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 southeast, at six in the evening I descried a
small island about half a league to the northwest. 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 ate my breakfast before the sun was up; and heaving
anchor, the wind being favorable, I steered the same course that
I had done the day before, wherein I was directed by my pocket-
compass. My intention was to reach, if possible, one of those
islands which I had reason to believe lay on the northeast of Van
Diemen's Land. I discovered nothing all that day; but upon the
next, about three in the afternoon, when I had by my computation
made twenty-four leagues from Blefuscu, I descried a sail steering
to the southeast; my course was due east. I hailed her, but could
get no answer; yet I found I gained upon her, for the wind
slackened. I made all the sail I could, and in half an hour she
spied me, then hung out her ancient, and discharged a gun. It is
not easy to express the joy I was in upon the unexpected hope of
once more seeing my beloved country, and the dear pledges I had
left in it. The ship slackened her sails, and I came up with her
between five and six in the evening, September 26th; but my heart
leaped within me to see her English colors. I put my cows and
sheep into my coat-pockets, and got on board with all my little
cargo of provisions. The vessel was an English merchantman,
returning from Japan by the north and south seas; the captain, Mr.
John Biddel of Deptford, a very civil man, and an excellent
sailor. We were now in the latitude of 30 degrees south; there
were about fifty men in the ship; and here I met an old comrade of
mine, one Peter Williams, who gave me a good character to the
captain. This gentleman treated me with kindness, and desired I
would let him know what place I came from last and whither I was
bound; which I did in few words, but he thought I was raving, and
that the dangers I underwent had disturbed my head; whereupon I
took my black cattle and sheep out of my pocket, which, after
great astonishment, clearly convinced him of my veracity. I then
showed him the gold given me by the Emperor of Blefuscu, together
with his Majesty's picture at full length, and some other rarities of
that country. I gave him two purses of two hundred _sprugs_
each, and promised, when we arrived in England, to make him
a present of a cow and a sheep.
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 April, 1702. I had only one misfortune,
that the rats on board carried away one of my sheep; I found her
bones in a hole, picked clean from the flesh. The rest of my
cattle I got safe ashore, and set them a-grazing in a bowling-
green at Greenwich, where the fineness of the grass made them feed
very heartily, though I had always feared the contrary: neither
could I possibly have preserved them in so long a voyage if the
captain had not allowed me some of his best biscuit, which rubbed
to powder, and mingled with water, was their constant food. The
short time I continued in England, I made a considerable profit by
showing my cattle to many persons of quality and others: and,
before I began my second voyage, I sold them for six hundred
pounds. Since my last return, I find the breed is considerably
increased, especially the sheep, which I hope will prove much to
the advantage of the woollen manufacture, by the fineness of the
fleeces.
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
cowardly child. My daughter Betty (who is now well married, and
has children) was then at her needlework. 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 Liverpool, commander.
GULLIVER IN THE LAND OF THE GIANTS
By Jonathan Swift
The Adventure had a very prosperous gale, till we arrived at the
Cape of Good Hope, where we landed for fresh water; but
discovering a leak, we unshipped our goods, and wintered there;
for the captain falling sick of an ague, we could not leave the
Cape till the end of March.
We then set sail, and had a good voyage till we passed the straits
of Madagascar; but having got northward of that island, and to
about five degrees south latitude, the winds, which in those seas
are observed to blow a constant equal gale between the north and
west, from the beginning of December to the beginning of May, on
the 9th of April began to blow with much greater violence, and
more westerly than usual, continuing so for twenty days together:
during which time, we were driven a little to the east of the
Molucca Islands, and about three degrees northward of the line, as
our captain found by an observation he took the 2d of May, at
which time the wind ceased, and it was a perfect calm, whereat I
was not a little rejoiced. But he being a man well experienced in
the navigation of those seas, bid us all prepare against a storm,
which accordingly happened on the day following; for the southern
wind, called the southern monsoon, began to set in.
Finding it was likely to overblow, we took in our sprit-sail, and
stood by to hand the foresail; but, making foul weather, we looked
the guns were all fast, and handed the mizzen. The ship lay very
broad off, so we thought it better spooning before the sea, than
trying or hulling. We reefed the foresail and set him, and hauled
aft the foresheet; the helm was hard-a-weather. The ship wore
bravely. We belayed the fore downhaul; but the sail was split, and
we hauled 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 hauled off upon the
lanyard of the whip-staff, and helped the man at the helm. We
would not get down our topmast, but let all stand, because she
scudded before the sea very well, and we knew that the topmast
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 foresail and mainsail, and brought the ship to. Then we set
the mizzen, maintopsail, and the foretopsail. Our course was east-
northeast, the wind was at southwest. We got the starboard tacks
aboard, we cast off our weather braces and lifts; we set in the
lee braces, and hauled forward by the weather-bowlings, and hauled
them tight, and belayed them, and hauled over the mizzen tack to
windward, and kept her full and by as near as she would lie.
During this storm, which was followed by a strong wind west-
southwest, 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 stanch, 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 northwest part of Great Tartary, and into
the Frozen Sea.
On the 16th day of June, 1703, a boy on the topmast 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 into the sea, and a creek too
shallow to hold a ship of above one hundred tons. We cast anchor
within a league of the 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 wandered 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 toward 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 holla 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, and the sea thereabout being
full of sharp-pointed rocks, the monster was not able to overtake
the boat. This I was afterward told, for I durst not stay to see
the issue of the adventure, but ran as fast as I could the way I
first went, and then climbed up a steep hill, which gave me some
prospect of the country. I found it fully cultivated; but that
which first surprised me was the length of the grass, which, in
those grounds that seemed to be kept for hay, was about twenty
feet high.
I fell into a highroad, for so I took it to be, though it served
to the inhabitants only as a footpath 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 feet. 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 feet
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 come
to the uppermost. It was impossible for me to climb this stile,
because every step was six feet high, and the upper stone about
twenty. I was endeavoring to find some gap in the hedge, when I
discovered one of the inhabitants in the next field, advancing
toward 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, 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 toward 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 laborers 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 corn were sometimes not above a foot distant, so that I
could hardly squeeze my body between them. However, I made a shift
to go forward, till I came to a part of the field where the corn
had been laid by the rain and wind. Here it was impossible for me
to advance a step; for the stalks were so interwoven, that I could
not creep through, and the beards of the fallen ears so strong and
pointed, that they pierced through my clothes into my flesh. At
the same time I heard the reapers not above a hundred yards behind
me. Being quite dispirited with toil, and wholly overcome by grief
and despair, I lay down between two ridges, and heartily wished I
might there end my days. I bemoaned my desolate widow and
fatherless children. I lamented my own folly and wilfulness, in
attempting a second voyage, against the advice of all my friends
and relations. In this terrible agitation of mind, I could not
forbear thinking of Lilliput, whose inhabitants looked upon me as
the greatest prodigy that ever appeared in the world; where I was
able to draw an imperial fleet in my hand, and perform those other
actions, which will be recorded forever in the chronicles of that
empire, while posterity shall hardly believe them, although
attested by millions. I reflected what a mortification it must
prove to me to appear as inconsiderable in this nation, as one
single Lilliputian would be among us. But this I conceived was to
be the least of my misfortunes; for, as human creatures are
observed to be more savage and cruel in proportion to their bulk,
what could I expect but to be a morsel in the mouth of the first
among these enormous barbarians that should happen to seize me?
Undoubtedly philosophers are in the right when they tell us that
nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison. It might
have pleased fortune, to have let the Lilliputians find some
nation where the people were as diminutive with respect to them,
as they were to me. And who knows but that even this prodigious
race of mortals might be equally overmatched in some distant part
of the world, whereof we have yet no discovery.
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 lay, made me apprehend that with the
next step I should be squashed to death under his foot, or cut in
two with his reaping-hook. And therefore, when he was again about
to move, I screamed as loud as fear could make me; whereupon the
huge creature trod short, and looking round about under him for
some time, at last espied me as I lay on the ground. He considered
awhile, with the caution of one who endeavors to lay hold on a
small dangerous animal in such a manner that it shall not be able
either to scratch or bite him, as I myself have sometimes done
with a weasel in England. At length he ventured to take me behind,
by the middle, between his forefinger and thumb, and brought me
within three yards of his eyes, that he might behold my shape more
perfectly. I guessed his meaning, and my good fortune gave me so
much presence of mind, that I resolved not to struggle in the
least as he held me in the air above sixty feet from the ground,
although he grievously pinched my sides, for fear I should slip
through his fingers. All I ventured was to raise mine eyes toward
the sun, and place my hands together in a supplicating posture,
and to speak some words in an humble melancholy tone, suitable to
the condition I then was in: for I apprehended every moment that
he would dash me against the ground, as we usually do any little
hateful animal which we have a mind to destroy. But my good star
would have it, that he appeared pleased with my voice and
gestures, and began to look upon me as a curiosity, much wondering
to hear me pronounce articulate words, although he could not
understand them. In the meantime I was not able to forbear
groaning and shedding tears, and turning my head toward my sides;
letting him know, as well as I could, how cruelly I was hurt by
the pressure of his thumb and finger. He seemed to apprehend my
meaning; for, lifting up the lappet of his coat, he put me gently
into it, and immediately ran along with me to his master, who was
a substantial farmer, and the same person I had first seen in the
field.
The farmer having (as I suppose 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 walking-staff, and therewith
lifted up the lappets of my coat, which, it seems, he thought to
be some kind of covering that nature had given me. He blew my hair
aside to take a better view of my face. He called his hinds about
him, and asked them, as I afterward learned, whether they had ever
seen in the fields any little creature that resembled me? He then
placed me softly on the ground on all fours, but I immediately got
up, and walked slowly backward and forward, to let those people
see I had no intent to run away. They all sat down in a circle
about me, the better to observe my motions. I pulled off my hat,
and made a low bow toward the farmer. I fell on my knees, and
lifted up my hands and eyes, and spoke several words as loud as I
could; I took a purse of gold out of my pocket, and humbly
presented it to him. He received it on the palm of his hand, and
then applied it close to his eye to see what it was, and afterward
turned it several times with the point of a pin (which he took out
of his sleeve), but could make nothing of it. Whereupon I made a
sign that he should place his hand on the ground. I then took the
purse, and opening it, poured all the gold into his palm. There
were six Spanish pieces of four pistoles each, besides twenty or
thirty smaller coins. I saw him wet the tip of his little finger
upon his tongue, and take up one of my largest pieces, and then
another; but he seemed to be wholly ignorant what they were. He
made me a sign to put them again into my purse, and the purse
again into my pocket, which, after offering it to him several
times, I thought it best to do.
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 watermill, 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 upward, making me a sign to step into it,
as I could easily do, for it was not above a foot in thickness. I
thought it my part to obey, and, for fear of falling, laid myself
at full length upon the handkerchief, with the remainder of which
he lapped me up to the head for further security, and in this
manner carried me home to his house. There he called his wife, and
showed me to her; but she screamed and ran back, as women in
England do at the sight of a toad or a spider. However, when she
had awhile seen my behavior, and how well I observed the signs her
husband made, she was soon reconciled, and by degrees grew
extremely tender of me. 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 a husbandman), in a dish of about
four-and-twenty feet in 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 feet 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 two 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 ladyship's health, expressing
the words as loud as I could in English, which made the company
laugh so heartily that I was almost deafened with the noise. This
liquor tasted like a small cider, 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 at great surprise 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, gave three huzzas, to show I
had got no mischief by my fall. But advancing forward toward my
master, (as I shall henceforth call him), his youngest son, who
sat next to him, an arch boy of about ten years old, took me up by
the legs, and held me so high in the air that I trembled in every
limb; but his father snatched me from him, and at the same time
gave him such a box on the left ear as would have felled an
European troop of horse to the earth, ordering him to be taken
from the table. But being afraid the boy might owe me a spite, and
well remembering how mischievous all children among us naturally
are to sparrows, rabbits, young kittens, and puppy dogs, I fell on
my knees, and pointing to the boy, made my master to understand
as well as I could, that I desired his son might be pardoned. The
father complied, and the lad took his seat again, whereupon I went
to him and kissed his hand, which my master took, and made him
stroke me gently with it.
In the midst of dinner, my mistress's favorite cat leaped 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 that 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 stroking her. The
fierceness of this creature's countenance altogether discomposed
me; though I stood at the further end of the table, above fifty
feet off; and though 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 show 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 herself 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 is usual in
farmers? houses; one of which was a mastiff, equal in bulk to
four elephants, and a greyhound somewhat taller than the mastiff,
but not so large.
When dinner was almost done, the nurse came in with a child of a
year old in her arms, who immediately spied 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 plaything. The mother,
out of pure indulgence, took me up, and put me toward the child,
who presently seized me by the middle, and got my head into 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 fastened by a cable to the child's
waist.