Part 15 (1/2)

I had, God knows, e, in all the methods I took for this poor creature's instruction; and e, what I believe all that act upon the sas open to his that either I did not know, or had not fully considered before; but which occurred naturally tointo thee; and I had s upon this occasion, than ever I felt before; so that whether this poor retch was the better for reat reason to be thankful that ever he carew comfortable to me beyond measure; and when I reflected, that in this solitary life, which I had been confined to, I had not only been moved myself to look up to Heaven, and to seek to the Hand that brought me thither, but was now to be made an instruht I knew the soul, of a poor savage, and bring hiion, and of the Christian doctrine, that he ht know Christ Jesus, to knohom is life eternal; I say, when I reflected upon all these things, a secret joy ran through every part of ht to this place, which I had often thought the most dreadful of all afflictions that could possibly have befallen me

In this thankful frame I continued all the remainder of my time; and the conversation which employed the hours between Friday and ether perfectly and co as coe was now a good Christian, a h I have reason to hope, and bless God for it, that ere equally penitent, and comforted restored penitents: we had here the Word of God to read, and no farther off froland

I always appliedthe Scripture, and to let hi of what I read; and he again, by his serious inquiries and questions, made me, as I said before, a e, than I should ever have been byI cannot refrain fro here, also from experience, in this retired part ofit 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 bare reading the Scripture h of reat work of sincere repentance forhold of a Saviour for life and salvation, 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 plain instruction sufficiently served to the enlightening this savage creature, and bringing him to be such a Christian, as I have kno equal to his, strife, and contention, which has happened in the world about religion, whether niceties in doctrines, or scheovernht I can yet see, they have been to all the rest in the world: we had the sure guide to heaven, viz the Word of God; and we had, blessed be God! co and instructing us by his Word, leading us into all truth, andand obedient to His instruction of his Word; and I cannot see the least use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed points in religion, which have made such confusions in the world, would have been to us, if we could have obtained it But I s, and take every part in its order

After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, and that he could understand alh in broken English, to me, I acquainted him with my own story, or at least sointo the place, how I had lived there, and how long: I let hiunpowder and bullets, and taught hiave hihted with; and I land ear hangers in; and in the frog, instead of a hanger, I gave hiood a weapon in some cases, but much more useful upon many occasions

I described to hiland, which I came from; hoe lived, hoorshi+pped God, hoe behaved to one another, and hoe traded in shi+ps to all the parts of the world I gave him an account of the wreck which I had been on board of, and shewed him as near as I could, the place where she lay; but she was all beaten in pieces long before, and quite gone

I shewed him the ruins of our boat, which we lost e escaped, and which I could not stir with th then, but was now fallen al a great while, and said nothing; I asked him what it was he studied upon? At last, says he, ”Me see such boat like coood while; but 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 iined, that some European shi+p ht get loose, and drive ashore; but was so dull, that I never once thought ofescape froht come; so I only inquired after a description of the boat

Friday described the boat to ht me better to understand him, when he added, with some warmth, ”We save the white mans from drown” Then I presently asked him, if there, hite mans, as he called them, in the boat? ”Yes,” he said, ”the boat full of while ers seventeen I asked him then, what became of them? he told me, ”They live, they dwell at ain; for I presently i to the shi+p that was cast away in sight of my island, as I now call it; and who, after the shi+p was struck on the rock, and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved themselves in their boat, and were landed upon that wild shore aes

Upon this I inquired of him more critically, as become of them? He assured me they lived still there, that they had been there about four years, that the savages let theave them victuals to live

I asked him, how it came to pass they did not kill them, and eat them?

He said, ”No, they make brother with them:” that is, as I understood him, a truce: and then he added, ”They eat no ht:” that is to say, they never eat any ht with them, and are taken in battle

It was after this, so on the top of the hill, at the east side of the island, from whence, as I have said, I had in a clear day discovered thevery serene, looks very earnestly towards theand dancing, and calls out to me, for I was at some distance frolad! 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 eagerness, as if he had a ain; and this observation of hts into me; which made me at first not so easy about my new man Friday as I was before; and I et back to his own nation again, he would not only forget all his religion, but all his obligations to ive his countrymen an account of me, and come back, perhaps, with an hundred or two of theht be as merry as he used to be with those of his eneed the poor honest creature very much, for which I was very sorry afterwards: however, as my jealousy increased, and held me some weeks, I was a little more circumspect, and not so familiar and kind to hi too, the honest grateful creature having no thought about it, but what consisted of the best principles, both as a religious Christian and as a grateful friend, as appeared afterwards to my full satisfaction

Whilst my jealousy of hi hihts which I suspected were in hi he said was so honest and so innocent, that I could find nothing to nourish my suspicion; and, in spite of all ain; nor did he in the least perceive that I was uneasy; and therefore I could not suspect hi up the sa 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, ”I be lad to be at my own nation”--”What would you do there?” said I: ”would you turn wild again, eat e as you were before?” He looked full of concern, and shaking his head, said, ”No, no, Friday tell theood; tell them to pray God; tell theain”--”Why, then,” said I to hirave at that, and then said, ”No, they no killlove learn:” heto learn He added, they learnt much of the bearded o back to them? He smiled at that, and told me he could not swim so far I told hio, if I would so with hio!” said I, ”why, they will eat me if I come there”--”No, no,” says he, ”me make them 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 in distress

From this time, I confess, I had a mind to venture over, and see if I could possibly join with these bearded uese; not doubting but, if I could, weupon the continent, and a good coether, better than I could from an island forty miles off the shore, and alone without help So, after soain, by way of discourse; and told hio back to his own nation; and accordingly I carried hiate, 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, shewed it him, and we both went into it

I found he was a o alain as I could; so when he was in, I said to hio to your nation?” He looked very dull at ht the boat too ser; so the next day I went to the place where the first boat lay which I had et into the water; he said that was big enough; but then, as I had taken no care of it, and it had lain two or three and twenty years there, the sun had split and dried it, that it was in a manner rotten Friday told me, such a boat would do very well, and would carry ”

Upon the whole, I was by this ti over with hio and o horave and sad I asked hiain thus, ”Why you angry mad with Friday? what ry with hi the words several times, ”why send Friday home away to my nation?”--”Why,” said I, ”Friday, did you not say you wished you were there?”--”Yes, yes,” says he, ”wish be both there; no wish Friday there, nothere without o there, Friday!” said I; ”what should I do there?” He turned very quick upon ood,” says he; ”you teach wild ood, sober, tame mans; you tell them know God, pray God, and live new life”--”Alas, Friday,” said I, ”thou knowest not what thou sayest; I anorant ood, you teechee theo without me; leave me here to live by ain at that word, and running to one of the hatchets which he used to wear, he takes it up hastily, and gives it me ”What must I do with this?” said I to him ”You take kill Friday,” says he ”What ain, 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 hi to stay with me

Upon the whole, as I found by all his discourse a settled affection toshould part hio to his own country was laid in his ardent affection to the people, and his hopes of , which as I had no notion of ht, or intention, or desire of undertaking it But still I found a strong inclination toan escape, as above, founded on the supposition gathered from the former discourse; viz that there were seventeen bearded men there; and therefore, without any delay, I went to ith Friday, to find out a great tree proper to fell, and e: there were trees enough in the island to have built a little fleet, not of periaguas and canoes only, but even of good large vessels: but the et one so near the water, that we ht 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 as fittest for it; nor can I tell to this day ood to call the tree we cut down, except that it was very like the tree we call tustick, or between that and the Nicaragua wood, for it wasthe hollow or cavity of this tree out, to make it into a boat: but I shewed him how rather to cut it out with tools, which after I shewed 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 I shewed 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 tireat rollers, into the water: but when she was in, she would have carried twenty reat ease

When she was in the water, and though she was so big, it amazed me to see hat dexterity and hoift ; so I asked hiht venture over in her? ”Yes,” he said, ”he venture over in her very well, though great bloind” 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 ht young cedar-tree, which I found near the place, and which there was a 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 noenty-six years by ining that I should ever have this kind of use for them, I did not doubt but they were all rotten; and indeed most of theood, and with these I went to work, and with a great deal of pains, and aard tedious stitching (you th land a shoulder-of-o with a boom at bottom, and a little short sprit at the top, such as usually our shi+ps' long-boats sail with, and such as I best kne to e; because it was such a one as I used in the boat in which I made my escape from Barbary, as related in the first part ofthis last work, viz rigging and fittinga small stay, and a sail or foresail to it, to assist, if we should turn to ard; 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 shi+pwright, yet as I knew the usefulness, and even necessity of such a thing, I applied ht it to pass, though, considering the many dull contrivances I had for it that failed, I think it costthe boat

After all this was done, I had ation of h he knew very well how to paddle the canoe, he knew nothing what belonged to a sail and a rudder, and was the ain in the sea by the rudder, and how the sail gibed, 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 as 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 seldos in those parts, there was the less occasion for a coht, 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 h the three last years that I had this creature with ht rather to be left out of the account,quite of another kind than in all the rest ofhere with the same thankfulness to God for hissuch additional testireat hopes I had of being effectually and speedily delivered; for I had an invincible ihts, that my deliverance was at hand, and that I should not be another year in this place However, I went on with athered and cured , as before

The rainy season was in the mean time upon me, when I kept more within doors than at other times; so I had stowed our now vessel as secure as we could, bringing her up into the creek, where, as I said in the beginning, I landedher up to the shore, at high water h for her to float in; and then, when the tide was out, wedam cross the end of it, to keep the water out; and so she lay dry, as to the tide, frohs of trees so thick, that she was as well thatched as a house; and thus aited for the ned to an to con returned with the fair weather, I was preparing daily for the voyage; and the first thing I did was to lay up a certain quantity of provision, being the store for the voyage; and intended, in a week or a fortnight's time, to open the dock, and launch out our boat I was busy oneof this kind, when I called to Friday, and bid hio 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 ca back, and flew over round, or the steps he set his feet on; and before I had time to speak to him, he cried out to me, ”O master! O master! O sorrow! O bad!”--”What's the matter, Friday?” said I ”O yonder there,” says he, ”one, two, three, canoe! one, two, three!” By this way of speaking I concluded there were six; but on inquiry I found there were but three ”Well, Friday,” said I, ”do not be frighted;” so I heartened him up as well as I could

However, I saw the poor fellowran in his head, but that they were come to look for him, and would cut him in pieces, and eat him; the poor fellow trembled so, that I scarce knehat to do with him; I comforted hier as he, and that they would eat me as well as hiht theht, Friday?” ”Me shoot,” says he, ”but there coain; ”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 bade him? He said, ”Me die, when you bid die, ave hireat deal left When he had drank it, I -pieces which ays carried, and load the as small pistol bullets; then I took four s and five small bullets each; andave Friday his hatchet