1 But fortune disposed otherwise of me.
2 For my own part, I swam as fortune directed me, and was pushed forward by wind and tide.
3 I heard a confused noise about me; but in the posture I lay, could see nothing except the sky.
4 They supplied me as fast as they could, showing a thousand marks of wonder and astonishment at my bulk and appetite.
5 However, he made other signs to let me understand that I should have meat and drink enough, and very good treatment.
6 They brought me a second hogshead, which I drank in the same manner, and made signs for more; but they had none to give me.
7 Besides, I now considered myself as bound by the laws of hospitality, to a people who had treated me with so much expense and magnificence.
8 When I came back I resolved to settle in London; to which Mr. Bates, my master, encouraged me, and by him I was recommended to several patients.
9 After some time, when they observed that I made no more demands for meat, there appeared before me a person of high rank from his imperial majesty.
10 It appeared that he understood me well enough, for he shook his head by way of disapprobation, and held his hand in a posture to show that I must be carried as a prisoner.
11 But my good master Bates dying in two years after, and I having few friends, my business began to fail; for my conscience would not suffer me to imitate the bad practice of too many among my brethren.
12 My father now and then sending me small sums of money, I laid them out in learning navigation, and other parts of the mathematics, useful to those who intend to travel, as I always believed it would be, some time or other, my fortune to do.
13 They made me a sign that I should throw down the two hogsheads, but first warning the people below to stand out of the way, crying aloud, Borach mevolah; and when they saw the vessels in the air, there was a universal shout of Hekinah degul.
14 When this shower of arrows was over, I fell a groaning with grief and pain; and then striving again to get loose, they discharged another volley larger than the first, and some of them attempted with spears to stick me in the sides; but by good luck I had on a buff jerkin, which they could not pierce.
15 When I left Mr. Bates, I went down to my father: where, by the assistance of him and my uncle John, and some other relations, I got forty pounds, and a promise of thirty pounds a year to maintain me at Leyden: there I studied physic two years and seven months, knowing it would be useful in long voyages.
16 I thought it the most prudent method to lie still, and my design was to continue so till night, when, my left hand being already loose, I could easily free myself: and as for the inhabitants, I had reason to believe I might be a match for the greatest army they could bring against me, if they were all of the same size with him that I saw.
17 He sent me to Emanuel College in Cambridge at fourteen years old, where I resided three years, and applied myself close to my studies; but the charge of maintaining me, although I had a very scanty allowance, being too great for a narrow fortune, I was bound apprentice to Mr. James Bates, an eminent surgeon in London, with whom I continued four years.
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