eyes to the sea, I presently saw
a boat at about a league and a half distance, standing in for the shore,
with a shoulder-of-mutton sail, as they call it, and the wind blowing
pretty fair to bring them in: also I observed, presently, that they did
not come from that side which the shore lay on, but from the southernmost
end of the island. Upon this I called Friday in, and bade him lie close,
for these were not the people we looked for, and that we might not know
yet whether they were friends or enemies. In the next place I went in to
fetch my perspective glass to see what I could make of them; and having
taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the top of the hill, as I used to
do when I was apprehensive of anything, and to take my view the plainer
without being discovered. I had scarce set my foot upon the hill when my
eye plainly discovered a ship lying at anchor, at about two leagues and a
half distance from me, SSE., but not above a league and a half from the
shore. By my observation it appeared plainly to be an English ship, and
the boat appeared to be an English long-boat.

I cannot express the confusion I was in, though the joy of seeing a ship,
and one that I had reason to believe was manned by my own countrymen, and
consequently friends, was such as I cannot describe; but yet I had some
secret doubts hung about me--I cannot tell from whence they came--bidding
me keep upon my guard. In the first place, it occurred to me to consider
what business an English ship could have in that part of the world, since
it was not the way to or from any part of the world where the English had
any traffic; and I knew there had been no storms to drive them in there
in distress; and that if they were really English it was most probable
that they were here upon no good design; and that I had better continue
as I was than fall into the hands of thieves and murderers.

Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger which sometimes
are given him when he may think there is no possibility of its being
real. That such hints and notices are given us I believe few that have
made any observation of things can deny; that they are certain
discoveries of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits, we cannot
doubt; and if the tendency of them seems to be to warn us of danger, why
should we not suppose they are from some friendly agent (whether supreme,
or inferior and subordinate, is not the question), and that they are
given