stood stock still. He neither came forward nor went backward, though he seemed rather inclined still to flee than to advance. I hallooed again to him, and beckoned him to come forward. My signs he easily understood, and he came a little way. He hesitated, and then approached a little farther, and stopped again. I could then perceive that he stood trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner, and was about to be killed, as his two enemies were. I beckoned to him again to come to me, and gave him all the signs of encouragement that I could think of. He kept coming nearer and nearer, kneeling down every ten or twelve steps, in token of gratitude for my saving his life. I smiled at him, and looked pleasantly, and beckoned to him to come still nearer. At length he came close to me; and then he kneeled down again, kissed the earth, and laid his head upon the ground. Taking me by the foot, he set it upon his head: this, it seems, was in token of swearing to be my slave for ever. I took him up, and patted him gently. But there was yet more work to do; for I perceived the savage, whom I had knocked down, was not killed, but merely stunned, and he began to come to himself: so I pointed to him, and showed that he was not dead. Upon this my new friend spoke some words to me, and though I could not understand them, yet 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 observed that my friend began to be afraid. When I saw this, I presented my other gun at the man, with the intention of shooting him: upon this, my companion, for so I call him now, made a motion to me to lend him my sword, which hung naked in a belt by my side. He no sooner had it, than he ran to his enemy, and at one blow cut off his head very cleverly. When he had done this, he comes laughing to me in sign of triumph, and brings me the sword again, 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 the way in which I had killed the other Indian so far off; so pointing to him, he made signs to me to let him go to him; and I told him, as well as I could, to go. When he came to him, he stood amazed-looking at him, turning him first on one side, then on the other. He examined the wound the bullet had made, which it seems was just in his breast, where it had made a hole; and, although no great quantity of blood had followed, he must have bled inwardly, for he was quite dead. He took up his bow and arrows, and came back. I now turned to go away, and beckoned him to follow me, making signs to him that the other savages might come. Upon this, he made signs to me that he should bury them in the sand, that they might not be seen by the rest, if they followed accordingly I made signs 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; he then did the same to other also. THE CHARACTER OF MY SAVAGE FRIEND. Now, calling my man 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 need of, as he had had a good race. Having refreshed him, I made signs to him to go and lie down to sleep, showing him a place where I had laid some rice-straw, with a blanket upon it, which I used to sleep upon myself sometimes. Accordingly 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 as I reckon, about twenty-six years of age. He had a very good countenance, not a fierce and surly one, and it seemed to have something very manly in its expression; and yet it had all the sweetness and softness of an European's especially when he smiled. His hair was long and black, not curled like wool; his forehead very high and large; and great liveliness and sparkling sharpness in his eyes. The color of his skin was not quite black, though very tawny. His face was round and plump; his nose small, not flat like the negroes; a very good mouth, thin lips, and his fine teeth well set, and as white as ivory. After he had slumbered, rather than slept, about half an hour, he awoke again, and came out of the cave to me; for I had been milking my goats, which I had in the inclosure hard by. When he espied me, he came running to me, laying himself down again upon the ground, with all the possible signs of a humble, thankful disposition, making a great many odd gestures to show it. At last he laid his head flat upon the ground, close to my foot, and set my other foot upon his head, as he had done before; and after this, made all the signs to me of subjection, servitude, and submission, imaginable, to let me know how he would serve me so long as he lived. I understood him in many things, and let him know I was very well pleased with him. In a little time I began to speak to him, and to teach him to speak to me; and, first, I let him know his name should be FRIDAY, which was the day I saved his life: I called him so in memory of the day. I likewise taught him to say "master; " and then let him know that was to be my 66 "Yes" and "No," HOW FRIDAY AND I FALL IN WITH WHITE SAVAGES. I was fast asleep in my hammock one morning, when my man Friday came running in to me, and called aloud, Master, master, they have come, they have come!" I jumped up, and, regardless of danger, I went out as soon as I could get my clothes on, through my little grove-which, by the way, was by this time grown to be a very thick wood; I say, regardless of danger, I went without my fire-arms, which was not my custom to do. I was surprised, when, turning my eyes to the sea, I presently saw a boat about a league and a half distant, standing in for the shore, with a shoulder-of-mutton sail, as we call it; and the wind was blowing pretty fair to bring it in. I observed, presently, that they did not come from that side which the shore lay on, but from the southern end of the island. Upon this I called Friday in, and bade him lie close, saying these were not the people we looked for, and that we could not yet know whether they were friends or enemies. In the next place, I went in to fetch my spy-glass to see what I could make of them; and, having taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the top of the hill, as before, in order to take my view the plainer, without being discovered. I had scarcely set my foot upon the hill, when my eye plainly discovered a ship lying at anchor, at about two leagues and a half distance from me in a south-easterly direction. By my observation, it appeared plainly to be an English ship, and the boat appeared to be an English long-boat. I cannot express the confusion I felt on seeing a ship, and one that I had reason to believe was manned by my own countrymen, and consequently friends. I say I can not describe the joy I felt; but still I had some secret doubts hanging about me -I cannot tell how — bidding me keep upon my guard. In the first place, it occurred to me to consider what business an English ship could have in that part of the world, since it was not the way to or from any part of the world where the English had any traffic. I knew there had been no storms to drive them in there, in distress; and that if they were really English, it was most probable that they were here upon no good design. And I thought I had better continue as I was, than fall into the hands of thieves and murderers. I had not kept myself long in this anxiety when I saw the boat draw near the shore, as if the people in it were looking for a creek to thrust in at, for the convenience of landing. Happily, as they did not come quite far enough, they did not see my little inlet. They ran their boat on shore upon the beach, at about half a mile from me. This was very lucky for me; for otherwise they would have landed just at my door, as I may say, and would soon have beaten me out of my castle, and perhaps have plundered me of all I had. When they were on shore, I was fully satisfied they were Englishmen, at least most of them. One or two I thought were Dutch, but this did not prove to be the case. There were in all, eleven men, three of whom I found were unarmed, and, as I thought, bound; and when the first four or five of them had jumped on shore, they took those three out of the boat, as prisoners. One of the three I observed using the most passionate gestures of entreaty, distress, and despair, even to an extravagant degree; the other two, I could perceive, lifted up their hands sometimes, and they appeared greatly concerned, though not to such a degree as the first. I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what the meaning of it might be. Friday called |