278 FRIDAY AND HIS COUNTRYMEN.

Friday as I was before; and I made no doubt but that if Friday
could get back to his own nation again, he would not only forget all
his religion, but all his obligation to me; and would be forward
enough to give his countrymen an account of: me, and come back
perhaps with a hundred or two of them, and make a feast upon
me, at which he might be as merry as he used to be with those of
his enemies when they were taken in war.

But I wronged the poor honest creature very much, for which
I was very sorry afterwards. However, as my jealousy increased,
and held me some weeks, I was a little more circumspect, and not
so familiar and kind to him as before; in which I was certainly
in the wrong, too, the honest grateful creature having no thought
about it, but what consisted with the best principles, both as a
religious Christian and as a grateful friend, as appeared afterwards
to my full satisfaction.

While my jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure I was every
day pumping him, to see if he -would discover any of the new
thoughts which I suspected were in him; but I found everything
he said was so honest, and so innocent, that I could find nothing
to nourish my suspicion; and, in spite of all my uneasiness, he
made me at last entirely his own again ; nor did he in the least
perceive that I was uneasy, and therefore I could not suspect him
of deceit.

One day walking up the same hill, but the weather being hazy
at sea, so that we could not see the continent, I called to him, and
said, “ Friday, do not you wish yourself in your own country, your
own nation?” “Yes,” he said; “‘I be much O glad to be at my
own nation.” ‘“ What would you do there?” said I. “ Would
you turn wild again, eat men’s flesh again, and be a savage as
you were before?” He looked full of concern, and shaking his
head, said, “ No, no; Friday tell them to live good, tell them to
pray God, tell them to eat corn-bread, cattle-flesh, milk, no eat
man again.” ‘Why, then,” said I to him, “ they will kill you.”
He looked grave at that, and then said, ‘‘ No, they no kill me,
they willing love learn.” He meant by this, they would be willing
to learn. He added, they learned much of the bearded men that
came in the boat. Then I asked him if he would go back to