From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 6 Robinson's Room
Perhaps because they were too hasty in dragging the sampan to escape, the bow deck was a mess.

An empty wooden barrel was tilted and stuck between the guardrails, and bundles of hemp ropes were thrown messily under the mast.

If you look closely, you can find some pickled meat strips tied to ropes on both sides of the ship. The fishy smell has attracted several seabirds, which are now hovering over Chen Zhou's head. They want to take away the food, but are afraid of this huge hairless monkey.

After finding a clean place to stop, Chen Zhou looked towards the stern.

Looking past the thick and tall mainmast, the first thing that comes into view is the poop building that is stacked up in a stepped manner. It and the slightly higher bow make the entire ship look like a banana, with the head and tail higher and the middle lower.

But because the bow is low and the stern is up, even though the difference is not big, looking from the bow to the stern will give you a sense of looking up.

Recalling the contents of the original book, Chen Zhou knew that the cabins for ordinary crew members and the cargo holds for storing food were located at the bow, while people of higher status such as the captain and the first mate lived at the stern. He did not waste any more time and walked straight forward.

Go down the wooden steps on the inside of the ship's side and you will reach the middle of the ship.

The items here are arranged neatly, the ground is flat, the guardrails on both sides are intact, and the deck, which has been ravaged by wind and waves, has traces of washing, and is not as dirty as the bow.

There are several covers symmetrically laid on the ground for lighting and ventilation. The covers are covered with squares. Looking down through the gaps, you can see two shiny black cannons.

In the middle of the wooden wall connecting the stairs on both sides, there is a door leading to the lower bow deck. Next to the door is a cleverly designed closet, which contains an hourglass fixed with brass. Its workmanship cannot be called fine, but fortunately it is sturdy and durable and has not been damaged.

Chen Zhou curiously wiped the water stains on the outer glass wall of the hourglass, turned it over gently, and watched the fine sand flow slowly. Thinking that this was a good timekeeping tool, he secretly made a note to take the hourglass away when moving supplies.

The feeling of actually touching such a sailing ship from the late Middle Ages is completely different from watching movies or TV shows or touring and admiring those exquisite models in games.

The ship is filled with traces of sailors' activities and information accumulated over time.

On the railings you can see the crooked short sentences carved by the seamen with their knives, on the wooden boards you can feel the texture left by the brooms and mops, and on the cables you can smell the sour smell of sweat and sea water.

In an inconspicuous corner, loose nails have quietly fallen off, cracks have appeared in the old paint at the joints of the wooden boards, and the surface of the angle iron corroded by sea water is dotted with rust spots, indicating that the ship is no longer young.

If you lift the lid of the wooden barrel under the mast, you can find sieves and dice, stacks of playing cards that have been stuck together by sea water, and dark yellow bone gambling tools with numbers on them. These are the few forms of entertainment for sailors at sea.

As he walked toward the stern, Chen Zhou also saw a chimney made of small square bricks. The blackened fireproof mud on both sides faintly emitted the smell of smoke, so he determined the location of the kitchen.

Continuing forward, he pushed open the half-open door of the stern building, and a long and narrow corridor appeared in front of Chen Zhou.

The corridor was dimly lit, with several tightly closed wooden doors staggered on both sides. The paint on the walls was regularly maintained, and not only did it not warp or fall off, it even rarely cracked.

Not only that, the smell here was not as pungent as at the bow, which made Chen Zhou feel a little more comfortable.

The environment of the poop building forms a sharp contrast with the chaotic bow deck, which shows that even though living conditions at sea are so difficult, sailors are ranked according to their skills and qualifications.

The captain and the first mate undoubtedly enjoy the most spacious and luxurious rooms. Although the gunner, carpenter, ship's doctor, and pastor cannot compare to the captain, they can also have a smaller private room and do not have to squeeze into the large bunk bed at the bow like ordinary sailors.

Pushing open a door casually, the sunlight coming in from the side window of the ship made Chen Zhou squint his eyes. After he got used to the strong light, he could see the furnishings of the entire room clearly.

Although it is a private room, it is not very big.

The towering wooden walls on all four sides made the entire space seem extremely dull. There was a short table by the window and a bed next to it, covered with dirty bedding.

Fresh water is extremely precious at sea. Even if the people living here are of noble status, they cannot waste fresh water to wash clothes or take a bath.

There were four wooden boxes stacked crookedly at the end of the bed, and a layer of fishing nets was tightly wrapped around the boxes, apparently to prevent them from shifting due to the shaking of the ship.

Chen Zhou looked around and found nothing except the lantern hanging by the window and the sheepskin nautical chart spread out on the table. He then pulled open the fishing net, took the wooden box down, opened the buckles and checked each one.

The wooden box on the top of the stack was opened first, and it contained some books.

Chen Zhou took them all out and counted them, there were fifteen in total. In addition, there were five small wooden boxes sealed with wax in the box.

Most of these fifteen books were ordinary cowhide-covered thread-bound books. Chen Zhou curiously flipped through a few of them and found that most of them were English reading materials. There were also six books written in Latin letters, but not in English, otherwise it would be impossible for him not to recognize a single word.

From this, Chen Zhou inferred that the six books might have been written in Spanish or Portuguese. Judging from the illustrations in the books, the contents were mostly related to religion and some mythological fables.

There are three other books that are beautifully packaged and particularly eye-catching.

The not-so-thick book body is covered with brass all around, and the cover is outlined with intricate and beautiful gold-plated patterns. "The Holy Bible" is printed in elegant fonts in the middle of the cover, and a cross inlaid with rubies passes through the line of fonts, adding to the cost of the entire book.

"Bible?"

"Is this Robinson's room?"

Weighing the heavy book in his hand, the description in the original work emerged in Chen Zhou's mind.

When Robinson was carrying supplies from the sailboat to the shore, he also brought a batch of goods stored in his luggage to the island, including three Bibles, several Catholic prayer books, and several popular novels to pass the time.

At that time, Robinson had not yet established his faith in God, but in the subsequent long life on the isolated island, in order to relieve his boredom and find spiritual support, he finally placed his body and mind on the Bible.

Unfortunately, Chen Zhou’s mentality is completely different from Robinson’s. Not only is he a staunch atheist, he also knows clearly how he came to this isolated island.

More importantly, Chen Zhou did not want to be rescued by a passing merchant ship. As long as he could survive the challenge time, he would be able to return to modern society with the reward.

Therefore, in his eyes, except for the three Bibles that could be regarded as valuable treasures, the other twelve books were basically worthless waste that could only be used as draft paper for drawing or taking notes, and were too hard to even be used for wiping butts.

Putting the book back into the box, Chen Zhou scraped off the wax on the seal of the wooden box and opened it. As expected, the box contained dried tobacco leaves.

Because it had not been soaked in sea water, it smelled of a bland, sweet incense. I think it should be the same kind of tobacco that Robinson carried with him, and it could be considered the adventurer's favorite private collection.

Chen Zhou doesn't smoke, but he has heard from the older generation that tobacco leaves can refresh the mind and relieve pain, and are also used in folk remedies to treat malaria and influenza. So he did not pour out the tobacco leaves, but kept the wooden box properly.

In the second wooden box, there were many pieces of underwear neatly stacked. Some were made of silk, which felt smooth and delicate to the touch, while others were made of cotton, all in plain white.

The workmanship of these underwear is not bad, the stitches are fine and you can hardly find the thread ends. It's just that they have been stored in an environment without sunlight for too long, so some of them are damp and moldy, but overall they are still clean.

Having fallen to the point of being naked, Chen Zhou found the clothes he urgently needed. He couldn't be pretentious and without making too many choices, he just randomly picked the loosest pair of shorts and a vest and put them on. Only then did he get rid of his naked state.

The underwear was obviously very important supplies, so Chen Zhou carefully placed it together with the first box, reminding himself to make a list after finding paper and pen, and not to forget these things. Then he opened the third box.

This box also contains clothes, but most of them are outerwear, including coats with fox fur collars, short capes, shirts, trousers, felt hats and other clothing.

While Chen Zhou was sorting out his clothes, he also found two familiar leather belts at the bottom of the box. There were hot-stamped patterns on the surface of the belts, and brass and silver buckles on the ends. It seemed that they were made by the same workshop as the one tied around Robinson's waist.

These different styles of outerwear are all of good quality, but the island is currently at the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the dry season, and the weather is very hot, so there is no need to wear a coat when it is not raining.

Moreover, Robinson's body shape does not match Chen Zhou's. It would be fine if he wore loose underwear, but if he forced himself to put on those tight shirts and trousers, it would only restrict his movements, which would not be worth the effort.

After stuffing the clothes back into the boxes, Chen Zhou opened the buckle of the last box.

Now everything was ready, except for a pair of suitable shoes, so that he could go to the bow hold to rescue the waterlogged seeds and other cargo.

However, to Chen Zhou's disappointment, the box did not contain shoes, but some candied fruits in glass jars.

Like modern British people, Robinson Crusoe, the 17th-century British ancestor, also had a special fondness for sweets. Not only did he carry them with him, he also consumed most of the candied fruits stored in the box, leaving only two unopened glass jars filled with orange-red candied apricots and kumquats.

Seeing these candied fruits, Chen Zhou's painful dining memories were immediately brought back. The strange taste of salty, fishy, bitter and astringent taste seemed to reappear in his mouth, making him frown and feel a little nauseous.

I didn't expect that there wasn't even a pair of shoes in the four suitcases.

After closing the lid of the box, Chen Zhou flipped over the fishing net thrown aside in disbelief, but still found nothing.

This is obviously unreasonable. Robinson crossed the ocean and brought so many changes of clothes. How could he only wear one pair of shoes? Something must have been left out.

Standing up, Chen Zhou started from the door and searched the room carefully from top to bottom in a clockwise order. Finally, his hard work paid off and he found two pairs of leather shoes tied together with a thin rope under the bed.

In the dim light, the two pairs of shoes looked particularly old. Chen Zhou placed them next to his feet and measured them, and found that they were only about size 41, nearly three sizes smaller than the shoes he usually wore.

There was no other way, Chen Zhou could only untie the string, flatten the back of his shoes, wear his leather shoes as slippers, and walk in slippers.

Although this pair of shoes is not perfect, it has a thick sole that can protect his fragile feet from harm and also provides Chen Zhou with the courage to continue his exploration.

After leaving Robinson's room, Chen Zhou originally wanted to go to the bow as planned, but the feeling of his heels dangling did not give him enough sense of security. Looking at the other closed doors in the corridor, he changed his mind.

Since water has entered the bow bilge, the environment must be quite harsh, and those broken wooden boards, soaked sacks and wooden barrels mixed in the sea water will become hidden traps.

It is obviously not advisable to wade into sewage wearing these "slippers" in the hope of getting away with it. There is no need to take risks unnecessarily.

Moreover, the grains and bran stored in the bow were not the only source of seeds. There was another bag full of poultry feed at the bottom of the cargo hold, and there were some barley and rice seeds left in it, which could also produce crops if properly stored.

For now, it would be safer to continue searching the senior seaman's room. At the very least, he had to find a pair of suitable shoes, otherwise he would rather not set foot in the bow cabin.

Thinking of this, Chen Zhou silently changed the plan, giving the highest priority to integrating important materials, understanding the hull structure, drawing blueprints, and collecting tools.

Among these four major items, collecting tools, integrating materials, and understanding the hull structure can be carried out together.

At the same time, in order to avoid omissions, Chen Zhou also needs to find paper, pen and ink as soon as possible to record the quantity and location of various resources on the ship, such as food, materials, tools, gunpowder, etc., and make a detailed list for easy transportation and storage.

A good memory is not as good as a good pen. This is a habit he developed after many years of studying.

Standing in the corridor, after sorting out the specific steps in his mind, Chen Zhou turned around and returned to Robinson's room.

He first emptied the four wooden boxes and placed his underwear and the pile of bottles and jars on the bed. Then he picked out two books with clean paper, few words and many illustrations and placed them on the table to serve as notes. Then he left the room and pushed open the door opposite.

This room looked much more spacious than Robinson's room. There were two square windows on the side of the ship and a tall cabinet against the wall. On the cabinet were hooks fixed several short saws of different sizes and some utensils of unknown purpose, including several particularly thick needles and a sharp cone with a blood groove.

Chen Zhou took a closer look and found traces of suspected blood on the surface of these tools, thus judging that this room should belong to the ship's doctor.

Subsequent discoveries confirmed his suspicions.

For example, the various medicine bottles and jars in the drawer under the cabinet all had scribbled labels on them. Some of them were emetics, some were medicines for treating the Black Death, some were specific medicines for dysentery, and some were hemostatics. There were about twenty kinds of medicines in total.

Chen Zhou knew that these were all medicines, but he did not dare to trust the medical level of that era. Therefore, he did not dare to touch these medicines of unknown composition and reduced the priority of transporting these medicines to the lowest level.

In addition, he also found a book about human anatomy in the cabinet. The illustrations in it were lifelike, and the muscles and skeletons were extremely realistic, which, combined with the gray tones of the room, made people feel creepy.

(End of this chapter)