CHAPTER XV--FRIDAY'S EDUCATION
After I had been two or three days returned to my castle, I thought that,in order to bring Friday off from his horrid way of feeding, and from therelish of a cannibal's stomach, I ought to let him taste other flesh; soI took him out with me one morning to the woods. I went, indeed,intending to kill a kid out of my own flock; and bring it home and dressit; but as I was going I saw a she-goat lying down in the shade, and twoyoung kids sitting by her. I catched hold of Friday. "Hold," said I,"stand still;" and made signs to him not to stir: immediately I presentedmy piece, shot, and killed one of the kids. The poor creature, who hadat a distance, indeed, seen me kill the savage, his enemy, but did notknow, nor could imagine how it was done, was sensibly surprised,trembled, and shook, and looked so amazed that I thought he would havesunk down. He did not see the kid I shot at, or perceive I had killedit, but ripped up his waistcoat to feel whether he was not wounded; and,as I found presently, thought I was resolved to kill him: for he came andkneeled down to me, and embracing my knees, said a great many things Idid not understand; but I could easily see the meaning was to pray me notto kill him.
I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him no harm; andtaking him up by the hand, laughed at him, and pointing to the kid whichI had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which he did: andwhile he was wondering, and looking to see how the creature was killed, Iloaded my gun again. By-and-by I saw a great fowl, like a hawk, sittingupon a tree within shot; so, to let Friday understand a little what Iwould do, I called him to me again, pointed at the fowl, which was indeeda parrot, though I thought it had been a hawk; I say, pointing to theparrot, and to my gun, and to the ground under the parrot, to let him seeI would make it fall, I made him understand that I would shoot and killthat bird; accordingly, I fired, and bade him look, and immediately hesaw the parrot fall. He stood like one frightened again, notwithstandingall I had said to him; and I found he was the more amazed, because he didnot see me put anything into the gun, but thought that there must be somewonderful fund of death and destruction in that thing, able to kill man,beast, bird, or anything near or far off; and the astonishment thiscreated in him was such as could not wear off for a long time; and Ibelieve, if I would have let him, he would have worshipped me and my gun.As for the gun itself, he would not so much as touch it for several daysafter; but he would speak to it and talk to it, as if it had answeredhim, when he was by himself; which, as I afterwards learned of him, wasto desire it not to kill him. Well, after his astonishment was a littleover at this, I pointed to him to run and fetch the bird I had shot,which he did, but stayed some time; for the parrot, not being quite dead,had fluttered away a good distance from the place where she fell:however, he found her, took her up, and brought her to me; and as I hadperceived his ignorance about the gun before, I took this advantage tocharge the gun again, and not to let him see me do it, that I might beready for any other mark that might present; but nothing more offered atthat time: so I brought home the kid, and the same evening I took theskin off, and cut it out as well as I could; and having a pot fit forthat purpose, I boiled or stewed some of the flesh, and made some verygood broth. After I had begun to eat some I gave some to my man, whoseemed very glad of it, and liked it very well; but that which wasstrangest to him was to see me eat salt with it. He made a sign to methat the salt was not good to eat; and putting a little into his ownmouth, he seemed to nauseate it, and would spit and sputter at it,washing his mouth with fresh water after it: on the other hand, I tooksome meat into my mouth without salt, and I pretended to spit and sputterfor want of salt, as much as he had done at the salt; but it would notdo; he would never care for salt with meat or in his broth; at least, notfor a great while, and then but a very little.
Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was resolved to feasthim the next day by roasting a piece of the kid: this I did by hanging itbefore the fire on a string, as I had seen many people do in England,setting two poles up, one on each side of the fire, and one across thetop, and tying the string to the cross stick, letting the meat turncontinually. This Friday admired very much; but when he came to tastethe flesh, he took so many ways to tell me how well he liked it, that Icould not but understand him: and at last he told me, as well as hecould, he would never eat man's flesh any more, which I was very glad tohear.
The next day I set him to work beating some corn out, and sifting it inthe manner I used to do, as I observed before; and he soon understood howto do it as well as I, especially after he had seen what the meaning ofit was, and that it was to make bread of; for after that I let him see memake my bread, and bake it too; and in a little time Friday was able todo all the work for me as well as I could do it myself.
I began now to consider, that having two mouths to feed instead of one, Imust provide more ground for my harvest, and plant a larger quantity ofcorn than I used to do; so I marked out a larger piece of land, and beganthe fence in the same manner as before, in which Friday worked not onlyvery willingly and very hard, but did it very cheerfully: and I told himwhat it was for; that it was for corn to make more bread, because he wasnow with me, and that I might have enough for him and myself too. Heappeared very sensible of that part, and let me know that he thought Ihad much more labour upon me on his account than I had for myself; andthat he would work the harder for me if I would tell him what to do.
This was the pleasantest year of all the life I led in this place.Friday began to talk pretty well, and understand the names of almosteverything I had occasion to call for, and of every place I had to sendhim to, and talked a great deal to me; so that, in short, I began now tohave some use for my tongue again, which, indeed, I had very littleoccasion for before. Besides the pleasure of talking to him, I had asingular satisfaction in the fellow himself: his simple, unfeignedhonesty appeared to me more and more every day, and I began really tolove the creature; and on his side I believe he loved me more than it waspossible for him ever to love anything before.
I had a mind once to try if he had any inclination for his own countryagain; and having taught him English so well that he could answer mealmost any question, I asked him whether the nation that he belonged tonever conquered in battle? At which he smiled, and said--"Yes, yes, wealways fight the better;" that is, he meant always get the better infight; and so we began the following discourse:--
_Master_.--You always fight the better; how came you to be takenprisoner, then, Friday?
_Friday_.--My nation beat much for all that.
_Master_.--How beat? If your nation beat them, how came you to be taken?
_Friday_.--They more many than my nation, in the place where me was; theytake one, two, three, and me: my nation over-beat them in the yonderplace, where me no was; there my nation take one, two, great thousand.
_Master_.--But why did not your side recover you from the hands of yourenemies, then?
_Friday_.--They run, one, two, three, and me, and make go in the canoe;my nation have no canoe that time.
_Master_.--Well, Friday, and what does your nation do with the men theytake? Do they carry them away and eat them, as these did?
_Friday_.--Yes, my nation eat mans too; eat all up.
_Master_.--Where do they carry them?
_Friday_.--Go to other place, where they think.
_Master_.--Do they come hither?
_Friday_.--Yes, yes, they come hither; come other else place.
_Master_.--Have you been here with them?
_Friday_.--Yes, I have been here (points to the NW. side of the island,which, it seems, was their side).
By this I understood that my man Friday had formerly been among thesavages who used to come on shore on the farther part of the island, onthe same man-eating occasions he was now brought for; and some timeafter, when I took the courage to carry him to that side, being the sameI formerly mentioned, he presently knew the place, and told me he wasthere once, when they ate up twenty men, two women, and one child; hecould not tell twenty in E
nglish, but he numbered them by laying so manystones in a row, and pointing to me to tell them over.
I have told this passage, because it introduces what follows: that afterthis discourse I had with him, I asked him how far it was from our islandto the shore, and whether the canoes were not often lost. He told methere was no danger, no canoes ever lost: but that after a little way outto sea, there was a current and wind, always one way in the morning, theother in the afternoon. This I understood to be no more than the sets ofthe tide, as going out or coming in; but I afterwards understood it wasoccasioned by the great draft and reflux of the mighty river Orinoco, inthe mouth or gulf of which river, as I found afterwards, our island lay;and that this land, which I perceived to be W. and NW., was the greatisland Trinidad, on the north point of the mouth of the river. I askedFriday a thousand questions about the country, the inhabitants, the sea,the coast, and what nations were near; he told me all he knew with thegreatest openness imaginable. I asked him the names of the severalnations of his sort of people, but could get no other name than Caribs;from whence I easily understood that these were the Caribbees, which ourmaps place on the part of America which reaches from the mouth of theriver Orinoco to Guiana, and onwards to St. Martha. He told me that up agreat way beyond the moon, that was beyond the setting of the moon, whichmust be west from their country, there dwelt white bearded men, like me,and pointed to my great whiskers, which I mentioned before; and that theyhad killed much mans, that was his word: by all which I understood hemeant the Spaniards, whose cruelties in America had been spread over thewhole country, and were remembered by all the nations from father to son.
I inquired if he could tell me how I might go from this island, and getamong those white men. He told me, "Yes, yes, you may go in two canoe."I could not understand what he meant, or make him describe to me what hemeant by two canoe, till at last, with great difficulty, I found he meantit must be in a large boat, as big as two canoes. This part of Friday'sdiscourse I began to relish very well; and from this time I entertainedsome hopes that, one time or other, I might find an opportunity to makemy escape from this place, and that this poor savage might be a means tohelp me.
During the long time that Friday had now been with me, and that he beganto speak to me, and understand me, I was not wanting to lay a foundationof religious knowledge in his mind; particularly I asked him one time,who made him. The creature did not understand me at all, but thought Ihad asked who was his father--but I took it up by another handle, andasked him who made the sea, the ground we walked on, and the hills andwoods. He told me, "It was one Benamuckee, that lived beyond all;" hecould describe nothing of this great person, but that he was very old,"much older," he said, "than the sea or land, than the moon or thestars." I asked him then, if this old person had made all things, whydid not all things worship him? He looked very grave, and, with aperfect look of innocence, said, "All things say O to him." I asked himif the people who die in his country went away anywhere? He said, "Yes;they all went to Benamuckee." Then I asked him whether those they eat upwent thither too. He said, "Yes."
From these things, I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the trueGod; I told him that the great Maker of all things lived up there,pointing up towards heaven; that He governed the world by the same powerand providence by which He made it; that He was omnipotent, and could doeverything for us, give everything to us, take everything from us; andthus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. He listened with great attention,and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ being sent toredeem us; and of the manner of making our prayers to God, and His beingable to hear us, even in heaven. He told me one day, that if our Godcould hear us, up beyond the sun, he must needs be a greater God thantheir Benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet could not heartill they went up to the great mountains where he dwelt to speak to them.I asked him if ever he went thither to speak to him. He said, "No; theynever went that were young men; none went thither but the old men," whomhe called their Oowokakee; that is, as I made him explain to me, theirreligious, or clergy; and that they went to say O (so he called sayingprayers), and then came back and told them what Benamuckee said. By thisI observed, that there is priestcraft even among the most blinded,ignorant pagans in the world; and the policy of making a secret ofreligion, in order to preserve the veneration of the people to theclergy, not only to be found in the Roman, but, perhaps, among allreligions in the world, even among the most brutish and barbaroussavages.
I endeavoured to clear up this fraud to my man Friday; and told him thatthe pretence of their old men going up to the mountains to say O to theirgod Benamuckee was a cheat; and their bringing word from thence what hesaid was much more so; that if they met with any answer, or spake withany one there, it must be with an evil spirit; and then I entered into along discourse with him about the devil, the origin of him, his rebellionagainst God, his enmity to man, the reason of it, his setting himself upin the dark parts of the world to be worshipped instead of God, and asGod, and the many stratagems he made use of to delude mankind to theirruin; how he had a secret access to our passions and to our affections,and to adapt his snares to our inclinations, so as to cause us even to beour own tempters, and run upon our destruction by our own choice.
I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his mind about thedevil as it was about the being of a God. Nature assisted all myarguments to evidence to him even the necessity of a great First Cause,an overruling, governing Power, a secret directing Providence, and of theequity and justice of paying homage to Him that made us, and the like;but there appeared nothing of this kind in the notion of an evil spirit,of his origin, his being, his nature, and above all, of his inclinationto do evil, and to draw us in to do so too; and the poor creature puzzledme once in such a manner, by a question merely natural and innocent, thatI scarce knew what to say to him. I had been talking a great deal to himof the power of God, His omnipotence, His aversion to sin, His being aconsuming fire to the workers of iniquity; how, as He had made us all, Hecould destroy us and all the world in a moment; and he listened withgreat seriousness to me all the while. After this I had been telling himhow the devil was God's enemy in the hearts of men, and used all hismalice and skill to defeat the good designs of Providence, and to ruinthe kingdom of Christ in the world, and the like. "Well," says Friday,"but you say God is so strong, so great; is He not much strong, muchmight as the devil?" "Yes, yes," says I, "Friday; God is stronger thanthe devil--God is above the devil, and therefore we pray to God to treadhim down under our feet, and enable us to resist his temptations andquench his fiery darts." "But," says he again, "if God much stronger,much might as the wicked devil, why God no kill the devil, so make him nomore do wicked?" I was strangely surprised at this question; and, afterall, though I was now an old man, yet I was but a young doctor, and illqualified for a casuist or a solver of difficulties; and at first I couldnot tell what to say; so I pretended not to hear him, and asked him whathe said; but he was too earnest for an answer to forget his question, sothat he repeated it in the very same broken words as above. By this timeI had recovered myself a little, and I said, "God will at last punish himseverely; he is reserved for the judgment, and is to be cast into thebottomless pit, to dwell with everlasting fire." This did not satisfyFriday; but he returns upon me, repeating my words, "'_Reserve at last_!'me no understand--but why not kill the devil now; not kill great ago?""You may as well ask me," said I, "why God does not kill you or me, whenwe do wicked things here that offend Him--we are preserved to repent andbe pardoned." He mused some time on this. "Well, well," says he, mightyaffectionately, "that well--so you, I, devil, all wicked, all preserve,repent, God pardon all." Here I was run down again by him to the lastdegree; and it was a testimony to me, how the mere notions of nature,though they will guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a God,and of a worship or homage due to the supreme being of God, as theconsequence of our nature, yet nothing but divine revelation can form theknowledge of Jesus Christ
, and of redemption purchased for us; of aMediator of the new covenant, and of an Intercessor at the footstool ofGod's throne; I say, nothing but a revelation from Heaven can form thesein the soul; and that, therefore, the gospel of our Lord and SaviourJesus Christ, I mean the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, promised forthe guide and sanctifier of His people, are the absolutely necessaryinstructors of the souls of men in the saving knowledge of God and themeans of salvation.
I therefore diverted the present discourse between me and my man, risingup hastily, as upon some sudden occasion of going out; then sending himfor something a good way off, I seriously prayed to God that He wouldenable me to instruct savingly this poor savage; assisting, by HisSpirit, the heart of the poor ignorant creature to receive the light ofthe knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to Himself, and wouldguide me so to speak to him from the Word of God that his consciencemight be convinced, his eyes opened, and his soul saved. When he cameagain to me, I entered into a long discourse with him upon the subject ofthe redemption of man by the Saviour of the world, and of the doctrine ofthe gospel preached from Heaven, viz. of repentance towards God, andfaith in our blessed Lord Jesus. I then explained to him as well as Icould why our blessed Redeemer took not on Him the nature of angels butthe seed of Abraham; and how, for that reason, the fallen angels had noshare in the redemption; that He came only to the lost sheep of the houseof Israel, and the like.
I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all the methods I tookfor this poor creature's instruction, and must acknowledge, what Ibelieve all that act upon the same principle will find, that in layingthings open to him, I really informed and instructed myself in manythings that either I did not know or had not fully considered before, butwhich occurred naturally to my mind upon searching into them, for theinformation of this poor savage; and I had more affection in my inquiryafter things upon this occasion than ever I felt before: so that, whetherthis poor wild wretch was better for me or no, I had great reason to bethankful that ever he came to me; my grief sat lighter, upon me; myhabitation grew comfortable to me beyond measure: and when I reflectedthat in this solitary life which I have been confined to, I had not onlybeen moved to look up to heaven myself, and to seek the Hand that hadbrought me here, but was now to be made an instrument, under Providence,to save the life, and, for aught I knew, the soul of a poor savage, andbring him to the true knowledge of religion and of the Christiandoctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, in whom is life eternal; Isay, when I reflected upon all these things, a secret joy ran throughevery part of My soul, and I frequently rejoiced that ever I was broughtto this place, which I had so often thought the most dreadful of allafflictions that could possibly have befallen me.
I continued in this thankful frame all the remainder of my time; and theconversation which employed the hours between Friday and me was such asmade the three years which we lived there together perfectly andcompletely happy, if any such thing as complete happiness can be formedin a sublunary state. This savage was now a good Christian, a muchbetter than I; though I have reason to hope, and bless God for it, thatwe were equally penitent, and comforted, restored penitents. We had herethe Word of God to read, and no farther off from His Spirit to instructthan if we had been in England. I always applied myself, in reading theScripture, to let him know, as well as I could, the meaning of what Iread; and he again, by his serious inquiries and questionings, made me,as I said before, a much better scholar in the Scripture knowledge than Ishould ever have been by my own mere private reading. Another thing Icannot refrain from observing here also, from experience in this retiredpart of my life, viz. how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it isthat the knowledge of God, and of the doctrine of salvation by ChristJesus, is so plainly laid down in the Word of God, so easy to be receivedand understood, that, as the bare reading the Scripture made me capableof understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on to the greatwork of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a Saviour forlife and salvation, to a stated reformation in practice, and obedience toall God's commands, and this without any teacher or instructor, I meanhuman; so the same plain instruction sufficiently served to theenlightening this savage creature, and bringing him to be such aChristian as I have known few equal to him in my life.
As to all the disputes, wrangling, strife, and contention which havehappened in the world about religion, whether niceties in doctrines orschemes of church government, they were all perfectly useless to us, and,for aught I can yet see, they have been so to the rest of the world. Wehad the sure guide to heaven, viz. the Word of God; and we had, blessedbe God, comfortable views of the Spirit of God teaching and instructingby His word, leading us into all truth, and making us both willing andobedient to the instruction of His word. And I cannot see the least usethat the greatest knowledge of the disputed points of religion, whichhave made such confusion in the world, would have been to us, if we couldhave 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 couldunderstand almost all I said to him, and speak pretty fluently, though inbroken English, to me, I acquainted him with my own history, or at leastso much of it as related to my coming to this place: how I had livedthere, 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 aknife, 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 inthe frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which was not onlyas good a weapon in some cases, but much more useful upon otheroccasions.
I described to him the country of Europe, particularly England, which Icame from; how we lived, how we worshipped God, how we behaved to oneanother, and how we traded in ships to all parts of the world. I gavehim 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 inpieces before, and gone. I showed him the ruins of our boat, which welost when we escaped, and which I could not stir with my whole strengththen; but was now fallen almost all to pieces. Upon seeing this boat,Friday stood, musing a great while, and said nothing. I asked him whatit was he studied upon. At last says he, "Me see such boat like come toplace at my nation." I did not understand him a good while; but at last,when I had examined further 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. Ipresently imagined that some European ship must have been cast away upontheir coast, and the boat might get loose and drive ashore; but was sodull that I never once thought of men making their escape from a wreckthither, much less whence they might come: so I only inquired after adescription of the boat.
Friday described the boat to me well enough; but brought me better tounderstand him when he added with some warmth, "We save the white mansfrom drown." Then I presently asked if there were any white mans, as hecalled them, in the boat. "Yes," he said; "the boat full of white mans."I asked him how many. He told upon his fingers seventeen. I asked himthen what became of them. He told me, "They live, they dwell at mynation."
This put new thoughts into my head; for I presently imagined that thesemight be the men belonging to the ship that was cast away in the sight ofmy island, as I now called it; and who, after the ship was struck on therock, and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved themselves in theirboat, and were landed upon that wild shore among the savages. Upon thisI inquired of him more critically what was become of them. He assured methey lived still there; that they had been there about four years; thatthe savages left them alone, and gave them victuals to live on. I askedhim 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;" thatis to say, they never eat any men but such as come to fight wit
h them andare taken in battle.
It was after this some considerable time, that being upon the top of thehill 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, theweather being very serene, looks very earnestly towards the mainland,and, in a kind of surprise, falls a jumping and dancing, and calls out tome, for I was at some distance from him. I asked him what was thematter. "Oh, joy!" says he; "Oh, glad! there see my country, there mynation!" I observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in hisface, and his eyes sparkled, and his countenance discovered a strangeeagerness, as if he had a mind to be in his own country again. Thisobservation of mine put a great many thoughts into me, which made me atfirst not so easy about my new man Friday as I was before; and I made nodoubt but that, if Friday could get back to his own nation again, hewould not only forget all his religion but all his obligation to me, andwould be forward enough to give his countrymen an account of me, and comeback, perhaps with a hundred or two of them, and make a feast upon me, atwhich he might be as merry as he used to be with those of his enemieswhen they were taken in war. But I wronged the poor honest creature verymuch, for which I was very sorry afterwards. However, as my jealousyincreased, and held some weeks, I was a little more circumspect, and notso familiar and kind to him as before: in which I was certainly wrongtoo; the honest, grateful creature having no thought about it but whatconsisted with the best principles, both as a religious Christian and asa grateful friend, as appeared afterwards to my full satisfaction.
While my jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure I was every day pumpinghim to see if he would discover any of the new thoughts which I suspectedwere in him; but I found everything he said was so honest and soinnocent, that I could find nothing to nourish my suspicion; and in spiteof all my uneasiness, he made me at last entirely his own again; nor didhe in the least perceive that I was uneasy, and therefore I could notsuspect him of deceit.
One day, walking up the same hill, but the weather being hazy at sea, sothat 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 dothere?" said I. "Would you turn wild again, eat men's flesh again, andbe a savage as you were before?" He looked full of concern, and shakinghis head, said, "No, no, Friday tell them to live good; tell them to prayGod; 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 atthat, and then said, "No, no, they no kill me, they willing love learn."He meant by this, they would be willing to learn. He added, they learnedmuch of the bearded mans that came in the boat. Then I asked him if hewould go back to them. He smiled at that, and told me that he could notswim so far. I told him I would make a canoe for him. He told me hewould go if I would go with him. "I go!" says I; "why, they will eat meif I come there." "No, no," says he, "me make they no eat you; me makethey much love you." He meant, he would tell them how I had killed hisenemies, and saved his life, and so he would make them love me. Then hetold 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 Icould possibly join with those bearded men, who I made no doubt wereSpaniards and Portuguese; not doubting but, if I could, we might findsome method to escape from thence, being upon the continent, and a goodcompany together, better than I could from an island forty miles off theshore, alone and without help. So, after some days, I took Friday towork again by way of discourse, and told him I would give him a boat togo 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 atmanaging it, and would make it go almost as swift again as I could. Sowhen he was in, I said to him, "Well, now, Friday, shall we go to yournation?" He looked very dull at my saying so; which it seems was becausehe thought the boat was too small to go so far. I then told him I had abigger; so the next day I went to the place where the first boat laywhich I had made, but which I could not get into the water. He said thatwas big enough; but then, as I had taken no care of it, and it had laintwo or three and twenty years there, the sun had so split and dried it,that it was rotten. Friday told me such a boat would do very well, andwould carry "much enough vittle, drink, bread;" this was his way oftalking.