My fatherwas German, but he worked in England. He married my mother, who was English.Her family name was Robinson, so when I was born in England, they called meRobinson, after her.

    My fatherdid well in his business and I went to a good school. He wanted me to get agood job, and live a quiet, pleasant life. But I wanted adventure and anexciting life.

    "Iwant to be a sailor and go to sea," I told my mother and father. They werevery unhappy about this.

   "Please don't go," my father said. "You won't be happyyou know. Sailors have a difficult and dangerous life. "Because I lovehim, and he was unhappy, I tried to forget about the sea.

    But Icouldn't forget, and about a year later, I saw a friend in town. His father hada ship and my friend said to me, "We are sailing to London tomorrow. Whydon't you come with us?"

    OnSeptember 1st, 1651, I went to Hull. And the next day we sailed for London.

    But, a fewdays later, there was a strong wind. The sea was rough and dangerous, and theship went up and down, up and down. I was very ill, and was very afraid."Oh, I don't want to die!" I cried. "I want to live! If I live,I will go home and never go to sea again!"

    The nextday the wind stopped, and the sea was quiet and beautiful again.

   "Well, Robinson," my friend laughed, "how do you feelnow? The wind wasn't too bad."

   "What!" I cried. "It was a terrible storm!"

    "Oh,that wasn't a storm," my friend answered, "just a little wind. Forgetit, come and have a drink."

    After afew drinks with my friend, I felt better. I forgot about the danger, anddecided not to go home. I didn't want my friend to laugh at me!

    I stayedin London for some time, but I still, wanted to go to the sea. So, when thecaptain (船长) of a shipasked me to go with him to Guinea in Africa, I agreed. And so I went to the seafor the second time.

    It was agood ship, and everything went well at first, but I was very ill again. Thenwhen we were near the Canary Islands, a Turkish pirate (海盗) ship came after us. They werefamous thieves of the sea at that time. There was a long, hard fight, but whenit finished, we and the ship were prisoners. The Turkish captain and his mentook us to Sale in Morocco. They wanted to sell us as slaves (奴隶) in the market. But in the end, the Turkish captain decided to keepme for himself, and took me home with him. This was a sudden and terriblechange in my life. This Turkish captain was now my master.