August 5, 2025 • 38 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel de Foe, Chapter one, Start in Life.
I was born in the year sixteen thirty two in
the city of York, of a good family, though not
of that country. My father, being a foreigner of Bremen,
(00:22):
who first settled 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 Krischnaer. But by the
(00:47):
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,
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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
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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 see. And my inclination
(02:00):
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
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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
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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
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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.
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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 labor and suffering of the mechanic
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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 the state by
this one thing, that is, that this was the state
of life which all other people envied. That kings have
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frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being borne 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
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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
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of mankind. Nay, they were not subjected to so many
distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those
who were, by vicious living, luxury and extravagances on the
one hand, or by hard labor, want of necessaries, and
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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 kinds of enjoyments. That peace
and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune. That temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society,
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all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures were the blessings
attending the middle station of life. That this way men
went silently in smoothly through the world, and comfortably out
of it, not embarrassed with the labors of the hands
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or of the head, not sold to a life of
slavery for daily bread, nor harassed with perplexed circumstances which
robbed 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,
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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
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precipitate myself into miseries which nature and the station of
life I was warnan seemed to have provided against. That
I was under no necessity of seeking my bread, that
he would do well for me and endeavor to enter
me fairly into the station of life which he had
just been recommending to me, And that if I was
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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,
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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 anymore, but to
settle at home according to my father's desire. But alas
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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
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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
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was now eighteen years old, which was too late to
go apprentice to a trade or a clerk to an attorney,
and 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
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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 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
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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
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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 so much have hand in
my destruction, and I should never have it to say
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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
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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
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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
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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, be there, and
one of my companions being about to sail to London
in his father's ship, and prompting me to go with them,
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with the common allurement of seafaring men, that it should
cost me nothing for my passage. I consulted neither father
nor mother anymore, 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
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any consideration of circumstances or consequences, and in an ill
hour God knows. On the first of September sixteen fifty one,
I went on board a ship bound for London. Never
any young adventurer's misfortunes, I believe, began sooner or continued
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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
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how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of Heaven
from 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,
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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
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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
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did in the trough or hollow of the sea, we
should never rise more. In this act of mind, I
made many bows 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,
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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 anymore. How I saw plainly the
goodness of his observations about the middle station of life,
how easy, how comfortably he had lived all his days,
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and never have 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
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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
seasick still. But towards night the weather cleared up, the
wind was quite over, and a charming fine evening followed.
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The sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so next morning,
and having little or no wind, and a smooth sea,
the sun shining upon it. The sight was, I thought,
the most delightful that ever I saw. I had slept
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well in the night, and was now no more seasick,
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,
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my companion, who 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, weren't you
last night when it blew? But a capful of wind?
A capful do you call it? Said I? Twas a
terrible storm? A storm, you fool? You? Replies he do
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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.
Do you see what charming weather tis? Now? To make
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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.
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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 being swallowed up by the sea
being forgotten, and the current of my former desires returned,
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I entirely forgot the bows and promises that I made
in my distress. I found, indeed some intervals of reflection,
and the serious thoughts did, as it were, endeavored to
return again sometimes, but I shook them off and roused
myself from them, as if it were from a distemper,
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and implying 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
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was to have another trial for it still, and providence,
as in such cases generally, it does resolve 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
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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 waye since the storm.
Here we were obliged to come to an anchor, And
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here we lay the wind continuing contrary, that is, at southwest,
for seven or eight days, during which time a great
mini ships from Newcastle came into the same roads as
the common Harbor, where the ships might wait for a
wind for the river. We had, not, however, rid here
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so long, but we would have tided it up the river,
but that the wind blew too fresh, and after that
we had lain four or five days blew very hard. However,
the roads being reckoned as good as a harbor, the
anchorage good, and our ground tackle very strong. Our men
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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,
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that the ship might ride as easy as possible. By noon,
the sea, which went very high indeed, and our ship
rowed forecastle end, 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
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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
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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 all be lost, we
shall all be undone, and the like. During these first hurries,
I was stupid lying still in my cabin, which was
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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 passed, and that this would be
nothing like the first. But when the Master himself came
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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. But such a
dismal sight I never saw. The sea ran mountains high,
and broke upon us. Every three or four minutes. When
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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 that a ship which rode about
a mile ahead of us, was foundered. Two more ships,
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being driven from their anchors, were run out of the roads.
To see at all adventures, and that was with not
a mass standing. The light ships fared the best, as
not so much laboring in the sea, But two or
three of them drove and came close by us, running
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away with only their sprit sail out before the wind.
Towards the evening, the mate and Bosun begged the master
of our ship to let them cut away the foremast,
which he was very unwilling to do, but the Bosun,
protesting to him that if he did not, the ship
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would founder, he consented, and when they had cut away
the foremast, the main mast stood so loose and shook
the ships so much they were obliged to cut that
away also make a clear deck. Anyone may judge what
a condition I must be in at all this, who
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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
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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 find, by
no words, a way to describe it. But the worst
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was yet to come. The storm continued with such fury
that the seamen cells acknowledged that 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 found her.
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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 Bo'sun, and some other
more sensible than the rest, at their prayers and expecting
every moment when the ship would go to the bottom,
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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,
and then all hands were called to the pump. At
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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 more, was as well able to pump as another,
at which I stirred up and went to the pump
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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
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that 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
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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
found her, and though the storm began to abate a little,
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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 lightship 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
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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 the boy
to it, and then veered it out a great length,
which they, after much labor and hazard, took hold of,
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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
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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 north,
sloping towards the shore, almost as far as winterton Ness.
We were not much more than a quarter of an
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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 upon it when
the seaman told me she was sinking, For from the
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moment that they rather put me into the boat than
that I might be said to go in it, my
heart was, as it were, dead within me, partly with fright,
partly with horror of mind, and with the thoughts of
what was yet before me. While we were in this condition,
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the men laboring 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
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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
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to Yarmouth. Where As the 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
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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 blissed
Savior's parable, had even killed the fatted calf for me,
for hearing the ship I went away in was castaway
in Yarmouth roads. It was a great while before he
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had 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
for my reason and my more composed judgment to go home,
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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 done before us, and that we rush upon
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it with our eyes open. Certainly, nothing but some such decreed,
an avoidable 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
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visible instructions as I had met within my first attempt.
My comrade, who had helped me to Harden before, and
who was the Master's son, was now less forward than I.
The first time he spoke to me after we were
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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
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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 see any more. You ought to
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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 see no more? That is
another case, says he. It is my calling and therefore
my duty. But as you have made this voyage on trial,
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you see what a taste Heaven has given you of
what you are to expect if you persist, perhaps this
has all fallen us on your account, like Jonah in
the ship of Tarshish. Pray continues, he what are you
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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
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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 lost, and was further than he could
have authority to go. However, he afterwards talked very gravely
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to me, exhorting me to go back to my father
and not tell 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
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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
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some money in my pocket, I traveled 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 see. As
to going home, Shane opposed the best motions that offered
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to my thoughts, and it immediately occurred to me how
I should be laughed at among the neighbors, and should
be ashamed to see not my father and mother only,
but even everybody else, from which I have since often
observed how incondruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is,
(37:23):
especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide
them in such cases, that is 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
(37:45):
can only 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
(38:09):
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.
(38:34):
End of Chapter one
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel de Foe, Chapter one, Start in Life.
I was born in the year sixteen thirty two in
the city of York, of a good family, though not
of that country. My father, being a foreigner of Bremen,
(00:22):
who first settled 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 Krischnaer. But by the
(00:47):
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,
(01:13):
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
(01:36):
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 see. And my inclination
(02:00):
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
(02:20):
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
(02:43):
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
(03:06):
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.
(03:28):
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 labor and suffering of the mechanic
(03:50):
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 the state by
this one thing, that is, that this was the state
of life which all other people envied. That kings have
(04:13):
frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being borne 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
(04:35):
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
(04:56):
of mankind. Nay, they were not subjected to so many
distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those
who were, by vicious living, luxury and extravagances on the
one hand, or by hard labor, want of necessaries, and
(05:19):
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 kinds of enjoyments. That peace
and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune. That temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society,
(05:48):
all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures were the blessings
attending the middle station of life. That this way men
went silently in smoothly through the world, and comfortably out
of it, not embarrassed with the labors of the hands
(06:08):
or of the head, not sold to a life of
slavery for daily bread, nor harassed with perplexed circumstances which
robbed 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,
(06:31):
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
(06:55):
precipitate myself into miseries which nature and the station of
life I was warnan seemed to have provided against. That
I was under no necessity of seeking my bread, that
he would do well for me and endeavor to enter
me fairly into the station of life which he had
just been recommending to me, And that if I was
(07:18):
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,
(07:38):
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
(08:02):
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
(08:22):
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
(08:44):
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
(09:07):
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 anymore, but to
settle at home according to my father's desire. But alas
(09:28):
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
(09:51):
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
(10:12):
was now eighteen years old, which was too late to
go apprentice to a trade or a clerk to an attorney,
and 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
(10:36):
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 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
(10:56):
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
(11:19):
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 so much have hand in
my destruction, and I should never have it to say
(11:41):
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
(12:04):
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
(12:25):
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
(12:46):
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, be there, and
one of my companions being about to sail to London
in his father's ship, and prompting me to go with them,
(13:08):
with the common allurement of seafaring men, that it should
cost me nothing for my passage. I consulted neither father
nor mother anymore, 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
(13:31):
any consideration of circumstances or consequences, and in an ill
hour God knows. On the first of September sixteen fifty one,
I went on board a ship bound for London. Never
any young adventurer's misfortunes, I believe, began sooner or continued
(13:56):
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
(14:19):
how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of Heaven
from 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,
(14:40):
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
(15:01):
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
(15:23):
did in the trough or hollow of the sea, we
should never rise more. In this act of mind, I
made many bows 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,
(15:45):
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 anymore. How I saw plainly the
goodness of his observations about the middle station of life,
how easy, how comfortably he had lived all his days,
(16:09):
and never have 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
(16:31):
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
seasick still. But towards night the weather cleared up, the
wind was quite over, and a charming fine evening followed.
(16:55):
The sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so next morning,
and having little or no wind, and a smooth sea,
the sun shining upon it. The sight was, I thought,
the most delightful that ever I saw. I had slept
(17:17):
well in the night, and was now no more seasick,
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,
(17:37):
my companion, who 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, weren't you
last night when it blew? But a capful of wind?
A capful do you call it? Said I? Twas a
terrible storm? A storm, you fool? You? Replies he do
(18:03):
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.
Do you see what charming weather tis? Now? To make
(18:29):
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.
(18:52):
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 being swallowed up by the sea
being forgotten, and the current of my former desires returned,
(19:14):
I entirely forgot the bows and promises that I made
in my distress. I found, indeed some intervals of reflection,
and the serious thoughts did, as it were, endeavored to
return again sometimes, but I shook them off and roused
myself from them, as if it were from a distemper,
(19:38):
and implying 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
(19:59):
was to have another trial for it still, and providence,
as in such cases generally, it does resolve 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
(20:23):
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 waye since the storm.
Here we were obliged to come to an anchor, And
(20:46):
here we lay the wind continuing contrary, that is, at southwest,
for seven or eight days, during which time a great
mini ships from Newcastle came into the same roads as
the common Harbor, where the ships might wait for a
wind for the river. We had, not, however, rid here
(21:08):
so long, but we would have tided it up the river,
but that the wind blew too fresh, and after that
we had lain four or five days blew very hard. However,
the roads being reckoned as good as a harbor, the
anchorage good, and our ground tackle very strong. Our men
(21:30):
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,
(21:52):
that the ship might ride as easy as possible. By noon,
the sea, which went very high indeed, and our ship
rowed forecastle end, 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
(22:14):
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
(22:36):
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 all be lost, we
shall all be undone, and the like. During these first hurries,
I was stupid lying still in my cabin, which was
(22:59):
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 passed, and that this would be
nothing like the first. But when the Master himself came
(23:20):
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. But such a
dismal sight I never saw. The sea ran mountains high,
and broke upon us. Every three or four minutes. When
(23:41):
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 that a ship which rode about
a mile ahead of us, was foundered. Two more ships,
(24:02):
being driven from their anchors, were run out of the roads.
To see at all adventures, and that was with not
a mass standing. The light ships fared the best, as
not so much laboring in the sea, But two or
three of them drove and came close by us, running
(24:25):
away with only their sprit sail out before the wind.
Towards the evening, the mate and Bosun begged the master
of our ship to let them cut away the foremast,
which he was very unwilling to do, but the Bosun,
protesting to him that if he did not, the ship
(24:46):
would founder, he consented, and when they had cut away
the foremast, the main mast stood so loose and shook
the ships so much they were obliged to cut that
away also make a clear deck. Anyone may judge what
a condition I must be in at all this, who
(25:08):
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
(25:30):
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 find, by
no words, a way to describe it. But the worst
(25:54):
was yet to come. The storm continued with such fury
that the seamen cells acknowledged that 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 found her.
(26:15):
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 Bo'sun, and some other
more sensible than the rest, at their prayers and expecting
every moment when the ship would go to the bottom,
(26:41):
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,
and then all hands were called to the pump. At
(27:03):
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 more, was as well able to pump as another,
at which I stirred up and went to the pump
(27:25):
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
(27:46):
that 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
(28:07):
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
found her, and though the storm began to abate a little,
(28:31):
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 lightship 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
(28:54):
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 the boy
to it, and then veered it out a great length,
which they, after much labor and hazard, took hold of,
(29:17):
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
(29:41):
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 north,
sloping towards the shore, almost as far as winterton Ness.
We were not much more than a quarter of an
(30:02):
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 upon it when
the seaman told me she was sinking, For from the
(30:23):
moment that they rather put me into the boat than
that I might be said to go in it, my
heart was, as it were, dead within me, partly with fright,
partly with horror of mind, and with the thoughts of
what was yet before me. While we were in this condition,
(30:44):
the men laboring 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
(31:07):
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
(31:29):
to Yarmouth. Where As the 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
(31:51):
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 blissed
Savior's parable, had even killed the fatted calf for me,
for hearing the ship I went away in was castaway
in Yarmouth roads. It was a great while before he
(32:14):
had 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
for my reason and my more composed judgment to go home,
(32:35):
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 done before us, and that we rush upon
(32:58):
it with our eyes open. Certainly, nothing but some such decreed,
an avoidable 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
(33:22):
visible instructions as I had met within my first attempt.
My comrade, who had helped me to Harden before, and
who was the Master's son, was now less forward than I.
The first time he spoke to me after we were
(33:43):
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
(34:06):
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 see any more. You ought to
(34:28):
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 see no more? That is
another case, says he. It is my calling and therefore
my duty. But as you have made this voyage on trial,
(34:50):
you see what a taste Heaven has given you of
what you are to expect if you persist, perhaps this
has all fallen us on your account, like Jonah in
the ship of Tarshish. Pray continues, he what are you
(35:11):
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
(35:31):
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 lost, and was further than he could
have authority to go. However, he afterwards talked very gravely
(35:55):
to me, exhorting me to go back to my father
and not tell 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
(36:17):
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
(36:39):
some money in my pocket, I traveled 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 see. As
to going home, Shane opposed the best motions that offered
(37:00):
to my thoughts, and it immediately occurred to me how
I should be laughed at among the neighbors, and should
be ashamed to see not my father and mother only,
but even everybody else, from which I have since often
observed how incondruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is,
(37:23):
especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide
them in such cases, that is 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
(37:45):
can only 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
(38:09):
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.
(38:34):
End of Chapter one
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