_Robinson and Friday Build a Canoe to Carry them to Friday’s
Country--Their Scheme Prevented by the Arrival of a Party of Savages_
After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted and that he could
understand almost all I said to him, and speak fluently, though in
broken English, to me, I acquainted him with my own story, or at least
so much of it as related to my coming into the place; how I had lived
there, 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 hangers in; and
in the frog, 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, and particularly England,
which I came from; how we lived, how we worshipped 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 with my whole strength then, but was now fallen
almost all to pieces. Upon seeing this boat, Friday stood musing 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; but at last, when I had examined
farther 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 imagined 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 escape from a
wreck thither, much less whence 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 save the white mans
from drown.” Then I presently asked him if there was any white mans, as
he called them, in the boat. “Yes,” he said, “the boat full of white
mans.” 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 imagined that these
might be the men belonging to the ship that was cast away in sight of
my island, as I now call 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 lived still there; that they had been there about four
years; that the savages let them alone, and gave 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 no eat mans 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 being 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 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? “O joy!” says he, “O 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
eagerness, as if he had a mind to be in his own country again; and 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 perhaps with a hundred or two of them, and 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 me some
weeks, I was a little more circumspect, and not so familiar and kind to
him as before; in which I was certainly in the 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 not you wish yourself in your own country, your own
nation?” “Yes,” he said, “I be much O 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 a savage as you were before?” He looked
full of concern, and shaking his head said, “No, no; Friday tell them
to live good; tell them to pray God; tell them to eat corn-bread,
cattle-flesh, milk, no eat man again.” “Why then,” said I to him,
“they will kill you.” He looked grave at that, and then said, “No,
they no kill me, they willing love learn.” He meant by this they would
be willing to learn. He added, they learned much of the bearded mans
that come in the boat. Then I asked him if he would go back to them?
He smiled at that, and told me he could not swim so far. I told him I
would make a canoe for him. He told me he would go, if I would go with
him. “I go?” says I; “why, they will eat me if I come there.” “No, no,”
says he, “me make they no eat you; me make they much love you.” He
meant, he would tell them how I had killed his enemies, and saved his
life, and so he would make them love me. Then he told me, as well as he
could, how kind they were to seventeen white men, or bearded men, as he
called them, who came on shore there in distress.
From this time I confess I had a mind to venture over, and see if I
could possibly join with these bearded men, who, I made no doubt, were
Spaniards or Portuguese; not doubting that, if I could, we might find
some method to escape from thence, being upon the continent, and a good
company together, better than I could from an island forty miles off
the shore, and alone, without help. So, after some days, I took Friday
to work again, by way of discourse, and told him 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 the water, I brought it out,
showed it him, and we both went into it.
I found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it, and would make
it go almost as swift and fast again as I could. So when he was in I
said to him, “Well now, Friday, shall we go to your nation?” He looked
very dull at my saying so, which, it seems, was because he thought the
boat too small to go so far. I told him then 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 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 “much enough victual, drink, bread;” that was his way of
talking.
Upon the whole, 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, but looked very grave and sad. I asked him what was the matter
with him? He asked me again thus, “Why you angry mad with Friday?
what me done?” I asked him what he meant. I told him I was not angry
with him at all. “No angry! no angry!” says he, repeating the words
several times. “Why send Friday home away to my nation?” “Why,” says
I, “Friday, did you not say you wished you were there?” “Yes, yes,”
says he, “wish be both there, no wish Friday there, no master there.”
In a word, he would not think of going there without me. “I go there,
Friday!” says I; “what shall I do there?” He turned very quick upon me
at this: “You do great deal much good,” says he; “you teach wild mans
to be good, sober, tame mans; you tell them know God, pray God, and
live new life.” “Alas! Friday,” says I, “thou knowest not what thou
sayest. I am but an ignorant man myself.” “Yes, yes,” says he, “you
teachee me good, you teachee them good.” “No, no, Friday,” says I,
“you shall go without me; leave me here to live by myself, as I did
before.” He looked confused again at that word, and running to one of
the hatchets which he used to wear, he takes it up hastily, comes and
gives it me. “What must I do with this?” says I to him. “You take kill
Friday,” says he. “What must I kill you for?” said I again. He returns
very quick, “What you send Friday away for? Take kill Friday, no send
Friday away.” This he spoke so earnestly, that I saw tears 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 from me if he was willing to
stay with me.
Upon the whole, as I found by all his discourse a settled affection
to me, and that nothing should part him from me, so I found all the
foundation of his desire to go to his own country was laid in his
ardent affection to the people, and his hopes of my doing them good;
a thing which, as I had no notion of myself, so I had not the least
thought or intention or desire of undertaking it. But still I found a
strong inclination to my attempting an escape, as above, founded on
the supposition gathered from the discourse, viz., that there were
seventeen bearded men there; and, therefore, without any more delay I
went to work with Friday to find out a great tree proper to fell, and
make a large _periagua_, or canoe, to undertake the voyage. There
were trees enough in the island to have built a little fleet, not of
_periaguas_ and canoes, but even of good large vessels. But the main
thing I looked at was, to get one so near the water that we might
launch it when it was made, 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; nor can I tell, to this
day, what wood to call the tree we cut down, except that it was very
like the tree we call fustic, or between that and the Nicaragua wood,
for it was much of the same color and smell. Friday was for burning the
hollow or cavity of this tree out, to make it for a boat, but I showed
him how rather to cut it out with tools; which, after I had showed him
how to use, he did very handily; and in about a month’s hard 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, and though she was so big, it amazed me to
see with what dexterity, and how swift my man Friday would manage her,
turn her, and paddle her along. So I asked him if he would, and if we
might venture over in her. “Yes,” he said, “he venture over in her very
well, though great blow wind.” However, I had a farther design that he
knew nothing of, and that was to make a mast and sail, and to fit her
with an anchor and cable. As to a mast, that was easy enough to get;
so I pitched upon a straight young cedar tree, which I found near the
place, and which there was great plenty of in the island; and I set
Friday to work to cut it down, and gave him directions how to shape and
order it. But as to the sail, that was my particular care. I knew I had
old sails, or rather pieces of old sails enough; but as I had had them
now twenty-six years by me, and had not been very careful to preserve
them, not imagining that I should ever have this kind of use for
them, I did not doubt 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 tedious stitching (you may be sure) for want of needles, I, at
length, made a three-cornered ugly thing, like what we call in England
a shoulder-of-mutton sail, to go with a boom at bottom, and a little
short sprit at the top, such as usually our ships’ longboats sail with,
and such as I best knew how to manage; because it was such a one as I
had to the boat in which I made my escape from Barbary, as related in
the first part of my story.
[Illustration: “--_we cut and hewed the outside into the true shape of
a boat_”]
I was near two months performing this last work, viz., rigging and
fitting my mast and sails; for I finished them very complete, making
a small stay, and a sail, or foresail, to it, to assist, if we should
turn to windward; and, which was more than all, I fixed a rudder to the
stern of her to steer with; and though I was but a bungling shipwright
yet as I knew the usefulness, and even necessity, of such a thing, I
applied myself with so much pains to do it, that at last I brought it
to pass; though, considering the many dull contrivances I had for it
that failed, I think it cost me almost as much labor as making the
boat.
After all this was done too, I had my man Friday to teach as to what
belonged to the navigation of my boat; for though he knew very well
how to paddle a canoe, he knew nothing what belonged to a sail and a
rudder; and was the most amazed when he saw me work the boat to and
again in the sea by the rudder, and how the sail 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 familiar to him, and he became an expert
sailor, except that as to the compass I could make him understand very
little of that. On the other hand, as there was very little cloudy
weather, and seldom or never any fogs in those parts, there was the
less occasion for a compass, seeing the stars were always to be seen
by night, and the shore by day, except in the rainy seasons, and then
nobody cared to stir abroad, either by land or sea.
I was now entered on the seven and twentieth year of my captivity in
this place; though the 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. However, I went on with my husbandry,
digging, planting, fencing, as usual. I gathered and cured my grapes,
and did every necessary thing as before.
The rainy season was, in the meantime, upon me, when I kept more within
doors than at other times; so I had stowed our new vessel as secure
as we could, bringing her up into the creek, where, as I said in the
beginning, I landed my rafts from the ship; and hauling her up to the
shore at high-water mark, I made my man Friday dig a little dock, just
big enough to hold her, and just deep enough to give her water enough
to float in; and then, when the tide was out, we made a strong dam
cross the end of it, to keep the water out; and so she lay dry, as to
the tide, from the sea; and to keep the rain off, we laid a great many
boughs of trees, so thick, that she was as well thatched as a house;
and thus we waited for the month of November and December, in which I
designed to make my adventure.
When the settled season began to come in, as the thought of my
design returned with the fair weather, I was preparing daily for the
voyage; and the first thing I did was to lay by a certain quantity of
provisions, being the stores for our voyage; and intended, in a week or
a fortnight’s time, to open the dock, and launch out our boat. I was
busy one morning upon something of this kind, when I called to Friday,
and bid him go to the seashore and see if he could find a turtle, or
tortoise, a thing which we generally got once a week, for the sake of
the eggs as well as the flesh. Friday had not been long gone when he
came running back, and flew over my outer wall, or fence, like one
that felt not the ground, or the steps he set his feet on; and before
I had time to speak to him, he cries out to me, “O master! O master! O
sorrow! O bad!” “What’s the matter, Friday?” says I. “O yonder, there,”
says he, “one, two, three canoe! one, two, three!” By his way of
speaking, I concluded there were six; but, on inquiry, I found it was
but three.
“Well, Friday,” says I, “do not be frightened.” So I heartened him up
as well as I could. However, I saw the poor fellow was most terribly
scared; for nothing ran in his head but that they were come to look
for him, and would cut him in pieces, and eat him; and the poor fellow
trembled so, that I scarce knew what to do with him. I comforted him
as well as I could, and told him I was in as much danger as he, and
that they would eat me as well as him. “But,” says I, “Friday, we
must resolve to fight them. Can you fight, Friday?” “Me shoot,” says
he; “but there come many great number.” “No matter for that,” said I
again; “our guns will frighten them that we do not kill.” So I asked
him whether, if I resolved to defend him, he would defend me, and stand
by me, and do just as I bid him. He said, “Me die when you bid die,
master.”
So I went and fetched a good dram of rum, and gave him; for I had
been so good a husband of my rum, that I had a great deal left.
When he drank it, I made him take the two fowling-pieces, which we
always carried, and load them with large swanshot, as big as small
pistol-bullets. Then I took four muskets, and loaded them with two
slugs and five small bullets each; and my two pistols I loaded with a
brace of bullets each. I hung my great sword, as usual, naked by my
side, and gave Friday his hatchet.
When I had thus prepared myself, I took my perspective-glass, and went
up to the side of the hill to see what I could discover; and I found
quickly, by my glass, that there were one and twenty savages, three
prisoners, and three canoes, and that their whole business seemed to be
the triumphant banquet upon these three human bodies; a barbarous feast
indeed, but nothing more than, as I had observed, was usual with them.
I observed also that they were landed, not where they had done when
Friday made his escape, but nearer to my creek, where the shore was
low, and where the thick wood came close almost down to the sea. This,
with the abhorrence of the inhuman errand these wretches came about,
filled me with such indignation, that I came down again to Friday, and
told him I was resolved to go down to them, and kill them all, and
asked him if he would stand by me. He was now gotten over his fright,
and his spirits being a little raised with the dram I had given him, he
was very cheerful, and told me, as before, he would die when I bid die.
In this fit of fury, I took first and divided the arms which I had
charged, as before, between us. I gave Friday one pistol to stick in
his girdle, and three guns upon his shoulder; and I took one pistol,
and the other three myself, and in this posture we marched out. I took
a small bottle of rum in my pocket, and gave Friday a large bag with
more powder and bullet; and as to orders, I charged him to keep close
behind me, and not to stir, or shoot, or do anything, till I bid him,
and in the meantime not to speak a word. In this posture I fetched a
compass to my right hand of near a mile as well to get over the creek
as to get into the wood, so that I might come within shot of them
before I should be discovered, which I had seen, by my glass, it was
easy to do.
While I was making this march, my former thoughts returning, I began
to abate my resolution. I do not mean that I entertained any fear of
their number; for as they were naked, unarmed wretches, ’tis certain I
was superior to them; nay, though I had been alone. But it occurred to
my thoughts what call, what occasion, much less what necessity, I was
in to go and dip my hands in blood, to attack people who had neither
done or intended me any wrong; 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, He 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, and in 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 respect to me. These things were so warmly
pressed upon my thoughts all the way as I went, that I resolved I
would only go and place myself near them, that I might observe their
barbarous feast, and that I would act then as God should direct; but
that, unless something offered that was more a call to me than yet I
knew of, I would not meddle with them.
With this resolution I entered the wood, and with all possible wariness
and silence, Friday following close at my heels, I marched till I came
to the skirt of the wood, on the side which was next to them; only that
one corner of the wood lay between me and them. Here I called softly
to Friday, and showing him a great tree, which was just at the corner
of the wood, I bade him go to the tree and bring me word if he could
see there plainly what they were doing. He did so, and came immediately
back to me, and told me they might be plainly viewed there; that they
were all about their fire, eating the flesh of one of their prisoners,
and that another lay bound upon the sand, a little from them, which, he
said, they would kill next; and, which fired all the very soul within
me, he told me it was not one of their nation, but one of the bearded
men, whom he had told me of, that came to their country in the boat. I
was filled with horror at the very naming the white, bearded man; and
going to the tree, I saw plainly, by my glass, a white man, who lay
upon the beach of the sea, with his hands and 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 ticket beyond it, about fifty
yards nearer to them than the place where I was, which, by going a
little way about, I saw I might come at undiscovered, and that when I
should be within half shot of them; so I withheld my passion, though I
was indeed enraged to the highest degree; and going back about twenty
paces, I got behind some bushes, which held all the way till I came to
the other tree; and then I came to a little rising ground, which gave
me a full view of them, at the distance of about eighty yards.