Journeys Through Bookland V3

C >> Charles H. Sylvester >> Journeys Through Bookland V3

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27

Robinson Crusoe was a good honest Englishman, who made the best of a
hard situation and worked his way into comparative comfort in spite of
a thousand difficulties and dangers, of which only those who read the
book have any idea. He was so manly about it always, and so
straightforward in his account of what he did, that it is worth any
one's while to read the entire book.

THE MAN FRIDAY

I am now to be supposed retired in my castle, after my late voyage to
the wreck, my frigate laid up and secured under water, and my
condition restored to what it was before; I had more wealth 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 before the 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 of
solitariness; I was lying in my bed or hammock awake, very well in
health, had no pain, no distemper, no uneasiness of body, nor any
uneasiness of mind more than ordinary, but could by no means close my
eyes; that is, so as to sleep; no, not a wink all night long. It is
impossible to set down the innumerable crowd of thoughts that whirled
through that great thoroughfare of the brain, the memory, in this
night's time: I ran over 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 that part of my life since I came to this island.

When these thoughts were over, my head was for some time taken up in
considering the nature of those wretched creatures, the cannibals,
[Footnote: Crusoe had been much disturbed by discovering footprints
and remains of fires, which showed him that his island had been
visited. As he found human bones near the embers, he knew that his
visitors were cannibals.] and how it came to pass in the world that
the wise Governor of all things should give up any of his creatures to
such inhumanity--nay, to something so much below even brutality
itself--as to devour its own kind: but, as this ended in some (at that
time) fruitless speculations, it occurred to me to inquire, what part
of the world these wretches lived in? how far off the coast was from
whence they came? what they ventured over so far from home for? what
kind of boats they had? and why I might not order myself and my
business so, that I might be able to go over thither, as they were to
come to me?

I never so much as troubled myself to consider what I should do with
myself when I went thither; what would become of me if I fell into the
hands of these savages; or how I should escape them if they attacked
me; but my mind was wholly bent upon the notion of my passing over in
my boat to the mainland. I looked upon my present condition as the
most miserable that could possibly be; that I was not able to throw
myself into anything but death, that could be called worse; and if I
reached the shore of the main, I might perhaps meet with relief, or I
might coast along, till I came to some inhabited country, where I
might find some relief; and, after all, perhaps I might fall in with
some Christian ship that would take me in; and if the worst came to
the worst, I could but die, which would put an end to all these
miseries at once.

[Illustration: ROBINSON CRUSOE FINDS A FOOTPRINT ON THE SAND]

When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours or more, with such
violence that it set my very blood into a ferment, and my pulse beat
as if I had been in a fever, merely with the extraordinary fervor of
my mind about it, Nature, as if I had been fatigued and exhausted with
the very thoughts of it, threw me into a sound sleep. One would have
thought I should have dreamed of it, but I did not, nor of anything
relating to it; but I dreamed that as I was going out in the morning
as usual, from my castle, I saw upon the shore two canoes and eleven
savages, coming to land, and that they brought with them another
savage, whom they were going to kill, in order to eat him; when, on a
sudden, the savage that they were going to kill jumped away, and ran
for his life; and I thought, in my sleep, that he came running into my
little thick grove before my fortification, to hide himself; and that
I, seeing him alone, and not perceiving that the others sought him
that way, showed myself to him, and smiling upon him, encouraged him;
that he kneeled down to me, seeming to pray me to assist him; upon
which I showed him my ladder, made him go up, and carried him into my
cave, and he became my servant; and that as soon as I had gotten this
man, I said to myself, "Now I may certainly venture to the mainland,
for this fellow will serve me as a pilot, and will tell me what to do,
and whither to go for provisions, and whither not to go for fear of
being devoured; what places to venture into, and what to escape." I
waked with this thought; and was under such inexpressible impressions
of joy at the prospect of my escape in my dream, that the
disappointments which I felt upon coming to myself, and finding that
it was no more than a dream, were equally extravagant the other way,
and threw me into a very great dejection of spirit.

Upon this, however, I made this conclusion: that my only way to go
about to attempt an escape was, to endeavor to get a savage into my
possession; and, if possible, it should be one of their prisoners,
whom they had condemned to be eaten, and should bring hither to kill.
My next thing was to contrive how to do it, and this indeed was very
difficult to resolve on; but as I could pitch upon no probable means
for it, so I resolved to put myself upon the watch, to see them when
they came on shore, and leave the rest to the event, taking such
measures as the opportunity should present, let what would be.

With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself upon the scout as
often as possible, and indeed so often, that I was heartily tired of
it. About a year and a half after I had entertained these notions, and
by long musing had, as it were, resolved them all into nothing, for
want of an occasion to put them into execution, I was surprised one
morning by seeing no less than five canoes all on shore together on my
side of the island, and the people who belonged to them all landed and
out of my sight. The number of them broke all my measures; for seeing
so many, and knowing that they always came four or six, or sometimes
more in a boat, I could not tell what to think of it, or how to take
my measures to attack twenty or thirty men single-handed; and so lay
still in my castle, perplexed and discomforted; however, I put myself
into all the same postures for an attack that I had formerly provided,
and was just as ready for action if anything had presented.

Having waited a good while, listening to hear if they made any noise,
at length being very impatient, I set my guns at the foot of my
ladder, and clambered up to the top of the hill, by my two stages;
standing so, however, that my head did not appear above the hill, so
that they could not perceive me by any means. Here I observed, by the
help of my perspective glass, that they were no less than thirty in
number; that they had a fire kindled, and that they had meat dressed;
how they had cooked it, I knew not, or what it was; but they were all
dancing, 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. I perceived one
of them immediately fall; being knocked down, I suppose, with a club,
or wooden sword, for that was their way, and two or three others were
at work immediately, cutting him open for their cookery, while the
other victim was left standing by himself, till they should be ready
for him. In that very moment, this poor wretch seeing himself a little
at liberty, Nature inspired him with hopes of life, arid he started
away from them, and ran with incredible swiftness along the sands,
directly toward me--I mean, toward that part of the coast where my
habitation was.

I was dreadfully frighted, I must acknowledge, when I perceived him
run my way; and especially when, as I thought, I saw him pursued by
the whole body; and now I expected that part of my dream was coming to
pass, and that he would certainly take shelter in my grove; but I
could not depend, by any means, upon my dream for the rest, that the
other savages would not pursue him thither, and find him there.
However, I kept my station, and my spirits began to recover when I
found that there was not above three men that followed him, and still
more was I encouraged, when I found that he outstripped them
exceedingly in running, and gained ground on them, so that, if he
could but hold out for half an hour, I saw easily he would fairly get
away from them all.

There was between them and my castle the creek, which I mentioned
often at the first part of my story, where I landed my cargoes out of
the ship; and this I saw plainly he must necessarily swim over, or the
poor wretch would be taken there; but when the savage escaping came
thither, he made nothing of it, though the tide was then up; but,
plunging in, swam through in about thirty strokes, or thereabouts,
landed, and ran with exceeding strength and swiftness; when the three
pursuers came to the creek, I found that two of them could swim, but
the third could not, and that, standing on the other side, he looked
at the others, but went no further, and soon after went softly back;
which, as it happened, was very well for him in the end. I observed
that the two who swam were yet more than twice as long swimming over
the creek as the fellow was that fled from them.

It came now very warmly upon my thoughts, and indeed irresistibly,
that now was the time to get me a servant, and perhaps a companion or
assistant; and that I was plainly called by Providence to save this
poor creature's life; I immediately ran down the ladders with all
possible expedition, fetched my two guns, for they were both at the
foot of the ladders, as I observed before, and getting up again with
the same haste to the top of the hill, I crossed toward the sea; and
having a very short cut, and all down hill, clapped myself in the way
between the pursuers and the pursued, hallooing aloud to him that
fled, who, looking back, was at first perhaps as much frighted at me
as at them; but I beckoned with my hand to him to come back; and, in
the meantime, I slowly advanced toward the two that followed; then
rushing at once upon the foremost, I knocked him down with the stock
of my piece; I was loth to fire because I would not have the rest
hear; though, at that distance, it would not have been easily heard,
and being out of sight of the smoke, too, they would not have known
what to make of it. Having knocked this fellow down, the other who
pursued him stopped, as if he had been frighted, and I advanced toward
him: but as I came nearer, I perceived presently he had a bow and
arrow, and was fitting it to shoot at me: so I was then necessitated
to shoot at him first, which I did, and killed him at the first shot.

The poor savage who fled, but had stopped, though he saw both his
enemies fallen and killed, as he thought, yet was so frighted with the
fire and noise of my piece, that he stood stock-still, and neither
came forward nor went backward, though he seemed rather inclined still
to fly than to come on. I hallooed again to him, and made signs to
come forward, which he easily understood, and came a little way, and
then stopped again, then a little further, and stopped again, and I
could then perceive that he stood trembling, as if he had been taken
prisoner, and had just been to 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 my 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 forever.
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 called him now, made a motion to me to
lend him my sword, which hung naked in a belt by my side; so I did, He
no sooner had it, but he runs to his enemy, and at one blow cut off
his head so cleverly that 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 afterward, 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 him away, I carried
him, not to my castle, but quite away to my cave on the further 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 color of the
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 color, 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 inclosure 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 laid his head flat
upon the ground, close to my foot, and set 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 I 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
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
fuller 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. 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 of 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.

We then 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; then
I made him a jerkin of goat's skin, as well as my skill would allow,
and I was now grown a tolerably good tailor; and I gave him a cap
which I had made of a 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, at length he took to them 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; and as there was a door or entrance
there into my cave, I made a formal framed doorcase, 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 it 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 trapdoor, 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; and 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 obliging and
engaging; his very affections were tied to me like those of a child to
a father; and I dare say he would have sacrificed his life to save
mine, upon any occasion whatsoever; the many testimonies he gave me of
this put it out of doubt, and soon convinced me that I needed to use
no precautions for my safety on his account.

I was greatly delighted with him, and made it my business to teach him
everything that was proper to make him useful, handy, and helpful; but
especially to make him speak, and understand me when I spoke; and he
was the aptest scholar that ever was; and particularly was so merry,
so constantly diligent, and so pleased when he could but understand
me, or make me understand him, that it was very pleasant to me to talk
to him. Now my life began to be so easy that I began to say to myself,
that could I but have been safe from more savages, I cared not if I
was never to be removed from the place where I lived.

********

I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him no harm, and
taking him up by the hand, laughed at him, and pointing at a fowl
which was indeed a parrot, and to my gun, and to the ground under the
parrot, to let him see I would make it fall, I made him understand
that I would shoot and kill that bird; accordingly, I fired, and bade
him look, and immediately he saw the parrot fall. He stood like one
frighted again, notwithstanding all I had said to him; and I found he
was the more amazed, because he did not see me put anything into the
gun; but thought that there must be some wonderful fund of death and
destruction in that thing, able to kill man, beast, bird, or anything
near or far off; and the astonishment this created in him was such as
could not wear off for a long time; and, I believe, 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 days after; but
would speak to it and talk to it, as if it had answered him, when he
was by himself; which, as I afterward learned of him, was to desire it
not to kill him. Well, after his astonishment was a little over 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 had
perceived his ignorance about the gun before, I took this advantage to
charge the gun again, and not to let him see me do it, that I might be
ready for any other mark that might present.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27