The author\u2019s love of his country.\u00a0 He makes a proposal of much advantage to the king, which is rejected.\u00a0 The king\u2019s great ignorance in politics.\u00a0 The learning of that country very imperfect and confined.\u00a0 The laws, and military affairs, and parties in the state.<\/p>\r\nNothing but an extreme love of truth could have hindered me from concealing this part of my story.\u00a0 It was in vain to discover my resentments, which were always turned into ridicule; and I was forced to rest with patience, while my noble and beloved country was so injuriously treated.\u00a0 I am as heartily sorry as any of my readers can possibly be, that such an occasion was given: but this prince happened to be so curious and inquisitive upon every particular, that it could not consist either with gratitude or good manners, to refuse giving him what satisfaction I was able.\u00a0 Yet thus much I may be allowed to say in my own vindication, that I artfully eluded many of his questions, and gave to every point a more favourable turn, by many degrees, than the strictness of truth would allow.\u00a0 For I have always borne that laudable partiality to my own country, which Dionysius Halicarnassensis, with so much justice, recommends to an historian: I would hide the frailties and deformities of my political mother, and place her virtues and beauties in the most advantageous light.\u00a0 This was my sincere endeavour in those many discourses I had with that monarch, although it unfortunately failed of success.\r\n\r\nBut great allowances should be given to a king, who lives wholly secluded from the rest of the world, and must therefore be altogether unacquainted with the manners and customs that most prevail in other nations: the want of which knowledge will ever produce many prejudices, and a certain narrowness of thinking, from which we, and the politer countries of Europe, are wholly exempted.\u00a0 And it would be hard indeed, if so remote a prince\u2019s notions of virtue and vice were to be offered as a standard for all mankind.\r\n\r\nTo confirm what I have now said, and further to show the miserable effects of a confined education, I shall here insert a passage, which will hardly obtain belief.\u00a0 In hopes to ingratiate myself further into his majesty\u2019s favour, I told him of \u201can invention, discovered between three and four hundred years ago, to make a certain powder, into a heap of which, the smallest spark of fire falling, would kindle the whole in a moment, although it were as big as a mountain, and make it all fly up in the air together, with a noise and agitation greater than thunder.\u00a0 That a proper quantity of this powder rammed into a hollow tube of brass or iron, according to its bigness, would drive a ball of iron or lead, with such violence and speed, as nothing was able to sustain its force.\u00a0 That the largest balls thus discharged, would not only destroy whole ranks of an army at once, but batter the strongest walls to the ground, sink down ships, with a thousand men in each, to the bottom of the sea, and when linked together by a chain, would cut through masts and rigging, divide hundreds of bodies in the middle, and lay all waste before them.\u00a0 That we often put this powder into large hollow balls of iron, and discharged them by an engine into some city we were besieging, which would rip up the pavements, tear the houses to pieces, burst and throw splinters on every side, dashing out the brains of all who came near.\u00a0 That I knew the ingredients very well, which were cheap and common; I understood the manner of compounding them, and could direct his workmen how to make those tubes, of a size proportionable to all other things in his majesty\u2019s kingdom, and the largest need not be above a hundred feet long; twenty or thirty of which tubes, charged with the proper quantity of powder and balls, would batter down the walls of the strongest town in his dominions in a few hours, or destroy the whole metropolis, if ever it should pretend to dispute his absolute commands.\u201d\u00a0 This I humbly offered to his majesty, as a small tribute of acknowledgment, in turn for so many marks that I had received, of his royal favour and protection.\r\n\r\nThe king was struck with horror at the description I had given of those terrible engines, and the proposal I had made.\u00a0 \u201cHe was amazed, how so impotent and grovelling an insect as I\u201d (these were his expressions) \u201ccould entertain such inhuman ideas, and in so familiar a manner, as to appear wholly unmoved at all the scenes of blood and desolation which I had painted as the common effects of those destructive machines; whereof,\u201d he said, \u201csome evil genius, enemy to mankind, must have been the first contriver.\u00a0 As for himself, he protested, that although few things delighted him so much as new discoveries in art or in nature, yet he would rather lose half his kingdom, than be privy to such a secret; which he commanded me, as I valued any life, never to mention any more.\u201d\r\n\r\nA strange effect of narrow principles and views! that a prince possessed of every quality which procures veneration, love, and esteem; of strong parts, great wisdom, and profound learning, endowed with admirable talents, and almost adored by his subjects, should, from a nice, unnecessary scruple, whereof in Europe we can have no conception, let slip an opportunity put into his hands that would have made him absolute master of the lives, the liberties, and the fortunes of his people!\u00a0 Neither do I say this, with the least intention to detract from the many virtues of that excellent king, whose character, I am sensible, will, on this account, be very much lessened in the opinion of an English reader: but I take this defect among them to have risen from their ignorance, by not having hitherto reduced politics into a science, as the more acute wits of Europe have done.\u00a0 For, I remember very well, in a discourse one day with the king, when I happened to say, \u201cthere were several thousand books among us written upon the art of government,\u201d it gave him (directly contrary to my intention) a very mean opinion of our understandings.\u00a0 He professed both to abominate and despise all mystery, refinement, and intrigue, either in a prince or a minister.\u00a0 He could not tell what I meant by secrets of state, where an enemy, or some rival nation, were not in the case.\u00a0 He confined the knowledge of governing within very narrow bounds, to common sense and reason, to justice and lenity, to the speedy determination of civil and criminal causes; with some other obvious topics, which are not worth considering.\u00a0 And he gave it for his opinion, \u201cthat whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe learning of this people is very defective, consisting only in morality, history, poetry, and mathematics, wherein they must be allowed to excel.\u00a0 But the last of these is wholly applied to what may be useful in life, to the improvement of agriculture, and all mechanical arts; so that among us, it would be little esteemed.\u00a0 And as to ideas, entities, abstractions, and transcendentals, I could never drive the least conception into their heads.\r\n\r\nNo law in that country must exceed in words the number of letters in their alphabet, which consists only of two and twenty.\u00a0 But indeed few of them extend even to that length.\u00a0 They are expressed in the most plain and simple terms, wherein those people are not mercurial enough to discover above one interpretation: and to write a comment upon any law, is a capital crime.\u00a0 As to the decision of civil causes, or proceedings against criminals, their precedents are so few, that they have little reason to boast of any extraordinary skill in either.\r\n\r\nThey have had the art of printing, as well as the Chinese, time out of mind: but their libraries are not very large; for that of the king, which is reckoned the largest, does not amount to above a thousand volumes, placed in a gallery of twelve hundred feet long, whence I had liberty to borrow what books I pleased.\u00a0 The queen\u2019s joiner had contrived in one of Glumdalclitch\u2019s rooms, a kind of wooden machine five-and-twenty feet high, formed like a standing ladder; the steps were each fifty feet long.\u00a0 It was indeed a moveable pair of stairs, the lowest end placed at ten feet distance from the wall of the chamber.\u00a0 The book I had a mind to read, was put up leaning against the wall: I first mounted to the upper step of the ladder, and turning my face towards the book, began at the top of the page, and so walking to the right and left about eight or ten paces, according to the length of the lines, till I had gotten a little below the level of mine eyes, and then descending gradually till I came to the bottom: after which I mounted again, and began the other page in the same manner, and so turned over the leaf, which I could easily do with both my hands, for it was as thick and stiff as a pasteboard, and in the largest folios not above eighteen or twenty feet long.\r\n\r\nTheir style is clear, masculine, and smooth, but not florid; for they avoid nothing more than multiplying unnecessary words, or using various expressions.\u00a0 I have perused many of their books, especially those in history and morality.\u00a0 Among the rest, I was much diverted with a little old treatise, which always lay in Glumdalclitch\u2019s bed chamber, and belonged to her governess, a grave elderly gentlewoman, who dealt in writings of morality and devotion.\u00a0 The book treats of the weakness of human kind, and is in little esteem, except among the women and the vulgar.\u00a0 However, I was curious to see what an author of that country could say upon such a subject.\u00a0 This writer went through all the usual topics of European moralists, showing \u201chow diminutive, contemptible, and helpless an animal was man in his own nature; how unable to defend himself from inclemencies of the air, or the fury of wild beasts: how much he was excelled by one creature in strength, by another in speed, by a third in foresight, by a fourth in industry.\u201d\u00a0 He added, \u201cthat nature was degenerated in these latter declining ages of the world, and could now produce only small abortive births, in comparison of those in ancient times.\u201d\u00a0 He said \u201cit was very reasonable to think, not only that the species of men were originally much larger, but also that there must have been giants in former ages; which, as it is asserted by history and tradition, so it has been confirmed by huge bones and skulls, casually dug up in several parts of the kingdom, far exceeding the common dwindled race of men in our days.\u201d\u00a0 He argued, \u201cthat the very laws of nature absolutely required we should have been made, in the beginning of a size more large and robust; not so liable to destruction from every little accident, of a tile falling from a house, or a stone cast from the hand of a boy, or being drowned in a little brook.\u201d\u00a0 From this way of reasoning, the author drew several moral applications, useful in the conduct of life, but needless here to repeat.\u00a0 For my own part, I could not avoid reflecting how universally this talent was spread, of drawing lectures in morality, or indeed rather matter of discontent and repining, from the quarrels we raise with nature.\u00a0 And I believe, upon a strict inquiry, those quarrels might be shown as ill-grounded among us as they are among that people.\r\n\r\nAs to their military affairs, they boast that the king\u2019s army consists of a hundred and seventy-six thousand foot, and thirty-two thousand horse: if that may be called an army, which is made up of tradesmen in the several cities, and farmers in the country, whose commanders are only the nobility and gentry, without pay or reward.\u00a0 They are indeed perfect enough in their exercises, and under very good discipline, wherein I saw no great merit; for how should it be otherwise, where every farmer is under the command of his own landlord, and every citizen under that of the principal men in his own city, chosen after the manner of Venice, by ballot?\r\n\r\nI have often seen the militia of Lorbrulgrud drawn out to exercise, in a great field near the city of twenty miles square.\u00a0 They were in all not above twenty-five thousand foot, and six thousand horse; but it was impossible for me to compute their number, considering the space of ground they took up.\u00a0 A cavalier, mounted on a large steed, might be about ninety feet high.\u00a0 I have seen this whole body of horse, upon a word of command, draw their swords at once, and brandish them in the air.\u00a0 Imagination can figure nothing so grand, so surprising, and so astonishing! it looked as if ten thousand flashes of lightning were darting at the same time from every quarter of the sky.\r\n\r\nI was curious to know how this prince, to whose dominions there is no access from any other country, came to think of armies, or to teach his people the practice of military discipline.\u00a0 But I was soon informed, both by conversation and reading their histories; for, in the course of many ages, they have been troubled with the same disease to which the whole race of mankind is subject; the nobility often contending for power, the people for liberty, and the king for absolute dominion.\u00a0 All which, however happily tempered by the laws of that kingdom, have been sometimes violated by each of the three parties, and have more than once occasioned civil wars; the last whereof was happily put an end to by this prince\u2019s grand-father, in a general composition; and the militia, then settled with common consent, has been ever since kept in the strictest duty.\r\n
The king and queen make a progress to the frontiers.\u00a0 The author attends them.\u00a0 The manner in which he leaves the country very particularly related.\u00a0 He returns to England.<\/p>\r\nI had always a strong impulse that I should some time recover my liberty, though it was impossible to conjecture by what means, or to form any project with the least hope of succeeding.\u00a0 The ship in which I sailed, was the first ever known to be driven within sight of that coast, and the king had given strict orders, that if at any time another appeared, it should be taken ashore, and with all its crew and passengers brought in a tumbril to Lorbrulgrud.\u00a0 He was strongly bent to get me a woman of my own size, by whom I might propagate the breed: but I think I should rather have died than undergone the disgrace of leaving a posterity to be kept in cages, like tame canary-birds, and perhaps, in time, sold about the kingdom, to persons of quality, for curiosities.\u00a0 I was indeed treated with much kindness: I was the favourite of a great king and queen, and the delight of the whole court; but it was upon such a foot as ill became the dignity of humankind.\u00a0 I could never forget those domestic pledges I had left behind me.\u00a0 I wanted to be among people, with whom I could converse upon even terms, and walk about the streets and fields without being afraid of being trod to death like a frog or a young puppy.\u00a0 But my deliverance came sooner than I expected, and in a manner not very common; the whole story and circumstances of which I shall faithfully relate.\r\n\r\nI had now been two years in this country; and about the beginning of the third, Glumdalclitch and I attended the king and queen, in a progress to the south coast of the kingdom.\u00a0 I was carried, as usual, in my travelling-box, which as I have already described, was a very convenient closet, of twelve feet wide.\u00a0 And I had ordered a hammock to be fixed, by silken ropes from the four corners at the top, to break the jolts, when a servant carried me before him on horseback, as I sometimes desired; and would often sleep in my hammock, while we were upon the road.\u00a0 On the roof of my closet, not directly over the middle of the hammock, I ordered the joiner to cut out a hole of a foot square, to give me air in hot weather, as I slept; which hole I shut at pleasure with a board that drew backward and forward through a groove.\r\n\r\nWhen we came to our journey\u2019s end, the king thought proper to pass a few days at a palace he has near Flanflasnic, a city within eighteen English miles of the seaside.\u00a0 Glumdalclitch and I were much fatigued: I had gotten a small cold, but the poor girl was so ill as to be confined to her chamber.\u00a0 I longed to see the ocean, which must be the only scene of my escape, if ever it should happen.\u00a0 I pretended to be worse than I really was, and desired leave to take the fresh air of the sea, with a page, whom I was very fond of, and who had sometimes been trusted with me.\u00a0 I shall never forget with what unwillingness Glumdalclitch consented, nor the strict charge she gave the page to be careful of me, bursting at the same time into a flood of tears, as if she had some forboding of what was to happen.\u00a0 The boy took me out in my box, about half an hours walk from the palace, towards the rocks on the sea-shore.\u00a0 I ordered him to set me down, and lifting up one of my sashes, cast many a wistful melancholy look towards the sea.\u00a0 I found myself not very well, and told the page that I had a mind to take a nap in my hammock, which I hoped would do me good.\u00a0 I got in, and the boy shut the window close down, to keep out the cold.\u00a0 I soon fell asleep, and all I can conjecture is, while I slept, the page, thinking no danger could happen, went among the rocks to look for birds\u2019 eggs, having before observed him from my window searching about, and picking up one or two in the clefts.\u00a0 Be that as it will, I found myself suddenly awaked with a violent pull upon the ring, which was fastened at the top of my box for the conveniency of carriage.\u00a0 I felt my box raised very high in the air, and then borne forward with prodigious speed.\u00a0 The first jolt had like to have shaken me out of my hammock, but afterward the motion was easy enough.\u00a0 I called out several times, as loud as I could raise my voice, but all to no purpose.\u00a0 I looked towards my windows, and could see nothing but the clouds and sky.\u00a0 I heard a noise just over my head, like the clapping of wings, and then began to perceive the woful condition I was in; that some eagle had got the ring of my box in his beak, with an intent to let it fall on a rock, like a tortoise in a shell, and then pick out my body, and devour it: for the sagacity and smell of this bird enables him to discover his quarry at a great distance, though better concealed than I could be within a two-inch board.\r\n\r\nIn a little time, I observed the noise and flutter of wings to increase very fast, and my box was tossed up and down, like a sign in a windy day.\u00a0 I heard several bangs or buffets, as I thought given to the eagle (for such I am certain it must have been that held the ring of my box in his beak), and then, all on a sudden, felt myself falling perpendicularly down, for above a minute, but with such incredible swiftness, that I almost lost my breath.\u00a0 My fall was stopped by a terrible squash, that sounded louder to my ears than the cataract of Niagara; after which, I was quite in the dark for another minute, and then my box began to rise so high, that I could see light from the tops of the windows.\u00a0 I now perceived I was fallen into the sea.\u00a0 My box, by the weight of my body, the goods that were in, and the broad plates of iron fixed for strength at the four corners of the top and bottom, floated about five feet deep in water.\u00a0 I did then, and do now suppose, that the eagle which flew away with my box was pursued by two or three others, and forced to let me drop, while he defended himself against the rest, who hoped to share in the prey.\u00a0 The plates of iron fastened at the bottom of the box (for those were the strongest) preserved the balance while it fell, and hindered it from being broken on the surface of the water. Every joint of it was well grooved; and the door did not move on hinges, but up and down like a sash, which kept my closet so tight that very little water came in.\u00a0 I got with much difficulty out of my hammock, having first ventured to draw back the slip-board on the roof already mentioned, contrived on purpose to let in air, for want of which I found myself almost stifled.\r\n\r\nHow often did I then wish myself with my dear Glumdalclitch, from whom one single hour had so far divided me!\u00a0 And I may say with truth, that in the midst of my own misfortunes I could not forbear lamenting my poor nurse, the grief she would suffer for my loss, the displeasure of the queen, and the ruin of her fortune.\u00a0 Perhaps many travellers have not been under greater difficulties and distress than I was at this juncture, expecting every moment to see my box dashed to pieces, or at least overset by the first violent blast, or rising wave.\u00a0 A breach in one single pane of glass would have been immediate death: nor could any thing have preserved the windows, but the strong lattice wires placed on the outside, against accidents in travelling.\u00a0 I saw the water ooze in at several crannies, although the leaks were not considerable, and I endeavoured to stop them as well as I could.\u00a0 I was not able to lift up the roof of my closet, which otherwise I certainly should have done, and sat on the top of it; where I might at least preserve myself some hours longer, than by being shut up (as I may call it) in the hold.\u00a0 Or if I escaped these dangers for a day or two, what could I expect but a miserable death of cold and hunger?\u00a0 I was four hours under these circumstances, expecting, and indeed wishing, every moment to be my last.\r\n\r\nI have already told the reader that there were two strong staples fixed upon that side of my box which had no window, and into which the servant, who used to carry me on horseback, would put a leathern belt, and buckle it about his waist.\u00a0 Being in this disconsolate state, I heard, or at least thought I heard, some kind of grating noise on that side of my box where the staples were fixed; and soon after I began to fancy that the box was pulled or towed along the sea; for I now and then felt a sort of tugging, which made the waves rise near the tops of my windows, leaving me almost in the dark.\u00a0 This gave me some faint hopes of relief, although I was not able to imagine how it could be brought about.\u00a0 I ventured to unscrew one of my chairs, which were always fastened to the floor; and having made a hard shift to screw it down again, directly under the slipping-board that I had lately opened, I mounted on the chair, and putting my mouth as near as I could to the hole, I called for help in a loud voice, and in all the languages I understood.\u00a0 I then fastened my handkerchief to a stick I usually carried, and thrusting it up the hole, waved it several times in the air, that if any boat or ship were near, the seamen might conjecture some unhappy mortal to be shut up in the box.\r\n\r\nI found no effect from all I could do, but plainly perceived my closet to be moved along; and in the space of an hour, or better, that side of the box where the staples were, and had no windows, struck against something that was hard.\u00a0 I apprehended it to be a rock, and found myself tossed more than ever.\u00a0 I plainly heard a noise upon the cover of my closet, like that of a cable, and the grating of it as it passed through the ring.\u00a0 I then found myself hoisted up, by degrees, at least three feet higher than I was before.\u00a0 Whereupon I again thrust up my stick and handkerchief, calling for help till I was almost hoarse.\u00a0 In return to which, I heard a great shout repeated three times, giving me such transports of joy as are not to be conceived but by those who feel them.\u00a0 I now heard a trampling over my head, and somebody calling through the hole with a loud voice, in the English tongue, \u201cIf there be any body below, let them speak.\u201d\u00a0 I answered, \u201cI was an Englishman, drawn by ill fortune into the greatest calamity that ever any creature underwent, and begged, by all that was moving, to be delivered out of the dungeon I was in.\u201d\u00a0 The voice replied, \u201cI was safe, for my box was fastened to their ship; and the carpenter should immediately come and saw a hole in the cover, large enough to pull me out.\u201d\u00a0 I answered, \u201cthat was needless, and would take up too much time; for there was no more to be done, but let one of the crew put his finger into the ring, and take the box out of the sea into the ship, and so into the captain\u2019s cabin.\u201d\u00a0 Some of them, upon hearing me talk so wildly, thought I was mad: others laughed; for indeed it never came into my head, that I was now got among people of my own stature and strength.\u00a0 The carpenter came, and in a few minutes sawed a passage about four feet square, then let down a small ladder, upon which I mounted, and thence was taken into the ship in a very weak condition.\r\n\r\nThe sailors were all in amazement, and asked me a thousand questions, which I had no inclination to answer.\u00a0 I was equally confounded at the sight of so many pigmies, for such I took them to be, after having so long accustomed mine eyes to the monstrous objects I had left.\u00a0 But the captain, Mr. Thomas Wilcocks, an honest worthy Shropshire man, observing I was ready to faint, took me into his cabin, gave me a cordial to comfort me, and made me turn in upon his own bed, advising me to take a little rest, of which I had great need.\u00a0 Before I went to sleep, I gave him to understand that I had some valuable furniture in my box, too good to be lost: a fine hammock, a handsome field-bed, two chairs, a table, and a cabinet; that my closet was hung on all sides, or rather quilted, with silk and cotton; that if he would let one of the crew bring my closet into his cabin, I would open it there before him, and show him my goods.\u00a0 The captain, hearing me utter these absurdities, concluded I was raving; however (I suppose to pacify me) he promised to give order as I desired, and going upon deck, sent some of his men down into my closet, whence (as I afterwards found) they drew up all my goods, and stripped off the quilting; but the chairs, cabinet, and bedstead, being screwed to the floor, were much damaged by the ignorance of the seamen, who tore them up by force.\u00a0 Then they knocked off some of the boards for the use of the ship, and when they had got all they had a mind for, let the hull drop into the sea, which by reason of many breaches made in the bottom and sides, sunk to rights.\u00a0 And, indeed, I was glad not to have been a spectator of the havoc they made, because I am confident it would have sensibly touched me, by bringing former passages into my mind, which I would rather have forgot.\r\n\r\nI slept some hours, but perpetually disturbed with dreams of the place I had left, and the dangers I had escaped.\u00a0 However, upon waking, I found myself much recovered.\u00a0 It was now about eight o\u2019clock at night, and the captain ordered supper immediately, thinking I had already fasted too long.\u00a0 He entertained me with great kindness, observing me not to look wildly, or talk inconsistently: and, when we were left alone, desired I would give him a relation of my travels, and by what accident I came to be set adrift, in that monstrous wooden chest.\u00a0 He said \u201cthat about twelve o\u2019clock at noon, as he was looking through his glass, he spied it at a distance, and thought it was a sail, which he had a mind to make, being not much out of his course, in hopes of buying some biscuit, his own beginning to fall short.\u00a0 That upon coming nearer, and finding his error, he sent out his long-boat to discover what it was; that his men came back in a fright, swearing they had seen a swimming house.\u00a0 That he laughed at their folly, and went himself in the boat, ordering his men to take a strong cable along with them.\u00a0 That the weather being calm, he rowed round me several times, observed my windows and wire lattices that defended them.\u00a0 That he discovered two staples upon one side, which was all of boards, without any passage for light.\u00a0 He then commanded his men to row up to that side, and fastening a cable to one of the staples, ordered them to tow my chest, as they called it, toward the ship.\u00a0 When it was there, he gave directions to fasten another cable to the ring fixed in the cover, and to raise up my chest with pulleys, which all the sailors were not able to do above two or three feet.\u201d\u00a0 He said, \u201cthey saw my stick and handkerchief thrust out of the hole, and concluded that some unhappy man must be shut up in the cavity.\u201d\u00a0 I asked, \u201cwhether he or the crew had seen any prodigious birds in the air, about the time he first discovered me.\u201d\u00a0 To which he answered, \u201cthat discoursing this matter with the sailors while I was asleep, one of them said, he had observed three eagles flying towards the north, but remarked nothing of their being larger than the usual size:\u201d which I suppose must be imputed to the great height they were at; and he could not guess the reason of my question.\u00a0 I then asked the captain, \u201chow far he reckoned we might be from land?\u201d\u00a0 He said, \u201cby the best computation he could make, we were at least a hundred leagues.\u201d\u00a0 I assured him, \u201cthat he must be mistaken by almost half, for I had not left the country whence I came above two hours before I dropped into the sea.\u201d\u00a0 Whereupon he began again to think that my brain was disturbed, of which he gave me a hint, and advised me to go to bed in a cabin he had provided.\u00a0 I assured him, \u201cI was well refreshed with his good entertainment and company, and as much in my senses as ever I was in my life.\u201d\u00a0 He then grew serious, and desired to ask me freely, \u201cwhether I were not troubled in my mind by the consciousness of some enormous crime, for which I was punished, at the command of some prince, by exposing me in that chest; as great criminals, in other countries, have been forced to sea in a leaky vessel, without provisions: for although he should be sorry to have taken so ill a man into his ship, yet he would engage his word to set me safe ashore, in the first port where we arrived.\u201d\u00a0 He added, \u201cthat his suspicions were much increased by some very absurd speeches I had delivered at first to his sailors, and afterwards to himself, in relation to my closet or chest, as well as by my odd looks and behaviour while I was at supper.\u201d\r\n\r\nI begged his patience to hear me tell my story, which I faithfully did, from the last time I left England, to the moment he first discovered me.\u00a0 And, as truth always forces its way into rational minds, so this honest worthy gentleman, who had some tincture of learning, and very good sense, was immediately convinced of my candour and veracity.\u00a0 But further to confirm all I had said, I entreated him to give order that my cabinet should be brought, of which I had the key in my pocket; for he had already informed me how the seamen disposed of my closet.\u00a0 I opened it in his own presence, and showed him the small collection of rarities I made in the country from which I had been so strangely delivered.\u00a0 There was the comb I had contrived out of the stumps of the king\u2019s beard, and another of the same materials, but fixed into a paring of her majesty\u2019s thumb-nail, which served for the back.\u00a0 There was a collection of needles and pins, from a foot to half a yard long; four wasp stings, like joiner\u2019s tacks; some combings of the queen\u2019s hair; a gold ring, which one day she made me a present of, in a most obliging manner, taking it from her little finger, and throwing it over my head like a collar.\u00a0 I desired the captain would please to accept this ring in return for his civilities; which he absolutely refused.\u00a0 I showed him a corn that I had cut off with my own hand, from a maid of honour\u2019s toe; it was about the bigness of Kentish pippin, and grown so hard, that when I returned England, I got it hollowed into a cup, and set in silver.\u00a0 Lastly, I desired him to see the breeches I had then on, which were made of a mouse\u2019s skin.\r\n\r\nI could force nothing on him but a footman\u2019s tooth, which I observed him to examine with great curiosity, and found he had a fancy for it.\u00a0 He received it with abundance of thanks, more than such a trifle could deserve.\u00a0 It was drawn by an unskilful surgeon, in a mistake, from one of Glumdalclitch\u2019s men, who was afflicted with the tooth-ache, but it was as sound as any in his head.\u00a0 I got it cleaned, and put it into my cabinet.\u00a0 It was about a foot long, and four inches in diameter.\r\n\r\nThe captain was very well satisfied with this plain relation I had given him, and said, \u201che hoped, when we returned to England, I would oblige the world by putting it on paper, and making it public.\u201d\u00a0 My answer was, \u201cthat we were overstocked with books of travels: that nothing could now pass which was not extraordinary; wherein I doubted some authors less consulted truth, than their own vanity, or interest, or the diversion of ignorant readers; that my story could contain little beside common events, without those ornamental descriptions of strange plants, trees, birds, and other animals; or of the barbarous customs and idolatry of savage people, with which most writers abound.\u00a0 However, I thanked him for his good opinion, and promised to take the matter into my thoughts.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe said \u201che wondered at one thing very much, which was, to hear me speak so loud;\u201d asking me \u201cwhether the king or queen of that country were thick of hearing?\u201d\u00a0 I told him, \u201cit was what I had been used to for above two years past, and that I admired as much at the voices of him and his men, who seemed to me only to whisper, and yet I could hear them well enough.\u00a0 But, when I spoke in that country, it was like a man talking in the streets, to another looking out from the top of a steeple, unless when I was placed on a table, or held in any person\u2019s hand.\u201d\u00a0 I told him, \u201cI had likewise observed another thing, that, when I first got into the ship, and the sailors stood all about me, I thought they were the most little contemptible creatures I had ever beheld.\u201d\u00a0 For indeed, while I was in that prince\u2019s country, I could never endure to look in a glass, after mine eyes had been accustomed to such prodigious objects, because the comparison gave me so despicable a conceit of myself.\u00a0 The captain said, \u201cthat while we were at supper, he observed me to look at every thing with a sort of wonder, and that I often seemed hardly able to contain my laughter, which he knew not well how to take, but imputed it to some disorder in my brain.\u201d\u00a0 I answered, \u201cit was very true; and I wondered how I could forbear, when I saw his dishes of the size of a silver three-pence, a leg of pork hardly a mouthful, a cup not so big as a nut-shell;\u201d and so I went on, describing the rest of his household-stuff and provisions, after the same manner.\u00a0 For, although he queen had ordered a little equipage of all things necessary for me, while I was in her service, yet my ideas were wholly taken up with what I saw on every side of me, and I winked at my own littleness, as people do at their own faults.\u00a0 The captain understood my raillery very well, and merrily replied with the old English proverb, \u201cthat he doubted mine eyes were bigger than my belly, for he did not observe my stomach so good, although I had fasted all day;\u201d and, continuing in his mirth, protested \u201che would have gladly given a hundred pounds, to have seen my closet in the eagle\u2019s bill, and afterwards in its fall from so great a height into the sea; which would certainly have been a most astonishing object, worthy to have the description of it transmitted to future ages:\u201d and the comparison of Pha\u00ebton was so obvious, that he could not forbear applying it, although I did not much admire the conceit.\r\n\r\nThe captain having been at Tonquin, was, in his return to England, driven north-eastward to the latitude of 44 degrees, and longitude of 143.\u00a0 But meeting a trade-wind two days after I came on board him, we sailed southward a long time, and coasting New Holland, kept our course west-south-west, and then south-south-west, till we doubled the Cape of Good Hope.\u00a0 Our voyage was very prosperous, but I shall not trouble the reader with a journal of it.\u00a0 The captain called in at one or two ports, and sent in his long-boat for provisions and fresh water; but I never went out of the ship till we came into the Downs, which was on the third day of June, 1706, about nine months after my escape.\u00a0 I offered to leave my goods in security for payment of my freight: but the captain protested he would not receive one farthing.\u00a0 We took a kind leave of each other, and I made him promise he would come to see me at my house in Redriff.\u00a0 I hired a horse and guide for five shillings, which I borrowed of the captain.\r\n\r\nAs I was on the road, observing the littleness of the houses, the trees, the cattle, and the people, I began to think myself in Lilliput.\u00a0 I was afraid of trampling on every traveller I met, and often called aloud to have them stand out of the way, so that I had like to have gotten one or two broken heads for my impertinence.\r\n\r\nWhen I came to my own house, for which I was forced to inquire, one of the servants opening the door, I bent down to go in, (like a goose under a gate,) for fear of striking my head.\u00a0 My wife run out to embrace me, but I stooped lower than her knees, thinking she could otherwise never be able to reach my mouth.\u00a0 My daughter kneeled to ask my blessing, but I could not see her till she arose, having been so long used to stand with my head and eyes erect to above sixty feet; and then I went to take her up with one hand by the waist.\u00a0 I looked down upon the servants, and one or two friends who were in the house, as if they had been pigmies and I a giant.\u00a0 I told my wife, \u201cshe had been too thrifty, for I found she had starved herself and her daughter to nothing.\u201d\u00a0 In short, I behaved myself so unaccountably, that they were all of the captain\u2019s opinion when he first saw me, and concluded I had lost my wits.\u00a0 This I mention as an instance of the great power of habit and prejudice.\r\n\r\nIn a little time, I and my family and friends came to a right understanding: but my wife protested \u201cI should never go to sea any more;\u201d although my evil destiny so ordered, that she had not power to hinder me, as the reader may know hereafter.\u00a0 In the mean time, I here conclude the second part of my unfortunate voyages.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org<\/strong>\r\n The author\u2019s love of his country.\u00a0 He makes a proposal of much advantage to the king, which is rejected.\u00a0 The king\u2019s great ignorance in politics.\u00a0 The learning of that country very imperfect and confined.\u00a0 The laws, and military affairs, and parties in the state.<\/p>\n Nothing but an extreme love of truth could have hindered me from concealing this part of my story.\u00a0 It was in vain to discover my resentments, which were always turned into ridicule; and I was forced to rest with patience, while my noble and beloved country was so injuriously treated.\u00a0 I am as heartily sorry as any of my readers can possibly be, that such an occasion was given: but this prince happened to be so curious and inquisitive upon every particular, that it could not consist either with gratitude or good manners, to refuse giving him what satisfaction I was able.\u00a0 Yet thus much I may be allowed to say in my own vindication, that I artfully eluded many of his questions, and gave to every point a more favourable turn, by many degrees, than the strictness of truth would allow.\u00a0 For I have always borne that laudable partiality to my own country, which Dionysius Halicarnassensis, with so much justice, recommends to an historian: I would hide the frailties and deformities of my political mother, and place her virtues and beauties in the most advantageous light.\u00a0 This was my sincere endeavour in those many discourses I had with that monarch, although it unfortunately failed of success.<\/p>\n But great allowances should be given to a king, who lives wholly secluded from the rest of the world, and must therefore be altogether unacquainted with the manners and customs that most prevail in other nations: the want of which knowledge will ever produce many prejudices, and a certain narrowness of thinking, from which we, and the politer countries of Europe, are wholly exempted.\u00a0 And it would be hard indeed, if so remote a prince\u2019s notions of virtue and vice were to be offered as a standard for all mankind.<\/p>\n To confirm what I have now said, and further to show the miserable effects of a confined education, I shall here insert a passage, which will hardly obtain belief.\u00a0 In hopes to ingratiate myself further into his majesty\u2019s favour, I told him of \u201can invention, discovered between three and four hundred years ago, to make a certain powder, into a heap of which, the smallest spark of fire falling, would kindle the whole in a moment, although it were as big as a mountain, and make it all fly up in the air together, with a noise and agitation greater than thunder.\u00a0 That a proper quantity of this powder rammed into a hollow tube of brass or iron, according to its bigness, would drive a ball of iron or lead, with such violence and speed, as nothing was able to sustain its force.\u00a0 That the largest balls thus discharged, would not only destroy whole ranks of an army at once, but batter the strongest walls to the ground, sink down ships, with a thousand men in each, to the bottom of the sea, and when linked together by a chain, would cut through masts and rigging, divide hundreds of bodies in the middle, and lay all waste before them.\u00a0 That we often put this powder into large hollow balls of iron, and discharged them by an engine into some city we were besieging, which would rip up the pavements, tear the houses to pieces, burst and throw splinters on every side, dashing out the brains of all who came near.\u00a0 That I knew the ingredients very well, which were cheap and common; I understood the manner of compounding them, and could direct his workmen how to make those tubes, of a size proportionable to all other things in his majesty\u2019s kingdom, and the largest need not be above a hundred feet long; twenty or thirty of which tubes, charged with the proper quantity of powder and balls, would batter down the walls of the strongest town in his dominions in a few hours, or destroy the whole metropolis, if ever it should pretend to dispute his absolute commands.\u201d\u00a0 This I humbly offered to his majesty, as a small tribute of acknowledgment, in turn for so many marks that I had received, of his royal favour and protection.<\/p>\n The king was struck with horror at the description I had given of those terrible engines, and the proposal I had made.\u00a0 \u201cHe was amazed, how so impotent and grovelling an insect as I\u201d (these were his expressions) \u201ccould entertain such inhuman ideas, and in so familiar a manner, as to appear wholly unmoved at all the scenes of blood and desolation which I had painted as the common effects of those destructive machines; whereof,\u201d he said, \u201csome evil genius, enemy to mankind, must have been the first contriver.\u00a0 As for himself, he protested, that although few things delighted him so much as new discoveries in art or in nature, yet he would rather lose half his kingdom, than be privy to such a secret; which he commanded me, as I valued any life, never to mention any more.\u201d<\/p>\n A strange effect of narrow principles and views! that a prince possessed of every quality which procures veneration, love, and esteem; of strong parts, great wisdom, and profound learning, endowed with admirable talents, and almost adored by his subjects, should, from a nice, unnecessary scruple, whereof in Europe we can have no conception, let slip an opportunity put into his hands that would have made him absolute master of the lives, the liberties, and the fortunes of his people!\u00a0 Neither do I say this, with the least intention to detract from the many virtues of that excellent king, whose character, I am sensible, will, on this account, be very much lessened in the opinion of an English reader: but I take this defect among them to have risen from their ignorance, by not having hitherto reduced politics into a science, as the more acute wits of Europe have done.\u00a0 For, I remember very well, in a discourse one day with the king, when I happened to say, \u201cthere were several thousand books among us written upon the art of government,\u201d it gave him (directly contrary to my intention) a very mean opinion of our understandings.\u00a0 He professed both to abominate and despise all mystery, refinement, and intrigue, either in a prince or a minister.\u00a0 He could not tell what I meant by secrets of state, where an enemy, or some rival nation, were not in the case.\u00a0 He confined the knowledge of governing within very narrow bounds, to common sense and reason, to justice and lenity, to the speedy determination of civil and criminal causes; with some other obvious topics, which are not worth considering.\u00a0 And he gave it for his opinion, \u201cthat whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.\u201d<\/p>\n The learning of this people is very defective, consisting only in morality, history, poetry, and mathematics, wherein they must be allowed to excel.\u00a0 But the last of these is wholly applied to what may be useful in life, to the improvement of agriculture, and all mechanical arts; so that among us, it would be little esteemed.\u00a0 And as to ideas, entities, abstractions, and transcendentals, I could never drive the least conception into their heads.<\/p>\n No law in that country must exceed in words the number of letters in their alphabet, which consists only of two and twenty.\u00a0 But indeed few of them extend even to that length.\u00a0 They are expressed in the most plain and simple terms, wherein those people are not mercurial enough to discover above one interpretation: and to write a comment upon any law, is a capital crime.\u00a0 As to the decision of civil causes, or proceedings against criminals, their precedents are so few, that they have little reason to boast of any extraordinary skill in either.<\/p>\n They have had the art of printing, as well as the Chinese, time out of mind: but their libraries are not very large; for that of the king, which is reckoned the largest, does not amount to above a thousand volumes, placed in a gallery of twelve hundred feet long, whence I had liberty to borrow what books I pleased.\u00a0 The queen\u2019s joiner had contrived in one of Glumdalclitch\u2019s rooms, a kind of wooden machine five-and-twenty feet high, formed like a standing ladder; the steps were each fifty feet long.\u00a0 It was indeed a moveable pair of stairs, the lowest end placed at ten feet distance from the wall of the chamber.\u00a0 The book I had a mind to read, was put up leaning against the wall: I first mounted to the upper step of the ladder, and turning my face towards the book, began at the top of the page, and so walking to the right and left about eight or ten paces, according to the length of the lines, till I had gotten a little below the level of mine eyes, and then descending gradually till I came to the bottom: after which I mounted again, and began the other page in the same manner, and so turned over the leaf, which I could easily do with both my hands, for it was as thick and stiff as a pasteboard, and in the largest folios not above eighteen or twenty feet long.<\/p>\n Their style is clear, masculine, and smooth, but not florid; for they avoid nothing more than multiplying unnecessary words, or using various expressions.\u00a0 I have perused many of their books, especially those in history and morality.\u00a0 Among the rest, I was much diverted with a little old treatise, which always lay in Glumdalclitch\u2019s bed chamber, and belonged to her governess, a grave elderly gentlewoman, who dealt in writings of morality and devotion.\u00a0 The book treats of the weakness of human kind, and is in little esteem, except among the women and the vulgar.\u00a0 However, I was curious to see what an author of that country could say upon such a subject.\u00a0 This writer went through all the usual topics of European moralists, showing \u201chow diminutive, contemptible, and helpless an animal was man in his own nature; how unable to defend himself from inclemencies of the air, or the fury of wild beasts: how much he was excelled by one creature in strength, by another in speed, by a third in foresight, by a fourth in industry.\u201d\u00a0 He added, \u201cthat nature was degenerated in these latter declining ages of the world, and could now produce only small abortive births, in comparison of those in ancient times.\u201d\u00a0 He said \u201cit was very reasonable to think, not only that the species of men were originally much larger, but also that there must have been giants in former ages; which, as it is asserted by history and tradition, so it has been confirmed by huge bones and skulls, casually dug up in several parts of the kingdom, far exceeding the common dwindled race of men in our days.\u201d\u00a0 He argued, \u201cthat the very laws of nature absolutely required we should have been made, in the beginning of a size more large and robust; not so liable to destruction from every little accident, of a tile falling from a house, or a stone cast from the hand of a boy, or being drowned in a little brook.\u201d\u00a0 From this way of reasoning, the author drew several moral applications, useful in the conduct of life, but needless here to repeat.\u00a0 For my own part, I could not avoid reflecting how universally this talent was spread, of drawing lectures in morality, or indeed rather matter of discontent and repining, from the quarrels we raise with nature.\u00a0 And I believe, upon a strict inquiry, those quarrels might be shown as ill-grounded among us as they are among that people.<\/p>\n As to their military affairs, they boast that the king\u2019s army consists of a hundred and seventy-six thousand foot, and thirty-two thousand horse: if that may be called an army, which is made up of tradesmen in the several cities, and farmers in the country, whose commanders are only the nobility and gentry, without pay or reward.\u00a0 They are indeed perfect enough in their exercises, and under very good discipline, wherein I saw no great merit; for how should it be otherwise, where every farmer is under the command of his own landlord, and every citizen under that of the principal men in his own city, chosen after the manner of Venice, by ballot?<\/p>\n I have often seen the militia of Lorbrulgrud drawn out to exercise, in a great field near the city of twenty miles square.\u00a0 They were in all not above twenty-five thousand foot, and six thousand horse; but it was impossible for me to compute their number, considering the space of ground they took up.\u00a0 A cavalier, mounted on a large steed, might be about ninety feet high.\u00a0 I have seen this whole body of horse, upon a word of command, draw their swords at once, and brandish them in the air.\u00a0 Imagination can figure nothing so grand, so surprising, and so astonishing! it looked as if ten thousand flashes of lightning were darting at the same time from every quarter of the sky.<\/p>\n I was curious to know how this prince, to whose dominions there is no access from any other country, came to think of armies, or to teach his people the practice of military discipline.\u00a0 But I was soon informed, both by conversation and reading their histories; for, in the course of many ages, they have been troubled with the same disease to which the whole race of mankind is subject; the nobility often contending for power, the people for liberty, and the king for absolute dominion.\u00a0 All which, however happily tempered by the laws of that kingdom, have been sometimes violated by each of the three parties, and have more than once occasioned civil wars; the last whereof was happily put an end to by this prince\u2019s grand-father, in a general composition; and the militia, then settled with common consent, has been ever since kept in the strictest duty.<\/p>\n The king and queen make a progress to the frontiers.\u00a0 The author attends them.\u00a0 The manner in which he leaves the country very particularly related.\u00a0 He returns to England.<\/p>\n I had always a strong impulse that I should some time recover my liberty, though it was impossible to conjecture by what means, or to form any project with the least hope of succeeding.\u00a0 The ship in which I sailed, was the first ever known to be driven within sight of that coast, and the king had given strict orders, that if at any time another appeared, it should be taken ashore, and with all its crew and passengers brought in a tumbril to Lorbrulgrud.\u00a0 He was strongly bent to get me a woman of my own size, by whom I might propagate the breed: but I think I should rather have died than undergone the disgrace of leaving a posterity to be kept in cages, like tame canary-birds, and perhaps, in time, sold about the kingdom, to persons of quality, for curiosities.\u00a0 I was indeed treated with much kindness: I was the favourite of a great king and queen, and the delight of the whole court; but it was upon such a foot as ill became the dignity of humankind.\u00a0 I could never forget those domestic pledges I had left behind me.\u00a0 I wanted to be among people, with whom I could converse upon even terms, and walk about the streets and fields without being afraid of being trod to death like a frog or a young puppy.\u00a0 But my deliverance came sooner than I expected, and in a manner not very common; the whole story and circumstances of which I shall faithfully relate.<\/p>\n I had now been two years in this country; and about the beginning of the third, Glumdalclitch and I attended the king and queen, in a progress to the south coast of the kingdom.\u00a0 I was carried, as usual, in my travelling-box, which as I have already described, was a very convenient closet, of twelve feet wide.\u00a0 And I had ordered a hammock to be fixed, by silken ropes from the four corners at the top, to break the jolts, when a servant carried me before him on horseback, as I sometimes desired; and would often sleep in my hammock, while we were upon the road.\u00a0 On the roof of my closet, not directly over the middle of the hammock, I ordered the joiner to cut out a hole of a foot square, to give me air in hot weather, as I slept; which hole I shut at pleasure with a board that drew backward and forward through a groove.<\/p>\n When we came to our journey\u2019s end, the king thought proper to pass a few days at a palace he has near Flanflasnic, a city within eighteen English miles of the seaside.\u00a0 Glumdalclitch and I were much fatigued: I had gotten a small cold, but the poor girl was so ill as to be confined to her chamber.\u00a0 I longed to see the ocean, which must be the only scene of my escape, if ever it should happen.\u00a0 I pretended to be worse than I really was, and desired leave to take the fresh air of the sea, with a page, whom I was very fond of, and who had sometimes been trusted with me.\u00a0 I shall never forget with what unwillingness Glumdalclitch consented, nor the strict charge she gave the page to be careful of me, bursting at the same time into a flood of tears, as if she had some forboding of what was to happen.\u00a0 The boy took me out in my box, about half an hours walk from the palace, towards the rocks on the sea-shore.\u00a0 I ordered him to set me down, and lifting up one of my sashes, cast many a wistful melancholy look towards the sea.\u00a0 I found myself not very well, and told the page that I had a mind to take a nap in my hammock, which I hoped would do me good.\u00a0 I got in, and the boy shut the window close down, to keep out the cold.\u00a0 I soon fell asleep, and all I can conjecture is, while I slept, the page, thinking no danger could happen, went among the rocks to look for birds\u2019 eggs, having before observed him from my window searching about, and picking up one or two in the clefts.\u00a0 Be that as it will, I found myself suddenly awaked with a violent pull upon the ring, which was fastened at the top of my box for the conveniency of carriage.\u00a0 I felt my box raised very high in the air, and then borne forward with prodigious speed.\u00a0 The first jolt had like to have shaken me out of my hammock, but afterward the motion was easy enough.\u00a0 I called out several times, as loud as I could raise my voice, but all to no purpose.\u00a0 I looked towards my windows, and could see nothing but the clouds and sky.\u00a0 I heard a noise just over my head, like the clapping of wings, and then began to perceive the woful condition I was in; that some eagle had got the ring of my box in his beak, with an intent to let it fall on a rock, like a tortoise in a shell, and then pick out my body, and devour it: for the sagacity and smell of this bird enables him to discover his quarry at a great distance, though better concealed than I could be within a two-inch board.<\/p>\n In a little time, I observed the noise and flutter of wings to increase very fast, and my box was tossed up and down, like a sign in a windy day.\u00a0 I heard several bangs or buffets, as I thought given to the eagle (for such I am certain it must have been that held the ring of my box in his beak), and then, all on a sudden, felt myself falling perpendicularly down, for above a minute, but with such incredible swiftness, that I almost lost my breath.\u00a0 My fall was stopped by a terrible squash, that sounded louder to my ears than the cataract of Niagara; after which, I was quite in the dark for another minute, and then my box began to rise so high, that I could see light from the tops of the windows.\u00a0 I now perceived I was fallen into the sea.\u00a0 My box, by the weight of my body, the goods that were in, and the broad plates of iron fixed for strength at the four corners of the top and bottom, floated about five feet deep in water.\u00a0 I did then, and do now suppose, that the eagle which flew away with my box was pursued by two or three others, and forced to let me drop, while he defended himself against the rest, who hoped to share in the prey.\u00a0 The plates of iron fastened at the bottom of the box (for those were the strongest) preserved the balance while it fell, and hindered it from being broken on the surface of the water. Every joint of it was well grooved; and the door did not move on hinges, but up and down like a sash, which kept my closet so tight that very little water came in.\u00a0 I got with much difficulty out of my hammock, having first ventured to draw back the slip-board on the roof already mentioned, contrived on purpose to let in air, for want of which I found myself almost stifled.<\/p>\n How often did I then wish myself with my dear Glumdalclitch, from whom one single hour had so far divided me!\u00a0 And I may say with truth, that in the midst of my own misfortunes I could not forbear lamenting my poor nurse, the grief she would suffer for my loss, the displeasure of the queen, and the ruin of her fortune.\u00a0 Perhaps many travellers have not been under greater difficulties and distress than I was at this juncture, expecting every moment to see my box dashed to pieces, or at least overset by the first violent blast, or rising wave.\u00a0 A breach in one single pane of glass would have been immediate death: nor could any thing have preserved the windows, but the strong lattice wires placed on the outside, against accidents in travelling.\u00a0 I saw the water ooze in at several crannies, although the leaks were not considerable, and I endeavoured to stop them as well as I could.\u00a0 I was not able to lift up the roof of my closet, which otherwise I certainly should have done, and sat on the top of it; where I might at least preserve myself some hours longer, than by being shut up (as I may call it) in the hold.\u00a0 Or if I escaped these dangers for a day or two, what could I expect but a miserable death of cold and hunger?\u00a0 I was four hours under these circumstances, expecting, and indeed wishing, every moment to be my last.<\/p>\n I have already told the reader that there were two strong staples fixed upon that side of my box which had no window, and into which the servant, who used to carry me on horseback, would put a leathern belt, and buckle it about his waist.\u00a0 Being in this disconsolate state, I heard, or at least thought I heard, some kind of grating noise on that side of my box where the staples were fixed; and soon after I began to fancy that the box was pulled or towed along the sea; for I now and then felt a sort of tugging, which made the waves rise near the tops of my windows, leaving me almost in the dark.\u00a0 This gave me some faint hopes of relief, although I was not able to imagine how it could be brought about.\u00a0 I ventured to unscrew one of my chairs, which were always fastened to the floor; and having made a hard shift to screw it down again, directly under the slipping-board that I had lately opened, I mounted on the chair, and putting my mouth as near as I could to the hole, I called for help in a loud voice, and in all the languages I understood.\u00a0 I then fastened my handkerchief to a stick I usually carried, and thrusting it up the hole, waved it several times in the air, that if any boat or ship were near, the seamen might conjecture some unhappy mortal to be shut up in the box.<\/p>\n I found no effect from all I could do, but plainly perceived my closet to be moved along; and in the space of an hour, or better, that side of the box where the staples were, and had no windows, struck against something that was hard.\u00a0 I apprehended it to be a rock, and found myself tossed more than ever.\u00a0 I plainly heard a noise upon the cover of my closet, like that of a cable, and the grating of it as it passed through the ring.\u00a0 I then found myself hoisted up, by degrees, at least three feet higher than I was before.\u00a0 Whereupon I again thrust up my stick and handkerchief, calling for help till I was almost hoarse.\u00a0 In return to which, I heard a great shout repeated three times, giving me such transports of joy as are not to be conceived but by those who feel them.\u00a0 I now heard a trampling over my head, and somebody calling through the hole with a loud voice, in the English tongue, \u201cIf there be any body below, let them speak.\u201d\u00a0 I answered, \u201cI was an Englishman, drawn by ill fortune into the greatest calamity that ever any creature underwent, and begged, by all that was moving, to be delivered out of the dungeon I was in.\u201d\u00a0 The voice replied, \u201cI was safe, for my box was fastened to their ship; and the carpenter should immediately come and saw a hole in the cover, large enough to pull me out.\u201d\u00a0 I answered, \u201cthat was needless, and would take up too much time; for there was no more to be done, but let one of the crew put his finger into the ring, and take the box out of the sea into the ship, and so into the captain\u2019s cabin.\u201d\u00a0 Some of them, upon hearing me talk so wildly, thought I was mad: others laughed; for indeed it never came into my head, that I was now got among people of my own stature and strength.\u00a0 The carpenter came, and in a few minutes sawed a passage about four feet square, then let down a small ladder, upon which I mounted, and thence was taken into the ship in a very weak condition.<\/p>\n The sailors were all in amazement, and asked me a thousand questions, which I had no inclination to answer.\u00a0 I was equally confounded at the sight of so many pigmies, for such I took them to be, after having so long accustomed mine eyes to the monstrous objects I had left.\u00a0 But the captain, Mr. Thomas Wilcocks, an honest worthy Shropshire man, observing I was ready to faint, took me into his cabin, gave me a cordial to comfort me, and made me turn in upon his own bed, advising me to take a little rest, of which I had great need.\u00a0 Before I went to sleep, I gave him to understand that I had some valuable furniture in my box, too good to be lost: a fine hammock, a handsome field-bed, two chairs, a table, and a cabinet; that my closet was hung on all sides, or rather quilted, with silk and cotton; that if he would let one of the crew bring my closet into his cabin, I would open it there before him, and show him my goods.\u00a0 The captain, hearing me utter these absurdities, concluded I was raving; however (I suppose to pacify me) he promised to give order as I desired, and going upon deck, sent some of his men down into my closet, whence (as I afterwards found) they drew up all my goods, and stripped off the quilting; but the chairs, cabinet, and bedstead, being screwed to the floor, were much damaged by the ignorance of the seamen, who tore them up by force.\u00a0 Then they knocked off some of the boards for the use of the ship, and when they had got all they had a mind for, let the hull drop into the sea, which by reason of many breaches made in the bottom and sides, sunk to rights.\u00a0 And, indeed, I was glad not to have been a spectator of the havoc they made, because I am confident it would have sensibly touched me, by bringing former passages into my mind, which I would rather have forgot.<\/p>\n I slept some hours, but perpetually disturbed with dreams of the place I had left, and the dangers I had escaped.\u00a0 However, upon waking, I found myself much recovered.\u00a0 It was now about eight o\u2019clock at night, and the captain ordered supper immediately, thinking I had already fasted too long.\u00a0 He entertained me with great kindness, observing me not to look wildly, or talk inconsistently: and, when we were left alone, desired I would give him a relation of my travels, and by what accident I came to be set adrift, in that monstrous wooden chest.\u00a0 He said \u201cthat about twelve o\u2019clock at noon, as he was looking through his glass, he spied it at a distance, and thought it was a sail, which he had a mind to make, being not much out of his course, in hopes of buying some biscuit, his own beginning to fall short.\u00a0 That upon coming nearer, and finding his error, he sent out his long-boat to discover what it was; that his men came back in a fright, swearing they had seen a swimming house.\u00a0 That he laughed at their folly, and went himself in the boat, ordering his men to take a strong cable along with them.\u00a0 That the weather being calm, he rowed round me several times, observed my windows and wire lattices that defended them.\u00a0 That he discovered two staples upon one side, which was all of boards, without any passage for light.\u00a0 He then commanded his men to row up to that side, and fastening a cable to one of the staples, ordered them to tow my chest, as they called it, toward the ship.\u00a0 When it was there, he gave directions to fasten another cable to the ring fixed in the cover, and to raise up my chest with pulleys, which all the sailors were not able to do above two or three feet.\u201d\u00a0 He said, \u201cthey saw my stick and handkerchief thrust out of the hole, and concluded that some unhappy man must be shut up in the cavity.\u201d\u00a0 I asked, \u201cwhether he or the crew had seen any prodigious birds in the air, about the time he first discovered me.\u201d\u00a0 To which he answered, \u201cthat discoursing this matter with the sailors while I was asleep, one of them said, he had observed three eagles flying towards the north, but remarked nothing of their being larger than the usual size:\u201d which I suppose must be imputed to the great height they were at; and he could not guess the reason of my question.\u00a0 I then asked the captain, \u201chow far he reckoned we might be from land?\u201d\u00a0 He said, \u201cby the best computation he could make, we were at least a hundred leagues.\u201d\u00a0 I assured him, \u201cthat he must be mistaken by almost half, for I had not left the country whence I came above two hours before I dropped into the sea.\u201d\u00a0 Whereupon he began again to think that my brain was disturbed, of which he gave me a hint, and advised me to go to bed in a cabin he had provided.\u00a0 I assured him, \u201cI was well refreshed with his good entertainment and company, and as much in my senses as ever I was in my life.\u201d\u00a0 He then grew serious, and desired to ask me freely, \u201cwhether I were not troubled in my mind by the consciousness of some enormous crime, for which I was punished, at the command of some prince, by exposing me in that chest; as great criminals, in other countries, have been forced to sea in a leaky vessel, without provisions: for although he should be sorry to have taken so ill a man into his ship, yet he would engage his word to set me safe ashore, in the first port where we arrived.\u201d\u00a0 He added, \u201cthat his suspicions were much increased by some very absurd speeches I had delivered at first to his sailors, and afterwards to himself, in relation to my closet or chest, as well as by my odd looks and behaviour while I was at supper.\u201d<\/p>\n I begged his patience to hear me tell my story, which I faithfully did, from the last time I left England, to the moment he first discovered me.\u00a0 And, as truth always forces its way into rational minds, so this honest worthy gentleman, who had some tincture of learning, and very good sense, was immediately convinced of my candour and veracity.\u00a0 But further to confirm all I had said, I entreated him to give order that my cabinet should be brought, of which I had the key in my pocket; for he had already informed me how the seamen disposed of my closet.\u00a0 I opened it in his own presence, and showed him the small collection of rarities I made in the country from which I had been so strangely delivered.\u00a0 There was the comb I had contrived out of the stumps of the king\u2019s beard, and another of the same materials, but fixed into a paring of her majesty\u2019s thumb-nail, which served for the back.\u00a0 There was a collection of needles and pins, from a foot to half a yard long; four wasp stings, like joiner\u2019s tacks; some combings of the queen\u2019s hair; a gold ring, which one day she made me a present of, in a most obliging manner, taking it from her little finger, and throwing it over my head like a collar.\u00a0 I desired the captain would please to accept this ring in return for his civilities; which he absolutely refused.\u00a0 I showed him a corn that I had cut off with my own hand, from a maid of honour\u2019s toe; it was about the bigness of Kentish pippin, and grown so hard, that when I returned England, I got it hollowed into a cup, and set in silver.\u00a0 Lastly, I desired him to see the breeches I had then on, which were made of a mouse\u2019s skin.<\/p>\n I could force nothing on him but a footman\u2019s tooth, which I observed him to examine with great curiosity, and found he had a fancy for it.\u00a0 He received it with abundance of thanks, more than such a trifle could deserve.\u00a0 It was drawn by an unskilful surgeon, in a mistake, from one of Glumdalclitch\u2019s men, who was afflicted with the tooth-ache, but it was as sound as any in his head.\u00a0 I got it cleaned, and put it into my cabinet.\u00a0 It was about a foot long, and four inches in diameter.<\/p>\n The captain was very well satisfied with this plain relation I had given him, and said, \u201che hoped, when we returned to England, I would oblige the world by putting it on paper, and making it public.\u201d\u00a0 My answer was, \u201cthat we were overstocked with books of travels: that nothing could now pass which was not extraordinary; wherein I doubted some authors less consulted truth, than their own vanity, or interest, or the diversion of ignorant readers; that my story could contain little beside common events, without those ornamental descriptions of strange plants, trees, birds, and other animals; or of the barbarous customs and idolatry of savage people, with which most writers abound.\u00a0 However, I thanked him for his good opinion, and promised to take the matter into my thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n He said \u201che wondered at one thing very much, which was, to hear me speak so loud;\u201d asking me \u201cwhether the king or queen of that country were thick of hearing?\u201d\u00a0 I told him, \u201cit was what I had been used to for above two years past, and that I admired as much at the voices of him and his men, who seemed to me only to whisper, and yet I could hear them well enough.\u00a0 But, when I spoke in that country, it was like a man talking in the streets, to another looking out from the top of a steeple, unless when I was placed on a table, or held in any person\u2019s hand.\u201d\u00a0 I told him, \u201cI had likewise observed another thing, that, when I first got into the ship, and the sailors stood all about me, I thought they were the most little contemptible creatures I had ever beheld.\u201d\u00a0 For indeed, while I was in that prince\u2019s country, I could never endure to look in a glass, after mine eyes had been accustomed to such prodigious objects, because the comparison gave me so despicable a conceit of myself.\u00a0 The captain said, \u201cthat while we were at supper, he observed me to look at every thing with a sort of wonder, and that I often seemed hardly able to contain my laughter, which he knew not well how to take, but imputed it to some disorder in my brain.\u201d\u00a0 I answered, \u201cit was very true; and I wondered how I could forbear, when I saw his dishes of the size of a silver three-pence, a leg of pork hardly a mouthful, a cup not so big as a nut-shell;\u201d and so I went on, describing the rest of his household-stuff and provisions, after the same manner.\u00a0 For, although he queen had ordered a little equipage of all things necessary for me, while I was in her service, yet my ideas were wholly taken up with what I saw on every side of me, and I winked at my own littleness, as people do at their own faults.\u00a0 The captain understood my raillery very well, and merrily replied with the old English proverb, \u201cthat he doubted mine eyes were bigger than my belly, for he did not observe my stomach so good, although I had fasted all day;\u201d and, continuing in his mirth, protested \u201che would have gladly given a hundred pounds, to have seen my closet in the eagle\u2019s bill, and afterwards in its fall from so great a height into the sea; which would certainly have been a most astonishing object, worthy to have the description of it transmitted to future ages:\u201d and the comparison of Pha\u00ebton was so obvious, that he could not forbear applying it, although I did not much admire the conceit.<\/p>\n The captain having been at Tonquin, was, in his return to England, driven north-eastward to the latitude of 44 degrees, and longitude of 143.\u00a0 But meeting a trade-wind two days after I came on board him, we sailed southward a long time, and coasting New Holland, kept our course west-south-west, and then south-south-west, till we doubled the Cape of Good Hope.\u00a0 Our voyage was very prosperous, but I shall not trouble the reader with a journal of it.\u00a0 The captain called in at one or two ports, and sent in his long-boat for provisions and fresh water; but I never went out of the ship till we came into the Downs, which was on the third day of June, 1706, about nine months after my escape.\u00a0 I offered to leave my goods in security for payment of my freight: but the captain protested he would not receive one farthing.\u00a0 We took a kind leave of each other, and I made him promise he would come to see me at my house in Redriff.\u00a0 I hired a horse and guide for five shillings, which I borrowed of the captain.<\/p>\n As I was on the road, observing the littleness of the houses, the trees, the cattle, and the people, I began to think myself in Lilliput.\u00a0 I was afraid of trampling on every traveller I met, and often called aloud to have them stand out of the way, so that I had like to have gotten one or two broken heads for my impertinence.<\/p>\n When I came to my own house, for which I was forced to inquire, one of the servants opening the door, I bent down to go in, (like a goose under a gate,) for fear of striking my head.\u00a0 My wife run out to embrace me, but I stooped lower than her knees, thinking she could otherwise never be able to reach my mouth.\u00a0 My daughter kneeled to ask my blessing, but I could not see her till she arose, having been so long used to stand with my head and eyes erect to above sixty feet; and then I went to take her up with one hand by the waist.\u00a0 I looked down upon the servants, and one or two friends who were in the house, as if they had been pigmies and I a giant.\u00a0 I told my wife, \u201cshe had been too thrifty, for I found she had starved herself and her daughter to nothing.\u201d\u00a0 In short, I behaved myself so unaccountably, that they were all of the captain\u2019s opinion when he first saw me, and concluded I had lost my wits.\u00a0 This I mention as an instance of the great power of habit and prejudice.<\/p>\n In a little time, I and my family and friends came to a right understanding: but my wife protested \u201cI should never go to sea any more;\u201d although my evil destiny so ordered, that she had not power to hinder me, as the reader may know hereafter.\u00a0 In the mean time, I here conclude the second part of my unfortunate voyages.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\t\t\t <\/pre>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n ","rendered":"
CHAPTER VII.<\/h3>\n
CHAPTER VIII.<\/h3>\n
<\/pre>\n
Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t