鲁宾孙飘流记 英文版 Robinson Crusoe
丹尼尔.笛福 Daniel Defoe
CHAPTER III - WRECKED ON A DESERT ISLAND Page 2
As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my parents, so Icould not be content now, but I must go and leave the happy view Ihad of being a rich and thriving man in my new plantation, only topursue a rash and immoderate desire of rising faster than thenature of the thing admitted; and thus I cast myself down againinto the deepest gulf of human misery that ever man fell into, orperhaps could be consistent with life and a state of health in theworld.
To come, then, by the just degrees to the particulars of this partof my story. You may suppose, that having now lived almost fouryears in the Brazils, and beginning to thrive and prosper very wellupon my plantation, I had not only learned the language, but hadcontracted acquaintance and friendship among my fellow-planters, aswell as among the merchants at St. Salvador, which was our port;and that, in my discourses among them, I had frequently given theman account of my two voyages to the coast of Guinea: the manner oftrading with the negroes there, and how easy it was to purchaseupon the coast for trifles - such as beads, toys, knives, scissors,hatchets, bits of glass, and the like - not only gold-dust, Guineagrains, elephants' teeth, &c., but negroes, for the service of theBrazils, in great numbers.
They listened always very attentively to my discourses on theseheads, but especially to that part which related to the buying ofnegroes, which was a trade at that time, not only not far enteredinto, but, as far as it was, had been carried on by assientos, orpermission of the kings of Spain and Portugal, and engrossed in thepublic stock: so that few negroes were bought, and theseexcessively dear.
It happened, being in company with some merchants and planters ofmy acquaintance, and talking of those things very earnestly, threeof them came to me next morning, and told me they had been musingvery much upon what I had discoursed with them of the last night,and they came to make a secret proposal to me; and, after enjoiningme to secrecy, they told me that they had a mind to fit out a shipto go to Guinea; that they had all plantations as well as I, andwere straitened for nothing so much as servants; that as it was atrade that could not be carried on, because they could not publiclysell the negroes when they came home, so they desired to make butone voyage, to bring the negroes on shore privately, and dividethem among their own plantations; and, in a word, the question waswhether I would go their supercargo in the ship, to manage thetrading part upon the coast of Guinea; and they offered me that Ishould have my equal share of the negroes, without providing anypart of the stock.
This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made toany one that had not had a settlement and a plantation of his ownto look after, which was in a fair way of coming to be veryconsiderable, and with a good stock upon it; but for me, that wasthus entered and established, and had nothing to do but to go on asI had begun, for three or four years more, and to have sent for theother hundred pounds from England; and who in that time, and withthat little addition, could scarce have failed of being worth threeor four thousand pounds sterling, and that increasing too - for meto think of such a voyage was the most preposterous thing that everman in such circumstances could be guilty of.
But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more resistthe offer than I could restrain my first rambling designs when myfather' good counsel was lost upon me. In a word, I told them Iwould go with all my heart, if they would undertake to look aftermy plantation in my absence, and would dispose of it to such as Ishould direct, if I miscarried. This they all engaged to do, andentered into writings or covenants to do so; and I made a formalwill, disposing of my plantation and effects in case of my death,making the captain of the ship that had saved my life, as before,my universal heir, but obliging him to dispose of my effects as Ihad directed in my will; one half of the produce being to himself,and the other to be shipped to England.
In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects and tokeep up my plantation. Had I used half as much prudence to havelooked into my own interest, and have made a judgment of what Iought to have done and not to have done, I had certainly never goneaway from so prosperous an undertaking, leaving all the probableviews of a thriving circumstance, and gone upon a voyage to sea,attended with all its common hazards, to say nothing of the reasonsI had to expect particular misfortunes to myself.
But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancyrather than my reason; and, accordingly, the ship being fitted out,and the cargo furnished, and all things done, as by agreement, bymy partners in the voyage, I went on board in an evil hour, the 1stSeptember 1659, being the same day eight years that I went from myfather and mother at Hull, in order to act the rebel to theirauthority, and the fool to my own interests.
Our ship was about one hundred and twenty tons burden, carried sixguns and fourteen men, besides the master, his boy, and myself. Wehad on board no large cargo of goods, except of such toys as werefit for our trade with the negroes, such as beads, bits of glass,shells, and other trifles, especially little looking-glasses,knives, scissors, hatchets, and the like.
The same day I went on board we set sail, standing away to thenorthward upon our own coast, with design to stretch over for theAfrican coast when we came about ten or twelve degrees of northernlatitude, which, it seems, was the manner of course in those days.We had very good weather, only excessively hot, all the way uponour own coast, till we came to the height of Cape St. Augustino;from whence, keeping further off at sea, we lost sight of land, andsteered as if we were bound for the isle Fernando de Noronha,holding our course N.E. by N., and leaving those isles on the east.In this course we passed the line in about twelve days' time, andwere, by our last observation, in seven degrees twenty-two minutesnorthern latitude, when a violent tornado, or hurricane, took usquite out of our knowledge. It began from the south-east, cameabout to the north-west, and then settled in the north-east; fromwhence it blew in such a terrible manner, that for twelve daystogether we could do nothing but drive, and, scudding away beforeit, let it carry us whither fate and the fury of the windsdirected; and, during these twelve days, I need not say that Iexpected every day to be swallowed up; nor, indeed, did any in theship expect to save their lives.
In this distress we had, besides the terror of the storm, one ofour men die of the calenture, and one man and the boy washedoverboard. About the twelfth day, the weather abating a little,the master made an observation as well as he could, and found thathe was in about eleven degrees north latitude, but that he wastwenty-two degrees of longitude difference west from Cape St.Augustino; so that he found he was upon the coast of Guiana, or thenorth part of Brazil, beyond the river Amazon, toward that of theriver Orinoco, commonly called the Great River; and began toconsult with me what course he should take, for the ship was leaky,and very much disabled, and he was going directly back to the coastof Brazil.
, and committed ourselves,being eleven in number, to God's mercy and the wild sea; for thoughthe storm was abated considerably, yet the sea.
I was positively against that; and looking over the charts of thesea-coast of America with him, we concluded there was no inhabitedcountry for us to have recourse to till we came within the circleof the Caribbee Islands, and therefore resolved to stand away forBarbadoes; which, by keeping off at sea, to avoid the indraft ofthe Bay or Gulf of Mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped, inabout fifteen days' sail; whereas we could not possibly make ourvoyage to the coast of Africa without some assistance both to ourship and to ourselves.
With this design we changed our course, and steered away N.W. byW., in order to reach some of our English islands, where I hopedfor relief. But our voyage was otherwise determined; for, being inthe latitude of twelve degrees eighteen minutes, a second stormcame upon us, which carried us away with the same impetuositywestward, and drove us so out of the way of all human commerce,that, had all our lives been saved as to the sea, we were rather indanger of being devoured by savages than ever returning to our owncountry.
In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our menearly in the morning cried out, "Land!" and we had no sooner runout of the cabin to look out, in hopes of seeing whereabouts in theworld we were, than the ship struck upon a sand, and in a momenther motion being so stopped, the sea broke over her in such amanner that we expected we should all have perished immediately;and we were immediately driven into our close quarters, to shelterus from the very foam and spray of the sea.
endeavoured to placemyself so that if I should sleep I might not fall. And.
It is not easy for any one who has not been in the like conditionto describe or conceive the consternation of men in suchcircumstances. We knew nothing where we were, or upon what land itwas we were driven - whether an island or the main, whetherinhabited or not inhabited. As the rage of the wind was stillgreat, though rather less than at first, we could not so much ashope to have the ship hold many minutes without breaking intopieces, unless the winds, by a kind of miracle, should turnimmediately about. In a word, we sat looking upon one another, andexpecting death every moment, and every man, accordingly, preparingfor another world; for there was little or nothing more for us todo in this. That which was our present comfort, and all thecomfort we had, was that, contrary to our expectation, the ship didnot break yet, and that the master said the wind began to abate.
Now, though we thought that the wind did a little abate, yet theship having thus struck upon the sand, and sticking too fast for usto expect her getting off, we were in a dreadful condition indeed,and had nothing to do but to think of saving our lives as well aswe could. We had a boat at our stern just before the storm, butshe was first staved by dashing against the ship's rudder, and inthe next place she broke away, and either sunk or was driven off tosea; so there was no hope from her. We had another boat on board,but how to get her off into the sea was a doubtful thing. However,there was no time to debate, for we fancied that the ship wouldbreak in pieces every minute, and some told us she was actuallybroken already.
In this distress the mate of our vessel laid hold of the boat, andwith the help of the rest of the men got her slung over the ship'sside; and getting all into her, let go, and committed ourselves,being eleven in number, to God's mercy and the wild sea; for thoughthe storm was abated considerably, yet the sea ran dreadfully highupon the shore, and might be well called DEN WILD ZEE, as the Dutchcall the sea in a storm.
And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw plainlythat the sea went so high that the boat could not live, and that weshould be inevitably drowned. As to making sail, we had none, norif we had could we have done anything with it; so we worked at theoar towards the land, though with heavy hearts, like men going toexecution; for we all knew that when the boat came near the shoreshe would be dashed in a thousand pieces by the breach of the sea.However, we committed our souls to God in the most earnest manner;and the wind driving us towards the shore, we hastened ourdestruction with our own hands, pulling as well as we could towardsland.
What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep or shoal,we knew not. The only hope that could rationally give us the leastshadow of expectation was, if we might find some bay or gulf, orthe mouth of some river, where by great chance we might have runour boat in, or got under the lee of the land, and perhaps madesmooth water. But there was nothing like this appeared; but as wemade nearer and nearer the shore, the land looked more frightfulthan the sea.
After we had rowed, or rather driven about a league and a half, aswe reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling asternof us, and plainly bade us expect the COUP DE GRACE. It took uswith such a fury, that it overset the boat at once; and separatingus as well from the boat as from one another, gave us no time tosay, "O God!" for we were all swallowed up in a moment.
Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when Isank into the water; for though I swam very well, yet I could notdeliver myself from the waves so as to draw breath, till that wavehaving driven me, or rather carried me, a vast way on towards theshore, and having spent itself, went back, and left me upon theland almost dry, but half dead with the water I took in. I had somuch presence of mind, as well as breath left, that seeing myselfnearer the mainland than I expected, I got upon my feet, andendeavoured to make on towards the land as fast as I could beforeanother wave should return and take me up again; but I soon foundit was impossible to avoid it; for I saw the sea come after me ashigh as a great hill, and as furious as an enemy, which I had nomeans or strength to contend with: my business was to hold mybreath, and raise myself upon the water if I could; and so, byswimming, to preserve my breathing, and pilot myself towards theshore, if possible, my greatest concern now being that the sea, asit would carry me a great way towards the shore when it came on,might not carry me back again with it when it gave back towards thesea.
The wave that came upon me again buried me at once twenty or thirtyfeet deep in its own body, and I could feel myself carried with amighty force and swiftness towards the shore - a very great way;but I held my breath, and assisted myself to swim still forwardwith all my might. I was ready to burst with holding my breath,when, as I felt myself rising up, so, to my immediate relief, Ifound my head and hands shoot out above the surface of the water;and though it was not two seconds of time that I could keep myselfso, yet it relieved me greatly, gave me breath, and new courage. Iwas covered again with water a good while, but not so long but Iheld it out; and finding the water had spent itself, and began toreturn, I struck forward against the return of the waves, and feltground again with my feet. I stood still a few moments to recoverbreath, and till the waters went from me, and then took to my heelsand ran with what strength I had further towards the shore. Butneither would this deliver me from the fury of the sea, which camepouring in after me again; and twice more I was lifted up by thewaves and carried forward as before, the shore being very flat.
The last time of these two had well-nigh been fatal to me, for thesea having hurried me along as before, landed me, or rather dashedme, against a piece of rock, and that with such force, that it leftme senseless, and indeed helpless, as to my own deliverance; forthe blow taking my side and breast, beat the breath as it werequite out of my body; and had it returned again immediately, I musthave been strangled in the water; but I recovered a little beforethe return of the waves, and seeing I should be covered again withthe water, I resolved to hold fast by a piece of the rock, and soto hold my breath, if possible, till the wave went back. Now, asthe waves were not so high as at first, being nearer land, I heldmy hold till the wave abated, and then fetched another run, whichbrought me so near the shore that the next wave, though it wentover me, yet did not so swallow me up as to carry me away; and thenext run I took, I got to the mainland, where, to my great comfort,I clambered up the cliffs of the shore and sat me down upon thegrass, free from danger and quite out of the reach of the water.
I was now landed and safe on shore, and began to look up and thankGod that my life was saved, in a case wherein there was someminutes before scarce any room to hope. I believe it is impossibleto express, to the life, what the ecstasies and transports of thesoul are, when it is so saved, as I may say, out of the very grave:and I do not wonder now at the custom, when a malefactor, who hasthe halter about his neck, is tied up, and just going to be turnedoff, and has a reprieve brought to him - I say, I do not wonderthat they bring a surgeon with it, to let him blood that verymoment they tell him of it, that the surprise may not drive theanimal spirits from the heart and overwhelm him.
"For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first."
I walked about on the shore lifting up my hands, and my wholebeing, as I may say, wrapped up in a contemplation of mydeliverance; making a thousand gestures and motions, which I cannotdescribe; reflecting upon all my comrades that were drowned, andthat there should not be one soul saved but myself; for, as forthem, I never saw them afterwards, or any sign of them, exceptthree of their hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not fellows.
I cast my eye to the stranded vessel, when, the breach and froth ofthe sea being so big, I could hardly see it, it lay so far of; andconsidered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on shore
After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of mycondition, I began to look round me, to see what kind of place Iwas in, and what was next to be done; and I soon found my comfortsabate, and that, in a word, I had a dreadful deliverance; for I waswet, had no clothes to shift me, nor anything either to eat ordrink to comfort me; neither did I see any prospect before me butthat of perishing with hunger or being devoured by wild beasts; andthat which was particularly afflicting to me was, that I had noweapon, either to hunt and kill any creature for my sustenance, orto defend myself against any other creature that might desire tokill me for theirs. In a word, I had nothing about me but a knife,a tobacco-pipe, and a little tobacco in a box. This was all myprovisions; and this threw me into such terrible agonies of mind,that for a while I ran about like a madman. Night coming upon me,I began with a heavy heart to consider what would be my lot ifthere were any ravenous beasts in that country, as at night theyalways come abroad for their prey.
All the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that time was to getup into a thick bushy tree like a fir, but thorny, which grew nearme, and where I resolved to sit all night, and consider the nextday what death I should die, for as yet I saw no prospect of life.I walked about a furlong from the shore, to see if I could find anyfresh water to drink, which I did, to my great joy; and havingdrank, and put a little tobacco into my mouth to prevent hunger, Iwent to the tree, and getting up into it, endeavoured to placemyself so that if I should sleep I might not fall. And having cutme a short stick, like a truncheon, for my defence, I took up mylodging; and having been excessively fatigued, I fell fast asleep,and slept as comfortably as, I believe, few could have done in mycondition, and found myself more refreshed with it than, I think, Iever was on such an occasion.