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16 - Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe · Classic Adventure Books Library

• Chapter sixteen, Rescue of Prisoners from Cannibals 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, 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, says he, repeating the words several times. Why send Friday home away to my nation? Why, says I? Friday? Did not you say you wished you were there? Yes, yes, says he wished. We both bore know. Is 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 man's be good, sober tame man's. 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 teach me good, you teach 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 and gives it to me. What must I do with this? Says I? To him, You take kill Friday, says he? What must kill you for? Says 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 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 could 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 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 attempting my escape, founded on the supposition gathered from the discourse that there were seventeen bearded men there. And therefore, without any more delay, I went to work with Friday to find out a great proper tree to fell and make a large piagua or canoe to undertake the voyage. There were trees enough in the island to have built a little fleet, not of pyroguas or canoes, but even of good large vessels. But the main thing I looked at was this, 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 that tree we cut down, except that it was very like the tree we called fustic, or between that and the nicaragua wood for it was much of the same color and smell. Friday wished to burn the hollow or cavity of this tree out to make it for a boat, but I showed him how to cut it 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, though she was so big, it amazed me to see with what dexterity and how swift my man Friday could 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, we venture over in her very well, though great blow wind. However, I had a further design that he knew nothing of, and that was to make a mast and a sail, and to fit her with an anchor and cable. As to the 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 were 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 saales enough, but as I had had them now six and twenty 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 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 a mutton sail to go, with a boom at bottom and a short little sprit at the top, just as usually our ship's longboats sail with, And such as I best knew how to manage, as it was one such as I had in the boat in which I made my escape from Barbary. As related in the first part of my story, I was near two months performing this last work, that is, rigging and fitting my masts and sails. For I finished them very complete, making a small stay and a sail or forsal to assist it if we should turn to windward. And what was more than all, I fixed a rudder to the stern to steer her with. 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 that failed, I think it cost me almost as much labor as making the boat. After all this was done, I had my man Friday, to teach us what belonged to the navigation of my boat. Though he knew very well how to paddle a canoe, he knew nothing of what belonged to a sail and a rudder, and was the most amazed when he saw me work the boat too, 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 of the compass I could make him understand very little. On the other hand, as there was very little cloudy weather, seldom or never any fogs in those parts, there was the less occasion for a compass. Seeing. The stars were always to be seen at 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 seventh 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 acknowledgment 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. I went on, however, with my husbandry, digging, planting, and 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. We 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 stroke dam across it at the end 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 months 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 to go to the seashore and see if he could find a turtle or a 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 foot on. And before I had time to speak to him, he cries out to me, oh master, oh master, oh sorrow, oh bad, what's the matter? Friday? Says I? Oh yonder there, says he, won two three canoes one two three. By this way of speaking I concluded there were six, But on inquiry I found there were 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 back to look for him and would cut him in pieces and eat him. And the poor fellow trembled so that I scarcely knew what to do with him. I comfort 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 fright them that we do not kill. So I asked him whether if I resolved to defend him, he would defend me and stand by me and do just as I 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 we had drunk it. I made him take the two falling pieces which we all always carried, and loaded them with large swan shot 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 prospective 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 had landed not where they had done when Friday made his escape, but nearer to my creek, where the shore was low, and where a thick wood came almost close 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 had now got 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 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 guns 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 bullets. 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 could 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 further 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 on armed wretches, it is 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 in a 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 regard to myself. 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 weariness and silence, Friday following close at my heels, I marched till I came to the skirts of the wood on the side which was next to them, only that one corner of the wood lay between me. And then 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, whom he said they would kill next. And this fired the very soul within me. He told me it was not one of their nation, but one of the bearded men he had told me of that came to their country in the boat. I was filled with horror at the very naming of 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 his feet tied with flags or things like rushes, and that he was a European and had clothes on. There was another tree and a little thicket 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 then I should be within half a 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 came to a little rising a ground, which gave me a full view of them at the distance of about eighty yards. I had now not a moment to lose, for nineteen of the dreadful wretches sat upon the ground, all close huddled together, and had just sent the other two to butcher the poor Christian and bring him, perhaps limb by limb, to their fire. And they were stooping down to untie the bands at his feet. Turned to Friday. Now Friday said, I do as I bid thee Friday said he would. Then Friday says, I do exactly as you see me do fail in nothing. So I set down one of the muskets and the following piece upon the ground, and Friday did the like by his and with the other musket. I took my aim at the savages, bidding him to do the like, then asking him if he was ready. He said yes. Then fire at them, said I, And at the same moment I fired. Also. Friday took his aim so much better than I that on the one side that he shot, he killed two of them and wounded three more, And on my side I killed one and wounded two. They were you may be sure, in a dreadful consternation. And all of them that were not hurt jumped upon their feet, but did not immediately know which way to run or which way to look. For they knew not from whence their destruction came. Friday kept his eyes close upon me, that as I had bid him, he might observe what I did. So as soon as the first shot was made, I threw down the piece and took up the following piece, and Friday did the like he saw me cock and present he did the same. Are you ready, Friday said I, yes, says he let fly, Then says I, in the name of God. And with that I fired again among the amazed wretches, and so did Friday. And as our pieces were now loaded with what I call swan shot or small pistol bullets, we found only two drop, but so many were wounded that they ran about, yelling and screaming like mad creatures, all bloody, and most of them miserably wounded, whereof three more fell down quickly after, though not quite dead. Now, Friday says I, laying down the discharged pieces and taking up the musket which was yet loaded, follow me, which he did with a great deal of courage, and upon which I rushed out of the wood and showed myself and Friday close at my foot. As soon as I perceived they saw me, I shouted as loud as I could, and bade Friday do so too, and running as fast as I could, which by the way, was not very fast, being loaded with arms as I was, I made directly towards the poor victim, who was, as I said, lying upon the beach or shore, between the place where they sat and the sea. The two butchers that were going to work with him had left him at the surprise of our first fire, and fled in a terrible fright to the sea side, and had jumped into a canoe, and three more of the rest made the same way. I turned to Friday and bade him step forwards and fire at them. He understood me immediately, and running about forty yards to be nearer them, he shot at them, and I thought he had killed them all, for I saw them all fall of a heap into the boat, though I saw two of them up again quickly. However, he killed two of them and wounded the third, so that he lay down in the bottom of the boat. As if he had been dead. While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out my knife and cut the flags that bound the poor victim, and, loosing his hands and feet, I lifted him up and asked him in the Portuguese tongue what he was. He answered in Latin Christianus. But he was so weak and faint that he could scarcely stand or speak. I took my bottle out of my pocket and gave it to him, making signs that he should drink, which he did, and I gave him a piece of bread, which he ate. Then I asked him what countryman he was, and he said Espanol. And, being a little recovered, let me know by all the signs he could possibly make how much he was in my debt for his deliverance, Senor said I, with as much Spanish as I could make up. We will talk afterwards, but we must fight now. If you have any strength left, take this pistol and sword and lay about you. He took them very thankfully, and no sooner had he the arms in his hands, But as if they had put new vigor into him, he flew upon his murderers like a fury, and had cut two of them in pieces in an instant. For the truth is, as the whole was a surprise to them. So the poor creatures were so much frightened with the noise of our pieces that they fell down for mere amazement and fear, and had no more power to attempt their own escape than their flesh had to resist our shot. And that was the case of those five that Friday shot at in the boat, for as three of them fell with the hurt they received, so the other two fell with the fright. I kept my piece in my hand still without firing, being willing to keep my charge ready, because I had given the Spaniard my pistol and sword. So I called to Friday and bade him run up to the tree from whence he first fired, and fetch the arms which lay there discharged, which he did with great swiftness, and then giving him my musket, I sat down myself to load all the rest again, and bade them come to me when they wanted. While I was loading these pieces, there happened a fierce engagement between the Spaniard and one of the savages, who made at him with one of their great wooden swords, the weapon that was to have killed him before, if I had not prevented it. The Spaniard, who was as bold and brave as could be imagined, though weak, had fought the Indian a good while, and had cut two great wounds on his head. But the Savage, being a stout lusty fellow closing in with him, had thrown him down, being faint, and was wringing my sword out of his hand, when the Spaniard, though undermost wisely quitting the sword, drew the pistol from his girdle, shot the Savage through the body and killed him upon the spot before I, who was running to help him, could come near him. Friday, being now left to his liberty, pursued the flying wretches with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet, and with that he despatched those three, who, as I said before, were wounded at first and fallen, and all the rest he could come up with, And the Spaniard coming to me for a gun, I gave him one of the foling pieces, with which he pursued two of the savages and wounded them both, but as he was not able to run, they both got from him into the wood, where Friday pursued them and killed one of them, but the other was too nimble for him, and though he was wounded, yet had plunged himself into the sea and swam with all his might off to those two who were left in the canoe. Which three in the canoe, with one wounded that we knew not whether he died or no, were all that escaped our hands. Of one and twenty The account of the whole is as follows. Three killed at our first shot from the tree, two killed at the next shot, two killed by Friday in the boat, two killed by Friday. Of those at first wounded, one killed by Friday in the wood, three killed by the spaniard, four killed being found dropped here and there, of the wounds or killed by Friday, and as chased them, four escaped in the boat, whereof one wounded, if not dead, twenty one in all those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of gunshot, And though Friday made two or three shots at them, I did not find that he hit any of them. Friday would fain have had me take one of their canoes and pursue them, And indeed I was very anxious about their escape. Lest carrying home news to their people, they should come back, perhaps with two or three hundred of the canoes, and devour us by mere multitude. So I consented to pursue them by sea, and running to their canoes, I jumped in and bade Friday follow me. But when I was in the canoe, I was surprised to find another poor creature lie there, bound hand and foot, as the Spaniard was, for slaughter, and almost dead with fear, not knowing what was the matter, for he had not been able to look up over the side of the boat. He was tied so hard neck and heels, and had been tied so long that he had really but little life in him. I immediately cut the twisted flags or rushes which they had bound him with, and would have helped him up, But he could not stand or speak, but groaned most piteously, believing it seemed still that he was only unbound in order to be killed. When Friday came to him, I bade him speak to him and tell him of his deliverance, and pulling out my bottle made him give the poor wretchedram, which was the news of his being delivered. Revived him and he sat up in the boat. But when Friday came to hear him speak and look in his face. It would have moved any one to tears to see how Friday kissed him and embraced him, hugged him, cried, laughed, halloude, jumped about, danced, sang, then cried again, wrung his hands, beat his own face and head, and then sang and jumped about again, like a distracted creature. It was a good while before I could make him speak to me or tell me what was the matter. But when he came a little to himself, he told me that it was his father. It is not easy for me to express how it moved me to see what ecstasy and filial affection had worked in this poor savage at the sight of his father and of his being delivered from death. Nor indeed can I describe half the extravagances of his affection after this, For he went into the boat and out of the boat a great many times. When he went in to him, he would sit down by him, open his breast, and hold his father's head close to his bosom for many minutes together to nourish it. Then he took his arms and ankles, which were numb and stiff with the binding, and chafed and rubbed them with his hands, and I, perceiving what the case was, gave him some rum out of my bottle to rub with them, which did him a great deal of good. This affair put an end to our pursuit of the canoe with the other savages, who were now almost out of sight, And it was happy for us that we did not, for it blew so hard within two hours after and before they could be got a quarter of their way, and continue blowing so hard all night, and that from the northwest, which was against them, that I could not suppose their boat could live, or that they ever reached their own coast, but to return to Friday. He was so busy about his father that I could not find in my heart to take him off for some time. But after I thought he could leave him a little, I called him to me, and he came, jumping and laughing and pleased to the highest extreme. Then I asked him if he had given his father any bread. He shook his head and said, none, ugly dog, eat all up self. I then gave him a cake of bread out of a little pouch I carried on purpose. I also gave him a dram for himself, but he would not taste it, but carried it to his father. I had in my pocket two or three bunches of raisins, so I gave him a handful for his father. He had no sooner given his father these raisins. But I saw him come out of the boat and run away, as if he had been bewitched, for he was the swiftest fellow on his feet that I ever saw. I say he ran at such a rate that he was out of sight, as it were, in an instant, And though I called and hallooed out two after him, it was all one. Away he went. And in a quarter of an hour I saw him come back again, though not so fast as he went. And as he came nearer, I found his pace slacker, because he had something in his hand. When he came up to me, I found he had been quite home for an earthen jugger pot to put some fresh water for his father in, and that he had got two more cakes or loaves of bread. The bread he gave me, but the water he carried to his father. However, as I was very thirsty too, I took a little of it. The water revived his father more than all the rum or spirits I had given him, for he was fainting with thirst. When his father had drunk. I called to him to know if there was any water left. He said yes, and I bade him give it to the poor spaniard, who was in as much one of it as the father. And I sent one of the cakes that Friday brought to the spaniard too, who was indeed very weak, and was reposing himself upon a green place under the shade of a tree, and whose limbs were also very stiff and very much swelled with the rude bandage he had been tied with. When I saw that, upon Friday's coming to him with the water, he sat up and drank, and took the bread and began to eat. I went to him and gave him a handful of raisins. He looked up in my face with all the tokens of gratitude and thankfulness that could appear in any countenance, but was so weak, notwithstanding he had so exerted himself in the fight that he could not stand up upon his feet. He tried to do it two or three times, but was really not able. His ankles were so swelled and so painful to him, so I bade him sit still, and caused Friday to rub his ankles and bade them with rum, as he had done his father's. I observed the poor affectionate creature every two minutes or perhaps less, all the while he was here, turned his head about to see if his father was in the same place and posture as he had left him sitting. And at last he found he was not to be seen, at which he started up, and without speaking a word, flew with that swiftness to him that one could scarce perceive his feet to touch the ground as he went. But when he came he only found he had laid himself down to ease his limbs. So Friday came back to me presently, and then I spoke to the Spaniard to let Friday help him up if he could, and lead him to the boat, and then he should carry him to our dwelling, where I would take care of him. But Friday, a lusty, strong fellow, took the Spaniard upon his back and carried him away to the boat, and set him down softly upon the side or gunwale of the canoe, with his feet on the inside of it, and then lifting him quite in. He set him close to his father, and presently stepping out again, launched the boat off and paddled it along the shore faster than I could walk. Though the wind blew pretty hard too, so he brought them both safe into our creek, and, leaving them in the boat, ran away to fetch the other canoe. As he passed me, I spoke to him and asked him whither he went. He told me, go fetch more boat. So away he went like the wind. For sure, never man nor horse ran like him, and he had the other canoe in the creek almost as soon as I had got to it by land. So he wafted me over and then went to help our new guests out of the boat, which he did. But they were neither of them able to walk, so that poor Friday knew not what to do to remedy this. I went to work in my thought, and calling to Friday to bid him sit down on the bank while he came to me. I soon made a kind of hand barrel to lay them on, and Friday and I carried them both up together between us. But when we got them to the outside of our wall or fortification, we were at a worse loss than before, for it was impossible to get them over, and I was resolved not to break it down. So I set to work again, and Friday and I, in about two hours time made a very handsome tent covered with old sails, and above that with boughs of trees being in the space without our outward fence, and between that and the grove of young wood which I had planted. And here we made them two beds of such things as I had, that is, of good rice straw, with blankets laid upon it to lie on, and another to them on each bed. My island was now peopled, and I thought myself very rich in subjects, and it was a merry reflection which I frequently made, how like a king I looked. First of all, the whole country was my own property, so that I had an undoubted right of dominion. Secondly, my people were perfectly subjected. I was absolutely lord and lawgiver. They all owed their lives to me, and were ready to lay down their lives if there had been occasion for it. For me, it was remarkable too, I had but three subjects, and they were of three different religions. My man Friday was a Protestant, his father was a pagan and a cannibal, and the Spaniard was a papist. However, I allowed liberty of conscience throughout my dominions. But this is by the way. As soon as I had secured my two week rescued prisoners and given them shelter and a place to rest them upon, I began to think of making some provision for them. And the first thing I did I ordered Friday to take a yearling goat betwixt a kid and a goat out of my particular flock, to be killed. When I cut off the kind quarter and chopping it into small pieces, I set Friday to work to boiling and stewing it, and made them a very good dish, I assure you, of flesh and broth, and as I cooked it with out doors, for I made no fire within my inner wall. So I carried it all into the new tent, and having set a table there for them, I sat down and ate my own dinner also with them, as well as I could, cheered them and encouraged them. Friday was my interpreter, especially to his father, and indeed to the Spaniard too. For the Spaniards spoke the language of the savages pretty well. After we had dined, or rather supped, I ordered Friday to take one of the canoes and go fetch our muskets and other firearms, which for one of time we had left upon the place of battle. And the next day I ordered him to go and bury the dead bodies of the savages, which lay open to the sun and would presently be offensive. I also ordered him to bury the horrid remains of their barbarous feast, which I could not think of doing myself. Nay, I could not bear to see them if I went that way, all which he punctually performed, and efface the very appearance of the savages being there, so that when I went again, I could scarce know where it was, otherwise than by the corner of the wood pointing to the place. I then began to enter into a little conversation with my two new subjects, And first I set Friday to inquire of his father what he thought of the escape of the savages in that canoe, and whether we might expect a return of them with a power too great for us to resist. His first opinion was that the savages in the boat never could live out the storm which blew that night they went off, but must of necessity be drowned or driven south to those other shores, where they were as sure to be devoured as they were to be drowned if they were cast away. But as to what they would do if they came safe on shore, he said he knew not, But it was his opinion that they were so dreadfully frightened with the manner of their being attacked, and the noise and the fire, that he believed they would tell the people they were all killed by thunder and lightning, not by the hand of man, and that the two which appeared that his Friday and I, were two heavenly spirits or furies come down to destroy them, and not men with weapons. This he said he knew, because he heard them all cry out so in their language, one to another, For it was impossible for them to conceive that a man could dart fire and speak thunder and kill at a distance without lifting up the hand, as was done now. And this old savage was in the right, for as I understood, since by other hands, the savages never attempted to go over to the island afterwards. They were so terrified with the accounts given by these four men, for it seems they did escape the sea, that they believed whoever went to that enchanted island would be destroyed with fire from the gods. This, however, I knew not, and therefore was under continual apprehensions for a good while, and kept always upon my guard with all my army. For as there were now four of us, I would have ventured upon a hundred of them fairly in the open field at any time. End of Chapter sixteen,