"Children's Books - Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Children's Books)

regret. I had nobody to converse with, but now and then this neighbor;
no work to be done, but by the labor of my hands; and I used to say, I
lived just like a man cast away upon some desolate island, that had
nobody there but himself. But how just has it been! and how should all
men reflect, that when they compare their present conditions with
others that are worse, Heaven may oblige them to make the exchange,
and be convinced of their former felicity by their experience; -I say,
how just has it been, that the truly solitary life I reflected on in
an island of mere desolation should be my lot, who had so often
unjustly compared it with the life which I then led, in which, had I
continued, I had in all probability been exceeding prosperous and
rich.
I was in some degree settled in my measures for carrying on the
plantation before my kind friend, the captain of the ship that took me
up at sea, went back; for the ship remained there in providing his
loading, and preparing for his voyage, near three months; when telling
him what little stock I had left behind me in London, he gave me
this friendly and sincere advice: "Seignior Inglese," says he, for
so he always called me, "if you will give me letters, and a
procuration here in form to me, with orders to the person who has your
money in London to send your effects to Lisbon, to such persons as I
shall direct, and in such goods as are proper for this country, I will
bring you the produce of them, God willing, at my return. But since
human affairs are all subject to changes and disasters, I would have
you give orders but for one hundred pounds sterling, which, you say,
is half your stock, and let the hazard be run for the first; so that
if it come safe, you may order the rest the same way; and if it
miscarry, you may have the other half to have recourse to for your
supply."
This was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly, that I could
not but be convinced it was the best course I could take; so I
accordingly prepared letters to the gentlewoman with whom I left my
money, and a procuration to the Portuguese captain, as he desired.
I wrote the English captain's widow a full account of all my
adventures; my slavery, escape, and how I had met with the Portugal
captain at sea, the humanity of his behavior, and in what consition
I was now in, with all necessary directions for my supply. And when
this honest captain came to Lisbon, he found means, by some of the
English merchants there, to send over not the order only, but a full
account of my story to a merchant at London, who represented it
effectually to her; whereupon, she not only delivered the money, but
out of her own pocket sent the Portugal captain a very handsome
present for his humanity and charity to me.
The merchant in London vesting this hundred pounds in English goods,
such as the captain had writ for, sent them directly to him at Lisbon,
and he brought them all safe to me to the Brazils; among which,
without my direction (for I was too young in my business to think of
them), he had taken care to have all sorts of tools, iron-work, and
utensils necessary for my plantation, and which were of great use to
me.