GULLIVER’S
TRAVELS
PART 21
CHAPTER X.
The Luggnaggians
commended. A particular description of the Struldbrugs, with many
conversations between the author and some eminent persons upon that subject.
The
Luggnaggians are a polite and generous people; and although they are not
without some share of that pride which is peculiar to all Eastern countries,
yet they show themselves courteous to strangers, especially such who are
countenanced by the court. I had many acquaintance, and among persons of
the best fashion; and being always attended by my interpreter, the conversation
we had was not disagreeable.
One day,
in much good company, I was asked by a person of quality, “whether I had seen
any of their struldbrugs, or immortals?” I said, “I had not;” and
desired he would explain to me “what he meant by such an appellation, applied
to a mortal creature.” He told me “that sometimes, though very rarely, a
child happened to be born in a family, with a red circular spot in the
forehead, directly over the left eyebrow, which was an infallible mark that it
should never die.” The spot, as he described it, “was about the compass
of a silver threepence, but in the course of time grew larger, and changed its
colour; for at twelve years old it became green, so continued till five and
twenty, then turned to a deep blue: at five and forty it grew coal black, and
as large as an English shilling; but never admitted any further
alteration.” He said, “these births were so rare, that he did not believe
there could be above eleven hundred struldbrugs, of both sexes, in the whole
kingdom; of which he computed about fifty in the metropolis, and, among the
rest, a young girl born; about three years ago: that these productions were not
peculiar to any family, but a mere effect of chance; and the children of the struldbrugs
themselves were equally mortal with the rest of the people.”
I freely
own myself to have been struck with inexpressible delight, upon hearing this
account: and the person who gave it me happening to understand the Balnibarbian
language, which I spoke very well, I could not forbear breaking out into
expressions, perhaps a little too extravagant. I cried out, as in a
rapture, “Happy nation, where every child hath at least a chance for being
immortal! Happy people, who enjoy so many living examples of ancient
virtue, and have masters ready to instruct them in the wisdom of all former
ages! but happiest, beyond all comparison, are those excellent struldbrugs,
who, being born exempt from that universal calamity of human nature, have their
minds free and disengaged, without the weight and depression of spirits caused
by the continual apprehensions of death!” I discovered my admiration that
I had not observed any of these illustrious persons at court; the black spot on
the forehead being so remarkable a distinction, that I could not have easily
overlooked it: and it was impossible that his majesty, a most judicious prince,
should not provide himself with a good number of such wise and able
counsellors. Yet perhaps the virtue of those reverend sages was too
strict for the corrupt and libertine manners of a court: and we often find by
experience, that young men are too opinionated and volatile to be guided by the
sober dictates of their seniors. However, since the king was pleased to
allow me access to his royal person, I was resolved, upon the very first
occasion, to deliver my opinion to him on this matter freely and at large, by
the help of my interpreter; and whether he would please to take my advice or
not, yet in one thing I was determined, that his majesty having frequently
offered me an establishment in this country, I would, with great thankfulness,
accept the favour, and pass my life here in the conversation of those superior
beings the struldbrugs, if they would please to admit me.”
The
gentleman to whom I addressed my discourse, because (as I have already
observed) he spoke the language of Balnibarbi, said to me, with a sort of a
smile which usually arises from pity to the ignorant, “that he was glad of any
occasion to keep me among them, and desired my permission to explain to the
company what I had spoke.” He did so, and they talked together for some
time in their own language, whereof I understood not a syllable, neither could
I observe by their countenances, what impression my discourse had made on
them. After a short silence, the same person told me, “that his friends
and mine (so he thought fit to express himself) were very much pleased with the
judicious remarks I had made on the great happiness and advantages of immortal
life, and they were desirous to know, in a particular manner, what scheme of
living I should have formed to myself, if it had fallen to my lot to have been
born a struldbrug.”
I
answered, “it was easy to be eloquent on so copious and delightful a subject,
especially to me, who had been often apt to amuse myself with visions of what I
should do, if I were a king, a general, or a great lord: and upon this very
case, I had frequently run over the whole system how I should employ myself,
and pass the time, if I were sure to live for ever.
“That, if
it had been my good fortune to come into the world a struldbrug, as soon
as I could discover my own happiness, by understanding the difference between
life and death, I would first resolve, by all arts and methods, whatsoever, to
procure myself riches. In the pursuit of which, by thrift and management,
I might reasonably expect, in about two hundred years, to be the wealthiest man
in the kingdom. In the second place, I would, from my earliest youth,
apply myself to the study of arts and sciences, by which I should arrive in
time to excel all others in learning. Lastly, I would carefully record
every action and event of consequence, that happened in the public, impartially
draw the characters of the several successions of princes and great ministers
of state, with my own observations on every point. I would exactly set
down the several changes in customs, language, fashions of dress, diet, and
diversions. By all which acquirements, I should be a living treasure of
knowledge and wisdom, and certainly become the oracle of the nation.
“I would
never marry after threescore, but live in a hospitable manner, yet still on the
saving side. I would entertain myself in forming and directing the minds
of hopeful young men, by convincing them, from my own remembrance, experience,
and observation, fortified by numerous examples, of the usefulness of virtue in
public and private life. But my choice and constant companions should be
a set of my own immortal brotherhood; among whom, I would elect a dozen from
the most ancient, down to my own contemporaries. Where any of these
wanted fortunes, I would provide them with convenient lodges round my own
estate, and have some of them always at my table; only mingling a few of the
most valuable among you mortals, whom length of time would harden me to lose
with little or no reluctance, and treat your posterity after the same manner;
just as a man diverts himself with the annual succession of pinks and tulips in
his garden, without regretting the loss of those which withered the preceding
year.
“These struldbrugs
and I would mutually communicate our observations and memorials, through the
course of time; remark the several gradations by which corruption steals into
the world, and oppose it in every step, by giving perpetual warning and
instruction to mankind; which, added to the strong influence of our own
example, would probably prevent that continual degeneracy of human nature so justly
complained of in all ages.
“Add to
this, the pleasure of seeing the various revolutions of states and empires; the
changes in the lower and upper world; ancient cities in ruins, and obscure
villages become the seats of kings; famous rivers lessening into shallow
brooks; the ocean leaving one coast dry, and overwhelming another; the
discovery of many countries yet unknown; barbarity overrunning the politest
nations, and the most barbarous become civilized. I should then see the
discovery of the longitude, the perpetual motion, the universal medicine, and
many other great inventions, brought to the utmost perfection.
“What
wonderful discoveries should we make in astronomy, by outliving and confirming
our own predictions; by observing the progress and return of comets, with the
changes of motion in the sun, moon, and stars!”
I enlarged
upon many other topics, which the natural desire of endless life, and sublunary
happiness, could easily furnish me with. When I had ended, and the sum of
my discourse had been interpreted, as before, to the rest of the company, there
was a good deal of talk among them in the language of the country, not without
some laughter at my expense. At last, the same gentleman who had been my
interpreter, said, “he was desired by the rest to set me right in a few
mistakes, which I had fallen into through the common imbecility of human
nature, and upon that allowance was less answerable for them. That this
breed of struldbrugs was peculiar to their country, for there were no
such people either in Balnibarbi or Japan, where he had the honour to be
ambassador from his majesty, and found the natives in both those kingdoms very
hard to believe that the fact was possible: and it appeared from my
astonishment when he first mentioned the matter to me, that I received it as a
thing wholly new, and scarcely to be credited. That in the two kingdoms
above mentioned, where, during his residence, he had conversed very much, he
observed long life to be the universal desire and wish of mankind. That
whoever had one foot in the grave was sure to hold back the other as strongly
as he could. That the oldest had still hopes of living one day longer,
and looked on death as the greatest evil, from which nature always prompted him
to retreat. Only in this island of Luggnagg the appetite for living was
not so eager, from the continual example of the struldbrugs before their
eyes.
“That the
system of living contrived by me, was unreasonable and unjust; because it
supposed a perpetuity of youth, health, and vigour, which no man could be so
foolish to hope, however extravagant he may be in his wishes. That the
question therefore was not, whether a man would choose to be always in the
prime of youth, attended with prosperity and health; but how he would pass a
perpetual life under all the usual disadvantages which old age brings along
with it. For although few men will avow their desires of being immortal,
upon such hard conditions, yet in the two kingdoms before mentioned, of
Balnibarbi and Japan, he observed that every man desired to put off death some
time longer, let it approach ever so late: and he rarely heard of any man who
died willingly, except he were incited by the extremity of grief or
torture. And he appealed to me, whether in those countries I had
travelled, as well as my own, I had not observed the same general disposition.”
After this
preface, he gave me a particular account of the struldbrugs among
them. He said, “they commonly acted like mortals till about thirty years
old; after which, by degrees, they grew melancholy and dejected, increasing in
both till they came to fourscore. This he learned from their own
confession: for otherwise, there not being above two or three of that species
born in an age, they were too few to form a general observation by. When
they came to fourscore years, which is reckoned the extremity of living in this
country, they had not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men,
but many more which arose from the dreadful prospect of never dying. They
were not only opinionative, peevish, covetous, morose, vain, talkative, but
incapable of friendship, and dead to all natural affection, which never descended
below their grandchildren. Envy and impotent desires are their prevailing
passions. But those objects against which their envy seems principally
directed, are the vices of the younger sort and the deaths of the old. By
reflecting on the former, they find themselves cut off from all possibility of
pleasure; and whenever they see a funeral, they lament and repine that others
have gone to a harbour of rest to which they themselves never can hope to
arrive. They have no remembrance of anything but what they learned and
observed in their youth and middle-age, and even that is very imperfect; and
for the truth or particulars of any fact, it is safer to depend on common
tradition, than upon their best recollections. The least miserable among
them appear to be those who turn to dotage, and entirely lose their memories;
these meet with more pity and assistance, because they want many bad qualities
which abound in others.
“If a struldbrug
happen to marry one of his own kind, the marriage is dissolved of course, by
the courtesy of the kingdom, as soon as the younger of the two comes to be
fourscore; for the law thinks it a reasonable indulgence, that those who are
condemned, without any fault of their own, to a perpetual continuance in the
world, should not have their misery doubled by the load of a wife.
“As soon
as they have completed the term of eighty years, they are looked on as dead in
law; their heirs immediately succeed to their estates; only a small pittance is
reserved for their support; and the poor ones are maintained at the public
charge. After that period, they are held incapable of any employment of
trust or profit; they cannot purchase lands, or take leases; neither are they
allowed to be witnesses in any cause, either civil or criminal, not even for
the decision of meers and bounds.
“At
ninety, they lose their teeth and hair; they have at that age no distinction of
taste, but eat and drink whatever they can get, without relish or
appetite. The diseases they were subject to still continue, without increasing
or diminishing. In talking, they forget the common appellation of things,
and the names of persons, even of those who are their nearest friends and
relations. For the same reason, they never can amuse themselves with
reading, because their memory will not serve to carry them from the beginning
of a sentence to the end; and by this defect, they are deprived of the only
entertainment whereof they might otherwise be capable.
“The
language of this country being always upon the flux, the struldbrugs of
one age do not understand those of another; neither are they able, after two
hundred years, to hold any conversation (farther than by a few general words)
with their neighbours the mortals; and thus they lie under the disadvantage of
living like foreigners in their own country.”
This was
the account given me of the struldbrugs, as near as I can
remember. I afterwards saw five or six of different ages, the youngest
not above two hundred years old, who were brought to me at several times by
some of my friends; but although they were told, “that I was a great traveller,
and had seen all the world,” they had not the least curiosity to ask me a
question; only desired “I would give them slumskudask,” or a token of
remembrance; which is a modest way of begging, to avoid the law, that strictly
forbids it, because they are provided for by the public, although indeed with a
very scanty allowance.
They are
despised and hated by all sorts of people. When one of them is born, it
is reckoned ominous, and their birth is recorded very particularly so that you
may know their age by consulting the register, which, however, has not been
kept above a thousand years past, or at least has been destroyed by time or
public disturbances. But the usual way of computing how old they are, is
by asking them what kings or great persons they can remember, and then
consulting history; for infallibly the last prince in their mind did not begin
his reign after they were fourscore years old.
They were
the most mortifying sight I ever beheld; and the women more horrible than the
men. Besides the usual deformities in extreme old age, they acquired an
additional ghastliness, in proportion to their number of years, which is not to
be described; and among half a dozen, I soon distinguished which was the
eldest, although there was not above a century or two between them.
The reader
will easily believe, that from what I had hear and seen, my keen appetite for
perpetuity of life was much abated. I grew heartily ashamed of the
pleasing visions I had formed; and thought no tyrant could invent a death into
which I would not run with pleasure, from such a life. The king heard of
all that had passed between me and my friends upon this occasion, and rallied
me very pleasantly; wishing I could send a couple of struldbrugs to my
own country, to arm our people against the fear of death; but this, it seems,
is forbidden by the fundamental laws of the kingdom, or else I should have been
well content with the trouble and expense of transporting them.
I could
not but agree, that the laws of this kingdom relative to the struldbrugs
were founded upon the strongest reasons, and such as any other country would be
under the necessity of enacting, in the like circumstances. Otherwise, as
avarice is the necessary consequence of old age, those immortals would in time
become proprietors of the whole nation, and engross the civil power, which, for
want of abilities to manage, must end in the ruin of the public.
CHAPTER XI.
The author leaves Luggnagg, and
sails to Japan. From thence he returns in a Dutch ship to Amsterdam, and
from Amsterdam to England.
I thought
this account of the struldbrugs might be some entertainment to the
reader, because it seems to be a little out of the common way; at least I do
not remember to have met the like in any book of travels that has come to my
hands: and if I am deceived, my excuse must be, that it is necessary for
travellers who describe the same country, very often to agree in dwelling on
the same particulars, without deserving the censure of having borrowed or
transcribed from those who wrote before them.
There is
indeed a perpetual commerce between this kingdom and the great empire of Japan;
and it is very probable, that the Japanese authors may have given some account
of the struldbrugs; but my stay in Japan was so short, and I was so
entirely a stranger to the language, that I was not qualified to make any
inquiries. But I hope the Dutch, upon this notice, will be curious and
able enough to supply my defects.
His
majesty having often pressed me to accept some employment in his court, and
finding me absolutely determined to return to my native country, was pleased to
give me his license to depart; and honoured me with a letter of recommendation,
under his own hand, to the Emperor of Japan. He likewise presented me
with four hundred and forty-four large pieces of gold (this nation delighting
in even numbers), and a red diamond, which I sold in England for eleven hundred
pounds.
On the 6th
of May, 1709, I took a solemn leave of his majesty, and all my friends.
This prince was so gracious as to order a guard to conduct me to Glanguenstald,
which is a royal port to the south-west part of the island. In six days I
found a vessel ready to carry me to Japan, and spent fifteen days in the
voyage. We landed at a small port-town called Xamoschi, situated on the south-east
part of Japan; the town lies on the western point, where there is a narrow
strait leading northward into along arm of the sea, upon the north-west part of
which, Yedo, the metropolis, stands. At landing, I showed the
custom-house officers my letter from the king of Luggnagg to his imperial
majesty. They knew the seal perfectly well; it was as broad as the palm
of my hand. The impression was, A king lifting up a lame beggar from
the earth. The magistrates of the town, hearing of my letter, received
me as a public minister. They provided me with carriages and servants,
and bore my charges to Yedo; where I was admitted to an audience, and delivered
my letter, which was opened with great ceremony, and explained to the Emperor
by an interpreter, who then gave me notice, by his majesty’s order, “that I
should signify my request, and, whatever it were, it should be granted, for the
sake of his royal brother of Luggnagg.” This interpreter was a person
employed to transact affairs with the Hollanders. He soon conjectured, by
my countenance, that I was a European, and therefore repeated his majesty’s
commands in Low Dutch, which he spoke perfectly well. I answered, as I
had before determined, “that I was a Dutch merchant, shipwrecked in a very
remote country, whence I had travelled by sea and land to Luggnagg, and then
took shipping for Japan; where I knew my countrymen often traded, and with some
of these I hoped to get an opportunity of returning into Europe: I therefore
most humbly entreated his royal favour, to give order that I should be
conducted in safety to Nangasac.” To this I added another petition, “that
for the sake of my patron the king of Luggnagg, his majesty would condescend to
excuse my performing the ceremony imposed on my countrymen, of trampling upon
the crucifix: because I had been thrown into his kingdom by my misfortunes,
without any intention of trading.” When this latter petition was
interpreted to the Emperor, he seemed a little surprised; and said, “he
believed I was the first of my countrymen who ever made any scruple in this
point; and that he began to doubt, whether I was a real Hollander, or not; but
rather suspected I must be a Christian. However, for the reasons I had
offered, but chiefly to gratify the king of Luggnagg by an uncommon mark of his
favour, he would comply with the singularity of my humour; but the affair must
be managed with dexterity, and his officers should be commanded to let me pass,
as it were by forgetfulness. For he assured me, that if the secret should
be discovered by my countrymen the Dutch, they would cut my throat in the
voyage.” I returned my thanks, by the interpreter, for so unusual a
favour; and some troops being at that time on their march to Nangasac, the
commanding officer had orders to convey me safe thither, with particular
instructions about the business of the crucifix.
On the 9th
day of June, 1709, I arrived at Nangasac, after a very long and troublesome
journey. I soon fell into the company of some Dutch sailors belonging to
the Amboyna, of Amsterdam, a stout ship of 450 tons. I had lived long in
Holland, pursuing my studies at Leyden, and I spoke Dutch well. The
seamen soon knew whence I came last: they were curious to inquire into my
voyages and course of life. I made up a story as short and probable as I
could, but concealed the greatest part. I knew many persons in
Holland. I was able to invent names for my parents, whom I pretended to
be obscure people in the province of Gelderland. I would have given the
captain (one Theodorus Vangrult) what he pleased to ask for my voyage to
Holland; but understanding I was a surgeon, he was contented to take half the
usual rate, on condition that I would serve him in the way of my calling.
Before we took shipping, I was often asked by some of the crew, whether I had
performed the ceremony above mentioned? I evaded the question by general
answers; “that I had satisfied the Emperor and court in all particulars.”
However, a malicious rogue of a skipper went to an officer, and pointing to me,
told him, “I had not yet trampled on the crucifix;” but the other, who had
received instructions to let me pass, gave the rascal twenty strokes on the
shoulders with a bamboo; after which I was no more troubled with such
questions.
Nothing
happened worth mentioning in this voyage. We sailed with a fair wind to
the Cape of Good Hope, where we staid only to take in fresh water. On the
10th of April, 1710, we arrived safe at Amsterdam, having lost only three men
by sickness in the voyage, and a fourth, who fell from the foremast into the
sea, not far from the coast of Guinea. From Amsterdam I soon after set
sail for England, in a small vessel belonging to that city.
On the
16th of April we put in at the Downs. I landed next morning, and saw once
more my native country, after an absence of five years and six months
complete. I went straight to Redriff, where I arrived the same day at two
in the afternoon, and found my wife and family in good health.
To be continued
