Chapter 12
I was dreadfully frightened, that I must acknowledge, when I perceived him to run my way; and especially when, as I thought, I saw him pursued by the whole body. However, I kept my station, and my spirits began to recover when I found that there were not above three men that followed him; and still more was I encouraged, when I found that he outstripped them exceedingly in running, and gained ground of them, so that if he could but hold it for half an hour, I saw easily he would fairly get away from them all.
There was between them and my castle the creek, and this I saw plainly he must necessarily swim over, or the poor wretch would be taken there. But when the savage escaping came thither, he made nothing of it, though the tide was then up, but plunging in, swam through in about thirty strokes or thereabouts, landed and ran on with exceeding strength and swiftness. When the three persons came to the creek, I found that two of them could swim, but the third could not, and that standing on the other side, he looked at the other, but went no farther; and soon after went softly back again, which, as it happened, was very well for him in the main.
I observed that the two who swam were yet more than twice as long swimming over the creek as the fellow was that fled from them. It came now very warmly upon my thoughts, and indeed irresistibly, that now was my time to get me a servant, and perhaps a companion or assistant; and that I was called plainly by Providence to save this poor creature’s life. I immediately ran down the ladders with all possible expedition, fetched my two guns, for they were both at the foot of the ladders, as I observed above; and getting up again with the same haste to the top of the hill, I crossed towards the sea; and having a very short cut and all down bill, clapped myself in the way between the pursuers and the pursued; hallooing aloud to him that fled, who, looking back, was at first perhaps as much frightened at me as at them: but I beckoned with my hand to him to come back; and in the meantime, I slowly advanced towards the two that followed; then rushing at once upon the foremost, I knocked him down with the stock of my piece.
I had loathed to fire, because I would not have the rest hear; though at that distance it would not have been easily heard, and being out of sight of the smoke too, they would not have easily known what to make of it. Having knocked this fellow down, the other who pursued with him stopped, as if he had been frightened, and I advanced apace towards him; but as I came nearer, I perceived presently he had a bow and arrow, and was fitting it to shoot at me; so I was then necessitated to shoot at him first, which I did and killed him at the first shoot. The poor savage who fled, but had stopped, though he saw both his enemies fallen, and killed, as he thought, yet was so frighted with the fire and noise of my piece, that he stood stock still, and neither came forward nor went backward, though he seemed rather inclined to fly still than to come on.
I beckoned him again to come to me, and gave him all the signs of encouragement that I could think of, and he came nearer and nearer, kneeling down every ten or twelve steps in token of acknowledgement for my saving his life. I smiled at him, and looked pleasantly, and beckoned to him to come still nearer. At length he came to me, and then lie kneeled down again, kissed the ground, and laid his bead upon the ground, and taking me by the foot, set my foot upon his bead; this, it seemed, was in token of swearing to be my slave for ever.
I took him up and made much of him, and encouraged him all I could. But there was more work to do yet; for I perceived the savage whom I knocked down was not killed, but stunned, with the blow, and I began to see he had come to himself; so I pointed to him, and showing him the savage, that he was not dead. Upon this he spoke some words to me, and though I could not understand them yet I thought they were pleasant to hear, for they were the first sound of a man’s voice that I had heard, my own excepted, for above twenty-five years.
But there was no time for such reflections now. The savage who was knocked down recovered himself so far as to sit up upon the ground, and I perceived that my savage began to be afraid; but when I saw that, I presented my other piece to the mail, as if I would shoot him. Upon this my savage, for so I called him now, made a motion to me to lend him my sword, which hung naked in a belt by my side, so I did. He no sooner had it, than he ran to his enemy, and at one blow cut off his head as cleverly, no executioner in Germany could have done it sooner or better; which I though very strange for one who I had reason to believe never saw a sword in his life before, except their own wooden swords.
However, it seemed, as I learnt afterwards, they made their wooden swords so sharp, so heavy, and the wood so hard, that they would cut off heads even with them, nay, and arms, and that at one blow too. When he had done this, he came laughing to me in sign of triumph, and brought me the sword again, and with abundance of gestures, which I did not understand, laid it down with the head of the savage that he had killed just before me.
But what astonished him most, was to know how I had killed the other Indian so far off. So pointing to him, he made signs to me to let him go to him; so I bade him go as well as I could. When he came to him he stood like one amazed, looking at him, turned him first on one side, then on the other, looked at the wound the bullet had made, which it seemed was just in his breast, where it had made a hole, and no great quantity of blood had followed; but he had bled inwardly for he was quite dead. He took up his bow and arrows and came back, so I turned to go away, and beckoned to him to follow me, making signs to him that more might come after them.
Upon this he signed to me that he should bury them with sand, that they might not be seen by the rest if they followed; and so I made signs again to him to do so. He fell to work, and in an instant he had scraped a hole in the sand with his hands, big enough to bury the first in, and then dragged him into it, and covered him, and did so also by the other. I believed he had buried them both in a quarter of an hour. Then calling him away I carried him, not to my castle, but quite away to my cave, on the farther part of the island.
Here I gave him bread and a bunch of raisins to eat, and a draught of water, which I found he was indeed in great distress for by his running. And having refreshed him, I made signs for him to go lie down and sleep, pointing to a place where I had laid a great parcel of rice straw, and a blanket upon it, which I used to sleep upon myself sometimes; so the poor creature lay down and went to sleep.
He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with straight strong limbs, not too large, tall and well shaped, and I reckon, about twenty-six years of age. He had a very good countenance, not a fierce and surly aspect; but seemed to have something very manly in his face; and yet he had all the sweetness and softness of an European in his countenance too, especially when he smiled. His hair was long and black, not curled like wool; his forehead very high and large, and a great vivacity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes. The colour of his skin was not quite black, but very tawny. His face was round and plump; his nose small, not flat like a negro’s; a very good mouth, thin lips, and his fine teeth well set, and white as ivory.
After he had slumbered, rather than slept, about half an hour, he walked again, and came out of the cave to me, for I had been milking my goats, which I had in the enclosure just by. In a little while I began to speak to him, and teach him to speak to me. And first, I made him know his name should be Friday, which was the day I saved his life. I likewise taught him to say Master, and then let him know that was to be my name. I likewise taught him to say Yes and No, and to know the meaning of them. I gave him some milk in an earthen pot, and let him see me drink it before him, and sop my bread in it. And I gave him a cake of bread to do the like, which he quickly complied with, and made signs that it was very good for him.
I kept there with him all that night; but as soon as it was day I beckoned to him to come with me, and let him know I would give him some clothes; at which he seemed very glad, for he was stark naked.
I then led him up to the top of the hill, to see if his enemies had gone; and, pulling out my glass, I looked and saw plainly the place where they had been, but no appearance of them or of their canoes; so that it was plain that they had gone, and had left their two comrades behind them, without any search for them.
But I was not content with this discovery; but having now more courage, and consequently more curiosity, I took my man Friday with me, giving him the sword in his hand with the bow and arrows at his back, which I found he could use very dexterously, making him carry one gun for me, and I two for myself, and away we marched to the place where these creatures had been, for I had a mind now to get some fuller intelligence of them. When I came to the place, my very blood ran chill in my veins, and my heart sank within me at the horror of the spectacle. Indeed it was a dreadful sight—at least it was so to me; though Friday made nothing of it. The place was covered with human bones, the ground dyed with their blood, great pieces of flesh left here and there, half-eaten, mangled and scorched; and, in short, all the tokens of the triumphant feast they had been making there, after a victory over their enemies.
I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and whatever remained, and lay them together on a heap, and make a great fire upon it, and burn them all to ashes.
When we had done this, we came back to our castle, and there I fell to work for my man Friday; and first of all I gave him a pair of linen drawers, which I found in the wreck, and which with a little alteration fitted him very well. Then I made him a jerkin of goat-skin, as well as my skill would allow, and I had now grown a tolerable good tailor; and I gave him a cap which I had made of a hare-skin, very convenient and fashionable enough; and thus he was clothed for the present tolerably well, and was mighty well pleased to see himself almost as well clothed as his master. It is true, be went awkwardly in these things at first; wearing the drawers was very awkward to him, and the sleeves of the waistcoat galled his shoulders and the inside of his arms; but a little easing them where he complained they hurt him, and using himself to them, at length he took to them very well.
The next day after I had come home to my hutch with him, I began to consider where I should lodge him; and that I might do well for him, and yet be perfectly easy myself, I made a little tent for him in the vacant place between my two fortifications, in the inside of the last, and in the outside of the first. And as there was a door or entrance there into my cave, I made a formal framed doorcase, and a door to it of hoards, and set it up in the passage, a little within the entrance; and causing the door to open on the inside, I barred it up in the night, taking in my ladders too; so that Friday could no way come at me in the inside of my innermost wall without making so much noise in getting over, that it must needs to wake me. For my first wall had now a complete roof over it of long poles covering all my tent and leaning up to the side of the hill, which was again laid cross with smaller sticks instead of laths, and then thatched over a great thickness with the rice straw, which was strong like reeds; and at the hole or place which was left to go in or out by the ladder, I had placed a kind of trap-door, which, if it had been attempted on the outside, would not have opened at all, but would have fallen down and made a great noise; and as to weapons, I took them all in to my side every night.
But I needed none of all this precaution; for never man had a more faithful, loving, sincere servant than Friday was to me; without passions, sullenness, or designs, perfectly obliged and engaged; his very affections were tied to me, like those of a child to a father, and I dare say he would have sacrificed his life for saving mine upon any occasion whatsoever. The many testimonies he gave me of this, put it out of doubt, and soon convinced me that I needed to use no precautions as to my safety on his account.
After I had been two or three days returned to my castle, I thought that, in order to bring Friday off 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 him out with me one morning to the woods. I went, indeed, intending to kill a kid out of my own flock, and bring him 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 caught hold of Friday. “Hold,” say I, “stand still”; and 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 savage his enemy, but did not know, or could imagine, how it was done, was sensibly surprised, trembled, and shook, and looked so amazed, that I thought he would have sunk down. He did not see the kid I had shot at, or perceive I had killed it, but ripped up his waistcoat to feel if 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 embracing my knees, said a great many things I did not understand, but I could easily see that the meaning was to pray me not to kill him.
Well, after his astonishment was a little over at this, I brought home the kid, and the same evening, I took the skin off, and cut it out as well as I could; and having a pot for that purpose, I boiled or stewed some of the flesh, and made some very good broth; and 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 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 into his own mouth he seemed to nauseate it, and would spit and splutter at it, washing his mouth with fresh water after it.
Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was resolved to feast him the next day with roasting a piece of the kid. This I did by banging it before the fire in a string, as I had seen many people do in England, setting two poles up one on each side the fire, and one cross on the top, and tying the string to the cross-stick, letting the meat turn occasionally. This Friday admired very much; but when he came to taste the flesh, he took so many ways to tell me how well he liked it, that I could not but understand him; and at last he told me he would never eat man’s flesh any more—which I was very glad to hear.
The next day I set him to work to 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 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 while Friday was able to do all the wok for me, as well as I could do it myself.
I began now to consider that, having two mouths to feed instead of one, I must provide more ground for my harvest, and plant a larger quantity of corn than I used to do; so I marked out a larger piece of land, and began the fence in the same manner as before; in which Friday not only worked very willingly and very hard, but did it very cheerfully. And I told him what it was for; that it was for corn to make more bread, because he was now with me, and that I might have enough for him and myself too. He appeared very sensible of that part, and let me know that he thought I had much more labour upon me on his account than I had for myself; and that he would work the harder for me, if I would tell him what to do.
This was the pleasantest year of all the life I led in this place. Friday began to talk pretty well, and understand the names of almost everything I had occasion to call for, and of every place I had to send him to, and talk a great deal to me; so that, in short, I began now to have some use for my tongue again, which indeed I had very little occasion for before—that is to say, about speech. Besides the pleasure of talking to him, I had a singular satisfaction in the fellow himself. His simple unfeigned honesty appeared to me more and more every day, and I began really to love the creature; and, on his side, I believed he loved me more than it was possible for him ever to love anything before.
After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, and that he could understand almost all I said to him, and speak fluently, though in broken English, to me, I acquainted him with my own story, or at least so much of it as related to my coming into the place, how I had lived there and how long. I let him into the mystery, for such it was to him, of gunpowder and bullet, and taught him how to shoot. I gave him a knife, which he was wonderfully delighted with; and I made him a belt, with a frog hanging to it, such as in England we wear hangers in; and in the frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which was not only as good a weapon in some cases, but much more useful upon other occasions.
I 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 almost fallen 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, “I see such boat come to place at my nation.”
Then I presently asked him if there were any white men as he called them, in the boat.
“Yes,” he said, “the boat full of white men.” I asked how many. He told upon his fingers seventeen. I asked him then what became of them. He told me, “They live, they dwell at my nation.”
It was after this some considerable time, that being on the top of the hill, at the east side of the island, from whence, I had a clear day discovered the main, or continent, Friday looked very earnestly towards the mainland, and in a kind of surprise fell jumping and dancing, and called out to me, for I was at some distance from him. I asked him what was the matter was. “Oh joy!” says he, “Oh glad! There see my country, there my nation!”
One day walking up the same hill, but the weather being hazy at sea, so that we could not see the continent, I called to him, and said, “Friday, do not you wish yourself in your own country, your own nation?”
“Yes,” he said, “I shall be much glad to at my own nation.”
I told him I would make him a canoe for him. He told me he would go if I would go with him.
“I go,” says I “Why, they will eat me if I come there.”
“No, no”, says he, “I will make them understand I will make them love 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 told me as well as he could how kind they were to 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 with these bearded men, who, I made no doubt, were Spaniards or Portuguese; 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 and alone without help. So, after some days, I took Friday to work again, by way of discourse and told him I would give him a boat to go back to his own nation.
At last Friday pitched upon a tree, for I found he knew much better than I what kind of wood was fittest for it. Friday was for burning the hollow or cavity of this tree out to make it for a boat; but I showed him how rather to cut it out 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, and though she was so big, it amazed me to see with what dexterity and bow swift my man Friday would 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; “he will venture over in her very well, though great winds will blow.”
However, I had a farther design that he knew nothing of; and that was, to make a mast and sail, and to fit her with an anchor and cable.
I was near two months performing this last work—namely, rigging and fitting my mast and sails; for I finished them very complete, making a small stay, and a sail or fore-sail to it, to assist if we should turn to windward. And, which was more than all, I fixed a rudder to the stern of her, to steer with.
