what description my man
could give of it.

Indeed Friday answered my demands very well; making everything very
plain to my understanding: but beyond measure was I satisfied, when he
told me with great warmth and ardour. _O master, we save white mans from
drown;_ upon which I immediately asked him, If there were any white
mans, as he called them in the boat? _Yes, yes_, said he, _the boat
full, very full of white mans_ "How many, Friday?" said I. Hereupon he
numbered his fingers, and counted seventeen. And when I asked him what
became of them all, and whether they lived or not? he replied, _Yes
master, they all live, they be live among my nation._ This information
put fresh thoughts into my head, that these must be those very men who
before I concluded had been swallowed up in the ocean, after they had
left the ship that had struck upon the rocks of my kingdom, and after
escaping the fury of the deep, landed upon the wild shore, and committed
themselves to the fury of the devouring Indians.

The manner of their cruelties to one another, which consequently, as I
thought, must be acted with greater barbarity to strangers, created in
me a great anxiety, and made me still more curious to ask Friday
concerning them. He told me, he was sure they still lived there, having
resided among them above four years, and that the savages gave them
victuals to live upon: "But pray, Friday," said I, "whence proceeded all
this good nature and generosity? How came it to pass that they did not
kill and eat them, to please their devouring appetites, and occasion to
splendid an entertainment among them?" _No, no,_ said Friday, _they not
kilt 'em, they make brothers with 'em_; by which I understood there was
a truce between them. And then I had a more favourable opinion of the
Indians, upon Friday uttering these words, _My nation, t'other nation no
eat man, but when mans, make war fight:_ as though he had said, that
neither those of his kingdom, nor any other nations that he knew of,
ever ate their fellow-creatures, but such as their law of arms allowed
to be devoured; that is, those miserable captives, whose misfortune it
should be to be made prisoners of war.

Some considerable time after, upon a very pleasant day, in most serene
weather, my man and I stood upon the top of a hill, on the east side of
the island, whence I had once before beheld the continent of America. I
could not tell immediately what was the matter, for suddenly Friday fe