Latest / Classic Adventure Books Collection / 09 - Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
Transcript
- Part two, A voyage tobrobed in Nag. Chapter one, a great storm described the longboat 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 twentieth day of June seventeen o two, in the adventure Captain John Nicholas, a cornish Man commander, bound for Surrat. We at a very prosperous gale till we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, where we landed for fresh water. But discovering a leek, we unshipped our goods and wintered there. For the captain, falling sick of an agu 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 to 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 nineteenth of April began to blow with much greater islands and more westerly than usual, continuing so for twenty days together, during which time we were driven a little to the east of the Morocco Islands, and about three degrees northwards of that line, as our captain found by an observation. He took the second 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 followed, 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 two hands the foresail. But making foul weather. We looked the guns were all fast and handed the mizzen. The ship lay very broad off, so we thought it better spooning before the sea than trying or hulling. We reefed the foresail and set him and hauled aft the foresheet. The helm was harder 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 lanyard of the whipstaff and helped the man at the helm. We would not get down our topmast, but let it stand, because she scuddered before the sea very well, and we knew that the top mast being alone the ship was the wholesomer and made better way through the sea, seeing as we had serum. When the storm was over, we set foresail and mainsail and brought the ship too. Then we set the mizzen main topsail and the foretopsail. Our course was east northeast, the wind was at southwest. We got the starboard tax aboard. We cast off our weather braces and lifts. We set in the lee braces and hauled forward by the weather bowings and hauled them tight and belayed them, and hauled over the mizzen track 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 southwest, we were carried, by my computation, about five hundred leagues to the east, so that the oldest sailor on board could not tell him 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 distressful water. We thought it best to hold on the same course, rather than turn more northerly, which might have brought us to the northwest part of Great Tartary and into the frozen sea. On the sixteenth day of June seventeen o three, a boy in the top mast discovered land. On the seventeenth 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 thereof 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 out into the boat and rowing for life to the ship. I was going to holler 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 weighed not much deed within his knees, and he 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 the inhabitants only as a footpath through a field of barley. Here I walked on for some time, but could see little on either side, it now being 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 twenty feet high, and the trees so lofty that I could make no computation of their altitude. There was a style 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 endeavoring to find some gap in the hedge, when I discovered one of the inhabitants in the next field advancing towards the style of the same size with him whom I saw in the sea pursuing our boat. He appeared as tall as an ordinary spy deeeple, 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 several 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 labor as they seemed to be, for upon some words he sped, they went to reap the corn in the field where I lay. I kept from them at a great distances 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 ear 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 despair, 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 wulfulness 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 great prodigy that ever appeared in the world we are, I was able to draw an imperial fleet to my hand and perform these 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 proved to me to appear as inconsiderable in this nation, as one single lillipution 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 com Harrison. It might have pleased fortune to have let the Luputians 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 pritigious 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 despied me. As I lay on the ground. He considered a while with the caution of one who endeavors 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 the weasel in England. At length he ventured to take me behind by the middle between his forefinger 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 presents 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 mine 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 was then in. For I apprehended every moment that he would dash me against the ground, as we usually do a little hateful animal which we have a mind to destroy. But my good Star would have it that he appeared please with my voice and gestures, and began to look upon me as a curiosity. Much wandering to him. He pronounced articulate words, although he could not understand them. In the meantime, 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 supposed by their talk, received such an account of me as his servant could give him, took a piece of small straw, about the size of a walking staff, and therewith lifted up the lapets on my coat, which it seems he thought to be some kind of covering that nature had given me. He blew my hairs as to take a better view of my face. He called his hands 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 immediately got up and walked slowly backwards and forward to let the 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 receded on the palm of his hand, then applied it close to his eyes 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. He placed 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, besides 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 of 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 for you 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 upwards, 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 behavior 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 made for a small dram cup, which held about two gallons, and filled it with a drink. I took up the vessel, with much difficulty in both hands, and in a most respectful manner, drank to her ladyship 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 liqueur tasted like a small cider and was not unpleasant. Then the master made me a sign to come to his trencher's side. But as I walked on the table, being in great surprise all the time, as the indulgent reader will easily conceive an 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 through his hours to show I had got no mischief by the fall. But advancing forwards 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 to the left ear as would have felt 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 favorite cap 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 pauring of that animal, who seemed to me 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 always been 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 intrepidy five or six times before the very head of the cat, and came within half a yard of her, where 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 a farmer's house, 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 frightened 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 color. 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 dog 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 colored. I remember, when I was at a Liliput, the complexion of those diminutive people appeared to me the fairest in the world. And talking upon the subject with the 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 several colors altogether disagreeable. Although I must beg leave to save myself, that I am as fair as most of my sex and country, and very little sun burned by all my travels on the other side, discoursing of the ladies of 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 laborers, 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 waked 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 eighty 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 curtain and ran, smelling backwards and forwards on the bed. One of them came up almost to my face, whereupon I rose in affright 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 fore feet 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 if 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 the sides 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 of the bed where it lay, still bleeding. I observed it yet had some life, but with a strong slash across the neck, I thoroughly dispatched 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 to 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 endeavored 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. Then my 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, not to follow me, I hid myself between two leaves of sorrow, 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 effecting 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 censored as tedious and trifling, whereof travelers are often, perhaps not without justice accused. End of Chapter one, Part two,