Robinson Cruseo chapter 1

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 to be a little inured to
it; however, I was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick 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 next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smoo...

He called me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the gout,
and expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject.

By noon the sea went very high indeed, and our ship rode
forecastle in, 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 with two anchors ahead, and
the cables veered out to the bitter end.

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

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 to be a little inured to
it; however, I was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick 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 next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smoo...

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and me...

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 before us, and that we
rush upon it with our eyes open.

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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...

Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the master of our ship to let them cut away the
fore-mast, which he was very unwilling to do; but the boatswain protesting to him that if he did not
the ship would founder, he consented; and when they had cut away the fore-mast, the main-mast
stood so loose, and shook the ship so much, they were obliged to cut that away also, and make a
clear deck.

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 founder.

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

Then all hands were called to the
pump.

I got up out of my cabin and looked out; 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 round us; two ships that rode
near us, we found, had cut their masts by the board, being deep laden; and our men cried out that
a ship which rode about a mile ahead of us was foundered.

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 of being swallowed up by the sea
being forgotten, and the current of my former desires returned, I entirely forgot the vows and
promises that I made in my distress.

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 sea; and my inclination 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...

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 to be a little inured to
it; however, I was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick 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 next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smoo...

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

I 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.

This indeed was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which were
yet agitated by the sense of his loss, and was farther than he could have authority to go.

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 to run quite away from him.

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 sea; and my inclination 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...

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 I had so apparently trampled upon
and hardened myself against: I thought the bitterness of death had been past, 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.

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.

Here we were obliged to come
to an anchor, and here we lay, the wind continuing contrary—viz. at south-west—for seven or eight
days, during which time a great many ships from Newcastle came into the same Roads, as the
common harbour where the ships might wait for a wind for the river.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

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 sea; and my inclination 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...

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 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.

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.

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, he would make it good to their master: so
partly rowing and partly driving, our boat went away to the northward, sloping towards the shore
almost as far as Winterton Ness.

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

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

Here we were obliged to come
to an anchor, and here we lay, the wind continuing contrary—viz. at south-west—for seven or eight
days, during which time a great many ships from Newcastle came into the same Roads, as the
common harbour where the ships might wait for a wind for the river.

And now, lest my good resolutions should continue, my companion, who had
enticed me away, comes to me; “Well, Bob,” says he, clapping me upon the shoulder, “how do you
do after it?

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 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.

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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...

However, the Roads being
reckoned as good as a harbour, 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 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.

While we were in this condition—the men yet labouring 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 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 ...

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 the future.

Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early
with rambling thoughts.

“A storm, you fool you,” 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.

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 sea; and my inclination 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...

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 of being swallowed up by the sea
being forgotten, and the current of my former desires returned, I entirely forgot the vows and
promises that I made in my distress.

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 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 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
prompted me to.

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 I had so apparently trampled upon
and hardened myself against: I thought the bitterness of death had been past, 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.

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 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 trad...

In a word, I was so surprised that I fell down in a
swoon.

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 sea; and my inclination 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...

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 had 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.

I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father
being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull.

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 I had so apparently trampled upon
and hardened myself against: I thought the bitterness of death had been past, 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.

As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my thoughts, and it
immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed at among the neighbours, and should be
ashamed to see, not my father and mother only, but even everybody else; from whence I have since
often 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—viz. that they are not ashamed to
sin, and yet are ashamed to...

As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my thoughts, and it
immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed at among the neighbours, and should be
ashamed to see, not my father and mother only, but even everybody else; from whence I have since
often 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—viz. that they are not ashamed to
sin, and yet are ashamed to...

As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my thoughts, and it
immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed at among the neighbours, and should be
ashamed to see, not my father and mother only, but even everybody else; from whence I have since
often 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—viz. that they are not ashamed to
sin, and yet are ashamed to...

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

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 sea; and my inclination 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...

I found, indeed, some intervals of reflection; and the serious
thoughts did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes; but I shook them off, and roused
myself from them as it were from a distemper, and applying 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.

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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...

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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 t...

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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 t...

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 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 cl...

And now, lest my good resolutions should continue, my companion, who had
enticed me away, comes to me; “Well, Bob,” says he, clapping me upon the shoulder, “how do you
do after it?

As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my thoughts, and it
immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed at among the neighbours, and should be
ashamed to see, not my father and mother only, but even everybody else; from whence I have since
often 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—viz. that they are not ashamed to
sin, and yet are ashamed to repent...

Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early
with rambling thoughts.

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 agony of mind, I made many vows 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 s...

Certainly, nothing but some such decreed unavoidable 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 visible instructions
as I had met with in my first attempt.

“And, 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.”

Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the master of our ship to let them cut away the
fore-mast, which he was very unwilling to do; but the boatswain protesting to him that if he did not
the ship would founder, he consented; and when they had cut away the fore-mast, the main-mast
stood so loose, and shook the ship so much, they were obliged to cut that away also, and make a
clear deck.

However, the Roads being
reckoned as good as a harbour, 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 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.

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 agony of mind, I made many vows 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 s...

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 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 trad...

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 had 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.

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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 t...

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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 t...

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 be all lost! we shall be all undone!” and the like.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate o...

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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...

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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...

Here we got in, and though not without much difficulty, got all safe on shore,
and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, where, as 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 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 blessed Saviour’s parable, had even killed the fatted calf for me; for hearing
the ship I went away in was cast away in Yarmouth Roads, it was a great while before he had any
assurances that I was not drowned.

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 agony of mind, I made many vows 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 s...

I 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.

I got up out of my cabin and looked out; 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 round us; two ships that rode
near us, we found, had cut their masts by the board, being deep laden; and our men cried out that
a ship which rode about a mile ahead of us was foundered.

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw
was my design.

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and me...

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 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 cl...

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 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 trad...

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

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 before us, and that we
rush upon it with our eyes open.

Never any young adventurer’s misfortunes, I believe,
began sooner, or continued longer than mine.

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.

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing could resist; and though I had
several times loud calls from my reason and my more composed judgment to go home, yet I had
no power to do it.

“That is
another case,” said he; “it is my calling, and therefore my duty; but as you made this voyage on
trial, you see what a taste Heaven has given you of what you are to expect if you persist.

My comrade, who had helped to harden me 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, 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 orde...

However, the Roads being
reckoned as good as a harbour, 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 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.

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my thoughts, and it
immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed at among the neighbours, and should be
ashamed to see, not my father and mother only, but even everybody else; from whence I have since
often 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—viz. that they are not ashamed to
sin, and yet are ashamed to repent...

He told me I might judge of the happiness of this
state by this one thing—viz. 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, 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.

But being one day at Hull, where I went casually, and without any purpose of
making an elopement at that time; 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 any more, nor so much as sent them word of it; but leaving them to hear of it as
they might, without asking God’s...

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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...

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 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.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

He told me I might judge of the happiness of this
state by this one thing—viz. 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, 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.

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.

He told me I might judge of the happiness of this
state by this one thing—viz. 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, 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.

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw
was my design.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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...

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 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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw
was my design.

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and me...

But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing could resist; and though I had
several times loud calls from my reason and my more composed judgment to go home, yet I had
no power to do it.

But the worst was not come yet; the storm continued with such fury
that the seamen themselves acknowledged they had never seen a worse.

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or <...

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father
being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull.

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

We were not much more than a quarter of an 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.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

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

I 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.

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 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 cl...

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 Kreutznaer; but, by the 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.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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...

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

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

But I was to have another trial for it still; and Providence, as in such cases generally it does,
resolved 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 us would confess both the
danger and the mercy of.

This indeed was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which were
yet agitated by the sense of his loss, and was farther than he could have authority to go.

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and me...

Certainly, nothing but some such decreed unavoidable 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 visible instructions
as I had met with in my first attempt.

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

Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early
with rambling thoughts.

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

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 agony of mind, I made many vows 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 s...

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

Two more ships, being driven from
their anchors, were run out of the Roads to sea, at all adventures, and that with not a mast
standing.

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 blessed Saviour’s parable, had even killed the fatted calf for me; for hearing
the ship I went away in was cast away in Yarmouth Roads, it was a great while before he had any
assurances that I was not drowned.

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

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 the future.

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 the future.

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 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
dep...

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and me...

He asked me what 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 I might judge of the happiness of this
state by this one thing—viz. 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, 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.

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 be all lost! we shall be all undone!” and the like.

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and me...

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 I had so apparently trampled upon
and hardened myself against: I thought the bitterness of death had been past, 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.

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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 t...

However, the Roads being
reckoned as good as a harbour, 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 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.

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 expostulated with my father
and mother about their being so positively determined against what they knew my inclinations
prompted me to.

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.

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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...

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 sea; and my inclination 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...

However, the Roads being
reckoned as good as a harbour, 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 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.

My comrade, who had helped to harden me 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, 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...

I got up out of my cabin and looked out; 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 round us; two ships that rode
near us, we found, had cut their masts by the board, being deep laden; and our men cried out that
a ship which rode about a mile ahead of us was foundered.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

I 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 I was to have another trial for it still; and Providence, as in such cases generally it does,
resolved 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 us would confess both the
danger and the mercy of.

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 I had so apparently trampled upon
and hardened myself against: I thought the bitterness of death had been past, 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.

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 to be a little inured to
it; however, I was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick 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 next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smoo...

He asked me what 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.

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

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 had 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.

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 Kreutznaer; but, by the 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.

This indeed was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which were
yet agitated by the sense of his loss, and was farther than he could have authority to go.

Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early
with rambling thoughts.

Here we were obliged to come
to an anchor, and here we lay, the wind continuing contrary—viz. at south-west—for seven or eight
days, during which time a great many ships from Newcastle came into the same Roads, as the
common harbour where the ships might wait for a wind for the river.

He told me I might judge of the happiness of this
state by this one thing—viz. 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, 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.

My comrade, who had helped to harden me 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, 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 orde...

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 expostulated with my father
and mother about their being so positively determined against what they knew my inclinations
prompted me to.

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 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.”

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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 t...

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 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...

But being one day at Hull, where I went casually, and without any purpose of
making an elopement at that time; 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 any more, nor so much as sent them word of it; but leaving them to hear of it as
they might, without asking God’s...

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.

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 told me I might judge of the happiness of this
state by this one thing—viz. 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, 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.

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.

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 to be a little inured to
it; however, I was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick 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 next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smoo...

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 before us, and that we
rush upon it with our eyes open.

Here we got in, and though not without much difficulty, got all safe on shore,
and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, where, as 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 we thought fit.

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 with the
contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God and my father.

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 Kreutznaer; but, by the 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.

Here we got in, and though not without much difficulty, got all safe on shore,
and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, where, as 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 we thought fit.

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 I had so apparently trampled upon
and hardened myself against: I thought the bitterness of death had been past, 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.

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 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 by no words describe it.

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 enough to affect me then, who
was but a young sailor, and had never known anything of the matter.

But the worst was not come yet; the storm continued with such fury
that the seamen themselves acknowledged they had never seen a worse.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

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 to be a little inured to
it; however, I was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick 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 next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smoo...

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate o...

As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my thoughts, and it
immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed at among the neighbours, and should be
ashamed to see, not my father and mother only, but even everybody else; from whence I have since
often 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—viz. that they are not ashamed to
sin, and yet are ashamed to...

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 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...

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

I 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.

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 of being swallowed up by the sea
being forgotten, and the current of my former desires returned, I entirely forgot the vows and
promises that I made in my distress.

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw
was my design.

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 with the
contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God and my father.

We were not much more than a quarter of an 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.

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

Certainly, nothing but some such decreed unavoidable 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 visible instructions
as I had met with in my first attempt.

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 expostulated with my father
and mother about their being so positively determined against what they knew my inclinations
prompted me to.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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 t...

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 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 cl...

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 with the
contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God and my father.

I warrant you were frighted, wer’n’t you, last night, when it blew but a capful of wind?”

The light ships fared the best, as not so much labouring in the sea; but two or three of
them drove, and came close by us, running away with only their spritsail out before the wind.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

It was my advantage in one respect, that I did not know what they meant by
founder till I inquired.

Come, let us
make a bowl of punch, and we’ll forget all that; d’ye see what charming weather ’tis now?”

I found, indeed, some intervals of reflection; and the serious
thoughts did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes; but I shook them off, and roused
myself from them as it were from a distemper, and applying 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.

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 to be a little inured to
it; however, I was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick 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 next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smoo...

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate o...

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.

I began now seriously to reflect
upon what I had done, and how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of Heaven for my wicked
leaving my father’s house, and abandoning my duty.

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 to be a little inured to
it; however, I was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick 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 next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smooth sea,...

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

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 sea; and my inclination 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...

He asked me what 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.

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.

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

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 Kreutznaer; but, by the 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.

Certainly, nothing but some such decreed unavoidable 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 visible instructions
as I had met with in my first attempt.

As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my thoughts, and it
immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed at among the neighbours, and should be
ashamed to see, not my father and mother only, but even everybody else; from whence I have since
often 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—viz. that they are not ashamed to
sin, and yet are ashamed to...

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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 t...

He asked me what 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.

My comrade, who had helped to harden me 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, 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 orde...

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

“A storm, you fool you,” 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.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

He told me I might judge of the happiness of this
state by this one thing—viz. 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, 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.

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 blessed Saviour’s parable, had even killed the fatted calf for me; for hearing
the ship I went away in was cast away in Yarmouth Roads, it was a great while before he had any
assurances that I was not drowned.

By noon the sea went very high indeed, and our ship rode
forecastle in, 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 with two anchors ahead, and
the cables veered out to the bitter end.

However, the men roused me, and told me that I, that was able to
do nothing before, was as well able to pump as another; at which I stirred up and went to the pump,
and worked very heartily.

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 sea; and my inclination 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...

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 Kreutznaer; but, by the 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.

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, he would make it good to their master: so
partly rowing and partly driving, our boat went away to the northward, sloping towards the shore
almost as far as Winterton Ness.

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 with the
contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God and my father.

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 way since the storm.

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 with the
contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God and my father.

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.

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 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 cl...

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

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 sea; and my inclination 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...

Any one may 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.

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 agony of mind, I made many vows 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 s...

He told me I might judge of the happiness of this
state by this one thing—viz. 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, 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.

I began now seriously to reflect
upon what I had done, and how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of Heaven for my wicked
leaving my father’s house, and abandoning my duty.

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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 t...

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 with the
contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God and my father.

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 expostulated with my father
and mother about their being so positively determined against what they knew my inclinations
prompted me to.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate o...

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 sea; and my inclination 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...

Certainly, nothing but some such decreed unavoidable 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 visible instructions
as I had met with in my first attempt.

However, the Roads being
reckoned as good as a harbour, 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 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.

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.

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and me...

By noon the sea went very high indeed, and our ship rode
forecastle in, 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 with two anchors ahead, and
the cables veered out to the bitter end.

But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing could resist; and though I had
several times loud calls from my reason and my more composed judgment to go home, yet I had
no power to do it.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

“And, 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.”

But being one day at Hull, where I went casually, and without any purpose of
making an elopement at that time; 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 any more, nor so much as sent them word of it; but leaving them to hear of it as
they might, without asking God’s blessi...

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

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 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 cl...

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 be all lost! we shall be all undone!” and the like.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate o...

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 I had been dead; and it was a great while before I came to myself.

However, the storm was so violent that I saw, what is not often seen, the
master, the boatswain, and some others more sensible than the rest, at their prayers, and
expecting every moment when the ship would go to the bottom.

As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my thoughts, and it
immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed at among the neighbours, and should be
ashamed to see, not my father and mother only, but even everybody else; from whence I have since
often 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—viz. that they are not ashamed to
sin, and yet are ashamed to...

I found, indeed, some intervals of reflection; and the serious
thoughts did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes; but I shook them off, and roused
myself from them as it were from a distemper, and applying 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.

He called me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the gout,
and expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject.

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 expostulated with my father
and mother about their being so positively determined against what they knew my inclinations
prompted me to.

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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...

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the master of our ship to let them cut away the
fore-mast, which he was very unwilling to do; but the boatswain protesting to him that if he did not
the ship would founder, he consented; and when they had cut away the fore-mast, the main-mast
stood so loose, and shook the ship so much, they were obliged to cut that away also, and make a
clear deck.

However, the men roused me, and told me that I, that was able to
do nothing before, was as well able to pump as another; at which I stirred up and went to the pump,
and worked very heartily.

He told me I might judge of the happiness of this
state by this one thing—viz. 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, 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.

Certainly, nothing but some such decreed unavoidable 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 visible instructions
as I had met with in my first attempt.

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 with the
contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God and my father.

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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 t...

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 agony of mind, I made many vows 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 s...

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 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 trad...

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 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...

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

He asked me what 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.

I found, indeed, some intervals of reflection; and the serious
thoughts did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes; but I shook them off, and roused
myself from them as it were from a distemper, and applying 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.

Here we got in, and though not without much difficulty, got all safe on shore,
and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, where, as 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 we thought fit.

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 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

He asked me what 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.

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 before us, and that we
rush upon it with our eyes open.

My comrade, who had helped to harden me 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, 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 orde...

We had not, however, rid here so long but we should have tided it up the river, but that the wind
blew too fresh, and after we had lain four or five days, blew very hard.

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 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.

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

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 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.”

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 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 by no words describe it.

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.

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw
was my design.

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 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 trad...

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

He told me I might judge of the happiness of this
state by this one thing—viz. 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, 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.

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.

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 had 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.

But I was to have another trial for it still; and Providence, as in such cases generally it does,
resolved 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 us would confess both the
danger and the mercy of.

He asked me what 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.

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.

He asked me what 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.

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 sea; and my inclination 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...

By noon the sea went very high indeed, and our ship rode
forecastle in, 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 with two anchors ahead, and
the cables veered out to the bitter end.

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 I had been dead; and it was a great while before I came to myself.

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 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 by no words describe it.

My comrade, who had helped to harden me 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, 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 orde...

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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 t...

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 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.”

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 had 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.

Here we got in, and though not without much difficulty, got all safe on shore,
and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, where, as 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 we thought fit.

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.

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 sea; and my inclination 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...

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 to run quite away from him.

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 to be a little inured to
it; however, I was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick 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 next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smooth

I began now seriously to reflect
upon what I had done, and how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of Heaven for my wicked
leaving my father’s house, and abandoning my duty.

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 agony of mind, I made many vows 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 s...

Here we got in, and though not without much difficulty, got all safe on shore,
and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, where, as 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 we thought fit.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

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.

While we were in this condition—the men yet labouring 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 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 ...

We worked on; but the water increasing in the hold, it was apparent that the ship would founder;
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 master continued firing guns for help; and a light ship, who had rid it out just
ahead of us, ventured a boat out to help us.

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 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 of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and me...

But I was to have another trial for it still; and Providence, as in such cases generally it does,
resolved 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 us would confess both the
danger and the mercy of.

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 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...

He told me I might judge of the happiness of this
state by this one thing—viz. 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, 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 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 distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or i...

I, who knew nothing what they meant, thought the ship
had broken, or some dreadful thing happened.

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

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

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 sea; and my inclination 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...

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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 t...

After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into 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 endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending
to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault...

I 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 my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing could resist; and though I had
several times loud calls from my reason and my more composed judgment to go home, yet I had
no power to do it.

But being one day at Hull, where I went casually, and without any purpose of
making an elopement at that time; 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 any more, nor so much as sent them word of it; but leaving them to hear of it as
they might, without asking God’s...

But I was to have another trial for it still; and Providence, as in such cases generally it does,
resolved 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 us would confess both the
danger and the mercy of.

However, the storm was so violent that I saw, what is not often seen, the
master, the boatswain, and some others more sensible than the rest, at their prayers, and
expecting every moment when the ship would go to the bottom.

He told me it was men of desperate 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; 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 t...

He asked me what 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.

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.

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 sea; and my inclination 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...

By noon the sea went very high indeed, and our ship rode
forecastle in, 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 with two anchors ahead, and
the cables veered out to the bitter end.