_Robinson Rescues One of Their Captives from the Savages, Whom He Names
Friday, and Makes His Servant_
About a year and half after I had entertained these notions, and by
long musing had, as it were, resolved them all into nothing, for want
of an occasion to put them in execution, I was surprised, one morning
early, with seeing no less than five canoes all on shore together on my
side the island, and the people who belonged to them all landed, and
out of my sight. The number of them broke all my measures; for seeing
so many, and knowing that they always came four, or six, or sometimes
more, in a boat, I could not tell what to think of it, or how to take
my measures to attack twenty or thirty men single-handed; so I lay
still in my castle, perplexed and discomforted. However, I put myself
into all the same postures for an attack that I had formerly provided,
and was just ready for action if anything had presented. Having waited
a good while, listening to hear if they made any noise, at length,
being very impatient, I set my guns at the foot of my ladder, and
clambered up to the top of the hill, by my two stages, as usual;
standing so, however, that my head did not appear above the hill, so
that they could not perceive me by any means. Here I observed, by the
help of my perspective-glass, that they were no less than thirty in
number, that they had a fire kindled, that they had had meat dressed.
How they had cooked it, that I knew not, or what it was; but they were
all dancing, in I know not how many barbarous gestures and figures,
their own way, round the fire.
While I was thus looking on them, I perceived by my perspective two
miserable wretches dragged from the boats, where, it seems, they were
laid by, and were now brought out for the slaughter. I perceived one of
them immediately fell, being knocked down, I suppose, with a club or
wooden sword, for that was their way, and two or three others were at
work immediately, cutting him open for their cookery, while the other
victim was left standing by himself, till they should be ready for
him. In that very moment this poor wretch seeing himself a little at
liberty, Nature inspired him with hopes of life, and he started away
from them, and ran with incredible swiftness along the sands directly
towards me, I mean towards that part of the coast where my habitation
was.
I was dreadfully frightened (that I must acknowledge) when I perceived
him to run my way, and especially when, as I thought, I saw him pursued
by the whole body; and now I expected that part of my dream was coming
to pass, and that he would certainly take shelter in my grove; but
I could not depend, by any means, upon my dream for the rest of it,
viz., that the other savages would not pursue him thither, and find him
there. However, I kept my station, and my spirits began to recover when
I found that there was not above three men that followed him; and still
more was I encouraged when I found that he outstripped them exceedingly
in running, and gained ground of them; so that if he could but hold it
for half an hour, I saw easily he would fairly get away from them all.
There was between them and my castle the creek, which I mentioned often
at the first part of my story, when I landed my cargoes out of the
ship; and this I saw plainly he must necessarily swim over, or the poor
wretch would be taken there. But when the savage escaping came thither
he made nothing of it, though the tide was then up; but plunging in,
swam through in about thirty strokes or thereabouts, landed, and ran
on with exceeding strength and swiftness. When the three persons came
to the creek, I found that two of them could swim, but the third could
not, and that, standing on the other side, he looked at the other,
but went no farther, and soon after went softly back, which, as it
happened, was very well for him in the main.
I observed, that the two who swam were yet more than twice as long
swimming over the creek as the fellow was that fled from them. It came
now very warmly upon my thoughts, and indeed irresistibly, that now was
my time to get me a servant, and perhaps a companion or assistant, and
that I was called plainly by Providence to save this poor creature’s
life. I immediately ran down the ladders with all possible expedition,
fetched my two guns, for they were both but at the foot of the ladders,
as I observed above, and getting up again, with the same haste, to the
top of the hill, I crossed toward 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 him that fled, who, looking back, was
at first perhaps as much frightened at me as at them; and I beckoned
with my hand to him to come back; and, in the meantime, I slowly
advanced towards the two that followed; then rushing at once upon the
foremost, I knocked him down with the stock of my piece. I was loth 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 sight of the
smoke too, they would not have easily known what to make of it. Having
knocked this fellow down, the other who pursued with him stopped, as if
he had been frightened, 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 him at the first shot.
The poor savage who fled, but had stopped, though he saw both his
enemies fallen and killed, as he thought, yet was so frightened with
the fire and noise of my piece, that he stood stock-still, and neither
came forward nor went backward, though he seemed rather inclined to fly
still, than to come on.
I hallooed again to him, and made signs to come forward, which he
easily understood, and came a little way, then stopped again, and then
a little farther, and stopped again; and I could then perceive that he
stood trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner, and had just been to
be killed, as his two enemies were. I beckoned him again to come to me,
and gave him all the signs of encouragement that I could think of; and
he came nearer and nearer, kneeling down every ten or twelve steps, in
token of acknowledgment for my saving his life. I smiled at him, and
looked pleasantly, and beckoned to him to come still nearer. At length
he came close to me, and then he kneeled down again, kissed the ground,
and laid his head upon the ground, and taking me by the foot, set my
foot upon his head. This, it seems, was in token of swearing to be my
slave for ever. I took him up, and made much of him, and encouraged him
all I could. But there was more work to do yet; for I perceived the
savage whom I knocked down was not killed, but stunned with the blow,
and began to come to himself; so I pointed to him, and showing him the
savage, that he was not dead, upon this he spoke some words to me; and
though I could not understand them, yet I thought 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 twenty-five years. But there was no time for
such reflections now. The savage who was knocked down recovered himself
so far as to sit up upon the ground and I perceived that my savage
began to be afraid; but when I saw that, I presented my other piece at
the man, as if I would shoot him. Upon this my savage, for so I call
him now, made a motion to me to lend him my sword, which hung 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 as cleverly, no executioner
in Germany could have done it sooner or better; which I thought very
strange for one who, I had reason to believe, never saw a sword in his
life before, except their own wooden swords. However, it seems, as I
learned 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, ay, and arms, and that at one blow too. When he had done this, he
came laughing to me in sign of triumph, and brought me the sword again,
and with abundance of gestures, which I did not understand, laid it
down, with the head of the savage that he had killed, just before me.
[Illustration: “_--and then he kneeled down again, kissed the ground,
and taking me by the foot, set my foot upon his head_”]
But that which astonished him most was to know how I had killed the
other Indian so far off; so pointing to him, he made signs to me to
let him go to him; so I bade him go, as well as I could. When he came
to him, he stood like one amazed, looking at him, turned him first on
one side, then on t’other, looked at the wound the bullet had made,
which, it seems, was just in his breast, where it had made a hole, and
no great quantity of blood had followed; but he had bled inwardly, for
he was quite dead. He took up his bow and arrows, and came back; so I
turned to go away, and beckoned to him to follow me making signs to him
that more might come after them.
Upon this he signed to me that he should bury them with sand, that
they might not be seen by the rest if they followed; and so I made
signs again 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 them both in a quarter of an hour.
Then calling 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
dream come to pass in that part, viz., that he came into my grove for
shelter.
Here I gave him bread and a bunch of raisins to eat, and a draught
of water, which I found he was indeed in great distress for, by his
running; and having refreshed him, I made signs for him to go lie down
and sleep, pointing 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 laid down, and went to sleep.
He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with straight
strong limbs, not too large, 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 seemed to have something very manly in
his face; and yet he had all the sweetness and softness of an European
in his countenance too, especially when he smiled. His hair was long
and black, not curled like wool; his forehead very high and large; and
a great vivacity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes. The color of
his skin was not quite black, but very tawny; and yet not of an ugly,
yellow, nauseous tawny, as the Brazilians and Virginians, and other
natives of America are, but of a bright kind of a dun olive color, that
had in it something very agreeable, though not very easy to describe.
His face was round and plump; his nose small, not flat like the
negroes; a very good mouth, thin lips, and his fine teeth well set, and
white as ivory.
After he had slumbered, rather than slept, about half an hour, he
waked again, and came out of the cave to me, for I had been milking
my goats, which I had in the enclosure just by. When he espied me, he
came running to me, laying himself down again upon the ground, with
all the possible signs of an humble, thankful disposition, making
many antic gestures to show 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 made all the signs to me of subjection,
servitude, and submission imaginable, to let me know how he would serve
me as long as he lived. I understood him in many things, and let him
know I was very well pleased with him. In a little time I began 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. I called
him so for the memory of the time. I likewise taught him to say master,
and then let him know that was to be my name. I likewise taught him to
say Yes and No, and to know the meaning of them. I gave him some milk
in an earthen pot, and let him see me drink it before him, and sop my
bread in it; and I gave him a cake of bread to do the like, which he
quickly complied with, and made signs that it was very good for him.
I kept there with him all that night; but as soon as it was day, I
beckoned to him to come with me, and let him know I would give him
some clothes; at which he seemed very glad, for he was stark naked.
As we went by the place where he had buried the two men, he pointed
exactly to the place, and showed me the marks that he had made to find
them again, making signs to me that we should dig them up again, and
eat them. At this I appeared very angry, expressed my abhorrence of
it, made as if I would vomit at the thoughts of it, and beckoned with
my hand to him to come away; which he did immediately, with great
submission. I then led him up to the top of the hill, to see if his
enemies were gone; and pulling out my glass, I looked, and saw plainly
the place where they had been, but no appearance of them or of their
canoes; so that it was plain that they were gone, and had left their
two comrades behind them, without any search after them.
But I was not content with this discovery; but having now more courage,
and consequently more curiosity, I took my man Friday with me, giving
him the sword in his hand, with the bow and arrows at his back, which
I found he could use very dexterously, making him carry one gun for
me, and I two for myself, and away we marched to the place where
these creatures had been; for I had a mind now to get some fuller
intelligence 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 to me,
though Friday made nothing of it. The place was covered with human
bones, the ground dyed with their blood, great pieces of flesh left
here and there, half-eaten, mangled, and scorched; and, in short,
all the tokens of the triumphant feast they had been making 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, made me understand that
they brought over four prisoners to feast upon; that three of them
were eaten up, and that he, pointing to himself, was the fourth; that
there had been a great battle between them and their next king, whose
subjects it seems he had been one of, and that they had taken a great
number of prisoners; all of which were carried to several places by
those that had taken them in the fight, in order to feast upon them, as
was done here by these wretches upon those they brought hither.
I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and whatever
remained, and lay them together on a heap, and make a great fire upon
it, and burn them all to ashes. I found Friday had still a hankering
stomach after some of the flesh, and was still a cannibal in his
nature; but I discovered so much abhorrence at the very thoughts 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 my man Friday; and, first of all, I gave him a pair of linen
drawers, which I had out of the poor gunner’s chest I mentioned, and
which I found in the wreck; and which, with a little alteration, fitted
him very well. Then I made him a jerkin of goat’s skin, as well as my
skill would allow, and I was now grown a tolerable good tailor; and I
gave him a cap, which I had made of a hare-skin, very convenient and
fashionable enough; and thus he was clothed for the present tolerably
well, and was mighty well pleased to see himself almost as well clothed
as his master. It is true he went awkwardly in these things at first;
wearing the drawers was very awkward to him, and the sleeves of the
waistcoat galled his shoulders, and the inside of his arms; but a
little easing them where he complained they hurt him, and using himself
to them, at length he took to them very well.
The next day after I came home to my hutch with him, I began to
consider where I should lodge him. And that I might 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 in no way come at
me in the inside of my innermost wall without making so much noise in
getting over, that it must needs waken me; for my first wall had now a
complete roof over it of long poles, covering all my tent, and leaning
up to the side of the hill, which was again laid cross with smaller
sticks instead of laths, and then thatched over a great thickness with
the rice-straw, which 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
trap-door, which, if it had been attempted on the outside, would not
have opened at all, but would have fallen down, and made a great noise;
and as to weapons, I took them all into my side every night.
But I needed none of all this precaution; for never man had a more
faithful, loving, sincere servant than Friday was to me; without
passions, sullenness, or designs, perfectly obliged and engaged; 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 mine,
upon any occasion whatsoever. The many testimonies he gave me of this
put it out of doubt, and soon convinced me that I needed to use no
precautions as to my safety on his account.
This frequently gave me occasion to observe, and that with wonder, that
however it had pleased God, in His providence, and in the government
of the works of His hands, to take from so great 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 same affections, the same sentiments
of kindness and obligation, the same passions and resentments of
wrongs, the same sense of gratitude, 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 to them occasions of exerting these,
they are as ready, nay, more ready, to apply them to the right uses for
which they were bestowed than we are. And this made me very melancholy
sometimes, in reflecting, as the several occasions presented, how
mean a use we make of all these, even though we have these powers
enlightened by the great lamp of instruction, the Spirit of God, and by
the knowledge of His Word added to our understanding; and why it has
pleased God to hide the life saving knowledge from so many millions of
souls, who, if I might judge by this poor savage, would make a much
better use of it than we did.
From hence, I sometimes was led too far to invade the sovereignty
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 from both. But I shut
it up, and checked my thoughts with this conclusion: first, that we
did not know by what 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 from Himself, it was on account of sinning against
that light, 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, second, that still, as we
are all the clay in the hand of the potter, no vessel could say to Him,
“Why hast Thou formed me thus?”
But to return to my new companion. I was greatly delighted with him,
and made it my business to teach him everything 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 merry, so constantly diligent, and so
pleased when he could but understand me, or make me understand him,
that it was very pleasant to me to talk to him. And now my life began
to be so easy, that I began to say to myself, that could I but have
been safe from more savages, I cared not if I was never to remove from
the place while I lived.