GULLIVER’S
TRAVELS
PART 12
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 reaches about six thousand miles in length, and from three
to five in breadth: 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
north-west parts of America, wherein I shall be ready to lend them my
assistance.
The
kingdom is a peninsula, terminated to the north-east 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 seaport 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 a square of Westminster-hall,
but not altogether so high: however, I cannot be very exact. One day the
governess ordered our coachman to stop at several shops, where the beggars,
watching their opportunity, crowded to the sides of the coach, and gave me the
most horrible spectacle that ever a European eye beheld. There was a
woman with a cancer in her breast, swelled to a monstrous size, full of holes,
in two or three of which I could have easily crept, and covered my whole body.
There was a fellow with a wen in his neck, larger than five wool-packs; and
another, with a couple of wooden legs, each about twenty feet high. But
the most hateful sight of all, was the lice crawling on their clothes. I
could see distinctly the limbs of these vermin with my naked eye, much better
than those of a European louse through a microscope, and their snouts with
which they rooted like swine. They were the first I had ever beheld, and
I should have been curious enough to dissect one of them, if I had had proper
instruments, which I unluckily left behind me in the ship, although, indeed,
the sight was so nauseous, that it perfectly turned my stomach.
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, 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 that 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, when Glumdalclitch happened to be out of order; for I soon began to be
known and esteemed among the greatest officers, I suppose more upon account of
their majesties’ favour, 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 may 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. 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
near 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 the 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 military 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, whereof I shall find another
occasion to speak.
To be continued
