"Robinson Crusoe" original reading, [English] Daniel Defoe ◎ ◎ ◎

Part 1: The Journey Begins (2)

Although my mother ostensibly refused to tell my father what I said, after a while I heard that she had privately conveyed all my thoughts and the conversation between me and me to my father, and after listening to my mother's words, my father was very worried, sighed and said: "If this child is willing to stay at home, he must be very happy; but if he insists on going to sea, he will become the most miserable person in the world." That being the case, I say nothing I can agree with. ”

Almost a year after this incident, I finally ran away from home, and during this year, although my family had repeatedly advised me to do some serious work, I was stubborn, did not listen to their opinions at all, but always entangled with my parents, asking them not to oppose their children's wishes. One day, I came to the city of Hull by chance. I hadn't thought about running away privately, but there I met someone I knew. He said he was going to London on his father's boat and encouraged me to go with them, and he used the seductive way of sailing, which sailors used, that I did not have to pay for the boat, that I did not have to ask my parents for advice, and did not even give them a message (as to whether they could get my news, they could only go with the flow). At that time, there was no prayer for God or the Father's blessing, and it can be said that there was no consideration of various possible situations and consequences. So on September 1, 1651, at an unfortunate time that only God knew, I boarded the ship to London, and I dared to pack a ticket. The unfortunate career of any young adventurer before me could not have begun to last longer than I did, nor could I have been in the boat I was on. Just out of the mouth of Humber Bay, unfortunately encountered fierce winds and terrifying waves, before which I had never been out of the sea, so I felt unspeakably uncomfortable, and my heart was also very afraid, and I began to seriously reflect on what I had done. God punished me for leaving my father and abandoning my responsibilities, and how just this punishment was. The tireless teachings of both parents. The tears left by my father and the sad pleas of my mother all came to my mind at this time, and my conscience (I was not so stubborn at that time) finally began to blame myself for not taking the advice of others down in the first place, and evading my responsibility to God and my father.

At this time, the fierce wind was getting stronger and stronger, and the waves were higher than once, although this scale was not as strong as the wind and waves I encountered later and a few days later, but it was enough to make my heart pound, because at this moment I was a first-time ship, so I did not know anything about the sea. I felt as if every wave wanted to swallow me, and every time our ship fell into the heart of the wave, I felt that the ship would sink forever. In this extremely painful and tormented mood, I have repeatedly vowed and resolved that if God is willing to leave me a way to live on this voyage, if I can set foot on that dry land again, I will return directly to my father, and in the days to come I will no longer go on the boat, and I will follow my father's advice and never find trouble for myself again. Now I finally want to open up and understand the true meaning of what he said about middle-class life. Looking back now, how laid-back and comfortable his life had been, and he had never experienced storms at sea or troubles on land, so I was determined to go home, to my father, and to be a veritable prodigal son.

These correct and sober thoughts, which had been lingering in my mind for a long time at the time of the storm and even for some time after it had ceased, had been in my mind for a long time, but by the next day there was no sign of a storm at all, and the wind and waves were calm. Gradually, I became accustomed to life at sea. However, my whole mental state was still not very good that day, because I was still a little seasick, and then by the middle of the night the weather was completely clear, there was no wind, and what followed was a beautiful and charming dusk. Whether it was the sunset that night or the morning sun the next morning, it looked very beautiful. It was a peaceful sight, the sun shining on the sea, a sight I had never seen before.

I slept soundly that night, so the next day there was no sign of seasickness and my spirits lifted. Looking at the sea that was still roaring the day before yesterday, it was very incredible that it had become so calm and soft. The friend who had lured me on board was worried that I had really made up my mind not to sail because of what had happened the day before yesterday, so I got up and came to visit me. "Hey, man," he said, patting me on the shoulder, "how do you feel now?" I said, a little breeze that night must have frightened you, right? "You say it's a little breeze?" I said, "That's a terrible storm!" "Storm? You fool. He replied, "Such a wind you call him a storm, alas, this is nothing at all." As long as the sponge is good enough and wide enough, this breeze, we don't put it on the body, but it is no wonder that you are uploading it for the first time. Well, let's go have some punch and leave all this bad luck behind. Look around you, how enchanting is this water-to-sky view! "I won't mention it here for my unfortunate experience, but in short, we took the old way of solving all the sailors' troubles, and after the punch was prepared, we drank ourselves into a drunken tincture, and my behavior that night was very absurd. Previous regrets about what he had done, as well as plans for the future, were all forgotten. In other words, as the sea gradually calms down, my mind is no longer full of thoughts and regrets. The fear of being buried at the bottom of the sea has long since disappeared without a trace, the idea of taking risks has begun to work again, and the vows and solemn promises made in pain and fear have been completely forgotten. Occasionally I am still a little confused about my future, those serious life thoughts try to re-enter my mind, but I do my best to get rid of them, I drink and chat every day, I want these thoughts to never exist again, in five or six days, I completely lost my conscience, as all young people hope. Probably because of this, I was doomed to suffer another disaster. The Creator saw that I had crashed into the south wall and did not turn back, so he had to intensify his efforts to punish me. Because since I refuse to repent this time, the next time the big goods will definitely be more powerful, even if the most vicious and stubborn people in the world meet, they will be afraid and begging for forgiveness.

On the sixth day after the voyage, we arrived at the port of Yamus. Because of your wind, we didn't have much to do after the storm and we had to anchor in this port. After another seven or eight days, the wind was blowing against the southwest. During this period, many ships from Xinbao came into this port. Because this is a port where ships must pass through, ships have to wait here for a tailwind before sailing into the River Thames.

We shouldn't have stopped here for so long, we should have taken advantage of the tide to drive into the Thames estuary, but the wind was blowing too fast. It was moored here for four or five days, and the wind kept blowing. But it is often regarded as an ideal port for mooring ships, and our anchors are well laid and the cables are strong, so that the people on board take it lightly, do not worry about any danger, but rest or play in the usual way of sailors. On the morning of the eighth day, when the wind was stronger, we lowered the mast together and tied all the cargoes tightly so that the boat could stretch and contract freely in the tide. At noon, it was also made higher by the wind, and the turbulent sea made our bow submerged in the water many times, and there was water gushing in everywhere in the river, and once or twice the waves bravely made us think that we were about to lose anchor, so the captain ordered the big anchor to be put down, so that our bow had a total of two hair anchors, and the anchor cables had been put to the maximum limit.

To be continued! ♥