 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California, Winter 2006. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Chapter 15 Friday's Education After I had been returned two or three days to my castle, I thought that in order to bring Friday off from his horrid way of feeding and from the relish of a cannibal stomach, I ought to let him taste other flesh, so I took him out with me one morning to the woods. I went, indeed, intending to kill a kid out of my own flock and bring it home and dress it. But as I was going, I saw a she-goat lying down in the shade and two young kids sitting by her. I catched hold of Friday. Hold, said I, stand still and made signs to him not to stir. Immediately I presented my piece, shot and killed one of the kids. The poor creature, who had, at a distance, indeed, seen me kill the savage, his enemy, but did not know, nor could imagine how it was done, was sensibly surprised, trembled and shook and looked so amazed that I thought he would have sunk down. He did not see the kid I shot at or perceive I had killed it, but ripped up his waistcoat to feel whether he was not wounded and, as I found presently, thought I was resolved to kill him. For he came and kneeled down to me and embracing my knees said a great many things I did not understand. But I could easily see the meaning was to pray to me, not to kill him. I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him no harm and taking him up by the hand laughed at him and pointing to the kid, which I had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which he did. And while he was wondering and looking to see how the creature was killed, I loaded my gun again. By and by I saw a great fowl like a hawk sitting upon a tree within shot. So, to let Friday understand a little what I would do, I called him to me again, pointed at the fowl, which was indeed a parrot, though I thought it had been a hawk. I say pointing to the parrot and to my gun and to the ground under the parrot to let him see I would make it fall, I made him understand that I would shoot and kill that bird. Accordingly, I fired and bet him look and immediately he saw the parrot fall. He stood like one frightened again, notwithstanding all I had said to him. And I found he was the more amazed because he did not see me put anything into the gun, but thought that there must be some wonderful fund of death and destruction in that thing, able to kill man, beast, bird, or anything near or far off. And the astonishment this created in him was such as could not wear off for a long time. And I believe if I would have let him, he would have worshiped me and my gun. As for the gun itself, he would not so much as touch it for several days, but he would speak to it and talk to it as if it had answered him when he was by himself, which, as I afterwards learned of him, was to desire it not to kill him. Well, after his astonishment was a little over at this, I pointed to him to run and fetch the bird I had shot, which he did, but stayed some time for the parrot, not quite being dead, had fluttered away a good distance from the place where she fell. However, he found her, took her up and brought her to me, and as I had perceived his ignorance about the gun before, I took this advantage to charge the gun again, and not to let him see me do it, that I might be ready for any other mark that might present, but nothing more offered at that time. So, I brought home the kid, and the same evening I took the skin off and cut it out as well as I could, and having a pot fit for that purpose, I boiled or stewed some of the flesh and made some very good broth. After I had begun to eat some, I gave some to my man, who seemed very glad of it and liked it very well, but that which was strangest to him was to see me eat salt with it. He made a sign to me that the salt was not good to eat, and putting a little into his own mouth, he seemed to nauseate it and would spit and sputter at it, washing his mouth with fresh water after it. On the other hand, I took some meat into my mouth without salt, and I pretended to spit and sputter for want of salt, as much as he had done at the salt. But it would not do, he would never care for salt with meat or in his broth, at least not for a great while, and then but a very little. Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was resolved to feast him the next day by roasting a piece of the kid. This I did by hanging it before the fire on a string, as I had seen many people do in England, setting two poles up, one on each side of the fire and across the top, and tying the string to the cross-stick, letting the meat turn continually. This Friday admired very much, but when he came to taste the flesh, he took so many ways to tell me how much he liked it that I could not but understand him, and at last he told me, as well as he could, he would never eat man's flesh anymore, which I was very glad to hear. The next day I set him to work beating some corn out and sifting it in the manner I used to do, as I observed before, and he soon understood how to do it as well as I, especially after he had seen what the meaning of it was, and that it was to make bread of. For after that I let him see me make my bread and bake it, too, and in a little time Friday was able to do all the work for me as well as I could do it myself. I began now to consider that having two mounds to feed instead of one, I must provide more ground for my harvest and plant a larger quantity of corn than I used to do, so I marked out a larger piece of land and began the fence in the same manner as before, in which Friday worked not only very willingly and very hard, but did it very cheerfully. And I told him what it was for, that it was for corn to make more bread because he was now with me, and that I might have enough for him and myself, too. He appeared very sensible on that part and let me know that he thought I had much more labor upon me on his account than I had for myself, and that he would work harder for me if I would tell him what to do. This was the pleasantest year of all the life I led in this place. Friday began to talk pretty well and understand the names of almost everything I had occasion to call for, and of every place I had to send him to, and talked a great deal to me so that, in short, I began now to have some use for my tongue again, which indeed I had very little occasion for before. Besides the pleasure of talking to him, I had a singular satisfaction in the fellow himself. His simple, unfaigned honesty appeared to me more and more every day, and I began really to love the creature, and on his side I believed he loved me more than it was possible for him ever to love anything before. I had a mind once to try if he had any inclination for his own country again, and having taught him English so well that he could answer me almost any question, I asked him whether the nation that he belonged to never conquered in battle, at which he smiled and said, Yes, yes, we always fight the better. That is, he meant always get the better and fight. And so we began the following discourse. Master, you always fight the better? How came you to be taken prisoner then, Friday? Friday. My nation beat much for all that. Master, how beat? If your nation beat them, how came you to be taken? Friday. They many more many than my nation, in the place where me was, they take one, two, three, and me, my nation over beat them in the yonder place where me know was, their my nation take one, two, great thousand. Master, but why did not your side recover you from the hands of your enemies then? Friday. They run one, two, three, and me, and may go in the canoe, my nation have no canoe that time. Master. Well, Friday, and what does your nation do with the men they take? Do they carry them away and eat them as these did? Friday. Yes, my nation eat man's too. Eat all up. Master, where do they carry them? Friday. Go to other place where they think. Master, do they come hither? Friday. Yes, yes, they come hither, come other else place. Master, have you been here with them? Friday. Yes, I have been here, points to the northwest side of the island, which it seems was their side. By this I understood that my man Friday had formerly been among the savages who used to come on shore on the farther part of the island, on the same man-eating occasions he was now brought for. And some time later, when I took the courage to carry him to that side, being the same I formally mentioned, he presently knew the place and told me he was there once when they ate up twenty men, two women, and one child. He could not tell twenty in English, but he numbered them by laying so many stones in a row and pointing to me to tell them over. I have told this passage because it introduces what follows, that after this discourse I had with him I asked him how far it was from our island to the shore and whether the canoes were not often lost. He told me there was no danger, no canoes ever lost, but that after a little way out to sea there was a current and wind always one way in the morning, the other in the afternoon. This I understood to be no more than the sets of the tide as going out or coming in, but I afterwards understood it was occasioned by the great draft and reflux of the mighty river Orinoco in the mouth or gulf of which river, as I found afterwards, our island lay, and that this land, which I perceived to be west and northwest, was the great island Trinidad on the north point of the mouth of the river. I asked Friday a thousand questions over the country, the inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and what nations were near. He told me all he knew with the greatest openness imaginable. I asked him the names of the several nations of his sort of people, but could get no other name than caribs. From wints I easily understood that these were the caribies, which are maps placed on the part of America which reaches the mouth of the river Orinoco to Guiana, and onwards to St. Martha. He told me that up a great way beyond the moon that was beyond the setting of the moon, which must be west from their country, there dwelt white bearded men like me and pointed to my great whiskers, which I mentioned before, and that they had killed much mans. That was his word. By all which I understood he meant the Spaniards, whose cruelties in America had been spread over the whole country and were remembered by all the nations from father to son. I inquired if he could tell me how I might go from this island and get among those white men. He told me, yes, yes, you may go in too canoe. I could not understand what he meant or make him describe to me what he meant by too canoe until at last, with great difficulty, I found he meant it must be a large boat as big as two canoes. This part of Friday's discourse I began to relish very well and from this time I entertained some hopes that one time or another I might find an opportunity to make my escape from this place and that this poor savage might be a means to help me. During the long time that Friday had now been with me and that he began to speak to me and understand me, I was not wanting to lay a foundation of religious knowledge in his mind, particularly I asked him one time who made him. The creature did not understand me at all but thought I had asked who was his father, but I took it up by another handle and asked him who made the sea, the ground we walked on and the hills in the woods. He told me it was one binamaki that lived beyond all. He could describe nothing of this great person but that he was very old, much older, he said than the sea or land, than the moon or the stars. I asked him if this old person had made all things, why did not all things worship him? He looked very grave and with a perfect look of innocence said all things say oh to him. I asked him if the people who die in his country went away anywhere. He said yes, they all went to binamaki. Then I asked him whether those they eat up went thither too. He said yes. From these things I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the true God. I told him that the great maker of all things lived up there, pointing up towards heaven, that he governed the world by the same power and providence by which he made it, that he was omnipotent and could do everything for us, give everything to us, take everything from us and thus by degrees I opened his eyes. He listened with great attention and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ being sent to redeem us and of the manner of making our prayers to God and his being able to hear us even in heaven. He told me one day that if our God could hear us, up beyond the sun, he must needs be a greater God than there binamaki who lived but a little way off and yet could not hear till they went up to the great mountains where he dwelt to speak to them. I asked him if he ever went thither to speak with him. He said no, they never went that way that were young men. None went thither, but the old men whom he called their uwakaki, that is as I made him explain to me their religious or clergy, and that they went to say, oh, so he called saying prayers and then came back and told them what binamaki said. By this I observed that there is a priestcraft even among the most blinded ignorant pagans in the world and the policy of making a secret of religion in order to preserve the veneration of the people to the clergy not only to be found in the Roman but perhaps all religions in the world even among the most brutish and barbarous savages. I endeavored to clear up this fraud to my man Friday and told him three tenths of their old men going up to the mountains to say, oh, to their god binamaki was a cheat. And they're bringing word from thence what he said was much more so that if they met with any answer or speak with anyone there it must be an evil spirit. And then I entered into a long discourse with him about the evil, the origin of him his rebellion against God his enmity to man, the reason of it his settling himself up in the dark parts of the world to be worshipped instead of God and as God and the many stratagems he made use of to delude mankind to their ruin how he had a secret access to our passions and to our affections to our inclinations so as to cause us even to be our own tempters and run upon our destruction by our own choice. I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his mind about the devil as it was about the being of God. Nature assisted all my arguments to evidence to him even the necessity of a great first cause an overruling governing power a secret directing providence and of the equity and justice of paying homage to him that made us and the like. But there appeared nothing of this kind in the notion of an evil spirit of his origin, his being, his nature and above all his inclination to do evil and to draw us in to do so too. And the poor creature puzzled me once in such a manner by a question merely natural and innocent that I scarce knew what to say to him I had been talking a great deal to him of the power of God, his omnipotence his aversion to sin his being a consuming fire to the workers of iniquity how as he had made us all he could destroy us all and all the world in a moment and he listened with great seriousness to me all the while. After this I had been telling him how the devil was God's enemy in the hearts of men and used all his malice and skill to defeat the good designs of providence and to ruin the kingdom of Christ in the world and the like. Well says Friday but you say God is so strong so great is he not much strong much might as the devil yes yes as I Friday God is stronger than the devil God is above the devil and therefore we pray to God to tread him down under our feet and enable us to resist his temptations and quench his fiery darts but says he again if God much stronger much might as the wicked devil why God no kill devil so make him know more do wicked I was strangely surprised at this question and after all though I was now an old man yet I was but a young doctor and ill qualified for a chaos or a solver of difficulties and at first I could not tell what to say and so I pretended not to hear him and ask him what he said but he was too earnest for an answer to forget his question so that he repeated it in the very same broken words as above by this time I had recovered myself a little and I said God will at last punish him severely he is reserved for the judgment and is to be cast into the bottomless pit to dwell with everlasting fire this did not satisfy Friday but he returns upon me repeating my words reserve at last you know understand but why not kill the devil now why not kill great ago you may as well ask me why God does not kill you or me when we do wicked things here that offend him we are preserved to repent and be pardoned he mused sometime on this well well says he mighty affectionately that well so you, I, devil all wicked all preserve repent God pardon all here I was run down again by him to the last degree and it was a testimony to me how the mere notions of nature though they will guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of God and of a worship or homage due to the supreme being of God as the consequence of our nature yet nothing but divine revelation can form the knowledge of Jesus Christ and of redemption purchased for us of a mediator of the new covenant and of an intercessor at the footstool of God's throne I say nothing but a revelation from heaven can form these in the soul and that therefore the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I mean the word of God and the spirit of God promised for the guide and sanctifier of his people are the absolutely necessary instructors of the souls of men and the saving knowledge of God and the means of salvation I therefore diverted the present discourse between me and my man rising up hastily as upon some great occasion of going out then sending him for something a good way off I seriously prayed to God that he would enable me to instruct savingly this poor savage assisting by his spirit the heart of the poor ignorant creature to receive the light of the knowledge of God in Christ reconciling him to himself and would guide me so to speak to him from the word of God that his conscience might be convinced his eyes opened and his soul saved when he came to me again I entered into a long discourse with him upon the subject of the redemption of man by the Savior of the world and of the doctrine of the gospel preached from heaven that is of repentance towards God and faith in our blessed Lord Jesus I then explained to him as well as I could why our blessed Redeemer took not on him the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham and how for that reason the fallen angels had no share in the redemption that he came only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel I had, God knows more sincerity than knowledge in all the methods I took in this poor creature's instruction and must acknowledge what I believe all that act upon the same principle will find that in laying things open to him I really informed and instructed myself in many things that either I did not know or had not fully considered before but which occurred naturally to my mind upon searching into them for the information of this poor savage and I had more affection in my inquiry after things upon this occasion than ever I felt before so that whether this poor wild wretch was better for me or no I had great reason to be thankful that ever he came to me my grief sat lighter upon me my habitation grew comfortable to me beyond measure and when I reflected that in this solitary life that I had been confined to I had not only been moved to look up to heaven and to seek the hand that had brought me here but was now to be made an instrument under providence to save the life and for I knew the soul of a poor savage and bring him to the true knowledge of religion and of the Christian doctrine that he might know Christ Jesus life eternal I say when I reflected upon all these things a secret joy ran throughout every part of my soul and I frequently rejoiced that ever I was brought to this place which I had so often thought the most dreadful of all afflictions that could possibly have befallen me I continued in this thankful frame of my time and the conversation which employed the hours between Friday and me was such as made the three years which we lived there together perfectly and completely happy if any such thing as complete happiness can be formed in a sub-lunary state this savage was now a good Christian a much better than I though I have reason to hope and bless God for it that we were equally penitent and comforted restored penitence we had here the word of God to read and no farther off from his spirit to instruct then if he had been in England I always applied myself in reading the scripture to let him know as well as I could the meanings of what I read and he again by his serious inquiries and questionings and as I said before a much better scholar in the scripture knowledge than I should ever have been by my own mirror private reading another thing I cannot refrain from observing here also from experience in this retired part of my life that is how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it is that the knowledge of God and of the doctrine of salvation by Christ Jesus is so plainly laid down in the word of God so easy to be received and understood that as the bear reading the scripture made me capable of understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on to the great work of sincere repentance for my sins and laying hold of a savior for life to a stated reformation in practice and obedience to all God's commands and this without any teacher or instructor I mean human so the same plain instruction sufficiently served to the enlightening of this savage creature and bringing him to be such a Christian as I have known few equal to him in my life as to all the disputes, wrangling strife and contention which have happened in the world about religion whether niceties and doctrines or schemes of church government they were all perfectly useless to us and for ought I can yet see they have been so to the rest of the world we had the sure guide the word of God and we had comfortable views of the spirit of God teaching and instructing by his word leading us into all truth and making us both willing and obedient to the instruction of his word and I cannot see the least use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed points of religion which have made such confusion in the world would have been to us if we could have obtained it but I must go on with the historical part of things and take every part in its order after Friday and I became more intimately acquainted and that he could understand almost all I said to him and speak pretty fluently though in broken English to me I acquainted him with history or at least so much of it as related to my coming to this place how I had lived here and how long I let him into the mystery for such it was to him of gunpowder and bullet and taught him how to shoot I gave him a knife which he was wonderfully delighted with and I made him a belt with a frog hanging to it such as in England we wear and in the frog and instead of a hanger I gave him a hatchet which was not only as good a weapon in some cases but much more useful upon other occasions I described to him the country of Europe particularly England which I came from how we lived, how we worshiped God how we behaved to one another and how we traded in ships to all parts of the world I gave him an account of the wreck which I had been on board of and showed him as near as I could the place where she lay but she was all beaten in pieces before and gone I showed him the ruins of our boat which we lost when we escaped and which I could not stir the whole strength then but was now fallen almost to pieces upon seeing this boat Friday stood amusing a great while and said nothing I asked him what it was he studied upon at last says he me see such boat like come to place at my nation I did not understand him a good while at last when I had examined further into it I understood by him that a boat such as that had been came on shore upon the country where he lived that is as he explained it was driven thither by stress of weather I presently imagine that some European ship must have been cast away upon their coast and the boat might get loose and drive ashore but was so dull that I never once thought of men making their escape from a wreck thither much less once they might come so I only inquired after a description of the boat Friday described the boat to me well enough but brought me better to understand him when he added with some warmth we saved the white man's from drown then I presently asked if there were any white man's as he called them in the boat yes he said the boat full of white man's I asked him how many he told upon his fingers seventeen I asked him then what became of them he told me they live, they dwell at my nation this put new thoughts into my head for I presently imagine that these might be the men belonging to the ship that was cast away in the sight of my island as I now called it and who after the ship was struck on the rock and they saw her inevitably lost had saved themselves in their boat and were landed upon that wild shore among the savages upon this I inquired of him more critically what was become of them he assured me they still lived there that they had been there about four years that the savages left them alone and gave them victuals to live on I asked him how it came to pass that they did not kill them he said no, no they make brother with them that is as I understood him a truce and then he added they no eat men's but when make the war fight that is to say they never eat any men but such as come to fight with them and are taken in battle it was after this some considerable time that upon the top of the hill at the east side of the island from Wentz as I have said I had in a clear day discovered the main or continent of America Friday the weather being very serene looks very earnestly towards the mainland and in a kind of surprise falls a jumping and dancing and calls out to me for I was at some distance from him I asked him what was the matter oh joy says he oh glad there see my country there my nation I observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in his face and his eyes sparkled and his countenance discovered a strange earnestness as if he had a mind to be in his own country again this observation of mine put a great many thoughts into me which made me at first not so easy about my new man Friday as I was before and I made no doubt but that if Friday could get back to his own nation again he would not only forget all his religion but all his obligation to me and would be forward enough to give his countrymen an account of me and come back and perhaps with a hundred of them make a feast upon me at which he might be as merry as he used to be with those of his enemies when they were taken in war but I wronged the poor honest creature very much for which I was very sorry afterwards however as my jealousy increased and held some weeks I was a little more circumspect and not so familiar and kind to him as before in which I was certainly wrong too the honest grateful creature having no thought about it but what consisted with the best principles both as a religious Christian and as a grateful friend as appeared afterwards to my full satisfaction while my jealousy of him lasted you may be sure I was every day pumping him to see if he would discover any of the new thoughts which I suspected were in him but I found everything he said was so honest and so innocent that I could find nothing to nourish my suspicion and in spite of all my uneasiness he made me at last entirely his own again nor did he in the least perceive that I was uneasy and therefore I could not suspect him of deceit 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 you not wish yourself in your own country your own nation yes you said, I be much oh glad to be at my own nation what would you do there, said I would you turn wild again eat men's flesh again and be as 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 cornbread 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 that they learned much of the bearded man's that came in the boat then I asked him if he would go back to them he smiled at that and said that 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 love much 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 the 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 these bearded men who I may no doubt were Spangards and 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 alone and without help so after some days I took Friday to work again by way of discourse I would give him a boat to go back to his own nation and, accordingly, I carried 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 water I brought it out, showed it to him and we both went into it I found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it and would make it go almost swift 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 was too small to go so far I then told him I had a bigger so the next day I went to the place where the first boat lay which I had made but which I could not get into the water he said that was big enough but then, as I had taken no care to it, it had lain there two or three and twenty years the sun had so split and dried it that it was rotten Friday told me such a boat would do very well and would carry much enough viddle, drink, bread this was his way of talking end of chapter 15 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California winter 2006 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe chapter 16 rescue of prisoners from cannibals upon the hull I was by this time so fixed upon my design of going over with him to the continent that I told him we would go and make one as big as that and he should go home in it he answered not one word looked very grave and sad I asked him what was the matter with him he asked me again 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 says he repeating the words several times why send Friday home away to my nation why Friday did not you say you wished you were there yes, yes says he wish we both there no wish Friday there no master there 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 man's good, sober, tame man's you tell them no God pray God and live new life last Friday says I thou knowest not what thou sayest I am but an ignorant man myself yes, yes says he you you teach me good you teach 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 and gives it to me what must I do with this says I to him you take kill Friday says he what must kill you for says 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 stand 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 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 could 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 doing them good a thing which as I had no notion of myself so I had not the least thought or intention or desire but still I found a strong inclination to attempting my escape founded on the supposition gathered from the discourse that there were 17 bearded men there and therefore without any more delay I went to work with Friday to find out a great proper tree to fell and make a large piragua or canoe to undertake the voyage there were trees enough in the island to have built a little fleet not of piraguas or canoes but even of good large vessels but the main thing I looked at was this to get one so near the water that we might launch it when it was made to avoid the mistake I committed at first at last Friday pitched upon a tree for I found he knew much better than I what kind of wood was fittest for it can I tell to this day what wood to call that tree we cut down except that it was very like the tree we called fustic or between that and the Nicaragua wood for it was much of the same color and smell Friday wished to burn the hollow or cavity of this tree out to make it for a boat but I showed him how to cut it with tools which after I had showed him how to use very handily and in about a month's hard labor we finished it and made it very handsome especially when with our axes which I 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 though she was so big it amazed me to see with what dexterity and how swift my man Friday could 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 we venture over in her very well so great blow wind however I had a further design that he knew nothing of and that was to make a mast in a sail and to fit her with an anchor in cable as to the 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 were 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 not but 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 stitching for want of needles I at length made a three cornered ugly thing like what we call in England a shoulder a mutton sail to go with a boom and a short little sprit at the top just as usually our ship's longboat sail with and such as I best knew how to manage as it was one such as I had in 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 that is rigging and fitting my masts to the sails for I finished them very complete making a small stay and a sail or forsel to assist it if we should turn to windward and what was more than all I fixed a rudder to the stern to steer her with I was but a bungling ship right yet as I knew the usefulness and even necessity of such a thing I applied myself with so much 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 labor as making the boat after all this was done I had my man Friday to teach us what belonged to the navigation of my boat though he knew very well how to paddle a canoe he knew nothing of what belonged to a sail and a rudder he was most amazed when he saw me work the boat to and again in the sea by the rudder and how the sail jibed and filled this way or that way as the course we sailed changed I say when he saw this he stood like one astonished and amazed however with a little use I made all these things and he became an expert sailor except that of the compass I could make him understand very little on the other hand as there was very little cloudy weather seldom or never any fogs in those parts there was the less occasion for a compass seeing the stars were always to be seen at night and the shore by day except in the rainy seasons and then nobody cared to stir God either by land or sea I was now entered on the 7 and 20th year of my captivity in this place though the three last 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 kept the anniversary of my landing here with the same thankfulness to God for his mercies as at first and if I had such cause of acknowledgement at first I had much more so now having such additional testimonies of the care of Providence over me and the great hopes I had of being effectually and speedily delivered for I had an invincible impression upon my thoughts that my deliverance was at hand and that I should not be another year in this place I went on however with my husbandry digging planting and 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 we 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 it at the end 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 months 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 fort night'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 bid him to go to the seashore and see if he could find a turtle or a 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 foot on and before I had time to speak to him he cries out to me oh master oh master oh sorrow oh bad what's the matter Friday says I oh yonder there says he one two three canoes one two three by this way of speaking I concluded there were six but on inquiry I found there were 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 back to look for him and would cut him in pieces and eat him and the poor fellow trembled so that I scarcely knew what to do with him I comfort 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 fright 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 drum of rum and gave him for I had been so good a husband of my run that I had a great deal left when we had drunk it I made him take the two pieces which we always carried and loaded 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 of 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 had 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 close 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 drama 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 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 guns 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 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 could come within one 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 further 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 it is 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 who as to me were innocent and whose barbarous customs were their own disaster being in them a token indeed of God's having left them with the other nations of that part of the world to such stupidity and to such inhuman courses but did not call me to take upon me to be a judge of their actions much less an executioner of his justice that whenever he thought fit would take the cause into his own hands and by national vengeance punish them as a people for national crimes but that in the meantime it was none of my business that it was true Friday might justify it because he was a declared enemy in a state of war with those very particular people and it was lawful for him to attack them but I could not say the same with regard to myself 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 skirts 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 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 whom he said they would kill next and this fired the very soul within me he told me it was not one of their nation but one of the bearded men he had told me of that came to their country in the boat I was filled with horror at the very naming of 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 with flags or things like rushes and that he was an European and had clothes on there was another tree and a little thicket beyond it about 50 yards nearer to them than the place where I was going a little way about I saw I might come at undiscovered and that then I should be within half a shot of them so I withheld my passion though I was indeed enraged to the highest degree and going back about 20 paces I got behind some bushes which held all the way till I came to the other tree and then came to a little rising ground which gave me a full view of them at the distance of about 80 yards I had now not a moment to lose for 19 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 stooping 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 following 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 to do the like then asking him if he was ready he said yes then fire at them said I and at the same moment I fired also Friday took his aim so much better than I that on the one 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 that were not hurt jumped upon their feet but did not immediately know which way to run or which way to look for they knew not from wence 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 following piece and Friday did the like he saw me cock and present he did the same 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 as our pieces were now loaded with what I call swan shot or small pistol bullets we found only two drop but so many were wounded that they ran about yelling and screaming like mad creatures all bloody and most of them miserably wounded where of three more fell down 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 which he did with a great deal of courage and 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 loaded with arms as I was I made directly towards the poor victim who was as I said lying upon the beach or shore between the place where they sat and the sea the two butchers that were going to work with him had left him at the surprise of our first fire and fled in a terrible fright to the seaside and had jumped into a canoe three more of the rest made the same way I turned to Friday and bade him step forwards and fire at them he understood me immediately and running about 40 yards to be nearer to them he shot at them and I thought he had killed them all for I saw 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 ended 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 flags that bound the poor victim and loosing his hands and feet I lifted him up and asked him in the Portuguese tongue what he was he answered in Latin Cristianus but he was so weak and faint I took my bottle out of my pocket and gave it to 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 Espanol 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 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 vigor 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 much frightened with the noise of our pieces that they fell down for mere 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 the other two fell with a fright I kept my peace 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 he first fired and fetched the arms which lay there 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 weapon that was to have killed him before if I had not prevented it the Spaniard who was as bold and brave as could be imagined though weak the Indian a good while and had cut 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 ringing my sword out of his hand when the Spaniard though under most 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 following 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 two who were left in the canoe which three in the canoe with one wounded that we knew not whether he died or no were all that escaped our hands of one and twenty the account of the hole is as follows three killed at our first shot from the tree two killed at the next shot two killed by Friday in the boat two killed by Friday of those at first wounded one killed by Friday in the wood three killed by the Spaniard four killed being found dropped here and there of the wounds or killed by Friday and his chase of them escaped in the boat were of one wounded if not dead twenty one in all those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of gunshot and though Friday made two or three shots at them I did not find that he hit any of them Friday would feign have had me take one of their canoes and pursue them and indeed I was very anxious about their escape lest carrying home news to their people they should come back perhaps with two or three hundred of the canoes and devour us by mere multitude so I consented to pursue them by sea and running to 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 lie there bound hand and foot as the Spaniard was for slaughter and almost dead with fear not knowing what was the matter 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 the twisted flags or rushes which they had bound him with 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 bound 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 wretched 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 any one to tears to see how Friday kissed him and embraced him hugged him, cried laughed, hallowed jumped about, danced sang then cried again, rung 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 of his father it is not easy for me to express how it moved me to see what ecstasy and filial affection had worked in this poor savage at the sight of his father and of his being delivered from death nor indeed can I describe half the extravagances of his affection after this for he went into the boat and out of the boat a great many times when he went into him he would sit down by him open his breast and hold his father's head close to his bosom for many minutes together to nourish it then he took his arms and ankles which were numb and stiff with the binding and chafed and rubbed them with his hands and I, perceiving what the case was gave him some rum out of my bottle to rub with them which did him a great deal of good this affair 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 be got a quarter of their way and continue blowing so hard all night and that from the northwest 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 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 I then 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 two or three bunches of raisins so I gave him a handful 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 for he was the swiftest fellow on his feet that I ever 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 and hallowed out to 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 slacker because he had something in his hand when he came up to me I found he had been quite home for an earthen jug or pot to put some fresh water for his father in 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 of it the water revived his father more than all the rum or spirits I had given him for he was fainting with thirst when his father had drunk I called to him to know if there was any water left he said yes he was a poor Spaniard who was in as much one of it as the 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 he looked 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 was so weak 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 bade them with rum as he had done his fathers I observed the poor affectionate creature every two minutes or perhaps less all the while he was here turned his head about to see that there was in the same place imposter as he had 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 presently and then I 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 upon his back and carried him away to the boat and set him down softly upon the side or gunnel of the canoe with his feet on the inside of it and then lifting him quite in he set him close to his father and presently 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 ran away to fetch the other canoe as he passed me I spoke to him and asked him whether he went he told me go fetch more boat so away he went like the wind for sure never man nor horse ran like him and he had the other canoe in the creek almost as soon as I had 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 him sit down on the bank while he came to me I soon made a kind of hand-barrel to lay them on and Friday and I carried them both up together 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 that is of good rice straw with blankets laid upon it to lie on and another to cover them on each bed my island was now peopled and I thought myself very rich in subjects and it was a merry reflection which I frequently made how like a king I looked first of all the whole country was my own property so that I had an undoubted right of dominion secondly my people were perfectly subjected I was absolutely lord and law giver they all owed their lives to me and were ready to lay down their lives if there had been occasion for it for me it was remarkable too I had but three subjects and they were of three different religions my man Friday was a protestant his father was a pagan and a cannibal and the Spaniard was a papist however I allowed liberty of conscience throughout my dominions but this is by the way as soon as I had secured my two week rescued prisoners and given them shelter in a place to rest them upon I began to think of making some provision for them and the first thing I did I ordered Friday to take a yearling goat out of my particular flock to be killed when I cut off the kind quarter and chopping it into small pieces I set Friday to work to boiling and stewing it and made them a very good dish I assure you of flesh and broth and as I cooked it without doors for I made no fire within my inner wall so I carried it all into the new tent and having set a table there for them I sat down and ate my own dinner also with them as well as I could cheer them and encourage them Friday was my interpreter especially to his father and indeed to the Spaniard too for the Spaniards spoke the language of the savages pretty well after we had dined or rather supped I ordered Friday to take one of the canoes and go fetch our muskets and other firearms which for one of time we had left upon the place of battle and the next day I ordered him to go and bury the dead bodies of the savages which lay open to the sun and presently be offensive I also ordered him to bury the horrid remains of their barbarous feast which I could not think of doing myself nay I could not bear to see them if I went that way all which he punctually performed and effaced the very appearance of the savages being there so that when I went again I could scarce know where it was by the corner of the wood pointing to the place I then began to enter into a little conversation with my two new subjects and first I set Friday to inquire of his father what he thought of the escape of the savages in that canoe and whether we might expect a return of them with the power too great for us to resist his first opinion was that the savages in the boat never could live out the storm which blew that night they went off but must of necessity be drowned or driven south to those other shores where they were sure to be devoured as they were to be drowned if they were cast away but as to what they would do if they came safe on shore he said he knew not but it was his opinion that they were so dreadfully frightened with the manner of their being attacked and the noise and the fire that he believed they would tell the people they were all killed by thunder and lightning not by the hand of man and that the two which appeared that is Friday and I were two heavenly spirits or furies come down to destroy them and not men with weapons this he said he knew because he heard them all cry out so in their language one to another for it was impossible for them to conceive that a man could dart fire and speak thunder and kill at a distance without lifting up the hand as was done now and this old savage was in the right for as I understood since by other hands the savages never attempted to go over to the island afterwards they were so terrified with the accounts given by these four men for it seems they did escape to see that they believed whoever went to that enchanted island would be destroyed with fire from the gods this however I knew not and therefore was under continual apprehensions for a good while and kept always upon my guard with all my army for as there were now four of us I would have ventured upon a hundred of them fairly in the open field at any time end of chapter 16