Gulliver's Travels

he author, by an extraordinary stratagem, prevents an invasion. A high
title of honour is conferred upon him. Ambassadors arrive from the
emperor of Blefuscu, and sue for peace. The empress’s apartment on fire
by an accident; the author instrumental in saving the rest of the
palace.

The empire of Blefuscu is an island situated to the north-east of
Lilliput, from which it is parted only by a channel of eight hundred
yards wide. I had not yet seen it, and upon this notice of an intended
invasion, I avoided appearing on that side of the coast, for fear of
being discovered, by some of the enemy’s ships, who had received no
intelligence of me; all intercourse between the two empires having been
strictly forbidden during the war, upon pain of death, and an embargo
laid by our emperor upon all vessels whatsoever. I communicated to his
majesty a project I had formed of seizing the enemy’s whole fleet;
which, as our scouts assured us, lay at anchor in the harbour, ready to
sail with the first fair wind. I consulted the most experienced seamen
upon the depth of the channel, which they had often plumbed; who told
me, that in the middle, at high-water, it was seventy glumgluffs
deep, which is about six feet of European measure; and the rest of it
fifty glumgluffs at most. I walked towards the north-east coast, over
against Blefuscu, where, lying down behind a hillock, I took out my
small perspective glass, and viewed the enemy’s fleet at anchor,
consisting of about fifty men of war, and a great number of transports:
I then came back to my house, and gave orders (for which I had a
warrant) for a great quantity of the strongest cable and bars of iron.
The cable was about as thick as packthread and the bars of the length
and size of a knitting-needle. I trebled the cable to make it stronger,
and for the same reason I twisted three of the iron bars together,
bending the extremities into a hook. Having thus fixed fifty hooks to
as many cables, I went back to the north-east coast, and putting off my
coat, shoes, and stockings, walked into the sea, in my leathern jerkin,
about half an hour before high water. I waded with what haste I could,
and swam in the middle about thirty yards, till I felt ground. I
arrived at the fleet in less than half an hour. The enemy was so
frightened when they saw me, that they leaped out of their ships, and
swam to shore, where there could not be fewer than thirty thousand
souls. I then took my tackling, and, fastening a hook to the hole at
the prow of each, I tied all the cords together at the end. While I was
thus employed, the enemy discharged several thousand arrows, many of
which stuck in my hands and face, and, beside the excessive smart, gave
me much disturbance in my work. My greatest apprehension was for my
eyes, which I should have infallibly lost, if I had not suddenly
thought of an expedient. I kept, among other little necessaries, a pair
of spectacles in a private pocket, which, as I observed before, had
escaped the emperor’s searchers. These I took out and fastened as
strongly as I could upon my nose, and thus armed, went on boldly with
my work, in spite of the enemy’s arrows, many of which struck against
the glasses of my spectacles, but without any other effect, further
than a little to discompose them. I had now fastened all the hooks,
and, taking the knot in my hand, began to pull; but not a ship would
stir, for they were all too fast held by their anchors, so that the
boldest part of my enterprise remained. I therefore let go the cord,
and leaving the hooks fixed to the ships, I resolutely cut with my
knife the cables that fastened the anchors, receiving about two hundred
shots in my face and hands; then I took up the knotted end of the
cables, to which my hooks were tied, and with great ease drew fifty of
the enemy’s largest men of war after me.

The Blefuscudians, who had not the least imagination of what I
intended, were at first confounded with astonishment. They had seen me
cut the cables, and thought my design was only to let the ships run
adrift or fall foul on each other: but when they perceived the whole
fleet moving in order, and saw me pulling at the end, they set up such
a scream of grief and despair as it is almost impossible to describe or
conceive. When I had got out of danger, I stopped awhile to pick out
the arrows that stuck in my hands and face; and rubbed on some of the
same ointment that was given me at my first arrival, as I have formerly
mentioned. I then took off my spectacles, and waiting about an hour,
till the tide was a little fallen, I waded through the middle with my
cargo, and arrived safe at the royal port of Lilliput.

The emperor and his whole court stood on the shore, expecting the issue
of this great adventure. They saw the ships move forward in a large
half-moon, but could not discern me, who was up to my breast in water.
When I advanced to the middle of the channel, they were yet more in
pain, because I was under water to my neck. The emperor concluded me to
be drowned, and that the enemy’s fleet was approaching in a hostile
manner: but he was soon eased of his fears; for the channel growing
shallower every step I made, I came in a short time within hearing, and
holding up the end of the cable, by which the fleet was fastened, I
cried in a loud voice, “Long live the most puissant king of Lilliput!”
This great prince received me at my landing with all possible
encomiums, and created me a nardac upon the spot, which is the
highest title of honour among them.

His majesty desired I would take some other opportunity of bringing all
the rest of his enemy’s ships into his ports. And so unmeasureable is
the ambition of princes, that he seemed to think of nothing less than
reducing the whole empire of Blefuscu into a province, and governing
it, by a viceroy; of destroying the Big-endian exiles, and compelling
that people to break the smaller end of their eggs, by which he would
remain the sole monarch of the whole world. But I endeavoured to divert
him from this design, by many arguments drawn from the topics of policy
as well as justice; and I plainly protested, “that I would never be an
instrument of bringing a free and brave people into slavery.” And, when
the matter was debated in council, the wisest part of the ministry were
of my opinion.

This open bold declaration of mine was so opposite to the schemes and
politics of his imperial majesty, that he could never forgive me. He
mentioned it in a very artful manner at council, where I was told that
some of the wisest appeared, at least by their silence, to be of my
opinion; but others, who were my secret enemies, could not forbear some
expressions which, by a side-wind, reflected on me. And from this time
began an intrigue between his majesty and a junto of ministers,
maliciously bent against me, which broke out in less than two months,
and had like to have ended in my utter destruction. Of so little weight
are the greatest services to princes, when put into the balance with a
refusal to gratify their passions.

About three weeks after this exploit, there arrived a solemn embassy
from Blefuscu, with humble offers of a peace, which was soon concluded,
upon conditions very advantageous to our emperor, wherewith I shall not
trouble the reader. There were six ambassadors, with a train of about
five hundred persons, and their entry was very magnificent, suitable to
the grandeur of their master, and the importance of their business.
When their treaty was finished, wherein I did them several good offices
by the credit I now had, or at least appeared to have, at court, their
excellencies, who were privately told how much I had been their friend,
made me a visit in form. They began with many compliments upon my
valour and generosity, invited me to that kingdom in the emperor their
master’s name, and desired me to show them some proofs of my prodigious
strength, of which they had heard so many wonders; wherein I readily
obliged them, but shall not trouble the reader with the particulars.

When I had for some time entertained their excellencies, to their
infinite satisfaction and surprise, I desired they would do me the
honour to present my most humble respects to the emperor their master,
the renown of whose virtues had so justly filled the whole world with
admiration, and whose royal person I resolved to attend, before I
returned to my own country. Accordingly, the next time I had the honour
to see our emperor, I desired his general license to wait on the
Blefuscudian monarch, which he was pleased to grant me, as I could
perceive, in a very cold manner; but could not guess the reason, till I
had a whisper from a certain person, “that Flimnap and Bolgolam had
represented my intercourse with those ambassadors as a mark of
disaffection;” from which I am sure my heart was wholly free. And this
was the first time I began to conceive some imperfect idea of courts
and ministers.

It is to be observed, that these ambassadors spoke to me, by an
interpreter, the languages of both empires differing as much from each
other as any two in Europe, and each nation priding itself upon the
antiquity, beauty, and energy of their own tongue, with an avowed
contempt for that of their neighbour; yet our emperor, standing upon
the advantage he had got by the seizure of their fleet, obliged them to
deliver their credentials, and make their speech, in the Lilliputian
tongue. And it must be confessed, that from the great intercourse of
trade and commerce between both realms, from the continual reception of
exiles which is mutual among them, and from the custom, in each empire,
to send their young nobility and richer gentry to the other, in order
to polish themselves by seeing the world, and understanding men and
manners; there are few persons of distinction, or merchants, or seamen,
who dwell in the maritime parts, but what can hold conversation in both
tongues; as I found some weeks after, when I went to pay my respects to
the emperor of Blefuscu, which, in the midst of great misfortunes,
through the malice of my enemies, proved a very happy adventure to me,
as I shall relate in its proper place.

The reader may remember, that when I signed those articles upon which I
recovered my liberty, there were some which I disliked, upon account of
their being too servile; neither could anything but an extreme
necessity have forced me to submit. But being now a nardac of the
highest rank in that empire, such offices were looked upon as below my
dignity, and the emperor (to do him justice), never once mentioned them
to me. However, it was not long before I had an opportunity of doing
his majesty, at least as I then thought, a most signal service. I was
alarmed at midnight with the cries of many hundred people at my door;
by which, being suddenly awaked, I was in some kind of terror. I heard
the word Burglum repeated incessantly: several of the emperor’s
court, making their way through the crowd, entreated me to come
immediately to the palace, where her imperial majesty’s apartment was
on fire, by the carelessness of a maid of honour, who fell asleep while
she was reading a romance. I got up in an instant; and orders being
given to clear the way before me, and it being likewise a moonshine
night, I made a shift to get to the palace without trampling on any of
the people. I found they had already applied ladders to the walls of
the apartment, and were well provided with buckets, but the water was
at some distance. These buckets were about the size of large thimbles,
and the poor people supplied me with them as fast as they could: but
the flame was so violent that they did little good. I might easily have
stifled it with my coat, which I unfortunately left behind me for
haste, and came away only in my leathern jerkin. The case seemed wholly
desperate and deplorable; and this magnificent palace would have
infallibly been burnt down to the ground, if, by a presence of mind
unusual to me, I had not suddenly thought of an expedient. I had, the
evening before, drunk plentifully of a most delicious wine called
glimigrim, (the Blefuscudians call it flunec, but ours is esteemed
the better sort,) which is very diuretic. By the luckiest chance in the
world, I had not discharged myself of any part of it. The heat I had
contracted by coming very near the flames, and by labouring to quench
them, made the wine begin to operate by urine; which I voided in such a
quantity, and applied so well to the proper places, that in three
minutes the fire was wholly extinguished, and the rest of that noble
pile, which had cost so many ages in erecting, preserved from
destruction.

It was now day-light, and I returned to my house without waiting to
congratulate with the emperor: because, although I had done a very
eminent piece of service, yet I could not tell how his majesty might
resent the manner by which I had performed it: for, by the fundamental
laws of the realm, it is capital in any person, of what quality soever,
to make water within the precincts of the palace. But I was a little
comforted by a message from his majesty, “that he would give orders to
the grand justiciary for passing my pardon in form:” which, however, I
could not obtain; and I was privately assured, “that the empress,
conceiving the greatest abhorrence of what I had done, removed to the
most distant side of the court, firmly resolved that those buildings
should never be repaired for her use: and, in the presence of her chief
confidents could not forbear vowing revenge.”