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Title: Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Regions of the World

Author: Jonathan Swift

Editor: Thomas M. Balliet

Release date: November 26, 2005 [eBook #17157]
Most recently updated: April 4, 2025

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GULLIVER'S
TRAVELS INTO SEVERAL REMOTE REGIONS OF THE WORLD ***

"HE COMMANDED HIS GENERALS TO DRAW UP THE
TROOPS."

G u l l i v e r ’s Tr a v e l s

INTO SEVERAL REMOTE REGIONS OF THE
WORLD

BY

JONATHAN SWIFT, D.D.

EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY THOMAS M. BALLIET

SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, SPRINGFIELD, MASS.

WITH THIRTY-EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS AND A MAP

PART I

A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT

PART II

A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG

D.C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO

1900

PREFACE.

And lo! the book, from all its end
beguiled,
A harmless wonder to some happy
child.

LORD
L
Y
T
T
O
N
.

Gulliver's Travels was published in 1726; and, although it was by no means
intended for them, the book was soon appropriated by the children, who have
ever since continued to regard it as one of the most delightful of their story
books. They cannot comprehend the occasion which provoked the book nor
appreciate the satire which underlies the narrative, but they delight in the
wonderful adventures, and wander full of open-eyed astonishment into the
new worlds through which the vivid and logically accurate imagination of the
author so personally conducts them. And there is a meaning and a moral in the
stories of the Voyages to Lilliput and Brobdingnag which is entirely apart
from the political satire they are intended to convey, a meaning and a moral
which the youngest child who can read it will not fail to seize, and upon
which it is scarcely necessary for the teacher to comment.
For young children the book combines in a measure the interest of
Robinson Crusoe and that of the fairy tale; its style is objective, the narrative
is simple, and the matter appeals strongly to the childish imagination. For
more mature boys and girls and for adults the interest is found chiefly in the
keen satire which underlies the narrative. It appeals, therefore, to a very wide

range of intelligence and taste, and can be read with profit by the child of ten
and by the young man or woman of mature years.
This edition is practically a reprint of the original (1726-27). The
punctuation and capitalization have been modernized, some archaisms
changed, and the paragraphs have been made more frequent. A few passages
have been omitted which would offend modern ears and are unsuitable for
children's reading, and some foot-notes have been added explaining obsolete
words and obscure expressions.
As a reading book in school which must be adapted to the average mind,
these stories will be found suitable for classes from the fifth or sixth school
year to the highest grade of the grammar school.
THOMAS M. BALLIET.

CONTENTS.

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.

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 habits described—
Learned men appointed to teach the Author their language—He gains favor by
his mild disposition—His pockets are searched, and his sword and pistols
taken from him.

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.

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.

CHAPTER V.
The Author, by an extraordinary stratagem, prevents an invasion—A high
title of honor is conferred upon him—Ambassadors arrive from the emperor
of Blefuscu, and sue for peace.

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.

CHAPTER VII.
The Author, being informed of a design to accuse him of high treason,
makes his escape to Blefuscu—His reception there.

CHAPTER VIII.
The Author, by a lucky accident, finds means to leave Blefuscu; and after
some difficulties, returns safe to his native country.

LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.

"He commanded his generals to draw up the troops"
"Map of Lilliput and Blefuscu
"I lay all this while ... in great uneasiness"
"Producing his credentials"
"These gentlemen made an exact inventory"
"Her imperial majesty was pleased to smile very graciously upon me"
"And created me a nardac upon the spot"
"Three hundred tailors were employed"
"The happiness ... of dining with me"
"He desired I would hear him with patience"
"I set sail ... at six in the morning"
AND TWENTY THREE SMALLER ONES IN THE TEXT.

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 there, with several
accidents that happened there—A description of the inhabitants

CHAPTER II.
A description of the farmer's daughter—The Author carried to a market-
town, and then to the metropolis—The particulars of his journey

CHAPTER III
The Author sent for to court—The queen buys him of his master the farmer,
and presents him to the king—He disputes with his majesty's great scholars—
An apartment at court provided for the Author—He is in high favor with the
queen—He stands up for the honor of his own country—He quarrels with the
queen's dwarf

CHAPTER IV.
The country described—A proposal for correcting modern maps—The
king's palace, and some account of the metropolis—The Author's way of

travelling—The chief temple described

CHAPTER V.
Several adventures that happened to the Author—The execution of a
criminal—The Author shows his skill in navigation

CHAPTER VI.
Several contrivances of the Author to please the king and queen—He shows
his skill in music—The king inquires into the state of Europe, which the
Author relates to him—The king's observations thereon

CHAPTER VII
The Author's love of his country—He makes a proposal of much advantage
to the king, which is rejected—The king's great ignorance in politics—The
learning of that country very imperfect and confined—Their laws, and
military affairs, and in the state

CHAPTER VIII
The king and queen make a progress to the frontiers—The Author attends
them—The manner in which he leaves the country very particularly related—
He returns to England

NOTE.

LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
"They concluded I was only Relplum Sealcath"
Map of Brobdingnag
"A huge creature walking ... on the sea"
"Whereupon the huge creature trod short"
"I drew my hanger to defend myself"
"I called her my Glumdalclitch"
"Flourished after the manner of fencers in England"
"This gracious princess held out her little finger"
"She carried me to the king"
"I could only revenge myself by calling him brother"
"The smaller birds did not appear to be at all afraid of me"
"Gave me a gale with their fans"
"The most violent exercise I ever underwent"
"You have made an admirable panegyric"
"She had some foreboding"
"Somebody calling in the English tongue"
"My daughter kneeled, but I could not see her"
AND TWELVE SMALLER ONES IN THE TEXT.

THE FIRST PUBLISHER TO THE READER.

The author of these travels, Mr. Lemuel Gulliver, is my ancient and intimate
friend; there is likewise some relation between us on the mother's side. About
three years ago, Mr. Gulliver, growing weary of the concourse of curious
people coming to him at his house in Redriff,[1] made a small purchase of
land, with a convenient house, near Newark, in Nottinghamshire, his native
county, where he now lives retired, yet in good esteem among his neighbors.
Although Mr. Gulliver was born in Nottinghamshire, where his father
dwelt, yet I have heard him say his family came from Oxfordshire; to confirm
which, I have observed in the churchyard at Banbury, in that county, several
tombs and monuments of the Gullivers. Before he quitted Redriff he left the
custody of the following papers in my hands, with the liberty to dispose of
them as I should think fit. I have carefully perused them three times. The style
is very plain and simple, and the only fault I find is, that the author, after the
manner of travellers, is a little too circumstantial. There is an air of truth
apparent through the whole; and, indeed, the author was so distinguished for
his veracity, that it became a sort of proverb among his neighbors at Redriff,
when any one affirmed a thing, to say it was as true as if Mr. Gulliver had
spoken it.
By the advice of several worthy persons, to whom, with the author's
permission, I communicated these papers, I now venture to send them into the
world, hoping they may be, at least for some time, a better entertainment than
the common scribbles about politics and party.
This volume would have been at least twice as large if I had not made bold
to strike out innumerable passages relating to the winds and tides, as well as to
the variations and bearings in the several voyages; together with the minute
description of the management of the ship in the storms, in the style of sailors;
likewise the account of longitudes and latitudes; wherein I have reason to
apprehend that Mr. Gulliver may be a little dissatisfied; but I was resolved to
fit the work as much as possible to the general capacity of readers. However,
if my own ignorance in sea affairs shall have led me to commit some
mistakes, I alone am answerable for them, and if any traveller hath a curiosity

to see the whole work at large, as it came from the hand of the author, I will
be ready to gratify him.
As for any farther particulars relating to the author, the reader will receive
satisfaction from the first pages of the book.
RICHARD SYMPSON.

TRAVELS.

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 ASHORE 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 Emmanuel 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; and 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,[2] 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 Pannell,
commander; with whom I continued three years and a half, making a voyage
or two into the Levant,[3] 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,[4] 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.[5] We set sail from Bristol, May 4, 1699; and our
voyage at first was 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 northwest of Van Diemen's Land.[6]
By an observation, we found ourselves in the latitude of 30 degrees and 2
minutes south. Twelve of our crew were dead by immoderate labor and ill
food; the rest were in a very weak condition.
On the fifth 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;[7] 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 labor, 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 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 daylight. 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 downward, 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 meantime 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 I then 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
an 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 me a buff jerkin,[8] 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.

"I LAY ALL THIS WHILE IN GREAT UNEASINESS"

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 debul 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 learned)
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 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[9] 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
nevola; and, when they saw the vessels in the air, there was an 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
honor I made them—for so I interpreted my submissive behavior—soon drove
out those 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.

"PRODUCING HIS CREDENTIALS."
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,[10] 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 get a little
ease. 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 endeavored 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. The prince hath 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 to 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 tied fast.

All this I was told; for, while the whole 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 stopt 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[11] 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 awaking
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 sunrise, 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 stopt, 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 four score 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
an 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 semi-circle, 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
FAVOR 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,[12] 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.
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 his hind 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
without 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; each
afforded me two or three good mouthfuls. The empress and young princes of
the blood of both sexes, attended by many ladies, sat at some distance in their
chairs;[13] 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 an the crest.[14] 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 on 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;[15] 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 ring-leaders 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 forwards with the butt-ends of their pikes into
my reach. I took them all on 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; an
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, which was of smooth stone. By
the same computation, they provided me with sheets, blankets, and coverlets,
which were tolerable enough for one who had been so long inured to
hardships as I.
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 inconvenience. 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 court; whereby the
secretaries of state got considerable fees.
In the meantime, 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 carcase 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 behavior to the six criminals above-mentioned, which made so
favorable 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 honored 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 apprehend 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 behavior, 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; that 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 should 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[16]
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 MADE AN EXACT INVENTORY OF
EVERYTHING THEY SAW."
These gentlemen having pen, ink, and paper about them, made an exact
inventory of everything 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,[17] 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 number 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 palisadoes 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 ranfu-lo,
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 so 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 and
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 to cut his meat with the other.
There were two pockets which we could not enter: these he called his fobs.
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
that lucid substance.[18] He put this engine to 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 anything 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 required 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 about
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 FRELOC.
MARSI FRELOC.
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
meantime, 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 exceedingly 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 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 in 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[19] 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 snuffbox, 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 to 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,[20] and some other little
conveniences; which, being of no consequence to the emperor, I did not think
myself bound in honor 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 behavior 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 favorable 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 their language.
The emperor had a mind, one day, to entertain me with one 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 favor 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 lord in the whole empire. I have
seen him do the summersault several times together upon a trencher,[21] 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 hath
not received a fall, and some of them two or three. I was assured that a year or
two before my arrival, Flimnap would have infallibly 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
purple, the other yellow, and the third white. These threads are proposed as
prizes for those persons whom the emperor hath a mind to distinguish by a
peculiar mark of his favor. 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 old or new 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, backwards and forwards 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-colored silk; the
yellow is given to the next, and the green to the third, which they all wear girt
twice about the middle; and you see few great persons round 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 wood-men 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 as 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 horse, 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, from whence 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 feats of this kind, 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 ground, very oddly shaped,
extending its edges round as wide as his majesty's bed-chamber, and rising up
in the middle as high as a man; that it was no living creature, as they had 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 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 intreated his imperial majesty to give
orders it might be brought to me as soon as possible, describing to him the use
and nature of it; and the next day the wagoners arrived with it, but not in a
very good condition; they had bored two holes in the brim, within an inch and
a 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 the
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 under me; the
foot by twenty-four abreast and the horse by sixteen, with drums beating,
colors flying, and pikes advanced. This body consisted of three thousand foot
and a thousand horse.

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 full council;
where it was opposed by none, except Skyrris 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 Skyrris 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 articles
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 Momaren 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 proposeth to the man-mountain, lately arrived at our celestial
dominions, the following articles, which by a solemn oath he shall be obliged
to perform.
First. The man-mountain shall not depart from our dominions without our
license under our great seal.
Second. 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.

Third. 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.[22]
Fourth. 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.
Fifth. 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.
Sixth. 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.
Seventh. 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.
Eighth. 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 favor. Given at our palace at Belfaborac, the twelfth day of
the ninety-first moon of our reign.
I swore and subscribed to the articles with great cheerfulness and content,
although some of them were not so honorable as I could have wished; which
proceeded wholly from the malice of Skyrris Bolgolam, the high admiral;
whereupon my chains were immediately unlocked, and I was at full liberty.
The emperor himself in person did me the honor to be by at the whole
ceremony. I made my acknowledgments, 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 favors
he had already conferred upon me, or might do for the future.
The reader may please to observe, that, in the last article for 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,[23] 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.

MILENDO, 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
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 Milendo, 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 stept over
the great western gate, and passed very gently, and sideling, through the two
principal streets, only in my short waistcoat, for fear of damaging the roofs
and eaves of the houses with the skirts[24] 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
viewed 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 foot high, and twenty foot distant 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 an hundred yards distance from the city. Of these trees I
made two stools, each about three feet high, and strong enough to bear my
weight.

HER IMPERIAL MAJESTY WAS PLEASED TO SMILE VERY
GRACIOUSLY UPON ME.
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 farther 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 a long 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 hour's 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 labor
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 above 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 may be, his majesty

hath 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 an 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 Blefuscu 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)
[25]
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 hath been
carried on between the two empires fo six-and-thirty moons, with various
success; during which time we have lost forty capital ships, and a much
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 valor and strength, hath 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 HONOR IS CONFERRED UPON HIM.
AMBASSADORS ARRIVE FROM THE EMPEROR OF BLEFUSCU, AND
SUE FOR PEACE. THE EMPRESS'S APARTMENT ON FIRE, BY
ACCIDENT; THE AUTHOR INSTRUMENTAL IN SAVING THE REST OF
THE PALACE.
The empire of Blefuscu is an island, situate to the north northeast of
Lilliput, from whence 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 the pain of death, and an embargo[26] 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
harbor, 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 northeast 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
northeast 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 were 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, besides 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, farther than a little to discompose them.[27] 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 hooks
fixed to the ships, I resolutely cut with my knife the cables that fastened the
anchors, receiving above 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 an 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[28]
emperor 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 honor 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 immeasurable 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 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 endeavored 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.

"AND CREATED ME A NARDAC UPON THE SPOT."
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[29] 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 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 valor and generosity, invited me to that kingdom, in the
emperor their master's name, and desired me to show 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 honor 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 honor 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 plainly 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 its own tongue, with an avowed contempt for that of its neighbor; 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 honor, 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 a large thimble, 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 by which 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 daylight, 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 man, of what quality soever, to even touch the empress or the
royal princesses without invitation. 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 me, and, in the
presence of her chief confidants, 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.
Although I intend to leave the description of this empire to a particular
treatise, yet, in the meantime, 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 a 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 hath 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[30] 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, hath
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 downwards, 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 the 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
maketh 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 hath been at in making his defence, or, it that fund be deficient, it is
largely supplied by the crown. The emperor also confers on him some public
mark of his favor, 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 fence 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 hath 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 king for a
criminal, who had wronged his master of a great sum of money, which he had
received by order, and run 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 hath strictly observed the laws of his country for
seventy-three moons, hath a claim to certain privileges, according to his
quality and condition of life, with a proportionable sum of out of a fund
appropriated for that use; he likewise acquires the title of snillpall, or legal,
which is added to his name, but doth 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
sheath in her left, to show she was 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 consequences 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 favor 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 hath 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. 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 laborers, 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 to 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 honor,
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 attendants, 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 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 proportionally after the same manner; only those
designed for trades are put out apprentices at eleven years old, whereas those
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 the 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 there 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
women 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 people 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[31] 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[32] 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 to leave the burden of supporting their children 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 laborers 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 domestic,[33] and my manner of living in this country, during a residence
of nine months and thirteen days. Having a head for mechanics, 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
patchwork made by the ladies in England, only that mine were all of a color.

"THREE HUNDRED TAILORS WERE EMPLOYED TO MAKE ME
CLOTHES"
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; an hundred more attended below on the ground, some with dishes of
meat, and some with barrels of wine and other liquors, flung on their
shoulders; all of 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 eat at a
mouthful, and I must 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 eat more than usual, in honor 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[34] 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.

"THE HAPPINESS ... OF DINING WITH ME."

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,
[35]
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 honor 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 Skyrris Bolgolam (galbet or high-admiral) hath
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, 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; when he entreated me to be silent,
and thus proceeded.

"HE DESIRED I WOULD HEAR HIM WITH PATIENCE."
Out of gratitude for the favors you have done for 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 lay hands upon the empress, or
upon any of the royal children, shall be liable to the pains and penalties of
high treason. Notwithstanding, the said Quinbus Flestrin, in open breach of
the said law, under color of extinguishing the fire kindled in the apartment of
his Majesty's most dear imperial consort, did maliciously, and traitorously,
pull her by the arms, and lift her high in the air in both his hands, against the
statute in that case provided, &c., against the duty, &c.
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 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 hath received only verbal license from his imperial majesty; and
under color of the said license, doth falsely and traitorously intend to take the
said voyage, and thereby to aid, comfort, and abet the emperor of Blefuscu, so
late 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 endeavoring to extenuate your crimes. The treasurer and
admiral insisted that you should be put to the most painful and ignominious
death, by setting fire on 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 honorable
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 honor 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
extinguished the fire in that unprincipled manner, might at another time
inundate and 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 sort of fowls, after which they fed the faster, and grew sooner fat. That
his sacred majesty, and the council, who are your judges, were to 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 pleaded to say, that since the council thought the loss of your eyes
too easy a censure, some other might 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 food, you
would grow weak and faint, and lose your appetite, and consume in a few
months; neither would the stench of your carcase 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 illegal method you took to remove her and her children the
night of the fire.
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 favor of his majesty and council, whereby you are only
condemned to the loss of your eyes, which his majesty doth 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 practices of former times), that after the court
had decreed any cruel execution either to gratify the monarch's resentment or
the malice of a favorite, 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 through
the kingdom; nor did anything 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 favor 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 favors I
received from him, and the high title of nardac he conferred upon me. Neither
had I so soon learned the gratitude of courtiers as 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 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 stript 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 until 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
hand.

I told his majesty that I was come, according to my promise, and with the
license of the emperor, my master, to have the honor 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 northeast
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
wading 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 of 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 forepart of the boat, and the other end to a man-of-
war. But I found all my labor 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 forwards as often as I could with one of my hands, and, the
tide favoring 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 favorable, the
seamen towed, and I shoved, till 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 from 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 expostulation, 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
afterwards 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,
[36]
a person of quality was despatched 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 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 farther 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 incumbrance.
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 favorable
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 in 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 SET SAIL AT SIX IN THE MORNING
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 lambs, 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
honor 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 southeast,
at six in the evening I descried a small island about half a league to the
northwest I advanced forward, and cast anchor on the lee side[37] of the
island, which seemed to be uninhabited. I then took some refreshment, and
went to my rest. I slept well, and, as I conjecture, at least six hours, for I
found the day broke two hours after I awaked. It was a clear night. I ate my
breakfast before the sun was up; and heaving anchor, the wind being
favorable, I steered the same course that I had done the day before, wherein
I was directed by my pocket-compass. My intention was to reach, if
possible, one of those islands, which, I had reason to believe, lay to the
northeast of Van Diemen's Land. I discovered nothing all that day; but upon
the next, about three o'clock in the afternoon, when I had, by my
computation, made twenty-four leagues from Blefuscu, I descried a sail
steering to the southeast: my course was due east. I hailed her, but could get
no answer; yet I found I gained upon her, for the wind slackened. I made all
the sail I could, and in half-an-hour she spied me, then hung out her ancient,
[38]
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 twenty-sixth; but my heart leaped within me to see her
English colors.

I put my cows and sheep into my coat-pockets, and got on board with all
my little cargo of provisions. The vessel was an English merchantman
returning from Japan by the North and South Seas; the captain, Mr. John
Biddle, of Deptford, a very civil man and an excellent sailor. We were now
in the latitude of 30 degrees south. There were about fifty men in the ship;
and here I met an old comrade of mine, one Peter Williams, who gave me a
good character to the captain. This gentleman treated me with kindness, and
desired I would let him know what place I came from last, and whither I
was bound; which I did in few words, but he thought I was raving, and that
the dangers I had 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 rareties of that country. I gave him two purses of
two hundred sprugs each, and promised, when we arrived in England, to
make him a present of a cow and a sheep.
I shall not trouble the reader with a particular account of this voyage,
which was very prosperous for the most part. We arrived in the Downs[39]
on the thirteenth 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. I got the rest of my cattle 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 biscuits, 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 fortune. 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,"[40] 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[41] child. My daughter Betty (who is now well married, and has
children), was then at her needlework. I took leave of my wife and boy and
girl, with tears on both sides, and went on board the "Adventure," a
merchant ship of three hundred tons, bound for Surat, Captain John
Nicholas, of Liverpool, commander. But my account of this voyage must be
referred to the second part of my travels.

THE END OF THE FIRST PART.

"THEY CONCLUDED ... THAT I WAS ONLY Relplum Scalcath.

TRAVELS.

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 an active and restless
life, in two months after my return I again left my native country, and took
shipping in the Downs on the twentieth 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;[42] 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 nineteenth 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,[43] as our
captain found by an observation he took the second 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, and soon it was a fierce storm.
Finding it was like to overblow, we took in our sprit-sail, and stood by to
hand the foresail; but making foul weather, we looked the guns were all

fast, and handed the mizzen.

The ship lay very broad off, so we thought it better spooning before the
sea, than trying, or hulling. We reefed the foresail and set him, we hauled
aft the foresheet: 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
the laniard of the whipstaff, and helped the man at the helm. We could not
get down our topmast, but let all stand, because she scudded before the sea
very well, and we knew that the topmast being aloft, the ship was the
wholesomer, and made better way through the sea, seeing we had sea-room.
When the storm was over, we set foresail and mainsail, and brought the ship
to. Then we set the mizzen, main-top-sail, and the fore-top-sail. Our course
was east north east, the wind was at southwest. We got the starboard tacks
aboard, we cast off our weather braces and lifts; we set in the lee braces,
and hauled forward by the weather bowlings, and hauled them tight and
belayed them, and hauled over the mizzen tack to wind-ward and kept her
full and by, as near as she could lie.
During this storm, which was followed by a strong wind, west southwest,
we were carried, by my computation, about five hundred leagues to the east,
so that the oldest sailor on board could not tell in what part of the world we
were. Our provisions held out well, our ship was 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 northwest parts of Great Tartary, and into the
Frozen Sea.
On the sixteenth day of June, 1703, a boy on the topmast discovered
land. On the seventeenth, we came in full view of a great island or continent
(for we knew not which), 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 toward
the creek; and the sea being full in my view, I saw our men already got into
the boat, and rowing for life to the ship. I was going to holla after them,

although it had been to little purpose, when I observed a huge creature
walking after them in the sea, as fast as he could; he waded not much
deeper than his knees, and took prodigious strides; but our men had the start
of him about half a league, and the sea thereabouts being full of 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.

"A HUGE CREATURE WALKING ... IN THE SEA."
I fell into a high road, for so I took it to be, though it served to the
inhabitants only as a footpath through a field of barley. Here I walked on for
some time, but could see little on either side, it being now near harvest, and
the corn rising at least forty feet. I was an hour walking to the end of this
field, which was fenced in with a hedge of at least one hundred and twenty
feet high, and the trees so lofty that I could make no computation of their
altitude. There was a stile to pass from this field into the next. It had four
steps, and a stone to cross over when you came to the uppermost. It was
impossible for me to climb this stile because every step was six feet high,
and the upper stone above twenty.
I was endeavoring to find some gap in the hedge, when I discovered one
of the inhabitants in the next field, advancing towards the stile, of the same
size with him 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, from whence I saw him at the top of the stile,
looking back into the next field on the right hand, and heard him call in a
voice many degrees louder than a speaking trumpet; but the noise was so
high in the air that at first I certainly thought it was thunder. Whereupon
seven monsters, like himself, came towards him with reaping-hooks in their
hands, each hook about the largeness of six scythes. These people were not
so well clad as the first, whose servants or laborers they seemed to be; for,
upon some words he spoke, they went to reap the corn in the field where I
lay. I kept from them at as great a distance as I could, but was forced to
move, with extreme difficulty, for the stalks of the corn were sometimes not
above a foot distance, 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 above a hundred yards behind me.
Being quite dispirited with toil, and wholly overcome by grief and
despair, I lay down between two ridges, and heartily wished I might there
end my days. I bemoaned my desolate widow and fatherless children. I

lamented my own folly and wilfulness in attempting a second voyage
against the advice of all my friends and relations. In this terrible agitation of
mind, I could not forbear thinking of Lilliput, whose inhabitants looked
upon me as the greatest prodigy that ever appeared in the world; where I
was able to draw an imperial fleet in my hand, and perform those other
actions which will be recorded forever in the chronicles of that empire,
while posterity shall hardly believe them, although attested by millions. I
reflected what a mortification it must prove to me to appear as
inconsiderable in this nation as one single Lilliputian would be among us.
But this I conceived was to be among the least of my misfortunes: for, as
human creatures are observed to be more savage and cruel in proportion to
their bulk, what could I expect but to be a morsel in the mouth of the first
among these enormous barbarians that should happen to seize me?
Undoubtedly philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is
great or little otherwise than by comparison. It might have pleased fortune
to let the Lilliputians find some nation where the people were as diminutive
with respect to them as they were to me. And who knows but that even this
prodigious race of mortals might be equally overmatched in some distant
part of the world, whereof we have yet no discovery?
Scared and confounded as I was, I could not forbear going on with these
reflections, when one of the reapers, approaching within ten yards of the
ridge where I lay, made me apprehend that with the next step I should be
squashed to death under his foot, or cut in two with his reaping-hook. And,
therefore, when he was again about to move, I screamed as loud as fear
could make me. Whereupon the huge creature trod short, and looking round
about under him for some time, at last espied me as I lay on the ground. He
considered awhile, with the caution of one who endeavors to lay hold on a
small dangerous animal in such a manner that it shall not be able either to
scratch or to bite him, as I myself have sometimes done with a weasel in
England.

"WHEREUPON THE HUGE CREATURE TROD SHORT."
At length he ventured to take me up between his forefinger and thumb,
and brought me within three yards of his eyes, that he might behold my
shape more perfectly. I guessed his meaning, and my good fortune gave me
so much presence of mind that I resolved not to struggle in the least as he
held me in the air, above sixty feet from the ground, although he grievously
pinched my sides, for fear I should slip through his fingers. All I ventured
was to raise my eyes towards the sun, and place my hands together in a
supplicating posture, and to speak some words in an humble melancholy
tone, suitable to the condition I then was in. For I apprehended every

moment that he would dash me against the ground, as we usually do any
little hateful animal which we have a mind to destroy. But my good star
would have it that he appeared pleased with my voice and gestures, and
began to look upon me as a curiosity, much wondering to hear me
pronounce articulate words, although he could not understand them. In the
meantime I was not able to forbear groaning and shedding tears, and turning
my head 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 hair aside, to take a better view of my face. He called his
hinds[44] about him, and asked them (as I afterwards learned) whether they
had ever seen in the fields any little creature that resembled me. He then
placed me softly on the ground upon all fours, but I got immediately up,
and walked slowly backwards and forwards to let those people see that 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[45] each, besides twenty or thirty
smaller coins. I saw him wet the tip of his little finger upon his tongue, and
take up one of my largest pieces, and then another, but he seemed to be
wholly ignorant what they were. He made me a sign to put them again into
my purse, and the purse again into my pocket, which, after offering it to
him several times, I thought it best to do.

The farmer by this time was convinced I must be a rational creature. He
spoke often to me, but the sound of his voice pierced my ears like that of a
water-mill, yet his words were articulate enough. I answered as loud as I
could in several languages, and he often laid his ear within two yards of me;
but all in vain, for we were wholly unintelligible to each other. He then sent
his servants to their work, and taking his handkerchief out of his pocket, he
doubled and spread it on his left hand, which he placed flat on the ground,
with the palm upwards, 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 farther security, and in this manner carried me home to his
house. There he called his wife, and showed me to her; but she screamed
and ran back, as women in England do at the sight of a toad or a spider.
However, when she had awhile seen my behavior, and how well I observed
the signs her husband made, she was soon reconciled, and by degrees grew
extremely tender of me.
It was about twelve at noon, and a servant brought in dinner. It was only
one substantial dish of meat (fit for the plain condition of an husbandman)
in a dish of about four-and-twenty feet diameter. The company were the
farmer and his wife, three children, and an old grandmother. When they
were 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,[46] 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 three
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 by 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 that I had got no mischief by my fall.
But advancing forwards towards my master (as I shall henceforth call
him), his youngest son, who sat next him, an arch boy of about ten years
old, took me up by the legs, and held me so high in the air, that I trembled
in every limb; but his father snatched me from him, and at the same time
gave him such a box in the left ear as would have felled an European troop
of horse to the earth, ordering him to be taken from the table. But being
afraid the boy might owe me a spite, and well remembering how
mischievous all children among us naturally are to sparrows, rabbits, young
kittens, and puppy dogs, I fell on my knees, and, pointing to the boy, made
my master to understand as well as I could, that I desired his son might be
pardoned. The father complied, and the lad took his seat again; whereupon I
went to him and kissed his hand, which my master took, and made him
stroke me gently with it.
In the midst of dinner, my mistress's favorite cat leapt into her lap. I
heard a noise behind me like that of a dozen stocking-weavers at work; and,
turning my head, I found it proceeded from the purring of that animal, who
seemed to be three times larger than an ox, as I computed by the view of her
head and one of her paws, while her mistress was feeding and stroking her.
The fierceness of this creature's countenance altogether discomposed me,
though I stood at the further end of the table, above fifty feet off, and
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[47] 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 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,[48] 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 in its 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. As she sat down close to
the table on which I stood, her appearance astonished me not a little. 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-colored.
I remember, when I was at Lilliput, the complexions 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 colors altogether disagreeable: although
I must beg leave to say for myself that I am as fair as most of my sex and
country, and very little sunburnt by my travels. On the other side,
discoursing of the ladies of that emperor's court, he used to tell me one had
freckles, another too wide a mouth, a third too large a nose, nothing of
which I was able to distinguish. I confess this reflection was obvious
enough; which, however, I could not forbear, lest the reader might think
those vast creatures were actually deformed: for I must do them justice to
say they are a comely race of people; and particularly the features of my
master's countenance, although he were but a farmer, when I beheld him
from the height of sixty feet, appeared very well proportioned.

When dinner was done my master went out to his labors, and, as I could
discover by his voice and gestures, gave his wife a strict charge to take care
of me. I was very much tired and disposed to sleep, which, my mistress
perceiving, she put me on her own bed, and covered me with a clean white
handkerchief, but larger and coarser than the mainsail of a man-of-war.
I slept about two hours, and dreamed I was at home with my wife and
children, which aggravated my sorrows when I awaked and found myself
alone in a vast room, between two and three hundred feet wide, and above
two hundred high, lying in a bed twenty yards wide. My mistress was gone
about her household affairs, and had locked me in. The bed was eight yards
from the floor.

"I ... DREW MY HANGER TO DEFEND MYSELF."
Presently two rats crept up the curtains, and ran smelling backwards and
forwards on my bed. One of them came almost up to my face; whereupon I
rose in a fright, and drew out my hanger to defend myself. The horrible
animals had the boldness to attack me both sides, and one of them held his
forefeet at my collar; but I killed him 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 infallibly have been torn to pieces and devoured. I measured the tail of
the dead rat, and found it to be two yards long wanting an inch; but it went
against my stomach to draw the carcase off the bed, where it still lay
bleeding. I observed it had yet some life; but, with a strong slash across the
neck, I thoroughly despatched it.
I hope the gentle reader will excuse me for dwelling on these and the like
particulars, which, however insignificant they may appear to grovelling
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 teaming or style. But the whole scene of this
voyage made so strong an impression on my mind, and is so deeply
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.

CHAPTER II.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER. THE AUTHOR
CARRIED TO A MARKET-TOWN, AND THEN TO THE METROPOLIS.
THE PARTICULARS OF THIS JOURNEY.
My mistress had a daughter of nine years old, a child of toward parts for
her age, very dexterous at her needle, and skilful in dressing her baby. Her
mother and she contrived to fit up the baby's cradle for me against night.
The cradle was put into a small drawer cabinet, and the drawer placed upon
a hanging shelf for fear of the rats. This was my bed all the time I stayed
with these people, though made more convenient by degrees, as I began to
learn their language and make my wants known.
She made me seven shirts, and some other linen, of as fine cloth as could
be got, which indeed was coarser than sackcloth; and these she constantly
washed for me with her own hands. She was likewise my school-mistress,
to teach me the language. When I pointed to anything, she told me the name
of it in her own tongue, so that in a few days I was able to call for whatever
I had a mind to. She was very good-natured, and not above forty feet high,
being little for her age. She gave me the name of Grildrig, which the family
took up, and afterwards the whole kingdom. The word imports what the
Latins call nanunculus, the Italians homunceletino, and the English
mannikin. To her I chiefly owe my preservation in that country. We never
parted while I was there; I called her my Glumdalclitch, or little nurse; and
should be guilty of great ingratitude if I omitted this honorable mention of
her care and affection towards me, which I heartily wish it lay in my power
to requite as she deserves.
It now began to be known and talked of in the neighborhood, that my
master had found a strange animal in the field, about the bigness of a
splacnuck, but exactly shaped in every part like a human creature; which it
likewise imitated in all its actions, seemed to speak in a little language of its
own, had already learned several words of theirs, went erect upon two legs,
was tame and gentle, would come when it was called, do whatever it was

bid, had the finest limbs in the world, and a complexion fairer than a
nobleman's daughter of three years old. Another farmer, who lived hard by,
and was a particular friend of my master, came on a visit on purpose to
inquire into the truth of this story. I was immediately produced and placed
upon a table, where I walked as I was commanded, drew my hanger, put it
up again, made my reverence to my master's guest, asked him in his own
language how he did, and told him he was welcome, just as my little nurse
had instructed me. This man, who was old and dim-sighted, put on his
spectacles to behold me better, at which I could not forbear laughing very
heartily, for his eyes appeared like the full moon shining into a chamber at
two windows. Our people, who discovered the cause of my mirth, bore me
company in laughing, at which the old fellow was fool enough to be angry
and out of countenance. He had the character of a great miser; and, to my
misfortune, he well deserved it by the cursed advice he gave my master, to
show me as a sight upon a market-day in the next town, which was half an
hour's riding, about two-and-twenty miles from our house. I guessed there
was some mischief contriving, when I observed my master and his friend
whispering long together, sometimes pointing at me; and my fears made me
fancy that I overheard and understood some of their words.

"I CALLED HER MY GLUMDALCLITCH."
But the next morning, Glumdalclitch, my little nurse, told me the whole
matter, which she had cunningly picked out from her mother. The poor girl
laid me on her bosom, and fell a-weeping with shame and grief. She
apprehended some mischief would happen to me from rude vulgar folks,
who might squeeze me to death, or break one of my limbs by taking me in
their hands. She had also observed how modest I was in my nature, how
nicely I regarded my honor, and what an indignity conceive it to be exposed
for money, as a public spectacle, to the meanest of the people. She said her
papa and mamma had promised that Grildrig should be hers, but now she

found they meant to serve her as they did last year when they pretended to
give her a lamb, and yet as soon as it was fat sold it to a butcher. For my
own part I may truly affirm that I was less concerned than my nurse. I had a
strong hope, which left me, that I should one day recover my liberty; to the
ignominy of being carried about for a monster, I considered myself to be a
perfect stranger in the country, and that such a misfortune could never be
charged upon me as a reproach if ever I should return to England; since the
king of Great Britain himself, in my condition, must have undergone the
same distress.
My master, pursuant to the advice of his friend, carried me in a box the
next market-day, to the neighboring town, and took along with him his little
daughter, my nurse, upon a pillion[49] behind him. The box was close on
every side, with a little door for me to go in and out, and a few gimlet holes
to let in air. The girl had been so careful as to put the quilt of her baby's bed
into it, for me to lie down on. However, I was terribly shaken and
discomposed in this journey, though it were but of half an hour. For the
horse went about forty feet at every step, and trotted so high that the
agitation was equal to the rising and falling of a ship in a great storm, but
much more frequent; our journey was somewhat farther than from London
to St. Alban's. My master alighted at an inn which he used to frequent; and
after consulting a while with the innkeeper and making some necessary
preparations, he hired the grultrud, or crier, to give notice through the town,
of a strange creature to be seen at the sign of the Green Eagle, not so big as
a splacnuck (an animal in that country, very finely shaped, about six feet
long), and in every part of the body resembling a human creature, could
speak several words, and perform a hundred diverting tricks.
I was placed upon a table in the largest room of the inn, which might be
near three hundred feet square. My little nurse stood on a low stool close to
the table, to take care of me, and direct what I should do. My master, to
avoid a crowd, would suffer only thirty people at a time to see me. I walked
about on the table as the girl commanded. She asked me questions, as far as
she knew my understanding of the language reached, and I answered them
as loud as I could. I turned about several times to the company, paid my
humble respects, said they were welcome, and used some other speeches I
had been taught. I took a thimble filled with liquor, which Glumdalclitch
had given me for a cup, and drank their health. I drew out my hanger, and
flourished with it, after the manner of fencers in England. My nurse gave

me part of a straw, which I exercised as a pike, having learnt the art in my
youth. I was that day shown to twelve sets of company, and as often forced
to act over again the same fopperies, till I was half dead with weariness and
vexation. For those who had seen me made such wonderful reports, that the
people were ready to break down the doors to come in.
My master, for his own interest, would not suffer any one to touch me
except my nurse, and, to prevent danger, benches were set round the table at
such a distance as to put me out of everybody's reach. However, an unlucky
school-boy aimed a hazel-nut directly at my head, which very narrowly
missed me: otherwise, it came with so much violence, that it would have
infallibly knocked out my brains, for it was almost as large as a small
pumpion,[50] but I had the satisfaction to see the young rogue well beaten,
and turned out of the room.

"FLOURISHED AFTER THE MANNER OF FENCERS IN
ENGLAND."
My master gave public notice that he would show me again the next
market-day, and in the meantime he prepared a more convenient vehicle for
me, which he had reason enough to do; for I was so tired with my first
journey, and with entertaining company for eight hours together, that I
could hardly stand upon my legs or speak a word. It was at least three days
before I recovered my strength; and that I might have no rest at home, all
the neighboring gentleman, from a hundred miles round, hearing of my
fame, came to see me at my master's own house. There could not be fewer

than thirty persons with their wives and children (for the country was very
populous); and my master demanded the rate of a full room whenever he
showed me at home, although it were only to a single family; so that for
some time I had but little ease every day of the week (except Wednesday
which is their Sabbath), although I was not carried to the town.
My master, finding how profitable I was like to be, resolved to carry me
to the most considerable cities of the kingdom. Having, therefore, provided
himself with all things necessary for a long journey, and settled his affairs at
home, he took leave of his wife, and upon the seventeenth of August, 1703,
about two months after my arrival, we set out for the metropolis, situated
the middle of that empire, and about three thousand miles distance from our
house. My master made his daughter Glumdalclitch ride behind him. She
carried me on her lap, in a box tied about her waist. The girl had lined it on
all sides with the softest cloth she could get, well quilted underneath,
furnished it with her baby's bed, provided me with linen and other
necessaries, and made everything as conveniently as she could. We had no
other company but a boy of the house, who rode after us with the luggage.
My master's design was to show me in all the towns by the way, and to
step out of the road for fifty or a hundred miles, to any village, or person of
quality's house, where he might expect custom. We made easy journeys of
not above seven or eight score miles a day; for Glumdalclitch, on purpose
to spare me, complained she was tired with the trotting of the horse. She
often took me out of my box at my own desire, to give me air and show me
the country, but always held me fast by a leading-string. We passed over
five or six rivers, many degrees broader and deeper than the Nile or the
Ganges; and there was hardly a rivulet so small as the Thames at London
Bridge. We were ten weeks in our journey, and I was shown in eighteen
large towns, besides many villages and private families.

On the twenty-sixth of October we arrived at the metropolis, called in
their language, Lorbrulgrud, or Pride of the Universe. My master took a
lodging in the principal street of the city, not far from the royal palace, and
put out bills in the usual form, containing an exact description of my person
and parts.[51] He hired a large room between three and four hundred feet
wide. He provided a table sixty feet in diameter, upon which I was to act my
part, and palisadoed it round three feet from the edge, and as many high, to
prevent my falling over. I was shown ten times a day, to the wonder and
satisfaction of all people. I could now speak the language tolerably well,
and perfectly understood every word that was spoken to me. Besides, I had
learned their alphabet, and could make a shift to explain a sentence here and
there; for Glumdalclitch had been my instructor while we were at home,
and at leisure hours during our journey. She carried a little book in her
pocket, not much larger than a Sanson's Atlas;[52] it was a common treatise
for the use of young girls, giving a short account of their religion; out of
this she taught me my letters, and interpreted the words.

CHAPTER III.

THE AUTHOR SENT FOR TO COURT. THE QUEEN BUYS HIM OF
HIS MASTER THE FARMER, AND PRESENTS HIM TO THE KING.
HE DISPUTES WITH HIS MAJESTY'S GREAT SCHOLARS. AN
APARTMENT AT COURT PROVIDED FOR THE AUTHOR. HE IS IN
HIGH FAVOR WITH THE QUEEN. HE STANDS UP FOR THE HONOR
OF HIS OWN COUNTRY. HE QUARRELS WITH THE QUEEN'S
DWARF.
The frequent labors I underwent every day, made in a few weeks a very
considerable change in my health; the more my master got by me, the more
insatiable he grew. I had quite lost my stomach, and was almost reduced to
a skeleton. The farmer observed it, and, concluding I must soon die,
resolved to make as good a hand of me[53] as he could. While he was thus
reasoning and resolving with himself, a slardral, or gentleman-usher, came
from court, commanding my master to carry me immediately thither, for the
diversion of the queen and her ladies. Some of the latter had already been to
see me, and reported strange things of my beauty, behavior, and good sense.
Her majesty, and those who attended her, were beyond measure delighted
with my demeanor. I fell on my knees and begged the honor of kissing her
imperial foot; but this gracious princess held out her little finger towards
me, after I was set on a table, which I embraced in both my arms, and put
the tip of it with the utmost respect to my lip.
She made me some general questions about my country, and my travels,
which I answered as distinctly, and in as few words, as I could. She asked
whether I would be content to live at court. I bowed down to the board of
the table, and humbly answered that I was my master's slave; but if I were
at my own disposal, I should be proud to devote my life to her majesty's
service. She then asked my master whether he were willing to sell me at a
good price. He, who apprehended I could not live a month, was ready
enough to part with me, and demanded a thousand pieces of gold, which
were ordered him on the spot, each piece being the bigness of eight hundred

moidores[54]; but, for the proportion of all things between that country and
Europe, and the high price of gold among them, was hardly so great a sum
as a thousand guineas[55] would be in England. I then said to the queen,
since I was now her majesty's most humble creature and vassal, I must beg
the favor, that Glumdalclitch, who had always attended me with so much
care and kindness, and understood to do it so well, might be admitted into
her service, and continue to be my nurse and instructor.
Her majesty agreed to my petition, and easily got the farmer's consent,
who was glad enough to have his daughter preferred at court, and the poor
girl herself was not able to hide her joy. My late master withdrew, bidding
me farewell, and saying he had left me in good service, to which I replied
not a word, only making him a slight bow.

"THIS GRACIOUS PRINCESS HELD OUT HER LITTLE
FINGER."
The queen observed my coldness, and, when the farmer was gone out of
the apartment, asked me the reason. I made bold to tell her majesty that I
owed no other obligation to my late master, than his not dashing out the
brains of a poor harmless creature, found by chance in his field; which
obligation was amply recompensed by the gain he had made in showing me
through half the kingdom, and the price he had now sold me for. That the
life I had since led was laborious enough to kill an animal of ten times my
strength. That my health was much impaired by the continual drudgery of

entertaining the rabble every hour of the day, and that, if my master had not
thought my life in danger, her majesty would not have got so cheap a
bargain. But as I was out of all fear of being ill-treated under the protection
of so great and good an empress, the ornament of nature, the darling of the
world, the delight of her subjects, the phoenix[56] of the creation; so, I
hoped my late master's apprehensions would appear to be groundless, for I
already found my spirits to revive, by the influence of her most august
presence.
This was the sum of my speech, delivered with great improprieties and
hesitation; the latter part was altogether framed in the style peculiar to that
people, whereof I learned some phrases from Glumdalclitch, while she was
carrying me to court.
The queen, giving great allowance for my defectiveness in speaking, was,
however, surprised at so much wit and good sense in so diminutive an
animal.

"SHE ... CARRIED ME TO THE KING."
She took me in her own hand, and carried me to the king, who was then
retired to his cabinet.[57] His majesty, a prince of much gravity and austere
countenance, not well observing my shape at first view, asked the queen,
after a cold manner, how long it was since she grew fond of a splacnuck; for
such it seems he took me to be, as I lay upon my breast in her majesty's
right hand. But this princess, who hath an infinite deal of wit and humor, set
me gently on my feet upon the scrutoire,[58] and commanded me to give his
majesty an account of myself, which I did in a very few words; and
Glumdalclitch, who attended at the cabinet-door, and could not endure I

should be out of her sight, being admitted, confirmed all that had passed
from my arrival at her father's house.
The king, although he be as learned a person as any in his dominions, had
been educated in the study of philosophy, and particularly mathematics; yet,
when he observed my shape exactly, and saw me walk erect, before I began
to speak, conceived I might be a piece of clockwork (which is in that
country arrived to a very great perfection) contrived by some ingenious
artist. But when he heard my voice, and found what I delivered to be
regular and rational, he could not conceal his astonishment. He was by no
means satisfied with the relation I gave him of the manner I came into his
kingdom, but thought it a story concerted between Glumdalclitch and her
father, who had taught me a set of words, to make me sell at a better price.
Upon this imagination he put several other questions to me, and still
received rational answers, no otherwise defective than by a foreign accent,
and an imperfect knowledge in the language, with some rustic phrases,
which I had learned at the farmer's house, and did not suit the polite style of
a court.
His majesty sent for three great scholars, who were then in their weekly
waiting[59] according to the custom in that country. These gentlemen, after
they had a while examined my shape with much nicety, were of different
opinions concerning me. They all agreed that I could not be produced
according to the regular laws of nature, because I was not framed with a
capacity of preserving my life, either by swiftness or climbing of trees, or
digging holes in the earth. They observed by my teeth, which they viewed
with great exactness, that I was a carnivorous animal; yet most quadrupeds
being an overmatch for me, and field-mice, with some others, too nimble,
they could not imagine how I should be able to support myself, unless I fed
upon snails and other insects, which they offered, by many learned
arguments, to evince that I could not possibly do. They would not allow me
to be a dwarf, because my littleness was beyond all degrees of comparison;
for the queen's favorite dwarf, the smallest ever known in that kingdom,
was nearly thirty feet high. After much debate, they concluded unanimously
that I was only relplum scalcath, which is interpreted literally, lusus
naturae;[60] a determination exactly agreeable to the modern philosophy of
Europe: whose professors, disdaining the old evasion of occult causes,
whereby the followers of Aristotle endeavored in vain to disguise their

ignorance, have invented this wonderful solution of all difficulties, to the
unspeakable advancement of human knowledge.
After this decisive conclusion, I entreated to be heard a word or two. I
applied myself to the king, and assured his majesty that I came from a
country which abounded with several millions of both sexes, and of my
own stature; where the animals, trees, and houses were all in proportion,
and where, by consequence, I might be as able to defend myself, and to find
sustenance, as any of his majesty's subjects could do here; which I took for
a full answer to those gentlemen's arguments. To this they only replied with
a smile of contempt, saying, that the farmer had instructed me very well in
my lesson. The king, who had a much better understanding, dismissing his
learned men, sent for the farmer, who, by good fortune, was not yet gone
out of town; having therefore first examined him privately, and then
confronted him with me and the young girl, his majesty began to think that
what we had told him might possibly be true. He desired the queen to order
that a particular care should be taken of me, and was of opinion that
Glumdalclitch should still continue in her office of tending me, because he
observed that we had a great affection for each other. A convenient
apartment was provided for her at court; she had a sort of governess
appointed to take care of her education, a maid to dress her, and two other
servants for menial offices; but the care of me was wholly appropriated to
herself. The queen commanded her own cabinet-maker to contrive a box,
that might serve me for a bed-chamber, after the model that Glumdalclitch
and I should agree upon. This man was a most ingenious artist, and,
according to my directions, in three weeks finished to me a wooden
chamber of sixteen feet square and twelve high, with sash-windows, a door,
and two closets, like a London bed-chamber. The board that made the
ceiling was to be lifted up and down by two hinges, to put in a bed ready
furnished by her majesty's upholsterer, which Glumdalclitch took out every
day to air, made it with her own hands, and, letting it down at night, locked
up the roof over me. A nice workman, who was famous for little curiosities,
undertook to make me two chairs, with backs and frames, of a substance not
unlike ivory, and two tables, with a cabinet to put my things in. The room
was quilted on all sides, as well as the floor and the ceiling, to prevent any
accident from the carelessness of those who carried me, and to break the
force of a jolt when I went in a coach. I desired a lock for my door, to
prevent rats and mice from coming in: the smith, after several attempts,

made the smallest that ever was seen among them; for I have known a
larger at the gate of a gentleman's house in England. I made a shift to keep
the key in a pocket of my own, fearing Glumdalclitch might lose it. The
queen likewise ordered the thinnest silks that could be gotten to make me
clothes, not much thicker than an English blanket, very cumbersome, till I
was accustomed to them. They were after the fashion of the kingdom, partly
resembling the Persian, and partly the Chinese, and are a very grave and
decent habit.
The queen became so fond of my company that she could not dine
without me. I had a table placed upon the same at which her Majesty ate,
just at her left elbow, and a chair to sit on. Glumdalclitch stood on a stool
on the floor, near my table, to assist and take care of me. I had an entire set
of silver dishes and plates, and other necessaries, which, in proportion to
those of the queen, were not much bigger than what I have seen in a
London toy-shop for the furniture of a baby-house: these my little nurse
kept in her pocket in a silver box, and gave me at meals as I wanted them,
always cleaning them herself. No person dined with the queen but the two
princesses royal the elder sixteen years old, and the younger at that time
thirteen and a month. Her majesty used to put a bit of meat upon one of my
dishes, out of which I carved for myself: and her diversion was to see me
eat in miniature; for the queen (who had, indeed, but a weak stomach) took
up at one mouthful as much as a dozen English farmers could eat at a meal,
which to me was for some time a very nauseous sight. She would craunch
the wing of a lark, bones and all, between her teeth, although it were nine
times as large as that of a full-grown turkey; and put a bit of bread in her
mouth as big as two twelve-penny loaves. She drank out of a golden cup,
above a hogshead at a draught. Her knives were twice as long as a scythe,
set straight upon the handle. The spoons, forks, and other instruments, were
all in the same proportion. I remember when Glumdalclitch carried me, out
of curiosity, to see some of the tables at court, where ten or a dozen of these
enormous knives and forks were lifted up together, I thought I had never till
then beheld so terrible a sight.
It is the custom that every Wednesday (which, as I have before observed,
is their Sabbath) the king and queen, with the royal issue of both sexes dine
together in the apartment of his majesty, to whom I was now become a great
favorite; and, at these times, my little chair and table were placed at his left
hand, before one of the salt-cellars. This prince took a pleasure in

conversing with me, inquiring into the manners, religion, taws, government,
and learning of Europe; wherein I gave him the best account I was able. His
apprehension was so clear, and his judgment so exact, that he made very
wise reflections and observations upon all I said. But I confess that after I
had been a little too copious in talking of my own beloved country, of our
trade, and wars by sea and land, of our schisms in religion, and parties in
the state; the prejudices of his education prevailed so far that he could not
forbear taking me up in his right hand, and, stroking me gently with the
other, after a hearty fit of laughing, asked me, whether I was a whig or a
tory? Then turning to his first minister, who waited behind him with a white
staff, near as tall as the mainmast of the "Royal Sovereign,"[61] he observed
how contemptible a thing was human grandeur, which could be mimicked
by such diminutive insects as I: and yet, says he, I dare engage these
creatures have their titles and distinctions of honor; they contrive little nests
and burrows, that they call houses and cities; they make a figure in dress
and equipage; they love, they fight, they dispute, they cheat, they betray.
And thus he continued on, while my color came and went several times
with indignation, to hear our noble country, the mistress of arts and arms,
the scourge of France, the arbitress of Europe, the seat of virtue, piety,
honor, and truth, the pride and envy of the world, so contemptuously
treated.
But, as I was not in a condition to resent injuries, so upon mature
thoughts, I began to doubt whether I was injured or no. For, after having
been accustomed, several months, to the sight and converse of this people,
and observed every object upon which I cast mine eyes to be of
proportionable magnitude, the horror I had at first conceived from their
bulk and aspect was so far worn off, that, if I had then beheld a company of
English lords and ladies in their finery, and birthday clothes, acting their
several parts in the most courtly manner of strutting and bowing and
prating, to say the truth, I should have been strongly tempted to laugh as
much at them as the king and his grandees did at me. Neither, indeed, could
I forbear smiling at myself, when the queen used to place me upon her hand
towards a looking-glass, by which both our persons appeared before me in
full view together; and there could nothing be more ridiculous than the
comparison; so that I really began to imagine myself dwindled many
degrees below my usual size.

Nothing angered and mortified me so much, as the queen's dwarf, who
being of the lowest stature that ever in that country (for I verily think he
was not full thirty feet high) became so insolent at seeing a creature so
much beneath him, that he would always affect to swagger, and look big, as
he passed by me in the queen's ante-chamber, while I was standing on some
table, talking with the lords or ladies of the court, and he seldom failed of a
smart word or two upon my littleness; against which I could only revenge
myself, by calling him brother, challenging him to wrestle, and such
repartees as are usual in the mouths of court pages. One day, at dinner, this
malicious little cub was so nettled with something I had said to him, that,
raising himself upon the frame of her majesty's chair, he took me up, as I
was sitting down, not thinking any harm; and let me drop into a large silver
bowl of cream, and then ran away as fast as he could. I fell over head and
ears, and, if I had not been a good swimmer, it might have gone very hard
with me; for Glumdalclitch, in that instant, happened to be at the other end
of the room, and the queen was in such a fright, that she wanted presence of
mind to assist me. But my little nurse ran to my relief, and took me out,
after I had swallowed above a quart of cream. I was put to bed; however, I
received no other damage than the loss of a suit of clothes, which was
utterly spoiled. The dwarf was soundly whipped, and, as a farther
punishment, forced to drink up the bowl of cream into which he had thrown
me; neither was he ever restored to favor; for, soon after, the queen
bestowed him on a lady of high quality, so that I saw him no more, to my
very great satisfaction; for I could not tell to what extremity such a
malicious urchin might have carried his resentment.

"I COULD ONLY REVENGE MYSELF BY CALLING HIM
BROTHER."
He had before served me a scurvy trick, which set the queen a-laughing,
although, at the same time she was heartily vexed, and would have
immediately cashiered him, if I had not been so generous as to intercede.
Her majesty had taken a marrow-bone upon her plate and, after knocking
out the marrow, placed the bone on the dish erect, as it stood before. The
dwarf watching his opportunity, while Glumdalclitch was gone to the
sideboard, mounted upon the stool she stood on to take care of me at meals,
took me up in both hands, and, squeezing my legs together, wedged them

into the marrow-bone above my waist, where I stuck for some time, and
made a very ridiculous figure, I believe it was near a minute before any one
knew what was became of me; for I thought it below me to cry out. But, as
princes seldom get their meat hot, my legs were not scalded, only my
stockings and breeches in a sad condition. The dwarf, at my entreaty, had no
other punishment than a sound whipping.
I was frequently rallied by the queen upon account of my fearfulness; and
she used to ask me, whether the people of my country were as great
cowards as myself? The occasion was this; the kingdom is much pestered
with flies in summer; and these odious insects, each of them as big as a
Dunstable lark,[62] hardly gave me any rest, while I sat at dinner, with their
continual humming and buzzing about my ears. They would sometimes
alight upon my victuals. Sometimes they would fix upon my nose or
forehead, where they stung me to the quick, and I had much ado to defend
myself against these detestable animals, and could not forbear starting when
they came on my face. It was the common practice of the dwarf, to catch a
number of these insects in his hand, as school-boys do among us, and let
them out suddenly under my nose, on purpose to frighten me, and divert the
queen. My remedy was, to cut them in pieces with my knife, as they flew in
the air, wherein my dexterity was much admired.

I remember, one morning, when Glumdalclitch had set me in my box
upon a window, as she usually did in fair days, to give me air (for I durst
not venture to let the box be hung on a nail out of the window, as we do
with cages in England) after I had lifted up one of my sashes, and sat down
at my table to eat a piece of sweet-cake for my breakfast, above twenty
wasps, allured by the smell, came flying into the room, humming louder
than the drones[63] of as many bag-pipes. Some of them seized my cake,
and carried it piece-meal away; others flew about my head and face,
confounding me with the noise, and putting me in the utmost terror of their
stings. However, I had the courage to rise and draw my hanger, and attack
them in the air. I despatched four of them, but the rest got away, and I
presently shut my window. These creatures were as large as partridges; I
took out their stings, found them an inch and a half long, and as sharp as
needles. I carefully preserved them all, and having since shown them, with
some other curiosities, in several parts of Europe, upon my return to
England, I gave three of them to Gresham College,[64] and kept the fourth
for myself.

CHAPTER IV.

THE COUNTRY DESCRIBED. A PROPOSAL FOR CORRECTING
MODERN MAPS. THE KING'S PALACE, AND SOME ACCOUNT OF
THE METROPOLIS. THE AUTHOR'S WAY OF TRAVELLING. THE
CHIEF TEMPLE DESCRIBED.
I now intend to give the reader a short description of this country, as far
as I travelled in it, which was not above two thousand miles round
Lorbrulgrud, the metropolis. For the queen, whom I always attended, never
went farther when she accompanied the king in his progresses, and there
staid till his majesty returned from viewing his frontiers. The whole extent
of this prince's dominions reacheth about six thousand miles in length, and
from three to five in breadth. From whence I cannot but conclude, that our
geographers of Europe are in a great error, by supposing nothing but sea
between Japan and California; for it was ever my opinion, that there must
be a balance of earth to counterpoise the great continent of Tartary; and
therefore they ought to correct their maps and charts, by joining this vast
tract of land to the northwest parts of America, wherein I shall be ready to
lend them my assistance.
The kingdom is a peninsula, terminated to the northeast by a ridge of
mountains, thirty miles high, which are altogether impassable, by reason of
the volcanoes upon the tops: neither do the most learned know what sort of
mortals inhabit beyond those mountains, or whether they be inhabited at all.
On the three other sides it is bounded by the ocean. There is not one sea-
port in the whole kingdom, and those parts of the coasts into which the
rivers issue, are so full of pointed rocks, and the sea generally so rough, that
there is no venturing with the smallest of their boats; so that these people
are wholly excluded from any commerce with the rest of the world.
But the large rivers are full of vessels, and abound with excellent fish, for
they seldom get any from the sea, because the sea-fish are of the same size
with those in Europe, and consequently not worth catching, whereby it is
manifest, that nature, in the production of plants and animals of so

extraordinary a bulk, is wholly confined to this continent, of which I leave
the reasons to be determined by philosophers. However, now and then, they
take a whale, that happens to be dashed against the rocks, which the
common people feed on heartily. These whales I have known so large, that a
man could hardly carry one upon his shoulders; and sometimes, for
curiosity, they are brought in hampers to Lorbrulgrud: I saw one of them in
a dish at the king's table, which passed for a rarity, but I did not observe he
was fond of it; for I think indeed the bigness disgusted him, although I have
seen one somewhat larger in Greenland.
The country is well inhabited, for it contains fifty-one cities, near a
hundred walled towns, and a great number of villages. To satisfy my
curious reader, it may be sufficient to describe Lorbrulgrud. This city stands
upon almost two equal parts on each side the river that passes through. It
contains above eighty thousand houses, and about six hundred thousand
inhabitants. It is in length three glomglungs (which make about fifty-four
English miles) and two and a half in breadth, as I measured it myself in the
royal map made by the king's order, which was laid on the ground on
purpose for me, and extended a hundred feet: I paced the diameter and
circumference several times barefoot, and, computing by the scale,
measured it pretty exactly.
The king's palace is no regular edifice, but a heap of buildings, about
seven miles round: the chief rooms are generally two hundred and forty feet
high, and broad and long in proportion. A coach was allowed to
Glumdalclitch and me, wherein her governess frequently took her out to see
the town, or go among the shops; and I was always of the party, carried in
my box; although the girl, at my own desire, would often take me out, and
hold me in her hand, that I might more conveniently view the houses and
the people as we passed along the streets, I reckoned our coach to be about
the square of Westminster-hall, but not altogether so high: however, I
cannot be very exact.
Besides the large box in which I was usually carried, the queen ordered a
smaller one to be made for me, of about twelve feet square and ten high, for
the convenience of travelling, because the other was somewhat too large for
Glumdalclitch's lap, and cumbersome in the coach. It was made by the same
artist, whom I directed in the whole contrivance. This travelling closet was
an exact square,[65] with a window in the middle of three of the squares, and

each window was latticed with iron wire on the outside, to prevent
accidents in long journeys. On the fourth side, which had no window, two
strong staples were fixed, through which the person who carried me, when I
had a mind to be on horseback, put a leathern belt, and buckled it about his
waist. This was always the office of some grave, trusty servant, in whom I
could confide, whether I attended the king and queen in their progresses, or
were disposed to see the gardens, or pay a visit to some great lady or
minister of state in the court; for I soon began to be known and esteemed
among the greatest officers, I suppose more on account of their majesties'
favor than any merit of my own.
In journeys, when I was weary of the coach, a servant on horseback
would buckle on my box, and place it upon a cushion before him; and there
I had a full prospect of the country on three sides from my three windows. I
had in this closet a field-bed, and a hammock hung from the ceiling, two
chairs and a table, neatly screwed to the floor, to prevent being tossed about
by the agitation of the horse or the coach. And having been long used to sea
voyages, those motions, although sometimes very violent, did not much
discompose me.
Whenever I had a mind to see the town, it was always in my travelling
closet, which Glumdalclitch held in her lap, in a kind of open sedan, after
the fashion of the country, borne by four men, and attended by two others in
the queen's livery. The people, who had often heard of me, were very
curious to crowd about the sedan, and the girl was complaisant enough to
make the bearers stop, and to take me in her hand, that I might be more
conveniently seen.
I was very desirous to see the chief temple, and particularly the tower
belonging to it, which is reckoned the highest in the kingdom. Accordingly,
one day my nurse carried me thither, but I must truly say I came back
disappointed; for the height is not above three thousand feet, reckoning
from the ground to the highest pinnacle top; which, allowing for the
difference between the size of those people and us in Europe, is no great
matter for admiration, nor at all equal in proportion (if I rightly remember)
to Salisbury steeple.[66] But, not to detract from a nation, to which during
my life I shall acknowledge myself extremely obliged, it must be allowed
that whatever this famous tower wants in height is amply made up in beauty
and strength. For the walls are nearly a hundred feet thick, built of hewn

stone, whereof each is about forty feet square, and adorned on all sides with
statues of gods and emperors, cut in marble larger than life, placed in their
several niches. I measured a little finger which had fallen down from one of
these statues, and lay unperceived among some rubbish, and found it
exactly four feet and an inch in length. Glumdalclitch wrapped it up in her
handkerchief and carried it home in her pocket, to keep among other
trinkets, of which the girl was very fond, as children at her age usually are.
The king's kitchen is indeed a noble building, vaulted at top, and about
six hundred feet high. The great oven is not so wide by ten paces as the
cupola at St. Paul's, for I measured the latter on purpose after my return. But
if I should describe the kitchen-grate, the prodigious pots and kettles, the
joints of meat turning on the spits, with many other particulars, perhaps I
should be hardly believed; at least, a severe critic would be apt to think I
enlarged a little, as travellers are often suspected to do. To avoid which
censure, I fear I have run too much into the other extreme; and that if this
treatise should happen to be translated into the language of Brobdingnag
(which is the general name of that kingdom) and transmitted thither, the
king and his people would have reason to complain that I had done them an
injury, by a false and diminutive representation.
His majesty seldom keeps above six hundred horses in his stables: they
are generally from fifty-four to sixty feet high. But when he goes abroad on
solemn days, he is attended for state by a militia guard of five hundred
horse, which indeed I thought was the most splendid sight that could be
ever beheld, till I saw part of his army in battalia,[67] whereof I shall find
another occasion to speak.

CHAPTER V.

SEVERAL ADVENTURES THAT HAPPENED TO THE AUTHOR.
THE AUTHOR SHOWS HIS SKILL IN NAVIGATION.
I should have lived happily enough in that country, if my littleness had
not exposed me to several ridiculous and troublesome accidents, some of
which I shall venture to relate. Glumdalclitch often carried me into the
gardens of the court in my smaller box, and would sometimes take me out
of it, and hold me in her hand, or set me down to walk. I remember, before
the dwarf left the queen, he followed us one day into those gardens, and my
nurse having set me down, he and I being close together, near some dwarf
apple-trees, I must needs show my wit by a silly allusion between him and
the trees, which happens to hold in their language, as it doth in ours.
Whereupon the malicious rogue, watching his opportunity, when I was
walking under one of them, shook it directly over my head; by which a
dozen apples, each of them near as large as a Bristol barrel, came tumbling
about my ears; one of them hit me on the back as I chanced to stoop, and
knocked me down flat on my face; but I received no other hurt; and the
dwarf was pardoned at my desire, because I had given the provocation.

Another day, Glumdalclitch left me on a smooth grass-plot to divert
myself, while she walked at some distance with her governess. In the
meantime there suddenly fell such a violent shower of hail, that I was
immediately, by the force of it, struck to the ground; and when I was down,
the hail stones gave me such cruel bangs all over the body as if I had been
pelted with tennis-balls, however, I made a shift to creep on all fours, and
shelter myself by lying flat on my face on the lee-side of a border of lemon-
thyme, but so bruised from head to foot that I could not go abroad in ten
days. Neither is this at all to be wondered at, because nature, in that country,
observing the same proportion through all her operations, a hail-stone is
near eighteen hundred times as large as one in Europe, which I can assert
upon experience, having been so curious to weigh and measure them.

But a more dangerous accident happened to me in the same garden, when
my little nurse, believing she had put me in a secure place, which I often
entreated her to do, that I might enjoy my own thoughts, and having left my
box at home, to avoid the trouble of carrying it, went to another part of the
garden with governess and some ladies of her acquaintance, she was absent
and out of hearing, a small white belonging to one of the chief gardeners,
having got by accident into the garden, happened to place where I lay: the
dog, following the scent, came directly up, and taking me in his mouth, ran
straight to his master, wagging his tail, and set me gently on the ground. By
good fortune, he had been so well taught, that I was carried between his
teeth without the least hurt, or even tearing my clothes. But the poor
gardener, who knew me well, and had a great kindness for me, was in a
terrible fright: he gently took me up in both his hands, and asked me how I
did; but I was so amazed and out of breath, that I could not speak a word. In
a few minutes I came to myself, and he carried me safe to my little nurse,
who by this time had returned to the place where she left me, and was in
cruel agonies when I did not appear nor answer when she called. She
severely reprimanded the gardener on account of his dog, but the thing was
bushed up and never known at court; for the girl was afraid of the queen's
anger, and truly, as to myself, I thought it would not be for my reputation
that such a story should go about.
This accident absolutely determined Glumdalclitch never to trust me
abroad for the future out of her sight. I had been long afraid of this
resolution, and therefore concealed from her some little unlucky adventures
that happened in those times when I was left by myself. Once a kite,
hovering over the garden, made a stoop at me; and if I had not resolutely
drawn my hanger, and run under a thick espalier,[68] he would have
certainly carried me away in his talons. Another time, walking to the top of
a fresh mole-hill, I fell to my neck in the hole through which that animal
had cast up the earth. I likewise broke my right shin against the shell of a
snail, which I happened to stumble over as I was walking alone and
thinking on poor England.
I cannot tell whether I were more pleased or mortified to observe in those
solitary walks that the smaller birds did not appear to be at all afraid of me,
but would hop about within a yard's distance, looking for worms and other
food, with as much indifference and security as if no creature at all were
near them. I remember a thrush had the confidence to snatch out of my hand

with his bill a piece of cake that Glumdalclitch had just given me for my
breakfast.
When I attempted to catch any of these birds they would boldly turn
against me, endeavoring to pick my fingers, which I durst not venture
within their reach; and then they would hop back unconcerned to hunt for
worms and snails as they did before. But one day I took a thick cudgel, and
threw it with all my strength so luckily at a linnet that I knocked him down,
and seizing him by the neck with both my hands ran with him in triumph to
my nurse. However, the bird, who had only been stunned, recovering
himself, gave me so many boxes with his wings on both sides of my head
and body, though I held him at arm's length and was out of the reach of his
claws, that I was twenty times thinking of letting him go. But I was soon
relieved by one of our servants, who wrung off the bird's neck, and I had
him next day for dinner by the queen's command. This linnet, as near as I
can remember, seemed to be somewhat larger than an English swan.
The queen, who often used to hear me talk of my sea-voyages, and took
all occasions to divert me when I was melancholy, asked me, whether I
understood how to handle a sail or an oar, and whether a little exercise of
rowing might not be convenient for my health. I answered, that I
understood both very well; for, although my proper employment had been
to be surgeon or doctor to the ship, yet often, upon a pinch, I was forced to
work like a common mariner. But I could not see how this could be done in
their country, where the smallest wherry was equal to a first-rate man-of-
war among us, and such a boat as I could manage would never live in any
of their rivers.

"THE SMALLER BIRDS DID NOT APPEAR TO BE AT ALL
AFRAID OF ME."
Her majesty said, if I could contrive a boat, her own joiner should make
it, and she would provide a place for me to sail in. The fellow was an
ingenious workman, and, by my instructions, in ten days finished a
pleasure-boat, with all its tackling, able conveniently to hold eight
Europeans. When it was finished, the queen was so delighted that she ran
with it in her lap to the king, who ordered it to be put in a cistern full of
water, with me in it, by way of trial; where I could not manage my two
sculls,[69] or little oars, for want of room.

But the queen had before contrived another project. She ordered the
joiner to make a wooden trough of three hundred feet long, fifty broad, and
eight deep; which, being well pitched, to prevent leaking, was placed on the
floor along the wall in an outer room of the palace. It had a cock near the
bottom to let out the water, when it began to grow stale; and two servants
could easily fill it in half-an-hour. Here I often used to row for my own
diversion, as well as that of the queen and her ladies, who thought
themselves well entertained with my skill and agility. Sometimes I would
put up my sail, and then my business was only to steer, while the ladies
gave me a gale with their fans; and when they were weary, some of their
pages would blow my sail forward with their breath, while I showed my art
by steering starboard[70] or larboard, as I pleased. When I had done,
Glumdalclitch always carried back my boat, into her closet, and hung it oh a
nail to dry.
In this exercise I once met an accident, which had like to have cost me
my life; for one of the pages having put my boat into the trough, the
governess, who attended Glumdalclitch, very officiously lifted me up to
place me in the boat, but I happened to slip through her fingers, and should
infallibly have fallen down forty feet upon the floor, if, by the luckiest
chance in the world, I had not been stopped by a corking-pin[71] that stuck
in the good gentlewoman's stomacher;[72] the head of the pin passed
between my shirt and the waistband of my breeches, and thus I held by the
middle in the air, till Glumdalclitch ran to my relief.

"GAVE ME A GALE WITH THEIR FANS."
Another time, one of the servants, whose office it was to fill my trough
every third day with fresh water, was so careless as to let a huge frog (not
perceiving it) slip out of his pail. The frog lay concealed till I was put into
my boat, but then seeing a resting-place, climbed up, and made it lean so
much on one side that I was forced to balance it with all my weight on the
other to prevent overturning. When the frog was got in, it hopped at once
half the length of the boat, and then over my head backwards and forwards.
The largeness of its features made it appear the most deformed animal that
can be conceived. However, I desired Glumdalclitch to let me deal with it

alone. I banged it a good while with one of my sculls, and at last forced it to
leap out of the boat.
But the greatest danger I ever underwent in that kingdom was from a
monkey, who belonged to one of the clerks of the kitchen. Glumdalclitch
had locked me up in her closet, while she went somewhere upon business or
a visit. The weather being very warm the closet window was left open, as
well as the windows and the door of my bigger box, in which I usually
lived, because of its largeness and conveniency. As I sat quietly meditating
at my table, I heard something bounce in at the closet window, and skip
about from one side to the other; whereat, although I was much alarmed, yet
I ventured to look out, but not stirring from my seat; and then I saw this
frolicsome animal frisking and leaping up and down, till at last he came to
my box, which he seemed to view with great pleasure and curiosity,
peeping in at the door and every window.

I retreated to the farther corner of my room or box; but the monkey
looking in at every side, put me into such a fright that I wanted presence of
mind to conceal myself under the bed, as I might easily have done. After
some time spent in peeping, grinning, and chattering, he at last espied me,
and reaching one of his paws in at the door, as a cat does when she plays
with a mouse, although I often shifted place to avoid him, he at length
seized the lappet of my coat (which, being made of that country silk, was
very thick and strong), and dragged me out. He took me out in his right
fore-foot, and held me as a nurse does a child, just as I have seen the same
sort of creature do with a kitten in Europe: and, when I offered to struggle,
he squeezed me so hard that I thought it more prudent to submit. I have
good reason to believe that he took me for a young one of his own species,
by his often stroking my face very gently with his other paw.

In these diversions he was interrupted by a noise at the closet door, as if
somebody were opening it; whereupon he suddenly leaped up to the
window, at which he had come in, and thence upon the leads and gutters
walking upon three legs, and holding me in the fourth, till he clambered up
to a roof that was next to ours. I heard Glumdalclitch give a shriek at the
moment he was carrying me out. The poor girl was almost distracted. That
quarter of the palace was all in an uproar; the servants ran for ladders; the
monkey was seen by hundreds in the court, sitting upon the ridge of a
building, holding me like a baby in one of his fore-paws: whereat many of
the rabble below could not forbear laughing; neither do I think they justly
ought to be blamed, for without question, the sight was ridiculous enough to
everybody but myself. Some of the people threw up stones, hoping to drive
the monkey down; but this was strictly forbidden, or else very probably my
brains had been dashed out.
The ladders were now applied, and mounted by several men, which the
monkey observing, and finding himself almost encompassed, not being able
to make speed enough with his three legs, let me drop on a ridge tile, and
made his escape. Here I sat for some time, five hundred yards from the
ground, expecting every moment to be blown down by the wind, or to fall
by my own giddiness, and come tumbling over and over from the ridge to
the eaves; but an honest lad, one of my nurse's footmen, climbed up, and
putting me into his breeches-pocket, brought me down safe.
I was so weak and bruised in the sides with the squeezes given me by this
odious animal, that I was forced to keep my bed a fortnight. The king,
queen, and all the court, sent every day to inquire after my health, and her
majesty made me several visits during my sickness. The monkey was killed,
and an order made that no such animal should be kept about the palace.
When I attended the king, after my recovery, to return him thanks for his
favors, he was pleased to rally me a good deal upon this adventure. He
asked me what my thoughts and speculations were while I lay in the
monkey's paw. He desired to know what I would have done upon such an
occasion in my own country. I told his majesty that in Europe we had no
monkeys, except such as were brought for curiosities from other places, and
so small, that I could deal with a dozen of them together if they presumed to
attack me. And as for that monstrous animal with whom I was so lately
engaged (it was, indeed, as large as an elephant) if my fears had suffered me

to think so far as to make use of my hanger (looking fiercely, and clapping
my hand upon the hilt, as I spoke) when he poked his paw into my chamber,
perhaps I should have given him such a wound as would have made him
glad to withdraw it with more haste than he put it in. This I delivered in a
firm tone, like a person who was jealous lest his courage should be called in
question.
However, my speech produced nothing else besides a loud laughter,
which all the respect due to his majesty from those about him could not
make them contain. This made me reflect how vain an attempt it is for a
man to endeavor to do himself honor among those who are out of all degree
of equality or comparison with him. And yet I have seen the moral of my
own behavior very frequent in England since my return, where a little
contemptible varlet,[73] without the least title to birth, person, wit, or
common-sense, shall presume to look with importance, and put himself
upon a foot with the greatest persons of the kingdom.
I was every day furnishing the court with some ridiculous story; and
Glumdalclitch, although she loved me to excess, yet was arch enough to
inform the queen whenever I committed any folly that she thought would be
diverting to her majesty. The girl, who had been out of order, was carried by
her governess to take the air about an hour's distance, or thirty miles from
town. They alighted out of the coach near a small footpath in a field, and,
Glumdalclitch setting down my travelling-box, I went out of it to walk.
There was a pool of mud in the path, and I must needs try my activity by
attempting to leap over it. I took a run, but unfortunately jumped short, and
found myself just in the middle up to my knees. I waded through with some
difficulty, and one of the footmen wiped me as clean as he could with his
handkerchief, for I was filthily bemired; and my nurse confined me to my
box till we returned home, when the queen was soon informed of what had
passed, and the footman spread it about the court; so that all the mirth for
some days was at my expense.

CHAPTER VI.

SEVERAL CONTRIVANCES OF THE AUTHOR TO PLEASE THE
KING AND QUEEN. HE SHOWS HIS SKILL IN MUSIC. THE KING
INQUIRES INTO THE STATE OF ENGLAND, WHICH THE AUTHOR
RELATES TO HIM. THE KING'S OBSERVATIONS THEREON.
I used to attend the king's levee[74] once or twice a week, and had often
seen him under the barber's hand, which indeed was at first very terrible to
behold; for the razor was almost twice as long as an ordinary scythe. His
majesty, according to the custom of the country, was only shaved twice a
week. I once prevailed on the barber to give me some of the suds or lather,
out of which I picked forty or fifty of the strongest stumps of hair, I then
took a piece of fine wood and cut it like the back of a comb, making several
holes in it at equal distance with as small a needle as I could get from
Glumdalclitch. I fixed in the stumps so artificially, scraping and sloping
them with my knife towards the points, that I made a very tolerable comb;
which was a seasonable supply, my own being so much broken in the teeth
that it was almost useless: neither did I know any artist in that country so
nice and exact as would undertake to make me another.
And this puts me in mind of an amusement wherein I spent many of my
leisure hours. I desired the queen's woman to save for me the combings of
her majesty's hair, whereof in time I got a good quantity; and consulting
with my friend the cabinet-maker, who had received general orders to do
little jobs for me, I directed him to make two chair-frames, no larger than
those I had in my box, and then to bore little holes with a fine awl round
those parts where I designed the backs and seats; through these holes I
wove the strongest hairs I could pick out, just after the manner of cane
chairs in England. When they were finished I made a present of them to her
majesty, who kept them in her cabinet, and used to shew them for
curiosities, as indeed they were the wonder of every one that beheld them.
Of these hairs (as I had always a mechanical genius) I likewise made a neat
little purse, about five feet long, with her majesty's name deciphered in gold

letters, which I gave to Glumdalclitch, by the queen's consent. To say the
truth, it was more for show than use, being not of strength to bear the
weight of the larger coins, and therefore she kept nothing in it, but some
little coins that girls are fond of.
The king, who delighted in music, had frequent concerts at court, to
which I was sometimes carried, and set in my box on a table to hear them;
but the noise was so great that I could hardly distinguish the tunes. I am
confident that all the drums and trumpets of a royal army beating and
sounding together just at your ears, could not equal it. My practice was to
have my box removed from the place where the performers sat, as far as I
could, then to shut the doors and windows of it, and draw the window-
curtains, after which I found their music not disagreeable.

I had learnt in my youth to play a little upon the spinet.[75] Glumdalclitch
kept one in her chamber, and a master attended twice a week to teach her. I
called it a spinet, because it somewhat resembled that instrument, and was
played upon in the same manner.
A fancy came into my head that I would entertain the king and queen
with an English tune upon this instrument. But this appeared extremely
difficult; for the spinet was nearly sixty feet long, each key being almost a
foot wide, so that with my arms extended I could not reach to above five
keys, and to press them down required a good smart stroke with my fist,
which would be too great a labor, and to no purpose. The method I
contrived was this: I prepared two round sticks, about the bigness of
common cudgels; they were thicker at one end than the other, and I covered
the thicker ends with a piece of mouse's skin, that by rapping on them I
might neither damage the tops of the keys nor interrupt the sound. Before
the spinet a bench was placed about four feet below the keys, and I was put
upon the bench. I ran sideling upon it that way and this as fast as I could,
banging the proper keys with my two sticks, and made a shift to play a jig
to the great satisfaction of both their majesties; but it was the most violent
exercise I ever underwent, and yet I could not strike above sixteen keys, nor
consequently play the bass and treble together as other artists do, which was
a great disadvantage to my performance.
The king, who, as I before observed, was a prince of excellent
understanding, would frequently order that I should be brought in my box,
and set upon the table in his closet.[76] He would then command me to bring
one of my chairs out of the box, and sit down within three yards distance
upon the top of the cabinet, which brought me almost to a level with his
face. In this manner I had several conversations with him. I one day took
the freedom to tell his majesty that the contempt he discovered towards
Europe and the rest of the world did not seem answerable to those excellent
qualities of mind that he was master of; that reason did not extend itself
with the bulk of the body; on the contrary, we observed in our country that
the tallest persons were usually least provided with it. That, among other
animals, bees and ants had the reputation of more industry, art, and sagacity
than many of the larger kinds; and that, as inconsiderable as he took me to
be, I hoped I might live to do his majesty some signal[77] service. The king
heard me with attention, and began to conceive a much better opinion of me

than he had ever before. He desired I would give him as exact an account of
the government of England as I possibly could because, as fond as princes
commonly are of their own customs (for he conjectured of other monarchs
by my former discourses), he should be glad to hear of anything that might
deserve imitation.
Imagine with thyself, courteous reader, how often I then wished for the
tongue of Demosthenes or Cicero, that might have enabled me to celebrate
the praise of my own dear native country, in a style equal to its merits and
felicity.

"THE MOST VIOLENT EXERCISE I EVER UNDERWENT."

I began my discourse by informing his majesty that our dominions
consisted of two islands, which composed three mighty kingdoms, under
one sovereign, besides our plantations in America. I dwelt long upon the
fertility of our soil and the temperature of our climate. I then spoke at large
upon the constitution of an English parliament, partly made up of an
illustrious body, called the House of Peers, persons of the noblest blood and
of the most ancient and ample patrimonies. I described that extraordinary
care always taken of their education in arts and arms, to qualify them for
being counsellors both to the king and kingdom; to have a share in the
legislature; to be members of the highest court of judicature, from whence
there could be no appeal; and to be champions always ready for the defence
of their prince and country, by their valor, conduct, and fidelity. That these
were the ornament and bulwark of the kingdom, worthy followers of their
most renowned ancestors, whose honor had been the reward of their virtue,
from which their posterity were never once known to degenerate. To these
were joined several holy persons, as part of that assembly, under the title of
bishops, whose peculiar business it is to take care of religion, and those who
instruct the people therein. These were searched and sought out through the
whole nation, by the prince and his wisest counsellors, among such of the
priesthood as were most deservedly distinguished by the sanctity of their
lives and the depth of their erudition, who were indeed the spiritual fathers
of the clergy and the people.
That the other part of the parliament consisted of an assembly, called the
House of Commons, who were all principal gentlemen, freely picked and
culled out by the people themselves, for their great abilities and love of
their country, to represent the wisdom of the whole nation. And that these
two bodies made up the most august assembly in Europe, to whom, in
conjunction with the prince, the whole legislature is committed.
I then descended to the courts of justice, over which the judges, those
venerable sages and interpreters of the law, presided, for determining the
disputed rights and properties of men, as well as for the punishment of vice
and protection of innocence. I mentioned the prudent management of our
treasury, the valor and achievements of our forces by sea and land. I
computed the number of our people, by reckoning how many millions there
might be of each religious sect or political party among us. I did not omit
even our sports and pastimes, or any other particular, which I thought might

redound to the honor of my country. And I finished all with a brief historical
account of affairs and events in England for about a hundred years past.
This conversation was not ended under five audiences, each of several
hours; and the king heard the whole with great attention, frequently taking
notes of what I spoke, as well as memorandums of what questions he
intended to ask me.
When I had put an end to these long discourses, his majesty, in a sixth
audience, consulting his notes, proposed many doubts, queries, and
objections, upon every article. He asked what methods were used to
cultivate the minds and bodies of our young nobility, and in what kind of
business they commonly spent the first and teachable part of their lives?
What course was taken to supply that assembly when any noble family
became extinct? What qualifications were necessary in those who are to be
created new lords; whether the humor of the prince, a sum of money to a
court lady as a prime minister, or a design of strengthening a party opposite
to the public interest, ever happened to be motives in those advancements?
What share of knowledge these lords had in the laws of their country, and
how they came by it, so as to enable them to decide the properties of their
fellow-subjects in the last resort? Whether they were always so free from
avarice, partialities, or want, that a bribe or some other sinister view could
have no place among them? Whether those holy lords I spoke of were
always promoted to that rank upon account of their knowledge in religious
matters and the sanctity of their lives; had never been compilers with the
times while they were common priests, or slavish prostitute chaplains to
some noblemen, whose opinions they continued servilely to follow, after
they were admitted into that assembly?
He then desired to know what arts were practised in electing those whom
I called commoners; whether a stranger, with a strong purse, might not
influence the vulgar voters to choose him before their own landlord, or the
most considerable gentleman in the neighborhood? How it came to pass that
people were so violently bent upon getting into this assembly, which I
allowed to be a great trouble and expense, often to the ruin of their families,
without any salary or pension: because this appeared such an exalted strain
of virtue and public spirit, that his majesty seemed to doubt it might
possibly not be always sincere; and he desired to know whether such
zealous gentlemen could have any views of refunding themselves for the

charges and trouble they were at, by sacrificing the public good to the
designs of a weak and vicious prince, in conjunction with a corrupted
ministry? He multiplied his questions, and sifted me thoroughly upon every
part of this head, proposing numberless inquiries and objections, which I
think it not prudent or convenient to repeat.
Upon what I said in relation to our courts of justice, his majesty desired
to be satisfied in several points; and this I was the better able to do, having
been formerly almost ruined by a long suit in chancery,[78] which was
decreed for me with costs. He asked what time was usually spent in
determining between right and wrong, and what degree of expense?
Whether advocates and orators had liberty to plead in causes, manifestly
known to be unjust, vexatious, or oppressive? Whether party in religion or
politics was observed to be of any weight in the scale of justice? Whether
those pleading orators were persons educated in the general knowledge of
equity, or only in provincial, national, and other local customs? Whether
they, or their judges, had any part in penning those laws which they
assumed the liberty of interpreting and glossing[79] upon at their pleasure?
Whether they had ever, at different times, pleaded for or against the same
cause, and cited precedents to prove contrary opinions? Whether they were
a rich or a poor corporation? Whether they received any pecuniary reward
for pleading or delivering their opinions? And, particularly, whether they
were admitted as members in the lower senate?
He fell next upon the management of our treasury, and said he thought
my memory had failed me, because I computed our taxes at about five or
six millions a year, and, when I came to mention the issues, he found they
sometimes amounted to more than double; for the notes he had taken were
very particular in this point, because he hoped, as he told me, that the
knowledge of our conduct might be useful to him, and he could not be
deceived in his calculations. But if what I told him were true, he was still at
a loss how a kingdom could run out of its estate like a private person. He
asked me who were our creditors, and where we found to pay them. He
wondered to hear me talk of such chargeable and expensive wars; that
certainly we must be a quarrelsome people, or live among very bad
neighbors and that our generals must needs be richer than our kings. He
asked what business we had out of our own islands, unless upon the score
of trade or treaty, or to defend the coasts with our fleet. Above all, he was

amazed to hear me talk of a mercenary standing army in the midst of peace
and among a free people. He said if we were governed by our own consent,
in the persons of our representatives, he could not imagine of whom we
were afraid, or against whom we were to fight; and would hear my opinion,
whether a private man's house might not better be defended by himself, his
children, and family, than by half-a-dozen rascals, picked up at a venture in
the streets for small wages, who might get a hundred times more by cutting
their throats?
He laughed at my odd kind of arithmetic (as he was pleased to call it), in
reckoning the numbers of our people by a computation drawn from the
several sects among us, in religion and politics. He said, he knew no reason
why those who entertain opinions prejudicial to the public should be
obliged to change, or should not be obliged to conceal them. And as it was
tyranny in any government to require the first, so it was weakness not to
enforce the second: for a man may be allowed to keep poisons in his closet,
but not to vend them about for cordials.
He observed, that among the diversions of our nobility and gentry, I had
mentioned gaming: he desired to know at what age this entertainment was
usually taken up, and when it was laid down; how much of their time it
employed: whether it ever went so high as to affect their fortunes: whether
mean, vicious people, by their dexterity in that art, might not arrive at great
riches, and sometimes keep our very nobles in dependence, as well as
habituate them to vile companions, wholly take them from the improvement
of their minds, and force them, by the losses they received, to learn and
practise that infamous dexterity upon others?
He was perfectly astonished with the historical account I gave him of our
affairs during the last century, protesting it was only a heap of conspiracies,
rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions, banishments, the very worst
effects that avarice, faction, hypocrisy, perfidiousness, cruelty, rage,
madness, hatred, envy, lust, malice, and ambition, could produce.
His majesty, in another audience, was at the pains to recapitulate the sum
of all I had spoken; compared the questions he made with the answers I had
given; then taking me into his hands, and stroking me gently, delivered
himself in these words which I shall never forget, nor the manner he spoke
them in: "My little friend Grildrig, you have made a most admirable
panegyric upon your country; you have clearly proved that ignorance,

idleness, and vice are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislator; that
laws are best explained, interpreted, and applied by those whose interest
and abilities lie in perverting, confounding, and eluding them. I observe
among you some lines of an institution, which in its original might have
been tolerable, but these half erased, and the rest wholly blurred and blotted
by corruptions. It doth not appear, from all you have said, how any one
perfection is required towards the procurement of any one station among
you; much less that men are ennobled on account of their virtue, that priests
are advanced for their piety or learning, soldiers for their conduct or valor,
judges for their integrity, senators for the love of their country, or
counsellors for their wisdom. As for yourself, continued the king, who have
spent the greatest part of your life in travelling, I am well disposed to hope
you may hitherto have escaped many vices of your country. But by what I
have gathered from your own relation, and the answers I have with much
pains wrung and extorted from you, I cannot but conclude the bulk of your
natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature
ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth."

"YOU HAVE MADE A MOST ADMIRABLE PANEGYRIC."

CHAPTER VII

THE AUTHOR'S LOVE OF HIS COUNTRY. HE MAKES A
PROPOSAL OF MUCH ADVANTAGE TO THE KING, WHICH IS
REJECTED. THE KING'S GREAT IGNORANCE IN POLITICS. THE
LEARNING OF THAT COUNTRY VERY IMPERFECT AND
CONFINED. THE LAWS, AND MILITARY AFFAIRS, AND PARTIES IN
THE STATE.
Nothing but an extreme love of truth could have hindered me from
concealing this part of my story. It was in vain to discover my resentments,
which were always turned into ridicule; and I was forced to rest with
patience, while my noble and beloved country was so injuriously treated. I
am as heartily sorry as any of my readers can possibly be, that such an
occasion was given: but this prince happened to be so curious and
inquisitive upon every particular, that it could not consist either with
gratitude or good manners, to refuse giving him what satisfaction I was
able. Yet this much I may be allowed to say, in my own vindication, that I
artfully eluded many of his questions, and gave to every point a more
favorable turn, by many degrees, than the strictness of truth would allow.
For I have always borne that laudable partiality to my own country, which
Dionysius Halicarnassensis[80] with so much justice, recommends to an
historian: I would hide the frailties and deformities of my political mother,
and place her virtues and beauties in the most advantageous light. This was
my sincere endeavor, in those many discourses I had with that monarch,
although it unfortunately failed of success.
But great allowances should be given to a king who lives wholly
secluded from the rest of the world, and must therefore be altogether
unacquainted with the manners and customs that most prevail in other
nations: the want of which knowledge will ever produce many prejudices,
and a certain narrowness of thinking, from which we and the politer
countries of Europe are wholly exempted. And it would be hard indeed, if

so remote a prince's notions of virtue and vice were to be offered as a
standard for all mankind.
To confirm what I have now said, and farther to show the miserable
effects of a confined education, I shall here insert a passage which will
hardly obtain belief. In hopes to ingratiate myself farther into his majesty's
favor, I told him of an invention discovered between three and four hundred
years ago, to make a certain powder into a heap, on which the smallest
spark of fire falling would kindle the whole in a moment, although it were
as big as a mountain, and make it all fly up in the air together with a noise
and agitation greater than thunder. That a proper quantity of this powder
rammed into a hollow tube of brass or iron, according to its bigness, would
drive a ball of iron or lead with such violence and speed as nothing was able
to sustain its force. That the largest balls thus discharged would not only
destroy whole ranks of an army at once, but batter the strongest walls to the
ground, sink down ships with a thousand men in each to the bottom of the
sea; and, when linked together by a chain, would cut through masts and
rigging, divide hundreds of bodies in the middle, and lay all waste before
them. That we often put this powder into large hollow balls of iron, and
discharged them by an engine into some city we were besieging, which
would rip up the pavements, tear the houses to pieces, burst and throw
splinters on every side, dashing out the brains of all who came near. That I
knew the ingredients very well, which were cheap and common; I
understood the manner of compounding them, and could direct his
workman how to make those tubes of a size proportionable to all other
things in his majesty's kingdom, and the largest need not to be above a
hundred feet long; twenty or thirty of which tubes, charged with the proper
quantity of powder and balls, would batter down the walls of the strongest
town in his dominions in a few hours, or destroy the whole metropolis if
ever it should pretend to dispute his absolute commands. This I humbly
offered to his majesty as a small tribute of acknowledgment, in return for so
many marks that I had received of his royal favor and protection.
The king was struck with horror at the description I had given him of
those terrible engines, and the proposal I had made. He was amazed, how so
impotent and grovelling an insect as I (these were his expressions), could
entertain such inhuman ideas, and in so familiar a manner, as to appear
wholly unmoved at all the scenes of blood and desolation, which I had
painted, as the common effects of those destructive machines, whereof, he

said, some evil genius, enemy to mankind, must have been the first
contriver. As for himself, he protested, that although few things delighted
him so much as new discoveries in art or in nature, yet he would rather lose
half his kingdom than be privy to such a secret, which he commanded me,
as I valued my life, never to mention any more.
A strange effect of narrow principles and short views! that a prince
possessed of every quality which procures veneration, love, and esteem; of
strong parts, great wisdom, and profound learning, endowed with admirable
talents for government, and almost adored by his subjects, should, from a
nice unnecessary scruple, whereof in Europe we can have no conception, let
slip an opportunity put into his hands, that would have made him absolute
master of the lives, the liberties, and the fortunes of his people. Neither do I
say this with the least intention to detract from the many virtues of that
excellent king, whose character I am sensible will on this account be very
much lessened in the opinion of an English reader; but I take this defect
among them to have arisen from their ignorance, by not having hitherto
reduced politics into a science, as the more acute wits of Europe have done.
For I remember very well, in a discourse one day with the king, when I
happened to say there were several thousand books among us, written upon
the art of government, it gave him (directly contrary to my intention) a very
mean opinion of our understandings. He professed both to abominate and
despise all mystery, refinement, and intrigue, either in a prince or a minister.
He could not tell what I meant by secrets of state, where an enemy or some
rival nation were not in the case. He confined the knowledge of governing
within very narrow bounds, to common sense and reason, to justice and
lenity, to the speedy determination of civil and criminal causes, with some
other obvious topics, which are not worth considering. And he gave it for
his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of
grass to grow upon a spot of ground, where only one grew before, would
deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country,
than the whole race of politicians put together.
The learning of this people is very defective, consisting only in morality,
history, poetry, and mathematics, wherein they must be allowed to excel.
But the last of these is wholly applied to what may be useful in life, to the
improvement of agriculture, and all mechanical arts; so that among us it
would be little esteemed. And as to ideas, entities, abstractions, and
transcendentals,[81] I could never drive the least conception into their heads.

No law of that country must exceed in words the number of letters in
their alphabet, which consists only in two-and-twenty. But indeed few of
them extend even to that length. They are expressed in the most plain and
simple terms, wherein those people are not mercurial[82] enough to discover
above one interpretation; and to write a comment upon any law is a capital
crime. As to the decision of civil causes, or proceedings against criminals,
their precedents are so few, that they have little reason to boast of any
extraordinary skill in either.
They have had the art of printing, as well as the Chinese, time out of
mind: but their libraries are not very large; for that of the king, which is
reckoned the largest, doth not amount to above a thousand volumes, placed
in a gallery of twelve hundred feet long, from whence I had liberty to
borrow what books I pleased. The queen's joiner had contrived in one of
Glumdalclitch's rooms, a kind of wooden machine, five-and-twenty feet
high, formed like a standing ladder; the steps were each fifty feet long: it
was indeed a movable pair of stairs, the lowest end placed at ten feet
distance from the wall of the chamber. The book I had a mind to read was
put up leaning against the wall: I first mounted to the upper step of the
ladder, and turning my face towards the book began at the top of the page,
and so walking to the right and left about eight or ten paces, according to
the length of the lines, till I had gotten a little below the level of mine eyes,
and then descending gradually, till I came to the bottom: after which I
mounted again, and began the other page in the same manner, and so turned
over the leaf, which I could easily do with both my hands, for it was as
thick and stiff as a paste-board, and in the largest folios not above eighteen
or twenty feet long.
Their style is clear, masculine, and smooth, but not florid; for they avoid
nothing more than multiplying unnecessary words, or using various
expressions. I have perused many of their books, especially those in history
and morality. Among the rest, I was much diverted with a little old treatise,
which always lay in Glumdalclitch's bed-chamber, and belonged to her
governess, a grave elderly gentlewoman, who dealt in writings of morality
and devotion. The book treats of the weakness of human kind, and is in
little esteem, except among the women and the vulgar. However, I was
curious to see what an author of that country could say upon such a subject.

This writer went through all the usual topics of European moralists,
showing how diminutive, contemptible, and helpless an animal was man in
his own nature; how unable to defend himself from inclemencies of the air,
or the fury of wild beasts; how much he was excelled by one creature in
strength, by another in speed, by a third in foresight, by a fourth in industry.
He added, that nature was degenerated in these latter declining ages of the
world, and could now produce only small births, in comparison to those in
ancient times. He said, it was very reasonable to think, not only that the
species of men were originally much larger, but also, that there must have
been giants in former ages; which as it is asserted by history and tradition,
so it hath been confirmed by huge bones and skulls, casually dug up in
several parts of the kingdom, far exceeding the common dwindled race of
man in our days. He argued, that the very laws of nature absolutely required

we should have been made in the beginning of a size more large and robust,
not so liable to destruction, from every little accident, of a tile falling from a
house, or a stone cast from the hand of a boy, or being drowned in a little
brook. From this way of reasoning the author drew several moral
applications, useful in the conduct of life, but needless here to repeat. For
my own part, I could not avoid reflecting, how universally this talent was
spread, of drawing lectures in morality, or, indeed, rather matter of
discontent and repining, from the quarrels we raise with nature. And I
believe, upon a strict inquiry, those quarrels might be shown as ill-grounded
among us as they are among that people.
As to their military affairs, they boast that the king's army consists of a
hundred and seventy-six thousand foot, and thirty-two thousand horse: if
that may be called an army which is made up of tradesmen in the several
cities, and farmers in the country, whose commanders are only the nobility
and gentry, without pay or reward. They are indeed perfect enough in their
exercises, and under very good discipline, wherein I saw no great merit; for
how should it be otherwise, where every farmer is under the command of
his own landlord, and every citizen under that of the principal men in his
own city, chosen after the manner of Venice, by ballot?
I have often seen the militia of Lorbrulgrud drawn out to exercise in a
great field, near the city, of twenty miles square. They were in all not above
twenty-five thousand foot, and six thousand horse: but it was impossible for
me to compute their number, considering the space of ground they took up.
A cavalier, mounted on a large steed, might be about ninety feet high. I have
seen this whole body of horse, upon a word of command, draw their swords
at once, and brandish them in the air. Imagination can figure nothing so
grand, so surprising, and so astonishing! it looked as if ten thousand flashes
of lightning were darting at the same time from every quarter of the sky.
I was curious to know how this prince, to whose dominions there is no
access from any other country, came to think of armies, or to teach his
people the practice of military discipline. But I was soon informed, both by
conversation and reading their histories: for in the course of many ages,
they have been troubled with the same disease to which the whole race of
mankind is subject; the nobility often contending for power, the people for
liberty, and the king for absolute dominion. All which, however, happily
tempered by the laws of that kingdom, have been sometimes violated by

each of the three parties, and have more than once occasioned civil wars,
the last whereof was happily put an end to by this prince's grandfather, in a
general composition;[83] and the militia, then settled with common consent,
hath been ever since kept in the strictest duty.

CHAPTER VIII

THE KING AND QUEEN MAKE A PROGRESS[84] TO THE
FRONTIERS. THE AUTHOR ATTENDS THEM. THE MANNER IN
WHICH HE LEAVES THE COUNTRY VERY PARTICULARLY
RELATED. HE RETURNS TO ENGLAND.
I had always a strong impulse that I should sometime recover my liberty,
though it was impossible to conjecture by what means, or to form any
project with the least hope of succeeding. The ship in which I sailed was the
first ever known to be driven within sight of the coast; and the king had
given strict orders, that if at any time another appeared, it should be taken
ashore, and with all its crew and passengers brought in a tumbrel[85] to
Lorbrulgrud. I was treated with much kindness: I was the favorite of a great
king and queen, and the delight of the whole court; but it was upon such a
footing as ill became the dignity of human kind. I could never forget those
domestic pledges I had left behind me. I wanted to be among people with
whom I could converse upon even terms, and walk about the streets and
fields, without being afraid of being trod to death like a frog or a young
puppy. But my deliverance came sooner than I expected, and in a manner
not very common: the whole story and circumstances of which I shall
faithfully relate.

"SHE HAD SOME FOREBODING."
I had now been two years in this country; and about the beginning of the
third, Glumdalclitch and I attended the king and queen in a progress to the
south coast of the kingdom. I was carried, as usual, in my travelling-box,
which, as I have already described, was a very convenient closet of twelve
feet wide. And I had ordered a hammock to be fixed by silken ropes from
the four corners at the top, to break the jolts, when a servant carried me
before him on horseback, as I sometimes desired, and would often sleep in
my hammock while we were upon the road. On the roof of my closet, not
directly over the middle of the hammock, I ordered the joiner to cut out a

hole of a foot square, to give me air in hot weather as I slept, which hole I
shut at pleasure with a board that drew backwards and forwards through a
groove.
When we came to our journey's end, the king thought proper to pass a
few days at a palace he hath near Flanflasnic, a city within eighteen English
of the sea-side Glumdalclitch and I were much fatigued, I had gotten a
small cold, but the poor girl was so ill as to be confined to her chamber. I
longed to see the ocean, which must be the only scene of my escape, if ever
it should happen I pretended to be worse than I really was, and desired
leave to take the fresh air of the sea with a page, whom I was very fond of,
and who had sometimes been trusted with me. I shall never forget with what
unwillingness Glumdalclitch consented, nor the strict charge she gave the
page[86] to be careful of me, bursting at the same time into a flood of tears,
as if she had some foreboding of what was to happen.
The boy took me out in my box about half-an-hour's walk from the
palace towards the rocks on the sea-shore. I ordered him to set me down,
and lifting up one of my sashes, cast many a wistful melancholy look
towards the sea. I found myself not very well, and told the page that I had a
mind to take a nap in my hammock, which I hoped would do me good. I got
in, and the boy shut the window close down to keep out the cold. I soon fell
asleep, and all I can conjecture is, that while I slept, the page, thinking no
danger could happen, went among the rocks to look for birds' eggs, having
before observed him from my windows searching about, and picking up one
or two in the clefts. Be that as it will, I found myself suddenly awaked with
a violent pull upon the ring, which was fastened at the top of my box for the
conveniency of carriage. I felt my box raised very high in the air, and then
borne forward with prodigious speed. The first jolt had like to have shaken
me out of my hammock, but afterwards the motion was easy enough. I
called out several times, as loud as I could raise my voice, but all to no
purpose. I looked towards my windows, and could see nothing but the
clouds and sky. I heard a noise just over my head like the clapping of wings,
and then began to perceive the woful condition I was in, that some eagle
had got the ring of my box in his beak, with an intent to let it fall on a rock
like a tortoise in a shell, and then pick out my body and devour it; for the
sagacity and smell of this bird enabled him to discover his quarry[87] at a

great distance, though better concealed than I could be within a two-inch
board.

In a little time I observed the noise and flutter of wings to increase very
fast, and my box was tossed up and down like a sign in a windy day. I heard
several bangs or buffets, as I thought, given to the eagle (for such I am
certain it must have been, that held the ring of my box in his beak), and then
all on a sudden felt myself falling perpendicularly down for above a minute,
but with such incredible swiftness, that I almost lost my breath. My fall was
stopped by a terrible squash,[88] that sounded louder to my ears than the
cataract of Niagara; after which I was quite in the dark for another minute,
and then my box began to rise so high that I could see light from the tops of
the windows. I now perceived I was fallen into the sea. My box, by the
weight of my body, the goods that were in, and the broad plates of iron
fixed for strength at the four corners of the top and bottom, floated about
five feet deep in the water. I did then, and do now suppose, that the eagle

which flew away with my box was pursued by two or three others, and
forced to let me drop while he defended himself against the rest, who hoped
to share in the prey. The plates of iron fastened at the bottom of the box (for
those were the strongest) preserved the balance while it fell, and hindered it
from being broken on the surface of the water. Every joint of it was well
grooved, and the door did not move on hinges, but up and down like a sash,
which kept my closet so tight that very little water came in. I got with much
difficulty out of my hammock, having first ventured to draw back my slip-
board on the roof already mentioned, contrived on purpose to let in air, for
want of which I found myself almost stifled.
How often did I then wish myself with my dear Glumdalchtch, from
whom one single hour had so far divided me. And I may say with truth that
in the midst of my own misfortunes I could not forbear lamenting my poor
nurse, the grief she would suffer for my loss, the displeasure of the queen,
and the ruin of her fortune. Perhaps many travellers have not been under
greater difficulties and distress than I was at juncture, expecting every
moment to see my box dashed to pieces, or at least overset by the first
violent blast or rising wave. A breach in one single pane of glass would
have been immediate death; nor could anything have preserved the
windows but the strong lattice-wires placed on the outside against accidents
in travelling. I saw the water ooze in at several crannies, although the leaks
were not considerable, and I endeavored to stop them as well as I could, I
was not able to lift up the roof of my closet, which otherwise I certainly
should have done, and sat on the top of it, where I might at least preserve
myself some hours longer, than by being shut up (as I may call it) in the
hold. Or, if I escaped these dangers for a day or two, what could I expect
but a miserable death of cold and hunger? I was four hours under these
circumstances, expecting, and indeed wishing, every moment to be my last.
I have already told the reader that there were two strong staples fixed
upon that side of my box which had no window, and into which the servant
who used to carry me on horseback would put a leathern belt, and buckle it
about his waist. Being in this disconsolate state, I heard, or at least thought I
heard, some kind of grating noise on that side of my box where the staples
were fixed, and soon after I began to fancy that the box was pulled or towed
along in the sea, for I now and then felt a sort of tugging which made the
waves rise near the tops of my windows, leaving me almost in the dark.
This gave me some faint hopes of relief, although I was not able to imagine

how it could be brought about. I ventured to unscrew one of my chairs,
which were always fastened to the floor, and having made a hard shift to
screw it down again directly under the slipping board that I had lately
opened, I mounted on the chair, and putting my mouth as near as I could to
the hole, I called for help in a loud voice and in all the languages I
understood. I then fastened my handkerchief to a stick I usually carried, and
thrusting it up the hole, waved it several times in the air, that if any boat or
ship were near, the seamen might conjecture some unhappy mortal to be
shut up in the box.
I found no effect from all I could do, but plainly perceived my closet to
be moved along; and in the space of an hour or better, that side of the box
where the staples were and had no window struck against something that
was hard. I apprehended it to be a rock, and found myself tossed more than
ever. I plainly heard a noise upon the cover of my closet like that of a cable,
and the grating of it as it passed through the ring. I then found myself
hoisted up by degrees, at least three feet higher than I was before.
Whereupon I again thrust up my stick and handkerchief, calling for help till
I was almost hoarse. In return to which I heard a great shout repeated three
times, giving me such transports of joy as are not to be conceived but by
those who feel them. I now heard a trampling over my head, and somebody
calling through the hole with a loud voice in the English tongue. "If there be
anybody below, let them speak." I answered I was an Englishman, drawn by
ill fortune into the greatest calamity that ever any creature underwent, and
begged by all that was moving to be delivered out of the dungeon I was in.
The voice replied I was safe, for my box was fastened to their ship; and the
carpenter should immediately come and saw a hole in the cover, large
enough to pull me out. I answered that was needless, and would take up too
much time, for there was no more to be done, but let one of the crew put his
finger into the ring, and take the box out of the sea into the ship, and so into
the captain's cabin. Some of them upon hearing me talk so wildly thought I
was mad; others laughed; for indeed it never came into my head that I was
now got among people of my own stature and strength. The carpenter came,
and in a few minutes sawed a passage about four feet square, then let down
a small ladder upon which I mounted, and from thence was taken into the
ship in a very weak condition.

"SOMEBODY CALLING ... IN THE ENGLISH TONGUE."
The sailors were all in amazement, and asked me a thousand questions,
which I had no inclination to answer. I was equally confounded at the sight
of so many pygmies, for such I took them to be, after having so long
accustomed mine eyes to the monstrous objects I had left. But the captain,
Mr. Thomas Wilcocks, an honest, worthy Shropshire man, observing I was
ready to faint, took me into his cabin, gave me a cordial to comfort me, and
made me turn in upon his own bed, advising me to take a little rest, of
which I had great need. Before I went to sleep, I gave him to understand
that I had some valuable furniture in my box, too good to be lost; a fine

hammock, a handsome two chairs, a table, and a cabinet. That my closet
was hung on all sides, or rather quilted, with silk and cotton: that if he
would let one of the crew bring my closet into his cabin, I would open it
there before him, and show him my goods. The captain, hearing me utter
these absurdities, concluded I was raving: however (I suppose to pacify
me), he promised to give orders as I desired, and going upon deck, sent
some of his men down into my closet, from whence (as I afterwards found)
they drew up all my goods, and stripped off the quilting; but the chairs,
cabinet, and bedstead, being screwed to the floor, were much damaged by
the ignorance of the seamen, who tore them up by force. Then they knocked
off some of the boards for the use of the ship, and when they had got all
they had a mind for, let the hull drop into the sea, which, by reason of so
many breaches made in the bottom and sides, sunk to rights.[89] And indeed
I was glad not to have been a spectator of the havoc they made; because I
am confident it would have sensibly touched me, by bringing former
passages into my mind, which I had rather forgotten.
I slept some hours, but was perpetually disturbed with dreams of the
place I had left, and the dangers I had escaped. However, upon waking, I
found myself much recovered. It was now about eight o'clock at night, and
the captain ordered supper immediately, thinking I had already fasted too
long. He entertained me with great kindness, observing me not to look
wildly, or talk inconsistently; and when we were left alone, desired I would
give him a relation of my travels, and by what accident I came to be set
adrift in that monstrous wooden chest.
He said that about twelve o'clock at noon, as he was looking through his
glass, he spied it at a distance, and thought it was a sail, which he had a
mind to make[90], being not much out of his course, in hopes of buying
some biscuit, his own beginning to fall short. That upon coming nearer and
finding his error, he sent out his long-boat to discover what it was; that his
men came back in a fright, swearing they had seen a swimming-house. That
he laughed at their folly, and went himself in the boat, ordering his men to
take a strong cable along with them. That the weather being calm, he rowed
round me several times, observed my windows and wire-lattices that
defenced them. That he discovered two staples upon one side, which was all
of boards, without any passage for light. He then commanded his men to
row up to that side, and fastening a cable to one of the staples, ordered them

to tow my chest (as they called it) towards the ship. When it was there, he
gave directions to fasten another cable to the ring fixed in the cover, and to
raise up my chest with pulleys, which all the sailors were not able to do
above two or three feet. He said they saw my stick and handkerchief thrust
out of the hole, and concluded that some unhappy man must be shut up in
the cavity. I asked whether he or the crew had seen any prodigious birds in
the air about the time he first discovered me? to which he answered, that,
discoursing this matter with the sailors while I was asleep, one of them said
he had observed three eagles flying towards the north, but remarked nothing
of their being larger than the usual size, which I suppose must be imputed to
the great height they were at; and he could not guess the reason of my
question. I then asked the captain how far he reckoned we might be from
land?
He said, by the best computation he could make, we were at least a
hundred leagues. I assured him that he must be mistaken by almost half, for
I had not left the country from whence I came above two hours before I
dropt into the sea. Whereupon he began again to think that my brain was
disturbed, of which he gave me a hint, and advised me to go to bed in a
cabin he had provided. I assured him I was well refreshed with his good
entertainment and company, and as much in my senses as ever I was in my
life.
He then grew serious, and desired to ask me freely whether I were not
troubled in mind by the consciousness of some enormous crime, for which I
was punished by the command of some prince, by exposing me in that
chest, as great criminals in other countries have been forced to sea in a
leaky vessel without provisions; for although he should be sorry to have
taken so ill a man into his ship, yet he would engage his word to set me safe
ashore in the first port where we arrived. He added that his suspicions were
much increased by some very absurd speeches I had delivered, at first to his
sailors, and afterwards to himself, in relation to my closet chest, as well as
by my odd looks and behavior while I was at supper.
I begged his patience to hear me tell my story, which I faithfully did,
from the last time I left England to the moment he first discovered me. And
as truth always forceth its way into rational minds, so this honest worthy
gentleman, who had some tincture of learning and very good sense, was
immediately convinced of my candor and veracity. But, farther to confirm

all I had said, I entreated him to give order that my cabinet should be
brought, of which I had the key in my pocket (for he had already informed
me how seamen disposed of my closet). I opened it in his own presence,
and showed him the small collection of rarities I made in the country from
whence I had been so strangely delivered. There was the comb I had
contrived out of the stumps of the king's beard. There was a collection of
needles and pins, from a foot to half a yard long; four wasps' stings, like
joiners' tacks; some combings of the queen's hair; a gold ring, which one
day she made me a present of in a most obliging manner, taking it from her
little finger and throwing it over my head like a collar. I desired the captain
would please to accept this ring in return of his civilities, which he
absolutely refused. Lastly I desired him to see the breeches I had then on,
which were made of a mouse's skin.
I could force nothing upon him but a footman's tooth, which I observed
him to examine with great curiosity, and found he had a fancy for it. He
received it with abundance of thanks, more than such a trifle could deserve.
It was drawn by an unskilful surgeon, in a mistake, from one of
Glumdalclitch's men, who was affected with the toothache, but it was as
sound as any in his head. I got it cleaned, and put it in my cabinet. It was
about a foot long, and four inches in diameter.
The captain was very well satisfied with this plain relation I had given
him, and said he hoped when we returned to England I would oblige the
world by putting it on paper, and making it public. My answer was, that I
thought we were already overstocked with books of travels; that nothing
could now pass which was not extraordinary; wherein I doubted some
authors less consulted truth than their own vanity, or interest, or the
diversion of ignorant readers, that my story could contain little besides
common events, without those ornamental descriptions of strange plants,
trees, birds, and other animals; or of the barbarous customs and idolatry of
savage people, with which most writers abound. However, I thanked him
for his good opinion, and promised to take the matter into my thoughts.
He said he wondered at one thing very much, which was, to hear me
speak so loud, asking me whether the king or queen of that country were
thick of hearing. I told him it was what I had been used to for above two
years past, and that I wondered as much at the voices of him and his men,
who seemed to me only to whisper, and yet I could hear them well enough.

But when I spoke in that country, it was like a man talking in the street to
another looking out from the top of a steeple, unless when I was placed on a
table, or held in any person's hand. I told him I had likewise observed
another thing, that when I first got into the ship, and the sailors stood all
about me, I thought they were the most contemptible little creatures I had
ever beheld. For indeed, while I was in that prince's country, I could never
endure to look in a glass, after my eyes had been accustomed to such
prodigious objects, because the comparison gave me so despicable a conceit
of myself. The captain said that while we were at supper he observed me to
look at everything with a sort of wonder, and that I often seemed hardly
able to contain my laughter, which he knew not well how to take, but
imputed it to some disorder in my brain. I answered, it was very true, and I
wondered how I could forbear, when I saw his dishes of the size of a silver
threepence, a leg of pork hardly a mouthful, a cup not so big as a nut-shell,
and so I went on, describing the rest of his household stuff and provisions
after the same manner. For although the queen had ordered a little equipage
of all things necessary for me, while I was in her service, yet my ideas were
wholly taken up with what I saw on every side of me, and I winked at my
own littleness, as people do at their own faults. The captain understood my
raillery very well, and merrily replied that he did not observe my stomach
so good, although I had fasted all day; and, continuing in his mirth,
protested he would have gladly given a hundred pounds to have seen my
closet in the eagle's bill, and afterwards in its fall from so great a height into
the sea; which would certainly have been a most astonishing object, worthy
to have the description of it transmitted to future ages: and the comparison
of Phaeton[91] was so obvious, that he could not forbear applying it,
although I did not much admire the conceit.

"MY DAUGHTER KNEELED BUT I COULD NOT SEE HER."
The captain having been at Tonquin, was, in his return to England, driven
northeastward, to the latitude of 44 degrees, and of longitude 143. But
meeting a trade-wind two days after I came on board him, we sailed
southward a long time, and, coasting New Holland, kept our course west-
south-west, and then south-south-west, till we doubled the Cape of Good
Hope. Our voyage was very prosperous, but I shall not trouble the reader
with a journal of it. The captain called in at one or two ports, and sent in his
long-boat for provisions and fresh water, but I never went out of the ship till
we came into the Downs, which was on the third day of June, 1706, about

nine months after my escape. I offered to leave pay goods in security for
payment of my freight, but the captain protested he would not receive one
farthing. We took a kind leave of each other, and I made him promise he
would come to see me at my house in Redriff. I hired a horse and guide for
five shillings, which I borrowed of the captain.
As I was on the road, observing the littleness of the houses—the trees,
the cattle, and the people, I began to think myself in Lilliput. I was afraid of
trampling on every traveller I met, and often called aloud to have them
stand out of the way, so that I had like to have gotten one or two broken
heads for my impertinence.
When I came to my own house, for which I was forced to inquire, one of
the servants opened the door, I bent down to go in (like a goose under a
gate), for fear of striking my head. My wife ran out to embrace me, but I
stooped lower than her knees, thinking she could otherwise never be able to
reach my mouth. My daughter kneeled to ask my blessing, but I could not
see her till she arose, having been so long used to stand with my head and
eyes erect to above sixty feet; and then I went to take her up with one hand
by the waist. I looked down upon the servants, and one or two friends who
were in the house, as if they had been pygmies, and I a giant. I told my wife
she had been too thrifty, for I found she had starved herself and her
daughter to nothing. In short, I behaved myself so unaccountably, that they
were all of the captain's opinion when he first saw me, and concluded I had
lost my wits. This I mention as an instance of the great power of habit and
prejudice.
In a little time, I and my family and friends came to a right
understanding: but my wife protested I should never go to sea any more;
although my evil destiny so ordered, that she had not power to hinder me,
as the reader may know hereafter. In the meantime I here conclude the
second part of my unfortunate voyages.

NOTE.

Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1667, and died in 1745.
His parents were English. His father died before he was born, and his
mother was supported on a slender pittance by his father's brother. He was
educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and all through his early life was
dependent on the generosity of others. His college career was not highly
creditable, either from the point of view of manners, morals, or learning.
After leaving college, he travelled through England on foot, and found
employment with a relative of his mother's, Sir William Temple, in whose
house was a noble library; and for two years Swift made up for some of his
shortcomings by studying diligently therein. He went to Oxford in 1692,
took a degree and was ordained in 1694. He was given a parish in Ireland,
which he soon resigned, returning to the home of Sir William Temple,
where he remained until the death of the latter in 1699.
Temple left Swift a legacy, and confided to him the editing and
publishing of his works. This task completed, Swift went again to Ireland to
another parish, and threw himself into political pamphleteering with great
effect, one of the results of his exertions being the securing of freedom from
taxation for the Irish clergy. He subsequently became Dean of St. Patrick's
in Dublin, and for a period achieved great popularity owing to his powerful
political writings.
While in what he called his "exile" he wrote Gulliver's Travels, which
was at first published anonymously, the secret of the authorship being so
closely guarded that the publisher did not know who was the author. Dr.
Johnson characterized it as "A production so new and strange that it filled
the reader with admiration and amazement. It was read by the high and low,
the learned and the illiterate." In this work, Jonathan Swift appears as one
of the greatest masters of English we have ever had; as endowed with an
imaginative genius inferior to few; as a keen and pitiless critic of the world,
and a bitter misanthropic accounter of humanity at large. Dean Swift was
indeed a misanthrope by theory, however he may have made exception to

private life. His hero, Gulliver, discovers race after race of beings who
typify the genera in his classification of mankind. Extremely diverting are
Gulliver's adventures among the tiny Lilliputians; only less so are his more
perilous encounters with the giants of Brobdingnag.... By a singular
dispensation of Providence, we usually read the Travels while we are
children; we are delighted with the marvellous story, we are not at all
injured by the poison. Poor Swift! he was conscious of insanity's approach;
he repeated annually Job's curse upon the day of his birth; he died a
madman.
There are numerous biographies of Swift; but probably the best
characterization of the man and his life, rather than of his books, is to be
found in Thackeray's English Humorists, and a closer study of the man and
his works in Leslie Stevenson's "Swift," in Morley's English Men of Letters.
The other biographies of him are: Lord Orrery Remarks on the Life and
Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift, 1751; Hawkes, on his life, 1765; Sheridan's
life, 1785; Forster's life, 1875 (unfinished); Henry Craik's life (1882). The
best edition of Swift's writings and correspondence is that edited by Scott,
1824.

FOOTNOTES:
[1] Redriff = Rotherhithe: then a Thames side village, now part of London.
[2] Pound: nearly five dollars.
[3] Levant: the point where the sun rises. The countries about the eastern part
of the Mediterranean Sea and its adjoining waters.
[4] Mrs.: it was formerly the custom to call unmarried women Mrs.
[5] The South Sea: the Pacific Ocean.
[6] Van Diemen's Land: N.W. from Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and in
latitude 30 degrees 2 minutes would be in Australia or off the West Coast
[7] Cable's length: about six hundred or seven hundred feet.
[8] Buff jerkin a leather jacket or waistcoat.
[9] Small: weak, thin.
[10] Signet-royal: the king's seal.
[11] Half-pike a short wooden staff, upon one end of which was a steel head.
[12] Stang: an old word for a perch, sixteen feet and a half, also for a rood of
ground.
[13] Chairs: a sedan chair is here meant. It held one person, and was carried
by two men by means of projecting poles.
[14] Crest: a decoration to denote rank.
[15] Lingua Franca: a language—Italian mixed with Arabic, Greek, and
Turkish—used by Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Italians trading with Arabs, Turks,
and Greeks. It is the commercial language of Constantinople.
[16] Fobs: small pockets in the waistband of trousers to receive a watch.
[17] Imprimis: in the first place, (pr.) im pri' mis.
[18] Lucid: shining, transparent.
[19] Yeomen of the guards: freemen forming the bodyguard of the sovereign.
[20] Pocket perspective: a small spy-glass or telescope.
[21] Trencher: a wooden plate or platter.
[22] Corn: such grains as wheat, rye, barley, oats.
[23] Quadrant: an instrument long used for measuring altitudes.
[24] Skirt: coat-tail.
[25] Alcoran the Koran or Mohammedan Bible.
[26] Embargo: an order not to sail.
[27] Discompose them: displace them.
[28] Puissant: powerful.
[29] Junto: a body of men secretly united to gain some political end.

[30] Pulling: plucking and drawing, preparatory to cooking,
[31] Meaner: of lower rank.
[32] Portion: the part of an estate given to a child.
[33] Domestic: the household and all pertaining thereto.
[34] Exchequer bills: bills of credit issued from the exchequer by authority of
parliament.
[35] Close chair: sedan chair.
[36] Cabal: a body of men united for some sinister purpose.
[37] Lee side: side sheltered from the wind.
[38] Ancient: flag, corrupted from ensign.
[39] Downs: A famous natural roadstead off the southeast coast of Kent,
between Goodwin Sands and the mainland, south of the Thames entrance
[40] Black Bull: inns in England are often named after animals with an
adjective descriptive of the color of the sign; as, The Golden Lion, The White
Horse.
[41] Towardly: apt, docile.
[42] Straits of Madagascar: Mozambique Channel.
[43] The line: the equator.
[44] Hinds: peasants; rustics.
[45] Pistoles: about three dollars and sixty cents.
[46] Trencher-side: up to his trencher or wooden plate.
[47] Discovering: Showing.
[48] From London Bridge to Chelsea: about three miles as the birds fly.
[49] Pillion: a cushion for a woman to ride on behind a person on horseback.
From London to St. Alban's: about twenty miles.
[50] Pumpion: pumpkin.
[51] Parts: accomplishments.
[52] Sanson's Atlas: a very large atlas by a French geographer in use in Swift's
time.
[53] As good a hand of me: as much money of me.
[54] Moidore: a Portuguese gold piece worth about six dollars.
[55] Guineas: an obsolete English gold coin, of the value of five dollars.
[56] Phoenix: a bird of fable said to live for a long time and rise anew from its
own ashes.
[57] Cabinet: a private room.
[58] Scrutoire: a writing-desk.
[59] Waiting: attendance on the king.
[60] Lusus naturae: a freak of nature.
[61] Royal Sovereign: one of the great ships of Swift's time.
[62] Dunstable lark: large larks are caught on the downs near Dunstable
between September and February, and sent to London for luxurious tables.
[63] Drone: the largest tube of a bag-pipe, giving forth a dull heavy tone.

[64] Gresham College, in London, is named after the founder, an English
merchant, who died in 1580.
[65] The square of: as large as the square of.
[66] Salisbury Steeple: this is about four hundred feet high.
[67] Battalia: the order of battle.
[68] Espalier: a lattice upon which fruit-trees or shrubs are trained.
[69] Scull: a short oar.
[70] Starboard or larboard: right or left.
[71] Corking-pin: a larger-sized pin.
[72] Stomacher: a broad belt.
[73] Varlet: knave.
[74] Levee: a ceremonious visit received by a distinguished person in the
morning.
[75] Spinet: a stringed instrument, a forerunner of our piano.
[76] Closet: private room.
[77] Signal: memorable.
[78] Chancery: a high court of equity.
[79] Glossing: commenting.
[80] Dionysius of Halicarnassus was born about the middle of the first
century, B.C.; he endeavored in his history to relieve his Greek countrymen from
the mortification they had felt in their subjection to the Romans, and patched up
an old legend about Rome being of Greek origin and therefore their "political
mother."
[81] Ideas, entities, abstractions, transcendentals, words used in that
philosophy which deals with thinking, existence, and things beyond the senses.
[82] Mercurial: active, spirited.
[83] Composition: compact, agreement.
[84] Progress: an old term for the travelling of the sovereign to different parts
of his country.
[85] Tumbrel: a rough cart.
[86] Page: a serving-boy, and especially one who waits on a person of rank.
[87] Quarry: prey.
[88] Squash: shock, concussion.
[89] To rights speedily.
[90] To make To get alongside.
[91] Phaeton a son of Apollo who was dashed into the river Endanus for his
foolhardiness in attempting to drive the steeds of the sun for one day.

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