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Upon this I called Friday in, and bade him lie close, for
these were not the people we looked for, and that we
might not know yet whether they were friends or
enemies. In the next place I went in to fetch my
perspective glass to see what I could make of them; and
having taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the top of the
hill, as I used to do when I was apprehensive of anything,
and to take my view the plainer without being discovered.
I had scarce set my foot upon the hill when my eye plainly
discovered a ship lying at anchor, at about two leagues and
a half distance from me, SSE., but not above a league and
a half from the shore. By my observation it appeared
plainly to be an English ship, and the boat appeared to be
an English long-boat.
I cannot express the confusion I was in, though the joy
of seeing a ship, and one that I had reason to believe was
manned by my own countrymen, and consequently
friends, was such as I cannot describe; but yet I had some
secret doubts hung about me - I cannot tell from whence
they came - bidding me keep upon my guard. In the first
place, it occurred to me to consider what business an
English ship could have in that part of the world, since it
was not the way to or from any part of the world where
the English had any traffic; and I knew there had been no
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storms to drive them in there in distress; and that if they
were really English it was most probable that they were
here upon no good design; and that I had better continue
as I was than fall into the hands of thieves and murderers.
Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of
danger which sometimes are given him when he may
think there is no possibility of its being real. That such
hints and notices are given us I believe few that have made
any observation of things can deny; that they are certain
discoveries of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits,
we cannot doubt; and if the tendency of them seems to be
to warn us of danger, why should we not suppose they are
from some friendly agent (whether supreme, or inferior
and subordinate, is not the question), and that they are
given for our good?
The present question abundantly confirms me in the
justice of this reasoning; for had I not been made cautious
by this secret admonition, come it from whence it will, I
had been done inevitably, and in a far worse condition
than before, as you will see presently. I had not kept
myself long in this posture till I saw the boat draw near the
shore, as if they looked for a creek to thrust in at, for the
convenience of landing; however, as they did not come
quite far enough, they did not see the little inlet where I
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formerly landed my rafts, but ran their boat on shore upon
the beach, at about half a mile from me, which was very
happy for me; for otherwise they would have landed just
at my door, as I may say, and would soon have beaten me
out of my castle, and perhaps have plundered me of all I
had. When they were on shore I was fully satisfied they
were Englishmen, at least most of them; one or two I
thought were Dutch, but it did not prove so; there were
in all eleven men, whereof three of them I found were
unarmed and, as I thought, bound; and when the first four
or five of them were jumped on shore, they took those
three out of the boat as prisoners: one of the three I could
perceive using the most passionate gestures of entreaty,
affliction, and despair, even to a kind of extravagance; the
other two, I could perceive, lifted up their hands
sometimes, and appeared concerned indeed, but not to
such a degree as the first. I was perfectly confounded at the
sight, and knew not what the meaning 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.’
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