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第4章 幕后黑手（四更完）

　　IT was five or six months after this before they heard any more ofthe savages, in which time our men were in hopes they had eitherforgot their former bad luck, or given over hopes of better; when,on a sudden, they were invaded with a most formidable fleet of noless than eight-and-twenty canoes, full of savages, armed with bowsand arrows, great clubs, wooden swords, and such like engines ofwar; and they brought such numbers with them, that, in short, itput all our people into the utmost consternation.

　　I was very glad to see my nephew, I must confess; for I was notwithout apprehensions that they would confine him by violence, setsail, and run away with the ship; and then I had been strippednaked in a remote country, having nothing to help myself; in short,I had been in a worse case than when I was alone in the island.But they had not come to that length, it seems, to my satisfaction;and when my nephew told me what they had said to him, and how theyhad sworn and shook hands that they would, one and all, leave theship if I was suffered to come on board, I told him he should notbe concerned at it at all, for I would stay on shore. I onlydesired he would take care and send me all my necessary things onshore, and leave me a sufficient sum of money, and I would find myway to England as well as I could. This was a heavy piece of newsto my nephew, but there was no way to help it but to comply; so, inshort, he went on board the ship again, and satisfied the men thathis uncle had yielded to their importunity, and

　　A ship being ready to sail for Lisbon, my pious priest asked meleave to go thither; being still, as he observed, bound never tofinish any voyage he began. How happy it had been for me if I hadgone with him. But it was too late now; all things Heaven appointsfor the best: had I gone with him I had never had so many thingsto be thankful for, and the reader had never heard of the secondpart of the travels and adventures of Robinson Crusoe: so I musthere leave exclaiming at myself, and go on with my voyage. Fromthe Brazils we made directly over the Atlantic Sea to the Cape ofGood Hope, and had a tolerably good voyage, our course generallysouth-east, now and then a storm, and some contrary winds; but mydisasters at sea were at an end - my future rubs and cross eventswere to befall me on shore, that it might appear the land was aswell prepared to be our scourge as the sea.

　　I have related to what extremity the poor young woman was reduced;how her mistress was starved to death, and died on board thatunhappy ship we met at sea, and how the whole ship's company wasreduced to the last extremity. The gentlewoman, and her son, andthis maid, were first hardly used as to provisions, and at lasttotally neglected and starved - that is to say, brought to the lastextremity of hunger. One day, being discoursing with her on theextremities they suffered, I asked her if she could describe, bywhat she had felt, what it was to starve, and how it appeared? Shesaid she believed she could, and told her tale very distinctlythus:-

　　R.C. - But tell us some of it: how did you begin, Will? For thishas been an extraordinary case, that is certain. She has preacheda sermon, indeed, if she has wrought this upon you.

　　Not being able to put the old man out of his talk, of which he wasvery opinionated or conceited, I told him we were gentlemen as wellas merchants, and that we had a mind to go and see the great cityof Pekin, and the famous court of the monarch of China. "Why,then," says the old man, "you should go to Ningpo, where, by theriver which runs into the sea there, you may go up within fiveleagues of the great canal. This canal is a navigable stream,which goes through the heart of that vast empire of China, crossesall the rivers, passes some considerable hills by the help ofsluices and gates, and goes up to the city of Pekin, being inlength near two hundred and seventy leagues." - "Well," said I,"Seignior Portuguese, but that is not our business now; the greatquestion is, if you can carry us up to the city of Nankin, fromwhence we can travel to Pekin afterwards?" He said he could do sovery well, and that there was a great Dutch ship gone up that wayjust before. This gave me a little shock, for a Dutch ship was

　　I looked upon their case to have been worse at this time than minewas at any time, after I first discovered the grains of barley andrice, and got into the manner of planting and raising my corn, andmy tame cattle; for now they had, as I may say, a hundred wolvesupon the island, which would devour everything they could come at,yet could be hardly come at themselves.

ellies, andthe men did well enough.

　　The young lord, a most gallant youth, was for fighting to the lastalso; and my old pilot was of opinion that we were able to resistthem all in the situation we were then in. Thus we spent the dayin debates of what we should do; but towards evening we found thatthe number of our enemies still increased, and we did not know butby the morning they might still be a greater number: so I began toinquire of those people we had brought from Tobolski if there wereno private ways by which we might avoid them in the night, andperhaps retreat to some town, or get help to guard us over thedesert. The young lord's Siberian servant told us, if we designedto avoid them, and not fight, he would engage to carry us off inthe night, to a way that went north, towards the river Petruz, bywhich he made no question but we might get away, and the Tartarsnever discover it; but, he said, his lord had told him he would notretreat, but would rather choose to fight. I told him he mistookhis lord: for that he was too wise a man to l