nite and inexpressible a blessing it is that the knowledge of God, and of the doctrine of salvation by Christ Jesus, is so plainly laid down 'n the word of God, so easy to be received and understood, that, as the bare reading the scripture made me capable of understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on to the great work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a Saviour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation in practice, and obedience to all God's commands, and this without any teacher or instructor, I mean human; so, the same plain instruction sufficiently served to the enlightening this savage creature, and bringing him to be such a Christian, as I have known few equal to him in my life.

As to all the disputes, wrangling, strife, and contention, which have happened in the world about religion, whether niceties in doctrines, or schemes of church-government, they were all perfectly useless to us, and, for ought I can yet see, they have been so to the rest of the world. We had the sure guide to heaven, viz. the word of God; and we had, blessed be God, comfortable views of the Spirit of God teaching and instructing us by his word, leading us into all truth, and making us both willing and obedient to the instruction of his word. And I cannot see the least use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed points in religion, which have made such confusions in the world, would have been to us, if we could have obtained it.—But I must go on with the historical part of things, and take every part in its order.

After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, and that he could understand almost all I said to him, and speak pretty fluently, though in broken English, to me, I acquainted him with my own history, or at least so much of it as related to my coming to this place; how I had lived here, 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 described to him the country of Europe, particularly England, which I came from; how we lived, how we worshipped God, how we behaved to one another, and how we traded in ships to all parts of the world. I gave him an account of the Wreck which I had been on board of, and showed him, as near as I could, the place where she lay; but she was all beaten in

pieces before, and gone. 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 fallen almost all 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, "Me see such boat like come to place at my nation." I did not understand him a good while; but, at last, when I had examined farther into it, I understood by him, that a boat, such as that had been, came on shore upon the country where he lived; that is, as he explained it, was driven thither by stress of weather. I presently imagined that some European ship must have been cast away upon their coast, and the boat might get loose, and drive ashore; but was so dull, that I never once thought of men making their escape from a wreck thither, much less whence they might come: so I only inquired after a description of the boat.

Friday described the boat to me well enough; but brought me better to understand him when he added, with some warmth, "We save the white mans from drown." Then I presently asked him, if there were any white mans, as he called them, in the boat? "Yes," he said; "the boat full of white mans." I asked him how many ? He told upon his fingers seventeen.

He told me, 66

I asked him then what became of them? They live, they dwell at my nation." This put new thoughts into my head; for I presently imagined that these might be the men belonging to the ship that was cast away in the sight of my island, as I now called it; and who, after the ship was struck on the rock, and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved themselves in their boat, and were landed upon that wild shore among the savages. Upon this, I inquired of him more critically what was become of them he assured me they lived still there; that they had been there about four years; that the savages let them alone, and gave them victuals to live on. I asked him how it came to pass they did not kill them, and eat them? He said, "No, they make brother with them;" that is, as I understood him, a truce; and then he added, " They no eat mans but when make the war fight;" that is to say, they never eat any men but such as come to fight with them, and are taken in battle.

It was after this some considerable time, that being upon the top of the hill, at the east side of the island, from whence, as I have said, I had, in a clear day, discovered the main or continent of America, Friday, the weather being very serene, looks very earnestly towards the main land, and, in a kind of

surprise, falls a jumping and dancing, and calls out to me, for I was at some distance from him: I asked him what was the matter? O joy!" says he; O glad! there see my country, there my nation!" I observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in his face, and his eyes sparkled, and his countenance discovered a strange eagerness, as if he had a mind to be in his own country again. This observation of mine put a great many thoughts into me, which made me at first not so easy about my new man Friday as I was before; and I made no doubt but that if Friday could get back to his own nation again, he would not only forget all his religion, but all his obligation to me, and would be forward enough to give his countrymen an account of me, and come back perhaps with an hundred or two of them, and make a feast upon me, at which he might be as merry as he used to be with those of his enemies, when they were taken in war. But I wronged the poor honest creature very much, for which I was very sorry afterwards. However, as my jealousy increased, and held me some weeks, I was a little more circumspect, and not so familiar and kind to him as before: in which I was certainly in the wrong too; the honest, grateful creature, having no thought about it, but what consisted with the best principles, both as a religious Christian, and as a grateful friend; as appeared afterwards, to my full satisfaction.

While my jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure I was every day pumping him, to see if he would discover any of the new thoughts which I suspected were in him: but I found every thing he said was so honest and so innocent, that I could find nothing to nourish my suspicion; and, in spite of all my uneasiness, he made me at last entirely his own again; nor did he, in the least, perceive that I was uneasy, and therefore I could not suspect him of deceit.

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 be much O glad to be at my own nation." "What would you do there?" said I: "Would you turn wild again, eat men's flesh again, and be a savage, as you were before?" He looked full of concern, and shaking his head, said, "No, no; Friday tell them to live good, tell them to pray God, tell them to eat corn-bread, cattle-flesh, milk; no eat man again."—" Why then," said I to him, "they will kill you." He looked grave at that, and then said, "No, no. 4v no kill me, they

willing love learn." He meant by this, they would be willing to learn. He added, they learned much of the bearded mans that came in the boat. Then I asked him if he would go back to them? He smiled at that, and told me that he could not swim so far. I told him, I would make 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 e; me make they no eat you; me make they He meant, he would tell them how I had

much love you."

""

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 those 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; and accordingly I carried him to my frigate, which lay on the other side of the island, and having cleared it of water (for I always kept it sunk in water) I brought it out, showed it him, and we both went into it, I found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it, and would make it go almost as swift again as I could so when he was in, I said to him, "Well, now, Friday, shall we go to your nation?" He looked very dull at my saying so; which, it seems, was because he thought the boat too small to go so far: I then told him I had a bigger; so the next day I went to the place where the first boat lay which I had made, but which 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 sun had split and dried it, that it was in a manner rotten. Friday told me such 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 so fixed upon my design of going over with him to the continent, that I told him we would go and make one as big as that, and he should go home in it. He answered not one word, but looked very grave and sad. I asked him what was the matter with him? He asked me again, "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!" says he, repeating the words several times; "Why send Friday home away to my nation?"—" Why," says I, " Friday, did not you say, you wished you were there?"—" Yes, yes," says he, "wish be both there; no wish Friday there, no master there." In a word, he would not think of going there without me. " I go there, Friday!" says I; "what shall I do there?" He returned very quick upon me at this; "You do great deal much good," says he; you teach wild mans be good, sober, tame mans; you tell them know God, pray God, and live new life.""Alas! Friday," says I," thou knowest not what thou sayest; I am but an ignorant man myself."'—" Yes, yes," says he, you teachee me good, you teachee them good.""No, no, Friday," says I, "you shall 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 hastily, and gives it to me. "What must I do with this?" says I to him. "You take kill Friday," says he. "What must I kill you for?" said I again. He returns very quick, "What you send Friday away for? Take kill Friday, no send Friday away." This he spoke so earnestly, that I saw tears stand in his eyes: in a word, I so plainly discovered the utmost affection in him to me, and a firm resolution in him, that I told him then, and often after, that I would never send him away from me, if he was willing to stay with

me.

Upon the whole, as I found, by all his discourse, a settled affection to me, and that nothing should part him from me, so I found all the foundation of his desire 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 myself, so I had not the least thought, or intention, or desire of undertaking it. But still I found a strong inclination to my attempting an escape, as above, founded on the supposition gathered from the discourse, viz. that there were seventeen bearded men there: and, therefore, without any more 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, or canoes, but even of good large vessels 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