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- I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family,
- though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who
- settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving
- off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from whence he had married my
- mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that
- country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the
- usual corruption of words in England, we are now called—nay we call
- ourselves and write our name—Crusoe; and so my companions always called
- me.
- I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-colonel to an
- English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous
- Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the
- Spaniards. What became of my second brother I never knew, any more than
- my father or mother knew what became of me.
- Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head
- began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts. My father, who was
- very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as
- house-education and a country free school generally go, and designed me
- for the law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and
- my inclination to this led me so strongly against the will, nay, the
- commands of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions of
- my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in
- that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which
- was to befall me.
- My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel
- against what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his
- chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly
- with me upon this subject. He asked me what reasons, more than a mere
- wandering inclination, I had for leaving father's house and my native
- country, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising
- my fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure.
- He told me it was men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring,
- superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise
- by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out
- of the common road; that these things were all either too far above me or
- too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called
- the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience,
- was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not
- exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and sufferings of the
- mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury,
- ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind. He told me I might
- judge of the happiness of this state by this one thing—viz. that this was
- the state of life which all other people envied; that kings have
- frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to great
- things, and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two
- extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his
- testimony to this, as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to have
- neither poverty nor riches.
- He bade me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities of
- life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind, but that the
- middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many
- vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not
- subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind,
- as those were who, by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the
- one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean or
- insufficient diet on the other hand, bring distemper upon themselves by
- the natural consequences of their way of living; that the middle station
- of life was calculated for all kind of virtue and all kind of enjoyments;
- that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that
- temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable
- diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the
- middle station of life; that this way men went silently and smoothly
- through the world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with the
- labours of the hands or of the head, not sold to a life of slavery for
- daily bread, nor harassed with perplexed circumstances, which rob the
- soul of peace and the body of rest, nor enraged with the passion of envy,
- or the secret burning lust of ambition for great things; but, in easy
- circumstances, sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the
- sweets of living, without the bitter; feeling that they are happy, and
- learning by every day's experience to know it more sensibly.
- After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner,
- not to play the young man, nor to precipitate myself into miseries which
- nature, and the station of life I was born in, seemed to have provided
- against; that I was under no necessity of seeking my bread; that he would
- do well for me, and endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life
- which he had just been recommending to me; and that if I was not very
- easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault that must
- hinder it; and that he should have nothing to answer for, having thus
- discharged his duty in warning me against measures which he knew would be
- to my hurt; in a word, that as he would do very kind things for me if I
- would stay and settle at home as he directed, so he would not have so
- much hand in my misfortunes as to give me any encouragement to go away;
- and to close all, he told me I had my elder brother for an example, to
- whom he had used the same earnest persuasions to keep him from going into
- the Low Country wars, but could not prevail, his young desires prompting
- him to run into the army, where he was killed; and though he said he
- would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me, that
- if I did take this foolish step, God would not bless me, and I should
- have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel when
- there might be none to assist in my recovery.
- I observed in this last part of his discourse, which was truly prophetic,
- though I suppose my father did not know it to be so himself—I say, I
- observed the tears run down his face very plentifully, especially when he
- spoke of my brother who was killed: and that when he spoke of my having
- leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was so moved that he broke
- off the discourse, and told me his heart was so full he could say no more
- to me.
- I was sincerely affected with this discourse, and, indeed, who could be
- otherwise? and I resolved not to think of going abroad any more, but to
- settle at home according to my father's desire. But alas! a few days
- wore it all off; and, in short, to prevent any of my father's further
- importunities, in a few weeks after I resolved to run quite away from
- him. However, I did not act quite so hastily as the first heat of my
- resolution prompted; but I took my mother at a time when I thought her a
- little more pleasant than ordinary, and told her that my thoughts were so
- entirely bent upon seeing the world that I should never settle to
- anything with resolution enough to go through with it, and my father had
- better give me his consent than force me to go without it; that I was now
- eighteen years old, which was too late to go apprentice to a trade or
- clerk to an attorney; that I was sure if I did I should never serve out
- my time, but I should certainly run away from my master before my time
- was out, and go to sea; and if she would speak to my father to let me go
- one voyage abroad, if I came home again, and did not like it, I would go
- no more; and I would promise, by a double diligence, to recover the time
- that I had lost.
- This put my mother into a great passion; she told me she knew it would be
- to no purpose to speak to my father upon any such subject; that he knew
- too well what was my interest to give his consent to anything so much for
- my hurt; and that she wondered how I could think of any such thing after
- the discourse I had had with my father, and such kind and tender
- expressions as she knew my father had used to me; and that, in short, if
- I would ruin myself, there was no help for me; but I might depend I
- should never have their consent to it; that for her part she would not
- have so much hand in my destruction; and I should never have it to say
- that my mother was willing when my father was not.
- Though my mother refused to move it to my father, yet I heard afterwards
- that she reported all the discourse to him, and that my father, after
- showing a great concern at it, said to her, with a sigh, "That boy might
- be happy if he would stay at home; but if he goes abroad, he will be the
- most miserable wretch that ever was born: I can give no consent to it."
- It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose, though, in
- the meantime, I continued obstinately deaf to all proposals of settling
- to business, and frequently expostulated with my father and mother about
- their being so positively determined against what they knew my
- inclinations prompted me to. But being one day at Hull, where I went
- casually, and without any purpose of making an elopement at that time;
- but, I say, being there, and one of my companions being about to sail to
- London in his father's ship, and prompting me to go with them with the
- common allurement of seafaring men, that it should cost me nothing for my
- passage, I consulted neither father nor mother any more, nor so much as
- sent them word of it; but leaving them to hear of it as they might,
- without asking God's blessing or my father's, without any consideration
- of circumstances or consequences, and in an ill hour, God knows, on the
- 1st of September 1651, I went on board a ship bound for London. Never
- any young adventurer's misfortunes, I believe, began sooner, or continued
- longer than mine. The ship was no sooner out of the Humber than the wind
- began to blow and the sea to rise in a most frightful manner; and, as I
- had never been at sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in body and
- terrified in mind. I began now seriously to reflect upon what I had
- done, and how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of Heaven for my
- wicked leaving my father's house, and abandoning my duty. All the good
- counsels of my parents, my father's tears and my mother's entreaties,
- came now fresh into my mind; and my conscience, which was not yet come to
- the pitch of hardness to which it has since, reproached me with the
- contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God and my father.
- All this while the storm increased, and the sea went very high, though
- nothing like what I have seen many times since; no, nor what I saw a few
- days after; but it was enough to affect me then, who was but a young
- sailor, and had never known anything of the matter. I expected every
- wave would have swallowed us up, and that every time the ship fell down,
- as I thought it did, in the trough or hollow of the sea, we should never
- rise more; in this agony of mind, I made many vows and resolutions that
- if it would please God to spare my life in this one voyage, if ever I got
- once my foot upon dry land again, I would go directly home to my father,
- and never set it into a ship again while I lived; that I would take his
- advice, and never run myself into such miseries as these any more. Now I
- saw plainly the goodness of his observations about the middle station of
- life, how easy, how comfortably he had lived all his days, and never had
- been exposed to tempests at sea or troubles on shore; and I resolved that
- I would, like a true repenting prodigal, go home to my father.
- These wise and sober thoughts continued all the while the storm lasted,
- and indeed some time after; but the next day the wind was abated, and the
- sea calmer, and I began to be a little inured to it; however, I was very
- grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick still; but towards
- night the weather cleared up, the wind was quite over, and a charming
- fine evening followed; the sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so the
- next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smooth sea, the sun
- shining upon it, the sight was, as I thought, the most delightful that
- ever I saw.
- I had slept well in the night, and was now no more sea-sick, but very
- cheerful, looking with wonder upon the sea that was so rough and terrible
- the day before, and could be so calm and so pleasant in so little a time
- after. And now, lest my good resolutions should continue, my companion,
- who had enticed me away, comes to me; "Well, Bob," says he, clapping me
- upon the shoulder, "how do you do after it? I warrant you were frighted,
- wer'n't you, last night, when it blew but a capful of wind?" "A capful
- d'you call it?" said I; "'twas a terrible storm." "A storm, you fool
- you," replies he; "do you call that a storm? why, it was nothing at all;
- give us but a good ship and sea-room, and we think nothing of such a
- squall of wind as that; but you're but a fresh-water sailor, Bob. Come,
- let us make a bowl of punch, and we'll forget all that; d'ye see what
- charming weather 'tis now?" To make short this sad part of my story, we
- went the way of all sailors; the punch was made and I was made half drunk
- with it: and in that one night's wickedness I drowned all my repentance,
- all my reflections upon my past conduct, all my resolutions for the
- future. In a word, as the sea was returned to its smoothness of surface
- and settled calmness by the abatement of that storm, so the hurry of my
- thoughts being over, my fears and apprehensions of being swallowed up by
- the sea being forgotten, and the current of my former desires returned, I
- entirely forgot the vows and promises that I made in my distress. I
- found, indeed, some intervals of reflection; and the serious thoughts
- did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes; but I shook them
- off, and roused myself from them as it were from a distemper, and
- applying myself to drinking and company, soon mastered the return of
- those fits—for so I called them; and I had in five or six days got as
- complete a victory over conscience as any young fellow that resolved not
- to be troubled with it could desire. But I was to have another trial for
- it still; and Providence, as in such cases generally it does, resolved to
- leave me entirely without excuse; for if I would not take this for a
- deliverance, the next was to be such a one as the worst and most hardened
- wretch among us would confess both the danger and the mercy of.
- The sixth day of our being at sea we came into Yarmouth Roads; the wind
- having been contrary and the weather calm, we had made but little way
- since the storm. Here we were obliged to come to an anchor, and here we
- lay, the wind continuing contrary—viz. at south-west—for seven or eight
- days, during which time a great many ships from Newcastle came into the
- same Roads, as the common harbour where the ships might wait for a wind
- for the river.
- We had not, however, rid here so long but we should have tided it up the
- river, but that the wind blew too fresh, and after we had lain four or
- five days, blew very hard. However, the Roads being reckoned as good as
- a harbour, the anchorage good, and our ground-tackle very strong, our men
- were unconcerned, and not in the least apprehensive of danger, but spent
- the time in rest and mirth, after the manner of the sea; but the eighth
- day, in the morning, the wind increased, and we had all hands at work to
- strike our topmasts, and make everything snug and close, that the ship
- might ride as easy as possible. By noon the sea went very high indeed,
- and our ship rode forecastle in, shipped several seas, and we thought
- once or twice our anchor had come home; upon which our master ordered out
- the sheet-anchor, so that we rode with two anchors ahead, and the cables
- veered out to the bitter end.
- By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed; and now I began to see
- terror and amazement in the faces even of the seamen themselves. The
- master, though vigilant in the business of preserving the ship, yet as he
- went in and out of his cabin by me, I could hear him softly to himself
- say, several times, "Lord be merciful to us! we shall be all lost! we
- shall be all undone!" and the like. During these first hurries I was
- stupid, lying still in my cabin, which was in the steerage, and cannot
- describe my temper: I could ill resume the first penitence which I had so
- apparently trampled upon and hardened myself against: I thought the
- bitterness of death had been past, and that this would be nothing like
- the first; but when the master himself came by me, as I said just now,
- and said we should be all lost, I was dreadfully frighted. I got up out
- of my cabin and looked out; but such a dismal sight I never saw: the sea
- ran mountains high, and broke upon us every three or four minutes; when I
- could look about, I could see nothing but distress round us; two ships
- that rode near us, we found, had cut their masts by the board, being deep
- laden; and our men cried out that a ship which rode about a mile ahead of
- us was foundered. Two more ships, being driven from their anchors, were
- run out of the Roads to sea, at all adventures, and that with not a mast
- standing. The light ships fared the best, as not so much labouring in
- the sea; but two or three of them drove, and came close by us, running
- away with only their spritsail out before the wind.
- Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the master of our ship to
- let them cut away the fore-mast, which he was very unwilling to do; but
- the boatswain protesting to him that if he did not the ship would
- founder, he consented; and when they had cut away the fore-mast, the
- main-mast stood so loose, and shook the ship so much, they were obliged
- to cut that away also, and make a clear deck.
- Any one may judge what a condition I must be in at all this, who was but
- a young sailor, and who had been in such a fright before at but a little.
- But if I can express at this distance the thoughts I had about me at that
- time, I was in tenfold more horror of mind upon account of my former
- convictions, and the having returned from them to the resolutions I had
- wickedly taken at first, than I was at death itself; and these, added to
- the terror of the storm, put me into such a condition that I can by no
- words describe it. But the worst was not come yet; the storm continued
- with such fury that the seamen themselves acknowledged they had never
- seen a worse. We had a good ship, but she was deep laden, and wallowed
- in the sea, so that the seamen every now and then cried out she would
- founder. It was my advantage in one respect, that I did not know what
- they meant by _founder_ till I inquired. However, the storm was so
- violent that I saw, what is not often seen, the master, the boatswain,
- and some others more sensible than the rest, at their prayers, and
- expecting every moment when the ship would go to the bottom. In the
- middle of the night, and under all the rest of our distresses, one of the
- men that had been down to see cried out we had sprung a leak; another
- said there was four feet water in the hold. Then all hands were called
- to the pump. At that word, my heart, as I thought, died within me: and I
- fell backwards upon the side of my bed where I sat, into the cabin.
- However, the men roused me, and told me that I, that was able to do
- nothing before, was as well able to pump as another; at which I stirred
- up and went to the pump, and worked very heartily. While this was doing
- the master, seeing some light colliers, who, not able to ride out the
- storm were obliged to slip and run away to sea, and would come near us,
- ordered to fire a gun as a signal of distress. I, who knew nothing what
- they meant, thought the ship had broken, or some dreadful thing happened.
- In a word, I was so surprised that I fell down in a swoon. As this was a
- time when everybody had his own life to think of, nobody minded me, or
- what was become of me; but another man stepped up to the pump, and
- thrusting me aside with his foot, let me lie, thinking I had been dead;
- and it was a great while before I came to myself.
- We worked on; but the water increasing in the hold, it was apparent that
- the ship would founder; and though the storm began to abate a little, yet
- it was not possible she could swim till we might run into any port; so
- the master continued firing guns for help; and a light ship, who had rid
- it out just ahead of us, ventured a boat out to help us. It was with the
- utmost hazard the boat came near us; but it was impossible for us to get
- on board, or for the boat to lie near the ship's side, till at last the
- men rowing very heartily, and venturing their lives to save ours, our men
- cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, and then veered it out
- a great length, which they, after much labour and hazard, took hold of,
- and we hauled them close under our stern, and got all into their boat.
- It was to no purpose for them or us, after we were in the boat, to think
- of reaching their own ship; so all agreed to let her drive, and only to
- pull her in towards shore as much as we could; and our master promised
- them, that if the boat was staved upon shore, he would make it good to
- their master: so partly rowing and partly driving, our boat went away to
- the northward, sloping towards the shore almost as far as Winterton Ness.
- We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship till we
- saw her sink, and then I understood for the first time what was meant by
- a ship foundering in the sea. I must acknowledge I had hardly eyes to
- look up when the seamen told me she was sinking; for from the moment that
- they rather put me into the boat than that I might be said to go in, my
- heart was, as it were, dead within me, partly with fright, partly with
- horror of mind, and the thoughts of what was yet before me.
- While we were in this condition—the men yet labouring at the oar to bring
- the boat near the shore—we could see (when, our boat mounting the waves,
- we were able to see the shore) a great many people running along the
- strand to assist us when we should come near; but we made but slow way
- towards the shore; nor were we able to reach the shore till, being past
- the lighthouse at Winterton, the shore falls off to the westward towards
- Cromer, and so the land broke off a little the violence of the wind.
- Here we got in, and though not without much difficulty, got all safe on
- shore, and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, where, as unfortunate
- men, we were used with great humanity, as well by the magistrates of the
- town, who assigned us good quarters, as by particular merchants and
- owners of ships, and had money given us sufficient to carry us either to
- London or back to Hull as we thought fit.
- Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull, and have gone home, I
- had been happy, and my father, as in our blessed Saviour's parable, had
- even killed the fatted calf for me; for hearing the ship I went away in
- was cast away in Yarmouth Roads, it was a great while before he had any
- assurances that I was not drowned.
- But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing could
- resist; and though I had several times loud calls from my reason and my
- more composed judgment to go home, yet I had no power to do it. I know
- not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret overruling
- decree, that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction,
- even though it be before us, and that we rush upon it with our eyes open.
- Certainly, nothing but some such decreed unavoidable misery, which it was
- impossible for me to escape, could have pushed me forward against the
- calm reasonings and persuasions of my most retired thoughts, and against
- two such visible instructions as I had met with in my first attempt.
- My comrade, who had helped to harden me before, and who was the master's
- son, was now less forward than I. The first time he spoke to me after we
- were at Yarmouth, which was not till two or three days, for we were
- separated in the town to several quarters; I say, the first time he saw
- me, it appeared his tone was altered; and, looking very melancholy, and
- shaking his head, he asked me how I did, and telling his father who I
- was, and how I had come this voyage only for a trial, in order to go
- further abroad, his father, turning to me with a very grave and concerned
- tone "Young man," says he, "you ought never to go to sea any more; you
- ought to take this for a plain and visible token that you are not to be a
- seafaring man." "Why, sir," said I, "will you go to sea no more?" "That
- is another case," said he; "it is my calling, and therefore my duty; but
- as you made this voyage on trial, you see what a taste Heaven has given
- you of what you are to expect if you persist. Perhaps this has all
- befallen us on your account, like Jonah in the ship of Tarshish. Pray,"
- continues he, "what are you; and on what account did you go to sea?"
- Upon that I told him some of my story; at the end of which he burst out
- into a strange kind of passion: "What had I done," says he, "that such an
- unhappy wretch should come into my ship? I would not set my foot in the
- same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds." This indeed was, as I
- said, an excursion of his spirits, which were yet agitated by the sense
- of his loss, and was farther than he could have authority to go.
- However, he afterwards talked very gravely to me, exhorting me to go back
- to my father, and not tempt Providence to my ruin, telling me I might see
- a visible hand of Heaven against me. "And, young man," said he, "depend
- upon it, if you do not go back, wherever you go, you will meet with
- nothing but disasters and disappointments, till your father's words are
- fulfilled upon you."
- We parted soon after; for I made him little answer, and I saw him no
- more; which way he went I knew not. As for me, having some money in my
- pocket, I travelled to London by land; and there, as well as on the road,
- had many struggles with myself what course of life I should take, and
- whether I should go home or to sea.
- As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my
- thoughts, and it immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed at
- among the neighbours, and should be ashamed to see, not my father and
- mother only, but even everybody else; from whence I have since often
- observed, how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is,
- especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such
- cases—viz. that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to
- repent; not ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be
- esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which only can make
- them be esteemed wise men.
- In this state of life, however, I remained some time, uncertain what
- measures to take, and what course of life to lead. An irresistible
- reluctance continued to going home; and as I stayed away a while, the
- remembrance of the distress I had been in wore off, and as that abated,
- the little motion I had in my desires to return wore off with it, till at
- last I quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for a voyage.
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