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Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe

Section 31 of 41 - Table of Contents
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.
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