A great storm described; the long boat sent to fetch water; the author goes with it to discover the country.\u00a0 He is left on shore, is seized by one of the natives, and carried to a farmer\u2019s house.\u00a0 His reception, with several accidents that happened there.\u00a0 A description of the inhabitants.<\/p>\r\nHaving been condemned, by nature and fortune, to active and restless life, in two months after my return, I again left my native country, and took shipping in the Downs, on the 20th day of June, 1702, in the Adventure, Captain John Nicholas, a Cornish man, commander, bound for Surat.\u00a0 We had a very prosperous gale, till we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, where we landed for fresh water; but discovering a leak, we unshipped our goods and wintered there; for the captain falling sick of an ague, we could not leave the Cape till the end of March.\u00a0 We then set sail, and had a good voyage till we passed the Straits of Madagascar; but having got northward of that island, and to about five degrees south latitude, the winds, which in those seas are observed to blow a constant equal gale between the north and west, from the beginning of December to the beginning of May, on the 19th of April began to blow with much greater violence, and more westerly than usual, continuing so for twenty days together: during which time, we were driven a little to the east of the Molucca Islands, and about three degrees northward of the line, as our captain found by an observation he took the 2nd of May, at which time the wind ceased, and it was a perfect calm, whereat I was not a little rejoiced.\u00a0 But he, being a man well experienced in the navigation of those seas, bid us all prepare against a storm, which accordingly happened the day following: for the southern wind, called the southern monsoon, began to set in.\r\n\r\nFinding it was likely to overblow, we took in our sprit-sail, and stood by to hand the fore-sail; but making foul weather, we looked the guns were all fast, and handed the mizen.\u00a0 The ship lay very broad off, so we thought it better spooning before the sea, than trying or hulling.\u00a0 We reefed the fore-sail and set him, and hauled aft the fore-sheet; the helm was hard a-weather.\u00a0 The ship wore bravely.\u00a0 We belayed the fore down-haul; but the sail was split, and we hauled down the yard, and got the sail into the ship, and unbound all the things clear of it.\u00a0 It was a very fierce storm; the sea broke strange and dangerous.\u00a0 We hauled off upon the laniard of the whip-staff, and helped the man at the helm.\u00a0 We would not get down our topmast, but let all stand, because she scudded before the sea very well, and we knew that the top-mast being aloft, the ship was the wholesomer, and made better way through the sea, seeing we had sea-room.\u00a0 When the storm was over, we set fore-sail and main-sail, and brought the ship to.\u00a0 Then we set the mizen, main-top-sail, and the fore-top-sail.\u00a0 Our course was east-north-east, the wind was at south-west.\u00a0 We got the starboard tacks aboard, we cast off our weather-braces and lifts; we set in the lee-braces, and hauled forward by the weather-bowlings, and hauled them tight, and belayed them, and hauled over the mizen tack to windward, and kept her full and by as near as she would lie.\r\n\r\nDuring this storm, which was followed by a strong wind west-south-west, we were carried, by my computation, about five hundred leagues to the east, so that the oldest sailor on board could not tell in what part of the world we were.\u00a0 Our provisions held out well, our ship was staunch, and our crew all in good health; but we lay in the utmost distress for water.\u00a0 We thought it best to hold on the same course, rather than turn more northerly, which might have brought us to the north-west part of Great Tartary, and into the Frozen Sea.\r\n\r\nOn the 16th day of June, 1703, a boy on the top-mast discovered land.\u00a0 On the 17th, we came in full view of a great island, or continent (for we knew not whether;) on the south side whereof was a small neck of land jutting out into the sea, and a creek too shallow to hold a ship of above one hundred tons.\u00a0 We cast anchor within a league of this creek, and our captain sent a dozen of his men well armed in the long-boat, with vessels for water, if any could be found.\u00a0 I desired his leave to go with them, that I might see the country, and make what discoveries I could.\u00a0 When we came to land we saw no river or spring, nor any sign of inhabitants.\u00a0 Our men therefore wandered on the shore to find out some fresh water near the sea, and I walked alone about a mile on the other side, where I observed the country all barren and rocky.\u00a0 I now began to be weary, and seeing nothing to entertain my curiosity, I returned gently down towards the creek; and the sea being full in my view, I saw our men already got into the boat, and rowing for life to the ship.\u00a0 I was going to holla after them, although it had been to little purpose, when I observed a huge creature walking after them in the sea, as fast as he could: he waded not much deeper than his knees, and took prodigious strides: but our men had the start of him half a league, and, the sea thereabouts being full of sharp-pointed rocks, the monster was not able to overtake the boat.\u00a0 This I was afterwards told, for I durst not stay to see the issue of the adventure; but ran as fast as I could the way I first went, and then climbed up a steep hill, which gave me some prospect of the country.\u00a0 I found it fully cultivated; but that which first surprised me was the length of the grass, which, in those grounds that seemed to be kept for hay, was about twenty feet high.\r\n\r\nI fell into a high road, for so I took it to be, though it served to the inhabitants only as a foot-path through a field of barley.\u00a0 Here I walked on for some time, but could see little on either side, it being now near harvest, and the corn rising at least forty feet.\u00a0 I was an hour walking to the end of this field, which was fenced in with a hedge of at least one hundred and twenty feet high, and the trees so lofty that I could make no computation of their altitude.\u00a0 There was a stile to pass from this field into the next.\u00a0 It had four steps, and a stone to cross over when you came to the uppermost.\u00a0 It was impossible for me to climb this stile, because every step was six-feet high, and the upper stone about twenty.\u00a0 I was endeavouring to find some gap in the hedge, when I discovered one of the inhabitants in the next field, advancing towards the stile, of the same size with him whom I saw in the sea pursuing our boat.\u00a0 He appeared as tall as an ordinary spire steeple, and took about ten yards at every stride, as near as I could guess.\u00a0 I was struck with the utmost fear and astonishment, and ran to hide myself in the corn, whence I saw him at the top of the stile looking back into the next field on the right hand, and heard him call in a voice many degrees louder than a speaking-trumpet: but the noise was so high in the air, that at first I certainly thought it was thunder.\u00a0 Whereupon seven monsters, like himself, came towards him with reaping-hooks in their hands, each hook about the largeness of six scythes.\u00a0 These people were not so well clad as the first, whose servants or labourers they seemed to be; for, upon some words he spoke, they went to reap the corn in the field where I lay.\u00a0 I kept from them at as great a distance as I could, but was forced to move with extreme difficulty, for the stalks of the corn were sometimes not above a foot distant, so that I could hardly squeeze my body betwixt them.\u00a0 However, I made a shift to go forward, till I came to a part of the field where the corn had been laid by the rain and wind.\u00a0 Here it was impossible for me to advance a step; for the stalks were so interwoven, that I could not creep through, and the beards of the fallen ears so strong and pointed, that they pierced through my clothes into my flesh.\u00a0 At the same time I heard the reapers not a hundred yards behind me.\u00a0 Being quite dispirited with toil, and wholly overcome by grief and dispair, I lay down between two ridges, and heartily wished I might there end my days.\u00a0 I bemoaned my desolate widow and fatherless children.\u00a0 I lamented my own folly and wilfulness, in attempting a second voyage, against the advice of all my friends and relations.\u00a0 In this terrible agitation of mind, I could not forbear thinking of Lilliput, whose inhabitants looked upon me as the greatest prodigy that ever appeared in the world; where I was able to draw an imperial fleet in my hand, and perform those other actions, which will be recorded for ever in the chronicles of that empire, while posterity shall hardly believe them, although attested by millions.\u00a0 I reflected what a mortification it must prove to me, to appear as inconsiderable in this nation, as one single Lilliputian would be among us.\u00a0 But this I conceived was to be the least of my misfortunes; for, as human creatures are observed to be more savage and cruel in proportion to their bulk, what could I expect but to be a morsel in the mouth of the first among these enormous barbarians that should happen to seize me?\u00a0 Undoubtedly philosophers are in the right, when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.\u00a0 It might have pleased fortune, to have let the Lilliputians find some nation, where the people were as diminutive with respect to them, as they were to me.\u00a0 And who knows but that even this prodigious race of mortals might be equally overmatched in some distant part of the world, whereof we have yet no discovery.\r\n\r\nScared and confounded as I was, I could not forbear going on with these reflections, when one of the reapers, approaching within ten yards of the ridge where I lay, made me apprehend that with the next step I should be squashed to death under his foot, or cut in two with his reaping-hook.\u00a0 And therefore, when he was again about to move, I screamed as loud as fear could make me: whereupon the huge creature trod short, and, looking round about under him for some time, at last espied me as I lay on the ground.\u00a0 He considered awhile, with the caution of one who endeavours to lay hold on a small dangerous animal in such a manner that it shall not be able either to scratch or bite him, as I myself have sometimes done with a weasel in England.\u00a0 At length he ventured to take me behind, by the middle, between his fore-finger and thumb, and brought me within three yards of his eyes, that he might behold my shape more perfectly.\u00a0 I guessed his meaning, and my good fortune gave me so much presence of mind, that I resolved not to struggle in the least as he held me in the air above sixty feet from the ground, although he grievously pinched my sides, for fear I should slip through his fingers.\u00a0 All I ventured was to raise mine eyes towards the sun, and place my hands together in a supplicating posture, and to speak some words in a humble melancholy tone, suitable to the condition I then was in: for I apprehended every moment that he would dash me against the ground, as we usually do any little hateful animal, which we have a mind to destroy.\u00a0 But my good star would have it, that he appeared pleased with my voice and gestures, and began to look upon me as a curiosity, much wondering to hear me pronounce articulate words, although he could not understand them.\u00a0 In the mean time I was not able to forbear groaning and shedding tears, and turning my head towards my sides; letting him know, as well as I could, how cruelly I was hurt by the pressure of his thumb and finger.\u00a0 He seemed to apprehend my meaning; for, lifting up the lappet of his coat, he put me gently into it, and immediately ran along with me to his master, who was a substantial farmer, and the same person I had first seen in the field.\r\n\r\nThe farmer having (as I suppose by their talk) received such an account of me as his servant could give him, took a piece of a small straw, about the size of a walking-staff, and therewith lifted up the lappets of my coat; which it seems he thought to be some kind of covering that nature had given me.\u00a0 He blew my hairs aside to take a better view of my face.\u00a0 He called his hinds about him, and asked them, as I afterwards learned, whether they had ever seen in the fields any little creature that resembled me.\u00a0 He then placed me softly on the ground upon all fours, but I got immediately up, and walked slowly backward and forward, to let those people see I had no intent to run away.\u00a0 They all sat down in a circle about me, the better to observe my motions.\u00a0 I pulled off my hat, and made a low bow towards the farmer.\u00a0 I fell on my knees, and lifted up my hands and eyes, and spoke several words as loud as I could: I took a purse of gold out of my pocket, and humbly presented it to him.\u00a0 He received it on the palm of his hand, then applied it close to his eye to see what it was, and afterwards turned it several times with the point of a pin (which he took out of his sleeve,) but could make nothing of it.\u00a0 Whereupon I made a sign that he should place his hand on the ground.\u00a0 I then took the purse, and, opening it, poured all the gold into his palm.\u00a0 There were six Spanish pieces of four pistoles each, beside twenty or thirty smaller coins.\u00a0 I saw him wet the tip of his little finger upon his tongue, and take up one of my largest pieces, and then another; but he seemed to be wholly ignorant what they were.\u00a0 He made me a sign to put them again into my purse, and the purse again into my pocket, which, after offering it to him several times, I thought it best to do.\r\n\r\nThe farmer, by this time, was convinced I must be a rational creature.\u00a0 He spoke often to me; but the sound of his voice pierced my ears like that of a water-mill, yet his words were articulate enough.\u00a0 I answered as loud as I could in several languages, and he often laid his ear within two yards of me: but all in vain, for we were wholly unintelligible to each other.\u00a0 He then sent his servants to their work, and taking his handkerchief out of his pocket, he doubled and spread it on his left hand, which he placed flat on the ground with the palm upward, making me a sign to step into it, as I could easily do, for it was not above a foot in thickness.\u00a0 I thought it my part to obey, and, for fear of falling, laid myself at full length upon the handkerchief, with the remainder of which he lapped me up to the head for further security, and in this manner carried me home to his house.\u00a0 There he called his wife, and showed me to her; but she screamed and ran back, as women in England do at the sight of a toad or a spider.\u00a0 However, when she had a while seen my behaviour, and how well I observed the signs her husband made, she was soon reconciled, and by degrees grew extremely tender of me.\r\n\r\nIt was about twelve at noon, and a servant brought in dinner.\u00a0 It was only one substantial dish of meat (fit for the plain condition of a husbandman,) in a dish of about four-and-twenty feet diameter.\u00a0 The company were, the farmer and his wife, three children, and an old grandmother.\u00a0 When they were sat down, the farmer placed me at some distance from him on the table, which was thirty feet high from the floor.\u00a0 I was in a terrible fright, and kept as far as I could from the edge, for fear of falling.\u00a0 The wife minced a bit of meat, then crumbled some bread on a trencher, and placed it before me.\u00a0 I made her a low bow, took out my knife and fork, and fell to eat, which gave them exceeding delight.\u00a0 The mistress sent her maid for a small dram cup, which held about two gallons, and filled it with drink; I took up the vessel with much difficulty in both hands, and in a most respectful manner drank to her ladyship\u2019s health, expressing the words as loud as I could in English, which made the company laugh so heartily, that I was almost deafened with the noise.\u00a0 This liquor tasted like a small cider, and was not unpleasant.\u00a0 Then the master made me a sign to come to his trencher side; but as I walked on the table, being in great surprise all the time, as the indulgent reader will easily conceive and excuse, I happened to stumble against a crust, and fell flat on my face, but received no hurt.\u00a0 I got up immediately, and observing the good people to be in much concern, I took my hat (which I held under my arm out of good manners,) and waving it over my head, made three huzzas, to show I had got no mischief by my fall.\u00a0 But advancing forward towards my master (as I shall henceforth call him,) his youngest son, who sat next to him, an arch boy of about ten years old, took me up by the legs, and held me so high in the air, that I trembled every limb: but his father snatched me from him, and at the same time gave him such a box on the left ear, as would have felled an European troop of horse to the earth, ordering him to be taken from the table.\u00a0 But being afraid the boy might owe me a spite, and well remembering how mischievous all children among us naturally are to sparrows, rabbits, young kittens, and puppy dogs, I fell on my knees, and pointing to the boy, made my master to understand, as well as I could, that I desired his son might be pardoned.\u00a0 The father complied, and the lad took his seat again, whereupon I went to him, and kissed his hand, which my master took, and made him stroke me gently with it.\r\n\r\nIn the midst of dinner, my mistress\u2019s favourite cat leaped into her lap.\u00a0 I heard a noise behind me like that of a dozen stocking-weavers at work; and turning my head, I found it proceeded from the purring of that animal, who seemed to be three times larger than an ox, as I computed by the view of her head, and one of her paws, while her mistress was feeding and stroking her.\u00a0 The fierceness of this creature\u2019s countenance altogether discomposed me; though I stood at the farther end of the table, above fifty feet off; and although my mistress held her fast, for fear she might give a spring, and seize me in her talons.\u00a0 But it happened there was no danger, for the cat took not the least notice of me when my master placed me within three yards of her.\u00a0 And as I have been always told, and found true by experience in my travels, that flying or discovering fear before a fierce animal, is a certain way to make it pursue or attack you, so I resolved, in this dangerous juncture, to show no manner of concern.\u00a0 I walked with intrepidity five or six times before the very head of the cat, and came within half a yard of her; whereupon she drew herself back, as if she were more afraid of me: I had less apprehension concerning the dogs, whereof three or four came into the room, as it is usual in farmers\u2019 houses; one of which was a mastiff, equal in bulk to four elephants, and another a greyhound, somewhat taller than the mastiff, but not so large.\r\n\r\nWhen dinner was almost done, the nurse came in with a child of a year old in her arms, who immediately spied me, and began a squall that you might have heard from London-Bridge to Chelsea, after the usual oratory of infants, to get me for a plaything.\u00a0 The mother, out of pure indulgence, took me up, and put me towards the child, who presently seized me by the middle, and got my head into his mouth, where I roared so loud that the urchin was frighted, and let me drop, and I should infallibly have broke my neck, if the mother had not held her apron under me.\u00a0 The nurse, to quiet her babe, made use of a rattle which was a kind of hollow vessel filled with great stones, and fastened by a cable to the child\u2019s waist: but all in vain; so that she was forced to apply the last remedy by giving it suck.\u00a0 I must confess no object ever disgusted me so much as the sight of her monstrous breast, which I cannot tell what to compare with, so as to give the curious reader an idea of its bulk, shape, and colour.\u00a0 It stood prominent six feet, and could not be less than sixteen in circumference.\u00a0 The nipple was about half the bigness of my head, and the hue both of that and the dug, so varied with spots, pimples, and freckles, that nothing could appear more nauseous: for I had a near sight of her, she sitting down, the more conveniently to give suck, and I standing on the table.\u00a0 This made me reflect upon the fair skins of our English ladies, who appear so beautiful to us, only because they are of our own size, and their defects not to be seen but through a magnifying glass; where we find by experiment that the smoothest and whitest skins look rough, and coarse, and ill-coloured.\r\n\r\nI remember when I was at Lilliput, the complexion of those diminutive people appeared to me the fairest in the world; and talking upon this subject with a person of learning there, who was an intimate friend of mine, he said that my face appeared much fairer and smoother when he looked on me from the ground, than it did upon a nearer view, when I took him up in my hand, and brought him close, which he confessed was at first a very shocking sight.\u00a0 He said, \u201che could discover great holes in my skin; that the stumps of my beard were ten times stronger than the bristles of a boar, and my complexion made up of several colours altogether disagreeable:\u201d although I must beg leave to say for myself, that I am as fair as most of my sex and country, and very little sunburnt by all my travels.\u00a0 On the other side, discoursing of the ladies in that emperor\u2019s court, he used to tell me, \u201cone had freckles; another too wide a mouth; a third too large a nose;\u201d nothing of which I was able to distinguish.\u00a0 I confess this reflection was obvious enough; which, however, I could not forbear, lest the reader might think those vast creatures were actually deformed: for I must do them the justice to say, they are a comely race of people, and particularly the features of my master\u2019s countenance, although he was but a farmer, when I beheld him from the height of sixty feet, appeared very well proportioned.\r\n\r\nWhen dinner was done, my master went out to his labourers, and, as I could discover by his voice and gesture, gave his wife strict charge to take care of me.\u00a0 I was very much tired, and disposed to sleep, which my mistress perceiving, she put me on her own bed, and covered me with a clean white handkerchief, but larger and coarser than the mainsail of a man-of-war.\r\n\r\nI slept about two hours, and dreamt I was at home with my wife and children, which aggravated my sorrows when I awaked, and found myself alone in a vast room, between two and three hundred feet wide, and above two hundred high, lying in a bed twenty yards wide.\u00a0 My mistress was gone about her household affairs, and had locked me in.\u00a0 The bed was eight yards from the floor.\u00a0 Some natural necessities required me to get down; I durst not presume to call; and if I had, it would have been in vain, with such a voice as mine, at so great a distance from the room where I lay to the kitchen where the family kept.\u00a0 While I was under these circumstances, two rats crept up the curtains, and ran smelling backwards and forwards on the bed.\u00a0 One of them came up almost to my face, whereupon I rose in a fright, and drew out my hanger to defend myself.\u00a0 These horrible animals had the boldness to attack me on both sides, and one of them held his fore-feet at my collar; but I had the good fortune to rip up his belly before he could do me any mischief.\u00a0 He fell down at my feet; and the other, seeing the fate of his comrade, made his escape, but not without one good wound on the back, which I gave him as he fled, and made the blood run trickling from him.\u00a0 After this exploit, I walked gently to and fro on the bed, to recover my breath and loss of spirits.\u00a0 These creatures were of the size of a large mastiff, but infinitely more nimble and fierce; so that if I had taken off my belt before I went to sleep, I must have infallibly been torn to pieces and devoured.\u00a0 I measured the tail of the dead rat, and found it to be two yards long, wanting an inch; but it went against my stomach to drag the carcass off the bed, where it lay still bleeding; I observed it had yet some life, but with a strong slash across the neck, I thoroughly despatched it.\r\n\r\nSoon after my mistress came into the room, who seeing me all bloody, ran and took me up in her hand.\u00a0 I pointed to the dead rat, smiling, and making other signs to show I was not hurt; whereat she was extremely rejoiced, calling the maid to take up the dead rat with a pair of tongs, and throw it out of the window.\u00a0 Then she set me on a table, where I showed her my hanger all bloody, and wiping it on the lappet of my coat, returned it to the scabbard.\u00a0 I was pressed to do more than one thing which another could not do for me, and therefore endeavoured to make my mistress understand, that I desired to be set down on the floor; which after she had done, my bashfulness would not suffer me to express myself farther, than by pointing to the door, and bowing several times.\u00a0 The good woman, with much difficulty, at last perceived what I would be at, and taking me up again in her hand, walked into the garden, where she set me down.\u00a0 I went on one side about two hundred yards, and beckoning to her not to look or to follow me, I hid myself between two leaves of sorrel, and there discharged the necessities of nature.\r\n\r\nI hope the gentle reader will excuse me for dwelling on these and the like particulars, which, however insignificant they may appear to groveling vulgar minds, yet will certainly help a philosopher to enlarge his thoughts and imagination, and apply them to the benefit of public as well as private life, which was my sole design in presenting this and other accounts of my travels to the world; wherein I have been chiefly studious of truth, without affecting any ornaments of learning or of style.\u00a0 But the whole scene of this voyage made so strong an impression on my mind, and is so deeply fixed in my memory, that, in committing it to paper I did not omit one material circumstance: however, upon a strict review, I blotted out several passages.\u00a0 Of less moment which were in my first copy, for fear of being censured as tedious and trifling, whereof travellers are often, perhaps not without justice, accused.\r\n
A description of the farmer\u2019s daughter.\u00a0 The author carried to a market-town, and then to the metropolis.\u00a0 The particulars of his journey.<\/p>\r\nMy mistress had a daughter of nine years old, a child of towardly parts for her age, very dexterous at her needle, and skilful in dressing her baby.\u00a0 Her mother and she contrived to fit up the baby\u2019s cradle for me against night: the cradle was put into a small drawer of a cabinet, and the drawer placed upon a hanging shelf for fear of the rats.\u00a0 This was my bed all the time I staid with those people, though made more convenient by degrees, as I began to learn their language and make my wants known.\u00a0 This young girl was so handy, that after I had once or twice pulled off my clothes before her, she was able to dress and undress me, though I never gave her that trouble when she would let me do either myself.\u00a0 She made me seven shirts, and some other linen, of as fine cloth as could be got, which indeed was coarser than sackcloth; and these she constantly washed for me with her own hands.\u00a0 She was likewise my school-mistress, to teach me the language: when I pointed to any thing, she told me the name of it in her own tongue, so that in a few days I was able to call for whatever I had a mind to.\u00a0 She was very good-natured, and not above forty feet high, being little for her age.\u00a0 She gave me the name of Grildrig<\/i>, which the family took up, and afterwards the whole kingdom.\u00a0 The word imports what the Latins call nanunculus<\/i>, the Italians homunceletino<\/i>, and the English mannikin<\/i>.\u00a0 To her I chiefly owe my preservation in that country: we never parted while I was there; I called her my Glumdalclitch<\/i>, or little nurse; and should be guilty of great ingratitude, if I omitted this honourable mention of her care and affection towards me, which I heartily wish it lay in my power to requite as she deserves, instead of being the innocent, but unhappy instrument of her disgrace, as I have too much reason to fear.\r\n\r\nIt now began to be known and talked of in the neighbourhood, that my master had found a strange animal in the field, about the bigness of a splacnuck<\/i>, but exactly shaped in every part like a human creature; which it likewise imitated in all its actions; seemed to speak in a little language of its own, had already learned several words of theirs, went erect upon two legs, was tame and gentle, would come when it was called, do whatever it was bid, had the finest limbs in the world, and a complexion fairer than a nobleman\u2019s daughter of three years old.\u00a0 Another farmer, who lived hard by, and was a particular friend of my master, came on a visit on purpose to inquire into the truth of this story.\u00a0 I was immediately produced, and placed upon a table, where I walked as I was commanded, drew my hanger, put it up again, made my reverence to my master\u2019s guest, asked him in his own language how he did, and told him he was welcome<\/i>, just as my little nurse had instructed me.\u00a0 This man, who was old and dim-sighted, put on his spectacles to behold me better; at which I could not forbear laughing very heartily, for his eyes appeared like the full moon shining into a chamber at two windows.\u00a0 Our people, who discovered the cause of my mirth, bore me company in laughing, at which the old fellow was fool enough to be angry and out of countenance.\u00a0 He had the character of a great miser; and, to my misfortune, he well deserved it, by the cursed advice he gave my master, to show me as a sight upon a market-day in the next town, which was half an hour\u2019s riding, about two-and-twenty miles from our house.\u00a0 I guessed there was some mischief when I observed my master and his friend whispering together, sometimes pointing at me; and my fears made me fancy that I overheard and understood some of their words.\u00a0 But the next morning Glumdalclitch, my little nurse, told me the whole matter, which she had cunningly picked out from her mother.\u00a0 The poor girl laid me on her bosom, and fell a weeping with shame and grief.\u00a0 She apprehended some mischief would happen to me from rude vulgar folks, who might squeeze me to death, or break one of my limbs by taking me in their hands.\u00a0 She had also observed how modest I was in my nature, how nicely I regarded my honour, and what an indignity I should conceive it, to be exposed for money as a public spectacle, to the meanest of the people.\u00a0 She said, her papa and mamma had promised that Grildrig should be hers; but now she found they meant to serve her as they did last year, when they pretended to give her a lamb, and yet, as soon as it was fat, sold it to a butcher.\u00a0 For my own part, I may truly affirm, that I was less concerned than my nurse.\u00a0 I had a strong hope, which never left me, that I should one day recover my liberty: and as to the ignominy of being carried about for a monster, I considered myself to be a perfect stranger in the country, and that such a misfortune could never be charged upon me as a reproach, if ever I should return to England, since the king of Great Britain himself, in my condition, must have undergone the same distress.\r\n\r\nMy master, pursuant to the advice of his friend, carried me in a box the next market-day to the neighbouring town, and took along with him his little daughter, my nurse, upon a pillion behind him.\u00a0 The box was close on every side, with a little door for me to go in and out, and a few gimlet holes to let in air.\u00a0 The girl had been so careful as to put the quilt of her baby\u2019s bed into it, for me to lie down on.\u00a0 However, I was terribly shaken and discomposed in this journey, though it was but of half an hour: for the horse went about forty feet at every step and trotted so high, that the agitation was equal to the rising and falling of a ship in a great storm, but much more frequent.\u00a0 Our journey was somewhat farther than from London to St. Alban\u2019s.\u00a0 My master alighted at an inn which he used to frequent; and after consulting awhile with the inn-keeper, and making some necessary preparations, he hired the grultrud<\/i>, or crier, to give notice through the town of a strange creature to be seen at the sign of the Green Eagle, not so big as a splacnuck<\/i> (an animal in that country very finely shaped, about six feet long,) and in every part of the body resembling a human creature, could speak several words, and perform a hundred diverting tricks.\r\n\r\nI was placed upon a table in the largest room of the inn, which might be near three hundred feet square.\u00a0 My little nurse stood on a low stool close to the table, to take care of me, and direct what I should do.\u00a0 My master, to avoid a crowd, would suffer only thirty people at a time to see me.\u00a0 I walked about on the table as the girl commanded; she asked me questions, as far as she knew my understanding of the language reached, and I answered them as loud as I could.\u00a0 I turned about several times to the company, paid my humble respects, said they were welcome<\/i>, and used some other speeches I had been taught.\u00a0 I took up a thimble filled with liquor, which Glumdalclitch had given me for a cup, and drank their health, I drew out my hanger, and flourished with it after the manner of fencers in England.\u00a0 My nurse gave me a part of a straw, which I exercised as a pike, having learnt the art in my youth.\u00a0 I was that day shown to twelve sets of company, and as often forced to act over again the same fopperies, till I was half dead with weariness and vexation; for those who had seen me made such wonderful reports, that the people were ready to break down the doors to come in.\u00a0 My master, for his own interest, would not suffer any one to touch me except my nurse; and to prevent danger, benches were set round the table at such a distance as to put me out of every body\u2019s reach.\u00a0 However, an unlucky school-boy aimed a hazel nut directly at my head, which very narrowly missed me; otherwise it came with so much violence, that it would have infallibly knocked out my brains, for it was almost as large as a small pumpkin, but I had the satisfaction to see the young rogue well beaten, and turned out of the room.\r\n\r\nMy master gave public notice that he would show me again the next market-day; and in the meantime he prepared a convenient vehicle for me, which he had reason enough to do; for I was so tired with my first journey, and with entertaining company for eight hours together, that I could hardly stand upon my legs, or speak a word.\u00a0 It was at least three days before I recovered my strength; and that I might have no rest at home, all the neighbouring gentlemen from a hundred miles round, hearing of my fame, came to see me at my master\u2019s own house.\u00a0 There could not be fewer than thirty persons with their wives and children (for the country is very populous;) and my master demanded the rate of a full room whenever he showed me at home, although it were only to a single family; so that for some time I had but little ease every day of the week (except Wednesday, which is their Sabbath,) although I were not carried to the town.\r\n\r\nMy master, finding how profitable I was likely to be, resolved to carry me to the most considerable cities of the kingdom.\u00a0 Having therefore provided himself with all things necessary for a long journey, and settled his affairs at home, he took leave of his wife, and upon the 17th of August, 1703, about two months after my arrival, we set out for the metropolis, situate near the middle of that empire, and about three thousand miles distance from our house.\u00a0 My master made his daughter Glumdalclitch ride behind him.\u00a0 She carried me on her lap, in a box tied about her waist.\u00a0 The girl had lined it on all sides with the softest cloth she could get, well quilted underneath, furnished it with her baby\u2019s bed, provided me with linen and other necessaries, and made everything as convenient as she could.\u00a0 We had no other company but a boy of the house, who rode after us with the luggage.\r\n\r\nMy master\u2019s design was to show me in all the towns by the way, and to step out of the road for fifty or a hundred miles, to any village, or person of quality\u2019s house, where he might expect custom.\u00a0 We made easy journeys, of not above seven or eight score miles a-day; for Glumdalclitch, on purpose to spare me, complained she was tired with the trotting of the horse.\u00a0 She often took me out of my box, at my own desire, to give me air, and show me the country, but always held me fast by a leading-string.\u00a0 We passed over five or six rivers, many degrees broader and deeper than the Nile or the Ganges: and there was hardly a rivulet so small as the Thames at London-bridge.\u00a0 We were ten weeks in our journey, and I was shown in eighteen large towns, besides many villages, and private families.\r\n\r\nOn the 26th day of October we arrived at the metropolis, called in their language Lorbrulgrud<\/i>, or Pride of the Universe.\u00a0 My master took a lodging in the principal street of the city, not far from the royal palace, and put out bills in the usual form, containing an exact description of my person and parts.\u00a0 He hired a large room between three and four hundred feet wide.\u00a0 He provided a table sixty feet in diameter, upon which I was to act my part, and pallisadoed it round three feet from the edge, and as many high, to prevent my falling over.\u00a0 I was shown ten times a-day, to the wonder and satisfaction of all people.\u00a0 I could now speak the language tolerably well, and perfectly understood every word, that was spoken to me.\u00a0 Besides, I had learnt their alphabet, and could make a shift to explain a sentence here and there; for Glumdalclitch had been my instructor while we were at home, and at leisure hours during our journey.\u00a0 She carried a little book in her pocket, not much larger than a Sanson\u2019s Atlas; it was a common treatise for the use of young girls, giving a short account of their religion: out of this she taught me my letters, and interpreted the words.\r\nCHAPTER III.<\/h3>\r\n
The author sent for to court.\u00a0 The queen buys him of his master the farmer, and presents him to the king.\u00a0 He disputes with his majesty\u2019s great scholars.\u00a0 An apartment at court provided for the author.\u00a0 He is in high favour with the queen.\u00a0 He stands up for the honour of his own country.\u00a0 His quarrels with the queen\u2019s dwarf.<\/p>\r\nThe frequent labours I underwent every day, made, in a few weeks, a very considerable change in my health: the more my master got by me, the more insatiable he grew.\u00a0 I had quite lost my stomach, and was almost reduced to a skeleton.\u00a0 The farmer observed it, and concluding I must soon die, resolved to make as good a hand of me as he could.\u00a0 While he was thus reasoning and resolving with himself, a sardral<\/i>, or gentleman-usher, came from court, commanding my master to carry me immediately thither for the diversion of the queen and her ladies.\u00a0 Some of the latter had already been to see me, and reported strange things of my beauty, behaviour, and good sense.\u00a0 Her majesty, and those who attended her, were beyond measure delighted with my demeanour.\u00a0 I fell on my knees, and begged the honour of kissing her imperial foot; but this gracious princess held out her little finger towards me, after I was set on the table, which I embraced in both my arms, and put the tip of it with the utmost respect to my lip.\u00a0 She made me some general questions about my country and my travels, which I answered as distinctly, and in as few words as I could.\u00a0 She asked, \u201cwhether I could be content to live at court?\u201d\u00a0 I bowed down to the board of the table, and humbly answered \u201cthat I was my master\u2019s slave: but, if I were at my own disposal, I should be proud to devote my life to her majesty\u2019s service.\u201d\u00a0 She then asked my master, \u201cwhether he was willing to sell me at a good price?\u201d\u00a0 He, who apprehended I could not live a month, was ready enough to part with me, and demanded a thousand pieces of gold, which were ordered him on the spot, each piece being about the bigness of eight hundred moidores; but allowing for the proportion of all things between that country and Europe, and the high price of gold among them, was hardly so great a sum as a thousand guineas would be in England.\u00a0 I then said to the queen, \u201csince I was now her majesty\u2019s most humble creature and vassal, I must beg the favour, that Glumdalclitch, who had always tended me with so much care and kindness, and understood to do it so well, might be admitted into her service, and continue to be my nurse and instructor.\u201d\r\n\r\nHer majesty agreed to my petition, and easily got the farmer\u2019s consent, who was glad enough to have his daughter preferred at court, and the poor girl herself was not able to hide her joy.\u00a0 My late master withdrew, bidding me farewell, and saying he had left me in a good service; to which I replied not a word, only making him a slight bow.\r\n\r\nThe queen observed my coldness; and, when the farmer was gone out of the apartment, asked me the reason.\u00a0 I made bold to tell her majesty, \u201cthat I owed no other obligation to my late master, than his not dashing out the brains of a poor harmless creature, found by chance in his fields: which obligation was amply recompensed, by the gain he had made in showing me through half the kingdom, and the price he had now sold me for.\u00a0 That the life I had since led was laborious enough to kill an animal of ten times my strength.\u00a0 That my health was much impaired, by the continual drudgery of entertaining the rabble every hour of the day; and that, if my master had not thought my life in danger, her majesty would not have got so cheap a bargain.\u00a0 But as I was out of all fear of being ill-treated under the protection of so great and good an empress, the ornament of nature, the darling of the world, the delight of her subjects, the phoenix of the creation, so I hoped my late master\u2019s apprehensions would appear to be groundless; for I already found my spirits revive, by the influence of her most august presence.\u201d\r\n\r\nThis was the sum of my speech, delivered with great improprieties and hesitation.\u00a0 The latter part was altogether framed in the style peculiar to that people, whereof I learned some phrases from Glumdalclitch, while she was carrying me to court.\r\n\r\nThe queen, giving great allowance for my defectiveness in speaking, was, however, surprised at so much wit and good sense in so diminutive an animal.\u00a0 She took me in her own hand, and carried me to the king, who was then retired to his cabinet.\u00a0 His majesty, a prince of much gravity and austere countenance, not well observing my shape at first view, asked the queen after a cold manner \u201chow long it was since she grew fond of a splacnuck<\/i>?\u201d for such it seems he took me to be, as I lay upon my breast in her majesty\u2019s right hand.\u00a0 But this princess, who has an infinite deal of wit and humour, set me gently on my feet upon the scrutoire, and commanded me to give his majesty an account of myself, which I did in a very few words: and Glumdalclitch who attended at the cabinet door, and could not endure I should be out of her sight, being admitted, confirmed all that had passed from my arrival at her father\u2019s house.\r\n\r\nThe king, although he be as learned a person as any in his dominions, had been educated in the study of philosophy, and particularly mathematics; yet when he observed my shape exactly, and saw me walk erect, before I began to speak, conceived I might be a piece of clock-work (which is in that country arrived to a very great perfection) contrived by some ingenious artist.\u00a0 But when he heard my voice, and found what I delivered to be regular and rational, he could not conceal his astonishment.\u00a0 He was by no means satisfied with the relation I gave him of the manner I came into his kingdom, but thought it a story concerted between Glumdalclitch and her father, who had taught me a set of words to make me sell at a better price.\u00a0 Upon this imagination, he put several other questions to me, and still received rational answers: no otherwise defective than by a foreign accent, and an imperfect knowledge in the language, with some rustic phrases which I had learned at the farmer\u2019s house, and did not suit the polite style of a court.\r\n\r\nHis majesty sent for three great scholars, who were then in their weekly waiting, according to the custom in that country.\u00a0 These gentlemen, after they had a while examined my shape with much nicety, were of different opinions concerning me.\u00a0 They all agreed that I could not be produced according to the regular laws of nature, because I was not framed with a capacity of preserving my life, either by swiftness, or climbing of trees, or digging holes in the earth.\u00a0 They observed by my teeth, which they viewed with great exactness, that I was a carnivorous animal; yet most quadrupeds being an overmatch for me, and field mice, with some others, too nimble, they could not imagine how I should be able to support myself, unless I fed upon snails and other insects, which they offered, by many learned arguments, to evince that I could not possibly do.\u00a0 One of these virtuosi seemed to think that I might be an embryo, or abortive birth.\u00a0 But this opinion was rejected by the other two, who observed my limbs to be perfect and finished; and that I had lived several years, as it was manifest from my beard, the stumps whereof they plainly discovered through a magnifying glass.\u00a0 They would not allow me to be a dwarf, because my littleness was beyond all degrees of comparison; for the queen\u2019s favourite dwarf, the smallest ever known in that kingdom, was near thirty feet high.\u00a0 After much debate, they concluded unanimously, that I was only relplum scalcath<\/i>, which is interpreted literally lusus natur\u00e6<\/i>; a determination exactly agreeable to the modern philosophy of Europe, whose professors, disdaining the old evasion of occult causes, whereby the followers of Aristotle endeavoured in vain to disguise their ignorance, have invented this wonderful solution of all difficulties, to the unspeakable advancement of human knowledge.\r\n\r\nAfter this decisive conclusion, I entreated to be heard a word or two.\u00a0 I applied myself to the king, and assured his majesty, \u201cthat I came from a country which abounded with several millions of both sexes, and of my own stature; where the animals, trees, and houses, were all in proportion, and where, by consequence, I might be as able to defend myself, and to find sustenance, as any of his majesty\u2019s subjects could do here; which I took for a full answer to those gentlemen\u2019s arguments.\u201d\u00a0 To this they only replied with a smile of contempt, saying, \u201cthat the farmer had instructed me very well in my lesson.\u201d\u00a0 The king, who had a much better understanding, dismissing his learned men, sent for the farmer, who by good fortune was not yet gone out of town.\u00a0 Having therefore first examined him privately, and then confronted him with me and the young girl, his majesty began to think that what we told him might possibly be true. He desired the queen to order that a particular care should be taken of me; and was of opinion that Glumdalclitch should still continue in her office of tending me, because he observed we had a great affection for each other.\u00a0 A convenient apartment was provided for her at court: she had a sort of governess appointed to take care of her education, a maid to dress her, and two other servants for menial offices; but the care of me was wholly appropriated to herself.\u00a0 The queen commanded her own cabinet-maker to contrive a box, that might serve me for a bedchamber, after the model that Glumdalclitch and I should agree upon.\u00a0 This man was a most ingenious artist, and according to my direction, in three weeks finished for me a wooden chamber of sixteen feet square, and twelve high, with sash-windows, a door, and two closets, like a London bed-chamber.\u00a0 The board, that made the ceiling, was to be lifted up and down by two hinges, to put in a bed ready furnished by her majesty\u2019s upholsterer, which Glumdalclitch took out every day to air, made it with her own hands, and letting it down at night, locked up the roof over me.\u00a0 A nice workman, who was famous for little curiosities, undertook to make me two chairs, with backs and frames, of a substance not unlike ivory, and two tables, with a cabinet to put my things in.\u00a0 The room was quilted on all sides, as well as the floor and the ceiling, to prevent any accident from the carelessness of those who carried me, and to break the force of a jolt, when I went in a coach.\u00a0 I desired a lock for my door, to prevent rats and mice from coming in.\u00a0 The smith, after several attempts, made the smallest that ever was seen among them, for I have known a larger at the gate of a gentleman\u2019s house in England.\u00a0 I made a shift to keep the key in a pocket of my own, fearing Glumdalclitch might lose it.\u00a0 The queen likewise ordered the thinnest silks that could be gotten, to make me clothes, not much thicker than an English blanket, very cumbersome till I was accustomed to them.\u00a0 They were after the fashion of the kingdom, partly resembling the Persian, and partly the Chinese, and are a very grave and decent habit.\r\n\r\nThe queen became so fond of my company, that she could not dine without me.\u00a0 I had a table placed upon the same at which her majesty ate, just at her left elbow, and a chair to sit on.\u00a0 Glumdalclitch stood on a stool on the floor near my table, to assist and take care of me.\u00a0 I had an entire set of silver dishes and plates, and other necessaries, which, in proportion to those of the queen, were not much bigger than what I have seen in a London toy-shop for the furniture of a baby-house: these my little nurse kept in her pocket in a silver box, and gave me at meals as I wanted them, always cleaning them herself.\u00a0 No person dined with the queen but the two princesses royal, the eldest sixteen years old, and the younger at that time thirteen and a month.\u00a0 Her majesty used to put a bit of meat upon one of my dishes, out of which I carved for myself, and her diversion was to see me eat in miniature: for the queen (who had indeed but a weak stomach) took up, at one mouthful, as much as a dozen English farmers could eat at a meal, which to me was for some time a very nauseous sight.\u00a0 She would craunch the wing of a lark, bones and all, between her teeth, although it were nine times as large as that of a full-grown turkey; and put a bit of bread into her mouth as big as two twelve-penny loaves.\u00a0 She drank out of a golden cup, above a hogshead at a draught.\u00a0 Her knives were twice as long as a scythe, set straight upon the handle.\u00a0 The spoons, forks, and other instruments, were all in the same proportion.\u00a0 I remember when Glumdalclitch carried me, out of curiosity, to see some of the tables at court, where ten or a dozen of those enormous knives and forks were lifted up together, I thought I had never till then beheld so terrible a sight.\r\n\r\nIt is the custom, that every Wednesday (which, as I have observed, is their Sabbath) the king and queen, with the royal issue of both sexes, dine together in the apartment of his majesty, to whom I was now become a great favourite; and at these times, my little chair and table were placed at his left hand, before one of the salt-cellars.\u00a0 This prince took a pleasure in conversing with me, inquiring into the manners, religion, laws, government, and learning of Europe; wherein I gave him the best account I was able.\u00a0 His apprehension was so clear, and his judgment so exact, that he made very wise reflections and observations upon all I said.\u00a0 But I confess, that, after I had been a little too copious in talking of my own beloved country, of our trade and wars by sea and land, of our schisms in religion, and parties in the state; the prejudices of his education prevailed so far, that he could not forbear taking me up in his right hand, and stroking me gently with the other, after a hearty fit of laughing, asked me, \u201cwhether I was a whig or tory?\u201d\u00a0 Then turning to his first minister, who waited behind him with a white staff, near as tall as the mainmast of the Royal Sovereign, he observed \u201chow contemptible a thing was human grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive insects as I: and yet,\u201d says he, \u201cI dare engage these creatures have their titles and distinctions of honour; they contrive little nests and burrows, that they call houses and cities; they make a figure in dress and equipage; they love, they fight, they dispute, they cheat, they betray!\u201d\u00a0 And thus he continued on, while my colour came and went several times, with indignation, to hear our noble country, the mistress of arts and arms, the scourge of France, the arbitress of Europe, the seat of virtue, piety, honour, and truth, the pride and envy of the world, so contemptuously treated.\r\n\r\nBut as I was not in a condition to resent injuries, so upon mature thoughts I began to doubt whether I was injured or no.\u00a0 For, after having been accustomed several months to the sight and converse of this people, and observed every object upon which I cast mine eyes to be of proportionable magnitude, the horror I had at first conceived from their bulk and aspect was so far worn off, that if I had then beheld a company of English lords and ladies in their finery and birth-day clothes, acting their several parts in the most courtly manner of strutting, and bowing, and prating, to say the truth, I should have been strongly tempted to laugh as much at them as the king and his grandees did at me.\u00a0 Neither, indeed, could I forbear smiling at myself, when the queen used to place me upon her hand towards a looking-glass, by which both our persons appeared before me in full view together; and there could be nothing more ridiculous than the comparison; so that I really began to imagine myself dwindled many degrees below my usual size.\r\n\r\nNothing angered and mortified me so much as the queen\u2019s dwarf; who being of the lowest stature that was ever in that country (for I verily think he was not full thirty feet high), became so insolent at seeing a creature so much beneath him, that he would always affect to swagger and look big as he passed by me in the queen\u2019s antechamber, while I was standing on some table talking with the lords or ladies of the court, and he seldom failed of a smart word or two upon my littleness; against which I could only revenge myself by calling him brother, challenging him to wrestle, and such repartees as are usually in the mouths of court pages.\u00a0 One day, at dinner, this malicious little cub was so nettled with something I had said to him, that, raising himself upon the frame of her majesty\u2019s chair, he took me up by the middle, as I was sitting down, not thinking any harm, and let me drop into a large silver bowl of cream, and then ran away as fast as he could.\u00a0 I fell over head and ears, and, if I had not been a good swimmer, it might have gone very hard with me; for Glumdalclitch in that instant happened to be at the other end of the room, and the queen was in such a fright, that she wanted presence of mind to assist me.\u00a0 But my little nurse ran to my relief, and took me out, after I had swallowed above a quart of cream.\u00a0 I was put to bed: however, I received no other damage than the loss of a suit of clothes, which was utterly spoiled.\u00a0 The dwarf was soundly whipt, and as a farther punishment, forced to drink up the bowl of cream into which he had thrown me: neither was he ever restored to favour; for soon after the queen bestowed him on a lady of high quality, so that I saw him no more, to my very great satisfaction; for I could not tell to what extremities such a malicious urchin might have carried his resentment.\r\n\r\nHe had before served me a scurvy trick, which set the queen a-laughing, although at the same time she was heartily vexed, and would have immediately cashiered him, if I had not been so generous as to intercede.\u00a0 Her majesty had taken a marrow-bone upon her plate, and, after knocking out the marrow, placed the bone again in the dish erect, as it stood before; the dwarf, watching his opportunity, while Glumdalclitch was gone to the side-board, mounted the stool that she stood on to take care of me at meals, took me up in both hands, and squeezing my legs together, wedged them into the marrow bone above my waist, where I stuck for some time, and made a very ridiculous figure.\u00a0 I believe it was near a minute before any one knew what was become of me; for I thought it below me to cry out.\u00a0 But, as princes seldom get their meat hot, my legs were not scalded, only my stockings and breeches in a sad condition.\u00a0 The dwarf, at my entreaty, had no other punishment than a sound whipping.\r\n\r\nI was frequently rallied by the queen upon account of my fearfulness; and she used to ask me whether the people of my country were as great cowards as myself?\u00a0 The occasion was this: the kingdom is much pestered with flies in summer; and these odious insects, each of them as big as a Dunstable lark, hardly gave me any rest while I sat at dinner, with their continual humming and buzzing about mine ears.\u00a0 They would sometimes alight upon my victuals, and leave their loathsome excrement, or spawn behind, which to me was very visible, though not to the natives of that country, whose large optics were not so acute as mine, in viewing smaller objects.\u00a0 Sometimes they would fix upon my nose, or forehead, where they stung me to the quick, smelling very offensively; and I could easily trace that viscous matter, which, our naturalists tell us, enables those creatures to walk with their feet upwards upon a ceiling.\u00a0 I had much ado to defend myself against these detestable animals, and could not forbear starting when they came on my face.\u00a0 It was the common practice of the dwarf, to catch a number of these insects in his hand, as schoolboys do among us, and let them out suddenly under my nose, on purpose to frighten me, and divert the queen.\u00a0 My remedy was to cut them in pieces with my knife, as they flew in the air, wherein my dexterity was much admired.\r\n\r\nI remember, one morning, when Glumdalclitch had set me in a box upon a window, as she usually did in fair days to give me air (for I durst not venture to let the box be hung on a nail out of the window, as we do with cages in England), after I had lifted up one of my sashes, and sat down at my table to eat a piece of sweet cake for my breakfast, above twenty wasps, allured by the smell, came flying into the room, humming louder than the drones of as many bagpipes.\u00a0 Some of them seized my cake, and carried it piecemeal away; others flew about my head and face, confounding me with the noise, and putting me in the utmost terror of their stings.\u00a0 However, I had the courage to rise and draw my hanger, and attack them in the air.\u00a0 I dispatched four of them, but the rest got away, and I presently shut my window.\u00a0 These insects were as large as partridges: I took out their stings, found them an inch and a half long, and as sharp as needles.\u00a0 I carefully preserved them all; and having since shown them, with some other curiosities, in several parts of Europe, upon my return to England I gave three of them to Gresham College, and kept the fourth for myself.\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 <\/p>\n A great storm described; the long boat sent to fetch water; the author goes with it to discover the country.\u00a0 He is left on shore, is seized by one of the natives, and carried to a farmer\u2019s house.\u00a0 His reception, with several accidents that happened there.\u00a0 A description of the inhabitants.<\/p>\n Having been condemned, by nature and fortune, to active and restless life, in two months after my return, I again left my native country, and took shipping in the Downs, on the 20th day of June, 1702, in the Adventure, Captain John Nicholas, a Cornish man, commander, bound for Surat.\u00a0 We had a very prosperous gale, till we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, where we landed for fresh water; but discovering a leak, we unshipped our goods and wintered there; for the captain falling sick of an ague, we could not leave the Cape till the end of March.\u00a0 We then set sail, and had a good voyage till we passed the Straits of Madagascar; but having got northward of that island, and to about five degrees south latitude, the winds, which in those seas are observed to blow a constant equal gale between the north and west, from the beginning of December to the beginning of May, on the 19th of April began to blow with much greater violence, and more westerly than usual, continuing so for twenty days together: during which time, we were driven a little to the east of the Molucca Islands, and about three degrees northward of the line, as our captain found by an observation he took the 2nd of May, at which time the wind ceased, and it was a perfect calm, whereat I was not a little rejoiced.\u00a0 But he, being a man well experienced in the navigation of those seas, bid us all prepare against a storm, which accordingly happened the day following: for the southern wind, called the southern monsoon, began to set in.<\/p>\n Finding it was likely to overblow, we took in our sprit-sail, and stood by to hand the fore-sail; but making foul weather, we looked the guns were all fast, and handed the mizen.\u00a0 The ship lay very broad off, so we thought it better spooning before the sea, than trying or hulling.\u00a0 We reefed the fore-sail and set him, and hauled aft the fore-sheet; the helm was hard a-weather.\u00a0 The ship wore bravely.\u00a0 We belayed the fore down-haul; but the sail was split, and we hauled down the yard, and got the sail into the ship, and unbound all the things clear of it.\u00a0 It was a very fierce storm; the sea broke strange and dangerous.\u00a0 We hauled off upon the laniard of the whip-staff, and helped the man at the helm.\u00a0 We would not get down our topmast, but let all stand, because she scudded before the sea very well, and we knew that the top-mast being aloft, the ship was the wholesomer, and made better way through the sea, seeing we had sea-room.\u00a0 When the storm was over, we set fore-sail and main-sail, and brought the ship to.\u00a0 Then we set the mizen, main-top-sail, and the fore-top-sail.\u00a0 Our course was east-north-east, the wind was at south-west.\u00a0 We got the starboard tacks aboard, we cast off our weather-braces and lifts; we set in the lee-braces, and hauled forward by the weather-bowlings, and hauled them tight, and belayed them, and hauled over the mizen tack to windward, and kept her full and by as near as she would lie.<\/p>\n During this storm, which was followed by a strong wind west-south-west, we were carried, by my computation, about five hundred leagues to the east, so that the oldest sailor on board could not tell in what part of the world we were.\u00a0 Our provisions held out well, our ship was staunch, and our crew all in good health; but we lay in the utmost distress for water.\u00a0 We thought it best to hold on the same course, rather than turn more northerly, which might have brought us to the north-west part of Great Tartary, and into the Frozen Sea.<\/p>\n On the 16th day of June, 1703, a boy on the top-mast discovered land.\u00a0 On the 17th, we came in full view of a great island, or continent (for we knew not whether;) on the south side whereof was a small neck of land jutting out into the sea, and a creek too shallow to hold a ship of above one hundred tons.\u00a0 We cast anchor within a league of this creek, and our captain sent a dozen of his men well armed in the long-boat, with vessels for water, if any could be found.\u00a0 I desired his leave to go with them, that I might see the country, and make what discoveries I could.\u00a0 When we came to land we saw no river or spring, nor any sign of inhabitants.\u00a0 Our men therefore wandered on the shore to find out some fresh water near the sea, and I walked alone about a mile on the other side, where I observed the country all barren and rocky.\u00a0 I now began to be weary, and seeing nothing to entertain my curiosity, I returned gently down towards the creek; and the sea being full in my view, I saw our men already got into the boat, and rowing for life to the ship.\u00a0 I was going to holla after them, although it had been to little purpose, when I observed a huge creature walking after them in the sea, as fast as he could: he waded not much deeper than his knees, and took prodigious strides: but our men had the start of him half a league, and, the sea thereabouts being full of sharp-pointed rocks, the monster was not able to overtake the boat.\u00a0 This I was afterwards told, for I durst not stay to see the issue of the adventure; but ran as fast as I could the way I first went, and then climbed up a steep hill, which gave me some prospect of the country.\u00a0 I found it fully cultivated; but that which first surprised me was the length of the grass, which, in those grounds that seemed to be kept for hay, was about twenty feet high.<\/p>\n I fell into a high road, for so I took it to be, though it served to the inhabitants only as a foot-path through a field of barley.\u00a0 Here I walked on for some time, but could see little on either side, it being now near harvest, and the corn rising at least forty feet.\u00a0 I was an hour walking to the end of this field, which was fenced in with a hedge of at least one hundred and twenty feet high, and the trees so lofty that I could make no computation of their altitude.\u00a0 There was a stile to pass from this field into the next.\u00a0 It had four steps, and a stone to cross over when you came to the uppermost.\u00a0 It was impossible for me to climb this stile, because every step was six-feet high, and the upper stone about twenty.\u00a0 I was endeavouring to find some gap in the hedge, when I discovered one of the inhabitants in the next field, advancing towards the stile, of the same size with him whom I saw in the sea pursuing our boat.\u00a0 He appeared as tall as an ordinary spire steeple, and took about ten yards at every stride, as near as I could guess.\u00a0 I was struck with the utmost fear and astonishment, and ran to hide myself in the corn, whence I saw him at the top of the stile looking back into the next field on the right hand, and heard him call in a voice many degrees louder than a speaking-trumpet: but the noise was so high in the air, that at first I certainly thought it was thunder.\u00a0 Whereupon seven monsters, like himself, came towards him with reaping-hooks in their hands, each hook about the largeness of six scythes.\u00a0 These people were not so well clad as the first, whose servants or labourers they seemed to be; for, upon some words he spoke, they went to reap the corn in the field where I lay.\u00a0 I kept from them at as great a distance as I could, but was forced to move with extreme difficulty, for the stalks of the corn were sometimes not above a foot distant, so that I could hardly squeeze my body betwixt them.\u00a0 However, I made a shift to go forward, till I came to a part of the field where the corn had been laid by the rain and wind.\u00a0 Here it was impossible for me to advance a step; for the stalks were so interwoven, that I could not creep through, and the beards of the fallen ears so strong and pointed, that they pierced through my clothes into my flesh.\u00a0 At the same time I heard the reapers not a hundred yards behind me.\u00a0 Being quite dispirited with toil, and wholly overcome by grief and dispair, I lay down between two ridges, and heartily wished I might there end my days.\u00a0 I bemoaned my desolate widow and fatherless children.\u00a0 I lamented my own folly and wilfulness, in attempting a second voyage, against the advice of all my friends and relations.\u00a0 In this terrible agitation of mind, I could not forbear thinking of Lilliput, whose inhabitants looked upon me as the greatest prodigy that ever appeared in the world; where I was able to draw an imperial fleet in my hand, and perform those other actions, which will be recorded for ever in the chronicles of that empire, while posterity shall hardly believe them, although attested by millions.\u00a0 I reflected what a mortification it must prove to me, to appear as inconsiderable in this nation, as one single Lilliputian would be among us.\u00a0 But this I conceived was to be the least of my misfortunes; for, as human creatures are observed to be more savage and cruel in proportion to their bulk, what could I expect but to be a morsel in the mouth of the first among these enormous barbarians that should happen to seize me?\u00a0 Undoubtedly philosophers are in the right, when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.\u00a0 It might have pleased fortune, to have let the Lilliputians find some nation, where the people were as diminutive with respect to them, as they were to me.\u00a0 And who knows but that even this prodigious race of mortals might be equally overmatched in some distant part of the world, whereof we have yet no discovery.<\/p>\n Scared and confounded as I was, I could not forbear going on with these reflections, when one of the reapers, approaching within ten yards of the ridge where I lay, made me apprehend that with the next step I should be squashed to death under his foot, or cut in two with his reaping-hook.\u00a0 And therefore, when he was again about to move, I screamed as loud as fear could make me: whereupon the huge creature trod short, and, looking round about under him for some time, at last espied me as I lay on the ground.\u00a0 He considered awhile, with the caution of one who endeavours to lay hold on a small dangerous animal in such a manner that it shall not be able either to scratch or bite him, as I myself have sometimes done with a weasel in England.\u00a0 At length he ventured to take me behind, by the middle, between his fore-finger and thumb, and brought me within three yards of his eyes, that he might behold my shape more perfectly.\u00a0 I guessed his meaning, and my good fortune gave me so much presence of mind, that I resolved not to struggle in the least as he held me in the air above sixty feet from the ground, although he grievously pinched my sides, for fear I should slip through his fingers.\u00a0 All I ventured was to raise mine eyes towards the sun, and place my hands together in a supplicating posture, and to speak some words in a humble melancholy tone, suitable to the condition I then was in: for I apprehended every moment that he would dash me against the ground, as we usually do any little hateful animal, which we have a mind to destroy.\u00a0 But my good star would have it, that he appeared pleased with my voice and gestures, and began to look upon me as a curiosity, much wondering to hear me pronounce articulate words, although he could not understand them.\u00a0 In the mean time I was not able to forbear groaning and shedding tears, and turning my head towards my sides; letting him know, as well as I could, how cruelly I was hurt by the pressure of his thumb and finger.\u00a0 He seemed to apprehend my meaning; for, lifting up the lappet of his coat, he put me gently into it, and immediately ran along with me to his master, who was a substantial farmer, and the same person I had first seen in the field.<\/p>\n The farmer having (as I suppose by their talk) received such an account of me as his servant could give him, took a piece of a small straw, about the size of a walking-staff, and therewith lifted up the lappets of my coat; which it seems he thought to be some kind of covering that nature had given me.\u00a0 He blew my hairs aside to take a better view of my face.\u00a0 He called his hinds about him, and asked them, as I afterwards learned, whether they had ever seen in the fields any little creature that resembled me.\u00a0 He then placed me softly on the ground upon all fours, but I got immediately up, and walked slowly backward and forward, to let those people see I had no intent to run away.\u00a0 They all sat down in a circle about me, the better to observe my motions.\u00a0 I pulled off my hat, and made a low bow towards the farmer.\u00a0 I fell on my knees, and lifted up my hands and eyes, and spoke several words as loud as I could: I took a purse of gold out of my pocket, and humbly presented it to him.\u00a0 He received it on the palm of his hand, then applied it close to his eye to see what it was, and afterwards turned it several times with the point of a pin (which he took out of his sleeve,) but could make nothing of it.\u00a0 Whereupon I made a sign that he should place his hand on the ground.\u00a0 I then took the purse, and, opening it, poured all the gold into his palm.\u00a0 There were six Spanish pieces of four pistoles each, beside twenty or thirty smaller coins.\u00a0 I saw him wet the tip of his little finger upon his tongue, and take up one of my largest pieces, and then another; but he seemed to be wholly ignorant what they were.\u00a0 He made me a sign to put them again into my purse, and the purse again into my pocket, which, after offering it to him several times, I thought it best to do.<\/p>\n The farmer, by this time, was convinced I must be a rational creature.\u00a0 He spoke often to me; but the sound of his voice pierced my ears like that of a water-mill, yet his words were articulate enough.\u00a0 I answered as loud as I could in several languages, and he often laid his ear within two yards of me: but all in vain, for we were wholly unintelligible to each other.\u00a0 He then sent his servants to their work, and taking his handkerchief out of his pocket, he doubled and spread it on his left hand, which he placed flat on the ground with the palm upward, making me a sign to step into it, as I could easily do, for it was not above a foot in thickness.\u00a0 I thought it my part to obey, and, for fear of falling, laid myself at full length upon the handkerchief, with the remainder of which he lapped me up to the head for further security, and in this manner carried me home to his house.\u00a0 There he called his wife, and showed me to her; but she screamed and ran back, as women in England do at the sight of a toad or a spider.\u00a0 However, when she had a while seen my behaviour, and how well I observed the signs her husband made, she was soon reconciled, and by degrees grew extremely tender of me.<\/p>\n It was about twelve at noon, and a servant brought in dinner.\u00a0 It was only one substantial dish of meat (fit for the plain condition of a husbandman,) in a dish of about four-and-twenty feet diameter.\u00a0 The company were, the farmer and his wife, three children, and an old grandmother.\u00a0 When they were sat down, the farmer placed me at some distance from him on the table, which was thirty feet high from the floor.\u00a0 I was in a terrible fright, and kept as far as I could from the edge, for fear of falling.\u00a0 The wife minced a bit of meat, then crumbled some bread on a trencher, and placed it before me.\u00a0 I made her a low bow, took out my knife and fork, and fell to eat, which gave them exceeding delight.\u00a0 The mistress sent her maid for a small dram cup, which held about two gallons, and filled it with drink; I took up the vessel with much difficulty in both hands, and in a most respectful manner drank to her ladyship\u2019s health, expressing the words as loud as I could in English, which made the company laugh so heartily, that I was almost deafened with the noise.\u00a0 This liquor tasted like a small cider, and was not unpleasant.\u00a0 Then the master made me a sign to come to his trencher side; but as I walked on the table, being in great surprise all the time, as the indulgent reader will easily conceive and excuse, I happened to stumble against a crust, and fell flat on my face, but received no hurt.\u00a0 I got up immediately, and observing the good people to be in much concern, I took my hat (which I held under my arm out of good manners,) and waving it over my head, made three huzzas, to show I had got no mischief by my fall.\u00a0 But advancing forward towards my master (as I shall henceforth call him,) his youngest son, who sat next to him, an arch boy of about ten years old, took me up by the legs, and held me so high in the air, that I trembled every limb: but his father snatched me from him, and at the same time gave him such a box on the left ear, as would have felled an European troop of horse to the earth, ordering him to be taken from the table.\u00a0 But being afraid the boy might owe me a spite, and well remembering how mischievous all children among us naturally are to sparrows, rabbits, young kittens, and puppy dogs, I fell on my knees, and pointing to the boy, made my master to understand, as well as I could, that I desired his son might be pardoned.\u00a0 The father complied, and the lad took his seat again, whereupon I went to him, and kissed his hand, which my master took, and made him stroke me gently with it.<\/p>\n In the midst of dinner, my mistress\u2019s favourite cat leaped into her lap.\u00a0 I heard a noise behind me like that of a dozen stocking-weavers at work; and turning my head, I found it proceeded from the purring of that animal, who seemed to be three times larger than an ox, as I computed by the view of her head, and one of her paws, while her mistress was feeding and stroking her.\u00a0 The fierceness of this creature\u2019s countenance altogether discomposed me; though I stood at the farther end of the table, above fifty feet off; and although my mistress held her fast, for fear she might give a spring, and seize me in her talons.\u00a0 But it happened there was no danger, for the cat took not the least notice of me when my master placed me within three yards of her.\u00a0 And as I have been always told, and found true by experience in my travels, that flying or discovering fear before a fierce animal, is a certain way to make it pursue or attack you, so I resolved, in this dangerous juncture, to show no manner of concern.\u00a0 I walked with intrepidity five or six times before the very head of the cat, and came within half a yard of her; whereupon she drew herself back, as if she were more afraid of me: I had less apprehension concerning the dogs, whereof three or four came into the room, as it is usual in farmers\u2019 houses; one of which was a mastiff, equal in bulk to four elephants, and another a greyhound, somewhat taller than the mastiff, but not so large.<\/p>\n When dinner was almost done, the nurse came in with a child of a year old in her arms, who immediately spied me, and began a squall that you might have heard from London-Bridge to Chelsea, after the usual oratory of infants, to get me for a plaything.\u00a0 The mother, out of pure indulgence, took me up, and put me towards the child, who presently seized me by the middle, and got my head into his mouth, where I roared so loud that the urchin was frighted, and let me drop, and I should infallibly have broke my neck, if the mother had not held her apron under me.\u00a0 The nurse, to quiet her babe, made use of a rattle which was a kind of hollow vessel filled with great stones, and fastened by a cable to the child\u2019s waist: but all in vain; so that she was forced to apply the last remedy by giving it suck.\u00a0 I must confess no object ever disgusted me so much as the sight of her monstrous breast, which I cannot tell what to compare with, so as to give the curious reader an idea of its bulk, shape, and colour.\u00a0 It stood prominent six feet, and could not be less than sixteen in circumference.\u00a0 The nipple was about half the bigness of my head, and the hue both of that and the dug, so varied with spots, pimples, and freckles, that nothing could appear more nauseous: for I had a near sight of her, she sitting down, the more conveniently to give suck, and I standing on the table.\u00a0 This made me reflect upon the fair skins of our English ladies, who appear so beautiful to us, only because they are of our own size, and their defects not to be seen but through a magnifying glass; where we find by experiment that the smoothest and whitest skins look rough, and coarse, and ill-coloured.<\/p>\n I remember when I was at Lilliput, the complexion of those diminutive people appeared to me the fairest in the world; and talking upon this subject with a person of learning there, who was an intimate friend of mine, he said that my face appeared much fairer and smoother when he looked on me from the ground, than it did upon a nearer view, when I took him up in my hand, and brought him close, which he confessed was at first a very shocking sight.\u00a0 He said, \u201che could discover great holes in my skin; that the stumps of my beard were ten times stronger than the bristles of a boar, and my complexion made up of several colours altogether disagreeable:\u201d although I must beg leave to say for myself, that I am as fair as most of my sex and country, and very little sunburnt by all my travels.\u00a0 On the other side, discoursing of the ladies in that emperor\u2019s court, he used to tell me, \u201cone had freckles; another too wide a mouth; a third too large a nose;\u201d nothing of which I was able to distinguish.\u00a0 I confess this reflection was obvious enough; which, however, I could not forbear, lest the reader might think those vast creatures were actually deformed: for I must do them the justice to say, they are a comely race of people, and particularly the features of my master\u2019s countenance, although he was but a farmer, when I beheld him from the height of sixty feet, appeared very well proportioned.<\/p>\n When dinner was done, my master went out to his labourers, and, as I could discover by his voice and gesture, gave his wife strict charge to take care of me.\u00a0 I was very much tired, and disposed to sleep, which my mistress perceiving, she put me on her own bed, and covered me with a clean white handkerchief, but larger and coarser than the mainsail of a man-of-war.<\/p>\n I slept about two hours, and dreamt I was at home with my wife and children, which aggravated my sorrows when I awaked, and found myself alone in a vast room, between two and three hundred feet wide, and above two hundred high, lying in a bed twenty yards wide.\u00a0 My mistress was gone about her household affairs, and had locked me in.\u00a0 The bed was eight yards from the floor.\u00a0 Some natural necessities required me to get down; I durst not presume to call; and if I had, it would have been in vain, with such a voice as mine, at so great a distance from the room where I lay to the kitchen where the family kept.\u00a0 While I was under these circumstances, two rats crept up the curtains, and ran smelling backwards and forwards on the bed.\u00a0 One of them came up almost to my face, whereupon I rose in a fright, and drew out my hanger to defend myself.\u00a0 These horrible animals had the boldness to attack me on both sides, and one of them held his fore-feet at my collar; but I had the good fortune to rip up his belly before he could do me any mischief.\u00a0 He fell down at my feet; and the other, seeing the fate of his comrade, made his escape, but not without one good wound on the back, which I gave him as he fled, and made the blood run trickling from him.\u00a0 After this exploit, I walked gently to and fro on the bed, to recover my breath and loss of spirits.\u00a0 These creatures were of the size of a large mastiff, but infinitely more nimble and fierce; so that if I had taken off my belt before I went to sleep, I must have infallibly been torn to pieces and devoured.\u00a0 I measured the tail of the dead rat, and found it to be two yards long, wanting an inch; but it went against my stomach to drag the carcass off the bed, where it lay still bleeding; I observed it had yet some life, but with a strong slash across the neck, I thoroughly despatched it.<\/p>\n Soon after my mistress came into the room, who seeing me all bloody, ran and took me up in her hand.\u00a0 I pointed to the dead rat, smiling, and making other signs to show I was not hurt; whereat she was extremely rejoiced, calling the maid to take up the dead rat with a pair of tongs, and throw it out of the window.\u00a0 Then she set me on a table, where I showed her my hanger all bloody, and wiping it on the lappet of my coat, returned it to the scabbard.\u00a0 I was pressed to do more than one thing which another could not do for me, and therefore endeavoured to make my mistress understand, that I desired to be set down on the floor; which after she had done, my bashfulness would not suffer me to express myself farther, than by pointing to the door, and bowing several times.\u00a0 The good woman, with much difficulty, at last perceived what I would be at, and taking me up again in her hand, walked into the garden, where she set me down.\u00a0 I went on one side about two hundred yards, and beckoning to her not to look or to follow me, I hid myself between two leaves of sorrel, and there discharged the necessities of nature.<\/p>\n I hope the gentle reader will excuse me for dwelling on these and the like particulars, which, however insignificant they may appear to groveling vulgar minds, yet will certainly help a philosopher to enlarge his thoughts and imagination, and apply them to the benefit of public as well as private life, which was my sole design in presenting this and other accounts of my travels to the world; wherein I have been chiefly studious of truth, without affecting any ornaments of learning or of style.\u00a0 But the whole scene of this voyage made so strong an impression on my mind, and is so deeply fixed in my memory, that, in committing it to paper I did not omit one material circumstance: however, upon a strict review, I blotted out several passages.\u00a0 Of less moment which were in my first copy, for fear of being censured as tedious and trifling, whereof travellers are often, perhaps not without justice, accused.<\/p>\n A description of the farmer\u2019s daughter.\u00a0 The author carried to a market-town, and then to the metropolis.\u00a0 The particulars of his journey.<\/p>\n My mistress had a daughter of nine years old, a child of towardly parts for her age, very dexterous at her needle, and skilful in dressing her baby.\u00a0 Her mother and she contrived to fit up the baby\u2019s cradle for me against night: the cradle was put into a small drawer of a cabinet, and the drawer placed upon a hanging shelf for fear of the rats.\u00a0 This was my bed all the time I staid with those people, though made more convenient by degrees, as I began to learn their language and make my wants known.\u00a0 This young girl was so handy, that after I had once or twice pulled off my clothes before her, she was able to dress and undress me, though I never gave her that trouble when she would let me do either myself.\u00a0 She made me seven shirts, and some other linen, of as fine cloth as could be got, which indeed was coarser than sackcloth; and these she constantly washed for me with her own hands.\u00a0 She was likewise my school-mistress, to teach me the language: when I pointed to any thing, she told me the name of it in her own tongue, so that in a few days I was able to call for whatever I had a mind to.\u00a0 She was very good-natured, and not above forty feet high, being little for her age.\u00a0 She gave me the name of Grildrig<\/i>, which the family took up, and afterwards the whole kingdom.\u00a0 The word imports what the Latins call nanunculus<\/i>, the Italians homunceletino<\/i>, and the English mannikin<\/i>.\u00a0 To her I chiefly owe my preservation in that country: we never parted while I was there; I called her my Glumdalclitch<\/i>, or little nurse; and should be guilty of great ingratitude, if I omitted this honourable mention of her care and affection towards me, which I heartily wish it lay in my power to requite as she deserves, instead of being the innocent, but unhappy instrument of her disgrace, as I have too much reason to fear.<\/p>\n It now began to be known and talked of in the neighbourhood, that my master had found a strange animal in the field, about the bigness of a splacnuck<\/i>, but exactly shaped in every part like a human creature; which it likewise imitated in all its actions; seemed to speak in a little language of its own, had already learned several words of theirs, went erect upon two legs, was tame and gentle, would come when it was called, do whatever it was bid, had the finest limbs in the world, and a complexion fairer than a nobleman\u2019s daughter of three years old.\u00a0 Another farmer, who lived hard by, and was a particular friend of my master, came on a visit on purpose to inquire into the truth of this story.\u00a0 I was immediately produced, and placed upon a table, where I walked as I was commanded, drew my hanger, put it up again, made my reverence to my master\u2019s guest, asked him in his own language how he did, and told him he was welcome<\/i>, just as my little nurse had instructed me.\u00a0 This man, who was old and dim-sighted, put on his spectacles to behold me better; at which I could not forbear laughing very heartily, for his eyes appeared like the full moon shining into a chamber at two windows.\u00a0 Our people, who discovered the cause of my mirth, bore me company in laughing, at which the old fellow was fool enough to be angry and out of countenance.\u00a0 He had the character of a great miser; and, to my misfortune, he well deserved it, by the cursed advice he gave my master, to show me as a sight upon a market-day in the next town, which was half an hour\u2019s riding, about two-and-twenty miles from our house.\u00a0 I guessed there was some mischief when I observed my master and his friend whispering together, sometimes pointing at me; and my fears made me fancy that I overheard and understood some of their words.\u00a0 But the next morning Glumdalclitch, my little nurse, told me the whole matter, which she had cunningly picked out from her mother.\u00a0 The poor girl laid me on her bosom, and fell a weeping with shame and grief.\u00a0 She apprehended some mischief would happen to me from rude vulgar folks, who might squeeze me to death, or break one of my limbs by taking me in their hands.\u00a0 She had also observed how modest I was in my nature, how nicely I regarded my honour, and what an indignity I should conceive it, to be exposed for money as a public spectacle, to the meanest of the people.\u00a0 She said, her papa and mamma had promised that Grildrig should be hers; but now she found they meant to serve her as they did last year, when they pretended to give her a lamb, and yet, as soon as it was fat, sold it to a butcher.\u00a0 For my own part, I may truly affirm, that I was less concerned than my nurse.\u00a0 I had a strong hope, which never left me, that I should one day recover my liberty: and as to the ignominy of being carried about for a monster, I considered myself to be a perfect stranger in the country, and that such a misfortune could never be charged upon me as a reproach, if ever I should return to England, since the king of Great Britain himself, in my condition, must have undergone the same distress.<\/p>\n My master, pursuant to the advice of his friend, carried me in a box the next market-day to the neighbouring town, and took along with him his little daughter, my nurse, upon a pillion behind him.\u00a0 The box was close on every side, with a little door for me to go in and out, and a few gimlet holes to let in air.\u00a0 The girl had been so careful as to put the quilt of her baby\u2019s bed into it, for me to lie down on.\u00a0 However, I was terribly shaken and discomposed in this journey, though it was but of half an hour: for the horse went about forty feet at every step and trotted so high, that the agitation was equal to the rising and falling of a ship in a great storm, but much more frequent.\u00a0 Our journey was somewhat farther than from London to St. Alban\u2019s.\u00a0 My master alighted at an inn which he used to frequent; and after consulting awhile with the inn-keeper, and making some necessary preparations, he hired the grultrud<\/i>, or crier, to give notice through the town of a strange creature to be seen at the sign of the Green Eagle, not so big as a splacnuck<\/i> (an animal in that country very finely shaped, about six feet long,) and in every part of the body resembling a human creature, could speak several words, and perform a hundred diverting tricks.<\/p>\n I was placed upon a table in the largest room of the inn, which might be near three hundred feet square.\u00a0 My little nurse stood on a low stool close to the table, to take care of me, and direct what I should do.\u00a0 My master, to avoid a crowd, would suffer only thirty people at a time to see me.\u00a0 I walked about on the table as the girl commanded; she asked me questions, as far as she knew my understanding of the language reached, and I answered them as loud as I could.\u00a0 I turned about several times to the company, paid my humble respects, said they were welcome<\/i>, and used some other speeches I had been taught.\u00a0 I took up a thimble filled with liquor, which Glumdalclitch had given me for a cup, and drank their health, I drew out my hanger, and flourished with it after the manner of fencers in England.\u00a0 My nurse gave me a part of a straw, which I exercised as a pike, having learnt the art in my youth.\u00a0 I was that day shown to twelve sets of company, and as often forced to act over again the same fopperies, till I was half dead with weariness and vexation; for those who had seen me made such wonderful reports, that the people were ready to break down the doors to come in.\u00a0 My master, for his own interest, would not suffer any one to touch me except my nurse; and to prevent danger, benches were set round the table at such a distance as to put me out of every body\u2019s reach.\u00a0 However, an unlucky school-boy aimed a hazel nut directly at my head, which very narrowly missed me; otherwise it came with so much violence, that it would have infallibly knocked out my brains, for it was almost as large as a small pumpkin, but I had the satisfaction to see the young rogue well beaten, and turned out of the room.<\/p>\n My master gave public notice that he would show me again the next market-day; and in the meantime he prepared a convenient vehicle for me, which he had reason enough to do; for I was so tired with my first journey, and with entertaining company for eight hours together, that I could hardly stand upon my legs, or speak a word.\u00a0 It was at least three days before I recovered my strength; and that I might have no rest at home, all the neighbouring gentlemen from a hundred miles round, hearing of my fame, came to see me at my master\u2019s own house.\u00a0 There could not be fewer than thirty persons with their wives and children (for the country is very populous;) and my master demanded the rate of a full room whenever he showed me at home, although it were only to a single family; so that for some time I had but little ease every day of the week (except Wednesday, which is their Sabbath,) although I were not carried to the town.<\/p>\n My master, finding how profitable I was likely to be, resolved to carry me to the most considerable cities of the kingdom.\u00a0 Having therefore provided himself with all things necessary for a long journey, and settled his affairs at home, he took leave of his wife, and upon the 17th of August, 1703, about two months after my arrival, we set out for the metropolis, situate near the middle of that empire, and about three thousand miles distance from our house.\u00a0 My master made his daughter Glumdalclitch ride behind him.\u00a0 She carried me on her lap, in a box tied about her waist.\u00a0 The girl had lined it on all sides with the softest cloth she could get, well quilted underneath, furnished it with her baby\u2019s bed, provided me with linen and other necessaries, and made everything as convenient as she could.\u00a0 We had no other company but a boy of the house, who rode after us with the luggage.<\/p>\n My master\u2019s design was to show me in all the towns by the way, and to step out of the road for fifty or a hundred miles, to any village, or person of quality\u2019s house, where he might expect custom.\u00a0 We made easy journeys, of not above seven or eight score miles a-day; for Glumdalclitch, on purpose to spare me, complained she was tired with the trotting of the horse.\u00a0 She often took me out of my box, at my own desire, to give me air, and show me the country, but always held me fast by a leading-string.\u00a0 We passed over five or six rivers, many degrees broader and deeper than the Nile or the Ganges: and there was hardly a rivulet so small as the Thames at London-bridge.\u00a0 We were ten weeks in our journey, and I was shown in eighteen large towns, besides many villages, and private families.<\/p>\n On the 26th day of October we arrived at the metropolis, called in their language Lorbrulgrud<\/i>, or Pride of the Universe.\u00a0 My master took a lodging in the principal street of the city, not far from the royal palace, and put out bills in the usual form, containing an exact description of my person and parts.\u00a0 He hired a large room between three and four hundred feet wide.\u00a0 He provided a table sixty feet in diameter, upon which I was to act my part, and pallisadoed it round three feet from the edge, and as many high, to prevent my falling over.\u00a0 I was shown ten times a-day, to the wonder and satisfaction of all people.\u00a0 I could now speak the language tolerably well, and perfectly understood every word, that was spoken to me.\u00a0 Besides, I had learnt their alphabet, and could make a shift to explain a sentence here and there; for Glumdalclitch had been my instructor while we were at home, and at leisure hours during our journey.\u00a0 She carried a little book in her pocket, not much larger than a Sanson\u2019s Atlas; it was a common treatise for the use of young girls, giving a short account of their religion: out of this she taught me my letters, and interpreted the words.<\/p>\n The author sent for to court.\u00a0 The queen buys him of his master the farmer, and presents him to the king.\u00a0 He disputes with his majesty\u2019s great scholars.\u00a0 An apartment at court provided for the author.\u00a0 He is in high favour with the queen.\u00a0 He stands up for the honour of his own country.\u00a0 His quarrels with the queen\u2019s dwarf.<\/p>\n The frequent labours I underwent every day, made, in a few weeks, a very considerable change in my health: the more my master got by me, the more insatiable he grew.\u00a0 I had quite lost my stomach, and was almost reduced to a skeleton.\u00a0 The farmer observed it, and concluding I must soon die, resolved to make as good a hand of me as he could.\u00a0 While he was thus reasoning and resolving with himself, a sardral<\/i>, or gentleman-usher, came from court, commanding my master to carry me immediately thither for the diversion of the queen and her ladies.\u00a0 Some of the latter had already been to see me, and reported strange things of my beauty, behaviour, and good sense.\u00a0 Her majesty, and those who attended her, were beyond measure delighted with my demeanour.\u00a0 I fell on my knees, and begged the honour of kissing her imperial foot; but this gracious princess held out her little finger towards me, after I was set on the table, which I embraced in both my arms, and put the tip of it with the utmost respect to my lip.\u00a0 She made me some general questions about my country and my travels, which I answered as distinctly, and in as few words as I could.\u00a0 She asked, \u201cwhether I could be content to live at court?\u201d\u00a0 I bowed down to the board of the table, and humbly answered \u201cthat I was my master\u2019s slave: but, if I were at my own disposal, I should be proud to devote my life to her majesty\u2019s service.\u201d\u00a0 She then asked my master, \u201cwhether he was willing to sell me at a good price?\u201d\u00a0 He, who apprehended I could not live a month, was ready enough to part with me, and demanded a thousand pieces of gold, which were ordered him on the spot, each piece being about the bigness of eight hundred moidores; but allowing for the proportion of all things between that country and Europe, and the high price of gold among them, was hardly so great a sum as a thousand guineas would be in England.\u00a0 I then said to the queen, \u201csince I was now her majesty\u2019s most humble creature and vassal, I must beg the favour, that Glumdalclitch, who had always tended me with so much care and kindness, and understood to do it so well, might be admitted into her service, and continue to be my nurse and instructor.\u201d<\/p>\n Her majesty agreed to my petition, and easily got the farmer\u2019s consent, who was glad enough to have his daughter preferred at court, and the poor girl herself was not able to hide her joy.\u00a0 My late master withdrew, bidding me farewell, and saying he had left me in a good service; to which I replied not a word, only making him a slight bow.<\/p>\n The queen observed my coldness; and, when the farmer was gone out of the apartment, asked me the reason.\u00a0 I made bold to tell her majesty, \u201cthat I owed no other obligation to my late master, than his not dashing out the brains of a poor harmless creature, found by chance in his fields: which obligation was amply recompensed, by the gain he had made in showing me through half the kingdom, and the price he had now sold me for.\u00a0 That the life I had since led was laborious enough to kill an animal of ten times my strength.\u00a0 That my health was much impaired, by the continual drudgery of entertaining the rabble every hour of the day; and that, if my master had not thought my life in danger, her majesty would not have got so cheap a bargain.\u00a0 But as I was out of all fear of being ill-treated under the protection of so great and good an empress, the ornament of nature, the darling of the world, the delight of her subjects, the phoenix of the creation, so I hoped my late master\u2019s apprehensions would appear to be groundless; for I already found my spirits revive, by the influence of her most august presence.\u201d<\/p>\n This was the sum of my speech, delivered with great improprieties and hesitation.\u00a0 The latter part was altogether framed in the style peculiar to that people, whereof I learned some phrases from Glumdalclitch, while she was carrying me to court.<\/p>\n The queen, giving great allowance for my defectiveness in speaking, was, however, surprised at so much wit and good sense in so diminutive an animal.\u00a0 She took me in her own hand, and carried me to the king, who was then retired to his cabinet.\u00a0 His majesty, a prince of much gravity and austere countenance, not well observing my shape at first view, asked the queen after a cold manner \u201chow long it was since she grew fond of a splacnuck<\/i>?\u201d for such it seems he took me to be, as I lay upon my breast in her majesty\u2019s right hand.\u00a0 But this princess, who has an infinite deal of wit and humour, set me gently on my feet upon the scrutoire, and commanded me to give his majesty an account of myself, which I did in a very few words: and Glumdalclitch who attended at the cabinet door, and could not endure I should be out of her sight, being admitted, confirmed all that had passed from my arrival at her father\u2019s house.<\/p>\n The king, although he be as learned a person as any in his dominions, had been educated in the study of philosophy, and particularly mathematics; yet when he observed my shape exactly, and saw me walk erect, before I began to speak, conceived I might be a piece of clock-work (which is in that country arrived to a very great perfection) contrived by some ingenious artist.\u00a0 But when he heard my voice, and found what I delivered to be regular and rational, he could not conceal his astonishment.\u00a0 He was by no means satisfied with the relation I gave him of the manner I came into his kingdom, but thought it a story concerted between Glumdalclitch and her father, who had taught me a set of words to make me sell at a better price.\u00a0 Upon this imagination, he put several other questions to me, and still received rational answers: no otherwise defective than by a foreign accent, and an imperfect knowledge in the language, with some rustic phrases which I had learned at the farmer\u2019s house, and did not suit the polite style of a court.<\/p>\n His majesty sent for three great scholars, who were then in their weekly waiting, according to the custom in that country.\u00a0 These gentlemen, after they had a while examined my shape with much nicety, were of different opinions concerning me.\u00a0 They all agreed that I could not be produced according to the regular laws of nature, because I was not framed with a capacity of preserving my life, either by swiftness, or climbing of trees, or digging holes in the earth.\u00a0 They observed by my teeth, which they viewed with great exactness, that I was a carnivorous animal; yet most quadrupeds being an overmatch for me, and field mice, with some others, too nimble, they could not imagine how I should be able to support myself, unless I fed upon snails and other insects, which they offered, by many learned arguments, to evince that I could not possibly do.\u00a0 One of these virtuosi seemed to think that I might be an embryo, or abortive birth.\u00a0 But this opinion was rejected by the other two, who observed my limbs to be perfect and finished; and that I had lived several years, as it was manifest from my beard, the stumps whereof they plainly discovered through a magnifying glass.\u00a0 They would not allow me to be a dwarf, because my littleness was beyond all degrees of comparison; for the queen\u2019s favourite dwarf, the smallest ever known in that kingdom, was near thirty feet high.\u00a0 After much debate, they concluded unanimously, that I was only relplum scalcath<\/i>, which is interpreted literally lusus natur\u00e6<\/i>; a determination exactly agreeable to the modern philosophy of Europe, whose professors, disdaining the old evasion of occult causes, whereby the followers of Aristotle endeavoured in vain to disguise their ignorance, have invented this wonderful solution of all difficulties, to the unspeakable advancement of human knowledge.<\/p>\n After this decisive conclusion, I entreated to be heard a word or two.\u00a0 I applied myself to the king, and assured his majesty, \u201cthat I came from a country which abounded with several millions of both sexes, and of my own stature; where the animals, trees, and houses, were all in proportion, and where, by consequence, I might be as able to defend myself, and to find sustenance, as any of his majesty\u2019s subjects could do here; which I took for a full answer to those gentlemen\u2019s arguments.\u201d\u00a0 To this they only replied with a smile of contempt, saying, \u201cthat the farmer had instructed me very well in my lesson.\u201d\u00a0 The king, who had a much better understanding, dismissing his learned men, sent for the farmer, who by good fortune was not yet gone out of town.\u00a0 Having therefore first examined him privately, and then confronted him with me and the young girl, his majesty began to think that what we told him might possibly be true. He desired the queen to order that a particular care should be taken of me; and was of opinion that Glumdalclitch should still continue in her office of tending me, because he observed we had a great affection for each other.\u00a0 A convenient apartment was provided for her at court: she had a sort of governess appointed to take care of her education, a maid to dress her, and two other servants for menial offices; but the care of me was wholly appropriated to herself.\u00a0 The queen commanded her own cabinet-maker to contrive a box, that might serve me for a bedchamber, after the model that Glumdalclitch and I should agree upon.\u00a0 This man was a most ingenious artist, and according to my direction, in three weeks finished for me a wooden chamber of sixteen feet square, and twelve high, with sash-windows, a door, and two closets, like a London bed-chamber.\u00a0 The board, that made the ceiling, was to be lifted up and down by two hinges, to put in a bed ready furnished by her majesty\u2019s upholsterer, which Glumdalclitch took out every day to air, made it with her own hands, and letting it down at night, locked up the roof over me.\u00a0 A nice workman, who was famous for little curiosities, undertook to make me two chairs, with backs and frames, of a substance not unlike ivory, and two tables, with a cabinet to put my things in.\u00a0 The room was quilted on all sides, as well as the floor and the ceiling, to prevent any accident from the carelessness of those who carried me, and to break the force of a jolt, when I went in a coach.\u00a0 I desired a lock for my door, to prevent rats and mice from coming in.\u00a0 The smith, after several attempts, made the smallest that ever was seen among them, for I have known a larger at the gate of a gentleman\u2019s house in England.\u00a0 I made a shift to keep the key in a pocket of my own, fearing Glumdalclitch might lose it.\u00a0 The queen likewise ordered the thinnest silks that could be gotten, to make me clothes, not much thicker than an English blanket, very cumbersome till I was accustomed to them.\u00a0 They were after the fashion of the kingdom, partly resembling the Persian, and partly the Chinese, and are a very grave and decent habit.<\/p>\n The queen became so fond of my company, that she could not dine without me.\u00a0 I had a table placed upon the same at which her majesty ate, just at her left elbow, and a chair to sit on.\u00a0 Glumdalclitch stood on a stool on the floor near my table, to assist and take care of me.\u00a0 I had an entire set of silver dishes and plates, and other necessaries, which, in proportion to those of the queen, were not much bigger than what I have seen in a London toy-shop for the furniture of a baby-house: these my little nurse kept in her pocket in a silver box, and gave me at meals as I wanted them, always cleaning them herself.\u00a0 No person dined with the queen but the two princesses royal, the eldest sixteen years old, and the younger at that time thirteen and a month.\u00a0 Her majesty used to put a bit of meat upon one of my dishes, out of which I carved for myself, and her diversion was to see me eat in miniature: for the queen (who had indeed but a weak stomach) took up, at one mouthful, as much as a dozen English farmers could eat at a meal, which to me was for some time a very nauseous sight.\u00a0 She would craunch the wing of a lark, bones and all, between her teeth, although it were nine times as large as that of a full-grown turkey; and put a bit of bread into her mouth as big as two twelve-penny loaves.\u00a0 She drank out of a golden cup, above a hogshead at a draught.\u00a0 Her knives were twice as long as a scythe, set straight upon the handle.\u00a0 The spoons, forks, and other instruments, were all in the same proportion.\u00a0 I remember when Glumdalclitch carried me, out of curiosity, to see some of the tables at court, where ten or a dozen of those enormous knives and forks were lifted up together, I thought I had never till then beheld so terrible a sight.<\/p>\n It is the custom, that every Wednesday (which, as I have observed, is their Sabbath) the king and queen, with the royal issue of both sexes, dine together in the apartment of his majesty, to whom I was now become a great favourite; and at these times, my little chair and table were placed at his left hand, before one of the salt-cellars.\u00a0 This prince took a pleasure in conversing with me, inquiring into the manners, religion, laws, government, and learning of Europe; wherein I gave him the best account I was able.\u00a0 His apprehension was so clear, and his judgment so exact, that he made very wise reflections and observations upon all I said.\u00a0 But I confess, that, after I had been a little too copious in talking of my own beloved country, of our trade and wars by sea and land, of our schisms in religion, and parties in the state; the prejudices of his education prevailed so far, that he could not forbear taking me up in his right hand, and stroking me gently with the other, after a hearty fit of laughing, asked me, \u201cwhether I was a whig or tory?\u201d\u00a0 Then turning to his first minister, who waited behind him with a white staff, near as tall as the mainmast of the Royal Sovereign, he observed \u201chow contemptible a thing was human grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive insects as I: and yet,\u201d says he, \u201cI dare engage these creatures have their titles and distinctions of honour; they contrive little nests and burrows, that they call houses and cities; they make a figure in dress and equipage; they love, they fight, they dispute, they cheat, they betray!\u201d\u00a0 And thus he continued on, while my colour came and went several times, with indignation, to hear our noble country, the mistress of arts and arms, the scourge of France, the arbitress of Europe, the seat of virtue, piety, honour, and truth, the pride and envy of the world, so contemptuously treated.<\/p>\n But as I was not in a condition to resent injuries, so upon mature thoughts I began to doubt whether I was injured or no.\u00a0 For, after having been accustomed several months to the sight and converse of this people, and observed every object upon which I cast mine eyes to be of proportionable magnitude, the horror I had at first conceived from their bulk and aspect was so far worn off, that if I had then beheld a company of English lords and ladies in their finery and birth-day clothes, acting their several parts in the most courtly manner of strutting, and bowing, and prating, to say the truth, I should have been strongly tempted to laugh as much at them as the king and his grandees did at me.\u00a0 Neither, indeed, could I forbear smiling at myself, when the queen used to place me upon her hand towards a looking-glass, by which both our persons appeared before me in full view together; and there could be nothing more ridiculous than the comparison; so that I really began to imagine myself dwindled many degrees below my usual size.<\/p>\n Nothing angered and mortified me so much as the queen\u2019s dwarf; who being of the lowest stature that was ever in that country (for I verily think he was not full thirty feet high), became so insolent at seeing a creature so much beneath him, that he would always affect to swagger and look big as he passed by me in the queen\u2019s antechamber, while I was standing on some table talking with the lords or ladies of the court, and he seldom failed of a smart word or two upon my littleness; against which I could only revenge myself by calling him brother, challenging him to wrestle, and such repartees as are usually in the mouths of court pages.\u00a0 One day, at dinner, this malicious little cub was so nettled with something I had said to him, that, raising himself upon the frame of her majesty\u2019s chair, he took me up by the middle, as I was sitting down, not thinking any harm, and let me drop into a large silver bowl of cream, and then ran away as fast as he could.\u00a0 I fell over head and ears, and, if I had not been a good swimmer, it might have gone very hard with me; for Glumdalclitch in that instant happened to be at the other end of the room, and the queen was in such a fright, that she wanted presence of mind to assist me.\u00a0 But my little nurse ran to my relief, and took me out, after I had swallowed above a quart of cream.\u00a0 I was put to bed: however, I received no other damage than the loss of a suit of clothes, which was utterly spoiled.\u00a0 The dwarf was soundly whipt, and as a farther punishment, forced to drink up the bowl of cream into which he had thrown me: neither was he ever restored to favour; for soon after the queen bestowed him on a lady of high quality, so that I saw him no more, to my very great satisfaction; for I could not tell to what extremities such a malicious urchin might have carried his resentment.<\/p>\n He had before served me a scurvy trick, which set the queen a-laughing, although at the same time she was heartily vexed, and would have immediately cashiered him, if I had not been so generous as to intercede.\u00a0 Her majesty had taken a marrow-bone upon her plate, and, after knocking out the marrow, placed the bone again in the dish erect, as it stood before; the dwarf, watching his opportunity, while Glumdalclitch was gone to the side-board, mounted the stool that she stood on to take care of me at meals, took me up in both hands, and squeezing my legs together, wedged them into the marrow bone above my waist, where I stuck for some time, and made a very ridiculous figure.\u00a0 I believe it was near a minute before any one knew what was become of me; for I thought it below me to cry out.\u00a0 But, as princes seldom get their meat hot, my legs were not scalded, only my stockings and breeches in a sad condition.\u00a0 The dwarf, at my entreaty, had no other punishment than a sound whipping.<\/p>\n I was frequently rallied by the queen upon account of my fearfulness; and she used to ask me whether the people of my country were as great cowards as myself?\u00a0 The occasion was this: the kingdom is much pestered with flies in summer; and these odious insects, each of them as big as a Dunstable lark, hardly gave me any rest while I sat at dinner, with their continual humming and buzzing about mine ears.\u00a0 They would sometimes alight upon my victuals, and leave their loathsome excrement, or spawn behind, which to me was very visible, though not to the natives of that country, whose large optics were not so acute as mine, in viewing smaller objects.\u00a0 Sometimes they would fix upon my nose, or forehead, where they stung me to the quick, smelling very offensively; and I could easily trace that viscous matter, which, our naturalists tell us, enables those creatures to walk with their feet upwards upon a ceiling.\u00a0 I had much ado to defend myself against these detestable animals, and could not forbear starting when they came on my face.\u00a0 It was the common practice of the dwarf, to catch a number of these insects in his hand, as schoolboys do among us, and let them out suddenly under my nose, on purpose to frighten me, and divert the queen.\u00a0 My remedy was to cut them in pieces with my knife, as they flew in the air, wherein my dexterity was much admired.<\/p>\n I remember, one morning, when Glumdalclitch had set me in a box upon a window, as she usually did in fair days to give me air (for I durst not venture to let the box be hung on a nail out of the window, as we do with cages in England), after I had lifted up one of my sashes, and sat down at my table to eat a piece of sweet cake for my breakfast, above twenty wasps, allured by the smell, came flying into the room, humming louder than the drones of as many bagpipes.\u00a0 Some of them seized my cake, and carried it piecemeal away; others flew about my head and face, confounding me with the noise, and putting me in the utmost terror of their stings.\u00a0 However, I had the courage to rise and draw my hanger, and attack them in the air.\u00a0 I dispatched four of them, but the rest got away, and I presently shut my window.\u00a0 These insects were as large as partridges: I took out their stings, found them an inch and a half long, and as sharp as needles.\u00a0 I carefully preserved them all; and having since shown them, with some other curiosities, in several parts of Europe, upon my return to England I gave three of them to Gresham College, and kept the fourth for myself.<\/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<\/pre>","rendered":"
PART II.\u00a0 A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG.<\/h2>\n
CHAPTER I.<\/h3>\n
CHAPTER II.<\/h3>\n
CHAPTER III.<\/h3>\n
<\/pre>\n\n\t\t\t
Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t