PART I.
A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT.
CHAPTER I.
The author gives some account of himself and
family. His first inducements to travel. He is shipwrecked,
and swims for his life. Gets safe on shore in the country of
Lilliput; is made a prisoner, and carried up the country.
My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire: I was the
third of five sons. He sent me to Emanuel College in Cambridge
at fourteen years old, where I resided three years, and applied
myself close to my studies; but the charge of maintaining me,
although I had a very scanty allowance, being too great for a
narrow fortune, I was bound apprentice to Mr. James Bates, an
eminent surgeon in London, with whom I continued four years. My
father now and then sending me small sums of money, I laid them
out in learning navigation, and other parts of the mathematics,
useful to those who intend to travel, as I always believed it
would be, some time or other, my fortune to do. When I left Mr.
Bates, I went down to my father: where, by the assistance of him
and my uncle John, and some other relations, I got forty pounds,
and a promise of thirty pounds a year to maintain me at Leyden:
there I studied physic two years and seven months, knowing it
would be useful in long voyages.
Soon after my return from Leyden, I was recommended by my
good master, Mr. Bates, to be surgeon to the Swallow, Captain
Abraham Pannel, 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 Jewry; and being advised to alter my condition, I
married Mrs. Mary Burton, second daughter to Mr. Edmund 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 Jewry 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 would mend, I accepted an advantageous offer from
Captain William Prichard, master of the Antelope, who was making
a voyage to the South Sea. We set sail from Bristol, May 4,
1699, and our voyage was at first very prosperous.
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 5th 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 pushed 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 myself 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 conjectured was about
eight o’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, I found myself much inclined to
sleep. I lay down on the grass, which was very short and soft,
where I slept sounder than ever I remembered to have done in my
life, and, as I reckoned, about nine hours; for when I awaked,
it was just day-light. I attempted to rise, but was not able to
stir: for, as I happened to lie on my back, I found my arms and
legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground; and my
hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner. I
likewise felt several slender ligatures across my body, from my
arm-pits to my thighs. I could only look upwards; the sun began
to grow hot, and the light offended my eyes. I heard a confused
noise about me; but in the posture I lay, could see nothing
except the sky. In a little time I felt something alive moving
on my left leg, which advancing gently forward over my breast,
came almost up to my chin; when, bending my eyes downwards as
much as I could, I perceived it to be a human creature not six
inches high, with a bow and arrow in his hands, and a quiver at
his back. In the mean time, I felt at least forty more of the
same kind (as I conjectured) following the first. I was in the
utmost astonishment, and roared so loud, that they all ran back
in a fright; and some of them, as I was afterwards told, were
hurt with the falls they got by leaping from my sides upon the
ground. However, they soon returned, and one of them, who
ventured so far as to get a full sight of my face, lifting up
his hands and eyes by way of admiration, cried out in a shrill
but distinct voice, Hekinah degul: the others repeated
the same words several times, but then I knew not what they
meant. I lay all this while, as the reader may believe, in
great uneasiness. At length, struggling to get loose, I had the
fortune to break the strings, and wrench out the pegs that
fastened my left arm to the ground; for, by lifting it up to my
face, I discovered the methods they had taken to bind me, and at
the same time with a violent pull, which gave me excessive pain,
I a little loosened the strings that tied down my hair on the
left side, so that I was just able to turn my head about two
inches. But the creatures ran off a second time, before I could
seize them; whereupon there was a great shout in a very shrill
accent, and after it ceased I heard one of them cry aloud
Tolgo phonac; when in an instant I felt above a hundred
arrows discharged on my left hand, which, pricked me like so
many needles; and besides, they shot another flight into the
air, as we do bombs in Europe, whereof many, I suppose, fell on
my body, (though I felt them not), and some on my face, which I
immediately covered with my left hand. When this shower of
arrows was over, I fell a groaning with grief and pain; and then
striving again to get loose, they discharged another volley
larger than the first, and some of them attempted with spears to
stick me in the sides; but by good luck I had on a buff jerkin,
which they could not pierce. I thought it the most prudent
method to lie still, and my design was to continue so till
night, when, my left hand being already loose, I could easily
free myself: and as for the inhabitants, I had reason to believe
I might be a match for the greatest army they could bring
against me, if they were all of the same size with him that I
saw. But fortune disposed otherwise of me. When the people
observed I was quiet, they discharged no more arrows; but, by
the noise I heard, I knew their numbers increased; and about
four yards from me, over against my right ear, I heard a
knocking for above an hour, like that of people at work; when
turning my head that way, as well as the pegs and strings would
permit me, I saw a stage erected about a foot and a half from
the ground, capable of holding four of the inhabitants, with two
or three ladders to mount it: from whence one of them, who
seemed to be a person of quality, made me a long speech, whereof
I understood not one syllable. But I should have mentioned,
that before the principal person began his oration, he cried out
three times, Langro dehul san (these words and the former
were afterwards repeated and explained to me); whereupon,
immediately, about fifty of the inhabitants came and cut the
strings that fastened the left side of my head, which gave me
the liberty of turning it to the right, and of observing the
person and gesture of him that was to speak. He appeared to be
of a middle age, and taller than any of the other three who
attended him, whereof one was a page that held up his train, and
seemed to be somewhat longer than my middle finger; the other
two stood one on each side to support him. He acted every part
of an orator, and I could observe many periods of threatenings,
and others of promises, pity, and kindness. I answered in a few
words, but in the most submissive manner, lifting up my left
hand, and both my eyes to the sun, as calling him for a witness;
and being almost famished with hunger, having not eaten a morsel
for some hours before I left the ship, I found the demands of
nature so strong upon me, that I could not forbear showing my
impatience (perhaps against the strict rules of decency) by
putting my finger frequently to my mouth, to signify that I
wanted food. The hurgo (for so they call a great lord,
as I afterwards learnt) understood me very well. He descended
from the stage, and commanded that several ladders should be
applied to my sides, on which above a hundred of the inhabitants
mounted and walked towards my mouth, laden with baskets full of
meat, which had been provided and sent thither by the king’s
orders, upon the first intelligence he received of me. I
observed there was the flesh of several animals, but could not
distinguish them by the taste. There were shoulders, legs, and
loins, shaped like those of mutton, and very well dressed, but
smaller than the wings of a lark. I ate them by two or three at
a mouthful, and took three loaves at a time, about the bigness
of musket bullets. They supplied me as fast as they could,
showing a thousand marks of wonder and astonishment at my bulk
and appetite. I then made another sign, that I wanted drink.
They found by my eating that a small quantity would not suffice
me; and being a most ingenious people, they slung up, with great
dexterity, one of their largest hogsheads, then rolled it
towards my hand, and beat out the top; I drank it off at a
draught, which I might well do, for it did not hold half a pint,
and tasted like a small wine of Burgundy, but much more
delicious. They brought me a second hogshead, which I drank in
the same manner, and made signs for more; but they had none to
give me. When I had performed these wonders, they shouted for
joy, and danced upon my breast, repeating several times as they
did at first, Hekinah degul. They made me a sign that I
should throw down the two hogsheads, but first warning the
people below to stand out of the way, crying aloud, Borach
mevolah; and when they saw the vessels in the air, there was
a universal shout of Hekinah degul. I confess I was
often tempted, while they were passing backwards and forwards on
my body, to seize forty or fifty of the first that came in my
reach, and dash them against the ground. But the remembrance of
what I had felt, which probably might not be the worst they
could do, and the promise of honour I made them—for so I
interpreted my submissive behaviour—soon drove out these
imaginations. Besides, I now considered myself as bound by the
laws of hospitality, to a people who had treated me with so much
expense and magnificence. However, in my thoughts I could not
sufficiently wonder at the intrepidity of these diminutive
mortals, who durst venture to mount and walk upon my body, while
one of my hands was at liberty, without trembling at the very
sight of so prodigious a creature as I must appear to them.
After some time, when they observed that I made no more demands
for meat, there appeared before me a person of high rank from
his imperial majesty. His excellency, having mounted on the
small of my right leg, advanced forwards up to my face, with
about a dozen of his retinue; and producing his credentials
under the signet royal, which he applied close to my eyes, spoke
about ten minutes without any signs of anger, but with a kind of
determinate resolution, often pointing forwards, which, as I
afterwards found, was towards the capital city, about half a
mile distant; whither it was agreed by his majesty in council
that I must be conveyed. I answered in few words, but to no
purpose, and made a sign with my hand that was loose, putting it
to the other (but over his excellency’s head for fear of hurting
him or his train) and then to my own head and body, to signify
that I desired my liberty. It appeared that he understood me
well enough, for he shook his head by way of disapprobation, and
held his hand in a posture to show that I must be carried as a
prisoner. However, he made other signs to let me understand
that I should have meat and drink enough, and very good
treatment. Whereupon I once more thought of attempting to break
my bonds; but again, when I felt the smart of their arrows upon
my face and hands, which were all in blisters, and many of the
darts still sticking in them, and observing likewise that the
number of my enemies increased, I gave tokens to let them know
that they might do with me what they pleased. Upon this, the
hurgo and his train withdrew, with much civility and
cheerful countenances. Soon after I heard a general shout, with
frequent repetitions of the words Peplom selan; and I
felt great numbers of people on my left side relaxing the cords
to such a degree, that I was able to turn upon my right, and to
ease myself with making water; which I very plentifully did, to
the great astonishment of the people; who, conjecturing by my
motion what I was going to do, immediately opened to the right
and left on that side, to avoid the torrent, which fell with
such noise and violence from me. But before this, they had
daubed my face and both my hands with a sort of ointment, very
pleasant to the smell, which, in a few minutes, removed all the
smart of their arrows. These circumstances, added to the
refreshment I had received by their victuals and drink, which
were very nourishing, disposed me to sleep. I slept about eight
hours, as I was afterwards assured; and it was no wonder, for
the physicians, by the emperor’s order, had mingled a sleepy
potion in the hogsheads of wine.
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 to 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
endeavoured 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 roused my rage and strength, as
to have enabled me to break the strings wherewith I was tied;
after which, as they were not able to make resistance, so they
could expect no mercy.
These people are most excellent mathematicians, and arrived
to a great perfection in mechanics, by the countenance and
encouragement of the emperor, who is a renowned patron of
learning. This prince has 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 feet 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 feet 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 fastened 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 pulleys fastened 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 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 a
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 stopped 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, which tickled my nose like a straw, and made me sneeze
violently; whereupon they stole off unperceived, and it was
three weeks before I knew the cause of my waking so suddenly.
We made a long march the remaining part of the day, and, rested
at night with five hundred guards on each side of me, half with
torches, and half with bows and arrows, ready to shoot me if I
should offer to stir. The next morning at sun-rise we continued
our march, and arrived within two hundred yards of the city
gates about noon. The emperor, and all his court, came out to
meet us; but his great officers would by no means suffer his
majesty to endanger his person by mounting on my body.
At the place where the carriage stopped 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 upon
as profane, 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 feet high, and almost two feet 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 smith 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 the other
side of the great highway, at twenty feet distance, there was a
turret at least five feet 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 a hundred thousand inhabitants came out of
the town upon the same errand; and, in spite of my guards, I
believe there could not be fewer than ten thousand at several
times, who mounted 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 melancholy a disposition as ever I had in my life. But
the noise and astonishment of the people, at seeing me rise and
walk, are not to be expressed. The chains that held my left leg
were about two yards long, and gave me not only the liberty of
walking backwards and forwards in a semicircle, but, being fixed
within four inches of the gate, allowed me to creep in, and lie
at my full length in the temple.
CHAPTER II.
The emperor of Lilliput, attended by several
of the nobility, comes 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.
When I found myself on my feet, I looked about me, and must
confess I never beheld a more entertaining prospect. The
country around appeared like a continued garden, and the
enclosed fields, which were generally forty feet square,
resembled so many beds of flowers. These fields were
intermingled with woods of half a stang, and the tallest trees,
as I could judge, appeared to be seven feet high. I viewed the
town on my left hand, which looked like the painted scene of a
city in a theatre.
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 disburdened myself. I was under great
difficulties between urgency and shame. The best expedient I
could think of, 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 has maturely and
impartially considered my case, and the distress I was in. From
this time my constant practice was, as soon as I rose, to
perform that business in open air, at the full extent of my
chain; and due care was taken every morning before company came,
that the offensive matter should be carried off in
wheel-barrows, by two servants appointed for that purpose. I
would not have dwelt so long upon a circumstance that, perhaps,
at first sight, may appear not very momentous, if I had not
thought it necessary to justify my character, in point of
cleanliness, to the world; which, I am told, some of my
maligners have been pleased, upon this and other occasions, to
call in question.
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 horseback towards me,
which had like to have cost him dear; for the beast, though very
well trained, yet wholly unused to such a sight, which appeared
as if a mountain moved before him, reared up on its hinder feet:
but that prince, who is an excellent horseman, 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 beyond 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 upon wheels, till I could reach
them. I took these 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, sat at some distance in
their chairs; but upon the accident that happened to the
emperor’s horse, they alighted, 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
proportioned, all his motions graceful, and his deportment
majestic. He was then past his prime, being twenty-eight years
and three quarters old, of which he had reigned about seven in
great felicity, and generally victorious. For the better
convenience of beholding him, I lay on my side, so that my face
was parallel to his, and he stood but three yards off: however,
I have had him since many times in my hand, and therefore cannot
be deceived in the description. His dress was very plain and
simple, and the fashion of it between the Asiatic and the
European; but he had on his head a light helmet of gold, adorned
with jewels, and a plume on the crest. He held his sword drawn
in his hand to defend himself, if I should happen to break
loose; it was almost three inches long; the hilt and scabbard
were gold enriched with diamonds. His voice was shrill, but
very clear and articulate; and I could distinctly hear it when I
stood up. The ladies and courtiers were all most magnificently
clad; so that the spot they stood upon seemed to resemble a
petticoat spread upon the ground, embroidered with figures of
gold and silver. His imperial majesty spoke often to me, and I
returned answers: but neither of us could understand a
syllable. There were several of his priests and lawyers present
(as I conjectured by their habits), who were commanded to
address themselves to me; and I spoke to them in as many
languages as I had the least smattering of, which were High and
Low Dutch, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and Lingua Franca,
but all to no purpose. After about two hours the court retired,
and I was left with a strong guard, to prevent the impertinence,
and probably the malice of the rabble, who were very impatient
to crowd about me as near as they durst; and some of them had
the impudence to shoot their arrows at me, as I sat on the
ground by the door of my house, whereof one very narrowly missed
my left eye. But the colonel ordered six of the ringleaders to
be seized, and thought no punishment so proper as to deliver
them bound into my hands; which some of his soldiers accordingly
did, pushing them forward with the butt-ends of their pikes into
my reach. I took them all in my right hand, put five of them
into my coat-pocket; and as to the sixth, I made a countenance
as if I would eat him alive. The poor man squalled terribly,
and the colonel and his officers were in much pain, especially
when they saw me take out my penknife: but I soon put them out
of fear; for, looking mildly, and immediately cutting the
strings he was bound with, I set him gently on the ground, and
away he ran. I treated the rest in the same manner, taking them
one by one out of my pocket; and I observed both the soldiers
and people were highly delighted at this mark of my clemency,
which was represented very much to my advantage at court.
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; a hundred and
fifty of their beds, sewn 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 inured to hardships.
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 household 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 license
from the 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 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 expensive, and might cause a famine.
Sometimes they determined to starve me; or at least to shoot me
in the face and hands with poisoned arrows, which would soon
despatch me; but again they considered, that the stench of so
large a carcass might produce a plague in the metropolis, and
probably spread through the whole kingdom. In the midst of
these consultations, several officers of the army went to the
door of the great council-chamber, and two of them being
admitted, gave an account of my behaviour to the six criminals
above-mentioned; which made so favourable an impression in the
breast of his majesty and the whole board, in my behalf, that an
imperial commission was issued out, obliging all the villages,
nine hundred yards round the city, to deliver in every morning
six beeves, forty sheep, and other victuals for my sustenance;
together with a proportionable quantity of bread, and wine, and
other liquors; for the due payment of which, his majesty gave
assignments upon his treasury:—for this prince lives chiefly
upon his own demesnes; seldom, except upon great occasions,
raising any subsidies upon his subjects, who are bound to attend
him in his wars at their own expense. An establishment was also
made of six hundred persons to be my domestics, who had
board-wages allowed for their maintenance, and tents built for
them very conveniently on each side of my door. It was likewise
ordered, that three hundred tailors should make me a suit of
clothes, after the fashion of the country; that six of his
majesty’s greatest scholars should be employed to instruct me in
their language; and lastly, that the emperor’s horses, and those
of the nobility and troops of guards, should be frequently
exercised in my sight, to accustom themselves to me. All these
orders were duly put in execution; and in about three weeks I
made a great progress in learning their language; during which
time the emperor frequently honoured me with his visits, and was
pleased to assist my masters in teaching me. We began already
to converse together in some sort; and the first words I learnt,
were to express my desire “that he would please give me my
liberty;” which I every day repeated on my knees. His answer,
as I could comprehend it, was, “that this must be a work of
time, not to be thought on without the advice of his council,
and that first I must lumos kelmin pesso desmar lon emposo;”
that is, swear a peace with him and his kingdom. However, that
I should be used with all kindness. And he advised me to
“acquire, by my patience and discreet behaviour, the good
opinion of himself and his subjects.” He desired “I would not
take it ill, if he gave orders to certain proper officers to
search me; for probably I might carry about me several weapons,
which must needs be dangerous things, if they answered the bulk
of so prodigious a person.” I said, “His majesty should be
satisfied; for I was ready to strip myself, and turn up my
pockets before him.” This I delivered part in words, and part
in signs. He replied, “that, by the laws of the kingdom, I must
be searched by two of his officers; that he knew this could not
be done without my consent and assistance; and he had so good an
opinion of my generosity and justice, as to trust their persons
in my hands; that whatever they took from me, should be returned
when I left the country, or paid for at the rate which I would
set upon them.” I took up the two officers in my hands, put
them first into my coat-pockets, and then into every other
pocket about me, except my two fobs, and another secret pocket,
which I had no mind should be searched, wherein I had some
little necessaries that were of no consequence to any but
myself. In one of my fobs there was a silver watch, and in the
other a small quantity of gold in a purse. These gentlemen,
having pen, ink, and paper, about them, made an exact inventory
of every thing they saw; and when they had done, desired I would
set them down, that they might deliver it to the emperor. This
inventory I afterwards translated into English, and is, word for
word, as follows:
“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 desired it should be opened, and one of us stepping into
it, found himself up to the mid leg in a sort of dust, some
part whereof flying up to our faces set us both a sneezing
for several times together. In his right waistcoat-pocket
we found a prodigious bundle of white thin substances,
folded one over another, about the bigness of three men,
tied with a strong cable, and marked with black figures;
which we humbly conceive to be writings, every letter almost
half as large as the palm of our hands. In the left there
was a sort of engine, from the back of which were extended
twenty long poles, resembling the pallisados before your
majesty’s court: wherewith we conjecture the man-mountain
combs his head; for we did not always trouble him with
questions, because we found it a great difficulty to make
him understand us. In the large pocket, on the right side
of his middle cover” (so I translate the word ranfulo,
by which they meant my breeches,) “we saw a hollow pillar of
iron, about the length of a man, fastened to a strong piece
of timber larger than the pillar; and upon one side of the
pillar, were huge pieces of iron sticking out, cut into
strange figures, which we know not what to make of. In the
left pocket, another engine of the same kind. In the
smaller pocket on the right side, were several round flat
pieces of white and red metal, of different bulk; some of
the white, which seemed to be silver, were so large and
heavy, that my comrade and I could hardly lift them. In the
left pocket were two black pillars irregularly shaped: we
could not, without difficulty, reach the top of them, as we
stood at the bottom of his pocket. One of them was covered,
and seemed all of a piece: but at the upper end of the other
there appeared a white round substance, about twice the
bigness of our heads. Within each of these was enclosed a
prodigious plate of steel; which, by our orders, we obliged
him to show us, because we apprehended they might be
dangerous engines. He took them out of their cases, and
told us, that in his own country his practice was to shave
his beard with one of these, and cut his meat with the
other. There were two pockets which we could not enter:
these he called his fobs; they were two large slits cut into
the top of his middle cover, but squeezed close by the
pressure of his belly. Out of the right fob hung a great
silver chain, with a wonderful kind of engine at the
bottom. We directed him to draw out whatever was at the end
of that chain; which appeared to be a globe, half silver,
and half of some transparent metal; for, on the transparent
side, we saw certain strange figures circularly drawn, and
thought we could touch them, till we found our fingers
stopped by the lucid substance. He put this engine into our
ears, which made an incessant noise, like that of a
water-mill: and we conjecture it is either some unknown
animal, or the god that he worships; but we are more
inclined to the latter opinion, because he assured us, (if
we understood him right, for he expressed himself very
imperfectly) that he seldom did any thing without consulting
it. He called it his oracle, and said, it pointed out the
time for every action of his life. From the left fob he
took out a net almost large enough for a fisherman, but
contrived to open and shut like a purse, and served him for
the same use: we found therein several massy pieces of
yellow metal, which, if they be real gold, must be of
immense value.
“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 requiring 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.
Clefrin
Frelock, Marsi Frelock.”
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 scimitar, 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 scimitar, 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 surprise; for the sun
shone clear, and the reflection dazzled their eyes, as I waved
the scimitar 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 feet 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 escape 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 at the sight of my scimitar. Hundreds
fell down as if they had been struck dead; and even the emperor,
although he stood his ground, could not recover himself for some
time. I delivered up both my pistols in the same manner as I
had done my scimitar, and then my pouch of powder and bullets;
begging him that the former might be kept from 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 draymen in England do a barrel of ale. He was
amazed at the continual noise it made, and the motion of the
minute-hand, which he could easily discern; for their sight is
much more acute than ours: he asked the opinions of his learned
men about it, which were various and remote, as the reader may
well imagine without my repeating; although indeed I could not
very perfectly understand them. I then gave up my silver and
copper money, my purse, with nine large pieces of gold, and some
smaller ones; my knife and razor, my comb and silver snuff-box,
my handkerchief and journal-book. My scimitar, pistols, and
pouch, were conveyed in carriages to his majesty’s stores; but
the rest of my goods were returned me.
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 some other little conveniences; which, being of
no consequence to the emperor, I did not think myself bound in
honour to discover, and I apprehended they might be lost or
spoiled if I ventured them out of my possession.
CHAPTER III.
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 has
his liberty granted him upon certain conditions.
My gentleness and good behaviour had gained so far on the
emperor and his court, and indeed upon the army and people in
general, that I began to conceive hopes of getting my liberty in
a short time. I took all possible methods to cultivate this
favourable disposition. The natives came, by degrees, to be
less apprehensive of any danger from me. I would sometimes lie
down, and let five or six of them dance on my hand; and at last
the boys and girls would venture to come and play at
hide-and-seek in my hair. I had now made a good progress in
understanding and speaking the language. The emperor had a mind
one day to entertain me with several of the country shows,
wherein they exceed all nations I have known, both for dexterity
and magnificence. I was diverted with none so much as that of
the rope-dancers, performed upon a slender white thread,
extended about two feet, and twelve inches from the ground.
Upon which I shall desire liberty, with the reader’s patience,
to enlarge a little.
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 those 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 show 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 straight 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 a
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 myself have seen two or
three candidates break a limb. But the danger is much greater,
when the ministers themselves are commanded to show their
dexterity; for, by contending to excel themselves and their
fellows, they strain so far that there is hardly one of them who
has not received a fall, and some of them two or three. I was
assured that, a year or two before my arrival, Flimnap would
infallibly have 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 shown
before the emperor and empress, and first minister, upon
particular occasions. The emperor lays on the table three fine
silken threads of six inches long; one is blue, the other red,
and the third green. These threads are proposed as prizes for
those persons whom the emperor has a mind to distinguish by a
peculiar mark of his favour. The ceremony is performed in his
majesty’s great chamber of state, where the candidates are to
undergo a trial of dexterity very different from the former, and
such as I have not observed the least resemblance of in any
other country of the new or old world. The emperor holds a
stick in his hands, both ends parallel to the horizon, while the
candidates advancing, one by one, sometimes leap over the stick,
sometimes creep under it, backward and forward, several times,
according as the stick is advanced or depressed. Sometimes the
emperor holds one end of the stick, and his first minister the
other; sometimes the minister has it entirely to himself.
Whoever performs his part with most agility, and holds out the
longest in leaping and creeping, is rewarded with the
blue-coloured silk; the red is given to the next, and the green
to the third, which they all wear girt twice round about the
middle; and you see few great persons about this court who are
not adorned with one of these girdles.
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 feet
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 woodmen 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 feet and a half square, I took four
other sticks, and tied them parallel at each corner, about two
feet from the ground; then I fastened my handkerchief to the
nine sticks that stood erect; and extended it on all sides, till
it was tight as the top of a drum; and the four parallel sticks,
rising about five inches higher than the handkerchief, served as
ledges on each side. When I had finished my work, I desired the
emperor to let a troop of his best horses twenty-four in number,
come and exercise upon this plain. His majesty approved of the
proposal, and I took them up, one by one, in my hands, ready
mounted and armed, with the proper officers to exercise them.
As soon as they got into order they divided into two parties,
performed mock skirmishes, discharged blunt arrows, drew their
swords, fled and pursued, attacked and retired, and in short
discovered the best military discipline I ever beheld. The
parallel sticks secured them and their horses from falling over
the stage; and the emperor was so much delighted, that he
ordered this entertainment to be repeated several days, and once
was pleased to be lifted up and give the word of command; and
with great difficulty persuaded even the empress herself to let
me hold her in her close chair within two yards of the stage,
when she was able to take a full view of the whole performance.
It was my good fortune, that no ill accident happened in these
entertainments; only once a fiery horse, that belonged to one of
the captains, pawing with his hoof, struck a hole in my
handkerchief, and his foot slipping, he overthrew his rider and
himself; but I immediately relieved them both, and covering the
hole with one hand, I set down the troop with the other, in the
same manner as I took them up. The horse that fell was strained
in the left shoulder, but the rider got no hurt; and I repaired
my handkerchief as well as I could: however, I would not trust
to the strength of it any more, in such dangerous enterprises.
About two or three days before I was set at liberty, as I was
entertaining the court with this kind of feat, 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 around, very oddly shaped,
extending its edges round, as wide as his majesty’s bedchamber,
and rising up in the middle as high as a man; that it was no
living creature, as they at first apprehended, for it lay on the
grass without motion; and some of them had walked round it
several times; that, by mounting upon each other’s shoulders,
they had got to the top, which was flat and even, and, stamping
upon it, they found that it was hollow within; that they humbly
conceived it might be something belonging to the man-mountain;
and if his majesty pleased, they would undertake to bring it
with only five horses. I presently knew what they meant, and
was glad at heart to receive this intelligence. It seems, upon
my first reaching the shore after our shipwreck, I was in such
confusion, that before I came to the place where I went to
sleep, my hat, which I had fastened with a string to my head
while I was rowing, and had stuck on all the time I was
swimming, fell off after I came to land; the string, as I
conjecture, breaking by some accident, which I never observed,
but thought my hat had been lost at sea. I entreated his
imperial majesty to give orders it might be brought to me as
soon as possible, describing to him the use and the nature of
it: and the next day the waggoners arrived with it, but not in a
very good condition; they had bored two holes in the brim,
within an inch and half of the edge, and fastened two hooks in
the holes; these hooks were tied by a long cord to the harness,
and thus my hat was dragged along for above half an English
mile; but, the ground in that country being extremely smooth and
level, it received less damage than I expected.
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
experienced 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 abreast, and the horse by sixteen, with drums
beating, colours flying, and pikes advanced. This body
consisted of three thousand foot, and a thousand horse. His
majesty gave orders, upon pain of death, that every soldier in
his march should observe the strictest decency with regard to my
person; which however could not prevent some of the younger
officers from turning up their eyes as they passed under me:
and, to confess the truth, my breeches were at that time in so
ill a condition, that they afforded some opportunities for
laughter and admiration.
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 complexion. 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, and 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 be curious to have some
idea of the style and manner of expression peculiar to that
people, as well as to know the article 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
public.
“Golbasto Momarem Evlame Gurdilo Shefin Mully Ully Gue, 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 centre, and whose head strikes against the
sun; at whose nod the princes of the earth shake their knees;
pleasant as the spring, comfortable as the summer, fruitful as
autumn, dreadful as winter: his most sublime majesty proposes to
the man-mountain, lately arrived at our celestial dominions, the
following articles, which, by a solemn oath, he shall be obliged
to perform:—
“1st, The man-mountain shall not depart from our dominions,
without our license 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 doors.
“3d, The said man-mountain shall confine his walks to our
principal high roads, and not 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
subjects into his hands without their own consent.
“5th, If an express requires extraordinary despatch, 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 at Belfaborac, the twelfth
day of the ninety-first moon of our reign.”
I swore and subscribed to these articles with great
cheerfulness and content, although some of them were not so
honourable as I could have wished; which proceeded wholly from
the malice of Skyresh Bolgolam, the high-admiral: whereupon my
chains were immediately unlocked, and I was at full liberty.
The emperor himself, in person, did me the honour to be by at
the whole ceremony. I made my acknowledgements by prostrating
myself at his majesty’s feet: but he commanded me to rise; and
after many gracious expressions, which, to avoid the censure of
vanity, I shall not repeat, he added, “that he hoped I should
prove a useful servant, and well deserve all the favours he had
already conferred upon me, or might do for the future.”
The reader may please to observe, that, in the last article
of 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 economy of so great a prince.
CHAPTER IV.
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.
The first request I made, after I had obtained my liberty,
was, that I might have license to see Mildendo, the metropolis;
which the emperor easily granted me, but with a special charge
to do no hurt either to the inhabitants or their houses. The
people had notice, by proclamation, of my design to visit the
town. The wall which encompassed it is two feet and a half
high, and at least eleven inches broad, so that a coach and
horses may be driven very safely round it; and it is flanked
with strong towers at ten feet distance. I stepped over the
great western gate, and passed very gently, and sidling, through
the two principal streets, only in my short waistcoat, for fear
of damaging the roofs and eaves of the houses with the skirts of
my coat. I walked with the utmost circumspection, to avoid
treading on any stragglers who might remain in the streets,
although the orders were very strict, that all people should
keep in their houses, at their own peril. The garret windows
and tops of houses were so crowded with spectators, that I
thought in all my travels I had not seen a more populous place.
The city is an exact square, each side of the wall being five
hundred feet long. The two great streets, which run across and
divide it into four quarters, are five feet wide. The lanes and
alleys, which I could not enter, but only view them as I passed,
are from twelve to eighteen inches. The town is capable of
holding five hundred thousand souls: the houses are from three
to five stories: the shops and markets well provided.
The emperor’s palace is in the centre of the city where the
two great streets meet. It is enclosed by a wall of two feet
high, and twenty feet distance 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 feet,
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 feet
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 palace; but this I was not able to do till
three days after, which I spent in cutting down with my knife
some of the largest trees in the royal park, about a hundred
yards distant from the city. Of these trees I made two stools,
each about three feet high, and strong enough to bear my
weight. The people having received notice a second time, I went
again through the city to the palace with my two stools in my
hands. When I came to the side of the outer court, I stood upon
one stool, and took the other in my hand; this I lifted over the
roof, and gently set it down on the space between the first and
second court, which was eight feet wide. I then stept over the
building very conveniently from one stool to the other, and drew
up the first after me with a hooked stick. By this contrivance
I got into the inmost court; and, lying down upon my side, I
applied my face to the windows of the middle stories, which were
left open on purpose, and discovered the most splendid
apartments that can be imagined. There I saw the empress and
the young princes, in their several lodgings, with their chief
attendants about them. Her imperial majesty was pleased to
smile very graciously upon me, and gave me out of the window her
hand to kiss.
But I shall not anticipate the reader with further
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 along series of princes; with a particular account of
their wars and politics, 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 public or to myself during a residence of about
nine months in that empire.
One morning, about a fortnight after I had obtained my
liberty, Reldresal, principal secretary (as they style him) for
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 hours audience; which I readily consented to, on
account of his quality and personal merits, as well as of the
many good offices he had done me during my solicitations at
court. I offered to lie down that he might the more
conveniently reach my ear, but he chose rather to let me hold
him in my hand during our conversation. He began with
compliments on my liberty; said “he might pretend to some merit
in it;” but, however, added, “that if it had not been for the
present situation of things at court, perhaps I might not have
obtained it so soon. For,” said he, “as flourishing a condition
as we may appear to be in to foreigners, we labour under two
mighty evils: a violent faction at home, and the danger of an
invasion, by a most potent enemy, from abroad. As to the first,
you are to understand, that for about seventy moons past there
have been two struggling parties in this empire, under the names
of Tramecksan and Slamecksan, from the high and
low heels of their shoes, by which they distinguish themselves.
It is alleged, indeed, that the high heels are most agreeable to
our ancient constitution; but, however this be, his majesty has
determined to make use only of low heels in the administration
of the government, and all offices in the gift of the crown, as
you cannot but observe; and particularly that his majesty’s
imperial heels are lower at least by a drurr than any of
his court (drurr is a measure about the fourteenth part
of an inch). The animosities between these two parties run so
high, that they will neither eat, nor drink, nor talk with each
other. We compute the Tramecksan, or high heels, to
exceed us in number; but the power is wholly on our side. We
apprehend his imperial highness, the heir to the crown, to have
some tendency towards the high heels; at least we can plainly
discover that one of his heels is higher than the other, which
gives him a hobble in his gait. Now, in the midst of these
intestine disquiets, we are threatened with an invasion from the
island of Blefuscu, which is the other great empire of the
universe, almost as large and powerful as this of his majesty.
For as to what we have heard you affirm, that there are other
kingdoms and states in the world inhabited by human creatures as
large as yourself, our philosophers are in much doubt, and would
rather conjecture that you dropped from the moon, or one of the
stars; because it is certain, that a hundred mortals of your
bulk would in a short time destroy all the fruits and cattle of
his majesty’s dominions: besides, our histories of six thousand
moons make no mention of any other regions than the two great
empires of Lilliput and Blefuscu. Which two mighty powers have,
as I was going to tell you, been engaged in a most obstinate war
for six-and-thirty moons past. It began upon the following
occasion. It is allowed on all hands, that the primitive way of
breaking eggs, before we eat them, was upon the larger end; but
his present majesty’s grandfather, while he was a boy, going to
eat an egg, and breaking it according to the ancient practice,
happened to cut one of his fingers. Whereupon the emperor his
father published an edict, commanding all his subjects, upon
great penalties, to break the smaller end of their eggs. The
people so highly resented this law, that our histories tell us,
there have been six rebellions raised on that account; wherein
one emperor lost his life, and another his crown. These civil
commotions were constantly fomented by the monarchs of Blefuscu;
and when they were quelled, the exiles always fled for refuge to
that empire. It is computed that eleven thousand persons have
at several times suffered death, rather than submit to break
their eggs at the smaller end. Many hundred large volumes have
been published upon this controversy: but the books of the
Big-endians have been long forbidden, and the whole party
rendered incapable by law of holding employments. During the
course of these troubles, the emperors of Blefusca did
frequently expostulate by their ambassadors, accusing us of
making a schism in religion, by offending against a fundamental
doctrine of our great prophet Lustrog, in the fifty-fourth
chapter of the Blundecral (which is their Alcoran). This,
however, is thought to be a mere strain upon the text; for the
words are these: ‘that all true believers break their eggs at
the convenient end.’ And which is the convenient end, seems, in
my humble opinion to be left to every man’s conscience, or at
least in the power of the chief magistrate to determine. Now,
the Big-endian exiles have found so much credit in the emperor
of Blefuscu’s court, and so much private assistance and
encouragement from their party here at home, that a bloody war
has been carried on between the two empires for six-and-thirty
moons, with various success; during which time we have lost
forty capital ships, and a much a greater number of smaller
vessels, together with thirty thousand of our best seamen and
soldiers; and the damage received by the enemy is reckoned to be
somewhat greater than ours. However, they have now equipped a
numerous fleet, and are just preparing to make a descent upon
us; and his imperial majesty, placing great confidence in your
valour and strength, has commanded me to lay this account of his
affairs before you.”
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.”
CHAPTER V.
The author, by an extraordinary stratagem,
prevents an invasion. A high title of honour is conferred upon
him. Ambassadors 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.
The empire of Blefuscu is an island situated to the
north-east of Lilliput, from which it is parted only by a
channel of eight hundred yards wide. I had not yet seen it, and
upon this notice of an intended invasion, I avoided appearing on
that side of the coast, for fear of being discovered, by some of
the enemy’s ships, who had received no intelligence of me; all
intercourse between the two empires having been strictly
forbidden during the war, upon pain of death, and an embargo
laid by our emperor upon all vessels whatsoever. I communicated
to his majesty a project I had formed of seizing the enemy’s
whole fleet; which, as our scouts assured us, lay at anchor in
the harbour, ready to sail with the first fair wind. I
consulted the most experienced seamen upon the depth of the
channel, which they had often plumbed; who told me, that in the
middle, at high-water, it was seventy glumgluffs deep,
which is about six feet of European measure; and the rest of it
fifty glumgluffs at most. I walked towards the
north-east coast, over against Blefuscu, where, lying down
behind a hillock, I took out my small perspective glass, and
viewed the enemy’s fleet at anchor, consisting of about fifty
men of war, and a great number of transports: I then came back
to my house, and gave orders (for which I had a warrant) for a
great quantity of the strongest cable and bars of iron. The
cable was about as thick as packthread and the bars of the
length and size of a knitting-needle. I trebled the cable to
make it stronger, and for the same reason I twisted three of the
iron bars together, bending the extremities into a hook. Having
thus fixed fifty hooks to as many cables, I went back to the
north-east coast, and putting off my coat, shoes, and stockings,
walked into the sea, in my leathern jerkin, about half an hour
before high water. I waded with what haste I could, and swam in
the middle about thirty yards, till I felt ground. I arrived at
the fleet in less than half an hour. The enemy was so
frightened when they saw me, that they leaped out of their
ships, and swam to shore, where there could not be fewer than
thirty thousand souls. I then took my tackling, and, fastening
a hook to the hole at the prow of each, I tied all the cords
together at the end. While I was thus employed, the enemy
discharged several thousand arrows, many of which stuck in my
hands and face, and, beside the excessive smart, gave me much
disturbance in my work. My greatest apprehension was for mine
eyes, which I should have infallibly lost, if I had not suddenly
thought of an expedient. I kept, among other little
necessaries, a pair of spectacles in a private pocket, which, as
I observed before, had escaped the emperor’s searchers. These I
took out and fastened as strongly as I could upon my nose, and
thus armed, went on boldly with my work, in spite of the enemy’s
arrows, many of which struck against the glasses of my
spectacles, but without any other effect, further than a little
to discompose them. I had now fastened all the hooks, and,
taking the knot in my hand, began to pull; but not a ship would
stir, for they were all too fast held by their anchors, so that
the boldest part of my enterprise remained. I therefore let go
the cord, and leaving the looks fixed to the ships, I resolutely
cut with my knife the cables that fastened the anchors,
receiving about two hundred shots in my face and hands; then I
took up the knotted end of the cables, to which my hooks were
tied, and with great ease drew fifty of the enemy’s largest men
of war after me.
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 adrift 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 as it is almost impossible to describe or conceive.
When I had got out of danger, I stopped awhile 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 enemy’s 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
fastened, I cried in a loud voice, “Long live the most puissant
king of Lilliput!” This great prince received me at my landing
with all possible encomiums, and created me a nardac upon
the spot, which is the highest title of honour among them.
His majesty desired I would take some other opportunity of
bringing all the rest of his enemy’s ships into his ports. And
so unmeasureable 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 viceroy; 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 topics 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 politics of his imperial majesty, that he could
never forgive me. He mentioned 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 junto 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 balance 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 ambassadors, 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 their
treaty was finished, wherein I did them several good offices by
the credit I now had, or at least appeared to have, at court,
their excellencies, who were privately told how much I had been
their friend, made me a visit in form. They began with many
compliments upon my valour and generosity, invited me to that
kingdom in the emperor their master’s name, and desired me to
show them some proofs of my prodigious strength, of which they
had heard so many wonders; wherein I readily obliged them, but
shall not trouble the reader with the particulars.
When I had for some time entertained their excellencies, to
their infinite satisfaction and surprise, 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 license to wait on the Blefuscudian
monarch, which he was pleased to grant me, as I could 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 ambassadors 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 ambassadors 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
tongue, with an avowed contempt for that of their neighbour; yet
our emperor, standing upon the advantage he had got by the
seizure 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 to polish themselves by seeing the
world, and understanding men and manners; there are few persons
of distinction, or merchants, or seamen, who dwell in the
maritime parts, but what can hold conversation in both tongues;
as I found some weeks after, when I went to pay my respects to
the emperor of Blefuscu, which, in the midst of great
misfortunes, through the malice of my enemies, proved a very
happy adventure to me, as I shall relate in its proper place.
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
anything 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, entreated me to come immediately to the
palace, where 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
moonshine 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 large thimbles, 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
ground, if, by a presence of mind unusual to me, I had not
suddenly thought of an expedient. I had, the evening before,
drunk plentifully of a most delicious wine called glimigrim,
(the Blefuscudians call it flunec, but ours is esteemed
the better sort,) which is very diuretic. By the luckiest
chance in the world, I had not discharged myself of any part of
it. The heat I had contracted by coming very near the flames,
and by labouring to quench them, made the wine begin to operate
by urine; which I voided in such a quantity, and applied so well
to the proper places, that in three minutes the fire was wholly
extinguished, and the rest of that noble pile, which had cost so
many ages in erecting, preserved from destruction.
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, “that 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 confidents could not forbear vowing
revenge.”
CHAPTER VI.
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.
Although I intend to leave the description of this empire to
a particular treatise, yet, in the mean time, I am content to
gratify the curious reader with some general ideas. As the
common size of the natives is somewhat under six inches high, so
there is an exact proportion in all other animals, as well as
plants and trees: for instance, the tallest horses and oxen are
between four and five inches in height, the sheep an inch and
half, more or less: their geese about the bigness of a sparrow,
and so the several gradations downwards till you come to the
smallest, which to my sight, were almost invisible; but nature
has adapted the eyes of the Lilliputians to all objects proper
for their view: they see with great exactness, but at no great
distance. And, to show the sharpness of their sight towards
objects that are near, I have been much pleased with observing a
cook pulling a lark, which was not so large as a common fly; and
a young girl threading an invisible needle with invisible silk.
Their tallest trees are about seven feet high: I mean some of
those in the great royal park, the tops whereof I could but just
reach with my fist clenched. The other vegetables are in the
same proportion; but this I leave to the reader’s imagination.
I shall say but little at present of their learning, which,
for many ages, has 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 Europeans, nor from the right to
the left, like the Arabians, nor from up to down, like the
Chinese, but aslant, from one corner of the paper to the other,
like ladies in England.
They bury their dead with their heads directly downward,
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 ready 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 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 makes his innocence plainly
to appear upon his trial, 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 has been at in making his defence;
or, if that fund be deficient, it is largely supplied by the
crown. The emperor also confers on him some public 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 allege,
that care and vigilance, with a very common understanding, may
preserve a man’s goods from thieves, but honesty has no defence
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 and connived at,
or has no law to punish it, the honest dealer is always undone,
and the knave gets the advantage. I remember, when I was once
interceding with the emperor for a criminal who had wronged his
master of a great sum of money, which he had received by order
and ran away with; and happening to tell his majesty, by way of
extenuation, that it was only a breach of trust, the emperor
thought it monstrous in me to offer as a defence the greatest
aggravation of the crime; and truly I had little to say in
return, farther than the common answer, that different nations
had different customs; for, I confess, I was heartily ashamed.
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 has
strictly observed the laws of his country for seventy-three
moons, has a claim to certain privileges, according to his
quality or 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 show she is more disposed to
reward than to punish.
In choosing 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 understanding is fitted to some station or
other; and that Providence never intended to make the management
of public 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 being supplied by superior endowments of the
mind, that employments could never be put into such dangerous
hands as those of persons so qualified; and, at least, that the
mistakes committed by ignorance, in a virtuous disposition,
would never be of such fatal consequence to the public weal, as
the practices of a man, whose inclinations led him to be
corrupt, and who had great abilities to manage, to multiply, and
defend his corruptions.
In like manner, the disbelief of a Divine Providence renders
a man incapable of holding any public 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 grandfather of the emperor now reigning,
and grew to the present height by the gradual increase of party
and faction.
Ingratitude 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 has 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 to
his mother for bringing him into the world; which, considering
the miseries of human life, was neither a benefit in itself, nor
intended so by his parents, whose thoughts, in their love
encounters, were otherwise employed. Upon these, and the like
reasonings, their opinion is, that parents are the last of all
others to be trusted with the education of their own children;
and therefore they have in every town public nurseries, where
all parents, except cottagers and labourers, are obliged to send
their infants of both sexes to be reared and educated, when they
come to the age of twenty moons, at which time they are supposed
to have some rudiments of docility. These schools are of
several kinds, suited to different qualities, and both sexes.
They have certain professors well skilled in preparing children
for such a condition of life as befits the rank of their
parents, and their own capacities, as well as inclinations. I
shall first say something of the male nurseries, and then of the
female.
The nurseries for males of noble or eminent birth, are
provided with grave and learned professors, and their several
deputies. The clothes 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 attendant, 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 smaller 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, sweetmeats, 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 exercises till fifteen, which answers
to twenty-one 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 chambermaids among
us, they are publicly 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 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 domestic life, and a smaller compass of learning was
enjoined them: for their maxim is, that among peoples 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 seven years old, the rest are kept to eleven.
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 limited in their expenses by the
law. For the Lilliputians 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 public. 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
public: but the old and diseased among them, are supported by
hospitals; for begging is a trade unknown in this empire.
And here it may, perhaps, divert the curious reader, to give
some account of my domestics, 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 myself 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 linen 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 linen is usually three inches wide, and three feet
make a piece. The sempstresses took my measure as I lay on the
ground, one standing at my neck, and another at my mid-leg, with
a strong cord extended, that each held by the end, while a 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 pattern, they fitted me exactly. Three hundred
tailors were employed in the same manner to make me clothes; but
they had another contrivance for taking my measure. I kneeled
down, and they raised a ladder from the ground to my neck; upon
this ladder one of them mounted, and let fall a plumb-line from
my collar to the floor, which just answered the length of my
coat: but my waist and arms I measured myself. When my clothes
were finished, which was done in my house (for the largest of
theirs would not have been able to hold them), they looked like
the patch-work made by the ladies in England, only that mine
were all of a colour.
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: a
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 bites 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 turkeys I usually ate at
a mouthful, and I 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 in chairs of state,
upon 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, but ate
more than usual, in honour to my dear country, as well as to
fill the court with admiration. I have some private reasons to
believe, that this visit from his majesty gave Flimnap an
opportunity of doing me ill offices to his master. That
minister had always been my secret enemy, though he outwardly
caressed me more than was usual to the moroseness of his
nature. He represented to the emperor “the low condition of his
treasury; that he was forced to take up money at a great
discount; that exchequer bills would not circulate under nine
per cent. below par; that I had cost his majesty above a million
and a half of sprugs” (their greatest gold coin, about
the bigness of a spangle) “and, upon the whole, that it would be
advisable in the emperor to take the first fair occasion of
dismissing me.”
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 falsehood, without
any grounds, further 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 publicly, 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 postillion always unharnessed four,)
and place them on a table, where I had fixed a movable 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 sat in my chair, leaning my face towards them;
and when I was engaged with one set, the coachmen would gently
drive the others round my table. I have passed many an
afternoon very agreeably in these conversations. But I defy the
treasurer, or his two informers (I will name them, and let them
make the best of it) Clustril and Drunlo, to prove that any
person ever came to me incognito, except the secretary
Reldresal, who was sent by express command of his imperial
majesty, as I have before related. I should not have dwelt so
long upon this particular, if it had not been a point wherein
the reputation of a great lady is so nearly concerned, to say
nothing of my own; though I then had the honour to be a
nardac, which the treasurer himself is not; for all the
world knows, that he is only a glumglum, a title inferior
by one degree, as that of a marquis is to a duke in England; yet
I allow he preceded me in right of his post. These false
informations, which I afterwards came to the knowledge of by an
accident not proper to mention, made the treasurer show his lady
for some time an ill countenance, and me a worse; and although
he was at last undeceived and reconciled to her, yet I lost all
credit with him, and found my interest decline very fast with
the emperor himself, who was, indeed, too much governed by that
favourite.
CHAPTER VII.
The author, being informed of a design to
accuse him of high-treason, makes his escape to Blefuscu. His
reception there.
Before I proceed to give an account of my leaving this
kingdom, it may be proper to inform the reader of a private
intrigue which had been for two months forming against me.
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 chairmen 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 sat down by it.
After the common salutations were over, observing his lordship’s
countenance full of concern, and inquiring 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 manner, on
your account; and it is but two days since his majesty came to a
full resolution.
“You are very sensible that Skyresh Bolgolam” (galbet,
or high-admiral) “has been your mortal enemy, almost ever since
your arrival. His original reasons I know not; but his hatred
is increased since your great success against Blefuscu, by which
his glory as admiral is much obscured. 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 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 him; 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.
“‘Articles of Impeachment against QUINBUS
FLESTRIN, (the Man-Mountain.)
Article I.
“‘Whereas, by a statute made in the reign of his imperial
majesty Calin Deffar Plune, it is enacted, that, whoever
shall make water within the precincts of the royal palace,
shall be liable to the pains and penalties of high-treason;
notwithstanding, the said Quinbus Flestrin, in open breach
of the said law, under colour of extinguishing the fire
kindled in the apartment of his majesty’s most dear imperial
consort, did maliciously, traitorously, and devilishly, by
discharge of his urine, put out the said fire kindled in the
said apartment, lying and being within the precincts of the
said royal palace, against the statute in that case
provided, etc. against the duty, etc.
Article II.
“‘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 viceroy 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 traitor 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.
Article III.
“‘That, whereas certain ambassadors 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 ambassadors, although he knew
them to be servants to a prince who was lately an open enemy
to his imperial majesty, and in an open war against his said
majesty.
Article IV.
“‘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 Blefuscu, for which he has received only
verbal license from his imperial majesty; and, under colour
of the said license, does falsely and traitorously intend to
take the said voyage, and thereby to aid, comfort, and abet
the emperor of Blefuscu, so lately 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 to 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
and sheets, 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 justified 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 orders 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 be sufficient for
you to see by the eyes of the ministers, since the greatest
princes do no more.
“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 showed to what
straits 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, that it would probably
increase it, as is manifest from the common practice of blinding
some kind of fowls, 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 way 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 against that evil, by gradually lessening your
establishment; by which, for want of sufficient for you would
grow weak and faint, and lose your appetite, and consequently,
decay, and consume in a few months; neither would the stench of
your carcass be then so dangerous, when it should become more
than half diminished; and immediately upon your death five or
six thousand of his majesty’s subjects might, in two or three
days, cut your flesh from your bones, take it away by
cart-loads, and bury it in distant parts, to prevent infection,
leaving the skeleton as a monument of admiration to posterity.
“Thus, by the great friendship of the secretary, the whole
affair was compromised. It was strictly enjoined, that the
project of starving you by degrees should be kept a secret; but
the sentence of putting out your eyes was entered on the books;
none dissenting, except Bolgolam the admiral, who, being a
creature of the empress, was perpetually instigated by her
majesty to insist upon your death, she having borne 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 does 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 practice 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 always made a speech to his
whole council, expressing his great lenity and tenderness, as
qualities known and confessed by all the world. This speech was
immediately published throughout the kingdom; nor did any thing
terrify the people so much as those encomiums on his majesty’s
mercy; because it was observed, that the more these praises were
enlarged and insisted on, the more inhuman was the punishment,
and the sufferer more innocent. Yet, as to myself, I must
confess, having never been designed for a courtier, either by my
birth or education, I was so ill a judge of things, that I could
not discover the lenity and favour of this sentence, but
conceived it (perhaps erroneously) rather to be rigorous than
gentle. I sometimes thought of standing my trial, for, although
I could not deny the facts alleged in the several articles, yet
I hoped they would admit of some extenuation. But having in my
life perused many state-trials, which I ever observed to
terminate as the judges thought fit to direct, I durst not rely
on so dangerous a decision, in so critical a juncture, and
against such powerful enemies. Once I was strongly bent upon
resistance, for, while I had liberty the whole strength of that
empire could hardly subdue me, and I might easily with stones
pelt the metropolis to pieces; but I soon rejected that project
with horror, by remembering the oath I had made to the emperor,
the favours I received from him, and the high title of nardac
he conferred upon me. Neither had I so soon learned the
gratitude of courtiers, to persuade myself, that his majesty’s
present seventies acquitted me of all past obligations.
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 of 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 hurried on by the precipitancy of youth, and
having his imperial majesty’s license to pay my attendance upon
the emperor of Blefuscu, I took this opportunity, before the
three days were elapsed, to send a letter to my friend the
secretary, signifying my resolution of setting out that morning
for Blefuscu, pursuant to the leave I had got; and, without
waiting for an answer, I went to that side of the island where
our fleet lay. I seized a large man of war, tied a cable to the
prow, and, lifting up the anchors, I stripped myself, put my
clothes (together with my coverlet, which I carried under my
arm) into the vessel, and, drawing it after me, between wading
and swimming arrived at the royal port of Blefuscu, where the
people had long expected me: they lent me two guides to direct
me to the capital city, which is of the same name. I held them
in my hands, till I came within two hundred yards of the gate,
and desired them “to signify my arrival to one of the
secretaries, and let him know, I there waited his majesty’s
command.” I had an answer in about an hour, “that his majesty,
attended by the royal family, and great officers of the court,
was coming out to receive me.” I advanced a hundred yards. The
emperor and his train alighted from their horses, the empress
and ladies from their coaches, and I did not perceive they were
in any fright or concern. I lay on the ground to kiss his
majesty’s and the empress’s hands. I told his majesty, “that I
was come according to my promise, and with the license of the
emperor my master, to have the honour of seeing so mighty a
monarch, and to offer him any service in my power, consistent
with my duty to my own prince;” not mentioning a word of my
disgrace, because I had hitherto no regular information of it,
and might suppose myself wholly ignorant of any such design;
neither could I reasonably conceive that the emperor would
discover the secret, while I was out of his power; wherein,
however, it soon appeared I was deceived.
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, wrapped
up in my coverlet.
CHAPTER VIII.
The author, by a lucky accident, finds means
to leave Blefuscu; and, after some difficulties, returns safe to
his native country.
Three days after my arrival, walking out of curiosity to the
north-east coast of the island, I observed, about half a league
off in the sea, somewhat that looked like a boat overturned. I
pulled off my shoes and stockings, and, wailing two or three
hundred yards, I found the object to approach nearer by force of
the tide; and then plainly saw it to be a real boat, which I
supposed might by some tempest have been driven from a ship.
Whereupon, I returned immediately towards the city, and desired
his imperial majesty to lend me twenty of the tallest vessels he
had left, after the loss of his fleet, and three thousand
seamen, under the command of his vice-admiral. This fleet
sailed round, while I went back the shortest way to the coast,
where I first discovered the boat. I found the tide had driven
it still nearer. The seamen were all provided with cordage,
which I had beforehand twisted to a sufficient strength. When
the ships came up, I stripped myself, and waded till I came
within a hundred yards off the boat, after which I was forced to
swim till I got up to it. The seamen threw me the end of the
cord, which I fastened to a hole in the fore-part of the boat,
and the other end to a man of war; but I found all my labour to
little purpose; for, being out of my depth, I was not able to
work. In this necessity I was forced to swim behind, and push
the boat forward, as often as I could, with one of my hands; and
the tide favouring me, I advanced so far that I could just hold
up my chin and feel the ground. I rested two or three minutes,
and then gave the boat another shove, and so on, till the sea
was no higher than my arm-pits; and now, the most laborious part
being over, I took out my other cables, which were stowed in one
of the ships, and fastened them first to the boat, and then to
nine of the vessels which attended me; the wind being
favourable, the seamen towed, and I shoved, until we arrived
within forty yards of the shore; and, waiting till the tide was
out, I got dry to the boat, and by the assistance of two
thousand men, with ropes and engines, I made a shift to turn it
on its bottom, and found it was but little damaged.
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 whence I might return into my native
country; and begged his majesty’s orders for getting materials
to fit it up, together with his license 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 afterward 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 license he had given
me, which was well known at our court, and would return in a few
days, when the 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 farther
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 master expected that his brother of
Blefuscu would give orders to have me sent back to Lilliput,
bound hand and foot, to be punished as a traitor.”
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
orders 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 encumbrance.”
With this answer the envoy returned to Lilliput; and the
monarch of Blefuscu related to me all that had passed; 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
myself on 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 folds of their strongest linen
together. I was at the pains of making ropes and cables, by
twisting ten, twenty, or thirty 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 three hundred cows, for greasing my boat, and other
uses. I was at incredible pains in cutting down some of the
largest timber-trees, for oars and masts, wherein I was,
however, much assisted by his majesty’s ship-carpenters, who
helped me in smoothing them, after I had done the rough work.
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 carcases of a 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 ewes 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 as I
conjectured 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
favourable, 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 to the north-east 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 south-east; 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 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 colours. 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 a 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 hundreds sprugs each, and promised, when we
arrived in England, to make him a present of a cow and a sheep
big with young.
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 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 Liverpool, commander. But my
account of this voyage must be referred to the Second Part of my
Travels.
