GULLIVER'S TRAVELS into several
REMOTE NATIONS OF THE WORLD
BY JONATHAN SWIFT
PART 1. A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT.
CHAPTER 1.
The author gives some account of himself
and family. His first inducements to travel.
He is shipwrecked, and swims for his life,
gets safe on shore in the country of
Lilliput; is made a prisoner, and carried up
the country.
My father had a small estate in
Nottinghamshire; I was the third of five
sons. He sent me to Emanuel College
in Cambridge at fourteen years old,
where I resided three years, and
applied myself close to my studies;
but the charge of maintaining me,
although I had a very scanty
allowance, being too great for a
narrow fortune, I was bound
apprentice to Mister James Bates, an
eminent surgeon in London, with
whom I continued four years.
My father now and then sending me small
sums of money, I laid them out in learning
navigation, and other parts of the
mathematics, useful to those who intend to
travel, as I always believed it would be,
some time or other, my fortune to do.
When I left Mister Bates, I went down to
my father: where, by the assistance of him
and my uncle John, and some other
relations, I got forty pounds, and a promise
of thirty pounds a year to maintain me at
Leyden: there I studied physic two years
and seven months, knowing it would be
useful in long voyages.
Soon after my return from Leyden, I was
recommended by my good master, Mister
Bates, to be surgeon to the Swallow,
Captain Abraham Pannel, commander;
with whom I continued three years and a
half, making a voyage or two into the
Levant, and some other parts. When I
came back I resolved to settle in London;
to which Mister Bates, my master,
encouraged me, and by him I was
recommended to several patients.
I took part of a small house in the Old
Jewry; and being advised to alter my
condition, I married Missis Mary Burton,
second daughter to Mister Edmund
Burton, hosier, in Newgate-street, with
whom I received four hundred pounds for
a portion.
But my good master Bates dying in two
years after, and I having few friends, my
business began to fail; for my conscience
would not suffer me to imitate the bad
practice of too many among my brethren.
Having therefore consulted with my wife,
and some of my acquaintance, I
determined to go again to sea. I was
surgeon successively in two ships, and
made several voyages, for six years, to
the East and West Indies, by which I got
some addition to my fortune.
My hours of leisure I spent in reading the best
authors, ancient and modern, being always
provided with a good number of books; and
when I was ashore, in observing the manners
and dispositions of the people, as well as
learning their language; wherein I had a great
facility, by the strength of my memory.
The last of these voyages not proving very
fortunate, I grew weary of the sea, and intended
to stay at home with my wife and family. I
removed from the Old Jewry to Fetter Lane, and
from thence to Wapping, hoping to get business
among the sailors; but it would not turn to
account. After three years expectation that
things would mend, I accepted an advantageous
offer from Captain William Prichard, master of
the Antelope, who was making a voyage to the
South Sea. We set sail from Bristol, May 4,
1699, and our voyage was at first very
prosperous.
It would not be proper, for some reasons, to
trouble the reader with the particulars of our
adventures in those seas; let it suffice to inform
him, that in our passage from thence to the East
Indies, we were driven by a violent storm to the
north-west of Van Diemen's Land.
By an observation, we found ourselves in the
latitude of 30 degrees 2 minutes south. Twelve
of our crew were dead by immoderate labour
and ill food; the rest were in a very weak
condition.
On the 5th of November, which was the
beginning of summer in those parts, the weather
being very hazy, the seamen spied a rock within
half a cable's length of the ship; but the wind
was so strong, that we were driven directly upon
it, and immediately split. Six of the crew, of
whom I was one, having let down the boat into
the sea, made a shift to get clear of the ship and
the rock. We rowed, by my computation, about
three leagues, till we were able to work no
longer, being already spent with labour while we
were in the ship.
We therefore trusted ourselves to the mercy of
the waves, and in about half an hour the boat
was overset by a sudden flurry from the north.
What became of my companions in the boat, as
well as of those who escaped on the rock, or
were left in the vessel, I cannot tell; but conclude
they were all lost. For my own part, I swam as
fortune directed me, and was pushed forward by
wind and tide. I often let my legs drop, and could
feel no bottom; but when I was almost gone,
and able to struggle no longer, I found myself
within my depth; and by this time the storm was
much abated.
The declivity was so small, that I walked near a
mile before I got to the shore, which I
conjectured was about eight o'clock in the
evening.
I then advanced forward near half a mile, but
could not discover any sign of houses or
inhabitants; at least I was in so weak a
condition, that I did not observe them. I was
extremely tired, and with that, and the heat of
the weather, and about half a pint of brandy that
I drank as I left the ship, I found myself much
inclined to sleep.
I lay down on the grass, which was very short
and soft, where I slept sounder than ever I
remembered to have done in my life, and, as I
reckoned, about nine hours; for when I awaked,
it was just day-light.
I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir: for,
as I happened to lie on my back, I found my
arms and legs were strongly fastened on each
side to the ground; and my hair, which was long
and thick, tied down in the same manner. I
likewise felt several slender ligatures across my
body, from my arm-pits to my thighs.
I could only look upwards; the sun began
to grow hot, and the light offended my
eyes. I heard a confused noise about me;
but in the posture I lay, could see nothing
except the sky. In a little time I felt
something alive moving on my left leg,
which advancing gently forward over my
breast, came almost up to my chin; when,
bending my eyes downwards as much as I
could, I perceived it to be a human
creature not six inches high, with a bow
and arrow in his hands, and a quiver at his
back. In the mean time, I felt at least forty
more of the same kind (as I conjectured)
following the first.
I was in the utmost astonishment, and
roared so loud, that they all ran back in a
fright; and some of them, as I was
afterwards told, were hurt with the falls they
got by leaping from my sides upon the
ground. However, they soon returned, and
one of them, who ventured so far as to get a
full sight of my face, lifting up his hands and
eyes by way of admiration, cried out in a
shrill but distinct voice, Hekinah degul: the
others repeated the same words several
times, but then I knew not what they meant.
I lay all this while, as the reader may
believe, in great uneasiness.
At length, struggling to get loose, I had the
fortune to break the strings, and wrench out
the pegs that fastened my left arm to the
ground; for, by lifting it up to my face, I
discovered the methods they had taken to
bind me, and at the same time with a violent
pull, which gave me excessive pain, I a little
loosened the strings that tied down my hair
on the left side, so that I was just able to turn
my head about two inches.
But the creatures ran off a second time,
before I could seize them; whereupon
there was a great shout in a very shrill
accent, and after it ceased I heard one of
them cry aloud Tolgo phonac; when in an
instant I felt above a hundred arrows
discharged on my left hand, which, pricked
me like so many needles; and besides,
they shot another flight into the air, as we
do bombs in Europe, whereof many, I
suppose, fell on my body, (though I felt
them not), and some on my face, which I
immediately covered with my left hand.
When this shower of arrows was over, I
fell a groaning with grief and pain; and
then striving again to get loose, they
discharged another volley larger than the
first, and some of them attempted with
spears to stick me in the sides; but by
good luck I had on a buff jerkin, which they
could not pierce.
I thought it the most prudent method to
lie still, and my design was to continue
so till night, when, my left hand being
already loose, I could easily free
myself: and as for the inhabitants, I had
reason to believe I might be a match for
the greatest army they could bring
against me, if they were all of the same
size with him that I saw. But fortune
disposed otherwise of me.
When the people observed I was quiet,
they discharged no more arrows; but, by
the noise I heard, I knew their numbers
increased; and about four yards from me,
over against my right ear, I heard a
knocking for above an hour, like that of
people at work; when turning my head that
way, as well as the pegs and strings would
permit me, I saw a stage erected about a
foot and a half from the ground, capable of
holding four of the inhabitants, with two or
three ladders to mount it: from whence
one of them, who seemed to be a person
of quality, made me a long speech,
whereof I understood not one syllable.
But I should have mentioned, that before the
principal person began his oration, he cried out
three times, Langro dehul san (these words and
the former were afterwards repeated and
explained to me); whereupon, immediately,
about fifty of the inhabitants came and cut the
strings that fastened the left side of my head,
which gave me the liberty of turning it to the
right, and of observing the person and gesture
of him that was to speak.
He appeared to be of a middle age, and taller
than any of the other three who attended him,
whereof one was a page that held up his train,
and seemed to be somewhat longer than my
middle finger; the other two stood one on each
side to support him. He acted every part of an
orator, and I could observe many periods of
threatenings, and others of promises, pity, and
kindness.
I answered in a few words, but in the most
submissive manner, lifting up my left hand, and
both my eyes to the sun, as calling him for a
witness; and being almost famished with
hunger, having not eaten a morsel for some
hours before I left the ship, I found the demands
of nature so strong upon me, that I could not
forbear showing my impatience (perhaps
against the strict rules of decency) by putting my
finger frequently to my mouth, to signify that I
wanted food. The hurgo (for so they call a great
lord, as I afterwards learnt) understood me very
well.
He descended from the stage, and commanded
that several ladders should be applied to my
sides, on which above a hundred of the
inhabitants mounted and walked towards my
mouth, laden with baskets full of meat, which
had been provided and sent thither by the king's
orders, upon the first intelligence he received of
me. I observed there was the flesh of several
animals, but could not distinguish them by the
taste.
There were shoulders, legs, and loins, shaped
like those of mutton, and very well dressed, but
smaller than the wings of a lark.
I ate them by two or three at a mouthful, and
took three loaves at a time, about the bigness of
musket bullets. They supplied me as fast as
they could, showing a thousand marks of
wonder and astonishment at my bulk and
appetite. I then made another sign, that I wanted
drink.
They found by my eating that a small quantity
would not suffice me; and being a most
ingenious people, they slung up, with great
dexterity, one of their largest hogsheads,
then rolled it towards my hand, and beat out
the top; I drank it off at a draught, which I
might well do, for it did not hold half a pint,
and tasted like a small wine of Burgundy, but
much more delicious. They brought me a
second hogshead, which I drank in the same
manner, and made signs for more; but they
had none to give me.