CHAPTER ONEROBINSON’S ADVENTURE AT SEAI was born in the year 1632, in the city of York in English. My father was of good family. He was a merchant from Bremen in Germany. He settled in England and made his fortune in trade, and then he married. My mother’s family name was Robinson. I was baptised Robinson Kreutznaer. However, in England we were always called Crusoe, so my friends call me Crusoe.I have two brothers one became a soldier and was killed in a battle against the Spaniards. I do not know what happened to my other brother. My father hoped I would study law, but I wanted to go to the sea. Although my mother and father did not want me go, my desire was so strong that I ignored their wishes. My father was a wise and serious man. He said that if I stayed at home my life would be easy and pleasant. Only desperate men or very fortune men want abroad, he said. I was neither desperate nor very fortune .Mine was the middle state, and he thought the middle state was the best. The poor had a difficult life, and the rich were hated by the poor, said he. In the middle state a man could be happy .Kings often regretted that they were not born in the middle state, and wise men prayed to have neither poverty nor wealth. He said the greatest misfortunes in life were suffered by the rich and the poor. Only the man in the middle state can live in peace. He said that moderation, quietness, and good health were the conditions of the middle state.He begged me not to abandon this happy condition. He told me that he had begged my brother not to bee a soldier for the same reasons. However, my brother had run away to the army, and now he was dead. He said that God w...
