as reaped, Robinson gave the Spaniard and Friday's
father each a musket and a supply of powder and bullets, and loaded
the canoe with food, enough to last them and the others about a
fortnight, and the two men set off for the mainland in fine weather,
and with a fair wind.

It was about eight days after this, and when Robinson had begun to
look out for their return, that one morning very early, when Robinson
was asleep, Friday came running in, shouting, "Master! Master! They
come." Up jumped Robinson, and hurrying on his clothes, ran out.

Looking towards the sea, he soon made out a sailing-boat making for
the shore, coming from the south end of the island, but still some
miles away. This was not the direction from which the Spaniard and his
comrades would come, nor were they likely to be in a sailing-boat. So
Robinson took his telescope, and went to the top of the hill to see if
he could make out who were on board, before they landed.

Hardly had he got on to the hill when he noticed a ship at anchor some
distance from the shore. She looked like an English vessel, he
thought, and the boat like an English long-boat.

This was a wonderful sight to Robinson, but yet he was not easy in his
mind. It was not a part of the world where an English ship was likely
to come, because in those days they were nearly all Spanish vessels
that traded in these seas, and the English and Spaniards were bitter
enemies. What could an English ship be doing here? There had been no
storm to drive her out of her course.

Robinson feared that if she was English there must be something wrong
about her. Perhaps, he thought, she was a pirate. So he was careful
not to show himself or Friday.

Presently, as he watched, he saw the men in the boat run her ashore
and draw her up on the beach, about half a mile from his castle. When
they had landed, he could easily see through his glass that they were
Englishmen.

There were eleven men, but three of them had their hands tied behind
their backs, and were evidently prisoners. When the first four or five
men had jumped ashore, they brought out these three, all the while
ill-treating them, and behaving as if they meant to kill their
prisoners. Friday was sure that they meant to eat them.

Soon, without further harming the three men, the others scattered
about among the trees near the shore, leaving the three sitting on the
ground very sad-looking, but with their hands now untied.

At the time the b