country again. This
for a time made me sad, to think how eagerly he would leave me to be
among his savage friends. 'Do you not wish you were back in your own
country, Friday?' I said to him one day. 'Yes,' he said, 'I be much O
glad to be back in my country.' 'What would you do there,' said I?
'Would you turn wild again and do as the savages do?' He shook his head
and said very gravely, 'No, no, Friday tell them to live good. He tell
them to plant corn and live like white mans.'

"One day when we were on the top of a hill on the west side of the
island, Friday suddenly began to jump and dance about in great glee. I
asked him what the matter was. 'O, joy, O glad,' he said; 'there my
country!' The air was so clear that from this place, as I had before
discovered, land could be distinctly seen looking westward.

"I asked him how far it was from our island to his country and whether
their canoes were ever lost in coming and going. He said that there was
no danger. No canoes were ever wrecked and that it was easy to get back
and forth. I asked him many things about his people and country. He told
me that away to the west of his country there lived 'white mans like
you.' I thought these must be the people of Central America, and asked
him how I might come from this island and get among these white men. He
made me understand that I must have a large boat as big as two canoes.

"I resolved at once to begin to make a boat large enough for us to pass
over to the land we could see lying to the west and if possible to go on
to the white man's country Friday told me about. It took us nearly two
months to make our boat and rig her out with sails, masts, rudder, and
anchor. We had to weave our sails and twist our rope. We burned out the
canoe from a large fallen log. We used a great stone tied securely to
the end of a strong rope for an anchor.

[Illustration: ROBINSON AND FRIDAY SAILING THE BOAT]

"When we had the boat in the water, Friday showed great skill in rowing
or paddling it. He had managed boats ever since he was old enough, but
he did not know how to handle a sail or rudder. He learned very quickly,
however, to sail and steer the boat and soon was perfectly at home in
it.

"We made our boat safe by keeping it in the little cove at the mouth of
the creek. I had Friday to fetch rocks and build a dock or place for
landing. But the rainy season was now coming on and we must wait for
fair weather. In the meantime I planned