CHAPTER 25 – FATHER

When we were very close to the beach, we saw that the cannibals were around the fire. They started to eat the first of their prisoners. The second prisoner was still alive. He wasn’t one of Friday’s people. He was European. The cannibals wanted to eat him too. I decided to save him if it was possible.

We moved closer to the place where the cannibals were gathered. The cannibals were still round the fire, but two went for the white man.

When I saw this, I loaded the guns and asked Friday to do exactly what I did. We fired quickly at the cannibals from six guns. We killed 3 and injured 2 of the cannibals. The rest jumped up to their feet, but didn’t know which way to run because they didn’t know from which direction the danger was coming.

Some of them ran to their canoes. Some of them stayed on the beach.

We continued shooting and we shot three other cannibals. After that we took our guns and we ran to the beach. We shouted very loud. I ran to the prisoner and Friday shot the nearest cannibal. I freed the European. He said something in Spanish to me. I gave him a gun. He was weak but he could shoot from a gun if some cannibal attacked him.

The cannibals were shocked by our sudden attack. Our unusual guns scared them a lot. Only two cannibals tried to fight us. We shot them with our guns. Friday fought very well. He quickly killed one cannibal who was injured. The second injured cannibal ran into the forest. Friday ran after him and he killed him with his knife.

Only three cannibals were able to run away. They jumped into their canoe and they started to leave. Friday shot at them, but he didn’t hit them. It was dangerous to let them go because they could tell their people about us.

Friday and I wanted to jump in one of their canoes to chase them, but to our surprise we found another tied person on the bottom. He was scared because he didn’t see the fight, but only heard it. The ropes were so tight around his neck that he was going to die soon if I didn’t cut them.

When Friday saw him, he started to cry. Then he laughed and he hugged the man. Then he jumped and began dancing around him. Then he cried and laughed at the same time.

When the strongest emotions were gone, Friday told me that the prisoner was his father.

I felt tears in my eyes when I saw the son’s love for his father.

This happy incident delayed us and the cannibals were already gone.

Friday returned to the canoe and held his father’s head to his chest. Then he rubbed his father’s hands and feet with his hands to warm him up. Soon Friday’s father was feeling much better.

When they talked, Friday suddenly jumped up and ran to the forest as fast as he could.

When he came back, he had a bottle full of fresh water.

He handed the bottle to his father who was dying with thirst. After he drank and was feeling better, I asked Friday to give the rest of the water to the Spanish who needed water very much too.

The Spanish was very grateful to me, but he was so weak. He couldn’t get up on his feet.

I asked Friday to rub his hands and feet just as he did to his father. It helped him a lot.

Then I asked the Spanish to go to the canoe with Friday’s help because I wanted to take them to our place. Friday, however, being young and strong just took the Spanish on his back and carried him to the canoe. Then he carefully put him there and arranged so that both he and his father were comfortable.

WORDS FROM CHAPTER 25