PART II. A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG.


CHAPTER I



[A great storm described; the long boat sent to fetch water; the
author goes with it to discover the country. He is left on
shore, is seized by one of the natives, and carried to a farmer's
house. His reception, with several accidents that happened there. A description of the inhabitants.]


Having been condemned, by nature and fortune, to active and
restless life, in two months after my return, I again left my
native country, and took shipping in the Downs, on the 20th day
of June, 1702, in the Adventure, Captain John Nicholas, a Cornish
man, commander, bound for Surat. We had a very prosperous gale,
till we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, where we landed for
fresh water; but discovering a leak, we unshipped our goods and
wintered there; for the captain falling sick of an ague, we could
not leave the Cape till the end of March. We then set sail, and
had a good voyage till we passed the Straits of Madagascar; but
having got northward of that island, and to about five degrees
south latitude, the winds, which in those seas are observed to
blow a constant equal gale between the north and west, from the
beginning of December to the beginning of May, on the 19th of
April began to blow with much greater violence, and more westerly
than usual, continuing so for twenty days together: during which
time, we were driven a little to the east of the Molucca Islands,
and about three degrees northward of the line, as our captain
found by an observation he took the 2nd of May, at which time the
wind ceased, and it was a perfect calm, whereat I was not a
little rejoiced. But he, being a man well experienced in the
navigation of those seas, bid us all prepare against a storm,
which accordingly happened the day following: for the southern
wind, called the southern monsoon, began to set in.

Finding it was likely to overblow, we took in our sprit-sail, and
stood by to hand the fore-sail; but making foul weather, we
looked the guns were all fast, and handed the mizen. The ship
lay very broad off, so we thought it better spooning before the
sea, than trying or hulling. We reefed the fore-sail and set
him, and hauled aft the fore-sheet; the helm was hard a-weather.
The ship wore bravely. We belayed the fore down-haul; but the
sail was split, and we hauled down the yard, and got the sail
into the ship, and unbound all the things clear of it. It was a
very fierce storm; the sea broke strange and dangerous. We
hauled off upon the laniard of the whip-staff, and helped the man
at the helm. We would not get down our topmast, but let all
stand, because she scudded before the sea very well, and we knew
that the top-mast being aloft, the ship was the wholesomer, and
made better way through the sea, seeing we had sea-room. When
the storm was over, we set fore-sail and main-sail, and brought
the ship to. Then we set the mizen, main-top-sail, and the
fore-top-sail. Our course was east-north-east, the wind was at
south-west. We got the starboard tacks aboard, we cast off our
weather-braces and lifts; we set in the lee-braces, and hauled
forward by the weather-bowlings, and hauled them tight, and
belayed them, and hauled over the mizen tack to windward, and
kept her full and by as near as she would lie.

During this storm, which was followed by a strong wind
west-south-west, we were carried, by my computation, about five
hundred leagues to the east, so that the oldest sailor on board
could not tell in what part of the world we were. Our provisions
held out well, our ship was staunch, and our crew all in good
health; but we lay in the utmost distress for water. We thought
it best to hold on the same course, rather than turn more
northerly, which might have brought us to the north-west part of
Great Tartary, and into the Frozen Sea.

On the 16th day of June, 1703, a boy on the top-mast discovered
land. On the 17th, we came in full view of a great island, or
continent (for we knew not whether;) on the south side whereof
was a small neck of land jutting out into the sea, and a creek
too shallow to hold a ship of above one hundred tons. We cast
anchor within a league of this creek, and our captain sent a
dozen of his men well armed in the long-boat, with vessels for
water, if any could be found. I desired his leave to go with
them, that I might see the country, and make what discoveries I
could. When we came to land we saw no river or spring, nor any
sign of inhabitants. Our men therefore wandered on the shore to
find out some fresh water near the sea, and I walked alone about
a mile on the other side, where I observed the country all barren
and rocky. I now began to be weary, and seeing nothing to
entertain my curiosity, I returned gently down towards the creek;
and the sea being full in my view, I saw our men already got into
the boat, and rowing for life to the ship. I was going to halloo
after them, although it had been to little purpose, when I
observed a huge creature walking after them in the sea, as fast
as he could: he waded not much deeper than his knees, and took
prodigious strides: but our men had the start of him half a
league, and, the sea thereabouts being full of sharp-pointed
rocks, the monster was not able to overtake the boat. This I was
afterwards told, for I durst not stay to see the issue of the
adventure; but ran as fast as I could the way I first went, and
then climbed up a steep hill, which gave me some prospect of the
country. I found it fully cultivated; but that which first
surprised me was the length of the grass, which, in those grounds
that seemed to be kept for hay, was about twenty feet high.

I fell into a high road, for so I took it to be, though it served
to the inhabitants only as a foot-path through a field of barley.
Here I walked on for some time, but could see little on either
side, it being now near harvest, and the corn rising at least
forty feet. I was an hour walking to the end of this field,
which was fenced in with a hedge of at least one hundred and
twenty feet high, and the trees so lofty that I could make no
computation of their altitude. There was a stile to pass from
this field into the next. It had four steps, and a stone to
cross over when you came to the uppermost. It was impossible for
me to climb this stile, because every step was six-feet high, and
the upper stone about twenty. I was endeavouring to find some
gap in the hedge, when I discovered one of the inhabitants in the
next field, advancing towards the stile, of the same size with
him whom I saw in the sea pursuing our boat. He appeared as tall
as an ordinary spire steeple, and took about ten yards at every
stride, as near as I could guess. I was struck with the utmost
fear and astonishment, and ran to hide myself in the corn, whence
I saw him at the top of the stile looking back into the next
field on the right hand, and heard him call in a voice many
degrees louder than a speaking-trumpet: but the noise was so
high in the air, that at first I certainly thought it was
thunder. Whereupon seven monsters, like himself, came towards
him with reaping-hooks in their hands, each hook about the
largeness of six scythes. These people were not so well clad as
the first, whose servants or labourers they seemed to be; for,
upon some words he spoke, they went to reap the corn in the field
where I lay. I kept from them at as great a distance as I could,
but was forced to move with extreme difficulty, for the stalks of
the corn were sometimes not above a foot distant, so that I could
hardly squeeze my body betwixt them. However, I made a shift to
go forward, till I came to a part of the field where the corn had
been laid by the rain and wind. Here it was impossible for me to
advance a step; for the stalks were so interwoven, that I could
not creep through, and the beards of the fallen ears so strong
and pointed, that they pierced through my clothes into my flesh.
At the same time I heard the reapers not a hundred yards behind
me. Being quite dispirited with toil, and wholly overcome by
grief and dispair, I lay down between two ridges, and heartily
wished I might there end my days. I bemoaned my desolate widow
and fatherless children. I lamented my own folly and wilfulness,
in attempting a second voyage, against the advice of all my
friends and relations. In this terrible agitation of mind, I
could not forbear thinking of Lilliput, whose inhabitants looked
upon me as the greatest prodigy that ever appeared in the world;
where I was able to draw an imperial fleet in my hand, and
perform those other actions, which will be recorded for ever in
the chronicles of that empire, while posterity shall hardly
believe them, although attested by millions. I reflected what a
mortification it must prove to me, to appear as inconsiderable in
this nation, as one single Lilliputian would be among us. But
this I conceived was to be the least of my misfortunes; for, as
human creatures are observed to be more savage and cruel in
proportion to their bulk, what could I expect but to be a morsel
in the mouth of the first among these enormous barbarians that
should happen to seize me? Undoubtedly philosophers are in the
right, when they tell us that nothing is great or little
otherwise than by comparison. It might have pleased fortune, to
have let the Lilliputians find some nation, where the people were
as diminutive with respect to them, as they were to me. And who
knows but that even this prodigious race of mortals might be
equally overmatched in some distant part of the world, whereof we
have yet no discovery.

Scared and confounded as I was, I could not forbear going on with
these reflections, when one of the reapers, approaching within
ten yards of the ridge where I lay, made me apprehend that with
the next step I should be squashed to death under his foot, or
cut in two with his reaping-hook. And therefore, when he was
again about to move, I screamed as loud as fear could make me:
whereupon the huge creature trod short, and, looking round about
under him for some time, at last espied me as I lay on the
ground. He considered awhile, with the caution of one who
endeavours to lay hold on a small dangerous animal in such a
manner that it shall not be able either to scratch or bite him,
as I myself have sometimes done with a weasel in England. At
length he ventured to take me behind, by the middle, between his
fore-finger and thumb, and brought me within three yards of his
eyes, that he might behold my shape more perfectly. I guessed
his meaning, and my good fortune gave me so much presence of
mind, that I resolved not to struggle in the least as he held me
in the air above sixty feet from the ground, although he
grievously pinched my sides, for fear I should slip through his
fingers. All I ventured was to raise mine eyes towards the sun,
and place my hands together in a supplicating posture, and to
speak some words in a humble melancholy tone, suitable to the
condition I then was in: for I apprehended every moment that he
would dash me against the ground, as we usually do any little
hateful animal, which we have a mind to destroy. But my good
star would have it, that he appeared pleased with my voice and
gestures, and began to look upon me as a curiosity, much
wondering to hear me pronounce articulate words, although he
could not understand them. In the mean time I was not able to
forbear groaning and shedding tears, and turning my head towards
my sides; letting him know, as well as I could, how cruelly I was
hurt by the pressure of his thumb and finger. He seemed to
apprehend my meaning; for, lifting up the lappet of his coat, he
put me gently into it, and immediately ran along with me to his
master, who was a substantial farmer, and the same person I had
first seen in the field.

The farmer having (as I suppose by their talk) received such an
account of me as his servant could give him, took a piece of a
small straw, about the size of a walking-staff, and therewith
lifted up the lappets of my coat; which it seems he thought to be
some kind of covering that nature had given me. He blew my hairs
aside to take a better view of my face. He called his hinds
about him, and asked them, as I afterwards learned, whether they
had ever seen in the fields any little creature that resembled
me. He then placed me softly on the ground upon all fours, but I
got immediately up, and walked slowly backward and forward, to
let those people see I had no intent to run away. They all sat
down in a circle about me, the better to observe my motions. I
pulled off my hat, and made a low bow towards the farmer. I fell
on my knees, and lifted up my hands and eyes, and spoke several
words as loud as I could: I took a purse of gold out of my
pocket, and humbly presented it to him. He received it on the
palm of his hand, then applied it close to his eye to see what it
was, and afterwards turned it several times with the point of a
pin (which he took out of his sleeve,) but could make nothing of
it. Whereupon I made a sign that he should place his hand on the
ground. I then took the purse, and, opening it, poured all the
gold into his palm. There were six Spanish pieces of four
pistoles each, beside twenty or thirty smaller coins. I saw him
wet the tip of his little finger upon his tongue, and take up one
of my largest pieces, and then another; but he seemed to be
wholly ignorant what they were. He made me a sign to put them
again into my purse, and the purse again into my pocket, which,
after offering it to him several times, I thought it best to do.

The farmer, by this time, was convinced I must be a rational
creature. He spoke often to me; but the sound of his voice
pierced my ears like that of a water-mill, yet his words were
articulate enough. I answered as loud as I could in several
languages, and he often laid his ear within two yards of me: but
all in vain, for we were wholly unintelligible to each other. He
then sent his servants to their work, and taking his handkerchief
out of his pocket, he doubled and spread it on his left hand,
which he placed flat on the ground with the palm upward, making
me a sign to step into it, as I could easily do, for it was not
above a foot in thickness. I thought it my part to obey, and,
for fear of falling, laid myself at full length upon the
handkerchief, with the remainder of which he lapped me up to the
head for further security, and in this manner carried me home to
his house. There he called his wife, and showed me to her; but
she screamed and ran back, as women in England do at the sight of
a toad or a spider. However, when she had a while seen my
behaviour, and how well I observed the signs her husband made,
she was soon reconciled, and by degrees grew extremely tender of
me.

It was about twelve at noon, and a servant brought in dinner. It
was only one substantial dish of meat (fit for the plain
condition of a husbandman,) in a dish of about four-and-twenty
feet diameter. The company were, the farmer and his wife, three
children, and an old grandmother. When they were sat down, the
farmer placed me at some distance from him on the table, which
was thirty feet high from the floor. I was in a terrible fright,
and kept as far as I could from the edge, for fear of falling.
The wife minced a bit of meat, then crumbled some bread on a
trencher, and placed it before me. I made her a low bow, took
out my knife and fork, and fell to eat, which gave them exceeding
delight. The mistress sent her maid for a small dram cup, which
held about two gallons, and filled it with drink; I took up the
vessel with much difficulty in both hands, and in a most
respectful manner drank to her ladyship's health, expressing the
words as loud as I could in English, which made the company laugh
so heartily, that I was almost deafened with the noise. This
liquor tasted like a small cider, and was not unpleasant. Then
the master made me a sign to come to his trencher side; but as I
walked on the table, being in great surprise all the time, as the
indulgent reader will easily conceive and excuse, I happened to
stumble against a crust, and fell flat on my face, but received
no hurt. I got up immediately, and observing the good people to
be in much concern, I took my hat (which I held under my arm out
of good manners,) and waving it over my head, made three huzzas,
to show I had got no mischief by my fall. But advancing forward
towards my master (as I shall henceforth call him,) his youngest
son, who sat next to him, an arch boy of about ten years old,
took me up by the legs, and held me so high in the air, that I
trembled every limb: but his father snatched me from him, and at
the same time gave him such a box on the left ear, as would have
felled an European troop of horse to the earth, ordering him to
be taken from the table. But being afraid the boy might owe me a
spite, and well remembering how mischievous all children among us
naturally are to sparrows, rabbits, young kittens, and puppy
dogs, I fell on my knees, and pointing to the boy, made my master
to understand, as well as I could, that I desired his son might
be pardoned. The father complied, and the lad took his seat
again, whereupon I went to him, and kissed his hand, which my
master took, and made him stroke me gently with it.

In the midst of dinner, my mistress's favourite cat leaped into
her lap. I heard a noise behind me like that of a dozen
stocking-weavers at work; and turning my head, I found it
proceeded from the purring of that animal, who seemed to be three
times larger than an ox, as I computed by the view of her head,
and one of her paws, while her mistress was feeding and stroking
her. The fierceness of this creature's countenance altogether
discomposed me; though I stood at the farther end of the table,
above fifty feet off; and although my mistress held her fast, for
fear she might give a spring, and seize me in her talons. But it
happened there was no danger, for the cat took not the least
notice of me when my master placed me within three yards of her.
And as I have been always told, and found true by experience in
my travels, that flying or discovering fear before a fierce
animal, is a certain way to make it pursue or attack you, so I
resolved, in this dangerous juncture, to show no manner of
concern. I walked with intrepidity five or six times before the
very head of the cat, and came within half a yard of her;
whereupon she drew herself back, as if she were more afraid of
me: I had less apprehension concerning the dogs, whereof three
or four came into the room, as it is usual in farmers' houses;
one of which was a mastiff, equal in bulk to four elephants, and
another a greyhound, somewhat taller than the mastiff, but not so
large.

When dinner was almost done, the nurse came in with a child of a
year old in her arms, who immediately spied me, and began a
squall that you might have heard from London-Bridge to Chelsea,
after the usual oratory of infants, to get me for a plaything.
The mother, out of pure indulgence, took me up, and put me
towards the child, who presently seized me by the middle, and got
my head into his mouth, where I roared so loud that the urchin
was frighted, and let me drop, and I should infallibly have broke
my neck, if the mother had not held her apron under me. The
nurse, to quiet her babe, made use of a rattle which was a kind
of hollow vessel filled with great stones, and fastened by a
cable to the child's waist: but all in vain; so that she was
forced to apply the last remedy by giving it suck. I must
confess no object ever disgusted me so much as the sight of her
monstrous breast, which I cannot tell what to compare with, so as
to give the curious reader an idea of its bulk, shape, and
colour. It stood prominent six feet, and could not be less than
sixteen in circumference. The nipple was about half the bigness
of my head, and the hue both of that and the dug, so varied with
spots, pimples, and freckles, that nothing could appear more
nauseous: for I had a near sight of her, she sitting down, the
more conveniently to give suck, and I standing on the table.
This made me reflect upon the fair skins of our English ladies,
who appear so beautiful to us, only because they are of our own
size, and their defects not to be seen but through a magnifying
glass; where we find by experiment that the smoothest and whitest
skins look rough, and coarse, and ill-coloured.

I remember when I was at Lilliput, the complexion of those
diminutive people appeared to me the fairest in the world; and
talking upon this subject with a person of learning there, who
was an intimate friend of mine, he said that my face appeared
much fairer and smoother when he looked on me from the ground,
than it did upon a nearer view, when I took him up in my hand,
and brought him close, which he confessed was at first a very
shocking sight. He said, "he could discover great holes in my
skin; that the stumps of my beard were ten times stronger than
the bristles of a boar, and my complexion made up of several
colours altogether disagreeable:" although I must beg leave to
say for myself, that I am as fair as most of my sex and country,
and very little sunburnt by all my travels. On the other side,
discoursing of the ladies in that emperor's court, he used to
tell me, "one had freckles; another too wide a mouth; a third too
large a nose;" nothing of which I was able to distinguish. I
confess this reflection was obvious enough; which, however, I
could not forbear, lest the reader might think those vast
creatures were actually deformed: for I must do them the justice
to say, they are a comely race of people, and particularly the
features of my master's countenance, although he was but a
farmer, when I beheld him from the height of sixty feet, appeared
very well proportioned.

When dinner was done, my master went out to his labourers, and,
as I could discover by his voice and gesture, gave his wife
strict charge to take care of me. I was very much tired, and
disposed to sleep, which my mistress perceiving, she put me on
her own bed, and covered me with a clean white handkerchief, but
larger and coarser than the mainsail of a man-of-war.

I slept about two hours, and dreamt I was at home with my wife
and children, which aggravated my sorrows when I awaked, and
found myself alone in a vast room, between two and three hundred
feet wide, and above two hundred high, lying in a bed twenty
yards wide. My mistress was gone about her household affairs, and
had locked me in. The bed was eight yards from the floor. Some
natural necessities required me to get down; I durst not presume
to call; and if I had, it would have been in vain, with such a
voice as mine, at so great a distance from the room where I lay
to the kitchen where the family kept. While I was under these
circumstances, two rats crept up the curtains, and ran smelling
back-wards and forwards on the bed. One of them came up almost
to my face, whereupon I rose in a fright, and drew out my hanger
to defend myself. These horrible animals had the boldness to
attack me on both sides, and one of them held his fore-feet at my
collar; but I had the good fortune to rip up his belly before he
could do me any mischief. He fell down at my feet; and the
other, seeing the fate of his comrade, made his escape, but not
without one good wound on the back, which I gave him as he fled,
and made the blood run trickling from him. After this exploit, I
walked gently to and fro on the bed, to recover my breath and
loss of spirits. These creatures were of the size of a large
mastiff, but infinitely more nimble and fierce; so that if I had
taken off my belt before I went to sleep, I must have infallibly
been torn to pieces and devoured. I measured the tail of the dead
rat, and found it to be two yards long, wanting an inch; but it
went against my stomach to drag the carcass off the bed, where it
lay still bleeding; I observed it had yet some life, but with a
strong slash across the neck, I thoroughly despatched it.

Soon after my mistress came into the room, who seeing me all
bloody, ran and took me up in her hand. I pointed to the dead
rat, smiling, and making other signs to show I was not hurt;
whereat she was extremely rejoiced, calling the maid to take up
the dead rat with a pair of tongs, and throw it out of the
window. Then she set me on a table, where I showed her my hanger
all bloody, and wiping it on the lappet of my coat, returned it
to the scabbard. I was pressed to do more than one thing which
another could not do for me, and therefore endeavoured to make my
mistress understand, that I desired to be set down on the floor;
which after she had done, my bashfulness would not suffer me to
express myself farther, than by pointing to the door, and bowing
several times. The good woman, with much difficulty, at last
perceived what I would be at, and taking me up again in her hand,
walked into the garden, where she set me down. I went on one
side about two hundred yards, and beckoning to her not to look or
to follow me, I hid myself between two leaves of sorrel, and
there discharged the necessities of nature.

I hope the gentle reader will excuse me for dwelling on these and
the like particulars, which, however insignificant they may
appear to groveling vulgar minds, yet will certainly help a
philosopher to enlarge his thoughts and imagination, and apply
them to the benefit of public as well as private life, which was
my sole design in presenting this and other accounts of my
travels to the world; wherein I have been chiefly studious of
truth, without affecting any ornaments of learning or of style.
But the whole scene of this voyage made so strong an impression
on my mind, and is so deeply fixed in my memory, that, in
committing it to paper I did not omit one material circumstance:
however, upon a strict review, I blotted out several passages.
Of less moment which were in my first copy, for fear of being
censured as tedious and trifling, whereof travellers are often,
perhaps not without justice, accused.

****

Top of Page

< BACK    NEXT >

| Home | Reading Room | Gulliver's Travels