Robinson Crusoe | Page 2

to Hull; and if I had
now had the good sense to go home, it would have been well for me.
The man whose ship had gone down said with a grave look, "Young lad,
you ought to go to sea no more, it is not the kind, of life for you." "Why
Sir, will you go to sea no more then?" "That is not the same kind of
thing; I was bred to the sea, but you were not, and came on board my
ship just to find out what a life at sea was like, and you may guess what
you will come to if you do not go back to your home. God will not
bless you, and it may be that you have brought all this woe on us."
I spoke not a word more to him; which way he went I knew not, nor did
I care to know, for I was hurt at this rude speech. Shall I go home
thought I, or shall I go to sea? Shame kept me from home, and I could
not make up my mind what course of life to take.
As it has been my fate through life to choose for the worst, so I did now.
I had gold in my purse, and good clothes on my back, and to sea I went

once more.
But I had worse luck this time than the last, for when we were far out at
sea, some Turks in a small ship came on our track in full chase. We set
as much sail as our yards would bear, so as to get clear from them. But
in spite of this, we saw our foes gain on us, and we felt sure that they
would come up with our ship in a few hours' time.
At last they caught us, but we brought our guns to bear on them, which
made them shear off for a time, yet they kept up a fire at us as long as
they were in range. The next time the Turks came up, some of their
men got on board our ship, and set to work to cut the sails, and do us all
kinds of harm. So, as ten of our men lay dead, and most of the rest had
wounds, we gave in.
The chief of the Turks took me as his prize to a port which was held by
the Moors. He did not use me so ill as at first I thought he would have
done, but he set me to work with the rest of his slaves. This was a
change in my life which I did not think had been in store for me. How
my heart sank with grief at the thought of those whom I had left at
home, nay, to whom I had not had the grace so much as to say "Good
bye" when I went to sea, nor to give a hint of what I meant to do!
Yet all that I went through at this time was but a taste of the toils and
cares which it has since been my lot to bear.
I thought at first that the Turk might take me with him when next he
went to sea, and so I should find some way to get free; but the hope did
not last long, for at such times he left me on shore to see to his crops.
This kind of life I led for two years, and as the Turk knew and saw
more of me, he made me more and more free. He went out in his boat
once or twice a week to catch a kind of flat fish, and now and then he
took me and a boy with him, for we were quick at this kind of sport,
and he grew quite fond of me.
One day the Turk sent me in the boat to catch some fish, with no one
else but a man and a boy. While we were out so thick a fog came on
that though we were out not half a mile from the shore, we quite lost
sight of it for twelve hours; and when the sun rose the next day, our
boat was at least ten miles out at sea. The wind blew fresh, and we were
all much in want of food, but at last, with the help of our oars and sail,
we got back safe to land.
When the Turk heard how we had lost our way, he said that the next

time he went out, he would take a boat that would hold all we could
want if we were kept out at sea. So he had quite a state room built