life, in two months after my return I again left my native country,
and took shipping in the Downs, on the 20th day of June, 1702, in the
Adventure, Captain John Nicholas, a Cornishman, commander, bound for
Surat. We 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 were 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 experienced in the navigation of those seas, bid us all
prepare against a storm, which accordingly happened the day following;
for a southern wind, called the southern monsoon, began to set in.
Finding it was like 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 fore sheet; 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, main topsail, and the fore-topsail. 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
right, 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 aboard 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 parts 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 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 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 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 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 thereabouts being full of sharp-pointed
rocks, the monster was not able to overtake the boat. This I was
afterwards 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 at least harvest, and the corn rising near 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 came to the uppermost. It was impossible
for me to climb this stile, because every step was six feet high, and
the upper stone above twenty. I was endeavoring 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 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 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 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 the corn were sometimes not above a foot
distant, so that I could hardly squeeze my body betwixt them. However,
I made 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 though my clothes into my flesh. At the
same time I heard the reapers not above ah 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 willfulness, 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 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 may not be able either to scratch or to bite
him, as I myself have sometimes done with a weasel in England. At
length he ventured to take me up 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 about 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 in 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
towards 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.
[Illustration: THE HUGE CREATURE TROD SHORT]
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 hairs aside to take a
better view of my face. He called his hinds about him, and asked them
(as I afterwards learned) whether they had ever seen in the fields any
little creature that resembled me. He then placed me softly on the
ground upon all fours, but I got immediately up, and walked slowly
backwards and forwards, 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 towards 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
afterwards 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 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
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 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 an
husbandman), in a dish of about four-and-twenty feet diameter. The
company were the farmer and his wife, three children, and an old
grandmother. When they were set 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
in 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,
made three huzzas, to show I had got no mischief by my fall. But
advancing forward towards my master (as I shall henceforth call him),
his youngest son, who sat next 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 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 farther end of the table, above fifty feet 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 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 towards 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 broken 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.
I remember, when I was at Lilliput, the complexions of those
diminutive people appeared to me the fairest in the world; and talking
upon the 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 shocking sight. He said he could
discover great holes in my skin; that the stumps of my beard were ten
times stronger than the bristles of a boar, and my complexion made up
of several colors, altogether disagreeable; although I must beg leave
to say for myself that I am as fair as most of my sex and country, and
very little sunburnt by travels. On the other side, discoursing of the
ladies in that emperor's court, he used to tell me, one had freckles,
another too wide a mouth, a third too large a nose; nothing of which I
was able to distinguish. I confess this reflection was obvious enough;
which, however, I could not forbear, lest the reader might think those
vast creatures were actually deformed: for I must do them justice to
say, they are a comely race of people; and particularly the features
of my master's countenance, although he were but a farmer, when I
beheld him from the height of sixty feet, appeared very well
proportioned.
When dinner was done, my master went out to his laborers, 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 mainsail
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 myself
alone, in a vast room, between two and three hundred feet wide, and
above two hundred high, lying in a bed twenty yards wide. My mistress
was gone about her household affairs, and had locked me in. The bed
was eight yards from the floor. 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 as 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 myself. These horrible animals had the
boldness to attack me on both sides, and one of them held his forefeet
at my collar; but I had the good fortune to rip up his belly before he
could do me any mischief. He fell down at my feet; and the other,
seeing the fate of his comrade, made his escape, but not without one
good wound on the back, which I gave him as he fled, and made the
blood run trickling from him. After this exploit, I walked gently to
and fro on the bed, to recover my breath and loss of spirits. These
creatures were of the size of a large mastiff, but infinitely more
nimble and fierce; so that if I had taken off my belt before I went to
sleep, I must have infallibly been torn to pieces and devoured. I
measured the tail of the dead rat, and found it to be two yards long
wanting an inch; but it went against my stomach to draw the carcass
off the bed, where it lay still bleeding. I observed it had yet some
life, but with a strong slash across the neck, I thoroughly dispatched
it.
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 show 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 showed her my hanger all bloody, and wiping it on the
lappet of my coat, returned it to the scabbard.
I hope the gentle reader will excuse me for dwelling on these and the
like particulars, which, however insignificant they may appear to
groveling vulgar minds, yet will certainly help a philosopher to
enlarge his thoughts and imagination, and to apply them to a benefit
of public as private life, which was my sole design in presenting this
and other accounts of my travels to the world; wherein I have been
chiefly studious of truth, without affecting any ornaments of learning
or of style. But the whole scene of this voyage made so strong an
impression on my mind, and is so deeply fixed in my memory, that in
committing it to paper I did not omit one material circumstance:
however, upon a strict review, I blotted out several passages of less
moment, which were in my first copy, for fear of being censured as
tedious and trifling, whereof travelers are often, perhaps not without
justice, accused.
ADVENTURES IN BROBDINGNAG
_By Jonathan Swift_
I should have lived happy enough in that country if my littleness had
not exposed me to several ridiculous and troublesome accidents; some
of which I shall venture to relate. Glumdalclitch often carried me
into the gardens of the court in my smaller box, and would sometimes
take me out of it, and hold me in her hand, or set me down to walk. I
remember, before the dwarf left the queen, he followed us one day into
those gardens, and my nurse having set me down, he and I being close
together, near some dwarf apple-trees, I must needs show my wit, by a
silly allusion between him and the trees, which happens to hold in
their language as it doth in ours. Whereupon the malicious rogue,
watching his opportunity when I was walking under one of them, shook
it directly over my head, by which a dozen apples, each of them near
as large as a Bristol barrel, came tumbling about my ears; one of them
hit me on the back as I chanced to stoop, and knocked me down flat on
my face; but I received no other hurt, and the dwarf was pardoned at
my desire, because I had given the provocation.