at all. ‘No angry! No angry!’ says he, repeating the words several times. ‘Why send Friday home away to my nation?’ ‘Why’, says I, ‘Friday, did you not say you wished you were there?’ ‘Yes, yes,’ says he, ‘wish be both there, no wish Friday there, no master there.’ In a word, he would not think of going there without me. ‘I go there? Friday,’ says I, ‘what shall I do there?’ He turned very quick upon me at this: ‘You do great deal much good,’ says he, ‘you teach wild mans be good sober tame mans; you tell them know God, pray God, and live new life.’ ‘Alas! Friday,’ says I, ‘thou knowest not what thou sayest, I am but an ignorant man myself.’ ‘Yes, yes,’ says he, ‘you teachee me good, you teachee them good.’ ‘No, no, Friday,’ says I, ‘you shall go without me, leave me here to live by myself, as I did before.’ He looked confused again at that word, and running to one of the hatchets which he used to wear, he takes it up hastily, comes and gives it me. ‘What must I do with this?’ says I to him. ‘You take, kill Friday,’ says he. ‘What must I kill you for?’ said I again. He returns very quick, ‘What you send Friday away for? Take, kill Friday, no send Friday away?’ This he spoke so earnestly, that I saw tears in his eyes. In a word, I so plainly discovered the utmost affection in him to me, and a firm resolution in him, that I told him then, and often after, that I would never send him away from me, if he was willing to stay with me.

Upon the whole, as I found by all his discourse a settled affection to me, and that nothing should part him from me, so I found all the foundation of his desire to go to his own country was laid in his ardent affection to the people, and his hopes of my doing them good; a thing which as I had no notion of myself, so I had not the least thought or intention or desire of undertaking it. But still I found a strong inclination to my attempting an escape as above, founded on the supposition gathered from the discourse, that there were seventeen bearded men there; and therefore, without any more delay, I went to work with Friday to find out a great tree proper to fell, and make a large canoe to undertake the voyage. There were trees enough in the island to have built a little fleet, not of canoes, but even of good large vessels. But the main thing I looked at, was to get one so near the water that we might launch it when it was made.

At last, Friday pitched upon a tree, for I found he knew much better than I what kind of wood was fittest for it, nor can I tell to this day what wood to call the tree we cut down. Friday was for burning the hollow or cavity of this tree out to make it for a boat. But I showed him how rather to cut it out with tools, which, after I had showed him how to use, he did very handily, and in about a month's hard labour we finished it, and made it very handsome, especially when with our axes, which 1 showed him how to handle, we cut and hewed the outside into the true shape of a boat; after this, however, it cost us near a fortnight's time to get her along as it were inch by inch upon great rollers into the water. But when she was in, she would have carried twenty men with great ease.

When she was in the water, and though she was so big, it amazed me to see with what dexterity and how swift my man Friday would manage her, turn her, and paddle her along; so I asked him if he would, and if we might venture over in her. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘he venture over in her very well, though great blow wind.’ However, I had a farther design that he knew nothing of, and that was to make a mast and sail and to fit her with an anchor and cable. As to a mast, that was easy enough to get; so I pitched upon a straight young cedar-tree, which I found near the place, and which there was great plenty of in the island, and I set Friday to work to cut it down, and gave him directions how to shape and order it. But as to the sail, that was my particular care; I knew I had old sails, or rather pieces of old sails enough; but as I had had them now six and twenty years by me, and had not been very careful to preserve them, not imagining that I should ever have this kind of use for them, I did not doubt that they were all rotten, and indeed most of them were so; however, I found two pieces which appeared pretty good, and with these I went to work, and with a great deal of pains, and awkward tedious stitching (you may be sure) for want of needles, I at length made a three-cornered ugly thing, like what we call in England a shoulder-of-mutton sail, to go with a boom at bottom, and a little short sprit at the top, such as usually our ships' longboats sail with, and such as I best knew how to manage; because it was such a one as I had on the boat in which I made my escape from Barbary, as related in the first part of my story.

I was near two months performing this last work of rigging and fitting my mast and sails; for I finished them very complete, making a small stay, and a sail or fore sail to it, to assist, if we should turn to windward; and which was more than all, I fixed a rudder to the stern of her, to steer with; and though I was but a bungling shipwright, yet as I knew the usefulness, and even necessity of such a thing, I applied myself with so much pains to do it, that at last I brought it to pass; though considering the many dull contrivances I had for it that failed, I think it cost me almost as much labour as making the boat.

After all this was done too, I had my man Friday to teach as to what belonged to the navigation of my boat; for though he knew very well how to paddle a canoe, he knew nothing what belonged to a sail and a rudder; and was the most amazed, when he saw me work the boat to and again in the sea by the rudder, and how the sail gybed, and filled this way or that way, as the course we sailed changed. However, with a little use, I made all these things familiar to him; and he became an expert sailor, except that as to the compass, I could make him understand very little of that. On the other hand, as there was very little cloudy weather, and seldom or never any fogs in those parts, there was the less occasion for a compass, seeing the stars were always to be seen by night, and the shore by day, except in the rainy seasons, and then nobody cared to stir abroad, either by land or sea.

I was now entered on the seven and twentieth year of my captivity in this place; though the last three years that I had this creature with me ought rather to be left out of the account, my habitation being quite of another kind than in all the rest of the time.

I now had an invincible impression upon my thoughts, that my deliverance was at hand, and that I should not be another year in this place. However, I went on with my husbandry, digging, planting, fencing, as usual; I gathered and cured my grapes, and did every necessary thing as before.

The rainy season was in the meantime upon me, when I kept more within doors than at other times; so I had stowed our new vessel as secure as we could, bringing her up into the creek, where as I said, in the beginning I landed my rafts from the ship, and hauling her up to the shore at high water mark, I made my man Friday dig a little dock, just big enough to hold her, and just deep enough to give her water enough to float in; and then when the tide was out, we made a strong dam across the end of it, to keep the water out; and so she lay dry, as to the tide from the sea; and to keep the rain off, we laid a great many boughs of trees, so thick that she was as well thatched as a house; and thus we waited for the month of November and December, in which I designed to make my adventure.

When the settled season began to come in, as the thought of my design returned with the fair weather, I was preparing daily for the voyage; and the first thing I did was to lay by a certain quantity of provisions, being the stores for our voyage; and intended, in a week or a fortnight's time, to open the dock and launch out our boat. I was busy one morning upon something of this kind, when I called to Friday, and bade him go to the sea-shore, and see if he could find a turtle or tortoise, a thing which we generally got once a week, for the sake of the eggs as well as the flesh. Friday had not been long gone, when he came running back, and flew over my outer wall, or fence, like one that felt not the ground, or the steps he set his feet on; and before I had time to speak to him, he cries out to me, ‘O master! O master! O sorrow! O bad!’ ‘What's the matter, Friday?’ says I. ‘O yonder, there,’ says he, ‘one, two, three canoe! One, two, three!’ By his way of speaking, I concluded there were six; but on inquiry, I found it was but three. ‘Well, Friday,’ says I, ‘do not be frightened’; so I heartened him up as well as I could. However, I saw the poor fellow was most terribly scared; for nothing ran in his head but that they were come to look for him, and would cut him in pieces and eat him; and the poor fellow trembled so, that I scarce knew what to do with him. I comforted him as well as I could, and told him I was in as much danger as he, and that they would eat me as well as him; ‘but,’ says I, ‘Friday, we must resolve to fight them; can you fight, Friday?’ ‘Me shoot,’ says he, ‘but there come many great number.’ ‘No matter for that,’ said I again, ‘our guns will frighten them that we do not kill’; so I asked him whether if I resolved to defend him, he would defend me, and stand by me, and do just as I bid him. He said, ‘Me die, when you bid die, master’; so I went and fetched a good dram of rum, and gave him; for I had been so good a husband of my rum, that I had a great deal left. When he drank it, I made him take the two fowling-pieces, which we always carried, and load them with large swan-shot, as big as small pistol bullets; then I took four muskets, and loaded them with two slugs and five small bullets each; and my two pistols I loaded with a brace of bullets each; I hung my great sword as usual, naked by my side, and gave Friday his hatchet.

When I had thus prepared myself, I took my perspective-glass, and went up to the side of the hill, to see what I could discover; and I found quickly, by my glass, that there were one and twenty savages, three prisoners, and three canoes; and that their whole business seemed to be the triumphant banquet upon these three human bodies (a barbarous feast indeed), but nothing more than as I had observed was usual with them.

I observed also, that they were landed not where they had done when Friday made his escape, but nearer to my creek, where the shore was low, and where a thick wood came almost down to the sea. This, with the abhorrence of the inhuman errand these wretches came about, filled me with such indignation that I came down again to Friday, and told him I was resolved to go down to them, and kill them all; and asked him if he would stand by me. He had now got over his fright, and his spirits being a little raised with the dram I had given him, he was very cheerful, and told me as before, he would die, when I bid die.

In this fit of fury, I took first and divided the arms which I had charged, as before, between us; I gave Friday one pistol to stick in his girdle, and three guns upon his shoulder; and I took one pistol and the other three myself; and in this posture we marched out. I took a small bottle of rum in my pocket, and gave Friday a large bag, with more powder and bullet; and as to orders, I charged him to keep close behind me, and not to stir, or shoot, or do anything, till I bid him; and in the meantime, not to speak a word. In this posture I fetched a compass to my right hand, of near a mile, as well to get over the creek as to get into the wood; so that I might come within shot of them before I should be discovered, which I had seen by my glass it was easy to do.

While I was making this march, my former thoughts returning, I began to abate my resolution; I do not mean that I entertained any fear of their number; for as they were naked, unarmed wretches, 'tis certain I was superior to them; nay, though I had been alone; but it occurred to my thoughts, what call, what occasion, much less what necessity I was in to go and dip my hands in blood, to attack people who had neither done, or intended me any wrong.

These things were so warmly pressed upon my thoughts, all the way as I went, that I resolved I would only go and place myself near them, that I might observe their barbarous feast, and that I would act then as God should direct; but that unless something offered that was more a call to me than yet I knew of, I would not meddle with them.

With this resolution I entered the wood, and with all possible wariness and silence, Friday following close at my heels, I marched till I came to the skirt of the wood, on the side which was next to them; only that one corner of the wood lay between me and them; here I called softly to Friday, and showing him a great tree, which was just at the corner of the wood, I bade him go to the tree, and bring me word if he could see there plainly what they were doing; he did so, and came immediately back to me, and told me they might be plainly viewed there; that they were all about their fire, eating the flesh of one of their prisoners; and that another lay bound upon the sand, a little from them, which he said they would kill next, and which fired all the very soul within me; he told me it was not one of their nation, but one of the bearded men, who he had told me of, that came to their country in the boat. I was filled with horror at the very naming the white bearded man, and going to the tree, I saw plainly by my glass a white man who lay upon the beach of the sea, with his hands and his feet tied, and that he was an European, and had clothes on.

There was another tree, and a little thicket beyond it, about fifty yards nearer to them than the place where I was, which by going a little way about, I saw I might come at undiscovered, and that then I should be within range of them; so I withheld my passion, though I was indeed enraged to the highest degree, and going back about twenty paces, I got behind some bushes, which held all the way till I came to the other tree; and then I came to a little rising ground, which gave me a full view of them, at the distance of about eighty yards.

I had now not a moment to lose; for nineteen of the dreadful wretches sat upon the ground, all close huddled together, and had just sent the other two to butcher the poor Christian, and bring him perhaps limb by limb to their fire, and they were stooped down to untie the bands at his feet; I turned to Friday. ‘Now, Friday,’ said I, ‘do as I bid thee’; Friday said he would; ‘Then, Friday,’ says I, ‘do exactly as you see me do, fail in nothing’; so I set down one of the muskets and the fowling-piece upon the ground, and Friday did the like by his; and with the other musket I took my aim at the savages, bidding him do the like; then asking him if he was ready, he said yes. ‘Then fire at them,’ said I; and the same moment I fired also.

Friday took his aim so much better than I, that on the side that he shot, he killed two of them, and wounded three more; and on my side, I killed one, and wounded two. They were, you may be sure, in a dreadful consternation; and all of them, who were not hurt, jumped up upon their feet, but did not immediately know which way to run, or which way to look: for they knew not from whence their destruction came. Friday kept his eyes close upon me, that as I had bid him, he might observe what I did; so as soon as the first shot was made, I threw down the piece, and took up the fowling-piece, and Friday did the like; he sees me cock and present, he did the same again. ‘Are you ready, Friday?’ said I ‘Yes,’ says he; ‘Let fly then,’ says I, ‘in the name of God,’ and with that I fired again among the amazed wretches, and so did Friday; and as our pieces were now loaded with what I called swan-shot, or small pistol bullets, we found only two drop; but so many were wounded, that they run about yelling and screaming like mad creatures, all bloody, and miserably wounded, most of them; whereof three more fell quickly after, though not quite dead.

‘Now, Friday,’ says I, laying down the discharged pieces, and taking up the musket which was yet loaded, ‘follow me,’ says I; which he did, with a great deal of courage; upon which I rushed out of the wood, and showed myself, and Friday close at my foot; as soon as I perceived they saw me, I shouted as loud as I could, and bade Friday do so too; and running as fast as I could, which by the way, was not very fast, being laden with arms as I was, I made directly towards the poor victim, who was, as I said, lying upon the beach, between the place where they sat and the sea. The two butchers who were just going to work with him, had left him at the surprise of our first fire, and fled in a terrible fright to the sea-side, and had jumped into a canoe, and three more of the rest made the same way; I turned to Friday, and bid him step forwards, and fire at them; he understood me immediately, and running about forty yards to be near them, he shot at them, and I thought he had killed them all; for I see them all fall of a heap into the boat; though I saw two of them up again quickly: however, he killed two of them, and wounded the third; so that he lay down in the bottom of the boat, as if he had been dead.

While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out my knife, and cut the poor victim's bonds, and loosing his hands and feet, I lifted him up, and asked him in the Portuguese tongue what he was. He answered in Latin, ‘Christianus’; but was so weak and faint, that he could scarce stand or speak; I took my bottle out of my pocket, and gave it him, making signs that he should drink, which he did; and I gave him a piece of bread, which he ate; then I asked him what countryman he was, and he said, ‘Espagniole’; and being a little recovered, let me know by all the signs he could possibly make, how much he was in my debt for his deliverance. ‘Seignior,’ said I, with as much Spanish as I could make up, ‘we will talk afterwards; but we must fight now; if you have any strength left, take this pistol and sword, and lay about you.’ He took them very thankfully, and no sooner had he the arms in his hands, but as if they had put new vigour into him, he flew upon his murderers like a fury, and had cut two of them in pieces in an instant; for the truth is, as the whole was a surprise to them, so the poor creatures were so frightened with the noise of our pieces, that they fell down for sheer amazement and fear; and had no more power to attempt their own escape, than their flesh had to resist our shot; and that was the case of those five that Friday shot at in the boat; for as three of them fell with the hurt they received, so the other two fell with the fright.

I kept my piece in my hand still, without firing, being willing to keep my charge ready, because I had given the Spaniard my pistol and sword; so I called to Friday, and bade him run up to the tree from whence we first fired, and fetch the arms which lay there, that had been discharged, which he did with great swiftness; and then giving him my musket, I sat down myself to load all the rest again, and bade them come to me when they wanted. While I was loading these pieces, there happened a fierce engagement between the Spaniard and one of the savages, who made at him with one of their great wooden swords, the same weapon that was to have killed him before, if I had not prevented it. The Spaniard, who was as bold and as brave as could be imagined, though weak, had fought this Indian a good while, and had cut him two great wounds on his head; but the savage being a stout lusty fellow, closing in with him, had thrown him down (being faint) and was wringing my sword out of his hand, when the Spaniard, though undermost, wisely quitting the sword, drew the pistol from his girdle, shot the savage through the body, and killed him upon the spot, before I, who was running to help him, could come near him.

Friday, being now left to his liberty, pursued the flying wretches with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet; and with that he dispatched those three who, as I said before, were wounded at first and fallen, and all the rest he could come up with, and the Spaniard coming to me for a gun, I gave him one of the fowling-pieces with which he pursued two of the savages, and wounded them both; but as he was not able to run, they both got from him into the wood, where Friday pursued them, and killed one of them; but the other was too nimble for him, and though he was wounded, yet had plunged himself into the sea, and swam with all his might off to those who were left in the canoe, which three in the canoe, with one wounded, who we know not whether he died or no, were all that escaped our hands of one and twenty.

Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of range; and though Friday made two or three shots at them, I did not find that he hit any of them. Friday would fain have had me took one of their canoes, and pursued them; and indeed I was very anxious about their escape, lest carrying the news home to their people, they should come back perhaps with two or three hundred of their canoes, and devour us by sheer multitude; so I consented to pursue them by sea, and running to one of their canoes, I jumped in, and bade Friday follow me; but when I was in the canoe, I was surprised to find another poor creature lying there alive, bound hand and foot, as the spaniard was, for the slaughter, and almost dead with fear, not knowing what the matter was; for he had not been able to look up over the side of the boat, he was tied so hard, neck and heels, and had been tied so long that he had really but little life in him.

I immediately cut his bonds and would have helped him up; but he could not stand or speak, but groaned most piteously, believing it seems still that he was only unbound in order to be killed.

When Friday came to him, I bade him speak to him, and tell him of his deliverance, and pulling out my bottle, made him give the poor wretch a dram, which, with the news of his being delivered, revived him, and he sat up in the boat; but when Friday came to hear him speak, and look in his face, it would have moved anyone to tears, to have seen how Friday kissed him, embraced him, hugged him, cried, laughed, jumped about, danced, sung, and then cried again, wrung his hands, beat his own face and head, and then sang and jumped about again, like a distracted creature. It was a good while before I could make him speak to me, or tell me what was the matter; but when he came a little to himself, he told me that it was his father.

This action put an end to our pursuit of the canoe with the other savages, who were now almost out of sight; and it was happy for us that we did not; for it blew so hard within two hours after, and before they could have got a quarter of their way, and continued blowing so hard all night, and that from the north-west, which was against them, that I could not suppose their boat could live, or that they ever reached their own coast.

But to return to Friday, he was so busy about his father, that I could not find in my heart to take him off for some time: but after I thought he could leave him a little, I called him to me, and he came jumping and laughing, and pleased to the highest extreme; then I asked him if he had given his father any bread. He shook his head, and said, ‘None: ugly dog eat all up self’; so I gave him a cake of bread out of a little pouch I carried on purpose; I also gave him a dram for himself, but he would not taste it, but carried it to his father. I had in my pocket also two or three bunches of my raisins, so I gave him a handful of them for his father. He had no sooner given his father these raisins, but I saw him come out of the boat, and run away, as if he had been bewitched, he ran at such a rate; for he was the swiftest fellow of his foot that ever I saw; I say, he ran at such a rate, that he was out of sight, as it were, in an instant; and though I called after him, it was all one, away he went, and in a quarter of an hour I saw him come back again, though not so fast as he went; and as he came nearer, I found his pace was slacker because he had something in his hand.

When he came up to me, I found he had been all the way home for an earthen jug to bring his father some fresh water, and that he had got two more cakes or loaves of bread: the bread he gave me, but the water he carried to his father: however, as I was very thirsty too, I took a little sup of it. This water revived his father more than all the rum or spirits I had given him; for he was just fainting with thirst.

When his father had drunk, I called to him to know if there was any water left; he said yes; and I bade him give it to the poor Spaniard, who was in as much want of it as his father; and I sent one of the cakes, that Friday brought, to the Spaniard too, who was indeed very weak, and was reposing himself upon a green place under the shade of a tree; and whose limbs were also very stiff, and very much swelled with the rude bandage he had been tied with. When I saw that upon Friday's coming to him with the water, he sat up and drank, and took the bread, and began to eat, I went to him and gave him a handful of raisins; he looked up in my face with all the tokens of gratitude and thankfulness that could appear in any countenance; but he was so weak, notwithstanding he had so exerted himself in the fight, that he could not stand up upon his feet; he tried to do it two or three times, but was really not able, his ankles were so swelled and so painful to him; so I bade him sit still, and caused Friday to rub his ankles, and bathe them with rum.

I observed the poor affectionate creature every two minutes, or perhaps less, all the while he was here, turned his head about, to see if his father was in the same place and posture as he left him sitting; and at last he found he was not to be seen; at which he started up, and without speaking a word, flew with that swiftness to him, that one could scarce perceive his feet to touch the ground as he went. But when he came, he only found he had laid himself down to ease his limbs; so Friday came back to me immediately, and I then spoke to the Spaniard to let Friday help him up if he could, and lead him to the boat, and then he should carry him to our dwelling, where I would take care of him. But Friday, a lusty strong fellow, took the Spaniard up upon his back, and carried him away to the boat, and set him down softly upon the side of the canoe, with his feet in the inside of it, and then lifted him quite in, and set him close to his father, and immediately stepping out again, launched the boat off, and paddled it along the shore faster than I could walk, though the wind blew pretty hard too; so he brought them both safe into our creek; and leaving them in the boat, runs away to fetch the other canoe. As he passed me, I spoke to him, and asked him whither he went; he told me, ‘Go fetch more boat’; so away he went like the wind; for sure never man or horse ran like him, and he had the other canoe in the creek, almost as soon as I got to it by land; so he wafted me over, and then went to help our new guests out of the boat, which he did; but they were neither of them able to walk; so that poor Friday knew not what to do.

To remedy this, I went to work in my thought, and calling to Friday to bid them sit down on the bank while he came to me, I soon made a kind of hand-barrow to lay them on, and Friday and I carried them up both together upon it between us. But when we got them to the outside of our wall or fortification, we were at a worse loss than before; for it was impossible to get them over; and I was resolved not to break it down: so I set to work again; and Friday and I, in about two hours' time, made a very handsome tent, covered with old sails, and above that with boughs of trees, being in the space without our outward fence, and between that and the grove of young wood which I had planted: and here we made them two beds of such things as I had, with blankets laid upon it to lie on, and another to cover them on each bed.