Robinson Crusoe

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, “wish we both there;
no wish Friday there, no master there.” In a word, he would not think
of going there without me. “I go there, Friday?” says I; “what shall I
do there?” He turned very quick upon me at this. “You do great deal
much good,” says he; “you teach wild mans be good, sober, tame mans;
you tell them know God, pray God, and live new life.” “Alas, Friday!”
says I, “thou knowest not what thou sayest; I am but an ignorant man
myself.” “Yes, yes,” says he, “you teachee me good, you teachee them
good.” “No, no, Friday,” says I, “you shall go without me; leave me
here to live by myself, as I did before.” He looked confused again at
that word; and running to one of the hatchets which he used to wear, he
takes it up hastily, and gives it to me. “What must I do with this?”
says I to him. “You take kill Friday,” says he. “What must I kill you
for?” said I again. He returns very quick—“What you send Friday away
for? Take kill Friday, no send Friday away.” This he spoke so earnestly
that I saw tears stand in his eyes. In a word, I so plainly discovered
the utmost affection in him to me, and a firm resolution in him, that I
told him then and often after, that I would never send him away from me
if he was willing to stay with me.

Upon the whole, as I found by all his discourse a settled affection to
me, and that nothing 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 my doing them good; a
thing which, as I had no notion of myself, so I had not the least
thought or intention, or desire of undertaking it. But still I found a
strong inclination to 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 tree proper to fell, and make a large
periagua, or canoe, to undertake the voyage. There were trees enough in
the island to have built a little fleet, not of periaguas or canoes,
but even of good, large vessels; but the main thing I looked at was, to
get one so near the water that we might launch it when it was made, to
avoid the mistake I committed at first. At last Friday pitched upon a
tree; for I found he knew much better than I what kind of wood was
fittest for it; nor can I tell to this day what wood to call the tree
we cut down, except that it was very like the tree we call fustic, or
between that and the Nicaragua wood, for it was much of the same colour
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 labour 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 a mast, that was easy enough to get; so
I pitched upon a straight young cedar-tree, which I found near the
place, and which there 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 sails, 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-of-mutton sail, to go with a boom at bottom, and a little
short sprit at the top, such as usually our ships’ long-boats sail
with, and such as I best knew how to manage, as it was such a one as I
had to the boat in which I made my escape from Barbary, as related in
the first part of my story.

I was near two months performing this last work, viz. rigging and
fitting my masts and sails; for I finished them very complete, making a
small stay, and a sail, or foresail, to it, to assist if we should turn
to windward; and, what was more than all, I fixed a rudder to the stern
of her to steer 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 it that failed, I
think it cost me almost as much labour as making the boat.

After all this was done, I had my man Friday to teach as to 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 to and
again in the sea by the rudder, and how the sail jibed, and filled this
way or that way as the course we sailed changed; I say when he saw this
he stood like one astonished and amazed. However, with a little use, I
made all these things familiar to him, and he became an expert sailor,
except that of the compass I could make him understand very little. On
the other hand, as there was very little cloudy weather, and seldom or
never any fogs in those parts, there was the less occasion for a
compass, seeing the stars were always to be seen by night, and the
shore by day, except in the rainy seasons, and then nobody cared to
stir abroad either by land or sea.

I was now entered on the seven-and-twentieth year of my captivity in
this place; though the three last years that I had this creature with
me ought rather to be left out of the account, my habitation being
quite of another kind than in all the rest of the time. I kept the
anniversary of my landing here with the same thankfulness to God for
His mercies as at first: and if I had such cause of 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 strong dam
across the end of it, to keep the water out; and so she lay, dry as to
the tide from the sea: and to keep the rain off we laid a great many
boughs of trees, so thick that she was as well thatched as a house; and
thus we waited for the 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 sea-shore 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 his foot on; and before I had
time to speak to him he cries out to me, “O master! O master! O sorrow!
O bad!”—“What’s the matter, Friday?” says I. “O yonder there,” says he,
“one, two, three 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 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 comforted him
as well as I could, and told him I was in as much danger as he, and
that they would eat me as well as him. “But,” says I, “Friday, we must
resolve to fight them. Can you fight, Friday?” “Me shoot,” says he,
“but there come many great number.” “No matter for that,” said I again;
“our guns will 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 fowling-pieces, which we
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 perspective glass, and went up to the side of the hill, to see
what I could discover; and I found quickly by my glass that there were
one-and-twenty savages, three prisoners, and three canoes; and that
their whole business seemed to be the triumphant banquet upon these
three human bodies: a barbarous feast, indeed! but nothing more than,
as I had observed, was usual with them. I observed also that they 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 former thoughts returning, I began to
abate my resolution: I do not mean that I entertained any fear of their
number, for as they were naked, unarmed wretches, 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 and 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
wariness 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 them. Here I
called softly to Friday, and showing him a great tree which was just at
the corner of the wood, I bade him go to the tree, and bring me word if
he could see there plainly what they were doing. He did so, and came
immediately back to me, and told me they might be plainly viewed
there—that they were all about their fire, eating the flesh of one of
their prisoners, and that another lay bound upon the sand a little from
them, 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 an 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 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. I 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
fowling-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 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 fowling-piece, and Friday did the like; he saw me cock
and present; he did the same again. “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 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; 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 who were just going to work with him
had left him at the surprise of our first fire, and fled in a terrible
fright to the seaside, 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 was so weak and faint that he could
scarce stand or speak. I took my bottle out of my pocket and gave it
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, Espagniole; 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. “Seignior,” 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 vigour 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 we
first fired, and fetch the arms which lay there that had been
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 fowling-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 in his chase
of 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 gun-shot, 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 the news home 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
one of 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 the 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 seems, 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 wretch a dram, which, with 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 have seen how Friday kissed him, embraced
him, hugged him, cried, laughed, hallooed, 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 numbed 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
them with, which did them 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 continued blowing so hard all
night, and that from the north-west, 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 of them
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 ever I 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 too 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 jug or pot, to bring
his father some fresh water, 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 want of it as his 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 bathe
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, turn his head about to see if
his father was in the same place and posture as he 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 gunnel of the canoe, with his feet in 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 or horse ran like
him; and he had the other canoe in the creek almost as soon as I 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 them sit down on the bank while he came to me, I soon made a kind
of hand-barrow to lay them on, and Friday and I carried them both up
together upon it 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—viz. of good rice-straw, with blankets laid upon it to
lie on, and another to cover 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 weak, 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 hinder-quarter, and chopping it into
small pieces, I set Friday to work to boiling and stewing, and made
them a very good dish, I assure you, of flesh and broth; and as I
cooked it without 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, and, 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
Spaniard 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 and fetch our muskets and other firearms, which, for
want 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 effaced 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, 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—viz. 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 those 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.