GULLIVER’S
TRAVELS
PART 9
PART II. A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG.
CHAPTER I.
A great storm described; the
long boat sent to fetch water; the author goes with it to discover the
country. He is left on shore, is seized by one of the natives, and
carried to a farmer’s house. His reception, with several accidents that
happened there. A description of the inhabitants.
Having
been condemned, by nature and fortune, to active and restless life, in two
months after my return, I again left my native country, and took shipping in
the Downs, on the 20th day of June, 1702, in the Adventure, Captain John
Nicholas, a Cornish man, commander, bound for Surat. We had a very
prosperous gale, till we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, where we landed for
fresh water; but discovering a leak, we unshipped our goods and wintered there;
for the captain falling sick of an ague, we could not leave the Cape till the
end of March. We then set sail, and had a good voyage till we passed the
Straits of Madagascar; but having got northward of that island, and to about
five degrees south latitude, the winds, which in those seas are observed to
blow a constant equal gale between the north and west, from the beginning of
December to the beginning of May, on the 19th of April began to blow with much
greater violence, and more westerly than usual, continuing so for twenty days
together: during which time, we were driven a little to the east of the Molucca
Islands, and about three degrees northward of the line, as our captain found by
an observation he took the 2nd of May, at which time the wind ceased, and it
was a perfect calm, whereat I was not a little rejoiced. But he, being a
man well experienced in the navigation of those seas, bid us all prepare
against a storm, which accordingly happened the day following: for the southern
wind, called the southern monsoon, began to set in.
Finding it
was likely to overblow, we took in our sprit-sail, and stood by to hand the
fore-sail; but making foul weather, we looked the guns were all fast, and
handed the mizen. The ship lay very broad off, so we thought it better
spooning before the sea, than trying or hulling. We reefed the fore-sail
and set him, and hauled aft the fore-sheet; the helm was hard a-weather.
The ship wore bravely. We belayed the fore down-haul; but the sail was
split, and we hauled down the yard, and got the sail into the ship, and unbound
all the things clear of it. It was a very fierce storm; the sea broke
strange and dangerous. We hauled off upon the laniard of the whip-staff,
and helped the man at the helm. We would not get down our topmast, but
let all stand, because she scudded before the sea very well, and we knew that
the top-mast being aloft, the ship was the wholesomer, and made better way
through the sea, seeing we had sea-room. When the storm was over, we set
fore-sail and main-sail, and brought the ship to. Then we set the mizen,
main-top-sail, and the fore-top-sail. Our course was east-north-east, the
wind was at south-west. We got the starboard tacks aboard, we cast off
our weather-braces and lifts; we set in the lee-braces, and hauled forward by
the weather-bowlings, and hauled them tight, and belayed them, and hauled over
the mizen tack to windward, and kept her full and by as near as she would lie.
During
this storm, which was followed by a strong wind west-south-west, we were
carried, by my computation, about five hundred leagues to the east, so that the
oldest sailor on board could not tell in what part of the world we were.
Our provisions held out well, our ship was staunch, and our crew all in good
health; but we lay in the utmost distress for water. We thought it best
to hold on the same course, rather than turn more northerly, which might have
brought us to the north-west part of Great Tartary, and into the Frozen Sea.
On the
16th day of June, 1703, a boy on the top-mast discovered land. On the
17th, we came in full view of a great island, or continent (for we knew not
whether;) on the south side whereof was a small neck of land jutting out into
the sea, and a creek too shallow to hold a ship of above one hundred
tons. We cast anchor within a league of this creek, and our captain sent
a dozen of his men well armed in the long-boat, with vessels for water, if any
could be found. I desired his leave to go with them, that I might see the
country, and make what discoveries I could. When we came to land we saw
no river or spring, nor any sign of inhabitants. Our men therefore
wandered on the shore to find out some fresh water near the sea, and I walked
alone about a mile on the other side, where I observed the country all barren
and rocky. I now began to be weary, and seeing nothing to entertain my
curiosity, I returned gently down towards the creek; and the sea being full in
my view, I saw our men already got into the boat, and rowing for life to the
ship. I was going to holla after them, although it had been to little
purpose, when I observed a huge creature walking after them in the sea, as fast
as he could: he waded not much deeper than his knees, and took prodigious strides:
but our men had the start of him half a league, and, the sea thereabouts being
full of sharp-pointed rocks, the monster was not able to overtake the
boat. This I was afterwards told, for I durst not stay to see the issue
of the adventure; but ran as fast as I could the way I first went, and then
climbed up a steep hill, which gave me some prospect of the country. I
found it fully cultivated; but that which first surprised me was the length of
the grass, which, in those grounds that seemed to be kept for hay, was about
twenty feet high.
I fell
into a high road, for so I took it to be, though it served to the inhabitants
only as a foot-path through a field of barley. Here I walked on for some
time, but could see little on either side, it being now near harvest, and the
corn rising at least forty feet. I was an hour walking to the end of this
field, which was fenced in with a hedge of at least one hundred and twenty feet
high, and the trees so lofty that I could make no computation of their altitude.
There was a stile to pass from this field into the next. It had four
steps, and a stone to cross over when you came to the uppermost. It was
impossible for me to climb this stile, because every step was six-feet high,
and the upper stone about twenty. I was endeavouring to find some gap in
the hedge, when I discovered one of the inhabitants in the next field,
advancing towards the stile, of the same size with him whom I saw in the sea
pursuing our boat. He appeared as tall as an ordinary spire steeple, and
took about ten yards at every stride, as near as I could guess. I was
struck with the utmost fear and astonishment, and ran to hide myself in the
corn, whence I saw him at the top of the stile looking back into the next field
on the right hand, and heard him call in a voice many degrees louder than a
speaking-trumpet: but the noise was so high in the air, that at first I
certainly thought it was thunder. Whereupon seven monsters, like himself,
came towards him with reaping-hooks in their hands, each hook about the
largeness of six scythes. These people were not so well clad as the
first, whose servants or labourers they seemed to be; for, upon some words he
spoke, they went to reap the corn in the field where I lay. I kept from
them at as great a distance as I could, but was forced to move with extreme
difficulty, for the stalks of the corn were sometimes not above a foot distant,
so that I could hardly squeeze my body betwixt them. However, I made a
shift to go forward, till I came to a part of the field where the corn had been
laid by the rain and wind. Here it was impossible for me to advance a
step; for the stalks were so interwoven, that I could not creep through, and
the beards of the fallen ears so strong and pointed, that they pierced through
my clothes into my flesh. At the same time I heard the reapers not a
hundred yards behind me. Being quite dispirited with toil, and wholly
overcome by grief and dispair, I lay down between two ridges, and heartily
wished I might there end my days. I bemoaned my desolate widow and
fatherless children. I lamented my own folly and wilfulness, in
attempting a second voyage, against the advice of all my friends and
relations. In this terrible agitation of mind, I could not forbear
thinking of Lilliput, whose inhabitants looked upon me as the greatest prodigy
that ever appeared in the world; where I was able to draw an imperial fleet in
my hand, and perform those other actions, which will be recorded for ever in
the chronicles of that empire, while posterity shall hardly believe them,
although attested by millions. I reflected what a mortification it must
prove to me, to appear as inconsiderable in this nation, as one single
Lilliputian would be among us. But this I conceived was to be the least
of my misfortunes; for, as human creatures are observed to be more savage and
cruel in proportion to their bulk, what could I expect but to be a morsel in
the mouth of the first among these enormous barbarians that should happen to
seize me? Undoubtedly philosophers are in the right, when they tell us
that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison. It might
have pleased fortune, to have let the Lilliputians find some nation, where the
people were as diminutive with respect to them, as they were to me. And
who knows but that even this prodigious race of mortals might be equally
overmatched in some distant part of the world, whereof we have yet no
discovery.
Scared and
confounded as I was, I could not forbear going on with these reflections, when
one of the reapers, approaching within ten yards of the ridge where I lay, made
me apprehend that with the next step I should be squashed to death under his
foot, or cut in two with his reaping-hook. And therefore, when he was
again about to move, I screamed as loud as fear could make me: whereupon the
huge creature trod short, and, looking round about under him for some time, at
last espied me as I lay on the ground. He considered awhile, with the
caution of one who endeavours to lay hold on a small dangerous animal in such a
manner that it shall not be able either to scratch or bite him, as I myself
have sometimes done with a weasel in England. At length he ventured to
take me behind, by the middle, between his fore-finger and thumb, and brought
me within three yards of his eyes, that he might behold my shape more
perfectly. I guessed his meaning, and my good fortune gave me so much
presence of mind, that I resolved not to struggle in the least as he held me in
the air above sixty feet from the ground, although he grievously pinched my
sides, for fear I should slip through his fingers. All I ventured was to
raise mine eyes towards the sun, and place my hands together in a supplicating
posture, and to speak some words in a humble melancholy tone, suitable to the
condition I then was in: for I apprehended every moment that he would dash me
against the ground, as we usually do any little hateful animal, which we have a
mind to destroy. But my good star would have it, that he appeared pleased
with my voice and gestures, and began to look upon me as a curiosity, much
wondering to hear me pronounce articulate words, although he could not
understand them. In the mean time I was not able to forbear groaning and
shedding tears, and turning my head towards my sides; letting him know, as well
as I could, how cruelly I was hurt by the pressure of his thumb and
finger. He seemed to apprehend my meaning; for, lifting up the lappet of
his coat, he put me gently into it, and immediately ran along with me to his
master, who was a substantial farmer, and the same person I had first seen in
the field.
The farmer
having (as I suppose by their talk) received such an account of me as his
servant could give him, took a piece of a small straw, about the size of a
walking-staff, and therewith lifted up the lappets of my coat; which it seems
he thought to be some kind of covering that nature had given me. He blew
my hairs aside to take a better view of my face. He called his hinds
about him, and asked them, as I afterwards learned, whether they had ever seen
in the fields any little creature that resembled me. He then placed me
softly on the ground upon all fours, but I got immediately up, and walked
slowly backward and forward, to let those people see I had no intent to run away.
They all sat down in a circle about me, the better to observe my motions.
I pulled off my hat, and made a low bow towards the farmer. I fell on my
knees, and lifted up my hands and eyes, and spoke several words as loud as I
could: I took a purse of gold out of my pocket, and humbly presented it to
him. He received it on the palm of his hand, then applied it close to his
eye to see what it was, and afterwards turned it several times with the point
of a pin (which he took out of his sleeve,) but could make nothing of it.
Whereupon I made a sign that he should place his hand on the ground. I
then took the purse, and, opening it, poured all the gold into his palm.
There were six Spanish pieces of four pistoles each, beside twenty or thirty smaller
coins. I saw him wet the tip of his little finger upon his tongue, and
take up one of my largest pieces, and then another; but he seemed to be wholly
ignorant what they were. He made me a sign to put them again into my
purse, and the purse again into my pocket, which, after offering it to him
several times, I thought it best to do.
The
farmer, by this time, was convinced I must be a rational creature. He
spoke often to me; but the sound of his voice pierced my ears like that of a
water-mill, yet his words were articulate enough. I answered as loud as I
could in several languages, and he often laid his ear within two yards of me:
but all in vain, for we were wholly unintelligible to each other. He then
sent his servants to their work, and taking his handkerchief out of his pocket,
he doubled and spread it on his left hand, which he placed flat on the ground
with the palm upward, making me a sign to step into it, as I could easily do,
for it was not above a foot in thickness. I thought it my part to obey, and,
for fear of falling, laid myself at full length upon the handkerchief, with the
remainder of which he lapped me up to the head for further security, and in
this manner carried me home to his house. There he called his wife, and
showed me to her; but she screamed and ran back, as women in England do at the
sight of a toad or a spider. However, when she had a while seen my
behaviour, and how well I observed the signs her husband made, she was soon
reconciled, and by degrees grew extremely tender of me.
It was
about twelve at noon, and a servant brought in dinner. It was only one
substantial dish of meat (fit for the plain condition of a husbandman,) in a
dish of about four-and-twenty feet diameter. The company were, the farmer
and his wife, three children, and an old grandmother. When they were sat
down, the farmer placed me at some distance from him on the table, which was
thirty feet high from the floor. I was in a terrible fright, and kept as
far as I could from the edge, for fear of falling. The wife minced a bit
of meat, then crumbled some bread on a trencher, and placed it before me.
I made her a low bow, took out my knife and fork, and fell to eat, which gave
them exceeding delight. The mistress sent her maid for a small dram cup,
which held about two gallons, and filled it with drink; I took up the vessel
with much difficulty in both hands, and in a most respectful manner drank to
her ladyship’s health, expressing the words as loud as I could in English,
which made the company laugh so heartily, that I was almost deafened with the
noise. This liquor tasted like a small cider, and was not
unpleasant. Then the master made me a sign to come to his trencher side;
but as I walked on the table, being in great surprise all the time, as the indulgent
reader will easily conceive and excuse, I happened to stumble against a crust,
and fell flat on my face, but received no hurt. I got up immediately, and
observing the good people to be in much concern, I took my hat (which I held
under my arm out of good manners,) and waving it over my head, made three
huzzas, to show I had got no mischief by my fall. But advancing forward
towards my master (as I shall henceforth call him,) his youngest son, who sat
next to him, an arch boy of about ten years old, took me up by the legs, and
held me so high in the air, that I trembled every limb: but his father snatched
me from him, and at the same time gave him such a box on the left ear, as would
have felled an European troop of horse to the earth, ordering him to be taken from
the table. But being afraid the boy might owe me a spite, and well
remembering how mischievous all children among us naturally are to sparrows,
rabbits, young kittens, and puppy dogs, I fell on my knees, and pointing to the
boy, made my master to understand, as well as I could, that I desired his son
might be pardoned. The father complied, and the lad took his seat again,
whereupon I went to him, and kissed his hand, which my master took, and made
him stroke me gently with it.
In the
midst of dinner, my mistress’s favourite cat leaped into her lap. I heard
a noise behind me like that of a dozen stocking-weavers at work; and turning my
head, I found it proceeded from the purring of that animal, who seemed to be
three times larger than an ox, as I computed by the view of her head, and one
of her paws, while her mistress was feeding and stroking her. The
fierceness of this creature’s countenance altogether discomposed me; though I
stood at the farther end of the table, above fifty feet off; and although my
mistress held her fast, for fear she might give a spring, and seize me in her
talons. But it happened there was no danger, for the cat took not the
least notice of me when my master placed me within three yards of her.
And as I have been always told, and found true by experience in my travels,
that flying or discovering fear before a fierce animal, is a certain way to
make it pursue or attack you, so I resolved, in this dangerous juncture, to
show no manner of concern. I walked with intrepidity five or six times
before the very head of the cat, and came within half a yard of her; whereupon
she drew herself back, as if she were more afraid of me: I had less
apprehension concerning the dogs, whereof three or four came into the room, as
it is usual in farmers’ houses; one of which was a mastiff, equal in bulk to
four elephants, and another a greyhound, somewhat taller than the mastiff, but
not so large.
When
dinner was almost done, the nurse came in with a child of a year old in her
arms, who immediately spied me, and began a squall that you might have heard
from London-Bridge to Chelsea, after the usual oratory of infants, to get me
for a plaything. The mother, out of pure indulgence, took me up, and put
me towards the child, who presently seized me by the middle, and got my head
into his mouth, where I roared so loud that the urchin was frighted, and let me
drop, and I should infallibly have broke my neck, if the mother had not held
her apron under me. The nurse, to quiet her babe, made use of a rattle
which was a kind of hollow vessel filled with great stones, and fastened by a
cable to the child’s waist: but all in vain; so that she was forced to apply
the last remedy by giving it suck. I must confess no object ever disgusted
me so much as the sight of her monstrous breast, which I cannot tell what to
compare with, so as to give the curious reader an idea of its bulk, shape, and
colour. It stood prominent six feet, and could not be less than sixteen
in circumference. The nipple was about half the bigness of my head, and
the hue both of that and the dug, so varied with spots, pimples, and freckles,
that nothing could appear more nauseous: for I had a near sight of her, she
sitting down, the more conveniently to give suck, and I standing on the
table. This made me reflect upon the fair skins of our English ladies,
who appear so beautiful to us, only because they are of our own size, and their
defects not to be seen but through a magnifying glass; where we find by
experiment that the smoothest and whitest skins look rough, and coarse, and
ill-coloured.
I remember
when I was at Lilliput, the complexion of those diminutive people appeared to
me the fairest in the world; and talking upon this subject with a person of
learning there, who was an intimate friend of mine, he said that my face
appeared much fairer and smoother when he looked on me from the ground, than it
did upon a nearer view, when I took him up in my hand, and brought him close,
which he confessed was at first a very shocking sight. He said, “he could
discover great holes in my skin; that the stumps of my beard were ten times
stronger than the bristles of a boar, and my complexion made up of several
colours altogether disagreeable:” although I must beg leave to say for myself,
that I am as fair as most of my sex and country, and very little sunburnt by
all my travels. On the other side, discoursing of the ladies in that
emperor’s court, he used to tell me, “one had freckles; another too wide a
mouth; a third too large a nose;” nothing of which I was able to
distinguish. I confess this reflection was obvious enough; which,
however, I could not forbear, lest the reader might think those vast creatures
were actually deformed: for I must do them the justice to say, they are a
comely race of people, and particularly the features of my master’s
countenance, although he was but a farmer, when I beheld him from the height of
sixty feet, appeared very well proportioned.
When
dinner was done, my master went out to his labourers, and, as I could discover
by his voice and gesture, gave his wife strict charge to take care of me.
I was very much tired, and disposed to sleep, which my mistress perceiving, she
put me on her own bed, and covered me with a clean white handkerchief, but larger
and coarser than the mainsail of a man-of-war.
I slept
about two hours, and dreamt I was at home with my wife and children, which
aggravated my sorrows when I awaked, and found myself alone in a vast room,
between two and three hundred feet wide, and above two hundred high, lying in a
bed twenty yards wide. My mistress was gone about her household affairs,
and had locked me in. The bed was eight yards from the floor. Some
natural necessities required me to get down; I durst not presume to call; and
if I had, it would have been in vain, with such a voice as mine, at so great a
distance from the room where I lay to the kitchen where the family kept.
While I was under these circumstances, two rats crept up the curtains, and ran
smelling backwards and forwards on the bed. One of them came up almost to
my face, whereupon I rose in a fright, and drew out my hanger to defend
myself. These horrible animals had the boldness to attack me on both
sides, and one of them held his fore-feet at my collar; but I had the good
fortune to rip up his belly before he could do me any mischief. He fell
down at my feet; and the other, seeing the fate of his comrade, made his
escape, but not without one good wound on the back, which I gave him as he
fled, and made the blood run trickling from him. After this exploit, I
walked gently to and fro on the bed, to recover my breath and loss of
spirits. These creatures were of the size of a large mastiff, but
infinitely more nimble and fierce; so that if I had taken off my belt before I
went to sleep, I must have infallibly been torn to pieces and devoured. I
measured the tail of the dead rat, and found it to be two yards long, wanting
an inch; but it went against my stomach to drag the carcass off the bed, where
it lay still bleeding; I observed it had yet some life, but with a strong slash
across the neck, I thoroughly despatched it.
Soon after
my mistress came into the room, who seeing me all bloody, ran and took me up in
her hand. I pointed to the dead rat, smiling, and making other signs to
show I was not hurt; whereat she was extremely rejoiced, calling the maid to
take up the dead rat with a pair of tongs, and throw it out of the
window. Then she set me on a table, where I showed her my hanger all
bloody, and wiping it on the lappet of my coat, returned it to the
scabbard. I was pressed to do more than one thing which another could not
do for me, and therefore endeavoured to make my mistress understand, that I
desired to be set down on the floor; which after she had done, my bashfulness
would not suffer me to express myself farther, than by pointing to the door,
and bowing several times. The good woman, with much difficulty, at last
perceived what I would be at, and taking me up again in her hand, walked into
the garden, where she set me down. I went on one side about two hundred
yards, and beckoning to her not to look or to follow me, I hid myself between
two leaves of sorrel, and there discharged the necessities of nature.
I hope the
gentle reader will excuse me for dwelling on these and the like particulars,
which, however insignificant they may appear to groveling vulgar minds, yet
will certainly help a philosopher to enlarge his thoughts and imagination, and
apply them to the benefit of public as well as private life, which was my sole
design in presenting this and other accounts of my travels to the world;
wherein I have been chiefly studious of truth, without affecting any ornaments
of learning or of style. But the whole scene of this voyage made so strong
an impression on my mind, and is so deeply fixed in my memory, that, in
committing it to paper I did not omit one material circumstance: however, upon
a strict review, I blotted out several passages. Of less moment which
were in my first copy, for fear of being censured as tedious and trifling,
whereof travellers are often, perhaps not without justice, accused.
To be continued
