ight 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 began to relish with me 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 knowledge in his mind: particularly I asked him one time,
Who made him? The poor creature did not understand me at all, but
thought I had asked him who was his father: but I took it up by another
handle, and asked him who made the sea, the ground we walked on, and the
hills and woods? He told me, it was one old Benamuckee, that lived
beyond all; he could describe nothing of this great person, but that he
was very old, much older, he said, than the sea or the land, than the
moon or the stars. I asked him then, if this old person had made all
things, why did not all things worship him? He looked very grave, and
with a perfect look of innocence said, All things say O to him. I asked
him if the people who die in his country went away any where? He said,
Yes; they all went to Benamuckee: then I asked him whether these they
eat up went thither too? He said, Yes.

From these things I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the true
God: I told him that the great Maker of all things lived up there,
pointing up towards heaven; that he governed the world by the same power
and providence by which he made it; that he was omnipotent, and could do
every thing for us, give every thing to us, take every thing from us;
and thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. He listened with great
attention, and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ being
sent to redeem us, and of the manner of making our prayers to God, and
his being able to hear us, even in heaven. He told me one day, that if
our God could hear us up beyond the sun, he must needs be a greater God
than their Benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet could not
hear till they went up to the great mountains where he dwelt to speak to
him. I asked him if ever he