鲁宾孙飘流记 英文版 Robinson Crusoe
丹尼尔.笛福 Daniel Defoe
CHAPTER XVII - VISIT OF MUTINEERS Page 2
It was my design, as I said above, not to have made any attempttill it was dark; but about two o'clock, being the heat of the day,I found that they were all gone straggling into the woods, and, asI thought, laid down to sleep. The three poor distressed men, tooanxious for their condition to get any sleep, had, however, satdown under the shelter of a great tree, at about a quarter of amile from me, and, as I thought, out of sight of any of the rest.Upon this I resolved to discover myself to them, and learnsomething of their condition; immediately I marched as above, myman Friday at a good distance behind me, as formidable for his armsas I, but not making quite so staring a spectre-like figure as Idid. I came as near them undiscovered as I could, and then, beforeany of them saw me, I called aloud to them in Spanish, "What areye, gentlemen?" They started up at the noise, but were ten timesmore confounded when they saw me, and the uncouth figure that Imade. They made no answer at all, but I thought I perceived themjust going to fly from me, when I spoke to them in English."Gentlemen," said I, "do not be surprised at me; perhaps you mayhave a friend near when you did not expect it." "He must be sentdirectly from heaven then," said one of them very gravely to me,and pulling off his hat at the same time to me; "for our conditionis past the help of man." "All help is from heaven, sir," said I,"but can you put a stranger in the way to help you? for you seem tobe in some great distress. I saw you when you landed; and when youseemed to make application to the brutes that came with you, I sawone of them lift up his sword to kill you."
The poor man, with tears running down his face, and trembling,looking like one astonished, returned, "Am I talking to God or man?Is it a real man or an angel?" "Be in no fear about that, sir,"said I; "if God had sent an angel to relieve you, he would havecome better clothed, and armed after another manner than you seeme; pray lay aside your fears; I am a man, an Englishman, anddisposed to assist you; you see I have one servant only; we havearms and ammunition; tell us freely, can we serve you? What isyour case?" "Our case, sir," said he, "is too long to tell youwhile our murderers are so near us; but, in short, sir, I wascommander of that ship - my men have mutinied against me; they havebeen hardly prevailed on not to murder me, and, at last, have setme on shore in this desolate place, with these two men with me -one my mate, the other a passenger - where we expected to perish,believing the place to be uninhabited, and know not yet what tothink of it." "Where are these brutes, your enemies?" said I; "doyou know where they are gone? There they lie, sir," said he,pointing to a thicket of trees; "my heart trembles for fear theyhave seen us and heard you speak; if they have, they will certainlymurder us all." "Have they any firearms?" said I. He answered,"They had only two pieces, one of which they left in the boat.""Well, then," said I, "leave the rest to me; I see they are allasleep; it is an easy thing to kill them all; but shall we rathertake them prisoners?" He told me there were two desperate villainsamong them that it was scarce safe to show any mercy to; but ifthey were secured, he believed all the rest would return to theirduty. I asked him which they were. He told me he could not atthat distance distinguish them, but he would obey my orders inanything I would direct. "Well," says I, "let us retreat out oftheir view or hearing, lest they awake, and we will resolvefurther." So they willingly went back with me, till the woodscovered us from them.
"Look you, sir," said I, "if I venture upon your deliverance, areyou willing to make two conditions with me?" He anticipated myproposals by telling me that both he and the ship, if recovered,should be wholly directed and commanded by me in everything; and ifthe ship was not recovered, he would live and die with me in whatpart of the world soever I would send him; and the two other mensaid the same. "Well," says I, "my conditions are but two; first,that while you stay in this island with me, you will not pretend toany authority here; and if I put arms in your hands, you will, uponall occasions, give them up to me, and do no prejudice to me ormine upon this island, and in the meantime be governed by myorders; secondly, that if the ship is or may be recovered, you willcarry me and my man to England passage free."
He gave me all the assurances that the invention or faith of mancould devise that he would comply with these most reasonabledemands, and besides would owe his life to me, and acknowledge itupon all occasions as long as he lived. "Well, then," said I,"here are three muskets for you, with powder and ball; tell me nextwhat you think is proper to be done." He showed all thetestimonies of his gratitude that he was able, but offered to bewholly guided by me. I told him I thought it was very hardventuring anything; but the best method I could think of was tofire on them at once as they lay, and if any were not killed at thefirst volley, and offered to submit, we might save them, and so putit wholly upon God's providence to direct the shot. He said, verymodestly, that he was loath to kill them if he could help it; butthat those two were incorrigible villains, and had been the authorsof all the mutiny in the ship, and if they escaped, we should beundone still, for they would go on board and bring the whole ship'scompany, and destroy us all. "Well, then," says I, "necessitylegitimates my advice, for it is the only way to save our lives."However, seeing him still cautious of shedding blood, I told himthey should go themselves, and manage as they found convenient.
In the middle of this discourse we heard some of them awake, andsoon after we saw two of them on their feet. I asked him if eitherof them were the heads of the mutiny? He said, "No." "Well,then," said I, "you may let them escape; and Providence seems tohave awakened them on purpose to save themselves. Now," says I,"if the rest escape you, it is your fault." Animated with this, hetook the musket I had given him in his hand, and a pistol in hisbelt, and his two comrades with him, with each a piece in his hand;the two men who were with him going first made some noise, at whichone of the seamen who was awake turned about, and seeing themcoming, cried out to the rest; but was too late then, for themoment he cried out they fired - I mean the two men, the captainwisely reserving his own piece. They had so well aimed their shotat the men they knew, that one of them was killed on the spot, andthe other very much wounded; but not being dead, he started up onhis feet, and called eagerly for help to the other; but the captainstepping to him, told him it was too late to cry for help, heshould call upon God to forgive his villainy, and with that wordknocked him down with the stock of his musket, so that he neverspoke more; there were three more in the company, and one of themwas slightly wounded. By this time I was come; and when they sawtheir danger, and that it was in vain to resist, they begged formercy. The captain told them he would spare their lives if theywould give him an assurance of their abhorrence of the treacherythey had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful to him inrecovering the ship, and afterwards in carrying her back toJamaica, from whence they came. They gave him all theprotestations of their sincerity that could be desired; and he waswilling to believe them, and spare their lives, which I was notagainst, only that I obliged him to keep them bound hand and footwhile they were on the island.
While this was doing, I sent Friday with the captain's mate to theboat with orders to secure her, and bring away the oars and sails,which they did; and by-and-by three straggling men, that were(happily for them) parted from the rest, came back upon hearing theguns fired; and seeing the captain, who was before their prisoner,now their conqueror, they submitted to be bound also; and so ourvictory was complete.
It now remained that the captain and I should inquire into oneanother's circumstances. I began first, and told him my wholehistory, which he heard with an attention even to amazement - andparticularly at the wonderful manner of my being furnished withprovisions and ammunition; and, indeed, as my story is a wholecollection of wonders, it affected him deeply. But when hereflected from thence upon himself, and how I seemed to have beenpreserved there on purpose to save his life, the tears ran down hisface, and he could not speak a word more. After this communicationwas at an end, I carried him and his two men into my apartment,leading them in just where I came out, viz. at the top of thehouse, where I refreshed them with such provisions as I had, andshowed them all the contrivances I had made during my long, longinhabiting that place.
All I showed them, all I said to them, was perfectly amazing; butabove all, the captain admired my fortification, and how perfectlyI had concealed my retreat with a grove of trees, which having beennow planted nearly twenty years, and the trees growing much fasterthan in England, was become a little wood, so thick that it wasimpassable in any part of it but at that one side where I hadreserved my little winding passage into it. I told him this was mycastle and my residence, but that I had a seat in the country, asmost princes have, whither I could retreat upon occasion, and Iwould show him that too another time; but at present our businesswas to consider how to recover the ship. He agreed with me as tothat, but told me he was perfectly at a loss what measures to take,for that there were still six-and-twenty hands on board, who,having entered into a cursed conspiracy, by which they had allforfeited their lives to the law, would be hardened in it now bydesperation, and would carry it on, knowing that if they weresubdued they would be brought to the gallows as soon as they cameto England, or to any of the English colonies, and that, therefore,there would be no attacking them with so small a number as we were.
I mused for some time on what he had said, and found it was a veryrational conclusion, and that therefore something was to beresolved on speedily, as well to draw the men on board into somesnare for their surprise as to prevent their landing upon us, anddestroying us. Upon this, it presently occurred to me that in alittle while the ship's crew, wondering what was become of theircomrades and of the boat, would certainly come on shore in theirother boat to look for them, and that then, perhaps, they mightcome armed, and be too strong for us: this he allowed to berational. Upon this, I told him the first thing we had to do wasto stave the boat which lay upon the beach, so that they might notcarry her of, and taking everything out of her, leave her so faruseless as not to be fit to swim. Accordingly, we went on board,took the arms which were left on board out of her, and whateverelse we found there - which was a bottle of brandy, and another ofrum, a few biscuit-cakes, a horn of powder, and a great lump ofsugar in a piece of canvas (the sugar was five or six pounds): allwhich was very welcome to me, especially the brandy and sugar, ofwhich I had had none left for many years.
When we had carried all these things on shore (the oars, mast,sail, and rudder of the boat were carried away before), we knockeda great hole in her bottom, that if they had come strong enough tomaster us, yet they could not carry off the boat. Indeed, it wasnot much in my thoughts that we could be able to recover the ship;but my view was, that if they went away without the boat, I did notmuch question to make her again fit to carry as to the LeewardIslands, and call upon our friends the Spaniards in my way, for Ihad them still in my thoughts.