I was near two months performing this last work, viz. rigging and fitting my mast 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, which was more than all, I fixed a rudder to the stern of her, to steer with; and though 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; for though he knew very well how to paddle the canoe, he knew nothing what belonged to a sail and a rudder, and was the more amazed when he saw me work the boat to and again in the sea by the rudder, and how the sail gibed, 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 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 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 my 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. However, I went on 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 mean time upon me, when I kept more within doors than at other times; so I 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 haling her up to the shore, at high water mark, I made my man Friday dig a little dock, just big enough for her to float in; and then, when the tide was out, we made a strong dam cross 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 up a certain quantity of provision, being the store for the 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 go to the sea-shore, and see if he could find a turtle or 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 outward wall, or fence, like one that felt not the ground, or the steps he set his feet on; and before I had time to speak to him, he cried out to me, “O master! O master! O sorrow! O bad!”—“What’s the matter, Friday?” said I. “O yonder there,” says he, “one, two, three, canoe! one, two, three!” By this way of speaking I concluded there were six; but on inquiry I found there were but three. “Well, Friday,” said I, “do not be frighted;” so I heartened him up as well as I could. However, I saw the poor fellow 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; the poor fellow trembled so, that I scarce 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,” said 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 bade 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 he had drank it, I made him take the two fowling-pieces which we always carried, and load 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 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 were 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 close almost down to the sea: this, with the abhorrence of the inhuman errand these wretches came about, so filled me with 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 was now gotten 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 took first and 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, 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 bullet; and as to orders, I charged him to keep close behind me, and not to stir, shoot, or do any thing till I bid him; and in the mean time, 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 might come within shot of them before I could 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 for national crimes; but that in the mean time, 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 respect to me. These things were so warmly pressed upon my thoughts all the way as I went, that I resolved I would only go 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 skirt 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 shewing 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 the 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 which fired the very soul within me. He told me, it was not one of their nation, but one of the bearded men whom he had told me of, who came to their country in the boat. I was filled with horror at the very naming 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.