Unpublished
Although Mr. Gulliver was born in Nottinghamshire, where his Father dwelt, yet I have heard him say, his Family came from Oxfordshire; to confirm which, I have observed in the Church-Yard at Banbury, in that County, several Tombs and Monuments of the Gullivers.
Before he quitted Redriff, he left the Custody of the following Papers in my Hands, A2
By the Advice of several worthy Persons, to whom, with the Author's Permission, I communicated these Papers, I now venture to send them into the World, hoping they may be at least, for some time, a better Entertainment to our young Noblemen, than the common Scribbles of Politicks and Party.
This Volume would have been at least twice as large, if I had not made bold to strike out innumerable Passages relating to the Winds and Tides, as well as to the Variations and Bearings in the several Voyages; together with the Minute Descriptions of the Management of the Ship in Storms, in the Style of Sailors: Likewise the Account of the Longitudes and Latitudes; wherein I have reason to apprehend that Mr. Gulliver may be a little dissatisfied: But I was resolved to fit the Work as much as possible to the general Capacity of Readers. However, if my own Ignorance in Sea-Affairs shall have led me to
As for any further Particulars relating to the Author, the Reader will receive Satisfaction from the first Pages of the Book.
The Author gives some Account of himself and Family, his first Inducements to Travel. He is Ship-wrecked, and swims for his Life, gets safe on Shoar in the Country of Lilliput, is made a Prisoner, and carried up the Country, Page 1.
The Emperor of Lilliput, attended by several of the Nobility, come to see the Author in his Confinement. The Emperor's Person and Habit described. Learned Men appointed to teach the Author their Language. He gains Favour by his mild Disposition. His Pockets are searched, and his Sword and Pistols taken from him, Page 11
The Author diverts the Emperor and his Nobility of both Sexes in a very uncommon manner. The Diversions of the Court of Lilliput described. The Author hath his Liberty granted him upon certain Conditions, Page 20
Mildendo the Metropolis of Lilliput describ'd, together with the Emperor's Palace. A Conversation between
The Author by an extraordinary Stratagem, prevents an Invasion. A high Title of Honour is conferr'd upon him. Embassadors arrive from the Emperor of Blefuscu and sue for Peace. The Empress's Apartment on fire by an Accident. The Author instrumental in saving the rest of the Palace, Page 32
Of the Inhabitants of Lilliput; their Learning, Laws, and Customs, the manner of Educating their Children. The Author's way of living in that Country. His Vindication of a great Lady, Page 39
The Author being inform'd of a Design to accuse him of High-Treason, makes his Escape to Blefuscu. His Reception there, Page 49
CHAP. VIII.The Author by a lucky Accident, finds means to leave Blefuscu, and after some Difficulties returns safe to his native Country, Page 57
A great Storm described, the long Boat sent to fetch Water, the Author goes with it to discover the Country. He is left on Shoar, is seized by one of the Natives, and carry'd to a Farmer's House. His Reception there, with several Accidents that happen'd to them. A Description of the Inhabitants, Page 63
A Description of the Farmer's Daughter. The Author carried to a Market Town, and then to the Metropolis. The Particulars of his Journey. Page 75
The Author sent for to Court. The Queen buys him of his Master the Farmer, and presents him to the King. He disputes with his Majesty's great Scholars. An Apartment at Court provided for the Author. He is in high Favour with the Queen. He stands up for the Honour of his own Country. His Quarrels with the Queen's Dwarf, Page 81
The Country described. A Proposal for correcting modern Maps. The King's Palace, and some Account of the
Several Adventures that happened to the Author. The Execution of a Criminal. The Author shews his Skill in Navigation. Page 59
Several Contrivances of the Author to please the King and Queen. He shews his Skill in Musick. The King enquires into the State of Europe, which the Author relates to him. The King's Observations thereon. Page 105
The Author's Love of his Country. He makes a Proposal of much Advantage to the King, which is rejected. The King's great Ignorance in Politicks. The Learning of that Country very imperfect and confined. Their Laws, and military Affairs, and Parties in the State. Page 113
The King and Queen make a Progress to the Frontiers. The Author attends them. The manner in which he leaves the Country very particularly related. He returns to England. Page 120
The Author gives some Account of himself and Family, his first Inducements to Travel. He is Ship-wrecked, and swims for his Life, gets safe on Shoar in the Country of Lilliput, is made a Prisoner, and carried up the Country.
B
Soon after my Return from Leyden, I was recommended by my good Master, Mr. Bates, to be Surgeon to the Swallow, Captain Abraham Pannell, Commander; with whom I continued three Years and a half, making a Voyage or two into the Levant, and some other Parts. When I came back, I resolved to settle in London, to which Mr. Bates, my Master encouraged me, and by him I was recommended to several Patients. I took Part of a small House in the Old Jury; and being advised to alter my Condition, I married Mrs. Mary Burton, second Daughter to Mr. Edmond Burton, Hosier in Newgate-street, with whom I received four Hundred Pounds for a Portion.
But, my good Master Bates dying in two Years after, and I having few Friends, my Business began to fail; for my Conscience would not suffer me to imitate the bad Practice of too many among my Brethren. Having therefore consulted with my Wife, and some of my Acquaintance, I determined to go again to Sea. I was Surgeon successively in two Ships, and made several Voyages, for six Years, to the East and West-Indies, by which I got some Addition to my Fortune. My Hours of Leisure I spent in reading the best Authors ancient and modern, being always provided with a good number of Books and when I was ashore, in observing the Manners and Dispositions of the People, as well as learning their Language, wherein I had a great Facility by the strength of my Memory.
The last of these Voyages not proving very fortunate, I grew weary of the Sea, and intended to stay at home with my Wife and Family. I removed from the Old Jury to Fetter Lane, and from thence to Wapping, hoping to get Business among the Sailors; but it would not turn to Account. After three Years Expectation that things
It would not be proper, for some Reasons, to trouble the Reader with the Particulars of our Adventures in those Seas: Let it suffice to inform him, that in our Passage from thence to the East-Indies, we were driven by a violent Storm to the North-west of Van Diemen's Land. By an Observation, we found ourselves in the Latitude of 30 Degrees 2 Minutes South. Twelve of our Crew were dead by immoderate Labour, and ill Food, the rest were in a very weak Condition. On the fifth of November, which was the beginning of Summer in those Parts, the Weather being very hazy, the Seamen spied a Rock, within half a Cable's length of the Ship; but the Wind was so strong, that we were driven directly upon it, and immediately split. Six of the Crew, of whom I was one, having let down the Boat into the Sea, made a shift to get clear of the Ship, and the Rock. We rowed by my Computation about three Leagues, till we were able to work no longer, being already spent with Labour while we were in the Ship. We therefore trusted ourselves to the Mercy of the Waves, and in about half an Hour the Boat was overset by a sudden Flurry from the North. What became of my Companions in the Boat, as well as of those who escaped on the Rock, or were left in the Vessel, I cannot tell; but conclude they were all lost. For my own part, I swam as Fortune directed me, and was push'd forward by Wind and Tide. I often let my Legs drop, and could feel no bottom: But when I was almost gone, and able to struggle no longer, I found my self within my depth; and by this time the Storm was much abated. The Declivity was so small, that I walked near a Mile before I got to the shore, which I conjectur'd was about eight a Clock in the Evening. I then advanced forward near half a Mile, but could not discover any sign of Houses or Inhabitants; at least I was in so weak a Condition, that I did not observe them. I was extremely tired, and with that, and the Heat of the Weather, and about half a Pint of Brandy that I drank as I left the Ship, B2
B3
B4
It seems that upon the first Moment I was discovered sleeping on the Ground after my Landing, the Emperor had early Notice of it by an Express, and determined in Council that I should be tied in the manner I have related (which was done in the Night while I slept) that Plenty of Meat and Drink should be sent me, and a Machine prepared to carry me to the Capital City.
This Resolution perhaps may appear very bold and dangerous, and I am confident would not be imitated by any Prince in Europe on the like Occasion; however, in my Opinion it was extremely Prudent as well as Generous. For supposing these People had endeavour'd to kill me with their Spears and Arrows while I was asleep, I should certainly have awaked with the first sense of Smart, which might so far have rouzed my Rage and Strength, as to have enabled me to break the Strings
These People are most excellent Mathematicians, and arrived to a great Perfection in Mechanicks by the countenance and encouragement of the Emperor, who is a renowned Patron of Learning. This Prince hath several Machines fixed on Wheels for the Carriage of Trees and other great Weights. He often builds his largest Men of War, whereof some are nine Foot long, in the Woods where the Timber grows, and has them carried on these Engines three or four hundred Yards to the Sea. Five Hundred Carpenters and Engineers were immediately set at work to prepare the greatest Engine they had. It was a Frame of Wood raised three Inches from the Ground, about seven Foot long and four wide, moving upon twenty two Wheels. The Shout I heard was upon the arrival of this Engine, which it seems set out in four Hours after my Landing. It was brought parallel to me as I lay. But the principal Difficulty was to raise and place me in this Vehicle. Eighty Poles, each of one Foot high, were erected for this Purpose, and very strong Cords of the bigness of Packthread were fastned by Hooks to many Bandages, which the Workmen had girt round my Neck, my Hands, my Body, and my Legs. Nine Hundred of the strongest Men were employed to draw up these Cords by many Pullies fastned on the Poles, and thus in less than three Hours, I was raised and slung into the Engine, and there tied fast. All this I was told, for while the whole Operation was performing, I lay in a profound sleep, by the force of that soporiferous Medicine infused into my Liquor. Fifteen Hundred of the Emperor's largest Horses, each about four Inches and an half high, were employed to draw me towards the Metropolis, which, as I said, was half a Mile distant.
About four Hours after we began our Journey, I awaked by a very ridiculous Accident; for the Carriage being stopt a while to adjust something that was out of order, two or three of the young Natives had the Curiosity to see how I looked when I was asleep; they climbed up into the Engine, and advancing very softly to my Face, one of them, an Officer in the Guards, put the sharp end of his Half-pike a good way up into my left Nostril, B5
At the Place where the Carriage stopt, there stood an ancient Temple, esteemed to be the largest in the whole Kingdom, which having been polluted some Years before by an unnatural Murder, was according to the Zeal of those People, looked on as Prophane, and therefore had been applied to common Use, and all the Ornaments and Furniture carried away. In this Edifice it was determined I should lodge. The great Gate fronting to the North was about four Foot high, and almost two Foot wide, through which I could easily creep. On each side of the Gate was a small Window not above six Inches from the Ground: Into that on the left side, the King's Smiths conveyed fourscore and eleven Chains, like those that hang to a Lady's Watch in Europe, and almost as large, which were locked to my left Leg with six and thirty Padlocks. Over against this Temple, on t'other side of the great Highway, at twenty Foot distance, there was a Turret at least five Foot high. Here the Emperor ascended with many principal Lords of his Court, to have an opportunity of viewing me, as I was told, for I could not see them. It was reckoned that above an hundred thousand Inhabitants came out of the Town upon the same Errand; and in spight of my Guards, I believe there could not be fewer than ten Thousand, at several times, who mounted upon my Body by the help of Ladders. But a Proclamation was soon issued to forbid it upon pain of Death. When the Workmen found it was impossible for me to break loose, they cut all the Strings that bound me; whereupon I rose up with as melancholly a Dispo-
The Emperor of Lilliput, attended by several of the Nobility, come to see the Author in his Confinement. The Emperor's Person and Habit described. Learned Men appointed to teach the Author their Language. He gains Favour by his mild Disposition. His Pockets are searched, and his Sword and Pistols taken from him.
I had been for some Hours extremely pressed by the Necessities of Nature; which was no wonder, it being almost two Days since I had last disburthened myself. I was under great Difficulties between Urgency and Shame. The best Expedient I could think on, was to creep into my House, which I accordingly did; and shutting the Gate after me, I went as far as the length of my Chain would suffer, and discharged my Body of that uneasy Load. But this was the only time I was ever guilty of so uncleanly an Action; for which I cannot but hope the candid Reader will give some Allowance, after he hath maturely and impartially considered my Case, and the Distress I was in. From this time my constant Pra-
When this Adventure was at an end, I came back out of my House, having occasion for fresh Air. The Emperor was already descended from the Tower, and advancing on Horse-back towards me, which had like to have cost him dear; for the Beast, tho' very well trained, yet wholly unused to such a Sight, which appeared as if a Mountain moved before him, reared up on his hinder Feet: But that Prince, who is an excellent Horse-Man, kept his Seat, till his Attendants ran in, and held the Bridle, while his Majesty had time to dismount. When he alighted, he surveyed me round with great Admiration, but kept without the length of my Chain. He ordered his Cooks and Butlers, who were already prepared, to give me Victuals and Drink, which they pushed forward in a sort of Vehicles, and soon emptied them all; twenty of them were filled with Meat, and ten with Liquor, each of the former afforded me two or three good Mouthfuls, and I emptied the Liquor of ten Vessels, which was contained in earthen Vials, into one Vehicle, drinking it off at a Draught, and so I did with the rest. The Empress, and young Princes of the Blood, of both Sexes, attended by many Ladies, sate at some distance in their Chairs; but upon the Accident that happened to the Emperor's Horse, they allighted, and came near his Person, which I am now going to describe. He is taller by almost the breadth of my Nail, than any of his Court, which alone is enough to strike an Awe into the Beholders. His Features are strong and masculine, with an Austrian Lip and arched Nose, his Complexion olive, his Countenance erect, his Body and Limbs well
Towards Night I got with some difficulty into my House, where I lay on the Ground, and continued to do so about a Fortnight; during which time the Emperor gave Orders to have a Bed prepared for me. Six hundred Beds of the common Measure were brought in Carriages, and worked up in my House, an hundred and fifty of their Beds sown together made up the Breadth and Length, and these were four double, which however kept me but very indifferently from the Hardness of the Floor, that was of smooth Stone. By the same Computation they provided me with Sheets, Blankets, and Coverlets, tolerable enough for one who had been so long enured to Hardships as I.
As the News of my Arrival spread through the Kingdom, it brought prodigious Numbers of rich, idle, and curious People to see me; so that the Villages were almost emptied, and great Neglect of Tillage and Houshold Affairs must have ensued, if his Imperial Majesty had not provided by several Proclamations and Orders of State against this Inconveniency. He directed that those, who had already beheld me, should return home, and not presume to come within fifty Yards of my House without Licence from Court; whereby the Secretaries of State got considerable Fees.
In the mean time, the Emperor held frequent Councils to debate what Course should be taken with me; and I was afterwards assured by a particular Friend, a Person of great Quality, who was looked upon to be as much in the Secret as any, that the Court was under many Difficulties concerning me. They apprehended my breaking loose, that my Diet would be very expen-
Imprimis, In the right Coat-Pocket of the Great Man Mountain (for so I interpret the words, Quinbus Flestrin) after the strictest search, we found only one great Piece of coarse Cloth, large enough to be a Foot-Cloth for your Majesty's chief Room of State. In the left Pocket, we saw a huge Silver Chest, with a Cover of the same Metal, which we the Searchers were not able to lift. We
Having thus, in Obedience to your Majesty's Commands, diligently searched all his Pockets, we observed a Girdle about his Waist made of the Hide of some prodigious Animal; from which, on the left Side, hung a Sword of the length of five Men; and on the right, a Bag or Pouch divided into two Cells, each Cell capable of holding three of your Majesty's Subjects. In one of these Cells were several Globes or Balls of a most ponderous Metal, about the bigness of our Heads, and required a strong Hand to lift them: The other Cell contained a Heap of certain black Grains, but of no great Bulk or Weight, for we could hold above fifty of them in the Palms of our Hands.
This is an exact Inventory of what we found about the Body of the Man Mountain, who used us with great Civility, and due Respect to your Majesty's Commission. Signed and Sealed on the fourth Day of the eighty ninth Moon of your Majesty's auspicious Reign.
When this Inventory was read over to the Emperor, he directed me, although in very gentle Terms, to deliver up the several Particulars. He first called for my Scymiter, which I took out, Scabbard and all. In the mean time he ordered three thousand of his choicest Troops (who then attended him) to surround me at a distance, with their Bows and Arrows just ready to discharge: But I did not observe it, for mine Eyes were wholly fixed upon his Majesty. He then desired me to draw my Scymiter, which, although it had got some Rust by the Sea-Water, was in most parts exceeding bright. I did so, and immediately all the Troops gave a Shout between Terror and Surprize; for the Sun shone clear, and the Reflexion dazled their Eyes as I waved the Scymiter to and fro in my Hand. His Majesty, who is a most magnanimous Prince, was less daunted than I could expect; he ordered me to return it into the Scabbard, and cast it on the ground as gently as I could, about six Foot from the end of my Chain. The next thing he demanded was one of the hollow Iron Pillars, by which he meant my Pocket-Pistols, I drew it out, and at his desire, as well as I could, expressed to him the Use of it; and charging it only with Powder, which by the closeness of my Pouch happened to scape wetting in the Sea, (an Inconvenience against which all prudent Mariners take special care to provide) I first cautioned the Emperor not to be afraid, and then I let it off in the Air. The Astonishment here was much greater than that at the sight of my Scymiter. Hundreds fell down as if they had been struck dead; and even the Emperor, although he stood his ground, could not recover himself in some time. I delivered up both my Pistols in the same manner, as I had done my Scymiter, and then my Pouch of Powder and Bullets; begging him that the former might be kept from the Fire, for it would kindle with the smallest Spark, and blow up his Imperial Palace into the Air. I likewise delivered up my Watch, which the Emperor was very curious to see, and commanded two of his tallest Yeomen of the Guards to bear it on a Pole upon their Shoulders, as Dray-men in England do a Barrel of Ale. He was amazed at the continual Noise it made, and the Motion of the Minute-
I had, as I before observed, one private Pocket which escaped their Search, wherein there was a pair of Spectacles, (which I sometimes use for the Weakness of mine Eyes) a Pocket Perspective, and several other little Conveniencies; which being of no consequence to the Emperor, I did not think my self bound in Honour to discover, and I apprehended they might be lost or spoiled if I ventured them out of my Possession.
The Author diverts the Emperor and his Nobility of both Sexes in a very uncommon manner. The diversions of the Court of Lilliput described. The Author hath his Liberty granted him upon certain Conditions.
This Diversion is only practised by those Persons who are Candidates for great Employments, and high Favour, at Court. They are trained in this Art from their Youth, and are not always of noble Birth, or liberal Education. When a great Office is vacant either by Death or Disgrace (which often happens) five or six of these Candidates petition the Emperor to entertain his Majesty and the Court with a Dance on the Rope, and whoever jumps the highest without falling, succeeds in the Office. Very often the Chief Ministers themselves are commanded to shew their Skill, and to convince the Emperor that they have not lost their Faculty. Flimnap, the Treasurer, is allowed to cut a Caper on the strait Rope, at least an Inch higher than any other Lord in the whole Empire. I have seen him do the Summerset several times together upon a Trencher fixed on the Rope, which is no thicker than a common Packthread in England. My Friend, Reldresal, Principal Secretary for private Affairs, is, in my Opinion, if I am not partial, the second after the Treasurer; the rest of the great Officers are much upon a Par.
These Diversions are often attended with fatal Accidents, whereof great Numbers are on Record. I my self have seen two or three Candidates break a Limb. But the Danger is much greater when the Ministers themselves are commanded to shew their Dexterity; for by contending to excel themselves and their Fellows, they strain so far, that there is hardly one of them who hath not received a Fall, and some of them two or three. I was assured that a Year or two before my Arrival, Flimnap would have infallibly broke his Neck, if one of the King's Cushions, that accidentally lay on the ground, had not weakened the Force of his Fall.
There is likewise another Diversion which is only shewn before the Emperor and Empress, and first Minister, up-
The Horses of the Army, and those of the Royal Stables, having been daily led before me, were no longer shy, but would come up to my very Feet without starting. The Riders would leap them over my Hand as I held it on the Ground, and one of the Emperor's Huntsmen, upon a large Courser, took my Foot, Shoe and all; which was indeed a prodigious Leap. I had the good fortune to divert the Emperor one day after a very extraordinary manner. I desired he would order several Sticks of two foot high, and the thickness of an ordinary Cane, to be brought me; whereupon his Majesty commanded the Master of his Woods to give Directions accordingly, and the next Morning six Wood-men arrived with as many Carriages, drawn by eight Horses to each. I took nine of these Sticks, and fixing them firmly in the Ground in a quadrangular Figure, two foot and a half Square, I took four other Sticks, and tied them parallel at each Corner, about two foot from the Ground; then I fast-
About two or three days before I was set at liberty, as I was entertaining the Court with these kind of Feats, there arrived an Express to inform his Majesty that some of his Subjects riding near the Place where I was first taken up, had seen a great black Substance lying on the Ground, very oddly shaped, extending its Edges round as wide as his Majesty's Bed-chamber, and rising up in the
Two days after this Adventure, the Emperor having ordered that Part of his Army which quarters in and about his Metropolis to be in readiness, took a fancy of diverting himself in a very singular manner. He desired I would stand like a Colossus, with my Legs as far asunder as I conveniently could. He then commanded his General (who was an old experienc'd Leader, and a great Patron of mine) to draw up the Troops in close Order, and march them under me, the Foot by Twenty-four in a breast, and the Horse by Sixteen, with Drums beating, and Colours flying, and Pikes advanced. This Body consisted of three thousand Foot, and a thousand Horse. His Majesty gave Orders, upon pain of Death,
I had sent so many Memorials and Petitions for my Liberty, that his Majesty at length mentioned the Matter first in the Cabinet, and then in a full Council; where it was opposed by none, except Skyresh Bolgolam, who was pleased, without any provocation, to be my mortal Enemy. But it was carried against him by the whole Board, and confirmed by the Emperor. That Minister was Galbet, or Admiral of the Realm, very much in his Master's Confidence, and a Person well versed in Affairs, but of a morose and sour Complection. However, he was at length persuaded to comply; but prevailed that the Articles and Conditions upon which I should be set free, and to which I must swear, should be drawn up by himself. These Articles were brought to me by Skyresh Bolgolam in Person, attended by two Under-Secretaries, and several Persons of Distinction. After they were read, I was demanded to swear to the Performance of them; first in the manner of my own Country, and afterwards in the method prescribed by their Laws; which was to hold my right Foot in my left Hand, to place the middle Finger of my right Hand on the Crown of my Head, and my Thumb on the Tip of my right Ear. But because the Reader may perhaps be curious to have some Idea of the Style and Manner of Expression peculiar to that People, as well as to know the Articles upon which I recovered my Liberty, I have made a Translation of the whole Instrument word for word, as near as I was able, which I here offer to the publick.
Golbasto Momaren Evlame Gurdilo Shefin Mully Ully Gu e, most mighty Emperor of Lilliput, Delight and Terror of the Universe, whose Dominions extend five thousand Blustrugs, (about twelve Miles in Circumference) to the Extremities of the Globe; Monarch of all Monarchs, taller than the Sons of Men; whose Feet press down to the Center, and whose Head strikes against the Sun: At
se Head strikes against the Sun: At
First, The Man-Mountain shall not depart from our Dominions, without our Licence under our Great Seal.
2d. He shall not presume to come into our Metropolis, without our express Order; at which time the Inhabitants shall have two Hours warning to keep within their Doors.
3d. The said Man-Mountain shall confine his Walks to our principal High Roads, and not to offer to walk or lie down in a Meadow or Field of Corn.
4th. As he walks the said Roads, he shall take the utmost care not to trample upon the Bodies of any of our loving Subjects, their Horses, or Carriages, nor take any of our said Subjects into his Hands, without their own Consent.
5th. If an Express requires extraordinary Dispatch, the Man-Mountain shall be obliged to carry in his Pocket the Messenger and Horse a six Days Journey once in every Moon, and return the said Messenger back (if so required) safe to our Imperial Presence.
6th. He shall be our Ally against our Enemies in the Island of Blefuscu, and do his utmost to destroy their Fleet, which is now preparing to invade Us.
7th. That the said Man-Mountain shall, at his times of leisure, be aiding and assisting to our Workmen, in helping to raise certain great Stones, towards covering the Wall of the principal Park, and other our Royal Buildings.
8th. That the said Man-Mountain shall, in two Moons time, deliver in an exact Survey of the Circumference of our Dominions by a Computation of his own Paces round the Coast.
Lastly, That upon his solemn Oath to observe all the above Articles, the said Man-Mountain shall have a daily Allowance of Meat and Drink sufficient for the Support of 1724 of our Subjects, with free Access to our Royal Person, and other Marks of our Favour. Given at our Palace of Belfaborac the twelfth Day of the Ninety-first Moon of our Reign.
I swore and subscribed to these Articles with great
The Reader may please to observe, that in the last Article for the Recovery of my Liberty, the Emperor stipulates to allow me a Quantity of Meat and Drink sufficient for the Support of 1724 Lilliputians. Some time after, asking a Friend at Court how they came to fix on that determinate Number; he told me, that his Majesty's Mathematicians, having taken the Height of my Body by the help of a Quadrant, and finding it to exceed theirs in the Proportion of Twelve to One, they concluded from the Similarity of their Bodies, that mine must contain at least 1724 of theirs, and consequently would require as much Food as was necessary to support that number of Lilliputians. By which, the Reader may conceive an Idea of the Ingenuity of that People, as well as the prudent and exact Oeconomy of so great a Prince.
Mildendo, the Metropolis of Lilliput, described, together with the Emperor's Palace. A Conversation between the Author and a Principal Secretary, concerning the Affairs of that Empire: The Author's Offers to serve the Emperor in his Wars.
C2
The Emperor's Palace is in the Center of the City, where the two great Streets meet. It is inclosed by a Wall of two foot high, and twenty foot distant from the Buildings. I had his Majesty's Permission to step over this Wall; and the Space being so wide between that and the Palace, I could easily view it on every side. The outward Court is a Square of forty foot, and includes two other Courts: In the inmost are the Royal Apartments, which I was very desirous to see, but found it extremely difficult; for the great Gates, from one Square into another, were but eighteen Inches high, and seven Inches wide. Now the Buildings of the outer Court were at least five foot high, and it was impossible for me to stride over them, without infinite Damage to the Pile, though the Walls were strongly built of hewn Stone, and four Inches thick. At the same time the Emperor had a great desire that I should see the Magnificence of his Pa-
But I shall not anticipate the Reader with farther Descriptions of this kind, because I reserve them for a greater Work; which is now almost ready for the Press, containing a general Description of this Empire, from its first Erection, through a long Series of Princes, with a particular Account of their Wars and Politicks, Laws, Learning, and Religion; their Plants and Animals, their peculiar Manners and Customs, with other Matters very curious and useful; my chief Design at present being only to relate such Events and Transactions as happened to the Publick, or to myself, during a Residence of about nine Months in that Empire.
One Morning, about a Fortnight after I had obtain'd my Liberty, Keldresal, Principal Secretary (as they stile him) of private Affairs, came to my House, attended only by one Servant. He ordered his Coach to wait at a Distance, and desired I would give him an Hour's Audience; which I readily consented to, on Account of his C3
C4
I desired the Secretary to present my humble Duty to the Emperor, and to let him know that I thought it would not become Me, who was a Foreigner, to interfere with Parties; but I was ready with the hazard of my Life, to defend his Person and State against all Invaders.
The Author by an extraordinary Stratagem prevents an Invasion. A high Title of Honour is confered upon him. Embassadors arrive from the Emperor of Blefuscu, and sue for Peace. The Empress's Apartment on fire by an Accident; the Author instrumental in saving the rest of the Palace.
C5
The Blefuscudians, who had not the least Imagination of what I intended, were at first confounded with astonishment. They had seen me cut the Cables, and thought my Design was only to let the Ships run a-drift, or fall foul on each other: But when they perceived the whole Fleet moving in order, and saw me pulling at the End, they set up such a scream of Grief and Despair, that it is almost impossible to describe or conceive. When I had got out of danger, I stopt a while to pick out the Arrows that stuck in my Hands and Face, and rubbed on some of the same Ointment that was given me at my first Arrival, as I have formerly mentioned. I then took off my Spectacles, and waiting about an Hour till the Tide was a little fallen, I waded through the middle with my Cargo, and arrived safe at the Royal Port of Lilliput.
The Emperor and his whole Court stood on the Shore expecting the Issue of this great Adventure. They saw the Ships move forward in a large Half-Moon, but could not discern me, who was up to my Breast in Water. When I advanced to the middle of the Channel, they were yet more in pain because I was under Water to my Neck. The Emperor concluded me to be drowned, and that the Enemies Fleet was approaching in a hostile manner: But he was soon eased of his Fears, for the Channel growing shallower every step I made, I came in a short time within hearing, and holding up the End of the Cable by which the Fleet was fastned, I cry'd in
His Majesty desired I would take some other Opportunity of bringing all the rest of his Enemies Ships into his Ports. And so unmeasurable is the Ambition of Princes, that he seemed to think of nothing less than reducing the whole Empire of Blefuscu into a Province, and governing it by a Vice-Roy; of destroying the Big-Endian Exiles, and compelling that People to break the smaller End of their Eggs, by which he would remain the sole Monarch of the whole World. But I endeavoured to divert him from this Design, by many Arguments drawn from the Topicks of Policy as well as Justice: And I plainly protested that I would never be an Instrument of bringing a Free and Brave People into Slavery. And when the Matter was debated in Council, the wisest Part of the Ministry were of my Opinion.
This open bold Declaration of mine was so opposite to the Schemes and Politicks of his Imperial Majesty, that he could never forgive it; he mention'd it in a very artful manner at Council, where I was told that some of the wisest appeared, at least by their Silence, to be of my Opinion; but others, who were my secret Enemies, could not forbear some Expressions, which by a side-|wind reflected on me. And from this time began an Intrigue between his Majesty, and a Juncto of Ministers maliciously bent against me, which broke out in less than two Months, and had like to have ended in my utter Destruction. Of so little Weight are the greatest Services to Princes, when put into the Ballance with a Refusal to gratify their Passions.
About three Weeks after this Exploit, there arrived a solemn Embassy from Blefuscu, with humble Offers of a Peace; which was soon concluded upon Conditions very advantageous to our Emperor, wherewith I shall not trouble the Reader. There were six Embassadors, with a Train of about five hundred Persons, and their Entry was very magnificent, suitable to the Grandeur of their Master, and the Importance of their Business. When
When I had for some time entertained their Excellencies to their infinite Satisfaction and Surprize, I desired they would do me the Honour to present my most humble Respects to the Emperor their Master, the Renown of whose Virtues had so justly filled the whole World with Admiration, and whose Royal Person I resolved to attend before I returned to my own Country: Accordingly, the next time I had the Honour to see our Emperor, I desired his general Licence to wait on the Blefuscudian Monarch, which he was pleased to grant me, as I could plainly perceive, in a very cold manner; but could not guess the Reason, till I had a Whisper from a certain Person, that Flimnap and Bolgolam had represented my Intercourse with those Embassadors as a mark of Disaffection, from which I am sure my Heart was wholly free. And this was the first time I began to conceive some imperfect Idea of Courts and Ministers.
It is to be observed, that these Embassadors spoke to me by an Interpreter, the Languages of both Empires differing as much from each other as any two in Europe, and each Nation priding itself upon the Antiquity, Beauty, and Energy of their own Tongues, with an avowed Contempt for that of their Neighbour; yet our Emperor standing upon the Advantage he had got by the Seisure of their Fleet, obliged them to deliver their Credentials, and make their Speech in the Lilliputian Tongue. And it must be confessed, that from the great Intercourse of Trade and Commerce between both Realms, from the continual Reception of Exiles, which is mutual among them, and from the Custom in each Empire to send their young Nobility and richer Gentry to the other, in order
The Reader may remember, that when I signed those Articles upon which I recovered my Liberty, there were some which I disliked upon account of their being too servile, neither could any thing but an extreme Necessity have forced me to submit. But being now a Nardac, of the highest Rank in that Empire, such Offices were looked upon as below my Dignity, and the Emperor (to do him Justice) never once mentioned them to me. However, it was not long before I had an Opportunity of doing his Majesty, at least, as I then thought, a most signal Service. I was alarmed at Midnight with the Cries of many hundred People at my Door; by which being suddenly awaked, I was in some kind of Terror. I heard the Word Burglum repeated incessantly: Several of the Emperor's Court making their Way through the Crowd, intreated me to come immediately to the Palace, were her Imperial Majesty's Apartment was on fire, by the Carelessness of a Maid of Honour, who fell asleep while she was reading a Romance. I got up in an Instant; and Orders being given to clear the way before me, and it being likewise a Moon-shine Night, I made a shift to get to the Palace without trampling on any of the People. I found they had already applied Ladders to the Walls of the Apartment, and were well provided with Buckets, but the Water was at some distance. These Buckets were about the Size of a large Thimble, and the poor People supplied me with them as fast as they could; but the Flame was so violent, that they did little good. I might easily have stifled it with my Coat, which I unfortunately left behind me for haste, and came away only in my Leathern Jerkin. The Case seemed wholly desperate and deplorable, and this magnificent Palace would have infallibly been burnt down to the
It was now Day-light, and I returned to my House, without waiting to congratulate with the Emperor; because, although I had done a very eminent piece of Service, yet I could not tell how his Majesty might resent the manner by which I had performed it: For, by the fundamental Laws of the Realm, it is Capital in any Person of what Quality soever, to make Water within the Precincts of the Palace. But I was a little comforted by a Message from his Majesty, that he would give Orders to the Grand Justiciary for passing my Pardon in form; which, however, I could not obtain. And I was privately assured, the Empress conceiving the greatest Abhorrence of what I had done, removed to the most distant side of the Court, firmly resolved that those Buildings should never be repaired for her Use; and, in the presence of her chief Confidants, could not forbear vowing Revenge.
Of the Inhabitants of Lilliput; their Learning, Laws, and Customs, the manner of Educating their Children. The Author's way of living in that Country. His Vindication of a great Lady.
I shall say but little at present of their Learning, which for many Ages hath flourished in all its Branches among them: But their manner of writing is very peculiar, being neither from the Left to the Right, like the Europians; nor from the Right to the Left, like the Arabians; nor from up to down, like the Chinese; nor from down to
They bury their Dead with their Heads directly downwards, because they hold an Opinion that in eleven thousand Moons they are all to rise again, in which Period the Earth (which they conceive to be flat) will turn upside down, and by this means they shall, at their Resurrection, be found really standing on their Feet. The Learned among them confess the Absurdity of this Doctrine, but the Practice still continues, in compliance to the Vulgar.
There are some Laws and Customs in this Empire very peculiar, and if they were not so directly contrary to those of my own dear Country, I should be tempted to say a little in their justification. It is only to be wished, that they were as well executed. The first I shall mention, relates to Informers. All Crimes against the State are punished here with the utmost severity; but if the Person accused maketh his Innocence plainly to appear upon his Tryal, the Accuser is immediately put to an ignominious Death; and out of his Goods or Lands, the innocent Person is quadruply recompensed for the Loss of his Time, for the Danger he underwent, for the Hardship of his Imprisonment, and for all the Charges he hath been at in making his Defence. Or, if that Fund be deficient, it is largely supplied by the Crown. The Emperor does also confer on him some publick Mark of his Favour, and Proclamation is made of his Innocence through the whole City.
They look upon Fraud as a greater Crime than Theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it with Death; for they alledge, that Care and Vigilance, with a very common Understanding, may preserve a Man's Goods from Thieves, but Honesty has no Fence against superior Cunning: And since it is necessary that there should be a perpetual Intercourse of Buying and Selling, and dealing upon Credit, where Fraud is permitted or connived at, or hath no Law to punish it, the honest Dealer is always undone, and the Knave gets the Advantage. I remember when I was once interceeding with the King for a Criminal who had wronged his Master of a great Sum of Money, which he had received by Order, and ran away
Although we usually call Reward and Punishment the two Hinges upon which all Government turns, yet I could never observe this Maxim to be put in practice by any Nation except that of Lilliput. Whoever can there bring sufficient Proof that he hath strictly observed the Laws of his Country for seventy three Moons, had a claim to certain Privileges, according to his Quality and Condition of Life, with a proportionable Sum of Money out of a Fund appropriated for that Use: He likewise acquires the Title of Snilpall or Legal, which is added to his Name, but does not descend to his Posterity. And these People thought it a prodigious Defect of Policy among us when I told them that our Laws were enforced only by Penalties without any mention of Reward. It is upon this account that the Image of Justice, in their Courts of Judicature, is formed with six Eyes, two before, as many behind, and on each side one, to signify Circumspection; with a Bag of Gold open in her right Hand, and a Sword sheathed in her left, to shew she is more disposed to Reward than to Punish.
In chusing Persons for all Employments, they have more regard to good Morals than to great Abilities; for since Government is necessary to Mankind, they believe that the common Size of Human Understandings, is fitted to some Station or other, and that Providence never intended to make the Management of publick Affairs a Mystery, to be comprehended only by a few Persons of sublime Genius, of which there seldom are three born in an Age: But they suppose Truth, Justice, Temperance, and the like, to be in every Man's power; the Practice of which Virtues, assisted by Experience and a good Intention, would qualify any Man for the Service of his Country, except where a Course of Study is required. But they thought the want of Moral Virtues was so far from
In like manner, the Disbelief of a Divine Providence renders a Man uncapable of holding any publick Station; for since Kings avow themselves to be the Deputies of Providence, the Lilliputians think nothing can be more absurd than for a Prince to employ such Men as disown the Authority under which he acts.
In relating these and the following Laws, I would only be understood to mean the original Institutions, and not the most scandalous Corruptions into which these People are fallen by the degenerate Nature of Man. For as to that infamous Practice of acquiring great Employments by dancing on the Ropes, or Badges of Favour and Distinction by leaping over Sticks, and creeping under them, the Reader is to observe, that they were first introduced by the Grand-father of the Emperor now reigning, and grew to the present height, by the gradual increase of Party and Faction.
Ingratiude is among them a capital Crime, as we read it to have been in some other Countries; for they reason thus, that whoever makes ill Returns to his Benefactor, must needs be a common Enemy to the rest of Mankind, from whom he hath received no Obligation, and therefore such a Man is not fit to live.
Their Notions relating to the Duties of Parents and Children differ extremely from ours. For since the Conjunction of Male and Female is founded upon the great Law of Nature, in order to propagate and continue the Species, the Lilliputians will needs have it, that Men and Women are joined together like other Animals, by the Motives of Concupiscence; and that their Tenderness towards their Young proceeds from the like natural Principle: For which Reason they will never allow, that a Child is under any Obligation to his Father for begetting him, or his Mother for bringing him into the World; which, con-
The Nurseries for Males of Noble or Eminent Birth, are provided with Grave and Learned Professors, and their several Deputies. The Cloathes and Food of the Children are plain and simple. They are bred up in the Principles of Honour, Justice, Courage, Modesty, Clemency, Religion, and Love of their Country; they are always employed in some Business, except in the times of Eating and Sleeping, which are very short, and two Hours for Diversions, consisting of bodily Exercises. They are dressed by Men till four Years of Age, and then are obliged to dress themselves, although their Quality be ever so great; and the Women Attendants, who are aged proportionably to ours at fifty, perform only the most menial Offices. They are never suffered to converse with Servants, but go together in small or greater numbers to take their Diversions, and always in the presence of a Professor, or one of his Deputies; whereby they avoid those early bad Impressions of Folly and Vice to which our Children are Subject. Their Parents are suffered to see them only twice a Year; the Visit is to last but an Hour. They are allowed to kiss the Child at Meeting and Parting; but a Professor, who always stands by on those occasions will not suffer them to whisper, or use any fondling Expressions, or bring any Presents of Toys, Sweet-meats, and the like.
The Pension from each Family for the Education and Entertainment of a Child, upon failure of due payment, is levied by the Emperor's Officers.
The Nurseries for Children of ordinary Gentlemen, Merchants, Traders, and Handicrafts, are managed proportionably after the same manner; only those designed for Trades, are put out Apprentices at eleven Years old, whereas those of Persons of Quality continue in their Nurseries till Fifteen, which answers to One and Twenty with us: But the Confinement is gradually lessened for the last three Years.
In the Female Nurseries, the young Girls of Quality are educated much like the Males, only they are dressed by orderly Servants of their own Sex, but always in the presence of a Professor or Deputy, till they come to dress themselves, which is at five Years old. And if it be found that these Nurses ever presume to entertain the Girls with frightful or foolish Stories, or the common Follies practised by Chamber-Maids among us, they are publickly whipped thrice about the City, imprisoned for a Year, and banished for Life to the most desolate Part of the Country. Thus the young Ladies there are as much ashamed of being Cowards and Fools, as the Men, and despise all personal Ornaments beyond Decency and Cleanliness: Neither did I perceive any Difference in their Education, made by their Difference of Sex, only that the Exercises of the Females were not altogether so robust, and that some Rules were given them relating to domestick Life, and a smaller Compass of Learning was enjoined them: For the Maxim is, that among People of Quality, a Wife should be always a reasonable and agreeable Companion, because she cannot always be young. When the Girls are twelve Years old, which among them is the marriageable Age, their Parents or Guardians take them home, with great Expressions of Gratitude to the Professors, and seldom without Tears of the young Lady and her Companions.
In the Nurseries of Females of the meaner sort, the Children are instructed in all kinds of Works proper for their Sex, and their several degrees: Those intended for Apprentices are dismissed at nine Years old, the rest are kept to thirteen.
The meaner Families who have Children at these Nurseries, are obliged, besides their annual Pension, which is as low as possible, to return to the Steward of the Nursery a small monthly Share of their Gettings, to be a Portion for the Child; and therefore all Parents are limitted in their Expences by the Law. For the Lillupitians think nothing can be more unjust, than for People, in subservience to their own Appetites, to bring Children into the World, and leave the Burthen of supporting them on the Publick. As to Persons of Quality, they give Security to appropriate a certain Sum for each Child, suitable to their Condition; and these Funds are always managed with good Husbandry, and the most exact Justice.
The Cottagers and Labourers keep their Children at home, their Business being only to till and cultivate the Earth, and therefore their Education is of little consequence to the Publick; but the Old and Diseased among them are supported by Hospitals. For Begging is a Trade unknown in this Kingdom.
And here it may perhaps divert the curious Reader, to give some account of my Domestick, and my manner of living in this Country, during a Residence of nine Months and thirteen Days. Having a Head mechanically turned, and being likewise forced by necessity, I had made for my self a Table and Chair convenient enough, out of the largest Trees in the Royal Park. Two hundred Sempstresses were employed to make me Shirts, and Linnen for my Bed and Table, all of the strongest and coarsest kind they could get; which, however, they were forced to quilt together in several Folds, for the thickest was some degrees finer than Lawn. Their Linnen is usually three Inches wide, and three Foot make a Piece. The Sempstresses took my Measure as I lay on the ground, one standing at my Mid-Leg, with a strong Cord extended, that each held by the end, while the third measured the length of the Cord with a Rule of an Inch long. Then they measured my right Thumb, and desired no more; for by a mathematical Computation, that twice round the Thumb is once round the Wrist, and so on to the Neck and the Waist, and by the help of my old Shirt, which I displayed on the Ground before them for a
I had three hundred Cooks to dress my Victuals, in little convenient Huts built about my House, where they and their Families lived, and prepared me two Dishes a-piece. I took up twenty Waiters in my Hand, and placed them on the Table, an hundred more attended below on the Ground, some with Dishes of Meat, and some with Barrels of Wine, and other Liquors, slung on their Shoulders; all which the Waiters above drew up as I wanted, in a very ingenious manner, by certain Cords, as we draw the Bucket up a Well in Europe. A Dish of their Meat was a good Mouthful, and a Barrel of their Liquor a reasonable Draught. Their Mutton yields to ours, but their Beef is excellent. I have had a Sirloin so large, that I have been forced to make three Bits of it; but this is rare. My Servants were astonished to see me eat it Bones and all, as in our Country we do the Leg of a Lark. Their Geese and Turkies I usually eat at a Mouthful, and I must confess they far exceed ours. Of their smaller Fowl I could take up twenty or thirty at the end of my Knife.
One day his Imperial Majesty being informed of my way of living, desired that himself, and his Royal Consort, with the young Princes of the Blood of both Sexes, might have the Happiness (as he was pleased to call it) of dining with me. They came accordingly, and I placed them upon Chairs of State on my Table, just over-against me, with their Guards about them. Flimnap the Lord High Treasurer attended there likewise, with his white Staff; and I observed he often looked on me with a sour Countenance, which I would not seem to regard,
I am here obliged to vindicate the Reputation of an excellent Lady, who was an innocent Sufferer upon my account. The Treasurer took a fancy to be jealous of his Wife, from the Malice of some Evil Tongues, who informed him that her Grace had taken a violent Affection for my Person, and the Court-Scandal ran for some time, that she once came privately to my Lodging. This I solemnly declare to be a most infamous Falshood, without any Grounds, farther than that her Grace was pleased to treat me with all innocent Marks of Freedom and Friendship. I own she came often to my House, but always publickly, nor ever without three more in the Coach, who were usually her Sister and young Daughter, and some particular Acquaintance; but this was common to many other Ladies of the Court. And I still appeal to my Servants round, whether they at any time saw a Coach at my Door without knowing what Persons were in it. On those Occasions, when a Servant had given me notice, my Custom was to go immediately to the Door; and after paying my Respects, to take up the Coach and two Horses very carefully in my Hands, (for if there were six Horses, the Postillon always unharnessed four) and place them on a Table, where I had fixed a moveable Rim quite round, of five Inches high, to prevent Accidents. And I have often had four Coaches and Horses at once on my Table full of Company, while I sate in my Chair leaning my Face towards them; and when
The Author being informed of a Design to accuse him of High-Treason, makes his Escape to Blefuscu. His Reception there.
I had been hitherto all my Life a Stranger to Courts, for which I was unqualified by the Meanness of my Condition. I had indeed heard and read enough of the Dispositions of great Princes and Ministers; but never expected to have found such terrible Effects of them in so remote a Country, governed, as I thought, by very different Maxims, from those in Europe.
When I was just preparing to pay my Attendance on the Emperor of Blefuscu, a considerable Person at Court (to whom I had been very serviceable at a time when he lay under the highest Displeasure of his Imperial Majesty) came to my House very privately at Night in a close Chair, and without sending his Name, desired admittance: The Chair-Men were dismissed; I put the Chair, with his Lordship in it, into my Coat-Pocket; and giving Orders to a trusty Servant to say I was indisposed and gone to sleep, I fastened the Door of my House, placed the Chair on the Table, according to my usual Custom, and sate down by it. After the common Salutations were over, observing his Lordship's Countenance full of Concern; and enquiring into the reason, he desired I would hear him with patience in a Matter that highly concerned my Honour and my Life. His Speech was to the following effect, for I took Notes of it as soon as he left me.
You are to know, said he, that several Committees of Council have been lately called in the most private man-
You are very sensible that Skyris Bolgolam (Galbet, or High Admiral) hath been your mortal Enemy almost ever since your Arrival. His original Reasons I know not, but his hatred is much encreased since your great Success against Blefuscu, by which his Glory, as Admiral, is obscur'd. This Lord, in conjunction with Flimnap the High Treasurer, whose Enmity against you is notorious on account of his Lady, Limtoc the General, Lalcon the the Chamberlain, and Balmuff the grand Justiciary, have prepared Articles of Impeachment against you, for Treason, and other capital Crimes.
This Preface made me so impatient, being conscious of my own Merits and Innocence, that I was going to interrupt; when he entreated me to be silent, and thus proceeded.
Out of Gratitude for the Favours you have done me, I procured Information of the whole Proceedings, and a Copy of the Articles, wherein I venture my Head for your Service.
That the said Quinbus Flestrin having brought the Imperial Fleet of Blefuscu into the Royal Port, and being afterwards commanded by his Imperial Majesty to seize all the other Ships of the said Empire of Blefuscu, and reduce that Empire to a Province, to be governed by a Vice-Roy from hence, and to destroy and put to death not only all the Big-Endian Exiles, but likewise all the People of that Empire, who would not immediately forsake the Big-Endian Heresy: He the said Flestrin, like a false Traytor against his most Auspicious, Serene, Imperial Majesty, did petition to be excused from the said Service, upon pretence of unwillingness to force the Consciences, or destroy the Liberties and Lives of an innocent People.
That, whereas certain Embassadors arrived from the Court of Blefuscu to sue for Peace in his Majesty's Court: He the said Flestrin did, like a false Traitor, aid, abet, comfort, and divert the said Embassadors, although he knew them to be Servants to a Prince who was lately an open Enemy to his Imperial Majesty, and in open War against his said Majesty.
That the said Quinbus Flestrin, contrary to the Duty of a faithful Subject, is now preparing to make a Voyage to the Court and Empire of Belfuscu, for which he hath received only verbal Licence from his Imperial Majesty; and under Colour of the said Licence, doth falsly and traitorously intend to take the said Voyage, and thereby to aid, comfort, and abet the Emperor of Blefuscu, so late an Enemy, and in open War with his Imperial Majesty aforesaid.
There are some other Articles, but these are the most important, of which I have read you an Abstract.
In the several Debates upon this Impeachment, it must be confessed that his Majesty gave many marks of his great Lenity, often urging the Services you had done him, and endeavouring to extenuate your Crimes. The Treasurer and Admiral insisted that you should be put to the most painful and ignominious Death, by setting fire on your House at Night, and the General was to attend with twenty thousand Men armed with poisoned Arrows to shoot you on the Face and Hands. Some of your Servants were to have private Orders to strew a poisonous Juice on your Shirts, which would soon make you tear your own Flesh, and die in the utmost Torture. The General came into the same Opinion, so that for a long time, there was a Majority against you. But his Majesty resolving if possible, to spare your Life, at last brought off the Chamberlain.
Upon this Incident, Reldresal Principal Secretary for private Affairs, who always approved himself your true Friend, was commanded by the Emperor to deliver his Opinion; which he accordingly did; and therein justify'd the good Thoughts you have of him. He allowed your Crimes to be great, but that still there was room for Mercy, the most commendable Virtue in a Prince, and for which his Majesty was so justly celebrated. He said the Friendship between you and him was so well known to the World, that perhaps the most honourable Board might think him partial: However, in Obedience to the Command he had received, he would freely offer his Sentiments. That if his Majesty, in consideration of your Services, and pursuant to his own merciful Disposition, would please to spare your Life, and only give order to put out both your Eyes, he humbly conceived, that by this Expedient, Justice might in some Measure be satisfied, and all the World would applaud the Lenity of the Emperor, as well as the fair and generous Proceedings of those who have the Honour to be his Counsellors. That the loss of your Eyes would be no Impediment to your bodily Strength, by which you might still be useful to his Majesty. That Blindness is an Addition to Courage, by concealing Dangers from us; that the Fear you had for your Eyes, was the greatest Difficulty in bringing over the Enemy's Fleet, and it would
This Proposal was received with the utmost Disapprobation by the whole Board. Bolgolam, the Admiral, could not preserve his Temper; but rising up in Fury, said, he wondered how the Secretary durst presume to give his Opinion for preserving the Life of a Traitor: That the Services you had performed, were, by all true Reasons of State, the great Aggravation of your Crimes; that you, who were able to extinguish the Fire, by discharge of Urine in her Majesty's Apartment (which he mentioned with horror) might, at another time, raise an Inundation by the same Means, to drown the whole Palace; and the same Strength which enabled you to bring over the Enemy's Fleet, might serve upon the first Discontent to carry it back: That he had good Reasons to think you were a Big-Endian in your Heart; and as Treason begins in the Heart before it appears in Overt-Acts, so he accused you as a Traitor on that account, and therefore insisted you should be put to death.
The Treasurer was of the same Opinion; he shewed to what streights his Majesty's Revenue was reduced by the Charge of maintaining you, which would soon grow insupportable: That the Secretary's Expedient of putting out your Eyes was so far from being a Remedy against this Evil, it would probably encrease it, as it is manifest from the common Practice of blinding some kind of Fowl, after which they fed the faster, and grew sooner fat: That his sacred Majesty, and the Council, who are your Judges, were in their own Consciences fully convinced of your Guilt, which was a sufficient Argument to condemn you to Death, without the formal Proofs required by the strict Letter of the Law.
But his Imperial Majesty fully determined against capital Punishment, was graciously pleased to say, that since the Council thought the loss of your Eyes too easy a Censure, some other may be inflicted hereafter. And your Friend the Secretary humbly desiring to be heard again, in answer to what the Treasurer had objected concerning the great Charge his Majesty was at in maintaining you, said, that his Excellency, who had the sole disposal of the Emperor's Revenue, might easily provide D3
Thus by the great Friendship of the Secretary, the whole Affair was compromised. It was strictly enjoin'd, that the Project of starving you by degrees should be kept a Secret, but the Sentence of putting out your Eyes was entred on the Books; none dissenting except Bolgolam the Admiral, who being a Creature of the Empress, was the most violent instigated by her Majesty to insist upon your Death, she having born perpetual Malice against you on account of that infamous and illegal Method you took to extinguish the Fire in her Apartment.
In three days your Friend the Secretary will be directed to come to your House, and read before you the Articles of Impeachment; and then to signify the great Lenity and Favour of his Majesty and Council, whereby you are only condemned to the loss of your Eyes, which his Majesty doth not question you will gratefully and humbly submit to; and twenty of his Majesty's Surgeons will attend, in order to see the Operation well performed, by discharging very sharp-pointed Arrows into the Balls of your Eyes, as you lie on the Ground.
I leave to your Prudence what Measures you will take; and to avoid Suspicion, I must immediately return in as private a manner as I came.
His Lordship did so, and I remained alone, under many Doubts and Perplexities of Mind.
It was a Custom introduced by this Prince and his Ministry, (very different, as I have been assured, from the Practices of former Times) that after the Court had decreed any cruel Execution, either to gratify the Monarch's Resentment, or the Malice of a Favourite, the Emperor made a Speech to his whole Council, expressing his great
At last I fixed upon a Resolution, for which it is probable I may incur some Censure, and not unjustly; for I confess I owe the preserving mine Eyes, and consequently my Liberty, to my own great Rashness and want of Experience: Because if I had then known the Nature of Princes and Ministers, which I have since observed in many other Courts, and their Methods of treating Criminals, less obnoxious than myself, I should with great alacrity and readiness have submitted to so easy a Punishment. But hurry'd on by the Precipitancy of Youth, and having his Imperial Majesty's Licence to pay my Attendance upon the Emperor of Blefuscu, I took this Op-D4
I shall not trouble the Reader with the particular Account of my Reception at this Court, which was suitable to the Generosity of so great a Prince; nor of the Difficulties I was in for want of a House and Bed, being forced to lie on the Ground, wrapt up in my Coverlet.
The Author, by a lucky Accident, finds means to leave Blefuscu; and, after some Difficulties, returns safe to his Native Country.
D5
I shall not trouble the Reader with the Difficulties I was under by the help of certain Paddles, which cost me ten days making, to get my Boat to the Royal Port of Blefuscu, where a mighty concourse of People appeared upon my Arrival, full of Wonder at the sight of so prodigious a Vessel. I told the Emperor that my good Fortune had thrown this Boat in my way, to carry me to some Place from whence I might return into my native Country, and begged his Majesty's Orders for getting Materials to fit it up, together with his Licence to depart; which, after some kind Expostulations, he was pleased to grant.
I did very much wonder, in all this time, not to have heard of any Express relating to me from our Emperor to the Court of Blefuscu. But I was afterwards given privately to understand, that his Imperial Majesty, never imagining I had the least notice of his Designs, believed I was only gone to Blefuscu in performance of my Promise, according to the Licence he had given me, which was well known at our Court, and would return in a few days when that Ceremony was ended. But he was at last in pain at my long Absence; and, after consulting with the Treasurer, and the rest of that Cabal, a Person of Quality was dispatched with the Copy of the Articles against me. This Envoy had Instructions to represent to the Monarch of Blefuscu, the great Lenity of his Master, who was content to punish me no further than with the loss of mine Eyes; that I had fled from Justice, and if I did not return in two Hours, I should be deprived of my Title of Nardac, and declared a Traitor. The Envoy further added, that in order to maintain the Peace and Amity between both Empires, his Ma-
The Emperor of Blefuscu having taken three Days to consult, returned an Answer consisting of many Civilities and Excuses. He said, that as for sending me bound, his Brother knew it was impossible; that although I had deprived him of his Fleet, yet he owed great Obligations to me for many good Offices I had done him in making the Peace. That however, both their Majesties would soon be made easy; for I had found a prodigious Vessel on the Shore, able to carry me on the Sea, which he had given order to fit up with my own Assistance and Direction, and he hoped in a few Weeks both Empires would be freed from so insupportable an Incumbrance.
With this Answer the Envoy returned to Lilliput, and the Monarch of Blefuscu related to me all that had past, offering me at the same time (but under the strictest Confidence) his gracious Protection, if I would continue in his Service; wherein although I believed him sincere, yet I resolved never more to put any confidence in Princes or Ministers, where I could possibly avoid it; and therefore, with all due Acknowledgments for his favourable Intentions, I humbly begged to be excused. I told him, that since Fortune, whether good or evil, had thrown a Vessel in my way, I was resolved to venture my self in the Ocean, rather than be an occasion of Difference between two such mighty Monarchs. Neither did I find the Emperor at all displeased; and I discovered by a certain Accident, that he was very glad of my Resolution, and so were most of his Ministers.
These Considerations moved me to hasten my Departure somewhat sooner than I intended; to which the Court, impatient to have me gone, very readily contributed. Five hundred Workmen were employed to make two Sails to my Boat, according to my Directions, by quilting thirteen fold of their strongest Linnen together. I was at the pains of making Ropes and Cables, by twisting 10, 20 or 30 of the thickest and strongest of theirs. A great Stone that I happened to find, after a long Search by the Sea-shore, served me for an Anchor. I had the Tallow of 300 Cows for greasing my Boat, and other Uses.
In about a Month, when all was prepared, I sent to receive his Majesty's Commands, and to take my leave. The Emperor and Royal Family came out of the Palace; I lay down on my Face to kiss his Hand, which he very graciously gave me; so did the Empress, and young Princes of the Blood. His Majesty presented me with fifty Purses of two hundred Sprugs a-piece, together with his Picture at full length, which I put immediately into one of my Gloves, to keep it from being hurt. The Ceremonies at my Departure were too many to trouble the Reader with at this time.
I stored the Boat with the Carcasses of an hundred Oxen, and three hundred Sheep, with Bread and Drink proportionable, and as much Meat ready dressed as four hundred Cooks could provide. I took with me six Cows and two Bulls alive, with as many Yews and Rams, intending to carry them into my own Country, and propagate the Breed. And to feed them on board, I had a good Bundle of Hay, and a Bag of Corn. I would gladly have taken a Dozen of the Natives, but this was a thing the Emperor would by no means permit; and besides a diligent Search into my Pockets, his Majesty engaged my Honour not to carry away any of his Subjects, although with their own Consent and Desire.
Having thus prepared all things as well as I was able, I set sail on the twenty-fourth Day of September 1701, at six in the Morning; and when I had gone about four Leagues to the Northward, the Wind being at South-East, at six in the Evening, I descried a small Island about half a League to the North-West. I advanced forward, and cast Anchor on the Lee-side of the Island, which seemed to be uninhabited. I then took some Refreshment, and went to my Rest. I slept well, and I conjecture at least six Hours, for I found the Day broke in two Hours after I awaked. It was a clear Night. I eat my Breakfast before the Sun was up; and heaving Anchor, the Wind being favourable, I steered the same Course that I had done the Day before, wherein I was directed
I shall not trouble the Reader with a particular Account of this Voyage, which was very prosperous for the most part. We arrived in the Downs on the 13th. of
I stayed but two Months with my Wife and Family; for my insatiable Desire of seeing foreign Countries would suffer me to continue no longer. I left fifteen hundred Pounds with my Wife, and fixed her in a good House at Redriff. My remaining Stock I carried with me, part in Money, and part in Goods, in hopes to improve my Fortunes. My eldest Uncle John had left me an Estate in Land, near Epping, of about thirty Pounds a Year; and I had a long Lease of the Black-Bull in Fetter-Lane, which yielded me as much more: So that I was not in any danger of leaving my Family upon the Parish. My Son Johnny, named so after his Uncle, was at the Grammar School, and a towardly Child. My Daughter Betty (who is now well married, and has Children) was then at her Needle-Work. I took leave of my Wife, and Boy and Girl, with Tears on both sides, and went on board the Adventure, a Merchant-Ship of three hundred Tons, bound for Surat, Captain John Nicholas of Leverpool Commander. But my Account of this Voyage must be referred to the second Part of my Travels.
The End of the
A great Storm described, the long Boat sent to fetch Water, the Author goes with it to discover the Country. He is left on Shoar, is seized by one of the Natives, and carry'd to a Farmer's House. His Reception there, with several Accidents that happen'd there. A Description of the Inhabitants.
Finding it was like to overblow, we took in our Sprit-|sail, and stood by to hand the Fore-sail; but making foul Weather, we look'd the Guns were all fast, and handed the Missen. The Ship lay very broad off, so we thought it better spooning before the Sea, than trying or hulling. We reeft the Fore-sail and set him, we hawl'd aft the Fore-sheet: the Helm was hard a Weather. The Ship wore bravely. We belay'd the Fore-down-hall; but the Sail was split, and we hawl'd down the Yard, and got the Sail into the ship, and unbound all the things clear of it. It was a very fierce Storm; the Sea broke strange and dangerous. We hawl'd off upon the Lanniard of the Whipstaff, and helped the Man at Helm. We would not get down our Top-mast, but let all stand, because she scudded before the Sea very well, and we knew that the Top-mast being aloft, the Ship was the wholesomer, and made better way through the Sea, seeing we had Sea-|room. When the Storm was over, we set Fore-sail and Main-sail, and brought the Ship to. Then we set the Missen, Main-top-sail and the Fore-top-sail. Our Course
During this Storm, which was followed by a Strong Wind West South-west, we were carried by my Computation about five hundred Leagues to the East, so that the oldest Sailor on Board could not tell in what part of the World we were. Our Provisions held out well, our Ship was staunch, and our Crew all in good Health; but we lay in the utmost Distress for Water. We thought it best to hold on the same Course rather than turn more Northerly, which might have brought us to the North-West parts of great Tartary, and into the frozen Sea.
On the 16th Day of June 1703, a Boy on the Top-|mast discovered Land. On the 17th we came in full View of a great Island or Continent, (for we knew not whether) on the South-side whereof was a small Neck of Land jutting out in the Sea, and a Creek too shallow to hold a Ship of above one hundred Tuns. We cast Anchor within a League of this Creek, and our Captain sent a dozen of his Men well armed in the long Boat, with Vessels for Water, if any could be found. I desired his leave to go with them, that I might see the Country, and make what Discoveries I could. When we came to Land we saw no River or Spring, nor any sign of Inhabitants. Our Men therefore wander'd on the Shore to find out some fresh Water near the Sea; and I walked alone about a Mile on the other Side, where I observed the Country all barren and rocky. I now began to be weary, and seeing nothing to entertain my Curiosity, I returned gently down towards the Creek; and the Sea being full in my View, I saw our Men already got into the Boat, and rowing for Life to the Ship. I was going to hollow after them, although it had been to little purpose, when I observed a huge Creature walking after them in the Sea, as fast as he could: He waded not much deeper than his Knees, and took prodigious Strides: But our Men had the start of him half a League,
I fell into a high Road, for so I took it to be, tho' it served to the Inhabitants only as foot Path through a Field of Barley. Here I walked on for some time, but could see little on either Side, it being now near Harvest, and the Corn rising at least forty Foot. I was an Hour walking to the end of this Field, which was fenced in with a Hedge of at least one hundred and twenty foot high, and the Trees so lofty that I could make no Computation of their Altitude. There was a Stile to pass from this Field into the next. It had four Steps, and a Stone to cross over when you came to the uppe most. It was impossible for me to climb this Stile, because every Step was six foot high, and the upper Stone above twenty. I was endeavouring to find some Gap in the Hedge, when I discovered one of the Inhabitants in the next Field advancing towards the Stile, of the same size with him whom I saw in the Sea pursuing our Boat. He appeared as tall as an ordinary Spire-steeple, and took about ten Yards at every Stride, as near as I could guess. I was struck with the utmost Fear and Astonishment, and ran to hide myself in the Corn, from whence I saw him at the top of the Stile, looking back into the next Field on the right hand, and heard him call in a Voice many degrees louder than a speaking Trumpet; but the Noise was so high in the Air, that at first I certainly thought it was Thunder. Whereupon seven Monsters like himself came towards him with Reaping-hooks in their Hands, each Hook about the largeness of six Scythes. These People were not so well clad as the first, whose Servants or Labourers they seemed to be. For, upon some Words he spoke, they went to reap the Corn in the Field where I lay. I kept from them at as great a distance as I could, but was forced to move with extreme Difficulty, for the Stalks of the Corn
Scared and confounded as I was, I could not forbear going on with these Reflections, when one of the Reapers approaching within ten Yards of the Ridge where I
The Farmer having (as I supposed by their Talk) received such an Account of me as his Servant could give him, took a piece of a small Straw, about the size of a
The Farmer by this time was convinced I must be a rational Creature. He spoke often to me, but the Sound of his Voice pierced my Ears like that of a Water-mill, yet his Words were articulate enough. I answered as loud as I could in several Languages, and he often laid his Ear within two Yards of me, but all in vain, for we were wholly unintelligible to each other. He then sent his Servants to their Work, and taking his Handkerchief out of his Pocket, he doubled and spread it on his left Hand, which he placed flat on the Ground with the Palm upwards, making me a Sign to step into it, as I could easily do, for it was not above a Foot in thick-
It was about twelve at Noon, and a Servant brought in Dinner. It was only one substantial Dish of Meat (fit for the plain Condition of an Husband-Man) in a Dish of about four and twenty Foot Diameter. The Company were the Farmer and his Wife, three Children, and an old Grandmother: When they were sat down, the Farmer placed me at some distance from him on the Table, which was thirty Foot high from the Floor. I was in a terrible Fright, and kept as far as I could from the Edge for fear of falling. The Wife minced a bit of Meat, then crumbled some Bread on a Trencher, and placed it before me. I made her a low Bow, took out my Knife and Fork, and fell to eat, which gave them exceeding Delight. The Mistress sent her Maid for a small Dram-cup, which held about three Gallons, and filled it with Drink; I took up the Vessel with much difficulty in both Hands, and in a most respectful manner drank to her Lady-ship's Health, expressing the Words as loud as I could in English, which made the Company laugh so heartily, that I was almost deafned with the Noise. This Liquor tasted like a small Cyder, and was not unpleasant. Then the Master made me a sign to come to his Trencher side; but as I walked on the Table, being in great surprize all the time, as the indulgent Reader will easily conceive and excuse, I happened to stumble against a Crust, and fell flat on my Face, but received no hurt. I got up immediately, and observing the good People to be in much concern, I took my Hat (which I held under my Arm out of good Manners) and waving it over my Head, made three Huzza's to shew I had got no Mischief by my Fall. But advancing forwards toward my Master (as I shall hence forth call him;
In the midst of Dinner my Mistress's favourite Cat leapt into her Lap. I heard a noise behind me like that of a Dozen Stocking-Weavers at work; and turning my Head I found it proceeded from the purring of this Animal, who seemed to be three times larger than an Ox, as I computed by the View of her Head, and one of her Paws, while her Mistress was feeding and stroaking her. The Fierceness of this Creature's Countenance altogether discomposed me; though I stood at the further End of the Table, above fifty Foot off, and although my Mistress held her fast for fear she might give a spring, and seize me in her Talons. But it happened there was no Danger; for the Cat took not the least Notice of me when my Master placed me within three Yards of her. And as I have been always told, and found true by Experience in my Travels, that flying, or discovering Fear before a fierce Animal, is a certain way to make it pursue or attack you, so I resolved in this dangerous Juncture to shew no manner of Concern. I walked with Intrepidity five or six times before the very Head of the Cat, and came within half a Yard of her; whereupon she drew her self back, as if she were more afraid of me: I had less Apprehension concerning the Dogs, whereof three or four came into the Room, as it is usual in Farmers Houses; one of which was a Mastiff equal in bulk to four Ele-
When Dinner was almost done, the Nurse came in with a Child of a Year old in her Arms, who immediately spyed me, and began a Squall that you might have heard from London-bridge to Chelsea, after the usual Oratory of Infants, to get me for a Play-thing. The Mother out of pure Indulgence took me up, and put me towards the Child, who presently seized me by the Middle, and got my Head in his Mouth, where I roared so loud that the Urchin was frighted, and let me drop, and I should infallibly have broke my Neck if the Mother had not held her Apron under me. The Nurse to quiet her Babe made use of a Rattle, which was a kind of hollow Vessel filled with great Stones, and fastned by a Cable to the Child's Waist: But all in vain, so that she was forced to apply the last Remedy by giving it suck. I must confess no Object ever disgusted me so much as the sight of her monstrous Breast, which I cannot tell what to compare with, so as to give the curious Reader an Idea of its Bulk, Shape and Colour. It stood prominent six Foot, and could not be less than sixteen in Circumference. The Nipple was about half the Bigness of my Head, and the Hew both of that and the Dug so varified with Spots, Pimples and Freckles, that nothing could appear more nauseous: For I had a near sight of her, she sitting down the more conveniently to give Suck, and I standing on the Table. This made me reflect upon the fair Skins of our English Ladies, who appear so beautiful to us, only because they are of our own size, and their Defects not to be seen but through a magnifying Glass, where we find by Experiment that the smoothest and whitest Skins look rough and coarse, and ill coloured.
I Remember when I was at Lilliput, the Complexions of those diminutive People appeared to me the fairest in the World, and talking upon this subject with a Person of Learning there, who was an intimate Friend of mine, he said that my Face appeared much fairer and smoother when he looked on me from the Ground, than it did upon a nearer View when I took him up in my Hand; and brought him close, which he confessed was at first a very
When Dinner was done, my Master went out to his Labourers, and as I could discover by his Voice and Gesture, gave his Wife a strict Charge to take care of me. I was very much tired and disposed to sleep, which my Mistress perceiving, she put me on her own Bed, and covered me with a clean white Handkerchief, but larger and coarser than the Main Sail of a Man of War.
I slept about two Hours, and dreamed I was at home with my Wife and Children, which aggravated my Sorrows when I awaked and found my self alone in a vast Room, between two and three hundred Foot wide, and above two hundred high, lying in a Bed twenty Yards wide. My Mistress was gone about her houshould Affairs, and had locked me in. The Bed was eight Yards from the Floor. Some natural Necessities required me to get down, I durst not presume to call, and if I had, it would have been in vain with such a Voice as mine, at so great a distance from the Room where I lay, to the Kitchen where the Family kept. While I was under these Circumstances two Rats crept up the Curtains, and ran smelling backwards and forwards on the Bed. One of them came up almost to my Face, whereupon I rose in a Fright, and drew out my Hanger to defend my self. These horrible Animals had the Bold-
Soon after my Mistress came into the Room, who seeing me all bloody, ran and took me up in her Hand. I pointed to the dead Rat, smiling and making other Signs to shew I was not hurt, whereat she was extremely rejoiced, calling the Maid to take up the dead Rat with a pair of Tongs, and throw it out of the Window. Then she set me on a Table where I shewed her my Hanger all bloody, and wiping it on the Lappet of my Coat, returned it to the Scabbard. I was pressed to do more than one Thing, which another could not do for me, and therefore endeavoured to make my Mistress understand that I desired to be set down on the Floor; which after she had done, my Bashfulness would not suffer me to express my self farther than by pointing to the Door, and bowing several times. The good Woman with much Difficulty at last perceived what I would be at, and taking me up again in her Hand, walked into the Garden where she set me down. I went on one side about two hundred Yards, and beckoning to her not to look or to follow me, I hid my self between two Leaves of Sorrel, and there discharged the Necessities of Nature.
I hope the gentle Reader will excuse me for dwelling on these and the like Particulars, which however insignificant they may appear to grovelling vulgar Mind yet
A Description of the Farmer's Daughter. The Author carried to a Market Town, and then to the Metropolis. The Particulars of his Journey.
E2
It now began to be known and talked of in the Neighbourhood, that my Master had found a strange Animal in the Field about the bigness of a Splacknuc, but exactly shaped in every part like a human Creature; which it likewise imitated in all its Actions; seemed to speak in a little Language of its own, had already learned several Words of theirs, went erect upon two Legs, was tame and gentle, would come when it was called, do whatever it was bid, had the finest Limbs in the World, and a Complexion fairer than a Nobleman's Daughter of three Years old. Another Farmer who lived hard by, and was a particular Friend of my Master, came on a Visit on purpose to enquire into the Truth of this Story. I was immediately produced, and placed upon a Table, where I walked as I was commanded, drew my Hanger, put it up again, made my Reverence to my Master's Guest, asked him in his own Language how he did, and told him he was welcome, just as my little Nurse had instructed me. This Man, who was old and dim sighted, put on his Spectacles to behold me better, at which I could not forbear laughing very heartily, for his Eyes appeared like the Full-Moon shining into a Chamber at two Windows. Our People, who discovered the cause of my Mirth, bore me company in Laughing, at which the old Fellow was Fool enough to be Angry and out of Countenance. He had the Character of a great Miser, and to my Misfortune he well deserved it, by the cursed Advice he gave my Master, to shew me as a Sight upon a Market-Day in the
My Master, pursuant to the Advice of his Friend, carried me in a Box the next Market-day to the neighbouring Town, and took along with him his little Daughter, my Nurse, upon a Pillion behind him. The Box was close on every side, with a little Door for me to go in and out, and a few Gimblet-holes to let in Air. The Girl had been so careful to put the Quilt of her Baby's Bed into it, for me to lye down on. However, I was terribly shaken and discomposed in this Journey, though it were but of half an Hour. For the Horse went about forty Foot at every Step, and trotted so high, that the Agitation was equal to the rising and falling of a Ship in D3 E
I was placed upon a Table in the largest Room of the Inn, which might be near three hundred Foot square. My little Nurse stood on a low Stool close to the Table, to take care of me, and direct what I should do. My Master, to avoid a Crowd, would suffer only thirty People at a time to see me. I walked about on the Table as the Girl commanded; she asked me Questions as far as she knew my Understanding of the Language reached, and I answered them as loud as I could. I turned about several times to the Company, paid my humble Respects, said they were welcome, and used some other Speeches I had been taught. I took up a Thimble filled with Liquor, which Glumdalclitch had given me for a Cup, and drank their Health. I drew out my Hanger, and flourished with it after the manner of Fencers in En-|land. My Nurse gave me part of a Straw, which I exercised as a Pike, having learned the Art in my Youth. I was that day shewn to twelve Sets of Company, and as often forced to go over again with the same Fopperies, till I was half dead with Weariness and Vexation, For, those who had seen me made such wonderful Reports, that the People were ready to break down the Doors to come in. My Master for his own Interest would not suffer any one to touch me except my Nurse; and, to prevent Danger, Benches were set round the Table at such a distance as to put me out of every Body's reach. However, an unlucky School-Boy aimed a hazel Nut directly at my head, which very narrowly missed me; otherwise, it came with so much violence that it would have infallibly knocked out my Brains, for it was almost as large
My Master gave publick notice, that he would shew me again the next Market-day, and in the mean time he prepared a more convenient Vehicle for me, which he had reason enough to do; for I was so tired with my first Journey, and with entertaining Company for eight Hours together, that I could hardly stand upon my Legs, or speak a Word. It was at least three days before I recovered my Strength; and that I might have no Rest at home, all the neighbouring Gentlemen from an hundred Miles round, hearing of my Fame, came to see me at my Master's own House. There could not be fewer than thirty Persons with their Wives and Children (for the Country was very populous) and my Master demanded the rate of a full Room whenever he shewed me at home, although it were only to a single Family. So that for some time I had but little ease every day of the Week (except Wednesday, which is their Sabbath) although I were not carried to the Town.
My Master finding how profitable I was like to be, resolved to carry me to the most considerable Cities of the Kingdom. Having therefore provided himself with all things necessary for a long Journey, and settled his Affairs at home, he took leave of his Wife, and upon the 17th of August, 1703. about two Months after my Arrival, we set out for the Metropolis, situated near the middle of that Empire, and about three thousand Miles distance from our House: My Master made his Daughter Glumdalclitch ride behind him. She carried me on her Lap in a Box tied about her Waste. The Girl had lined it on all sides with the softest Cloth she could get, well quilted underneath, furnished it with her Baby's Bed, provided me with Linnen and other Necessaries, and made every thing as convenient as she could. We had no other Company but a Boy of the House, who rode after us with the Luggage.
My Master's Design was to shew me in all the Towns by the Way, and to step out of the Road for fifty or an hundred Miles, to any Village or Person of Quality's House where he might expect Custom. We made easy D4 [actually E4]
On the 26th day of October, we arrived at the Metropolis, called in their Language, Lorbrulgrud, or Pride of the Universe. My Master took a Lodging in the principal Street of the City, not far from the Royal Palace, and put out Bills in the usual Form, containing an exact Description of my Person and Parts. He hired a large Room between three and four hundred Foot wide. He provided a Table sixty Foot in diameter, upon which I was to act my Part, and palisadoed it round three Foot from the edge, and as many high, to prevent my falling over. I was shewn ten times a day, to the Wonder and Satisfaction of all People. I could now speak the Language tolerably well, and perfectly understood every Word that was spoken to me. Besides, I had learned their Alphabet, and could make a shift to explain a Sentence here and there; for Glumdalclitch had been my Instructor while we were at home, and at leisure Hours during our Journey. She carried a little Book in her Pocket, not much larger than a Sanson's Atlass; it was a common Treatise for the use of young Girls, giving a short Account of their Religion; out of this she taught me my Letters, and interpreted the Words.
The Author sent for to Court. The Queen buys him of his Master the Farmer, and presents him to the King. He disputes with his Majesty's great Scholars. An Apartment at Court provided for the Author. He is in high Favour with the Queen. He stands up for the Honour of his own Country. His Quarrels with the Queen's Dwarf.
E5
The Queen observed my Coldness, and when the Farmer was gone out of the Apartment, asked me the reason. I made bold to tell her Majesty, that I owed noother Obligation to my late Master, than his not dashing out the Brains of a poor harmless Creature found by chance in his Field, which Obligation was amply recompensed by the gain he had made, in shewing me through half the Kingdom, and the Price he had now sold me for. That the Life I had since led, was laborious enough to kill an Animal of ten times my Strength. That my Health was much impair'd by a continual Drudgery of entertaining the Rabble every Hour of the Day, and that if my Master had not thought my Life in danger, her Majesty would not have got so cheap a Bargain. But as I was out of all fear of being ill treated under the Protection of so great and good an Empress, the Ornament of Nature, the Darling of the World, the Delight of her Subjects, the Ph#x153;nix of the Creation; so, I hoped my late Master's Apprehensions would appear to be groundless,
This was the sum of my Speech, delivered with great Improprieties and Hesitation; the latter Part was altogether framed in the Style peculiar to that People, whereof I learned some Phrases from Glumdalclitch, while she was carrying me to Court.
The Queen giving great Allowance for my Defectiveness in speaking, was however surprised at so much Wit and good Sense in so diminutive an Animal. She took me in her own Hands, and carried me to the King, who was then retired to his Cabinet. His Majesty, a Prince of much Gravity, and austere Countenance, not well observing my Shape at first View, asked the Queen after a cold Manner, how long it was since she grew fond of a Splacnuck; for such it seems he took me to be, as I lay upon my Breast in her Majesty's right Hand. But this Princess, who hath an infinite deal of Wit and Humour, set me gently on my Feet upon the Scrutoire, and commanded me to give his Majesty an Account of my self, which I did in a very few Words; and Glumdalclitch, who attended at the Cabinet Door, and could not endure I should be out of her sight, being admitted, confirmed all that had passed from my Arrival at her Father's House.
The King, although he be as learned a Person as any in his Dominions, had been educated in the Study of Philosophy, and particularly Mathematicks; yet when he observed my Shape exactly, and saw me walk erect before I began to speak, conceived I might be a Piece of Clock-work, (which is in that Country arrived to a very great Perfection) contrived by some ingenious Artist. But, when he heard my Voice, and found what I delivered to be regular and rational, he could not conceal his Astonishment. He was by no means satisfied with the Relation I gave him of the Manner I came into his Kingdom, but thought it a Story concerted between Glumdalclitch and her Father who had taught me a Set of Words to make me sell at a higher Price. Upon this Imagination he put several other Questions to me, and still received rational Answers, no otherwise defective than by a foreign Accent and an imperfect Knowledge in the
His Majesty sent for three great Scholars, who were then in their weekly waiting (according to the Custom in that Country.) These Gentlemen, after they had a while examined my Shape with much Nicety, were of different Opinions concerning me. They all agreed that I could not be produced according to the regular Laws of Nature, because I was not framed with a Capacity of preserving my Life, either by Swiftness or climbing of Trees, or digging Holes in the Earth. They observed by my Teeth, which they viewed with great Exactness, that I was a carnivorous Animal; yet most Quadrupeds being an Overmatch for me, and Field-Mice, with some others, too nimble, they could not imagine how I should be able to support myself, unless I fed upon Snails and other Insects, which they offered by many learned Arguments to evince that I could not possibly do. One of these Virtuosi seemed to think that I might be an Embrio, or abortive Birth. But this Opinion was rejected by the other two, who observed my Limbs to be perfect and finished, and that I had lived several Years, as it was manifested from my Beard, the Stumps whereof they plainly discovered through a Magnifying-Glass. They would not allow me to be a Dwarf, because my Littleness was beyond all Degrees of Comparison; for, the Queen's favourite Dwarf, the smallest ever known in that Kingdom, was near thirty Foot high. After much Debate, they concluded unanimously, that I was only Relplum Scelcath, which is interpreted literally, Lusus NaturÆ; a Determination exactly agreeable to the Modern Philosophy of Europe, whose Professors, disdaining the old Evasion of occult Causes, whereby the Followers of Aristotle endeavour in vain to disguise their Ignorance, have invented this wonderful Solution of all Difficulties to the unspeakable Advancement of human Knowledge.
After this decisive Conclusion, I entreated to be heard a Word or two. I applied my self to the King, and assured His Majesty, that I came from a Country which abounded with several Millions of both Sexes, and of my own Stature; where the Animals, Trees, and Houses
The Queen became so fond of my Company, that she could not dine without me. I had a table placed upon the same at which her Majesty eat, just at her left Elbow, and a Chair to sit on. Glumdalclitch stood upon a Stool on the Floor, near my Table, to assist and take care of me. I had an entire Set of Silver Dishes and Plates, and other Necessaries, which in Proportion to those of the Queen, were not much biger than what I have seen of the same kind in a London Toy-shop, for the Furniture of a Baby-house: These my little Nurse kept in her Pocket, in a Silver Box, and gave me at Meals as I wanted them, always cleaning them her self. No Person dined with the Queen but the two Princesses Royal, the elder sixteen Years old, and the younger at that time thirteen and a Month. Her Majesty used to put a Bit of Meat upon one of my Dishes, out of which I carved for my self; and her Diversion was to see me eat in Miniature. For the Queen (who had indeed but a weak Stomach) took up at one Mouthful, as much as a Dozen English Farmers could eat at a Meal, which to me was for some time a very nauseous Sight. She would craunch the Wing of a Lark, Bones and all, between her Teeth, although it were nine times as large as that of a full grown Turkey; and put a Bit of Bread into her Mouth, as big as two twelve-penny Loaves. She drank out of a golden Cup, above a Hogshead at a Draught. Her Knives were twice as long as a Scythe set strait upon the Handle. The Spoons, Forks, and other Instruments were all in the same Proportion. I remember when Glumdalclitch carried me out of Curiosity to see some of the Tables at Court, where ten or
It is the Custom that every Wednesday, (which as I have before observed, was their Sabbath) the King and Queen, with the Royal Issue of both Sexes, dine together in the Apartment of his Majesty, to whom I was now become a great Favourite; and at these Times my little Chair and Table were placed at his left Hand before one of the Salt-sellers. This Prince took a Pleasure in conversing with me, enquiring into the Manners, Religion, Laws, Government, and Learning of Europe, wherein I gave him the best Account I was able. His Apprehension was so clear, and his Judgment so exact, that he made very wise Reflections and Observations upon all I said. But, I confess, that after I had been a little too copious in talking of my own beloved Country, of our Trade, and Wars by Sea and Land, of our Schisms in Religion, and Parties in the State; the Prejudices of his Education prevailed so far, that he could not forbear taking me up in his right Hand, and stroaking me gently with the other, after an hearty Fit of laughing, asked me whether I were a Whig or a Tory. Then turning to his first Minister, who waited behind him with a white Staff, near as tall as the Main-mast of the Royal Sovereign; he observed how contemptible a Thing was human Grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive Insects as I: And yet, said he, I dare engage these Creatures have their Titles and Distinctions of Honour, they contrive little Nests and Burrows, that they call Houses and Cities; they make a Figure in Dress and Equipage; they love, they fight, they dispute, they cheat, they betray. And thus he continued on, while my Colour came and went several times, with Indignation to hear our noble Country, the Mistress of Arts and Arms, the Scourge of France, the Arbitress of Europe, the Seat of Virtue, Piety, Honour and Truth, the Pride and Envy of the World, so contemptuously treated.
But, as I was not in a condition to resent Injuries, so, upon mature Thoughts, I began to doubt whether I were injured or no. For, after having been accustomed several Months to the Sight and Converse of this People, and
Nothing angred and mortified me so much as the Queen's Dwarf, who being of the lowest Stature that was ever in that Country (for I verily think he was not full thirty Foot high) became insolent at seeing a Creature so much beneath him, that he would always affect to swagger and look big as he passed by me in the Queen's Antichamber, while I was standing on some Table talking with the Lords or Ladies of the Court, and he seldom failed of a small Word or two upon my Littleness; against which I could only revenge my self by calling him Brother, challenging him to wrestle, and such Rappartees as are usual in the Mouths of Court Pages. One Day at Dinner this malitious little Cub was so nettled with something I had said to him, that raising himself upon the Frame of her Majesty's Chair, he took me up by the Middle, as I was sitting down, not thinking any harm, and let me drop into a large Silver Bowl of Cream, and then ran away as fast as he could. I fell over Head and Ears, and if I had not been a good Swimmer, it might have gone very hard with me; for Glumdalclitch in that Instant happened to be at the other End of the Room, and the Queen was in such a Fright, that she wanted Presence of Mind to assist me. But my little Nurse ran to my Relief, and took me out, after I had swallowed above a Quart of Cream. I was put to Bed; however I received no other Damage than the Loss of a Suit of
He had before served me a scurvy Trick, which set the Queen a Laughing, although at the same time she were heartily vexed, and would have cashiered him, if I had not been so generous as to intercede. Her Majesty had taken a Marrow-bone upon her Plate, and after knocking out the Marrow, placed the Bone again in the Dish erect as it stood before; the Dwarf watching his Opportunity, while Glumdalclitch was gone to the Sideboard, mounted upon the Stool she stood on to take care of me at Meals, took me up in both Hands, and squeezing my Legs together, wedged them into the Marrow-|bone above my Waist, where I stuck for some time, and made a very ridiculous Figure. I believe it was near a Minute, before any one knew what was become of me, for I thought it below me to cry out. But, as Princes seldom get their Meat hot, my Legs were not scalded, only my Stockings and Breeches in a sad condition. The Dwarf at my Entreaty had no other Punishment than a sound whipping.
I was frequently raillyed by the Queen upon Account of my Fearfulness, and she used to ask me whether the People of my Country were as great Cowards as my self. The Occasion was this. The Kingdom is much pestered with Flies in Summer, and these odious Insects, each of them as big as a Dunstable Lark, hardly gave me any rest while I sat at Dinner, with their continual humming and buzzing about mine Ears. They would sometimes alight upon my Victuals, and leave their loathsome Excrement or Spawn behind, which to me was very visible, though not to the Natives of that Country, whose large Opticks were not so acute as mine in viewing smaller Objects. Sometimes they would fix upon my Nose or Forehead, where they stung me to the Quick, smelling
I remember one Morning when Glumdalclitch had set me in my Box upon a Window, as she usually did in fair Days to give me Air (for I durst not venture to let the Box be hung on a Nail out of the Window, as we do with Cages in England) after I had lifted up one of my Sashes, and sat down at my Table to eat a piece of Sweet Cake for my Breakfast, above twenty Wasps, allured by the smell, came flying into the Room, humming louder than the Drones of as many Bag-pipes. Some of them seized my Cake, and carried it piece-meal away, others flew about my Head and Face, confounding me with the Noise, and put me in the utmost terror of their Stings. However, I had the Courage to rise and draw my Hanger, and attack them in the Air. I dispatched four of them, but the rest got away, and I presently shut my Window. These Creatures were as large as Partriges, I took out their Stings, found them an Inch and a half long, and as sharp as Needles. I carefully preserved them all, and having since shewn them with some other Curiosities in several Parts of Europe; upon my Return to England, I gave three of them to Gresham-College, and kept the fourth for myself.
The Country described. A Proposal for correcting modern Maps. The King's Palace, and some Account of the Metropolis. The Author's way of travelling. The chief Temple described.
The Kingdom is a Peninsula, terminated to the North-East by a Ridge of Mountains thirty Miles high, which are altogether impassable by reason of the Volcanoes upon the Tops. Neither do the most Learned know what sort of Mortals inhabit beyond those Mountains, or whether they be inhabited at all. On the three other Sides it is bounded by the Ocean. There is not one Sea-Port in the whole Kingdom, and those Parts of the Coasts into which the Rivers issue are so full of pointed Rocks, and the Sea generally so rough, that there is no venturing with the smallest of their Boats, so that these People are wholly excluded from any Commerce with the rest of the
The Country is well inhabited, for it contains fifty one Cities, near an hundred walled Towns, and a great number of Villages. To satisfy my curious Reader, it may be sufficient to describe Lorbrulgrud. This City stands upon almost two equal Parts on each side the River that passes through. It contains above eighty thousand Houses, and about six hundred thousand Inhabitants. It is in Length three Glonglungs (which make about fifty four English Miles) and two and a half in Breadth, as I measured it my self in the Royal Map made by the King's Order, which was laid on the Ground on purpose for me, and extended an hundred Feet; I placed the Diameter and Circumference several times barefoot, and computing by the Scale, measured it pretty exactly.
The King's Palace is no regular Edifice, but an heap of Buildings about seven Miles round: The chief Rooms are generally two hundred and forty Foot high, and broad and long in Proportion. A Coach was allowed to Glumdalclitch and me, wherein her Governess frequently took her out to see the Town, or go among the Shops; and I was always of the Party carried in my Box; although the Girl at my own Desire would often take me out, and hold me in her Hand, that I might more conveniently view the Houses and the People as we passed along the Streets. I reckoned our Coach to be
Beside the large Box in which I was usually carried, the Queen ordered a smaller one to be made for me, of about twelve Foot square, and ten high, for the Convenience of Travelling, because the other was somewhat too large for Glumdalclitch's Lap, and cumbersome in the Coach; it was made by the same Artist, whom I directed in the whole Contrivance. This travelling Closet was an exact Square with a Window in the middle of three of the Squares, and each Window was latticed with Iron on the outside, to prevent Accidents in long Journies. On the fourth side, which had no Window, two strong Staples were fixed, through which the Person that carried me, when I had a mind to be on Horseback, put in a Leathern Belt, and buckled it about his Waist. This was always the Office of some grave trusty Servant in whom I could confide, whether I attended the King and Queen in their Progresses, or were disposed to see the Gardens, or pay a visit to some great Lady or Minister of State in the Court, when Glumdalclitch happened to be out of Order: For I soon began to be known and
Whenever I had a mind to see the Town, it was always in my Travelling-Closet, which Glumdalclitch held in her Lap in a kind of open Sedan, after the Fashion of the Country, born by four Men, and attended by two others in the Queen's Livery. The People who had often heard of me, were very curious to croud about the Sedan, and the Girl was complaisant enough to make the Bearers stop, and to take me in her Hand that I might be more conveniently seen.
I was very desirous to see the chief Temple, and particularly the Tower belonging to it, which is reckoned the highest in the Kingdom. Accordingly one Day my Nurse carried me thither, but I may truly say I came back disappointed; for, the Height is not above three thousand Foot, and reckoning from the Ground to the highest Pinacle Top; which allowing for the difference between the size of those People, and us in Europe, is no great matter for Admiration, nor at all equal in proportion, (if I rightly remember) to Salisbury Steeple. But, not to detract from a Nation to which during my Life I shall acknowledge my self extremely obliged, it must be allowed that whatever this famous Tower wants in Height is amply made up in Beauty and Strength. For the Walls are near an hundred Foot thick, built of hewn Stone, whereof each is about forty Foot square, and adorned on all sides with Statues of Gods and Emperors cut in Marble larger than the Life, placed in their several Niches. I measured a little Finger which had fallen down from one of these Statues, and lay unperceived
The King's Kitchen is indeed a noble Building, vaulted at Top, and about six hundred Foot high. The great Oven is not so wide by ten Paces as the Cupola at St. Paul's: For I measured the latter on purpose after my Return. But if I should describe the Kitchen-grate, the prodigious Pots and Kettles, the Joints of Meat turning on the Spits, with many other Particulars, perhaps I should be hardly believed; at least a severe Critick would be apt to think I enlarged a little, as Travellers are often suppected to do. To avoid which censure, I fear I have run too much into the other extream; and that if this Treatise should happen to be translated into the Language of Brobdingnag, (which is the general Name of that Kingdom) and transmitted thither, the King and his People would have reason to complain that I had done them an Injury, by a false and diminutive Representation.
His Majesty seldom keeps above six hundred Horses in his Stables: They are generally from fifty four to sixty Foot high. But when he goes abroad on solemn Days, he is attended for State by a Militia Guard of five hundred Horse, which indeed I thought was the most splendid Sight that could be ever beheld, till I saw part of his Army in Battalia, whereof I shall find another Occasion to speak.
Several Adventures that happened to the Author. The Execution of a Criminal. The Author shews his Skill in Navigation.
Another day Glumdalclitch left me on a smooth Grass-plot to divert my self while she walked at some distance with her Governess. In the mean time there suddenly fell such a violent shower of Hail, that I was immediately by the Force of it struck to the Ground: And when I was down, the Hail-stones gave me such cruel Bangs all over the Body as if I had been pelted with Tennis-balls; however, I made a shift to creep on all four, and shelter my self by lying flat on my Face on the Lee-side of a Border of Lemmon Thyme, but so bruised from Head to Foot that I could not go abroad in ten Days. Neither is this at all to be wondred at, because Nature in that Country observing the same Proportion thro' all her Operations, a Hail-stone is near eighteen hundred times as large as one in Europe, which I can assert upon Experience, having been so curious to weigh and measure them.
But, a more dangerous Accident happened to me in the same Garden, when my little Nurse believing she had put me in a secure Place, which I often entreated her to do, that I might enjoy my own Thoughts, and having left my Box at home to avoid the Trouble of carrying it, went to another part of the Gardens with her Governess and some Ladies of her Acquaintance. While she was absent and out of hearing, a small white Spaniel be-
This Accident absolutely determined Glumdalclitch never to trust me abroad for the future out of her Sight. I had been long afraid of this Resolution, and therefore concealed from her some little unlucky Adventures that happened in those Times when I was left by my self. Once a Kite hovering over the Garden made a stoop at me, and if I had not resolutely drawn my Hanger, and run under a thick Espalier, he would have certainly carried me away in his Talons. Another time walking to the Top of a fresh Mole-hill, I fell to my Neck in the Hole through which that Animal had cast up the Earth, and coined some Lye not worth remembring, to excuse my self for spoiling my Cloaths. I likewise broke my right Shin against the Shell of a Snail, which I happened to stumble over, as I was walking alone, and thinking on poor England.
I cannot tell whether I were more pleased or mortified to observe in those solitary Walks, that the smaller Birds did not appear to be at all afraid of me, but would hop about within a Yard distance, looking for Worms, and other Food with as much indifference and Security as if
The Maids of Honour often invited Glumdalclitch to their Apartments, and desired she would bring me along with her, on purpose to have the pleasure of seeing and touching me. They would often strip me naked from Top to Toe, and lay me at full Length in their Bosoms; wherewith I was disgusted; because to say the Truth, a very offensive Smell came from their Skins, which I do not mention or intend to the Disavantage of those excellent Ladies, for whom I have all manner of Respect; but, I conceive that my Sense was more acute in proportion to my Littleness, and that those illustrious Persons were no more disagreeable to their Lovers, or to each other, than People of the same Quality are with us in England. And, after all, I found their natural Smell was much more supportable than when they used Perfumes, under which I immediately swooned away. I cannot forget that an intimate Friend of mine in Lilliput took the freedom in a warm Day, when I had used a good deal of Exercise, to complain of a strong Smell about me, although I am as little faulty that why
That which gave me most uneasiness among these Maids of Honour, when my Nurse carried me to visit them, was to see them use me without any manner of Ceremony, like a Creature who had no sort of Consequence. For, they would strip themselves to the Skin, and put on their Smocks in my Presence, while I was placed on their Toylet directly before their naked Bodies, which, I am sure, to me was very far from being a tempting Sight, or from giving me any other emotions than those of Horror and Disgust. Their Skins appeared so coarse and uneven, so variously coloured when I saw them near, with a Mole here and there as broad as a Trencher, and Hairs hanging from it thicker than Pack-threads; to say nothing further concerning the rest of their Persons. Neither did they at all scruple while I was by to discharge what they had drunk to the quantity of at least two Hogsheads, in a vessel that held above three Tuns. The handsomest among these Maids of Honour, a pleasant frolicksome Girl of sixteen, would sometimes set me astride upon one of her Nipples, with many other Tricks, wherein the Reader will excuse me for not being over particular. But, I was so much displeased, that I entreated Glumdalclitch to contrive some excuse for not seeing that young Lady any more.
One Day, a young Gentleman who was Nephew to my Nurse's Governess, came and pressed them both to see an Execution. It was of a Man who had murdered one of that Gentleman's intimate Acquaintance. Glumdalclitch was prevailed on to be of the Company, very much against her Inclination, for she was naturally tender hearted: And, as for myself, although I abhorred such kind of Spectacles, yet my Curiosity tempted me to see something that I thought must be extraordinary. The Malefactor was fixed in a Chair upon a Scaffold erected for the purpose, and his Head cut off at a Blow with a Sword of about forty Foot long. The Veins and Arte- F2
The Queen who often used to hear me talk of my Sea-Voyages, and took all Occasions to divert me when I was melancholy; asked me whether I understood how to handle a Sail or an Oar, and whether a little exercise of Rowing might not be convenient for my Health. I answered, that I understood both very well. For although my proper Employment had been to be Surgeon, or Doctor to the Ship, yet often upon a pinch, I was forced to work like a common Mariner. But, I could not see how this could be done in their Country, where the smallest Wherry was equal to a first rate Man of War among us, and such a Boat as I could manage would never live in any of their Rivers: Her Majesty said, if I would contrive a Boat, her own Joiner should make it, and she would provide a place for me to sail in. The Fellow was an ingenious Workman, and by my Instructions in ten Days finished a Pleasure-boat with all its Tackling, able conveniently to hold eight Europians. When it was finished, the Queen was so delighted, that she ran with it in her Lap to the King, who ordered it to be put in a Cistern full of Water, with me in it, by way of Trial, where I could not manage my two Sculls or little Oars for want of room. But, the Queen had before contrived another Project. She ordered the Joiner to make a wooden Trough of three hundred Foot long, fifty broad, and eight deep; which being well pitched to prevent leaking was placed on the Floor along the Wall, in an outer Room of the Palace. It had a Cock near the bottom to let out the Water when it began to grow stale, and two Servants could easily fill it in half an Hour. Here I often used to row for my own Diversion, as well as that of the Queen and her Ladies, who thought themselves well entertained with my Skill and Agility. Sometimes I would put up my Sail, and then my Business was only to steer, while the Ladies gave me a Gale with their Fans; and when they were weary, some of the Pages
In this Exercise I once met an Accident which had like to have cost me my Life. For, one of the Pages having put my Boat into the Trough, the Governess who attended Glumdalclitch, very officiously lifted me up to place me in the Boat, but I happened to slip through her Fingers, and should have infallibly fallen down forty Foot upon the Floor, if by the luckiest Chance in the World, I had not been stop'd by a Corking-pin that stuck in the good Gentlewoman's Stomacher; the Head of the Pin passed between my Shirt and the Waist-band of my Breeches, and thus I was held by the middle in the Air, till Glumdalclitch ran to my Relief.
Another time one of the Servants, whose Office it was to fill my Trough, every third Day with fresh Water, was so careless to let a huge Frog (not perceiving it) slip out of his Pail. The Frog lay concealed till I was put into my Boat, but then seeing a resting Place, climbed up, and made it lean so much on one Side, that I was forced to balance it with all my weight on the other, to prevent overturning. When the Frog was got in, it hopped at once half the length of the Boat, and then over my Head, backwards and forwards, dawbing my Face and Cloaths with it's odious Slime. The largeness of its Features made it appear the most deformed Animal that can be conceived. However, I desired Glumdalclitch to let me deal with it alone. I banged it a good while with one of my Sculls, and at last forced it to leap out of the Boat.
But, the greatest Danger I ever underwent in that Kingdom, was from a Monkey, who belonged to one of the Clerks of the Kitchen. Glumdalclitch had locked me up in her Closet, while she went somewhere upon Business or a Visit. The Weather being very warm, the Closet Window was left open, as well as the Windows and the Door of my bigger Box, in which I usually lived, because of its Largeness and Conveniency. As I sat quietly meditating at my Table, I heard something bounce F3
The Ladders were now applied, and mounted by several Men, which the Monkey observing, and finding himself almost encompassed; not being able to make speed enough with his three Legs, let me drop on a ridge Tile, and made his Escape. Here I sat for some time three hundred Yards from the Ground, expecting every moment to be blown down by the Wind, or to fall by my own Giddiness, and come tumbling over and over from the Ridge to the Eeves. But an honest Lad, one of my Nurse's Footmen, climbed up, and putting me into his Breeches Pocket, brought me down safe.
I was almost choaked with the filthy stuff the Monkey had crammed down my Throat; but, my dear little Nurse picked it out of my Mouth with a small Needle, and then I fell a vomiting, which gave me great Relief. Yet I was so weak and bruised in the Sides with the Squeezes given me by this odious Animal, that I was forced to keep my Bed a Fortnight. The King, Queen and all the Court sent every Day to enquire after my Health, and her Majesty made me several Visits during my Sickness. The Monkey was killed, and an Order made that no such Animal should be kept about the Palace.
When I attended the King after my Recovery, to return him Thanks for his Favours, he was pleased to rally me a good deal upon this Adventure. He asked me what my Thoughts and Speculations were while I lay in the Monkey's Paw, how I lik'd the Victuals he gave me, his manner of Feeding, and whether the fresh Air on the Roof had sharpned my Stomach? He desired to know what I would have done upon such an Occasion in my own Country? I told his Majesty, that in Europe we had no Monkies, except such as were brought for Curiosities from other Places, and so small, that I could deal with a dozen of them together, if they presumed to attack me. And as for that monstrous Animal with whom I was so lately engaged, (it was indeed as large as an Elephant) is my Fears had suffered me to think so far as F4
I was every Day furnishing the Court with some ridiculous Story; and Glumdalclitch, although she loved me to excess, yet was arch enough to inform the Queen whenever I committed any Folly that she thought would be diverting to her Majesty. The Girl who had been out of order, was carried by her Governess to take the Air about an Hour's distance, or thirty Miles from Town. They alighted out of the Coach near a small Foot-path in a Field, and Glumdalclitch setting down my travelling Box, I went out of it to walk. There was a Cow-dung in the Path, and I must needs try my Activity by attempting to leap over it. I took a Run, but unfortunately jumped short, and found myself just in the middle up to my Knees. I waded through with some difficulty, and one of the Footmen wiped me as clean as he could with his Handkerchief; for I was filthily bemired, and my Nurse confined me to my Box till we returned home; where the Queen was soon informed of what had passed, and the Footmen spread it about the Court, so that all the Mirth, for some Days, was at my expence.
Several Contrivances of the Author to please the King and Queen. He shews his Skill in Musick. The King enquires into the State of Europe, which the Author relates to him. The King's Observations thereon.
And this puts me in mind of an Amusement wherein I spent many of my leisure Hours. I desired the Queen's Woman to save for me the Combings of her Majesty's Hair, whereof in time I got a good quantity, and consulting with my Friend the Cabinet-maker, who had received general Orders to do little Jobbs for me; I directed him to make two Chair-frames, no larger than those I had in my Box, and then to bore little Holes with a fine Awl round those parts where I designed the Backs and Seats; through these Holes I wove the strongest Hairs I could pick out, just after the manner of Cane-chairs in England. When they were finished, I made a F5
The King, who delighted in Musick, had frequent Consorts at Court, to which I was sometimes carried, and set in my Box on a Table to hear them: But, the Noise was so great, that I could hardly distinguish the Tunes. I am confident that all the Drums and Trumpets of a Royal Army, beating and sounding together just at your Ears, could not equal it. My Practice was to have my Box removed from the Places where the Performers sat, as far as I could, then to shut the Doors and Windows of it, and draw the Window-Curtains; after which I found their Musick not disagreeable.
I had learned in my Youth to play a little upon the Spinet. Glumdalclitch kept one in her Chamber, and a Master attended twice a Week to teach her: I call it a Spinet, because it somewhat resembled that Instrument, and was play'd upon in the same manner. A Fancy came into my Head that I would entertain the King and Queen with an English Tune upon this Instrument. But this appeared extreamly difficult: For, the Spinet was near sixty Foot long, each Key being almost a Foot wide, so that, with my Arms extended, I could not reach to above five Keys, and to press them down required a good smart stroak with my Fist, which would be too great a Labour, and to no purpose. The Method I contrived was this. I prepared two round Sticks about the bigness of common Cudgels, they were thicker
The King, who as I before observed, was a Prince of excellent Understanding, would frequently order that I should be brought in my Box, and set upon the Table in his Closet. He would then command me to bring one of my Chairs out of the Box, and sit down within three Yards distance upon the top of the Cabinet, which brought me almost to a level with his Face. In this manner I had several Conversations with him. I one Day took the freedom to tell his Majesty, that the Contempt he discovered towards Europe, and the rest of the World, did not seem answerable to those excellent Qualities of the Mind he was Master of. That Reason did not extend it self with the bulk of the Body: On the contrary, we observed in our Country, that the tallest Persons were usually least provided with it. That among other Animals, Bees and Ants had the Reputation of more Industry, Art, and Sagacity than many of the larger kinds. And that, as inconsiderable as he took me to be, I hoped I might live to do his Majesty some signal Service. The King heard me with Attention, and began to conceive a much better Opinion of me than he had ever before. He desired I would give him as exact an Account of the Government of England as I possibly could; because, as fond as Princes commonly are of their own Customs (for so he conjectured of other Monarchs by my former Discourses) he should be glad to hear of any thing that might deserve Imitation.
Imagine with thy self, courteous Reader, how often I then wished for the Tongue of Demosthenes or Cicero, that
I began my Discourse by informing his Majesty that our Dominions consisted of two Islands, which composed three mighty Kingdoms under one Sovereign, besides our Plantations in America. I dwelt long upon the Fertility of our Soil, and the Temperature of our Climate. I then spoke at large upon the Constitution of English Parliament, partly made up of an illustrious Body called the House of Peers, Persons of the noblest Blood, and of the most ancient and ample Patrimonies. I described that extraordinary Care always taken of their Education in Arts and Arms, to qualify them for being Counsellors born to the King and Kingdom, to have a Share in the Legislature, to be Members of the highest Court of Judicature from whence there could be no Appeal; and to be Champions always ready for the Defence of their Prince and Country by their Valour, Conduct and Fidelity. That these were the Ornament and Bulwark of the Kingdom, worthy Followers of their most renowned Ancestors, whose Honour had been the Reward of their Virtue, from which their Posterity were never once known to degenerate. To these were joined several holy Persons, as part of that Assembly, under the Title of Bishops, whose peculiar Business it is to take care of Religion, and of those who instruct the People therein. These were searched and sought out through the whole Nation, by the Prince and his wisest Counsellors, among such of the Priesthood, as were most deservedly distinguished by the Sanctity of their Lives, and the Depth of their Erudition; who were indeed the spiritual Fathers of the Clergy and the People.
That the other part of the Parliament consisted of an Assembly called the House of Commons, who were all principal Gentlemen, freely picked and culled out by the People themselves, for their great Abilities, and Love of their Country, to represent the Wisdom of the whole Nation. And, these two Bodies make up the most august Assembly in Europe, to whom, in conjunction with the Prince, the whole Legislature is committed.
I then descended to the Courts of Justice, over which the Judges, those venerable Sages and Interpreters of the Law, presided, for determining the disputed Rights and Properties of Men, as well as for the Punishment of Vice, and Protection of Innocence. I mentioned the prudent Management of our Treasury, the Valour and Atchievements of our Forces by Sea and Land. I computed the Number of our People, by reckoning how many Millions there might be of each religious Sect, or political Party among us. I did not omit even our Sports and Pastimes, or any other Particular which I thought might redound to the Honour of my Country. And, I finished all with a brief historical Account of Affairs and Events in England for about an hundred Years past.
This Conversation was not ended under five Audiences, each of several Hours, and the King heard the whole with great Attention, frequently taking Notes of what I spoke, as well as Memorandums of all Questions he intended to ask me.
When I had put an end to these long Discourses, his Majesty in a sixth Audience consulting his Notes, proposed many Doubts, Queries, and Objections, upon every Article. He asked, what Methods were used to cultivate the Minds and Bodies of our young Nobility, and in what kind of Business they commonly spent the first and teachable part of their Lives. What Course was taken to supply that Assembly when any noble Family became extinct. What Qualifications were necessary in those who are to be created new Lords: Whether the Humour of the Prince, a Sum of Money to a Court-Lady, or a Prime Minister, or a Design of strengthening a Party opposite to the publick Interest, ever happened to be Motives in those Advancements. What Share of Knowledge these Lords had in the Laws of their Country, and how they came by it, so as to enable them to decide the Properties of their Fellow-Subjects in the last Resort. Whether they were always so free from Avarice, Partiality, or Want, that a Bribe, or some other sinister View, could have no place among them. Whether those holy Lords I spoke of were always promoted to that Rank upon account of their Knowledge in religious Matters, and the Sanctity of their Lives, had never been Compliers
He then desired to know what Arts were practised in electing those whom I called Commoners. Whether a Stranger, with a strong Purse, might not influence the vulgar Voters to chuse him before their own Landlord, or the most considerable Gentleman in the Neighbourhood. How it came to pass, that People were so violently bent upon getting into this Assembly, which I allowed to be a great Trouble and Expence, often to the Ruin of their Families, without any Salary or Pension: Because this appeared such an exalted strain of Virtue and publick Spirit, that his Majesty seemed to doubt it might possibly not be always sincere: And he desired to know whether such zealous Gentlemen could have any Views of refunding themselves for the Charges and Trouble they were at, by sacrificing the Publick Good to the Designs of a weak and vicious Prince, in conjunction with a corrupted Ministry. He multiplied his Questions, and sifted me thoroughly upon every part of this Head, proposing numberless Enquiries and Objections, which I think it not prudent or convenient to repeat.
Upon what I said in relation to our Courts of Justice, his Majesty desired to be satisfied in several Points: And, this I was the better able to do, having been formerly almost ruined by a long Suit in Chancery, which was decreed for me with Costs. He asked, what Time was usually spent in determining between Right and Wrong, and what degree of Expence. Whether Advocates and Orators had Liberty to plead in Causes manifestly known to be unjust, vexatious, or oppressive. Whether Party in Religion or Politicks were observed to be of any Weight in the Scale of Justice. Whether those pleading Orators were Persons educated in the general Knowledge of Equity, or only in provincial, national, and other local Customs. Whether they or their Judges had any Part in penning those Laws which they assumed the Liberty of interpreting and glossing upon at their Pleasure. Whether they had ever at different Times pleaded for and against the same Cause, and cited Precedents to prove
He fell next upon the Management of our Treasury; and said, he thought my Memory had fail'd me, because I computed our Taxes at about five or six Millions a Year, and when I came to mention the Issues, he found they sometimes amounted to more than double; for, the Notes he had taken were very particular in this Point, because he hoped, as he told me, that the Knowledge of our Conduct might be useful to him, and he could not be deceived in his Calculations. But, if what I told him was true, he was still at a loss how a Kingdom could run out of its Estate like a private Person. He asked me, who were our Creditors? And, where we should find Money to pay them? He wondred to hear me talk of such chargeable and extensive Wars; that, certainly we must be a quarrelsome People, or live among very bad Neighbours, and that our Generals must needs be richer than our Kings. He asked what Business we had out of our own Islands, unless upon the Score of Trade or Treaty, or to defend the Coasts with our Fleet. Above all, he was amazed to hear me talk of a mercenary standing Army in the midst of Peace, and among a free People. He said if we were governed by our own Consent in the Persons of our Representatives, he could not imagine of whom we were afraid, or against whom we were to fight, and would hear my Opinion, whether a private Man's House might not better be defended by himself, his Children, and Family, than by half a dozen Rascals picked up at a venture in the Streets, for small Wages, who might get an hundred times more by cutting their Throats.
He laughed at my odd kind of Arithmetick (as he was pleased to call it) in reckoning the Numbers of our People by a Computation drawn from the several Sects among us in Religion and Politicks. He said, he knew no Reason, why those who entertain Opinions prejudicial to the Publick, should be obliged to change, or should not be obliged to conceal them. And as it was Tyranny
He observed, that among the Diversions of our Nobility and Gentry, I had mentioned Gaming. He desired to know at what Age this Entertainment was usually taken up, and when it was laid down. How much of their Time it employed, whether it ever went so high as to affect their Fortunes. Whether mean vicious People by their Dexterity in that Art might not arrive at great Riches, and sometimes keep our very Nobles in Dependance, as well as habituate them to vile Companions, wholly take them from the Improvement of their Minds, and force them by the Losses they have received, to learn and practise that infamous Dexterity upon others.
He was perfectly astonished with the historical Account I gave him of our Affairs during the last Century, protesting it was only an Heap of Conspiracies, Rebellions, Murders, Massacres, Revolutions, Banishments, the very worst Effects that Avarice, Faction, Hypocrisy, Perfidiousness, Cruelty, Rage, Madness, Hatred, Envy, Lust, Malice or Ambition could produce.
His Majesty in another Audience was at the pains to recapitulate the Sum of all I had spoken, compared the Questions he made with the Answers I had given; then taking me into his Hands, and stroaking me gently, delivered himself in these Words, which I shall never forget, nor the manner he spoke them in. My little Friend Grildrig, you have made a most admirable Panegyrick upon your Country. You have clearly proved that Ignorance, Idleness and Vice are the proper Ingredients for qualifying a Legislator. That Laws are best explained, interpreted, and applied by those whose Interest and Abilities lye in perverting, confounding, and eluding them. I observe among you some Lines of an Institution, which in its Original might have been tolerable, but these half erased, and the rest wholly blurred and blotted by Corruptions. It doth not appear from all you have said, how any one Virtue is required towards the Procurement of any one Station among you, much less that Men were ennobled on account of their
The Author's Love of his Country. He makes a Proposal of much Advantage to the King, which is rejected. The King's great Ignorance in Politicks. The Learning of that Country very imperfect and confined. Their Laws, and military Affairs, and Parties in the State.
But, great Allowances should be given to a King who lives wholly secluded from the rest of the World, and must therefore be altogether unacquainted with the Manners and Customs that most prevail in other Nations: The want of which Knowledge will ever produce many Prejudices, and a certain Narrowness of Thinking, from which we and the politer Countries of Europe are wholly exempted. And it would be hard indeed, if so remote a Prince's Nations of Virtue and Vice were to be offered as a Standard for all Mankind.
To confirm what I have now said, and further to shew the miserable Effects of a confined Education, I shall here insert a Passage which will hardly obtain Belief. In hopes to ingratiate my self farther into his Majesty's Favour, I told him of an Invention discovered between three and four hundred Years ago, to make a certain Powder, into an heap of which the smallest spark of Fire falling, would kindle the whole in a Moment, although it were as big as a Mountain, and make it all fly up in the Air together, with a Noise and Agitation greater than Thunder. That, a proper quantity of this Powder rammed into an hollow Tube of Brass or Iron, according to its Bigness, would drive a Ball of Iron or Lead with such Violence and Speed as nothing was able to sustain its Force. That the largest Balls thus discharged, would not only destroy whole Ranks of an Army at once, but batter the strongest Walls to the Ground, sink down Ships with a thousand Men in each, to the bottom of the Sea; and when linked together by a Chain, would cut through Masts and Rigging, divide hundreds of Bodies in the middle, and lay all waste before them. That we often put this Powder into large hollow Balls of Iron, and discharged them by an Engine into some City we were besieging, which would rip up the Pavements, tear the Houses to pieces, burst and throw Splinters on every side, dashing out the Brains of all who come near. That I knew the Ingredients very well, which were cheap, and common; I understood the manner of com-
The King was struck with Horror at the Description I had given of those terrible Engines, and the Proposal I had made. He was amazed how so impotent and groveling an Insect as I (these were his Expressions) could entertain such inhuman Ideas, and in so familiar a manner as to appear wholly unmoved at all the Scenes of Blood and Desolation, which I had painted as the common Effects of those destructive Machines, whereof he said, some evil Genius, Enemy to Mankind, must have been the first Contriver. As for himself, he protested, that although few Things delighted him so much as new Discoveries in Art or in Nature, yet he would rather lose half his Kingdom than be privy to such a Secret, which he commanded me, as I valued my Life, never to mention any more.
A strange Effect of narrow Principles and short Views! that a Prince possessed of every Quality which procures Veneration, Love and Esteem; of strong Parts, great Wisdom and profound Learning, endued with admirable Talents for Government, and almost adored by his Subjects, should from a nice unnecessary Scruple, whereof in Europe we can have no Conception, let slip an Opportunity put into his Hands, that would have made him absolute Master of the Lives, the Liberties, and the Fortunes of his People. Neither do I say this with the least Intention to detract from the many Virtues of that excellent King, whose Character I am sensible will on this account be very much lessened in the Opinion of an English Reader: But, I take this Defect among them to have risen from their Ignorance, they not having hitherto re-
The Learning of this People is very defective, consisting only in Morality, History, Poetry and Mathematicks, wherein they must be allowed to excel. But, the last of these is wholly applied to what may be useful in Life, to the Improvement of Agriculture and all mechanical Arts; so that among us it would be little esteemed. And as to Ideas, Entities, Abstractions and Transcendentals, I could never drive the least Conception into their Heads.
No Law of that Country must exceed in Words the number of Letters in their Alphabet, which consists only in two and twenty. But indeed, few of them extend even to that Length. They are expressed in the most plain and simple Terms, wherein those People are not mercurial enough to discover above one Interpretation. And to write a Comment upon any Law is a capital Crime. As to the Decision of civil Causes, or Proceedings against Criminals, their Precedents are so few, that they have little Reason to boast of any extraordinary Skill in either.
They have had the Art of Printing, as well as the Chinese, time out of mind. But their Libraries are not very large; for that of the King's, which is reckoned the biggest, doth not amount to above a thousand Volumes, placed in a Gallery of twelve hundred Foot long, from whence I had liberty to borrow what Books I pleased. The Queen's Joiner had contrived in one of Glumdalclitch's Rooms a kind of wooden Machine five and twenty Foot high, formed like a standing Ladder, the Steps were each fifty Foot long. It was indeed a moveable pair of Stairs, the lowest end placed at ten Foot distance from the Wall of the Chamber. The Book I had a mind to read was put up leaning against the Wall. I first mounted to the upper Step of the Ladder, and turning my Face towards the Book, began at the Top of the Page, and so walking to the right and left about eight or ten Paces according to the length of the Lines, till I had gotten a little below the level of mine Eyes, and then descending gradually till I came to the Bottom: After which, I mounted again, and began the other Page in the same manner, and so turned over the Leaf, which I could easily do with both my Hands, for it was as thick and stiff as a Past board, and in the largest Folio's not above eighteen or twenty Foot long.
Their Stile is clear, masculine, and smooth, but not florid, for they avoid nothing more than multiplying unnecessary Words, or using various Expressions. I have perused many of their Books, especially those in History and Morality. Among the rest I was much diverted with a little old Treatise, which always lay in Glumdalcitch's Bed-chamber, and belonged to her Governess, a grave elderly Gentlewoman, who dealt in Writings of Morality and Devotion. The Book treats of the Weakness of Human-kind, and is in little Esteem except among the Women and the Vulgar. However, I was curious to see what an Author of that Country could say upon such a Subject. This Writer went through all the usual Topicks of European Moralists, shewing how diminutive, contemptible, and helpless an Animal was Man in his own Nature; how unable to defend himself from Inclemencies of the Air, or the Fury of wild Beasts. How much he was excelled by one Creature in
As to their military Affairs, they boast that the King's Army consists of an hundred and seventy six thousand Foot, and thirty two thousand Horse: If that may be called an Army which is made up of Tradesmen in the several Cities, and Farmers in the Country, whose Commanders are only the Nobility and Gentry, without Pay or Reward. They are indeed perfect enough in their Exercises, and under very good Discipline, wherein I saw no great Merit; for, how should it be otherwise, where every Farmer is under the Command of his own Landlord, and every Citizen under that of the principal Men in his own City, chosen after the manner of Venice by Ballot?
I have often seen the Militia of Lorbrulgrud drawn out to Exercise in a great Field near the City, of twenty Miles square. They were in all not above twenty five thousand
I was curious to know how this Prince, to whose Dominions there is no Access from any other Country, came to think of Armies, or to teach his People the Practice of military Discipline. But I was soon informed, both by Conversation, and Reading their Histories. For, in the course of many Ages they have been troubled with the same Disease to which so many other Governments are subject; the Nobility often contending for Power, the People for Liberty, and the King for absolute Dominion. All which, however happily tempered by the Laws of the Kingdom, have been sometimes violated by each of the three Parties, and have once or more occasioned Civil Wars, the last whereof was happily put an end to by this Prince's Grandfather by a general Composition; and the Militia then settled with common Consent hath been ever since kept in the strictest Duty.
The King and Queen make a Progress to the Frontiers. The Author attends them. The manner in which he leaves the Country very particularly related. He returns to England.
I had now been two Years in this Country, and, about the beginning of the third, Glumdalclitch and I attended the King and Queen in a Progress to the South Coast of the Kingdom. I was carried as usual in my
When we came to our Journey's end, the King thought proper to pass a few days at a Palace he hath near Flanflasnic, a City within eighteen English Miles of the Sea-side. Glumdalclitch and I were much fatigued; I had gotten a small Cold, but the poor Girl was so ill as to be confined to her Chamber. I longed to see the Ocean, which must be the only Scene of my Escape, if ever it should happen. I pretended to be worse than I really was, and desired leave to take the fresh Air of the Sea, with a Page whom I was very fond of, and who had sometimes been trusted with me. I shall never forget with what Unwillingness Glumdalclitch consented, nor the strict Charge she gave the Page to be careful of me, bursting at the same time into a Flood of Tears, as if she had some foreboding of what was to happen. The Boy took me out in my Box about half an hour's Walk from the Palace towards the Rocks on the Sea-shore. I ordered him to set me down, and lifting up one of my Sashes, cast many a wistful melancholly Look towards the Sea. I found my self not very well, and told the Page that I had a mind to take a Nap in my Hammock, which I hoped would do me good. I got in, and the Boy shut the Window close down to keep out the Cold. I soon fell asleep, and all I can conjecture is, that while I slept, the Page thinking no Danger could happen, went among the Rocks to look for Birds Eggs, having before observed him from my Window searching about, and picking up one or two in the Clefts. Be that as it will, I found my self suddenly awaked with a violent pull upon the Ring which was fastened at the Top of my
In a little time I observed the noise and flutter of Wings to encrease very fast, and my Box was tossed up and down like a Sign-post in a windy Day. I heard several Bangs or Buffets, as I thought, given to the Eagle (for such I am certain it must have been that held the Ring of my Box in his Beak) and then all on a sudden felt my self falling perpendicularly down for above a Minute, but with such incredible Swiftness that I almost lost my Breath. My Fall was stopped by a terrible Squash that sounded louder to mine Ears than the Cataract of Niagara, after which I was quite in the dark for another Minute, and then my Box began to rise so high that I could see Light from the tops of my Windows. I now perceived that I was fallen into the Sea. My Box, by the Weight of my Body, the Goods that were in, and the broad Plates of Iron fixed for Strength at the four Corners of the top and bottom, floated about five Foot deep in Water. I did then, and do now suppose that the Eagle which flew away with my Box was pursued by two or three others, and forced to let me drop while he was defending himself against the rest, who hoped to share in the Prey. The Plates of Iron fastned at the bottom of the Box, (for those were the strongest) preserved the Balance while it fell, and hindred it from being broken on the surface of the Water. Every joint of it was well grooved, and the Door did not move on Hinges, but
How often did I then wish my self with my dear Glumdalclitch, from whom one single Hour had so far divided me! And I may say with truth, that in the midst of my own Misfortunes I could not forbear lamenting my poor Nurse, the Grief she would suffer for my Loss, the Displeasure of the Queen, and the Ruin of her Fortune. Perhaps many Travellers have not been under greater Difficulties and Distress than I was at this Juncture, expecting every Moment to see my Box dashed in Pieces, or at least over-set by the first violent Blast, or a rising Wave. A Breach in one single Pane of Glass would have been immediate Death: Nor could any thing have preserved the Windows but the strong Lettice Wires placed on the outside against Accidents in Travelling. I saw the Water ooze in at several Crannies, although the Leaks were not considerable, and I endeavoured to stop them as well as I could. I was not able to lift up the Roof of my Closet, which otherwise I certainly should have done, and sate on the top of it, where I might at least preserve my self some Hours longer than by being shut up, as I may call it, in the Hold. Or, if I escaped these Dangers for a Day or two, what could I expect but a miserable Death of Cold and Hunger? I was four Hours under these Circumstances, expecting and indeed wishing every Moment to be my last.
I have already told the Reader, that there were two strong Staples fixed upon that side of my Box which had no Window, and into which the Servant who used to carry me on Horseback would put a leathern Belt, and buckle it about his Waist. Being in this disconsolate state, I heard or at least thought I heard some kind of grating Noise on that side of my Box where the Staples were fixed, and soon after I began to fancy that the Box was pulled, or towed along in the Sea; for I now and then felt a sort of tugging which made the Waves rise near the tops of my Windows, leaving me almost in the dark. G2
I found no effect from all I could do, but plainly perceived my Closet to be moved along; and in the space of an Hour, or better, that side of the Box where the Staples were, and had no Window, struck against something that was hard. I apprehended it to be a Rock, and found my self tossed more than ever. I plainly heard a Noise upon the Cover of my Closet, like that of a Cable, and the grating of it as it passed through the Ring. I then found my self hoisted up by degrees at least three Foot higher than I was before. Whereupon, I again thrust up my Stick and Handkerchief, calling for Help till I was almost hoarse. In return to which, I heard a great Shout repeated three times, giving me such Transports of Joy as are not to be conceived but by those who feel them. I now heard a trampling over my Head, and some body calling through the Hole with a loud Voice in the English Tongue; if there be any Body below let them speak. I answered I was an Englishman, drawn by ill Fortune into the greatest Calamity that ever any Creature underwent, and begged, by all that was moving, to be delivered out of the Dungeon I was in. The Voice replied, I was safe. for my Box was fastened to their Ship; and the Carpenter should immediately come, and saw an Hole in the Cover, large enough to pull me out. I answered, that was needless, and would take up too much time, for there was no more to be done, but let one of the Crew put his Finger into the Ring, and take the Box out of the Sea into the Ship, and so into the Captain's Cabbin. Some of them upon hearing me talk so wildly
The Sailors were all in Amazement, and asked me a thousand Questions, which I had no Inclination to answer. I was equally confounded at the Sight of so many Pigmies, for such I took them to be, after having so long accustomed mine Eyes to the monstrous Objects I had left. But the Captain, Mr. Thomas Wilcocks, an honest worthy Shropshire Man, observing I was ready to faint, took me into his Cabbin, gave me a Cordial to comfort me, and made me turn in upon his own Bed, advising me to take a little Rest, of which I had great need. Before I went to sleep I gave him to understand that I had some valuable Furniture in my Box too good to be lost; a fine Hammock, an handsome Field-Bed, two Chairs, a Table and a Cabinet: That my Closet was hung on all sides, or rather quilted with Silk and Cotton: That if he would let one of the Crew bring my Closet into his Cabbin, I would open it there before him, and shew him my Goods. The Captain hearing me utter these Absurdities, concluded I was raving: However, (I suppose to pacify me) he promised to give Order as I desired, and going upon Deck sent some of his Men down into my Closet, from Whence (as I afterwards found) they drew up all my Goods, and stripped off the Quilting; but the Chairs, Cabinet and Bed-sted being screwed to the Floor, were much damaged by the Ignorance of the Seamen, who tore them up by Force. Then they knocked off some of the Boards for the use of the Ship, and when they had got all they had a mind for, let the Hulk drop into the Sea, which by reason of many Breaches made in the bottom and sides, sunk to rights. And indeed I was glad not to have been a Spectator of the Havock they made; because I am confident it would have sensibly touched me, by bringing former Passages into my Mind, which I had rather forget.
I slept some Hours, but perpetually disturbed with Dreams of the Place I had left, and the Dangers I had escaped. However, upon waking I found my self much recovered. It was now about eight a Clock at Night, and the Captain ordered Supper immediately, thinking I had already fasted too long. He entertained me with great Kindness, observing me not to look wildly, or talk inconsistently; and when we were left alone, desired I would give him a Relation of my Travels, and by what Accident I came to be set adrift in that monstrous wooden Chest. He said, that about twelve a Clock at Noon, as he was looking through his Glass. he spied it at a distance, and thought it was a Sail, which he had a mind to make, being not much out of his Course, in hopes of buying some Biscuit, his own beginning to fall short. That upon coming nearer, and finding his Error, he sent out his Long-boat to discover what I was; that his Men came back in a Fright, swearing they had seen a swimming House. That he laughed at their Folly, and went himself in the Boat, ordering his Men to take a strong Cable along with them. That the Weather being calm, he rowed round me several times, observed my Windows and the wire Lettices that defended them. That he discovered two Staples upon one Side, which was all of Boards, without any Passage for Light. He then commanded his Men to row up to that Side, and fastening a Cable to one of the Staples, ordered them to tow my Chest (as he called it) towards the Ship. When it was there, he gave Directions to fasten another Cable to the Ring fixed in the Cover, and to raise up my Chest with Pullies, which all the Sailors were not able to do above two or three Foot. He said, they saw my Stick and Handkerchief thrust out of the Hole, and concluded, that some unhappy Men must be shut up in the Cavity. I asked whether he or the Crew had seen any prodigious Birds in the Air about the time he first discovered me. To which he answered, that discoursing this matter with the Sailors while I was asleep, one of them said he had observed three Eagles flying towards the North, but remarked nothing of their being larger than the usual Size, which I suppose must be imputed to the great Height they were at: And he could not guess the reason of my Question.
I Begged his Patience to hear me tell my Story, which I faithfully did from the last time I left England to the Moment he first discovered me. And, as Truth always forceth its way into rational Minds; so, this honest worthy Gentleman, who had some Tincture of Learning, and very good Sense, was immediately convinced of my Candor and Veracity. But further to confirm all I had said, I entreated him to give Order that my Cabinet should be brought, of which I had the Key in my Pocket, (for he had already informed me how the Seamen disposed of my Closet) I opened it in his own Presence, and shewed him the small Collection of Rarities I made in the Country from whence I had been so strangely delivered. There was the Comb I had contrived out of the Stumps of the King's Beard, and another of the same Materials, but fixed into a paring of her Majesty's Thumb-nail, which served for the Back. There was a Collection of Needles
I could force nothing on him but a Footman's Tooth, which I observed him to examine with great Curiosity and found he had a Fancy for it. He received it with abundance of Thanks, more than such a Trifle could deserve. It was drawn by an unskilful Surgeon in a Mistake from one of Glumdalclitch's Men, who was afflicted with the Tooth-ach, but it was as sound as any in his Head. I got it cleaned, and put it into my Cabinet. It was about a Foot long, and four Inches in Diameter.
The Captain was very well satisfied with this plain Relation I had given him; and said, he hoped when we returned to England, I would oblige the World by putting it in Paper, and making it publick. My Answer was, that I thought we were already over-stocked with Books of Travels: That nothing could now pass which was not extraordinary, wherein I doubted some Authors less consulted Truth than their own Vanity or Interest, or the Diversion of ignorant Readers. That my Story could contain little besides common Events; without those ornamental Descriptions of strange Plants, Trees, Birds, and other Animals, or of the barbarous Customs and Idolatry of savage People, with which most Writers abound. However, I thanked him for his good Opinion, and promised to take the matter into my Thoughts.
He said he wondered at one thing very much, which was to hear me speak so loud, asking me whether the King or Queen of that Country were thick of Hearing. I told him it was what I had been used to for above two Years pass, and that I admired as much at the Voices of
The Captain having been at Tonquin was in his return to England driven North-Eastward to the Latitude of 44
As I was on the Road, observing the Littleness of the Houses, the Trees, the Cattle and the People, I began to think my self in Lilliput. I was afraid of trampling on every Traveller I met; and often called aloud to have them stand out of the way, so that I had like to have gotten one or two broken Heads for my Impertinence.
When I came to my own House, for which I was forced to enquire, one of the Servants opening the Door, I bent down to go in (like a a Goose under a Gate) for fear of striking my Head. My Wife ran out to embrace me, but I stooped lower than her Knees, thinking she could otherwise never be able to reach my Mouth. My Daughter kneeled to ask me Blessing, but I could not see her till she arose, having been so long used to stand with my Head and Eyes erect to above sixty Foot; and then I went to take her up with one Hand, by the Waste. I looked down upon the Servants and one or two Friends who were in the House, as if they had been Pigmies, and I a Giant. I told my Wife she had been too thrifty, for I found she had starved herself and her Daughter to nothing In short, I behaved my self so unaccountably, that they were all of the Captain's Opinion when he first saw me, and concluded I had lost my Wits. This I mention as an Instance of the great Power of Habit and Prejudice.
In a little time I and my Family and Friends came to a right Understanding: But my Wife protested I should never go to Sea any more; although my evil Destiny so ordered that she had not Power to hinder me, as the Reader may know hereafter. In the mean time I here conclude the Second Part of my unfortunate Voyages.
The End of the