difficulty that I did so; for, generally speaking, he would throw a
stone at me if I asked questions, that is, if I repeatedly asked them
after he had refused to answer. It was on one occasion, when he was
lying sick, that I gained the information, and that only by refusing
to attend him or bring him food and water. He would be very angry,
and say, that when he got well again, he would make me smart for it;
but I cared not, for I was then getting strong, whilst he was getting
weaker every day, and I had no love for him, for he had never shown
any to me, but always treated me with great severity.

He told me, that about twelve years before (not that I knew what he
meant by a year, for I had never heard the term used by him), an
English ship (I did not know what a ship was) had been swamped near
the island, in a heavy gale, and that seven men and one woman had
been saved, and all the other people lost. That the ship had been
broken into pieces, and that they had saved nothing--that they had
picked up among the rocks pieces of the wood with which it had been
made, and had built the cabin in which we lived. That one had died
after another, and had been buried (what death or burial meant, I had
no idea at the time), and that I had been born on the island; (How
was I born? thought I)--that most of them had died before I was two
years old; and that then, he and my mother were the only two left
besides me. My mother had died a few months afterwards. I was obliged
to ask him many questions to understand all this; indeed, I did not
understand it till long afterwards, although I had an idea of what he
would say. Had I been left with any other person, I should, of
course, by conversation, have learnt much; but he never would
converse, still less explain. He called me, Boy, and I called him,
Master. His inveterate silence was the occasion of my language being
composed of very few words; for, except to order me to do this or