CHAPTER NINE

A Footprint in the Sand

I looked around me, but I did not see anyone. My heart was pounding. Could it be, after all these years, someone had found me?

A few seconds later I heard the voice again. It was then that I realized that it was Polly the parrot! All the time I had spent teaching her to talk had been successful! I burst out laughing.

I decided that I did not want to travel any more for some time. I wanted to have my boat with me, but it had taken so long to make it, and sailing was difficult. So I decided that it could stay where it was.

I still did not have any cooking pots, so I decided to improve my building skills and make some. It took me a very long time, but I figured out how to make things with wet clay. From this clay, I was able to make myself a pipe and some cooking pots.

I also made more baskets. I became very good at this.

More years passed. By the time I had been on the island for ten years, I could do many things. I could build things from wood; I could make pots, and very beautiful baskets. My mother would have been proud of me!

By now my supply of gun powder and bullets was very small. I started to think about how I would go hunting when I could not use my guns any more.

I decided to make some goat traps. These worked very well. One morning I found a mother goat and her children in one of the traps. There were two little females and a male.

I let the mother goat go, and after I had tied the three little ones together, I led them home. I began to build a fenced-in area for them in an open field. This area had enough grass and water to keep them happy. When I was done with the fence I set my three goats free in it.

Within a year, I had twelve goats, and a year later I had thirty-three of them. They certainly liked to have babies! Now I had goat's meat to eat and their milk to drink. I taught myself how to make butter and cheese from this milk as well.

Sometimes when I ate, I imagined myself the king of the island, sitting with my animal friends—Polly, my old dog, and two cats who had come to live with me.

"But I certainly don't look like a king!" I said to myself one day. I looked like a wild man in my goat skin clothes! My crown was a large, goat skin cap. My robes were a goat skin jacket that reached to the middle of my legs. I was wearing goatskin pants and pieces of goat skin wrapped round my feet for shoes. I probably looked like a goat.

I had a belt around my waist. On this belt were a saw and a hatchet for cutting down trees. I had a place to carry two pouches, one for my gun powder and another for my bullets. I had a basket, a gun, and an umbrella with me to protect me from the sun.

I had been walking along the beach, but suddenly I stopped. There was a footprint in the sand. I looked all around but I saw no one. I ran up and down the beach, shouting, "Hello? Hello?" but no one answered.

I wondered if the footprint belonged to someone friendly. It would be pleasant to talk to another man after so many years! But then I thought it might be a savage's footprint. This scared me terribly. I ran back to my house quickly and gathered my guns.

I did not sleep at all that night. I thought I would be attacked by terrible people at any second. I had all kinds of crazy ideas about the footprint.

Maybe it was the devil, trying to trick me!

Maybe God put the footprint there to scare me, as a punishment for all the things I did wrong!

When I calmed down, I decided that the footprint was made by a person. He had taken a canoe from the nearby land, and the wind must have blown him to my island.

For the next day I did not leave the house. But I had to go outside when my food and water ran out.

Very soon I felt normal again. I laughed at my fears. There had been no one but me on the island, for more than ten years. Why would someone come here now? While I was milking my goats I had the idea that the footprint was mine.

The more I thought of it, the more I believed that this was true.

I walked back to the footprint, sure that I was right. But then I saw that the footprint was bigger than my own foot! Someone had been here, then!

It was almost impossible for me to believe that, after so many years, someone had visited the island, or was living on it. I did not understand what had happened, so I tried to forget about it. Soon things returned to normal. I lived my life with almost the same freedom as before.

But one day I was looking out at the ocean from the top of a hill. I saw a little boat leaving the island. I waited until it had disappeared. Then I ran to the part of the island where the boat had left from.

When I reached the beach, I saw a horrible sight. The ground was covered with human bones! They were in a huge hole in the ground. The remains of a large fire were next to the bones. I realized immediately what had happened.

Whoever had made the fire had cooked and eaten those people.

My island had been visited by cannibals—men who liked to eat other men!

From that day on, I went to my house and my garden, but nowhere else. I always had guns with me. I did not shoot the guns too often, in case the savages might hear the sound. Luckily I had plenty of goats to eat, so I no longer needed to hunt in the forest.

The thought of people eating other people made me angry. I decided to try to catch the savages and save their prisoners, if I could!

My chance to do this came eighteen months later. One morning I saw five canoes on the beach near my house. When I climbed to the top of a tree to get a better view, I saw thirty naked men dancing around a fire, a little distance from the boats.

Keeping still so they would not see me, I saw them take two prisoners out of the canoes.

As soon as they were on the beach, one of the savages hit one of the prisoners with a large, thick stick. As soon as he was on the ground, the savages ran to him and started to cut the meat from his bones. They threw the meat on the fire, laughing. The man's screams were horrible to hear—even now I shake when I think about them!

While the savages killed this man, the other victim was left standing alone. Clearly he saw his chance to escape, because he ran along the beach towards me.

I knew then that I had to save the poor man's life.

By now, two of the savages were chasing the man. I jumped out of the tree and picked up my guns. I ran just to the edge of the trees, where they met the beach. Now, the running man and the savages who were chasing him were far from the others. I was close to the prisoner.

I called to the prisoner, and told him to come to me very quickly. When the savages saw me, they stopped in surprise. Quickly, I hit the first savage with my large gun and he fell to the ground. The other savage took a bow and arrow from his shoulders and pointed it at me. But one shot from my gun killed him instantly!

By this time, the prisoner was by my side. He stared in amazement at my gun. I saw that he did not know how this thing could have killed a man so easily.

He fell to his knees and kissed my feet. Then he picked up my right foot and put it on his head. I thought he was trying to say, "I am your slave forever."

He stood up, and we went towards the man whom I had hit with my gun. As we came near, I raised my gun, but the man suddenly pointed to my large knife, then to himself. Immediately I understood what he wanted. I gave it to him, and watched as with one quick, strong movement, he cut the savage's head off.

He picked the head up by the hair, and laid it at my feet along with the sword.

I pointed in the direction of my house, and motioned for him to go with me. But the prisoner first pointed to the two dead bodies on the ground, and then to the place where the other savages were still dancing around the fire. Clearly, they did not know what had happened.

I understood that the prisoner wanted to bury the bodies, so that the other man-eating savages would not find them.

I nodded, and he began to work. When he was done, he followed me to my house. The house was so well hidden by bushes and trees that the savages would never find us there.

The prisoner was a good-looking man, with strong, straight arms and legs. He was tall and very strong. He seemed young, about twenty-six years old.

I knew he must be hungry, so I gave him some milk and showed him how to drink it. Then I taught him how to dip pieces of bread in the milk.

If the man was going to live with me, he had to have a name, of course. I named him Friday, which was the day of the week that day. Then I taught him my name, which was to be Master.

I kept him with me all that night. After so many years alone, it was very nice to have some company, even if he could not speak to me. The next morning we went to see if the savages had left the island.

The beach looked terrible. The sand was covered with human bones, and it was colored red with blood.

When we were sure the savages had gone, I got Friday to gather all the remains of the human bodies together. When that was done, we lit a fire and burned them all to ashes.

We went back to my home. I gave my man Friday some clothes, for he only had a cloth around his waist. Then I began to make him a goat skin coat and a hat made of rabbit skin.

The next thing to be done was to decide where he was to live. He could not stay in my house with me. If he was going to be my servant, he could not live so close to his master. So, I built him a tent next to my house, and he seemed to like this very much.

(end of section)