CHAPTER TWELVE

Making Plans

After I had finished making my guests comfortable, I thought they must be hungry. I sent Friday to kill a nice young goat. When he had done this, I took the goat's skin off, and then cut the meat into pieces. I gave one of the pieces to Friday and asked him to boil it and make a soup for our guests.

When the soup was hot, I added some barley and rice to it. When the meal was cooked, I told Friday to bring a small table for us to eat on. When Friday had brought the table and set the stew upon it, I called his father and the Spaniard from their tent where they were asleep.

Friday and I decided to eat with them, to cheer them up. I thought they might be frightened at being far from their countries. Friday was my translator, so I could ask his father questions. The Spaniard spoke the language of Friday's people very well. As Friday had told me, he was one of the white men who had lived with Friday's people.

"Do you think your enemies will return to this island?" I asked Friday's father.

The old savage shook his head. "They have never seen these guns before. You killed many of them with your magic very quickly. They are so scared of you that they will not dare to come back here."

"And if they do come back," I thought, "Now that there are four of us we will be able to fight many of them!"

When the meal was finished, I told Friday to return to the beach and gather any guns we might have left there. I also told him to bury the dead savages.

As the days passed, the Spanish man became my friend. He told me that there were sixteen other Spaniards living with Friday's people in their country. These men wanted to leave and sail to America.

"Well," I said to him, "now that there are four of us, we could build a big, strong boat that could take us to America. But can these men be trusted?" I asked.

"Don't worry," the Spaniard told me. "I'll make all of them promise to help you and be loyal to you, before we leave for America. If any man does not, he'll be sorry!"

So I decided we should build a large boat. As we walked through the woods, I decided which trees should be cut into pieces. We wanted to build a boat large enough to hold many people.

I made Friday and his father work, chopping down the trees. I showed the Spaniard some very large pieces of wood that I had taken from trees myself, many years before when I was alone.

"We'll need many pieces like these for a strong boat." I said, pointing to one very large piece. It was thirty-five feet long, two feet wide, and four inches thick.

"When do you want to sail?" he asked me. "As soon as the boat is ready!" I said. I wanted to leave in a few weeks, but he told me that we should wait for at least six months.

"Many men will be on the boat. We will need to have plenty of food to give them on the long journey to America." he said.

He was right. If the new ship was to carry twenty people, we would need much more food than I now had stored away.

The first thing we had to do was catch more goats. We would need a lot of meat, cheese, milk and butter. So I sent Friday and the Spaniard out to catch as many baby goats as they could. If the goats were babies, they would be friendlier.

Fortunately, I had many grapes in my garden at this time of year. I told Friday and his father to pick as many grapes as they could, and hang them in the sun. By the time the grapes had dried, we had enough raisins for a year!

Next, we cut down the corn and rice plants and gathered all the grain. By the time we had finished, we had plenty of corn and rice to feed all the people in our boat.

Then we made many baskets to keep our grain in. Friday and the Spaniard were both very good at this, because I had taught them how to do it.

When all these things were done, it was time to go and get the other Spaniards on the mainland. I decided to send Friday's father and the Spaniard to the mainland first. This was because both of them spoke the language of Friday's people, and the Spaniard could talk to his men. Before they left, I told the Spaniard to tell his people that, if they wanted to come with us, they must promise never to attack Friday or me. They also had to be loyal to me.

They left in one of the canoes that had belonged to the savages. They both had many guns with them.

"Only shoot the guns in an emergency," I said. In my years on the island, I had learned to make supplies last for a long time, but we had to save the gun powder and bullets.

I gave them enough bread, dried meat, and dried grapes to feed them and the men they took with them. I gave them much more food than they needed.

Friday's father and the Spaniard left for the mainland on the 26th of October. We decided that when they got close to the island, they would make a signal in the water to tell us they had come back. Then, they began to sail. Friday and I watched until we could hardly see their canoe. Then we went back to my house.

(end of section)