my servant; and that as soon as I had got this man, I said to myself,
"Now I may certainly venture to the main land; 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 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
an attempt for an escape, was, if possible, to get a savage in 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: but
these thoughts still were attended with this difficulty, that it was
impossible to effect this, without attacking a whole caravan of them,
and killing them all; and this was not only a very desperate attempt,
and might miscarry; but, on the other hand, I had greatly scrupled the
lawfulness of it to me, and my heart trembled at the thoughts of
shedding so much blood, though it was for my deliverance: I need not
repeat the arguments which occurred to me against this, they being the
same mentioned before: but though I had other reasons to offer now, viz.
that those men were enemies to my life, and would devour me, if they
could; that it was self-preservation, in the highest degree, to deliver
myself from this death of a life, and was acting in my own defence, as
much as if they were actually assaulting me, and the like; I say, though
these things argued for it, yet the thoughts of shedding human blood for
my deliverance were very terrible to me, and such as I could by no means
reconcile myself to a great while.