great sorrow, because it was with the loss of their friend; whom the
other party, finding him alive, carried off with some others, as I gave
an account in my former.

They described, most affectionately, how they were surprised with joy at
the return of their friend and companion in misery, who they thought had
been devoured by wild beasts of the worst kind, viz. by wild men; and
yet how more and more they were surprised with the account he gave them
of his errand, and that there was a Christian in a place near, much more
one that was able, and had humanity enough to contribute to their
deliverance.

They described how they were astonished at the sight of the relief I
sent them, and at the appearance of loaves of bread, things they had not
seen since their coming to that miserable place; how often they crossed
it, and blessed it as bread sent from heaven; and what a reviving
cordial it was to their spirits to taste it, as also of the other things
I had sent for their supply. And, after all, they would have told me
something of the joy they were in at the sight of a boat and pilots to
carry them away to the person and place from whence all these new
comforts came; but they told me it was impossible to express it by
words, for their excessive joy driving them to unbecoming
extravagancies, they had no way to describe them but by telling me that
they bordered upon lunacy, having no way to give vent to their passion
suitable to the sense that was upon them; that in some it worked one
way, and in some another; and that some of them, through a surprise of
joy, would burst out into tears; others be half mad, and others
immediately faint. This discourse extremely affected me, and called to
my mind Friday's ecstasy when he met his father, and the poor people's
ecstasy when I took them up at sea, after their ship was on fire; the
mate of the ship's joy, when he found himself delivered in the place
where he expected to perish; and my own joy, when after twenty-eight
years captivity I found a good ship ready to carry me to my own country.
All these things made me more sensible of the relation of these poor
men, and more affected with it.

Having thus given a view of the state of things as I found them, I must
relate the heads of what I did for these people, and the condition in
which I left them. It was their opinion, and mine too, that they would
be troubled no more with the savages; or that, if they were, they would
be able to