Part 14 (1/2)

I observed, that the ta over the creek than the felloas that fled frohts, and indeed irresistibly, that noas et a servant, and perhaps a companion, or assistant, and that I was called plainly by Providence to save this poor creature's life I iot down the ladders with all possible expedition, fetched uns, for they were both at the foot of the ladder, as I observed above; and getting up again with the same haste to the top of the hill, I crossed towards the sea; and having a very short cut, and all down hill, clapped myself in the way between the pursuers and the pursued, hallooing aloud to hi back, was at first perhaps as hted at me as at them; but I beckoned with my hand to him to come back; and in the meantime I slowly advanced towards the two that followed; then rushi+ng at once upon the foremost, I knocked him doith the stock of my piece; I was loath to fire, because I would not have the rest hear, though at that distance it would not have been easily heard; and being out of sigh of the smoke too, they would not have easily knohat toknocked this fellon, the other who pursued hihtened, and I advanced apace towards him; but as I came nearer, I perceived presently he had a bow and arrow, and was fitting it to shoot at me; so I was then necessitated to shoot at him first; which I did, and killed hie who fled, but had stopped, though he saw both his enehted with the fire and noise of my piece, that he stood stock-still, and neither cah he seemed rather inclined to fly still, than to cons to come forward, which he easily understood, and caain, and then a little farther, and stopped again; and I could then perceive that he stood tre, as if he had been taken prisoner, and had just been to be killed, as his two eneave hiement that I could think of; and he ca down every ten or twelve steps, in token of acknowledg his life I smiled at him, and looked pleasantly, and beckoned to hith he caround, and laid his head upon the ground, and taking me by the foot, set my foot upon his head This, it see to be my slave for ever I took hied him all I could But there was e, whom I knocked doas not killed, but stunned with the blow, and began to coe, that he was not dead: upon this he spoke soh I could not understand theht they were pleasant to hear, for they were the first sound of a man's voice that I had heard, my own excepted, for above five-and-twenty years But there was no tie, as knocked down, recovered hiround; and I perceived that an to be afraid; but when I saw that, I presented my other piece at the e, for so I call hi naked in a belt by my side: so I did: he no sooner had it, but he runs to his enemy, and at one blow cut off his head so cleverly, no executioner in Gerht very strange for one, who, I had reason to believe, never saord in his life before, except their oooden swords: however, it seems, as I learnt afterwards, they make their wooden swords so sharp, so heavy, and the wood is so hard, that they will cut off heads even with them, nay, and arms, and that at one blow too When he had done this, he coht estures, which I did not understand, laid it doith the head of the savage that he had killed, just before me

But that which astonished him most was, to kno I had killed the other Indian so far off; so pointing to hio, as well as I could When he ca at him; turned him first on one side, then on t'other; looked at the wound the bullet had made, which it seereat quantity of blood had followed; but he had bled inwardly, for he was quite dead Then he took up his bow and arrows, and cao away, and beckoned hiht coned to ht not he seen by the rest, if they followed; and so I ain to him to do so He fell to work, and in an instant he had scraped a hole in the sand with his hands, big enough to bury the first in, and then dragged him into it, and covered him, and did so also by the other; I believe he had buried the him away, I carried him not to my castle, but quite away to my cave, on the farther part of the island; so I did not let my drearove for shelter

Here I gave hiht of water, which I found he was indeed in great distress for, by his running; and having refreshed hi to a place where I had laid a great parcel of rice-straw, and a blanket upon it, which I used to sleep upon myself sometimes; so the poor creature lay down, and went to sleep

He was a co lie, tall, and well-shaped, and, as I reckon, about twenty-six years of age He had a very good countenance, not a fierce and surly aspect, but see very manly in his face, and yet he had all the sweetness and softness of an European in his countenance too, especially when he s and black, not curled like wool; his forehead very high and large, and a great vivacity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes The colour of his skin was not quite black, but very tawny, and yet not of an ugly yellow nauseous tawny, as the Brasilians and Virginians, and other natives of Aht kind of a dun olive colour, that had in it soh not very easy to describe His face was round and pluood mouth, thin lips, and his teeth fine, well-set, and white as ivory

After he had sluain, and cooats, which I had in the enclosure just by: when he espied ain upon the ground, with all the possible signs of an huestures to shew it At last he lays his head flat upon the ground, close to my foot, and sets my other foot upon his head, as he had done before; and after this, ns to inable, to letas he lived I understood his, and let him knoas very well pleased with hian to speak to him, and teach him to speak to me; and first, I made him know his name should be Friday, which was the day I saved his life; and I called hiht him to say Master, and then let hiht hiave him some milk in an earthen pot, and let hiave him a cake of bread to do the like, which he quickly coood for hiht; but as soon as it was day, I beckoned hiive hilad, for he was stark-naked As ent by the place where he had buried the two men, he pointed exactly to the spot, and shewed ns to ain, and eat thery, expressed hts of it, and beckoned with reat submission I then led hione, and pulling out lass, I looked, and saw plainly the place where they had been, but no appearance of theone, and had left their two comrades behind them, without, any search after the now e, and consequentlyhim the sword in his hand, with the bow and arrows at his back, which I found he could use very dexterously, un for me, and I two for myself, and ae marched to the place where these creatures had been; for I had a ence of them When I came to the place, my very blood ran chill in my veins, and my heart sunk within me at the horror of the spectacle: indeed it was a dreadful sight, at least it was so toof it: the place was covered with hureat pieces of flesh left here and there, half-eaten, led, and scorched; and, in short, all the tokens of the triu there, after a victory over their enemies I saw three skulls, five hands, and the bones of three or four legs and feet, and abundance of other parts of the bodies; and Friday, by his signs, ht over four prisoners to feast upon; that three of the to hireat battle between the, whose subjects, it seereat number of prisoners, all which were carried to several places by those that had taken theht, in order to feast upon theht hither

I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and whatever rereat fire upon it, and burn the stomach after some of the flesh, and was still a cannibal in his nature; but I discovered so hts of it, and at the least appearance of it, that he durst not discover it; for I had, by some means, let him know that I would kill him if he offered it

When we had done this, we came back to our castle, and there I fell to work for ave hiunner's chest I mentioned, and which I found in the wreck; and which, with a little alteration, fitted hioat's skin as well as ood tailor; and I gave him a cap, which I had made of a hare-skin, very convenient, and fashi+onable enough: and thus he was dressed, for the present, tolerably well, and hty as he pleased to see himself almost as well clothed as his s at first; wearing the draas very aard to hialled his shoulders and the inside of his ar the hith he took to them very well

The next day after I caan to consider where I should lodge hiht do well for him, and yet be perfectly easy myself, I made a little tent for him in the vacant place between my two fortifications, in the inside of the last, and in the outside of the first: and as there was a door or entrance there into my cave, I made a formal framed door-case, and a door to it of boards, and set it up in the passage, a little within the entrance: and causing the door to open on the inside, I barred it up in the night, taking in my ladders too; so that Friday could no way co soover, that it must needs awakenpoles, covering all ain laid cross with sreat thickness with the rice strahich was strong like reeds; and at the hole or place which was left to go in or out by the ladder, I had placed a kind of trapdoor, which if it had been attempted on the outside, would not have opened at all, but would have fallen down, and reat noise; and as to weapons, I took theht

But I needed none of all this precaution; for never , sincere servant than Friday was to ns; perfectly obliging and engaging; his very affections were tied to me, like those of a child to a father; and I dare say, he would have sacrificed his life for the saving ave me of this put it out of doubt; and soon convinced me, that I needed to use no precautions as to ave me occasion to observe, and that onder, that, however it had pleased God in his providence, and in the governreat a part of the world of his creatures the best uses to which their faculties, and the powers of their souls, are adapted; yet that he has bestowed upon them the same powers, the same reason, the saation, the saratitude, sincerity, fidelity, and all the capacities of doing good, and receiving good, that he has given to us; and that when he pleases to offer the these, they are as ready, nay ht uses for which they were bestowed, than we are And this , as the several occasions presented, how h we have these powers enlightened by the great lae of his word, added to our understanding; and why it has pleased God to hide the life saving knowledge froe by this poor savage, would make a much better use of it than we did

Fronty of Providence; and, as it were, arraign the justice of so arbitrary a disposition of things, that should hide that light from some, and reveal it to others, and yet expect a like duty frohts with this conclusion: first, that we do not knohat light and law these should be condemned; but that as God was necessarily, and by the nature of his being, infinitely holy and just, so it could not be, but that if these creatures were all sentenced to absence froht, which, as the Scripture says, was a law to themselves, and by such rules as their consciences would acknowledge to be just, though the foundation was not discovered to us: and, secondly, that still, as we are all clay in the hand of the potter, no vessel could say to him, ”Why hast thou forreatly delighted with hi that was proper to make him useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to make him speak, and understand me when I spake: and he was the aptest scholar that ever was; and particularly was so ent, and so pleased when he could but understand me, or make me understand him, that it was very pleasant to an to be so easy, that I began to say to es, I cared not if I was never to remove from the place while I lived

After I had been two or three days returned toFriday off fro, and froht to let hi to the woods: I went, indeed, intending to kill a kid out of oing, 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 ns 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 ine hoas done, was sensibly surprised, treht he would have sunk down: he did not see the kid I had shot at, or perceive I had killed it, but ripped up his waistcoat to feel if he was not wounded; and, as I found, presently thought I was resolved to kill hi s I did not understand but I could easily see that hiswas to pray me not to kill him

I soon found a way to convince hi hi to the kid which I had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which he did: and while he ondering and looking to see how the creature was killed, I loaded reat fowl, like a hawk, sit upon a tree within shot; so, to let Friday understand a little what I would do, I called hi at the fohich was indeed a parrot, though I thought it had been a hawk: I say, pointing to the parrot, and to round under the parrot, to let him see I would make him fall, I made hily I fired, and bid him look, and ihted again, notwithstanding all that I had said to him; and I found he was theinto the gun; but thought there must be so, able to killnear or far off; for the astonishment this created in hi time; and I believe, if I would have let hiun itself, he would not so much as touch it for several days over; but would speak to it, and talk to it, as if it had answered him, when he was by himself; which, as I afterwards learnt 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 staid so quite dead, had fluttered a good way off from the place where she fell; however, he found her, took her up, and brought her to un before, I took this advantage to charge the gun again, and not let hiht he ready for any otherht ho I took the skin off, and cut it out as well as I could, and having a pot for that purpose, I boiled or stewed soood broth; after I had begun to eat solad of it, and liked it very well; but that which was strangest to hin toa little into his own month, he seemed to nauseate it, and would spit and sputter at it, washi+ng his mouth with fresh water after it On the other hand, I took some meat in my mouth without salt, and I pretended to spit and sputter for want of salt, as fast as he had done at the salt; but it would not do, he would never care for salt with reat while, and then but a very little

Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was resolved to feast hi a piece of the kid: this I did by hanging it before the fire in a string, as I had seentwo poles up, one on each side the fire, and one cross on 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 hoell he liked it, that I could not but understand him; and at last he told lad to hear

The next day I set hi 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 theof 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 an now to consider, that, having two round for er quantity of corn, than I used to do; so I an the fence in the same ly and very hard, but did it very cheerfully; and I told him what it was for, that it was for corn to ht have enough for him and myself too: he appeared very sensible of that part, and let ht I had much more labour upon me on his account, than I had for myself, and that he would work the 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 na I had occasion to call for, and of every place I had to send hian now to have soain, which indeed I had very little occasion for before; that is to say, about speech Besides the pleasure of talking to hiular satisfaction in the fellow hined honesty appeared to an really to love the creature; and on his side, I believe, he lovedbefore

I had ainclination to his own country again; and having learnt hilish so well, that he could answer me almost any questions, I asked hied to never conquered in battle? At which he sht the better;” that is, he an the following discourse ”You always fight the better!” said I: ”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?