Latest / Adventure Books Collection / 15 - Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
Transcript
- 0:00Chapter fifteen, Friday's Education. After I had been returned two or three days
- 0:09to my castle, I thought that in order to bring Friday off from his
- 0:14horrid way of feeding and from the relish of a cannibal's stomach, I ought
- 0:19to let him taste other flesh. So I took him out with me one
- 0:23morning to the woods. I went, indeed, intending to kill a kid
- 0:29out of my own flock and bring it home and dress it. But as
- 0:33I was going, I saw a she goat lying down in the shade,
- 0:37and two young kids sitting by her. I catched hold of Friday, hold
- 0:42said I stand still, and made signs to him not to stir. Immediately
- 0:49I presented my piece, shot and killed one of the kids. The poor
- 0:55creature, who had at a distance indeed seen me kill the sabae his enemy,
- 1:00but did not know nor could imagine how it was done, was sensibly
- 1:06surprised, trembled and shook, and looked so amazed that I thought he would
- 1:11have sunk down. He did not see the kid I shot at or perceive
- 1:17I had killed it, but ripped up his waistcoat to feel whether he was
- 1:22not wounded, And as I found presently thought I was resolved to kill him,
- 1:29for he came and kneeled down to me, and, embracing my knees,
- 1:34said a great many things I did not understand, but I could easily
- 1:38see. The meaning was to pray to me not to kill him. I
- 1:44soon found a way to convince him that I would do him no harm,
- 1:48and taking him up by the hand, laughed at him, and, pointing
- 1:52to the kid which I had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch
- 1:56it, which he did. And while he was one and looking to see
- 2:00how the creature was killed, I loaded my gun again, Bye and bye.
- 2:06I saw a great fowl like a hawk, sitting upon tree within shot.
- 2:09So to let Friday understand a little what I would do, I called
- 2:15him to me again, pointed at the fowl, which was indeed a parrot,
- 2:20though I thought it had been a hawk. I say, pointing to
- 2:23the parrot and to my gun, and to the ground under the parrot,
- 2:29to let him see I would make it fall. I made him understand that
- 2:32I would shoot and kill that bird. Accordingly, I fired and bade him
- 2:38look, and immediately he saw the parrot fall. He stood like one frightened
- 2:45again. Notwithstanding all I had said to him, and I found he was
- 2:50the more amazed because he did not see me put anything into the gun,
- 2:54but thought that there must be some wonderful fund of death destruction in that thing,
- 3:00able to kill man, beast, bird, or anything nearer or far
- 3:06off. And the astonishment this created in him was such as could not wear
- 3:12off for a long time. And I believe if I would have let him,
- 3:15he would have worshiped me and my gun. As for the gun itself,
- 3:23he would not so much as touch it for several days, but he
- 3:28would speak to it and talk to it as if it had answered him when
- 3:32he was by himself, which, as I afterwards learned of him, was
- 3:38to desire it not to kill him. Well after his astonishment was a little
- 3:44over at this I pointed to him to run and fetch the bird I had
- 3:49shot, which he did, but stayed some time, for the parrot,
- 3:53not quite being dead, had fluttered away a good distance from the place where
- 3:58she fell. However, he found her, took her up, and brought
- 4:01her to me, And as I had perceived his ignorance about the gun before,
- 4:06I took this advantage to charge the gun again, and not to let
- 4:12him see me do it, that I might be ready for any other mark
- 4:15that might present. But nothing more offered at that time. So I brought
- 4:23home the kid, and the same evening I took the skin off and cut
- 4:29it out as well as I could, and, having a pot fit for
- 4:31that purpose, I boiled or stewed some of the flesh, and made some
- 4:36very good broth. After I had begun to eat some, I gave some
- 4:42to my man, who seemed very glad of it, and liked it very
- 4:45well. But that which was strangest to him was to see me eat salt
- 4:51with it. He made a sign to me that the salt was not good
- 4:56to eat, and putting a little in to his own mouth, he seemed
- 5:01to nauseate it, and would spit and sputter at it, washing his mouth
- 5:08with fresh water after it. On the other hand, I took some meat
- 5:12into my mouth without salt, and I pretended to spit and sputter for want
- 5:16of salt, as much as he had done at the salt. Huh.
- 5:21But it would not do. He would never care for salt with meat or
- 5:27in his broth, at least not for a great while. And then but
- 5:31a very little Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth. I was
- 5:39resolved to feast him the next day by roasting a piece of the kid.
- 5:44This I did by hanging it before the fire on a string, as I
- 5:46had seen many people do in England, setting two poles up, one on
- 5:50each side of the fire and across the top, and tied the string to
- 5:55the cross stick, letting the meat turn continually. This Friday admired very much,
- 6:02but when he came to taste the flesh, he took so many ways
- 6:08to tell me how much he liked it that I could not but understand him.
- 6:14And at last he told me as well as he could, he would
- 6:16never eat man's flesh any more, which I was very glad to hear.
- 6:23The next day I set him to work beating some corn out and sifting it
- 6:28in the manner I used to do as I observed before, and he soon
- 6:31understood how to do it as well as I, especially after he had seen
- 6:36what the meaning of it was, and that it was to make bread of
- 6:41For after that I let him see me make my bread and bake it too,
- 6:45and in a little time Friday was able to do all the work for
- 6:47me as well as I could do it myself. I began now to consider
- 6:54that having two mouths to feed instead of one, I must provide more ground
- 6:59for my harvest and plant a larger quantity of corn than I used to do.
- 7:03So I marked out a larger piece of land and began the fence in
- 7:08the same manner as before, in which Friday worked not only very willingly and
- 7:12very hard, but did it very cheerfully. And I told him what it
- 7:16was for, that it was for corn to make more bread, because he
- 7:20was now with me, and that I might have enough for him and myself
- 7:26too. He appeared very sensible on that part, and let me know that
- 7:30he thought I had much more labor upon me on his account than I had
- 7:34for myself, and that he would work harder for me if I would tell
- 7:39him what to do. This was the pleasantest year of all the life I
- 7:45led in this place. Friday began to talk pretty well and understand the names
- 7:49of almost everything I had occasion to call for, and of every place I
- 7:55had to send him to, and talked a great deal to me, so
- 7:58that, in short, I began now to have some use for my tongue
- 8:01again, which indeed I had very little occasion for before, besides the pleasure
- 8:09of talking to him, I had a singular satisfaction in the fellow himself.
- 8:13His simple, unfeigned honesty appeared to me more and more every day, and
- 8:20I began really to love the creature. And on his side, I believed
- 8:24he loved me more than it was possible for him ever to love anything before.
- 8:31I had a mind once to try if he had any inclination for his
- 8:35own country again, and having taught him English so well that he could answer
- 8:41me almost any question, I asked him whether the nation that he belonged to
- 8:46never conquered in battle, at which he smiled and said, yes, yes,
- 8:52we always fight the better. That is, he meant always get the
- 8:58better in fight. And so we began the following discourse, Master, you
- 9:05always fight the better. How came you to be taken prisoner? Then?
- 9:09Friday Friday, my nation beat much for all that, Master, how beat
- 9:18if your nation beat them? How came you to be taken? Friday?
- 9:24They many more many than my nation. In the place where me was,
- 9:28they take one, two three, and me my nation overbeat them. In
- 9:33the yonder place where me Noah's there, my nation take one two great thousand,
- 9:41Master, But why did not your side recover you from the hands of
- 9:46your enemies? Then, Friday, they run one, two, three,
- 9:52and me and may go in the canoe. My nation have no canoe that
- 9:56time. Master, Well Friday, and what does your nation do with the
- 10:03men they take? Do they carry them away and eat them as these did?
- 10:07Friday? Yes? My nation eat man's too, eat all up?
- 10:13Master? Where do they carry them? Friday? Go to other place where
- 10:20they think? Master? Do they come hither? Friday? Yes, yes,
- 10:28they come hither, come other else place? Master. Have you been
- 10:33here with them? Friday? Yes, I have been here, points to
- 10:39the northwest side of the island, which it seems was their side. By
- 10:46this I understood that my man Friday had formerly been among the savages who used
- 10:50to come on shore on the farther part of the island on the same man
- 10:56eating occasions he was now brought for, and some time later, when I
- 11:03took the courage to carry him to that side, being the same I formerly
- 11:07mentioned, he presently knew the place and told me he was there once.
- 11:11When they ate up twenty men, two women, and one child. He
- 11:16could not tell twenty in English, but he numbered them by laying so many
- 11:20stones in a row and pointing to me to tell them over. I have
- 11:26told this passage because it introduces what follows. That after this discourse I had
- 11:33with him, I asked him how far it was from our island to the
- 11:37shore, and whether the canoes were not often lost. He told me there
- 11:43was no danger, no canoes ever lost, but that after a little way
- 11:48out to see there was a current and wind, always one way in the
- 11:52morning, the other in the afternoon. This I understood to be no more
- 11:56than the sets of the tide as going out or coming in. But I
- 12:00afterwards understood it was occasioned by the great draft and reflux of the mighty river
- 12:07Orinoco in the mouth or a gulf of which river, as I found afterwards
- 12:11our island lay, and that this land, which I perceived to be west
- 12:16and northwest, was the great island Trinidad, on the north point of the
- 12:22mouth of the river. I asked Friday a thousand questions over the country,
- 12:28the inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and what nations were near.
- 12:33He told me all he knew, with the greatest openness imaginable. I asked
- 12:39him the names of the several nations of his sort of people, but could
- 12:45get no other name than Caribs. From whence I easily understood that these were
- 12:50the Caribbees which our maps place on the part of America which reaches the mouth
- 12:56of the river Orinico, to Guyana, and onwards to Saint Martha. He
- 13:03told me that up a great way beyond the moon, that was beyond the
- 13:09setting of the moon, which must be west from their country, there dwelt
- 13:15white bearded men like me, and pointed to my great whiskers which I mentioned
- 13:20before, and that they had killed much mans. That was his word.
- 13:26By all which I understood, he meant the Spaniards, whose cruelties in America
- 13:31had been spread over the whole country and were remembered by all the nations from
- 13:35father to son. I inquired if he could tell me how I might go
- 13:41from this island and get among those white men. He told me, yes,
- 13:46yes, you may go in two canoe. I could not understand what
- 13:50he meant, or make him describe to me what he meant by two canoe,
- 13:54till at last, with great difficulty I found he meant it must be
- 13:58a large boat, as big as two canoes. This part of Friday's discourse.
- 14:05I began to relish very well, and from this time I entertained some
- 14:11hopes that one time or another I might find an opportunity to make my escape
- 14:16from this place, and that this for savage might be a means to help
- 14:20me. During the long time that Friday had now been with me, and
- 14:26that he began to speak to me and understand me. I was not wanting
- 14:31to lay a foundation of religious knowledge in his mind. Particularly. I asked
- 14:37him one time who made him? The creature? Did not understand me at
- 14:43all, but thought I had asked who was his father? But I took
- 14:46it up by another handle and asked him who made the sea, the ground
- 14:52we walked on, and the hills in the woods. He told me it
- 14:58was one been a mucky that lived beyond all. He could describe nothing of
- 15:05this great person, but that he was very old, much older he said,
- 15:09than the sea or land, than the moon or the stars. I
- 15:15asked him, if this old person had made all things, why did not
- 15:20all things worship him? He looked very grave, and with a perfect look
- 15:26of innocence, said all things say oh to him. I asked him if
- 15:33the people who die in his country went away anywhere. He said, yes,
- 15:39They all went to ben a mucky. Then I asked him whether those
- 15:45they eat up went thither too, He said yes. From these things,
- 15:54I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the true God. I told
- 15:58him that the great maker of all things lived up there, pointing up towards
- 16:03heaven, that he governed the world by the same power and providence by which
- 16:07he made it, that he was omnipotent and could do everything for us,
- 16:14give everything to us, take everything from us. And thus by degrees I
- 16:19opened his eyes. He listened with great attention, and received with pleasure the
- 16:26notion of Jesus Christ being sent to redeem us, and of the manner of
- 16:32making our prayers to God, and his being able to hear us even in
- 16:37heaven. He told me one day that if our God could hear us up
- 16:42beyond the sun, he must needs be a greater God than there been a
- 16:48mucky who lived but a little way off, and yet could not hear till
- 16:53they went up to the great mountains, where he dwelt to speak to them.
- 16:57I asked him if he ever went thither to speak with him. He
- 17:03said no, They never went that way, that were young men. None
- 17:08went thither, but the old men, whom he called there uhwakaki, that
- 17:15is, as I made him explain to me their religious or clergy, and
- 17:22that they went to say oh so he called, saying prayers, and then
- 17:27came back and told them what BENAMUCKI said. By this, I observed that
- 17:34there is a priestcraft even among the most blinded, ignorant pagans in the world,
- 17:40and the policy of making a secret of religion in order to preserve the
- 17:45veneration of the people to the clergy, not only to be found in the
- 17:51Roman, but perhaps all religions in the world, even among the most brutish
- 17:56and barbarous savages. I endeavored to clear up this fraud to my man Friday,
- 18:02and told him that the pretense of their old men going up to the
- 18:07mountains to say oh to their God been a mucky was a cheat, and
- 18:12their bringing word from thence what he said was much more so, that if
- 18:18they met with any answer or spake with anyone there, it must be an
- 18:25evil spirit. And then I entered into a long discourse with him about the
- 18:30devil, the origin of him, his rebellion against God, his enmity to
- 18:37man, the reason of it his settling himself up in the dark parts of
- 18:41the world to be worshiped instead of God and as God, and the many
- 18:48stratagems he made use of to delude mankind to their ruin. How he had
- 18:52a secret access to our passions and to our affections, and to adapt his
- 18:57snares to our inclinations, so as to cause us even to be our own
- 19:04tempters, and run upon our destruction by our own choice. I found it
- 19:12was not so easy to imprint right notions in his mind about the devil as
- 19:18it was about the being of God. Nature assisted all my arguments to evidence
- 19:23to him even the necessity of a great first cause and overruling governing power,
- 19:30a secret directing providence, and of the equity and justice of paying homage to
- 19:37Him that made us and the like. But there appeared nothing of this kind
- 19:45in the notion of an evil spirit, of his origin, his being,
- 19:48his nature, and above all his inclination to do evil, and to draw
- 19:55us in to do so too. And the poor creature puzzled me once in
- 20:00such a manner by a question merely natural and innocent, that I scarce knew
- 20:04what to say to him. I had been talking a great deal to him
- 20:10of the power of God, his omnipotence, his aversion to sin, his
- 20:15being a consuming fire to the workers of iniquity. How as He had made
- 20:21us all, he could destroy us all and all the world in a moment.
- 20:26And he listened with great seriousness to me. All the while after this,
- 20:32I had been telling him how the devil was God's enemy in the hearts
- 20:36of men, and used all his malice and skill to defeat the good designs
- 20:41of Providence and to ruin the Kingdom of Christ in the world and the like.
- 20:48Well, says Friday, But you say God is so strong, so
- 20:55great. Is he not much strong, much might as the devil? Yes,
- 21:02yes, as I Friday, God is stronger than the devil. God
- 21:06is above the devil, and therefore we pray to God to tread him down
- 21:11under our feet and enable us to resist his temptations and quench his fiery darts.
- 21:18But says he again, if God much stronger, much might as the
- 21:25wicked devil, why God no kill devil, So make him no more to
- 21:32wicked. I was strangely surprised at this question, and after all though I
- 21:38was now an old man. Yet I was but a young doctor, and
- 21:44ill qualified for a couculist or a salver of difficulties. And at first I
- 21:52could not tell what to say, and so I pretended not to hear him
- 22:00and ask him what he said. But he was too earnest for an answer
- 22:06to forget his question, so that he repeated it in the very same broken
- 22:10words as above. By this time I had recovered myself a little, and
- 22:15I said, God will at last punish him severely. He is reserved for
- 22:22the judgment and is to be cast into the bottomless pit to dwell with everlasting
- 22:27fire. This did not satisfy Friday, but he returns upon me, repeating
- 22:36my words, reserve at last, You know understand, But why not kill
- 22:42the devil? Now? Not kill great ago? You may as well ask
- 22:48me, said I, Why God does not kill you or me when we
- 22:52do wicked things here that offend him? We are preserved to repent and be
- 22:59pardoned. He mused sometime on this. Well, well, says he mighty
- 23:07affectionately, that well, so you I devil, all wicked, all preserve,
- 23:15repent, God pardon all. Here I was run down again by him
- 23:21to the last degree. And it was a testimony to me how the mere
- 23:26notions of nature, though they will guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of God
- 23:33and of a worship or homage due to the supreme being of God, as
- 23:37the consequence of our nature, yet nothing but divine revelation can form the knowledge
- 23:45of Jesus Christ and of redemption purchased for us, of a mediator of the
- 23:51New Covenant, and of an intercessor at the footstool of God's throne. I
- 23:59say, nothing but a revelation from Heaven can form these in the soul,
- 24:03And that therefore the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I
- 24:08mean, the Word of God and the Spirit of God promised for the guide
- 24:14and sanctifier of his people, are the absolutely necessary instructors of the souls of
- 24:21men, and the saving knowledge of God and the means of salvation. I
- 24:26therefore diverted the present discourse between me and my man, rising up hastily as
- 24:33upon some great occasion, of going out, then sending him for something a
- 24:37good way off, I seriously prayed to God that he would enable me to
- 24:44instruct savingly this poor savage, assisting by his spirit the heart of the poor
- 24:51ignorant creature to receive the light of the knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling
- 24:56him to himself, and would guide me so to speak to him from the
- 25:02Word of God, that his conscience might be convinced, his eyes opened,
- 25:07and his soul saved. When he came to me again, I entered into
- 25:12a long discourse with him upon the subject of the redemption of man by the
- 25:17Savior of the world, and of the doctrine of the Gospel preached from Heaven,
- 25:22that is, of repentance towards God and faith in our blessed Lord Jesus.
- 25:29I then explained to him as well as I could, why our Blessed
- 25:33Redeemer took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham,
- 25:38and how for that reason the fallen angels had no share in the redemption,
- 25:45that he came only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
- 25:51I had God knows more sincerity than knowledge in all the methods I took for
- 25:59this poor rich's instruction, and must acknowledge what I believe. All that act
- 26:03upon the same principle, will find that in laying things open to him,
- 26:08I really informed and instructed myself in many things that either I did not know
- 26:15or had not fully considered before, but which occurred naturally to my mind upon
- 26:21searching into them for the information of this poor savage. And I had more
- 26:27affection in my inquiry after things upon this occasion than ever I felt before.
- 26:34So that whether this poor wild wretch was better for me or no, I
- 26:40had great reason to be thankful that ever he came to me, my grief
- 26:45sat lighter upon me, my habitation grew comfortable to me beyond measure. And
- 26:52when I reflected that in this solitary life which I had been confined to,
- 26:56I had not only been moved to look up to heaven and to seek the
- 27:00hand that had brought me here, but was now to be made an instrument
- 27:06under providence to save the life and for aught. I knew the soul of
- 27:11a poor savage and bring him to the true knowledge of religion and of the
- 27:18Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, in whom is life eternal.
- 27:25I say, when I reflected upon all these things, a secret joy
- 27:29ran throughout every part of my soul, and I frequently rejoiced that ever I
- 27:37was brought to this place, which I had so often thought the most dreadful
- 27:42of all afflictions that could possibly have befallen me. I continued in this thankful
- 27:49frame. All the remainder of my time, and the conversation which employed the
- 27:53hours between Friday and me was such as made the three years which we lived
- 27:59there together perfectly and completely happy. If any such thing as complete happiness can
- 28:06be formed in a sub lunary state. This savage was now a good Christian,
- 28:14much better than I, though I have reason to hope and bless God
- 28:18for it that we were equally penitent and comforted restored penitence. We had here
- 28:26the Word of God to read, and no farther off from His spirit to
- 28:30instruct than if he had been in England. I always applied myself in reading
- 28:37the Scripture to let him know as well as I could the meanings of what
- 28:41I read, And he, again, by his serious inquiries and questionings,
- 28:45made me, as I said before, a much better scholar in the scripture
- 28:52knowledge than I should ever have been by my own mere private reading. Another
- 28:59thing I cannot refrain from observing here also from experience, in this retired part
- 29:04of my life. That is, how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it is
- 29:11that the knowledge of God and of the doctrine of salvation by Christ Jesus is
- 29:17so plainly laid down in the Word of God, so easy to be received
- 29:22and understood, that as the bear, reading the scripture made me capable of
- 29:29understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on to the great work of
- 29:34sincere repentance for my sins and laying hold of a savior for life and salvation,
- 29:42to a stated reformation in practice and obedience to all God's commands, And
- 29:52this without any teacher or instructor, I mean human. So the same plain
- 30:00sufficiently served to the enlightening of this savage creature and bringing him to be such
- 30:06a Christian as I have known few equal to him in my life. As
- 30:11to all the disputes, wrangling, strife, and contention which have happened in
- 30:19the world about religion, whether niceties and doctrines or schemes of church government,
- 30:26they were all perfectly useless to us, and for aught I can yet see
- 30:32they have been so to the rest of the world. We had the sure
- 30:37guide to heaven, that is the Word of God. And we had blessed
- 30:42be God comfortable views of the Spirit of God teaching and instructing by his word,
- 30:52leading us into all truth, and making us both willing and obedient to
- 30:56the instruction of His word. And I cannot see the least use that the
- 31:02greatest knowledge of the disputed points of religion, which have made such confusion in
- 31:07the world, would have been to us if we could have obtained it.
- 31:12But I must go on with the historical part of things, and take every
- 31:17part in its order. After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, and
- 31:25that he could understand almost all I said to him, and speak pretty fluently,
- 31:30though in broken English. To me, I acquainted him with my own
- 31:34history, or at least so much of it, as related to my coming
- 31:38to this place, how I had lived here, and how long. I
- 31:44let him into the mystery, for such it was to him of gunpowder and
- 31:48bullet, and taught him how to shoot. I gave him a knife,
- 31:53which he was wonderfully delighted with, and I made him a belt with a
- 31:57frog hanging to it, such as in England we wear hangers in and in
- 32:04the frog. Instead of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which
- 32:08was not only as good a weapon in some cases, but much more useful
- 32:14upon other occasions. I described to him the country of Europe, particularly England,
- 32:22which I came from, how we lived, how we worshiped God,
- 32:28how we behaved to one another, and how we traded in ships to all
- 32:32parts of the world. I gave him an account of the wreck which I
- 32:37had been on board of, and showed him as near as I could the
- 32:43place where she lay, But she was all beaten in pieces before and gone.
- 32:51I showed him the ruins of our boat, which we lost when we
- 32:55escaped, and which I could not stir with my whole strength then, but
- 33:01was now fallen almost to pieces. Upon seeing this boat, Friday stood musing
- 33:07a great while and said nothing. I asked him what it was he studied
- 33:15upon. At last says he me, see such boat like come to place
- 33:23at my nation. I did not understand him a good while, but at
- 33:30last, when I had examined further into it, I understood by him that
- 33:37a boat such as that had been came on shore upon the country where he
- 33:43lived. That is, as he explained, it was driven thither by stress
- 33:50of weather. I presently imagined that some European ship must have been cast away
- 33:58upon their coast. The boat might get loose and drive ashore, But was
- 34:04so dull that I never once thought of men making their escape from a wreck
- 34:09thither, much less whence they might come. So I only inquired after a
- 34:16description of the boat. Friday described the boat to me well enough, but
- 34:23brought me better to understand him when he added, with some warmth, we
- 34:30saved the white man's from drown Then I presently asked if there were any white
- 34:37mans, as he called them, in the boat. Yes, he said,
- 34:43the boat full of white mans. I asked him how many? He
- 34:49told upon his fingers, seventeen. I asked him, then, what became
- 34:55of them? He told me they live, they dwell at my nation.
- 35:05This put new thoughts into my head, for I presently imagined that these might
- 35:09be the men belonging to the ship that was cast away in the sight of
- 35:15my island, as I now called it, and who, after the ship
- 35:20was struck on the rock and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved themselves
- 35:25in their boat, and were landed upon that wild shore among the savages.
- 35:31Upon this I inquired of him more critically, what was become of them.
- 35:37He assured me they still lived there, that they had been there about four
- 35:43years, that the savages left them alone and gave them victuals to live on.
- 35:49I asked him how it came to pass that they did not kill them
- 35:52and eat them. He said, no, no, they make brother with
- 35:57them, that is, as I understood him, a truce. And then
- 36:01he added, they now eat men's but when make the war fight, that
- 36:07is to say, they never eat any men, but such as come to
- 36:12fight with them and are taken in battle. It was after this some considerable
- 36:20time that, being upon the top of the hill at the east side of
- 36:24the island from whence, as I have said, I had in a clear
- 36:30day discovered the main or continent of America Friday, the weather being very serene,
- 36:37looks very earnestly towards the mainland, and in a kind of surprise falls
- 36:44jumping and dancing, and calls out to me. For I was at some
- 36:47distance from him. I asked him, what was the matter? Oh,
- 36:52joy, says he, Oh glad there see my country, there, my
- 36:58nation observed. An extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in his face, and his
- 37:05eyes sparkled, and his countenance discovered a strange earnestness, as if he had
- 37:12a mind to be in his own country again. This observation of mine put
- 37:19a great many thoughts into me, which made me at first not so easy
- 37:24about my new man Friday as I was before. And I made no doubt
- 37:30but that if Friday could get back to his own nation again, he would
- 37:37not only forget all his religion, but all his obligation to me, and
- 37:40would be forward enough to give his countrymen an account of me, and come
- 37:45back, and perhaps with a hundred or two of them, make a feast
- 37:50upon me, at which he might be as merry as he used to be
- 37:53with those of his enemies when they were taken in war. I wronged the
- 38:00poor, honest creature very much, for which I was very sorry afterwards.
- 38:07However, as my jealousy increased and held some weeks, I was a little
- 38:12more circumspect and not so familiar and kind to him as before, in which
- 38:17I was certainly wrong too, the honest, grateful creature, having no thought
- 38:23about it, but what consisted with the best principles, both as a religious
- 38:30Christian and as a grateful friend, as appeared afterwards to my full satisfaction while
- 38:37my jealousy of him lasted. You may be sure I was every day pumping
- 38:43him to see if he would discover any of the new thoughts which I suspected
- 38:47were in him. But I found everything he said was so honest and so
- 38:54innocent that I could find nothing to nourish my suspicion. And in spite of
- 39:00all my uneasiness, he made me at last entirely his own again. Nor
- 39:07did he in the least perceive that I was uneasy, and therefore I could
- 39:13not suspect him of deceit. One day, walking up the same hill,
- 39:19but the weather being hazy at sea so that we could not see the continent,
- 39:23I called to him and said, Friday, do you not wish yourself
- 39:29in your own country, your own nation? Yes, he said, I
- 39:35be much o glad to be at my own nation. What would you do
- 39:40there? Said I? Would you turn wild again, eat men's flesh again,
- 39:46and be as savage as you were before? He looked, full of
- 39:52concern and shaking his head, said no, no, Friday. Tell them
- 39:58to live good, tell them to pray God, Tell them to eat corn,
- 40:02bread, cattle, flesh, milk. No eat man again? Why
- 40:08then said I to him, they will kill you. He looked grave at
- 40:14that, and then said, no, no, they no kill me.
- 40:19They willing love learn. He meant by this they would be willing to learn.
- 40:27He added that they learned much of the bearded man's that came in the
- 40:31boat. Then I asked him if he would go back to them. He
- 40:38smiled at that and said that he could not swim so far. I told
- 40:45him I would make a canoe for him. He told me he would go
- 40:51if I would go with him. I go, says I, Why they
- 40:55will eat me if I come there? No, no, says he me.
- 41:00Make they know eat you me, make they love much you. He
- 41:07meant he would tell them how I had killed his enemies and saved his life,
- 41:13and so he would make them love me. Then he told me as
- 41:16well as he could, how kind they were to the seventeen white men,
- 41:22or bearded men, as he called them, who came on shore there in
- 41:25distress. From this time I confess I had a mind to venture over and
- 41:32see if I could possibly join these bearded men, who I made no doubt
- 41:37were Spaniards and Portuguese. Not doubting, but if I could, we might
- 41:43find some method to escape from thence, being upon the continent and a good
- 41:47company together, better than I could from an island forty miles off the shore
- 41:54alone and without help. So after some days I took Friday to work again
- 42:00by way of discourse, and told him I would give him a boat to
- 42:06go back to his own nation. And accordingly I carried him to my frigate,
- 42:12which lay on the other side of the island, and, having cleared
- 42:15it of water, for I always kept it sunk in water, I brought
- 42:20it out, showed it to him, and we both went into it.
- 42:25I found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it, and would make
- 42:30it go almost as swift again as I could. So when he was in
- 42:37I said to him, well, now, Friday, shall we go to
- 42:39your nation. He looked very dull at my saying so, which it seems
- 42:46was because he thought the boat was too small to go so far. I
- 42:52then told him I had a bigger So the next day I went to the
- 42:57place where the first boat lay, which I had made, but which I
- 43:00could not get into the water. He said that was big enough, But
- 43:07then, as I had taken no care to it, it had lain there
- 43:10two or three and twenty years. The sun had so split and dried it
- 43:15that it was rotten. Friday told me such a boat would do very well,
- 43:23and would carry much enough vital drink, bread. This was his way
- 43:30of talking. End of Chapter fifteen,