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Hellisotherpeople

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men and their wives.

It struck me that there was one gift which I had not thought of, and

that was the book of God's Word, which I knew would give to those who

could feel the words in it, fresh strength for their work, and grace to

bear the ills of life.

Now that I had been in the isle quite a month, I once more set sail on

the fifth day of May; and all my friends told me that they should stay

there till I came to fetch them.

When we had been out three days, though the sea was smooth and calm, we

saw that it was quite black on the land side; and as we knew not what to

make of it, I sent the chief mate up the main mast to find out with his

glass what it could be. He said it was a fleet of scores and scores of

small boats, full of wild men who came fast at us with fierce looks.

As soon as we got near them, I gave word to furl all sails and stop the

ship, and as there was nought to fear from them but fire, to get the

boats out and man them both well, and so wait for them to come up.

In this way we lay by for them, and in a short time they came up with

us; but as I thought they would try to row round and so close us in, I

told the men in the boats not to let them come too near. This, though we

did not mean it, brought us to a fight with them, and they shot a cloud

of darts at our boats. We did not fire at them, yet in half an hour they

went back out to sea, and then came straight to us, till we were so near

that they could hear us speak.

I bade my men keep close, so as to be safe from their darts if they

should shoot, and get out the guns. I then sent Friday on deck, to call

out to them in their own tongue and ask what they meant. It may be that

they did not know what he said, but as soon as he spoke to them I heard

him cry out that they would shoot. This was too true, for they let fly

a thick cloud of darts, and to my great grief poor Friday fell dead, for

there was no one else in their sight. He was shot with three darts, and

three more fell quite near him, so good was their aim.

I was so mad with rage at the loss of my dear Friday, that I bade the

men load five guns with small shot, and four with large, and we gave

them such a fierce fire that in all their lives they could not have seen

one like it. Then a rare scene met our eyes: dread and fear came on them

all, for their boats, which were small, were split and sunk--three or

four by one shot. The men who were not dead had to swim, and those who

had wounds were left to sink, for all the rest got off as fast as they

could. Our boat took up one poor man who had to swim for his life, when

the rest had fled for the space of half an hour. In three hours' time,

we could not see more than three or four of their boats, and as a breeze

sprang up we set sail.

At first the man whom we took on board would not eat or speak, and we

all had fears lest he should pine to death. But when we had taught him

to say a few words, he told us that his friends--the wild men-had come

out with their kin to have a great fight, and that all they meant was

to make us look at the grand sight. So it was for this that poor Friday

fell! He who had been as good and true to me as man could be! And now in

deep grief I must take my leave of him.

We went on with a fair wind to All Saints' Bay, and here I found a sloop

that I had brought with me from home, that I might send men and stores

for the use of my friends in the isle. I taught the mate how to find the

place, and when he came back, I found that he had done so with ease.

One of our crew had a great wish to go with the sloop, and live on the

isle, if the chief would give him land to plant. So I told him he should

go by all means, and gave him the wild man for his slave. I found, too,

that a man who had come with his wife and child and three slaves, to

hide from the king of Spain, would like to go, if he could have some

land there, though he had but a small stock to take with him; so I put

them all on board the sloop, and saw them safe out of the bay, on their

way to the isle. With them I sent three milch cows, five calves, a horse

and a colt, all of which, as I heard, went safe and sound.

I have now no more to say of my isle, as I had left it for the last

time, but my life in lands no less far from home was not yet at an end.

From the Bay of All Saints we went straight to the Cape of Good Hope.

Here I made up my mind to part from the ship in which I had come from

the Isle, and with two of the crew to stay on land, and leave the rest

to go on their way. I soon made friends with some men from France, as

well as from my own land, and two Jews, who had come out to the Cape to

trade.

As I found that some goods which I had brought with me from home were

worth a great deal, I made a large sum by the sale of them. When we had

been at the Cape of Good Hope for nine months, we thought that the best

thing we could do would be to hire a ship, and sail to the Spice Isles,

to buy cloves, so we got a ship, and men to work her, and set out. When

we had bought and sold our goods in the course of trade, we came back,

and then set out once more; so that, in short, as we went from port to

port, to and fro, I spent, from first to last, six years in this part of

the world.

At length we thought we would go and seek new scenes where we could get

fresh gains. And a strange set of men we at last fell in with, as you

who read this tale will say when you look at the print in front of this

page.

When we had put on shore, we made friends with a man who got us a large

house, built with canes, and a small kind of hut of the same near it.

It had a high fence of canes round it to keep out thieves, of whom, it