Gulliver's Travels

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 my 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 forefeet 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.

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.

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.