I presently imagined that some European ship must have
been cast away upon their coast, and the boat might get loose and
drive ashore; but was so dull that I never once thought of men
making their escape from a wreck thither, much less whence they
might come: so I only inquired after a description of the boat.
Friday described the boat to me well enough; but brought me better
to understand him when he added with some warmth, "We save the
white mans from drown." Then I presently asked if there were any
white mans, as he called them, in the boat. "Yes," he said; "the
boat full of white mans." I asked him how many. He told upon his
fingers seventeen. I asked him then what became of them. He told
me, "They live, they dwell at my nation."
This put new thoughts into my head; for I presently imagined that
these might be the men belonging to the ship that was cast away in
the sight of my island, as I now called it; and who, after the ship
was struck on the rock, and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved
themselves in their boat, and were landed upon that wild shore
among the savages.
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