Roving has always been, and still is, my ruling passion, the joy of my heart, the very sunshine of my existence. In childhood, in boyhood, and in man’s estate I have been a rover; not a mere1 rambler among the woody glens and upon the hill-tops of my own native land, but an enthusiastic rover throughout the length and breadth of the wide, wide world.
It was a wild, black night of howling storm, the night on which I was born on the foaming2 bosom3 of the broad Atlantic Ocean. My father was a sea-captain; my grandfather was a sea-captain; my great-grandfather had been a marine4. Nobody could tell positively5 what occupation his father had followed; but my dear mother used to assert that he had been a midshipman, whose grandfather, on the mother’s side, had been an admiral in the Royal Navy. At any rate, we knew that as far back as our family could be traced, it had been intimately connected with the great watery6 waste. Indeed, this was the case on both sides of the house; for my mother always went to sea with my father on his long voyages, and so spent the greater part of her life upon the water.
Thus it was, I suppose, that I came to inherit a roving disposition7. Soon after I was born, my father, being old, retired8 from a seafaring life, purchased a small cottage in a fishing village on the west coast of England, and settled down to spend the evening of his life on the shores of that sea which had for so many years been his home. It was not long after this that I began to show the roving spirit that dwelt within me. For some time past my infant legs had been gaining strength, so that I came to be dissatisfied with rubbing the skin off my chubby9 knees by walking on them, and made many attempts to stand up and walk like a man—all of which attempts, however, resulted in my sitting down violently and in sudden surprise. One day I took advantage of my dear mother’s absence to make another effort; and, to my joy, I actually succeeded in reaching the doorstep, over which I tumbled into a pool of muddy water that lay before my father’s cottage door. Ah, how vividly10 I remember the horror of my poor mother when she found me sweltering in the mud amongst a group of cackling ducks, and the tenderness with which she stripped off my dripping clothes and washed my dirty little body! From this time forth11 my rambles12 became more frequent and, as I grew older, more distant, until at last I had wandered far and near on the shore and in the woods around our humble13 dwelling14, and did not rest content until my father bound me apprentice15 to a coasting-vessel and let me go to sea.
For some years I was happy in visiting the seaports16, and in coasting along the shores, of my native land. My Christian17 name was Ralph; and my comrades added to this the name of Rover, in consequence of the passion which I always evinced for travelling. Rover was not my real name; but as I never received any other, I came at last to answer to it as naturally as to my proper name. And as it is not a bad one, I see no good reason why I should not introduce myself to the reader as Ralph Rover. My shipmates were kind, good-natured fellows, and they and I got on very well together. They did, indeed, very frequently make game of and banter18 me, but not unkindly; and I overheard them sometimes saying that Ralph Rover was a “queer, old-fashioned fellow.” This, I must confess, surprised me much; and I pondered the saying long, but could come at no satisfactory conclusion as to that wherein my old-fashionedness lay. It is true I was a quiet lad, and seldom spoke19 except when spoken to. Moreover, I never could understand the jokes of my companions even when they were explained to me, which dulness in apprehension20 occasioned me much grief. However, I tried to make up for it by smiling and looking pleased when I observed that they were laughing at some witticism21 which I had failed to detect. I was also very fond of inquiring into the nature of things and their causes, and often fell into fits of abstraction while thus engaged in my mind. But in all this I saw nothing that did not seem to be exceedingly natural, and could by no means understand why my comrades should call me “an old-fashioned fellow.”
Now, while engaged in the coasting trade I fell in with many seamen22 who had travelled to almost every quarter of the globe; and I freely confess that my heart glowed ardently23 within me as they recounted their wild adventures in foreign lands—the dreadful storms they had weathered, the appalling24 dangers they had escaped, the wonderful creatures they had seen both on the land and in the sea, and the interesting lands and strange people they had visited. But of all the places of which they told me, none captivated and charmed my imagination so much as the Coral Islands of the Southern Seas. They told me of thousands of beautiful, fertile islands that had been formed by a small creature called the coral insect, where summer reigned25 nearly all the year round, where the trees were laden26 with a constant harvest of luxuriant fruit, where the climate was almost perpetually delightful27; yet where, strange to say, men were wild, bloodthirsty savages28, excepting in those favoured isles29 to which the Gospel of our Saviour30 had been conveyed. These exciting accounts had so great an effect upon my mind that, when I reached the age of fifteen, I resolved to make a voyage to the South Seas.
I had no little difficulty, at first, in prevailing31 on my dear parents to let me go; but when I urged on my father that he would never have become a great captain had he remained in the coasting trade, he saw the truth of what I said and gave his consent. My dear mother, seeing that my father had made up his mind, no longer offered opposition32 to my wishes. “But, oh Ralph!” she said on the day I bade her adieu, “come back soon to us, my dear boy; for we are getting old now, Ralph, and may not have many years to live.”
I will not take up my readers’ time with a minute account of all that occurred before I took my final leave of my dear parents. Suffice it to say that my father placed me under the charge of an old messmate of his own, a merchant captain, who was on the point of sailing to the South Seas in his own ship, the Arrow. My mother gave me her blessing33 and a small Bible; and her last request was that I would never forget to read a chapter every day and say my prayers, which I promised, with tears in my eyes, that I would certainly do.
Soon afterwards I went on board the Arrow, which was a fine, large ship, and set sail for the islands of the Pacific Ocean.
点击收听单词发音
1 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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2 foaming | |
adj.布满泡沫的;发泡 | |
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3 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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4 marine | |
adj.海的;海生的;航海的;海事的;n.水兵 | |
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5 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
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6 watery | |
adj.有水的,水汪汪的;湿的,湿润的 | |
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7 disposition | |
n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署 | |
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8 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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9 chubby | |
adj.丰满的,圆胖的 | |
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10 vividly | |
adv.清楚地,鲜明地,生动地 | |
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11 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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12 rambles | |
(无目的地)漫游( ramble的第三人称单数 ); (喻)漫谈; 扯淡; 长篇大论 | |
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13 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
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14 dwelling | |
n.住宅,住所,寓所 | |
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15 apprentice | |
n.学徒,徒弟 | |
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16 seaports | |
n.海港( seaport的名词复数 ) | |
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17 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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18 banter | |
n.嘲弄,戏谑;v.取笑,逗弄,开玩笑 | |
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19 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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20 apprehension | |
n.理解,领悟;逮捕,拘捕;忧虑 | |
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21 witticism | |
n.谐语,妙语 | |
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22 seamen | |
n.海员 | |
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23 ardently | |
adv.热心地,热烈地 | |
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24 appalling | |
adj.骇人听闻的,令人震惊的,可怕的 | |
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25 reigned | |
vi.当政,统治(reign的过去式形式) | |
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26 laden | |
adj.装满了的;充满了的;负了重担的;苦恼的 | |
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27 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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28 savages | |
未开化的人,野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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29 isles | |
岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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30 saviour | |
n.拯救者,救星 | |
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31 prevailing | |
adj.盛行的;占优势的;主要的 | |
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32 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
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33 blessing | |
n.祈神赐福;祷告;祝福,祝愿 | |
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