這是美國音，不過也是差強人意的啦!

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/21524

在家裡閑坐就可以盡攬天下知識。看我們有多麼幸福！

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext96/rbcru10.txt 

小時候讀 Robinson Crusoe 都在注意「搜奇」 ，這是兒童的渴望，也許也是 Daniel Defoe 寫作的目的。現在再讀，就會注意到大英帝國子民不經意流露出來的驕傲。特別是 Robinson Crusoe 和 Friday 相遇的大一段。主人的生活都是「對」的。這一段在 Shakespeare 的 The Tempest 裡頭也一模一樣：ETHNOCENTRISM!

例如 第十五章： Friday's Education

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 the relish of a cannibal's stomach, I ought to let him

taste other flesh; so I 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 dress it; but as I was going I saw a

she-goat lying down in the shade, and two young kids sitting by

her.  I catched hold of Friday.  "Hold," said I, "stand still;" and

made signs to him not to stir: immediately I presented my piece,

shot, and killed one of the kids.  The poor creature, who had at a

distance, indeed, seen me kill the savage, his enemy, but did not

know, nor could imagine how it was done, was sensibly surprised,

trembled, and shook, and looked so amazed that I thought he would

have sunk down.  He did not see the kid I shot at, or perceive I

had killed it, 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 and kneeled down to me, and embracing my

knees, said a great many things I did not understand; but I could

easily see the meaning was to pray me not to kill him.

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 to the kid

which I had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which he

did: and while he was wondering, and looking to see how the

creature was killed, I loaded my gun again.  By-and-by I saw a

great fowl, like a hawk, sitting upon a tree within shot; so, to

let Friday understand a little what I would do, I called him to me

again, pointed at the fowl, which was indeed a parrot, though I

thought it had been a hawk; I say, pointing to the 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 frightened 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 he would speak to it and talk to it, as if it had

answered him, when he was by himself; which, as I afterwards

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; but nothing more offered at that

time: so I brought home the kid, and the same evening I took the

skin off, and cut it out as well as I could; and having a pot fit

for that purpose, I boiled or stewed some of the flesh, and made

some very good broth.  After I had begun to eat some I gave some to

my man, who seemed very glad of it, and liked it very well; but

that which was strangest to him was to see me eat salt with it.  He

made a sign to me that the salt was not good to eat; and putting a

little into his own mouth, 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 took some meat into my mouth without salt, and I

pretended to spit and sputter for want of salt, as much as he had

done at the salt; but it would not do; he would never care for salt

with meat or in his broth; at least, not for a great while, and

then but a very little.

Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was resolved to

feast him the next day by roasting a piece of the kid: this I did

by hanging it before 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 the top, and tying the string to the cross

stick, letting the meat turn continually.  This Friday admired very

much; but when he came to taste the flesh, he took so many ways to

tell me how well he liked it, that I could not but understand him:

and at last he told me, as well as he could, he would never eat

man's flesh any more, which I was very glad to hear.

The next day I set him to work beating some corn out, and sifting

it in the manner I used to do, as I observed before; and he soon

understood how to do it as well as I, especially after he had seen

what the meaning of it was, and that it was to make bread of; for

after that I let him see me make my bread, and bake it too; and in

a little time Friday was able to do 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, I must provide more ground for my harvest, and plant a larger

quantity of corn than I used to do; so I marked out a larger piece

of land, and began the fence in the same manner as before, in which

Friday worked not only very willingly and very hard, but did it

very cheerfully: and I told him what it was for; that it was for

corn to make more bread, because he was now with me, and that I

might have enough for him and myself too.  He appeared very

sensible of that part, and let me know that he thought I had much

more labour upon me on his account than I had for myself; and that

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

almost everything I had occasion to call for, and of every place I

had to send him to, and talked a great deal to me; so that, in

short, I began now to have some use for my tongue again, which,

indeed, I had very little occasion for before.  Besides the

pleasure of talking to him, I had a singular satisfaction in the

fellow himself: his simple, unfeigned honesty appeared to me more

and more every day, and I began really to love the creature; and on

his side I believe he loved me more than it was possible for him

ever to love anything before.

I had a mind once to try if he had any inclination for his own

country again; and having taught him English so well that he could

answer me almost any question, I asked him whether the nation that

he belonged to never conquered in battle?  At which he smiled, and

said - "Yes, yes, we always fight the better;" that is, he meant

always get the better in fight; and so we began the following

discourse:-

MASTER. - You always fight the better; how came you to be taken

prisoner, 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;

they take one, two, three, and me: my nation over-beat them in the

yonder place, 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

your enemies, 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

they take?  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 the

savages who used to come on shore on the farther part of the

island, on the same man-eating occasions he was now brought for;

and some time after, when I took the courage to carry him to that

side, being the same I formerly mentioned, he presently knew the

place, and told me he was there once, when they ate up twenty men,

two women, and one child; he could not tell twenty in English, but

he numbered them by laying so many stones in a row, and pointing to

me to tell them over.

I have told this passage, because it introduces what follows: that

after this discourse I had with him, I asked him how far it was

from our island to the shore, and whether the canoes were not often

lost.  He told me there was no danger, no canoes ever lost: but

that after a little way out to sea, there was a current and wind,

always one way in the morning, the other in the afternoon.  This I

understood to be no more than the sets of the tide, as going out or

coming in; but I afterwards understood it was occasioned by the

great draft and reflux of the mighty river Orinoco, in the 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 great

island Trinidad, on the north point of the mouth of the river.  I

asked Friday a thousand questions about the country, the

inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and what nations were near; he

told me all he knew with the greatest openness imaginable.  I asked

him the names of the several nations of his sort of people, but

could get no other name than Caribs; from whence I easily

understood that these were the Caribbees, which our maps place on

the part of America which reaches from the mouth of the river

Orinoco to Guiana, and onwards to St. Martha.  He told me that up a

great way beyond the moon, that was beyond the setting of the moon,

which must be west from their country, there dwelt white bearded

men, like me, and pointed to my great whiskers, which I mentioned

before; and that they had killed much mans, that was his word: by

all which I understood he meant the Spaniards, whose cruelties in

America had been spread over the whole 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

get among 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 he meant by two canoe, till at last, with great

difficulty, I found he meant it must be in a large boat, as big as

two canoes.  This part of Friday's discourse I began to relish very

well; and from this time I entertained some hopes that, one time or

other, I might find an opportunity to make my escape from this

place, and that this poor savage might be a means to help me.

During the long time that Friday had now been with me, and that he

began to speak to me, and understand me, I was not wanting to lay a

foundation of religious knowledge in his mind; particularly I asked

him one time, who made him.  The creature did not understand me at

all, but thought I had asked who was his father - but I took it up

by another handle, and asked him who made the sea, the ground we

walked on, and the hills and woods.  He told me, "It was one

Benamuckee, that lived beyond all;" he could 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 the stars."  I asked him

then, if this old person had made all things, why did not all

things worship him?  He looked very grave, and, with a perfect look

of innocence, said, "All things say O to him."  I asked him if 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 up went thither too.  He said, "Yes."

From these things, I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the

true God; 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 power and providence by which He made it; that He was

omnipotent, and could do everything for us, give everything to us,

take everything from us; and thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. 

He listened with great attention, and received with pleasure the

notion of Jesus Christ being sent to redeem us; and of the manner

of making our prayers to God, and His being able to hear us, even

in heaven.  He told me one day, that if our God could hear us, up

beyond the sun, he must needs be a greater God than their

Benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet could not hear

till 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; they never went that were young men; none went thither

but the old men," whom he called their Oowokakee; that is, as I

made him explain to me, their religious, or clergy; and that they

went to say O (so he called saying prayers), and then came back and

told them what Benamuckee said.  By this I observed, that there is

priestcraft even among the most blinded, ignorant pagans in the

world; and the policy of making a secret of religion, in order to

preserve the veneration of the people to the clergy, not only to be

found in the Roman, but, perhaps, among all religions in the world,

even among the most brutish and barbarous savages.

I endeavoured to clear up this fraud to my man Friday; and told him

that the pretence of their old men going up to the mountains to say

O to their god Benamuckee was a cheat; and their bringing word from

thence what he said was much more so; that if they met with any

answer, or spake with any one there, it must be with an evil

spirit; and then I entered into a long discourse with him about the

devil, the origin of him, his rebellion against God, his enmity to

man, the reason of it, his setting himself up in the dark parts of

the world to be worshipped instead of God, and as God, and the many

stratagems he made use of to delude mankind to their ruin; 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 be

our 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 the devil as it was about the being of a God.  Nature

assisted all my arguments to evidence to him even the necessity of

a great First Cause, an overruling, governing Power, a secret

directing Providence, and of the equity 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 inclination to

do evil, and to draw us in to do so too; and the poor creature

puzzled me once in such a manner, by a question merely natural and

innocent, that I scarce knew what to say to him.  I had been

talking a great deal to him of the power of God, His omnipotence,

His aversion to sin, His being a consuming fire to the workers of

iniquity; how, as He had made us all, He could destroy us and all

the world in a moment; and he listened with great seriousness to me

all the while.  After this I had been telling him how the devil was

God's enemy in the hearts of men, and used all his malice and skill

to defeat the good designs of Providence, and to ruin the 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, much

might as the devil?"  "Yes, yes," says I, "Friday; God is stronger

than the devil - God is above the devil, and therefore we pray to

God to tread him down under our feet, and enable us to resist his

temptations and quench 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 no more do wicked?"  I was strangely

surprised at this question; and, after all, though I was now an old

man, yet I was but a young doctor, and ill qualified for a casuist

or a solver of difficulties; and at first I could not tell what to

say; so I pretended not to hear him, and asked him what he said;

but he was too earnest for an answer to forget his question, so

that he repeated it in the very same broken words as above.  By

this time I had recovered myself a little, and I said, "God will at

last punish him severely; he is reserved for the judgment, and is

to be cast into the bottomless pit, to dwell with everlasting

fire."  This did not satisfy Friday; 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, when we do wicked

things here that offend Him - we are preserved to repent and be

pardoned."  He mused some time on this.  "Well, well," says he,

mighty affectionately, "that well - so you, I, devil, all wicked,

all preserve, repent, God pardon all."  Here I was run down again

by him to the last degree; 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 the consequence of our nature, yet nothing

but divine revelation can form the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and

of redemption purchased for us; of a Mediator of the new covenant,

and of an Intercessor at the footstool of God's throne; I say,

nothing but a revelation from Heaven can form these in the soul;

and that, therefore, the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus

Christ, I mean the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, promised for

the guide and sanctifier of His people, are the absolutely

necessary instructors of the souls of men in the saving knowledge

of God and the means of salvation.

I therefore diverted the present discourse between me and my man,

rising up hastily, as upon some sudden occasion of going out; then

sending him for something a good way off, I seriously prayed to God

that He would enable me to instruct savingly this poor savage;

assisting, by His Spirit, the heart of the poor ignorant creature

to receive the light of the knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling

him to Himself, and would guide me so to speak to him from the Word

of God that his conscience might be convinced, his eyes opened, and

his soul saved.  When he came again to me, I entered into a long

discourse with him upon the subject of the redemption of man by the

Saviour of the world, and of the doctrine of the gospel preached

from Heaven, viz. of repentance towards God, and faith in our

blessed Lord Jesus.  I then explained to him as well as I could why

our blessed Redeemer took not on Him the nature of angels but the

seed of Abraham; and how, for that reason, the fallen angels had no

share in the redemption; that He came only to the lost sheep of the

house of Israel, and the like.

I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all the methods

I took for this poor creature's instruction, and must acknowledge,

what I believe all that act upon the same principle will find, that

in laying things open to him, I really informed and instructed

myself in many things that either I did not know or had not fully

considered before, but which occurred naturally to my mind upon

searching into them, for the information of this poor savage; and I

had more affection in my inquiry after things upon this occasion

than ever I felt before: so that, whether this poor wild wretch was

better for me or no, I had great reason to be thankful that ever he

came to me; my grief sat lighter, upon me; my habitation grew

comfortable to me beyond measure: and when I reflected that in this

solitary life which I have been confined to, I had not only been

moved to look up to heaven myself, and to seek the Hand that had

brought 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, and bring him to the true knowledge of religion and of

the Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, in whom is

life eternal; I say, when I reflected upon all these things, a

secret joy ran through every part of My soul, and I frequently

rejoiced that ever I was brought to this place, which I had so

often thought the most dreadful of all afflictions that could

possibly have befallen me.

I continued in this thankful frame all the remainder of my time;

and the conversation which employed the hours between Friday and me

was such as made the three years which we lived there together

perfectly and completely happy, if any such thing as complete

happiness can be formed in a sublunary state.  This savage was now

a good Christian, a much better than I; though I have reason to

hope, and bless God for it, that we were equally penitent, and

comforted, restored penitents.  We had here the Word of God to

read, and no farther off from His Spirit to instruct than if we had

been in England.  I always applied myself, in reading the

Scripture, to let him know, as well as I could, the meaning of what

I read; and he again, by his serious inquiries and questionings,

made me, as I said before, a much better scholar in the Scripture

knowledge than I should ever have been by my own mere private

reading.  Another thing I cannot refrain from observing here also,

from experience in this retired part of my life, viz. how infinite

and inexpressible a blessing it is that the knowledge of God, and

of the doctrine of salvation by Christ Jesus, is so plainly laid

down in the Word of God, so easy to be received and understood,

that, as the bare reading the Scripture made me capable of

understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on to the

great work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a

Saviour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation in

practice, and obedience to all God's commands, and this without any

teacher or instructor, I mean human; so the same plain instruction

sufficiently served to the enlightening this savage creature, and

bringing him to be such a Christian as I have known few equal to

him in my life.

As to all the disputes, wrangling, strife, and contention which

have happened in the world about religion, whether niceties in

doctrines or schemes 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.  We had the sure guide to heaven, viz. the

Word of God; and we had, blessed be God, comfortable views of the

Spirit of God teaching and instructing by His word, leading us into

all truth, and making us both willing and obedient to the

instruction of His word.  And I cannot see the least use that the

greatest knowledge of the disputed points of religion, which have

made such confusion in the world, would have been to us, if we

could have 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

could understand almost all I said to him, and speak pretty

fluently, though in broken English, to me, I acquainted him with my

own history, or at least so much of it as related to my coming to

this place: how I had lived there, 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 a knife, 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 in the

frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which was not only

as good a weapon in some cases, but much more useful upon other

occasions.

I described to him the country of Europe, particularly England,

which I came from; how we lived, how we worshipped God, how we

behaved to one another, and how we traded in ships to all parts of

the world.  I gave him 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 in pieces before, and gone.  I showed

him the ruins of our boat, which we lost when we escaped, and which

I could not stir with my whole strength then; but was now fallen

almost all to pieces.  Upon seeing this boat, Friday stood, musing

a great while, and said nothing.  I asked him what it was he

studied upon.  At last says he, "Me see such boat like come to

place 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.  I presently imagined that some European ship must have

been cast away upon their coast, and the boat might get loose and

drive ashore; but was so dull that I never once thought of men

making their escape from a wreck thither, much less whence they

might come: so I only inquired after a description of the boat.

Friday described the boat to me well enough; but brought me better

to understand him when he added with some warmth, "We save the

white mans from drown."  Then I presently asked if there were any

white mans, as he called 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 him then what became of them.  He told

me, "They live, they dwell at my nation."

This put new thoughts into my head; for I presently imagined that

these might be the men belonging to the ship that was cast away in

the sight of my island, as I now called it; and who, after the ship

was struck on the rock, and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved

themselves in their boat, and were landed upon that wild shore

among the savages.  Upon this I inquired of him more critically

what was become of them.  He assured me they lived still there;

that they had been there about four years; that the savages left

them alone, and gave them victuals to live on.  I asked him 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;" that is to say, they never eat any men but such as come to

fight with them and are taken in battle.

It was after this some considerable time, that being upon the top

of the hill 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, the weather being very serene, looks very

earnestly towards the mainland, and, in a kind of surprise, falls a

jumping and dancing, and calls out to me, for I was at some

distance from him.  I asked him what was the matter.  "Oh, joy!"

says he; "Oh, glad! there see my country, there my nation!"  I

observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in his face,

and his eyes sparkled, and his countenance discovered a strange

eagerness, as if he had a mind to be in his own country again. 

This observation of mine put a great many thoughts into me, which

made me at first not so easy about my new man Friday as I was

before; and I made no doubt but that, if Friday could get back to

his own nation again, he would not only forget all his religion but

all his obligation to me, and would be forward enough to give his

countrymen an account of me, and come back, perhaps with a hundred

or two of them, and make a feast upon me, at which he might be as

merry as he used to be with those of his enemies when they were

taken in war.  But I wronged the poor honest creature very much,

for which I was very sorry afterwards.  However, as my jealousy

increased, and held some weeks, I was a little more circumspect,

and not so familiar and kind to him as before: in which I was

certainly wrong too; the honest, grateful creature having no

thought about it but what consisted with the best principles, both

as a religious Christian and as a grateful friend, as appeared

afterwards to my full satisfaction.

While my jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure I was every day

pumping him to see if he would discover any of the new thoughts

which I suspected were in him; but I found everything he said was

so honest and so innocent, that I could find nothing to nourish my

suspicion; and in spite of all my uneasiness, he made me at last

entirely his own again; nor did he in the least perceive that I was

uneasy, and therefore I could not suspect him of deceit.

One day, walking up the same hill, but the weather being hazy at

sea, so that 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 do there?" said I.  "Would you turn wild

again, eat men's flesh again, and be a savage as you were before?" 

He looked full of concern, and shaking his head, said, "No, no,

Friday tell them to live good; tell them to pray God; 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 at

that, 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 learned much of the bearded mans that came in the boat. 

Then I asked him if he would go back to them.  He smiled at that,

and told me that he could not swim so far.  I told him I would make

a canoe for him.  He told me he would go if I would go with him. 

"I go!" says I; "why, they will eat me if I come there."  "No, no,"

says he, "me make they no eat you; me make they much love you."  He

meant, he would tell them how I had killed his enemies, and saved

his life, and so he would make them love me.  Then he told 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

I could possibly join with those bearded men, who I made no doubt

were Spaniards and Portuguese; not doubting but, if I could, we

might find some method to escape from thence, being upon the

continent, and a good company together, better than I could from an

island forty miles off the shore, alone and without help.  So,

after some days, I took Friday to work again by way of discourse,

and told him I would give him a boat to go 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 at

managing it, and would make it go almost as swift again as I could. 

So when he was in, I said to him, "Well, now, Friday, shall we go

to your nation?"  He looked very dull at my saying so; which it

seems was because he thought the boat was too small to go so far. 

I then told him I had a bigger; so the next day I went to the place

where the first boat lay which I had made, but which I could not

get into the water.  He said that was big enough; but then, as I

had taken no care of it, and it had lain two 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, and would carry

"much enough vittle, drink, bread;" this was his way of talking.