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.
I began now to consider, that having two mouths to feed instead of one,
I must provide more ground for my harvest, and plant a larger quantity
of corn than I used to do; so I marked out a larger piece of land, and
began the fence in the same manner as before, in which Friday worked not
only very willingly and very hard, but did it very cheerfully: and I
told him what it was for; that it was for corn to make more bread,
because he was now with me, and that I might have enough for him and
myself too. He appeared very sensible of that part, and let me know that
he thought 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 names of almost
every thing I had occasion to call for, and of every place I had to send
him to, and talked a great deal to me; so that, in short, I began now to
have some use for my tongue again, which, indeed, I had very little
occasion for before, that is to say, about speech. Besides the pleasure
of talking to him, I had a singular satisfaction in the fellow himself:
his simple unfeigned honesty appeared to me more and more every day, and
I began really to love the creature; and, on his side, I believe he
loved me more than it was possible for him ever to love any
thing before.
I had a mind once to try if he had any hankering inclination to his own
country again; and having taught him English so well that he could
answer me almost any question, I asked him whether the nation that he
belonged to never conquered in battle? At which he smiled, and said,
"Yes, yes, we always fight the better:" that is, he meant, always get
the better in fight; and so we began the following discourse:
_Master_. You always fight the better; 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?
_Friday_. They more many than my nation in the place where me was; they
take one, two, three, and me: my nation over-beat them in the yonder
place, where me no was; there my nation take one, two, great thousand.
_Master_. But why did not your side recover you from the hands of your
enemies then?
_Friday_. They run one, two, three, and me, and make go in the canoe; my
nation have no canoe that time.
_Master_. Well, Friday, and what does your nation do with the men they
take? Do they carry them away and eat them, as these did?
_Friday_. Yes, my nation eat mans too; eat all up.
_Master_. Where do they carry them?
_Friday_. Go to other place, where they think.
_Master_. Do they come hither?
_Friday_. Yes, yes, they come hither; come other else place.
_Master_. Have you been here with them?
_Friday_. Yes, I have been here (points to the N.W. side of the island,
which, it seems, was their side.)
By this I understood that my man Friday had formerly been among the
savages who used to come on shore on the farther part of the island, on
the same man-eating occasions he was now brought for; and, some time
after, when I took the courage to carry him to that side, being the same
I formerly mentioned, he presently knew the place, and told me he was
there once when they eat up twenty men, two women, and one child: he
could not tell twenty in English, but he numbered them, by laying so
many stones in a row, and pointing to me to tell them over.
I have told this passage, because it introduces what follows; that after
I had this discourse with him, I asked him how far it was from our
island to the shore, and whether the canoes were not often lost. He told
me there was no danger, no canoes ever lost; but that, after a little
way out to sea, there was a current and wind, always one way in the
morning, the other in the afternoon. This I understood to be no more
than the sets of the tide, as going out or coming in; but I afterwards
understood it was occasioned by the great draft and reflux of the mighty
river Oroonoko, in the mouth or gulf of which river, as I found
afterwards, our island lay; and that this land which I perceived to the
W. and N.W. was the great island Trinidad, on the north point of the
mouth of the river. I asked Friday a thousand questions about the
country, the inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and what nations were
near: he told me all he knew, with the greatest openness imaginable. I
asked him the names of the several nations of his sort of people, but
could get no other name than Caribs: from whence I easily understood,
that these were the Caribbees, which our maps place on the part of
America which reaches from the mouth of the river Oroonoko to Guiana,
and onwards to St. Martha. He told me that up a great way beyond the
moon, that was, beyond the setting of the moon, which must be west from
their country, there dwelt white bearded men, like me, and pointed to my
great whiskers, which I mentioned before; and that they had killed much
mans, that was his word: by all which I understood, he meant the
Spaniards, whose cruelties in America had been spread over the whole
country, and were remembered by all the nations, from father to son.
I inquired if he could tell me how I might go from this island and get
among those white men; he told me, Yes, yes, you may go in two canoe. I
could not understand what he meant, or make him describe to me what he
meant by two canoe; till, at last, with great difficulty, I found he
meant it must be in a large boat, as big as two canoes. This part of
Friday's discourse began to relish with me very well; and from this time
I entertained some hopes that, one time or other, I might find an
opportunity to make my escape from this place, and that this poor savage
might be a means to help me.
During the long time that Friday had now been with me, and that he began
to speak to me, and understand me, I was not wanting to lay a foundation
of religious knowledge in his mind: particularly I asked him one time,
Who made him? The poor creature did not understand me at all, but
thought I had asked him who was his father: but I took it up by another
handle, and asked him who made the sea, the ground we walked on, and the
hills and woods? He told me, it was one old Benamuckee, that lived
beyond all; he could describe nothing of this great person, but that he
was very old, much older, he said, than the sea or the land, than the
moon or the stars. I asked him then, if this old person had made all
things, why did not all things worship him? He looked very grave, and
with a perfect look of innocence said, All things say O to him. I asked
him if the people who die in his country went away any where? He said,
Yes; they all went to Benamuckee: then I asked him whether these they
eat up went thither too? He said, Yes.
From these things I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the true
God: I told him that the great Maker of all things lived up there,
pointing up towards heaven; that he governed the world by the same power
and providence by which he made it; that he was omnipotent, and could do
every thing for us, give every thing to us, take every thing from us;
and thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. He listened with great
attention, and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ being
sent to redeem us, and of the manner of making our prayers to God, and
his being able to hear us, even in heaven. He told me one day, that if
our God could hear us up beyond the sun, he must needs be a greater God
than their Benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet could not
hear till they went up to the great mountains where he dwelt to speak to
him. I asked him if ever he went thither to speak to him? He said, No;
they never went that were young men; none went thither but the old men,
whom he called their Oowokakee; that is, as I made him explain it to me,
their religious, or clergy; and that they went to say O (so he called
saying prayers,) and then came back, and told them what Benamuckee said.
By this I observed, that there is priestcraft even among the most
blinded, ignorant pagans in the world; and the policy of making a secret
of religion, in order to preserve the veneration of the people to the
clergy, is not only to be found in the Roman, but perhaps among all
religions in the world, even among the most brutish and
barbarous savages.
I endeavoured to clear up this fraud to my man Friday; and told him,
that the pretence of their old men going up to the mountains to say O to
their god Benamuckee was a cheat; and their bringing word from thence
what he said was much more so; that if they met with any answer, or
spake with any one there, it must be with an evil spirit: and then I
entered into a long discourse with him about the devil, the original of
him, his rebellion against God, his enmity to man, the reason of it, his
setting himself up in the dark parts of the world to be worshipped
instead of God, and as God, and the many stratagems he made use of to
delude mankind to their ruin; how he had a secret access to our
passions and to our affections, and to adapt his snares to our
inclinations, so as to cause us even to be our own tempters, and run
upon our destruction by our own choice.
I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his mind about
the devil, as it was about the being of a God: nature assisted all my
arguments to evidence to him even the necessity of a great First Cause,
and over-ruling, governing Power, a secret, directing Providence, and of
the equity and justice of paying homage to him that made us, and the
like; but there appeared nothing of this kind in the notion of an evil
spirit; of his original, his being, his nature, and, above all, of his
inclination to do evil, and to draw us in to do so too: and the poor
creature puzzled me once in such a manner, by a question merely natural
and innocent, that I scarce knew what to say to him. I had been talking
a great deal to him of the power of God, his omnipotence, his aversion
to sin, his being a consuming fire to the workers of iniquity; how, as
he had made us all, he could destroy us and all the world in a moment;
and he listened with great seriousness to me all the while. After this,
I had been telling him how the devil was God's enemy in the hearts of
men, and used all his malice and skill to defeat the good designs of
Providence, and to ruin the kingdom of Christ in the world, and the
like. "Well," says Friday, "but you say God is so strong, so great; is
he not much strong, much might as the devil?"--"Yes, yes," says I,
"Friday, God is stronger than the devil: God is above the devil, and
therefore we pray to God to tread him down under our feet, and enable us
to resist his temptations, and quench his fiery darts."--"But," says he
again, "if God much stronger, much might as the devil, why God no kill
the devil, so make him no more do wicked?" I was strangely surprised at
this question; and, after all, though I was now an old man, yet I was
but a young doctor, and ill qualified for a casuist, or a solver of
difficulties; and, at first, I could not tell what to say; so I
pretended not to hear him, and asked him what he said; but he was too
earnest for an answer, to forget his question, so that he repeated it in
the very same broken words as above. By this time I had recovered myself
a little, and I said, "God will at last punish him severely; he is
reserved for the judgment, and is to be cast into the bottomless pit, to
dwell with everlasting fire." This did not satisfy Friday; but he
returns upon me, repeating my words, "_Reserve at last_! me no
understand: but why not kill the devil now; not kill great ago?"--"You
may as well ask me," said I, "why God does not kill you and me, when we
do wicked things here that offend him: we are preserved to repent and be
pardoned." He mused some time on this: "Well, well," says he, mighty
affectionately, "that well: so you, I, devil, all wicked, all preserve,
repent, God pardon all." Here I was run down again by him to the last
degree; and it was a testimony to me, how the mere notions of nature,
though they will guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a God,
and of a worship or homage due to the supreme being of God, as the
consequence of our nature, yet nothing but divine revelation can form
the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of redemption purchased for us, of a
Mediator of the new covenant, and of an Intercessor at the footstool of
God's throne; I say, nothing but a revelation from Heaven can form these
in the soul; and that, therefore, the gospel of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, I mean the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, promised
for the guide and sanctifier of his people, are the absolutely necessary
instructors of the souls of men in the saving knowledge of God, and the
means of salvation.
I therefore diverted the present discourse between me and my man, rising
up hastily, as upon some sudden occasion of going out; then sending him
for something a good way off, I seriously prayed to God that he would
enable me to instruct savingly this poor savage; assisting, by his
Spirit, the heart of the poor ignorant creature to receive the light of
the knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to himself, and would
guide me to speak so to him from the word of God, as his conscience
might be convinced, his eyes opened, and his soul saved. When he came
again to me, I entered into a long discourse with him upon the subject
of the redemption of man by the Saviour of the world, and of the
doctrine of the gospel preached from heaven, viz. of repentance towards
God, and faith in our blessed Lord Jesus. I then explained to him as
well as I could; why our blessed Redeemer took not on him the nature of
angels, but the seed of Abraham; and how, for that reason, the fallen
angels had no share in the redemption; that he came only to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel, and the like.
I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all the methods I
took for this poor creature's instruction, and must acknowledge, what I
believe all that act upon the same principle will find, that in laying
things open to him, I really informed and instructed myself in many
things that either I did not know, or had not fully considered before,
but which occurred naturally to my mind upon searching into them, for
the information of this poor savage; and I had more affection in my
inquiry after things upon this occasion than ever I felt before: so
that, whether this poor wild wretch was the better for me or no, I had
great reason to be thankful that ever he came to me; my grief sat
lighter upon me; my habitation grew 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 to look up to heaven myself, and
to seek to the hand that had brought me here, but was now to be made an
instrument, under Providence, to save the life, and, for aught I knew,
the soul, of a poor savage, and bring him to the true knowledge of
religion, and of the Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ
Jesus, in whom is life eternal; I say, when I reflected upon all these
things, a secret joy ran through every part of my soul, and I frequently
rejoiced that ever I was brought to this place, which I had so often
thought the most dreadful of all afflictions that could possibly have
befallen me.
I continued in this thankful frame all the remainder of my time; and the
conversation which employed the hours between Friday and me was such,
as made the three years which we lived there together perfectly and
completely happy, if any such thing as complete happiness can he formed
in a sublunary state. This savage was now a good Christian, a much
better than I; though I have reason to hope, and bless God for it, that
we were equally penitent, and comforted, restored penitents. We had here
the word of God to read, and no farther off from his Spirit to instruct,
than if we had been in England. I always applied myself, in reading the
Scriptures, to let him know, as well as I could, the meaning of what I
read; and he again, by his serious inquiries and questionings, made me,
as I said before, a much better scholar in the Scripture-knowledge than
I should ever have been by my own mere private reading. Another thing I
cannot refrain from observing here also, from experience in this retired
part of my life, viz. how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it 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 made me
capable of understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on to
the great work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold 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 same plain instruction sufficiently
served to the enlightening this savage creature, and bringing him to be
such a Christian, as I have known few equal to him in my life.
As to all the disputes, wrangling, strife, and contention which have
happened in the world about religion, whether niceties in doctrines, or
schemes of church-government, they were all perfectly useless to us,
and, for aught I can yet see, they have been so to the rest of the
world. We had the sure guide to heaven, viz. the word of God; and we
had, blessed be God, comfortable views of the Spirit of God teaching and
instructing us by his word, leading us into all truth, and making us
both willing and obedient to the instruction of his word. And I cannot
see the least use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed points of
religion, which have made such confusions in the world, would have been
to us, if we could have obtained it.--But I must go on with the
historical part of things, and take every part in its order.
After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, and that he could
understand almost all I said to him, and speak pretty fluently, though
in broken English, to me, I acquainted him with my own history, or at
least so much of it as related to my coming to this place; how I had
lived here, 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, 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 their
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 were 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 the sight
of my island, as I now called 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
on. 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 upon 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
main land, and, in a kind of surprise, fells 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.
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 every thing 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.