to learn some knowledge from
them of the place where I was, and of the probable means of my
deliverance. I was agitated wholly by these thoughts; all my calm of
mind, in my resignation to Providence, and waiting the issue of the
dispositions of Heaven, seemed to be suspended; and I had, as it were,
no power to turn my thoughts to any thing but to the project of a voyage
to the main; which came upon me with such force, and such an impetuosity
of desire, that it was not to be resisted.

When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours or more, with such
violence that it set my very blood into a ferment, and my pulse beat as
if I had been in a fever, merely with the extraordinary fervour of my
mind about it, nature, as if I had been fatigued and exhausted with the
very thought of it, threw me into a sound sleep. One would have thought
I should have dreamed of it, but I did not, nor of any thing relating
to it: out I dreamed that as I was going out in the morning, as usual,
from my castle, I saw upon the shore two canoes and eleven savages
coming to land, and that they brought with them another savage, whom
they were going to kill, in order to eat him; when, on a sudden, the
savage that they were going to kill jumped away, and ran for his life;
and I thought, in my sleep, that he came running into my little thick
grove before my fortification, to hide himself; and that I, seeing him
alone, and not perceiving that the others sought him that way, showed
myself to him, and smiling upon him, encouraged him: that he kneeled
down to me, seeming to pray me to assist him; upon which I showed him my
ladder, made him go up, and carried him into my cave, and he became my
servant: and that as soon as I had got this man, I said to myself, "Now
I may certainly venture to the main land; for this fellow will serve me
as a pilot, and will tell me what to do, and whither to go for
provisions, and whither not to go for fear of being devoured; what
places to venture into, and what to shun." I waked with this thought;
and was under such inexpressible impressions of joy at the prospect of
my escape in my dream, that the disappointments which I felt upon coming
to myself, and finding that it was no more than a dream, were equally
extravagant the other way, and threw me into a very great dejection
of spirits.

Upon this, however, I made this conclusion; that my only way to go about
to attempt an escape was, if possible, to get a savage into my