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01 - Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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Speaker 1: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel de Foe, Chapter one, Start in Life.
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Speaker 1: I was born in the year sixteen thirty two in
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Speaker 1: the city of York, of a good family, though not
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Speaker 1: of that country. My father, being a foreigner of Bremen,
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Speaker 1: who first settled at Hull, he got a good estate
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Speaker 1: by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York,
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Speaker 1: from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were
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Speaker 1: named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and
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Speaker 1: from whom I was called Robinson Krischnaer. But by the
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Speaker 1: usual corruption of words in England, we are now called Nay,
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Speaker 1: we call ourselves and write our name Crusoe, and so
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Speaker 1: my companions always called me. I had two elder brothers,
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Speaker 1: one of whom was lieutenant colonel to an English regiment
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Speaker 1: of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart,
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Speaker 1: and was killed at the Battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards.
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Speaker 1: What became of my second brother I never knew, any
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Speaker 1: more than my father or mother knew what became of me.
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Speaker 1: Being the third son of the family and not bred
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Speaker 1: to any trade, my head began to be filled very
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Speaker 1: early with rambling thoughts. My father who was very ancient,
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Speaker 1: had given me a competent share of learning as far
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Speaker 1: as house education and a country free school generally go,
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Speaker 1: and designed me for the law. But I would be
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Speaker 1: satisfied with nothing but going to see. And my inclination
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Speaker 1: to this led me so strongly against the will, nay,
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Speaker 1: the commands of my father, and against all the entreaties
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Speaker 1: and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there
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Speaker 1: seemed to be something fatal in that propensity of nature,
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Speaker 1: tending directly to the life of misery, which was to
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Speaker 1: befall me. My father, a wise and grave man, gave
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Speaker 1: me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was
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Speaker 1: my design. He called me one morning into his chamber,
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Speaker 1: where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very
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Speaker 1: warmly with me upon this subject. He asked me what
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Speaker 1: reasons more than a mere wandering inclination I had for
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Speaker 1: leaving father's house and my native country, where I might
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Speaker 1: be well introduced and had a prospect of raising my
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Speaker 1: fortune by application and industry with a life of ease
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Speaker 1: and pleasure. He told me it was men of desperate
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Speaker 1: fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring superior fortunes on
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Speaker 1: the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by
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Speaker 1: enterprise and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature
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Speaker 1: out of the common road. That these things were all
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Speaker 1: either too far above me or too far below me.
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Speaker 1: That mine was the middle state, or what might be
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Speaker 1: called the upper station of low life, which he had
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Speaker 1: found by long experience, was the best state in the world,
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Speaker 1: the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the
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Speaker 1: miseries and hardships, the labor and suffering of the mechanic
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Speaker 1: part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition,
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Speaker 1: and envy of the upper part of mankind. He told me,
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Speaker 1: I might judge of the happiness of the state by
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Speaker 1: this one thing, that is, that this was the state
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Speaker 1: of life which all other people envied. That kings have
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Speaker 1: frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being borne to great things,
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Speaker 1: and wished they had been placed in the middle of
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Speaker 1: the two extremes, between the mean and the great. That
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Speaker 1: the wise man gave his testimony to this as the
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Speaker 1: standard of felicity. When he prayed to have neither poverty
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Speaker 1: nor riches. He bade me observe it and I should
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Speaker 1: always find that the calamities of life were shared among
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Speaker 1: the upper and lower part of mankind, but that the
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Speaker 1: middle station had the fewest disasters and was not exposed
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Speaker 1: to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part
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Speaker 1: of mankind. Nay, they were not subjected to so many
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Speaker 1: distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those
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Speaker 1: who were, by vicious living, luxury and extravagances on the
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Speaker 1: one hand, or by hard labor, want of necessaries, and
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Speaker 1: mean or insufficient diet on the other hand, bring distemper
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Speaker 1: upon themselves by the natural consequences of their way of living.
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Speaker 1: That the middle station of life was calculated for all
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Speaker 1: kind of virtue and all kinds of enjoyments. That peace
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Speaker 1: and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune. That temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society,
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Speaker 1: all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures were the blessings
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Speaker 1: attending the middle station of life. That this way men
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Speaker 1: went silently in smoothly through the world, and comfortably out
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Speaker 1: of it, not embarrassed with the labors of the hands
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Speaker 1: or of the head, not sold to a life of
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Speaker 1: slavery for daily bread, nor harassed with perplexed circumstances which
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Speaker 1: robbed the soul of peace and the body of rest,
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Speaker 1: nor enraged with the passion of envy or the secret
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Speaker 1: burning lust of ambition for great things, but in easy circumstances,
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Speaker 1: sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets
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Speaker 1: of living without the bitter feeling that they are happy,
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Speaker 1: and learning by every day's experience to know it more. Sensibly.
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Speaker 1: After this he pressed me earnestly and in the most
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Speaker 1: affectionate manner, not to play the young man, nor to
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Speaker 1: precipitate myself into miseries which nature and the station of
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Speaker 1: life I was warnan seemed to have provided against. That
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Speaker 1: I was under no necessity of seeking my bread, that
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Speaker 1: he would do well for me and endeavor to enter
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Speaker 1: me fairly into the station of life which he had
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Speaker 1: just been recommending to me, And that if I was
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Speaker 1: not very easy and happy in the world, it must
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Speaker 1: be my mere fate or fault that must hinder it,
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Speaker 1: and that he should have nothing to answer for having
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Speaker 1: thus discharged his duty in warning me against measures which
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Speaker 1: he knew would be to my hurt. In a word,
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Speaker 1: that as he would do very kind things for me
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Speaker 1: if I would stay and settle at home as he directed,
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Speaker 1: so he would not have so much hand in my
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Speaker 1: misfortunes as to give me any encouragement to go away
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Speaker 1: and to close all. He told me, I had my
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Speaker 1: elder brother for an example, to whom he had used
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Speaker 1: the same earnest persuasions to keep him from going into
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Speaker 1: the low country wars, but could not prevail his young desires,
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Speaker 1: prompting him to run into the army where he was killed.
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Speaker 1: And though he said he would not cease to pray
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Speaker 1: for me, yet he would venture to say to me
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Speaker 1: that if I did take this foolish step, God would
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Speaker 1: not bless me, and I should have leisure hereafter to
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Speaker 1: reflect upon having neglected his counsel, when there might be
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Speaker 1: none to assist in my recovery. I observed in this
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Speaker 1: last part of his discourse, which was truly prophetic, though
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Speaker 1: I suppose my father did not know it to be
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Speaker 1: so himself. I say I observed the tears run down
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Speaker 1: his face very plentifully, especially when he spoke of my
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Speaker 1: brother who was killed, and that when he spoke of
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Speaker 1: my having leisure to repent and none to assist me,
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Speaker 1: he was so moved that he broke off the discourse
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Speaker 1: and told me his heart was so full he could
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Speaker 1: say no more to me. I was sincerely affected with
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Speaker 1: this discourse, and indeed who could be otherwise? And I
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Speaker 1: resolved not to think of going abroad anymore, but to
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Speaker 1: settle at home according to my father's desire. But alas
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Speaker 1: a few days wore it all off, and in short
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Speaker 1: to prevent any of my father's further importunities. In a
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Speaker 1: few weeks after, I resolved to run quite away from him. However,
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Speaker 1: I did not act quite so hastily as the first
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Speaker 1: heat of my resolution prompted. But I took my mother
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Speaker 1: at a time when I thought her a little more
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Speaker 1: pleasant than ordinary, and told her that my thoughts were
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Speaker 1: so entirely bent upon seeing the world, that I should
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Speaker 1: never settle to anything with resolution enough to go through
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Speaker 1: with it, and my father had better give me his
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Speaker 1: consent than force me to go without it. That I
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Speaker 1: was now eighteen years old, which was too late to
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Speaker 1: go apprentice to a trade or a clerk to an attorney,
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Speaker 1: and that I was sure if I did, I should
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Speaker 1: never serve out my time, but I should certainly run
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Speaker 1: away from my master before my time was out, and
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Speaker 1: go to sea, and if she would speak to my
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Speaker 1: father to let me go one voyage abroad, if I
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Speaker 1: came home again and did not like it, I would
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Speaker 1: go no more, and I would promise by a double
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Speaker 1: diligence to recover the time I had lost. This put
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Speaker 1: my mother into a great passion. She told me she
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Speaker 1: knew it would be to no purpose to speak to
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Speaker 1: my father upon any such subject, that he knew too
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Speaker 1: well what was my interest to give his consent to
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Speaker 1: anything so much for my hurt, And that she wondered
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Speaker 1: how I could think of any such thing after the
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Speaker 1: discourse I had had with my father, and such kind
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Speaker 1: and tender expressions as she knew my father had used
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Speaker 1: to me, And that in short, if I would ruin myself,
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Speaker 1: there was no help for me. But I might depend.
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Speaker 1: I should never have their consent to it, that for
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Speaker 1: her part, she would not so much have hand in
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Speaker 1: my destruction, and I should never have it to say
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Speaker 1: that my mother was willing when my father was not.
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Speaker 1: Though my mother refused to move it to my father,
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Speaker 1: Yet I heard afterwards that she reported all the discourse
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Speaker 1: to him, and that my father, after showing a great
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Speaker 1: concern at it, said to her, with a sigh, that
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Speaker 1: boy might be happy if he would stay at home,
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Speaker 1: but if he goes abroad, he will be the most
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Speaker 1: miserable wretch that ever was born. I can give no
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Speaker 1: consent to it. It was not till almost a year
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Speaker 1: after this that I broke loose, though in the meantime
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Speaker 1: I continued obstinately deaf to all proposals of settling to business,
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Speaker 1: and frequently expostulated with my father and mother about their
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Speaker 1: being so positively determined against what they knew my inclinations
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Speaker 1: prompted me to. But being one day at Hull, where
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Speaker 1: I went casually and without any purpose of making an
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Speaker 1: elopement at that time, but I say, be there, and
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Speaker 1: one of my companions being about to sail to London
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Speaker 1: in his father's ship, and prompting me to go with them,
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Speaker 1: with the common allurement of seafaring men, that it should
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Speaker 1: cost me nothing for my passage. I consulted neither father
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Speaker 1: nor mother anymore, nor so much as sent them word
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Speaker 1: of it, but leaving them to hear of it as
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Speaker 1: they might, without asking God's blessing or my father's, without
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Speaker 1: any consideration of circumstances or consequences, and in an ill
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Speaker 1: hour God knows. On the first of September sixteen fifty one,
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Speaker 1: I went on board a ship bound for London. Never
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Speaker 1: any young adventurer's misfortunes, I believe, began sooner or continued
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Speaker 1: longer than mine. The ship was no sooner out of
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Speaker 1: the Humber than the wind began to blow and the
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Speaker 1: sea to rise in a most frightful manner. And as
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Speaker 1: I had never been at sea before, I was most
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Speaker 1: inexpressibly sick in body and terrified in mind. I began
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Speaker 1: now seriously to reflect upon what I had done, and
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Speaker 1: how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of Heaven
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Speaker 1: from my wicked leaving my father's house and abandoning my duty.
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Speaker 1: All the good counsels of my parents, my father's tears
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Speaker 1: and my mother's entreaties, came now fresh into my mind,
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Speaker 1: and my conscience, which was not yet come to the
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Speaker 1: pitch of hardness to which it has since reproached me
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Speaker 1: with the contempt of advice and the breach of my
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Speaker 1: duty to God and my father. All this while the
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Speaker 1: storm increased and the sea went very high, though nothing
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Speaker 1: like what I have seen many times since, no nor
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Speaker 1: what I saw a few days after, But it was
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Speaker 1: enough to affect me then, who was but a young
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Speaker 1: sailor and had never known anything of the matter. I
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Speaker 1: expected every wave would have swallowed us up, and that
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Speaker 1: every time the ship fell down, as I thought it
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Speaker 1: did in the trough or hollow of the sea, we
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Speaker 1: should never rise more. In this act of mind, I
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Speaker 1: made many bows and resolutions that if it would please
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Speaker 1: God to spare my life in this one voyage, if
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Speaker 1: ever I got once my foot upon dry land again,
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Speaker 1: I would go directly home to my father, and never
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Speaker 1: set it into a ship again while I lived. That
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Speaker 1: I would take his advice and never run myself into
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Speaker 1: such miseries as these anymore. How I saw plainly the
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Speaker 1: goodness of his observations about the middle station of life,
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Speaker 1: how easy, how comfortably he had lived all his days,
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Speaker 1: and never have been exposed to tempests at sea or
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Speaker 1: troubles on shore. And I resolved that I would, like
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Speaker 1: a true, repenting prodigal, go home to my father. These
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Speaker 1: wise and sober thoughts continued all the while the storm lasted,
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Speaker 1: and indeed some time after but the next day the
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Speaker 1: wind was abated, and the sea calmer, and I began
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Speaker 1: to be a little inured to it. However, I was
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Speaker 1: very grave for all that day, being also a little
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Speaker 1: seasick still. But towards night the weather cleared up, the
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Speaker 1: wind was quite over, and a charming fine evening followed.
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Speaker 1: The sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so next morning,
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Speaker 1: and having little or no wind, and a smooth sea,
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Speaker 1: the sun shining upon it. The sight was, I thought,
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Speaker 1: the most delightful that ever I saw. I had slept
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Speaker 1: well in the night, and was now no more seasick,
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Speaker 1: but very cheerful, looking with wonder upon the sea that
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Speaker 1: was so rough and terrible the day before, and could
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Speaker 1: be so calm and so pleasant in so little a
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Speaker 1: time after. And now lest my good resolutions should continue,
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Speaker 1: my companion, who enticed me away, comes to me. Well, Bob,
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Speaker 1: says he, clapping me upon the shoulder. How do you
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Speaker 1: do after it? I warrant you were frighted, weren't you
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Speaker 1: last night when it blew? But a capful of wind?
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Speaker 1: A capful do you call it? Said I? Twas a
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Speaker 1: terrible storm? A storm, you fool? You? Replies he do
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Speaker 1: you call that a storm? Why? It was? Nothing at all,
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Speaker 1: give us but a good ship and sea room, and
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Speaker 1: we think nothing of such a squall of wind as that.
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Speaker 1: But you're but a fresh water sailor, Bob. Come, let
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Speaker 1: us make a bowl of punch, and we'll forget all that.
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Speaker 1: Do you see what charming weather tis? Now? To make
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Speaker 1: short this sad part of my story, we went the
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Speaker 1: way of all sailors. The punch was made, and I
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Speaker 1: was made half drunk with it, And in that one
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Speaker 1: night's wickedness I drowned all my repentance, all my reflections
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Speaker 1: upon my past, conduct, all my resolutions for the future.
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Speaker 1: In a word, as the sea was returned to its
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Speaker 1: smoothness of surface and settled calmness by the abatement of
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Speaker 1: that storm, so the hurry of my thoughts being over,
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Speaker 1: my fears and apprehensions being swallowed up by the sea
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Speaker 1: being forgotten, and the current of my former desires returned,
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Speaker 1: I entirely forgot the bows and promises that I made
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Speaker 1: in my distress. I found, indeed some intervals of reflection,
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Speaker 1: and the serious thoughts did, as it were, endeavored to
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Speaker 1: return again sometimes, but I shook them off and roused
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Speaker 1: myself from them, as if it were from a distemper,
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Speaker 1: and implying myself to drinking and company, soon mastered the
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Speaker 1: return of those fits, for so I called them, and
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Speaker 1: I had, in five or six days, got as complete
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Speaker 1: a victory over conscience as any young fellow that resolved
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Speaker 1: not to be troubled with it could desire. But I
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Speaker 1: was to have another trial for it still, and providence,
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Speaker 1: as in such cases generally, it does resolve to leave
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Speaker 1: me entirely without excuse. For if I would not take
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Speaker 1: this for a deliverance, the next was to be such
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Speaker 1: a one as the worst and most hardened wretch among
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Speaker 1: us would confess both the danger and the mercy of
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Speaker 1: the sixth day of our being at sea, we came
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Speaker 1: into Yarmouth Roads. The wind having been contrary and the
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Speaker 1: weather calm. We had made but little waye since the storm.
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Speaker 1: Here we were obliged to come to an anchor, And
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Speaker 1: here we lay the wind continuing contrary, that is, at southwest,
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Speaker 1: for seven or eight days, during which time a great
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Speaker 1: mini ships from Newcastle came into the same roads as
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Speaker 1: the common Harbor, where the ships might wait for a
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Speaker 1: wind for the river. We had, not, however, rid here
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Speaker 1: so long, but we would have tided it up the river,
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Speaker 1: but that the wind blew too fresh, and after that
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Speaker 1: we had lain four or five days blew very hard. However,
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Speaker 1: the roads being reckoned as good as a harbor, the
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Speaker 1: anchorage good, and our ground tackle very strong. Our men
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Speaker 1: were unconcerned and not in the least apprehensive of danger,
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Speaker 1: but spent the time in rest and mirth after the
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Speaker 1: manner of the sea. But the eighth day, in the
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Speaker 1: morning the wind increased, and we had all hands at
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Speaker 1: work to strike our topmasts and make everything snug and close,
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Speaker 1: that the ship might ride as easy as possible. By noon,
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Speaker 1: the sea, which went very high indeed, and our ship
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Speaker 1: rowed forecastle end, shipped several seas, and we thought once
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Speaker 1: or twice our anchor had come home, upon which our
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Speaker 1: master ordered out the sheet anchor, so that we rode
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Speaker 1: with two anchors ahead, and the cables veered out to
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Speaker 1: the bitter end. By this time it blew a terrible storm, indeed,
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Speaker 1: and now I began to see terror and amazement in
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Speaker 1: the faces even of the seamen themselves. The master, though
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Speaker 1: vigilant in the business of preserving the ship, yet as
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Speaker 1: he went in and out of his cabin by me.
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Speaker 1: I could hear him softly to himself say several times, Lord,
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Speaker 1: be merciful to us, we shall all be lost, we
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Speaker 1: shall all be undone, and the like. During these first hurries,
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Speaker 1: I was stupid lying still in my cabin, which was
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Speaker 1: in the steerage, and cannot describe my temper. I could
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Speaker 1: ill resume the first penitence, which I had so apparently
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Speaker 1: trampled upon and hardened myself against. I thought the bitterness
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Speaker 1: of death had been passed, and that this would be
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Speaker 1: nothing like the first. But when the Master himself came
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Speaker 1: by me as I said, just now, and said we
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Speaker 1: should be all lost, I was dreadfully frighted. I got
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Speaker 1: up out of my cabin and looked. But such a
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Speaker 1: dismal sight I never saw. The sea ran mountains high,
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Speaker 1: and broke upon us. Every three or four minutes. When
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Speaker 1: I could look about, I could see nothing but distress
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Speaker 1: round us. Two ships that rode near us we found
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Speaker 1: had cut their masts by the board, being deep laden,
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Speaker 1: and our men cried that a ship which rode about
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Speaker 1: a mile ahead of us, was foundered. Two more ships,
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Speaker 1: being driven from their anchors, were run out of the roads.
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Speaker 1: To see at all adventures, and that was with not
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Speaker 1: a mass standing. The light ships fared the best, as
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Speaker 1: not so much laboring in the sea, But two or
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Speaker 1: three of them drove and came close by us, running
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Speaker 1: away with only their sprit sail out before the wind.
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Speaker 1: Towards the evening, the mate and Bosun begged the master
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Speaker 1: of our ship to let them cut away the foremast,
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Speaker 1: which he was very unwilling to do, but the Bosun,
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Speaker 1: protesting to him that if he did not, the ship
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Speaker 1: would founder, he consented, and when they had cut away
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Speaker 1: the foremast, the main mast stood so loose and shook
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Speaker 1: the ships so much they were obliged to cut that
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Speaker 1: away also make a clear deck. Anyone may judge what
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Speaker 1: a condition I must be in at all this, who
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Speaker 1: was but a young sailor, and who had been in
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Speaker 1: such a fright before, at but a little. But if
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Speaker 1: I can express at this distance the thoughts I had
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Speaker 1: about me at that time, I was in tenfold more
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Speaker 1: horror of mind upon account of my former convictions, and
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Speaker 1: the having returned from them to the resolutions I had
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Speaker 1: wickedly taken at first, than I was at death itself.
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Speaker 1: And these added to the terror of the storm, put
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Speaker 1: me into such a condition that I can find, by
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Speaker 1: no words, a way to describe it. But the worst
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Speaker 1: was yet to come. The storm continued with such fury
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Speaker 1: that the seamen cells acknowledged that they had never seen
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Speaker 1: a worse. We had a good ship, but she was
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Speaker 1: deep laden and wallowed in the sea, so that the
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Speaker 1: seamen every now and then cried out she would found her.
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Speaker 1: It was my advantage in one respect that I did
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Speaker 1: not know what they meant by founder till I inquired. However,
26:24
Speaker 1: the storm was so violent that I saw what is
26:27
Speaker 1: not often seen. The Master, the Bo'sun, and some other
26:31
Speaker 1: more sensible than the rest, at their prayers and expecting
26:35
Speaker 1: every moment when the ship would go to the bottom,
26:41
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night, and under all the
26:45
Speaker 1: rest of our distresses. One of the men that had
26:48
Speaker 1: been down to see cried out, we had sprung a leak.
26:54
Speaker 1: Another said there was four feet water in the hold,
27:00
Speaker 1: and then all hands were called to the pump. At
27:03
Speaker 1: that word, my heart, as I thought, died within me,
27:07
Speaker 1: and I fell backwards upon the side of my bed
27:10
Speaker 1: where I sat into the cabin. However, the men roused
27:14
Speaker 1: me and told me that I that was able to
27:17
Speaker 1: do nothing more, was as well able to pump as another,
27:22
Speaker 1: at which I stirred up and went to the pump
27:25
Speaker 1: and worked very heartily. While this was doing, the Master,
27:30
Speaker 1: seeing some light colliers who not able to ride out
27:34
Speaker 1: the storm, were obliged to slip and run away to sea,
27:38
Speaker 1: and would come near us, ordered to fire a gun
27:42
Speaker 1: as a signal of distress. I, who knew nothing what
27:46
Speaker 1: that meant, thought the ship had broken, or some dreadful
27:51
Speaker 1: thing happened. In a word, I was so surprised that
27:56
Speaker 1: I fell down in a swoon, as this was a
28:00
Speaker 1: time when everybody had his own life to think of.
28:03
Speaker 1: Nobody minded me or what was become of me. But
28:07
Speaker 1: another man stepped up to the pump, and, thrusting me
28:10
Speaker 1: aside with his foot, let me lie, thinking I had
28:14
Speaker 1: been dead, And it was a great while before I
28:18
Speaker 1: came to myself. We worked on, but the water increasing
28:24
Speaker 1: in the hold, it was apparent that the ship would
28:26
Speaker 1: found her, and though the storm began to abate a little,
28:31
Speaker 1: yet it was not possible she could swim till we
28:33
Speaker 1: might run into any port. So the Master continued firing
28:38
Speaker 1: guns for help, and a lightship who had rid it
28:42
Speaker 1: out just ahead of us, ventured a boat out to
28:46
Speaker 1: help us. It was with the utmost hazard. The boat
28:50
Speaker 1: came near us, but it was impossible for us to
28:54
Speaker 1: get on board, or for the boat to lie near
28:57
Speaker 1: the ship's side, till at last the men, rowing very
29:00
Speaker 1: heartily and venturing their lives to save ours, our men
29:05
Speaker 1: cast them a rope over the stern with the boy
29:08
Speaker 1: to it, and then veered it out a great length,
29:13
Speaker 1: which they, after much labor and hazard, took hold of,
29:17
Speaker 1: and we hauled them close under our stern and got
29:21
Speaker 1: all into their boat. It was to no purpose for
29:25
Speaker 1: them or us, after we were in the boat to
29:29
Speaker 1: think of reaching their own ship, so all agreed to
29:33
Speaker 1: let her drive, and only to pull her in towards
29:37
Speaker 1: shore as much as we could. And our master promised
29:41
Speaker 1: them that if the boat was staved upon shore, he
29:44
Speaker 1: would make it good to their master. So, partly rowing
29:48
Speaker 1: and partly driving, our boat went away to the north,
29:53
Speaker 1: sloping towards the shore, almost as far as winterton Ness.
30:00
Speaker 1: We were not much more than a quarter of an
30:02
Speaker 1: hour out of our ship till we saw her sink.
30:07
Speaker 1: And then I understood for the first time what was
30:10
Speaker 1: meant by a ship foundering in the sea. I must
30:14
Speaker 1: acknowledge I had hardly eyes to look upon it when
30:18
Speaker 1: the seaman told me she was sinking, For from the
30:23
Speaker 1: moment that they rather put me into the boat than
30:27
Speaker 1: that I might be said to go in it, my
30:30
Speaker 1: heart was, as it were, dead within me, partly with fright,
30:35
Speaker 1: partly with horror of mind, and with the thoughts of
30:38
Speaker 1: what was yet before me. While we were in this condition,
30:44
Speaker 1: the men laboring at the oar to bring the boat
30:48
Speaker 1: near the shore, we could see when our boat mounting
30:53
Speaker 1: the waves, we were able to see the shore a
30:56
Speaker 1: great many people running along the strand to assist us
31:00
Speaker 1: when we should come near. But we made but slow
31:04
Speaker 1: way towards the shore, nor were we able to reach
31:07
Speaker 1: the shore till being past the lighthouse at Winterton. The
31:11
Speaker 1: shore falls off to the westward towards Cromer, and so
31:16
Speaker 1: the land broke off a little the violence of the wind.
31:20
Speaker 1: Here we got in, and though not without much difficulty,
31:25
Speaker 1: got all safe on shore, and walked afterwards on foot
31:29
Speaker 1: to Yarmouth. Where As the unfortunate men, we were used
31:35
Speaker 1: with great humanity as well by the magistrates of the town,
31:39
Speaker 1: who assigned us good quarters as by particular merchants and
31:44
Speaker 1: owners of ships, and had money given us sufficient to
31:47
Speaker 1: carry us either to London or back to Hull, as
31:51
Speaker 1: we thought fit. Had I now had the sense to
31:55
Speaker 1: have gone back to Hull and have gone home. I
31:58
Speaker 1: had been happy, and my father, as in our blissed
32:03
Speaker 1: Savior's parable, had even killed the fatted calf for me,
32:08
Speaker 1: for hearing the ship I went away in was castaway
32:10
Speaker 1: in Yarmouth roads. It was a great while before he
32:14
Speaker 1: had assurances that I was not drowned. But my ill
32:20
Speaker 1: fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing
32:25
Speaker 1: could resist. And though I had several times loud calls
32:31
Speaker 1: for my reason and my more composed judgment to go home,
32:35
Speaker 1: yet I had no power to do it. I know
32:41
Speaker 1: not what to call this, nor will I urge that
32:46
Speaker 1: it is a secret overruling decree that hurries us on
32:50
Speaker 1: to be the instruments of our own destruction, even though
32:54
Speaker 1: it be done before us, and that we rush upon
32:58
Speaker 1: it with our eyes open. Certainly, nothing but some such decreed,
33:06
Speaker 1: an avoidable misery which it was impossible for me to escape,
33:12
Speaker 1: could have pushed me forward against the calm reasonings and
33:16
Speaker 1: persuasions of my most retired thoughts, and against two such
33:22
Speaker 1: visible instructions as I had met within my first attempt.
33:31
Speaker 1: My comrade, who had helped me to Harden before, and
33:35
Speaker 1: who was the Master's son, was now less forward than I.
33:40
Speaker 1: The first time he spoke to me after we were
33:43
Speaker 1: at Yarmouth, which was not till two or three days,
33:49
Speaker 1: for we were separated in the town to several quarters,
33:52
Speaker 1: I say. The first time he saw me, it appeared
33:55
Speaker 1: his tone was altered, and looking very melancholy and shaking
34:01
Speaker 1: his head. He asked me how I did, and telling
34:06
Speaker 1: his father who I was and how I had come
34:09
Speaker 1: this voyage only for a trial in order to go
34:13
Speaker 1: further abroad. His father, turning to me with a very
34:16
Speaker 1: grave and concerned tone, young man, says he you ought
34:24
Speaker 1: never to go to see any more. You ought to
34:28
Speaker 1: take this for a plain and visible token that you
34:32
Speaker 1: are not to be a seafaring man. Why, sir, said,
34:37
Speaker 1: I will you go to see no more? That is
34:41
Speaker 1: another case, says he. It is my calling and therefore
34:45
Speaker 1: my duty. But as you have made this voyage on trial,
34:50
Speaker 1: you see what a taste Heaven has given you of
34:54
Speaker 1: what you are to expect if you persist, perhaps this
34:59
Speaker 1: has all fallen us on your account, like Jonah in
35:05
Speaker 1: the ship of Tarshish. Pray continues, he what are you
35:11
Speaker 1: and on what account did you go to sea? Upon that,
35:16
Speaker 1: I told him some of my story, at the end
35:19
Speaker 1: of which he burst out into a strange kind of passion.
35:24
Speaker 1: What had I done, says he, that such an unhappy
35:27
Speaker 1: wretch should come into my ship. I would not set
35:31
Speaker 1: my foot in the same ship with thee again for
35:34
Speaker 1: a thousand pounds. This indeed, was, as I said, an
35:40
Speaker 1: excursion of his spirits, which were yet agitated by the
35:44
Speaker 1: sense of his lost, and was further than he could
35:49
Speaker 1: have authority to go. However, he afterwards talked very gravely
35:55
Speaker 1: to me, exhorting me to go back to my father
35:59
Speaker 1: and not tell providence to my ruin, telling me I
36:03
Speaker 1: might see a visible hand of Heaven against me, and
36:09
Speaker 1: young man said, he depend upon it. If you do
36:13
Speaker 1: not go back, wherever you go, you will meet with
36:17
Speaker 1: nothing but disasters and disappointments till your father's words are
36:23
Speaker 1: fulfilled upon you. We parted soon after, for I made
36:31
Speaker 1: him little answer, and I saw him no more. Which
36:35
Speaker 1: way he went. I knew not as for me having
36:39
Speaker 1: some money in my pocket, I traveled to London by land,
36:43
Speaker 1: and there, as well as on the road, had many
36:45
Speaker 1: struggles with myself what course of life I should take,
36:49
Speaker 1: and whether I should go home or to see. As
36:54
Speaker 1: to going home, Shane opposed the best motions that offered
37:00
Speaker 1: to my thoughts, and it immediately occurred to me how
37:05
Speaker 1: I should be laughed at among the neighbors, and should
37:08
Speaker 1: be ashamed to see not my father and mother only,
37:12
Speaker 1: but even everybody else, from which I have since often
37:17
Speaker 1: observed how incondruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is,
37:23
Speaker 1: especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide
37:26
Speaker 1: them in such cases, that is that they are not
37:31
Speaker 1: ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent, not
37:36
Speaker 1: ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to
37:40
Speaker 1: be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which
37:45
Speaker 1: can only make them be esteemed wise men. In this
37:51
Speaker 1: state of life, however, I remained some time uncertain what
37:58
Speaker 1: measures to take and what course of life to lead.
38:03
Speaker 1: An irresistible reluctance continued to going home, and as I
38:09
Speaker 1: stayed away a while, the remembrance of the distress I
38:13
Speaker 1: had been in wore Off, and as that abated, the
38:18
Speaker 1: little motion I had in my desires to return, wore
38:22
Speaker 1: off with it, till at last I quite laid aside
38:27
Speaker 1: the thoughts of it, and looked out for a voyage.
38:34
Speaker 1: End of Chapter one