Thus having gotten what account I could from my man, I plainly understood that he had been as bad as any of the rest of the cannibals, having been formerly among the savages who used to come on shore on the farthest part of the island, upon the same bloody occasion as he was brought hither for; and some time after I carried him to that place where he pointed; and no sooner did he come there, but he presently knew the ground, signifying to me that he was once there when they ate up twenty men, two women and a young child; but as he could not explain the number in English, he did it by so many stones in a row, making a sign to me to count them.

This passage I have the rather mentioned, because it led to things more important and useful for me to know; for after I had this satisfactory discourse with him, my next question was, how far it was from the island to the shore, and whether the canoes were not often lost in the ocean? to which he answered, there was no danger, that no canoes were ever lost; but that after a little way out to the sea, there was a strong current and a wind always one way in the afternoon.  This I thought at first to be no more than the sets of the tide, of going out or coming in; but I afterwards understood it was occasioned by the great-draught and reflux of the mighty river Oroonoko, in the mouth or gulf of which I imagined my kingdom lay:  and that the land which I perceived to the W. and N.W. must be the great island Trinidad, on the north of the river.  A thousand questions (if that would satisfy me) did I ask Friday about the nature of the country, the sea, the coasts, the inhabitants, and what nations were nearest them:  To which questions the poor fellow declared all he knew with the greatest openness & utmost sincerity.  When I demanded of him the particular names of the various nations of his sort of people, he could only answer me in general that they were called Carrabee.  Hence it was I considered that these must be the Carribees, so much taken notice of by our maps to be on that part of America, which reaches from the mouth of the river Oroonoko to Guiana, and so on to St. Martha.  Then Friday proceeded to tell me, that up a great way beyond the moon, as much as to say, beyond the setting of the moon, which must be W. from their country, there dwelt white-bearded men, such as I was, pointing to my whiskers, and that they kill much mans.  I was not ignorant with what barbarity the Spaniards treated these creatures; so that I presently concluded it must be them, whose cruelties had spread throughout America, to be remembered even to succeeding generations.