(Continuing from Part 58)
After returning to England, I tried to establish a peaceful and comfortable life.
My long years of suffering had taught me the value of safety. I possessed enough money to live without fear of poverty, and I no longer needed to undertake dangerous voyages to improve my fortune.
Yet I soon discovered that settling down was not as simple as I had imagined.
For most of my life, I had been a traveler.
I had crossed oceans, lived in foreign countries, and survived alone on an island.
The habits of so many years could not be forgotten quickly.
I often thought about the strange changes in my fortune.
As a young man, I had rejected my father’s advice and left home because I wished to see the world.
I had believed that an ordinary life would be dull.
But my adventures had brought suffering beyond anything I could have imagined.
Now I had returned with wealth and experience, and I began to understand the wisdom of my father’s words.
I wanted to enjoy the peace that I had once refused.
For a time, I lived quietly.
I arranged my money so that it would provide a steady income.
I visited relatives and renewed such family connections as remained.
I also continued to care for Friday, who had accompanied me faithfully from the island.
He had become accustomed to many things in England, although much was still unfamiliar to him.
I was glad to have his company.
Sometimes, when we spoke together, our thoughts returned to the island.
I remembered the shelter where we had lived and the fields where we had worked.
I remembered the goats that had provided us with milk and meat.
I remembered the great canoe we had built together.
These memories were often pleasant, although the island had also been a place of fear and hardship.
I wondered what had become of the five sailors who had remained there.
I hoped that they had learned to manage the fields and animals.
I also thought about the Spaniard and Friday’s father.
They had traveled to the mainland to bring back the other Europeans.
When I left the island, they had not yet returned.
I had given instructions that they should be welcomed.
But I could not know whether the sailors had obeyed me.
I hoped that the different groups had learned to live peacefully together.
Their future remained uncertain.
As the years passed, my own life changed again.
I married and began a family.
I had three children, two sons and a daughter.
For a time, I found happiness in domestic life.
I had spent so many years without a family that these new responsibilities were deeply important to me.
I enjoyed the ordinary concerns of a household.
I had once believed that freedom meant traveling wherever I pleased.
Now I discovered that there was also happiness in remaining in one place and caring for others.
I thought that perhaps my wandering days were finally over.
But life did not remain unchanged.
After some years, my wife died.
Her death caused me great sorrow.
I had hoped that we would grow old together.
Instead, I found myself facing another period of loneliness.
My children remained a comfort to me, but the loss of my wife altered my life.
I began to feel restless again.
The desire to travel, which had troubled me since my youth, slowly returned.
I tried to resist it.
I remembered the storms, the shipwreck, and the long years of isolation.
I knew that I had already received more chances of survival than most people could expect.
It seemed foolish to expose myself to danger again.
Yet my thoughts continued turning toward distant countries.
I was especially interested in the island.
I had left it with supplies, buildings, and several men who might establish a settlement there.
I wondered whether it had become a thriving little community.
Perhaps the Spaniard and the other Europeans had arrived safely.
Perhaps the men had built more houses and planted larger fields.
Or perhaps they had quarreled and destroyed everything I had left.
I could not know without returning.
This uncertainty remained in my mind.
I also thought about the possessions I had left behind.
The island had become valuable to me, not because of gold or silver, but because of the labor I had spent upon it.
I had cleared land, built walls, and created a home where none had existed.
I felt a strange responsibility for the people who remained there.
I wished to know whether they were safe.
Eventually, an opportunity for another voyage appeared.
My nephew had become a sailor and was preparing to command a ship.
He intended to travel abroad on a trading voyage.
When he spoke to me about his plans, I listened with great interest.
The old excitement of travel returned.
I began considering whether I might accompany him.
I was no longer a young man.
I had wealth enough to remain comfortably in England.
There was no financial necessity for me to leave.
But I felt drawn toward the sea.
I also believed that I might visit my former island during the voyage.
The thought pleased me greatly.
I could see what had become of the settlement and perhaps provide assistance to the people living there.
I discussed the matter with my nephew.
He was willing to take me aboard.
I considered the dangers carefully.
I knew that ships could be wrecked and that voyages could bring unexpected misfortune.
My own life was proof of this.
Still, I felt that the opportunity was difficult to refuse.
At last, I decided to travel again.
I made arrangements for my family and property in England.
I ensured that my affairs would be managed during my absence.
Then I prepared to accompany my nephew.
I was older and, I hoped, wiser than when I first went to sea.
But I could not deny that the same restless spirit remained within me.
I wished to see my island again.
I wanted to know what had happened to the people I had left there.
And I hoped that this new voyage would allow me to settle questions that had troubled me for years.
As I prepared to depart, I thought about the extraordinary path my life had followed.
I had once left England against my father’s wishes.
I had suffered captivity, shipwreck, and long isolation.
Then I had returned home with wealth and a faithful companion.
Now, after enjoying years of domestic life, I was preparing to cross the ocean once more.
I did not know what awaited me.
But I knew that the story of my island had not entirely ended.