hat there should not be one
soul saved but myself; for as for them, I never saw them afterward, or
any sign of them, except three of the hats, one cap, and two shoes
that were not fellows.

II

THE RESCUE OF MAN FRIDAY[108]

About a year and a half after I entertained these notions (and by long
musing had, as it were, resolved them all into nothing, for want of an
occasion to put them in execution), I was surprized one morning early
by seeing no less than five canoes all on shore together on my side
the island, and the people who belonged to them all landed and out of
my sight. The number of them broke all my measures; for seeing so
many, and knowing that they always came four or six, or sometimes
more, in a boat, I could not tell what to think of it, or how to take
my measures to attack twenty or thirty men single-handed; so lay still
in my castle, perplexed and discomforted. However, I put myself into
all the same postures for an attack that I had formerly provided, and
was just ready for action, if anything had presented. Having waited a
good while, listening to hear if they made any noise, at length, being
very impatient, I set my guns at the foot of my ladder, and clambered
up to the top of the hill, by my two stages, as usual; standing so,
however, that my head did not appear above the hill, so that they
could not perceive me by any means. Here I observed, by the help of my
perspective glass, that they were no less than thirty in number; that
they had a fire kindled, and that they had meat drest. How they had
cooked it, I knew not, or what it was; but they were all dancing, in I
know not how many barbarous gestures and figures, their own way, round
the fire.

While I was thus looking on them, I perceived, by my perspective, two
miserable wretches dragged from the boats, where, it seems, they were
laid by, and were now brought out for the slaughter. I perceived one
of them immediately fall; being knocked down, I suppose with a club or
wooden sword, for that was their way; and two or three others were at
work immediately, cutting him open for their cookery, while the other
victim was left standing by himself, till they should be ready for
him. In that very moment, this poor wretch, seeing himself a little at
liberty, and unbound, Nature inspired him with hopes of life and he
started away from them, and ran with incredible swiftness along the
sands, directly toward me; I mean toward that part of the coas