The pension from each family for the education and entertainment of
a child, upon failure of due payment, is levied by the emperor's
officers.

The nurseries for children of ordinary gentlemen, merchants,
traders, and handicrafts, are managed proportionably after the same
manner; only those designed for trades are put out apprentices at
eleven years old, whereas those of persons of quality continue in
their exercises till fifteen, which answers to twenty-one with us:
but the confinement is gradually lessened for the last three years.

In the female nurseries, the young girls of quality are educated
much like the males, only they are dressed by orderly servants of
their own sex; but always in the presence of a professor or deputy,
till they come to dress themselves, which is at five years old.
And if it be found that these nurses ever presume to entertain the
girls with frightful or foolish stories, or the common follies
practised by chambermaids among us, they are publicly whipped
thrice about the city, imprisoned for a year, and banished for life
to the most desolate part of the country.  Thus the young ladies
are as much ashamed of being cowards and fools as the men, and
despise all personal ornaments, beyond decency and cleanliness:
neither did I perceive any difference in their education made by
their difference of sex, only that the exercises of the females
were not altogether so robust; and that some rules were given them
relating to domestic life, and a smaller compass of learning was
enjoined them:  for their maxim is, that among peoples of quality,
a wife should be always a reasonable and agreeable companion,
because she cannot always be young.  When the girls are twelve
years old, which among them is the marriageable age, their parents
or guardians take them home, with great expressions of gratitude to
the professors, and seldom without tears of the young lady and her
companions.

In the nurseries of females of the meaner sort, the children are
instructed in all kinds of works proper for their sex, and their
several degrees:  those intended for apprentices are dismissed at
seven years old, the rest are kept to eleven.

The meaner families who have children at these nurseries, are
obliged, besides their annual pension, which is as low as possible,
to return to the steward of the nursery a small monthly share of
their gettings, to be a portion for the child; and therefore all
parents are limited in their expenses by the law.  For the
Lilliputians think nothing can be more unjust, than for people, in
subservience to their own appetites, to bring children into the
world, and leave the burthen of supporting them on the public.  As
to persons of quality, they give security to appropriate a certain
sum for each child, suitable to their condition; and these funds
are always managed with good husbandry and the most exact justice.

The cottagers and labourers keep their children at home, their
business being only to till and cultivate the earth, and therefore
their education is of little consequence to the public:  but the
old and diseased among them, are supported by hospitals; for
begging is a trade unknown in this empire.

And here it may, perhaps, divert the curious reader, to give some
account of my domestics, and my manner of living in this country,
during a residence of nine months, and thirteen days.  Having a
head mechanically turned, and being likewise forced by necessity, I
had made for myself a table and chair convenient enough, out of the
largest trees in the royal park.  Two hundred sempstresses were
employed to make me shirts, and linen for my bed and table, all of
the strongest and coarsest kind they could get; which, however,
they were forced to quilt together in several folds, for the
thickest was some degrees finer than lawn.  Their linen is usually
three inches wide, and three feet make a piece.  The sempstresses
took my measure as I lay on the ground, one standing at my neck,
and another at my mid-leg, with a strong cord extended, that each
held by the end, while a third measured the length of the cord with
a rule of an inch long.  Then they measured my right thumb, and
desired no more; for by a mathematical computation, that twice
round the thumb is once round the wrist, and so on to the neck and
the waist, and by the help of my old shirt, which I displayed on
the ground before them for a pattern, they fitted me exactly.
Three hundred tailors were employed in the same manner to make me
clothes; but they had another contrivance for taking my measure.  I
kneeled down, and they raised a ladder from the ground to my neck;
upon this ladder one of them mounted, and let fall a plumb-line
from my collar to the floor, which just answered the length of my
coat:  but my waist and arms I measured myself.  When my clothes
were finished, which was done in my house (for the largest of
theirs would not have been able to hold them), they looked like the
patch-work made by the ladies in England, only that mine were all
of a colour.

I had three hundred cooks to dress my victuals, in little
convenient huts built about my house, where they and their families
lived, and prepared me two dishes a-piece.  I took up twenty
waiters in my hand, and placed them on the table:  a hundred more
attended below on the ground, some with dishes of meat, and some
with barrels of wine and other liquors slung on their shoulders;
all which the waiters above drew up, as I wanted, in a very
ingenious manner, by certain cords, as we draw the bucket up a well
in Europe.  A dish of their meat was a good mouthful, and a barrel
of their liquor a reasonable draught.  Their mutton yields to ours,
but their beef is excellent.  I have had a sirloin so large, that I
have been forced to make three bites of it; but this is rare.  My
servants were astonished to see me eat it, bones and all, as in our
country we do the leg of a lark.  Their geese and turkeys I usually
ate at a mouthful, and I confess they far exceed ours.  Of their
smaller fowl I could take up twenty or thirty at the end of my
knife.

One day his imperial majesty, being informed of my way of living,
desired "that himself and his royal consort, with the young princes
of the blood of both sexes, might have the happiness," as he was
pleased to call it, "of dining with me."  They came accordingly,
and I placed them in chairs of state, upon my table, just over
against me, with their guards about them.  Flimnap, the lord high
treasurer, attended there likewise with his white staff; and I
observed he often looked on me with a sour countenance, which I
would not seem to regard, but ate more than usual, in honour to my
dear country, as well as to fill the court with admiration.  I have
some private reasons to believe, that this visit from his majesty
gave Flimnap an opportunity of doing me ill offices to his master.
That minister had always been my secret enemy, though he outwardly
caressed me more than was usual to the moroseness of his nature.
He represented to the emperor "the low condition of his treasury;
that he was forced to take up money at a great discount; that
exchequer bills would not circulate under nine per cent. below par;
that I had cost his majesty above a million and a half of sprugs"
(their greatest gold coin, about the bigness of a spangle) "and,
upon the whole, that it would be advisable in the emperor to take
the first fair occasion of dismissing me."

I am here obliged to vindicate the reputation of an excellent lady,
who was an innocent sufferer upon my account.  The treasurer took a
fancy to be jealous of his wife, from the malice of some evil
tongues, who informed him that her grace had taken a violent
affection for my person; and the court scandal ran for some time,
that she once came privately to my lodging.  This I solemnly
declare to be a most infamous falsehood, without any grounds,
further than that her grace was pleased to treat me with all
innocent marks of freedom and friendship.  I own she came often to
my house, but always publicly, nor ever without three more in the
coach, who were usually her sister and young daughter, and some
particular acquaintance; but this was common to many other ladies
of the court.  And I still appeal to my servants round, whether
they at any time saw a coach at my door, without knowing what
persons were in it.  On those occasions, when a servant had given
me notice, my custom was to go immediately to the door, and, after
paying my respects, to take up the coach and two horses very
carefully in my hands (for, if there were six horses, the
postillion always unharnessed four,) and place them on a table,
where I had fixed a movable rim quite round, of five inches high,
to prevent accidents.  And I have often had four coaches and horses
at once on my table, full of company, while I sat in my chair,
leaning my face towards them; and when I was engaged with one set,
the coachmen would gently drive the others round my table.  I have
passed many an afternoon very agreeably in these conversations.
But I defy the treasurer, or his two informers (I will name them,
and let them make the best of it) Clustril and Drunlo, to prove
that any person ever came to me incognito, except the secretary
Reldresal, who was sent by express command of his imperial majesty,
as I have before related.  I should not have dwelt so long upon
this particular, if it had not been a point wherein the reputation
of a great lady is so nearly concerned, to say nothing of my own;
though I then had the honour to be a nardac, which the treasurer
himself is not; for all the world knows, that he is only a
glumglum, a title inferior by one degree, as that of a marquis is
to a duke in England; yet I allow he preceded me in right of his
post.  These false informations, which I afterwards came to the
knowledge of by an accident not proper to mention, made the
treasurer show his lady for some time an ill countenance, and me a
worse; and although he was at last undeceived and reconciled to
her, yet I lost all credit with him, and found my interest decline
very fast with the emperor himself, who was, indeed, too much
governed by that favourite.



CHAPTER VII.



[The author, being informed of a design to accuse him of high-
treason, makes his escape to Blefuscu.  His reception there.]

Before I proceed to give an account of my leaving this kingdom, it
may be proper to inform the reader of a private intrigue which had
been for two months forming against me.

I had been hitherto, all my life, a stranger to courts, for which I
was unqualified by the meanness of my condition.  I had indeed
heard and read enough of the dispositions of great princes and
ministers, but never expected to have found such terrible effects
of them, in so remote a country, governed, as I thought, by very
different maxims from those in Europe.

When I was just preparing to pay my attendance on the emperor of
Blefuscu, a considerable person at court (to whom I had been very
serviceable, at a time when he lay under the highest displeasure of
his imperial majesty) came to my house very privately at night, in
a close chair, and, without sending his name, desired admittance.
The chairmen were dismissed; I put the chair, with his lordship in
it, into my coat-pocket:  and, giving orders to a trusty servant,
to say I was indisposed and gone to sleep, I fastened the door of
my house, placed the chair on the table, according to my usual
custom, and sat down by it.  After the common salutations were
over, observing his lordship's countenance full of concern, and
inquiring into the reason, he desired "I would hear him with
patience, in a matter that highly concerned my honour and my life."
His speech was to the following effect, for I took notes of it as
soon as he left me:-

"You are to know," said he, "that several committees of council
have been lately called, in the most private manner, on your
account; and it is but two days since his majesty came to a full
resolution.

"You are very sensible that Skyresh Bolgolam" (galbet, or high-
admiral) "has been your mortal enemy, almost ever since your
arrival.  His original reasons I know not; but his hatred is
increased since your great success against Blefuscu, by which his
glory as admiral is much obscured.  This lord, in conjunction with
Flimnap the high-treasurer, whose enmity against you is notorious
on account of his lady, Limtoc the general, Lalcon the chamberlain,
and Balmuff the grand justiciary, have prepared articles of
impeachment against you, for treason and other capital crimes."

This preface made me so impatient, being conscious of my own merits
and innocence, that I was going to interrupt him; when he entreated
me to be silent, and thus proceeded:-

"Out of gratitude for the favours you have done me, I procured
information of the whole proceedings, and a copy of the articles;
wherein I venture my head for your service.


"'Articles of Impeachment against QUINBUS FLESTRIN, (the Man-
Mountain.)

ARTICLE I.

"'Whereas, by a statute made in the reign of his imperial majesty
Calin Deffar Plune, it is enacted, that, whoever shall make water
within the precincts of the royal palace, shall be liable to the
pains and penalties of high-treason; notwithstanding, the said
Quinbus Flestrin, in open breach of the said law, under colour of
extinguishing the fire kindled in the apartment of his majesty's
most dear imperial consort, did maliciously, traitorously, and
devilishly, by discharge of his urine, put out the said fire
kindled in the said apartment, lying and being within the precincts
of the said royal palace, against the statute in that case
provided, etc. against the duty, etc.

ARTICLE II.

"'That the said Quinbus Flestrin, having brought the imperial fleet
of Blefuscu into the royal port, and being afterwards commanded by
his imperial majesty to seize all the other ships of the said
empire of Blefuscu, and reduce that empire to a province, to be
governed by a viceroy from hence, and to destroy and put to death,
not only all the Big-endian exiles, but likewise all the people of
that empire who would not immediately forsake the Big-endian
heresy, he, the said Flestrin, like a false traitor against his
most auspicious, serene, imperial majesty, did petition to be
excused from the said service, upon pretence of unwillingness to
force the consciences, or destroy the liberties and lives of an
innocent people.

ARTICLE III.

"'That, whereas certain ambassadors arrived from the Court of
Blefuscu, to sue for peace in his majesty's court, he, the said
Flestrin, did, like a false traitor, aid, abet, comfort, and
divert, the said ambassadors, although he knew them to be servants
to a prince who was lately an open enemy to his imperial majesty,
and in an open war against his said majesty.

ARTICLE IV.

"'That the said Quinbus Flestrin, contrary to the duty of a
faithful subject, is now preparing to make a voyage to the court
and empire of Blefuscu, for which he has received only verbal
license from his imperial majesty; and, under colour of the said
license, does falsely and traitorously intend to take the said
voyage, and thereby to aid, comfort, and abet the emperor of
Blefuscu, so lately an enemy, and in open war with his imperial
majesty aforesaid.'


"There are some other articles; but these are the most important,
of which I have read you an abstract.

"In the several debates upon this impeachment, it must be confessed
that his majesty gave many marks of his great lenity; often urging
the services you had done him, and endeavouring to extenuate your
crimes.  The treasurer and admiral insisted that you should be put
to the most painful and ignominious death, by setting fire to your
house at night, and the general was to attend with twenty thousand
men, armed with poisoned arrows, to shoot you on the face and
hands.  Some of your servants were to have private orders to strew
a poisonous juice on your shirts and sheets, which would soon make
you tear your own flesh, and die in the utmost torture.  The
general came into the same opinion; so that for a long time there
was a majority against you; but his majesty resolving, if possible,
to spare your life, at last brought off the chamberlain.

"Upon this incident, Reldresal, principal secretary for private
affairs, who always approved himself your true friend, was
commanded by the emperor to deliver his opinion, which he
accordingly did; and therein justified the good thoughts you have
of him.  He allowed your crimes to be great, but that still there
was room for mercy, the most commendable virtue in a prince, and
for which his majesty was so justly celebrated.  He said, the
friendship between you and him was so well known to the world, that
perhaps the most honourable board might think him partial; however,
in obedience to the command he had received, he would freely offer
his sentiments.  That if his majesty, in consideration of your
services, and pursuant to his own merciful disposition, would
please to spare your life, and only give orders to put out both
your eyes, he humbly conceived, that by this expedient justice
might in some measure be satisfied, and all the world would applaud
the lenity of the emperor, as well as the fair and generous
proceedings of those who have the honour to be his counsellors.
That the loss of your eyes would be no impediment to your bodily
strength, by which you might still be useful to his majesty; that
blindness is an addition to courage, by concealing dangers from us;
that the fear you had for your eyes, was the greatest difficulty in
bringing over the enemy's fleet, and it would be sufficient for you
to see by the eyes of the ministers, since the greatest princes do
no more.

"This proposal was received with the utmost disapprobation by the
whole board.  Bolgolam, the admiral, could not preserve his temper,
but, rising up in fury, said, he wondered how the secretary durst
presume to give his opinion for preserving the life of a traitor;
that the services you had performed were, by all true reasons of
state, the great aggravation of your crimes; that you, who were
able to extinguish the fire by discharge of urine in her majesty's
apartment (which he mentioned with horror), might, at another time,
raise an inundation by the same means, to drown the whole palace;
and the same strength which enabled you to bring over the enemy's
fleet, might serve, upon the first discontent, to carry it back;
that he had good reasons to think you were a Big-endian in your
heart; and, as treason begins in the heart, before it appears in
overt-acts, so he accused you as a traitor on that account, and
therefore insisted you should be put to death.

"The treasurer was of the same opinion:  he showed to what straits
his majesty's revenue was reduced, by the charge of maintaining
you, which would soon grow insupportable; that the secretary's
expedient of putting out your eyes, was so far from being a remedy
against this evil, that it would probably increase it, as is
manifest from the common practice of blinding some kind of fowls,
after which they fed the faster, and grew sooner fat; that his
sacred majesty and the council, who are your judges, were, in their
own consciences, fully convinced of your guilt, which was a
sufficient argument to condemn you to death, without the formal
proofs required by the strict letter of the law.

"But his imperial majesty, fully determined against capital
punishment, was graciously pleased to say, that since the council
thought the loss of your eyes too easy a censure, some other way
may be inflicted hereafter.  And your friend the secretary, humbly
desiring to be heard again, in answer to what the treasurer had
objected, concerning the great charge his majesty was at in
maintaining you, said, that his excellency, who had the sole
disposal of the emperor's revenue, might easily provide against
that evil, by gradually lessening your establishment; by which, for
want of sufficient for you would grow weak and faint, and lose your
appetite, and consequently, decay, and consume in a few months;
neither would the stench of your carcass be then so dangerous, when
it should become more than half diminished; and immediately upon
your death five or six thousand of his majesty's subjects might, in
two or three days, cut your flesh from your bones, take it away by
cart-loads, and bury it in distant parts, to prevent infection,
leaving the skeleton as a monument of admiration to posterity.

"Thus, by the great friendship of the secretary, the whole affair
was compromised.  It was strictly enjoined, that the project of
starving you by degrees should be kept a secret; but the sentence
of putting out your eyes was entered on the books; none dissenting,
except Bolgolam the admiral, who, being a creature of the empress,
was perpetually instigated by her majesty to insist upon your
death, she having borne perpetual malice against you, on account of
that infamous and illegal method you took to extinguish the fire in
her apartment.

"In three days your friend the secretary will be directed to come
to your house, and read before you the articles of impeachment; and
then to signify the great lenity and favour of his majesty and
council, whereby you are only condemned to the loss of your eyes,
which his majesty does not question you will gratefully and humbly
submit to; and twenty of his majesty's surgeons will attend, in
order to see the operation well performed, by discharging very
sharp-pointed arrows into the balls of your eyes, as you lie on the
ground.

"I leave to your prudence what measures you will take; and to avoid
suspicion, I must immediately return in as private a manner as I
came."

His lordship did so; and I remained alone, under many doubts and
perplexities of mind.

It was a custom introduced by this prince and his ministry (very
different, as I have been assured, from the practice of former
times,) that after the court had decreed any cruel execution,
either to gratify the monarch's resentment, or the malice of a
favourite, the emperor always made a speech to his whole council,
expressing his great lenity and tenderness, as qualities known and
confessed by all the world.  This speech was immediately published
throughout the kingdom; nor did any thing terrify the people so
much as those encomiums on his majesty's mercy; because it was
observed, that the more these praises were enlarged and insisted
on, the more inhuman was the punishment, and the sufferer more
innocent.  Yet, as to myself, I must confess, having never been
designed for a courtier, either by my birth or education, I was so
ill a judge of things, that I could not discover the lenity and
favour of this sentence, but conceived it (perhaps erroneously)
rather to be rigorous than gentle.  I sometimes thought of standing
my trial, for, although I could not deny the facts alleged in the
several articles, yet I hoped they would admit of some extenuation.
But having in my life perused many state-trials, which I ever
observed to terminate as the judges thought fit to direct, I durst
not rely on so dangerous a decision, in so critical a juncture, and
against such powerful enemies.  Once I was strongly bent upon
resistance, for, while I had liberty the whole strength of that
empire could hardly subdue me, and I might easily with stones pelt
the metropolis to pieces; but I soon rejected that project with
horror, by remembering the oath I had made to the emperor, the
favours I received from him, and the high title of nardac he
conferred upon me.  Neither had I so soon learned the gratitude of
courtiers, to persuade myself, that his majesty's present seventies
acquitted me of all past obligations.

At last, I fixed upon a resolution, for which it is probable I may
incur some censure, and not unjustly; for I confess I owe the
preserving of mine eyes, and consequently my liberty, to my own
great rashness and want of experience; because, if I had then known
the nature of princes and ministers, which I have since observed in
many other courts, and their methods of treating criminals less
obnoxious than myself, I should, with great alacrity and readiness,
have submitted to so easy a punishment.  But hurried on by the
precipitancy of youth, and having his imperial majesty's license to
pay my attendance upon the emperor of Blefuscu, I took this
opportunity, before the three days were elapsed, to send a letter
to my friend the secretary, signifying my resolution of setting out
that morning for Blefuscu, pursuant to the leave I had got; and,
without waiting for an answer, I went to that side of the island
where our fleet lay.  I seized a large man of war, tied a cable to
the prow, and, lifting up the anchors, I stripped myself, put my
clothes (together with my coverlet, which I carried under my arm)
into the vessel, and, drawing it after me, between wading and
swimming arrived at the royal port of Blefuscu, where the people
had long expected me:  they lent me two guides to direct me to the
capital city, which is of the same name.  I held them in my hands,
till I came within two hundred yards of the gate, and desired them
"to signify my arrival to one of the secretaries, and let him know,
I there waited his majesty's command."  I had an answer in about an
hour, "that his majesty, attended by the royal family, and great
officers of the court, was coming out to receive me."  I advanced a
hundred yards.  The emperor and his train alighted from their
horses, the empress and ladies from their coaches, and I did not
perceive they were in any fright or concern.  I lay on the ground
to kiss his majesty's and the empress's hands.  I told his majesty,
"that I was come according to my promise, and with the license of
the emperor my master, to have the honour of seeing so mighty a
monarch, and to offer him any service in my power, consistent with
my duty to my own prince;" not mentioning a word of my disgrace,
because I had hitherto no regular information of it, and might
suppose myself wholly ignorant of any such design; neither could I
reasonably conceive that the emperor would discover the secret,
while I was out of his power; wherein, however, it soon appeared I
was deceived.

I shall not trouble the reader with the particular account of my
reception at this court, which was suitable to the generosity of so
great a prince; nor of the difficulties I was in for want of a
house and bed, being forced to lie on the ground, wrapped up in my
coverlet.



CHAPTER VIII.



[The author, by a lucky accident, finds means to leave Blefuscu;
and, after some difficulties, returns safe to his native country.]

Three days after my arrival, walking out of curiosity to the north-
east coast of the island, I observed, about half a league off in
the sea, somewhat that looked like a boat overturned.  I pulled off
my shoes and stockings, and, wailing two or three hundred yards, I
found the object to approach nearer by force of the tide; and then
plainly saw it to be a real boat, which I supposed might by some
tempest have been driven from a ship.  Whereupon, I returned
immediately towards the city, and desired his imperial majesty to
lend me twenty of the tallest vessels he had left, after the loss
of his fleet, and three thousand seamen, under the command of his
vice-admiral.  This fleet sailed round, while I went back the
shortest way to the coast, where I first discovered the boat.  I
found the tide had driven it still nearer.  The seamen were all
provided with cordage, which I had beforehand twisted to a
sufficient strength.  When the ships came up, I stripped myself,
and waded till I came within a hundred yards off the boat, after
which I was forced to swim till I got up to it.  The seamen threw
me the end of the cord, which I fastened to a hole in the fore-part
of the boat, and the other end to a man of war; but I found all my
labour to little purpose; for, being out of my depth, I was not
able to work.  In this necessity I was forced to swim behind, and
push the boat forward, as often as I could, with one of my hands;
and the tide favouring me, I advanced so far that I could just hold
up my chin and feel the ground.  I rested two or three minutes, and
then gave the boat another shove, and so on, till the sea was no
higher than my arm-pits; and now, the most laborious part being
over, I took out my other cables, which were stowed in one of the
ships, and fastened them first to the boat, and then to nine of the
vessels which attended me; the wind being favourable, the seamen
towed, and I shoved, until we arrived within forty yards of the
shore; and, waiting till the tide was out, I got dry to the boat,
and by the assistance of two thousand men, with ropes and engines,
I made a shift to turn it on its bottom, and found it was but
little damaged.

I shall not trouble the reader with the difficulties I was under,
by the help of certain paddles, which cost me ten days making, to
get my boat to the royal port of Blefuscu, where a mighty concourse
of people appeared upon my arrival, full of wonder at the sight of
so prodigious a vessel.  I told the emperor "that my good fortune
had thrown this boat in my way, to carry me to some place whence I
might return into my native country; and begged his majesty's
orders for getting materials to fit it up, together with his
license to depart;" which, after some kind expostulations, he was
pleased to grant.

I did very much wonder, in all this time, not to have heard of any
express relating to me from our emperor to the court of Blefuscu.
But I was afterward given privately to understand, that his
imperial majesty, never imagining I had the least notice of his
designs, believed I was only gone to Blefuscu in performance of my
promise, according to the license he had given me, which was well
known at our court, and would return in a few days, when the
ceremony was ended.  But he was at last in pain at my long absence;
and after consulting with the treasurer and the rest of that cabal,
a person of quality was dispatched with the copy of the articles
against me.  This envoy had instructions to represent to the
monarch of Blefuscu, "the great lenity of his master, who was
content to punish me no farther than with the loss of mine eyes;
that I had fled from justice; and if I did not return in two hours,
I should be deprived of my title of nardac, and declared a
traitor."  The envoy further added, "that in order to maintain the
peace and amity between both empires, his master expected that his
brother of Blefuscu would give orders to have me sent back to
Lilliput, bound hand and foot, to be punished as a traitor."

The emperor of Blefuscu, having taken three days to consult,
returned an answer consisting of many civilities and excuses.  He
said, "that as for sending me bound, his brother knew it was
impossible; that, although I had deprived him of his fleet, yet he
owed great obligations to me for many good offices I had done him
in making the peace.  That, however, both their majesties would
soon be made easy; for I had found a prodigious vessel on the
shore, able to carry me on the sea, which he had given orders to
fit up, with my own assistance and direction; and he hoped, in a
few weeks, both empires would be freed from so insupportable an
encumbrance."

With this answer the envoy returned to Lilliput; and the monarch of
Blefuscu related to me all that had passed; offering me at the same
time (but under the strictest confidence) his gracious protection,
if I would continue in his service; wherein, although I believed
him sincere, yet I resolved never more to put any confidence in
princes or ministers, where I could possibly avoid it; and
therefore, with all due acknowledgments for his favourable
intentions, I humbly begged to be excused.  I told him, "that since
fortune, whether good or evil, had thrown a vessel in my way, I was
resolved to venture myself on the ocean, rather than be an occasion
of difference between two such mighty monarchs."  Neither did I
find the emperor at all displeased; and I discovered, by a certain
accident, that he was very glad of my resolution, and so were most
of his ministers.

These considerations moved me to hasten my departure somewhat
sooner than I intended; to which the court, impatient to have me
gone, very readily contributed.  Five hundred workmen were employed
to make two sails to my boat, according to my directions, by
quilting thirteen folds of their strongest linen together.  I was
at the pains of making ropes and cables, by twisting ten, twenty,
or thirty of the thickest and strongest of theirs.  A great stone
that I happened to find, after a long search, by the sea-shore,
served me for an anchor.  I had the tallow of three hundred cows,
for greasing my boat, and other uses.  I was at incredible pains in
cutting down some of the largest timber-trees, for oars and masts,
wherein I was, however, much assisted by his majesty's ship-
carpenters, who helped me in smoothing them, after I had done the
rough work.

In about a month, when all was prepared, I sent to receive his
majesty's commands, and to take my leave.  The emperor and royal
family came out of the palace; I lay down on my face to kiss his
hand, which he very graciously gave me:  so did the empress and
young princes of the blood.  His majesty presented me with fifty
purses of two hundred sprugs a-piece, together with his picture at
full length, which I put immediately into one of my gloves, to keep
it from being hurt.  The ceremonies at my departure were too many
to trouble the reader with at this time.

I stored the boat with the carcases of a hundred oxen, and three
hundred sheep, with bread and drink proportionable, and as much
meat ready dressed as four hundred cooks could provide.  I took
with me six cows and two bulls alive, with as many ewes and rams,
intending to carry them into my own country, and propagate the
breed.  And to feed them on board, I had a good bundle of hay, and
a bag of corn.  I would gladly have taken a dozen of the natives,
but this was a thing the emperor would by no means permit; and,
besides a diligent search into my pockets, his majesty engaged my
honour "not to carry away any of his subjects, although with their
own consent and desire."

Having thus prepared all things as well as I was able, I set sail
on the twenty-fourth day of September 1701, at six in the morning;
and when I had gone about four-leagues to the northward, the wind
being at south-east, at six in the evening I descried a small
island, about half a league to the north-west.  I advanced forward,
and cast anchor on the lee-side of the island, which seemed to be
uninhabited.  I then took some refreshment, and went to my rest.  I
slept well, and as I conjectured at least six hours, for I found
the day broke in two hours after I awaked.  It was a clear night.
I ate my breakfast before the sun was up; and heaving anchor, the
wind being favourable, I steered the same course that I had done
the day before, wherein I was directed by my pocket compass.  My
intention was to reach, if possible, one of those islands. which I
had reason to believe lay to the north-east of Van Diemen's Land.
I discovered nothing all that day; but upon the next, about three
in the afternoon, when I had by my computation made twenty-four
leagues from Blefuscu, I descried a sail steering to the south-
east; my course was due east.  I hailed her, but could get no
answer; yet I found I gained upon her, for the wind slackened.  I
made all the sail I could, and in half an hour she spied me, then
hung out her ancient, and discharged a gun.  It is not easy to
express the joy I was in, upon the unexpected hope of once more
seeing my beloved country, and the dear pledges I left in it.  The
ship slackened her sails, and I came up with her between five and
six in the evening, September 26th; but my heart leaped within me
to see her English colours.  I put my cows and sheep into my coat-
pockets, and got on board with all my little cargo of provisions.
The vessel was an English merchantman, returning from Japan by the
North and South seas; the captain, Mr. John Biddel, of Deptford, a
very civil man, and an excellent sailor.

We were now in the latitude of 30 degrees south; there were about
fifty men in the ship; and here I met an old comrade of mine, one
Peter Williams, who gave me a good character to the captain.  This
gentleman treated me with kindness, and desired I would let him
know what place I came from last, and whither I was bound; which I
did in a few words, but he thought I was raving, and that the
dangers I underwent had disturbed my head; whereupon I took my
black cattle and sheep out of my pocket, which, after great
astonishment, clearly convinced him of my veracity.  I then showed
him the gold given me by the emperor of Blefuscu, together with his
majesty's picture at full length, and some other rarities of that
country.  I gave him two purses of two hundreds sprugs each, and
promised, when we arrived in England, to make him a present of a
cow and a sheep big with young.

I shall not trouble the reader with a particular account of this
voyage, which was very prosperous for the most part.  We arrived in
the Downs on the 13th of April, 1702.  I had only one misfortune,
that the rats on board carried away one of my sheep; I found her
bones in a hole, picked clean from the flesh.  The rest of my
cattle I got safe ashore, and set them a-grazing in a bowling-green
at Greenwich, where the fineness of the grass made them feed very
heartily, though I had always feared the contrary:  neither could I
possibly have preserved them in so long a voyage, if the captain
had not allowed me some of his best biscuit, which, rubbed to
powder, and mingled with water, was their constant food.  The short
time I continued in England, I made a considerable profit by
showing my cattle to many persons of quality and others:  and
before I began my second voyage, I sold them for six hundred
pounds.  Since my last return I find the breed is considerably
increased, especially the sheep, which I hope will prove much to
the advantage of the woollen manufacture, by the fineness of the
fleeces.

I stayed but two months with my wife and family, for my insatiable
desire of seeing foreign countries, would suffer me to continue no
longer.  I left fifteen hundred pounds with my wife, and fixed her
in a good house at Redriff.  My remaining stock I carried with me,
part in money and part in goods, in hopes to improve my fortunes.
My eldest uncle John had left me an estate in land, near Epping, of
about thirty pounds a-year; and I had a long lease of the Black
Bull in Fetter-Lane, which yielded me as much more; so that I was
not in any danger of leaving my family upon the parish.  My son
Johnny, named so after his uncle, was at the grammar-school, and a
towardly child.  My daughter Betty (who is now well married, and
has children) was then at her needle-work.  I took leave of my
wife, and boy and girl, with tears on both sides, and went on board
the Adventure, a merchant ship of three hundred tons, bound for
Surat, captain John Nicholas, of Liverpool, commander.  But my
account of this voyage must be referred to the Second Part of my
Travels.




PART II.  A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG.




CHAPTER I.



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

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

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

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

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

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

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