THE

LIFE AND ADVENTURES

OF

ROBINSON CRUSOE.


I was born at York, in the year 1632, of a reputable family. My father
was a native of Bremen, who by merchandizing at Hull for some time,
gained a very plentiful fortune. He married my mother at York, who
received her first breath in that country: and as her maiden name was
Robinson, I was called _Robinson Kreutznaer_: which not being easily
pronounced in the English tongue, we are commonly known by the name
of Crusoe.

I was the youngest of three brothers. The eldest was a lieutenant
colonel in Lochart's regiment, but slain by the Spaniards: what became
of the other, I could never learn.

No charge or pains were wanting in my education.--My father designed me
for the law; yet nothing would serve me but I must go to sea, both
against the will of my father, the tears of my mother, and the
entreaties of friends. One morning my father expostulated very warmly
with me: What reason, says he, have you to leave your native country,
where there must be a more certain prospect of content and happiness, to
enter into a wandering condition of uneasiness and uncertainty? He
recommended to me Augur's wish, "Neither to desire poverty nor riches:"
that a middle state of life was the most happy, and that the high