Well, I have set my mind on many things in this life, and never one which I did not carry out.
我一生曾立下过不少的志愿,件件都能办到。
But it was weary years before my time came.
可是在等待这时机的几年里,我却受尽了千辛万苦。
I have told you that I had picked up something of medicine.
我告诉过你们,我学得了一些医药上的知识。
One day when Dr. Somerton was down with a fever a little Andaman Islander was picked up by a convict-gang in the woods.
有一天,萨莫吞医生因发高烧卧病在床,有一个安达曼群岛的小生番被到树林中工作的囚犯带了回来。
He was sick to death and had gone to a lonely place to die.
他因为病重,想找到一个幽静的地方等死,
I took him in hand, though he was as venomous as a young snake,
虽然知道生番生性狠毒似蛇,可是我还是护理了他两个月,
and after a couple of months I got him all right and able to walk.
他终于渐渐恢复了健康又能走路了。
He took a kind of fancy to me then, and would hardly go back to his woods, but was always hanging about my hut.
他对我产生了感情,很难得回树林里去一次,终日守在我的茅屋里边。
I learned a little of his lingo from him, and this made him all the fonder of me.
我又向他学会了一些他的土话,于是他对我就更加敬爱了。
Tonga--for that was his name--was a fine boatman and owned a big, roomy canoe of his own.
他的名字叫做童格,是一个精练的船夫,并且有一只很大的独木船。
When I found that he was devoted to me and would do anything to serve me,
自从我发现他对于我的忠诚并且愿意为我作任何事情以后,
I saw my chance of escape. I talked it over with him.
我终于找到了逃走的机会,我把这个计划和他说了,
He was to bring his boat round on a certain night to an old wharf which was never guarded, and there he was to pick me up.
我叫他在一天夜晚把船划到一个无人守卫的码头去接我上船,
I gave him directions to have several gourds of water and a lot of yams, cocoanuts, and sweet potatoes.
还叫他准备几平淡水,许多的薯蓣、椰子和甜薯。
He was staunch and true, was little Tonga. No man ever had a more faithful mate.
这个小童格真是忠诚可靠,再没有比他更忠实的同伴了,
At the night named he had his boat at the wharf.
那天晚上他果然把船划到了码头下面。