It took two months to make the sails and the rigging as I wished.
Then I put in a rudder to steer the boat. I was a poor carpenter, and I made a pretty rough job of it.
Friday knew how to paddle a canoe as well as any man.
But he knew nothing about a sail. He had never seen a boat steered by a rudder.
We made several little voyages near the island and I taught him how to manage everything about the boat.
Much as I wished to go back to my own people, I could not make up my mind to try the long voyage across to the mainland.
I had now been on the island twenty-seven years. My man Friday had been with me about two years, and these had been the happiest of my life. I had everything to make me comfortable and happy.
Why should I wish to go away?
I had a great longing to see my native land again, to talk with people of my own race, perhaps to visit my kindred once more. This longing I could not rid myself of, day or night.
But now new thoughts came into mind. I felt that in some way I would soon escape from the island. Indeed, I was quite sure that I would not stay there another year.
I cannot tell you what made me feel that way. But I seemed to know that some great change in my life was near at hand.
Yet I went on with my farming as before. I dug, I planted, I reaped, I gathered my grapes, I did everything just as though I had no such thoughts.
My man Friday was the truest of helpers. He did all the heavy labor. He would not let me lift my hand if he could help it.
The rainy season at last came upon us, and this put an end to most of our outdoor work.
We took our new boat to a safe place some distance up the little river, above the point where I had landed my rafts from the ship.
We hauled her up to the shore at high-water mark, and there Friday dug a little dock for her.
This dock was just big enough to hold her and it was just deep enough to give her water to float in.
When the tide was out we made a strong dam across the end of it, to keep the water out. Thus she lay high and dry on the bank of the river.
To keep the rain off we laid a great many branches of trees upon her till she was covered thickly with them. A thatched roof could not have protected her better.
Little did I think that I should never see our boat floating upon the water again. For all that I know, she is still lying high and dry in her little waterproof dock.
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