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第5章 态度转变

　　If I was surprised before, I was quite dumb now, and stood silent,looking at him, and, indeed, admiring what I saw. The struggle inhis soul was so great that, though the weather was extremely cold,it put him into a most violent heat; so I said a word or two, thatI would leave him to consider of it, and wait on him again, andthen I withdrew to my own apartment.

　　I carried also a hundred spare arms, muskets, and fusees; besidessome pistols, a considerable quantity of shot of all sizes, threeor four tons of lead, and two pieces of brass cannon; and, becauseI knew not what time and what extremities I was providing for, Icarried a hundred barrels of powder, besides swords, cutlasses, andthe iron part of some pikes and halberds. In short, we had a largemagazine of all sorts of store; and I made my nephew carry twosmall quarter-deck guns more than he wanted for his ship, to leavebehind if there was occasion; so that when we came there we mightbuild a fort and man it against all sorts of enemies. Indeed, I atfirst thought there would be need enough for all, and much more, ifwe hoped to maintain our possession of the island, as shall be seenin the course of that story.

　　W.A. - Yes, He has bid us pray to Him, and promised to hear us.

e down at the water'sedge, on the side of the creek, and it was afterwards above twohundred yards to the place; and the other was up a ladder at twice,as I have already described it; and they had also a large wood,thickly planted, on the top of the hill, containing above an acre,which grew apace, and concealed the place from all discovery there,with only one narrow place between two trees, not easily to bediscovered, to enter on that side.

　　Wife. - But why God let you do so? Why He no makee you good live?

　　THAT homely proverb, used on so many occasions in England, viz."That what is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh," wasnever more verified than in the story of my Life. Any one wouldthink that after thirty-five years' affliction, and a variety ofunhappy circumstances, which few men, if any, ever went throughbefore, and after near seven years of peace and enjoyment in thefulness of all things; grown old, and when, if ever, it might beallowed me to have had experience of every state of middle life,and to know which was most adapted to make a man completely happy;I say, after all this, any one would have thought that the nativepropensity to rambling which I gave an account of in my firstsetting out in the world to have been so predominant in mythoughts, should be worn out, and I might, at sixty one years ofage, have been a little inclined to stay at home, and have doneventuring life and fortune any more.

　　As I therefore kept the mate, whom we then called captain, on boardwith his men, to refresh them, so I also forgot not the starvingcrew that were left on board, but ordered my own boat to go onboard the ship, and, with my mate and twelve men, to carry them asack of bread, and four or five pieces of beef to boil. Oursurgeon charged the men to cause the meat to be boiled while theystayed, and to keep guard in the cook-room, to prevent the mentaking it to eat raw, or taking it out of the pot before it waswell boiled, and then to give every man but a very little at atime: and by this caution he preserved the men, who wouldotherwise have killed themselves with that very food that was giventhem on purpose to save their lives.

　　WIFE. - But no makee kill you yet; then He tell you, maybe, that Heno makee you kill: so you makee the bargain with Him, you do badthing, He no be angry at you when He be angry at other mans.

　　I looked a little surprised at the last of his discourse, andturning a little short, "How, sir," said I, "can it be said that weare not in the way of God's blessing, after such visibleassistances and deliverances as we have seen here, and of which Ihave given you a large account?" "If you had pleased, sir," saidhe, with a world of modesty, and yet great readiness, "to haveheard me, you would have found no room to have been displeased,much less to think so hard of me, that I should suggest that youhave not had wonderful assistances and deliverances; and I hope, onyour behalf, that you are in the way of God's blessing, and yourdesign is exceeding good, and will prosper. But, sir, though itwere more so than is even possible to you, yet there may be someamong you that are not equally right in their actions: and youknow that in the story of the children of Israel, one Achan in thecamp removed God's blessing from them, and turned His hand soagainst them, that six-and-thirty of them, though not concerned inthe