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 holla after them, although it had been to little purpose, when I
observed a huge creature walking after them in the sea, as fast as he could: he waded
not much deeper than his knees, and took
prodigious strides: but our men had the start of him half a league, and, the sea
thereabouts being full of sharp-pointed rocks, the monster was not able to overtake
the boat.
This I was afterwards told, for I durst not stay to see the issue of the adventure; but
ran as fast as I could the way I first went, and then climbed up a steep hill,
which gave me some prospect of the country.
I found it fully cultivated; but that which first surprised me was the length of the
grass, which, in those grounds that seemed to be kept for hay, was about twenty feet
high.
I fell into a 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 backwards and forwards on the bed.
One of them came up almost to my face, whereupon I rose in a fright, and drew out
my hanger to defend myself.
These horrible animals had the boldness to attack me on both sides, and one of them
held his 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.