CHAPTER ELEVEN

More People Come to the Island

We began to get ready for our journey, gathering food and supplies. One day I sent Friday to the beach to find a turtle for us to eat. Almost immediately he came running back to the house. He almost flew over the fence, he was so excited.

"Oh, Master," he cried. "Out there—one, two, three boats!"

"Well, Friday, we may have to fight a battle, if these people are not friendly," I said. I gave him a drink of rum to calm him down.

We went up the hill and looked out onto the beach. We were careful not to be seen. This was good, because more savages had come! There were many more than last time. I counted twenty-one savages and three prisoners.

We ran back to the house to get some guns. I put a small bottle of rum in my pocket, and gave Friday some bullets and powder to shoot the guns with.

We ran into the woods with these things. Quietly, we walked as close to the beach as possible without being seen by the savages. After a few minutes, I told Friday to hide behind a large tree and tell me what he saw. When he came back he was very excited.

"Master," he said. "Two prisoner dead. Other man I know. He comes live with us. He is white man!"

We watched the savages sitting on the beach. Two of them got up and went to kill the white man who was still alive. If we wanted to save him, we had to hurry.

We fired our guns at the savages. Friday killed two and hurt three more. I killed one and hurt two.

The second time we shot at the savages, we killed only two. But the rest were frightened and ran around screaming and yelling to each other. "Now, Friday! Start running!" I whispered.

Quickly we ran out of the woods towards the prisoner. Now, some of the savages had run into the water and gotten into their little boats.

While I cut the prisoner's ropes, Friday shot at the savages in their little boats. Again, he killed two of them.

I was not sure what language the man spoke, but I decided to try Portuguese. "Who are you?" I asked him.

"I am a Catholic," he answered in the Latin language. His voice was so weak that I could hardly hear him.

It was a good thing I had brought some rum! I pulled it from my pocket and gave it to him.

"Where are you from?" I asked, as he drank the rum.

"I am from Spain," he replied. His voice was a little louder now.

"I know you are very tired and weak," I said, "but you must help us fight these savages!"

Without waiting for his answer, I gave the man a gun.

The man was a very skilled fighter even though he was weak. He ran towards the savages, and within a few seconds two more were dead.

While I was putting bullets in a new gun, I watched the Spaniard fight with a large savage. It looked as if the savage would beat him to the ground, but then the Spaniard took out his gun and shot the man in the chest.

Meanwhile, Friday had killed another three of the savages with his axe. The Spaniard's gun had run out of bullets, so he came to me to get another one.

When I gave him another gun, he ran after two savages and shot them both with his gun. He only hurt them, so they ran into the woods. But a moment later one of them ran out with Friday chasing him.

"One is dead!" Friday said. But before he could kill the second man, the savage ran into the sea and swam out to one of the boats. Now, the only savages left alive were in their boats and trying to get away.

One of the savages' boats was left in the water. I ran into the water and swam to the boat. Friday followed me. When I jumped into it, I saw another prisoner in the boat! He was lying on the bottom all tied up. He was an older man than I, tall and dark, and looked like a savage himself.

I cut the poor man's ropes to let him go. I was giving him some rum to drink when Friday climbed into the boat. Then I stared in amazement, because when Friday saw the prisoner, he gave a great cry of surprise and threw his arms around the man.

It was a few moments before Friday could speak, but then he told me that this man was his father!

I told Friday to go back to the beach. The Spanish man was lying on the ground, very tired from the fighting.

Then I returned to the beach to get the guns and swords, rowing the canoe with Friday's father in it.

When I got to the beach, Friday ran towards me.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I go get more boat. Savage men left in water," he said.

Friday's father and the Spanish man were lying on the sand. They were too weak to walk to my house. So Friday and I carried them up the hill on our backs. This was hard work, because Friday and I were also tired.

I decided that my guests should stay outside the house, because they needed fresh air and sun. So I made a tent for them outside the fence to my house. It was near a group of trees that I had planted some years ago. When I had put some blankets and straw inside the tent, the two men liked it very much.

There were now three other men on the island with me! They were very grateful to me for saving their lives. Each of us believed in different religions! I laughed when I thought about this. I was a Protestant Christian, Friday and his father were pagans (although I had also taught Friday about Christianity), and the Spaniard was a Catholic. My kingdom was very small to have all these different beliefs!

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