day and night,and to cheer me up I drank some of the rum. I then set to work to bringmy freight from the shore, where I had left it. In the chests were twogreat bags of gold, and some bars of the same, and near these lay threesmall flasks and three bags of shot which were a great prize.
From this time, all went well with me for two years; but it was not tolast. One day, as I stood on the hill, I saw six boats on the shore!What could this mean?
Where were the men who had brought them? And what had they come for? Isaw through my glass that there were a score and a half, at least, onthe east side of the isle. They had meat on the fire, round which Icould see them dance. They then took a man from one of the boats, whowas bound hand and foot; but when they came to loose his bonds, he setoff as fast as his feet would take him, and in a straight line to myhouse.
To tell the truth, when I saw all the rest of the men run to catch him,my hair stood on end with fright. In the creek, he swam like a fish, andthe plunge which he took brought him through it in a few strokes. Allthe men now gave up the chase but two, and they swam through the creek,but by no means so fast as the slave had done. Now, I thought, was thetime for me to help the poor man, and my heart told me it would be rightto do so. I ran down my steps with my two guns, and went with all speedup the hill, and then down by a short cut to meet them.
I gave a sign to the poor slave to come to me, and at the same time wentup to meet the two men, who were in chase of him. I made a rush at thefirst of these, to knock him down with the stock of my gun, and he fell.I saw the one who was left, aim at me with his bow, so, to save my life,I shot him dead.
The smoke and noise from my gun, gave the poor slave who had been bound,such a shock, that he stood still on the spot, as if he had been in atrance. I gave a loud shout for him to come to me, and I took care toshow him that I was a friend, and made all the signs I could think of tocoax him up to me. At length he came, knelt down to kiss the ground, andthen took hold of my foot, and set it on his head. All this meant thathe was my slave; and I bade him rise, and made much of him.
But there was more work to be done yet; for the man who had had the blowfrom my gun was not dead. I made a sign for my slave (as I shall nowcall him) to look at him. At this he spoke to me, and though I couldnot make out what he said, yet it gave me a shock of joy; for it was thefirst sound of a man's voice that I had heard, for all the years I hadbeen on the isle.
The man whom I had struck with the stock of my gun, sat up; and myslave, who was in great fear of him, made signs for me to lend him mysword, which hung in a belt at my side. With this he ran up to the man,and with one stroke cut off his head. When he had done this, he broughtme back my sword with a laugh, and put it down in front of me. I did notlike to see the glee with which he did it, and I did not feel that myown life was quite safe with such a man.
He, in his turn, could but lift up his large brown hands with awe, tothink that I had put his foe to death, while I stood so far from him.But as to the sword, he and the rest of his tribe made use of swords ofwood, and this was why he knew so well how to wield mine. He made signsto me to let him go and see the man who had been shot; and he gave him aturn round, first on this side, then on that; and when he saw the woundmade in his breast by the shot, he stood quite, still once more, as ifhe had lost his wits. I made signs for him to come back, for my fearstold me that the rest of the men might come in search of their friends.
I did not like to take my slave to my house, nor to my cave; so I threwdown some straw from the rice plant for him to sleep on, and gave himsome bread and a bunch of dry grapes to eat. He was a fine man, withstraight strong limbs, tall, and young. His hair was thick, like wool,and black. His head was large and high; and he had bright black eyes. Hewas of a dark brown hue; his face was round, and his nose small, butnot flat; he had a good mouth with thin lips, with which he could give asoft smile; and his teeth were as white as snow.
I had been to milk my goats in the field close by, and when he saw me,he ran to me, and lay down on the ground to show me his thanks. He thenput his head on the ground, and set my foot on his head, as he had doneat first. He took all the means he could think of, to let me know thathe would serve me all his life; and I gave a sign to show that I thoughtwell of him. The next thing was to think of some name to call him by.I chose that of the sixth day of the week (Friday), as he came to me onthat day. I took care not to lose sight of him all that night, and whenthe sun rose, I made signs for him to come to me, that I might give himsome clothes, for he wore none. We then went up to the top of the hill,to look out for the men; but as we could not see them, or their boats,it was clear that they had left the isle.
My slave has since told me that they had had a great fight with thetribe that dwelt next to them; and that all those men whom each sidetook in war were their own by right. My slave's foes had four who fellto their share, of whom he was one.
I now set to work to make my man a cap of hare's skin, and gave him agoat's skin to wear round his waist. It was a great source of pride tohim, to find that his clothes were as good as my own.
At night, I kept my guns, sword, and bow close to my side; but there wasno need for this, as my slave was, in sooth, most true to me. He did allthat he was set to do, with his whole heart in the work; and I knew thathe would lay down his life to save mine. What could a man do more thanthat? And oh, the joy to have him here to cheer me in this lone isle!
I did my best to teach him, so like a child as he was, to do and feelall that was right, I found him apt, and full of fun; and he took greatpains to learn all that I could tell him. Our lives ran on in a calm,smooth way; and, but for the vile feasts which were held on the shores,I felt no wish to leave the isle.
As my slave had by no means lost his zest for these meals, it struck methat the best way to cure him, was to let him taste the flesh of beasts;so I took him with me one day to the wood for some sport. I saw ashe-goat, in the shade, with her two kids. I caught Friday by the arm,and made signs to him not to stir, and then shot one of the kids; butthe noise of the gun gave the poor man a great shock. He did not see thekid, nor did he know that it was dead. He tore his dress off his breastto feel if there was a wound there; then he knelt down to me, and tookhold of my knees to pray of me not to kill him.
To show poor Friday that his life was quite safe, I led him by the hand,and told him to fetch the kid. By and by, I saw a hawk in a tree, so Ibade him look at the gun, the hawk, and the ground; and then I shot thebird. But my poor slave gave still more signs of fear this time, than hedid at first: for he shook from head to foot. He must have thought thatsome fiend of death dwelt in the gun, and I think that he would haveknelt down to it, as well as to me; but he would not so much as touchthe gun for some time, though he would speak to it when he thought I wasnot near. Once he told me that what he said to it was to ask it not tokill him.
I brought home the bird, and made broth of it. Friday was much struckto see me eat salt with it, and made a wry face; but I, in my turn, tooksome that had no salt with it, and I made a wry face at that. The nextday I gave him a piece of kid's flesh, which I had hung by a string infront of the fire to roast. My plan was to put two poles, one on eachside of the fire, and a stick, on the top of them to hold the string.When my slave came to taste the flesh, he took the best means to let meknow how good he thought it.
The next day I set him to beat out and sift some corn. I let him see memake the bread, and he soon did all the work. I felt quite a love forhis true, warm heart, and he soon learnt to talk to me. One day I said,"Do the men of your tribe win in fight?" He told me, with a smile, thatthey did. "Well, then," said I, "How came they to let their foes takeyou?"
"They run one, two, three, and make go in the boat that time."
"Well, and what do the men do with those they take?"
"Eat them all up."
This was not good news for me, but I went on, and said, "Where do theytake them?"
"Go to next place where they think."
"Do they come here?"
> "Yes, yes, they come here, come else place too."
"Have you been here with them twice?"
"Yes, come there."
He meant the North West side of the isle, so to this spot I took him thenext day. He knew the place, and told me he was there once with a scoreof men. To let me know this, he put a score of stones all of a row, andmade me count them.
"Are not the boats lost on your shore now and then?" He said that therewas no fear, and that no boats were lost. He told me that up a great wayby the moon--that is where the moon then came up--there dwelt a tribeof white men like me, with beards. I felt sure that they must have comefrom Spain, to work the gold mines. I put this to him: "Could I go fromthis isle and join those men?"
"Yes, yes, you may go in two boats."
It was hard to see how one man could go in two boats, but what he meantwas, a boat twice as large as my own.
One