Chapter Five. "Friday"
I was very happy to have a friend. I called him Friday because he came to my island on a Friday. He was a young man. He was tall with long legs and big feet. I think he was about twenty-six years old. It was difficult to know because he couldn't speak English. I used my hands to tell and show him things. He was happy to be safe from the savages and I understood that he wanted to be my slave. I had to teach him everything but I enjoyed it. I had somebody to talk to! He had a nice, happy face and big, brown eyes. His hair was long and black. He had a small nose and mouth. His teeth were very white.
After I gave him some water and bread, he slept for about half an hour. When he woke up, he came out of the cave to look for me. I was with my goats. He ran to me and showed me that he wanted to help me. He put his head at my feet to show me that he was my slave now. I was very happy for this. I needed a slave to help me with all the work. I began to speak to him and teach him some words. He learned his name, Friday. He also learned to call me ‘Master' and to say ‘yes' and ‘no'. I showed him the things I ate. He learned to drink milk and eat bread and liked them very much. I gave him some clothes because he didn't have any. We waited until the next day to go out again. Then, we went up the hill to look at the beach. We couldn't see any savages now. There were no boats on the beach. I gave Friday a gun and we went down to the beach.
When I saw the beach I felt really bad. There were heads and feet and hands everywhere. Friday wanted to eat them!
‘No! No! Friday!' I said.
He looked at me with sad eyes.
‘Don't worry, Friday,' I said. ‘We can eat lots of other things, nice things!'
He didn't understand. I took him home and gave him some cheese.
‘Yummy!' I said and put some cheese in my mouth.
He did the same. He was happy now.
Now I had to make a place for Friday to sleep. I got two sails and made a bedroom for him outside my cave. He was safe here because there was a big wall between his bedroom and the outside of my home. He was happy with his bedroom and his bed. I gave him a big coat for a bed and he slept well on it. I made a door between Friday's bedroom and my cave. He couldn't get into my cave at night because I closed the door and put my chair behind it. Every evening I took all the guns and put them in my room. But Friday was never a problem. He was a great slave and did everything for me.
‘Don't worry, master. Friday do it,' he said when he saw I was tired. He was my son, not a slave. I was his father, not his master. He was a great student too and learned to speak very well. I had a beautiful life now on my island. I had everything I needed. There was only one problem… the savages.
I wanted Friday to understand that it wasn't good to eat men. There were other kinds of meat that were good to eat. I took him with me one day to get a goat for dinner. I got the goat with the gun.
When Friday heard the noise of the gun, his face was sad.
‘Don't worry, Friday. Guns always make this noise,' I said.
We took the goat home and made it for dinner. First, I put some in my mouth and said: ‘Yummy!'
Then, I gave some to Friday and he liked it. He wasn't a savage now; he was my slave, my son and my friend. He helped me with my grain and rice and I taught him to make bread. In a short time, Friday could do all the work for me. He knew a lot of words now and we had great conversations. I asked him about his country. He told me that his people were savages too.
‘I came to this island many times with my people. Then those bad people took me and wanted to eat me. But you came and now I'm safe,' he said.
‘But why did you come here?' I asked.
‘To eat the bad men we caught, the men from other countries,' he said.
‘Isn't it difficult to get home from here in your boats?' I asked.
‘No, everybody gets home. The waves always take us back to our country,' said Friday.
I asked him lots about his country and his people. He told me there were some men with white beards there. They came four years before when their ship went to the bottom of the sea.
‘Can you take me to these men with white beards, Friday?'
‘Yes, but we need a big boat.'
We found a good tree and started to make our boat. I was excited. I wanted to meet these men.
Were they some of the men on the Spanish ship? The ship I visited after the storm? He told me there were seventeen of these men in his country.
After twenty-seven years on this island, it was now possible to leave. I had Friday to take me to these Europeans in his country. He knew the sea well, the wind and the waves. He knew the right time to go.
We made the boat together. We made it near the water this time. I told him about my life. I taught him to use a gun and I gave him a knife too. He was very happy with these things. I told him about Europe and a lot about England. He told me that in his country, his people were nice to the Europeans. That was good! I was worried about those savages!
One beautiful morning, we went up the hill. Friday looked out to sea and said:
‘Hey! Look master! My country!' He was very excited.
‘Would you like to be there?' I asked.
‘Oh yes!' he said. ‘But not to be a savage. I want to tell them about my new life. I want to teach them all the new things I know, master. And you'll come with me. They'll be happy to meet you. You can teach them lots of new things.'
‘Well, we have to finish our boat!' I said.
We finished our boat in a month after a lot of hard work. It was big. I made sails for the new boat with the old sails from the ship. I worked on these sails for two months. Then I taught Friday to use them. The rain came. I waited for the good weather again. We took our boat up the river to a safe place. We waited for November or December to come to start our voyage. When the weather was fine again, I started to put some food in boxes for the voyage.
One morning, I told Friday to go down to the beach to get a turtle. After some minutes he was back.
‘Oh master! Oh bad!' he said.
‘What's bad Friday?' I asked.
‘Three boats on the beach, master! Three!'
‘Don't worry, Friday. We'll think of something,' I said.
But Friday was very worried; worried that these savages were here to find him and eat him.
‘The savages won't take you from me, Friday. I'll die first!'
‘No, they'll die, not you!' said Friday.
‘Yes, of course! We'll use our guns. They'll all die! Take me to them, Friday!'
We took our guns and went up the hill. From here I could see that there were twenty-one savages on the beach with three boats. In one of these boats, there were three other men. They were the savages' dinner! There were trees near the beach. I told Friday to follow me to the trees. We stayed near each other and didn't say a word. We watched the savages from behind the trees. They were near their fire. There were only two men in the boat now. One of these wasn't a savage but a man with a white beard, a European! It was time to do something, before they ate him too.
‘Now, Friday!' I said ‘Do what I do! Use your gun!'
The savages heard the noise but they didn't run. They looked about. They couldn't see us. They didn't know what to do. The first time, five savages died, then four, then six, then two. We ran out from behind the trees. Four savages got into a boat. I ran to the man with the white beard to help him. I gave him some water and some bread.
Then I went to the other man. He was happy there were no savages to eat him now. I gave him some bread and water too. Then, I called Friday to speak to him because he was from his country. When Friday saw the man, he said: ‘Hooray! Hooray!' and danced about. I couldn't understand why. Then, he told me:
‘Master, this is my father!'
I was very happy for Friday and his father. We brought him and the Spanish man home. That night there was a lot of wind. I thought about the boat with the savages in it. Did they get back to their island? Anyhow, after that night, no savages ever came to the island again.
We made a room for the Spanish man and Friday's father with some of the ship's sails. They slept well there. I had a lot of people on my island now, and I was master of them all! We spoke a lot together. The Spanish man told me that he lived with sixteen other Europeans. He said that they didn't have a good life there.
‘Tell them to come here and we can make a big boat together and go to Brazil or Spain,' I said.
‘They can live well here until we're ready to leave the island.'
We used the next six months to work on my farm. We needed a lot of rice and grain now for all these people. Everybody worked hard. In October, the Spanish man and Friday's father left on a boat to go and tell the others about my island.
‘Goodbye! Tell them, I'll wait for them. I'll give them a good life here,' I said. ‘Then we can all leave this island together and go back to Europe or America. Hooray!'
