Robison Crusoe 鲁宾逊漂流记 Chapter 2-SLAVERY AND ESCAPE

THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my father's house-which hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed those conceits ¹ so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties ² and even the commands of my father-I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view; and I went on board a vessel ³ bound to the coast of Africa; or, as our sailors vulgarly called it, a voyage to Guinea., ,It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I did not ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same time I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-mast man, and in time might have qualified ⁴ myself for a mate or lieutenant ⁵, if not for a master. But as it was always my fate to choose for the worse, so I did here; for having money in my pocket and good clothes upon my back, I would always go on board in the habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had any business in the ship, nor learned to do any., ,It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company in London, which does not always happen to such loose and misguided young fellows as I then was; the devil generally not omitting to lay some snare ⁶ for them very early; but it was not so with me. I first got acquainted with the master of a ship who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who, having had very good success there, was resolved to go again. This captain taking a fancy to my conversation, which was not at all disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a mind to see the world, told me if I would go the voyage with him I should be at no expense; I should be his messmate and his companion; and if I could carry anything with me, I should have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit; and perhaps I might meet with some encouragement., , ,This was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship's course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor; for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight to learn; and, in a word, this voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant; for I brought home five pounds nine ounces of gold-dust for my adventure, which yielded me in London, at my return, almost 300 pounds; and this filled me with those aspiring ¹⁰ thoughts which have since so completed my ruin., ,Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; particularly, that I was continually sick, being thrown into a violent calenture by the excessive heat of the climate; our principal trading being upon the coast, from latitude ¹¹ of 15 degrees north even to the line itself., ,The most grotesque fantastic conceits haunted him in his bed at night. 夜晚躺在床上的时候 ，各种离奇怪诞的幻想纷至沓来 。,He began with entreaties and ended with a threat. 他先是恳求
，最后是威胁
。 来自《简明英汉词典》