top, such as usually our ships' long.boats sail with, and such as I best knew how to manage, as it was such a
one as I had to the boat in which I made my escape from Barbary, as related in the first part of my story.
I was near two months performing this last work, viz. rigging and fitting my masts and sails; for I finished
them very complete, making a small stay, and a sail, or foresail, to it, to assist if we should turn to windward;
and, what was more than all, I fixed a rudder to the stern of her to steer with. I was but a bungling shipwright,
yet as I knew the usefulness and even necessity of such a thing, I applied myself with so much pains to do it,
that at last I brought it to pass; though, considering the many dull contrivances I had for it that failed, I think
it cost me almost as much labour as making the boat.
After all this was done, I had my man Friday to teach as to what belonged to the navigation of my boat;
though he knew very well how to paddle a canoe, he knew nothing of what belonged to a sail and a rudder;
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and was the most amazed when he saw me work the boat to and again in the sea by the rudder, and how the
sail jibed, and filled this way or that way as the course we sailed changed; I say when he saw this he stood
like one astonished and amazed. However, with a little use, I made all these things familiar to him, and he
became an expert sailor, except that of the compass I could make him understand very little. On the other
hand, as there was very little cloudy weather, and seldom or never any fogs in those parts, there was the less
occasion for a compass, seeing the stars were always to be seen by night, and the shore by day, except in the
rainy seasons, and then nobody cared to stir abroad either by land or sea.
I was now entered on the seven.and.twentieth year of my captivity in this place; though the three last years
that I had this creature with me ought rather to be left out of the account, my habitation being quite of another
kind than in all the rest of the time. I kept the anniversary of my landing here with the same thankfulness to
God for His mercies as at first: and if I had such cause of acknowledgment at first, I had much more so now,
having such additional testimonies of the care of Providence over me, and the great hopes I had of being
effectually and speedily delivered; for I had an invincible impression upon my thoughts that my deliverance
was at hand, and that I should not be another year in this place. I went on, however, with my husbandry;
digging, planting, and fencing as usual. I gathered and cured my grapes, and did every necessary thing as
before.
The rainy season was in the meantime upon me, when I kept more within doors than at other times. We had
stowed our new vessel as secure as we could, bringing her up into the creek, where, as I said in the beginning,
I landed my rafts from the ship; and hauling her up to the shore at high.water mark, I made my man Friday
dig a little dock, just big enough to hold her, and just deep enough to give her water enough to float in; and
then, when the tide was out, we made a strong dam across the end of it, to keep the water out; and so she lay,
dry as to the tide from the sea: and to keep the rain off we laid a great many boughs of trees, so thick that she
was as well thatched as a house; and thus we waited for the months of November and December, in which I
designed to make my adventure.
When the settled season began to come in, as the thought of my design returned with the fair weather, I was
preparing daily for the voyage. And the first thing I did was to lay by a certain quantity of provisions, being
the stores for our voyage; and intended in a week or a fortnight's time to open the dock, and launch out our
boat. I was busy one morning upon something of this kind, when I called to Friday, and bid him to go to the
sea.shore and see if he could find a turtle or a tortoise, a thing which we generally got once a week, for the
sake of the eggs as well as the flesh. Friday had not been long gone when he came running back, and flew
over my outer wall or fence, like one that felt not the ground or the steps he set his foot on; and before I had
time to speak to him he cries out to me, "O master! O master! O sorrow! O bad!" . "What's the matter,
Friday?" says I. "O yonder there," says he, "one, two, three canoes; one, two, three!" By this way of speaking
I concluded there were six; but on inquiry I found there were but three. "Well, Friday," says I, "do not be
frightened." So I heartened him up as well as I could. However, I saw the poor fellow was most terribly
scared, for nothing ran in his head but that they were come to look for him, and would cut him in pieces and
eat him; and the poor fellow trembled so that I scarcely knew what to do with him. I comforted him as well as
I could, and told him I was in as much danger as he, and that they would eat me as well as him. "But," says I,
"Friday, we must resolve to fight them. Can you fight, Friday?" "Me shoot," says he, "but there come many
great number." "No matter for that," said I again; "our guns will fright them that we do not kill." So I asked
him whether, if I resolved to defend him, he would defend me, and stand by me, and do just as I bid him. He
said, "Me die when you bid die, master." So I went and fetched a good dram of rum and gave him; for I had
been so good a husband of my rum that I had a great deal left. When we had drunk it, I made him take the
two fowling. pieces, which we always carried, and loaded them with large swan. shot, as big as small
pistol.bullets. Then I took four muskets, and loaded them with two slugs and five small bullets each; and my
two pistols I loaded with a brace of bullets each. I hung my great sword, as usual, naked by my side, and gave
Friday his hatchet. When I had thus prepared myself, I took my perspective glass, and went up to the side of
the hill, to see what I could discover; and I found quickly by my glass that there were one.and.twenty
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savages, three prisoners, and three canoes; and that their whole business seemed to be the triumphant banquet
upon these three human bodies: a barbarous feast, indeed! but nothing more than, as I had observed, was
usual with them. I observed also that they had landed, not where they had done when Friday made his escape,
but nearer to my creek, where the shore was low, and where a thick wood came almost close down to the sea.
This, with the abhorrence of the inhuman errand these wretches came about, filled me with such indignation
that I came down again to Friday, and told him I was resolved to go down to them and kill them all; and
asked him if he would stand by me. He had now got over his fright, and his spirits being a little raised with
the dram I had given him, he was very cheerful, and told me, as before, he would die when I bid die.
In this fit of fury I divided the arms which I had charged, as before, between us; I gave Friday one pistol to
stick in his girdle, and three guns upon his shoulder, and I took one pistol and the other three guns myself;
and in this posture we marched out. I took a small bottle of rum in my pocket, and gave Friday a large bag
with more powder and bullets; and as to orders, I charged him to keep close behind me, and not to stir, or
shoot, or do anything till I bid him, and in the meantime not to speak a word. In this posture I fetched a
compass to my right hand of near a mile, as well to get over the creek as to get into the wood, so that I could
come within shot of them before I should be discovered, which I had seen by my glass it was easy to do.
While I was making this march, my former thoughts returning, I began to abate my resolution: I do not mean
that I entertained any fear of their number, for as they were naked, unarmed wretches, it is certain I was
superior to them . nay, though I had been alone. But it occurred to my thoughts, what call, what occasion,
much less what necessity I was in to go and dip my hands in blood, to attack people who had neither done or
intended me any wrong? who, as to me, were innocent, and whose barbarous customs were their own
disaster, being in them a token, indeed, of God's having left them, with the other nations of that part of the
world, to such stupidity, and to such inhuman courses, but did not call me to take upon me to be a judge of
their actions, much less an executioner of His justice . that whenever He thought fit He would take the cause
into His own hands, and by national vengeance punish them as a people for national crimes, but that, in the
meantime, it was none of my business . that it was true Friday might justify it, because he was a declared
enemy and in a state of war with those very particular people, and it was lawful for him to attack them . but I
could not say the same with regard to myself. These things were so warmly pressed upon my thoughts all the
way as I went, that I resolved I would only go and place myself near them that I might observe their
barbarous feast, and that I would act then as God should direct; but that unless something offered that was
more a call to me than yet I knew of, I would not meddle with them.
With this resolution I entered the wood, and, with all possible wariness and silence, Friday following close at
my heels, I marched till I came to the skirts of the wood on the side which was next to them, only that one
corner of the wood lay between me and them. Here I called softly to Friday, and showing him a great tree
which was just at the corner of the wood, I bade him go to the tree, and bring me word if he could see there
plainly what they were doing. He did so, and came immediately back to me, and told me they might be
plainly viewed there . that they were all about their fire, eating the flesh of one of their prisoners, and that
another lay bound upon the sand a little from them, whom he said they would kill next; and this fired the very
soul within me. He told me it was not one of their nation, but one of the bearded men he had told me of, that
came to their country in the boat. I was filled with horror at the very naming of the white bearded man; and
going to the tree, I saw plainly by my glass a white man, who lay upon the beach of the sea with his hands
and his feet tied with flags, or things like rushes, and that he was an European, and had clothes on.
There was another tree and a little thicket beyond it, about fifty yards nearer to them than the place where I
was, which, by going a little way about, I saw I might come at undiscovered, and that then I should be within
half a shot of them; so I withheld my passion, though I was indeed enraged to the highest degree; and going
back about twenty paces, I got behind some bushes, which held all the way till I came to the other tree, and
then came to a little rising ground, which gave me a full view of them at the distance of about eighty yards.
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I had now not a moment to lose, for nineteen of the dreadful wretches sat upon the ground, all close huddled
together, and had just sent the other two to butcher the poor Christian, and bring him perhaps limb by limb to
their fire, and they were stooping down to untie the bands at his feet. I turned to Friday. "Now, Friday," said
I, "do as I bid thee." Friday said he would. "Then, Friday," says I, "do exactly as you see me do; fail in
nothing." So I set down one of the muskets and the fowling.piece upon the ground, and Friday did the like
by his, and with the other musket I took my aim at the savages, bidding him to do the like; then asking him if
he was ready, he said, "Yes." "Then fire at them," said I; and at the same moment I fired also.
Friday took his aim so much better than I, that on the side that he shot he killed two of them, and wounded
three more; and on my side I killed one, and wounded two. They were, you may be sure, in a dreadful
consternation: and all of them that were not hurt jumped upon their feet, but did not immediately know which
way to run, or which way to look, for they knew not from whence their destruction came. Friday kept his eyes
close upon me, that, as I had bid him, he might observe what I did; so, as soon as the first shot was made, I
threw down the piece, and took up the fowling.piece, and Friday did the like; he saw me cock and present;
he did the same again. "Are you ready, Friday?" said I. "Yes," says he. "Let fly, then," says I, "in the name of
God!" and with that I fired again among the amazed wretches, and so did Friday; and as our pieces were now
loaded with what I call swan.shot, or small pistol. bullets, we found only two drop; but so many were
wounded that they ran about yelling and screaming like mad creatures, all bloody, and most of them
miserably wounded; whereof three more fell quickly after, though not quite dead.
"Now, Friday," says I, laying down the discharged pieces, and taking up the musket which was yet loaded,
"follow me," which he did with a great deal of courage; upon which I rushed out of the wood and showed
myself, and Friday close at my foot. As soon as I perceived they saw me, I shouted as loud as I could, and
bade Friday do so too, and running as fast as I could, which, by the way, was not very fast, being loaded with
arms as I was, I made directly towards the poor victim, who was, as I said, lying upon the beach or shore,
between the place where they sat and the sea. The two butchers who were just going to work with him had
left him at the surprise of our first fire, and fled in a terrible fright to the seaside, and had jumped into a
canoe, and three more of the rest made the same way. I turned to Friday, and bade him step forwards and fire
at them; he understood me immediately, and running about forty yards, to be nearer them, he shot at them;
and I thought he had killed them all, for I saw them all fall of a heap into the boat, though I saw two of them
