they learnt 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 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 so with him. "I go!" said I, "why, they will
eat me if I come there."--"No, no," says he, "me make them 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 in distress.

From this time, I confess, I had a mind to venture over, and see if I
could possibly join with these bearded men, who, I made no doubt, were
Spaniards or 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, and alone 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 the water), I brought it out,
shewed it him, and we both went into it.

I found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it, would make it go
almost as swift and fast 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
too small to go so far. I told him then 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,