OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 243

they had neither pen nor ink, that indeed was a question which we
never asked.

Under these instructions, the Spaniard and the old savage (the father
of Friday), went away in one of the canoes, which they might be said to
come in, or rather were brought in, when they came as prisoners to be
devoured by the savages.

I gave each of them a musket with a firelock on it, and above eight
charges of powder and ball, charging them to be very good husbands
of both, and not to use either of them but upon urgent occasions.

This was a cheerful work, being the first measures used by me in view
of my deliverance for now twenty-seven years and some days. I gave
them provisions of bread, and of dried grapes, sufficient for themselves
for many days, and sufficient for their countrymen for about eight days’
time; and wishing them a good voyage, I let them go, agreeing with
them about a signal they should hang out at their return, by which I
should know them again, when they came back, at a distance, before
they came on shore.

They went away with a fair gale on the day that the moon was at
the full—by my account in the month of October—but as for the exact
reckoning of days, after I had once lost it, I could never recover it
again; nor had I kept even the number of years so punctually as to
be sure that I was right, though, as it proved when I afterwards
examined my account, I found I had kept a true reckoning of years.

It was no less than eight days I waited for them, when a strange
and unforeseen accident intervened, of which the like has not, perhaps,
been heard of in history. I was fast asleep in my hutch one morning,
when my man Friday came running in to me, and called aloud, ‘“‘ Mas-
ter, master, they are come, they are come!”

I jumped up, and, regardless of danger, I went out as soon as I
could get my clothes on, through my little grove, which, by the way,
was by this time grown to be a very thick wood,—TI say, regardless of

danger, I went without my arms, which was not my custom to do; but
I was surprised, when, turning my eyes to the sea, I presently saw a
boat at about a league and a half’s distance, standing in fpr the shore,
with a shoulder-of-mutton sail, as they call it, and the wind blowing
pretty fair to bring them in. Also I observed presently, that they did

not come from that side which the shore lay on, but from the souther- .

most end of the island. Upon this I called Friday in, and bid him lie
close, for these were not the people we looked for, and that we did not
know yet whether they were friends or enemies. = 7 39

in the next place, I went in to fetch my perspective *piass; t

 

what I could make of them; and having taken the ladder out, F ;