<h2>PART II. A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG.</h2>
<p> </p>
<h3>II - CHAPTER I.</h3>
<p class="gutsumm">A great storm described; the long boat sent to
fetch water; the author goes with it to discover the
country. He is left on shore, is seized by one of the
natives, and carried to a farmer’s house. His
reception, with several accidents that happened there. A
description of the inhabitants.</p>
<p>Having been condemned, by nature and fortune, to active and
restless life, in two months after my return, I again left my
native country, and took shipping in the Downs, on the 20th day
of June, 1702, in the Adventure, Captain John Nicholas, a Cornish
man, commander, bound for Surat. We had a very prosperous
gale, till we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, where we landed
for fresh water; but discovering a leak, we unshipped our goods
and wintered there; for the captain falling sick of an ague, we
could not leave the Cape till the end of March. We then set
sail, and had a good voyage till we passed the Straits of
Madagascar; but having got northward of that island, and to about
five degrees south latitude, the winds, which in those seas are
observed to blow a constant equal gale between the north and
west, from the beginning of December to the beginning of May, on
the 19th of April began to blow with much greater violence, and
more westerly than usual, continuing so for twenty days together:
during which time, we were driven a little to the east of the
Molucca Islands, and about three degrees northward of the line,
as our captain found by an observation he took the 2nd of May, at
which time the wind ceased, and it was a perfect calm, whereat I
was not a little rejoiced. But he, being a man well
experienced in the navigation of those seas, bid us all prepare
against a storm, which accordingly happened the day following:
for the southern wind, called the southern monsoon, began to set
in.</p>
<p>Finding it was likely to overblow, we took in our sprit-sail,
and stood by to hand the fore-sail; but making foul weather, we
looked the guns were all fast, and handed the mizen. The
ship lay very broad off, so we thought it better spooning before
the sea, than trying or hulling. We reefed the fore-sail
and set him, and hauled aft the fore-sheet; the helm was hard
a-weather. The ship wore bravely. We belayed the fore
down-haul; but the sail was split, and we hauled down the yard,
and got the sail into the ship, and unbound all the things clear
of it. It was a very fierce storm; the sea broke strange
and dangerous. We hauled off upon the laniard of the
whip-staff, and helped the man at the helm. We would not
get down our topmast, but let all stand, because she scudded
before the sea very well, and we knew that the top-mast being
aloft, the ship was the wholesomer, and made better way through
the sea, seeing we had sea-room. When the storm was over,
we set fore-sail and main-sail, and brought the ship to.
Then we set the mizen, main-top-sail, and the
fore-top-sail. Our course was east-north-east, the wind was
at south-west. We got the starboard tacks aboard, we cast
off our weather-braces and lifts; we set in the lee-braces, and
hauled forward by the weather-bowlings, and hauled them tight,
and belayed them, and hauled over the mizen tack to windward, and
kept her full and by as near as she would lie.</p>
<p>During this storm, which was followed by a strong wind
west-south-west, we were carried, by my computation, about five
hundred leagues to the east, so that the oldest sailor on board
could not tell in what part of the world we were. Our
provisions held out well, our ship was staunch, and our crew all
in good health; but we lay in the utmost distress for
water. We thought it best to hold on the same course,
rather than turn more northerly, which might have brought us to
the north-west part of Great Tartary, and into the Frozen
Sea.</p>
<p>On the 16th day of June, 1703, a boy on the top-mast
discovered land. On the 17th, we came in full view of a
great island, or continent (for we knew not whether;) on the
south side whereof was a small neck of land jutting out into the
sea, and a creek too shallow to hold a ship of above one hundred
tons. We cast anchor within a league of this creek, and our
captain sent a dozen of his men well armed in the long-boat, with
vessels for water, if any could be found. I desired his
leave to go with them, that I might see the country, and make
what discoveries I could. When we came to land we saw no
river or spring, nor any sign of inhabitants. Our men
therefore wandered on the shore to find out some fresh water near
the sea, and I walked alone about a mile on the other side, where
I observed the country all barren and rocky. I now began to
be weary, and seeing nothing to entertain my curiosity, I
returned gently down towards the creek; and the sea being full in
my view, I saw our men already got into the boat, and rowing for
life to the ship. I was going to holla after them, although
it had been to little purpose, when I observed a huge creature
walking after them in the sea, as fast as he could: he waded not
much deeper than his knees, and took prodigious strides: but our
men had the start of him half a league, and, the sea thereabouts
being full of sharp-pointed rocks, the monster was not able to
overtake the boat. This I was afterwards told, for I durst
not stay to see the issue of the adventure; but ran as fast as I
could the way I first went, and then climbed up a steep hill,
which gave me some prospect of the country. I found it
fully cultivated; but that which first surprised me was the
length of the grass, which, in those grounds that seemed to be
kept for hay, was about twenty feet high.</p>
<p>I fell into a high road, for so I took it to be, though it
served to the inhabitants only as a foot-path through a field of
barley. Here I walked on for some time, but could see
little on either side, it being now near harvest, and the corn
rising at least forty feet. I was an hour walking to the
end of this field, which was fenced in with a hedge of at least
one hundred and twenty feet high, and the trees so lofty that I
could make no computation of their altitude. There was a
stile to pass from this field into the next. It had four
steps, and a stone to cross over when you came to the
uppermost. It was impossible for me to climb this stile,
because every step was six-feet high, and the upper stone about
twenty. I was endeavouring to find some gap in the hedge,
when I discovered one of the inhabitants in the next field,
advancing towards the stile, of the same size with him whom I saw
in the sea pursuing our boat. He appeared as tall as an
ordinary spire steeple, and took about ten yards at every stride,
as near as I could guess. I was struck with the utmost fear
and astonishment, and ran to hide myself in the corn, whence I
saw him at the top of the stile looking back into the next field
on the right hand, and heard him call in a voice many degrees
louder than a speaking-trumpet: but the noise was so high in the
air, that at first I certainly thought it was thunder.
Whereupon seven monsters, like himself, came towards him with
reaping-hooks in their hands, each hook about the largeness of
six scythes. These people were not so well clad as the
first, whose servants or labourers they seemed to be; for, upon
some words he spoke, they went to reap the corn in the field
where I lay. I kept from them at as great a distance as I
could, but was forced to move with extreme difficulty, for the
stalks of the corn were sometimes not above a foot distant, so
that I could hardly squeeze my body betwixt them. However,
I made a shift to go forward, till I came to a part of the field
where the corn had been laid by the rain and wind. Here it
was impossible for me to advance a step; for the stalks were so
interwoven, that I could not creep through, and the beards of the
fallen ears so strong and pointed, that they pierced through my
clothes into my flesh. At the same time I heard the reapers
not a hundred yards behind me. Being quite dispirited with
toil, and wholly overcome by grief and dispair, I lay down
between two ridges, and heartily wished I might there end my
days. I bemoaned my desolate widow and fatherless
children. I lamented my own folly and wilfulness, in
attempting a second voyage, against the advice of all my friends
and relations. In this terrible agitation of mind, I could
not forbear thinking of Lilliput, whose inhabitants looked upon
me as the greatest prodigy that ever appeared in the world; where
I was able to draw an imperial fleet in my hand, and perform
those other actions, which will be recorded for ever in the
chronicles of that empire, while posterity shall hardly believe
them, although attested by millions. I reflected what a
mortification it must prove to me, to appear as inconsiderable in
this nation, as one single Lilliputian would be among us.
But this I conceived was to be the least of my misfortunes; for,
as human creatures are observed to be more savage and cruel in
proportion to their bulk, what could I expect but to be a morsel
in the mouth of the first among these enormous barbarians that
should happen to seize me? Undoubtedly philosophers are in
the right, when they tell us that nothing is great or little
otherwise than by comparison. It might have pleased
fortune, to have let the Lilliputians find some nation, where the
people were as diminutive with respect to them, as they were to
me. And who knows but that even this prodigious race of
mortals might be equally overmatched in some distant part of the
world, whereof we have yet no discovery.</p>
<p>Scared and confounded as I was, I could not forbear going on
with these reflections, when one of the reapers, approaching
within ten yards of the ridge where I lay, made me apprehend that
with the next step I should be squashed to death under his foot,
or cut in two with his reaping-hook. And therefore, when he
was again about to move, I screamed as loud as fear could make
me: whereupon the huge creature trod short, and, looking round
about under him for some time, at last espied me as I lay on the
ground. He considered awhile, with the caution of one who
endeavours to lay hold on a small dangerous animal in such a
manner that it shall not be able either to scratch or bite him,
as I myself have sometimes done with a weasel in England.
At length he ventured to take me behind, by the middle, between
his fore-finger and thumb, and brought me within three yards of
his eyes, that he might behold my shape more perfectly. I
guessed his meaning, and my good fortune gave me so much presence
of mind, that I resolved not to struggle in the least as he held
me in the air above sixty feet from the ground, although he
grievously pinched my sides, for fear I should slip through his
fingers. All I ventured was to raise mine eyes towards the
sun, and place my hands together in a supplicating posture, and
to speak some words in a humble melancholy tone, suitable to the
condition I then was in: for I apprehended every moment that he
would dash me against the ground, as we usually do any little
hateful animal, which we have a mind to destroy. But my
good star would have it, that he appeared pleased with my voice
and gestures, and began to look upon me as a curiosity, much
wondering to hear me pronounce articulate words, although he
could not understand them. In the mean time I was not able
to forbear groaning and shedding tears, and turning my head
towards my sides; letting him know, as well as I could, how
cruelly I was hurt by the pressure of his thumb and finger.
He seemed to apprehend my meaning; for, lifting up the lappet of
his coat, he put me gently into it, and immediately ran along
with me to his master, who was a substantial farmer, and the same
person I had first seen in the field.</p>
<p>The farmer having (as I suppose by their talk) received such
an account of me as his servant could give him, took a piece of a
small straw, about the size of a walking-staff, and therewith
lifted up the lappets of my coat; which it seems he thought to be
some kind of covering that nature had given me. He blew my
hairs aside to take a better view of my face. He called his
hinds about him, and asked them, as I afterwards learned, whether
they had ever seen in the fields any little creature that
resembled me. He then placed me softly on the ground upon
all fours, but I got immediately up, and walked slowly backward
and forward, to let those people see I had no intent to run
away. They all sat down in a circle about me, the better to
observe my motions. I pulled off my hat, and made a low bow
towards the farmer. I fell on my knees, and lifted up my
hands and eyes, and spoke several words as loud as I could: I
took a purse of gold out of my pocket, and humbly presented it to
him. He received it on the palm of his hand, then applied
it close to his eye to see what it was, and afterwards turned it
several times with the point of a pin (which he took out of his
sleeve,) but could make nothing of it. Whereupon I made a
sign that he should place his hand on the ground. I then
took the purse, and, opening it, poured all the gold into his
palm. There were six Spanish pieces of four pistoles each,
beside twenty or thirty smaller coins. I saw him wet the
tip of his little finger upon his tongue, and take up one of my
largest pieces, and then another; but he seemed to be wholly
ignorant what they were. He made me a sign to put them
again into my purse, and the purse again into my pocket, which,
after offering it to him several times, I thought it best to
do.</p>
<p>The farmer, by this time, was convinced I must be a rational
creature. He spoke often to me; but the sound of his voice
pierced my ears like that of a water-mill, yet his words were
articulate enough. I answered as loud as I could in several
languages, and he often laid his ear within two yards of me: but
all in vain, for we were wholly unintelligible to each
other. He then sent his servants to their work, and taking
his handkerchief out of his pocket, he doubled and spread it on
his left hand, which he placed flat on the ground with the palm
upward, making me a sign to step into it, as I could easily do,
for it was not above a foot in thickness. I thought it my
part to obey, and, for fear of falling, laid myself at full
length upon the handkerchief, with the remainder of which he
lapped me up to the head for further security, and in this manner
carried me home to his house. There he called his wife, and
showed me to her; but she screamed and ran back, as women in
England do at the sight of a toad or a spider. However,
when she had a while seen my behaviour, and how well I observed
the signs her husband made, she was soon reconciled, and by
degrees grew extremely tender of me.</p>
<p>It was about twelve at noon, and a servant brought in
dinner. It was only one substantial dish of meat (fit for
the plain condition of a husbandman,) in a dish of about
four-and-twenty feet diameter. The company were, the farmer
and his wife, three children, and an old grandmother. When
they were sat down, the farmer placed me at some distance from
him on the table, which was thirty feet high from the
floor. I was in a terrible fright, and kept as far as I
could from the edge, for fear of falling. The wife minced a
bit of meat, then crumbled some bread on a trencher, and placed
it before me. I made her a low bow, took out my knife and
fork, and fell to eat, which gave them exceeding delight.
The mistress sent her maid for a small dram cup, which held about
two gallons, and filled it with drink; I took up the vessel with
much difficulty in both hands, and in a most respectful manner
drank to her ladyship’s health, expressing the words as
loud as I could in English, which made the company laugh so
heartily, that I was almost deafened with the noise. This
liquor tasted like a small cider, and was not unpleasant.
Then the master made me a sign to come to his trencher side; but
as I walked on the table, being in great surprise all the time,
as the indulgent reader will easily conceive and excuse, I
happened to stumble against a crust, and fell flat on my face,
but received no hurt. I got up immediately, and observing
the good people to be in much concern, I took my hat (which I
held under my arm out of good manners,) and waving it over my
head, made three huzzas, to show I had got no mischief by my
fall. But advancing forward towards my master (as I shall
henceforth call him,) his youngest son, who sat next to him, an
arch boy of about ten years old, took me up by the legs, and held
me so high in the air, that I trembled every limb: but his father
snatched me from him, and at the same time gave him such a box on
the left ear, as would have felled an European troop of horse to
the earth, ordering him to be taken from the table. But
being afraid the boy might owe me a spite, and well remembering
how mischievous all children among us naturally are to sparrows,
rabbits, young kittens, and puppy dogs, I fell on my knees, and
pointing to the boy, made my master to understand, as well as I
could, that I desired his son might be pardoned. The father
complied, and the lad took his seat again, whereupon I went to
him, and kissed his hand, which my master took, and made him
stroke me gently with it.</p>
<p>In the midst of dinner, my mistress’s favourite cat
leaped into her lap. I heard a noise behind me like that of
a dozen stocking-weavers at work; and turning my head, I found it
proceeded from the purring of that animal, who seemed to be three
times larger than an ox, as I computed by the view of her head,
and one of her paws, while her mistress was feeding and stroking
her. The fierceness of this creature’s countenance
altogether discomposed me; though I stood at the farther end of
the table, above fifty feet off; and although my mistress held
her fast, for fear she might give a spring, and seize me in her
talons. But it happened there was no danger, for the cat
took not the least notice of me when my master placed me within
three yards of her. And as I have been always told, and
found true by experience in my travels, that flying or
discovering fear before a fierce animal, is a certain way to make
it pursue or attack you, so I resolved, in this dangerous
juncture, to show no manner of concern. I walked with
intrepidity five or six times before the very head of the cat,
and came within half a yard of her; whereupon she drew herself
back, as if she were more afraid of me: I had less apprehension
concerning the dogs, whereof three or four came into the room, as
it is usual in farmers’ houses; one of which was a mastiff,
equal in bulk to four elephants, and another a greyhound,
somewhat taller than the mastiff, but not so large.</p>
<p>When dinner was almost done, the nurse came in with a child of
a year old in her arms, who immediately spied me, and began a
squall that you might have heard from London-Bridge to Chelsea,
after the usual oratory of infants, to get me for a
plaything. The mother, out of pure indulgence, took me up,
and put me towards the child, who presently seized me by the
middle, and got my head into his mouth, where I roared so loud
that the urchin was frighted, and let me drop, and I should
infallibly have broke my neck, if the mother had not held her
apron under me. The nurse, to quiet her babe, made use of a
rattle which was a kind of hollow vessel filled with great
stones, and fastened by a cable to the child’s waist: but
all in vain; so that she was forced to apply the last remedy by
giving it suck. I must confess no object ever disgusted me
so much as the sight of her monstrous breast, which I cannot tell
what to compare with, so as to give the curious reader an idea of
its bulk, shape, and colour. It stood prominent six feet,
and could not be less than sixteen in circumference. The
nipple was about half the bigness of my head, and the hue both of
that and the dug, so varied with spots, pimples, and freckles,
that nothing could appear more nauseous: for I had a near sight
of her, she sitting down, the more conveniently to give suck, and
I standing on the table. This made me reflect upon the fair
skins of our English ladies, who appear so beautiful to us, only
because they are of our own size, and their defects not to be
seen but through a magnifying glass; where we find by experiment
that the smoothest and whitest skins look rough, and coarse, and
ill-coloured.</p>
<p>I remember when I was at Lilliput, the complexion of those
diminutive people appeared to me the fairest in the world; and
talking upon this subject with a person of learning there, who
was an intimate friend of mine, he said that my face appeared
much fairer and smoother when he looked on me from the ground,
than it did upon a nearer view, when I took him up in my hand,
and brought him close, which he confessed was at first a very
shocking sight. He said, “he could discover great
holes in my skin; that the stumps of my beard were ten times
stronger than the bristles of a boar, and my complexion made up
of several colours altogether disagreeable:” although I
must beg leave to say for myself, that I am as fair as most of my
sex and country, and very little sunburnt by all my
travels. On the other side, discoursing of the ladies in
that emperor’s court, he used to tell me, “one had
freckles; another too wide a mouth; a third too large a
nose;” nothing of which I was able to distinguish. I
confess this reflection was obvious enough; which, however, I
could not forbear, lest the reader might think those vast
creatures were actually deformed: for I must do them the justice
to say, they are a comely race of people, and particularly the
features of my master’s countenance, although he was but a
farmer, when I beheld him from the height of sixty feet, appeared
very well proportioned.</p>
<p>When dinner was done, my master went out to his labourers,
and, as I could discover by his voice and gesture, gave his wife
strict charge to take care of me. I was very much tired,
and disposed to sleep, which my mistress perceiving, she put me
on her own bed, and covered me with a clean white handkerchief,
but larger and coarser than the mainsail of a man-of-war.</p>
<p>I slept about two hours, and dreamt I was at home with my wife
and children, which aggravated my sorrows when I awaked, and
found myself alone in a vast room, between two and three hundred
feet wide, and above two hundred high, lying in a bed twenty
yards wide. My mistress was gone about her household
affairs, and had locked me in. The bed was eight yards from
the floor. Some natural necessities required me to get
down; I durst not presume to call; and if I had, it would have
been in vain, with such a voice as mine, at so great a distance
from the room where I lay to the kitchen where the family
kept. While I was under these circumstances, two rats crept
up the curtains, and ran smelling backwards and forwards on the
bed. One of them came up almost to my face, whereupon I
rose in a fright, and drew out my hanger to defend myself.
These horrible animals had the boldness to attack me on both
sides, and one of them held his fore-feet at my collar; but I had
the good fortune to rip up his belly before he could do me any
mischief. He fell down at my feet; and the other, seeing
the fate of his comrade, made his escape, but not without one
good wound on the back, which I gave him as he fled, and made the
blood run trickling from him. After this exploit, I walked
gently to and fro on the bed, to recover my breath and loss of
spirits. These creatures were of the size of a large
mastiff, but infinitely more nimble and fierce; so that if I had
taken off my belt before I went to sleep, I must have infallibly
been torn to pieces and devoured. I measured the tail of
the dead rat, and found it to be two yards long, wanting an inch;
but it went against my stomach to drag the carcass off the bed,
where it lay still bleeding; I observed it had yet some life, but
with a strong slash across the neck, I thoroughly despatched
it.</p>
<p>Soon after my mistress came into the room, who seeing me all
bloody, ran and took me up in her hand. I pointed to the
dead rat, smiling, and making other signs to show I was not hurt;
whereat she was extremely rejoiced, calling the maid to take up
the dead rat with a pair of tongs, and throw it out of the
window. Then she set me on a table, where I showed her my
hanger all bloody, and wiping it on the lappet of my coat,
returned it to the scabbard. I was pressed to do more than
one thing which another could not do for me, and therefore
endeavoured to make my mistress understand, that I desired to be
set down on the floor; which after she had done, my bashfulness
would not suffer me to express myself farther, than by pointing
to the door, and bowing several times. The good woman, with
much difficulty, at last perceived what I would be at, and taking
me up again in her hand, walked into the garden, where she set me
down. I went on one side about two hundred yards, and
beckoning to her not to look or to follow me, I hid myself
between two leaves of sorrel, and there discharged the
necessities of nature.</p>
<p>I hope the gentle reader will excuse me for dwelling on these
and the like particulars, which, however insignificant they may
appear to groveling vulgar minds, yet will certainly help a
philosopher to enlarge his thoughts and imagination, and apply
them to the benefit of public as well as private life, which was
my sole design in presenting this and other accounts of my
travels to the world; wherein I have been chiefly studious of
truth, without affecting any ornaments of learning or of
style. But the whole scene of this voyage made so strong an
impression on my mind, and is so deeply fixed in my memory, that,
in committing it to paper I did not omit one material
circumstance: however, upon a strict review, I blotted out
several passages. Of less moment which were in my first
copy, for fear of being censured as tedious and trifling, whereof
travellers are often, perhaps not without justice, accused.</p>
<h3>II - CHAPTER II.</h3>
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