The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
be killed, as his two enemies were. I beckoned to him again to come to
me, and gave him all the signs of encouragement that I could think of;
and he came nearer and nearer, kneeling down every ten or twelve steps,
in token of acknowledgment for saving his life. I smiled at him, and
looked pleasantly, and beckoned to him to come still nearer; at length
he came close to me; and then he kneeled down again, kissed the ground,
and laid his head upon the ground, 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 took him up and made much of him, and encouraged him
all I could. But there was more work to do yet; for I perceived the
savage whom I had knocked down was not killed, but stunned with the
blow, and began to come to himself: so I pointed to him, and showed him
the savage, that he was not dead; upon this he spoke some words to me,
and though I could not understand them, yet I thought they were
pleasant to hear; for they were the first sound of a man’s voice that I
had heard, my own excepted, for above twenty-five years. But there was
no time for such reflections now; the savage who was knocked 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 saw that, I presented my
other piece at the man, as if I would shoot him: upon this my savage,
for so I call him now, made a motion to me 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 at one blow cut off his head so cleverly, no
executioner in Germany could have done it sooner or better; which I
thought very strange for one who, I had reason to believe, never saw a
sword in his life before, except their own wooden swords: however, it
seems, as I learned afterwards, they make their wooden swords so sharp,
so heavy, and the wood is so hard, that they will even cut off heads
with them, ay, and arms, and that at one blow, too. When he had done
this, he comes laughing to me in sign of triumph, and brought me the
sword again, and with abundance of gestures which I did not understand,
laid it down, with the head of the savage that he had killed, just
before me. But that which astonished him most was to know 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, as well 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 in his breast, where it had made a
hole, and no great quantity of blood had followed; but he had bled
inwardly, for he was quite dead. He took up his bow and arrows, and
came back; so I turned to go away, and beckoned him to follow me,
making signs to him that more might come after them. Upon this he made
signs to me that he should bury them with sand, that they might not be
seen by the rest, 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 the
sand with his hands big enough to bury the first in, and then dragged
him into it, and covered him; and did so by the other also; I believe
he had buried them both in a quarter of an hour. Then, calling away, I
carried him, not to my castle, but quite away to my cave, on the
farther part of the island: so I did not let my dream come to pass in
that part, that he came into my grove for shelter. Here I gave him
bread and a bunch of raisins to eat, and a draught of water, which I
found he was indeed in great distress for, from his running: and having
refreshed him, I made signs for him to go and lie down to sleep,
showing him a place where I had laid some rice-straw, and a blanket
upon it, which I used to sleep upon myself sometimes; so the poor
creature lay down, and went to sleep.
He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with straight,
strong limbs, not too large; tall, and well-shaped; and, as I reckon,
about twenty-six years of age. He had a very good countenance, not a
fierce and surly aspect, but seemed to have something very manly in his
face; and yet he had all the sweetness and softness of a European in
his countenance, too, especially when he smiled. His hair was long and
black, not curled like wool; his forehead very high and large; and a
great vivacity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes. The colour of his
skin was not quite black, but very tawny; and yet not an ugly, yellow,
nauseous tawny, as the Brazilians and Virginians, and other natives of
America are, but of a bright kind of a dun olive-colour, that had in it
something very agreeable, though not very easy to describe. His face
was round and plump; his nose small, not flat, like the negroes; a very
good mouth, thin lips, and his fine teeth well set, and as white as
ivory.
After he had slumbered, rather than slept, about half-an-hour, he awoke
again, and came out of the cave to me, for I had been milking my goats
which I had in the enclosure just by: when he espied me he came running
to me, laying himself down again upon the ground, with all the possible
signs of an humble, thankful disposition, making a great many antic
gestures to show it. At last he lays his head flat upon the ground,
close to my foot, and sets my other foot upon his head, as he had done
before; and after this made all the signs to me of subjection,
servitude, and submission imaginable, to let me know how he would serve
me so long as he lived. I understood him in many things, and let him
know I was very well pleased with him. In a little time I began to
speak to him; and teach him to speak 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 memory of the time. I likewise taught him to say Master;
and then let him know that was to be my name; I likewise taught him to
say Yes and No and to know the meaning of them. I gave him some milk in
an earthen pot, and let him see me drink it before him, and sop my
bread in it; and gave him a cake of bread to do the like, which he
quickly complied with, and made signs that it was very good for him. I
kept there with him all that night; but as soon as it was day I
beckoned to him to come with me, and let him know I would give him some
clothes; at which he seemed very glad, for he was stark naked. As we
went by the place where he had buried the two men, he pointed exactly
to the place, and showed me the marks that he had made to find them
again, making signs to me that we should dig them up again and eat
them. At this I appeared very angry, expressed my abhorrence of it,
made as if I would vomit at the thoughts of it, and beckoned with my
hand to him to come away, which he did immediately, with great
submission. I then led him up to the top of the hill, to see if his
enemies were gone; and pulling out my glass I looked, and saw plainly
the place where they had been, but no appearance of them or their
canoes; so that it was plain 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 more courage,
and consequently more curiosity, I took my man Friday with me, giving
him the sword in his hand, with the bow and arrows at his back, which I
found he could use very dexterously, making him carry one gun for me,
and I two for myself; and away we marched to the place where these
creatures had been; for I had a mind now to get some further
intelligence of them. When I came to the place my very blood ran chill
in my veins, and my heart sunk within me, at the horror of the
spectacle; indeed, it was a dreadful sight, at least it was so to me,
though Friday made nothing of it. The place was covered with human
bones, the ground dyed with their blood, and great pieces of flesh left
here and there, half-eaten, mangled, and scorched; and, in short, all
the tokens of the triumphant feast they had been making there, after a
victory over their enemies. I saw three skulls, five hands, and the
bones of three or four legs and feet, and abundance of other parts of
the bodies; and Friday, by his signs, made me understand that they
brought over four prisoners to feast upon; that three of them were
eaten up, and that he, pointing to himself, was the fourth; that there
had been a great battle between them and their next king, of whose
subjects, it seems, he had been one, and that they had taken a great
number of prisoners; all which were carried to several places by those
who had taken them in the fight, in order to feast upon them, as was
done here by these wretches upon those they brought hither.
I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and whatever
remained, and lay them together in a heap, and make a great fire upon
it, and burn them all to ashes. I found Friday had still a hankering
stomach after some of the flesh, and was still a cannibal in his
nature; but I showed so much abhorrence at the very thoughts of it, and
at the least appearance of it, that he durst not discover it: for I
had, by some means, let him know that I would kill him if he offered
it.
When he had done this, we came back to our castle; and there I fell to
work for my man Friday; and first of all, I gave him a pair of linen
drawers, which I had out of the poor gunner’s chest I mentioned, which
I found in the wreck, and which, with a little alteration, fitted him
very well; and then I made him a jerkin of goat’s skin, as well as my
skill would allow (for I was now grown a tolerably good tailor); and I
gave him a cap which I made of hare’s skin, very convenient, and
fashionable enough; and thus he was clothed, for the present, tolerably
well, and was mighty well pleased to see himself almost as well clothed
as his master. It is true he went awkwardly in these clothes at first:
wearing the drawers was very awkward to him, and the sleeves of the
waistcoat galled his shoulders and the inside of his arms; but a little
easing them where he complained they hurt him, and using himself to
them, he took to them at length very well.
The next day, after I came home to my hutch with him, I began to
consider where I should lodge him: and that I might do well for him and
yet be perfectly easy myself, I made a little tent for him in the
vacant place between my two fortifications, in the inside of the last,
and in the outside of the first. As there was a door or entrance there
into my cave, I made a formal framed door-case, and a door to it, of
boards, and set it up in the passage, a little within the entrance;
and, causing the door to open in the inside, I barred it up in the
night, taking in my ladders, too; so that Friday could no way come at
me in the inside of my innermost wall, without making so much noise in
getting over that it must needs awaken me; for my first wall had now a
complete roof over it of long poles, covering all my tent, and leaning
up to the side of the hill; which was again laid across with smaller
sticks, instead of laths, and then thatched over a great thickness with
the rice-straw, which was strong, like reeds; and at the hole or place
which was 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 not
have opened at all, but would have fallen down and made a great
noise—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 more faithful,
loving, sincere servant than Friday was to me: without passions,
sullenness, or designs, perfectly obliged and engaged; his very
affections were tied to me, like those of a child to a father; and I