Chapter 14: A Dream Realised

by Daniel Defoe

　　Having now brought all my things on shore and secured them, I wentback to my boat, and rowed or paddled her along the shore to herold harbour, where I laid her up, and made the best of my way to myold habitation, where I found everything safe and quiet. I begannow to repose myself, live after my old fashion, and take care ofmy family affairs; and for a while I lived easy enough, only that Iwas more vigilant than I used to be, looked out oftener, and didnot go abroad so much; and if at any time I did stir with anyfreedom, it was always to the east part of the island, where I waspretty well satisfied the savages never came, and where I could gowithout so many precautions, and such a load of arms and ammunitionas I always carried with me if I went the other way. I lived inthis condition near two years more; but my unlucky head, that wasalways to let me know it was born to make my body miserable, wasall these two years filled with projects and designs how, if itwere possible, I might get away from this island: for sometimes Iwas for making another voyage to the wreck, though my reason toldme that there was nothing left there worth the hazard of my voyage;sometimes for a ramble one way, sometimes another - and I believeverily, if I had had the boat that I went from Sallee in, I shouldhave ventured to sea, bound anywhere, I knew not whither. I havebeen, in all my circumstances, a memento to those who are touchedwith the general plague of mankind, whence, for aught I know, onehalf of their miseries flow: I mean that of not being satisfiedwith the station wherein God and Nature hath placed them - for, notto look back upon my primitive condition, and the excellent adviceof my father, the opposition to which was, as I may call it, myoriginal sin, my subsequent mistakes of the same kind had been themeans of my coming into this miserable condition; for had thatProvidence which so happily seated me at the Brazils as a planterblessed me with confined desires, and I could have been contentedto have gone on gradually, I might have been by this time - I meanin the time of my being in this island - one of the mostconsiderable planters in the Brazils - nay, I am persuaded, that bythe improvements I had made in that little time I lived there, andthe increase I should probably have made if I had remained, I mighthave been worth a hundred thousand moidores - and what business hadI to leave a settled fortune, a well-stocked plantation, improvingand increasing, to turn supercargo to Guinea to fetch negroes, whenpatience and time would have so increased our stock at home, thatwe could have bought them at our own door from those whose businessit was to fetch them? and though it had cost us something more, yetthe difference of that price was by no means worth saving at sogreat a hazard. But as this is usually the fate of young heads, soreflection upon the folly of it is as commonly the exercise of moreyears, or of the dear-bought experience of time - so it was with menow; and yet so deep had the mistake taken root in my temper, thatI could not satisfy myself in my station, but was continuallyporing upon the means and possibility of my escape from this place;and that I may, with greater pleasure to the reader, bring on theremaining part of my story, it may not be improper to give someaccount of my first conceptions on the subject of this foolishscheme for my escape, and how, and upon what foundation, I acted.I am now to be supposed retired into my castle, after my latevoyage to the wreck, my frigate laid up and secured under water, asusual, and my condition restored to what it was before: I had morewealth, indeed, than I had before, but was not at all the richer;for I had no more use for it than the Indians of Peru had beforethe Spaniards came there.It was one of the nights in the rainy season in March, the four-and-twentieth year of my first setting foot in this island ofsolitude, I was lying in my bed or hammock, awake, very well inhealth, had no pain, no distemper, no uneasiness of body, nor anyuneasiness of mind more than ordinary, but could by no means closemy eyes, that is, so as to sleep; no, not a wink all night long,otherwise than as follows: It is impossible to set down theinnumerable crowd of thoughts that whirled through that greatthoroughfare of the brain, the memory, in this night's time. I ranover the whole history of my life in miniature, or by abridgment,as I may call it, to my coming to this island, and also of thatpart of my life since I came to this island. In my reflectionsupon the state of my case since I came on shore on this island, Iwas comparing the happy posture of my affairs in the first years ofmy habitation here, with the life of anxiety, fear, and care whichI had lived in ever since I had seen the print of a foot in thesand. Not that I did not believe the savages had frequented theisland even all the while, and might have been several hundreds ofthem at times on shore there; but I had never known it, and wasincapable of any apprehensions about it; my satisfaction wasperfect, though my danger was the same, and I was as happy in notknowing my danger as if I had never really been exposed to it.This furnished my thoughts with many very profitable reflections,and particularly this one: How infinitely good that Providence is,which has provided, in its government of mankind, such narrowbounds to his sight and knowledge of things; and though he walks inthe midst of so many thousand dangers, the sight of which, ifdiscovered to him, would distract his mind and sink his spirits, heis kept serene and calm, by having the events of things hid fromhis eyes, and knowing nothing of the dangers which surround him.After these thoughts had for some time entertained me, I came toreflect seriously upon the real danger I had been in for so manyyears in this very island, and how I had walked about in thegreatest security, and with all possible tranquillity, even whenperhaps nothing but the brow of a hill, a great tree, or the casualapproach of night, had been between me and the worst kind ofdestruction - viz. that of falling into the hands of cannibals andsavages, who would have seized on me with the same view as I wouldon a goat or turtle; and have thought it no more crime to kill anddevour me than I did of a pigeon or a curlew. I would unjustlyslander myself if I should say I was not sincerely thankful to mygreat Preserver, to whose singular protection I acknowledged, withgreat humanity, all these unknown deliverances were due, andwithout which I must inevitably have fallen into their mercilesshands.When these thoughts were over, my head was for some time taken upin considering the nature of these wretched creatures, I mean thesavages, and how it came to pass in the world that the wiseGovernor of all things should give up any of His creatures to suchinhumanity - nay, to something so much below even brutality itself- as to devour its own kind: but as this ended in some (at thattime) fruitless speculations, it occurred to me to inquire whatpart of the world these wretches lived in? how far off the coastwas from whence they came? what they ventured over so far from homefor? what kind of boats they had? and why I might not order myselfand my business so that I might be able to go over thither, as theywere to come to me?I never so much as troubled myself to consider what I should dowith myself when I went thither; what would become of me if I fellinto the hands of these savages; or how I should escape them ifthey attacked me; no, nor so much as how it was possible for me toreach the coast, and not to be attacked by some or other of them,without any possibility of delivering myself: and if I should notfall into their hands, what I should do for provision, or whither Ishould bend my course: none of these thoughts, I say, so much ascame in my way; but my mind was wholly bent upon the notion of mypassing over in my boat to the mainland. I looked upon my presentcondition as the most miserable that could possibly be; that I wasnot able to throw myself into anything but death, that could becalled worse; and if I reached the shore of the main I mightperhaps meet with relief, or I might coast along, as I did on theAfrican shore, till I came to some inhabited country, and where Imight find some relief; and after all, perhaps I might fall in withsome Christian ship that might take me in: and if the worst came tothe worst, I could but die, which would put an end to all thesemiseries at once. Pray note, all this was the fruit of a disturbedmind, an impatient temper, made desperate, as it were, by the longcontinuance of my troubles, and the disappointments I had met inthe wreck I had been on board of, and where I had been so nearobtaining what I so earnestly longed for - somebody to speak to,and to learn some knowledge from them of the place where I was, andof the probable means of my deliverance. I was agitated wholly bythese thoughts; all my calm of mind, in my resignation toProvidence, and waiting the issue of the dispositions of Heaven,seemed to be suspended; and I had as it were no power to turn mythoughts to anything but to the project of a voyage to the main,which came upon me with such force, and such an impetuosity ofdesire, that it was not to be resisted.When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours or more, with suchviolence that it set my very blood into a ferment, and my pulsebeat as if I had been in a fever, merely with the extraordinaryfervour of my mind about it, Nature - as if I had been fatigued andexhausted with the very thoughts of it - threw me into a soundsleep. One would have thought I should have dreamed of it, but Idid not, nor of anything relating to it, but I dreamed that as Iwas going out in the morning as usual from my castle, I saw uponthe shore two canoes and eleven savages coming to land, and thatthey brought with them another savage whom they were going to killin order to eat him; when, on a sudden, the savage that they weregoing to kill jumped away, and ran for his life; and I thought inmy sleep that he came running into my little thick grove before myfortification, to hide himself; and that I seeing him alone, andnot perceiving that the others sought him that way, showed myselfto him, and smiling upon him, encouraged him: that he kneeled downto me, seeming to pray me to assist him; upon which I showed him myladder, made him go up, and carried him into my cave, and he becamemy servant; and that as soon as I had got this man, I said tomyself, "Now I may certainly venture to the mainland, for thisfellow will serve me as a pilot, and will tell me what to do, andwhither to go for provisions, and whither not to go for fear ofbeing devoured; what places to venture into, and what to shun." Iwaked with this thought; and was under such inexpressibleimpressions of joy at the prospect of my escape in my dream, thatthe disappointments which I felt upon coming to myself, and findingthat it was no more than a dream, were equally extravagant theother way, and threw me into a very great dejection of spirits.Upon this, however, I made this conclusion: that my only way to goabout to attempt an escape was, to endeavour to get a savage intomy possession: and, if possible, it should be one of theirprisoners, whom they had condemned to be eaten, and should bringhither to kill. But these thoughts still were attended with thisdifficulty: that it was impossible to effect this without attackinga whole caravan of them, and killing them all; and this was notonly a very desperate attempt, and might miscarry, but, on theother hand, I had greatly scrupled the lawfulness of it to myself;and my heart trembled at the thoughts of shedding so much blood,though it was for my deliverance. I need not repeat the argumentswhich occurred to me against this, they being the same mentionedbefore; but though I had other reasons to offer now - viz. thatthose men were enemies to my life, and would devour me if theycould; that it was self-preservation, in the highest degree, todeliver myself from this death of a life, and was acting in my owndefence as much as if they were actually assaulting me, and thelike; I say though these things argued for it, yet the thoughts ofshedding human blood for my deliverance were very terrible to me,and such as I could by no means reconcile myself to for a greatwhile. However, at last, after many secret disputes with myself,and after great perplexities about it (for all these arguments, oneway and another, struggled in my head a long time), the eagerprevailing desire of deliverance at length mastered all the rest;and I resolved, if possible, to get one of these savages into myhands, cost what it would. My next thing was to contrive how to doit, and this, indeed, was very difficult to resolve on; but as Icould pitch upon no probable means for it, so I resolved to putmyself upon the watch, to see them when they came on shore, andleave the rest to the event; taking such measures as theopportunity should present, let what would be.With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself upon the scoutas often as possible, and indeed so often that I was heartily tiredof it; for it was above a year and a half that I waited; and forgreat part of that time went out to the west end, and to the south-west corner of the island almost every day, to look for canoes, butnone appeared. This was very discouraging, and began to trouble memuch, though I cannot say that it did in this case (as it had donesome time before) wear off the edge of my desire to the thing; butthe longer it seemed to be delayed, the more eager I was for it: ina word, I was not at first so careful to shun the sight of thesesavages, and avoid being seen by them, as I was now eager to beupon them. Besides, I fancied myself able to manage one, nay, twoor three savages, if I had them, so as to make them entirely slavesto me, to do whatever I should direct them, and to prevent theirbeing able at any time to do me any hurt. It was a great whilethat I pleased myself with this affair; but nothing still presenteditself; all my fancies and schemes came to nothing, for no savagescame near me for a great while.About a year and a half after I entertained these notions (and bylong musing had, as it were, resolved them all into nothing, forwant of an occasion to put them into execution), I was surprisedone morning by seeing no less than five canoes all on shoretogether on my side the island, and the people who belonged to themall landed and out of my sight. The number of them broke all mymeasures; for seeing so many, and knowing that they always camefour or six, or sometimes more in a boat, I could not tell what tothink of it, or how to take my measures to attack twenty or thirtymen single-handed; so lay still in my castle, perplexed anddiscomforted. However, I put myself into the same position for anattack that I had formerly provided, and was just ready for action,if anything had presented. Having waited a good while, listeningto hear if they made any noise, at length, being very impatient, Iset my guns at the foot of my ladder, and .clambered up to the topof the hill, by my two stages, as usual; standing so, however, thatmy head did not appear above the hill, so that they could notperceive me by any means. Here I observed, by the help of myperspective glass, that they were no less than thirty in number;that they had a fire kindled, and that they had meat dressed. Howthey had cooked it I knew not, or what it was; but they were alldancing, in I know not how many barbarous gestures and figures,their own way, round the fire.While I was thus looking on them, I perceived, by my perspective,two miserable wretches dragged from the boats, where, it seems,they were laid by, and were now brought out for the slaughter. Iperceived one of them immediately fall; being knocked down, Isuppose, with a club or wooden sword, for that was their way; andtwo or three others were at work immediately, cutting him open fortheir cookery, while the other victim was left standing by himself,till they should be ready for him. In that very moment this poorwretch, seeing himself a little at liberty and unbound, Natureinspired him with hopes of life, and he started away from them, andran with incredible swiftness along the sands, directly towards me;I mean towards that part of the coast where my habitation was. Iwas dreadfully frightened, I must acknowledge, when I perceived himrun my way; and especially when, as I thought, I saw him pursued bythe whole body: and now I expected that part of my dream was comingto pass, and that he would certainly take shelter in my grove; butI could not depend, by any means, upon my dream, that the othersavages would not pursue him thither and find him there. However,I kept my station, and my spirits began to recover when I foundthat there was not above three men that followed him; and stillmore was I encouraged, when I found that he outstripped themexceedingly in running, and gained ground on them; so that, if hecould but hold out for half-an-hour, I saw easily he would fairlyget away from them all.There was between them and my castle the creek, which I mentionedoften in the first part of my story, where I landed my cargoes outof the ship; and this I saw plainly he must necessarily swim over,or the poor wretch would be taken there; but when the savageescaping came thither, he made nothing of it, though the tide wasthen up; but plunging in, swam through in about thirty strokes, orthereabouts, landed, and ran with exceeding strength and swiftness.When the three persons came to the creek, I found that two of themcould swim, but the third could not, and that, standing on theother side, he looked at the others, but went no farther, and soonafter went softly back again; which, as it happened, was very wellfor him in the end. I observed that the two who swam were yet morethan twice as strong swimming over the creek as the fellow was thatfled from them. It came very warmly upon my thoughts, and indeedirresistibly, that now was the time to get me a servant, and,perhaps, a companion or assistant; and that I was plainly called byProvidence to save this poor creature's life. I immediately randown the ladders with all possible expedition, fetched my two guns,for they were both at the foot of the ladders, as I observedbefore, and getting up again with the same haste to the top of thehill, I crossed towards the sea; and having a very short cut, andall down hill, placed myself in the way between the pursuers andthe pursued, hallowing aloud to him that fled, who, looking back,was at first perhaps as much frightened at me as at them; but Ibeckoned with my hand to him to come back; and, in the meantime, Islowly advanced towards the two that followed; then rushing at onceupon the foremost, I knocked him down with the stock of my piece.I was loath to fire, because I would not have the rest hear;though, at that distance, it would not have been easily heard, andbeing out of sight of the smoke, too, they would not have knownwhat to make of it. Having knocked this fellow down, the other whopursued him stopped, as if he had been frightened, and I advancedtowards him: but as I came nearer, I perceived presently he had abow and arrow, and was fitting it to shoot at me: so I was thenobliged to shoot at him first, which I did, and killed him at thefirst shot. The poor savage who fled, but had stopped, though hesaw both his enemies fallen and killed, as he thought, yet was sofrightened with the fire and noise of my piece that he stood stockstill, and neither came forward nor went backward, though he seemedrather inclined still to fly than to come on. I hallooed again tohim, and made signs to come forward, which he easily understood,and came a little way; then stopped again, and then a littlefarther, and stopped again; and I could then perceive that he stoodtrembling, as if he had been taken prisoner, and had just been tobe killed, as his two enemies were. I beckoned to him again tocome to me, and gave him all the signs of encouragement that Icould think of; and he came nearer and nearer, kneeling down everyten or twelve steps, in token of acknowledgment for saving hislife. I smiled at him, and looked pleasantly, and beckoned to himto come still nearer; at length he came close to me; and then hekneeled down again, kissed the ground, and laid his head upon theground, and taking me by the foot, set my foot upon his head; this,it seems, was in token of swearing to be my slave for ever. I tookhim up and made much of him, and encouraged him all I could. Butthere was more work to do yet; for I perceived the savage whom Ihad knocked down was not killed, but stunned with the blow, andbegan to come to himself: so I pointed to him, and showed him thesavage, that he was not dead; upon this he spoke some words to me,and though I could not understand them, yet I thought they werepleasant to hear; for they were the first sound of a man's voicethat I had heard, my own excepted, for above twenty-five years.But there was no time for such reflections now; the savage who wasknocked down recovered himself so far as to sit up upon the ground,and I perceived that my savage began to be afraid; but when I sawthat, I presented my other piece at the man, as if I would shoothim: upon this my savage, for so I call him now, made a motion tome to lend him my sword, which hung naked in a belt by my side,which I did. He no sooner had it, but he runs to his enemy, and atone blow cut off his head so cleverly, no executioner in Germanycould have done it sooner or better; which I thought very strangefor one who, I had reason to believe, never saw a sword in his lifebefore, except their own wooden swords: however, it seems, as Ilearned afterwards, they make their wooden swords so sharp, soheavy, and the wood is so hard, that they will even cut off headswith them, ay, and arms, and that at one blow, too. When he haddone this, he comes laughing to me in sign of triumph, and broughtme the sword again, and with abundance of gestures which I did notunderstand, laid it down, with the head of the savage that he hadkilled, just before me. But that which astonished him most was toknow how I killed the other Indian so far off; so, pointing to him,he made signs to me to let him go to him; and I bade him go, aswell as I could. When he came to him, he stood like one amazed,looking at him, turning him first on one side, then on the other;looked at the wound the bullet had made, which it seems was just inhis breast, where it had made a hole, and no great quantity ofblood had followed; but he had bled inwardly, for he was quitedead. He took up his bow and arrows, and came back; so I turned togo away, and beckoned him to follow me, making signs to him thatmore might come after them. Upon this he made signs to me that heshould bury them with sand, that they might not be seen by therest, if they followed; and so I made signs to him again to do so.He fell to work; and in an instant he had scraped a hole in thesand with his hands big enough to bury the first in, and thendragged him into it, and covered him; and did so by the other also;I believe he had him buried them both in a quarter of an hour.Then, calling away, I carried him, not to my castle, but quite awayto my cave, on the farther part of the island: so I did not let mydream come to pass in that part, that he came into my grove forshelter. Here I gave him bread and a bunch of raisins to eat, anda draught of water, which I found he was indeed in great distressfor, from his running: and having refreshed him, I made signs forhim to go and lie down to sleep, showing him a place where I hadlaid some rice-straw, and a blanket upon it, which I used to sleepupon myself sometimes; so the poor creature lay down, and went tosleep.He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, withstraight, strong limbs, not too large; tall, and well-shaped; and,as I reckon, about twenty-six years of age. He had a very goodcountenance, not a fierce and surly aspect, but seemed to havesomething very manly in his face; and yet he had all the sweetnessand softness of a European in his countenance, too, especially whenhe smiled. His hair was long and black, not curled like wool; hisforehead very high and large; and a great vivacity and sparklingsharpness in his eyes. The colour of his skin was not quite black,but very tawny; and yet not an ugly, yellow, nauseous tawny, as theBrazilians and Virginians, and other natives of America are, but ofa bright kind of a dun olive-colour, that had in it something veryagreeable, though not very easy to describe. His face was roundand plump; his nose small, not flat, like the negroes; a very goodmouth, thin lips, and his fine teeth well set, and as white asivory.After he had slumbered, rather than slept, about half-an-hour, heawoke again, and came out of the cave to me: for I had been milkingmy goats which I had in the enclosure just by: when he espied me hecame running to me, laying himself down again upon the ground, withall the possible signs of an humble, thankful disposition, making agreat many antic gestures to show it. At last he lays his headflat upon the ground, close to my foot, and sets my other foot uponhis head, as he had done before; and after this made all the signsto me of subjection, servitude, and submission imaginable, to letme know how he would serve me so long as he lived. I understoodhim in many things, and let him know I was very well pleased withhim. In a little time I began to speak to him; and teach him tospeak to me: and first, I let him know his name should be Friday,which was the day I saved his life: I called him so for the memoryof the time. I likewise taught him to say Master; and then let himknow that was to be my name: I likewise taught him to say Yes andNo and to know the meaning of them. I gave him some milk in anearthen pot, and let him see me drink it before him, and sop mybread in it; and gave him a cake of bread to do the like, which hequickly complied with, and made signs that it was very good forhim. I kept there with him all that night; but as soon as it wasday I beckoned to him to come with me, and let him know I wouldgive him some clothes; at which he seemed very glad, for he wasstark naked. As we went by the place where he had buried the twomen, he pointed exactly to the place, and showed me the marks thathe had made to find them again, making signs to me that we shoulddig them up again and eat them. At this I appeared very angry,expressed my abhorrence of it, made as if I would vomit at thethoughts of it, and beckoned with my hand to him to come away,which he did immediately, with great submission. I then led him upto the top of the hill, to see if his enemies were gone; andpulling out my glass I looked, and saw plainly the place where theyhad been, but no appearance of them or their canoes; so that it wasplain they were gone, and had left their two comrades behind them,without any search after them.But I was not content with this discovery; but having now morecourage, and consequently more curiosity, I took my man Friday withme, giving him the sword in his hand, with the bow and arrows athis back, which I found he could use very dexterously, making himcarry one gun for me, and I two for myself; and away we marched tothe place where these creatures had been; for I had a mind now toget some further intelligence of them. When I came to the place myvery blood ran chill in my veins, and my heart sunk within me, atthe horror of the spectacle; indeed, it was a dreadful sight, atleast it was so to me, though Friday made nothing of it. The placewas covered with human bones, the ground dyed with their blood, andgreat pieces of flesh left here and there, half-eaten, mangled, andscorched; and, in short, all the tokens of the triumphant feastthey had been making there, after a victory over their enemies. Isaw three skulls, five hands, and the bones of three or four legsand feet, and abundance of other parts of the bodies; and Friday,by his signs, made me understand that they brought over fourprisoners to feast upon; that three of them were eaten up, and thathe, pointing to himself, was the fourth; that there had been agreat battle between them and their next king, of whose subjects,it seems, he had been one, and that they had taken a great numberof prisoners; all which were carried to several places by those whohad taken them in the fight, in order to feast upon them, as wasdone here by these wretches upon those they brought hither.I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, andwhatever remained, and lay them together in a heap, and make agreat fire upon it, and burn them all to ashes. I found Friday hadstill a hankering stomach after some of the flesh, and was still acannibal in his nature; but I showed so much abhorrence at the verythoughts of it, and at the least appearance of it, that he durstnot discover it: for I had, by some means, let him know that Iwould kill him if he offered it.When he had done this, we came back to our castle; and there I fellto work for my man Friday; and first of all, I gave him a pair oflinen drawers, which I had out of the poor gunner's chest Imentioned, which I found in the wreck, and which, with a littlealteration, fitted him very well; and then I made him a jerkin ofgoat's skin, as well as my skill would allow (for I was now grown atolerably good tailor); and I gave him a cap which I made of hare'sskin, very convenient, and fashionable enough; and thus he wasclothed, for the present, tolerably well, and was mighty wellpleased to see himself almost as well clothed as his master. It istrue he went awkwardly in these clothes at first: wearing thedrawers was very awkward to him, and the sleeves of the waistcoatgalled his shoulders and the inside of his arms; but a littleeasing them where he complained they hurt him, and using himself tothem, he took to them at length very well.The next day, after I came home to my hutch with him, I began toconsider where I should lodge him: and that I might do well for himand yet be perfectly easy myself, I made a little tent for him inthe vacant place between my two fortifications, in the inside ofthe last, and in the outside of the first. As there was a door orentrance there into my cave, I made a formal framed door-case, anda door to it, of boards, and set it up in the passage, a littlewithin the entrance; and, causing the door to open in the inside, Ibarred it up in the night, taking in my ladders, too; so thatFriday could no way come at me in the inside of my innermost wall,without making so much noise in getting over that it must needsawaken me; for my first wall had now a complete roof over it oflong poles, covering all my tent, and leaning up to the side of thehill; which was again laid across with smaller sticks, instead oflaths, and then thatched over a great thickness with the rice-straw, which was strong, like reeds; and at the hole or place whichwas left to go in or out by the ladder I had placed a kind of trap-door, which, if it had been attempted on the outside, would nothave opened at all, but would have fallen down and made a greatnoise - as to weapons, I took them all into my side every night.But I needed none of all this precaution; for never man had a morefaithful, loving, sincere servant than Friday was to me: withoutpassions, sullenness, or designs, perfectly obliged and engaged;his very affections were tied to me, like those of a child to afather; and I daresay he would have sacrificed his life to savemine upon any occasion whatsoever - the many testimonies he gave meof this put it out of doubt, and soon convinced me that I needed touse no precautions for my safety on his account.This frequently gave me occasion to observe, and that with wonder,that however it had pleased God in His providence, and in thegovernment of the works of His hands, to take from so great a partof the world of His creatures the best uses to which theirfaculties and the powers of their souls are adapted, yet that Hehas bestowed upon them the same powers, the same reason, the sameaffections, the same sentiments of kindness and obligation, thesame passions and resentments of wrongs, the same sense ofgratitude, sincerity, fidelity, and all the capacities of doinggood and receiving good that He has given to us; and that when Hepleases to offer them occasions of exerting these, they are asready, nay, more ready, to apply them to the right uses for whichthey were bestowed than we are. This made me very melancholysometimes, in reflecting, as the several occasions presented, howmean a use we make of all these, even though we have these powersenlightened by the great lamp of instruction, the Spirit of God,and by the knowledge of His word added to our understanding; andwhy it has pleased God to hide the like saving knowledge from somany millions of souls, who, if I might judge by this poor savage,would make a much better use of it than we did. From hence Isometimes was led too far, to invade the sovereignty of Providence,and, as it were, arraign the justice of so arbitrary a dispositionof things, that should hide that sight from some, and reveal it -to others, and yet expect a like duty from both; but I shut it up,and checked my thoughts with this conclusion: first, that we didnot know by what light and law these should be condemned; but thatas God was necessarily, and by the nature of His being, infinitelyholy and just, so it could not be, but if these creatures were allsentenced to absence from Himself, it was on account of sinningagainst that light which, as the Scripture says, was a law tothemselves, and by such rules as their consciences wouldacknowledge to be just, though the foundation was not discovered tous; and secondly, that still as we all are the clay in the hand ofthe potter, no vessel could say to him, "Why hast thou formed methus?"But to return to my new companion. I was greatly delighted withhim, and made it my business to teach him everything that wasproper to make him useful, handy, and helpful; but especially tomake him speak, and understand me when I spoke; and he was theaptest scholar that ever was; and particularly was so merry, soconstantly diligent, and so pleased when he could but understandme, or make me understand him, that it was very pleasant for me totalk to him. Now my life began to be so easy that I began to sayto myself that could I but have been safe from more savages, Icared not if I was never to remove from the place where I lived.