Chapter VI

Return to England

One morning, the strange and unforeseen accident intervened, of which the like has not, perhaps, been heard of in history. I was fast asleep in my hutch one morning, when my man Friday came running in to me, and called aloud, “Master, master, there is a ship. A very big ship!” I could not believe my ears, as I aited for the appearance of the ship for 27 long years!

I was surprised when, turning my eyes to the sea, I presently saw a ship on the horizon and boat at about a league and a half distance, standing in for the shore. At first, I was about to start screaming loudly, calling for help, shooting with all the guns to make people in the boat to notice me. However, we might not know yet whether they were friends or enemies. Upon this I called Friday in, and bade him lie close. In the next place I went in to fetch my perspective glass to see what I could make of them; and having taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the top of the hill, as I used to do when I was apprehensive of anything, and to take my view the plainer without being discovered.

I saw the boat land on the beach. There were eight men, sitting in the boat, and three were lying in the bottom of the vessel, bound with ropes. When they rich the shore, the three prisoners started crying out to the others, begging for mercy. I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what the meaning of it should be. Friday called out to me in English, as well as he could, “O master! you see English mans eat prisoner as well as savage mans.” “Why, Friday,” says I, “do you think they are going to eat them, then?” “Yes,” says Friday, “they will eat them.” “No no,” says I, “Friday; I am afraid they will murder them, indeed; but you may be sure they will not eat them.”

All this while I had no thought of what the matter really was, but stood trembling with the horror of the sight, expecting every moment when the three prisoners should be killed. However, I observed the fellows run scattering about the island, as if they wanted to see the country. I observed that the three other men had liberty to go also where they pleased; but they sat down all three upon the ground, very pensive, and looked like men in despair. This put me in mind of the first time when I came on shore, and began to look about me; how I gave myself over for lost; how wildly I looked round me; what dreadful apprehensions I had; and how I lodged in the tree all night for fear of being devoured by wild beasts.

Friday and I took our guns and went down to show ourselves to the prisoners. Hidden by the bushes, I cried out: “Who are you, gentlemen? Do not be afraid, I’ll help you to stay alive, if you must promise to accept me as your leader and be faithful to me! “ After that I stepped out into the open. The poor man, with tears running down his face, and trembling, looking like one astonished, returned, “Am I talking to God or man? Is it a real man or an angel?” “Be in no fear about that, sir,” said I; “if God had sent an angel to relieve you, he would have come better clothed, and armed after another manner than you see me.”I am a man, an Englishman, and disposed to assist you; you see I have one servant only; we have arms and ammunition; tell us freely, can we serve you? What is your case?” “Our case, sir,” said he, “is too long to tell you while our murderers are so near us; but, in short, sir, I was commander of that ship – my men have mutinied against me; they have been hardly prevailed on not to murder me, and, at last, have set me on shore in this desolate place, with these two men with me – one my mate, the other a passenger – where we expected to perish, believing the place to be uninhabited, and know not yet what to think of it.”

I asked them, where were their enemies, and they replied, that they went a-sleeping on a small meadow in a woody part of the island. I gave to each of the prisoners a loaded gun, and we went into the woods towards the sleeping men. The captain said, very modestly, that he was loath to kill them if he could help it; but that those two were incorrigible villains, and had been the authors of all the mutiny in the ship, and if they escaped, we should be undone still, for they would go on board and bring the whole ship’s company, and destroy us all. “Well, then,” says I, “necessity legitimates my advice, for it is the only way to save our lives.” However, seeing him still cautious of shedding blood, I told him they should go themselves, and manage as they found convenient. In the middle of this discourse we heard some of them awake, crying out to the others. The captain’s friends fired their guns and killed two rebel leaders and took two prisoners. After that the last four enemies started begging for mercy. After that captain and his friends went to the ship, to prepare everything to sail. He made me to decide the fate of the captured.

One of them answered to my question, what to do with them, that they had nothing to say but this, that when they were taken the captain promised them their lives, and they humbly implored my mercy. But I told them I knew not what mercy to show them; for as for myself, I had resolved to quit the island with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain to go to England; and as for the captain, he could not carry them to England other than as prisoners in irons, to be tried for mutiny and running away with the ship; the consequence of which, they must needs know, would be the gallows; so that I could not tell what was best for them, unless they had a mind to take their fate in the island. If they desired that, as I had liberty to leave the island, I had some inclination to give them their lives, if they thought they could shift on shore. They seemed very thankful for it, and said they would much rather venture to stay there than be carried to England to be hanged. So I left it on that issue. Therefore I showed them my house, my corn and barley plantations, goat’s barns, and all of my goods.

Having done all this I left them the next day, and went on board the ship. We prepared immediately to sail. I took from the island for relics, the great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and one of my parrots. Friday was very interested in the ship sailing, because he didn’t ever been aboard the European vessel.

And thus I left the island, the 19th of December, as I found by the ship’s account, in the year 1686, after I had been upon it eight-and-twenty years, two months, and nineteen days; being delivered from this second captivity the same day of the month that I first made my escape in the long-boat from among the Moors of Sallee. In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England the 11th of June, in the year 1687, having been thirty-five years absent.

When I came to England I was as perfect a stranger to all the world as if I had never been known there. Friday and the captain of the ship were my best friends. In the same year I got married, and had three children. However, more about this and my other adventures I will tell the next time: though this is another story.

Exercises (задания)

1. Ответьте на вопросы: True, False или Not Mentioned (T, F, NM).

Например: Robinson’s father was a sailor. ___F__

Robinson had two elder brothers. _______

The name of the oldest brother was John and he was a lieutenant. _______

Robinson tried himself like a potter and farmer.________

The first voyage began on the 1st of September 1651. _______

After the first shipwreck Robinson Crusoe went home to his parents in upset feelings. _______

Robinson spent three years of his life, being a miserable slave in Sallee. _____

2. Кому принадлежат эти реплики? Впиши говорящего.

…………….: “Why do you ask why God has done this to you? Ask instead why you are still alive, not killed by pirates in Salee, not pulled down to the bottom of the sea!”

…………….: “I have saved your life on no other terms than I would be glad to be saved myself: and it may, one time or other, be my lot to be taken up in the same condition”

…………….: “Master, master, a ship with a sail!”

…………….: “I was commander of that ship – my men have mutinied against me; they have been hardly prevailed on not to murder me, and, at last, have set me on shore in this desolate place”

…………….: “O master! you see English mans eat prisoner as well as savage mans.”

…………….: “Young man, you ought never to go to sea anymore; you ought to take this for a plain and visible token that you are not to be a seafaring man.”

3. Охарактеризуйте героев, используя прилагательные, данные ниже.

Robinson Crusoe _______________________________

Xury _________________________________________

Friday ________________________________________

Kreutznaer (Robinson’s father) ____________________________________________________________

Captain of English ship (Robinson’s best friend, who died) ____________________________________

dexterous, faithful, gentle, naked, nimble, rough, thrifty, wise, kind, clever, cannibal, catholic, Muslim, pagan, honest, humane, grave, brave

4. Выбери правильный вариант ответа:

1) Robinson had his own flock of _______ on the island

a) cows

b) goats

c) sheep

d) horses

2) Robinson’s pet on the island was ________

a) a cat

b) a dog

c) a parrot

d) a snake

3) Robinson’s father was _________

a) a clerk

b) a farmer

c) a teacher

d) a doctor

e) a merchant

f) a sailor

4) What goods did Robinson find on board of the ship?

a) a carpenter’s chest

b) a guitar

c) a pan

d) guns

e) a hatchet

f) a kettle

g) some powder

h) socks

5. Догадайся по описанию, о каком предмете идет речь (coins, savages, goats, trading, fence, bullets).

1. Line of wooden posts which are joined by ropes or wood _______

2. Animals with horns and long-haired coats ________

3. People from uncivilized tribes __________

4. Pieces of metal which are fired from guns _________

5. Small pieces of gold or silver, which we use like money. _________

6. Buying and selling ________