August 19, 2025 • 43 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter fifteen, Friday's Education. After I had been returned two
or three days to my castle, I thought that in
order to bring Friday off from his horrid way of
feeding and from the relish of a cannibal's stomach, I
ought to let him taste other flesh. So I took
(00:22):
him out with me one morning to the woods. I went, indeed,
intending to kill a kid out of my own flock
and bring it home and dress it. But as I
was going, I saw a she goat lying down in
the shade, and two young kids sitting by her. I
catched hold of Friday, hold said I stand still, and
(00:45):
made signs to him not to stir. Immediately I presented
my piece, shot and killed one of the kids. The
poor creature, who had at a distance indeed seen me
kill the sabae his enemy, but did not know nor
could imagine how it was done, was sensibly surprised, trembled
(01:08):
and shook, and looked so amazed that I thought he
would have sunk down. He did not see the kid
I shot at or perceive I had killed it, but
ripped up his waistcoat to feel whether he was not wounded,
And as I found presently thought I was resolved to
kill him, for he came and kneeled down to me, and,
(01:32):
embracing my knees, said a great many things I did
not understand, but I could easily see. The meaning was
to pray to me not to kill him. I soon
found a way to convince him that I would do
him no harm, and taking him up by the hand,
laughed at him, and, pointing to the kid which I
(01:53):
had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it,
which he did. And while he was one and looking
to see how the creature was killed, I loaded my
gun again, Bye and bye. I saw a great fowl
like a hawk, sitting upon tree within shot. So to
let Friday understand a little what I would do, I
(02:14):
called him to me again, pointed at the fowl, which
was indeed a parrot, though I thought it had been
a hawk. I say, pointing to the parrot and to
my gun, and to the ground under the parrot, to
let him see I would make it fall. I made
him understand that I would shoot and kill that bird. Accordingly,
(02:38):
I fired and bade him look, and immediately he saw
the parrot fall. He stood like one frightened again. Notwithstanding
all I had said to him, and I found he
was the more amazed because he did not see me
put anything into the gun, but thought that there must
be some wonderful fund of death destruction in that thing,
(03:01):
able to kill man, beast, bird, or anything nearer or
far off. And the astonishment this created in him was
such as could not wear off for a long time.
And I believe if I would have let him, he
would have worshiped me and my gun. As for the
gun itself, he would not so much as touch it
(03:25):
for several days, but he would speak to it and
talk to it as if it had answered him when
he was by himself, which, as I afterwards learned of him,
was to desire it not to kill him. Well after
his astonishment was a little over at this I pointed
(03:46):
to him to run and fetch the bird I had shot,
which he did, but stayed some time, for the parrot,
not quite being dead, had fluttered away a good distance
from the place where she fell. However, he found her,
took her up, and brought her to me, And as
I had perceived his ignorance about the gun before, I
(04:07):
took this advantage to charge the gun again, and not
to let him see me do it, that I might
be ready for any other mark that might present. But
nothing more offered at that time. So I brought home
the kid, and the same evening I took the skin
(04:28):
off and cut it out as well as I could, and,
having a pot fit for that purpose, I boiled or
stewed some of the flesh, and made some very good broth.
After I had begun to eat some, I gave some
to my man, who seemed very glad of it, and
liked it very well. But that which was strangest to
(04:48):
him was to see me eat salt with it. He
made a sign to me that the salt was not
good to eat, and putting a little in to his
own mouth, he seemed to nauseate it, and would spit
and sputter at it, washing his mouth with fresh water
(05:09):
after it. On the other hand, I took some meat
into my mouth without salt, and I pretended to spit
and sputter for want of salt, as much as he
had done at the salt. Huh. But it would not do.
He would never care for salt with meat or in
his broth, at least not for a great while. And
(05:31):
then but a very little Having thus fed him with
boiled meat and broth. I was resolved to feast him
the next day by roasting a piece of the kid.
This I did by hanging it before the fire on
a string, as I had seen many people do in England,
setting two poles up, one on each side of the
(05:52):
fire and across the top, and tied the string to
the cross stick, letting the meat turn continually. This Friday
admired very much, but when he came to taste the flesh,
he took so many ways to tell me how much
he liked it that I could not but understand him.
(06:14):
And at last he told me as well as he could,
he would never eat man's flesh any more, which I
was very glad to hear. The next day I set
him to work beating some corn out and sifting it
in the manner I used to do as I observed before,
and he soon understood how to do it as well
(06:34):
as I, especially after he had seen what the meaning
of it was, and that it was to make bread
of For after that I let him see me make
my bread and bake it too, and in a little
time Friday was able to do all the work for
me as well as I could do it myself. I
began now to consider that having two mouths to feed
(06:56):
instead of one, I must provide more ground for my
harvest and plant a larger quantity of corn than I
used to do. So I marked out a larger piece
of land and began the fence in the same manner
as before, in which Friday worked not only very willingly
and very hard, but did it very cheerfully. And I
told him what it was for, that it was for
(07:18):
corn to make more bread, because he was now with me,
and that I might have enough for him and myself too.
He appeared very sensible on that part, and let me
know that he thought I had much more labor upon
me on his account than I had for myself, and
that he would work harder for me if I would
(07:39):
tell him what to do. This was the pleasantest year
of all the life I led in this place. Friday
began to talk pretty well and understand the names of
almost everything I had occasion to call for, and of
every place I had to send him to, and talked
a great deal to me, so that, in short, I
(08:00):
began now to have some use for my tongue again,
which indeed I had very little occasion for before, besides
the pleasure of talking to him, I had a singular
satisfaction in the fellow himself. His simple, unfeigned honesty appeared
to me more and more every day, and I began
(08:20):
really to love the creature. And on his side, I
believed he loved me more than it was possible for
him ever to love anything before. I had a mind
once to try if he had any inclination for his
own country again, and having taught him English so well
that he could answer me almost any question, I asked
(08:43):
him whether the nation that he belonged to never conquered
in battle, at which he smiled and said, yes, yes,
we always fight the better. That is, he meant always
get the better in fight. And so we began the
following discourse, Master, you always fight the better. How came
(09:07):
you to be taken prisoner? Then? Friday Friday, my nation
beat much for all that, Master, how beat if your
nation beat them? How came you to be taken? Friday?
They many more many than my nation. In the place
(09:28):
where me was, they take one, two three, and me
my nation overbeat them. In the yonder place where me
Noah's there, my nation take one two great thousand, Master,
But why did not your side recover you from the
hands of your enemies? Then, Friday, they run one, two, three,
(09:52):
and me and may go in the canoe. My nation
have no canoe that time. Master, Well Friday, and what
does your nation do with the men they take? Do
they carry them away and eat them as these did? Friday? Yes?
My nation eat man's too, eat all up? Master? Where
(10:15):
do they carry them? Friday? Go to other place where
they think? Master? Do they come hither? Friday? Yes, yes,
they come hither, come other else place? Master. Have you
been here with them? Friday? Yes, I have been here,
(10:38):
points to the northwest side of the island, which it
seems was their side. By this I understood that my
man Friday had formerly been among the savages who used
to come on shore on the farther part of the
island on the same man eating occasions he was now
brought for, and some time later, when I took the
(11:03):
courage to carry him to that side, being the same
I formerly mentioned, he presently knew the place and told
me he was there once. When they ate up twenty men,
two women, and one child. He could not tell twenty
in English, but he numbered them by laying so many
stones in a row and pointing to me to tell
(11:24):
them over. I have told this passage because it introduces
what follows. That after this discourse I had with him,
I asked him how far it was from our island
to the shore, and whether the canoes were not often lost.
He told me there was no danger, no canoes ever lost,
(11:46):
but that after a little way out to see there
was a current and wind, always one way in the morning,
the other in the afternoon. This I understood to be
no more than the sets of the tide as going
out or coming in. But I afterwards understood it was
occasioned by the great draft and reflux of the mighty
river Orinoco in the mouth or a gulf of which river,
(12:10):
as I found afterwards our island lay, and that this land,
which I perceived to be west and northwest, was the
great island Trinidad, on the north point of the mouth
of the river. I asked Friday a thousand questions over
the country, the inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and what
(12:33):
nations were near. He told me all he knew, with
the greatest openness imaginable. I asked him the names of
the several nations of his sort of people, but could
get no other name than Caribs. From whence I easily
understood that these were the Caribbees which our maps place
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on the part of America which reaches the mouth of
the river Orinico, to Guyana, and onwards to Saint Martha.
He told me that up a great way beyond the moon,
that was beyond the setting of the moon, which must
be west from their country, there dwelt white bearded men
(13:17):
like me, and pointed to my great whiskers which I
mentioned before, and that they had killed much mans. That
was his word. By all which I understood, he meant
the Spaniards, whose cruelties in America had been spread over
the whole country and were remembered by all the nations
from father to son. I inquired if he could tell
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me how I might go from this island and get
among those white men. He told me, yes, yes, you
may go in two canoe. I could not understand what
he meant, or make him describe to me what he
meant by two canoe, till at last, with great difficulty
I found he meant it must be a large boat,
(14:01):
as big as two canoes. This part of Friday's discourse.
I began to relish very well, and from this time
I entertained some hopes that one time or another I
might find an opportunity to make my escape from this place,
and that this for savage might be a means to
help me. During the long time that Friday had now
(14:25):
been with me, and that he began to speak to
me and understand me. I was not wanting to lay
a foundation of religious knowledge in his mind. Particularly. I
asked him one time who made him? The creature? Did
not understand me at all, but thought I had asked
(14:45):
who was his father? But I took it up by
another handle and asked him who made the sea, the
ground we walked on, and the hills in the woods.
He told me it was one been a mucky that
lived beyond all. He could describe nothing of this great person,
(15:06):
but that he was very old, much older he said,
than the sea or land, than the moon or the stars.
I asked him, if this old person had made all things,
why did not all things worship him? He looked very grave,
and with a perfect look of innocence, said all things
(15:29):
say oh to him. I asked him if the people
who die in his country went away anywhere. He said, yes,
They all went to ben a mucky. Then I asked
him whether those they eat up went thither too, He
said yes. From these things, I began to instruct him
(15:56):
in the knowledge of the true God. I told him
that the great maker of all things lived up there,
pointing up towards heaven, that he governed the world by
the same power and providence by which he made it,
that he was omnipotent and could do everything for us,
give everything to us, take everything from us. And thus
(16:18):
by degrees I opened his eyes. He listened with great attention,
and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ being
sent to redeem us, and of the manner of making
our prayers to God, and his being able to hear
us even in heaven. He told me one day that
(16:41):
if our God could hear us up beyond the sun,
he must needs be a greater God than there been
a mucky who lived but a little way off, and
yet could not hear till they went up to the
great mountains, where he dwelt to speak to them. I
asked him if he ever went thither to speak with him.
(17:04):
He said no, They never went that way, that were
young men. None went thither, but the old men, whom
he called there uhwakaki, that is, as I made him
explain to me their religious or clergy, and that they
went to say oh so he called, saying prayers, and
(17:28):
then came back and told them what BENAMUCKI said. By this,
I observed that there is a priestcraft even among the
most blinded, ignorant pagans in the world, and the policy
of making a secret of religion in order to preserve
the veneration of the people to the clergy, not only
(17:49):
to be found in the Roman, but perhaps all religions
in the world, even among the most brutish and barbarous savages.
I endeavored to clear up this fraud to my man Friday,
and told him that the pretense of their old men
going up to the mountains to say oh to their
(18:09):
God been a mucky was a cheat, and their bringing
word from thence what he said was much more so,
that if they met with any answer or spake with
anyone there, it must be an evil spirit. And then
I entered into a long discourse with him about the devil,
(18:32):
the origin of him, his rebellion against God, his enmity
to man, the reason of it his settling himself up
in the dark parts of the world to be worshiped
instead of God and as God, and the many stratagems
he made use of to delude mankind to their ruin.
(18:53):
How he had a secret access to our passions and
to our affections, and to adapt his snares to our inclinations,
so as to cause us even to be our own tempters,
and run upon our destruction by our own choice. I
found it was not so easy to imprint right notions
(19:16):
in his mind about the devil as it was about
the being of God. Nature assisted all my arguments to
evidence to him even the necessity of a great first
cause and overruling governing power, a secret directing providence, and
of the equity and justice of paying homage to Him
(19:39):
that made us and the like. But there appeared nothing
of this kind in the notion of an evil spirit,
of his origin, his being, his nature, and above all
his inclination to do evil, and to draw us in
to do so too. And the poor creature puzzled me
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once in such a manner by a question merely natural
and innocent, that I scarce knew what to say to him.
I had been talking a great deal to him of
the power of God, his omnipotence, his aversion to sin,
his being a consuming fire to the workers of iniquity.
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How as He had made us all, he could destroy
us all and all the world in a moment. And
he listened with great seriousness to me. All the while
after this, I had been telling him how the devil
was God's enemy in the hearts of men, and used
all his malice and skill to defeat the good designs
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of Providence and to ruin the Kingdom of Christ in
the world and the like. Well, says Friday, But you
say God is so strong, so great. Is he not
much strong, much might as the devil? Yes, yes, as
(21:03):
I Friday, God is stronger than the devil. God is
above the devil, and therefore we pray to God to
tread him down under our feet and enable us to
resist his temptations and quench his fiery darts. But says
he again, if God much stronger, much might as the
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wicked devil, why God no kill devil, So make him
no more to wicked. I was strangely surprised at this question,
and after all though I was now an old man.
Yet I was but a young doctor, and ill qualified
for a couculist or a salver of difficulties. And at
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first I could not tell what to say, and so
I pretended not to hear him and ask him what
he said. But he was too earnest for an answer
to forget his question, so that he repeated it in
the very same broken words as above. By this time
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I had recovered myself a little, and I said, God
will at last punish him severely. He is reserved for
the judgment and is to be cast into the bottomless
pit to dwell with everlasting fire. This did not satisfy Friday,
but he returns upon me, repeating my words, reserve at last,
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You know understand, But why not kill the devil? Now?
Not kill great ago? You may as well ask me,
said I, Why God does not kill you or me
when we do wicked things here that offend him? We
are preserved to repent and be pardoned. He mused sometime
(23:02):
on this. Well, well, says he mighty affectionately, that well,
so you I devil, all wicked, all preserve, repent, God
pardon all. Here I was run down again by him
to the last degree. And it was a testimony to
(23:24):
me how the mere notions of nature, though they will
guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of God and of
a worship or homage due to the supreme being of God,
as the consequence of our nature, yet nothing but divine
revelation can form the knowledge of Jesus Christ and of
(23:47):
redemption purchased for us, of a mediator of the New Covenant,
and of an intercessor at the footstool of God's throne.
I say, nothing but a revelation from Heaven can form
these in the soul, And that therefore the gospel of
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I mean, the Word
(24:10):
of God and the Spirit of God promised for the
guide and sanctifier of his people, are the absolutely necessary
instructors of the souls of men, and the saving knowledge
of God and the means of salvation. I therefore diverted
the present discourse between me and my man, rising up
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hastily as upon some great occasion, of going out, then
sending him for something a good way off, I seriously
prayed to God that he would enable me to instruct
savingly this poor savage, assisting by his spirit the heart
of the poor ignorant creature to receive the light of
(24:53):
the knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to himself,
and would guide me so to speak to him from
the Word of God, that his conscience might be convinced,
his eyes opened, and his soul saved. When he came
to me again, I entered into a long discourse with
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him upon the subject of the redemption of man by
the Savior of the world, and of the doctrine of
the Gospel preached from Heaven, that is, of repentance towards
God and faith in our blessed Lord Jesus. I then
explained to him as well as I could, why our
Blessed Redeemer took not on him the nature of angels,
(25:37):
but the seed of Abraham, and how for that reason
the fallen angels had no share in the redemption, that
he came only to the lost sheep of the House
of Israel. I had God knows more sincerity than knowledge
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in all the methods I took for this poor rich's instruction,
and must acknowledge what I believe. All that act upon
the same principle, will find that in laying things open
to him, I really informed and instructed myself in many
things that either I did not know or had not
fully considered before, but which occurred naturally to my mind
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upon searching into them for the information of this poor savage.
And I had more affection in my inquiry after things
upon this occasion than ever I felt before. So that
whether this poor wild wretch was better for me or no,
I had great reason to be thankful that ever he
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came to me, my grief sat lighter upon me, my
habitation grew comfortable to me beyond measure. And when I
reflected that in this solitary life which I had been
confined to, I had not only been moved to look
up to heaven and to seek the hand that had
brought me here, but was now to be made an
(27:05):
instrument under providence to save the life and for aught.
I knew the soul of a poor savage and bring
him to the true knowledge of religion and of the
Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, in whom
is life eternal. I say, when I reflected upon all
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these things, a secret joy ran throughout every part of
my soul, and I frequently rejoiced that ever I was
brought to this place, which I had so often thought
the most dreadful of all afflictions that could possibly have
befallen me. I continued in this thankful frame. All the
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remainder of my time, and the conversation which employed the
hours between Friday and me was such as made the
three years which we lived there together perfectly and completely happy.
If any such thing as complete happiness can be formed
in a sub lunary state. This savage was now a
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good Christian, much better than I, though I have reason
to hope and bless God for it that we were
equally penitent and comforted restored penitence. We had here the
Word of God to read, and no farther off from
His spirit to instruct than if he had been in England.
(28:35):
I always applied myself in reading the Scripture to let
him know as well as I could the meanings of
what I read, And he, again, by his serious inquiries
and questionings, made me, as I said before, a much
better scholar in the scripture knowledge than I should ever
have been by my own mere private reading. Another thing
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I cannot refrain from observing here also from experience, in
this retired part of my life. That is, how infinite
and inexpressible a blessing it is that the knowledge of
God and of the doctrine of salvation by Christ Jesus
is so plainly laid down in the Word of God,
(29:20):
so easy to be received and understood, that as the bear,
reading the scripture made me capable of understanding enough of
my duty to carry me directly on to the great
work of sincere repentance for my sins and laying hold
of a savior for life and salvation, to a stated
(29:44):
reformation in practice and obedience to all God's commands, And
this without any teacher or instructor, I mean human. So
the same plain sufficiently served to the enlightening of this
savage creature and bringing him to be such a Christian
(30:07):
as I have known few equal to him in my life.
As to all the disputes, wrangling, strife, and contention which
have happened in the world about religion, whether niceties and
doctrines or schemes of church government, they were all perfectly
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useless to us, and for aught I can yet see
they have been so to the rest of the world.
We had the sure guide to heaven, that is the
Word of God. And we had blessed be God comfortable
views of the Spirit of God teaching and instructing by
(30:49):
his word, leading us into all truth, and making us
both willing and obedient to the instruction of His word.
And I cannot see the least use that the greatest
knowledge of the disputed points of religion, which have made
such confusion in the world, would have been to us
(31:10):
if we could have obtained it. But I must go
on with the historical part of things, and take every
part in its order. After Friday and I became more
intimately acquainted, and that he could understand almost all I
said to him, and speak pretty fluently, though in broken English.
(31:31):
To me, I acquainted him with my own history, or
at least so much of it, as related to my
coming to this place, how I had lived here, and
how long. I let him into the mystery, for such
it was to him of gunpowder and bullet, and taught
him how to shoot. I gave him a knife, which
(31:54):
he was wonderfully delighted with, and I made him a
belt with a frog hanging to it, such as in
England we wear hangers in and in the frog. Instead
of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which was
not only as good a weapon in some cases, but
much more useful upon other occasions. I described to him
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the country of Europe, particularly England, which I came from,
how we lived, how we worshiped God, how we behaved
to one another, and how we traded in ships to
all parts of the world. I gave him an account
of the wreck which I had been on board of,
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and showed him as near as I could the place
where she lay, But she was all beaten in pieces
before and gone. I showed him the ruins of our boat,
which we lost when we escaped, and which I could
not stir with my whole strength then, but was now
(33:02):
fallen almost to pieces. Upon seeing this boat, Friday stood
musing a great while and said nothing. I asked him
what it was he studied upon. At last says he me,
see such boat like come to place at my nation.
(33:27):
I did not understand him a good while, but at last,
when I had examined further into it, I understood by
him that a boat such as that had been came
on shore upon the country where he lived. That is,
as he explained, it was driven thither by stress of weather.
(33:52):
I presently imagined that some European ship must have been
cast away upon their coast. The boat might get loose
and drive ashore, But was so dull that I never
once thought of men making their escape from a wreck thither,
much less whence they might come. So I only inquired
(34:16):
after a description of the boat. Friday described the boat
to me well enough, but brought me better to understand
him when he added, with some warmth, we saved the
white man's from drown Then I presently asked if there
(34:37):
were any white mans, as he called them, in the boat. Yes,
he said, the boat full of white mans. I asked
him how many? He told upon his fingers, seventeen. I
asked him, then, what became of them? He told me
(34:59):
they live, they dwell at my nation. This put new
thoughts into my head, for I presently imagined that these
might be the men belonging to the ship that was
cast away in the sight of my island, as I
now called it, and who, after the ship was struck
(35:21):
on the rock and they saw her inevitably lost, had
saved themselves in their boat, and were landed upon that
wild shore among the savages. Upon this I inquired of
him more critically, what was become of them. He assured
me they still lived there, that they had been there
(35:42):
about four years, that the savages left them alone and
gave them victuals to live on. I asked him how
it came to pass that they did not kill them
and eat them. He said, no, no, they make brother
with them, that is, as I understood him, a truce.
And then he added, they now eat men's but when
(36:06):
make the war fight, that is to say, they never
eat any men, but such as come to fight with
them and are taken in battle. It was after this
some considerable time that, being upon the top of the
hill at the east side of the island from whence,
(36:27):
as I have said, I had in a clear day
discovered the main or continent of America Friday, the weather
being very serene, looks very earnestly towards the mainland, and
in a kind of surprise falls jumping and dancing, and
calls out to me. For I was at some distance
(36:49):
from him. I asked him, what was the matter? Oh, joy,
says he, Oh glad there see my country, there, my
nation observed. An extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in his face,
and his eyes sparkled, and his countenance discovered a strange earnestness,
(37:11):
as if he had a mind to be in his
own country again. This observation of mine put a great
many thoughts into me, which made me at first not
so easy about my new man Friday as I was before.
And I made no doubt but that if Friday could
(37:33):
get back to his own nation again, he would not
only forget all his religion, but all his obligation to me,
and would be forward enough to give his countrymen an
account of me, and come back, and perhaps with a
hundred or two of them, make a feast upon me,
at which he might be as merry as he used
(37:53):
to be with those of his enemies when they were
taken in war. I wronged the poor, honest creature very much,
for which I was very sorry afterwards. However, as my
jealousy increased and held some weeks, I was a little
more circumspect and not so familiar and kind to him
(38:16):
as before, in which I was certainly wrong too, the honest,
grateful creature, having no thought about it, but what consisted
with the best principles, both as a religious Christian and
as a grateful friend, as appeared afterwards to my full
satisfaction while my jealousy of him lasted. You may be
(38:41):
sure I was every day pumping him to see if
he would discover any of the new thoughts which I
suspected were in him. But I found everything he said
was so honest and so innocent that I could find
nothing to nourish my suspicion. And in spite of all
(39:01):
my uneasiness, he made me at last entirely his own again.
Nor did he in the least perceive that I was uneasy,
and therefore I could not suspect him of deceit. One day,
walking up the same hill, but the weather being hazy
at sea so that we could not see the continent,
(39:24):
I called to him and said, Friday, do you not
wish yourself in your own country, your own nation? Yes,
he said, I be much o glad to be at
my own nation. What would you do there? Said I?
Would you turn wild again, eat men's flesh again, and
(39:47):
be as savage as you were before? He looked, full
of concern and shaking his head, said no, no, Friday.
Tell them to live good, tell them to pray God,
Tell them to eat corn, bread, cattle, flesh, milk. No
eat man again? Why then said I to him, they
(40:11):
will kill you. He looked grave at that, and then said, no, no,
they no kill me. They willing love learn. He meant
by this they would be willing to learn. He added
that they learned much of the bearded man's that came
(40:32):
in the boat. Then I asked him if he would
go back to them. He smiled at that and said
that he could not swim so far. I told him
I would make a canoe for him. He told me
he would go if I would go with him. I go,
(40:54):
says I, Why they will eat me if I come there? No, no,
says he me. Make they know eat you me, make
they love much you. He meant he would tell them
how I had killed his enemies and saved his life,
and so he would make them love me. Then he
(41:16):
told me as well as he could, how kind they
were to the seventeen white men, or bearded men, as
he called them, who came on shore there in distress.
From this time I confess I had a mind to
venture over and see if I could possibly join these
bearded men, who I made no doubt were Spaniards and Portuguese.
(41:40):
Not doubting, but if I could, we might find some
method to escape from thence, being upon the continent and
a good company together, better than I could from an
island forty miles off the shore alone and without help.
So after some days I took Friday to work again
(42:01):
by way of discourse, and told him I would give
him a boat to go back to his own nation.
And accordingly I carried him to my frigate, which lay
on the other side of the island, and, having cleared
it of water, for I always kept it sunk in water,
I brought it out, showed it to him, and we
(42:23):
both went into it. I found he was a most
dexterous fellow at managing it, and would make it go
almost as swift again as I could. So when he
was in I said to him, well, now, Friday, shall
we go to your nation. He looked very dull at
(42:44):
my saying so, which it seems was because he thought
the boat was too small to go so far. I
then told him I had a bigger So the next
day I went to the place where the first boat lay,
which I had made, but which I could not get
into the water. He said that was big enough, But then,
(43:07):
as I had taken no care to it, it had
lain there two or three and twenty years. The sun
had so split and dried it that it was rotten.
Friday told me such a boat would do very well,
and would carry much enough vital drink, bread. This was
(43:30):
his way of talking. End of Chapter fifteen,
Chapter fifteen, Friday's Education. After I had been returned two
or three days to my castle, I thought that in
order to bring Friday off from his horrid way of
feeding and from the relish of a cannibal's stomach, I
ought to let him taste other flesh. So I took
(00:22):
him out with me one morning to the woods. I went, indeed,
intending to kill a kid out of my own flock
and bring it home and dress it. But as I
was going, I saw a she goat lying down in
the shade, and two young kids sitting by her. I
catched hold of Friday, hold said I stand still, and
(00:45):
made signs to him not to stir. Immediately I presented
my piece, shot and killed one of the kids. The
poor creature, who had at a distance indeed seen me
kill the sabae his enemy, but did not know nor
could imagine how it was done, was sensibly surprised, trembled
(01:08):
and shook, and looked so amazed that I thought he
would have sunk down. He did not see the kid
I shot at or perceive I had killed it, but
ripped up his waistcoat to feel whether he was not wounded,
And as I found presently thought I was resolved to
kill him, for he came and kneeled down to me, and,
(01:32):
embracing my knees, said a great many things I did
not understand, but I could easily see. The meaning was
to pray to me not to kill him. I soon
found a way to convince him that I would do
him no harm, and taking him up by the hand,
laughed at him, and, pointing to the kid which I
(01:53):
had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it,
which he did. And while he was one and looking
to see how the creature was killed, I loaded my
gun again, Bye and bye. I saw a great fowl
like a hawk, sitting upon tree within shot. So to
let Friday understand a little what I would do, I
(02:14):
called him to me again, pointed at the fowl, which
was indeed a parrot, though I thought it had been
a hawk. I say, pointing to the parrot and to
my gun, and to the ground under the parrot, to
let him see I would make it fall. I made
him understand that I would shoot and kill that bird. Accordingly,
(02:38):
I fired and bade him look, and immediately he saw
the parrot fall. He stood like one frightened again. Notwithstanding
all I had said to him, and I found he
was the more amazed because he did not see me
put anything into the gun, but thought that there must
be some wonderful fund of death destruction in that thing,
(03:01):
able to kill man, beast, bird, or anything nearer or
far off. And the astonishment this created in him was
such as could not wear off for a long time.
And I believe if I would have let him, he
would have worshiped me and my gun. As for the
gun itself, he would not so much as touch it
(03:25):
for several days, but he would speak to it and
talk to it as if it had answered him when
he was by himself, which, as I afterwards learned of him,
was to desire it not to kill him. Well after
his astonishment was a little over at this I pointed
(03:46):
to him to run and fetch the bird I had shot,
which he did, but stayed some time, for the parrot,
not quite being dead, had fluttered away a good distance
from the place where she fell. However, he found her,
took her up, and brought her to me, And as
I had perceived his ignorance about the gun before, I
(04:07):
took this advantage to charge the gun again, and not
to let him see me do it, that I might
be ready for any other mark that might present. But
nothing more offered at that time. So I brought home
the kid, and the same evening I took the skin
(04:28):
off and cut it out as well as I could, and,
having a pot fit for that purpose, I boiled or
stewed some of the flesh, and made some very good broth.
After I had begun to eat some, I gave some
to my man, who seemed very glad of it, and
liked it very well. But that which was strangest to
(04:48):
him was to see me eat salt with it. He
made a sign to me that the salt was not
good to eat, and putting a little in to his
own mouth, he seemed to nauseate it, and would spit
and sputter at it, washing his mouth with fresh water
(05:09):
after it. On the other hand, I took some meat
into my mouth without salt, and I pretended to spit
and sputter for want of salt, as much as he
had done at the salt. Huh. But it would not do.
He would never care for salt with meat or in
his broth, at least not for a great while. And
(05:31):
then but a very little Having thus fed him with
boiled meat and broth. I was resolved to feast him
the next day by roasting a piece of the kid.
This I did by hanging it before the fire on
a string, as I had seen many people do in England,
setting two poles up, one on each side of the
(05:52):
fire and across the top, and tied the string to
the cross stick, letting the meat turn continually. This Friday
admired very much, but when he came to taste the flesh,
he took so many ways to tell me how much
he liked it that I could not but understand him.
(06:14):
And at last he told me as well as he could,
he would never eat man's flesh any more, which I
was very glad to hear. The next day I set
him to work beating some corn out and sifting it
in the manner I used to do as I observed before,
and he soon understood how to do it as well
(06:34):
as I, especially after he had seen what the meaning
of it was, and that it was to make bread
of For after that I let him see me make
my bread and bake it too, and in a little
time Friday was able to do all the work for
me as well as I could do it myself. I
began now to consider that having two mouths to feed
(06:56):
instead of one, I must provide more ground for my
harvest and plant a larger quantity of corn than I
used to do. So I marked out a larger piece
of land and began the fence in the same manner
as before, in which Friday worked not only very willingly
and very hard, but did it very cheerfully. And I
told him what it was for, that it was for
(07:18):
corn to make more bread, because he was now with me,
and that I might have enough for him and myself too.
He appeared very sensible on that part, and let me
know that he thought I had much more labor upon
me on his account than I had for myself, and
that he would work harder for me if I would
(07:39):
tell him what to do. This was the pleasantest year
of all the life I led in this place. Friday
began to talk pretty well and understand the names of
almost everything I had occasion to call for, and of
every place I had to send him to, and talked
a great deal to me, so that, in short, I
(08:00):
began now to have some use for my tongue again,
which indeed I had very little occasion for before, besides
the pleasure of talking to him, I had a singular
satisfaction in the fellow himself. His simple, unfeigned honesty appeared
to me more and more every day, and I began
(08:20):
really to love the creature. And on his side, I
believed he loved me more than it was possible for
him ever to love anything before. I had a mind
once to try if he had any inclination for his
own country again, and having taught him English so well
that he could answer me almost any question, I asked
(08:43):
him whether the nation that he belonged to never conquered
in battle, at which he smiled and said, yes, yes,
we always fight the better. That is, he meant always
get the better in fight. And so we began the
following discourse, Master, you always fight the better. How came
(09:07):
you to be taken prisoner? Then? Friday Friday, my nation
beat much for all that, Master, how beat if your
nation beat them? How came you to be taken? Friday?
They many more many than my nation. In the place
(09:28):
where me was, they take one, two three, and me
my nation overbeat them. In the yonder place where me
Noah's there, my nation take one two great thousand, Master,
But why did not your side recover you from the
hands of your enemies? Then, Friday, they run one, two, three,
(09:52):
and me and may go in the canoe. My nation
have no canoe that time. Master, Well Friday, and what
does your nation do with the men they take? Do
they carry them away and eat them as these did? Friday? Yes?
My nation eat man's too, eat all up? Master? Where
(10:15):
do they carry them? Friday? Go to other place where
they think? Master? Do they come hither? Friday? Yes, yes,
they come hither, come other else place? Master. Have you
been here with them? Friday? Yes, I have been here,
(10:38):
points to the northwest side of the island, which it
seems was their side. By this I understood that my
man Friday had formerly been among the savages who used
to come on shore on the farther part of the
island on the same man eating occasions he was now
brought for, and some time later, when I took the
(11:03):
courage to carry him to that side, being the same
I formerly mentioned, he presently knew the place and told
me he was there once. When they ate up twenty men,
two women, and one child. He could not tell twenty
in English, but he numbered them by laying so many
stones in a row and pointing to me to tell
(11:24):
them over. I have told this passage because it introduces
what follows. That after this discourse I had with him,
I asked him how far it was from our island
to the shore, and whether the canoes were not often lost.
He told me there was no danger, no canoes ever lost,
(11:46):
but that after a little way out to see there
was a current and wind, always one way in the morning,
the other in the afternoon. This I understood to be
no more than the sets of the tide as going
out or coming in. But I afterwards understood it was
occasioned by the great draft and reflux of the mighty
river Orinoco in the mouth or a gulf of which river,
(12:10):
as I found afterwards our island lay, and that this land,
which I perceived to be west and northwest, was the
great island Trinidad, on the north point of the mouth
of the river. I asked Friday a thousand questions over
the country, the inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and what
(12:33):
nations were near. He told me all he knew, with
the greatest openness imaginable. I asked him the names of
the several nations of his sort of people, but could
get no other name than Caribs. From whence I easily
understood that these were the Caribbees which our maps place
(12:54):
on the part of America which reaches the mouth of
the river Orinico, to Guyana, and onwards to Saint Martha.
He told me that up a great way beyond the moon,
that was beyond the setting of the moon, which must
be west from their country, there dwelt white bearded men
(13:17):
like me, and pointed to my great whiskers which I
mentioned before, and that they had killed much mans. That
was his word. By all which I understood, he meant
the Spaniards, whose cruelties in America had been spread over
the whole country and were remembered by all the nations
from father to son. I inquired if he could tell
(13:40):
me how I might go from this island and get
among those white men. He told me, yes, yes, you
may go in two canoe. I could not understand what
he meant, or make him describe to me what he
meant by two canoe, till at last, with great difficulty
I found he meant it must be a large boat,
(14:01):
as big as two canoes. This part of Friday's discourse.
I began to relish very well, and from this time
I entertained some hopes that one time or another I
might find an opportunity to make my escape from this place,
and that this for savage might be a means to
help me. During the long time that Friday had now
(14:25):
been with me, and that he began to speak to
me and understand me. I was not wanting to lay
a foundation of religious knowledge in his mind. Particularly. I
asked him one time who made him? The creature? Did
not understand me at all, but thought I had asked
(14:45):
who was his father? But I took it up by
another handle and asked him who made the sea, the
ground we walked on, and the hills in the woods.
He told me it was one been a mucky that
lived beyond all. He could describe nothing of this great person,
(15:06):
but that he was very old, much older he said,
than the sea or land, than the moon or the stars.
I asked him, if this old person had made all things,
why did not all things worship him? He looked very grave,
and with a perfect look of innocence, said all things
(15:29):
say oh to him. I asked him if the people
who die in his country went away anywhere. He said, yes,
They all went to ben a mucky. Then I asked
him whether those they eat up went thither too, He
said yes. From these things, I began to instruct him
(15:56):
in the knowledge of the true God. I told him
that the great maker of all things lived up there,
pointing up towards heaven, that he governed the world by
the same power and providence by which he made it,
that he was omnipotent and could do everything for us,
give everything to us, take everything from us. And thus
(16:18):
by degrees I opened his eyes. He listened with great attention,
and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ being
sent to redeem us, and of the manner of making
our prayers to God, and his being able to hear
us even in heaven. He told me one day that
(16:41):
if our God could hear us up beyond the sun,
he must needs be a greater God than there been
a mucky who lived but a little way off, and
yet could not hear till they went up to the
great mountains, where he dwelt to speak to them. I
asked him if he ever went thither to speak with him.
(17:04):
He said no, They never went that way, that were
young men. None went thither, but the old men, whom
he called there uhwakaki, that is, as I made him
explain to me their religious or clergy, and that they
went to say oh so he called, saying prayers, and
(17:28):
then came back and told them what BENAMUCKI said. By this,
I observed that there is a priestcraft even among the
most blinded, ignorant pagans in the world, and the policy
of making a secret of religion in order to preserve
the veneration of the people to the clergy, not only
(17:49):
to be found in the Roman, but perhaps all religions
in the world, even among the most brutish and barbarous savages.
I endeavored to clear up this fraud to my man Friday,
and told him that the pretense of their old men
going up to the mountains to say oh to their
(18:09):
God been a mucky was a cheat, and their bringing
word from thence what he said was much more so,
that if they met with any answer or spake with
anyone there, it must be an evil spirit. And then
I entered into a long discourse with him about the devil,
(18:32):
the origin of him, his rebellion against God, his enmity
to man, the reason of it his settling himself up
in the dark parts of the world to be worshiped
instead of God and as God, and the many stratagems
he made use of to delude mankind to their ruin.
(18:53):
How he had a secret access to our passions and
to our affections, and to adapt his snares to our inclinations,
so as to cause us even to be our own tempters,
and run upon our destruction by our own choice. I
found it was not so easy to imprint right notions
(19:16):
in his mind about the devil as it was about
the being of God. Nature assisted all my arguments to
evidence to him even the necessity of a great first
cause and overruling governing power, a secret directing providence, and
of the equity and justice of paying homage to Him
(19:39):
that made us and the like. But there appeared nothing
of this kind in the notion of an evil spirit,
of his origin, his being, his nature, and above all
his inclination to do evil, and to draw us in
to do so too. And the poor creature puzzled me
(19:59):
once in such a manner by a question merely natural
and innocent, that I scarce knew what to say to him.
I had been talking a great deal to him of
the power of God, his omnipotence, his aversion to sin,
his being a consuming fire to the workers of iniquity.
(20:19):
How as He had made us all, he could destroy
us all and all the world in a moment. And
he listened with great seriousness to me. All the while
after this, I had been telling him how the devil
was God's enemy in the hearts of men, and used
all his malice and skill to defeat the good designs
(20:42):
of Providence and to ruin the Kingdom of Christ in
the world and the like. Well, says Friday, But you
say God is so strong, so great. Is he not
much strong, much might as the devil? Yes, yes, as
(21:03):
I Friday, God is stronger than the devil. God is
above the devil, and therefore we pray to God to
tread him down under our feet and enable us to
resist his temptations and quench his fiery darts. But says
he again, if God much stronger, much might as the
(21:25):
wicked devil, why God no kill devil, So make him
no more to wicked. I was strangely surprised at this question,
and after all though I was now an old man.
Yet I was but a young doctor, and ill qualified
for a couculist or a salver of difficulties. And at
(21:51):
first I could not tell what to say, and so
I pretended not to hear him and ask him what
he said. But he was too earnest for an answer
to forget his question, so that he repeated it in
the very same broken words as above. By this time
(22:14):
I had recovered myself a little, and I said, God
will at last punish him severely. He is reserved for
the judgment and is to be cast into the bottomless
pit to dwell with everlasting fire. This did not satisfy Friday,
but he returns upon me, repeating my words, reserve at last,
(22:40):
You know understand, But why not kill the devil? Now?
Not kill great ago? You may as well ask me,
said I, Why God does not kill you or me
when we do wicked things here that offend him? We
are preserved to repent and be pardoned. He mused sometime
(23:02):
on this. Well, well, says he mighty affectionately, that well,
so you I devil, all wicked, all preserve, repent, God
pardon all. Here I was run down again by him
to the last degree. And it was a testimony to
(23:24):
me how the mere notions of nature, though they will
guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of God and of
a worship or homage due to the supreme being of God,
as the consequence of our nature, yet nothing but divine
revelation can form the knowledge of Jesus Christ and of
(23:47):
redemption purchased for us, of a mediator of the New Covenant,
and of an intercessor at the footstool of God's throne.
I say, nothing but a revelation from Heaven can form
these in the soul, And that therefore the gospel of
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I mean, the Word
(24:10):
of God and the Spirit of God promised for the
guide and sanctifier of his people, are the absolutely necessary
instructors of the souls of men, and the saving knowledge
of God and the means of salvation. I therefore diverted
the present discourse between me and my man, rising up
(24:32):
hastily as upon some great occasion, of going out, then
sending him for something a good way off, I seriously
prayed to God that he would enable me to instruct
savingly this poor savage, assisting by his spirit the heart
of the poor ignorant creature to receive the light of
(24:53):
the knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to himself,
and would guide me so to speak to him from
the Word of God, that his conscience might be convinced,
his eyes opened, and his soul saved. When he came
to me again, I entered into a long discourse with
(25:14):
him upon the subject of the redemption of man by
the Savior of the world, and of the doctrine of
the Gospel preached from Heaven, that is, of repentance towards
God and faith in our blessed Lord Jesus. I then
explained to him as well as I could, why our
Blessed Redeemer took not on him the nature of angels,
(25:37):
but the seed of Abraham, and how for that reason
the fallen angels had no share in the redemption, that
he came only to the lost sheep of the House
of Israel. I had God knows more sincerity than knowledge
(25:57):
in all the methods I took for this poor rich's instruction,
and must acknowledge what I believe. All that act upon
the same principle, will find that in laying things open
to him, I really informed and instructed myself in many
things that either I did not know or had not
fully considered before, but which occurred naturally to my mind
(26:20):
upon searching into them for the information of this poor savage.
And I had more affection in my inquiry after things
upon this occasion than ever I felt before. So that
whether this poor wild wretch was better for me or no,
I had great reason to be thankful that ever he
(26:43):
came to me, my grief sat lighter upon me, my
habitation grew comfortable to me beyond measure. And when I
reflected that in this solitary life which I had been
confined to, I had not only been moved to look
up to heaven and to seek the hand that had
brought me here, but was now to be made an
(27:05):
instrument under providence to save the life and for aught.
I knew the soul of a poor savage and bring
him to the true knowledge of religion and of the
Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, in whom
is life eternal. I say, when I reflected upon all
(27:27):
these things, a secret joy ran throughout every part of
my soul, and I frequently rejoiced that ever I was
brought to this place, which I had so often thought
the most dreadful of all afflictions that could possibly have
befallen me. I continued in this thankful frame. All the
(27:51):
remainder of my time, and the conversation which employed the
hours between Friday and me was such as made the
three years which we lived there together perfectly and completely happy.
If any such thing as complete happiness can be formed
in a sub lunary state. This savage was now a
(28:12):
good Christian, much better than I, though I have reason
to hope and bless God for it that we were
equally penitent and comforted restored penitence. We had here the
Word of God to read, and no farther off from
His spirit to instruct than if he had been in England.
(28:35):
I always applied myself in reading the Scripture to let
him know as well as I could the meanings of
what I read, And he, again, by his serious inquiries
and questionings, made me, as I said before, a much
better scholar in the scripture knowledge than I should ever
have been by my own mere private reading. Another thing
(28:59):
I cannot refrain from observing here also from experience, in
this retired part of my life. That is, how infinite
and inexpressible a blessing it is that the knowledge of
God and of the doctrine of salvation by Christ Jesus
is so plainly laid down in the Word of God,
(29:20):
so easy to be received and understood, that as the bear,
reading the scripture made me capable of understanding enough of
my duty to carry me directly on to the great
work of sincere repentance for my sins and laying hold
of a savior for life and salvation, to a stated
(29:44):
reformation in practice and obedience to all God's commands, And
this without any teacher or instructor, I mean human. So
the same plain sufficiently served to the enlightening of this
savage creature and bringing him to be such a Christian
(30:07):
as I have known few equal to him in my life.
As to all the disputes, wrangling, strife, and contention which
have happened in the world about religion, whether niceties and
doctrines or schemes of church government, they were all perfectly
(30:28):
useless to us, and for aught I can yet see
they have been so to the rest of the world.
We had the sure guide to heaven, that is the
Word of God. And we had blessed be God comfortable
views of the Spirit of God teaching and instructing by
(30:49):
his word, leading us into all truth, and making us
both willing and obedient to the instruction of His word.
And I cannot see the least use that the greatest
knowledge of the disputed points of religion, which have made
such confusion in the world, would have been to us
(31:10):
if we could have obtained it. But I must go
on with the historical part of things, and take every
part in its order. After Friday and I became more
intimately acquainted, and that he could understand almost all I
said to him, and speak pretty fluently, though in broken English.
(31:31):
To me, I acquainted him with my own history, or
at least so much of it, as related to my
coming to this place, how I had lived here, and
how long. I let him into the mystery, for such
it was to him of gunpowder and bullet, and taught
him how to shoot. I gave him a knife, which
(31:54):
he was wonderfully delighted with, and I made him a
belt with a frog hanging to it, such as in
England we wear hangers in and in the frog. Instead
of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which was
not only as good a weapon in some cases, but
much more useful upon other occasions. I described to him
(32:19):
the country of Europe, particularly England, which I came from,
how we lived, how we worshiped God, how we behaved
to one another, and how we traded in ships to
all parts of the world. I gave him an account
of the wreck which I had been on board of,
(32:40):
and showed him as near as I could the place
where she lay, But she was all beaten in pieces
before and gone. I showed him the ruins of our boat,
which we lost when we escaped, and which I could
not stir with my whole strength then, but was now
(33:02):
fallen almost to pieces. Upon seeing this boat, Friday stood
musing a great while and said nothing. I asked him
what it was he studied upon. At last says he me,
see such boat like come to place at my nation.
(33:27):
I did not understand him a good while, but at last,
when I had examined further into it, I understood by
him that a boat such as that had been came
on shore upon the country where he lived. That is,
as he explained, it was driven thither by stress of weather.
(33:52):
I presently imagined that some European ship must have been
cast away upon their coast. The boat might get loose
and drive ashore, But was so dull that I never
once thought of men making their escape from a wreck thither,
much less whence they might come. So I only inquired
(34:16):
after a description of the boat. Friday described the boat
to me well enough, but brought me better to understand
him when he added, with some warmth, we saved the
white man's from drown Then I presently asked if there
(34:37):
were any white mans, as he called them, in the boat. Yes,
he said, the boat full of white mans. I asked
him how many? He told upon his fingers, seventeen. I
asked him, then, what became of them? He told me
(34:59):
they live, they dwell at my nation. This put new
thoughts into my head, for I presently imagined that these
might be the men belonging to the ship that was
cast away in the sight of my island, as I
now called it, and who, after the ship was struck
(35:21):
on the rock and they saw her inevitably lost, had
saved themselves in their boat, and were landed upon that
wild shore among the savages. Upon this I inquired of
him more critically, what was become of them. He assured
me they still lived there, that they had been there
(35:42):
about four years, that the savages left them alone and
gave them victuals to live on. I asked him how
it came to pass that they did not kill them
and eat them. He said, no, no, they make brother
with them, that is, as I understood him, a truce.
And then he added, they now eat men's but when
(36:06):
make the war fight, that is to say, they never
eat any men, but such as come to fight with
them and are taken in battle. It was after this
some considerable time that, being upon the top of the
hill at the east side of the island from whence,
(36:27):
as I have said, I had in a clear day
discovered the main or continent of America Friday, the weather
being very serene, looks very earnestly towards the mainland, and
in a kind of surprise falls jumping and dancing, and
calls out to me. For I was at some distance
(36:49):
from him. I asked him, what was the matter? Oh, joy,
says he, Oh glad there see my country, there, my
nation observed. An extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in his face,
and his eyes sparkled, and his countenance discovered a strange earnestness,
(37:11):
as if he had a mind to be in his
own country again. This observation of mine put a great
many thoughts into me, which made me at first not
so easy about my new man Friday as I was before.
And I made no doubt but that if Friday could
(37:33):
get back to his own nation again, he would not
only forget all his religion, but all his obligation to me,
and would be forward enough to give his countrymen an
account of me, and come back, and perhaps with a
hundred or two of them, make a feast upon me,
at which he might be as merry as he used
(37:53):
to be with those of his enemies when they were
taken in war. I wronged the poor, honest creature very much,
for which I was very sorry afterwards. However, as my
jealousy increased and held some weeks, I was a little
more circumspect and not so familiar and kind to him
(38:16):
as before, in which I was certainly wrong too, the honest,
grateful creature, having no thought about it, but what consisted
with the best principles, both as a religious Christian and
as a grateful friend, as appeared afterwards to my full
satisfaction while my jealousy of him lasted. You may be
(38:41):
sure I was every day pumping him to see if
he would discover any of the new thoughts which I
suspected were in him. But I found everything he said
was so honest and so innocent that I could find
nothing to nourish my suspicion. And in spite of all
(39:01):
my uneasiness, he made me at last entirely his own again.
Nor did he in the least perceive that I was uneasy,
and therefore I could not suspect him of deceit. One day,
walking up the same hill, but the weather being hazy
at sea so that we could not see the continent,
(39:24):
I called to him and said, Friday, do you not
wish yourself in your own country, your own nation? Yes,
he said, I be much o glad to be at
my own nation. What would you do there? Said I?
Would you turn wild again, eat men's flesh again, and
(39:47):
be as savage as you were before? He looked, full
of concern and shaking his head, said no, no, Friday.
Tell them to live good, tell them to pray God,
Tell them to eat corn, bread, cattle, flesh, milk. No
eat man again? Why then said I to him, they
(40:11):
will kill you. He looked grave at that, and then said, no, no,
they no kill me. They willing love learn. He meant
by this they would be willing to learn. He added
that they learned much of the bearded man's that came
(40:32):
in the boat. Then I asked him if he would
go back to them. He smiled at that and said
that he could not swim so far. I told him
I would make a canoe for him. He told me
he would go if I would go with him. I go,
(40:54):
says I, Why they will eat me if I come there? No, no,
says he me. Make they know eat you me, make
they love much you. He meant he would tell them
how I had killed his enemies and saved his life,
and so he would make them love me. Then he
(41:16):
told me as well as he could, how kind they
were to the seventeen white men, or bearded men, as
he called them, who came on shore there in distress.
From this time I confess I had a mind to
venture over and see if I could possibly join these
bearded men, who I made no doubt were Spaniards and Portuguese.
(41:40):
Not doubting, but if I could, we might find some
method to escape from thence, being upon the continent and
a good company together, better than I could from an
island forty miles off the shore alone and without help.
So after some days I took Friday to work again
(42:01):
by way of discourse, and told him I would give
him a boat to go back to his own nation.
And accordingly I carried him to my frigate, which lay
on the other side of the island, and, having cleared
it of water, for I always kept it sunk in water,
I brought it out, showed it to him, and we
(42:23):
both went into it. I found he was a most
dexterous fellow at managing it, and would make it go
almost as swift again as I could. So when he
was in I said to him, well, now, Friday, shall
we go to your nation. He looked very dull at
(42:44):
my saying so, which it seems was because he thought
the boat was too small to go so far. I
then told him I had a bigger So the next
day I went to the place where the first boat lay,
which I had made, but which I could not get
into the water. He said that was big enough, But then,
(43:07):
as I had taken no care to it, it had
lain there two or three and twenty years. The sun
had so split and dried it that it was rotten.
Friday told me such a boat would do very well,
and would carry much enough vital drink, bread. This was
(43:30):
his way of talking. End of Chapter fifteen,
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