ning of it
should be. Friday called out to me in English, as well as he could, "O
master! you see English mans eat prisoner as well as savage
mans."--"Why, Friday," says I, "do you think they are going to eat them
then?"--"Yes," says Friday, "they will eat them."--"No, no," says I,
"Friday; I am afraid they will murder them, indeed, but you may be sure
they will not eat them."

All this while I had no thought of what the matter really was, but stood
trembling with the horror of the sight, expecting every moment when the
three prisoners should be killed; nay, once I saw one of the villains
lift up his arm with a great cutlass, as the seamen call it, or sword,
to strike one of the poor men; and I expected to see him fall every
moment; at which all the blood in my body seemed to run chill in my
veins. I wished heartily now for my Spaniard, and the savage that was
gone with him, or that I had any way to have come undiscovered within
shot of them, that I might have rescued the three men, for I saw no
fire-arms they had among them; but it fell out to my mind another way.
After I had observed the outrageous usage of the three men by the
insolent seamen, I observed the fellows run scattering about the island,
as if they wanted to see the country. I observed that the three other
men had liberty to go also where they pleased; but they sat down all
three upon the ground, very pensive, and looked like men in despair.
This put me in mind of the first time when I came on shore, and began to
look about me; how I gave myself over for lost; how wildly I looked
round me; what dreadful apprehensions I had; and how I lodged in the
tree all night, for fear of being devoured by wild beasts. As I knew
nothing, that night, of the supply I was to receive by the providential
driving of the ship nearer the land by the storms and tide, by which I
have since been so long nourished and supported; so these three poor
desolate men knew nothing how certain of deliverance and supply they
were, how near it was to them, and how effectually and really they were
in a condition of safety, at the same time that they thought themselves
lost, and their case desperate. So little do we see before us in the
world, and so much reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the great
Maker of the world, that he does not leave his creatures so absolutely
destitue, but that, in the worst circumstances, they have always
something to be thankful for, and sometimes are nearer