252 AN EXTRAORDINARY DREAM,

my pulse beat as high as if I had been in a fever, merely with the
extraordinary fervour of my mind about it—nature, as if I had
been fatigued and exhausted with the very thought of it, threw
me into a sound sleep. One would have thought I should have
dreamed of it; but I did not, nor of anything relating to it. But
I dreamed that as I was going out in the morning as usual from
my castle, 1 saw upon the shore two canoes and eleven savages
coming to land, and that they brought with them another savage,
whom they were going to kill in order to eat him; when on a
sudden the savage that they were going to kill jumped away and
ran for his life. And I thought in my sleep that he came running
into my little thick grove before my fortification to hide himself;
and that I, seeing him alone, and not perceiving that the others
sought him that way, showed myself to him, and, smiling upon
him, encouraged him: that he kneeled down to me, seeming to
pray me to assist him ; upon which I showed my ladder, made him
go up, and carried him into my cave, and he became my servant :
and that, as soon as I had gotten this man, I said to myself; Now
I may certainly venture to the mainland, for this fellow will serve
me as a pilot, and will tell me what to do, and whither to go for
provisions, and whither not to go for fear of being devoured; what
places to venture into, and what to escape—I waked with this
thought, and was under such inexpressible impressions of joy at
the prospect of my escape in my dream, that the disappointments
which I felt upon coming to myself and finding it was no more
than a dream were equally extravagant the other way, and threw
me into a very great dejection of spirit.

Upon this, however, 1 made this conclusion, that my only way
to go about an attempt for an escape was, if possible, to get a
savage into my possession; and, if possible, it should be one of
their prisoners whom they had condemned to be eaten and should
bring thither to kill. But these thoughts still were attended with
this difficulty, that it was impossible to effect this without attack-
ing a whole caravan of them, and killing them all. And this was
not only a very desperate attempt and might miscarry, but, on the
other hand, I had greatly scrupled the lawfulness of it to me; and
my heart trembled at the thoughts of shedding so much blood,