mans be good, sober, tame mans; you tell
them know God, pray God, and live new life."--"Alas! Friday," says I,
"thou knowest not what thou sayest; I am but an ignorant man
myself."--"Yes, yes," says he, "you teachee me good, you teachee them
good."--"No, no, Friday," says I, "you shall go without me; leave me
here to live by myself, as I did before." He looked confused again at
that word; and running to one of the hatchets which he used to wear, he
takes it up hastily, and gives it to me. "What must I do with this?"
says I to him. "You take kill Friday," says he. "What must I kill you
for?" said I again. He returns very quick, "What you send Friday away
for? Take kill Friday, no send Friday away." This he spoke so earnestly,
that I saw tears stand in his eyes: in a word, I so plainly discovered
the utmost affection in him to me, and a firm resolution in him, that I
told him then, and often after, that I would never send him away from
me, if he was willing to stay with me.

Upon the whole, as I found, by all his discourse, a settled affection to
me, and that nothing should part him from me, so I found all the
foundation of his desire to go to his own country was laid in his ardent
affection to the people, and his hopes of my doing them good; a thing,
which, as I had no notion of myself, so I had not the least thought, or
intention, or desire of undertaking it. But still I found a strong
inclination to my attempting an escape, as above, founded on the
supposition gathered from the discourse, viz. that there were seventeen
bearded men there: and, therefore, without any more delay, I went to
work with Friday, to find out a great tree proper to fell, and make a
large periagua, or canoe, to undertake the voyage. There were trees
enough in the island to have built a little fleet, not of periaguas, or
canoes, but even of good large vessels: but the main thing I looked at
was, to get one so near the water that we might launch it when it was
made, to avoid the mistake I committed at first. At last, Friday pitched
upon a tree; for I found he knew much better than I what kind of wood
was fittest for it; nor can I tell, to this day, what wood to call the
tree we cut down, except that it was very like the tree we call fustic,
or between that and the Nicaragua wood, for it was much of the same
colour and smell. Friday was for burning the hollow or cavity of this
tree out, to make it for a boat, but I showed him how to cut it with
too