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 any thing 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, and that they had had meat dressed; how they 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.
When 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 fall, 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 frighted (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 were not above three men that followed him; and still
more was I encouraged, when I found that he out-stript 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 knew 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 pursuers came to the
creek, I found that two of them could swim, but the third could not, and
that he, standing on the other side, looked at the other, but went no
farther; and soon after went softly back again, 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 than 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 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 got down the ladders with all possible expedition,
fetched my two guns, 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 him that fled, who, looking back, was at
first perhaps as much frighted 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 rushing at once upon the foremost, I knocked
him down with 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 sight of the smoke too, they would
not have easily known what to make of it. I having knocked this fellow
down, the other who pursued 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
frighted 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
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 showed 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
five-and-twenty 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 so 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 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 comes 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.
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. Then he took up his bow and arrows, and came back; so I
turned to go away, and beckoned 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 lay down, and went to sleep.
He was a comely handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with straight long
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 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 America
are, but of a bright kind of a dun olive colour, 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 Negroe’s, a very good
mouth, thin lips, and his teeth fine, well-set, and white as ivory.
After he had slumbered, rather than slept, about half an hour, he waked
again, and comes 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
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, made all the signs to me of subjection, servitude, and
submission imaginable, to let me know how much 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; and 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 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 spot, and shewed 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 further
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 the 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 which were
carried to several places by those that had taken them in the flight, 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 an 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 dressed, for the present, tolerably
well, and mighty well was he 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 no way come at me in the inside of
my innermost wall, without making so much noise in getting over, that it
must needs awaken 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 small 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 trapdoor, 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
in to 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 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 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 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 do 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, secondly, that still, as we are all 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 every thing 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.
After I had been two or three days returned 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’s 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, or 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 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 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
that his meaning was to pray 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, and by and by I saw a great fowl, like a hawk,
sit upon a tree within shot; so, to let Friday understand a little what
I would do, I called him to me again, pointing 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 him fall, I made him understand that I would shoot
and kill that bird; accordingly I fired, and bid him look, and
immediately he saw the parrot fall; he stood like one frighted again,
notwithstanding all that I had said to him; and I found he was the more
amazed, because he did not see me put any thing into the gun; but
thought there must be some wonderful fund of death and destruction in
that thing, able to kill man, beast, bird, or any thing near or far off;
for 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
worshipped me and my gun; as for the gun 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 some time;
for the parrot, not being 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 me; and, as I had perceived his ignorance about the gun
before, I took this advantage to charge the gun again, and not 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 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 month, 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 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 meat, or in
his broth; at least, not 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 with roasting a piece of the kid: this I did by hanging
it before the fire in a string, as I had seen many people do in England,
setting two 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 how well he liked it, that I
could not but understand him; and at last he told me he would never eat
man’s flesh any more, which I was very glad to hear.
The next day I set him to work to 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.