I could not get into the water; he said that was big enough; but then, as I had taken no care of it, and it had lain two or three and twenty years there, the fun had fplit and dryed it, that it was in a manner rotten. Friday told me, fuch a boat would do very well, and would carry much enough vittle, drink, bread,' that was his way of talking.

Upon the whole, I was by this time fo fixed upon my defign of going over with him to the continent, that I told him we would go and make one as big as that, and he fhould go home in it. He anfwered not one word, but looked very grave and fad. I asked him what was the matter with him. He asked me again, thus, Why you angry mad with Friday? what me done? I asked him what he meant; I told him I was not angry with him at all: No angry! no angry! fays he, repeating the words feveral times, Why fend Friday home away to my nation? Why, faid I, Friday, did you not fay you wished you were there? Yes, yes, fays he, with be both there, no with Friday there, no mafter there. In a word, he would not think of going there without me. I go there, Friday! faid I, what should I do there? He turned very quick upon me at this; You do great deal much good, fays he, you teach wild mans be good, fober, tame mans; you tell them know God, pray God, and live new life. Alas, Friday, faid I, thou knoweft not what thou fayeft; I am but an ignorant man myself. Yes, yes, fays he, you teechee me good, you teeche them good. No, no, Friday, faid I, you fhall go without me; leave me here to live by myself, as I did before. He looked confused again at that word, and running to one of the hatchets which he used to wear, he takes it up haftily, and gives it me. What must I do with this? faid I to him: you take kill Friday, fays he. What must I kill you for? faid I again. He returns very quick, What you fend Friday away for? Take kill Friday, no fend Friday away. This he spoke fo earnestly, that I faw tears ftand in his eyes. In a word, I fo plainly difcovered the utmost affection in him to me, and a firm refolution in him, that I told him then, and often after, that I would never fend him away from me, if he was willing to stay with me.

Upon

Upon the whole, as I found by all his difcourfe, à fettled affection to me, and that nothing fhould part him from me, fo I found all the foundation of his defire to go to his own country, was laid in his ardent affection to the people, and his hopes of my doing them, good; a thing, which as I had no notion of myfelf, fo I had not the least thought, or intention, or defire of undertaking it: but ftill I found a strong inclination to my attempting an escape, as above, founded on the fuppofition gathered from the former difcourfe; viz. that there were feventeen bearded men there; and therefore, without any delay, I went to work with Friday, to find out a great tree proper to fell, and make a large periagua or canoe, to undertake the voyage: there were trees enough in the island to have built a little fleet, not of periaguas and canoes only, but even of good large veffels; but the main thing I looked at, was to get one so near the water, that we might launch it when it was made, to avoid the mistake I committed at first.

At last, Friday pitched upon a tree; for I found he knew much better than I, what kind of wood was fitteft for it; nor can I tell to this day, what wood to call the tree we cut down, except that it was very like the tree we call fuftick, or between that and the Nicaragua wood, for it was much of the fame colour and fmell: Friday was for burning the hollow or cavity of this tree out, to make it into a boat: but I fhewed him how rather to cut it out with tools, which after I fhewed him how to ufe, he did very handily, and in about a month's hard labour we finished it, and made it very handfome, especially when with our axes, which I fhewed him how to handle, we cut and hewed the outside into the true fhape of a boat; after this, however, it coft us near a fortnight's time to get her along, as it were inch by inch, upon great rollers into the water: but when fhe was in, fhe would have carried twenty men with great eafe.

When fhe was in the water, and though fhe was fo big, it amazed me to fee with what dexterity and how swift my man Friday could manage her, turn her, and paddle her along; fo I asked him if he would, and if we might venture over in her: Yes, he faid, he venture over

支

:

in her very well, though great blow wind: however, I had a farther defign that he knew nothing of, and that was to make a maft and fail, and to fit her with an anchor and cable as to a maft, that was eafy enough to get; fo I pitched upon a ftrait young cedar-tree, which I found near the place, and which there was a great plenty of in the island: and I fet Friday to work to cut it down, and gave him directions how to fhape and order it: but as to the fail, that was my particular care; I knew I had old fails, or rather pieces of old fails enough; but as I had them now twenty-fix years by me, and had not been very careful to preferve them, not imagining that I fhould ever have this kind of ufe for them, I did not doubt but they were all rotten; and indeed most of them were fo; however, I found two pieces which appeared pretty good, and with thefe I went to work, and with a great deal of pains, and aukward tedious fitching (you may be fure) for want of needles, I at length made a three-cornered ugly thing, like what we call in England a fhoulder of mutton fail, to go with a boom at bottom, and a little fhort fprit at the top, fuch as ufually our fhips long-boats fail with, and fuch as I beft know how to manage; because it was such a one as I ufed in the boat in which I made my escape from Barbary, as related in the first part of my story.

I was near two months performing this laft work; viz. rigging and fitting my maft and fails; for I finished them very complete, making a fmall ftay, and a fail or forefail to it, to affit, if we fhould turn to windward; and, which was more than all, I fixed a rudder to the ftern of her, to fteer with; and though I was but a bungling fhipwright, yet as I knew the usefulness, and even neceflity of fuch a thing, I applied myself with fo much pains to do it, that at laft I brought it to pafs, tho', confidering the many dull contrivances I had for it that failed, I think it coft me almoft as much labour as making the boat.

After all this was done, I had my man Friday to teach as to what belonged to the navigation of my boat; for tho' he knew very well how to paddle the canoe, he knew nothing what belonged to a fail and a rudder, and was the most amazed when he faw me work the

boat

boat to-and-again in the fea by the rudder, and how the fail gybed, and filled this way or that way, as the courfe we failed changed; I fay, when he faw this, he flood like one aftoniihed and amazed:, however, with a little ufe, I made all these things familiar to him, and he became an expert failor, except that as to the compass, I could make him understand very little of that: on the other hand, as there was very little cloudy weather, and feldom or never any fogs in those parts, there was the lefs occafion for a compafs, feeing the ftars were always to be feen by night, and the fhore by day, except in the rainy feafons; and then nobody cared to ftir abroad, either by land or fea.

I was now entered on the feven and twentieth year of my captivity in this place; though the three last years that I had this creature with me, ought rather to be left out of the account, my habitation being quite of another kind than in all the reft of my time. I kept the anniversary of my landing here with the fame thankfulness to God for his mercies as at firft; and if I had fuch caufe of acknowledgment at first, I had much more fo now, having fuch additional teftimonies of the care of Providence over me, and the great hopes I had of being effectually and speedily delivered; for I had an invincible impreffion upon my thoughts, that my deliverance was at hand, and that I fhould not be another year in this place: however, I went on with my husbandry, digging, planting, fencing, as ufual; I gathered and cured my grapes, and did every neceflary thing, as before.

The rainy feafon was in the mean time upon me, when I kept more within doors than at other times; fo I had ftowed our new veffel as fecure as we could, bringing her up into the creek, where, as I faid in the beginning, I landed my rafts from the fhip; and haling her up to the fhore, at high-water maik, I made my man Friday dig a little dock, juft big enough for her to float in; and then when the tide was out, we made a ftrong dam across the end of it, to keep the water out; and fo fhe lay dry, as to the tide, from the sea; and to keep the rain off, we laid a great many boughs of trees fo thick, that he was as well

thatched

thatched as an houfe; and thus we waited for the months of November and December, in which I defigned to make my adventure.

When the fettled feafon began to come in, as the thought of my defign returned with the fair weather, I was preparing daily for the voyage; and the first thing I did was to lay up a certain quantity of provision, being the ftore for the voyage; and intended in a week or a fortnight's time, to open the dock, and launch out our boat: I was bufy one morning upon fomething of this kind, when I called to Friday, and bid him go to the feafhore, and fee if he could find a turtle or tortoise, a thing which we generally got once a week, for the fake of the eggs, as well as the flesh. Friday had not been long gone, when he came running back, and flew over my outward wall, or fence, like one that felt not the ground, or the fteps he fet his feet on; and before I had time to speak to him, he cried out to me, O master! O mafter! O forrow! O bad! What's the matter, Friday? faid I; O yonder there, fays he, one, two, three, canoe! one, two, three! By this way of speaking I concluded there were fix: but on enquiry I found there were but three. Well Friday, faid I, do not be frighted; so I heartened him up as well as I could: However, I faw the poor fellow most terribly feared; for nothing ran in his head but that they were come to look for him, and would cut him in pieces, and eat him; the poor fellow trembled fo, that I fcarce knew what to do with him: I comforted him as well as I could, and told him I was in as much danger as he, and that they would eat me as well as him, But, faid I, Friday, we muft refolve to fight them: Can you fight, Friday? Me fhoot, fays he, but there come many great number. No matter for that, faid I again, our guns So I afked him, will fright them that we do not kill. Whether, if I refolved to defend him, he would defend me, and ftand by me, and do juft as I bade him? He said, Me die, when you bid die, mafter; fo I went and fetched a good dram of rum, and gave him; for I had been fo good an husband of my rum, that I had a great deal left : When he had drank it, I made him take the two fowling pieces which we always carried, and load them with large fwan fhot as big as a small piftol-bullets; then I took VOL. I.

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