Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe - Chapter 1 – Start in Life

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Dream Audiobooks present Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, Chapter one,
starred in life.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
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,
who first settled at Hull, he got a good estate
by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York,

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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 Krischnayer. But by the
usual corruption of words in England, we are now called Nay,
we call ourselves and write our name Crusoe, and so

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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.

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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,

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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
to this led me so strongly against the will, nay,

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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

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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 the subject. He asked me what
reasons more than a mere wandering inclination I had for

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leaving father's house in 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

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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

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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
part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition,

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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
frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to great things,

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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

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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

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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
mean or insufficient diet on the other hand, bring distemper

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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 and 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

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to precipitate myself into me 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
endeavor to enter me fairly into the station of life
which he had just been recommending to me, And that

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 a clerk to an attorney, and that
I was sure if I did, I should never serve

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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

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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 my father upon
any such subject, that he knew too well what was
my interest to give his consent to anything so much

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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

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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 that my
mother was willing when my father was not. Though my
mother refused to move it to my father, yet I

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heard afterwards that she reported all the discourse to him
at 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

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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

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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.

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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 anymore,

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nor so much has 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.

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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 law younger
than mine. The ship was no sooner out of the
Humber than the wind began to blow and the sea

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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 from

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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

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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

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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 act of mind, I

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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,
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

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such misery as these anymore. 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 have been exposed to tempests at sea or
troubles on shore. And I resolved that I would, like

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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

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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.
The sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so the

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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 well in the night, and was now no

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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

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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
o wind? A catful? Do you call it? Said I?
Twas a terrible storm, A storm you fool?

Speaker 1 (18:04):
You?

Speaker 2 (18:05):
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,

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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

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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 being swallowed up by
the sea being forgotten, and the current of my former

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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,
endeavored to return again sometimes, but I shook them off

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and roused myself from them, as if it were from
a distemper, 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

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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 resolve to leave
me entirely without excuse. For if I would not take

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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

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weather calm. We had made but little waye since the storm.
Here we were obliged to come to an anchor, and
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

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the common Harbor, where the ships might wait for a
wind for the river we had not, however, rid here
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,

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the roads being reckoned as good as a harbor, 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

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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 it went very high, indeed, and our
ship rowed forcastle in shipped several seas, and we thought

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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

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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 all

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be lost, we shall all be 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

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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 by me as I said just now,
and said we should be all lost, I was dreadfully frighted.

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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 I could look about, I could see nothing but
distress around us. Two ships that rode near us we
found had cut their masts by the board, being deep laden,

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and our men cried that a ship would which road
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 was with
not a mass standing. The light ships fared the best,

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as not so much laboring in the sea. But two
or three of them drove and came close by us,
running away with only their sprit sail out before the wind.
Towards the evening, the mate and Bo'sun begged the master
of our ship to let them cut away the foremast,

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which he was very unwilling to do, but the Bosun,
protesting to him that if he did not, the ship
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 and make a clear deck. Any One may

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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,

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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 find, by
no words a way to describe it. But the worst

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was yet to come. The storm can tended with such
fury that the seamen themselves 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. It was my advantage in one respect that

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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, in the middle of the night, and

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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,

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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 and worked very heartily. While this

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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 that meant, thought the ship had broken,

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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

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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, yet it was not possible she could
swim till we might run into any port. So the

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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 get on board, or for the boat
to lie near the ship's side, till at last the men,

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rowing very heartily and venturing their lives to save ours,
our men cast them a rope over the stern with
the buoy to it, and then veered it out a
great length, which they, after much labor and hazard, took
hold of, and we hauled them close under our stern

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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,

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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. We
were not much more than a quarter of an hour
out of our ship till we saw her sink. And

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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 moment
that they rather put me into the boat than that

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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,
the men laboring at the oar to bring the boat

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near the shore, we could see when our boat mounting
the waves, we were able to see the shore, 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

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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 the unfortunate men we were used with great

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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

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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 had assurances that
I was not drowned. But my ill fate pushed me

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on now with an obstinacy that nothing could resist. And
though I had several times loud calls for my reason
in 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

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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 it with
our eyes open. Certainly, nothing but some such decreed, unavoidable misery,

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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 within my first attempt. My comrade,

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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 at Yarmouth,
which was not till two or three days, for we
were separated in the town to several quarters, I say,

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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.

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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 take this
for a plain and visible token that you are not
to be a seafaring man. Why, sir, said, I will

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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, you
see what a taste Heaven has given you of what
you are to expect if you persist, perhaps this has

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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.

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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

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sense of his lost, and was further 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

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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

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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 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

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to going home, AI oppose the best motions that offered
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

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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, 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

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be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which
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.

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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

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the thoughts of it, and looked out for a voyage.
End of Chapter one,