Робинзон Крузо / Robinson Crusoe

You are only eighteen, and I don’t want to lose my third son, when he is so young”. But I didn’t listen to him. He promised me a life of ease and pleasure, but I was going to a life of risky adventures and trying the fortune.

However, I was sincerely[6 - sincerely – искренне] affected with my father’s discourse, and decided to wait with the final decision of my future life. I resolved not to think of going abroad one year more, but to settle at home, according to my father’s desire. That was a time when I was trying myself in the different fields of learning, trying to find a profession that would be close to me.

But my searches had been unsuccessful. It turned out, that I had no abilities to any crafts[7 - craft – ремесло]. After that, I had finally decided to link my future life with[8 - to link my future life with… – связать мою будущую жизнь с…] the sea. However, I could not leave my parent’s home without their approval[9 - approval – зд. благословение].

One day, when my mother was in a good mood, I asked her for the help.

“Oh, mother, I’ll soon be nineteen years old, and it is too late to become a lawyer or a clerk. I have no abilities to any crafts. I see no ways to make living, but go to sea. Please, speak to my father to let me go abroad and become a mariner!”

This put my mother into a great passion[10 - passion – гнев]. She wondered how I could think this way after the discourse I had had with my father, and such a kind and tender expression that she knew my father had used on me.

“Neither I, nor your father will bless you. If you don’t obey our advice, we will not take part in your future,” she said.

But for that moment, my decision was strong enough, and adrift, my wishes turned into the real life.

Being one day at the Hull, where I went casually, I met one of my companions. He was about to sail to London on his father’s ship. He prompted me to go with him, promising that it would cost me nothing for my passage[11 - passage – проезд].

I consulted neither father nor mother about this voyage, even not so much as sent them a letter of it.

In an ill hour[12 - in an ill hour – не в добрый час], God knows, on the 1st of September 1651, I went on board a ship bound for London.

The ship was no sooner out of the Humber than the wind began to blow and the sea to rise. I had never been at sea before, so it seemed to me, that the ship was caught in a heavy storm and will drown in a minute.