c03

Chapter 3  Captured!
For some time, I thought about returning to York. My short time at sea had been exciting, but I could easily have drowned in one of those storms! But I knew if I returned, my father would be angry and my friends would all laugh at me. So I decided to stay at sea, at least for some time. I left for London immediately
A few days after I arrived in London, I met some people who quickly became my friends. One of them was a ship's captain. He told me that he was about to sail for the far off country of Guinea, on the coast of Africa. He wanted to do business with the Africans.
“you should come with me," he said.
I thought about sailing through storms like the ones I had experienced. "I don't know" I said.
"you can travel for free, he went on.
I thought about Tom's father's warning. What if I really was not supposed to be a merchant like
my father?
"There's good money to be made, he said.
Well, that decided me! We sailed a few days later.
It did not take long to reach Africa. We had a calm sea and a good wind the whole way
At our first stop, I spent some of my money on some African jewelry and other goods. Then, when we stopped at other places on the coast, I traded the jewelry for even better things. Then, I used those finer things to bargain for gold dust.
By the time we sailed for England, I had more than five pounds of gold in my bag. When I returned to London I sold that gold for three hundred pounds. This was a lot of money My father would have been proud of me! Maybe I was not so bad at doing business after all.
Sadly when we returned to England, my friend the captain became very sick and died.
"What are you going to do now Robinson?" his wife asked me at the funeral. 'Are you going to go back to York?”
I shook my head. "No," I said. "I'm sailing back to Africa.,,
“What!" she cried. "you're going to risk all your money for another adventure?"
"Not all," I said. 'I’m only taking one hundred pounds with me. Will you keep my other two hundreds for me?"
“Certainly I will," she said.
A week later; I was back at sea. It felt wonderful. The weather was good and soon we reached the Canary Islands, near the northern African coast.
One day, when we were near the king of Morocco's lands, the ship's watcher said, "I see a ship ahead of us!"
"That's no ordinary trading ship," cried one of the men. "That's a pirate ship!,,
We tried to sail quickly to escape the ship, but it came toward us quickly Soon, it was so close that we could see the faces of the pirates clearly.
"They're TurksY' someone cried. Turks were dangerous and we were afraid of them.
Just as the man spoke, the pirates fired a cannon at our ship.
We tried to shoot them with our few guns, but it was soon clear that the pirates were much stronger than we were. As they came up beside our ship, they ran aboard shouting. We could not stop them, and since we had few people and almost no weapons, we decided not to fight them.
The pirates took control of our ship, and sailed it to a place called Sallee.
，you, boy! What’s your name?" the Turkish captain said. He spoke very good English, and pulled my hair so hard I thought it would fall out.
"Robinson Crusoe," I said angrily
"You don't look like an ordinary sailor, he said.
'Tm not a sailor I'm a merchant!
"Oh, no, you're not," said the pirate. He smiled, “you're my slave."
And so the Turkish captain took me to his large, beautiful house by the sea, where I began to work for him.
My new master made me work around the house cleaning and sweeping. I did things that other people had always done for me.
My life wasn't so bad. Although I was not free, my new master was usually kind, and treated me
well. I did not have to work in the fields all day; like other slaves. But there was never a time when I did not think about my freedom.
One morning, when I had been in the Turk's house for a month, the captain came up to me while I was working in the garden.
“We're going fishing, and we'll take that young Moroccan boy with us," he said.
I had fished before, when I was a child. Sitting by a stream waiting for a fish to catch is a happy way to spend the day But the Turk's way of fishing was very different.
We traveled through the water in a little fishing boat. After about half an hour at sea, he told me and Xury the Moroccan boy to start fishing. When we pulled our fishing lines in, there was a fish on every hook! Soon the bottom of the boat was full of fish.
My master, Xury, and I went fishing many times. Soon, I became better at this kind of fishing than the Turk.
One day; when I had been the Turk's slave for several months, we were out fishing when a thick, gray fog suddenly appeared. The fog was so thick that I could hardly see Xury and the Turk, who were sitting in the boat with me.
For many hours we floated in the thick fog. When it finally disappeared, we were very far out at sea. It took us two hours to reach the Turk's house.
"Well, Robinson," said the Turk, “ the next time we go out fishing we will take food and water with us, in case we are trapped in that fog again. We will also take guns. Who knows what sort of horrible sea monsters we might find? And if we see a passing bird, then we can shoot her for our dinner!

第三章 俘获!
有一段时间，我想过回约克。短暂的 水手生活虽说相当刺激，但我可能很轻易 就会因其中的一场暴风雨而淹死的！但我 知道如果我回去，父亲会很生气，并且朋 友们也一定会嘲笑我。因而，我决定继续 当水手，至少再当一段时间。我很快便动 身去了伦敦。
到伦敦几天之后，我遇到一些人，并 很快与他们结为朋友。其中一人是位船长, 他告诉我他将远航到非洲沿岸的几内亚。 他想与非洲人做买卖。
“你应该和我一起去。”他说。
我想起我遭遇的那场暴风雨。“我不知 道去还是不去。”我说。
“你可以免费航行。”他接着说。
我又想起汤姆父亲的警告。难道我真 的不想和父亲一样成为一个商人吗？
“可以赚很多钱!”他说。
就这样，我决定去了！几天后，我们 起航了。
我们很快就到了非洲，一路上海水平 静，一帆风顺。
在我们停靠的第一个港口，我花钱买 了一些非洲珠宝和其他商品。然后，我们 沿海岸在其他地方停靠时，我拿珠宝换了 更好的东西。接着，我便能用那些更好的 东西去交换沙金了。
我们返航回英国时，我的袋子里有了 五磅多重的金子。回到伦敦后，我把它卖 了，赚了三百英镑！这可是很多钱。父亲 肯定会为我而自豪的！你看，我也许是个 不错的生意人哩。
不幸的是，我们回英国时，我的船长 朋友就得重病死了。
“你现在打算怎么办，鲁滨逊?”他的 妻子在葬礼上问我，“回约克吗?”
我摇摇头。“不，”我说，“我要回非洲。”
“什么!”她叫道。“你打算豁出你所有 的钱，再冒一次险?”
“并非全部，”我说，“我只带100英 镑！还有200英镑你愿意替我保管吗?”
“当然可以。”她说。
一个星期后，我又回到茫茫海上，感 觉棒极了。天气非常晴朗，不久我们就到 了北非海岸附近的加那利群岛。
一天，我们在摩洛哥国王的领地附近 时，值班水手说：“我看见有一艘船在我们 前面!”
“那不是普通的商船，”其中一名水手 喊道，“那是一艘海盗船!”
我们试图快速航行，以逃离这艘船, 但它很快就逼近了我们。不久，它就靠得 很近了，我们可以清楚地看见海盗的面孔。
“他们是土耳其人!”有人喊道。土耳 其人非常危险，我们很害怕他们。
他的话音刚落，海盗就朝我们的船放 了 一炮。
我们拼命用仅有的几杆枪射击他们,但很快就清楚海盗远比我们厉害多了。他 们靠上来，便喊叫着冲上了我们的船。我 们无法阻止他们，由于我们人少，又几乎 没有武器，我们决定不跟他们打了。
海盗控制了我们的小船，并把它带到 了一个叫萨利的地方。
“你，小子！叫什么名字?” 土耳其船 长用一口流利的英语问道，一边使劲地拽 着我的头发，我的头发都要被拽掉了。
“鲁滨逊-克鲁索。”我愤怒地说道。 “你看起来不像一般的水手。"他说。
“我不是水手。我是商人!”
“哦，你不是，”海盗微笑着说，“你是 我的奴隶。”
就这样，土耳其船长把我带到他在海 滨漂亮又宽敞的房子里，开始为他干活。
我的新主人让我干屋子里的各种. 活——清洗和扫地。我干那些原来一直是 别人为我做的事。
我的生活并不是那么糟糕。我虽然不 自由，但我的新主人通常情况下挺和善， 对我也不错。我不必像其他奴隶一样整天 在地里干活。但我没有一刻不在梦想自由。
来到土耳其人家里一个月后的一天早 上，我在花园里干活时，船长走到我面前。
“我们要去钓鱼，带上那个摩洛哥小男 孩和我们一起去。”他说。
我在孩提时代.钓过鱼。坐在小溪边, 等鱼上钩，是消磨时日的好办法。但土耳 其人的钓鱼方法大不相同。
我们乘坐一条小渔船划过水面。出海 约半个小时后，他让我和摩洛哥男孩苏利 开始钓鱼。我们收线时，每个鱼钩上都有 鱼！船底很快就装满了鱼。
我的主人、苏利和我经常去钓鱼。不 久，我就比土耳其人更擅长以这种方式捕 鱼了。
我成为土耳其人奴隶几个月后的一天, 出海钓鱼时，突然起了一场灰茫茫的浓雾。 雾是那样浓，我几乎看不到和我同坐一船的苏利和土耳其人。
我们的船在浓雾中漂了好久，当雾最 终散去时，我们出海已经很远了。我们花 了两个小时才回到土耳其人家中。
“喂，鲁滨逊，” 土耳其人说，“下次出 去钓鱼时，要带上食物和水，以防再被浓 雾困住。同时还要带上枪。谁知道我们会 遇上什么恐怖的海怪呢？
若能看见一只鸟 飞过，我们可以打下来美餐一顿!”