Accidents > Life and most surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, mariner, who lived eight and twenty years in an uninhabited island on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great river Oroonoque

124 ROBINSON CRUSOE.
]arge boat as big as two canoes, able to bear with the
waves, and not fo liable to be overfet as a fmall one
would be.
I believe there is no ftate of life but what may be
happy, if people would but endeavour for their part to
make it fo. He is not the happieft man that has the
moft riches, but he that is content with what he hath.
Before 1 had my ferVant I thought myfelf miferable
till I had him; and now I enjoyed the happy benefits
of him, I ftill complained, and begged a deliverance
from a place of retirement, eafe, and plenty, where
Providence had fufficiently blefied me : In aword,
from this time I entertained fome hopes, that one
time or other I might find an opportunity to make
my efcape from this ifland, and that this poor favage
might be a great furtherance thereto.
All the time lince my man became fo intelligent
as to underhand, and fpeak to me, I fpared no pains
or diligence to infirucl: him, according to my poor
ibare of knowledge, in the principles of religion,
and th^adoration that he ought to pay to the true
God,. 0::p time, as I very well remember, I alked
bun who made him? at firft, the innocent creature
did not underlfand what I meant, but rather thought
I a iked him, who was his father ? upon which I took
..aether way to make him fenlible, by demanding of
him an anfwer to this queftion. Friday (find I), who
is it that made the i'ea, this ground whereon we walk,
and all thefe hills and woods which we behold ; and
here indeed I did not mil's of my intention; for he told
me it was old Benatnuchee (the God whom I fuppofed
thefe lavages adored) who lived a great way beyond
all. But as for his attributes, poor Friday was an
utter firanger to them. He could del’cribe nothing
of this great perfon ; and all that he could fay was,
that he was very old, much older than the fea and
land, the moon, or the ftars. Friday (laid I again),
if this great and old perfon has made all things in the
world.