se it introduces what follows: that after
this discourse I had with him, I asked him how far it was from our island
to the shore, and whether the canoes were not often lost. He told me
there was no danger, no canoes ever lost: but that after a little way out
to sea, there was a current and wind, always one way in the morning, the
other in the afternoon. This I understood to be no more than the sets of
the tide, as going out or coming in; but I afterwards understood it was
occasioned by the great draft and reflux of the mighty river Orinoco, in
the mouth or gulf of which river, as I found afterwards, our island lay;
and that this land, which I perceived to be W. and NW., was the great
island Trinidad, on the north point of the mouth of the river. I asked
Friday a thousand questions about the country, the inhabitants, the sea,
the coast, and what nations were near; he told me all he knew with the
greatest openness imaginable. I asked him the names of the several
nations of his sort of people, but could get no other name than Caribs;
from whence I easily understood that these were the Caribbees, which our
maps place on the part of America which reaches from the mouth of the
river Orinoco to Guiana, and onwards to St. Martha. He told me that up a
great way beyond the moon, that was beyond the setting of the moon, which
must be west from their country, there dwelt white bearded men, like me,
and pointed to my great whiskers, which I mentioned before; and that they
had killed much mans, that was his word: by all which I understood he
meant the Spaniards, whose cruelties in America had been spread over the
whole country, and were remembered by all the nations from father to son.

I inquired if he could tell me how I might go from this island, and get
among those white men. He told me, "Yes, yes, you may go in two canoe."
I could not understand what he meant, or make him describe to me what he
meant by two canoe, till at last, with great difficulty, I found he meant
it must be in a large boat, as big as two canoes. This part of Friday's
discourse I began to relish very well; and from this time I entertained
some hopes that, one time or other, I might find an opportunity to make
my escape from this place, and that this poor savage might be a means to
help me.

During the long time that Friday had now been with me, and that he began
to speak to me, and understand me, I was not wanting to lay a foundation
of religious knowl