Identifier: crusoesislandbir00ober (find matches)
Title: Crusoe's Island; a bird-hunter's story
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Ober, Frederick A. (Frederick Albion), 1849-1913
Subjects: Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731 Birds
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ses them—He rescues a young Indian whom he namesFriday—Incontestable proof that Friday was a West IndianCarib. Seated before my incense-breathing embers in myhut on the hill, I devoted those days when the floodscame down and I was close prisoned by the rains, toan exhaustive reading of old books. I had broughtthem with me, and they were all about Crusoe andhis island, the adventures he had, and the people hesaw, who were, as he himself says, indeed the worstof Salvages, for they were Cannibals, or Man-eaters,and failed not to murther and devour all the humaneBodies that fall into their Hands. Now I wonder if all my readers have not had asimilar curiosity to mine: to learn who those man-eaters were, whence they came, and whether theywere real or fictional ? I shall assume it to be asubject worthy of investigation, because thereby Ishall be enabled to settle satisfactorily (for all time,I hope) the genesis of one of the most interestingcharacters of history—Crusoes Man Friday. 142
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ft Crulbe rrfcufs hiaMaa Friday and Kills his Furthers . Itf ■!• P.iat i$& (Engraving from the third edition of Crusoe, 1719.)143 144 CRUSOES ISLAND. In the first place, let us inquire how it all cameabout. In the words of our hero : It happend oneDay about Noon. Going towards my Boat I was ex-ceedingly surprizd with the print of a Marts nakedFoot on the Shore, which was very plain to be seenin the Sand. . . . When I was come down the Hill tothe Shore, I was perfectly amazd ; nor is it possiblefor me to express the horror of my Mind at seeingthe Shore spread with Skulls, Hands, Feet, and otherBones of humane Bodies ; and particularly I observda Place where there had been a Fire made and aCircle dug in the Earth like a Cock-pit, where it issupposd the savage Wretches had sat down to theirinhumane Feasting upon the Bodies of their fellowCreatures. Crusoe made this disquieting discovery after hehad been on his island eighteen years, and as a conse-quence he was thrown into convul

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