Vado per mare

My name is Robinson Crusoe. I was born in 1632 in York, in England. My father came from Germany and he was a merchant. He earned good money, then he stopped working. He lived in York and there he married my mother. My mother's family name was Robinson.

“I had two older brothers. One was a soldier and he died in a war in Flanders. I never knew what happened to the other one. I was the third child. My father never taught me a trade.”

I started to dream of adventures. I always thought about travelling. My father was old. He sent me to school. He wanted me to become a lawyer. But I wanted only one thing. I wanted to go to sea.

My father was angry about this. My mother was angry too. All my friends told me to stay at home. But something inside me wanted to go. I could not stop thinking about ships and the ocean. I did not know that this wish would bring me terrible problems.

One day my father called me into his room. He was ill with gout and could not walk. He wanted to speak seriously with me. “Why do you want to go away?” he asked. “You have everything here. You can have a good life. You can make money.”

He sat down on the bed. His face was serious. “Listen to me, son. Poor men go to sea. They must eat. Rich men go to sea to become famous. But you are not poor. You are not rich. You are in the middle.”

“The middle way is perfect,” my father continued. “Poor people work too much. Their bodies get ruined. They never have enough food. Rich people have other problems. They worry about their money. They have enemies.”