CHAPTER I.

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.

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.