Gulliver's Travels

he author’s veracity. His design in publishing this work. His censure
of those travellers who swerve from the truth. The author clears
himself from any sinister ends in writing. An objection answered. The
method of planting colonies. His native country commended. The right of
the crown to those countries described by the author is justified. The
difficulty of conquering them. The author takes his last leave of the
reader; proposes his manner of living for the future; gives good
advice, and concludes.

Thus, gentle reader, I have given thee a faithful history of my travels
for sixteen years and above seven months: wherein I have not been so
studious of ornament as of truth. I could, perhaps, like others, have
astonished thee with strange improbable tales; but I rather chose to
relate plain matter of fact, in the simplest manner and style; because
my principal design was to inform, and not to amuse thee.

It is easy for us who travel into remote countries, which are seldom
visited by Englishmen or other Europeans, to form descriptions of
wonderful animals both at sea and land. Whereas a traveller’s chief aim
should be to make men wiser and better, and to improve their minds by
the bad, as well as good, example of what they deliver concerning
foreign places.

I could heartily wish a law was enacted, that every traveller, before
he were permitted to publish his voyages, should be obliged to make
oath before the Lord High Chancellor, that all he intended to print was
absolutely true to the best of his knowledge; for then the world would
no longer be deceived, as it usually is, while some writers, to make
their works pass the better upon the public, impose the grossest
falsities on the unwary reader. I have perused several books of travels
with great delight in my younger days; but having since gone over most
parts of the globe, and been able to contradict many fabulous accounts
from my own observation, it has given me a great disgust against this
part of reading, and some indignation to see the credulity of mankind
so impudently abused. Therefore, since my acquaintance were pleased to
think my poor endeavours might not be unacceptable to my country, I
imposed on myself, as a maxim never to be swerved from, that I would
strictly adhere to truth; neither indeed can I be ever under the least
temptation to vary from it, while I retain in my mind the lectures and
example of my noble master and the other illustrious Houyhnhnms of
whom I had so long the honour to be an humble hearer.

—Nec si miserum Fortuna Sinonem

Finxit, vanum etiam, mendacemque improba finget.

I know very well, how little reputation is to be got by writings which
require neither genius nor learning, nor indeed any other talent,
except a good memory, or an exact journal. I know likewise, that
writers of travels, like dictionary-makers, are sunk into oblivion by
the weight and bulk of those who come last, and therefore lie
uppermost. And it is highly probable, that such travellers, who shall
hereafter visit the countries described in this work of mine, may, by
detecting my errors (if there be any), and adding many new discoveries
of their own, jostle me out of vogue, and stand in my place, making the
world forget that ever I was an author. This indeed would be too great
a mortification, if I wrote for fame: but as my sole intention was the
public good, I cannot be altogether disappointed. For who can read of
the virtues I have mentioned in the glorious Houyhnhnms, without
being ashamed of his own vices, when he considers himself as the
reasoning, governing animal of his country? I shall say nothing of
those remote nations where Yahoos preside; among which the least
corrupted are the Brobdingnagians; whose wise maxims in morality and
government it would be our happiness to observe. But I forbear
descanting further, and rather leave the judicious reader to his own
remarks and application.

I am not a little pleased that this work of mine can possibly meet with
no censurers: for what objections can be made against a writer, who
relates only plain facts, that happened in such distant countries,
where we have not the least interest, with respect either to trade or
negotiations? I have carefully avoided every fault with which common
writers of travels are often too justly charged. Besides, I meddle not
the least with any party, but write without passion, prejudice, or
ill-will against any man, or number of men, whatsoever. I write for the
noblest end, to inform and instruct mankind; over whom I may, without
breach of modesty, pretend to some superiority, from the advantages I
received by conversing so long among the most accomplished
Houyhnhnms. I write without any view to profit or praise. I never
suffer a word to pass that may look like reflection, or possibly give
the least offence, even to those who are most ready to take it. So that
I hope I may with justice pronounce myself an author perfectly
blameless; against whom the tribes of Answerers, Considerers,
Observers, Reflectors, Detectors, Remarkers, will never be able to find
matter for exercising their talents.

I confess, it was whispered to me, “that I was bound in duty, as a
subject of England, to have given in a memorial to a secretary of state
at my first coming over; because, whatever lands are discovered by a
subject belong to the crown.” But I doubt whether our conquests in the
countries I treat of would be as easy as those of Ferdinando Cortez
over the naked Americans. The Lilliputians, I think, are hardly worth
the charge of a fleet and army to reduce them; and I question whether
it might be prudent or safe to attempt the Brobdingnagians; or
whether an English army would be much at their ease with the Flying
Island over their heads. The Houyhnhnms indeed appear not to be so
well prepared for war, a science to which they are perfect strangers,
and especially against missive weapons. However, supposing myself to be
a minister of state, I could never give my advice for invading them.
Their prudence, unanimity, unacquaintedness with fear, and their love
of their country, would amply supply all defects in the military art.
Imagine twenty thousand of them breaking into the midst of an European
army, confounding the ranks, overturning the carriages, battering the
warriors’ faces into mummy by terrible yerks from their hinder hoofs.
For they would well deserve the character given to Augustus,
Recalcitrat undique tutus. But, instead of proposals for conquering
that magnanimous nation, I rather wish they were in a capacity, or
disposition, to send a sufficient number of their inhabitants for
civilizing Europe, by teaching us the first principles of honour,
justice, truth, temperance, public spirit, fortitude, chastity,
friendship, benevolence, and fidelity. The names of all which virtues
are still retained among us in most languages, and are to be met with
in modern, as well as ancient authors; which I am able to assert from
my own small reading.

But I had another reason, which made me less forward to enlarge his
majesty’s dominions by my discoveries. To say the truth, I had
conceived a few scruples with relation to the distributive justice of
princes upon those occasions. For instance, a crew of pirates are
driven by a storm they know not whither; at length a boy discovers land
from the topmast; they go on shore to rob and plunder, they see a
harmless people, are entertained with kindness; they give the country a
new name; they take formal possession of it for their king; they set up
a rotten plank, or a stone, for a memorial; they murder two or three
dozen of the natives, bring away a couple more, by force, for a sample;
return home, and get their pardon. Here commences a new dominion
acquired with a title by divine right. Ships are sent with the first
opportunity; the natives driven out or destroyed; their princes
tortured to discover their gold; a free license given to all acts of
inhumanity and lust, the earth reeking with the blood of its
inhabitants: and this execrable crew of butchers, employed in so pious
an expedition, is a modern colony, sent to convert and civilize an
idolatrous and barbarous people!

But this description, I confess, does by no means affect the British
nation, who may be an example to the whole world for their wisdom,
care, and justice in planting colonies; their liberal endowments for
the advancement of religion and learning; their choice of devout and
able pastors to propagate Christianity; their caution in stocking their
provinces with people of sober lives and conversations from this the
mother kingdom; their strict regard to the distribution of justice, in
supplying the civil administration through all their colonies with
officers of the greatest abilities, utter strangers to corruption; and,
to crown all, by sending the most vigilant and virtuous governors, who
have no other views than the happiness of the people over whom they
preside, and the honour of the king their master.

But as those countries which I have described do not appear to have any
desire of being conquered and enslaved, murdered or driven out by
colonies, nor abound either in gold, silver, sugar, or tobacco, I did
humbly conceive, they were by no means proper objects of our zeal, our
valour, or our interest. However, if those whom it more concerns think
fit to be of another opinion, I am ready to depose, when I shall be
lawfully called, that no European did ever visit those countries before
me. I mean, if the inhabitants ought to be believed, unless a dispute
may arise concerning the two Yahoos, said to have been seen many
years ago upon a mountain in Houyhnhnmland, from whence the opinion
is, that the race of those brutes hath descended; and these, for
anything I know, may have been English, which indeed I was apt to
suspect from the lineaments of their posterity’s countenances, although
very much defaced. But, how far that will go to make out a title, I
leave to the learned in colony-law.

But, as to the formality of taking possession in my sovereign’s name,
it never came once into my thoughts; and if it had, yet, as my affairs
then stood, I should perhaps, in point of prudence and
self-preservation, have put it off to a better opportunity.

Having thus answered the only objection that can ever be raised against
me as a traveller, I here take a final leave of all my courteous
readers, and return to enjoy my own speculations in my little garden at
Redriff; to apply those excellent lessons of virtue which I learned
among the Houyhnhnms; to instruct the Yahoos of my own family, as
far as I shall find them docible animals; to behold my figure often in
a glass, and thus, if possible, habituate myself by time to tolerate
the sight of a human creature; to lament the brutality to Houyhnhnms
in my own country, but always treat their persons with respect, for the
sake of my noble master, his family, his friends, and the whole
Houyhnhnm race, whom these of ours have the honour to resemble in all
their lineaments, however their intellectuals came to degenerate.

I began last week to permit my wife to sit at dinner with me, at the
farthest end of a long table; and to answer (but with the utmost
brevity) the few questions I asked her. Yet, the smell of a Yahoo
continuing very offensive, I always keep my nose well stopped with rue,
lavender, or tobacco leaves. And, although it be hard for a man late in
life to remove old habits, I am not altogether out of hopes, in some
time, to suffer a neighbour Yahoo in my company, without the
apprehensions I am yet under of his teeth or his claws.

My reconcilement to the Yahoo-kind in general might not be so
difficult, if they would be content with those vices and follies only
which nature has entitled them to. I am not in the least provoked at
the sight of a lawyer, a pickpocket, a colonel, a fool, a lord, a
gamester, a politician, a whoremonger, a physician, an evidence, a
suborner, an attorney, a traitor, or the like; this is all according to
the due course of things: but when I behold a lump of deformity and
diseases, both in body and mind, smitten with pride, it immediately
breaks all the measures of my patience; neither shall I be ever able to
comprehend how such an animal, and such a vice, could tally together.
The wise and virtuous Houyhnhnms, who abound in all excellences that
can adorn a rational creature, have no name for this vice in their
language, which has no terms to express any thing that is evil, except
those whereby they describe the detestable qualities of their Yahoos,
among which they were not able to distinguish this of pride, for want
of thoroughly understanding human nature, as it shows itself in other
countries where that animal presides. But I, who had more experience,
could plainly observe some rudiments of it among the wild Yahoos.

But the Houyhnhnms, who live under the government of reason, are no
more proud of the good qualities they possess, than I should be for not
wanting a leg or an arm; which no man in his wits would boast of,
although he must be miserable without them. I dwell the longer upon
this subject from the desire I have to make the society of an English
Yahoo by any means not insupportable; and therefore I here entreat
those who have any tincture of this absurd vice, that they will not
presume to come in my sight.

FOOTNOTES:

[301] A stang is a pole or perch; sixteen feet and a half.

[330] An act of parliament has been since passed by which some breaches
of trust have been made capital.

[454a] Britannia.—Sir W. Scott.

[454b] London.—Sir W. Scott.

[455] This is the revised text adopted by Dr. Hawksworth (1766). The
above paragraph in the original editions (1726) takes another form,
commencing:—“I told him that should I happen to live in a kingdom where
lots were in vogue,” &c. The names Tribnia and Langden are not
mentioned, and the “close stool” and its signification do not occur.

[514] This paragraph is not in the original editions.

[546] The original editions and Hawksworth’s have Rotherhith here,
though earlier in the work, Redriff is said to have been Gulliver’s
home in England.