standing by himself, till they should be ready for him.
In that very moment, this poor wretch seeing himself a little at
liberty, and unbound, nature inspired him with hopes of life, and he
started away from them, and ran with incredible swiftness along the
sands, directly towards me, I mean towards that part of the coast where
my habitation was. I was dreadfully frightened, I must acknowledge, when
I perceived him run my way, and especially when, as I thought, I saw him
pursued by the whole body: and now I expected that part of my dream was
coming to pass, and that he would certainly take shelter in my grove:
but I could not depend, by any means, upon my dream for the rest of it,
viz. that the other savages would not pursue him thither, and find him
there. However, I kept my station, and my spirits began to recover, when
I found that there was not above three men that followed him; and still
more was I encouraged when I found that he outstripped them exceedingly
in running, and gained ground of them; so that if he could but hold it
for half an hour, I saw easily he would fairly get away from them all.

There was between them and my castle the creek, which I mentioned often
in the first part of my story, where I landed my cargoes out of the
ship; and this I saw plainly he must necessarily swim over, or the poor
wretch would be taken there: but when the savage escaping came thither,
he made nothing of it, though the tide was then up; but plunging in,
swam through in about thirty strokes, or thereabouts, landed, and ran on
with exceeding strength and swiftness. When the three persons came to
the creek, I found that two of them could swim, but the third could
not, and that, standing on the other side, he looked at the others, but
went no farther, and soon after went softly back again; which, as it
happened, was very well for him in the end. I observed, that the two who
swam were yet more than twice as long swimming over the creek as the
fellow was that fled from them. It came now very warmly upon my
thoughts, and indeed irresistibly, that now was the time to get me a
servant, and perhaps a companion or assistant, and that I was called
plainly by Providence to save this poor creature's life. I immediately
ran down the ladders with all possible expedition, fetched my two guns,
for they were both at the foot of the ladders, as I observed above, and
getting up again, with the same haste, to the top of the hill, I crossed
toward