Latest / Children’s Stories Library / Gulliver's Travels Part 1 - Jonathan Swift
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Introduction the publisher to the reader, as given in the
- 0:06Speaker 1: original edition. The author of these travels, mister Lemuel Gulliver,
- 0:12Speaker 1: is my ancient and intimate friend. There is likewise some
- 0:16Speaker 1: relation between us on the mother's side. About three years
- 0:19Speaker 1: ago mister Gulliver, growing weary of the concourse of curious
- 0:23Speaker 1: people coming to him at his house in Redriff, made
- 0:26Speaker 1: a small purchase of land with the convenient house near
- 0:30Speaker 1: Newark in Nottinghamshire, his native country, where he now lives, retired,
- 0:34Speaker 1: yet in good esteem among his neighbors. Although mister Gulliver
- 0:39Speaker 1: was born in Nottinghamshire, where his father dwelt. Yet I
- 0:43Speaker 1: have heard him say his family come from Oxfordshire, to
- 0:46Speaker 1: confirm which I have observed in the churchyard at Banbury
- 0:50Speaker 1: in that county, several tombs and monuments of the Gullivers.
- 0:55Speaker 1: Before he quitted Redriff, he left the custody of the
- 0:58Speaker 1: following papers in my hand, with the liberty to dispose
- 1:02Speaker 1: of them as I should think fit. I have carefully
- 1:05Speaker 1: perused them three times. The style is very plain and simple,
- 1:10Speaker 1: and the only fault I find is that the author,
- 1:13Speaker 1: after the manner of travelers, is a little too circumstantial.
- 1:17Speaker 1: There is an air of truth apparent through the whole,
- 1:20Speaker 1: And indeed the author was so distinguished for his veracity
- 1:23Speaker 1: that it became a sort of proverb among his neighbors
- 1:26Speaker 1: at Redriffe. When anyone affirmed a thing to say, it
- 1:29Speaker 1: was as true as if mister Gulliver had spoken it.
- 1:33Speaker 1: By the advice of several worthy persons, to whom, with
- 1:36Speaker 1: the author's permission, I communicated these papers, I now venture
- 1:40Speaker 1: to send them into the world, hoping they may be,
- 1:43Speaker 1: at least for some time, a better entertainment to a
- 1:46Speaker 1: young nobleman than the common scribbles of politics and party.
- 1:51Speaker 1: This volume would have been at least twice as large
- 1:53Speaker 1: if I had not made bold to strike out innumerable
- 1:56Speaker 1: passages relating to the winds and tides, as well as
- 2:00Speaker 1: to the variations and bearings in the several voyages, together
- 2:03Speaker 1: with the minute descriptions of the management of the ship
- 2:06Speaker 1: in storms in the style of sailors. Likewise, the account
- 2:10Speaker 1: of longitudes and latitudes, wherein I have reason to apprehend
- 2:14Speaker 1: that mister Gulliver may be a little dissatisfied. But I
- 2:18Speaker 1: was resolved to fit the work as much as possible
- 2:20Speaker 1: to the general capacity of readers. However, if my own
- 2:24Speaker 1: ignorance and sea affairs shall have led me to commit
- 2:26Speaker 1: some mistakes, I alone am answerable for them. And if
- 2:30Speaker 1: any traveler hath her curiosity to see the whole work
- 2:33Speaker 1: at large, as it comes from the hands of the author,
- 2:36Speaker 1: I will be ready to gratify him. As for any
- 2:40Speaker 1: further particulars relating to the author, the reader will receive
- 2:44Speaker 1: satisfaction from the first page of the book Richard Simpson.
- 2:50Speaker 1: A letter from Captain Gulliver to his cousin Simpson, written
- 2:54Speaker 1: in the year seventeen twenty seven. I hope you will
- 2:59Speaker 1: be ready to own publicly whenever you shall be called
- 3:02Speaker 1: to it, that, by your great and frequent urgency, you
- 3:05Speaker 1: prevailed on me to publish a very loose and uncorrect
- 3:08Speaker 1: account of my travels, with directions to hire some young
- 3:12Speaker 1: gentlemen of either university to put them in order and
- 3:15Speaker 1: correct the style, as my cousin Dampier did by my
- 3:18Speaker 1: advice in his book called A Voyage around the World.
- 3:23Speaker 1: But I do not remember I gave you power to
- 3:24Speaker 1: consent that anything should be omitted, and much less that
- 3:28Speaker 1: anything should be inserted. Therefore, as to the latter I
- 3:32Speaker 1: do here renounce everything of that kind, particularly a paragraph
- 3:35Speaker 1: about her Majesty Queen Anne, of the most pious and
- 3:38Speaker 1: glorious memory, although I did reverence and esteem her more
- 3:42Speaker 1: than any of human species. But you or your interpulator
- 3:47Speaker 1: ought to have considered that it was not my inclination.
- 3:51Speaker 1: So it was not decent to praise any animal of
- 3:53Speaker 1: our composition before my master Huinhem. And besides, the fact
- 3:59Speaker 1: was altogether false, for to my knowledge, being in England
- 4:03Speaker 1: during some part of her Majesty's reign, she did govern
- 4:06Speaker 1: by a chief minister, nay even by two successively, the
- 4:11Speaker 1: first whereof was the Lord Goldofen, and the second the
- 4:14Speaker 1: Lord of Oxford. So that you have made me say
- 4:17Speaker 1: the thing that was not likewise in the account of
- 4:21Speaker 1: the Academy of Projectors, and several passages of my discourse
- 4:25Speaker 1: to my Master, when on m you have either omitted
- 4:28Speaker 1: some material circumstances, or minced or changed them in such
- 4:32Speaker 1: a manner that I do hardly know my own work.
- 4:35Speaker 1: When I formerly hinted to you something of this in
- 4:37Speaker 1: a letter, you were pleased to answer that you were
- 4:40Speaker 1: afraid of giving offense, that people in power were very
- 4:44Speaker 1: watchful over the press, an act not only to interrupt,
- 4:48Speaker 1: but to punish everything which looked like an innuendo, as
- 4:51Speaker 1: I think you call it. But pray, how could that
- 4:55Speaker 1: which I spoke so many years ago, and at about
- 4:58Speaker 1: five thousand leagues distance in another reign be applied to
- 5:02Speaker 1: any of the Yahoos who were now said to govern
- 5:05Speaker 1: the herd, especially at a time when I little thought
- 5:09Speaker 1: or feared the unhappiness of living under them? Have I
- 5:13Speaker 1: not the most reason to complain when I see these
- 5:16Speaker 1: very Yahoos carried by huinnanems in a vehicle, as if
- 5:20Speaker 1: they were brutes, and those the rational creatures. And indeed,
- 5:24Speaker 1: to avoid so monstrous and detestable a sight was one
- 5:28Speaker 1: principal motive of my retirement. Hither Thus, much I thought
- 5:32Speaker 1: proper to tell you, in relation to yourself and to
- 5:35Speaker 1: the trust I reposed in you, I do, in the
- 5:39Speaker 1: next place complain of my own great want of judgment,
- 5:43Speaker 1: in being prevailed upon by the entreaties and false reasoning
- 5:45Speaker 1: of you and some others, very much against my own
- 5:49Speaker 1: opinion to suffer my travels to be published. Pray, bring
- 5:53Speaker 1: to your mind how often I desired you to consider
- 5:56Speaker 1: when you insisted on the motive of public good, that
- 5:59Speaker 1: the yahoos whre a species of animal utterly incapable of
- 6:02Speaker 1: amendment by precipit or example. And so it has proved
- 6:07Speaker 1: for instead of seeing a full stop put to all
- 6:10Speaker 1: abuses and corruptions, at least in this little island, as
- 6:14Speaker 1: I had reason to expect, behold, after above six months warning,
- 6:19Speaker 1: I cannot learn that my book has produced one single effect.
- 6:22Speaker 1: According to my intentions, I desired you would let me
- 6:26Speaker 1: know by a letter when party and faction were extinguished,
- 6:30Speaker 1: judges learned and upright, pleaders, honest and modest, with some
- 6:34Speaker 1: tincature of common sense, and Smithfield blazing with pyramids of
- 6:39Speaker 1: law books. The young nobilities education entirely changed, the physicians banished,
- 6:45Speaker 1: the female yahoos of bounding and virtue, honor, truth angered, sense,
- 6:50Speaker 1: courts and levies of great ministers thoroughly weeded and swept wit, merit,
- 6:56Speaker 1: and learning rewarded all disgraces of the press in prose
- 7:00Speaker 1: and verse, condemned to eat nothing but their own cotton,
- 7:03Speaker 1: and quench their thirst with their own ink. These and
- 7:06Speaker 1: a thousand other reformations I firmly counted upon by your encouragement,
- 7:11Speaker 1: as indeed they were plainly deducible from the precipice delivered
- 7:15Speaker 1: in my book, and it must be owned. The seven
- 7:19Speaker 1: months were a sufficient time to correct every vice and
- 7:21Speaker 1: folly to which yahoo's are subject, if their natures had
- 7:25Speaker 1: been capable of the least disposition to virtue or wisdom.
- 7:29Speaker 1: Yet so far have you been from answering my expectation
- 7:33Speaker 1: in any of your letters, that, on the contrary, you
- 7:36Speaker 1: are loading our carrier every week with libels and keys,
- 7:39Speaker 1: and reflections and memoirs and second parts, wherein I see
- 7:44Speaker 1: myself accused of reflecting upon great state folk, of degrading
- 7:48Speaker 1: human nature, for so they still had the confidence to
- 7:51Speaker 1: style it, and of abusing the female sex. I find
- 7:56Speaker 1: likewise that the writers of those bundles are not agreed
- 7:59Speaker 1: among themselves, for some of them will not allow me
- 8:02Speaker 1: to be the author of my own travels, and others
- 8:04Speaker 1: make me author of books to which I am wholly
- 8:07Speaker 1: a stranger. I find likewise that your printer has been
- 8:11Speaker 1: so careless as to confound the times and mistake the
- 8:13Speaker 1: dates of my several voyages and returns, neither assigning the
- 8:18Speaker 1: true year, nor the true month, nor day of the month.
- 8:21Speaker 1: And I hear the original manuscript is all destroyed since
- 8:24Speaker 1: the publication of my book, neither have I any copy left. However,
- 8:29Speaker 1: I have sent you some corrections which you may insert,
- 8:32Speaker 1: if ever there should be a second edition. And yet
- 8:35Speaker 1: I cannot stand to them, but shall leave that matter
- 8:38Speaker 1: to my judicious and candid readers to adjust it as
- 8:41Speaker 1: they please. I hear some of our Sea Yahoos find
- 8:46Speaker 1: fault with my c language, as not proper in many parts,
- 8:50Speaker 1: nor in now in use. I cannot help it. In
- 8:53Speaker 1: my first voyages, while I was young, I was instructed
- 8:56Speaker 1: by the oldest mariners and learned to speak as they did.
- 9:00Speaker 1: But I have since found that the sea Yahoos are apt,
- 9:03Speaker 1: like the land ones, to become new fangled in their words,
- 9:08Speaker 1: which the latter change every year, insomuch as I remember,
- 9:12Speaker 1: upon each return to my own country, their old dialect
- 9:15Speaker 1: was so altered that I could hardly understand the new.
- 9:19Speaker 1: And I observe when any Yahoo comes from London out
- 9:23Speaker 1: of curiosity to visit me at my house, we neither
- 9:26Speaker 1: of us are able to deliver our conceptions in a
- 9:29Speaker 1: manner intelligible to the other. If the censure of the
- 9:34Speaker 1: Yahoos could any way affect me, I should have great
- 9:37Speaker 1: reason to complain that some of them are so bold
- 9:40Speaker 1: as to think my book of travels are mere fiction
- 9:42Speaker 1: out of my own brain, and have gone so far
- 9:45Speaker 1: as to drop hints that the huinn on Heems and
- 9:48Speaker 1: Yahoos have no more existence than the inhabitants of Utopia. Indeed,
- 9:55Speaker 1: I must confess the test to the people of Lilliput Bodingragg,
- 10:00Speaker 1: for so the words should have been spelt and not
- 10:03Speaker 1: erroneously brobed in Nag and Laputa. I have never yet
- 10:07Speaker 1: heard any Yahoo so presumptuous as to dispute their being
- 10:12Speaker 1: all the facts I have related concerning them, because the
- 10:15Speaker 1: truth immediately strikes every reader with conviction, and is there
- 10:19Speaker 1: less probability in my account of the Huinnanhems or Yahoos
- 10:23Speaker 1: when it is manifest as to the latter. There are
- 10:27Speaker 1: so many thousands, even in this country, who only differ
- 10:30Speaker 1: from their brother brutes in huennanheim Land because they use
- 10:33Speaker 1: a sort of jabber and do not go naked. I
- 10:37Speaker 1: wrote for their amendment, and not their approbation. The united
- 10:41Speaker 1: praise of the whole race would be of less consequence
- 10:44Speaker 1: to me than the neighing of those two degenerate t
- 10:46Speaker 1: wwyinnanems I keep in my stable because from these degenerate
- 10:51Speaker 1: as they are, I still improve in some virtues without
- 10:54Speaker 1: any mixture of vice. Do these miserable animals posus to
- 11:00Speaker 1: think that I am so degenerated as to defend my veracity?
- 11:05Speaker 1: Yea who as I am. It is well known through
- 11:07Speaker 1: all quinnhumham Land, that by the instructions and example of
- 11:11Speaker 1: my illustrious master, I was able in the compass of
- 11:15Speaker 1: two years. Although I confess with the utmost difficulty to
- 11:19Speaker 1: remove that infernal habit of lying, shuffling, deceiving and equivocating,
- 11:24Speaker 1: so deeply rooted in the very soul of all my species,
- 11:28Speaker 1: especially the Europeans. I have other complaints to make upon
- 11:32Speaker 1: this vexatious occasion, but I forbear troubling myself or you
- 11:36Speaker 1: any further. I must freely confess that, since my last return,
- 11:41Speaker 1: some corruptions of my yahoo nature have revived in me
- 11:44Speaker 1: by conversing with a few of your species, and particularly
- 11:48Speaker 1: those of my own family, by an unavoidable necessity, else
- 11:53Speaker 1: I should never have attempted so absurd a project as
- 11:56Speaker 1: that of performing the aa Who race in this kingdom.
- 12:00Speaker 1: So I have now done with all such visionary schemes
- 12:02Speaker 1: Forever April second, seventeen twenty seven. End of Introduction, Part
- 12:12Speaker 1: one A Voyage to Lilliput. Chapter one. The author gives
- 12:18Speaker 1: some account of himself and family, his first inducements to travel.
- 12:22Speaker 1: Hears shipwrecked and swims for his life, gets safe on
- 12:26Speaker 1: shore in the country of Lilliput, is made a prisoner
- 12:29Speaker 1: and carried up the country. My father had a small
- 12:33Speaker 1: estate in Nottinghamshire. I was the third of five sons.
- 12:37Speaker 1: He sent me to Emmanuel College in Cambridge at fourteen
- 12:40Speaker 1: years old, where I resided three years and applied myself
- 12:44Speaker 1: close to my studies, but the charge of maintaining me,
- 12:47Speaker 1: although I had a very scanty allowance, being too great
- 12:50Speaker 1: for an hour of fortune, I was bound apprentice to
- 12:53Speaker 1: mister James Bates, an eminent surgeon in London, with whom
- 12:57Speaker 1: I continued four years. My father now and then sending
- 13:01Speaker 1: me small sums of money. I laid them out in
- 13:04Speaker 1: learning navigation and other parts of the mathematics useful to
- 13:08Speaker 1: those who intend to travel, as I always believed it
- 13:11Speaker 1: would be some time or other my fortune to do.
- 13:15Speaker 1: When I left mister Bates, I went down to my father,
- 13:18Speaker 1: where by the assistance of him and my uncle John
- 13:21Speaker 1: and some other relations, I got forty pounds and I
- 13:25Speaker 1: promise of thirty pounds a year to maintain me at Leyden.
- 13:28Speaker 1: There I studied physic two years and seven months, knowing
- 13:32Speaker 1: it would be useful in long voyages. Soon after my
- 13:36Speaker 1: return from Leyden, I was recommended by my good master,
- 13:40Speaker 1: mister Bates to be surgeon to the Swallow Captain Abraham Pannell, Commander,
- 13:46Speaker 1: with whom I continued three years and a half, making
- 13:50Speaker 1: a voyage or two into the Levant and some other parts.
- 13:53Speaker 1: When I came back, I resolved to settle in London,
- 13:57Speaker 1: to which mister Bates, my master, encouraged me, and by
- 14:00Speaker 1: him I was recommended to several patients. I took part
- 14:04Speaker 1: of a small house in the Old Jury, and, being
- 14:07Speaker 1: advised to old my condition, I married missus Mary Burton,
- 14:11Speaker 1: second daughter to mister Edmund Burton, Hosier in Newgate Street,
- 14:16Speaker 1: with whom I received four hundred pounds for a portion.
- 14:19Speaker 1: But my good master Bates dying in two years after,
- 14:24Speaker 1: and I having few friends, my business began to fail.
- 14:28Speaker 1: For my conscience would not suffer me to imitate the
- 14:30Speaker 1: bad practice of too many among my brethren. Having therefore
- 14:35Speaker 1: consulted with my wife and some of my acquaintance, I
- 14:38Speaker 1: determined to go again to sea. I was surgeon successively
- 14:42Speaker 1: in two ships, and made several long voyages for six
- 14:46Speaker 1: years to the East and West Indies, by which I
- 14:49Speaker 1: got some addition to my fortune. My hours of leisure
- 14:53Speaker 1: I spent in reading the best authors, ancient and modern,
- 14:57Speaker 1: being always provided with a good number of books, and
- 15:00Speaker 1: when I was ashore, in observing the manners and dispositions
- 15:03Speaker 1: of the people, as well as learning their language, wherein
- 15:07Speaker 1: I had a great facility by the strength of my memory.
- 15:11Speaker 1: The last of these voyages not proving very fortunate, I
- 15:14Speaker 1: grew weary of the sea and intended to stay at
- 15:17Speaker 1: home with my wife and family. I removed from the
- 15:20Speaker 1: Old Drury to Fetterlaine, and from thence to Wapping, hoping
- 15:25Speaker 1: to get business among the sailors, but it would not
- 15:28Speaker 1: turn to account. After three years, expectation that things would mend,
- 15:33Speaker 1: I accepted an advantageous offer from Captain William Prichard, master
- 15:38Speaker 1: of the Antelope, who was making a voyage to the
- 15:41Speaker 1: South Sea. We set sail from Bristol May fourth, sixteen
- 15:46Speaker 1: ninety nine, and our voyage was at first very prosperous.
- 15:51Speaker 1: It would not be proper, for some reasons to trouble
- 15:55Speaker 1: the reader with the particulars of our adventures in those seas.
- 15:58Speaker 1: Let it suffice to inform him that, in our passage
- 16:01Speaker 1: from Thence to the East Indies, we were driven by
- 16:04Speaker 1: a violent storm to the northwest of Van Diem's Land.
- 16:09Speaker 1: By an observation, we found ourselves in the latitude of
- 16:12Speaker 1: thirty degrees two minutes south. Twelve of our crew were
- 16:16Speaker 1: dead by a moderate labor and ill food. The rest
- 16:19Speaker 1: were in very weak condition. On the fifth of November,
- 16:22Speaker 1: which was the beginning of summer in those parts, the
- 16:24Speaker 1: weather being very hazy, the seaman spied a rock within
- 16:28Speaker 1: half a cable's length of the ship, but the wind
- 16:31Speaker 1: was so strong that we were driven directly upon it
- 16:34Speaker 1: and immediately split. Six of the crew, of whom I
- 16:38Speaker 1: was one. Having let down the boat into the sea,
- 16:42Speaker 1: made a shift to get clear of the ship and
- 16:43Speaker 1: the rock. We rowed, by my computation, about three leagues
- 16:49Speaker 1: till we were able to work no longer, being already
- 16:52Speaker 1: spent with labour. While we were in the ship, we
- 16:55Speaker 1: therefore trusted ourselves to the mercy of the waves, and
- 16:58Speaker 1: in about half an hour the boat was overset by
- 17:01Speaker 1: a sudden flurry from the north. What became of my
- 17:04Speaker 1: companions in the boat, as well as those who escaped
- 17:06Speaker 1: on the rock or were left in the vessel, I
- 17:08Speaker 1: cannot tell, but conclude they were all lost. For my
- 17:13Speaker 1: own part, I swam as fortune directed me, and was
- 17:16Speaker 1: pushed forward by wind and tide. I often let my
- 17:20Speaker 1: legs drop and could feel no bottom. But when I
- 17:24Speaker 1: was almost gone and able to struggle no longer, I
- 17:27Speaker 1: found myself within my depth, and by this time the
- 17:30Speaker 1: storm was much abated. The declivity was so small that
- 17:34Speaker 1: I walked near a mile before I got to the shore,
- 17:37Speaker 1: which I conjectured was about eight o'clock in the evening.
- 17:41Speaker 1: I then advanced forward near half a mile, but could
- 17:44Speaker 1: not discover any sign of houses or inhabitants. At least
- 17:48Speaker 1: I was in so weak a condition that I did
- 17:50Speaker 1: not observe them.
- 17:53Speaker 2: I was extremely.
- 17:54Speaker 1: Tired, and with that and the heat of the weather,
- 17:57Speaker 1: and about half a pint of brandy that I drank
- 17:59Speaker 1: as I left the ship, I found myself much inclined
- 18:02Speaker 1: to sleep. I lay down on the grass, which was
- 18:05Speaker 1: very short and soft, where I slipped sounder than ever
- 18:08Speaker 1: I remembered to have done in my life. And as
- 18:11Speaker 1: I reckoned about nine hours for when I awaked it
- 18:16Speaker 1: was just daylight. I attempted to rise, but was not
- 18:20Speaker 1: able to stir. For as I happened to lie on
- 18:23Speaker 1: my back, I found my arms and legs were strongly
- 18:26Speaker 1: fastened on each side to the ground, and my hair,
- 18:30Speaker 1: which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner.
- 18:34Speaker 1: I likewise felt several slender ligatures across my body, from
- 18:38Speaker 1: my armpits to my thighs. I could only look upwards,
- 18:41Speaker 1: the sun beginning to grow hot, and the light offended
- 18:44Speaker 1: my eyes. I heard a confused noise about me, but
- 18:49Speaker 1: in the posture I lay, could see nothing except the sky.
- 18:53Speaker 1: In a little time, I felt something alive moving on
- 18:56Speaker 1: my left leg, which, advancing gently forward over my breast,
- 19:00Speaker 1: came almost up to my chin. When bending my eyes
- 19:03Speaker 1: downwards as much as I could, I perceived it to
- 19:06Speaker 1: be a human creature not six inches high, with a
- 19:09Speaker 1: bow and arrow in his hands and a quiver at
- 19:11Speaker 1: his back. In the meantime, I felt at least forty
- 19:16Speaker 1: more of the same kind as I conjectured. Following the
- 19:20Speaker 1: first I was in the utmost astonishment, and roared so
- 19:25Speaker 1: loud that they all ran back in affright. And some
- 19:27Speaker 1: of them, as I was afterwards told, were hurt with
- 19:31Speaker 1: the fools they got by leaping from my sides upon
- 19:34Speaker 1: the ground. However, they soon returned. I am one of
- 19:38Speaker 1: them who ventured so far as to get a full
- 19:40Speaker 1: sight of my face, lifting up his hands and eyes
- 19:43Speaker 1: by way of admiration, cried out, in a shrill but
- 19:47Speaker 1: distinct voice, I can hell they go. The others repeated
- 19:52Speaker 1: the same words several times, but then I knew not
- 19:56Speaker 1: what they meant. I lay all this well, as the
- 19:59Speaker 1: reader made believe, in great uneasiness. At length, struggling to
- 20:04Speaker 1: get loose, I had the fortune to break the strings
- 20:07Speaker 1: and wrench out the pegs that fastened my left arm
- 20:09Speaker 1: to the ground, For by lifting it up to my face,
- 20:14Speaker 1: I discovered the methods they had taken to bind me.
- 20:17Speaker 1: And at the same time, with a violent pull which
- 20:20Speaker 1: gave me excessive pain, I a little loosened the strings
- 20:23Speaker 1: that tied down my hair on the left side, so
- 20:26Speaker 1: that I was just able to turn my head about
- 20:28Speaker 1: two inches, but the creatures ran off a second time
- 20:33Speaker 1: before I could seize them. Whereupon there was a great
- 20:36Speaker 1: shout in a very shrill accent, and after it ceased,
- 20:40Speaker 1: I heard one of them cry aloud, oh, parnak, When
- 20:45Speaker 1: in an instant I felt above a hundred arrows discharged
- 20:48Speaker 1: on my left hand, which pricked me like so many needles.
- 20:53Speaker 1: And besides they shut another flight into the air, as
- 20:57Speaker 1: we do bombs in Europe, whereof many I suppose fell
- 21:01Speaker 1: on my body, though I felt them not, and some
- 21:05Speaker 1: on my face, which I immediately covered with my left hand.
- 21:09Speaker 1: When this shower of arrows was over, I fell a
- 21:12Speaker 1: groaning with grief and pain, and then again, striving to
- 21:16Speaker 1: get loose, they discharged another volley larger than the first,
- 21:20Speaker 1: and some of them attempted with spears to stick me
- 21:23Speaker 1: in the side, but by good luck, I head on
- 21:27Speaker 1: a buff jerkin, which they could not pierce. I thought
- 21:32Speaker 1: it the most prudent method to lie still, and my
- 21:34Speaker 1: design was to continue so till night, when my left hand,
- 21:39Speaker 1: being already loose, I could easily free myself. And as
- 21:43Speaker 1: for the inhabitants, I had reason to believe I might
- 21:46Speaker 1: be a match for the greatest army they could bring
- 21:48Speaker 1: against me, if they were all of the same size
- 21:50Speaker 1: with him that I saw. But fortune disposed otherwise of me.
- 21:57Speaker 1: When the people observed I was quiet, they just charged
- 22:00Speaker 1: no more errors. But by the noise I heard, I
- 22:04Speaker 1: knew their numbers increased, and about four yards from me,
- 22:08Speaker 1: over against my right ear, I heard a knocking for
- 22:11Speaker 1: above an hour, like that of people at work. When
- 22:15Speaker 1: turning my head that way, as well as the pegs
- 22:17Speaker 1: and strings would permit me, I saw a stage erected
- 22:20Speaker 1: about a foot and a half from the ground, capable
- 22:24Speaker 1: of holding four of the inhabitants, with two or three
- 22:27Speaker 1: ladders to mount it from. Whence one of them, who
- 22:30Speaker 1: seemed to be a person of quality, made me a
- 22:33Speaker 1: long speech, whereof I understood not one syllable, but I
- 22:38Speaker 1: should have mentioned that before the principal person began his irritation,
- 22:42Speaker 1: he cried out three times, let a de hous on.
- 22:47Speaker 1: These words and the former were afterwards repeated and explained
- 22:51Speaker 1: to me, whereupon immediately about fifty of the inhabitants came
- 22:57Speaker 1: and cut the strings that fastened the left side of
- 22:59Speaker 1: my head, which gave me the liberty of turning it
- 23:02Speaker 1: to the right, and of observing the person and gesture
- 23:05Speaker 1: of him, that was to speak. He appeared to be
- 23:09Speaker 1: of a middle age and taller than any of the
- 23:11Speaker 1: other three who attended him, whereof one was a page
- 23:15Speaker 1: that held up his train and seemed to be somewhat
- 23:18Speaker 1: longer than a middle finger. The other two stood one
- 23:21Speaker 1: on each side to support him. He acted every part
- 23:25Speaker 1: of an orator, and I could observe many periods of
- 23:28Speaker 1: threatenings and others of promises, pity and kindness. I answered
- 23:33Speaker 1: in a few words, but in the most submissive manner,
- 23:37Speaker 1: lifting up my left hand and both my eyes to
- 23:39Speaker 1: the sun, as calling him for a witness, and being
- 23:43Speaker 1: almost vamished with hunger, having not eaten a morsel for
- 23:46Speaker 1: some hours before I left the ship, I found the
- 23:49Speaker 1: demands of nature so strong upon me that I could
- 23:52Speaker 1: not forbear showing my impatience, perhaps against the strict rules
- 23:56Speaker 1: of decency, by putting my finger frequently to my mouth
- 24:00Speaker 1: to signify that I wanted food. The Hurrigo for so
- 24:05Speaker 1: they called a great lord, as I, after was learnt,
- 24:08Speaker 1: understood me very well. He descended from the stage and
- 24:12Speaker 1: commanded that several ladders should be applied to my sides,
- 24:16Speaker 1: on which above a hundred of the inhabitants mounted and
- 24:19Speaker 1: walked towards my mouth, laden with baskets full of meat,
- 24:23Speaker 1: which had been provided and sent thither by the King's orders.
- 24:26Speaker 1: Upon the first intelligence who received of me, I observed
- 24:31Speaker 1: there was the flesh of several animals, but could not
- 24:34Speaker 1: distinguish them by their taste. They were shoulders, legs, and loins,
- 24:39Speaker 1: shaped like those of mutton, and very well dressed, but
- 24:43Speaker 1: smaller than the wings of a lark. I ate them
- 24:46Speaker 1: by two or three at a mouthful, and took three
- 24:48Speaker 1: loaves at a time, about the bigness of musket balls.
- 24:54Speaker 1: They supplied me as fast as they could, showing a
- 24:57Speaker 1: thousand marks of wonder and astonishment at my bulk appetite.
- 25:02Speaker 1: I then made another sign that I wanted drink. They
- 25:05Speaker 1: found by my eating that a small quantity would not
- 25:08Speaker 1: suffice me, and being a most ingenious people, they slung
- 25:13Speaker 1: up with great dexterity one of their largest hogsheads, then
- 25:17Speaker 1: rolled it towards my hand and beat at the top.
- 25:20Speaker 1: I drank it off at a draft, which I might
- 25:23Speaker 1: well do, for it did not hold half a pint,
- 25:26Speaker 1: and tasted like a small wine of burgundy, but much
- 25:29Speaker 1: more delicious. They brought me a second hogshead, which I
- 25:34Speaker 1: drank in the same manner, and made signs for more,
- 25:37Speaker 1: but they had none to give me. When I had
- 25:41Speaker 1: reformed these wonders, they shouted for joy and danced upon
- 25:44Speaker 1: my breast, repeating several times as they did at first,
- 25:49Speaker 1: how can all to go? They made me a sign
- 25:52Speaker 1: that I should throw down the two hogsheads, but first
- 25:56Speaker 1: warning the people below to stand out the way, crying aloud,
- 26:00Speaker 1: pour ash mevalla, And when they saw the vessels in
- 26:04Speaker 1: the air, there was a universal shout of how can
- 26:07Speaker 1: how to go? I confess I was often tempted, while
- 26:12Speaker 1: they were passing backwards and forwards of my body to
- 26:15Speaker 1: seize forty or fifty of the first that came in
- 26:17Speaker 1: my reach and dash them against the ground. But the
- 26:21Speaker 1: remembrance of what I had felt, which probably might not
- 26:25Speaker 1: be the worst they could do, and the promise of
- 26:27Speaker 1: honor I made them for so I interpreted, my submissive
- 26:30Speaker 1: behavior soon drove out these imaginations. Besides, I now consider
- 26:37Speaker 1: myself as bound by the laws of hospitality to a
- 26:40Speaker 1: people who had treated me with so much expense and magnificence. However,
- 26:46Speaker 1: in my thoughts I could not sufficiently wonder at the
- 26:49Speaker 1: intrepidity of these diminutive mortals, who durst venture to mount
- 26:54Speaker 1: and walk upon my body while one of my hands
- 26:57Speaker 1: was at liberty, without trembling at the very sight of
- 27:00Speaker 1: so prodigious a creature, as I must appear to them.
- 27:05Speaker 1: After some time, when they observed that I made no
- 27:07Speaker 1: more demands for meat, there appeared before me a person
- 27:10Speaker 1: of high rank from his Imperial Majesty. His Excellency, having
- 27:16Speaker 1: mounted on the small of my right leg, advanced forwards
- 27:19Speaker 1: up to my face, with about a dozen of his retinue,
- 27:23Speaker 1: and producing his credentials under the signet royal, which he
- 27:27Speaker 1: applied close to my eyes, spoke about ten minutes, without
- 27:31Speaker 1: any signs of anger, but with a kind of determinate resolution,
- 27:35Speaker 1: often pointing forwards, which, as I afterwards found, was towards
- 27:40Speaker 1: the capital city, about half a mile distance, whither it
- 27:45Speaker 1: was agreed by His Majesty and council that I must
- 27:47Speaker 1: be conveyed. I answered, in few words, but to no purpose.
- 27:53Speaker 1: I made a sign of my hand that was loose,
- 27:55Speaker 1: putting it to the other, but over his Excellency's head
- 27:59Speaker 1: for fear of hurting him or his train, and then
- 28:02Speaker 1: to my own head and body to signify that I
- 28:04Speaker 1: desired my liberty. It appeared that he understood me well enough,
- 28:10Speaker 1: for he shook his head by way of disapprobation, and
- 28:13Speaker 1: held his hand in a posture to show the times
- 28:16Speaker 1: to be carried as a prisoner. However, he made other
- 28:20Speaker 1: signs to let me understand that I should have meat
- 28:22Speaker 1: and drink enough and very good treatment. Whereupon I once
- 28:27Speaker 1: more thought of attempting to break my bonds. But again
- 28:31Speaker 1: when I felt the smart of their arrows upon my
- 28:33Speaker 1: face and hands, which were all in blisters and many
- 28:37Speaker 1: of the darts still sticking in them, and observing likewise
- 28:40Speaker 1: that the number of my enemies increased, I gave tokens
- 28:43Speaker 1: to let them know that they might do with me
- 28:44Speaker 1: as they pleased. Upon this, the hurgo and his train
- 28:49Speaker 1: withdrew with much civility and cheerful countenances. Soon after I
- 28:56Speaker 1: heard a general shout with frequent repetitions of the words
- 29:00Speaker 1: pepolon Ceylon, and I felt great numbers of people on
- 29:04Speaker 1: my left side, relaxing the cords to such a degree
- 29:07Speaker 1: that I was able to turn upon my right and
- 29:10Speaker 1: to ease myself of making water, which I very plentifully did,
- 29:14Speaker 1: to the great astonishment of the people, who, conjecturing by
- 29:18Speaker 1: my motion what I was going to do, immediately opened
- 29:21Speaker 1: to the right and left on that side to avoid
- 29:23Speaker 1: the torrent, which fell with such noise and violence from me.
- 29:28Speaker 1: But before this they had darted my face in both
- 29:30Speaker 1: my hands with a sort of ointment, very pleasant to
- 29:34Speaker 1: the smell, which in a few minutes removed all the
- 29:38Speaker 1: smarter their arrows. These circumstances, added to the refreshment I
- 29:43Speaker 1: erate received by their victuals and drink, which were very nourishing,
- 29:47Speaker 1: disposed me to sleep. I slept about eight hours, as
- 29:52Speaker 1: I was afterwards assured, and it was no wonder for
- 29:56Speaker 1: the physicians, by the Emperor's orders, had been god asleep
- 30:00Speaker 1: potion into the hogsheads of wine. It seems that upon
- 30:05Speaker 1: the first moment I was discovered sleeping on the ground
- 30:08Speaker 1: after my landing, the Emperor had early notice of it
- 30:11Speaker 1: by an express and determined in council that I should
- 30:16Speaker 1: be tied in the manner I have related, which was
- 30:19Speaker 1: done in the night while I slept, that plenty of
- 30:21Speaker 1: meat and drink should be sent to me and a
- 30:24Speaker 1: machine prepared to carry me to the capital city. This
- 30:28Speaker 1: resolution may appear very bold and dangerous, and I am
- 30:32Speaker 1: confident would not be imitated by any prince in Europe
- 30:35Speaker 1: on the like occasion. However, in my opinion, it was
- 30:40Speaker 1: extremely prudent as well as generous. For supposing these people
- 30:44Speaker 1: had endeavored to kill me with their spears and arrows
- 30:47Speaker 1: while I was asleep, I should certainly have awaked with
- 30:50Speaker 1: the first sense of smart which might so far have
- 30:53Speaker 1: roused my rage and strength as to enable me to
- 30:56Speaker 1: break the strings wherewith I was tied, after which, as
- 31:01Speaker 1: they were not able to make resistance, so they could
- 31:04Speaker 1: expect no mercy. These people are most excellent mathematicians, and
- 31:11Speaker 1: arrived to a great perfection in mechanics by the countenance
- 31:14Speaker 1: and encouragement of the Emperor, who is a renowned patron
- 31:18Speaker 1: of learning. This prince has several machines fixed on wheels
- 31:23Speaker 1: for the carriage of trees and other great weights. He
- 31:26Speaker 1: often builds his largest men of war, whereof some are
- 31:29Speaker 1: nine feet long, in the woods where the timber grows,
- 31:33Speaker 1: and has them carried on these engines three or four
- 31:35Speaker 1: hundred yards to the sea. Five hundred carpenters and engineers
- 31:40Speaker 1: were immediately set at work to prepare the greatest engine
- 31:43Speaker 1: they had. It was a frame of wood raised three
- 31:47Speaker 1: inches from the ground, about seven feet long and four wide,
- 31:51Speaker 1: moving upon twenty two wheels. The shout I heard was
- 31:56Speaker 1: upon the arrival of this engine, which it's set out
- 32:01Speaker 1: in four hours after my landing. It was brought parallel
- 32:05Speaker 1: to me as I lay, But the principal difficulty was
- 32:08Speaker 1: to raise and place me in this vehicle. Eighty poles,
- 32:12Speaker 1: each of one foot high, were erected for this purpose,
- 32:16Speaker 1: and very strong cords of the bigness of pack thread
- 32:19Speaker 1: were fastened by hooks to many bandages which the workmen
- 32:23Speaker 1: had girt around my neck, my hands, my body, and
- 32:25Speaker 1: my legs. Nine hundred of the strongest men were employed
- 32:29Speaker 1: to draw up these cords by many pulleys fastened on
- 32:33Speaker 1: the poles, and thus in less than three hours I
- 32:37Speaker 1: was raised and slung into the engine, and there tied fast.
- 32:42Speaker 1: All this I was told for while the operation was performing,
- 32:47Speaker 1: I lay in a profound sleep. By the force of
- 32:50Speaker 1: that soperiferous medicine infused into my liquor. Fifteen hundred of
- 32:56Speaker 1: the Emperor's largest horses, each about four inches and a
- 32:59Speaker 1: half pie, were employed to draw me towards the metropolis, which,
- 33:04Speaker 1: as I said, was half a mile distant. About four
- 33:10Speaker 1: hours after we began our journey, I awaked by a
- 33:13Speaker 1: very ridiculous accident, for the carriage being stopped awhile to
- 33:18Speaker 1: adjust something that was out of order. Two or three
- 33:21Speaker 1: of the young natives had the curiosity to see how
- 33:23Speaker 1: I looked when I was asleep. They climbed up into
- 33:27Speaker 1: the engine, and, advancing very softly to my face, one
- 33:31Speaker 1: of them, an officer in the guards, put the sharp
- 33:35Speaker 1: end of his half pike a good way up into
- 33:37Speaker 1: my left nostril, which tiggled my nose like a straw
- 33:41Speaker 1: and made me sneeze violently. Whereupon they stole off unperceived,
- 33:46Speaker 1: and it was three weeks before I knew the cause
- 33:48Speaker 1: of my waking. So suddenly we made along march the
- 33:52Speaker 1: remaining part of the day, and rested at night, with
- 33:55Speaker 1: the five hundred guards on each side of me, half
- 33:58Speaker 1: with torches and half of bow and arrows, ready to
- 34:02Speaker 1: shoot me if I should offer to stir. The next morning,
- 34:06Speaker 1: at sunrise, we continued our march and arrived within two
- 34:09Speaker 1: hundred yards of the city gates. About noon, the Emperor
- 34:14Speaker 1: and all his court came out to meet us, But
- 34:17Speaker 1: his great officers would by no means suffer his majesty
- 34:20Speaker 1: to endanger his position by mounting onto my body. At
- 34:25Speaker 1: the place where the carriage stopped, there stood an ancient temple,
- 34:29Speaker 1: esteemed to be the largest in the whole kingdom, which,
- 34:33Speaker 1: having been polluted some years before by an unnatural murder, was,
- 34:37Speaker 1: according to the zeal of those people, looked upon as profane,
- 34:41Speaker 1: and therefore had been applied to common use, and all
- 34:44Speaker 1: the ornaments at furniture carried away in this edifice, it
- 34:48Speaker 1: was determined I should lodge. The great gate fronting to
- 34:52Speaker 1: the north, was about four feet high and almost two
- 34:55Speaker 1: feet wide, through which I could easily creep. On each
- 34:59Speaker 1: side of the the gate was a small window not
- 35:02Speaker 1: above six inches from the ground. Into that on the
- 35:05Speaker 1: left side, the king smith conveyed four score and eleven chains,
- 35:10Speaker 1: like those that hanged to a lady's watch in Europe,
- 35:13Speaker 1: and almost as large, which were locked to my left
- 35:17Speaker 1: leg with six and thirty padlocks. Over against this temple,
- 35:22Speaker 1: on the other side of the Great highway, at twenty
- 35:24Speaker 1: feet distance. There was a turret at least five feet high.
- 35:30Speaker 1: Here the Emperor ascended with many principal lords of his
- 35:33Speaker 1: court to have an opportunity of viewing me as I
- 35:36Speaker 1: was told, for I could not see them. It was
- 35:40Speaker 1: reckoned that about a hundred thousand inhabitants came out of
- 35:43Speaker 1: the town upon the same errand, and in spite of
- 35:46Speaker 1: my guards, I believed there could not be fewer than
- 35:48Speaker 1: ten thousand at several times who mounted my body by
- 35:52Speaker 1: the help of ladders. But a proclamation was soon issued
- 35:56Speaker 1: to forbid it pompane of death. When the workmen found
- 36:00Speaker 1: it was impossible for me to break loose, they cut
- 36:03Speaker 1: all the strings that found me, whereupon I rose up
- 36:07Speaker 1: with as melancholy a disposition as ever I had in
- 36:10Speaker 1: my life. But the noise and astonishment of the people
- 36:14Speaker 1: at seeing me rise and walk are not to be expressed.
- 36:19Speaker 1: The chains that held my left leg were about two
- 36:21Speaker 1: yards long, and gave me not only the liberty of
- 36:23Speaker 1: walking backwards and forwards in a semicircle, but being fixed
- 36:28Speaker 1: within four inch to the gate, allowed me to creep
- 36:31Speaker 1: in and light my full length in the temple. End
- 36:36Speaker 1: of Chapter one, Part one, Chapter two. The Emperor of Liliput,
- 36:43Speaker 1: attended by several of the nobility, comes to see the
- 36:46Speaker 1: author in his confinement. The Emperor's person and habits described
- 36:52Speaker 1: learned men appointed to teach the author of their language.
- 36:55Speaker 1: He gains favour by his mild disposition. His pockets are searched,
- 36:59Speaker 1: and is soa and pistols taken from him. When I
- 37:02Speaker 1: found myself on my feet, I looked about me, and
- 37:06Speaker 1: must confess I never beheld a more entertaining prospect. The
- 37:10Speaker 1: country around appeared like a continued garden, and the enclosed fields,
- 37:15Speaker 1: which were generally forty feet square, resembled so many beds
- 37:18Speaker 1: of flowers. These fields were intermingled with woods of half
- 37:22Speaker 1: a stang, and the tallest trees, as I could judge,
- 37:26Speaker 1: appeared to be seven feet high. I viewed the town
- 37:30Speaker 1: on my left hand, which looked like the painted scene
- 37:32Speaker 1: of a city in a theater. I had been for
- 37:36Speaker 1: some hours extremely pressed by the necessities of nature, which
- 37:40Speaker 1: was no wonder it, being almost two days since I
- 37:42Speaker 1: had last disburdened myself. I was under great difficulties between
- 37:46Speaker 1: urgency and shame. The best expedient I could think of
- 37:50Speaker 1: was to creep into my house, which I accordingly did,
- 37:54Speaker 1: and shut in the gate. After me. I went as
- 37:56Speaker 1: far as the length of my chain would suffer, and
- 37:58Speaker 1: discharge my body of that uneasy load. But this was
- 38:02Speaker 1: the only time I was ever guilty of so uncleanly,
- 38:04Speaker 1: an action for which I cannot but hope the candid
- 38:07Speaker 1: reader will give some allowance after who is maturely and
- 38:11Speaker 1: impartially considered my case and the distress I was in.
- 38:16Speaker 1: From this time my constant practice was as soon as
- 38:19Speaker 1: I rose to perform that business in open air at
- 38:22Speaker 1: the full extent of my chain, and due care was
- 38:25Speaker 1: taken every morning before company came, that the offensive matter
- 38:29Speaker 1: should be carried off in wheelbarrows by two servants appointed
- 38:32Speaker 1: for that purpose. I would not have dwelt so long
- 38:36Speaker 1: upon a circumstance that, perhaps at first sight, may appear
- 38:40Speaker 1: not very momentous if I had not thought it necessary
- 38:43Speaker 1: to justify my character in point of cleanliness to the world,
- 38:48Speaker 1: which I am told some of my maligners have been
- 38:51Speaker 1: pleased upon this and other occasions to call in question.
- 38:58Speaker 1: When this adventure was at an end, I came back
- 39:01Speaker 1: out of my house, having an occasion for fresh air.
- 39:04Speaker 1: The Emperor was already descended from the tower and advancing
- 39:08Speaker 1: on horseback towards me, which had liked to have cost
- 39:11Speaker 1: him dear. For the beast, though very well trained, yet
- 39:14Speaker 1: wholly unused to such a sight, which appeared as if
- 39:17Speaker 1: a mountain moved before him, reared up on his hind feet.
- 39:21Speaker 1: But that Prince, who is an excellent horseman, kept his
- 39:24Speaker 1: seat till his attendants ran in and held the bridle
- 39:28Speaker 1: while his Majesty had time to dismount. When he alighted,
- 39:33Speaker 1: he surveyed me round with great admiration, but kept beyond
- 39:37Speaker 1: the length of my chain. He ordered his cooks and butlers,
- 39:41Speaker 1: who were already prepared to give me victuals and drink,
- 39:45Speaker 1: which they pushed forward in a sort of vehicle upon
- 39:47Speaker 1: wheels till I could reach them. I took these vehicles
- 39:52Speaker 1: and soon emptied them. All. Twenty of them were filled
- 39:55Speaker 1: with meat, and ten with liqueur. Each of the former
- 39:59Speaker 1: afforded me two or three good mouthfuls, And I ampered
- 40:02Speaker 1: the liqueur of ten vessels, which was contained in earthen vials,
- 40:06Speaker 1: into one vehicle, drinking it up at a draft. And
- 40:10Speaker 1: so I did with the rest. The Empress and young
- 40:15Speaker 1: princes of the blood of both sexes, attended by many ladies,
- 40:18Speaker 1: sat at some distance in their chairs, But upon the
- 40:22Speaker 1: accident that happened to the Emperor's horse, they alighted and
- 40:25Speaker 1: came near his person, which I am now going to describe.
- 40:30Speaker 1: He is taller, by almost the breadth of my nail
- 40:32Speaker 1: than any of his court, which alone is enough to
- 40:35Speaker 1: strike an oar into the beholders. His features are strong
- 40:39Speaker 1: and masculine, with an Austrian lip and arched nose, his
- 40:43Speaker 1: complexion olive, his countenance erect, his body and limbs well proportioned,
- 40:49Speaker 1: all his motions graceful, and his deportment majestic. He was
- 40:54Speaker 1: then past his prime, being twenty eight years and three
- 40:56Speaker 1: quarters old, of which he had reigned about seven, in
- 41:00Speaker 1: great felicity and generally victorious. For the better convenience of
- 41:06Speaker 1: beholding him, I lay on my side so that my
- 41:09Speaker 1: face was parallel to his, and he stood but three
- 41:11Speaker 1: yards off. However, I have had him since many times
- 41:16Speaker 1: in my hand, and therefore cannot be deceived in the description.
- 41:21Speaker 1: His dress was very plain and simple, and the fashion
- 41:23Speaker 1: of it between the Asia Static and the European. But
- 41:27Speaker 1: he had on his head a light helmet of gold,
- 41:30Speaker 1: adorned with jewels and a plume on the crest. He
- 41:34Speaker 1: held a sword drawn in his hand to defend himself
- 41:37Speaker 1: if I should happen to break loose. It was almost
- 41:40Speaker 1: three inches long. The hilt and scabbard were gold and
- 41:43Speaker 1: riched with diamonds. His voice was shrill, but very clear
- 41:46Speaker 1: and articulate, and I could distinctly hear it when I
- 41:49Speaker 1: stood up. The ladies and courtiers were all magnificently clad,
- 41:55Speaker 1: so that the spot they stood upon seemed to resemble
- 41:57Speaker 1: a petticoat spread upon the ground, embroider with figures of
- 42:00Speaker 1: gold and silver. His Imperial Majesty spoke often to me,
- 42:06Speaker 1: and I returned answers, but neither of us can understand
- 42:09Speaker 1: its syllable. There were several of his priests and lawyers present,
- 42:14Speaker 1: as I conjectured by their habits, who were commanded to
- 42:17Speaker 1: address themselves to me, and I spoke to them in
- 42:20Speaker 1: many languages as I had the least mattering of which
- 42:24Speaker 1: were high and low Dutch, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and
- 42:29Speaker 1: Lingu Franca, but all to no purpose. After about two hours,
- 42:34Speaker 1: the court retired, and I was left with the strong
- 42:37Speaker 1: guard to prevent the impertinence and probably the malice of
- 42:40Speaker 1: the rabble, who were very impatient to crowd about me
- 42:43Speaker 1: as near as they durst, and some of them had
- 42:46Speaker 1: the impudence to shoot their arrows at me as I
- 42:49Speaker 1: sat on the ground by the door of my house,
- 42:52Speaker 1: where one very narrowly missed my left eye. But the
- 42:57Speaker 1: colonel ordered six of the ring leaders to be seized,
- 43:00Speaker 1: and thought no punishment so proper as to deliver them
- 43:02Speaker 1: bound into my hands, which some of his soldiers accordingly did,
- 43:07Speaker 1: pushing them forward with the buttons of their pikes into
- 43:09Speaker 1: my reach. I took them in my right hand, put
- 43:13Speaker 1: five of them into my coat pocket, and nursed to
- 43:16Speaker 1: the sixth. I made a countenance as if I would
- 43:18Speaker 1: eat him alive. The poor man scrawled terribly, and the
- 43:22Speaker 1: colonel and his officers were in much pain, especially when
- 43:26Speaker 1: they saw me take out my pen knife. But I
- 43:29Speaker 1: soon put them out of fear for looking mildly, and
- 43:33Speaker 1: immediately cutting the strings he was bound with. I set
- 43:36Speaker 1: him gently on the ground, and away he ran. I
- 43:39Speaker 1: treated the rest in the same manner, taking them one
- 43:42Speaker 1: by one out of my pocket, and I observed both
- 43:45Speaker 1: the soldiers and people were highly delighted at this mark
- 43:48Speaker 1: of my clemency, which was represented very much to my
- 43:51Speaker 1: advantage at court. Towards night, I got with some difficulty
- 43:56Speaker 1: into my house, where I lay on the ground, and
- 43:59Speaker 1: continued to do so about a fortnight, during which time
- 44:03Speaker 1: the Emperor gave orders to have a bed prepared for me.
- 44:07Speaker 1: Six hundred beds of the common measure were brought in
- 44:09Speaker 1: carriages and worked up in my house. One hundred and
- 44:13Speaker 1: fifty of their beds, sewn together, made up the breadth
- 44:16Speaker 1: and length, and these were four double, which however, kept
- 44:20Speaker 1: me but very indifferently from the hardness of the floor
- 44:23Speaker 1: that was a smooth stone. By the same computation, they
- 44:27Speaker 1: provided me with sheets, blankets, and coverlets, tolerable enough for
- 44:32Speaker 1: one who had been so long inured to hardships. As
- 44:36Speaker 1: the news of my arrival spread through the kingdom, it
- 44:40Speaker 1: brought prodigious numbers of rich, idle and curious people to
- 44:43Speaker 1: see me, so that the villages were almost emptied, and
- 44:47Speaker 1: a great neglect of tillage and household affairs must have
- 44:50Speaker 1: ensued if his Imperial Majesty had not provided by several
- 44:54Speaker 1: proclamations and orders of state against his inconveniency, he directed
- 44:59Speaker 1: that those who had a already beheld me should return
- 45:01Speaker 1: home and not presumed to come within fifty yards of
- 45:04Speaker 1: my house without license from the Court, whereby the secretaries
- 45:08Speaker 1: of State got considerable fees. In the meantime, the Emperor
- 45:13Speaker 1: held frequent councils to debate what course should be taken
- 45:16Speaker 1: with me, and I was afterwards assured by a particular friend,
- 45:21Speaker 1: a person of great quality, who was as much in
- 45:23Speaker 1: the secret as any, that the court was under many
- 45:26Speaker 1: difficulties concerning me. They apprehended my breaking loose, that my
- 45:31Speaker 1: diet would be very expensive and might cause a famine.
- 45:35Speaker 1: Sometimes they determined to starve me, or at least to
- 45:38Speaker 1: shed me in the face and hands with poisoned arrows,
- 45:41Speaker 1: which would soon dispatch me. But again they considered that
- 45:45Speaker 1: the stent of so large a carcass might produce a
- 45:47Speaker 1: plague in the metropolis, and probably spread through the whole kingdom.
- 45:52Speaker 1: In the midst of these consultations, several officers of the
- 45:55Speaker 1: army went to the door of the Great Council Chamber,
- 45:58Speaker 1: and two of them, being admitted, gave an account of
- 46:01Speaker 1: my behavior to the six criminals above mentioned, which made
- 46:04Speaker 1: so favorable an impression in the breast of His Majesty
- 46:07Speaker 1: and the whole board in my behalf, that an imperial
- 46:11Speaker 1: commission was issued out obliging all the villages nine hundred
- 46:15Speaker 1: yards round the city to deliver in every morning six beaves,
- 46:19Speaker 1: forty sheep and other victuals for my sustenance, together with
- 46:23Speaker 1: a proportional quantity of bread and wine, and other liqueurs,
- 46:28Speaker 1: for the due payment of which His Majesty gave assignments
- 46:31Speaker 1: upon his treasury. For this Prince lives chiefly upon his
- 46:34Speaker 1: own demensies, seldom except upon great occasions, raising any subsidies
- 46:40Speaker 1: upon his subjects, who are bound to attend him in
- 46:43Speaker 1: his wars, at their own expense. An establishment was also
- 46:47Speaker 1: made of six hundred persons through my domestics, who had
- 46:51Speaker 1: board wages allowed for their maintenance, and tents built for
- 46:54Speaker 1: them very conveniently on each side of my door. It
- 46:58Speaker 1: was likewise ordered that three hundred tailor should make me
- 47:00Speaker 1: a suit of clothes after the fashion of the country.
- 47:04Speaker 1: That six of His Majesty's greatest scholars should be employed
- 47:07Speaker 1: to instruct me in their language. And lastly that the
- 47:10Speaker 1: Emperor's horses and those of the nobility, and troops of
- 47:13Speaker 1: the guards should be frequently exercised in my sight to
- 47:16Speaker 1: accustom themselves to me. All these orders were duly put
- 47:20Speaker 1: in execution, and in about three weeks I made a
- 47:24Speaker 1: great progress in learning their language, during which time the
- 47:28Speaker 1: Emperor frequently honored me with his visits and was pleased
- 47:31Speaker 1: to assist my masters in teaching me. We began already
- 47:36Speaker 1: to converse together in some sort, and the first words
- 47:39Speaker 1: I learnt were to express my desire that he would
- 47:42Speaker 1: please give me my liberty, which I every day repeated
- 47:46Speaker 1: on my knees. His answer, as I could comprehend, it,
- 47:51Speaker 1: was that this must be the work of time, not
- 47:54Speaker 1: to be thoughtful without the advice of his counsel. And
- 47:56Speaker 1: at first I musked lumas kelmn pessot decmaon eposso that is,
- 48:03Speaker 1: swear a peace with him and his kingdom. However, that
- 48:07Speaker 1: I should be used with all kindness, And he advised
- 48:11Speaker 1: me to acquire, by my patience and discreet behavior the
- 48:15Speaker 1: good opinion of himself and his subjects. He desired. I
- 48:19Speaker 1: would not take it ill if he gave orders to
- 48:21Speaker 1: certain proper officers to search me, for probably I might
- 48:25Speaker 1: carry about me several weapons, which must needs be dangerous things.
- 48:30Speaker 1: If they answered the bulk of so prodigious a person,
- 48:34Speaker 1: I said, his majesty should be satisfied, for I was
- 48:38Speaker 1: ready to strip myself and turn my pockets before him.
- 48:43Speaker 1: This I delivered, part in words and part in signs.
- 48:47Speaker 1: He replied that by the laws of the kingdom, I
- 48:50Speaker 1: must be searched by two of his officers. That he
- 48:53Speaker 1: knew this could not be done without my consent and assistance,
- 48:56Speaker 1: and he had so good an opinion of my generosity
- 48:59Speaker 1: and justice as to trust their persons in my hands,
- 49:03Speaker 1: that whatever they took from me should be returned when
- 49:05Speaker 1: I left the country, or paid were at the rate
- 49:08Speaker 1: which I would set upon them. I took up the
- 49:12Speaker 1: two officers in my hands, put them first in my
- 49:14Speaker 1: coat pockets, and then into every other pocket about me,
- 49:18Speaker 1: except my two fobs and another secret pocket, which I
- 49:22Speaker 1: had no mind should be searched, wherein I had some
- 49:25Speaker 1: little necessities that were of no consequence to any but myself.
- 49:30Speaker 1: In one of my fobs there was a silver watch,
- 49:33Speaker 1: and in the other a small quantity of gold in
- 49:34Speaker 1: a purse. These gentlemen, having pen, ink and paper about them,
- 49:40Speaker 1: made an exact inventory of everything they saw, and when
- 49:44Speaker 1: they had done desired, I would set them down that
- 49:47Speaker 1: they might deliver it to the Emperor. This inventory I
- 49:51Speaker 1: afterwards translated into English, and is word a word as
- 49:55Speaker 1: follows impromise in the right coat pocket of the great
- 50:01Speaker 1: man Mountain, for so I interpret the words quimbus flesterin
- 50:07Speaker 1: After the strictest search, we found only one great piece
- 50:11Speaker 1: of coarse cloth, large enough to be a footcloth for
- 50:14Speaker 1: your Majesty's chief room of state. In the left pocket
- 50:17Speaker 1: we saw a huge silver chest with the cover of
- 50:20Speaker 1: the same metal, which we, the search us, were not
- 50:24Speaker 1: able to lift. We desired it should be opened, and
- 50:28Speaker 1: one of us, stepping into it, found himself up to
- 50:31Speaker 1: the mid leg in a sort of dust, some part
- 50:34Speaker 1: whereof flying up to our faces, set us both as
- 50:37Speaker 1: sneezing for several times together. In his right waist coat
- 50:41Speaker 1: pocket we found a prodigious bundle of white, thin substances,
- 50:45Speaker 1: folded one over another, about the bigness of three men,
- 50:50Speaker 1: tied with a strong cable, and marked with black figures,
- 50:54Speaker 1: which we humbly conceived to be writings. Every letter almost
- 50:58Speaker 1: half as large as the palm of our In the
- 51:02Speaker 1: left there was a sort of engine, from the back
- 51:05Speaker 1: of which were extended twenty long poles, resembling the palisadoes
- 51:09Speaker 1: before your Majesty's court, wherewith we conjectured the man mounting
- 51:14Speaker 1: combs his head, for we did not always trouble him
- 51:17Speaker 1: with questions, because we found it a great difficulty to
- 51:20Speaker 1: make him understand us. In the large pocket, on the
- 51:24Speaker 1: right side of his middle cover, so I translated the
- 51:28Speaker 1: word ran fullo, by which they meant my breeches, we
- 51:32Speaker 1: saw a hollow pillow of iron about the length of
- 51:34Speaker 1: a man, fastened to a strong piece of timber larger
- 51:38Speaker 1: than the pillar. And upon one side of the pillar
- 51:40Speaker 1: were huge pieces of iron sticking out, cut into strange figures,
- 51:45Speaker 1: which we know not what to make of. In the
- 51:48Speaker 1: left pocket another engine of the same kind. In the
- 51:52Speaker 1: smaller pocket on the right side were several round, flat
- 51:55Speaker 1: pieces of white and red metal of different bulk. Some
- 51:59Speaker 1: of the y, which seemed to be silver, were so
- 52:02Speaker 1: large and heavy that my comrade and I could hardly
- 52:05Speaker 1: lift them. In the left pocket were two black pillars,
- 52:09Speaker 1: irregularly shaped. We could not with difficulty reach the top
- 52:13Speaker 1: of them, as we stood at the bottom of his pocket.
- 52:16Speaker 1: One of them was covered and seemed all of a piece,
- 52:19Speaker 1: but at the upper end of the other there appeared
- 52:21Speaker 1: a white, round substance about twice the bigness of our heads.
- 52:27Speaker 1: Within each of these were enclosed a prodigious plate of steel, which,
- 52:31Speaker 1: by our orders we obliged him to show us, because
- 52:34Speaker 1: we apprehended they might be dangerous engines. He took them
- 52:39Speaker 1: out of their cases and told us that in his
- 52:41Speaker 1: own country his practice was to shave his beard with
- 52:44Speaker 1: one of these and cut his meat with the other.
- 52:48Speaker 1: There were two pockets which we could not enter. These
- 52:51Speaker 1: he caught his fobs. They were two large lids cut
- 52:55Speaker 1: into the top of his middle cover, but squeezed close
- 52:58Speaker 1: by the pressure of his belly. Out of the right
- 53:01Speaker 1: fob hung a great silver chain with a wonderful kind
- 53:04Speaker 1: of engine at the bottom. We directed him to draw
- 53:08Speaker 1: out whatever was at the end of that chain, which
- 53:10Speaker 1: appeared to be a globe half silver and half of
- 53:13Speaker 1: some transparent metal. For on the transparent side we saw
- 53:17Speaker 1: certain strange figures circularly drawn, and thought we could touch them,
- 53:22Speaker 1: till we found our figures stopped by the lucid substance.
- 53:27Speaker 1: He put this engine into our ears, which made an
- 53:29Speaker 1: incessant noise like that of a water mill. And when
- 53:33Speaker 1: in conjecture, it is either some unknown animal or the
- 53:36Speaker 1: god that he worships. But we are more inclined to
- 53:39Speaker 1: the latter opinion, because he assured us if we understood
- 53:43Speaker 1: him right, forre expressed himself very imperfectly that he seldom
- 53:48Speaker 1: did anything without consulting it. He called it his oracle,
- 53:52Speaker 1: and said it pointed out the time for every action
- 53:55Speaker 1: of his life. From the left fob he took out
- 53:58Speaker 1: a net almost large enough fishermen, but contrived to open
- 54:02Speaker 1: as shut like a purse, and served him for the
- 54:05Speaker 1: same use. We found therein several massy pieces of yellow metal, which,
- 54:11Speaker 1: if they be real gold, must be of immense value.
- 54:15Speaker 1: Having thus, in obedience to your Majesty's commands, diligently searched
- 54:19Speaker 1: all his pockets, we observed a girdle about his waist
- 54:22Speaker 1: made of the hide of some prodigious animal, from which
- 54:26Speaker 1: on the left side hung a sword of the length
- 54:28Speaker 1: of five men, and on the right a bag or
- 54:32Speaker 1: pouch divided into two cells, each cell capable of holding
- 54:36Speaker 1: three of Your Majesty's subjects. In each of these cells
- 54:40Speaker 1: were several globes or walls of a most ponderous metal,
- 54:45Speaker 1: about the bigness of our heads, and requiring a strong
- 54:47Speaker 1: hand to lift them. The other cell contained a heap
- 54:51Speaker 1: of black grains, but of no great bulk or weight,
- 54:55Speaker 1: for we could hold above fifty of them in the
- 54:57Speaker 1: palm of our hands. This is an exact inventory of
- 55:01Speaker 1: what we found about the body of the man Mountain
- 55:04Speaker 1: who used us with great civility and due respect to
- 55:08Speaker 1: your Majesty's commission, signed and sealed on the fourth day
- 55:12Speaker 1: of the eighty ninth moon of your Majesty's auspicious rain.
- 55:15Speaker 1: Clefren Freelock Marcy Freelock. When this inventory was read over
- 55:22Speaker 1: to the Emperor, he directed me, although in very gentle terms,
- 55:27Speaker 1: to deliver up several particulars. He first called for my cimeta,
- 55:32Speaker 1: which I took out, scabbard and all. In the meantime,
- 55:35Speaker 1: he ordered three thousand of his choicest troops, who then
- 55:38Speaker 1: attended him to surround me at a distance with their
- 55:42Speaker 1: bows and arrows just ready to discharge. But I did
- 55:46Speaker 1: not observe it, for mine eyes were wholly fixed upon
- 55:49Speaker 1: his Majesty. He then desired me to draw my cimitar, which,
- 55:54Speaker 1: although he had got some rust by the sea water,
- 55:57Speaker 1: was in most parts exceedingly right. I did so, and
- 56:02Speaker 1: immediately all the troops gave a shout between terror and surprise,
- 56:06Speaker 1: for the sun shone clear, and the reflection dazzled their eyes.
- 56:10Speaker 1: As I waved the scimitar to and fro in my hand,
- 56:13Speaker 1: His Majesty, who is the most magnanimous prince, was less
- 56:17Speaker 1: daunted that I could expect. He ordered me to return
- 56:20Speaker 1: it into the scabbard and cast it on the ground
- 56:23Speaker 1: as gently as I could, about six feet from the
- 56:26Speaker 1: end of my chain. The next thing he demanded was
- 56:30Speaker 1: of the hollow iron pillars, by which he meant my
- 56:33Speaker 1: pocket pistols. I drew it out, and at his desire
- 56:37Speaker 1: as well as I could, expressed to him the use
- 56:40Speaker 1: of it, and charging it only with powder, which, by
- 56:44Speaker 1: the closeness of my pouch happened to escape wetting in
- 56:46Speaker 1: the sea, an inconvenience against which all prudent mariners take
- 56:50Speaker 1: special care to provide. I first cautioned the Emperor not
- 56:54Speaker 1: to be afraid, and then I let it off in
- 56:56Speaker 1: the air. The astonishment here as much greater than at
- 57:00Speaker 1: the sight of my cimeter, hundreds fell down as if
- 57:04Speaker 1: they had been struck dead, and even the Emperor, although
- 57:07Speaker 1: he stood his ground, could not recover himself. For some time.
- 57:12Speaker 1: I delivered up both my pistols in the same manner
- 57:14Speaker 1: as I had done my cimeter, and then my pouch
- 57:17Speaker 1: of powder and bullets, begging him that the former might
- 57:20Speaker 1: be kept from fire, for it would kindle with the
- 57:23Speaker 1: smallest spark and blow up his imperial palace into the air.
- 57:28Speaker 1: I likewise delivered up my watch, which the Emperor was
- 57:31Speaker 1: very curious to see, and commanded two of his tallest
- 57:35Speaker 1: yeoman guards to bear it on a pole upon their shoulders,
- 57:39Speaker 1: as Draymond in England do a barrel of ale. He
- 57:43Speaker 1: was amazed at the continual noise it made and the
- 57:45Speaker 1: motion of the minute hand, which he could easily discern,
- 57:49Speaker 1: for their sight is much more acute than ours. He
- 57:52Speaker 1: asked the opinions of his learned men about it, which
- 57:55Speaker 1: were various and remote, as the reader may well imagine,
- 57:58Speaker 1: without my repeating, although indeed I could not very perfectly
- 58:02Speaker 1: understand them. I then gave up my silver and copper money,
- 58:06Speaker 1: my purse with nine large pieces of gold and some
- 58:09Speaker 1: smaller ones, my knife and razor, my comb and silver
- 58:13Speaker 1: snuff box, my handkerchief and journal book, my cimitar, pistols
- 58:18Speaker 1: and pouch were conveyed in carriages to His Majesty's stores,
- 58:22Speaker 1: but the rest of my goods were returned to me.
- 58:26Speaker 1: I had, as I before observed, one private pocket which
- 58:30Speaker 1: escaped their search, wherein there was a pair of spectacles,
- 58:34Speaker 1: which I sometimes used for the weakness of mine eyes,
- 58:38Speaker 1: a pocket perspective, and some other little conveniences, which, being
- 58:43Speaker 1: of no consequence to the Emperor, I did not think
- 58:46Speaker 1: myself bound in honor to discover, and I apprehended they
- 58:50Speaker 1: might be lost or spoiled if I ventured them out
- 58:52Speaker 1: of my possession. End of Chapter two, Part one, Chapter three,
- 59:02Speaker 1: the author diverts the Emperor and his nobility of both
- 59:05Speaker 1: sexes in a very uncommon manner. The diversions of the
- 59:10Speaker 1: Court of Lilliput described. The author has his liberty granted
- 59:14Speaker 1: him upon certain conditions. My gentleness and good behavior had
- 59:20Speaker 1: gained so far on the Emperor and his court, and
- 59:22Speaker 1: indeed upon the army and people in general, that I
- 59:25Speaker 1: began to conceive hopes of getting my liberty in a
- 59:28Speaker 1: short time. I took all possible methods to cultivate this
- 59:32Speaker 1: favorable disposition. The natives came, by degrees to be less
- 59:37Speaker 1: apprehensive for any danger from me. I would sometimes lie
- 59:40Speaker 1: down and let five or six of them dance on
- 59:43Speaker 1: my hand, and at last the boys and girls would
- 59:46Speaker 1: venture to come and play hide and seek in my hair.
- 59:50Speaker 1: I had now made a good progress in understanding and
- 59:52Speaker 1: speak in the language. The Emperor had a mind one
- 59:56Speaker 1: day to entertain me with several of the country shows,
- 59:59Speaker 1: wherein the exceed all nations I have known, both for
- 1:00:02Speaker 1: dexterity and magnificence. I was diverted with none so much
- 1:00:06Speaker 1: as that of the rope dancers performed upon a slender
- 1:00:10Speaker 1: white thread extended about two feet and twelve inches from
- 1:00:13Speaker 1: the ground, upon which I shall desire liberty with the
- 1:00:17Speaker 1: reader's patients to enlarge a little. This diversion is only
- 1:00:22Speaker 1: practiced by those persons who are candidates for great employments
- 1:00:25Speaker 1: and high favour at court. They are trained in this
- 1:00:28Speaker 1: art from their youth, and are not always of noble
- 1:00:31Speaker 1: birth or liberal education. When a great office is vacant,
- 1:00:36Speaker 1: either by death or disgrace, which often happens, five or
- 1:00:40Speaker 1: six of those candidates petition the Emperor to entertain his
- 1:00:43Speaker 1: majesty and the court with the dance on the rope,
- 1:00:47Speaker 1: and whoever jumpt the highest without falling, succeed in the office.
- 1:00:52Speaker 1: Very often the chief ministers themselves are commanded to show
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: their skill and to convince the Emperor that they have
- 1:00:59Speaker 1: not lost their fact film nap. The Treasurer is allowed
- 1:01:04Speaker 1: to cut a caper on the straight rope at least
- 1:01:07Speaker 1: an inch higher than any other lord in the whole Empire.
- 1:01:10Speaker 1: I have seen him do the somersault several times together
- 1:01:13Speaker 1: upon a trencher fixed on a rope which is no
- 1:01:15Speaker 1: thicker than a common pack thread. In England, my friend Realdressel,
- 1:01:21Speaker 1: Principal Secretary for private Affairs, is, in my opinion, if
- 1:01:25Speaker 1: I am not partial, the second after the Treasurer. The
- 1:01:29Speaker 1: rest of the great officers are much upon a par
- 1:01:33Speaker 1: These diversions are often attended with fatal accidents, whereof great
- 1:01:37Speaker 1: numbers are on record. I myself have seen two or
- 1:01:41Speaker 1: three candidates break a limb. But the danger is much
- 1:01:45Speaker 1: greater when the ministers themselves are commanded to show their dexterity,
- 1:01:49Speaker 1: for by contending to excel themselves from their fellows. They
- 1:01:52Speaker 1: strain so far that there is hardly one of them
- 1:01:54Speaker 1: who is not received a fall, and some of them
- 1:01:57Speaker 1: two or three. I was assured that a year or
- 1:02:01Speaker 1: two before my arrival, Filmnap would infallibly have broke his
- 1:02:04Speaker 1: neck if one of the King's cushions that accidentally lay
- 1:02:08Speaker 1: on the ground had not weakened the force of his fall.
- 1:02:13Speaker 1: There is likewise another diversion, which is only shown before
- 1:02:16Speaker 1: the Emperor and Empress and First Minister upon particular occasions.
- 1:02:22Speaker 1: The Emperor lays on a table three fine silken threads
- 1:02:25Speaker 1: of six inches long. One is blue, the other red,
- 1:02:29Speaker 1: and the third green. These threads are proposed as prizes
- 1:02:34Speaker 1: for those persons whom the Emperor has in mind to
- 1:02:36Speaker 1: distinguish by a peculiar mark of his favour. The ceremony
- 1:02:40Speaker 1: is performed in His Majesty's Great Chamber of State, where
- 1:02:44Speaker 1: the candidates are to undergo a trial of dexterity very
- 1:02:46Speaker 1: different from the former, and such as I have not
- 1:02:49Speaker 1: observed the least resemblance of in any other country of
- 1:02:52Speaker 1: the New or old world. The Emperor holds a stick
- 1:02:56Speaker 1: in his hands, both ends parallel to the horizon, while
- 1:03:00Speaker 1: the candidates, advancing one by one, sometimes leap over the stick,
- 1:03:05Speaker 1: sometimes creep under it, backward and forward several times, according
- 1:03:10Speaker 1: as the stick is advanced or depressed. Sometimes the Emperor
- 1:03:14Speaker 1: holds one end of the stick and his first minister
- 1:03:16Speaker 1: the other. Sometimes the minister has it entirely to himself.
- 1:03:21Speaker 1: Whoever performs his part with most agility and holds out
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: the longest and leaping and creeping, is rewarded with the
- 1:03:27Speaker 1: blue colored silk. The red is given to the next,
- 1:03:30Speaker 1: and the green to the third, which they all wear
- 1:03:33Speaker 1: girt twice around the middle. And you see few great
- 1:03:37Speaker 1: persons about this court who are not adorned with one
- 1:03:39Speaker 1: of these girdles. The horses of the army and those
- 1:03:44Speaker 1: of the royal stables, having been daily led before me,
- 1:03:48Speaker 1: were no longer shy, but would come up to my
- 1:03:51Speaker 1: very feet without starting. The riders would leap them over
- 1:03:55Speaker 1: my hand as they held it on the ground, And
- 1:03:57Speaker 1: one of the Emperor's huntsmen, upon a larger horsair, took
- 1:04:01Speaker 1: my foot, shoe and all, which was indeed a protigious leap.
- 1:04:06Speaker 1: I had the good fortune to divert the Emperor one
- 1:04:08Speaker 1: day after a very extraordinary manner. I desired he would
- 1:04:13Speaker 1: order several sticks of two feet high and the thickness
- 1:04:16Speaker 1: of an ordinary cane, to be brought to me. Whereupon
- 1:04:19Speaker 1: His Majesty commanded the master of his woods to give
- 1:04:22Speaker 1: directions accordingly, and the next morning six woodmen arrived with
- 1:04:27Speaker 1: as many carriages, drawn by eight horses to each. I
- 1:04:31Speaker 1: took nine of these sticks, and fixing them firmly in
- 1:04:34Speaker 1: the ground in a quadrangular figure two feet and a
- 1:04:37Speaker 1: half square. I took four other sticks and tied them
- 1:04:41Speaker 1: parallel at each corner, about two feet from the ground.
- 1:04:45Speaker 1: Then I fastened my handkerchief to the nine sticks that
- 1:04:47Speaker 1: stood erect, and extended it on all sides till it
- 1:04:51Speaker 1: was tight at the top of a drum, and the
- 1:04:54Speaker 1: four parallel sticks, rising about five inches higher than the handkerchief,
- 1:04:59Speaker 1: served as ledges on each side. When I had finished
- 1:05:03Speaker 1: my work, I desired the Emperor to let a troop
- 1:05:05Speaker 1: of his best horses, twenty four in number, come and
- 1:05:09Speaker 1: exercise upon this plane. His Majesty approved of the proposal,
- 1:05:14Speaker 1: and I took them up one by one in my hands,
- 1:05:18Speaker 1: ready mounted and armed with the proper officers, to exercise
- 1:05:21Speaker 1: them as soon as they got into order. They had
- 1:05:24Speaker 1: divided into two parties, performed mock skirmishes, discharged blunt arrows,
- 1:05:30Speaker 1: drew their swords, fled and pursued, attacked and retired, and
- 1:05:35Speaker 1: in short discovered the best military discipline I ever beheld.
- 1:05:39Speaker 1: The parallel sticks secured them and their horses from falling
- 1:05:42Speaker 1: over the stage, and the Emperor was so much delighted
- 1:05:45Speaker 1: that he ordered this entertainment to be repeated several days,
- 1:05:50Speaker 1: And once was pleased to be lifted up and give
- 1:05:52Speaker 1: the word of command, And with great difficulty persuaded even
- 1:05:57Speaker 1: the Empress herself to let me hold her in her
- 1:05:59Speaker 1: clothes chair within two yards of the stage, when she
- 1:06:03Speaker 1: was able to take a full view of the whole performance.
- 1:06:07Speaker 1: It was my good fortune that no ill accident happened
- 1:06:09Speaker 1: in these entertainments. Only once, a fiery horse that belonged
- 1:06:14Speaker 1: to one of the captains, pouring with his hoof, struck
- 1:06:17Speaker 1: a hole in my handkerchief, and his foot slipping, he
- 1:06:20Speaker 1: overthrew his rider and himself, But I immediately relieved them both,
- 1:06:25Speaker 1: and covering the hole with one hand, I set down
- 1:06:27Speaker 1: the troupe with the other. In the same manner as
- 1:06:29Speaker 1: I took them up. The horse that fell was strained
- 1:06:33Speaker 1: in the left shoulder, but the rider got no hurt,
- 1:06:36Speaker 1: and I repaired my handkerchief as well as I could. However,
- 1:06:40Speaker 1: I would not trust to the strength of it anymore
- 1:06:42Speaker 1: in such dangerous enterprises. About two or three days before
- 1:06:48Speaker 1: I was set at liberty, as I was entertaining the
- 1:06:51Speaker 1: court with this kind of feet, there arrived in express
- 1:06:54Speaker 1: to inform His Majesty the sum of his subjects. Riding
- 1:06:58Speaker 1: near the place where I was first taken up, had
- 1:07:00Speaker 1: seen a great black substance lying on the ground, very
- 1:07:04Speaker 1: oddly shaped, extending its edges round as wide as his
- 1:07:08Speaker 1: Majesty's bed chamber, and rising up in the middle as
- 1:07:11Speaker 1: high as a man. That it was no living creature,
- 1:07:14Speaker 1: as they at first apprehended, for it lay on the
- 1:07:17Speaker 1: grass without motion, and some of them had walked round
- 1:07:20Speaker 1: it several times, that by mounting upon each other's shoulders,
- 1:07:26Speaker 1: they had got to the top, which was flat and even,
- 1:07:30Speaker 1: and stamping upon it, they found that it was hollow
- 1:07:32Speaker 1: within that they hardly conceived it might be something belonging
- 1:07:36Speaker 1: to the man mountain. And if His Majesty pleased, they
- 1:07:40Speaker 1: would undertake to bring it with only five horses I
- 1:07:44Speaker 1: presently knew what they meant, and was glad at heart
- 1:07:47Speaker 1: to receive his intelligence. It seems, upon my first reaching
- 1:07:52Speaker 1: the shore after our shipwreck, I was in such confusion
- 1:07:55Speaker 1: that before I came to the place where I went
- 1:07:57Speaker 1: to sleep, my hat, which I had fastened with the
- 1:08:01Speaker 1: string to my head while I was rowing and had
- 1:08:03Speaker 1: stuck on all the time I was swimming, fell off
- 1:08:06Speaker 1: after I came to land. The string, as I conjecture,
- 1:08:10Speaker 1: break him by some accident which I never observed. But
- 1:08:13Speaker 1: thought my hat to be lost at sea, I entreated
- 1:08:17Speaker 1: his Imperial Majesty to give orders it might be brought
- 1:08:20Speaker 1: to me as soon as possible, describe into him the
- 1:08:23Speaker 1: use and nature of it, And the next day his
- 1:08:27Speaker 1: wagoners arrived with it, but not in very good condition.
- 1:08:31Speaker 1: They had bought two holes in the brim within an
- 1:08:33Speaker 1: inch and a half of the edge, and fastened two
- 1:08:36Speaker 1: hooks in the holes. These hooks were tied by a
- 1:08:39Speaker 1: long cord to the harness, and thus my hat was
- 1:08:42Speaker 1: dragged along for above half an English mile, But the
- 1:08:46Speaker 1: ground in that country being extremely smooth and level, it
- 1:08:50Speaker 1: received less damage than I expected. Two days after this adventure,
- 1:08:55Speaker 1: the Emperor, having ordered that part of his army which
- 1:08:58Speaker 1: caught us in and about his mind tropolis. To be
- 1:09:01Speaker 1: in readiness, took a fancy of diverting himself in a
- 1:09:04Speaker 1: very singular manner. He desired, I would stand like a
- 1:09:08Speaker 1: colossus with my legs as far asunder as I conveniently could.
- 1:09:14Speaker 1: He then commanded his general, who was an old, experienced
- 1:09:17Speaker 1: leader and a great patron of mine, to draw up
- 1:09:20Speaker 1: the troops in close order and march them under me,
- 1:09:24Speaker 1: the foot by twenty four abreast and the horse by sixteen,
- 1:09:28Speaker 1: with drums beating, colours flying, and pikes advanced. This body
- 1:09:34Speaker 1: consisted of three thousand foot and a thousand horse. His
- 1:09:38Speaker 1: Majesty gave orders, upon pain of death, that every soldier
- 1:09:42Speaker 1: in his march should observe the strictest decency with regard
- 1:09:46Speaker 1: to my person, which however, could not prevent some of
- 1:09:50Speaker 1: the younger officers from turning up their eyes as they
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: passed under me, and to confess the truth. My breaches
- 1:09:57Speaker 1: were at the time in so ill a condition that
- 1:09:59Speaker 1: they awarded some opportunities for laughter and admiration. I had
- 1:10:05Speaker 1: sent so many memorials and petitions for my liberty that
- 1:10:08Speaker 1: his Majesty at length mentioned the matter, first in the
- 1:10:12Speaker 1: Cabinet and then in a full council, where it was
- 1:10:16Speaker 1: opposed by none except Skyrish Bogelum, who was pleased, without
- 1:10:21Speaker 1: any provocation to be my mortal enemy. But it was
- 1:10:26Speaker 1: carried against him by the whole board and confirmed by
- 1:10:29Speaker 1: the Emperor that Minister was Galbert or Admiral of the Realm,
- 1:10:34Speaker 1: very much in his Majesty's confidence, and a person well
- 1:10:37Speaker 1: versed in affairs, but of a more rose and sour complexion. However,
- 1:10:43Speaker 1: he was at length persuaded to comply, but prevailed that
- 1:10:48Speaker 1: the articles of conditions upon which I should be set
- 1:10:50Speaker 1: free and to which I must swear, should be drawn
- 1:10:53Speaker 1: up by himself. These articles were brought to me by
- 1:10:56Speaker 1: Skyrish Bogolam in person, attended by two under secretaries and
- 1:11:02Speaker 1: several persons of distinction. After they were read, I was
- 1:11:06Speaker 1: demanded to swear to the performance of them, first in
- 1:11:10Speaker 1: the manner of my own country, and afterwards in the
- 1:11:13Speaker 1: method prescribed by their laws, which was to hold my
- 1:11:18Speaker 1: right foot in my left hand, and to place the
- 1:11:20Speaker 1: middle finger of my right hand on the crown of
- 1:11:23Speaker 1: my head and my thumb on the tip of my
- 1:11:25Speaker 1: right ear. But because the reader may be curious to
- 1:11:29Speaker 1: have some idea of the style and manner of expression
- 1:11:32Speaker 1: peculiar to that people, as well as to know the
- 1:11:35Speaker 1: article upon which I received my liberty, I have made
- 1:11:38Speaker 1: a translation of the whole instrument, word for word, near
- 1:11:42Speaker 1: as I was able, which I here offer to the public.
- 1:11:46Speaker 1: Golbasto mommarim evlam Godlao chefin Mali ali gu, most Mighty
- 1:11:53Speaker 1: Emperor of Lilliput, Delight and Terror of the universe, whose
- 1:11:58Speaker 1: dominions extend five thousand bliss about twelve miles in circumference
- 1:12:03Speaker 1: to the exterremities of the globe, Monarch of all monarchs,
- 1:12:07Speaker 1: taller than the sons of men, whose feet pressed down
- 1:12:10Speaker 1: to the center, and whose head strikes against the sun,
- 1:12:13Speaker 1: at whose nod the princes of the Earth shake their knees.
- 1:12:17Speaker 1: Pleasant as the spring, comfortable as the summer, fruitful as autumn,
- 1:12:21Speaker 1: dreadful as winter, His most Sublime Majesty proposes to the
- 1:12:26Speaker 1: man Mountain, lately arrived at our celestial dominions, the following articles,
- 1:12:32Speaker 1: which by a solemn oath he shall be obliged to perform. First,
- 1:12:37Speaker 1: the man Mountain shall not depart from our dominions without
- 1:12:40Speaker 1: our license under our great seal. Second, he shall not
- 1:12:46Speaker 1: presume to come into our metropolis without our express order,
- 1:12:50Speaker 1: at which time the inhabitants shall have two hours warning
- 1:12:53Speaker 1: to keep within doors. Third, the man Mountain shall confine
- 1:12:58Speaker 1: his walks to our principal higher and not offer to
- 1:13:01Speaker 1: walk or lie down in a meadow or field of corn. Fourth,
- 1:13:08Speaker 1: as he walks the said roads, he shall take the
- 1:13:10Speaker 1: utmost care not to trample upon the bodies of any
- 1:13:13Speaker 1: of our loving subjects, their horses or carriages, nor to
- 1:13:17Speaker 1: take any of our subjects into his hands without their
- 1:13:20Speaker 1: own consent. Fifth, if an express requires extraordinary dispatch, the
- 1:13:26Speaker 1: man Mountain shall be obliged to carry in his pocket
- 1:13:30Speaker 1: the messenger and horse a six days journey, once in
- 1:13:33Speaker 1: every moon, and return the said messenger back, if so required,
- 1:13:38Speaker 1: safe to our imperial presence. Sixth, he shall be our
- 1:13:42Speaker 1: ally against our enemies in the island of Blethyuska, and
- 1:13:46Speaker 1: do his utmost to destroy their fleet, which is now
- 1:13:49Speaker 1: preparing to invade us. Seventh that the said man Mountain shall,
- 1:13:55Speaker 1: at his times of leisure, be aiding and assisting to
- 1:13:58Speaker 1: our workmen in helping to raise certain great stones towards
- 1:14:02Speaker 1: covering the wall of the Principal Park and other of
- 1:14:05Speaker 1: our royal buildings. Eighth, that the said man Mountain shall,
- 1:14:10Speaker 1: in two moons time, deliver an exact survey of the
- 1:14:14Speaker 1: circumference of our dominions by a computation of his own
- 1:14:17Speaker 1: paces round the coast. Lastly, that, upon his solemn oath
- 1:14:23Speaker 1: to observe all the above articles, the said Man Mountain
- 1:14:27Speaker 1: shall have a daily allowance of meat and drink sufficient
- 1:14:30Speaker 1: for the support of one thousand, seven hundred and twenty
- 1:14:33Speaker 1: four of our subjects, with free access to our royal
- 1:14:36Speaker 1: person and other marks of our favour, given at our
- 1:14:41Speaker 1: palace at Belfaborac, the twelfth day of the ninety first
- 1:14:45Speaker 1: moon of our reign. I swore and subscribed to these
- 1:14:49Speaker 1: articles with great cheerfulness and content, although some of them
- 1:14:53Speaker 1: were not so honorable as I could have wished, which
- 1:14:56Speaker 1: proceeded wholly from the malice of Skyrish Bogolam the High Admiral,
- 1:15:02Speaker 1: whereupon my chains were immediately unlocked and I was at
- 1:15:06Speaker 1: full liberty. The Emperor himself in person did me the
- 1:15:10Speaker 1: honor to be by at the whole ceremony I made
- 1:15:13Speaker 1: my acknowledgments by prostrating myself at his Majesty's feet, But
- 1:15:17Speaker 1: he commanded me to rise, and, after many gracious expressions,
- 1:15:21Speaker 1: which to avoid the censor of vanity, I should not repeat,
- 1:15:26Speaker 1: he added that he hoped I should prove a useful
- 1:15:29Speaker 1: servant and well deserve all the favors he had already
- 1:15:32Speaker 1: conferred upon me, or might do for the future. The
- 1:15:36Speaker 1: reader may please observe that in the last article of
- 1:15:40Speaker 1: the Recovery of my Liberty, the Emperor stipulates to allow
- 1:15:43Speaker 1: me a quantity of meat and drink sufficient for the
- 1:15:46Speaker 1: support of one thousand, seven hundred and twenty four Liliputians.
- 1:15:50Speaker 1: Some time after asking your friend at court how they
- 1:15:53Speaker 1: came to fix on that determined number, he told me
- 1:15:56Speaker 1: that his Majesty's mathematicians, having taken the height of my
- 1:15:59Speaker 1: mine body by the help of a quadrant, and finding
- 1:16:03Speaker 1: it to exceed theirs in the proportion of twelve to one,
- 1:16:06Speaker 1: they concluded from the similarity of their bodies that mine
- 1:16:09Speaker 1: must contain at least one thousand, seven hundred and twenty
- 1:16:12Speaker 1: four of theirs, and consequently would require as much food
- 1:16:16Speaker 1: as was necessary to support that number of Ileputians, by
- 1:16:21Speaker 1: which the reader may conceive an idea of the ingenuity
- 1:16:24Speaker 1: of that people, as well as the prudent and exact
- 1:16:27Speaker 1: economy of so great a prince. End of Chapter three,
- 1:16:33Speaker 1: Part one, Chapter four, Mildendo the Metropolis of Lilliput described,
- 1:16:41Speaker 1: together with the Emperor's palace, a conversation between the author
- 1:16:45Speaker 1: and a principal secretary concerning the affairs of that empire,
- 1:16:50Speaker 1: the author's offers to serve the Emperor in his wars.
- 1:16:54Speaker 1: The first request I made after I had obtained my
- 1:16:57Speaker 1: liberty was that I might have license to see Mildendo
- 1:17:01Speaker 1: the metropolis, which the Emperor easily granted me, but with
- 1:17:05Speaker 1: a special charge to do no hurt either to the
- 1:17:08Speaker 1: inhabitants or their houses. The people had notice by proclamation
- 1:17:13Speaker 1: of my design to visit the town. The wall which
- 1:17:16Speaker 1: encompassed it is two feet and a half high and
- 1:17:20Speaker 1: at least eleven inches broad, so that a coach and
- 1:17:23Speaker 1: horses may be driven very safely round it, and it
- 1:17:27Speaker 1: is flanked with strong towers at ten feet distance. I
- 1:17:30Speaker 1: stepped over the great western gate and passed very gently
- 1:17:34Speaker 1: and sidling through the two principal streets. Only in my
- 1:17:37Speaker 1: short waistcoat for fear of damaging the roofs and eaves
- 1:17:40Speaker 1: of the houses. With the skirts of my coat, I
- 1:17:44Speaker 1: walked with the utmost circumspection to avoid treading on any
- 1:17:47Speaker 1: stragglers who might remain in the streets. Although the orders
- 1:17:51Speaker 1: were very strict that all people should keep in their
- 1:17:54Speaker 1: houses at their own peril, the garret windows and tops
- 1:17:58Speaker 1: of houses were so crowded with spectators that I thought,
- 1:18:01Speaker 1: in all my travels, I had not seen a more
- 1:18:03Speaker 1: populous place. The city is an exact square, each side
- 1:18:08Speaker 1: of the wall being five hundred feet long. The two
- 1:18:12Speaker 1: great streets, which run across and divide it into four quarters,
- 1:18:16Speaker 1: are five feet wide. The lanes and alleys, which I
- 1:18:20Speaker 1: could not enter, but only view them as I passed,
- 1:18:23Speaker 1: are from twelve to eighteen inches. The town is capable
- 1:18:27Speaker 1: of holding five hundred thousand souls. The houses are from
- 1:18:31Speaker 1: three to five stories. The shops and markets well provided.
- 1:18:36Speaker 1: The Emperor's palace is in the center of the city,
- 1:18:39Speaker 1: where the two great streets meet. It is enclosed by
- 1:18:43Speaker 1: a wall of two feet high and twenty feet distance
- 1:18:46Speaker 1: from the buildings. I had His Majesty's permission to step
- 1:18:50Speaker 1: over this wall and the space. Being so wide between
- 1:18:54Speaker 1: that and the palace, I could easily view it on
- 1:18:57Speaker 1: every side. The outward court is a square of forty
- 1:19:00Speaker 1: feet and includes two other courts. In the innermost are
- 1:19:05Speaker 1: the royal apartments, which I was very desirous to see,
- 1:19:08Speaker 1: but found it extremely difficult, for the great gates from
- 1:19:12Speaker 1: one square into another were but eighteen inches high and
- 1:19:16Speaker 1: seven inches wide. Now, the buildings of the outer court
- 1:19:19Speaker 1: were at least five feet high, and it was impossible
- 1:19:22Speaker 1: for me to stride over them without infinite damage to
- 1:19:25Speaker 1: the pile, though the walls were strongly built of hewn
- 1:19:29Speaker 1: stone and four inches thick. At the same time, the
- 1:19:32Speaker 1: Emperor had a great desire that I should see the
- 1:19:35Speaker 1: magnificence of his palace, but this I was not able
- 1:19:39Speaker 1: to do till three days, after which I spent in
- 1:19:43Speaker 1: cutting down with my knife some of the largest trees
- 1:19:46Speaker 1: in the royal park, about one hundred yards distant from
- 1:19:49Speaker 1: the city. Of these trees, they made two stools, each
- 1:19:54Speaker 1: about three feet high and strong enough to bear my weight.
- 1:19:58Speaker 1: The people having received no tis. The second time, I
- 1:20:01Speaker 1: went again through the city to the palace with my
- 1:20:04Speaker 1: two stools in my hands. When I came to the
- 1:20:07Speaker 1: side of the outer court. I stood upon one stool
- 1:20:11Speaker 1: and took the other in my hand. This I lifted
- 1:20:14Speaker 1: over the roof and gently set it down on the
- 1:20:16Speaker 1: space between the first and second court, which was eight
- 1:20:19Speaker 1: feet wide. I then stepped over the building very conveniently
- 1:20:25Speaker 1: from one stool to the other, and drew up the
- 1:20:27Speaker 1: first after me with a hooked stick. By this contrivance
- 1:20:32Speaker 1: I got to the innermost court, and, lying down upon
- 1:20:35Speaker 1: my side, I applied my face to the window of
- 1:20:37Speaker 1: the middle stories, which were left open on purpose, and
- 1:20:42Speaker 1: discovered the most splendid apartments that can be imagined. There,
- 1:20:46Speaker 1: I saw the Empress and the young princes in their
- 1:20:48Speaker 1: several lodgings, with their chief attendants about them. Her Imperial
- 1:20:53Speaker 1: Majesty was pleased to smile very graciously upon me, and
- 1:20:57Speaker 1: gave me, out of the window her hand to kiss.
- 1:21:01Speaker 1: But I shall not anticipate the reader with further descriptions
- 1:21:04Speaker 1: of this kind, because I reserved them for a greater work,
- 1:21:08Speaker 1: which is now almost ready for the press, containing a
- 1:21:11Speaker 1: general description of this empire from its first direction, through
- 1:21:15Speaker 1: a long series of princes, with a particular account of
- 1:21:18Speaker 1: their wars and politics, laws, learning and religion, their plants
- 1:21:23Speaker 1: and animals, their peculiar manners and customs, with other matters
- 1:21:27Speaker 1: very curious and useful, my chief design at present being
- 1:21:32Speaker 1: only to relate such events and transactions as happened to
- 1:21:36Speaker 1: the public or to myself. During a residence of about
- 1:21:38Speaker 1: nine months in that empire, one morning, about a fortnight
- 1:21:44Speaker 1: after I had obtained my liberty, wild Wrestle Principal Secretary,
- 1:21:48Speaker 1: as they style him for private affairs, came to my house,
- 1:21:52Speaker 1: attended only by one servant. He ordered his coach to
- 1:21:56Speaker 1: wait at a distance, and desired I would give him
- 1:21:58Speaker 1: an hour's audience, which I readily consented to, on account
- 1:22:03Speaker 1: of his quality and personal merits, as well as of
- 1:22:06Speaker 1: the many good offices he had done me during my
- 1:22:08Speaker 1: solicitations at court. I offered to lie down that he
- 1:22:12Speaker 1: might the more conveniently reach my ear, but he chose
- 1:22:16Speaker 1: rather to let me hold him in my hand. During
- 1:22:18Speaker 1: our conversation, he began with compliments on my liberty, said
- 1:22:23Speaker 1: he might pretend to some merit in it, but however,
- 1:22:27Speaker 1: added that if it had not been for the present
- 1:22:29Speaker 1: situation of things at court, perhaps I might not have
- 1:22:33Speaker 1: obtained it so soon. For said he as flourishing a
- 1:22:38Speaker 1: condition as we may appear to be into foreigners. We
- 1:22:40Speaker 1: labor under too mighty evils, a violent faction at home,
- 1:22:44Speaker 1: and the danger of an invasion by a most portent
- 1:22:47Speaker 1: enemy from abroad. As to the first, you ought to
- 1:22:51Speaker 1: understand that, for about seventeen minutes past, there have been
- 1:22:54Speaker 1: two struggling parties in this empire under the names of
- 1:22:57Speaker 1: Tramackissen and Slamachison. From the high high and low heels
- 1:23:00Speaker 1: of their shoes by which they distinguish themselves, it is alleged, indeed,
- 1:23:06Speaker 1: that the high Hills are most agreeable to our ancient constitution.
- 1:23:10Speaker 1: But however this be, his Majesty has determined to make
- 1:23:14Speaker 1: use of only low heels in the administration of the
- 1:23:16Speaker 1: government and all offices in the gift of the Crown.
- 1:23:20Speaker 1: As you cannot but observe, and particularly that his Majesty's
- 1:23:24Speaker 1: imperial heels are lower, at least by a dreer than
- 1:23:27Speaker 1: any of his court drew is a measure about the
- 1:23:30Speaker 1: forteenth part of an inch. The anmusities between these two
- 1:23:35Speaker 1: parties run so high that they will neither eat, nor
- 1:23:38Speaker 1: drink nor talk with each other. We compute the Tremechison
- 1:23:42Speaker 1: or high heels, to exceed us in number. But the
- 1:23:45Speaker 1: power is wholly on our side. We apprehend His Imperial Highness,
- 1:23:49Speaker 1: the heir to the crown, to have some tendency towards
- 1:23:52Speaker 1: the high heels. At least we can plainly discover that
- 1:23:56Speaker 1: one of his heels is higher than the other, which
- 1:23:58Speaker 1: gives him a hobble in his gait. Now, in the
- 1:24:01Speaker 1: midst of these intense disquiets, we are threatened with an
- 1:24:04Speaker 1: invasion from the island of Blefuscie, which is the other
- 1:24:07Speaker 1: great empire of the universe, almost as large and powerful
- 1:24:10Speaker 1: as that of His Majesty.
- 1:24:13Speaker 2: For as to what we.
- 1:24:13Speaker 1: Have heard, you affirm that there are other kingdoms and
- 1:24:16Speaker 1: states in the world inhabited by human creatures as large
- 1:24:19Speaker 1: as yourself. Our philosophers are in much doubt, and would
- 1:24:22Speaker 1: rather conjecture that you dropped from the moon or one
- 1:24:25Speaker 1: of the stars, because it is certain that a hundred
- 1:24:29Speaker 1: mortals of your bulk would in a short time destroy
- 1:24:31Speaker 1: all the fruits and cattles of His Majesty's dominions. Besides,
- 1:24:35Speaker 1: our histories of six thousand moons make no mention of
- 1:24:38Speaker 1: any other regions than the two great empires of Lilliput
- 1:24:41Speaker 1: and Blefuska, which two mighty powers have, as I was
- 1:24:45Speaker 1: going to tell you, been engaged in a most obstinate
- 1:24:48Speaker 1: war for six and thirty moons past, it began upon
- 1:24:52Speaker 1: the following occasion. It is allowed on all hands that
- 1:24:57Speaker 1: the primitive way of breaking eggs before we eat them
- 1:25:00Speaker 1: was upon the larger end. But his present Majesty's grandfather,
- 1:25:04Speaker 1: while he was a boy, going to eat an egg
- 1:25:07Speaker 1: and break it, according to the ancient practice, having to
- 1:25:10Speaker 1: cut one of his fingers. Whereupon the emperor his father
- 1:25:14Speaker 1: published an edict commanding all his subjects, upon great penalties,
- 1:25:19Speaker 1: to break the smaller end of their eggs. The people
- 1:25:22Speaker 1: so highly resented this law that our histories tell us
- 1:25:26Speaker 1: there had been six rebellions raised on that account, wherein
- 1:25:29Speaker 1: one emperor lost his life and another his crown. These
- 1:25:33Speaker 1: civil commotions were constantly fermented by the monarchs of Blefuscue,
- 1:25:37Speaker 1: and when they were quilled, the exiles always fled for
- 1:25:40Speaker 1: refuge to that empire. It is computed that eleven thousand
- 1:25:45Speaker 1: persons have at several times suffered death rather than submit
- 1:25:49Speaker 1: to break their eggs at the smaller end. Many hundred
- 1:25:52Speaker 1: large volumes have been published upon this controversy, but the
- 1:25:56Speaker 1: books of the Big Indians had been long forbidden, and
- 1:25:59Speaker 1: the whole party he rendered incapable by law of holding employments.
- 1:26:03Speaker 1: During the course of these troubles, the Emperors of Blefuscue
- 1:26:06Speaker 1: did frequently expostulate by their ambassadors accusing us of making
- 1:26:10Speaker 1: a schism in religion by offending against a fundamental doctrine
- 1:26:15Speaker 1: of our great profit lustrog in the fifty fourth chapter
- 1:26:18Speaker 1: of the Blundercraal, which is there al Koran. This, however,
- 1:26:23Speaker 1: is thought to be a mere strain upon the text,
- 1:26:25Speaker 1: for the words are these, that all true believers break
- 1:26:29Speaker 1: their eggs as the convenient end, And which is the
- 1:26:32Speaker 1: convenient end seems, in my humble opinion, to be left
- 1:26:35Speaker 1: to every man's conscience, or at least in the power
- 1:26:38Speaker 1: of the chief magistrate to determine. Now, the being Indian
- 1:26:43Speaker 1: exiles have found so much credit in the Emperor of
- 1:26:45Speaker 1: Blefuscue's court, and so much private assistance and encouragement from
- 1:26:49Speaker 1: their party here at home, that a bloody war has
- 1:26:52Speaker 1: been carried on between the two empires for six and
- 1:26:55Speaker 1: thirty moons, with various success.
- 1:26:59Speaker 2: During which time.
- 1:26:59Speaker 1: We've lost forty capital ships and a much greater number
- 1:27:03Speaker 1: of smaller vessels, together with thirty thousand of our best
- 1:27:06Speaker 1: seamen and soldiers, and the damage received by the enemy
- 1:27:10Speaker 1: is reckoned to be somewhat greater than ours. However, they
- 1:27:14Speaker 1: have now equipped a numerous fleet and are just preparing
- 1:27:17Speaker 1: to make a descent upon us, and his Imperial Majesty,
- 1:27:21Speaker 1: placing great confidence in your valor and strength, has commanded
- 1:27:25Speaker 1: me to lay this account of his affairs before you.
- 1:27:30Speaker 1: I desired the Secretary to present my humble duty to
- 1:27:33Speaker 1: the Emperor and to let him know that I thought
- 1:27:37Speaker 1: it would not become me, who was a foreigner, to
- 1:27:40Speaker 1: interfere with parties. But I was ready, with the hazard
- 1:27:43Speaker 1: of my life, to defend his person and state against
- 1:27:46Speaker 1: all invaders. End of Chapter four, Part one, Chapter five,
- 1:27:56Speaker 1: the Author, by an extraordinary stratagem prevents an invade. Our
- 1:28:01Speaker 1: high title of honor is conferred upon him. Ambassadors arrived
- 1:28:05Speaker 1: from the Emperor of blefuscue and sue for peace. The
- 1:28:09Speaker 1: Empress's apartment on fire by an accident, the Author instrumental
- 1:28:13Speaker 1: and safe in the rest of the palace. The Empire
- 1:28:17Speaker 1: of Blefuscue is an island situated to the northeast of Lilliput,
- 1:28:21Speaker 1: from which it is parted only by a channel of
- 1:28:23Speaker 1: eight hundred yards wide. I had not yet seen it,
- 1:28:27Speaker 1: and upon this notice of an intended invasion, I avoided
- 1:28:30Speaker 1: appearing on that side of the coast for fear of
- 1:28:33Speaker 1: being discovered by some of the enemy's ships, who had
- 1:28:35Speaker 1: received no intelligence of me. All intercourse between the two
- 1:28:40Speaker 1: empires having been strictly forbidden during the war, upon pain
- 1:28:43Speaker 1: of death, and an embargo laid by our Emperor upon
- 1:28:47Speaker 1: all vessels whatsoever, I communicated to his Majesty a project
- 1:28:51Speaker 1: I had formed of seizing the enemy's whole fleet, which,
- 1:28:55Speaker 1: as our scouts assured us, lay at anchor in the harbor,
- 1:28:58Speaker 1: ready to sail with the first wind. I consulted the
- 1:29:02Speaker 1: most experienced seamen upon the depth of the channel, which
- 1:29:05Speaker 1: they had often plumbed, who told me that in the middle,
- 1:29:08Speaker 1: at high water, it was seventy glumgluffs deep, which is
- 1:29:12Speaker 1: about six feet of European measure, and the rest of
- 1:29:16Speaker 1: it fifty glumgluffs at most. I walked towards the northeast coast,
- 1:29:21Speaker 1: over against Lefuscue, where lying down behind a hillock, I
- 1:29:25Speaker 1: took out my small perspective glass and viewed the enemy's
- 1:29:28Speaker 1: fleet at anchor, consisting of about fifty men of war
- 1:29:32Speaker 1: and a great number of transports. I then came back
- 1:29:35Speaker 1: to my house and gave orders for which I had
- 1:29:38Speaker 1: a warrant, for a great quantity of the strongest cable
- 1:29:41Speaker 1: and bars of iron. The cable was about as thick
- 1:29:44Speaker 1: as pack thread, and the bars of the length and
- 1:29:46Speaker 1: size of a knitting needle. I trebled the cable to
- 1:29:50Speaker 1: make it stronger, and for the same reason I toisted
- 1:29:53Speaker 1: three of the iron bars together, bending the extremities into
- 1:29:56Speaker 1: a hook. Having thus fixed fifty hooks to as many caves,
- 1:30:00Speaker 1: I went back to the northeast coast, and, putting off
- 1:30:03Speaker 1: my coat, shoes, and stockings, walked into the sea in
- 1:30:07Speaker 1: my leather jerkin about half an hour before high water.
- 1:30:11Speaker 1: I waded with what haste I could, and swam in
- 1:30:14Speaker 1: the middle about thirty yards till I felt ground. I
- 1:30:17Speaker 1: arrived at the fleet in less than half an hour.
- 1:30:20Speaker 1: The enemy was so frightened when they saw me that
- 1:30:22Speaker 1: they leaped out of their ships and swam to shore,
- 1:30:25Speaker 1: where there could not be fewer than thirty thousand sols.
- 1:30:29Speaker 1: I then took my tackling, and fastening a hook to
- 1:30:32Speaker 1: the hole at the prow of each I tied all
- 1:30:34Speaker 1: the cords together at the end. While I was thus employed,
- 1:30:38Speaker 1: the enemy discharged several thousand arrows, many of which stuck
- 1:30:42Speaker 1: in my hands and face, and beside the excessive smart
- 1:30:45Speaker 1: gave me much disturbance in my work. My greatest apprehension
- 1:30:49Speaker 1: was from mine eyes, which I should have infallibly lost
- 1:30:52Speaker 1: if I had not suddenly thought of an expedient. I kept,
- 1:30:56Speaker 1: among my other little necessities a pair of spectacles in
- 1:31:00Speaker 1: a private pocket, which, as I observed before, had escaped
- 1:31:04Speaker 1: the Emperor's searches. These I took out and fastened as
- 1:31:07Speaker 1: strongly as I could upon my nose, and thus armed
- 1:31:11Speaker 1: went on boldly with my work in spite of the
- 1:31:13Speaker 1: enemy's arrows, many of which struck against the glasses of
- 1:31:16Speaker 1: my spectacles, but without any other effect further than a
- 1:31:20Speaker 1: little to decompose them. I had now fastened all the
- 1:31:24Speaker 1: hooks and taken the knot in my hand, began to pull,
- 1:31:28Speaker 1: But not a ship would stir, for they were all
- 1:31:30Speaker 1: too fast held by their anchors, so that the boldest
- 1:31:33Speaker 1: part of my enterprise remained. I therefore let go of
- 1:31:37Speaker 1: the cord, and, leaving the hooks fixed to the ships,
- 1:31:40Speaker 1: I resolutely cut with my knife the cables that fastened
- 1:31:43Speaker 1: the anchors, receiving about two hundred shots in my face
- 1:31:46Speaker 1: and hands. Then I took up the knotted end of
- 1:31:49Speaker 1: the cables to which my hooks were tied, and with
- 1:31:52Speaker 1: great ease drew fifty of the enemy's largest men of
- 1:31:55Speaker 1: war after me. The bluffy Scudians, who had not the
- 1:32:02Speaker 1: least imagination of what I intended, were at first confounded
- 1:32:05Speaker 1: with astonishment. They had seen me cut the cables and
- 1:32:09Speaker 1: thought my design was only to let the ships run
- 1:32:11Speaker 1: adrift or fall foul of each other. But when they
- 1:32:15Speaker 1: perceived the whole fleet moving in order and saw me
- 1:32:18Speaker 1: pulling out the end, they set up such a scream
- 1:32:21Speaker 1: of grief and despair as it is almost impossible to
- 1:32:24Speaker 1: describe or conceive. When I had got out of danger,
- 1:32:28Speaker 1: I stopped awhile to pick out the arrows that had
- 1:32:30Speaker 1: stuck in my hands and face, and rubbed on some
- 1:32:33Speaker 1: of the same ointment that was given me at my
- 1:32:34Speaker 1: first arrival. As I have formerly mentioned, I then took
- 1:32:38Speaker 1: off my spectacles, and waiting about an hour till the
- 1:32:42Speaker 1: tide was a little fallen, I waded through the middle
- 1:32:45Speaker 1: with my cargo and arrived safe at the royal port
- 1:32:47Speaker 1: of Lilliput. The Emperor and his whole court stood on
- 1:32:51Speaker 1: the shore, expecting the issue of this great adventure. They
- 1:32:55Speaker 1: saw the ships move forward in a large half moon,
- 1:32:57Speaker 1: but could not discern me, who was up to my
- 1:32:59Speaker 1: bat and water. When I advanced to the middle of
- 1:33:02Speaker 1: the channel, they were yet in more pain because I
- 1:33:05Speaker 1: was underwater to my neck. The Emperor concluded me to
- 1:33:08Speaker 1: be drowned, and that the enemy's fleet was approaching in
- 1:33:11Speaker 1: a hostile manner. But he was soon eased of his fears,
- 1:33:15Speaker 1: for the channel growing shallow at every step I made.
- 1:33:18Speaker 1: I came in a short time within hearing and holding
- 1:33:21Speaker 1: up the end of the cable by which the fleet
- 1:33:23Speaker 1: was fastened. I cried out in a loud voice long
- 1:33:27Speaker 1: in the most poissant King of Lilliput. This great Prince
- 1:33:31Speaker 1: received me at my landing with all possible encomians, and
- 1:33:34Speaker 1: created me a nardoc upon the spot, which is the
- 1:33:36Speaker 1: highest title of honor among them. His Majesty desired I
- 1:33:40Speaker 1: would take some other opportunity of bringing all the rest
- 1:33:43Speaker 1: of his enemy ships into his ports, and so unmeasurable
- 1:33:47Speaker 1: as the ambition of princes, that he seemed to think
- 1:33:50Speaker 1: of nothing less than reducing the whole empire of Blefiscue
- 1:33:52Speaker 1: into a province and governing it by a viceroy, of
- 1:33:57Speaker 1: destroying the big Indian exiles and compelling them to people
- 1:34:00Speaker 1: to break the smaller end of their eggs, by which
- 1:34:03Speaker 1: he would remain the sole monarch of the whole world.
- 1:34:06Speaker 1: But I endeavored to divert him from the design by
- 1:34:09Speaker 1: many arguments drawn from the topics of policy as well
- 1:34:11Speaker 1: as justice, and I plainly protested that I would never
- 1:34:16Speaker 1: be an instrument of bringing a free and brave people
- 1:34:18Speaker 1: into slavery. And when the matter was debated in council,
- 1:34:22Speaker 1: the wisest part of the ministry were of my opinion.
- 1:34:26Speaker 1: This open, bold declaration of mine was so opposite to
- 1:34:29Speaker 1: the schemes and politics of his imperial majesty that he
- 1:34:32Speaker 1: could never forgive me. He mentioned it in a very
- 1:34:36Speaker 1: artful manner at council, where I was told that some
- 1:34:38Speaker 1: of the wisest appeared, at least by their silence, to
- 1:34:41Speaker 1: be of my opinion. But others who were my secret enemies,
- 1:34:46Speaker 1: could not forbear some expressions which by a side wind
- 1:34:50Speaker 1: reflected on me, and from this time began in an
- 1:34:53Speaker 1: intrigue between His Majesty and a juntau of ministers maliciously
- 1:34:57Speaker 1: bent against me, which broke out in less than too
- 1:34:59Speaker 1: many months, and had liked to have ended in my
- 1:35:02Speaker 1: utter destruction of so little way to the greatest services
- 1:35:06Speaker 1: to princes, when put into the balance with a refusal
- 1:35:09Speaker 1: to gratify their passions. About three weeks after this exploit,
- 1:35:14Speaker 1: there arrived a solemn embassy from Blefiscue, with humble offers
- 1:35:18Speaker 1: of peace, which was soon concluded upon conditions very advantageous
- 1:35:22Speaker 1: to our Emperor, wherewith I shall not trouble the reader.
- 1:35:27Speaker 1: There were six ambassadors with a train of about five
- 1:35:29Speaker 1: hundred persons, and their entry was very magnificent, suitable to
- 1:35:34Speaker 1: the grandeur of their master and the importance of their business.
- 1:35:37Speaker 1: When their treaty was finished, wherein I did them several
- 1:35:40Speaker 1: good offices by the credit I now had, or at
- 1:35:43Speaker 1: least appeared to have at court. Their excellencies, who were
- 1:35:47Speaker 1: privately told how much I had been their friend, made
- 1:35:50Speaker 1: me a visit in form they began with many compliments
- 1:35:53Speaker 1: upon my valor and generosity, invited me to that kingdom
- 1:35:57Speaker 1: in the Emperor their Master's name, and desired me to
- 1:36:01Speaker 1: show them some proofs of my prodigious strength, of which
- 1:36:04Speaker 1: they had heard so many wonders, wherein I readily obliged them,
- 1:36:08Speaker 1: But shall not trouble the reader with the particulars. When
- 1:36:11Speaker 1: I had for some time entertained their excellencies to their
- 1:36:15Speaker 1: infinite satisfaction and surprise, I desired they would do me
- 1:36:19Speaker 1: the honor to present my most humble respects to the
- 1:36:21Speaker 1: Emperor their Master, the renown of whose virtues had so
- 1:36:25Speaker 1: justly filled the whole world with admiration, and whose royal
- 1:36:29Speaker 1: person I resolved to attend before I returned to my
- 1:36:32Speaker 1: own country. Accordingly, the next time I had the honor
- 1:36:35Speaker 1: to see our Emperor, I desired his general license to
- 1:36:38Speaker 1: wait on the Bliffiscudian Monarch, which he was pleased to
- 1:36:42Speaker 1: grant me, as I could perceive in a very cold manner,
- 1:36:45Speaker 1: but could not guess the reason till I had a
- 1:36:48Speaker 1: whisper from a certain person that fil Napp and Bogoram
- 1:36:51Speaker 1: had represented my intercourse with those ambassadors as a mark
- 1:36:54Speaker 1: of disaffection, from which I am sure my heart was
- 1:36:57Speaker 1: wholly free. And this was the first time I began
- 1:37:00Speaker 1: to conceive some imperfect idea of courts and ministers. It
- 1:37:06Speaker 1: is to be observed that these ambassadors spoke to me
- 1:37:09Speaker 1: by an interpreter, the languages of both empires differing as
- 1:37:12Speaker 1: much from each other as any two in Europe, and
- 1:37:15Speaker 1: each nation priding itself upon the antiquity, beauty and energy
- 1:37:19Speaker 1: of their own tongue, with an avowed contempt for that
- 1:37:22Speaker 1: of their neighbour. Yet our Emperor, standing upon the advantage
- 1:37:26Speaker 1: she had gotten by the seizure of their fleet, obliged
- 1:37:29Speaker 1: them to deliver their credentials and make their speech in
- 1:37:32Speaker 1: their Lilepusian tongue. And it must be confessed that from
- 1:37:36Speaker 1: the great intercourse of trade and commerce between both realms,
- 1:37:40Speaker 1: from the continual reception of exiles, which is mutual among them,
- 1:37:44Speaker 1: and from the custom in each empire to send their
- 1:37:47Speaker 1: young nobility and richer gentry to the other in order
- 1:37:50Speaker 1: to polish themselves by seeing the world and understanding men
- 1:37:53Speaker 1: and manners. There are few persons of distinction, or merchants
- 1:37:58Speaker 1: or seamen who dwell in the maritime parts, But what
- 1:38:01Speaker 1: can hold conversation in both tongues, as I found some
- 1:38:04Speaker 1: weeks after when I went to pay my respects to
- 1:38:07Speaker 1: the Emperor of Blefuskie, which, in the midst of great misfortunes,
- 1:38:11Speaker 1: through the malice of my enemies, proved a very happy
- 1:38:14Speaker 1: adventure to me. As I shall relate in its proper place,
- 1:38:19Speaker 1: the reader may remember that when I signed these articles
- 1:38:22Speaker 1: upon which I recovered my liberty, there was some which
- 1:38:24Speaker 1: I had disliked upon account of their being too servile.
- 1:38:29Speaker 1: Neither could anything but an extreme necessity have forced me
- 1:38:32Speaker 1: to submit. But being now a n ardock of the
- 1:38:34Speaker 1: highest rank in that empire, such offices were looked upon
- 1:38:38Speaker 1: as below my dignity, and the Emperor, to do him justice,
- 1:38:42Speaker 1: never once mentioned them to me. However, it was not
- 1:38:46Speaker 1: long before I had opportunity of doing his majesty, at least,
- 1:38:49Speaker 1: as I then thought a most signal service. I was
- 1:38:53Speaker 1: alarmed at midnight with the cries of many hundred people
- 1:38:55Speaker 1: at my door, by which, being suddenly awaked, I was
- 1:38:59Speaker 1: in some kind of terror. I heard the word burglm
- 1:39:02Speaker 1: repeated incessantly several of the Emperor's court, making their way
- 1:39:06Speaker 1: through the crowd entreated me to come immediately to the palace,
- 1:39:10Speaker 1: where Her Imperial Majesty's apartment was on fire by the
- 1:39:14Speaker 1: carelessness of a maid of honor who fell asleep while
- 1:39:16Speaker 1: she was reading a romance. I got up in an instant,
- 1:39:20Speaker 1: and orders being given to clear the way before me,
- 1:39:22Speaker 1: and it being likewise a moonshine night, I made a
- 1:39:25Speaker 1: shift to get to the palace without trampling on any
- 1:39:27Speaker 1: of the people I found. They had already applied ladders
- 1:39:31Speaker 1: to the walls of the apartment, and were well provided
- 1:39:34Speaker 1: with buckets, but the water was at some distance. These
- 1:39:38Speaker 1: buckets were about the size of large thimbles, and the
- 1:39:41Speaker 1: poor people supplied me with them as fast as they could.
- 1:39:44Speaker 1: But the flames was so violent that they did little good.
- 1:39:47Speaker 1: I might easily have stifled it with my coat, which
- 1:39:50Speaker 1: I had unfortunately left behind me for haste, and came
- 1:39:53Speaker 1: away only in my leather jerkin. The case seemed wholly
- 1:39:57Speaker 1: desperate and deplorable, and this magnificent and palace would have
- 1:40:00Speaker 1: been infallibly burnt down to the ground if, by a
- 1:40:04Speaker 1: presence of mind unusual to me, I had not suddenly
- 1:40:07Speaker 1: thought of an expedient. I had the evening before, drunk
- 1:40:10Speaker 1: plentifully of a most delicious wine called glimigrim. The blessed
- 1:40:15Speaker 1: Fustians call it flunneck, but ours is esteemed the better sort,
- 1:40:20Speaker 1: which is very diuretic. By the luckiest chance in the world,
- 1:40:24Speaker 1: I had not discharged myself of any part of it,
- 1:40:28Speaker 1: which I avoided in such a quantity, and applied so
- 1:40:31Speaker 1: well to the proper places, that in three minutes the
- 1:40:34Speaker 1: fire was wholly extinguished, and the rest of that noble pile,
- 1:40:38Speaker 1: which had cost so many ages in erecting, preserved from destruction.
- 1:40:43Speaker 1: It was now daylight, and I returned to my house
- 1:40:45Speaker 1: without waiting to congratulate with the Emperor, because although I
- 1:40:50Speaker 1: had done a very eminent piece of service, yet I
- 1:40:52Speaker 1: could not tell how His Majesty might resent the manner
- 1:40:54Speaker 1: by which I had performed it, For by the fundamental
- 1:40:58Speaker 1: laws of the realm, in any person of what quality
- 1:41:02Speaker 1: soever to make water within the precincts of the palace.
- 1:41:06Speaker 1: But I was a little comforted by a message from
- 1:41:08Speaker 1: his Majesty that he would give orders to the Grand
- 1:41:11Speaker 1: Justicary for passing my pardon, in form which however, I
- 1:41:16Speaker 1: could not obtain. And I was privately assured that the Empress,
- 1:41:21Speaker 1: conceiving the greatest abhorrence of what I had done, removed
- 1:41:24Speaker 1: to the most distant side of the court, firmly resolved
- 1:41:27Speaker 1: that those buildings should never be repaired for her use,
- 1:41:30Speaker 1: and in the presence of her chief confidence, could not
- 1:41:32Speaker 1: forbear a vowing revenge. End of Chapter five, Part one,
- 1:41:41Speaker 1: Chapter six of the inhabitants of Lilliput, Their learning, laws
- 1:41:46Speaker 1: and customs, the manner of educating their children, the author's
- 1:41:50Speaker 1: way of living in that country, His vindiction of a
- 1:41:53Speaker 1: great Lady. Although I intend to leave the description of
- 1:41:57Speaker 1: this empire to a particular treatise, yet in the meantime
- 1:42:02Speaker 1: I am content to gratify the curious reader with some
- 1:42:05Speaker 1: general ideas. As the common size of the natives is
- 1:42:09Speaker 1: somewhat under six inches high, so there is an exact
- 1:42:12Speaker 1: proportion in all other animals, as well as plants and trees.
- 1:42:16Speaker 1: For instance, the tallest horse and oxen are between four
- 1:42:19Speaker 1: and five inches in height, the sheep an inch and
- 1:42:22Speaker 1: a half. More or less, they geeze about the bigness
- 1:42:25Speaker 1: of a sparrow. And so the several gradations downwards till
- 1:42:30Speaker 1: you come to the smallest, which to my sight were
- 1:42:32Speaker 1: almost invisible. But nature has adapted the eyes of the
- 1:42:36Speaker 1: Dilliliputians to all objects proper for their view. They see
- 1:42:40Speaker 1: with great exactness, but at no great distance, and to
- 1:42:44Speaker 1: show the sharpness of their sight towards objects that are near.
- 1:42:48Speaker 1: I have been much pleased with observing a cook pulling
- 1:42:50Speaker 1: a lark which was not so large as a common fly,
- 1:42:53Speaker 1: and a young girl threading an a visible needle with
- 1:42:56Speaker 1: invisible silk. Their tallest trees are about seven feet high,
- 1:43:00Speaker 1: I mean some of those in the Great Royal Park,
- 1:43:03Speaker 1: the tops whereof I could but just reach with my
- 1:43:05Speaker 1: fist clenched. The other vegetables are in the same proportion,
- 1:43:09Speaker 1: But this I leave to the reader's imagination. I shall
- 1:43:13Speaker 1: say but little at present of their learning, which form
- 1:43:16Speaker 1: many ages, has flourished in all its branches among them.
- 1:43:19Speaker 1: But their manner of writing is very peculiar, being neither
- 1:43:22Speaker 1: from the left to the right like the Europeans, nor
- 1:43:25Speaker 1: from the right to the left like the Arabians, nor
- 1:43:28Speaker 1: from up to down like the Chinese, but a slant
- 1:43:32Speaker 1: from one corner of the paper to the other like
- 1:43:34Speaker 1: ladies in England. They bury their dead with their heads
- 1:43:37Speaker 1: directly downward, because they hold an opinion that in eleven
- 1:43:41Speaker 1: thousand moons they are all to rise again, in which
- 1:43:44Speaker 1: period the earth, which they conceived to be flat, will
- 1:43:48Speaker 1: turn upside down, and by this means they shall, at
- 1:43:51Speaker 1: their resurrection be found ready standing on their feet. The
- 1:43:55Speaker 1: learned among them confess the absurdity of this doctrine, but
- 1:43:59Speaker 1: the practice still can in compliance to the vulgar. There
- 1:44:03Speaker 1: are some laws and customs in this empire very peculiar,
- 1:44:07Speaker 1: and if they were not so directly contrary to those
- 1:44:10Speaker 1: of my own dear country, I should be tempted to
- 1:44:12Speaker 1: say a little in their justification. It is only to
- 1:44:15Speaker 1: be wished they were as well executed. The first I
- 1:44:19Speaker 1: shall mention relates to informers. All crimes against the state
- 1:44:23Speaker 1: are punished here with the utmost severity. But if the
- 1:44:26Speaker 1: person accused makes his innocent plainly to appear upon his trial,
- 1:44:31Speaker 1: the accuser is immediately put to an ignominious death, and
- 1:44:34Speaker 1: out of his goods or lands. The innocent person is
- 1:44:38Speaker 1: quadruply recompensed for the loss of his time, for the
- 1:44:41Speaker 1: danger he underwent, for the hardship of his imprisonment, and
- 1:44:45Speaker 1: for all the charges he had been at in making
- 1:44:47Speaker 1: his defense, or if that fund be deficient, it is
- 1:44:51Speaker 1: largely supplied by the crown. The Emperor also confers on
- 1:44:55Speaker 1: him some public mark of his favor, and proclamation is
- 1:44:58Speaker 1: made of his innocence through the whole city. They look
- 1:45:02Speaker 1: upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore
- 1:45:05Speaker 1: seldom fail to punish it with death. For they allege
- 1:45:09Speaker 1: that care and vigilance with a very common understanding, may
- 1:45:13Speaker 1: preserve a man's goods from thieves, but honesty has no
- 1:45:16Speaker 1: defense against superior cunning. And since it is necessary that
- 1:45:22Speaker 1: there should be a perpetual intercourse of buying and selling
- 1:45:25Speaker 1: and dealing upon credit, where fraud is permitted and connived at,
- 1:45:28Speaker 1: or has no law to punish it, the honest dealer
- 1:45:31Speaker 1: is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage. I
- 1:45:35Speaker 1: remember when I was once interceding with the Emperor for
- 1:45:38Speaker 1: a criminal who had wronged as master of a great
- 1:45:40Speaker 1: sum of money, which he had received by order and
- 1:45:43Speaker 1: ran away with, and happening to tell his majesty by
- 1:45:46Speaker 1: way of extenuation, that it was only a breach of trust.
- 1:45:51Speaker 1: The Emperor thought it monstrous in me to offer as
- 1:45:53Speaker 1: a defense the greatest aggravation of the crime. And truly
- 1:45:57Speaker 1: I had little to say in return, father, than the
- 1:46:00Speaker 1: common answer that different nations had different customs. For I
- 1:46:04Speaker 1: confess I was heartily ashamed. Although we usually call reward
- 1:46:09Speaker 1: and punishment the two hinges upon which all government turns,
- 1:46:13Speaker 1: yet I could never observe this maxim to be put
- 1:46:16Speaker 1: in practice by any nation except that of Lilliput. Whoever
- 1:46:20Speaker 1: can there bring sufficient proof that he has strictly observed
- 1:46:23Speaker 1: the laws of his country for seventy three moons, has
- 1:46:26Speaker 1: a claim to certain privileges according to his quality or
- 1:46:30Speaker 1: condition of life, with the proportional sum of money out
- 1:46:33Speaker 1: of a fund appropriated for that use. He likewise acquires
- 1:46:37Speaker 1: the title of snilpal or legal, which is added to
- 1:46:40Speaker 1: his name, but does not descend to his posterity. And
- 1:46:44Speaker 1: these people thought it a prodigious defect of policy among
- 1:46:47Speaker 1: us when I told him that our laws were enforced
- 1:46:50Speaker 1: only by penalties, without any mention of reward. It is
- 1:46:55Speaker 1: upon this account that the image of justice in their
- 1:46:58Speaker 1: courts of judicature is formed with six eyes, two before
- 1:47:03Speaker 1: as many behind, and on each side, one to signify circumspection,
- 1:47:08Speaker 1: with a bag of gold open in her right hand
- 1:47:11Speaker 1: and a sword sheathed in her left, to show she
- 1:47:13Speaker 1: is more disposed to reward them to punish. In choosing
- 1:47:17Speaker 1: persons for all employments. They have more regard to good
- 1:47:20Speaker 1: morals and to great abilities, for since government is necessary
- 1:47:24Speaker 1: to mankind. They believe that the common size of human
- 1:47:28Speaker 1: understanding is fitted to some station or other, and that
- 1:47:32Speaker 1: Providence never intended to make the management of public affairs
- 1:47:35Speaker 1: and mystery to be comprehended only by a few persons
- 1:47:39Speaker 1: of sublime genius, of which there are seldom of three
- 1:47:42Speaker 1: born in an age. But they suppose truth, justice, temperance,
- 1:47:47Speaker 1: and the like to be in every man's power, the
- 1:47:50Speaker 1: practice of which virtues, assisted by experience in a good intention,
- 1:47:55Speaker 1: would qualify any man for the service of his country,
- 1:47:58Speaker 1: except where a cause of study is required. But they
- 1:48:01Speaker 1: thought the want of moral virtues was so far from
- 1:48:04Speaker 1: being supplied by superior endowments of the mind, that employments
- 1:48:08Speaker 1: could never be put into such dangerous hands as those
- 1:48:11Speaker 1: of persons so qualified, and at least that the mistakes
- 1:48:16Speaker 1: committed by ignorance in a virtuous disposition would never be
- 1:48:20Speaker 1: of such fatal consequence to the public. Weal as the
- 1:48:23Speaker 1: practices of a man whose inclinations led him to be corrupt,
- 1:48:27Speaker 1: and who had great abilities to manage to multiply and
- 1:48:30Speaker 1: defend his corruptions. In like manner, the disbelief of a
- 1:48:34Speaker 1: divine providence renders a man incapable of holding any public station.
- 1:48:39Speaker 1: For since kings avow themselves to be the deputies of providence,
- 1:48:42Speaker 1: the Liliputians that nothing can be more absurd than for
- 1:48:45Speaker 1: a prince to employ such men as disown their authority
- 1:48:48Speaker 1: under which he acts. In relating these and the following laws,
- 1:48:53Speaker 1: I would only be understood to mean the original institutions,
- 1:48:57Speaker 1: and not the most scandalous corruptions into which which these
- 1:49:00Speaker 1: people are fallen by the degenerate nature of man. For
- 1:49:04Speaker 1: as to that infamous practice of acquiring great employments by
- 1:49:07Speaker 1: dancing on the ropes or badges of favor and distinction,
- 1:49:10Speaker 1: by leaping over sticks and creeping under them, the reader
- 1:49:14Speaker 1: is to observe that they were first introduced by the
- 1:49:17Speaker 1: grandfather of the emperor now reigning, and grew to the
- 1:49:20Speaker 1: present height by the gradual increase of party and faction.
- 1:49:24Speaker 1: Ingratitude is among them a capital crime, as we read
- 1:49:27Speaker 1: it to have been in some other countries. For they
- 1:49:30Speaker 1: reason thus that whoever makes ill returns to his benefactor
- 1:49:34Speaker 1: must needs be a common enemy to the rest of mankind,
- 1:49:38Speaker 1: from whom he has received no obligation, and therefore such
- 1:49:41Speaker 1: a man is not fit to live. Their notions relating
- 1:49:44Speaker 1: to the duties of parents and children differ extremely from ours,
- 1:49:48Speaker 1: For since the conjunction of male and female is founded
- 1:49:51Speaker 1: upon the great law of nature, in order to propagate
- 1:49:54Speaker 1: and continue the species, the Liliputians will needs have it
- 1:49:58Speaker 1: that men and women are joined together like other animals
- 1:50:01Speaker 1: by the motives of concupiscence, and that their tenderness towards
- 1:50:06Speaker 1: their young proceeds from the like nature principle, for which
- 1:50:10Speaker 1: reason they will never allow that a child is under
- 1:50:12Speaker 1: any obligation to his father for begetting him, or to
- 1:50:15Speaker 1: his mother for bringing him into the world, which, considering
- 1:50:19Speaker 1: that the miseries of human life was neither a benefit
- 1:50:22Speaker 1: in himself, nor intended so by his parents, whose thoughts
- 1:50:26Speaker 1: in their love encounters were otherwise employed. Upon these and
- 1:50:30Speaker 1: the like reasonings, their opinion is that parents are the
- 1:50:33Speaker 1: last of all others to be trusted with the education
- 1:50:36Speaker 1: of their own children, and therefore they have in every
- 1:50:39Speaker 1: town public nurseries, where all parents except cottagers and laborers,
- 1:50:44Speaker 1: are obliged to send their infants of both sexes, to
- 1:50:46Speaker 1: be reared and educated when they come to the age
- 1:50:49Speaker 1: of twenty moons, at which time they are supposed to
- 1:50:52Speaker 1: have some rudiments of docility. These schools are of several kinds,
- 1:50:57Speaker 1: suited to different qualities and both sexes. They have certain
- 1:51:00Speaker 1: professors well skilled in preparing children for such a condition
- 1:51:04Speaker 1: of life as befits the rank of their parents and
- 1:51:07Speaker 1: their own capacities, as well as inclinations. I shall first
- 1:51:11Speaker 1: say something of the male nurseries, and then of the female.
- 1:51:15Speaker 1: The nurseries for males of noble or eminent birth are
- 1:51:19Speaker 1: provided with grave and learned professors and their several deputies.
- 1:51:23Speaker 1: The clothes and food of the children are plain and simple.
- 1:51:26Speaker 1: They are bred up in the principles of honor, justice, courage, modesty, clemency, religion,
- 1:51:31Speaker 1: and love of their country. They are always employed in
- 1:51:34Speaker 1: some business, except in the times of eating and sleeping,
- 1:51:38Speaker 1: which are very short, and two hours for diversions consisting
- 1:51:41Speaker 1: of bodily exercises. They are dressed by men till four
- 1:51:46Speaker 1: years of age, and then are obliged to dress themselves,
- 1:51:49Speaker 1: although their quality be ever so great, and the woman attendant,
- 1:51:53Speaker 1: who are age proportionally to hours at fifty, perform only
- 1:51:56Speaker 1: the most menial offices. They They never suffer to converse
- 1:52:01Speaker 1: with servants, but go together in smaller or greater numbers
- 1:52:04Speaker 1: to take their diversions, and always in the presence of
- 1:52:08Speaker 1: a professor or one of his deputies, whereby they avoid
- 1:52:12Speaker 1: these early bad impressions of folly and vice to which
- 1:52:15Speaker 1: our children are subject. Their parents are suffered to see
- 1:52:18Speaker 1: them only twice a year. The visit is to last
- 1:52:21Speaker 1: but an hour. They are allowed to kiss the child
- 1:52:24Speaker 1: at meeting and parting, but a professor, who always stands
- 1:52:27Speaker 1: by on those occasions will not suffer them to whisper,
- 1:52:30Speaker 1: or use any fondling expressions, or bring any presence of toys,
- 1:52:34Speaker 1: sweetmeats and alike. The pension from each family for the
- 1:52:38Speaker 1: education and entertainment of a child, upon failure of due payment,
- 1:52:42Speaker 1: is levied by the Emperor's officers. The nurseries for children
- 1:52:46Speaker 1: of ordinary gentlemen, merchants, traders, and handicrafts are managed proportionally
- 1:52:52Speaker 1: after the same manner. Only those designed for trades are
- 1:52:55Speaker 1: put out apprentices at eleven years old, whereas those of
- 1:52:58Speaker 1: persons of quality continue in their exercises till fifteen, which
- 1:53:03Speaker 1: answers to twenty one with us, but the confinement is
- 1:53:06Speaker 1: gradually lessened for the last three years. In the female nurseries,
- 1:53:11Speaker 1: the young girls of quality are educated much like the males,
- 1:53:15Speaker 1: only they are dressed by orderly servants of their own sex,
- 1:53:18Speaker 1: but always in the presence of a professor or deputy,
- 1:53:22Speaker 1: till they come to dress themselves, which is at five
- 1:53:24Speaker 1: years old. And if it be found that the nurses
- 1:53:27Speaker 1: ever presume to entertain the girls with frightful or foolish stories,
- 1:53:32Speaker 1: or the common follies practiced by chambermaids among us, they
- 1:53:35Speaker 1: are publicly whipped thrice about the city, imprisoned for a year,
- 1:53:40Speaker 1: and banished for life to the most desolate part of
- 1:53:42Speaker 1: the country. Thus the young ladies are as much ashamed
- 1:53:46Speaker 1: of being cowards and fools as the men and aspires
- 1:53:49Speaker 1: all personal ornaments beyond decency and cleanliness. Neither did I
- 1:53:54Speaker 1: perceive any difference in their education made by their difference
- 1:53:57Speaker 1: of sex, only that the exercise of the females were
- 1:54:00Speaker 1: not altogether so robust, and that some rules were given
- 1:54:04Speaker 1: them relating to domestic life, and a smaller compass of
- 1:54:07Speaker 1: learning was enjoined them for their maximies that among peoples
- 1:54:11Speaker 1: of quality, a wife should always be a reasonable and
- 1:54:14Speaker 1: agreeable companion, because she cannot always be young. When the
- 1:54:19Speaker 1: girls are twelve years old, which among them is the
- 1:54:22Speaker 1: marriageable age, their parents or guardians take them home with
- 1:54:26Speaker 1: great expressions of gratitude to the professors, and seldom without
- 1:54:30Speaker 1: tears of the young lady and her companions. In the
- 1:54:34Speaker 1: nurseries of females of the meaner sort, the children are
- 1:54:37Speaker 1: instructed in all kinds of works proper for their sex
- 1:54:40Speaker 1: and their several degrees. Those intended for apprentices are dismissed
- 1:54:44Speaker 1: at seven years old, the rest are kept till eleven.
- 1:54:48Speaker 1: The meaner families who have children at these nurseries are obliged,
- 1:54:52Speaker 1: besides their annual pension, which is as low as possible,
- 1:54:55Speaker 1: to return to the steward of the nursery, a small
- 1:54:58Speaker 1: monthly share of their getting to be apportioned for the child.
- 1:55:03Speaker 1: And therefore all parents are limited in their expenses by
- 1:55:05Speaker 1: the law. For the Liliputians think nothing could be more
- 1:55:09Speaker 1: unjust than for people in subservance to their own appetites
- 1:55:13Speaker 1: to bring children into the world and leave the burden
- 1:55:15Speaker 1: of supporting them on the public. As to persons of quality,
- 1:55:20Speaker 1: they give security to appropriate a certain sum for each child,
- 1:55:24Speaker 1: suitable to their condition, and these funds are always managed
- 1:55:27Speaker 1: with good husbandry and the most exact justice. The cottages
- 1:55:32Speaker 1: and laborers keep their children at home, their business being
- 1:55:35Speaker 1: only to till and cultivate the earth, and therefore their
- 1:55:38Speaker 1: education is of little consequence to the public. But the
- 1:55:41Speaker 1: old and diseased among them are supported by hospitals. For
- 1:55:45Speaker 1: begging is a trade unknown in this empire, and here
- 1:55:49Speaker 1: it may perhaps divert the curious reader to give some
- 1:55:52Speaker 1: account of my domestics and my manner of living in
- 1:55:55Speaker 1: this country. During a residence of nine months and thirteen days,
- 1:56:00Speaker 1: having a head mechanically turned, and being likewise forced by necessity,
- 1:56:04Speaker 1: I had made for myself a table and chair convenient
- 1:56:08Speaker 1: enough out of the largest trees in the royal park.
- 1:56:11Speaker 1: Two hundred seamstresses were employed to make me shirts and
- 1:56:15Speaker 1: linen for my bed and table, all of the strongest
- 1:56:18Speaker 1: and coarsest kind they could get, which, however, they were
- 1:56:21Speaker 1: forced to quilt together in several folds, for the thickest
- 1:56:24Speaker 1: was some degrees finer than lawn. Their linen is usually
- 1:56:28Speaker 1: three inches wide and three feet make apiece. The seamstresses
- 1:56:32Speaker 1: took my measure as I lay on the ground, one
- 1:56:35Speaker 1: standing at my neck and another at my mid leg,
- 1:56:38Speaker 1: with a strong cord extended that each held by the end,
- 1:56:41Speaker 1: while a third measured the length of the cord with
- 1:56:43Speaker 1: a rule of an inch long. Then they measured my
- 1:56:46Speaker 1: right thumb, and desired no more, for by a mathematical
- 1:56:50Speaker 1: computation that twice round the thumb is once round the wrist,
- 1:56:54Speaker 1: and so on to the neck and the waist. And
- 1:56:57Speaker 1: by the help of my old shirt, which I displayed
- 1:56:59Speaker 1: on the ground before bore them for a pattern, they
- 1:57:01Speaker 1: fitted me exactly. Three hundred tailors were employed in the
- 1:57:05Speaker 1: same manner to make me clothes. But they had another
- 1:57:09Speaker 1: contrivance for taking my measure. I kneeled down, and they
- 1:57:13Speaker 1: raised a ladder from the ground to my neck. Upon
- 1:57:16Speaker 1: this ladder, one of them mounted and let fall a
- 1:57:19Speaker 1: plum line from my collar to the floor, which just
- 1:57:22Speaker 1: answered the length of my coat. But my waist and
- 1:57:25Speaker 1: arms they measured myself. When my clothes were finished, which
- 1:57:29Speaker 1: was done in my house, for the largest of theirs
- 1:57:31Speaker 1: would not have been able to hold them. They looked
- 1:57:34Speaker 1: like the patchwork made by the ladies in England, only
- 1:57:37Speaker 1: that mine were all of a color. I had three
- 1:57:40Speaker 1: hundred cooks to dress my victuals in little convenient huts
- 1:57:43Speaker 1: built about my house, where they and their families lived,
- 1:57:47Speaker 1: and prepared me two dishes apiece. I took up twenty
- 1:57:50Speaker 1: waiters in my hand and placed them on the table,
- 1:57:53Speaker 1: a hundred more attendant below on the ground, some with
- 1:57:56Speaker 1: dishes of meat, and some with barrels of wine, and
- 1:57:59Speaker 1: other liqueurs lung on their shoulders, all which the weights
- 1:58:02Speaker 1: above drew up as I wanted, in a very ingenious manner,
- 1:58:06Speaker 1: by certain cords, as we draw the bucket upper well.
- 1:58:09Speaker 1: In Europe, a dish of their meat was a good mouthful,
- 1:58:13Speaker 1: and a barrel of their liqueur a reasonable draft. Their
- 1:58:16Speaker 1: mutter yielded to ours, but their beef is excellent. I
- 1:58:19Speaker 1: have had a surloin so large that I have been
- 1:58:22Speaker 1: forced to make three bites of it, but this is rare.
- 1:58:25Speaker 1: My servants were astonished to see me eat it, bones
- 1:58:27Speaker 1: and all. As in our country we do the leg
- 1:58:30Speaker 1: of a lark. Their geese and turkeys are usually ate
- 1:58:32Speaker 1: at a mouthful, and I confess they far exceeded hours
- 1:58:37Speaker 1: of their smaller fowl. I could take up twenty or
- 1:58:39Speaker 1: thirty at the end of my knife. One day, his
- 1:58:43Speaker 1: Imperial Majesty, being informed of my way of living, desired
- 1:58:48Speaker 1: that himself and his royal Consort, with the young princes
- 1:58:50Speaker 1: of the blood of both sexes, might have the happiness,
- 1:58:54Speaker 1: as he was pleased to call it, of dining with me.
- 1:58:58Speaker 1: They came accordingly, and I placed them in chairs of
- 1:59:00Speaker 1: state upon my table just over against me, with their
- 1:59:03Speaker 1: guards about them. Fil Nap, the Lord High Treasurer, attended
- 1:59:08Speaker 1: there likewise, with his white staff, and I observed he
- 1:59:12Speaker 1: often looked on me with a sour countenance, which I
- 1:59:15Speaker 1: would not seem to regard, but ate more than usual
- 1:59:18Speaker 1: in honor to my dear country, as well as to
- 1:59:20Speaker 1: fill the court with admiration. I have some private reasons
- 1:59:24Speaker 1: to believe that this visit from His Majesty gave Filmnap
- 1:59:28Speaker 1: an opportunity of doing me ill offices to his master.
- 1:59:31Speaker 1: That minister had always been my secret enemy, though he
- 1:59:35Speaker 1: outwardly caressed me more than was usual to the moroseness
- 1:59:37Speaker 1: of his nature. He represented to the Emperor the low
- 1:59:41Speaker 1: condition of his treasury, that he was forced to make
- 1:59:44Speaker 1: up money at a great discount, that exchequer bills would
- 1:59:47Speaker 1: not circulate under nine percent below par, that I had
- 1:59:50Speaker 1: cost his Majesty above a million and a half of
- 1:59:52Speaker 1: sprgues their grate his gold coin about the bigness of
- 1:59:57Speaker 1: a spangle, and upon the whole that it would be
- 1:59:59Speaker 1: advisable and the Emperor to take the first fair occasion
- 2:00:02Speaker 1: of dismissing me. I am here obliged to vindicate the
- 2:00:06Speaker 1: reputation of an excellent lady who was an innocent sufferer
- 2:00:09Speaker 1: upon my account. The Treasurer took a fancy to be
- 2:00:13Speaker 1: jealous of his wife from the malice of some evil tongues,
- 2:00:17Speaker 1: who informed him that her Grace had taken a violent
- 2:00:19Speaker 1: affection for my person, and the court scandal ran for
- 2:00:23Speaker 1: some time that she was once come privately to my lodging.
- 2:00:27Speaker 1: This I solemnly declared to be a most infamous falsehood,
- 2:00:30Speaker 1: without any grounds further than that her Grace was pleased
- 2:00:34Speaker 1: to treat me with all innocent marks of freedom and
- 2:00:36Speaker 1: friendship I own. She came often to my house, but
- 2:00:41Speaker 1: always publicly, not ever without three more in the coach,
- 2:00:44Speaker 1: who were usually her sister and young daughter, and some
- 2:00:47Speaker 1: particular acquaintance. But this was common to many other ladies
- 2:00:51Speaker 1: of the court, and I still appealed to my servants
- 2:00:54Speaker 1: round whether they at any time saw a coach at
- 2:00:56Speaker 1: my door without knowing what persons were in it. On
- 2:01:00Speaker 1: those occasions when a servant had given me my notice,
- 2:01:03Speaker 1: my custom was to go immediately to the door, and,
- 2:01:07Speaker 1: after paying my respects, to take up the coach and
- 2:01:10Speaker 1: two horses very carefully in my hands. For if there
- 2:01:13Speaker 1: were six horses, the postilion always unharnessed for and placed
- 2:01:18Speaker 1: them on a table where I had fixed a movable
- 2:01:21Speaker 1: rim quite round of five inches high to prevent accidents.
- 2:01:26Speaker 1: And I often have four coaches and horses at once
- 2:01:28Speaker 1: on my table full of company, while I sat in
- 2:01:32Speaker 1: my chair, leaning my face towards them. When I was
- 2:01:35Speaker 1: engaged with one set, the coachman will gently drive the
- 2:01:37Speaker 1: others round my table. I have passed many an afternoon
- 2:01:41Speaker 1: very agreeably in these conversations. But I to fire the
- 2:01:45Speaker 1: treasurer or his two informers, I will name them and
- 2:01:48Speaker 1: let them make the best of it. Clusterrel and drumlow
- 2:01:52Speaker 1: to prove that any person ever came to me incognito
- 2:01:56Speaker 1: except the Secretary Valdressel, who was sent by express command
- 2:01:59Speaker 1: of his Majesty. As I had before related, I should
- 2:02:03Speaker 1: not have dwelt so long upon this particular if it
- 2:02:06Speaker 1: had not been a point wherein the reputation of a
- 2:02:08Speaker 1: great lady is so nearly concerned to say nothing of
- 2:02:11Speaker 1: my own, though I then had the honor to be
- 2:02:14Speaker 1: an ardec, which the Treasure himself is not. For all
- 2:02:17Speaker 1: the world knows that he is only a glum glum,
- 2:02:20Speaker 1: a title inferior by one degree as that of a
- 2:02:23Speaker 1: marquis is to a duke in England. Yet I allow
- 2:02:26Speaker 1: he preceded me in right of his post. These false informations,
- 2:02:31Speaker 1: which I afterwards came to the knowledge of by an
- 2:02:33Speaker 1: accident not proper to mention, made the Treasure show his
- 2:02:36Speaker 1: lady for some time an ill countenance, and me are worse.
- 2:02:41Speaker 1: And although he was at last undeceived and reconciled to her,
- 2:02:45Speaker 1: yet I lost all credit with him, and found my
- 2:02:47Speaker 1: interest to clind very fast with the Emperor himself, who
- 2:02:51Speaker 1: was indeed too much governed by that favorite end of
- 2:02:54Speaker 1: Chapter six, Part one, Chapter seven, the author, being informed
- 2:03:04Speaker 1: of a design to accuse him of high treason, makes
- 2:03:07Speaker 1: us escape to Blefuscue his reception there. Before I proceed
- 2:03:12Speaker 1: to give an account of my leaving this kingdom, it
- 2:03:15Speaker 1: may be proper to inform the reader of a private
- 2:03:18Speaker 1: intrigue which had been for two months forming against me.
- 2:03:21Speaker 1: I had been hitherto all my life a stranger to
- 2:03:24Speaker 1: courts for which I was unqualified by the meanness of
- 2:03:27Speaker 1: my condition. I had indeed heard and read enough of
- 2:03:31Speaker 1: the dispositions of great princes and ministers, but never expected
- 2:03:35Speaker 1: to have found such terrible effects of them in seramoter country, governed,
- 2:03:39Speaker 1: as I thought, by very different maxims from those in Europe.
- 2:03:44Speaker 1: When I was just preparing to pay my attendance on
- 2:03:46Speaker 1: the Emperor of Blefuscue, a considerable person at court, to
- 2:03:50Speaker 1: whom I had been very serviceable at a time when
- 2:03:52Speaker 1: he lay under the highest displeasure of his Imperial majesty,
- 2:03:56Speaker 1: came to my house very privately at night, in a
- 2:03:59Speaker 1: close chair, and without sending his name desired admittance. The
- 2:04:05Speaker 1: chairman was dismissed. I put the chair, with his lordship
- 2:04:08Speaker 1: in it into my coat pocket, and giving orders to
- 2:04:11Speaker 1: a trusty servant to say I was indisposed and gone
- 2:04:14Speaker 1: to sleep. I fastened the door of my house, placed
- 2:04:18Speaker 1: the chair on the table, according to my usual custom,
- 2:04:21Speaker 1: and sat down by it after the common salutations were over,
- 2:04:26Speaker 1: observing his Lordship's countenance full of concern, and inquiring into
- 2:04:30Speaker 1: the reason he desired, I would hear him with all patience,
- 2:04:33Speaker 1: in a manner that highly concerned my honor and my life.
- 2:04:38Speaker 1: His speech was to the following effect, for I took
- 2:04:41Speaker 1: notes of it as soon as he left me. You
- 2:04:43Speaker 1: ought to know, said he, that several committees of Council
- 2:04:47Speaker 1: have been lately called in the most private manner on
- 2:04:50Speaker 1: your account. And it is but two days since his
- 2:04:53Speaker 1: Majesty came to a full resolution. You are very sensible
- 2:04:56Speaker 1: that Skyrish Bogolon Galbert or High Admiral, has been your
- 2:05:01Speaker 1: mortal enemy almost ever since your arrival. His original reasons
- 2:05:06Speaker 1: I know not, but his hatred has increased since your
- 2:05:09Speaker 1: great success against Blefiscue, by which his glorious Admiral is
- 2:05:12Speaker 1: much obscured. This lord, in conjunction with filling up the
- 2:05:16Speaker 1: High Treasurer, whose enmity against you is notorious an account
- 2:05:19Speaker 1: of his Lady Limb took the General luck on, the
- 2:05:23Speaker 1: Chamberlain and boum Off, the Grand Justicary, have prepared articles
- 2:05:27Speaker 1: of impeachment against you for treaton and other capital crimes.
- 2:05:31Speaker 1: This preface made me so impatient, being conscious of my
- 2:05:34Speaker 1: own merits and innocent, that I was going to interrupt
- 2:05:37Speaker 1: him when he entreated me to be silent, and thus proceeded.
- 2:05:41Speaker 1: Out of the gratitude for the favors You've done me,
- 2:05:43Speaker 1: I procured information of the whole proceedings and a copy
- 2:05:47Speaker 1: of the articles, wherein I venture my head for your service.
- 2:05:52Speaker 1: Articles of impeachment against quinnbillis flesterin the Man Mountain, Article one,
- 2:05:59Speaker 1: whereas as by a statute made in the reign of
- 2:06:01Speaker 1: His Imperial Majesty Calin de far Plun, it is enacted
- 2:06:06Speaker 1: that whoever shall make water within the precincts of the
- 2:06:09Speaker 1: Royal Palace shall be liable to the pains and penalties
- 2:06:12Speaker 1: of high treason, notwithstanding the said quinbus flesterin in open
- 2:06:17Speaker 1: breach of the said law, under color of extinguishing the
- 2:06:19Speaker 1: fire kindled in the apartment of His Majesty's most dear
- 2:06:23Speaker 1: Imperial Consort, did maliciously, treacherously and devilishly, by discharge of
- 2:06:28Speaker 1: his urine, put out the said fire kindled in the
- 2:06:31Speaker 1: said apartment, lying and being within the precincts of the
- 2:06:34Speaker 1: said Royal Palace, against the statute in that case provided,
- 2:06:38Speaker 1: et cetera, against the duty et cetera. Article two, that
- 2:06:44Speaker 1: the said Quinbus Flestrin, having brought the Imperial fleet of
- 2:06:48Speaker 1: Blefuscue into the Royal Port, and being afterwards commanded by
- 2:06:52Speaker 1: his Imperial Majesty, to seize all the other ships of
- 2:06:54Speaker 1: the said Empire of Blefuscue, and reduce that empire to
- 2:06:58Speaker 1: a province to be governed by a iceroy from hence,
- 2:07:01Speaker 1: and to destroy and put to death not only all
- 2:07:03Speaker 1: the Bigendian exiles, but likewise all the people of that Empire,
- 2:07:08Speaker 1: who would not immediately forsake the big Endian heresy. He,
- 2:07:12Speaker 1: the said Flestrian, like a false traitor, against his most auspicious,
- 2:07:16Speaker 1: serene Imperial Majesty, did petition to be excused from the
- 2:07:19Speaker 1: said service, upon pretense of the unwillingness to force the
- 2:07:23Speaker 1: consciences or destroy the liberties and lives of an innocent people.
- 2:07:28Speaker 1: Article three, that whereas certain ambassadors arrived from the court
- 2:07:33Speaker 1: of Blefuscu to sue for peace in his Majesty's court, he,
- 2:07:37Speaker 1: the said flesterin, did, like a false traitor, aid abet
- 2:07:41Speaker 1: comfort and divert the said ambassadors, although he knew them
- 2:07:46Speaker 1: to be servants to a prince who was lately an
- 2:07:48Speaker 1: open enemy to his Imperial Majesty and in an open
- 2:07:51Speaker 1: war against his said Imperial Majesty. Article four, that the
- 2:07:57Speaker 1: said quinbus flesterin, contrary to the duty of faithful subject,
- 2:08:01Speaker 1: is now preparing to make a voyage to the court
- 2:08:03Speaker 1: and Empire of Blefuscue, for which he has received only
- 2:08:07Speaker 1: verbal license from his Imperial Majesty, and under color of
- 2:08:11Speaker 1: the said license, does falsely and treacherously intend to take
- 2:08:15Speaker 1: the said voyage, and thereby to aid comfort and abet
- 2:08:19Speaker 1: the Emperor of Blefuscue, so lately an enemy and an
- 2:08:22Speaker 1: open war with his Imperial Majesty. As foresaid, there are
- 2:08:27Speaker 1: some other articles, but these are the most important, of
- 2:08:30Speaker 1: which I have read you an abstract. In the several
- 2:08:33Speaker 1: debates upon this impeachment, it must be confessed that his
- 2:08:36Speaker 1: Majesty gave many marks of his great lenienty, often urging
- 2:08:40Speaker 1: the services you had done him, and endeavoring to extenuate
- 2:08:43Speaker 1: your crimes, the Treasurer and Admiral insisted that you should
- 2:08:47Speaker 1: be put to the most painful and ignominious death by
- 2:08:49Speaker 1: setting fire to your house at night, and the General
- 2:08:52Speaker 1: was to attend with twenty thousand men armed with poisoned arrows,
- 2:08:56Speaker 1: to shoot you on the face and hands. Some of
- 2:08:59Speaker 1: yourself were to have private orders to strew a poisonous
- 2:09:02Speaker 1: juice on your shirts and sheets, which would soon make
- 2:09:05Speaker 1: you tear your own flesh and die in the utmost torture.
- 2:09:09Speaker 1: The General came into the same opinion, so that for
- 2:09:12Speaker 1: a long time there was a majority against you, But
- 2:09:15Speaker 1: his Majesty, resolving if possible, to spare your life, at
- 2:09:18Speaker 1: last brought off the Chamberlain. Upon this incident, Reldressel, Principal
- 2:09:24Speaker 1: Secretary for Private Affairs, who always approved himself your true friend,
- 2:09:29Speaker 1: was commanded by the Emperor to deliver his opinion, which
- 2:09:32Speaker 1: he accordingly did, and therein justified the good thoughts you
- 2:09:36Speaker 1: have of him. He allowed your crimes to be great,
- 2:09:39Speaker 1: but that still there was room for mercy, the most
- 2:09:42Speaker 1: commendable virtue in a prince, and for which his Majesty
- 2:09:45Speaker 1: was so justly celebrated. He said, the friendship between you
- 2:09:50Speaker 1: and him was so well known to the world that
- 2:09:52Speaker 1: perhaps the most honorable board might think him partial. However,
- 2:09:58Speaker 1: in obedience to the command he would received, he would
- 2:10:00Speaker 1: freely offer his sentiments that if his Majesty, in consideration
- 2:10:05Speaker 1: of your services and pursuance to his own merciful disposition,
- 2:10:10Speaker 1: would please to spare your life and only give orders
- 2:10:13Speaker 1: to put out both your eyes, he humbly conceived that
- 2:10:16Speaker 1: this expedient, just as might in some measure, be satisfied,
- 2:10:20Speaker 1: and all the world would applaud the lenienty of the Emperor,
- 2:10:23Speaker 1: as well as the fair and generous proceedings of those
- 2:10:26Speaker 1: who have the honor to be his counselors. That the
- 2:10:29Speaker 1: loss of your eyes would be no impediment to your
- 2:10:31Speaker 1: bodily strength, by which you might still be useful to
- 2:10:34Speaker 1: his Majesty, that blindness, in addition to courage, by concealing
- 2:10:38Speaker 1: dangers from us, That the fear you had for your
- 2:10:41Speaker 1: eyes was the greatest difficulty in bringing over the enemy's fleet,
- 2:10:46Speaker 1: and it would be sufficient for you to see by
- 2:10:48Speaker 1: the eyes of the ministers. Since the great princes do
- 2:10:50Speaker 1: no more. This proposal was received with the utmost disprobation
- 2:10:55Speaker 1: by the whole board. Bogolon, the Admiral could not preserve
- 2:10:59Speaker 1: his temper, but, rising up in fury, said he wondered,
- 2:11:03Speaker 1: how the Secretary does presume to give his opinion for
- 2:11:05Speaker 1: preserving the life of a traitor. That the services you
- 2:11:09Speaker 1: had performed were by all true reasons of state the
- 2:11:12Speaker 1: great aggravation of your crimes. That you, who were able
- 2:11:16Speaker 1: to extinguish the fire by discharge of urine in her
- 2:11:19Speaker 1: Majesty's department, which he mentioned with horror, might at another
- 2:11:24Speaker 1: time rais in an inundation by the same means to
- 2:11:27Speaker 1: drown the whole palace. And the same strength which enabled
- 2:11:31Speaker 1: you to bring over the enemy's fleet might serve, upon
- 2:11:34Speaker 1: the first discontent, to carry it back. That he had
- 2:11:38Speaker 1: good reasons to think you were a big Indian in
- 2:11:40Speaker 1: your heart, And as treason begins in the heart before
- 2:11:45Speaker 1: it appears in overt acts, so he accused you as
- 2:11:48Speaker 1: a traitor on that account, and therefore insisted you should
- 2:11:51Speaker 1: be put to death. The Treasurer was of the same opinion.
- 2:11:56Speaker 1: He showed to what straits his Majesty's revenue was reduced
- 2:11:59Speaker 1: by the charge maintaining you, which would soon grow insupportable.
- 2:12:04Speaker 1: That the Secretary's expedient of putting out your eyes was
- 2:12:07Speaker 1: so far from being a remedy against this evil that
- 2:12:10Speaker 1: it would probably increase it, as is manifest from the
- 2:12:13Speaker 1: common practice of blinding some kind of vowls, after which
- 2:12:17Speaker 1: they feed the faster and grow sooner fat That his
- 2:12:21Speaker 1: Sacred Majesty and the Council, who are your judges, were,
- 2:12:25Speaker 1: in their own consciences fully conceived of your guilt, which
- 2:12:29Speaker 1: was a sufficient argument to condemn you to death without
- 2:12:32Speaker 1: the formal proofs required by the strict letter of the law.
- 2:12:38Speaker 1: But his Imperial Majesty, fully determined against capital punishment, was
- 2:12:42Speaker 1: greateously pleased to say that, since the Council thought the
- 2:12:46Speaker 1: loss of your eyes too easy, a censure some other
- 2:12:49Speaker 1: way might be inflicted hereafter. And your friend the Secretary, humbly,
- 2:12:53Speaker 1: desiring to be heard again, in answer to what the
- 2:12:56Speaker 1: Treasurer had objected concerning the great charge his Majesty was
- 2:13:00Speaker 1: in maintaining you, said that his Excellency, who at the
- 2:13:04Speaker 1: sole disposal of the Emperor's revenue, might easily provide against
- 2:13:07Speaker 1: the evil by gradually lessening your establishment, by which, for
- 2:13:12Speaker 1: want of sufficient for you would grow weak and faint,
- 2:13:15Speaker 1: and lose your appetite, and consequently decay and consume in
- 2:13:19Speaker 1: a few months. Neither would the stentery carcass be then
- 2:13:22Speaker 1: so dangerous, when it should become more than half diminished,
- 2:13:26Speaker 1: And immediately upon your death, five or six thousand of
- 2:13:29Speaker 1: His Majesty's subjects might in two or three days cut
- 2:13:33Speaker 1: your flesh from your bones, and take it away by
- 2:13:35Speaker 1: cart loads, and bury it in distant parts to prevent infection,
- 2:13:40Speaker 1: leaving the skeleton as a monument of admiration to prosperity. Thus,
- 2:13:46Speaker 1: by the great friendship of the Secretary, the whole affair
- 2:13:49Speaker 1: was compromised. It was strictly enjoyed that the project of
- 2:13:53Speaker 1: starving you by degrees should be kept a secret, but
- 2:13:57Speaker 1: the sentence of putting out your eyes was entered on
- 2:13:59Speaker 1: the books. None dissenting except Bogolon, the Admiral, who, being
- 2:14:04Speaker 1: a creature of the Empress, was perpetually instigated by Her
- 2:14:07Speaker 1: Majesty to insist upon your death. She having borne perpetual
- 2:14:12Speaker 1: malice against you. On account of that infamous and a
- 2:14:15Speaker 1: legal method, you took to extinguish the fire in her apartment.
- 2:14:19Speaker 1: In three days, your friend, the Secretary will be directed
- 2:14:22Speaker 1: to come to your house and read before you the
- 2:14:25Speaker 1: articles of impeachment, and then to signify the great lenienty
- 2:14:28Speaker 1: in favor of His Majesty and council. Whereby you are
- 2:14:31Speaker 1: only condemned to the loss of your eyes, which his
- 2:14:34Speaker 1: Majesty does not question, you will gratefully and humbly submit to,
- 2:14:38Speaker 1: And twenty of his Majesty's surgeons will attend in order
- 2:14:41Speaker 1: to see the operation well performed. By discharging very sharp
- 2:14:45Speaker 1: pointed arrows into the balls of your eyes as you
- 2:14:47Speaker 1: lie on the ground, I leave you to your prudence
- 2:14:50Speaker 1: what measures you would take, and to avoid suspicion, I
- 2:14:53Speaker 1: must immediately return in as private a manner as I came.
- 2:14:58Speaker 1: His lordship did so, and I remained alone under many
- 2:15:02Speaker 1: doubts and perplexities of mind. It was a custom introduced
- 2:15:07Speaker 1: by this Prince and its ministry very different, as I
- 2:15:10Speaker 1: have been assured from the practice of former times, that
- 2:15:13Speaker 1: after the court has decreed any cruel execution, either to
- 2:15:17Speaker 1: gratify the monarch's resentment or the malice of a favorite,
- 2:15:21Speaker 1: the emperor always makes a speech to his whole council,
- 2:15:24Speaker 1: expressing his great lenienty and tenderness, as qualities known and
- 2:15:28Speaker 1: confessed by all the world. This speech was immediately published
- 2:15:32Speaker 1: throughout the kingdom. Nor did anything terrify the people so
- 2:15:36Speaker 1: much as these encomiums on his Majesty's mercy, because it
- 2:15:40Speaker 1: was observed that the more these praises were enlarged and
- 2:15:43Speaker 1: insisted on, the more inhuman was the punishment, and the
- 2:15:47Speaker 1: sufferer more innocent. Yet as to myself, I must confess,
- 2:15:53Speaker 1: having never been designed for a courtier, either by my
- 2:15:56Speaker 1: birth or education, I was so ill a judge of
- 2:15:59Speaker 1: things that I could not discover the lenientity and favor
- 2:16:02Speaker 1: of this sentence, but conceived it, perhaps erroneously, rather to
- 2:16:07Speaker 1: be rigorous than gentle. I sometimes thought of standing my trial,
- 2:16:14Speaker 1: for although I could not deny the facts alleged in
- 2:16:16Speaker 1: several articles, yet I hoped they would admit of some extenuation.
- 2:16:22Speaker 1: But having in my life pursued many state trials which
- 2:16:25Speaker 1: I ever observed to terminate as the judges thought fit
- 2:16:28Speaker 1: to direct, I durst not rely on so dangerous a decision,
- 2:16:32Speaker 1: in so critical a juncture, and against such powerful enemies.
- 2:16:37Speaker 1: Once I was strongly bent upon resistance, for while I
- 2:16:40Speaker 1: had liberty, the whole strength of that empire could hardly
- 2:16:43Speaker 1: subdue me, and might easily, with stones pel f the
- 2:16:47Speaker 1: metropolis to pieces. But I soon rejected that project with horror,
- 2:16:53Speaker 1: by remembering the oath I had made to the Emperor,
- 2:16:55Speaker 1: the favors I had received from him, and the high
- 2:16:58Speaker 1: title of Nardac he had conferred upon me. Neither had
- 2:17:02Speaker 1: I so soon learned the gratitude of courtiers to persuade
- 2:17:05Speaker 1: myself that His Majesty's prayers and seventies acquitted me of
- 2:17:09Speaker 1: all past obligations. At last I fixed upon a resolution
- 2:17:15Speaker 1: for which it is probable I may incur some censure,
- 2:17:18Speaker 1: and not unjustly, for I confess I owe the preserving
- 2:17:21Speaker 1: of mine eyes, and consequently my liberty, to my own
- 2:17:25Speaker 1: great rashness and want of experience. Because if I had
- 2:17:29Speaker 1: then known the nature of princes and ministers, which I
- 2:17:32Speaker 1: have since observed in many other courts, and their methods
- 2:17:35Speaker 1: of treating criminals less obnoxious than myself, I should, with
- 2:17:40Speaker 1: great alacrity and readiness, have submitted to so easy a punishment.
- 2:17:45Speaker 1: But hurried on by the precipitancy of youth, and having
- 2:17:48Speaker 1: his Imperial Majesty's license to pay my attendance upon the
- 2:17:51Speaker 1: Emperor of Blefuscue. I took this opportunity before the three
- 2:17:55Speaker 1: days were elapsed, to send a letter to my friend
- 2:17:58Speaker 1: the secretaryifying my resolution of setting out that morning for Blefuscue.
- 2:18:03Speaker 1: Pursuant to the leave I had got, and without waiting
- 2:18:07Speaker 1: for an answer, I went to that side of the
- 2:18:09Speaker 1: island where our fleet lay. I seized a large man
- 2:18:12Speaker 1: of war, tied a cable to the prow, and lifting
- 2:18:15Speaker 1: up the anchors, I stripped myself, put my clothes together
- 2:18:19Speaker 1: with my coverlet, which I carried under my arm into
- 2:18:22Speaker 1: the vessel, and drawing it after me between wading and swimming,
- 2:18:27Speaker 1: arrived at the royal port of Lethuscue, where the people
- 2:18:30Speaker 1: had long expected me. They lent me two guides to
- 2:18:33Speaker 1: direct me to the capital city, which is of the
- 2:18:36Speaker 1: same name. I held them in my hands till I
- 2:18:39Speaker 1: came within two hundred yards of the gate, and desired
- 2:18:43Speaker 1: them to signify my arrival to one of the secretaries
- 2:18:45Speaker 1: and let him know. I there waited His Majesty's command.
- 2:18:50Speaker 1: I had an answer in about an hour that His
- 2:18:53Speaker 1: Majesty attended by the royal family and great officers of
- 2:18:57Speaker 1: the court, was coming out to receive me. I advanced
- 2:19:00Speaker 1: a hundred yards. The Emperor and his train alighted from
- 2:19:05Speaker 1: their horses, the Empress and ladies from their coaches, and
- 2:19:08Speaker 1: I did not perceive there in any fright or concern.
- 2:19:12Speaker 1: I lay on the ground to kiss His Majesty's and
- 2:19:14Speaker 1: the Empress's hands. I told his Majesty that I was
- 2:19:18Speaker 1: come according to my promise and with the license of
- 2:19:20Speaker 1: the Emperor, my master, to have the honor of seeing
- 2:19:23Speaker 1: so mighty a monarch, and to offer him any service
- 2:19:26Speaker 1: in my power, consistent with my duty to my own prince,
- 2:19:30Speaker 1: not mentioning a word in my disgrace. Because I had
- 2:19:33Speaker 1: hitherow no regular information about it, I might suppose myself
- 2:19:37Speaker 1: wholly ignorant of any such design. Neither could I reasonably
- 2:19:42Speaker 1: conceive that the Emperor would discover the secret while I
- 2:19:45Speaker 1: was out of his power, wherein, however, it soon appeared
- 2:19:48Speaker 1: I was deceived. I shall not trouble the reader with
- 2:19:51Speaker 1: the particular account of my reception at this court, which
- 2:19:54Speaker 1: was suitable to the generosity of so great a prince,
- 2:19:58Speaker 1: nor of the difficulties I was in for one of
- 2:20:00Speaker 1: a house and bed, being forced to lie on the
- 2:20:03Speaker 1: ground wrapped in my coverlet end of Chapter seven, Part one,
- 2:20:10Speaker 1: Chapter eight. The author, by a lucky accident, finds means
- 2:20:16Speaker 1: to leave Lefiscue, and after some difficulties, returned safe to
- 2:20:20Speaker 1: his native country. Three days after my arrival, walking out
- 2:20:25Speaker 1: of curiosity to the northeast coast of the island, I
- 2:20:29Speaker 1: observed about half a league off in the sea, somewhat
- 2:20:32Speaker 1: that they looked like a boat overturned. I pulled off
- 2:20:36Speaker 1: my shoes and stockings, and wailing two or three hundred yards,
- 2:20:41Speaker 1: I found the object to approach nearer by force of
- 2:20:43Speaker 1: the tide, and then plainly saw it to be a
- 2:20:46Speaker 1: real boat, which I supposed might, by some tempest, have
- 2:20:50Speaker 1: been driven from a ship. Whereupon I returned immediately towards
- 2:20:54Speaker 1: the city, and desired his Imperial Majesty to lend me
- 2:20:57Speaker 1: twenty of his tallest vessels he had left after the
- 2:21:00Speaker 1: loss of his fleet and three thousand seamen under the
- 2:21:04Speaker 1: command of his Vice admiral. This fleet sailed round while
- 2:21:08Speaker 1: I went back the shortest way to the coast where
- 2:21:11Speaker 1: I first discovered the boat. I found the tide had
- 2:21:14Speaker 1: driven it still nearer. The seamen were all provided with cordage,
- 2:21:19Speaker 1: which I had beforehand twisted to a sufficient strength. When
- 2:21:23Speaker 1: the ships came up, I stripped myself and waited till
- 2:21:25Speaker 1: I came within a hundred yards off the boat, after
- 2:21:29Speaker 1: which I was forced to swim till I got up
- 2:21:31Speaker 1: to it. The seamen threw me the end of the cord,
- 2:21:34Speaker 1: which I fastened to a hole in the fore part
- 2:21:36Speaker 1: of the boat, and to the other end to a
- 2:21:38Speaker 1: man of war. But I found all my labor to
- 2:21:41Speaker 1: little purpose. For being out of my depth, I was
- 2:21:44Speaker 1: not able to work. In this necessity. I was forced
- 2:21:48Speaker 1: to swim behind and push the boat forward as often
- 2:21:51Speaker 1: as I could with one of my hands, and the
- 2:21:53Speaker 1: tide favoring me, I advanced so far that I could
- 2:21:56Speaker 1: just hold up my chin and feel the ground tested
- 2:22:00Speaker 1: two or three minutes, and then gave the boat another shove,
- 2:22:03Speaker 1: and so on till the sea was no higher than
- 2:22:06Speaker 1: my armpits. And now the most laborous part being over,
- 2:22:10Speaker 1: I took out my other cables, which were stowed in
- 2:22:12Speaker 1: one of the ships, and fastened them first to the
- 2:22:15Speaker 1: boat and then to the nine vessels which attended me.
- 2:22:19Speaker 1: The wind being favorable, the seaman towed and I shoved
- 2:22:23Speaker 1: until we arrived within forty yards of the shore, and
- 2:22:27Speaker 1: waiting till the tide was out, I got dry to
- 2:22:30Speaker 1: the boat, and by assistance of two thousand men with
- 2:22:33Speaker 1: ropes and engines, I made a shift to turn it
- 2:22:36Speaker 1: on its bottom, and found it was but little damaged.
- 2:22:40Speaker 1: I shall not trouble the reader with the difficulties I
- 2:22:42Speaker 1: was under, by the help of certain paddles, which cost
- 2:22:45Speaker 1: me ten days making to get my boat to the
- 2:22:48Speaker 1: royal port of Lefuscue, where a mighty concourse of people
- 2:22:51Speaker 1: appeared upon my arrival. Full of wonder at the sight
- 2:22:54Speaker 1: of so prodigious a vessel, I told the Emperor that
- 2:22:57Speaker 1: my good fortune had thrown this boat in my way
- 2:23:00Speaker 1: to carry me to some place whence I might return
- 2:23:02Speaker 1: into my native country, and begged his Majesty's orders forgetting
- 2:23:06Speaker 1: materials to fit it up, together with his license to depart, which,
- 2:23:11Speaker 1: after some kind expostulations, he was pleased to grant. I
- 2:23:15Speaker 1: did very much wonder in all this time not to
- 2:23:18Speaker 1: have heard of any express relating to me from our
- 2:23:21Speaker 1: Emperor to the court of Blefuscue. But I was afterward
- 2:23:24Speaker 1: given privately to understand that his Imperial Majesty, never imagining
- 2:23:28Speaker 1: I had the least notice of his designs, believed I
- 2:23:31Speaker 1: was only gone to Blefuscue in performance of my promise
- 2:23:34Speaker 1: according to the license he had given me, which was
- 2:23:37Speaker 1: well known at our court, and would return in a
- 2:23:39Speaker 1: few days when this ceremony was ended. But he was
- 2:23:42Speaker 1: at last in pain at my long absence, and after
- 2:23:46Speaker 1: consulting with the Treasurer and the rest of that cable,
- 2:23:49Speaker 1: a person of quality was dispatched with the copy of
- 2:23:52Speaker 1: the articles against me. This envoy had instructions to represent
- 2:23:56Speaker 1: to the Monarch of Blefuscue the great leniity of his master,
- 2:24:00Speaker 1: who was content to punish me no farther than with
- 2:24:02Speaker 1: the loss of mine eyes, that I had fled from justice,
- 2:24:06Speaker 1: and if I did not return when two hours, I
- 2:24:08Speaker 1: should be deprived of my title of Nardek and declared
- 2:24:11Speaker 1: a traitor. The envoy further added that, in order to
- 2:24:16Speaker 1: maintain the peace and amity between both empires, his master
- 2:24:19Speaker 1: expected that his brother of Blefiskue would give orders to
- 2:24:22Speaker 1: have me sent back to Lilliput bound hand and foot,
- 2:24:26Speaker 1: to be punished as a traitor. The Emperor of Bleffiscue,
- 2:24:30Speaker 1: having taken three days to consult, returned an answer consisting
- 2:24:34Speaker 1: of many civilities and excuses. He said that as for
- 2:24:38Speaker 1: sending me bound, his brother knew it was impossible that
- 2:24:42Speaker 1: although I had deprived him of his fleet, yet he
- 2:24:45Speaker 1: owed great obligations to me for many good offices I
- 2:24:48Speaker 1: had done him in making the peace. That, however, both
- 2:24:51Speaker 1: their majesties would soon be made easy, for I had
- 2:24:54Speaker 1: found a bridige's vessel on the shore able to carry
- 2:24:57Speaker 1: me on the sea, which he had given orders to
- 2:25:00Speaker 1: fit up with my own assistance and direction. And he
- 2:25:03Speaker 1: hoped in a few weeks both empires would be freed
- 2:25:06Speaker 1: from so insupportable an encumbrance. With this answer, the envoy
- 2:25:10Speaker 1: returned to Lilliput, and the Monarch of Lefiskie related to
- 2:25:14Speaker 1: me all that had passed, offering me at the same time,
- 2:25:17Speaker 1: but under the strictest confidence his gracious protection, if I
- 2:25:21Speaker 1: would continue in his service wherein although I believed him sincere,
- 2:25:26Speaker 1: yet I resolved never more to put any confidence in
- 2:25:29Speaker 1: princes or ministers where I could possibly avoid it. And therefore,
- 2:25:33Speaker 1: with all due acknowledgments for his favorable inventions, I humbly
- 2:25:37Speaker 1: begged to be excused. I told him that since fortune,
- 2:25:42Speaker 1: whether good or evil, had thrown a vessel in my way,
- 2:25:46Speaker 1: I was resolved to venture myself on the ocean, rather
- 2:25:49Speaker 1: than be an occasion of difference between two such mighty monarchs.
- 2:25:54Speaker 1: Neither did I find the Emperor at all displeased, and
- 2:25:57Speaker 1: I discovered by a certain accident that you was very
- 2:26:00Speaker 1: glad of my resolution, and so were most of his ministers.
- 2:26:04Speaker 1: These considerations moved me to hasten my departure somewhat sooner
- 2:26:08Speaker 1: than I intended, to which the court, impatient to have
- 2:26:12Speaker 1: me gone, very readily contributed. Five hundred workmen were employed
- 2:26:17Speaker 1: to make two sails to my boat according to my directions,
- 2:26:21Speaker 1: by quilting thirteen folds of their strongest linen together. I
- 2:26:25Speaker 1: was at the panes of making ropes and cables by
- 2:26:28Speaker 1: twisting ten twenty or thirty of the thickest and strongest
- 2:26:31Speaker 1: of theirs. A great stone that I happened to find
- 2:26:35Speaker 1: after a long search by the sea shore, served me
- 2:26:38Speaker 1: for an anchor. I had the tallow of three hundred
- 2:26:41Speaker 1: cows for greasing my boat and other uses. I was
- 2:26:45Speaker 1: at incredible pains in cutting down some of the largest
- 2:26:48Speaker 1: timber trees for oars and masts wherein I was, however,
- 2:26:52Speaker 1: much assisted by His Majesty's ship carpenters, who helped me
- 2:26:56Speaker 1: in smoothing them. After I had done the rough work
- 2:26:59Speaker 1: in about a month, when all was prepared, I sent
- 2:27:02Speaker 1: to receive His Majesty's commands and to take my leave.
- 2:27:05Speaker 1: The Emperor and royal family came out of the palace.
- 2:27:09Speaker 1: I lay down on my face to kiss his hand,
- 2:27:11Speaker 1: which he very graciously gave me, so did the Empress
- 2:27:14Speaker 1: and young princes of the Blood. His Majesty presented me
- 2:27:18Speaker 1: with fifty purses of two hundred sprugs apiece, together with
- 2:27:22Speaker 1: his picture at full length, which I immediately put into
- 2:27:24Speaker 1: one of my gloves to keep it from being hurt.
- 2:27:28Speaker 1: The ceremonies at my departure were too many to trouble
- 2:27:30Speaker 1: the reader with. At this time I stored the boat
- 2:27:33Speaker 1: with the carcasses of a hundred oxen and three hundred sheep,
- 2:27:37Speaker 1: with bread and drink proportionable, and as much meat ready
- 2:27:40Speaker 1: dressed as four hundred cooks could provide. It took with
- 2:27:44Speaker 1: me six cows and two bulls alive, with as many
- 2:27:47Speaker 1: ewes and rams, intending to carry them into my own
- 2:27:50Speaker 1: country and propagate the breed, and to feed them on board.
- 2:27:54Speaker 1: I had a good bundle of hay and a bag
- 2:27:55Speaker 1: of corn. I would gladly have taken a dozen of
- 2:27:58Speaker 1: the natives, but this was the thing the Emperor would,
- 2:28:01Speaker 1: by no means permit, And besides a diligent search into
- 2:28:05Speaker 1: my pockets, his Majesty engaged my honor not to carry
- 2:28:09Speaker 1: away any of his subjects, although with their own consent
- 2:28:12Speaker 1: and desire. Having thus repaired all things, as well as
- 2:28:16Speaker 1: I was able, I set sail on the twenty fourth
- 2:28:19Speaker 1: day of September seventeen o one at six in the morning,
- 2:28:24Speaker 1: and when I had gone about four leagues to the northward,
- 2:28:27Speaker 1: the wind being at southeast, at six in the evening,
- 2:28:30Speaker 1: I descried a small island about half a league to
- 2:28:33Speaker 1: the northwest. I advanced forward and cast anchor on the
- 2:28:38Speaker 1: lee side of the island, which seemed to be uninhabited.
- 2:28:42Speaker 1: I then took some refreshment and went to my rest.
- 2:28:45Speaker 1: I slept well, and as I conjectured, at least six hours,
- 2:28:50Speaker 1: for I found the day broken two hours after I waked.
- 2:28:54Speaker 1: It was a clear night. I ate my breakfast before
- 2:28:57Speaker 1: the sun was up and heaving anchor. The wind being favorable,
- 2:29:01Speaker 1: I steered the same course that I had done the
- 2:29:03Speaker 1: day before, wherein I was directed by my pocket compass.
- 2:29:08Speaker 1: My intention was to reach, if possible, one of those
- 2:29:12Speaker 1: islands which I had reason to believe lay to the
- 2:29:14Speaker 1: northeast of and dey Ann's Land. I discovered nothing all
- 2:29:17Speaker 1: that day, but upon the next, about three in the afternoon,
- 2:29:22Speaker 1: when I had, by my computation, made twenty four leagues
- 2:29:25Speaker 1: from Lefuscue, I descried a sail steering to the southeast.
- 2:29:30Speaker 1: My cause was due east. I hailed her, but could
- 2:29:33Speaker 1: get no answer. Yet I found I gained upon her,
- 2:29:36Speaker 1: for the wind slackened. I made all the sail I could,
- 2:29:40Speaker 1: and in half an hour she spied me, then hung
- 2:29:43Speaker 1: out her ancient and discharged a gun. It is not
- 2:29:47Speaker 1: easy to express the joy I was in upon the
- 2:29:49Speaker 1: unexpected hope, once more seeing my beloved country and the
- 2:29:53Speaker 1: dear pledges I left in it. The ship slackened her sails,
- 2:29:58Speaker 1: and I came up with her between five and six
- 2:30:00Speaker 1: in the evening September twenty sixth, But my heart leaped
- 2:30:04Speaker 1: within me to see her English colors. I put my
- 2:30:07Speaker 1: cows and sheep into my coat pockets, and got on
- 2:30:10Speaker 1: board with all my little cargo of provisions. The vessel
- 2:30:14Speaker 1: was an English merchantman returning from Japan by the North
- 2:30:18Speaker 1: and South seas. The captain mister John Biddle of Deptford,
- 2:30:22Speaker 1: a very civil man and an excellent sailor, who were
- 2:30:26Speaker 1: now in the latitude of thirty degrees south. There were
- 2:30:29Speaker 1: about fifty men in the ship, and here I met
- 2:30:31Speaker 1: an old comrade of mine, one Peter Williams, who gave
- 2:30:35Speaker 1: me a good character to the captain. This gentleman treated
- 2:30:39Speaker 1: me with kindness and desired I would let him know
- 2:30:42Speaker 1: what place I had come from last and whither I
- 2:30:44Speaker 1: was bound, which I did in a few words. But
- 2:30:48Speaker 1: he thought I was raving, and that the dangers I
- 2:30:51Speaker 1: underwent had disturbed my head. Whereupon I took my black
- 2:30:55Speaker 1: Cathlen sheep out of my pocket, which, after great astonishment,
- 2:30:59Speaker 1: clearly convinced him of my veracity. I then showed him
- 2:31:03Speaker 1: the gold given me by the Emperor of Blefiscue, together
- 2:31:06Speaker 1: with his Majesty's picture at full length, and some other
- 2:31:09Speaker 1: rarities of that country. I gave him two purses of
- 2:31:12Speaker 1: two hundred sprugs each, and promised when we arrived in England,
- 2:31:17Speaker 1: to make him a present of a cow and sheep
- 2:31:19Speaker 1: big with young. I shall not trouble the reader with
- 2:31:22Speaker 1: a particular account of this voyage, which was very prosperous
- 2:31:25Speaker 1: for the most part. We arrived in the Downs on
- 2:31:28Speaker 1: the thirteenth of April seventeen o two. I had only
- 2:31:31Speaker 1: one misfortune that the rats on board carried away one
- 2:31:34Speaker 1: of my sheep. I found her bones in a hole,
- 2:31:37Speaker 1: picked clean from the flesh. The rest of my cattle
- 2:31:40Speaker 1: are got safe for shore, and set them a gazing
- 2:31:42Speaker 1: in a bowling green at Greenwich, where the fineness of
- 2:31:45Speaker 1: the grass made them feed very heartily.
- 2:31:48Speaker 2: Though I had always feared.
- 2:31:49Speaker 1: The contrary, neither could I possibly preserve them in so
- 2:31:52Speaker 1: long a voyage if the captain had not allowed me.
- 2:31:55Speaker 1: Some of his best biscuit, which rubbed a powder and
- 2:31:58Speaker 1: mingled with water, was their constant food. The short time
- 2:32:03Speaker 1: I continued in England, I made a considerable profit by
- 2:32:06Speaker 1: showing my cattle to many persons of quality and others,
- 2:32:10Speaker 1: and before I began my second voyage, I sold them
- 2:32:12Speaker 1: for six hundred pounds. Since my last return, I find
- 2:32:17Speaker 1: the breed is considerably increased, especially the sheep, which I
- 2:32:21Speaker 1: hope would prove much to the advantage of the woolen
- 2:32:23Speaker 1: manufacturer by the fineness of the fleeces. I stayed but
- 2:32:27Speaker 1: two months with my wife and family, for my insatiable
- 2:32:30Speaker 1: desire of seeing foreign countries would suffer me to continue
- 2:32:33Speaker 1: no longer. I left fifteen hundred pounds of my wife
- 2:32:38Speaker 1: and fixed her a good house in Redriff. My remaining
- 2:32:41Speaker 1: stock are carried with me, part in money and part
- 2:32:44Speaker 1: in goods, in hopes to improve my fortunes. My eldest
- 2:32:48Speaker 1: uncle John had left me in a state in land
- 2:32:50Speaker 1: near Epping of about thirty pounds a year, and I
- 2:32:54Speaker 1: had a long lease of the black Bull in Fetter Lane,
- 2:32:57Speaker 1: which yielded me as much more so that I was
- 2:33:00Speaker 1: not in any danger of leaving my family upon the parish.
- 2:33:03Speaker 1: My son, Johnny, named so after his uncle, was at
- 2:33:06Speaker 1: the grammar school and a towardly child. My daughter Betty,
- 2:33:11Speaker 1: who is now well married and has children, was then
- 2:33:13Speaker 1: at her needlework. I took leave of my wife and
- 2:33:17Speaker 1: boy and girl, with tears on both sides, and went
- 2:33:21Speaker 1: on board the Adventurer, a merchantship of three hundred tons
- 2:33:25Speaker 1: bound for Surrat, Captain John Nicholas of Liverpool, Commander. But
- 2:33:30Speaker 1: my account of this voyage must be referred to the
- 2:33:33Speaker 1: second part of my travels. End of Part one, Chapter eight,
- 2:33:41Speaker 1: Part two A voyage to brobed in Neck. Chapter one,
- 2:33:48Speaker 1: A great storm described. The longboat sent to fetch water.
- 2:33:52Speaker 1: The author goes with it to discover the country. He
- 2:33:56Speaker 1: is left on shore, is seized by one of the
- 2:33:58Speaker 1: natives and carried to a farmer. His reception with several
- 2:34:03Speaker 1: accidents that happened there a description of the inhabitants having
- 2:34:09Speaker 1: been condemned by nature and fortune to active and restless life.
- 2:34:13Speaker 1: In two months after my return, I again left my
- 2:34:16Speaker 1: native country and took shipping in the Downs. On the
- 2:34:19Speaker 1: twentieth day of June seventeen o two, in the adventure
- 2:34:24Speaker 1: Captain John Nicholas, a cornish Man commander bound for Surat,
- 2:34:30Speaker 1: we had a very prosperous gale till we arrived at
- 2:34:33Speaker 1: the Cape of Good Hope, where we landed for fresh water.
- 2:34:36Speaker 1: But discovering a leek, we unshipped our goods and wintered there.
- 2:34:40Speaker 1: For the captain, falling sick of an agu we could
- 2:34:43Speaker 1: not leave the Cape till the end of March. We
- 2:34:47Speaker 1: then set sail and had a good voyage till we
- 2:34:49Speaker 1: passed the Strait to Madagascar, But having got northward of
- 2:34:53Speaker 1: that island and to about five degrees south latitude, the
- 2:34:56Speaker 1: winds which in those seas are observed to blow a
- 2:34:59Speaker 1: concer an equal gale between the north and west from
- 2:35:02Speaker 1: the beginning of December to the beginning of May. On
- 2:35:05Speaker 1: the nineteenth of April began to blow with much greater
- 2:35:07Speaker 1: islands and more westerly than usual, continuing so for twenty
- 2:35:12Speaker 1: days together, during which time we were driven a little
- 2:35:16Speaker 1: to the east of the Morocco Islands, and about three
- 2:35:19Speaker 1: degrees northwards of that line, as our captain found by
- 2:35:23Speaker 1: an observation. He took the second of May, at which
- 2:35:26Speaker 1: time the wind ceased, and it was a perfect calm
- 2:35:29Speaker 1: whereat I was not a little rejoiced, But he, being
- 2:35:33Speaker 1: a man well experienced in the navigation of those seas,
- 2:35:36Speaker 1: bid us all prepare against a storm, which accordingly happened
- 2:35:40Speaker 1: the day following, for the southern wind, called the Southern Monsoon,
- 2:35:44Speaker 1: began to set in. Finding it was likely to overblow,
- 2:35:49Speaker 1: we took in our sprit sail and stood by two
- 2:35:51Speaker 1: hands the foresail, but making foul weather. We looked the
- 2:35:55Speaker 1: guns were all fast and handed the Mizzen. The ship
- 2:35:59Speaker 1: lay very broad off, so we thought it better spooning
- 2:36:02Speaker 1: before the sea than trying or hulling. We reafed the
- 2:36:06Speaker 1: foresail and set him and hauled after the foresheet. The
- 2:36:10Speaker 1: helm was harder weather. The ship wore bravely. We belayed
- 2:36:14Speaker 1: the fore down haul but the sail was split, and
- 2:36:17Speaker 1: we hauled down the yard and got the sail into
- 2:36:19Speaker 1: the ship and unbound all the things clear of it.
- 2:36:23Speaker 1: It was a very fierce storm. The sea broke strange
- 2:36:26Speaker 1: and dangerous. We hauled off upon the lanyard of the
- 2:36:29Speaker 1: whipstaff and helped the man at the helm. We would
- 2:36:33Speaker 1: not get down our topmast, but let it stand, because
- 2:36:36Speaker 1: she sculled before the sea very well, and we knew
- 2:36:39Speaker 1: that the top mast being aloft, the ship was the
- 2:36:42Speaker 1: wholesomer and made better way through the sea, seeing as
- 2:36:45Speaker 1: we had seerum. When the storm was over, we set
- 2:36:49Speaker 1: foresail and mainsail, and brought the ship too. Then we
- 2:36:54Speaker 1: set the mizzen main topsail and the foretopsail. Our course
- 2:36:58Speaker 1: was east northeast. The wind was at southwest. We got
- 2:37:03Speaker 1: to the starboard tax aboard, we cast off our weather
- 2:37:06Speaker 1: braces and lifts. We set in the lee braces and
- 2:37:09Speaker 1: hauled forward by the weather bowings and hauled them tight
- 2:37:13Speaker 1: and belaid them, and hauled over the mizzen track to windward,
- 2:37:17Speaker 1: and kept her full and by as near as she
- 2:37:18Speaker 1: would lie. During this storm, which was followed by a
- 2:37:22Speaker 1: strong wind west southwest, we were carried, by my computation,
- 2:37:27Speaker 1: about five hundred leagues to the east, so that the
- 2:37:30Speaker 1: oldest sailor on board could not tell him what part
- 2:37:32Speaker 1: of the world we were. Our provisions held out well,
- 2:37:36Speaker 1: our ship was staunch, and our crew all in good health.
- 2:37:39Speaker 1: But we lay in the utmost distress for water. We
- 2:37:42Speaker 1: thought it best to hold on the same course, rather
- 2:37:45Speaker 1: than turn more northerly, which might have brought us to
- 2:37:48Speaker 1: the northwest part of Great Tartary and into the frozen sea.
- 2:37:55Speaker 1: On the sixteenth day of June seventeen o three, a
- 2:37:58Speaker 1: boy in the top mast discovered life. And on the
- 2:38:01Speaker 1: seventeenth we came in full view of a great island
- 2:38:04Speaker 1: or continent, For we knew not whether on the south
- 2:38:09Speaker 1: side whereof was a small neck of land jutting out
- 2:38:12Speaker 1: into the sea, and a creek too shallow to hold
- 2:38:15Speaker 1: a ship of above one hundred tons. We cast anchor
- 2:38:19Speaker 1: within a league of this creek, and our captain sent
- 2:38:22Speaker 1: a dozen of his men, well armed in the long boat,
- 2:38:25Speaker 1: with vessels for water if any could be found. I
- 2:38:29Speaker 1: desired his leave to go with them, that I might
- 2:38:31Speaker 1: see the country and make what discoveries I could. When
- 2:38:35Speaker 1: we came to land, we saw no river or spring,
- 2:38:38Speaker 1: nor any sign of inhabitants. Our men thereof wandered on
- 2:38:42Speaker 1: the shore to find out some fresh water near the sea,
- 2:38:45Speaker 1: and I walked alone about a mile on the other side,
- 2:38:48Speaker 1: where I observed the country all barren and rocky. I
- 2:38:52Speaker 1: now began to be weary, and seeing nothing to entertain
- 2:38:55Speaker 1: my curiosity, I returned gently down towards the creek, and
- 2:39:00Speaker 1: the sea, being full in my view, I saw our
- 2:39:02Speaker 1: men already got out into the boat and rowing for
- 2:39:05Speaker 1: life to the ship. Was going to holler after them,
- 2:39:09Speaker 1: although it had been to little purpose when I observed
- 2:39:12Speaker 1: a huge creature walking after them in the sea as
- 2:39:15Speaker 1: fast as he could. He weighed not much deed within
- 2:39:19Speaker 1: his knees, and he took prodigious strides, but our men
- 2:39:22Speaker 1: had the start of him half a league, and the
- 2:39:25Speaker 1: sea thereabouts being full of sharp pointed rocks, the monster
- 2:39:29Speaker 1: was not able to overtake the boat. This, I was
- 2:39:32Speaker 1: afterwards told for I durst not stay to see the
- 2:39:35Speaker 1: issue of the adventure, but ran as fast as I
- 2:39:37Speaker 1: could the way I first went, and then climbed up
- 2:39:40Speaker 1: a steep hill, which gave me some prospect of the country.
- 2:39:44Speaker 1: I found it fully cultivated, But that which first surprised
- 2:39:48Speaker 1: me was the length of the grass, which, in those
- 2:39:51Speaker 1: grounds that seemed to be kept for hay, was about
- 2:39:54Speaker 1: twenty feet high. I fell into a high road, for
- 2:39:58Speaker 1: so I took it to be, though it served the
- 2:40:00Speaker 1: inhabitants only as a footpath through a field of barley.
- 2:40:05Speaker 1: Here I walked on for some time, but could see
- 2:40:07Speaker 1: little on either side, it now being near harvest and
- 2:40:10Speaker 1: the corn rising at least forty feet I was an
- 2:40:13Speaker 1: hour walking to the end of this field, which was
- 2:40:16Speaker 1: fenced in with a hedge of at least one hundred
- 2:40:18Speaker 1: twenty feet high, and the trees so lofty that I
- 2:40:21Speaker 1: could make no computation of their altitude. There was a
- 2:40:26Speaker 1: style to pass from this field into the next it
- 2:40:29Speaker 1: had four steps and a stone to cross over when
- 2:40:31Speaker 1: you came to the uppermost. It was impossible for me
- 2:40:34Speaker 1: to climb this style, because every step was six feet
- 2:40:37Speaker 1: high and the upper stone about twenty I was endeavoring
- 2:40:42Speaker 1: to find some gap in the hedge when I discovered
- 2:40:45Speaker 1: one of the inhabitants in the next field advancing towards
- 2:40:48Speaker 1: the stile of the same size with him whom I
- 2:40:51Speaker 1: saw in the sea pursuing our boat. He appeared as
- 2:40:55Speaker 1: tall as an ordinary spy deeeple, and took about ten
- 2:40:58Speaker 1: yards at every stride, as near as I could guess.
- 2:41:02Speaker 1: I was struck with the utmost fear and astonishment, and
- 2:41:05Speaker 1: ran to hide myself in the corn. Whence I saw
- 2:41:08Speaker 1: him at the top of the star, looking back into
- 2:41:10Speaker 1: the next field on the right hand, and heard him
- 2:41:13Speaker 1: call in a voice of many degrees louder than a
- 2:41:15Speaker 1: speaking trumpet. But the noise was so high in the
- 2:41:19Speaker 1: air that at first I certainly thought it was thunder,
- 2:41:23Speaker 1: whereupon several monsters like himself came towards him with reaping
- 2:41:27Speaker 1: hooks in their hands, each hook about the largeness of
- 2:41:31Speaker 1: six scythes. These people were not so well clad as
- 2:41:34Speaker 1: the first whose servants, or labor as they seemed to be,
- 2:41:39Speaker 1: For upon some words he spoke, they went to reap
- 2:41:42Speaker 1: the corner in the field where I lay. I kept
- 2:41:45Speaker 1: from them at a great distance as I could, but
- 2:41:48Speaker 1: was forced to move with extreme difficulty, for the stalks
- 2:41:51Speaker 1: of the corner were sometimes not above a foot distant,
- 2:41:54Speaker 1: so that I could hardly squeeze my body betwixt them. However,
- 2:41:58Speaker 1: I made a shift to go forward till I came
- 2:42:01Speaker 1: to a part of the field where the corn had
- 2:42:02Speaker 1: been laid by the rain and wind. Here it was
- 2:42:05Speaker 1: impossible for me to advance a step, for the stalks
- 2:42:08Speaker 1: were so interwoven that I could not creep through, and
- 2:42:12Speaker 1: the beards of the fallen ear so strong and pointed
- 2:42:15Speaker 1: that they pierced through my clothes into my flesh. At
- 2:42:19Speaker 1: the same time, I heard the reapers not a hundred
- 2:42:21Speaker 1: yards behind me. Being quite dispirited with toil and wholly
- 2:42:25Speaker 1: overcome by grief and despair, I lay down between two ridges,
- 2:42:30Speaker 1: and heartily wished I might there end my days. I
- 2:42:33Speaker 1: bemired my desolate widow and fatherless children. I lamented my
- 2:42:37Speaker 1: own folly and wilfulness in attempting a second voyage, against
- 2:42:41Speaker 1: the advice of all my friends and relations. In this
- 2:42:45Speaker 1: terrible agitation of mind, I could not forbear thinking of Villiput,
- 2:42:49Speaker 1: whose inhabitants looked upon me as the great prodigy that
- 2:42:52Speaker 1: ever appeared in the world, where I was able to
- 2:42:55Speaker 1: draw an imperial fleet in my hand and perform these
- 2:42:58Speaker 1: other actions, which will be recorded forever in the chronicles
- 2:43:02Speaker 1: of that empire, while posterity shall hardly believe them, although
- 2:43:05Speaker 1: attested by millions. I reflected, what a mortification it must
- 2:43:10Speaker 1: proved to me to appear as inconsiderable in this nation,
- 2:43:13Speaker 1: as one single the Lupusian would be among us. But this,
- 2:43:16Speaker 1: I conceived was to be the least of my misfortunes.
- 2:43:20Speaker 1: For as human creatures are observed to be more savage
- 2:43:23Speaker 1: and cruel in proportion to their bulk, what could I
- 2:43:26Speaker 1: expect but to be a morsel in the mouth of
- 2:43:28Speaker 1: the first among these enormous barbarians that should happen to
- 2:43:31Speaker 1: seize me. Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they
- 2:43:37Speaker 1: tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than
- 2:43:40Speaker 1: by comparison. It might have pleased fortune to have let
- 2:43:45Speaker 1: the Lyuputians find some nation where the people were as
- 2:43:48Speaker 1: diminutive with respect to them as they were to me.
- 2:43:51Speaker 1: And who knows but that even this British race of
- 2:43:55Speaker 1: mortals might be equally overmatched in some distant part of
- 2:43:58Speaker 1: the world where we have yet no discovery. Scared and
- 2:44:03Speaker 1: confounded as I was, I could not forbear going on
- 2:44:06Speaker 1: with these reflections. When one of the reapers, approaching within
- 2:44:09Speaker 1: ten yards of the ridge where I lay, made me
- 2:44:12Speaker 1: apprehend that with the next step I should be squashed
- 2:44:15Speaker 1: to death under his foot or cut in two with
- 2:44:17Speaker 1: his reaping hook. And therefore, when he was again about
- 2:44:21Speaker 1: to move, I screamed as loud as fear could make me,
- 2:44:25Speaker 1: whereupon the huge creature trod short, and looking round about
- 2:44:29Speaker 1: under him for some time, at last despied me. As
- 2:44:32Speaker 1: I lay on the ground, he considered a while with
- 2:44:36Speaker 1: the caution of one who endeavors to lay hold on
- 2:44:39Speaker 1: a small dangerous animal in such a manner that it
- 2:44:42Speaker 1: shall not be able either to scratch or bite him,
- 2:44:46Speaker 1: as I myself have sometimes done with the weasel in England.
- 2:44:50Speaker 1: At length he ventured to take me behind by the
- 2:44:53Speaker 1: middle between his forefinger and thumb, and brought me within
- 2:44:57Speaker 1: three yards of his eyes, that he might behold my
- 2:45:00Speaker 1: I shape more perfectly, I guessed his meaning, and my
- 2:45:04Speaker 1: good fortune gave me so much presence of mind that
- 2:45:07Speaker 1: I resolved not to struggle in the least as he
- 2:45:09Speaker 1: held me in the air above sixty feet from the ground.
- 2:45:13Speaker 1: Although he grievously pinched my sides for fear I should
- 2:45:16Speaker 1: slip through his fingers, all I ventured was to raise
- 2:45:20Speaker 1: mine eyes towards the sun and place my hands together
- 2:45:23Speaker 1: in a supplicating posture, and to speak some words in
- 2:45:26Speaker 1: a humble, melancholy tone suitable to the condition I was
- 2:45:30Speaker 1: then in. For I apprehended every moment that he would
- 2:45:34Speaker 1: dash me against the ground, as we usually do a
- 2:45:36Speaker 1: little hateful animal which we have a mind to destroy.
- 2:45:41Speaker 1: But my good star would have it that he appeared
- 2:45:43Speaker 1: pleased with my voice and gestures, and began to look
- 2:45:46Speaker 1: upon me as a curiosity. Much wandering to him, I
- 2:45:50Speaker 1: pronounced articulate words, although he could not understand them. In
- 2:45:54Speaker 1: the meantime, I was not able to forbear, groaning and
- 2:45:57Speaker 1: shedding tears, and turning my head towards me my sides,
- 2:46:01Speaker 1: letting him know as well as I could, how cruelly
- 2:46:03Speaker 1: I was hurt by the pressure of his thumb and finger.
- 2:46:07Speaker 1: He seemed to apprehend my meaning for lifting up the
- 2:46:10Speaker 1: lappet of his coat. He put me gently into it,
- 2:46:13Speaker 1: and immediately ran along with me to his master, who
- 2:46:16Speaker 1: was a substantial farmer, and the same person I had
- 2:46:19Speaker 1: first seen in the field. The farmer, having, as I
- 2:46:23Speaker 1: supposed by their talk, received such an account of me
- 2:46:26Speaker 1: as his servant could give him, took a piece of
- 2:46:29Speaker 1: small straw, about the size of a walking staff, and
- 2:46:33Speaker 1: therewith lifted up the lapets on my coat, which it
- 2:46:36Speaker 1: seems he thought to be some kind of covering that
- 2:46:38Speaker 1: nature had given me. He blew my hairs aside to
- 2:46:41Speaker 1: take a better view of my face. He called his
- 2:46:44Speaker 1: hands about him and asked them, as I afterwards learned,
- 2:46:48Speaker 1: whether they had ever seen in the fields any little
- 2:46:50Speaker 1: creature that resembled me. He then placed me softly on
- 2:46:54Speaker 1: the ground upon all fours. But I immediately got up and
- 2:46:57Speaker 1: walked slowly backwards and forward. Let the people see I
- 2:47:00Speaker 1: had no intent to run away. They all sat down
- 2:47:04Speaker 1: in a circle about me, the better to observe my motions.
- 2:47:09Speaker 1: I pulled off my hat and made a low bow
- 2:47:11Speaker 1: towards the farmer. I fell on my knees and lifted
- 2:47:14Speaker 1: up my hands and eyes, and spoke several words as
- 2:47:18Speaker 1: loud as I could. I took a purse of gold
- 2:47:20Speaker 1: out of my pocket and humbly presented it to him.
- 2:47:24Speaker 1: He receded on the palm of his hand, then applied
- 2:47:27Speaker 1: it close to his eyes to see what it was,
- 2:47:30Speaker 1: and afterwards turned it several times with the point of
- 2:47:33Speaker 1: a pin, which he took out of his sleeve, but
- 2:47:36Speaker 1: could make nothing of it. Whereupon I made a sign
- 2:47:40Speaker 1: that he should place his hand on the ground, and
- 2:47:43Speaker 1: then took the purse, and, opening it, poured all the
- 2:47:47Speaker 1: gold into his palm. There were six Spanish pieces of
- 2:47:52Speaker 1: four pistoles each, besides twenty or thirty smaller coins. I
- 2:47:57Speaker 1: saw him wet the tip of his little finger upon
- 2:48:00Speaker 1: his tongue and take up one of my largest pieces,
- 2:48:03Speaker 1: and then another, but he seemed to be wholly ignorant
- 2:48:06Speaker 1: of what they were. He made me a sign to
- 2:48:09Speaker 1: put them again into my purse, and the purse again
- 2:48:12Speaker 1: into my pocket, which, after offering it to him several times,
- 2:48:16Speaker 1: I thought it best to do. The farmer, by this
- 2:48:20Speaker 1: time was convinced I must be a rational creature. He
- 2:48:24Speaker 1: spoke often to me, but the sound of his voice
- 2:48:27Speaker 1: pierced my ears like that of a water mill. Yet
- 2:48:30Speaker 1: his words were articulate enough. I answered as loud as
- 2:48:35Speaker 1: I could, in several languages, and he often laid his
- 2:48:38Speaker 1: ear within two yards of me, but all in vain,
- 2:48:41Speaker 1: for you were wholly unintelligible to each other. He then
- 2:48:46Speaker 1: sent his servants to their work, and, taking his handkerchief
- 2:48:49Speaker 1: out of his pocket, he doubled and spread it on
- 2:48:52Speaker 1: his left hand, which he placed flat on the ground,
- 2:48:54Speaker 1: with the palm upwards, making me a sign to step
- 2:48:57Speaker 1: into it, as I could easily do, for it was
- 2:49:00Speaker 1: not above a foot in thickness. I thought it my
- 2:49:04Speaker 1: part to obey, and, for fear of falling, laid myself
- 2:49:09Speaker 1: at full length upon the handkerchief, with the remainder of
- 2:49:12Speaker 1: which he lapped me up to the head for further security,
- 2:49:15Speaker 1: and in this manner carried me home to his house.
- 2:49:19Speaker 1: There he called his wife and showed me to her,
- 2:49:22Speaker 1: but she screamed and ran back, as women in England
- 2:49:24Speaker 1: do at the sight of a toad or a spider. However,
- 2:49:28Speaker 1: when she had a while seen my behavior, and how
- 2:49:31Speaker 1: well I observed the signs a husband made. She was
- 2:49:34Speaker 1: soon reconciled, and by degrees grew extremely tender of me.
- 2:49:40Speaker 1: It was about twelve at noon, and a servant brought
- 2:49:43Speaker 1: in dinner. It was only one substantial dish of meat,
- 2:49:48Speaker 1: fit for the plain condition of a husbandman, in a
- 2:49:50Speaker 1: dish of about four and twenty feet diameter. The company
- 2:49:55Speaker 1: were the farmer and his wife, three children, and an
- 2:49:59Speaker 1: old grandmother. When they were sat down, the farmer placed
- 2:50:03Speaker 1: me at some distance from him on the table, which
- 2:50:05Speaker 1: was thirty feet high from the floor. I was in
- 2:50:09Speaker 1: a terrible fright and kept as far as I could
- 2:50:11Speaker 1: from the edge for fear of falling. The wife minced
- 2:50:15Speaker 1: a bit of meat, then crumbled some bread on a
- 2:50:17Speaker 1: trencher and placed it before me. I made her a
- 2:50:21Speaker 1: low bow, took out my knife and fork, and fell
- 2:50:24Speaker 1: to eat, which gave them exceeding delight. The mistress sent
- 2:50:28Speaker 1: her maid for a small dram cup, which held about
- 2:50:31Speaker 1: two gallons, and filled it with a drink. I took
- 2:50:35Speaker 1: up the vessel with much difficulty in both hands, and
- 2:50:38Speaker 1: in a most respectful manner, drank to her ladyship's health,
- 2:50:42Speaker 1: expressing the words as loud as I could in English,
- 2:50:45Speaker 1: which made the company laugh so heartily that I was
- 2:50:48Speaker 1: almost deafened with the noise. This liqueur tasted like a
- 2:50:52Speaker 1: small cider and was not unpleasant. Then the master made
- 2:50:56Speaker 1: me a sign to come to his trencher's side. But
- 2:51:00Speaker 1: as I walked on the table, being in great surprise
- 2:51:02Speaker 1: all the time, as the indulgent reader will easily conceive
- 2:51:06Speaker 1: an excuse, I happened to stumble against a crust and
- 2:51:09Speaker 1: fell flat on my face, but received no hurt. I
- 2:51:14Speaker 1: got up immediately, and, observing the good people to be
- 2:51:17Speaker 1: in much concern, I took my hat, which I held
- 2:51:20Speaker 1: under my arm out of good manners, and waving it
- 2:51:23Speaker 1: over my head, made through his ars to show I
- 2:51:26Speaker 1: had got no mischief by the fall. But advancing forwards
- 2:51:30Speaker 1: towards my master, as I shall henceforth call him, his
- 2:51:34Speaker 1: youngest son, who sat next to him, an arch boy
- 2:51:38Speaker 1: of about ten years old, took me up by the
- 2:51:40Speaker 1: legs and held me so high in the air that
- 2:51:43Speaker 1: I trembled every limb. But his father snatched me from him,
- 2:51:47Speaker 1: and at the same time gave him such a box
- 2:51:49Speaker 1: to the left ear as would have felt an European
- 2:51:52Speaker 1: troop of horse to the earth, ordering him to be
- 2:51:55Speaker 1: taken from the table, but being afraid the boy might
- 2:51:58Speaker 1: owe me a spite, and well, remembering how mischievous all
- 2:52:02Speaker 1: children among us naturally are to sparrows, rabbits, young kittens,
- 2:52:06Speaker 1: and puppy dogs, I fell on my knees, and, pointing
- 2:52:09Speaker 1: to the boy, made my master to understand as well
- 2:52:12Speaker 1: as I could, that I desired his son might be pardoned.
- 2:52:16Speaker 1: The father complied, and the lad took his seat again,
- 2:52:20Speaker 1: whereupon I went to him and kissed his hand, which
- 2:52:23Speaker 1: my master took and made him stroke me gently with it.
- 2:52:27Speaker 1: In the midst of dinner, my mistress's favorite cap leaped
- 2:52:30Speaker 1: into her lap. I heard a noise behind me, like
- 2:52:33Speaker 1: that of a dozen stocking weavers at work, and turning
- 2:52:36Speaker 1: my head, I found it proceeded from the pairing of
- 2:52:39Speaker 1: that animal, who seemed to me three times larger than
- 2:52:42Speaker 1: an ox as I computed by the view of her
- 2:52:44Speaker 1: head and one of her paws, while her mistress was
- 2:52:48Speaker 1: feeding and stroking her. The fierceness of this creature's countenance
- 2:52:53Speaker 1: altogether discomposed me. Though I stood at the farther end
- 2:52:57Speaker 1: of the table above fifty feet off, and although my
- 2:53:01Speaker 1: mistress held her fast for fear she might give a
- 2:53:03Speaker 1: spring and seize me in her talons. But it happened
- 2:53:07Speaker 1: there was no danger, for the cat took not the
- 2:53:10Speaker 1: least notice of me when my master placed me within
- 2:53:12Speaker 1: three yards of her. And as I have always been
- 2:53:16Speaker 1: told and found true by experience in my travels, that
- 2:53:20Speaker 1: flying or discovering fear before a fierce animal is a
- 2:53:24Speaker 1: certain way to make it pursue or attack you. So
- 2:53:27Speaker 1: I resolved, in this dangerous juncture to show no manner
- 2:53:31Speaker 1: of concern. I walked with intrepidy five or six times
- 2:53:35Speaker 1: before the very head of the cat, and came within
- 2:53:38Speaker 1: half a yard of her, whereupon she drew herself back,
- 2:53:42Speaker 1: as if she were more afraid of me. I had
- 2:53:45Speaker 1: less apprehension concerning the dogs, whereof three or four came
- 2:53:49Speaker 1: into the room, as it is usual in a farmer's house,
- 2:53:53Speaker 1: one of which was a mastiff equal in bulk to
- 2:53:56Speaker 1: four elephants, and another a greyhound somewhat taller than the mastiff,
- 2:54:01Speaker 1: but not so large. When dinner was almost done, the
- 2:54:06Speaker 1: nurse came in with a child of a year old
- 2:54:07Speaker 1: in her arms, who immediately spied me and began a
- 2:54:11Speaker 1: squall that you might have heard from London Bridge to Chelsea.
- 2:54:15Speaker 1: After the usual oratory of infants to get me for
- 2:54:17Speaker 1: a plaything, the mother, out of pure indulgence, took me
- 2:54:22Speaker 1: up and put me towards the child, who presently seized
- 2:54:26Speaker 1: me by the middle, and got my head into his mouth,
- 2:54:29Speaker 1: where I roared so loud that the urchin was frightened
- 2:54:32Speaker 1: and let me drop. And I should infallibly have broke
- 2:54:35Speaker 1: my neck if the mother had not held her apron
- 2:54:38Speaker 1: under me. The nurse to quiet her babe made use
- 2:54:43Speaker 1: of a rattle, which was a kind of hollow vessel,
- 2:54:46Speaker 1: filled with great stones, and fastened by a cable to
- 2:54:49Speaker 1: the child's waist, but all in vain, so that she
- 2:54:52Speaker 1: was forced to apply the last remedy by giving it suck.
- 2:54:57Speaker 1: I must confess no object ever disgusted me so much
- 2:55:00Speaker 1: the sight of her monstrous breast, which I cannot tell
- 2:55:03Speaker 1: what to compare with, so as to give the curious
- 2:55:05Speaker 1: reader an idea of its bulk, shape and color. It
- 2:55:09Speaker 1: stood prominent six feet and could not be less than
- 2:55:12Speaker 1: sixteen in circumference. The nipple was about half the bigness
- 2:55:16Speaker 1: of my head, and the hue both of that and
- 2:55:19Speaker 1: the dog so varied with spots, pimples, and freckles, that
- 2:55:23Speaker 1: nothing could appear more nauseous, For I had a near
- 2:55:27Speaker 1: sight of her, she sitting down the more conveniently to
- 2:55:30Speaker 1: give suck, and I standing on the table. This made
- 2:55:35Speaker 1: me reflect upon the fair skins of our English ladies,
- 2:55:38Speaker 1: who appear so beautiful to us only because they are
- 2:55:41Speaker 1: of our own size, and their defects not to be
- 2:55:45Speaker 1: seen but through a magnifying glass, where we find by
- 2:55:48Speaker 1: experiment that the smoothest and whitest skins look rough and
- 2:55:52Speaker 1: coarse and ill colored. I remember, when I was at
- 2:55:56Speaker 1: a Liliput, the complexion of those diminutive people appeared to
- 2:56:00Speaker 1: me the fairest in the world. And talking upon this
- 2:56:05Speaker 1: subject with the person of learning there, who was an
- 2:56:07Speaker 1: intimate friend of mine, he said that my face appeared
- 2:56:11Speaker 1: much fairer and smoother when he looked on me from
- 2:56:14Speaker 1: the ground than it did upon a nearer view. When
- 2:56:16Speaker 1: I took him up in my hand and brought him close,
- 2:56:20Speaker 1: which he confessed was at first a very shocking sight.
- 2:56:25Speaker 1: He said he could discover great holes in my skin,
- 2:56:29Speaker 1: that the stumps of my beard were ten times stronger
- 2:56:31Speaker 1: than the bristles of a boar, and my complexion made
- 2:56:35Speaker 1: up several colors altogether disagreeable, although I must beg leave
- 2:56:39Speaker 1: to save for myself that I am as fair as
- 2:56:42Speaker 1: most of my sex and country, and very little sun
- 2:56:45Speaker 1: burned by all my travels. On the other side, discoursing
- 2:56:49Speaker 1: of the ladies of that emperor's court, he used to
- 2:56:52Speaker 1: tell me one had freckles, another too wide a mouth,
- 2:56:56Speaker 1: a third too large a nose, nothing of which I
- 2:57:00Speaker 1: was able to distinguish. I confess this reflection was obvious enough, which, however,
- 2:57:07Speaker 1: I could not forbear lest the reader might think those
- 2:57:10Speaker 1: vast creatures were actually deformed. For I must do them
- 2:57:14Speaker 1: the justice to say they are a comely race of people,
- 2:57:18Speaker 1: and particularly the features of my master's countenance, although he
- 2:57:21Speaker 1: was but a farmer when I beheld him from the
- 2:57:24Speaker 1: height of sixty feet, appeared very well proportioned. When dinner
- 2:57:29Speaker 1: was done, my master went out to his laborers, and,
- 2:57:33Speaker 1: as I could discover by his voice and gesture, gave
- 2:57:36Speaker 1: his wife strict charge to take care of me. I
- 2:57:40Speaker 1: was very much tired and disposed to sleep, which my mistress, perceiving,
- 2:57:44Speaker 1: she put me on her own bed and covered me
- 2:57:47Speaker 1: with a clean white handkerchief, but larger and coarser than
- 2:57:50Speaker 1: the mainsail of a man of war. I slept about
- 2:57:55Speaker 1: two hours and dreamt I was at home with my
- 2:57:57Speaker 1: wife and children, which aggravated my sorrow. When I waked
- 2:58:00Speaker 1: and found myself alone in a vast room between two
- 2:58:03Speaker 1: and three hundred feet wide and above two hundred high,
- 2:58:08Speaker 1: lying in a bed twenty yards wide. My mistress was
- 2:58:11Speaker 1: gone about her household affairs and had locked me in.
- 2:58:14Speaker 1: The bed was eighty yards from the floor. Some natural
- 2:58:18Speaker 1: necessities required me to get down. I durst not presume
- 2:58:22Speaker 1: to call, and if I had, it would have been
- 2:58:25Speaker 1: in vain with such a voice as mine, at so
- 2:58:28Speaker 1: great a distance from the room where I lay to
- 2:58:29Speaker 1: the kitchen where the family kept. While I was under
- 2:58:33Speaker 1: these circumstances, two rats crept up the curtain and ran,
- 2:58:38Speaker 1: smelling backwards and forwards on the bed. One of them
- 2:58:41Speaker 1: came up almost to my face, whereupon I rose in
- 2:58:44Speaker 1: affright and drew out my hanger to defend myself. These
- 2:58:48Speaker 1: horrible animals had the boldness to attack me on both sides,
- 2:58:52Speaker 1: and one of them held his four feet at my collar.
- 2:58:55Speaker 1: But I had the good fortune to rip up his belly.
- 2:58:57Speaker 1: Before he could do me any mischief, he fell down
- 2:59:00Speaker 1: at my feet, and the other, seeing the fate of
- 2:59:03Speaker 1: his comrade, made his escape, but not without one good
- 2:59:06Speaker 1: wound on the back, which I gave him as if led,
- 2:59:10Speaker 1: and made the blood run trickling from him. After this exploit,
- 2:59:15Speaker 1: I walked gently to and fro on the bed to
- 2:59:18Speaker 1: recover my breath and loss of spirits. These creatures were
- 2:59:22Speaker 1: the sides of a large mastiff, but infinitely more nimble
- 2:59:25Speaker 1: and fierce, so that if I had taken off my
- 2:59:28Speaker 1: belt before I went to sleep, I must have infallibly
- 2:59:31Speaker 1: been torn to pieces and devoured. I measured the tail
- 2:59:35Speaker 1: of the dead rat, and found it to be two
- 2:59:37Speaker 1: yards long, wanting an inch, but it went against my
- 2:59:41Speaker 1: stomach to drag the carcass of the bed, where it lay,
- 2:59:44Speaker 1: still bleeding. I observed it yet had some life, but
- 2:59:48Speaker 1: with a strong slash across the neck, I thoroughly dispatched it.
- 2:59:53Speaker 1: Soon after, my mistress came into the room, who, seeing
- 2:59:56Speaker 1: me all bloody, ran and took me up in her hand.
- 2:59:59Speaker 1: I pointed to the dead rat, smiling and making other
- 3:00:02Speaker 1: signs to show I was not hurt. Whereat. She was
- 3:00:05Speaker 1: extremely rejoiced, calling to the maid to take up the
- 3:00:09Speaker 1: dead rat with a pair of tongs and throw it
- 3:00:11Speaker 1: out of the window. Then she set me on a table,
- 3:00:15Speaker 1: where I showed her my hanger, all bloody, and wiping
- 3:00:18Speaker 1: it on the lappet of my coat, returned it to
- 3:00:20Speaker 1: the scabbard. I was pressed to do more than one
- 3:00:24Speaker 1: thing which another could not do for me, and therefore
- 3:00:27Speaker 1: endeavored to make my mistress understand that I desired to
- 3:00:30Speaker 1: be set down on the floor, which, after she had
- 3:00:32Speaker 1: done my bashfulness, would not suffer me to express myself farther.
- 3:00:36Speaker 1: Then my pointing to the door and bowing several times,
- 3:00:40Speaker 1: the good woman, with much difficulty, at last perceived what
- 3:00:43Speaker 1: I would be at, and, taking me up again in
- 3:00:46Speaker 1: her hand, walked into the garden, where she set me down.
- 3:00:50Speaker 1: I went on one side about two hundred yards, and,
- 3:00:53Speaker 1: beckoning to her not to look or to follow me,
- 3:00:56Speaker 1: I hid myself between two leaves of sorrel, and there
- 3:00:59Speaker 1: discharged the necessities of nature. I hope the gentle reader
- 3:01:06Speaker 1: will excuse me for dwelling on these and the like particulars, which,
- 3:01:10Speaker 1: however insignificant, they may appear to groveling vulgar minds, yet
- 3:01:14Speaker 1: will certainly help a philosopher to enlarge his thoughts and
- 3:01:17Speaker 1: imagination and apply them to the benefit of public as
- 3:01:20Speaker 1: well as private life, which was my sole design in
- 3:01:23Speaker 1: presenting this and other accounts of my travels to the world,
- 3:01:28Speaker 1: wherein I have been chiefly studious of truth, without affecting
- 3:01:31Speaker 1: any ornaments of learning or of style. But the whole
- 3:01:35Speaker 1: scene of this voyage made so strong an impression on
- 3:01:37Speaker 1: my mind, and is so deeply fixed in my memory,
- 3:01:41Speaker 1: that in committing it to paper, I did not omit
- 3:01:44Speaker 1: one material circumstance. However, upon a strict review, I blotted
- 3:01:49Speaker 1: out several passages of less moment which were in my
- 3:01:53Speaker 1: first copy, for fear of being censored as tedious and trifling,
- 3:01:57Speaker 1: whereof travelers are often, perhaps not without justice accused. End
- 3:02:03Speaker 1: of Chapter one, Part two. Chapter two a description of
- 3:02:11Speaker 1: the farmer's daughter. The author carried to a market town
- 3:02:15Speaker 1: and then to the metropolis. The particulars of his journey.
- 3:02:21Speaker 1: My mistress had a daughter of nine years old, a
- 3:02:24Speaker 1: child of towardly parts for her age, very dexterous at
- 3:02:27Speaker 1: her needle, and skillful in dressing her baby. Her mother
- 3:02:31Speaker 1: and she contrived to fit up the baby's cradle for
- 3:02:34Speaker 1: me against night. The cradle was put into a small
- 3:02:38Speaker 1: drawer of a cabinet, and the drawer placed upon a
- 3:02:41Speaker 1: hanging shelf for fear of the rats. This was my
- 3:02:45Speaker 1: bed all the time I stayed with those people, though
- 3:02:48Speaker 1: made more convenient by degrees as I began to learn
- 3:02:51Speaker 1: their language and make my wants known. This young girl
- 3:02:56Speaker 1: was so handy that after I had once or twice
- 3:02:58Speaker 1: pulled off my clothes before her, she was able to
- 3:03:01Speaker 1: dress and undress me, though I never gave her that
- 3:03:04Speaker 1: trouble when she would let me do either myself. She
- 3:03:08Speaker 1: made me seven shirts and some other linen of as
- 3:03:11Speaker 1: fine cloth as could be got, which indeed was coarser
- 3:03:14Speaker 1: than sackcloth, and these she constantly washed for me with
- 3:03:17Speaker 1: her own hands. She was likewise my schoolmistress to teach
- 3:03:22Speaker 1: me the language. When I pointed to anything, she told
- 3:03:25Speaker 1: me the name of it in her own tongue, so
- 3:03:28Speaker 1: that in a few days I was able to call
- 3:03:30Speaker 1: for whatever I had a mind to. She was very
- 3:03:33Speaker 1: good natured, and not above forty feet high. Being little
- 3:03:37Speaker 1: for her age, she gave me the name of Grildrigg,
- 3:03:41Speaker 1: which the family took up, and afterwards the whole kingdom.
- 3:03:45Speaker 1: The word imports what the Latins called nanunculus, the Italians
- 3:03:49Speaker 1: homokel Tino, and the english Manikin to her. I chiefly
- 3:03:54Speaker 1: owe my preservation in that country. We never parted. While
- 3:03:58Speaker 1: I was there. I called her my glumdal glitch, or
- 3:04:02Speaker 1: little nurse, and should be guilty of great ingratitude if
- 3:04:06Speaker 1: I admitted this honorable mention of her care and affection
- 3:04:09Speaker 1: towards me, which I heartily wish it lay in my
- 3:04:12Speaker 1: power to requite as she deserves, instead of being the
- 3:04:15Speaker 1: innocent but an happy instrument of a disgrace, as I
- 3:04:18Speaker 1: have too much reason to fear. It now began to
- 3:04:22Speaker 1: be known and talked of in the neighborhood that my
- 3:04:25Speaker 1: master had found a strange animal in the field, about
- 3:04:28Speaker 1: the bigness of a splack nook, but exactly shaped in
- 3:04:31Speaker 1: every part like a human creature, which it likewise imitated
- 3:04:35Speaker 1: in all its actions, seemed to speak in a little
- 3:04:38Speaker 1: language of its own, had already learned several words of theirs.
- 3:04:42Speaker 1: When erect upon two legs, was tame and gentle, would
- 3:04:46Speaker 1: come when it was called do whatever it was bid
- 3:04:49Speaker 1: had the finest limbs in the world, and a complexion
- 3:04:52Speaker 1: fairer than a nobleman's daughter of three years old. Another farmer,
- 3:04:57Speaker 1: who lived hard by and was a particular friend of
- 3:05:00Speaker 1: my master, came on a visit on purpose to inquire
- 3:05:03Speaker 1: into the truth of this story. I was immediately produced
- 3:05:08Speaker 1: and placed upon a table, where I walked as I
- 3:05:11Speaker 1: was commanded, drew my hanger, put it up again, made
- 3:05:15Speaker 1: my reverence to my master's guest, asked him in his
- 3:05:18Speaker 1: own language how he did, and told him he was welcome.
- 3:05:21Speaker 1: Just as my little nurse had instructed me. This man,
- 3:05:26Speaker 1: who was old and incited, put on his spectacles to
- 3:05:29Speaker 1: behold me better, at which I could not forbear laughing
- 3:05:32Speaker 1: very heartily, for his eyes appeared like the full moon
- 3:05:35Speaker 1: shining into a chamber at two windows. Our people, who
- 3:05:39Speaker 1: discovered the cause of my mirth, bore my company in laughing,
- 3:05:43Speaker 1: at which the old fellow was full enough to be
- 3:05:45Speaker 1: angry and out of countenance. He had the character of
- 3:05:49Speaker 1: a great miser, and to my misfortune, he well deserved
- 3:05:53Speaker 1: it by the cursed advice he gave my master to
- 3:05:56Speaker 1: show me as a sight upon a market day in
- 3:05:58Speaker 1: the next town, which was half an hour's riding and
- 3:06:01Speaker 1: two and twenty miles from our house. I guessed there
- 3:06:06Speaker 1: was some mischief when I observed my master and his
- 3:06:08Speaker 1: friend whispering together, sometimes pointing at me, and my fears
- 3:06:14Speaker 1: made me fancy that I overheard and understood some of
- 3:06:17Speaker 1: their words. But the next morning, Glumdalklitch, my little nurse,
- 3:06:22Speaker 1: told me the whole matter, which she had cunningly picked
- 3:06:25Speaker 1: out from her mother. The poor girl laid me on
- 3:06:28Speaker 1: her bosom and fell a weeping with shame and grief.
- 3:06:31Speaker 1: She apprehended some mischief would happen to me from rude,
- 3:06:35Speaker 1: vulgar folks, who might squeeze me to death or break
- 3:06:38Speaker 1: one of my limbs by taking me in their hands.
- 3:06:42Speaker 1: She had also observed how modest I was in my nature,
- 3:06:46Speaker 1: how nicely I regarded my honor, and what an indignity
- 3:06:49Speaker 1: I should conceive it to be exposed for money, as
- 3:06:52Speaker 1: a public spectacle to the meanest of the people. She
- 3:06:56Speaker 1: said her Papa and Mamma had promised that Grildric should
- 3:06:59Speaker 1: be heard, but now she found they meant to serve
- 3:07:03Speaker 1: her as they did last year when they pretended to
- 3:07:05Speaker 1: give her a lamb, and yet as soon as it
- 3:07:08Speaker 1: was fact sold it to a butcher. For my own part,
- 3:07:12Speaker 1: I may truly affirm that I was less concerned than
- 3:07:15Speaker 1: my nurse. I had a strong hope which never left me,
- 3:07:20Speaker 1: that I should one day recover my liberty, And as
- 3:07:23Speaker 1: to the ignominy of being carried about for a monster,
- 3:07:26Speaker 1: I considered myself to be a perfect stranger in the country,
- 3:07:30Speaker 1: and that such a misfortune could never be charged upon
- 3:07:32Speaker 1: me as a reproach if ever I should return to England,
- 3:07:37Speaker 1: since the King of Great Britain himself, in my condition,
- 3:07:40Speaker 1: must have undergone the same distress. My master, pursuant to
- 3:07:45Speaker 1: the advice of his friend, carried me in a box
- 3:07:47Speaker 1: the next market day to the neighboring town, and took
- 3:07:50Speaker 1: along with him his little daughter, my nurse, upon a
- 3:07:53Speaker 1: pillion behind him. The box was close on every side,
- 3:07:58Speaker 1: with a little door for me to go in and out,
- 3:08:00Speaker 1: and a few gimnet holes to let in air. The
- 3:08:04Speaker 1: girl had been so careful as to put the quilt
- 3:08:06Speaker 1: of her baby's bed into it for me to lie
- 3:08:08Speaker 1: down on it. However, I was terribly shaken and discomposed
- 3:08:13Speaker 1: in this journey, though it was but of half an hour,
- 3:08:16Speaker 1: for the horse went about forty feet at every step,
- 3:08:19Speaker 1: and trotted so high that the agitation was equal to
- 3:08:22Speaker 1: the rising and falling of a ship in a great storm,
- 3:08:25Speaker 1: but much more frequent. Our journey was somewhat farther than
- 3:08:29Speaker 1: from London to Saint Alban's. My master alighted at an
- 3:08:33Speaker 1: inn which he used to frequent and after consulting a
- 3:08:37Speaker 1: while with the innkeeper and making some necessary preparations, he
- 3:08:41Speaker 1: hired the goldrud or crier to give notice through the
- 3:08:45Speaker 1: town of a strange creature to be seen at the
- 3:08:47Speaker 1: sign of the Green Eagle, not so big as a
- 3:08:51Speaker 1: spluck neck, an annual in that country, very finely shaped,
- 3:08:54Speaker 1: about six feet long, and in every part of the body,
- 3:08:57Speaker 1: resembling a human creature. I could speak several words, and
- 3:09:02Speaker 1: before a hundred diverting tricks. I was placed upon a
- 3:09:06Speaker 1: table in the largest room of the inn, which might
- 3:09:09Speaker 1: be near three hundred feet square. My little nurse stood
- 3:09:12Speaker 1: on a low stool close to the table to take
- 3:09:15Speaker 1: care of me and direct what I should do. My master,
- 3:09:19Speaker 1: to avoid a crowd, would suffer only thirty people at
- 3:09:22Speaker 1: a time to see me. I walked about on the
- 3:09:25Speaker 1: table as the girl commanded. She asked me questions as
- 3:09:29Speaker 1: far as she knew. My understanding of the language reached,
- 3:09:31Speaker 1: and I answered them as loud as I could. I
- 3:09:35Speaker 1: turned about several times to the company, paid my humble respects,
- 3:09:39Speaker 1: said they were welcome, and used some other speeches I
- 3:09:42Speaker 1: had been taught. I took up a thimble filled with
- 3:09:46Speaker 1: liqueur which Glumdalklitch had given me for a cup, and
- 3:09:49Speaker 1: drank their health. I dropped my hanger and flourished with
- 3:09:53Speaker 1: it after the manner of fences in England. My nurse
- 3:09:56Speaker 1: gave me a part of a straw, which I exercised
- 3:09:59Speaker 1: as a pike, having learnt the art in my youth.
- 3:10:02Speaker 1: I was that day shown to twelve sets of company,
- 3:10:05Speaker 1: and as often forced to act over again the same
- 3:10:08Speaker 1: fopperies till I was half dead with weariness and vexation.
- 3:10:12Speaker 1: For those who had seen me made such wonderful reports
- 3:10:15Speaker 1: that the people were ready to break down the doors
- 3:10:17Speaker 1: to come in. My master, for his own interest, would
- 3:10:22Speaker 1: not suffer any one to touch me except my nurse,
- 3:10:25Speaker 1: and to prevent danger, bengeres were set round the table
- 3:10:28Speaker 1: at a distance as to put me out of everybody's reach. However,
- 3:10:33Speaker 1: an unlucky schoolboy aimed a hazel nut directly at my head,
- 3:10:37Speaker 1: which very narrowly missed me otherwise it came with so
- 3:10:41Speaker 1: much violence that it would have infallibly knocked out my brains,
- 3:10:45Speaker 1: for it was almost as large as the small pumpkin.
- 3:10:49Speaker 1: But I had the satisfaction to see the young rogue
- 3:10:51Speaker 1: well beaten and turned out of the room. My master
- 3:10:54Speaker 1: gave public notice that he would show me again the
- 3:10:57Speaker 1: next market day, and in the meantime he prepared I
- 3:11:00Speaker 1: had a covenant vehicle for me, which he had reason
- 3:11:03Speaker 1: enough to do, for I was so tired with my
- 3:11:05Speaker 1: first journey, and with entertaining company for eight hours together,
- 3:11:09Speaker 1: that I could hardly stand upon my legs or speak
- 3:11:12Speaker 1: a word. It was at least three days before I
- 3:11:15Speaker 1: recovered my strength, and that I might have no rest
- 3:11:18Speaker 1: at home. All the neighboring gentlemen from one hundred miles round,
- 3:11:21Speaker 1: hearing of my fame, came to see me. At my
- 3:11:24Speaker 1: master's own house. There could not be fewer than thirty
- 3:11:28Speaker 1: persons with their wives and children, for the country is
- 3:11:31Speaker 1: very populous, and my master demanded the rate of a
- 3:11:35Speaker 1: full room whenever he showed me at home, although it
- 3:11:37Speaker 1: were only to a single family, so that for some
- 3:11:41Speaker 1: time I had but little ease every day of the
- 3:11:43Speaker 1: week except Wednesday, which is there sabbath. Although I were
- 3:11:47Speaker 1: not carried to the town, my master, finding how profitable
- 3:11:51Speaker 1: I was likely to be, missolved to carry me to
- 3:11:54Speaker 1: the most considerable cities of the kingdom. Having therefore provided
- 3:11:59Speaker 1: himself with all the things necessary for a long journey,
- 3:12:02Speaker 1: and settled his affairs at home, he took leave of
- 3:12:05Speaker 1: his wife, and upon the seventeenth of August seventeen o three,
- 3:12:09Speaker 1: about two months after my arrival, we set out for
- 3:12:13Speaker 1: the Metropolis, situated near the middle of that empire, and
- 3:12:17Speaker 1: about three thousand miles distance from our house. My master
- 3:12:22Speaker 1: made his daughter, Glumdalklitch, ride behind him. She carried me
- 3:12:25Speaker 1: on her lap in a box tied about her waist.
- 3:12:29Speaker 1: The girl had lined it on all sides with the
- 3:12:31Speaker 1: softest cloth she could get, well quilted underneath, furnished it
- 3:12:36Speaker 1: with her baby's bed, provided me with linen and other necessaries,
- 3:12:40Speaker 1: and made everything as convenient as she could. We had
- 3:12:44Speaker 1: no other company but a boy of the house, who
- 3:12:46Speaker 1: rode after us with the luggage My master's design was
- 3:12:49Speaker 1: to show me in all the towns by the way,
- 3:12:52Speaker 1: and to step out of the road for fifty or
- 3:12:54Speaker 1: a hundred miles to any village, all person of qualities
- 3:12:57Speaker 1: house where he might expect custom. We made easy journeys
- 3:13:02Speaker 1: of not above seven or eight score miles a day
- 3:13:05Speaker 1: for Glandalklitch on purpose to spare me complained she was
- 3:13:09Speaker 1: tired with the trotting of the horse. She often took
- 3:13:12Speaker 1: me out of my box at my own desire to
- 3:13:15Speaker 1: give me air and show me the country, but always
- 3:13:18Speaker 1: held me fast by a leading string. We passed over
- 3:13:21Speaker 1: five or six rivers, many degrees broader and deeper than
- 3:13:25Speaker 1: the Nile or the Ganges, and there was hardly river
- 3:13:29Speaker 1: let so small as the Thames. At London Bridge, we
- 3:13:33Speaker 1: were ten weeks in our journey, and I was shown
- 3:13:35Speaker 1: in eighteen large towns, beside many villages and private families.
- 3:13:40Speaker 1: On the twenty sixth day of October we arrived at
- 3:13:42Speaker 1: the metropolis, called in their language law Bralgrod or pride
- 3:13:47Speaker 1: of the Universe. My master took a lodging in the
- 3:13:50Speaker 1: principal street of the city, not far from the Royal Palace,
- 3:13:54Speaker 1: and put out bills in the usual form, containing an
- 3:13:57Speaker 1: exact description of my person and parts. He hired a
- 3:14:01Speaker 1: large room between three and four hundred feet wide. He
- 3:14:04Speaker 1: provided a table sixty feet in diameter upon which I
- 3:14:07Speaker 1: was to act my part, and pallisdoed it round three
- 3:14:11Speaker 1: feet from the edge and as many high to prevent
- 3:14:14Speaker 1: my falling over. I was shown ten times a day,
- 3:14:17Speaker 1: to the wonder and satisfaction of all people. I could
- 3:14:21Speaker 1: now speak the language tolerably well and perfectly understood every
- 3:14:24Speaker 1: word that was spoken to me. Besides, I had learnt
- 3:14:28Speaker 1: their alphabet and could make a shift to explain a
- 3:14:31Speaker 1: sentence here and there. For Glandalklitch had been my instructor
- 3:14:34Speaker 1: while we were at home and at leisure hours during
- 3:14:37Speaker 1: our journey. She carried a little book in her pocket,
- 3:14:41Speaker 1: not much larger than a Samson's atlas. It was a
- 3:14:44Speaker 1: common treatise for the use of young girls, giving a
- 3:14:47Speaker 1: short account of their religion. Out of this she taught
- 3:14:50Speaker 1: me my letters and interpreted the words. End of Chapter two,
- 3:14:55Speaker 1: Part two. Chapter three, the author sent for to court.
- 3:15:02Speaker 1: The queen buys him of his master, the farmer, and
- 3:15:05Speaker 1: presents him to the king. He disputes with his Majesty's
- 3:15:08Speaker 1: great scholars. An apartment at court provided for the author.
- 3:15:13Speaker 1: He is in high favor with the Queen. He stands
- 3:15:16Speaker 1: up for the honor of his own country. He quarrels
- 3:15:19Speaker 1: with the Queen's dwarf. The frequent labors I underwent every
- 3:15:24Speaker 1: day made in a few weeks a very considerable change
- 3:15:27Speaker 1: in my health. The more my master got by me,
- 3:15:31Speaker 1: the more insatiable he grew. I had quite lost my
- 3:15:34Speaker 1: stomach and was almost reduced to a skeleton. The farmer
- 3:15:38Speaker 1: observed it, and, concluding I must soon die, resolved to
- 3:15:42Speaker 1: make as good a hand of me as he could.
- 3:15:45Speaker 1: While he was thus reasoning and resolving with himself, a sadrall,
- 3:15:49Speaker 1: or gentleman usher came from court, commanding my master to
- 3:15:53Speaker 1: carry me immediately thither for the diversion of the Queen
- 3:15:56Speaker 1: and her ladies. Some of the latter had already been
- 3:16:00Speaker 1: to see me, and reported strange things of my beauty, behavior,
- 3:16:04Speaker 1: and good sense. Her Majesty and those who attended her
- 3:16:08Speaker 1: were beyond measure delighted with my demeanor. I fell on
- 3:16:12Speaker 1: my knees and begged the honor of kissing her imperial foot.
- 3:16:16Speaker 1: But this gracious Princess held out a little finger towards me.
- 3:16:20Speaker 1: After I was set on the table, which I embraced
- 3:16:22Speaker 1: in both my arms, and put the tim of it
- 3:16:25Speaker 1: with the utmost respect to my lip. She made me
- 3:16:28Speaker 1: some general questions about my country and my travels. When
- 3:16:32Speaker 1: she answered as distinctly in as few words as I could,
- 3:16:36Speaker 1: she asked whether I could be content to live at court.
- 3:16:40Speaker 1: I bowed down to the board of the table and
- 3:16:42Speaker 1: humbly answered that I was my master's slave, but if
- 3:16:46Speaker 1: I were at my own disposal, I should be proud
- 3:16:49Speaker 1: to devote my life to her Majesty's service. So then
- 3:16:53Speaker 1: she asked my master whether he was willing to sell
- 3:16:55Speaker 1: me at a good price. He, who apprehended I could
- 3:16:59Speaker 1: not live a month, was ready enough to part with me,
- 3:17:02Speaker 1: and demanded a thousand pieces of gold, which were ordered
- 3:17:06Speaker 1: him on the spot, each peace being about the bigness
- 3:17:09Speaker 1: of eight hundred moidors, but allowing for the proportion of
- 3:17:12Speaker 1: all things between that country and Europe, and the high
- 3:17:15Speaker 1: prize of gold among them, was hardly so great a
- 3:17:18Speaker 1: sum as a thousand guineas would be in England. I
- 3:17:21Speaker 1: then said to the Queen, since I was now her
- 3:17:24Speaker 1: Majesty's most humble creature and vassal, I must beg the
- 3:17:27Speaker 1: favor that glumdal Klitch, who had always tendered me with
- 3:17:30Speaker 1: so much care and kindness, and understood to do it
- 3:17:33Speaker 1: so well, might be admitted into her service and continued
- 3:17:36Speaker 1: to be my nurse and instructor. Her Majesty agreed to
- 3:17:40Speaker 1: my petition and easily got the farmer's consent, who was
- 3:17:44Speaker 1: glad enough to have his daughter preferred at court, and
- 3:17:48Speaker 1: the poor girl herself was not able to hide her joy.
- 3:17:52Speaker 1: My late master withdrew, bidding me farewell and saying he
- 3:17:56Speaker 1: had left me in a good service, to which I
- 3:17:59Speaker 1: replied not to word, only making a slight bow. The
- 3:18:03Speaker 1: Queen observed my coldness, and when the Farmer was gone
- 3:18:07Speaker 1: out of the apartment, asked me the reason I made
- 3:18:10Speaker 1: bold to tell her Majesty that I owed no other
- 3:18:13Speaker 1: obligation to my late master than his not dashing out
- 3:18:17Speaker 1: to the brains of a poor, harmless creature found by
- 3:18:20Speaker 1: chance in his fields, Which obligation was amply recompensed by
- 3:18:24Speaker 1: the gain he had made in showing me through half
- 3:18:26Speaker 1: the kingdom, and the price he had now sold me
- 3:18:29Speaker 1: for that the life I had since led was laborious
- 3:18:33Speaker 1: enough to kill an animal of ten times my strength,
- 3:18:36Speaker 1: that my health was much impaired by the continual druggery
- 3:18:39Speaker 1: of entertaining the rabble every hour of the day, and
- 3:18:43Speaker 1: that if my master had not thought my life in danger,
- 3:18:46Speaker 1: her majesty would not have got so cheap a bargain.
- 3:18:50Speaker 1: But as I was, out of all fear of being
- 3:18:52Speaker 1: ill treated, under the protection of so great and good
- 3:18:54Speaker 1: an empress, the ornament of nature, the darling of the world,
- 3:18:58Speaker 1: the delight of her subjects, the phoenix of the creation,
- 3:19:02Speaker 1: so I hoped my late master's apprehensions would appear to
- 3:19:05Speaker 1: be groundless, for I had already found my spirits revive
- 3:19:09Speaker 1: by the influence of her most august presence. This was
- 3:19:13Speaker 1: the sum of my speech, delivered with great improprieties and hesitation.
- 3:19:19Speaker 1: The latter part was altogether framed in the style peculiar
- 3:19:22Speaker 1: to that people, whereof I learned some phrases from Glumdalklitch
- 3:19:27Speaker 1: while she was carrying me to court. The Queen, giving
- 3:19:32Speaker 1: great allowance for my defectiveness in speaking, was however, surprised
- 3:19:36Speaker 1: at so much wit and good sense in so diminutive
- 3:19:38Speaker 1: an animal she took me in her own hand and
- 3:19:42Speaker 1: carried me to the King, who was then retired to
- 3:19:44Speaker 1: his cabinet. His Majesty, a prince of much gravity and
- 3:19:49Speaker 1: austere countenance, not well observing my shape at first view,
- 3:19:54Speaker 1: asked the Queen, after a cold manner, how long it
- 3:19:57Speaker 1: was since she grew fond of blacknuk. For such it seems,
- 3:20:01Speaker 1: he took me to be as I lay upon my
- 3:20:03Speaker 1: breast on her Majesty's right hand. But this princess, who
- 3:20:07Speaker 1: has an infinite deal of wit and humor, set me
- 3:20:10Speaker 1: gently on my feet upon the scrutoire and commanded me
- 3:20:14Speaker 1: to give his Majesty an account of myself, which I
- 3:20:17Speaker 1: did in a very few words. And Glumdalklitch, who attended
- 3:20:21Speaker 1: at the cabin at door and could not endure I
- 3:20:23Speaker 1: should be out of sight. Being admitted, confirmed all that
- 3:20:27Speaker 1: had passed from my arrival at her father's house. The King,
- 3:20:32Speaker 1: although he be as learned person as any in his dominions,
- 3:20:36Speaker 1: had been educated in the study of philosophy and particularly mathematics.
- 3:20:40Speaker 1: Yet when he observed my shape exactly and saw me
- 3:20:43Speaker 1: walk erect before I began to speak, conceived I might
- 3:20:47Speaker 1: be a piece of clockwork, which is in that country,
- 3:20:51Speaker 1: arrived to a very great perfection, contrived by some ingenious artist.
- 3:20:57Speaker 1: But when he heard my voice and found what I
- 3:20:59Speaker 1: delivered to be regular and rational, he could not conceal
- 3:21:03Speaker 1: his astonishment. He was by no means satisfied with the
- 3:21:06Speaker 1: relation I gave him of the manner I came into
- 3:21:09Speaker 1: his kingdom, but thought it a story concerted between Gondalklitch
- 3:21:13Speaker 1: and her father, who had taught me a set of
- 3:21:16Speaker 1: words to make me sell at a better price. Upon
- 3:21:19Speaker 1: this imagination, he put several other questions to me, and
- 3:21:23Speaker 1: still received rational answers, no otherwise defective than by a
- 3:21:27Speaker 1: foreign accent and an imperfect knowledge in the language, with
- 3:21:31Speaker 1: some rustic phrases, which I had learned at the farmer's house,
- 3:21:34Speaker 1: and did not suit the polite style of a court.
- 3:21:38Speaker 1: His Majesty sent for three great scholars, who were then
- 3:21:41Speaker 1: in their weekly waiting. According to the custom in that country.
- 3:21:45Speaker 1: These gentlemen, after they had a while examined my shape
- 3:21:48Speaker 1: with much nicety, were of different opinions concerning me. They
- 3:21:53Speaker 1: all agreed that I could not be produced according to
- 3:21:56Speaker 1: the regular laws of nature, because I was not framed
- 3:21:59Speaker 1: with the capacity of preserving my life, either by swiftness
- 3:22:03Speaker 1: or climbing of trees or dig in holes in the earth.
- 3:22:07Speaker 1: They observed by my teeth, which they viewed with great exactness,
- 3:22:11Speaker 1: that I was a carnivorous animal. Yet most quadrupeds being
- 3:22:15Speaker 1: an overmatch for me, and field mice, with some others
- 3:22:19Speaker 1: too nimble. They could not imagine how I should be
- 3:22:22Speaker 1: able to support myself unless I fed upon snails and
- 3:22:26Speaker 1: other insects, which they offered by my learned arguments to
- 3:22:30Speaker 1: unceive that I could not possibly do. One of these
- 3:22:34Speaker 1: virtuosi seemed to think that I might be an embryo
- 3:22:38Speaker 1: or abortive birth, but this opinion was rejected by the
- 3:22:42Speaker 1: other two, who observed my limbs to be perfect and finished,
- 3:22:47Speaker 1: and that I had lived several years, as it was
- 3:22:49Speaker 1: manifest from my beard. The stumps were off, they plainly
- 3:22:53Speaker 1: discovered through a magnifying glass. They would not allow me
- 3:22:57Speaker 1: to be a dwarf because my littleness was beyond all
- 3:23:00Speaker 1: all degrees of comparison. For the Queen's favorite dwarf, the
- 3:23:04Speaker 1: smallest ever known in that kingdom, was near thirty feet high.
- 3:23:09Speaker 1: After much debate, they concluded unanimously that I was only
- 3:23:13Speaker 1: well plumb scalcaf, which is interpreted literally Lasser's naturae, a
- 3:23:19Speaker 1: determination exactly agreeable to the modern philosophy of Europe, whose professors,
- 3:23:25Speaker 1: disdaining the old evasion of occult cases, whereby the followers
- 3:23:29Speaker 1: of Aristotle endeavored in vain to disguise their ignorance, have
- 3:23:33Speaker 1: invented this wonderful solution of all difficulties to the unspeakable
- 3:23:37Speaker 1: advancement of human knowledge. After this decisive conclusion, I entreated
- 3:23:43Speaker 1: to be heard a word or two. I applied myself
- 3:23:47Speaker 1: to the King and assured his Majesty that I came
- 3:23:50Speaker 1: from a country which abounded with several millions of both sexes,
- 3:23:54Speaker 1: and of my own stature, where the animals, trees, and
- 3:23:57Speaker 1: houses were all in proportion, and where by consequence I
- 3:24:03Speaker 1: might be able to defend myself and to find sustenance
- 3:24:06Speaker 1: as any of His Majesty's subjects could do here, which
- 3:24:09Speaker 1: I took for a full answer. To those gentlemen's arguments
- 3:24:14Speaker 1: to this, they only replied with a smile of contempt,
- 3:24:17Speaker 1: saying that the farmer had instruct me very well in
- 3:24:20Speaker 1: my lesson. The King, who had a much better understanding.
- 3:24:25Speaker 1: Dismissing his learned men, sent for the farmer, who, by
- 3:24:29Speaker 1: good fortune was not yet gone out of town. Having
- 3:24:34Speaker 1: therefore first examined him privately, and then confronted him with
- 3:24:37Speaker 1: me and the young girl, his majesty began to think
- 3:24:41Speaker 1: that what we told him might possibly be true. He
- 3:24:46Speaker 1: desired the Queen to order that a particular care should
- 3:24:49Speaker 1: be taken of me, and was of opinion that Glumdalklitch
- 3:24:53Speaker 1: should still continue in her office of tending me, because
- 3:24:57Speaker 1: he observed we had a great affection for each other.
- 3:25:01Speaker 1: A convenient apartment was provided for her at court. She
- 3:25:05Speaker 1: had a sort of governess appointed to take care of
- 3:25:07Speaker 1: her education, a maid to dress her, and two other
- 3:25:11Speaker 1: servants for menial offices. But the care of me was
- 3:25:15Speaker 1: wholly appointed to herself. The Queen commanded her own cabinet
- 3:25:19Speaker 1: maker to contrive a box that might serve me for
- 3:25:22Speaker 1: a bed chamber, after the model that glumdale Clitch and
- 3:25:26Speaker 1: I should agree upon. This man was a most ingenious artist, and,
- 3:25:30Speaker 1: according to my direction, in three weeks finished for me
- 3:25:34Speaker 1: a wooden chamber of sixteen feet square and twelve feet high,
- 3:25:38Speaker 1: with sash windows, a door, and two closets like a
- 3:25:42Speaker 1: London bedchamber. The board that made the ceiling was to
- 3:25:46Speaker 1: be lifted up and down by two hinges to put
- 3:25:49Speaker 1: in a bed ready furnished by her Majesty's upholsterer, which
- 3:25:53Speaker 1: Glumdale Clitch took out every day to air, made it
- 3:25:57Speaker 1: with her own hands, and letting it down at night,
- 3:26:00Speaker 1: locked up the roof over me. A nice workman, who
- 3:26:04Speaker 1: was famous for little curiosities undertook to make me two
- 3:26:08Speaker 1: chairs with backs and frames of a substance knot unlike Ivory,
- 3:26:14Speaker 1: and two tables with a cabinet to put my things in.
- 3:26:18Speaker 1: The room was quilted on all sides, as well as
- 3:26:20Speaker 1: the floor and the ceiling, to prevent any accident from
- 3:26:23Speaker 1: the carelessness of those who carried me, and to break
- 3:26:26Speaker 1: the force of a jolt when I went in a coach.
- 3:26:30Speaker 1: I desired a lock from my door to prevent rats
- 3:26:32Speaker 1: and mice from coming in. The smith after several attempts
- 3:26:37Speaker 1: made the smallest it ever was seen among them, for
- 3:26:40Speaker 1: I have known a larger at the gate of the
- 3:26:42Speaker 1: gentleman's house in England. I made a shift to keep
- 3:26:45Speaker 1: the key in my pocket of my own, fearing Glumdalklitch
- 3:26:48Speaker 1: might lose it. The Queen likewise ordered the thinnest silks
- 3:26:52Speaker 1: that could be gotten to make me clothes not much
- 3:26:55Speaker 1: thicker than an English blanket, very cumbersome till I was
- 3:26:59Speaker 1: accustomed to them. They were, after the fashion of the Kingdom,
- 3:27:04Speaker 1: partly resembling the Persian and partially the Chinese, and are
- 3:27:08Speaker 1: a very grave and decent habit. The Queen became so
- 3:27:13Speaker 1: fond of my company that she could not dine without me.
- 3:27:16Speaker 1: I had a table placed upon the same at which
- 3:27:18Speaker 1: her Majesty ate just as her left elbow, and a
- 3:27:22Speaker 1: chair to sit on. Klumdaluglitch stood on a stool on
- 3:27:26Speaker 1: the floor near my table to assist and take care
- 3:27:29Speaker 1: of me. I had an entire set of silver dishes
- 3:27:32Speaker 1: and plates and other necessaries, which, in proportion to those
- 3:27:37Speaker 1: of the Queen, were not much bigger than what I
- 3:27:39Speaker 1: have seen in a London toy shop for the furniture
- 3:27:41Speaker 1: of a baby house. These my nurse kept in her
- 3:27:44Speaker 1: pocket in a silver box, and gave me at meals
- 3:27:48Speaker 1: as I wanted them, always cleaning them herself. No person
- 3:27:52Speaker 1: dined with the Queen, but the two princesses royal, the
- 3:27:56Speaker 1: eldest sixteen years old, and the younger at that time
- 3:27:59Speaker 1: thirty teen and a month. Her Majesty used to put
- 3:28:03Speaker 1: a bit of meat upon one of my dishes, out
- 3:28:06Speaker 1: of which I carved myself, and her diversion was to
- 3:28:09Speaker 1: see me eat in miniature for the Queen, who had,
- 3:28:13Speaker 1: indeed but a weak's stomach, took up at one mouthful
- 3:28:17Speaker 1: as much as a dozen English farmers could eat at
- 3:28:19Speaker 1: a meal, which to me was for some time a
- 3:28:21Speaker 1: very nauseous sight. She would crunch the wings of a lark,
- 3:28:25Speaker 1: bones and all between her teeth, although it were nine
- 3:28:28Speaker 1: times as large as that of a full grown turkey,
- 3:28:31Speaker 1: and put a bit of bread into her mouth as
- 3:28:33Speaker 1: big as two twelvepenny loaves. She drank out of a
- 3:28:36Speaker 1: golden cup above a hogshead at a draft. Her knives
- 3:28:40Speaker 1: were twice as long as a scythe set straight upon
- 3:28:43Speaker 1: the handle. The spoons, forks and other instruments were all
- 3:28:47Speaker 1: in the same proportion. I remember when Glumdalklitch carried me
- 3:28:52Speaker 1: out of curiosity to see some of the tables at court,
- 3:28:56Speaker 1: where ten or a dozen of these enormous knives and
- 3:28:59Speaker 1: forks were lifted up together. I thought I had never
- 3:29:02Speaker 1: till then behold so terrible a sight. It is the
- 3:29:07Speaker 1: custom that every Wednesday, which as I have observed, is
- 3:29:11Speaker 1: their sabbath, the King and Queen, with the royal issue
- 3:29:14Speaker 1: of both sexes, dined together in the apartment of his Majesty,
- 3:29:19Speaker 1: to whom I now became a great favorite. And at
- 3:29:22Speaker 1: these times my little chair and table were placed at
- 3:29:26Speaker 1: his left hand. Before one of the salt sellers. This
- 3:29:30Speaker 1: Prince took a pleasure in conversing with me, inquiring into
- 3:29:33Speaker 1: the manners, religion, laws, government, and learning of Europe, wherein
- 3:29:39Speaker 1: I gave him the best account I was able. His
- 3:29:42Speaker 1: apprehension was so clear, and his judgment so exact, that
- 3:29:46Speaker 1: he made very wise reflections and observations upon all I said.
- 3:29:51Speaker 1: But I confess that after I had been a little
- 3:29:54Speaker 1: too copious in talking of my own beloved country, of
- 3:29:58Speaker 1: our trade and wars by sea and land, and of
- 3:30:01Speaker 1: our schisms in religion and parties in the state, the
- 3:30:05Speaker 1: prejudices of his education prevailed so far that he could
- 3:30:09Speaker 1: not forbear taking me up in his right hand, and
- 3:30:11Speaker 1: stroke me gently with the other. After a hearty fit
- 3:30:14Speaker 1: of laughing, asked me whether I was a Whig or Tory. Then,
- 3:30:20Speaker 1: turning to his first minister, who waited behind him with
- 3:30:23Speaker 1: the white staff, near as tall as the main master
- 3:30:26Speaker 1: of the royal sovereign, he observed how contemptible a thing
- 3:30:30Speaker 1: was human grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive
- 3:30:33Speaker 1: insects as I. And yet said he, I dare engage.
- 3:30:38Speaker 1: These creatures have their titles and distinctions of honor. They
- 3:30:41Speaker 1: contrived little nests and burrows that they call houses and cities.
- 3:30:44Speaker 1: They make a figure in dress and aquipage. They love,
- 3:30:47Speaker 1: they fight, they dispute, they cheat, they betray. And thus
- 3:30:52Speaker 1: he continued on, while my color came and went several
- 3:30:56Speaker 1: times with indignation to hear our noble country, the mistress
- 3:31:01Speaker 1: of arts and arms, the scourge of France, the arbitress
- 3:31:04Speaker 1: of Europe, the seat of virtue, piety, honor, and truth,
- 3:31:08Speaker 1: the pride and envy of the world so contemptuously treated.
- 3:31:13Speaker 1: But as I was not in a condition to resent injuries,
- 3:31:16Speaker 1: so upon mature thoughts, I began to doubt whether I
- 3:31:19Speaker 1: was injured or no. For after having been accustomed several
- 3:31:23Speaker 1: months to the sight and converse of these people, and
- 3:31:27Speaker 1: observed every object upon which I cast mine eyes to
- 3:31:30Speaker 1: be a proportional magnitude. The horror I had at first
- 3:31:34Speaker 1: conceived from their bulk and aspect was so far worn
- 3:31:37Speaker 1: off that if I had then beheld a company of
- 3:31:40Speaker 1: English lords and ladies, in their finery and birthday clothes,
- 3:31:45Speaker 1: acting their several parts in the most courtly manner of
- 3:31:47Speaker 1: strutting and bowing and pratting, to say the truth, I
- 3:31:52Speaker 1: should have been strongly tempted to laugh as much at
- 3:31:55Speaker 1: them as the King and his grandees did it me. Neither, indeed,
- 3:32:00Speaker 1: could I forbear smiling at myself when the Queen used
- 3:32:03Speaker 1: to place me upon her hand towards a looking glass
- 3:32:06Speaker 1: by which both our persons appeared before me in full view.
- 3:32:10Speaker 1: And there could be nothing more ridiculous than the comparison,
- 3:32:14Speaker 1: so that I really began to imagine myself dwindled many
- 3:32:17Speaker 1: degrees below my usual size. Nothing angered and mortified me
- 3:32:22Speaker 1: so much as the Queen's dwarf, who, being of the
- 3:32:25Speaker 1: lowest stature that was ever in that country, for I
- 3:32:29Speaker 1: verily think he was not full thirty feet high, became
- 3:32:33Speaker 1: so insolent at seeing a creature so much beneath him
- 3:32:36Speaker 1: that he would always effect to swagger and look big
- 3:32:39Speaker 1: as he passed by me in the Queen's ante chamber
- 3:32:42Speaker 1: while I was standing on some table talking with the
- 3:32:44Speaker 1: lords or ladies of the court, and he seldom failed
- 3:32:47Speaker 1: of a smart word or two upon my littleness, against
- 3:32:52Speaker 1: which I could only revenge myself by calling him brother,
- 3:32:55Speaker 1: challenging him to wrestle, and such repartees as are usually
- 3:32:59Speaker 1: in the mouths of pages. One day, at dinner, this
- 3:33:04Speaker 1: malicious little cub was so nettled with something I had
- 3:33:07Speaker 1: said to him, that, raising himself upon the frame of
- 3:33:10Speaker 1: Her Majesty's chair, he took me up by the middle
- 3:33:13Speaker 1: as I was sitting down, not thinking any harm, and
- 3:33:17Speaker 1: let me drop into a large silver bowl of cream,
- 3:33:19Speaker 1: and then ran away as fast as he could. I
- 3:33:23Speaker 1: fell over head and ears, and if I had not
- 3:33:26Speaker 1: been a good swimmer, it might have gone very hard
- 3:33:29Speaker 1: with me, for Glandalklitch in that instant happened to be
- 3:33:33Speaker 1: at the other end of the room, and the Queen
- 3:33:36Speaker 1: was in such a fright that she wanted presence of
- 3:33:38Speaker 1: mind to assist me. But my little nurse ran to
- 3:33:42Speaker 1: my relief and took me out. After I had swallowed
- 3:33:45Speaker 1: above a quart of cream. I was put to bed. However,
- 3:33:49Speaker 1: I received no other damage than the loss of a
- 3:33:51Speaker 1: suit of clothes, which was utterly spoiled. The dwarf was
- 3:33:56Speaker 1: soundly whipped, and as a further punishment, forced to drink
- 3:33:59Speaker 1: up the bowl of cream into which he had thrown me.
- 3:34:03Speaker 1: Neither was he ever restored to favor, for soon after
- 3:34:06Speaker 1: the Queen bestowed him on a lady of high quality,
- 3:34:09Speaker 1: so that I saw him no more, to my very
- 3:34:11Speaker 1: great satisfaction, for I could not tell to what extremities
- 3:34:15Speaker 1: such a malicious urchin might have carried his resentment. He
- 3:34:20Speaker 1: had before served me a skirvy trick which sent the
- 3:34:23Speaker 1: Queen a laughing although at the same time she was
- 3:34:27Speaker 1: heartily vexed and would have immediately cashiered him if I
- 3:34:30Speaker 1: had not been so generous as to indeced her. Majesty.
- 3:34:35Speaker 1: Had taken a marrow bone upon her plate, and after
- 3:34:38Speaker 1: knocking out the marrow, placed the bone again in the
- 3:34:40Speaker 1: dish erect as it stood before the dwarf watching his opportunity.
- 3:34:47Speaker 1: Whileklumdal Klitch was gone to the sideboard mounted the stool
- 3:34:50Speaker 1: that she stood on to take care of me at meals,
- 3:34:53Speaker 1: took me up in both hands, and, squeezing my leg together,
- 3:34:57Speaker 1: wedged them into the marrow bone above my waist, where
- 3:35:00Speaker 1: I stuck for some time and made a very ridiculous figure.
- 3:35:04Speaker 1: I believe it was near a minute before any one
- 3:35:06Speaker 1: knew what was become of me, for I thought it
- 3:35:09Speaker 1: below me to cry out. But as princes seldom get
- 3:35:12Speaker 1: their meat hot, my legs were not scolded, only my
- 3:35:16Speaker 1: stockings and breeches in a sad condition. The dwarf at
- 3:35:19Speaker 1: my entreaty had no other punishment than the sound whipping.
- 3:35:24Speaker 1: I was frequently rallied by the Queen upon account of
- 3:35:27Speaker 1: my fearfulness, and she used to ask me whether the
- 3:35:30Speaker 1: people of my country were as great cowards as myself.
- 3:35:34Speaker 1: The occasion was this, The kingdom is much pestered with
- 3:35:38Speaker 1: flies in summer, and these odious insects, each of them
- 3:35:41Speaker 1: as big as a dunstable lark, hardly gave me any rest.
- 3:35:44Speaker 1: While I sat at dinner with their continual humming and
- 3:35:48Speaker 1: buzzing about mine ears. They would sometimes alight upon my
- 3:35:52Speaker 1: victuals and leave their loaths some exceriment or spawn behind
- 3:35:57Speaker 1: which to me was very visible. Though not then of
- 3:36:00Speaker 1: that country whose large objects were not so acute as
- 3:36:03Speaker 1: mine in viewing smaller objects. Sometimes they would fix upon
- 3:36:08Speaker 1: my nose or forehead, where they stung me to the quick,
- 3:36:12Speaker 1: smelling very offensively, and I could easily trace that vicious
- 3:36:16Speaker 1: matter which our naturalists tell us enable those creatures to
- 3:36:20Speaker 1: walk with their feet upwards upon a ceiling. I had
- 3:36:23Speaker 1: much ado to defend myself against these detestable animals, and
- 3:36:27Speaker 1: could not forbear starting when they came on my face.
- 3:36:32Speaker 1: It was the common practice of the dwarf to catch
- 3:36:34Speaker 1: a number of these insects in his hand, as schoolboys
- 3:36:37Speaker 1: do among us, and let them out suddenly under my nose,
- 3:36:40Speaker 1: on purpose to frighten me and divert the queen. My
- 3:36:45Speaker 1: remedy was to cut them in pieces with my knife
- 3:36:47Speaker 1: as they flew in the air, wherein my dexterity was
- 3:36:50Speaker 1: much admired. I remember one morning when Glumdale Klitch had
- 3:36:56Speaker 1: set me in a box upon a window, as she
- 3:36:58Speaker 1: usually did in fair days, to give me air, for
- 3:37:01Speaker 1: I durst not venture to let the box be hung
- 3:37:04Speaker 1: on a nail out of the window, as we do
- 3:37:06Speaker 1: with cages in England. After I had lifted up one
- 3:37:09Speaker 1: of my sashes and sat down at my table to
- 3:37:11Speaker 1: eat a piece of sweet cake for my breakfast. Above
- 3:37:15Speaker 1: twenty wasps, allured by the smell, came flying into the room,
- 3:37:19Speaker 1: humming louder than the drones of as many bagpipes. Some
- 3:37:24Speaker 1: of them seized my cake and carried it piecemeal away.
- 3:37:27Speaker 1: Others flew about my head and face, confounding me with
- 3:37:30Speaker 1: the noise and putting in the utmost terror of their stings. However,
- 3:37:36Speaker 1: I had the courage to rise and draw my hanger
- 3:37:38Speaker 1: and attack them in the air. I despatched four of them,
- 3:37:42Speaker 1: but the rest got away, and I presently shut my window.
- 3:37:46Speaker 1: These insects were as large as partridges. I took out
- 3:37:50Speaker 1: their stings, found them an inch and a half long
- 3:37:52Speaker 1: and as sharp as needles. I carefully preserved them all, and,
- 3:37:57Speaker 1: having since shown them with some other curiosities in several
- 3:38:00Speaker 1: parts of Europe, upon my return to England, I gave
- 3:38:03Speaker 1: three of them to Gresham College, and kept the fourth
- 3:38:06Speaker 1: for myself. End of Chapter three, Part two. Chapter four
- 3:38:14Speaker 1: The Country described a proposal for correcting modern maps, The
- 3:38:20Speaker 1: King's Palace, and some account of the metropolis. The author's
- 3:38:24Speaker 1: way of traveling the Chief Temple described. I now intend
- 3:38:30Speaker 1: to give the reader a short description of this country
- 3:38:33Speaker 1: as far as I traveled in it, which was not
- 3:38:36Speaker 1: above two thousand miles round Lauberalgrud, the metropolis, for the Queen,
- 3:38:42Speaker 1: whom I always attended, never went farther when she was
- 3:38:46Speaker 1: accompanied the King in his progress, and there stayed till
- 3:38:51Speaker 1: his Majesty returned from viewing his frontiers. The whole extent
- 3:38:56Speaker 1: of this prince's dominions reached about six thousand miles and length,
- 3:39:01Speaker 1: and from three to five in breadth. Whence I cannot
- 3:39:06Speaker 1: but conclude that our geographers of Europe are in a
- 3:39:09Speaker 1: great error by supposing nothing but sea between Japan and California.
- 3:39:15Speaker 1: For it was ever my opinion that there must be
- 3:39:17Speaker 1: a balance of earth to counterpose the great continent of Tartary,
- 3:39:22Speaker 1: And therefore they ought to correct their maps and charts
- 3:39:26Speaker 1: by joining this vast tract of land to the northwest
- 3:39:29Speaker 1: parts of America, wherein I shall be ready to lend
- 3:39:32Speaker 1: them my assistance. The kingdom is a peninsula terminated to
- 3:39:38Speaker 1: the northeast by a ridge of mountains thirty miles high,
- 3:39:41Speaker 1: which are altogether impossible by reason of the volcanoes upon
- 3:39:45Speaker 1: the tops neither do most the learned know what sort
- 3:39:49Speaker 1: of mortals inhabit beyond those mountains, or whether they be
- 3:39:53Speaker 1: inhabited at all. On the three other sides, it is
- 3:39:57Speaker 1: bounded by the ocean. There is not one seaport in
- 3:40:01Speaker 1: the whole kingdom, And those parts of the coasts into
- 3:40:05Speaker 1: which the rivers issue are so full of pointed rocks,
- 3:40:09Speaker 1: and the sea generally so rough, that there is no
- 3:40:12Speaker 1: venturing with the smallest of their boats, so that these
- 3:40:17Speaker 1: people are wholly excluded from any commerce with the rest
- 3:40:20Speaker 1: of the world. But the large rivers are full of
- 3:40:24Speaker 1: vessels and a bound with excellent fish, for they seldom
- 3:40:29Speaker 1: get any from the sea, because the sea fish are
- 3:40:32Speaker 1: on the same size with those in Europe, and consequently
- 3:40:35Speaker 1: not worth catching. Whereby it is manifest that nature, in
- 3:40:41Speaker 1: the production of plants and animals are so extremely a
- 3:40:44Speaker 1: bulk is wholly confined to this continent, of which I
- 3:40:48Speaker 1: leave the reasons to be determined by philosophers. However, now
- 3:40:53Speaker 1: and then they take a whale that happens to be
- 3:40:55Speaker 1: dashed against the rocks which the common people feed on heartily.
- 3:41:00Speaker 1: These whales I have known, so large that a man
- 3:41:03Speaker 1: could hardly carry one upon his shoulders, and sometimes for
- 3:41:08Speaker 1: curiosity they are brought in hampers to liberal grud. I
- 3:41:13Speaker 1: saw one of them in a dish at the King's table,
- 3:41:16Speaker 1: which passed for a rarity, but I did not observe
- 3:41:20Speaker 1: he was fond of it, for I think indeed the
- 3:41:23Speaker 1: bigness disgusted him, although I have seen one somewhat larger
- 3:41:28Speaker 1: in Greenland. The country is well inhabited, for it contains
- 3:41:33Speaker 1: fifty one cities, near a hundred walled towns, and a
- 3:41:37Speaker 1: great number of villages. To satisfy my curious reader, it
- 3:41:43Speaker 1: may be sufficient to describe Glberal Grud. This city stands
- 3:41:49Speaker 1: upon almost two equal parts on each side of the
- 3:41:52Speaker 1: river that passes through. It contains above eighty thousand houses
- 3:41:57Speaker 1: and about six hundred thousand inhabitants. It is in length
- 3:42:02Speaker 1: three glong lungs, which make about fifty four English miles
- 3:42:08Speaker 1: and two and a half in breadth. As I measured
- 3:42:11Speaker 1: it myself in the royal map made by the King's order,
- 3:42:14Speaker 1: which was laid on the ground on purpose for me
- 3:42:16Speaker 1: and extended one hundred feet, I paced the diameter and
- 3:42:21Speaker 1: circumference several times bare foot, and computing by the scale
- 3:42:25Speaker 1: measured it pretty exactly. The King's Palace is no regular edifice,
- 3:42:31Speaker 1: but a heap of buildings about seven miles round. The
- 3:42:35Speaker 1: chief rooms are generally two hundred and forty feet high,
- 3:42:39Speaker 1: and broad and long in proportion. The coach was allowed
- 3:42:44Speaker 1: to Glandalklitch and me wherein her Governess frequently took her
- 3:42:48Speaker 1: out to see the town or go among the shops,
- 3:42:52Speaker 1: and I was always of the party carried in my box,
- 3:42:56Speaker 1: although the girl, at my own desire, would often take
- 3:42:59Speaker 1: me out and hold me in her hand, that I
- 3:43:02Speaker 1: might more conveniently view the houses and the people as
- 3:43:06Speaker 1: we passed along the streets. I reckoned our coach to
- 3:43:10Speaker 1: be about a square of Westminster Hall, but not altogether
- 3:43:13Speaker 1: so high. However, I cannot be very exact. One day
- 3:43:20Speaker 1: the Governess ordered our coachman to stop at several shops,
- 3:43:24Speaker 1: where the beggars, watching their opportunity, crowded to the sides
- 3:43:27Speaker 1: of the coach, and gave me the most horrible spectacle
- 3:43:30Speaker 1: that ever a European eye beheld. There was a woman
- 3:43:35Speaker 1: with a cancer in her breast, swelled to a monstrous size,
- 3:43:39Speaker 1: full of holes in two or three of which I
- 3:43:42Speaker 1: could easily have crept and covered my whole body. There
- 3:43:47Speaker 1: was a fellow with a wen in his neck larger
- 3:43:49Speaker 1: than five wool packs, and another with a couple of
- 3:43:53Speaker 1: wooden legs, each about twenty feet high. But the most
- 3:43:57Speaker 1: hateful sight of all was the lice crawl on their clothes.
- 3:44:02Speaker 1: I could see distinctly the limbs of these vermin with
- 3:44:04Speaker 1: my naked eye, much better than those of a European
- 3:44:08Speaker 1: louse through a microscope, and their snouts, with which they
- 3:44:12Speaker 1: rooted like swine. They were the first I had ever beheld,
- 3:44:16Speaker 1: and I should have been curious enough to dissect one
- 3:44:19Speaker 1: of them if I had had proper instruments, which I
- 3:44:23Speaker 1: unluckily left behind me in the ship, although indeed the
- 3:44:27Speaker 1: sight was so nauseous that it perfectly turned my stomach.
- 3:44:31Speaker 1: Besides the large box in which I was usually carried,
- 3:44:34Speaker 1: the Queen ordered a smaller one to be made for me,
- 3:44:37Speaker 1: of about twelve feet square and ten high, for the
- 3:44:41Speaker 1: convenience of traveling, because the other was somewhat too large
- 3:44:46Speaker 1: for Glumdalklitch's lap and Cumberson in the coach. It was
- 3:44:50Speaker 1: made by the same artist whom I directed in the
- 3:44:53Speaker 1: whole contrivance This traveling closet was an exact square, with
- 3:44:59Speaker 1: the window in the middle of three of the squares,
- 3:45:02Speaker 1: and each window was latticed with iron wire, and the
- 3:45:05Speaker 1: outside to prevent accidents in long journeys. On the fourth side,
- 3:45:10Speaker 1: which had no window, two strong staples were fixed through
- 3:45:15Speaker 1: which the person that carried me, when I had a
- 3:45:17Speaker 1: mind to be on horseback, put a leathern belt and
- 3:45:21Speaker 1: buckled it about his waist. This was always the office
- 3:45:25Speaker 1: of some grave, trusty servant in whom I could confide
- 3:45:29Speaker 1: whether I attended the King and Queen in their progresses,
- 3:45:33Speaker 1: or were disposed to see the gardens, or pay a
- 3:45:36Speaker 1: visit to some great lady or minister of state in
- 3:45:39Speaker 1: the court. When Glandalklitch happened to be out of order
- 3:45:44Speaker 1: for a soon began to be known and esteemed among
- 3:45:47Speaker 1: the greatest officers. I suppose, more upon account of their
- 3:45:51Speaker 1: Majesty's favor than any merit of my own. In journeys,
- 3:45:55Speaker 1: when I was weary of the coach, a servant on
- 3:45:58Speaker 1: horseback would buckle on my box and placed it on
- 3:46:01Speaker 1: a cushion before him, and there I had a full
- 3:46:04Speaker 1: prospect of the country on three sides from my three windows.
- 3:46:10Speaker 1: I had in this closet a field bed and a
- 3:46:13Speaker 1: hammock hung from the ceiling, two chairs, and a table
- 3:46:17Speaker 1: neatly screwed to the floor to prevent being tossed about
- 3:46:20Speaker 1: by the agitation of the horse or the coach, And
- 3:46:24Speaker 1: having been long used to see voyages, those motions, although
- 3:46:28Speaker 1: sometimes very violent, did not much discompose me. Whenever I
- 3:46:34Speaker 1: had a mind to see the town, it was always
- 3:46:37Speaker 1: in my traveling closet, which Glumdalklitch held in her lap,
- 3:46:41Speaker 1: in a kind of open sedan after the fashion of
- 3:46:44Speaker 1: the country, borne by four men and attended by two
- 3:46:48Speaker 1: others in the Queen's livery. The people who had often
- 3:46:52Speaker 1: heard of me were very curious to crowd about the sedan,
- 3:46:57Speaker 1: and the girl was complaisant enough to make the bear
- 3:47:00Speaker 1: stop and take me in a hand, that I might
- 3:47:03Speaker 1: be more conveniently seen. I was very desirous to see
- 3:47:07Speaker 1: the Chief Temple, and particularly the tower belonging to it,
- 3:47:11Speaker 1: which is reckoned the highest in the kingdom. Accordingly, one
- 3:47:16Speaker 1: day my nurse carried me thither, but I may truly
- 3:47:19Speaker 1: say I came back disappointed, for the height is not
- 3:47:22Speaker 1: above three thousand feet reckoning from the ground to the
- 3:47:26Speaker 1: highest pinnacle top which aligned for the difference between the
- 3:47:31Speaker 1: sides of those people and us in Europe is no
- 3:47:34Speaker 1: great matter for redmiration, nor at all equal in proportion.
- 3:47:39Speaker 2: If I rightly.
- 3:47:40Speaker 1: Remember to Salisbury's deeple, but not to detract from a
- 3:47:46Speaker 1: nation to which during my life I shall acknowledge myself
- 3:47:50Speaker 1: extremely obliged. It must be allowed that whatever this famous
- 3:47:55Speaker 1: tower wants in height, it is amply made up in
- 3:47:58Speaker 1: beauty and strength. For the walls near a hundred feet thick,
- 3:48:02Speaker 1: built of hewn stone, whereof each is about forty feet square,
- 3:48:08Speaker 1: and adorned on all sides with statues of gods and
- 3:48:11Speaker 1: emperors cut in marble larger than life, placed in several niches.
- 3:48:18Speaker 1: I measured a little finger which had fallen down from
- 3:48:20Speaker 1: one of these statues, and lay unperceived among some rubbish,
- 3:48:25Speaker 1: and found it exactly four feet and an inch in length.
- 3:48:29Speaker 1: Klumdalklitch wrapped it up in her handkerchief and carried it
- 3:48:32Speaker 1: home in her pocket to keep among other trinkets of
- 3:48:35Speaker 1: which the girl was very fond, as children at her
- 3:48:38Speaker 1: age usually are. The King's kitchen is indeed a noble building,
- 3:48:45Speaker 1: vaulted at top and about six hundred feet high. The
- 3:48:50Speaker 1: great oven is not so wide by ten paces as
- 3:48:53Speaker 1: the coupola at Saint Paul's, for I measured the latter
- 3:48:57Speaker 1: on purpose after my return. But if I should describe
- 3:49:02Speaker 1: the kitchen grate, the prodigious parts and kettles, the joints
- 3:49:06Speaker 1: of meat turning on the spits, with many other particulars,
- 3:49:10Speaker 1: perhaps I should be hardly believed. At least a severe
- 3:49:15Speaker 1: critic would be apt to think I enlarged a little,
- 3:49:18Speaker 1: as travelers are often suspected to do, to avoid which censor.
- 3:49:23Speaker 1: I fear I have run too much into the other extreme,
- 3:49:26Speaker 1: And that of this treatise should happen to be translated
- 3:49:29Speaker 1: into the language of brobding Nag, which is the general
- 3:49:32Speaker 1: name of that kingdom, and transmitted thither, the king and
- 3:49:37Speaker 1: his people would have reason to complain that I had
- 3:49:39Speaker 1: done them an injury by a false and diminutive representation.
- 3:49:46Speaker 1: His Majesty seldom keeps above six hundred horses in his stables.
- 3:49:51Speaker 1: They are generally from fifty four to sixty feet high.
- 3:49:55Speaker 1: But when he goes abroad on solemn days, he is
- 3:49:58Speaker 1: attended for state by a military guard of five hundred horses,
- 3:50:04Speaker 1: which indeed I thought was the most splendid sight that
- 3:50:06Speaker 1: could ever be beheld, till I saw a part of
- 3:50:10Speaker 1: his army in battler, whereof I shall find another occasion
- 3:50:13Speaker 1: to speak. End of Chapter four, Part two.
- 3:50:19Speaker 2: Chapter five.
- 3:50:22Speaker 1: Several adventures that happened to the author. The execution of
- 3:50:26Speaker 1: a criminal. The author shows his skill in navigation. I
- 3:50:31Speaker 1: should have lived happily enough in that country if my
- 3:50:34Speaker 1: littleness had not exposed me to several ridiculous and troublesome accidents,
- 3:50:39Speaker 1: some of which I shall venture to relate. Glandalklitch often
- 3:50:43Speaker 1: carried me into the gardens of the court in my
- 3:50:46Speaker 1: smaller box, and would sometimes take me out of it
- 3:50:49Speaker 1: and hold me in a hand, or set me down
- 3:50:51Speaker 1: to walk. I remember, before the dwarf left the Queen,
- 3:50:56Speaker 1: he followed us one day into those gardens, and my
- 3:51:00Speaker 1: nurse having set me down, he and I being close
- 3:51:03Speaker 1: together near some dwarf apple trees. I must needs show
- 3:51:08Speaker 1: my wit by a silly illusion between him and the trees,
- 3:51:12Speaker 1: which happened to hold in their language as it does
- 3:51:14Speaker 1: in hours. Whereupon the malicious rogue, watching his opportunity, when
- 3:51:20Speaker 1: I was walking under one of them shook it directly
- 3:51:23Speaker 1: over my head, by which a dozen apples, each of
- 3:51:26Speaker 1: them near as large as a bristol barrel, came tumbling
- 3:51:29Speaker 1: about my ears. One of them hit me on the
- 3:51:32Speaker 1: back as I chanced to stoop, and knocked me down
- 3:51:35Speaker 1: flat on my face. But I received no other hurt,
- 3:51:39Speaker 1: and the dwarf was pardoned at my desire, because I
- 3:51:42Speaker 1: had given the provocation. Another day, Glumdalklitch left me on
- 3:51:47Speaker 1: a smooth grass plot to divert myself while she walked
- 3:51:51Speaker 1: at some distance with her governess. In the meantime, there
- 3:51:56Speaker 1: suddenly felt such a violent shower of hail that I
- 3:51:59Speaker 1: was immediately by the force of it, struck to the ground,
- 3:52:03Speaker 1: And when I was down, the hailstones gave me such
- 3:52:05Speaker 1: cruel bangs all over the body as if I had
- 3:52:08Speaker 1: been pelted with tennis balls. However, I made a shift
- 3:52:12Speaker 1: to creep on all fours and shelter myself by lying
- 3:52:16Speaker 1: flat on my face on the lee side of a
- 3:52:18Speaker 1: border of lemon thyme, but so bruised from head to
- 3:52:22Speaker 1: foot that I could not go abroad in ten days.
- 3:52:27Speaker 1: Neither is this it all to be wondered at because
- 3:52:29Speaker 1: nature in that country observe in the same proportion through
- 3:52:33Speaker 1: all her operations. A hailstone is near eighteen hundred times
- 3:52:36Speaker 1: as large as one in Europe, which I can assert
- 3:52:40Speaker 1: upon experience, having been so curious as to weigh and
- 3:52:43Speaker 1: measure them. But a more dangerous accident happened to me
- 3:52:47Speaker 1: in the same garden, when my little nurse, believing she
- 3:52:51Speaker 1: had put me in a secure place, which I often
- 3:52:54Speaker 1: entreated her to do that I might enjoy my own thoughts,
- 3:52:58Speaker 1: and having left my box at her to avoid the
- 3:53:01Speaker 1: trouble of carrying it, went to another part of the
- 3:53:04Speaker 1: garden with her governess and some ladies of her acquaintance.
- 3:53:08Speaker 1: While she was absent and out of hearing, a small
- 3:53:12Speaker 1: white spaniel that belonged to one of the chief gardeners,
- 3:53:15Speaker 1: having got by accident into the garden, happened to range
- 3:53:19Speaker 1: near the place where I lay. The dog, following the scent,
- 3:53:23Speaker 1: came directly up, and, taking me in his mouth, ran
- 3:53:26Speaker 1: straight to his master, wagging his tail, and set me
- 3:53:29Speaker 1: gently on the ground. By good fortune, he had been
- 3:53:33Speaker 1: so well taught that I was carried between his teeth
- 3:53:35Speaker 1: without the least hurt or even tearing my clothes, But
- 3:53:40Speaker 1: the poor gardener, who knew me well and had a
- 3:53:43Speaker 1: great kindness for me, was in a terrible fright. He
- 3:53:46Speaker 1: gently took me up in both hands and asked me
- 3:53:48Speaker 1: how I did. But I was so amazed and out
- 3:53:52Speaker 1: of breath that I could not speak a word. In
- 3:53:55Speaker 1: a few minutes I came to myself, and he carried
- 3:53:57Speaker 1: me safe to my little nurse, who by this time
- 3:54:00Speaker 1: had returned to the place where she left me, and
- 3:54:03Speaker 1: was in cruel agonies when I did not appear nor
- 3:54:05Speaker 1: answer when she called. She severely reprimanded the gardener on
- 3:54:10Speaker 1: account of his dog. But the thing was hushed up
- 3:54:14Speaker 1: and never known at court, for the girl was afraid
- 3:54:17Speaker 1: of the Queen's anger, and truly, as to myself, I
- 3:54:20Speaker 1: thought it would not before my reputation that such a
- 3:54:23Speaker 1: story should go about. This accident absolutely determined Glumdalklitch never
- 3:54:29Speaker 1: to trust me abroad for the future. Out of her sight.
- 3:54:33Speaker 1: I had been long afraid of this resolution, and therefore
- 3:54:36Speaker 1: concealed from her some little unlucky adventures that happened in
- 3:54:40Speaker 1: those times, as well as left by myself. Once a
- 3:54:44Speaker 1: kite halvering over the garden made a stupid me, and
- 3:54:48Speaker 1: if I had not resolutely drawn my hanger and ran
- 3:54:51Speaker 1: under a thick espella, he would have certainly carried me
- 3:54:55Speaker 1: away in his talons. Another time, walking to the top
- 3:54:59Speaker 1: of a fresh mole h I fell to my neck
- 3:55:01Speaker 1: in the hole through which that animal had cast up
- 3:55:05Speaker 1: the earth and coined some lie not worth. Remembering to
- 3:55:09Speaker 1: excuse myself from spoiling my clothes, I likewise brought my
- 3:55:14Speaker 1: right shin against the shell of a snail, which I
- 3:55:18Speaker 1: happened to stumble over as I was walking alone and
- 3:55:21Speaker 1: thinking on poor England. I cannot tell whether I was
- 3:55:25Speaker 1: more pleased or mortified to observe in these solitary walks
- 3:55:30Speaker 1: that the smaller birds did not appear to be at
- 3:55:32Speaker 1: all afraid of me, but would hop about within a
- 3:55:35Speaker 1: yard's distance, looking for worms and other food, with as
- 3:55:39Speaker 1: much indifference and security as if no creature at all
- 3:55:42Speaker 1: were near them. I remember a thrush had the confidence
- 3:55:47Speaker 1: to snatch out of my hand with his bill a
- 3:55:50Speaker 1: bit of cake that Glandalklitch had just given me for
- 3:55:53Speaker 1: my breakfast. When I attempted to catch any of these birds,
- 3:55:58Speaker 1: they would boldly turn again against me, endeavoring to peck
- 3:56:02Speaker 1: my fingers, which I durst not venture within their reach,
- 3:56:06Speaker 1: and then they were top back, unconcerned to hunt for
- 3:56:09Speaker 1: worms or snails.
- 3:56:11Speaker 2: As they did before.
- 3:56:13Speaker 1: But one day I took a thick cudgel and threw
- 3:56:16Speaker 1: it with all my strength so luckily at a linnet
- 3:56:19Speaker 1: that I knocked him down, and, seizing him by the
- 3:56:22Speaker 1: neck with both my hands, ran with him in triumph
- 3:56:26Speaker 1: to my nurse. However, the bird, who had only been stunned,
- 3:56:31Speaker 1: recovering himself, gave me so many boxes with his wings
- 3:56:35Speaker 1: on both sides of my head and body. Though I
- 3:56:38Speaker 1: held him at arm's length and was out of reach
- 3:56:40Speaker 1: of his claws, that I was twenty times thinking to
- 3:56:43Speaker 1: let him go. But I was soon relieved by one
- 3:56:47Speaker 1: of our servants, who wrung off the bird's neck, and
- 3:56:51Speaker 1: I had him the next day for dinner by the
- 3:56:53Speaker 1: Queen's command. This linet, as near as I can remember,
- 3:56:58Speaker 1: seemed to be somewhat larger than any English swan. The
- 3:57:02Speaker 1: maids of Honor often invited Glumdalklitch to their apartments and
- 3:57:07Speaker 1: desired she would bring me along with her on purpose
- 3:57:10Speaker 1: to have the pleasure of seeing and touching me. They
- 3:57:13Speaker 1: would often strip me naked from toe to toe and
- 3:57:16Speaker 1: laying at full length in their bosoms, wherewith I was
- 3:57:20Speaker 1: much disgusted, because, to say the truth, a very offensive
- 3:57:25Speaker 1: smell came from their skins, which I do not mention
- 3:57:29Speaker 1: or intend to the disadvantage of those excellent ladies, for
- 3:57:33Speaker 1: whom I have all manner of respect.
- 3:57:36Speaker 2: But I can see that my.
- 3:57:37Speaker 1: Sense was more acute in proportion to my littleness, and
- 3:57:41Speaker 1: that those illustrious persons were no more disagreeable to their
- 3:57:44Speaker 1: lovers or to each other than people of the same
- 3:57:48Speaker 1: quality are with us in England. And after all I
- 3:57:52Speaker 1: found the natural smell was much more supportable than when
- 3:57:56Speaker 1: they used perfumes, under which I immediately swam away. I
- 3:58:02Speaker 1: cannot forget that an intimate friend of mine in Lilliput
- 3:58:06Speaker 1: took the freedom, in a warm day, when I had
- 3:58:09Speaker 1: used a good deal of exercise, to complain of a
- 3:58:12Speaker 1: strong smell about me, Although I am as little faulty
- 3:58:16Speaker 1: that way as most of my sex. But I suppose
- 3:58:20Speaker 1: his faculty of smelling was as nice with regard to
- 3:58:22Speaker 1: me as mine was to that of this people. Upon
- 3:58:27Speaker 1: this point I cannot forbear doing justice to the Queen
- 3:58:29Speaker 1: my mistress and Glandale clitched my nurse, whose persons were
- 3:58:34Speaker 1: as sweet as those of any lady in England. That
- 3:58:38Speaker 1: which gave him most uneasiness among these maids of honor
- 3:58:41Speaker 1: when my nurse carried me to visit them, was to
- 3:58:44Speaker 1: see them use me without any manner of ceremony, like
- 3:58:48Speaker 1: a creature.
- 3:58:48Speaker 2: Who had no sort of consequence.
- 3:58:51Speaker 1: For they would strip themselves to the skin and put
- 3:58:54Speaker 1: on their smocks in my presence, while I was placed
- 3:58:56Speaker 1: on their toilet directly before their naked bodies, which I
- 3:59:01Speaker 1: am sure to me was very far from being a
- 3:59:03Speaker 1: tempting sight, or from giving me any other emotions than
- 3:59:07Speaker 1: those of horror and disgust. Their skins appeared so coarse
- 3:59:12Speaker 1: and uneven, so variously colored when I saw them near,
- 3:59:16Speaker 1: with a mole here and there, as broad as a trencher,
- 3:59:19Speaker 1: and hairs hanging from it thicker than packthreads. To say
- 3:59:23Speaker 1: nothing farther concerning the rest of their persons. Neither did
- 3:59:28Speaker 1: they at all scruple when hours by to discharge what
- 3:59:30Speaker 1: they had drunk, to the quantity of at least two
- 3:59:33Speaker 1: hogsheads in a vessel that held above three tons. The
- 3:59:38Speaker 1: handsomest among these maids of honor a pleasant Frolicsome girl
- 3:59:42Speaker 1: of sixteen would sometimes set me astride one of her nipples,
- 3:59:46Speaker 1: with many other tricks, wherein the reader will excuse me
- 3:59:50Speaker 1: for not being over particular. But I was so much
- 3:59:53Speaker 1: displeased that I entreated Lumdalklitch to contrive some excuse for
- 3:59:58Speaker 1: not seeing that young lady anyoney. One day a young
- 4:00:02Speaker 1: gentleman who was nephew to my nurse's governess came and
- 4:00:06Speaker 1: pressed them both to see an execution. It was of
- 4:00:10Speaker 1: a man who had murdered one of that gentleman's intimate acquaintance.
- 4:00:15Speaker 1: Clem Douglet, was prevailed on to be one of the company.
- 4:00:18Speaker 1: Very much against her inclination, for she was naturally tender hearted.
- 4:00:24Speaker 1: And as for myself, although I bhord such kind of spectacles,
- 4:00:29Speaker 1: yet my curiosity tempted me to see something that I
- 4:00:31Speaker 1: thought must be extraordinary. The malefactor was fixed in a
- 4:00:36Speaker 1: chair upon a scaffield erected for that purpose, and his
- 4:00:40Speaker 1: head was cut off at one blow with the sword
- 4:00:43Speaker 1: of about forty feet long. The veins and archeries spouted
- 4:00:48Speaker 1: up with such a prodigious quantity of blood, and so
- 4:00:51Speaker 1: high in the air, that the great Jetdieu at Versailles
- 4:00:56Speaker 1: was not equal to it for the time it lasted,
- 4:01:00Speaker 1: and the head, when it fell on the scaffield floor,
- 4:01:03Speaker 1: gave such a bounce as made me start, although I
- 4:01:06Speaker 1: was at least half an English mile distant. The Queen,
- 4:01:10Speaker 1: who often used to hear me talk of my sea
- 4:01:12Speaker 1: voyages and took all occasions to divert me when I
- 4:01:15Speaker 1: was melancholy, asked me whether I understood how to handle
- 4:01:19Speaker 1: a sail or an oar, and whether a little exercise
- 4:01:22Speaker 1: or rowing might not be convenient for my health. I
- 4:01:27Speaker 1: answered that I understood both very well, for although my
- 4:01:31Speaker 1: proper employment had been to be a surgeon or a
- 4:01:33Speaker 1: doctor to the ship, yet often upon a pinch I
- 4:01:37Speaker 1: was forced to work like a common mariner. But I
- 4:01:41Speaker 1: could not see how this could be done in their country,
- 4:01:44Speaker 1: where the smallest werry was equal to a first rate
- 4:01:47Speaker 1: man of war among us, and such a boat as
- 4:01:50Speaker 1: I could manage would never live in any.
- 4:01:52Speaker 2: Of their rivers.
- 4:01:54Speaker 1: Her Majesty said, if I would contrive a boat, her
- 4:01:57Speaker 1: own joiner should make it, and she would provide a
- 4:02:00Speaker 1: place for me to sail in. The fellow was an
- 4:02:03Speaker 1: ingenious workman, and by my instructions, in ten days finished
- 4:02:07Speaker 1: a pleasure boat, with all its tackling, able conveniently to
- 4:02:12Speaker 1: hold eight europeans. When it was finished, the Queen was
- 4:02:16Speaker 1: so delighted that she ran with it in her lap
- 4:02:18Speaker 1: to the King, who ordered it to be put into
- 4:02:21Speaker 1: a cystin full of water, with me in it by
- 4:02:24Speaker 1: way of a trial. Or I could not manage my
- 4:02:27Speaker 1: two skulls or little laws for want of room. But
- 4:02:32Speaker 1: the Queen had before contrived another project. She ordered the
- 4:02:36Speaker 1: joiner to make a wooden trough of three hundred feet long,
- 4:02:39Speaker 1: fifty broad and eight deep, which, being well pitched to
- 4:02:44Speaker 1: prevent leaking, was placed on the floor along the wall
- 4:02:48Speaker 1: in the outer room of the palace. It had a
- 4:02:51Speaker 1: cork near the bottom to let out the water when
- 4:02:53Speaker 1: it began to grow stale, and two servants could easily
- 4:02:57Speaker 1: fill it in half an hour. Here I often used
- 4:03:00Speaker 1: to row for my own diversion, as well as that
- 4:03:03Speaker 1: of the Queen and her ladies, who thought themselves well
- 4:03:06Speaker 1: entertained with my skill and agility. Sometimes I would put
- 4:03:11Speaker 1: up my sail, and then my business was only to steer,
- 4:03:14Speaker 1: while the ladies gave me a girl with their fans,
- 4:03:18Speaker 1: and when they were weary, some of their pages would
- 4:03:20Speaker 1: blow my cell forward with their breath, while I showed
- 4:03:23Speaker 1: my art by steering starboard or larboard as I pleased.
- 4:03:28Speaker 1: When I had done, Glumdalklitch always carried back my boat
- 4:03:31Speaker 1: into a closet and hung it on a nail to dry.
- 4:03:35Speaker 1: In this exercise I once met an accident we should
- 4:03:39Speaker 1: have liked to have cost me my life. For one
- 4:03:42Speaker 1: of the pages, having put my boat into the trough,
- 4:03:46Speaker 1: the governess who attended Glumdalglitch very officiously lifted me up
- 4:03:50Speaker 1: to place me in the boat. But I happened to
- 4:03:53Speaker 1: slip through her fingers, and should have infallibly have fallen
- 4:03:57Speaker 1: down forty feet upon the floor, if by the luckiest
- 4:04:01Speaker 1: chance in the world, I had not been stopped by
- 4:04:04Speaker 1: a corking pin that stopped in the good woman's stomacher,
- 4:04:08Speaker 1: the head of the pin passing between my shirt and
- 4:04:11Speaker 1: the waistband of my breeches, and thus I was held
- 4:04:15Speaker 1: by the middle in the air till Glandalklitch ran to
- 4:04:17Speaker 1: my relief. Another time, one of the servants whose office
- 4:04:22Speaker 1: it was to fill my trowel every third day with
- 4:04:24Speaker 1: fresh water was so careless as to let a huge frog,
- 4:04:29Speaker 1: not perceiving it, slip out of his pail. The frog
- 4:04:34Speaker 1: lay concealed till I was put into my boat, and then,
- 4:04:37Speaker 1: sensing a resting place, climbed up and made it lean
- 4:04:41Speaker 1: so much on one side that I was forced to
- 4:04:43Speaker 1: balance it with all my weight on the other to
- 4:04:46Speaker 1: prevent overturning. When the frog was got in, it hopped
- 4:04:51Speaker 1: at once half the length of my boat, and then
- 4:04:54Speaker 1: over my head backward and forward, dubbing my face and
- 4:04:58Speaker 1: clothed with its odious slimee. The lardness of its features
- 4:05:03Speaker 1: made it appear the most deformed animal that can be conceived. However,
- 4:05:09Speaker 1: I desired Glumdalklitch to let me deal with it alone.
- 4:05:13Speaker 1: I banged it a good while with one of my skulls,
- 4:05:15Speaker 1: and at last forced it to leap out of the boat.
- 4:05:19Speaker 2: But the greatest.
- 4:05:20Speaker 1: Danger I ever underwent in that kingdom was from a
- 4:05:23Speaker 1: monkey who belonged to one of the clerks of the kitchen.
- 4:05:27Speaker 1: Glumdalklitch had locked me up in a closet while she
- 4:05:30Speaker 1: went somewhere upon business or a visit. The weather being
- 4:05:34Speaker 1: very warm, the closet window was left open, as well
- 4:05:38Speaker 1: as the windows and the door of my bigger box,
- 4:05:40Speaker 1: in which I usually lived because of its largeness and conveniency.
- 4:05:45Speaker 1: As I sat quietly meditating at my table, I heard
- 4:05:48Speaker 1: something bounce in at the closet window and skip about
- 4:05:52Speaker 1: from one side to the other.
- 4:05:55Speaker 2: Whereat.
- 4:05:56Speaker 1: Although I was very much alarmed, yet I ventured to
- 4:05:59Speaker 1: look out, but not stirring from my seat. And then
- 4:06:04Speaker 1: I saw this frolicsome animal, frisking and leaping up and down,
- 4:06:08Speaker 1: till at last he came to my box, which he
- 4:06:10Speaker 1: seemed to view with great pleasure and curiosity, peeping in
- 4:06:14Speaker 1: at the door and every window. I retreated to the
- 4:06:19Speaker 1: farther corner of my room or box, But the monkey
- 4:06:23Speaker 1: looking in at every side put me in such a
- 4:06:26Speaker 1: fright that I wanted presence of mind to conceal myself
- 4:06:29Speaker 1: under the bed, as I might easily have done. After
- 4:06:34Speaker 1: some time spent in peeping, grinning, and chattering, he at
- 4:06:38Speaker 1: last despied me, and reaching one of his paws in
- 4:06:42Speaker 1: at the door, as a cat does when she plays
- 4:06:44Speaker 1: with a mouse. Although I often shifted place to avoid him,
- 4:06:48Speaker 1: he at length seized to the lappet of my coat,
- 4:06:52Speaker 1: which being made of that country silk was very thick.
- 4:06:54Speaker 2: And strong, and dragged me out.
- 4:06:58Speaker 1: He took me in his right fore foot and held
- 4:07:00Speaker 1: me as a nurse as a child. She is going
- 4:07:02Speaker 1: to suckle, just as I have seen the same sort
- 4:07:04Speaker 1: of creature do with a kitten in Europe. And when
- 4:07:08Speaker 1: I offered to struggle, he squeezed me so hard that
- 4:07:12Speaker 1: I thought it more prudent to submit. I have good
- 4:07:15Speaker 1: reason to believe that he took me for a young
- 4:07:17Speaker 1: of one of his own species, but is often stroking
- 4:07:20Speaker 1: my face very gently with his other paw. In these diversions.
- 4:07:25Speaker 1: He was interrupted by a noise at the closet door,
- 4:07:28Speaker 1: as if somebody was opening it, whereupon he suddenly leaped
- 4:07:32Speaker 1: up to the window at which he had come in,
- 4:07:34Speaker 1: and thence upon the leads the gutter, walking upon three legs,
- 4:07:39Speaker 1: and told me in the fourth till he climbed up
- 4:07:41Speaker 1: to a roof. That was next two hours. I heard
- 4:07:44Speaker 1: Glandalklitch give a shriek at the moment he was carrying
- 4:07:47Speaker 1: me out. The poor girl was almost distracted. That quarter
- 4:07:52Speaker 1: of the palace was all in an uproar. The servants
- 4:07:55Speaker 1: ran for ladders. The monkey was seen by hundreds in
- 4:07:58Speaker 1: the court, sitting upon the ridge of a holding me
- 4:08:01Speaker 1: like a baby in one of his forepaws, and feeding
- 4:08:03Speaker 1: me with the other by cramming into my mouth some
- 4:08:07Speaker 1: victuals he had squeezed out of the bag on one
- 4:08:09Speaker 1: side of his chaps, and patter me when I would
- 4:08:12Speaker 1: not eat whereat. Many of the rabble below could not
- 4:08:16Speaker 1: forbear laughing. Neither do I think they justly ought to
- 4:08:19Speaker 1: be blamed for without question, the sight was ridiculous enough
- 4:08:23Speaker 1: to everybody but myself. Some of the people threw up stones,
- 4:08:27Speaker 1: hoping to drive the monkey down, but this was strictly forbidden,
- 4:08:32Speaker 1: or else very probably my brains had been dashed out.
- 4:08:37Speaker 2: The ladders were now.
- 4:08:38Speaker 1: Applied and mounted by several men, which the monkey, observing,
- 4:08:42Speaker 1: and finding himself almost encompassed, not being able to make
- 4:08:45Speaker 1: enough speed with his three legs, let me drop on
- 4:08:48Speaker 1: a rich tiel, and made his escape.
- 4:08:52Speaker 2: Here. I sat for.
- 4:08:53Speaker 1: Some time five hundred yards from the ground, expecting every
- 4:08:57Speaker 1: moment to be blown down by the wind, or to
- 4:09:00Speaker 1: fall by my own giddiness and come tumbling over and
- 4:09:02Speaker 1: over from the ridge to the eaves. But an honest lad,
- 4:09:07Speaker 1: one of my nurse's footmen climbed up, and, putting me
- 4:09:10Speaker 1: into his breeches pocket, brought me down safe. I was
- 4:09:15Speaker 1: almost choked with the filthy stuff the monkey had crammed
- 4:09:17Speaker 1: down my throat, but my dear little nurse picked it
- 4:09:21Speaker 1: out of my mouth with a small needle, and then
- 4:09:24Speaker 1: I fell a vomiting, which gave me great relief.
- 4:09:28Speaker 2: Yet I was so.
- 4:09:29Speaker 1: Weak and bruised in the sides with the squeezes given
- 4:09:31Speaker 1: by this odious animal, that I was forced to keep
- 4:09:35Speaker 1: my bed a fortnight. The King, Queen and all the
- 4:09:39Speaker 1: court sent every day to inquire after my health, and
- 4:09:43Speaker 1: her majesty made me several visits. During my sickness. The
- 4:09:47Speaker 1: monkey was killed and an order made that no such
- 4:09:49Speaker 1: animal should be kept about the palace. When I attended
- 4:09:53Speaker 1: the King after my recovery to return him thanks for
- 4:09:56Speaker 1: his favors, he was pleased to rally me a good
- 4:09:59Speaker 1: deal upon this adventure. He asked me what my thoughts
- 4:10:04Speaker 1: and speculations were while I lay in the monkey's poor,
- 4:10:08Speaker 1: how I liked the victuals he gave me his manner
- 4:10:10Speaker 1: of feeding, and whether the fresh air on the roof
- 4:10:13Speaker 1: had sharpened my stomach. He desired to know what I
- 4:10:18Speaker 1: would have done upon such an occasion in my own country.
- 4:10:21Speaker 1: I told his Majesty that in Europe we had no monkeys,
- 4:10:26Speaker 1: except such as were brought for curiosity from other places,
- 4:10:30Speaker 1: and so small that I could deal with a dozen
- 4:10:32Speaker 1: of them together if they presumed.
- 4:10:33Speaker 2: To attack me.
- 4:10:35Speaker 1: And as of that monstrous animal with whom I am
- 4:10:37Speaker 1: so lately engaged, it was indeed as large as an elephant.
- 4:10:42Speaker 1: If my fears had suffered me to think so far
- 4:10:44Speaker 1: as to make use of my hanger, looking fiercely and
- 4:10:48Speaker 1: carrying my hand on the hilt as I spoke, when
- 4:10:51Speaker 1: he poked his poor into my chamber, perhaps I should
- 4:10:54Speaker 1: have given him such a wound as would have made
- 4:10:56Speaker 1: him glad to withdraw it with more haste than he
- 4:10:58Speaker 1: put it. In this I delivered in a firm tone,
- 4:11:03Speaker 1: like a person who was jealous, lest his courage should
- 4:11:05Speaker 1: be called in question. However, my speech produced nothing else
- 4:11:09Speaker 1: beside a loud laughter, which all the respect due to
- 4:11:12Speaker 1: his Majesty from those about him.
- 4:11:14Speaker 2: Could not make them contain.
- 4:11:18Speaker 1: As made me reflect how vain an attempt it is
- 4:11:20Speaker 1: for a man to endeavor to himself honor among those
- 4:11:24Speaker 1: who are out of all degree of equality or comparison
- 4:11:27Speaker 1: with him. And yet I have seen the moral of
- 4:11:30Speaker 1: my behavior very frequent in England since my return. Were
- 4:11:35Speaker 1: a little contemptible Violette, without the least title to birth,
- 4:11:39Speaker 1: person wit or common sense, shall presume to look with
- 4:11:42Speaker 1: importance and put himself upon a foot with the greatest
- 4:11:45Speaker 1: persons of the Kingdom. I was every day furnishing the
- 4:11:49Speaker 1: court with some ridiculous story, and Glamdalklitch, although she loved
- 4:11:54Speaker 1: me to excess, yet was ard enough to inform the
- 4:11:58Speaker 1: Queen whenever I committed any folly that she thought would
- 4:12:01Speaker 1: be diverting to her majesty. The girl who had been
- 4:12:05Speaker 1: out of order was carried by a governess to take
- 4:12:08Speaker 1: the air about an hour's distance or thirty miles from town.
- 4:12:13Speaker 1: They alighted out of the coach near a small footpath
- 4:12:16Speaker 1: in a field, and Glumdalklitch, setting down my traveling.
- 4:12:20Speaker 2: Box, I went out of it to walk.
- 4:12:23Speaker 1: There was a cow dung in the path, and I
- 4:12:25Speaker 1: must need try my activity by attempting to leap over it.
- 4:12:30Speaker 1: I took a run, but unfortunately jumped short and found
- 4:12:34Speaker 1: myself just in the middle. Up to my knees. I
- 4:12:38Speaker 1: waded through with some difficulty, and one of the footmen
- 4:12:41Speaker 1: wiped me as clean as he could with his handkerchief,
- 4:12:44Speaker 1: for I was filthy beermurd and my nurse confined me
- 4:12:48Speaker 1: to my box till we returned home, where the Queen
- 4:12:52Speaker 1: was soon informed of what had passed, and the footmen
- 4:12:55Speaker 1: spreaded about the court, so that all the mirth for
- 4:12:59Speaker 1: some days was at my expense. End of Part two,
- 4:13:03Speaker 1: Chapter five, Chapter six several contrivances of the author to
- 4:13:10Speaker 1: please the King and Queen. He shows his skill in music.
- 4:13:14Speaker 1: The King inquires into the state of England, which the
- 4:13:17Speaker 1: author relates to him the King's observations thereon. I used
- 4:13:23Speaker 1: to attend the King's levee once or twice a week,
- 4:13:27Speaker 1: and had often seen him under the barber's hand, which
- 4:13:31Speaker 1: indeed was at first very terrible to behold, for the
- 4:13:34Speaker 1: razor was almost twice as long as an ordinary Scythe
- 4:13:39Speaker 1: his majesty, according to the custom of the country, was
- 4:13:43Speaker 1: only shaved twice a week. I once prevailed on the
- 4:13:47Speaker 1: barber to give me some of the SuDS or lather,
- 4:13:50Speaker 1: of which I picked fifty or forty of the strongest
- 4:13:53Speaker 1: stumps of hair. I then took a piece of fine
- 4:13:56Speaker 1: wood and cut it like the back of a comb,
- 4:14:00Speaker 1: making several holes in it at equal distances. With as
- 4:14:03Speaker 1: small a needle as I could get from Glumdalklitch. I
- 4:14:07Speaker 1: fixed in the stumps so artificially, scraping and slopping them
- 4:14:11Speaker 1: with my knife towards the points that I made a
- 4:14:14Speaker 1: very tolerable comb, which was a seasonal supply, my own
- 4:14:19Speaker 1: being so much broken in the teeth that it was
- 4:14:22Speaker 1: almost useless. Neither did I know any artist in that
- 4:14:26Speaker 1: country so nice and exact as would undertake to make
- 4:14:30Speaker 1: me another. And this puts me in mind of an
- 4:14:33Speaker 1: amusement where I spent many of my leisure hours. I
- 4:14:38Speaker 1: desired the Queen's woman to save for me the combings
- 4:14:41Speaker 1: of her Majesty's hair, whereof in good time I got
- 4:14:45Speaker 1: a good quantity, and consulting with my friend the cabinet maker,
- 4:14:50Speaker 1: who had received general orders to do little jobs for me,
- 4:14:54Speaker 1: I directed him to make two chair frames no larger
- 4:14:57Speaker 1: than those I had in my box, and to bore
- 4:15:00Speaker 1: little holes with a fine aul round those parts where
- 4:15:03Speaker 1: I designed the backs and seats. Through these holes I
- 4:15:08Speaker 1: wore of the strongest hairs I could pick out just
- 4:15:11Speaker 1: after the manner of cane chairs in England. When they
- 4:15:15Speaker 1: were finished, I made a present of them to Her Majesty,
- 4:15:18Speaker 1: who kept them in her cabinet and used to show
- 4:15:21Speaker 1: them for curiosities, as indeed they were the wonder of
- 4:15:25Speaker 1: every one that beheld them. The Queen would have me
- 4:15:29Speaker 1: sit upon one of these chairs, but I absolutely refused
- 4:15:34Speaker 1: to obey her, protesting I would rather die than place
- 4:15:37Speaker 1: a dishonorable part of my body on those precious hairs
- 4:15:41Speaker 1: that once adorned Her Majesty's head.
- 4:15:44Speaker 2: Of these hairs, as I.
- 4:15:46Speaker 1: Had always a mechanical genius, I likewise made a neat
- 4:15:50Speaker 1: little purse about five feet long, with Her Majesty's name
- 4:15:55Speaker 1: deciphered in gold letters, which I gave to Glumdale Clitch
- 4:15:59Speaker 1: by the Queen's consent. To say the truth, it was
- 4:16:04Speaker 1: more for show than use, being not of strength to
- 4:16:07Speaker 1: bear the weight of the larger coins, and therefore she
- 4:16:11Speaker 1: kept nothing in it but some little toys that girls
- 4:16:14Speaker 1: are fond of. The King, who delighted in music, had
- 4:16:18Speaker 1: frequent concert at court, at which I was sometimes carried
- 4:16:23Speaker 1: and set in my box on a table to hear them.
- 4:16:27Speaker 1: But the noise was so great that I could hardly
- 4:16:29Speaker 1: distinguish the tunes. I am confident that all the drums
- 4:16:33Speaker 1: and trumpets of a royal army, beating and sounding together
- 4:16:37Speaker 1: just at your ears, could not equal it. My practice
- 4:16:41Speaker 1: was to have my box removed from the place where
- 4:16:43Speaker 1: the performers sat as far as I could, then to
- 4:16:47Speaker 1: shut the doors and windows of it, and draw the
- 4:16:50Speaker 1: window curtains, after which I found their music not disagreeable.
- 4:16:57Speaker 1: I had learned in my youth to play a little
- 4:16:59Speaker 1: upon the spin yet plum Ducklet kept one in her chamber,
- 4:17:04Speaker 1: and a master attended twice a week to teach her.
- 4:17:08Speaker 1: I called it a spinnet because it somewhat resembled that
- 4:17:11Speaker 1: instrument and was played upon in the same manner. A
- 4:17:16Speaker 1: fancy came into my head that I would entertain the
- 4:17:19Speaker 1: King and Queen with an English tune upon this instrument,
- 4:17:24Speaker 1: But this appeared extremely difficult, for the spinnet was near
- 4:17:27Speaker 1: sixty feet long, each key being almost a foot wide,
- 4:17:32Speaker 1: so that with my arms extended I could not reach
- 4:17:36Speaker 1: to above five keys, and to press them down required
- 4:17:39Speaker 1: a good smart stroke with my fist, which would be
- 4:17:43Speaker 1: too great a labor, and to no purpose. The method
- 4:17:47Speaker 1: I contrived was this. I prepared two round sticks about
- 4:17:52Speaker 1: the bigness of common cudgels. They were thicker at one
- 4:17:56Speaker 1: end than the other, and I covered the thicker ends
- 4:17:59Speaker 1: with pieces of a man else's skin, that by wrapping
- 4:18:02Speaker 1: on them I might neither damage the tops of the
- 4:18:04Speaker 1: keys nor interrupt the sound. Before the spinnet, a bench
- 4:18:10Speaker 1: was placed about four feet below the keys, and I
- 4:18:14Speaker 1: was put upon the bench. I ran sidelong upon it
- 4:18:19Speaker 1: that way in this as fast as I could, banging
- 4:18:23Speaker 1: the proper keys with my two sticks, and made a
- 4:18:25Speaker 1: shift to play a jig, to the great satisfaction of
- 4:18:29Speaker 1: both their majesties. But it was the most violent exercise
- 4:18:34Speaker 1: I ever underwent, and yet I could not strike above
- 4:18:37Speaker 1: sixteen keys, nor consequently played the bass and travel together
- 4:18:43Speaker 1: as other artists do, which was a great disadvantage to
- 4:18:47Speaker 1: my performance. The King, who as I before observed, was
- 4:18:53Speaker 1: a prince of excellent understanding, would frequently order that I
- 4:18:57Speaker 1: should be brought in my box and set upon the
- 4:19:00Speaker 1: table in his closet. He would then command me to
- 4:19:03Speaker 1: bring one of my chairs out of the box and
- 4:19:06Speaker 1: sit down within three yards distance upon the top of
- 4:19:09Speaker 1: the cabinet, which brought me almost to a level with
- 4:19:12Speaker 1: his face. In this manner I had several conversations with him.
- 4:19:19Speaker 1: I one day took the freedom to tell his Majesty
- 4:19:22Speaker 1: that the contempt he discovered towards Europe and the rest
- 4:19:25Speaker 1: of the world did not seem answerable to those excellent
- 4:19:28Speaker 1: qualities of mind that he was master of. That reason
- 4:19:32Speaker 1: did not extend itself with the bulk of the body.
- 4:19:35Speaker 1: On the contrary, we observed in our country that the
- 4:19:39Speaker 1: tallest persons were usually the least provided with it, that
- 4:19:44Speaker 1: among other animals, bees and ants has the reputation of
- 4:19:47Speaker 1: more industry, art and sagacity that many of the larger kinds,
- 4:19:53Speaker 1: And that, as inconsiderable as he took me to be,
- 4:19:57Speaker 1: I hoped I might live to do his Majesty's sum
- 4:19:59Speaker 1: signs service. The King heard me with attention, and began
- 4:20:05Speaker 1: to conceive a much better opinion of me than he
- 4:20:08Speaker 1: ever had before. He desired I would give him as
- 4:20:13Speaker 1: exact an account of the government of England as I
- 4:20:15Speaker 1: possibly could, because as fond as princes commonly are of
- 4:20:20Speaker 1: their own customs, for so he conjectured of other monarchs
- 4:20:24Speaker 1: by my former discourses, he should be glad to hear
- 4:20:27Speaker 1: of anything that might deserve imitation. Imagine with thyself, courteous reader,
- 4:20:34Speaker 1: how often I then wished for the tongue of Demosthenes
- 4:20:37Speaker 1: or Cicero, that might have enabled me to celebrate the
- 4:20:41Speaker 1: praise of my own dear native country in a style
- 4:20:44Speaker 1: equal to its merits and felicity. I began my discourse
- 4:20:50Speaker 1: by informing His Majesty that our Dominions consisted of two islands,
- 4:20:55Speaker 1: which composed three mighty kingdoms under one sovereign. Besides I
- 4:21:00Speaker 1: plantations in America, I dwelt long upon the fertility of
- 4:21:04Speaker 1: our soil and the temperature of our climate. I then
- 4:21:08Speaker 1: spoke at large upon the constitution of an English Parliament,
- 4:21:12Speaker 1: partly made up of an illustrious body called the House
- 4:21:14Speaker 1: of Peers. Persons of the noblest blood and of the
- 4:21:18Speaker 1: most ancient and ample patrimonies. I described as extraordinary care
- 4:21:24Speaker 1: always taken of their education in arts and arms, to
- 4:21:28Speaker 1: qualify them for being counselors both to the King and kingdom,
- 4:21:32Speaker 1: to have a share in the legislature, to be member
- 4:21:35Speaker 1: of the highest court of judicator, whence there can be
- 4:21:39Speaker 1: no appeal, and to be champions always ready for the
- 4:21:43Speaker 1: defense of their prince and country by their valor, conduct
- 4:21:47Speaker 1: and fidelity. That these were the ornament and bulwark of
- 4:21:51Speaker 1: the kingdom, worthy followers of their most renowned ancestors, whose
- 4:21:56Speaker 1: honour had been the reward of their virtue, from which
- 4:21:59Speaker 1: their posterity were in once known to degenerate. To these
- 4:22:04Speaker 1: were joined several holy persons as part of that assembly,
- 4:22:08Speaker 1: under the title of bishops, whose peculiar business is to
- 4:22:12Speaker 1: take care of religion, and of those who instruct the
- 4:22:15Speaker 1: people therein. These were searched and sought out through the
- 4:22:19Speaker 1: whole nation by the Prince and his wisest counselors, among
- 4:22:24Speaker 1: such of the priesthood as were most deservedly distinguished by
- 4:22:27Speaker 1: the sanctity of their lives and the depth of their erudition,
- 4:22:32Speaker 1: who were indeed the spiritual fathers of the clergy and
- 4:22:34Speaker 1: the people. That the other part of the Parliament consisted
- 4:22:40Speaker 1: of an assembly called the House of Commons, who were
- 4:22:43Speaker 1: all principal gentlemen, freely picked and called out by the
- 4:22:47Speaker 1: people themselves for their great abilities in love of their country,
- 4:22:52Speaker 1: to represent the wisdom of the whole nation. And that
- 4:22:56Speaker 1: these two bodies made up the most august assembly in Europe,
- 4:23:00Speaker 1: to whom, in conjecture with the Prince, the whole legislature
- 4:23:04Speaker 1: is committed. I then descended to the courts of justice,
- 4:23:09Speaker 1: over which the judges, those venerable sages and interpreters of
- 4:23:13Speaker 1: the law presided for determine the disputed rights and properties
- 4:23:18Speaker 1: of men, as well as for the punishment of vice
- 4:23:21Speaker 1: and protection of innocence. I mentioned the prudent management of
- 4:23:25Speaker 1: our treasury, the valor and achievements of our forces by
- 4:23:29Speaker 1: sea and land. I computed the number of our people
- 4:23:33Speaker 1: by reckoning how many millions they might be, of each
- 4:23:36Speaker 1: religious sect or political party among us. I did not
- 4:23:40Speaker 1: omit even our sports and pastimes, or any other particular
- 4:23:44Speaker 1: which I thought might redoubt to the honor of my country.
- 4:23:49Speaker 1: And I finished all with a brief historical account of
- 4:23:52Speaker 1: affairs and events in England for about a hundred years past.
- 4:23:57Speaker 1: This conversation was not ended. Under five audiences, each of
- 4:24:02Speaker 1: several hours, and the King heard of the whole with
- 4:24:05Speaker 1: great attention, frequently taking notes of what I spoke, as
- 4:24:10Speaker 1: well as memorandums of what questions he intended to ask me.
- 4:24:15Speaker 1: When I had put an end to these long discourses,
- 4:24:17Speaker 1: his Majesty in a Sith audience, consulting his notes, proposed
- 4:24:23Speaker 1: many doubts, queries, and objections upon every article. He asked,
- 4:24:29Speaker 1: what methods were used to cultivate the minds and bodies
- 4:24:32Speaker 1: of our young nobility, and in what kind of business
- 4:24:35Speaker 1: they commonly spent the first and teachable parts of their lives.
- 4:24:40Speaker 1: What course was taken to supply that assembly when any
- 4:24:43Speaker 1: noble family became extinct. What qualifications were necessary in those
- 4:24:48Speaker 1: who are to be created new lords, Whether the humor
- 4:24:52Speaker 1: of the prince, a sum of money to a court lady,
- 4:24:55Speaker 1: or a design of strengthening a party opposite to the
- 4:24:58Speaker 1: public interest, What ever happened to be the motive of
- 4:25:01Speaker 1: those advancements. What share of knowledge these lords had in
- 4:25:05Speaker 1: the laws of their country, and how they came by
- 4:25:08Speaker 1: it so as to enable them to decide the properties
- 4:25:12Speaker 1: of their fellow subjects in the last resort. Whether they
- 4:25:16Speaker 1: were always so free from avarists, partialities, or want that
- 4:25:21Speaker 1: a bribe or some other sinister view could have no
- 4:25:23Speaker 1: place among them. Whether those holy lords I spoke of
- 4:25:28Speaker 1: were always promoted to that rank upon account of their
- 4:25:31Speaker 1: knowledge of religious matters and the sanctity of their lives
- 4:25:35Speaker 1: had never been compliers with the times, while they were
- 4:25:38Speaker 1: common priests or slavish prostitute chaplains to some noblemen, whose
- 4:25:44Speaker 1: opinions then continued servilely to follow after they admitted into
- 4:25:48Speaker 1: the Assembly. He then desired to know what arts were
- 4:25:53Speaker 1: practiced in electing those whom I called commoners, whether a
- 4:25:58Speaker 1: stranger with a strong purse might not influence the vulgar
- 4:26:02Speaker 1: voters to choose him before their own landlord or the
- 4:26:06Speaker 1: most considerable gentlemen in the neighborhood. How it came to
- 4:26:11Speaker 1: pass that people were so violently bent upon getting into
- 4:26:14Speaker 1: this assembly, which I allowed to be a great trouble
- 4:26:17Speaker 1: and expense, often to the ruin of their families, without
- 4:26:22Speaker 1: any salary or pension. Because this appeared such an exalted
- 4:26:27Speaker 1: strain of virtue and public spirit, that his Majesty seemed
- 4:26:31Speaker 1: to doubt it might possibly not be always sincere. And
- 4:26:35Speaker 1: he desired to know whether such a zealous gentlemen could
- 4:26:39Speaker 1: have any views of refunding themselves for the charge and
- 4:26:42Speaker 1: trouble they were at by sacrificing the public good to
- 4:26:46Speaker 1: the designs of a weak and vicious prince in conjunction
- 4:26:50Speaker 1: with a corrupted ministry. He multiplied his questions and sifted
- 4:26:55Speaker 1: me thoroughly upon every part of this head, proposing numberless
- 4:26:59Speaker 1: inquiries and objections, which I think it is not prudent
- 4:27:03Speaker 1: or convenient to repeat upon what I said in relation
- 4:27:09Speaker 1: to our courts of justice. His Majesty desire to be
- 4:27:12Speaker 1: satisfied in several points, and to this I was better
- 4:27:16Speaker 1: able to do, having been formerly almost ruined by a
- 4:27:20Speaker 1: long suit in chancery, which was decreed.
- 4:27:23Speaker 2: For me with costs.
- 4:27:26Speaker 1: He asked what time was usually spent in determining between
- 4:27:30Speaker 1: right and wrong, and what degree of expense. Whether advocators
- 4:27:35Speaker 1: and orators had liberty to plead in cases manifestly known
- 4:27:39Speaker 1: to be unjust, vexatious, or oppressive, whether party in religion
- 4:27:45Speaker 1: or politics were observed to be any weight in the
- 4:27:48Speaker 1: scale of justice, whether those pleading orators were persons educated
- 4:27:53Speaker 1: in the general knowledge of equity or only in provincial, national,
- 4:27:57Speaker 1: and other local customs, Whether they or their judges had
- 4:28:03Speaker 1: any part in penning those laws which they assumed the
- 4:28:06Speaker 1: liberty of interpreting and glossing upon it their pleasure. Whether
- 4:28:11Speaker 1: they had ever, at different times pleaded for and against
- 4:28:15Speaker 1: the same cause, and cited precedents to prove contrary opinions,
- 4:28:22Speaker 1: whether they were rich or a poor corporation, whether they
- 4:28:26Speaker 1: received any pycuniary reward for pleading or delivering their opinions,
- 4:28:32Speaker 1: and particularly whether they were ever admitted as members in
- 4:28:35Speaker 1: the Lower Senate. He fell next upon the management of
- 4:28:39Speaker 1: our treasury, and said he thought my memory had failed me,
- 4:28:43Speaker 1: because I computed our taxes at about five or six
- 4:28:46Speaker 1: million a year, and when I came to mention the issues,
- 4:28:50Speaker 1: he found they sometimes amounted to more than double. For
- 4:28:54Speaker 1: the notes he had taken. Were very particular in this point,
- 4:28:57Speaker 1: because he hoped, as he told me, that the knowledge
- 4:29:00Speaker 1: of our conduct might be useful to him, and he
- 4:29:04Speaker 1: couldnot be deceived in his calculations. But if what I
- 4:29:08Speaker 1: told him were true, he was still at a loss
- 4:29:11Speaker 1: how a kingdom could run out of its estate like
- 4:29:14Speaker 1: a private person. He asked me who were our creditors,
- 4:29:19Speaker 1: and where we found money to pay them. He wandered
- 4:29:23Speaker 1: to hear me talk of such chargeable and expensive wars,
- 4:29:28Speaker 1: that certainly we must be a quarrelsome people, all of
- 4:29:31Speaker 1: among very bad neighbors, and that our generals must needs
- 4:29:35Speaker 1: be richer than our kings, He asked what business we
- 4:29:40Speaker 1: had out of our own islands, unless upon the score
- 4:29:43Speaker 1: of trade or treaty, or to defend the coasts with
- 4:29:47Speaker 1: our fleet. Above all, he was amazed to hear me
- 4:29:51Speaker 1: talk of a mercenary standing army in the midst of
- 4:29:54Speaker 1: peace and among a free people. He said, if we
- 4:29:59Speaker 1: were going, and by our own consent in the persons
- 4:30:01Speaker 1: of our representatives, he could not imagine of whom we
- 4:30:05Speaker 1: were afraid, or against whom we were to fight. And
- 4:30:09Speaker 1: would hear my opinion whether a private man's house might
- 4:30:13Speaker 1: not be better defended by himself, his children, and his
- 4:30:16Speaker 1: family than by half a dozen rascals picked up at
- 4:30:20Speaker 1: a venture in the streets for small wages, who might
- 4:30:23Speaker 1: get a hundred times more by cutting their throats.
- 4:30:27Speaker 2: He laughed at my odd kind.
- 4:30:29Speaker 1: Of arithmetic, as he was pleased to call it, In
- 4:30:32Speaker 1: reckoning the numbers of our people by a computation drawn
- 4:30:35Speaker 1: from the several sects among us in religion and politics,
- 4:30:40Speaker 1: he said, he knew no reason why those who entertain
- 4:30:44Speaker 1: opinions pudicial to the public should be obliged to change,
- 4:30:49Speaker 1: or should not be obliged to conceal them. And as
- 4:30:53Speaker 1: It was tyranny in any government to require the first,
- 4:30:56Speaker 1: so it was weakness not to enforce the second. For
- 4:31:00Speaker 1: a man may be allowed to keep poisons in his closet,
- 4:31:03Speaker 1: but not to vend them about for cordials.
- 4:31:07Speaker 2: He observed that.
- 4:31:09Speaker 1: Among the divisions of our nobility and gentry I had
- 4:31:12Speaker 1: mentioned gaming. He desired to know at what aige this
- 4:31:16Speaker 1: entertainment was usually taken up, and when it was laid down,
- 4:31:21Speaker 1: how much of their time it employed, whether it ever
- 4:31:24Speaker 1: went so high as to affect their fortune, where the mean,
- 4:31:28Speaker 1: vicious people, by their dexterity in that art, might not
- 4:31:32Speaker 1: arrive at greater riches, and sometimes keep our very nobles independence,
- 4:31:38Speaker 1: as well as habituate them to vile companions, wholly take
- 4:31:42Speaker 1: them from the improvement of their minds, and force them,
- 4:31:45Speaker 1: by the losses they received, to learn and practice that
- 4:31:49Speaker 1: infamous dexterity upon others. He was perfectly astonished with the
- 4:31:54Speaker 1: historical account given him of our affairs during the last century.
- 4:32:01Speaker 1: It was only a heap of conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions, banishments,
- 4:32:07Speaker 1: the very worst effects of avarice, fiction, hypocrisy, perfidiousness, cruelty, rage, madness, hatred, envy, lust, malice,
- 4:32:18Speaker 1: and ambition could produce his majesty. In another audience, was
- 4:32:25Speaker 1: at pains to recapitulate the sum of all I had spoken,
- 4:32:29Speaker 1: compared to the questions he had made with the answers
- 4:32:32Speaker 1: I had given. Then taken me into his hands and
- 4:32:36Speaker 1: stroken me gently delivered himself in these words, which I
- 4:32:41Speaker 1: shall never forget, nor the manner he spoke them in.
- 4:32:45Speaker 1: My little friend, Guildric, you've made a most admirable panegic
- 4:32:48Speaker 1: upon your country. You've clearly proved that ignorance, idleness, and
- 4:32:53Speaker 1: vice are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislator. That
- 4:32:58Speaker 1: laws are best explained, interpreted, and applied by those whose
- 4:33:02Speaker 1: interest and abilities lie in perverting, confounding, and eluding them.
- 4:33:07Speaker 1: I observe among you some lines of an institution which
- 4:33:11Speaker 1: in its original might.
- 4:33:12Speaker 2: Have been tolerable. But these half are raised.
- 4:33:15Speaker 1: And the rest wholly blurred and blotted by corruptions. It
- 4:33:20Speaker 1: does not appear from all you have said, how any
- 4:33:23Speaker 1: one perfection is required towards the procurement of any one
- 4:33:26Speaker 1: station among you, much less that men are ennobled on
- 4:33:30Speaker 1: account of their virtue that priests are advanced for their
- 4:33:34Speaker 1: piety or learning, soldiers for their conduct or valor judges
- 4:33:39Speaker 1: for their integrity, senators for the love of their country,
- 4:33:43Speaker 1: or counselors for their wisdom. As for yourself, continued the King,
- 4:33:49Speaker 1: who have spent the greatest part of your life in traveling,
- 4:33:52Speaker 1: I am well disposed to hope you may hither have
- 4:33:54Speaker 1: escaped many vices of your country. But by what I
- 4:33:59Speaker 1: have gathered from your own read and the answers I have,
- 4:34:02Speaker 1: with much pains wrung and exhorted from you, I cannot
- 4:34:05Speaker 1: but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the
- 4:34:08Speaker 1: most pernicious race of little, odious vermin that nature ever
- 4:34:12Speaker 1: suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth. End
- 4:34:16Speaker 1: of Part two, Chapter six, Chapter seven, the author's love
- 4:34:23Speaker 1: of his country. He makes a proposal of much advantage
- 4:34:26Speaker 1: to the King, which is rejected the King's great ignorance
- 4:34:30Speaker 1: in politics, the learning of that country very imperfect and confined,
- 4:34:36Speaker 1: the laws and military affairs and parties in the state.
- 4:34:41Speaker 1: Nothing but an extreme love of truth could have hindered
- 4:34:43Speaker 1: me from concealing this part of my story. It was
- 4:34:47Speaker 1: in vain to discover my resentments which were always turned
- 4:34:51Speaker 1: into ridicule, and I was forced to rest with patience
- 4:34:55Speaker 1: while my noble and beloved country was so injuously treated.
- 4:35:00Speaker 1: I am as hardily sorry as any of my readers
- 4:35:02Speaker 1: can possibly be that such an occasion was given. But
- 4:35:07Speaker 1: this prince happened to be so curious and inquisitive upon
- 4:35:11Speaker 1: every particular that it could not consist, either with gratitude
- 4:35:15Speaker 1: or good manners to refuse giving him what satisfaction I
- 4:35:19Speaker 1: was able. Yet thus much I may be allowed to
- 4:35:24Speaker 1: say in my own vindication that I artfully eluded many
- 4:35:28Speaker 1: of his questions and gave to every point a more
- 4:35:32Speaker 1: favorable turn by many degrees. Then the strictness of truth
- 4:35:36Speaker 1: would allow. For I have always borne that laudable partiality
- 4:35:41Speaker 1: to my own country, which Dionysius Halicarnassus, with so much justice,
- 4:35:48Speaker 1: recommends to an historian. I would hide the frailties and
- 4:35:53Speaker 1: deformities of my political mother and place her virtues and
- 4:35:57Speaker 1: beauties in the most advantageous light. This was my sincere
- 4:36:02Speaker 1: endeavor in those many discourses I had with that monarch,
- 4:36:06Speaker 1: although it unfortunately failed a success. But great allowances should
- 4:36:13Speaker 1: be given to a king who lives wholly secluded from
- 4:36:16Speaker 1: the rest of the world, and must therefore be altogether
- 4:36:20Speaker 1: unacquainted with the manners and customs that most prevail in
- 4:36:24Speaker 1: other nations, the want of which knowledge will ever produce
- 4:36:29Speaker 1: many prejudices and a certain narrowness of thinking, for which
- 4:36:34Speaker 1: we and the politer countries of Europe are wholly exempt.
- 4:36:40Speaker 1: And it would be hard, indeed, if so a mode
- 4:36:43Speaker 1: of Prince's notions of virtue and vice were to be
- 4:36:47Speaker 1: offered as a standard for all mankind. To confirm what
- 4:36:51Speaker 1: I have now said, and further to show the miserable
- 4:36:54Speaker 1: effects of confined education, I shall here insert a passage
- 4:37:00Speaker 1: which will hardly obtain belief. In hopes to ingratiate myself
- 4:37:05Speaker 1: further into His Majesty's favor, I told him of an
- 4:37:09Speaker 1: invention discovered between three and four hundred years ago, to
- 4:37:13Speaker 1: make a certain powder into a heap of which the
- 4:37:17Speaker 1: smallest spark of fire falling would kindle the whole in
- 4:37:20Speaker 1: a moment, although it were as big as a mountain,
- 4:37:24Speaker 1: and make it all fly up in the air, together
- 4:37:27Speaker 1: with a noise and agitation greater than thunder. That a
- 4:37:32Speaker 1: proper quantity of this powder rammed into a hollow tube
- 4:37:35Speaker 1: of brass or iron, according to its bigness, would drive
- 4:37:40Speaker 1: a ball of iron or lead with such violence and
- 4:37:43Speaker 1: speed as nothing was able to sustain its force, that
- 4:37:48Speaker 1: the largest balls thus discharged would not only destroy whole
- 4:37:52Speaker 1: ranks of an army at once, but batter the strongest
- 4:37:55Speaker 1: walls to the ground, sink down ships with a thousand
- 4:37:59Speaker 1: men in eas each to the bottom of the sea,
- 4:38:02Speaker 1: and when linked together by a chain, would cut through
- 4:38:06Speaker 1: masts and rigging, divide hundreds of bodies in the middle,
- 4:38:11Speaker 1: and lay all waste before them. That we often put
- 4:38:15Speaker 1: this powder into large hollow bars of iron, and discharged
- 4:38:19Speaker 1: them by an engine into some city we were besieging,
- 4:38:23Speaker 1: which would rip up the pavements, tear the houses to pieces,
- 4:38:28Speaker 1: burst and throw splinters on every side, dashing out the
- 4:38:31Speaker 1: brains of all who came near. That I knew the
- 4:38:36Speaker 1: ingredients very well, which were cheap and common. I understood
- 4:38:41Speaker 1: the manner of compounding them, and could direct his workmen
- 4:38:44Speaker 1: how to make those tubes of a size proportional to
- 4:38:48Speaker 1: all other things in His Majesty's kingdom. And the largest
- 4:38:53Speaker 1: need not be above a hundred feet long, twenty or
- 4:38:56Speaker 1: thirty of which tubes charged with the proper quantity of
- 4:39:00Speaker 1: powder and bulls, would batter down the walls of the
- 4:39:03Speaker 1: strongest town in his dominions in a few hours, or
- 4:39:08Speaker 1: destroy the whole metropolis, if ever, it should pretend to
- 4:39:11Speaker 1: dispute his absolute commands. This I humbly offered to his
- 4:39:17Speaker 1: Majesty as a small tribute of acknowledgment, in turn for
- 4:39:21Speaker 1: so many marks that I had received of his royal
- 4:39:24Speaker 1: favor and protection. The King was struck with horror at
- 4:39:28Speaker 1: the description I had given of those terrible engines and
- 4:39:32Speaker 1: the proposal I had made. He was amazed, how so
- 4:39:36Speaker 1: impotent and groveling an insector's eye, these were his expressions,
- 4:39:41Speaker 1: could entertain such inhuman ideas, and in so familiar a
- 4:39:45Speaker 1: manner as to appear wholly unmoved at the scenes of
- 4:39:48Speaker 1: blood and desolation which I had painted as the common
- 4:39:52Speaker 1: effects of those destructive machines, whereof he said, some evil
- 4:39:59Speaker 1: genius enemy to mankind, must have been the first contriver.
- 4:40:05Speaker 1: As for himself, he protested that although a few things
- 4:40:09Speaker 1: delighted him so much as new discoveries in art or
- 4:40:11Speaker 1: in nature, yet he would rather lose half his kingdom
- 4:40:16Speaker 1: than be privy to such a secret, which he commanded
- 4:40:20Speaker 1: me as I valued my life, never to mention any
- 4:40:23Speaker 1: more a strange effect of narrow principles and views that
- 4:40:29Speaker 1: the Prince, possessed of air equality, which procures venetration, love
- 4:40:33Speaker 1: and esteem of strong parts, great wisdom and profound learning,
- 4:40:39Speaker 1: endowed with admirable talents, and almost adored by his subjects,
- 4:40:44Speaker 1: should from a nice, unnecessary scruple, whereof in Europe we
- 4:40:49Speaker 1: can have no conception let slip an opportunity put into
- 4:40:53Speaker 1: his hands that would have made him absolute master of
- 4:40:56Speaker 1: the lies, the liberties, and the fortunes of his people.
- 4:41:02Speaker 1: Neither do I say this with the least intention to
- 4:41:05Speaker 1: distract from the many virtues of that excellent King, whose
- 4:41:09Speaker 1: character I am sensible, will on this account be very
- 4:41:13Speaker 1: much lessened in the opinion of an English reader. But
- 4:41:17Speaker 1: I take this defect among them to have risen from
- 4:41:19Speaker 1: their ignorance by not having hither I reduced politics into
- 4:41:24Speaker 1: a science, as the more acute wits.
- 4:41:26Speaker 2: Of Europe have done.
- 4:41:29Speaker 1: For I remember very well in a discourse one day
- 4:41:33Speaker 1: with the King, when I happened to say that there
- 4:41:36Speaker 1: were several thousand books among us written upon the art
- 4:41:39Speaker 1: of government. It gave him, directly contrary to my intention,
- 4:41:44Speaker 1: a very mean opinion of our understandings. He professed both
- 4:41:50Speaker 1: to abominate and despise all mystery, refinement, and intrigue. Either
- 4:41:55Speaker 1: in a prince or a minister. He could not tell
- 4:41:58Speaker 1: what I meant by secrets of state where an enemy
- 4:42:02Speaker 1: or some rival nation were not in the case. He
- 4:42:06Speaker 1: confined the knowledge of governing within very narrow bounds, to
- 4:42:10Speaker 1: common sense and reason, to justice and lenienty, to the
- 4:42:14Speaker 1: speedy determination of civil and criminal causes, with some other
- 4:42:20Speaker 1: obvious topics which are not worth considering. And he gave
- 4:42:24Speaker 1: it for his opinion that whoever could make two ears
- 4:42:27Speaker 1: of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon
- 4:42:30Speaker 1: a spot of ground where any one grew before, would
- 4:42:33Speaker 1: deserve better of mankind and do more essential service to
- 4:42:36Speaker 1: his country than the whole race of politicians put together.
- 4:42:42Speaker 1: The learning of this people is very defective, consisting only
- 4:42:46Speaker 1: a morality, history, poetry, and mathematics, wherein they must.
- 4:42:51Speaker 2: Be allowed to excel.
- 4:42:53Speaker 1: But the last of these is wholly applied to what
- 4:42:56Speaker 1: may be useful in life, to the improvement of agriculture
- 4:43:00Speaker 1: and or mechanical arts, so that among us, it.
- 4:43:04Speaker 2: Would be little esteemed.
- 4:43:07Speaker 1: And as to ideas in treaties, abstractions and transcendentals, I
- 4:43:12Speaker 1: could never drive the least conception into their heads. No
- 4:43:17Speaker 1: law in that country must exceed, in words the number
- 4:43:21Speaker 1: of letters in their alphabet, which consists only of two
- 4:43:24Speaker 1: and twenty. But indeed few of them extend even to
- 4:43:28Speaker 1: that length. They are expressed in the most plain and
- 4:43:31Speaker 1: simple terms, wherein those people are not mercurial enough to
- 4:43:36Speaker 1: discover above one interpretation, and to write a comment upon
- 4:43:41Speaker 1: any law.
- 4:43:41Speaker 2: Is a capital crime.
- 4:43:44Speaker 1: As to the decision of civil causes or proceedings against criminals,
- 4:43:50Speaker 1: their precedents are so few that they have little reason
- 4:43:53Speaker 1: to boast of any extraordinary skill in either. They have
- 4:43:58Speaker 1: had the art of printing as well as the Chinese
- 4:44:01Speaker 1: time out of mind. But the libraries are not very large,
- 4:44:07Speaker 1: for that of the King, which is reckoned the largest
- 4:44:10Speaker 1: does not amount to above a thousand volumes placed in
- 4:44:13Speaker 1: a gallery of twelve hundred feet long. Whence they had
- 4:44:17Speaker 1: liberty to borrow what books I pleased. The Queen's joiner
- 4:44:22Speaker 1: had contrived in one of Glumdale Clitch's rooms a kind
- 4:44:25Speaker 1: of wooden machine five and twenty feet high, formed like
- 4:44:29Speaker 1: a standing ladder. The steps were each fifty feet long.
- 4:44:35Speaker 1: It was indeed a movable pair of stairs, the lowest
- 4:44:38Speaker 1: end placed at ten feet distance from the wall of
- 4:44:41Speaker 1: the chamber.
- 4:44:43Speaker 2: The book I had.
- 4:44:43Speaker 1: A mind to read was put up, leaning against the wall.
- 4:44:49Speaker 1: I first mounted to the upper step of the ladder,
- 4:44:52Speaker 1: and turning my face towards the book, began at the
- 4:44:55Speaker 1: top of the page, and so walking to the right
- 4:44:59Speaker 1: and left about eight or ten paces, according to the
- 4:45:02Speaker 1: length of the lines, till I had gotten a little
- 4:45:05Speaker 1: below the level of mine eyes, and then ascended gradually
- 4:45:09Speaker 1: till I came to the bottom, after which I mounted
- 4:45:12Speaker 1: again and began the other page in the same manner,
- 4:45:17Speaker 1: and so turned over the leaf, which I could easily
- 4:45:20Speaker 1: do with both my hands, for it was as thick
- 4:45:23Speaker 1: and stiff as a pasteboard, and in the largest folios
- 4:45:27Speaker 1: not above eighteen or twenty feet long. Their style is clear, masculine,
- 4:45:33Speaker 1: and smooth, but not florid, for they avoid nothing more
- 4:45:37Speaker 1: than modiplying unnecessary words or using various expressions.
- 4:45:43Speaker 2: I have perused many.
- 4:45:44Speaker 1: Of their books, especially those in history and morality. Among
- 4:45:50Speaker 1: the rest, I was much diverted with a little old treatise,
- 4:45:54Speaker 1: which always lay in Glumduklitch's bedchamber and belonged to her governess,
- 4:46:00Speaker 1: grave elderly gentlewoman who dwelt in writings of morality and devotion.
- 4:46:06Speaker 1: The book treats of the weakness of humankind, and is
- 4:46:10Speaker 1: in little esteem except among the women.
- 4:46:13Speaker 2: And the vulgar.
- 4:46:15Speaker 1: However, I was curious to see what an author of
- 4:46:18Speaker 1: that country could say upon such a subject. This writer
- 4:46:23Speaker 1: went through all the usual topics of European moralists, showing hajaminutive, contemptible,
- 4:46:30Speaker 1: and helpless an animal was man in his own nature,
- 4:46:34Speaker 1: how unable to defend himself from inclemencies of the air
- 4:46:38Speaker 1: or the fury of wild beasts. How he was much
- 4:46:41Speaker 1: excelled by one creature in strength, by another in speed,
- 4:46:46Speaker 1: by a third in foresight, by a fourth in industry.
- 4:46:51Speaker 1: He added that nature was degenerated in these latter declining
- 4:46:55Speaker 1: ages of the world, and could now produce only small,
- 4:46:58Speaker 1: abortive births in comparison of those in ancient times. He said,
- 4:47:06Speaker 1: it was very reasonable to think not only that the
- 4:47:08Speaker 1: species of men were originally much larger, but also that
- 4:47:12Speaker 1: there must have been giants in former ages.
- 4:47:15Speaker 2: Which as it is asserted.
- 4:47:17Speaker 1: By history and tradition. So it has been confirmed by
- 4:47:21Speaker 1: huge bones and skulls casually dug up in several parts
- 4:47:25Speaker 1: of the Kingdom, far exceeding the common dwindled race of
- 4:47:29Speaker 1: men in our days.
- 4:47:33Speaker 2: He argued that the very.
- 4:47:35Speaker 1: Laws of nature absolutely required we should have been made
- 4:47:40Speaker 1: in the beginning of a size more large and robust,
- 4:47:43Speaker 1: not so liable to destruction from every little corner, or
- 4:47:47Speaker 1: of a tile falling from a house, or a stone
- 4:47:50Speaker 1: cast from the hand of a boy, or being drowned
- 4:47:53Speaker 1: in a little brook. From this way of reasoning, the
- 4:47:58Speaker 1: author drew several moral applications useful in the conduct of life,
- 4:48:03Speaker 1: but needless here to repeat for my own part. I
- 4:48:07Speaker 1: could not avoid reflecting how universally this talent was spread,
- 4:48:12Speaker 1: of drawing lectures immorality, or indeed rather matter of discontent
- 4:48:16Speaker 1: and repining, from the quarrels we raise with nature. And
- 4:48:22Speaker 1: I believe, upon a strict inquiry, those quarrels might be
- 4:48:26Speaker 1: shown as ill grounded among us as they are among
- 4:48:30Speaker 1: that people. As to their military affairs, they boast that
- 4:48:35Speaker 1: the King's army consists of one hundred and seventy six
- 4:48:38Speaker 1: thousand foot and thirty two thousand horse, if that may
- 4:48:43Speaker 1: be called an army which is made up of tradesmen
- 4:48:46Speaker 1: in the several cities, and farmers in the country, whose
- 4:48:50Speaker 1: commanders are only the nobility and gentry, without pay or reward.
- 4:48:56Speaker 1: They are indeed perfect enough in their exercises, and a
- 4:49:00Speaker 1: very good discipline, wherein I saw no great merit, For
- 4:49:05Speaker 1: how should it be otherwise, where every farmer is under
- 4:49:08Speaker 1: the command of his own landlord, and every citizen under
- 4:49:11Speaker 1: that of the principal men in his own city, chosen
- 4:49:15Speaker 1: after the manner of venice by ballot. I have often
- 4:49:19Speaker 1: seen the militia of Loberal Grud drawn out to exercise
- 4:49:24Speaker 1: in a great field near the city of twenty miles square.
- 4:49:29Speaker 1: They were in all not above twenty five thousand foot
- 4:49:32Speaker 1: and six thousand horse, but it was impossible for me
- 4:49:37Speaker 1: to compute their number, considering the space of ground they
- 4:49:41Speaker 1: took up. A cavalier mounted on a large steed might
- 4:49:46Speaker 1: be about ninety feet high. I have seen this whole
- 4:49:51Speaker 1: body of horse, upon a word of command, draw their
- 4:49:55Speaker 1: swords at once and brandish them in the air. Imagination
- 4:49:59Speaker 1: can figure nothing things so grand, so surprising, and so astonishing.
- 4:50:04Speaker 1: It looked as if ten thousand flashes of lightning were
- 4:50:07Speaker 1: darting at the same time from every quarter of the sky.
- 4:50:11Speaker 1: I was curious to know how this prince, to whose
- 4:50:14Speaker 1: dominions there is no access from any other country, came
- 4:50:18Speaker 1: to think of armies or to teach his people the
- 4:50:21Speaker 1: practice of military discipline. But I was soon informed, both
- 4:50:26Speaker 1: by conversation and reading their histories, for in the course
- 4:50:30Speaker 1: of many ages they had been troubled with the same
- 4:50:33Speaker 1: disease to which the whole race of mankind is subject,
- 4:50:38Speaker 1: the nobility often contending for power, the people for liberty,
- 4:50:42Speaker 1: and to the king for absolute dominion, all which, however
- 4:50:48Speaker 1: happily tempered by the laws of that kingdom, have been
- 4:50:51Speaker 1: sometimes violated by each of the three parties, and have
- 4:50:56Speaker 1: more than once occasioned civil wars, the last whereof was
- 4:51:02Speaker 1: happily put an end to by this Prince's grandfather in
- 4:51:06Speaker 1: a general composition, and the militia, then settled with common consent,
- 4:51:12Speaker 1: has been ever since kept in the strictest duty. End
- 4:51:16Speaker 1: of Part two, Chapter seven, Chapter eight, the King and
- 4:51:23Speaker 1: Queen make a progress to the frontiers. The author attends
- 4:51:27Speaker 1: them the manner in which he leaves the country very
- 4:51:30Speaker 1: particularly related he returns to England. I had always a
- 4:51:37Speaker 1: strong impulse that I should sometime recover my liberty, though
- 4:51:42Speaker 1: it was impossible to conjecture by what means, or to
- 4:51:45Speaker 1: form any project with the least hope of succeeding. The
- 4:51:49Speaker 1: ship in which I sailed was the first ever known
- 4:51:52Speaker 1: to be driven within sight of that coast, and the
- 4:51:56Speaker 1: king had given strict orders that if at any time
- 4:52:00Speaker 1: another appeared, it should be taken ashore, and with all
- 4:52:03Speaker 1: its crew and passengers brought in Tumbril to lauberal grud.
- 4:52:10Speaker 1: He was strongly bent to get me a woman of
- 4:52:12Speaker 1: my own size, by whom I might propagate the breed.
- 4:52:17Speaker 1: But I think I should rather have died than undergone
- 4:52:19Speaker 1: the disgrace of leaving a posterity to be kept in
- 4:52:23Speaker 1: cages like tame canary birds, and perhaps in time sold
- 4:52:29Speaker 1: about the kingdom to persons of quality for curiosities. I
- 4:52:36Speaker 1: was indeed treated with much kindness. I was the favorite
- 4:52:39Speaker 1: of a great king and Queen, and the delight of
- 4:52:42Speaker 1: the whole court. But it was upon such a foot
- 4:52:45Speaker 1: as ill became the dignity of human kind. I could
- 4:52:50Speaker 1: never forget those domestic pledges I had left behind me.
- 4:52:54Speaker 1: I wanted to be among people with whom I could
- 4:52:57Speaker 1: converse upon even terms, and to walk about the streets
- 4:53:01Speaker 1: and fields without being afraid of being trod to death
- 4:53:05Speaker 1: like a frog or a young puppy. But my deliverance
- 4:53:09Speaker 1: came sooner than I expected, and in a manner not
- 4:53:13Speaker 1: very common. The whole story and circumstances of which I
- 4:53:17Speaker 1: shall faithfully relate. I had now been two years in
- 4:53:22Speaker 1: this country, and about the beginning of the third glum
- 4:53:27Speaker 1: Ducklitch and I attended the King and Queen in a
- 4:53:30Speaker 1: progress to the south coast of the Kingdom. I was
- 4:53:34Speaker 1: carried as usual in my traveling box, which, as I
- 4:53:38Speaker 1: have already described, was a very convenient closet of twelve
- 4:53:41Speaker 1: feet wide, and I had ordered a hammock to be
- 4:53:45Speaker 1: fixed by silken ropes from the four corners at the
- 4:53:49Speaker 1: top to break the jolts when a servant carried me
- 4:53:52Speaker 1: before him on horseback. As I sometimes desired, and would
- 4:53:57Speaker 1: often sleep in my hammock while we were upon the road.
- 4:54:02Speaker 1: On the roof of my closet, not directly over the
- 4:54:05Speaker 1: middle of the hammock. I ordered the joiner to cut
- 4:54:08Speaker 1: out a hole of a foot square to give me
- 4:54:11Speaker 1: air in hot weather as I slept, which hole I
- 4:54:15Speaker 1: shut at pleasure with a board that drew backward and
- 4:54:19Speaker 1: forward through a groove. When we came to our journey's end,
- 4:54:23Speaker 1: the king thought proper to pass a few days at
- 4:54:26Speaker 1: a palace he has near fan Flassnik, a city within
- 4:54:31Speaker 1: eighteen English miles of the seaside. Glumdalklitch and I were
- 4:54:36Speaker 1: much fatigued. I had gotten a small cold, but the
- 4:54:40Speaker 1: poor girl was so ill as to be confined to
- 4:54:42Speaker 1: her chamber. I longed to see the ocean, which must
- 4:54:48Speaker 1: be the only scene of my escape, if ever it
- 4:54:50Speaker 1: should happen. I pretended to be worse than I really was,
- 4:54:55Speaker 1: and as I had leave to take the fresh air
- 4:54:57Speaker 1: off the sea with a page whom I was very
- 4:55:00Speaker 1: fond of, and who had sometimes been trusted with me.
- 4:55:05Speaker 1: I shall never forget with what unwillingless Glandalklitch consented, nor
- 4:55:11Speaker 1: the strict charge she gave the page to be careful
- 4:55:13Speaker 1: of me. Bursting at the same time into a flood
- 4:55:17Speaker 1: of tears, as if she had some foreboding of what
- 4:55:20Speaker 1: was to happen. The boy took me out in my
- 4:55:24Speaker 1: box about half an hour's walk from the palace towards
- 4:55:29Speaker 1: the rocky sea shore. I ordered him to set me down, and,
- 4:55:33Speaker 1: lifting up one of my sashes, cast many a wistful,
- 4:55:37Speaker 1: melancholy look towards the sea. I found myself not very
- 4:55:42Speaker 1: well and told the page that I had a mind
- 4:55:45Speaker 1: to take a nap in my hammock, which I hoped
- 4:55:48Speaker 1: would do me some good. I got in, and the
- 4:55:52Speaker 1: boy shut the window close down to keep out the cold.
- 4:55:58Speaker 1: I soon fell asleep, and all I can conjecture is
- 4:56:02Speaker 1: while I slept, the page, thinking no danger could happen,
- 4:56:07Speaker 1: went among the rocks to look for birds eggs, having
- 4:56:10Speaker 1: before observed him from my window, searching about and picking
- 4:56:15Speaker 1: up one or two in the clefts.
- 4:56:18Speaker 2: Be that as it will.
- 4:56:20Speaker 1: I found myself suddenly awaked with a violent pull upon
- 4:56:23Speaker 1: the ring which was fastened at the top of my
- 4:56:25Speaker 1: box for the conveniency of carriage. I felt my box
- 4:56:30Speaker 1: rise very high in the air, and then borne forward
- 4:56:33Speaker 1: with prodigious speed. The first jolt had liked to have
- 4:56:38Speaker 1: shaken me out of my hammock, but afterwards the motion
- 4:56:42Speaker 1: was easy enough. I called out several times as loud
- 4:56:47Speaker 1: as I could raise my voice, but all to no purpose.
- 4:56:51Speaker 1: I looked towards my windows and could see nothing but
- 4:56:54Speaker 1: the clouds and sky. I heard an noise just over
- 4:56:59Speaker 1: my head, like the clapping of wings, and then began
- 4:57:03Speaker 1: to perceive the woeful condition I was in that some
- 4:57:07Speaker 1: eagle had got the ring of my box in his beak,
- 4:57:11Speaker 1: with an intent to let it fall on a rock
- 4:57:13Speaker 1: like a tortoise in a shell, and then pick out
- 4:57:16Speaker 1: my body and devour it. For the sagacity and smell
- 4:57:21Speaker 1: of this bird enables him to discover his quarry at
- 4:57:24Speaker 1: a great distance, though better concealed than I could be
- 4:57:28Speaker 1: within a two inch board. In a little time, I
- 4:57:32Speaker 1: observed the noise and flutter of wings to increase very fast,
- 4:57:36Speaker 1: and my box was tossed up and down like a
- 4:57:39Speaker 1: sign in a windy day. I heard several bangs or buffets,
- 4:57:44Speaker 1: as I thought given to the eagle, for such I
- 4:57:47Speaker 1: am certain it must have been that held the ring
- 4:57:49Speaker 1: of my box in his beak. And then all on
- 4:57:53Speaker 1: a sudden, felt myself falling perpendicularly down for above a minute,
- 4:57:59Speaker 1: but with such incredible swiftness that I almost lost my breath.
- 4:58:04Speaker 1: My fall was stopped by a terrible squash that sounded
- 4:58:08Speaker 1: louder to my ears than the Cataract of Niagara, after
- 4:58:13Speaker 1: which I was quite in the dark for another minute,
- 4:58:16Speaker 1: and then my box began to rise so high that
- 4:58:20Speaker 1: I could see light from the tops of the windows.
- 4:58:23Speaker 1: I now perceived I was fallen into the sea. My box,
- 4:58:28Speaker 1: being the weight of my body, the goods that were
- 4:58:30Speaker 1: in it, and the broad plates of iron fixed for
- 4:58:33Speaker 1: strength at the four corners of the top and the bottom,
- 4:58:36Speaker 1: floated about five feet deep in water. I did then,
- 4:58:42Speaker 1: and do now, suppose that the eagle which flew away
- 4:58:46Speaker 1: with my box, was pursued by two or three others
- 4:58:50Speaker 1: and forced to let me drop while he defended himself
- 4:58:54Speaker 1: against the rest who hoped to share in the prey.
- 4:59:00Speaker 1: The plates of iron fastened at the bottom of the box,
- 4:59:03Speaker 1: for those were the strongest, preserved the balance while it fell,
- 4:59:08Speaker 1: and hindered it from being broken.
- 4:59:10Speaker 2: On the surface of the water.
- 4:59:12Speaker 1: Every joint of it was well grooved, and the door
- 4:59:15Speaker 1: did not move on hinges, but up and down like
- 4:59:18Speaker 1: a sash, which kept my closet so tight that very
- 4:59:22Speaker 1: little water came in. I got with much difficulty out
- 4:59:27Speaker 1: of my hammock having first ventured to draw back the
- 4:59:30Speaker 1: slip board on the roof already mentioned, contrived on purpose
- 4:59:34Speaker 1: to let erin, for want of which I found myself
- 4:59:38Speaker 1: almost stifled. How often did I then wish myself with
- 4:59:43Speaker 1: my dear glumdalklitch, for whom one single hour had so
- 4:59:48Speaker 1: far divided me. And I may say with truth that
- 4:59:53Speaker 1: in the midst of my own misfortunes, I could not
- 4:59:56Speaker 1: forbear lamenting my poor nurse the grief she would suffer
- 5:00:00Speaker 1: my loss, the displeasure of the queen, and to the
- 5:00:03Speaker 1: ruin of her fortune. Perhaps many travelers have not been
- 5:00:08Speaker 1: under greater difficulties and distress than I was at this juncture,
- 5:00:13Speaker 1: expecting every moment to see my box dashed to pieces,
- 5:00:18Speaker 1: or at least overset by the first violent blast or
- 5:00:21Speaker 1: rising wave. A breach in one single pane of glass
- 5:00:27Speaker 1: would have been immediate death. Nor could anything have preserved
- 5:00:32Speaker 1: the windows but the strong lattice wires placed on the
- 5:00:35Speaker 1: outside against accidents. In traveling, I saw the water ooze
- 5:00:41Speaker 1: in at several crannies. Although the leaks were not considerable,
- 5:00:46Speaker 1: and I endeavored to stop them as well as I could,
- 5:00:50Speaker 1: I was not able to lift up the roof of
- 5:00:52Speaker 1: my closet, which otherwise I certainly should have done, and
- 5:00:56Speaker 1: sat on top of it. Where am I at preserve
- 5:01:00Speaker 1: myself some hours longer then by being shut up, as
- 5:01:04Speaker 1: I may call it, in the hold. Or if I
- 5:01:09Speaker 1: escaped these dangers for a day or two, what could
- 5:01:12Speaker 1: I expect but a miserable death of cold and hunger.
- 5:01:17Speaker 1: I was four hours under these circumstances, expecting and indeed
- 5:01:21Speaker 1: wishing every moment to be my last. I have already
- 5:01:27Speaker 1: told the reader that there were two strong saples fixed
- 5:01:31Speaker 1: upon that side of my box, which had no window,
- 5:01:34Speaker 1: and into which the servant who used to carry me
- 5:01:37Speaker 1: on horseback would put a leaven belt and buckle it
- 5:01:40Speaker 1: about his waist. Being in this disconsolate state, I heard,
- 5:01:46Speaker 1: or at least thought I heard, some kind of grating
- 5:01:50Speaker 1: noise on that side of my box where the staples
- 5:01:52Speaker 1: were fixed, And soon after I began to fancy that
- 5:01:57Speaker 1: the box was pulled or towed along the sea. For
- 5:02:02Speaker 1: I now and then felt a sort of tugging which
- 5:02:05Speaker 1: made the ways rise near the tops of my windows,
- 5:02:08Speaker 1: leaving me almost in the dark. This gave me some
- 5:02:13Speaker 1: faint hopes of relief, although I was not able to
- 5:02:16Speaker 1: imagine how it could be brought about. I ventured to
- 5:02:21Speaker 1: unscrew one of my chairs, which were always fastened to
- 5:02:24Speaker 1: the floor, and having made a hard shift, to screw
- 5:02:27Speaker 1: it down again directly under the slipping border that I
- 5:02:30Speaker 1: had lately opened. I mounted on the chair, and, putting
- 5:02:34Speaker 1: my mouth as near as I could to the hole,
- 5:02:37Speaker 1: I cried for help in a loud voice and in
- 5:02:40Speaker 1: all the languages I understood. I then fastened my handkerchief
- 5:02:46Speaker 1: to a stick I usually carried, and, thrusting it up
- 5:02:49Speaker 1: the hole, waved it several times in the air, that
- 5:02:53Speaker 1: if any boat or ship were near, the seaman might
- 5:02:56Speaker 1: conjecture some unhappy mortal to be shut up in the box.
- 5:03:02Speaker 1: I found no effect from all I could do, but
- 5:03:06Speaker 1: plainly perceived my closet to be moved along, and, in
- 5:03:09Speaker 1: the space of an hour or better, that side of
- 5:03:12Speaker 1: the box, where the staples were and had no windows,
- 5:03:16Speaker 1: struck against something that was hard.
- 5:03:20Speaker 2: I apprehended it.
- 5:03:21Speaker 1: To be a rock, and found myself tossed more than ever.
- 5:03:25Speaker 1: I plainly heard a noise upon the cover of my
- 5:03:27Speaker 1: closet like that of a cable, and the grating of
- 5:03:31Speaker 1: it as it passed through the ring. I then found
- 5:03:36Speaker 1: myself hoisted up by degrees at least three feet higher
- 5:03:40Speaker 1: than I was before, whereupon I again thrust up my
- 5:03:44Speaker 1: stick and handkerchief, calling for help while I was almost hoarse,
- 5:03:50Speaker 1: in return to which I heard a great shout repeated
- 5:03:54Speaker 1: three times, giving me such transports of joy as are
- 5:03:58Speaker 1: not to be conceived but by those who feel them.
- 5:04:02Speaker 1: I now heard a trampling over my head, and somebody
- 5:04:06Speaker 1: calling through the hole with a loud voice in the
- 5:04:09Speaker 1: English tongue, if there be anybody below, let them speak,
- 5:04:14Speaker 1: I answered, I was an Englishman, drawn by ill fortune
- 5:04:18Speaker 1: into the greatest calamity that any creature underwent, and begged
- 5:04:22Speaker 1: by all that was moving to be delivered out of this.
- 5:04:25Speaker 2: Dungeon I was in.
- 5:04:28Speaker 1: The voice replied I was safe, for my box was
- 5:04:32Speaker 1: fastened to their ship, and the carpenter should immediately come.
- 5:04:35Speaker 1: And saw a hole in the cover large enough to
- 5:04:38Speaker 1: pull me out. I answered that was needless and would
- 5:04:42Speaker 1: take up too much time, for there was no more
- 5:04:45Speaker 1: to be done. For there was no more to be
- 5:04:48Speaker 1: done but let one of the crew put his finger
- 5:04:50Speaker 1: into the ring and take the box out of the
- 5:04:53Speaker 1: sea into the ship. And sew into the captain's cabin.
- 5:04:58Speaker 1: Some of them, upon hearing me talk so wildly, thought
- 5:05:02Speaker 1: I was mad. Others laughed, For indeed, it never came
- 5:05:07Speaker 1: into my head that I was now got among people
- 5:05:09Speaker 1: of my own stature and strength. The carpenter came and
- 5:05:15Speaker 1: in a few minutes sawed a passage about four feet square,
- 5:05:19Speaker 1: then let down a small ladder upon which I mounted,
- 5:05:22Speaker 1: and thence was taken into the ship in a very
- 5:05:25Speaker 1: weak condition. The sailors were all in amazement and asked
- 5:05:30Speaker 1: me a thousand questions, which I had no inclination to answer.
- 5:05:36Speaker 1: I was equally confounded at the sight of so many pigmies,
- 5:05:40Speaker 1: for such I took them to be, after having so
- 5:05:43Speaker 1: long accustomed mine eyes to the monstrous objects I had left.
- 5:05:48Speaker 1: But the captain, mister Thomas Wilcox, an honest, worthy Shopshire man,
- 5:05:54Speaker 1: observing I was ready to faint, took me into his cabin,
- 5:05:58Speaker 1: gave me a cordial to comfort me, and made me
- 5:06:02Speaker 1: turn in upon his own bed, advising me to take
- 5:06:05Speaker 1: a little rest, of which I had great need, before
- 5:06:10Speaker 1: I went to sleep. I gave him to understand that
- 5:06:13Speaker 1: I had some valuable furniture in my box too good
- 5:06:17Speaker 1: to be lost, a fine hammock, a handsome field bed,
- 5:06:22Speaker 1: two chairs, a table, and a cabinet. That my closet
- 5:06:26Speaker 1: was hung on all sides, or rather quilted with silk
- 5:06:29Speaker 1: and cotton. That if he would let one of the
- 5:06:32Speaker 1: crew bring my closet into his cabin I would open
- 5:06:35Speaker 1: it there before him and show him my goods. The captain,
- 5:06:41Speaker 1: hearing me utter these absurdities, concluded I was raving. However,
- 5:06:47Speaker 1: I supposed to pacify me. He promised to give order
- 5:06:51Speaker 1: as I desired, and, going upon deck, sent some of
- 5:06:55Speaker 1: his men down into my closet, whence, as I afterwards found,
- 5:07:00Speaker 1: they drew up all my goods and stripped off the quilting.
- 5:07:03Speaker 2: But the chairs, cabinet and.
- 5:07:05Speaker 1: Bedstand, being screwed to the floor, were much damaged by
- 5:07:09Speaker 1: the ignorance of the seamen, who tore them up by force.
- 5:07:14Speaker 1: Then they knocked off some of the boards for the
- 5:07:15Speaker 1: use of the ship, And when they had got all
- 5:07:18Speaker 1: they had mined for, let the whole drop into the sea, which,
- 5:07:23Speaker 1: by reason of many breeches made in the bottom and sides,
- 5:07:27Speaker 1: sunk to rights. And indeed, I was glad not to
- 5:07:33Speaker 1: have been a spectator of the havoc they made, because
- 5:07:36Speaker 1: I am confident it would have sensibly touched me by
- 5:07:39Speaker 1: bringing former passages into my mind.
- 5:07:42Speaker 2: Which I would rather have forgot.
- 5:07:48Speaker 1: I slept some hours, but perpetilly deserved with dreams of
- 5:07:52Speaker 1: the place I had left and the dangers I had escaped. However,
- 5:07:58Speaker 1: upon waking I found and myself much recovered. It was
- 5:08:03Speaker 1: now about eight o'clock at night, and the captain ordered supper, immediately,
- 5:08:08Speaker 1: thinking I had already fasted too long. He entertained me
- 5:08:12Speaker 1: with great kindness, observing me not to look wildly or
- 5:08:17Speaker 1: talking consistently, And when we were left alone, desired I
- 5:08:22Speaker 1: would give him a relation of my travels, and by
- 5:08:25Speaker 1: what accident I came to be set adrift in that
- 5:08:28Speaker 1: monstrous wooden chest. He said that about twelve o'clock at noon,
- 5:08:35Speaker 1: as he was looking through his glass, he spied it
- 5:08:37Speaker 1: at a distance, and thought it was the sail which
- 5:08:41Speaker 1: he had a mind to make, being not much out
- 5:08:44Speaker 1: of his course in hopes of buying some biscuit, his
- 5:08:47Speaker 1: own beginning to fall short.
- 5:08:51Speaker 2: That upon coming.
- 5:08:53Speaker 1: Nearer and finding his error, he sent out his long
- 5:08:56Speaker 1: boat to discover what it was that his men came
- 5:09:00Speaker 1: back in a fright, swearing they had seen a swimming house.
- 5:09:05Speaker 2: That he laughed at their.
- 5:09:06Speaker 1: Folly and went himself in the boat, ordering his men
- 5:09:10Speaker 1: to take a strong cable along with them, that the
- 5:09:13Speaker 1: weather being calm, He rode round me several times, observing
- 5:09:18Speaker 1: my windows and wire lattices that defended them. That he
- 5:09:23Speaker 1: discovered two staples upon one side, which was of all
- 5:09:26Speaker 1: boards without any passage for light. He then commanded his
- 5:09:32Speaker 1: men to row up to that side, and fastening a
- 5:09:35Speaker 1: cable to one of the staples, ordered them to tow
- 5:09:38Speaker 1: my chest as they caused it towards the ship. When
- 5:09:43Speaker 1: it was there, he gave directions to fasten another cable
- 5:09:46Speaker 1: to the ring fixed in the cover, and to raise
- 5:09:50Speaker 1: up my chest with pulleys, which all the sailors were
- 5:09:53Speaker 1: not able to do above three or four feet. He
- 5:09:57Speaker 1: said they saw my stick and handkerchief thro out of
- 5:10:00Speaker 1: the hole, and concluded that some unhappy man must be.
- 5:10:04Speaker 2: Shut up in the cavity.
- 5:10:07Speaker 1: I asked whether he or the crew had seen any
- 5:10:10Speaker 1: pritigious birds in the air about the time he first
- 5:10:13Speaker 1: discovered me, to which he answered that discoursing this matter
- 5:10:18Speaker 1: with the sailors while.
- 5:10:19Speaker 2: I was asleep.
- 5:10:20Speaker 1: One of them said he had observed three eagles flying
- 5:10:24Speaker 1: towards the north, but remarked nothing of their being larger
- 5:10:28Speaker 1: than the usual size, which I suppose must be imputed
- 5:10:32Speaker 1: to the great heights they were at, and he could
- 5:10:35Speaker 1: not guess the reason of mine question. I then asked
- 5:10:39Speaker 1: the captain how far he reckoned we might be from land.
- 5:10:43Speaker 1: He said, by the best computation he could make, we
- 5:10:46Speaker 1: were at least a hundred leagues. I assured him that
- 5:10:51Speaker 1: he must be mistaken by almost half, for I had
- 5:10:54Speaker 1: not left the country whence I had come above two
- 5:10:57Speaker 1: hours before I dropped into the sea. Whereupon he began
- 5:11:02Speaker 1: again to think that my brain was disturbed, of which
- 5:11:06Speaker 1: he gave me a hint, and advised me to go
- 5:11:08Speaker 1: to bed in a cabin he had provided. I assured
- 5:11:12Speaker 1: him I was well refreshed with his good entertainment and company,
- 5:11:17Speaker 1: and as much in my sense as ever I was
- 5:11:19Speaker 1: in my life. He then grew serious and desired to
- 5:11:24Speaker 1: ask me freely whether I were not troubled in my
- 5:11:28Speaker 1: mind by the consciousness of some enormous crime for which
- 5:11:32Speaker 1: I was punished, as the command of some prince by
- 5:11:36Speaker 1: exposing me in that chest, as great criminals in other countries,
- 5:11:40Speaker 1: having forced to see in a leaky vessel without provisions.
- 5:11:46Speaker 1: For although he should be sorry to have taken so
- 5:11:48Speaker 1: ill a man into his ship, yet he would engage
- 5:11:52Speaker 1: his word to set me safe ashore in the first
- 5:11:55Speaker 1: port where we arrived. He added that his suspicion were
- 5:12:00Speaker 1: much increased by some very absurd speeches I had delivered,
- 5:12:03Speaker 1: at first to his sailors and afterwards to himself, in
- 5:12:08Speaker 1: relation to my closet or chest, as well as by
- 5:12:11Speaker 1: my odd looks and behavior. While I was at supper,
- 5:12:16Speaker 1: I begged his patience to hear me tell my story,
- 5:12:19Speaker 1: which I faithfully did from the last time I left
- 5:12:22Speaker 1: England to the moment he first discovered me. And as
- 5:12:27Speaker 1: truth always forces its way into rational minds, so this honest,
- 5:12:32Speaker 1: worthy gentleman, who had some tincerature of learning and very
- 5:12:36Speaker 1: good sense, was immediately convinced with my candor and veracity.
- 5:12:41Speaker 1: But further to confirm all I had said, I entreated
- 5:12:46Speaker 1: him to give order that my cabinet should be brought,
- 5:12:49Speaker 1: of which I had the key in my pocket, for
- 5:12:52Speaker 1: he had already informed me how the seaman disposed of
- 5:12:54Speaker 1: my closet. I opened it in his own presence and
- 5:13:00Speaker 1: owed him the small collection of rarities I made in
- 5:13:02Speaker 1: the country from which I had been so strangely delivered.
- 5:13:07Speaker 1: There was the comb I had contrived out of the
- 5:13:09Speaker 1: stumps of the King's beard, and another of the same materials,
- 5:13:14Speaker 1: but fixed into a pairing of Her Majesty's thumb nail,
- 5:13:17Speaker 1: which served.
- 5:13:18Speaker 2: For the back.
- 5:13:20Speaker 1: There was a collection of needles and pins from a
- 5:13:23Speaker 1: foot to half a yard long, four wasp stings like
- 5:13:28Speaker 1: joiner's tax, some combings of the Queen's hair, a gold ring,
- 5:13:33Speaker 1: which one day she made me a present of in
- 5:13:36Speaker 1: a most obliging manner, taken it from her little finger
- 5:13:40Speaker 1: and throwing it over my head like a collar.
- 5:13:44Speaker 2: I desired the.
- 5:13:45Speaker 1: Captain would please to accept this ring in return for
- 5:13:48Speaker 1: his civilities, which he absolutely refused. I showed him a
- 5:13:54Speaker 1: corn that I had cut off with my own hand
- 5:13:57Speaker 1: from a maid of honor's toe. It was about the
- 5:14:00Speaker 1: bigness of a Kentish pippin, and grown so hard that
- 5:14:05Speaker 1: when I returned to England, I got it hollowed into
- 5:14:08Speaker 1: a cup and set in silver. Lastly, I desired him
- 5:14:12Speaker 1: to see the breeches I had then, on which were
- 5:14:15Speaker 1: made of a mouse's skin. I could force nothing on
- 5:14:19Speaker 1: him but a footman's tooth, which I observed him to
- 5:14:23Speaker 1: examine with great curiosity, and found he had a fancy
- 5:14:26Speaker 1: for it. He received it with abundance of thanks, more
- 5:14:32Speaker 1: than such a trifle could deserve. It was drawn by
- 5:14:37Speaker 1: an unskillful surgeon in a mistake, from one of glandal
- 5:14:41Speaker 1: Klitch's men, who was afflicted with the toothache. But it
- 5:14:45Speaker 1: was as sound as any in his head. I got
- 5:14:48Speaker 1: it cleaned and put it into my cabinet. It was
- 5:14:51Speaker 1: about a foot long and four inches in diameter. The
- 5:14:56Speaker 1: Captain was well satisfied with this plain relation I had
- 5:14:59Speaker 1: given him, and said he hoped when we returned to England,
- 5:15:04Speaker 1: I would oblige the world by putting it on paper
- 5:15:07Speaker 1: and making it public. My answer was that we were
- 5:15:12Speaker 1: overstocked with books of travels, that nothing could now pass
- 5:15:16Speaker 1: which was not extraordinary. Wherein I doubted some authors less
- 5:15:20Speaker 1: consulted truth than their own vanity or interest, or the
- 5:15:25Speaker 1: diversion of ignorant readers, that my story could contain little
- 5:15:30Speaker 1: beside common events without those ornamental descriptions of strange plants, trees,
- 5:15:36Speaker 1: birds and other animals, or of the barbarous customs and
- 5:15:41Speaker 1: idolatry of savage people with which most writers abound. However,
- 5:15:47Speaker 1: I thanked him for his good opinion, and promised to
- 5:15:50Speaker 1: take the matter into my thoughts. He said he wondered
- 5:15:55Speaker 1: at one thing very much, which was to hear me
- 5:15:59Speaker 1: speak so loud, asking me whether the king or queen
- 5:16:03Speaker 1: of that country were thick of hearing. I told him
- 5:16:09Speaker 1: it was what I had been used to for above
- 5:16:11Speaker 1: two years past, and that I admired as much at
- 5:16:15Speaker 1: the voices of him and his men, who seemed to
- 5:16:18Speaker 1: me only to whisper. And yet I could hear them
- 5:16:21Speaker 1: well enough. But when I spoke in that country, it
- 5:16:27Speaker 1: was like a man talking in the streets to another
- 5:16:29Speaker 1: looking out from the top of a steeple, unless when
- 5:16:33Speaker 1: I was placed on a table or held in any
- 5:16:35Speaker 1: person's hand. I told him I had likewise observed another thing,
- 5:16:41Speaker 1: that when I first got into the ship and the
- 5:16:44Speaker 1: sailors all stood about me, I thought they were the
- 5:16:47Speaker 1: most little contemptible.
- 5:16:49Speaker 2: Creatures I had ever beheld.
- 5:16:52Speaker 1: For Indeed, while I was in that Prince's country, I
- 5:16:56Speaker 1: could never endure to look in a glass after mine
- 5:16:59Speaker 1: eyes had been accustomed to such prodigious objects, because the
- 5:17:03Speaker 1: comparison gave me so despicable a conceit of myself. The
- 5:17:09Speaker 1: Captain said that while we were at supper, he observed
- 5:17:13Speaker 1: me to look at everything with a sort of wonder,
- 5:17:16Speaker 1: and that I often seemed hardly able to contain my laughter,
- 5:17:21Speaker 1: which he knew not well how to take, but imputed
- 5:17:24Speaker 1: it to some disorder in my brain. I answered, it
- 5:17:29Speaker 1: was very true, and I wondered how I could forbear
- 5:17:33Speaker 1: when I saw his dishes off the size of a
- 5:17:35Speaker 1: silver threepence, a leg of pork hardly a mouthful, a
- 5:17:40Speaker 1: cup not so big as a nutshell. And so I
- 5:17:43Speaker 1: went on describing the rest of his household stuff and
- 5:17:47Speaker 1: provisions after the same manner. For although the Queen had
- 5:17:52Speaker 1: ordered a little equipage of all things necessary for me
- 5:17:56Speaker 1: while I was in her service, yet my tears were
- 5:18:00Speaker 1: wholly taken up with what I saw on every side
- 5:18:03Speaker 1: of me, and I winked at my own littleness, as
- 5:18:07Speaker 1: people do it their own faults. The captain understood my
- 5:18:13Speaker 1: rillery very well, and merrily replied with the old English
- 5:18:17Speaker 1: proverb that he doubted mine eyes were bigger than my belly,
- 5:18:22Speaker 1: for he did not observe my stomach so good, although
- 5:18:25Speaker 1: I had fasted all day, and continuing in his mirth,
- 5:18:31Speaker 1: protested he would have gladly given a hundred pounds to
- 5:18:35Speaker 1: have seen my closet in the eagle's bill, and afterwards
- 5:18:39Speaker 1: in its fall from so great a height into the sea,
- 5:18:42Speaker 1: which would certainly have been a most astonishing object, worthy
- 5:18:46Speaker 1: to have the description of it transmitted to future ages.
- 5:18:52Speaker 1: And the comparison of theaton was so obvious that he
- 5:18:56Speaker 1: could not forbear applying it, although I did not much
- 5:18:59Speaker 1: at my life the conceit. The captain, having been at Tonquin,
- 5:19:05Speaker 1: was in his return to England, driven northeastward to the
- 5:19:09Speaker 1: latitude of forty four degrees and longitude of one hundred
- 5:19:12Speaker 1: and forty three, but meeting a trade wind two days
- 5:19:17Speaker 1: after I came on board. We sailed southward a long time,
- 5:19:22Speaker 1: and coast in New Holland kept our course west southwest
- 5:19:27Speaker 1: and then south southwest till we doubled the Cape of
- 5:19:31Speaker 1: Good Hope. Our voyage was very prosperous, but I shall
- 5:19:36Speaker 1: not trouble the reader with the journal of it. The
- 5:19:39Speaker 1: captain called in at one or two ports and sent
- 5:19:43Speaker 1: in his longboat for provisions and fresh water. But I
- 5:19:47Speaker 1: never went out of the ship till we came into
- 5:19:49Speaker 1: the Downs, which was on the third day of June
- 5:19:53Speaker 1: seventeen o six, about nine months after my escape. I
- 5:19:59Speaker 1: offered to leave my goods in security for payment of
- 5:20:02Speaker 1: my freight, but the captain protested he would not receive
- 5:20:06Speaker 1: one farthing. We took a kind of leave of each other,
- 5:20:12Speaker 1: and I made him promise he would come to see
- 5:20:14Speaker 1: me at my house in Redriff.
- 5:20:16Speaker 2: I hired a horse and.
- 5:20:18Speaker 1: Guide for five shillings, which I borrowed off the captain.
- 5:20:23Speaker 1: As I was on the road, observing the littleness of
- 5:20:26Speaker 1: the houses, the trees, the cattle, and the people, I
- 5:20:31Speaker 1: began to think myself in Lilliput. I was afraid of
- 5:20:35Speaker 1: trampling on every traveler I met, and often called aloud
- 5:20:39Speaker 1: to have them stand out of the way.
- 5:20:42Speaker 2: So that I had liked to have gotten.
- 5:20:44Speaker 1: One or two broken heads from my impertinence. When I
- 5:20:48Speaker 1: came to my house, for which I was forced to inquire,
- 5:20:52Speaker 1: one of the servants opened the door. I bent down
- 5:20:55Speaker 1: to go in like a goose under a gate, for
- 5:20:58Speaker 1: fear of striking my head. My wife ran out to
- 5:21:03Speaker 1: embrace me, but I stooped lower than her knees, thinking
- 5:21:07Speaker 1: she could otherwise never be able to reach my mouth.
- 5:21:11Speaker 1: My daughter need to ask my blessing, but I could
- 5:21:15Speaker 1: not see her till she arose, having been so long
- 5:21:18Speaker 1: used to stand with my head and my eyes erect
- 5:21:21Speaker 1: to above sixty feet. And then I went to take
- 5:21:24Speaker 1: her up with one hand by the waist. I looked
- 5:21:28Speaker 1: down upon the servants and one or two friends were
- 5:21:31Speaker 1: in the house, as if they had been pigmies, and
- 5:21:35Speaker 1: I a giant. I told my wife she had been
- 5:21:39Speaker 1: too thrifty, for I found she had starved herself and
- 5:21:43Speaker 1: her daughter to nothing. In short, I behaved myself so
- 5:21:47Speaker 1: unaccountably that they were all of the captain's opinion when
- 5:21:51Speaker 1: he first saw me, and concluded I had lost my wits.
- 5:21:57Speaker 1: This I mention as an instance of the great power
- 5:21:59Speaker 1: of her habit and prejudice. In a little time, I
- 5:22:04Speaker 1: and my family and friends came to a right understanding,
- 5:22:09Speaker 1: but my wife protested I should never go to sea
- 5:22:12Speaker 1: any more, although my evil destiny so ordered that she
- 5:22:17Speaker 1: had not power to hinder me. As the reader may know.
- 5:22:20Speaker 1: Hereafter in the meantime, I here conclude the second part
- 5:22:25Speaker 1: of My Unfortunate Voyages. End of Part two, Chapter eight,
- 5:22:32Speaker 1: Part three A voyage to Laputer pal Nababie lugnug glob
- 5:22:38Speaker 1: dub drib and Japan. Chapter one, the author sets out
- 5:22:43Speaker 1: on his third voyage, is taken by pirates the malice
- 5:22:48Speaker 1: of a Dutchman. His arrival at an island, he is
- 5:22:52Speaker 1: received into Laputer. I had not been at home above
- 5:22:56Speaker 1: ten days when Captain William Robinson, a cornish Man commander
- 5:23:02Speaker 1: of the Hope Well, a stoutship of three hundred tons,
- 5:23:05Speaker 1: came to my house. I had formerly been surgeon of
- 5:23:10Speaker 1: another ship where he was master and a fourth part
- 5:23:13Speaker 1: owner in voyage to the Levant. He had always treated
- 5:23:17Speaker 1: me like a brother than an inferior officer, and hearing
- 5:23:21Speaker 1: of my arrival, made me a visit, as I apprehended
- 5:23:25Speaker 1: only out of friendship, for nothing passed more than what
- 5:23:29Speaker 1: is usual after long absences, but repeating his visits, often
- 5:23:34Speaker 1: expressing his joy to find me in good health, asking
- 5:23:39Speaker 1: whether I were now settled for life, adding that he
- 5:23:43Speaker 1: intended a voice to the East Indies in two months.
- 5:23:47Speaker 1: At last, he plainly invited me, though with some apologies
- 5:23:51Speaker 1: to be surgeon of the ship, that I should have
- 5:23:54Speaker 1: another surgeon under me besides our two mates, that my
- 5:23:58Speaker 1: salary should be double to the usual pain, and that,
- 5:24:02Speaker 1: having experienced my knowledge and sea affairs, to be at
- 5:24:04Speaker 1: least equal to his, he would enter into any engagement
- 5:24:08Speaker 1: to follow my advice as much as if I had
- 5:24:11Speaker 1: shared in the command. He said so many other obliging things,
- 5:24:17Speaker 1: and I knew him to be so honest a man
- 5:24:20Speaker 1: that I could not.
- 5:24:21Speaker 2: Reject this proposal, the first I.
- 5:24:24Speaker 1: Had of seeing the world, notwithstanding my past misfortunes continuing
- 5:24:30Speaker 1: as violent as ever. The only difficulty that remained was
- 5:24:35Speaker 1: to persuade my wife, whose consent, however, I at last
- 5:24:39Speaker 1: obtained by the prospect of advantage she proposed to her children.
- 5:24:46Speaker 1: We set out the fifth day of August seventeen o six,
- 5:24:50Speaker 1: and arrived at Fort Saint George the eleventh of April
- 5:24:53Speaker 1: seventeen o seven. We stayed there three weeks to refresh
- 5:24:57Speaker 1: our crew, many of whom were sick. From thence, we
- 5:25:01Speaker 1: went to Tonquin, where the captain resolved to continue some
- 5:25:05Speaker 1: time because many of the goods he intended to buy
- 5:25:08Speaker 1: were not ready. Now could he expect to be dispatched
- 5:25:12Speaker 1: in several months. Therefore, in hopes to defray some other
- 5:25:17Speaker 1: charges he must be at, he brought a sloop, loaded
- 5:25:21Speaker 1: it with several sorts of goods, worried the Tonquinese usually
- 5:25:25Speaker 1: trade to the neighboring islands, and putting fourteen men on board,
- 5:25:29Speaker 1: whereof three were of the country. He appointed me master
- 5:25:33Speaker 1: of the sloop and gave me power to traffic while
- 5:25:36Speaker 1: he transacted his affairs at Tonquin. We had not sailed
- 5:25:41Speaker 1: above three days when a great storm arising. We were
- 5:25:45Speaker 1: driven five days to the north northeast and then to
- 5:25:49Speaker 1: the east, after which we had fair weather, but still
- 5:25:53Speaker 1: with a pretty strong gale from the west. Upon the
- 5:25:56Speaker 1: tenth day we were chased by two pirates, who soon
- 5:26:00Speaker 1: overtook us. For my sloop was so deep laden that
- 5:26:04Speaker 1: she sailed very slow. Neither were we in a condition
- 5:26:07Speaker 1: to defend ourselves. We were warded about the same time
- 5:26:12Speaker 1: by both the pirates, who entered furiously at the head
- 5:26:15Speaker 1: of their men. But finding us all prostrate upon our faces.
- 5:26:20Speaker 1: For so I gave order, they poignant us with strong
- 5:26:24Speaker 1: ropes and setting guard upon us. When to search the sloop,
- 5:26:30Speaker 1: I observed among them a Dutchmen, who seemed to be
- 5:26:33Speaker 1: of some authority, though he was not commander of either ship.
- 5:26:39Speaker 1: He knew us by our countenance to be Englishmen, and,
- 5:26:42Speaker 1: jabbering to us in his own language, swore we should
- 5:26:45Speaker 1: be tied back to back and thrown into the sea.
- 5:26:50Speaker 1: I spoken Dutch tolerably well. I told him who we were,
- 5:26:55Speaker 1: and begged him, in consideration of our being Christians and
- 5:26:59Speaker 1: Protestants of neighboring countries in strict alliance, that he would
- 5:27:04Speaker 1: moved the captains to take some pity on us. This
- 5:27:09Speaker 1: inflamed his rage. He repeated his threatenings, and, turning to
- 5:27:13Speaker 1: his companions, spoke with great vehemence in the Japanese language,
- 5:27:18Speaker 1: as I suppose after news in the word Christianos. The
- 5:27:24Speaker 1: lardest of the two pirate ships was commanded by a
- 5:27:26Speaker 1: Japanese captain who spoke a little Dutch, but very imperfectly.
- 5:27:33Speaker 1: He came up to me, and, after several questions, which
- 5:27:37Speaker 1: I answered in great humility, he said we should not die.
- 5:27:43Speaker 1: I made the captain a very low bow, and then,
- 5:27:46Speaker 1: turning to the Dutchman, said I was sorry to find
- 5:27:50Speaker 1: more mercy in a heathen than in a brother Christian,
- 5:27:55Speaker 1: But I had soon reason to repent those foolish words,
- 5:27:59Speaker 1: for that militious reprobate, having often endeavored in vain to
- 5:28:04Speaker 1: persuade both the captains that I might be thrown into
- 5:28:07Speaker 1: the sea, which they would not yield to. After they promised,
- 5:28:11Speaker 1: they made me that I should not die. However, prevailed
- 5:28:15Speaker 1: so far as to have a punishment inflicted on me
- 5:28:19Speaker 1: worse in all human appearance than death itself. My men
- 5:28:25Speaker 1: were sent by equal division into both the pirate ships,
- 5:28:29Speaker 1: my sloop new manned. As to myself, it was determined
- 5:28:35Speaker 1: that I should be set adrift in a small canoe
- 5:28:37Speaker 1: with paddles under sail and four days provisions which last.
- 5:28:43Speaker 1: The Japanese captain was so kind to double out of
- 5:28:46Speaker 1: his own stores and would permit no man to search me.
- 5:28:52Speaker 1: I got down into the canoe while the Dutchmen standing
- 5:28:55Speaker 1: upon the deck loaded me with all the curses and
- 5:28:58Speaker 1: injurious terms his langue, which could afford. About an hour
- 5:29:03Speaker 1: before we saw the pirates, I had taken an observation
- 5:29:07Speaker 1: and found we were in the latitude of forty six
- 5:29:09Speaker 1: north and longitude of one hundred and eighty three. When
- 5:29:15Speaker 1: I was at some distance from the pirates. I discovered
- 5:29:18Speaker 1: by my pocket class several islands to the southeast. I
- 5:29:24Speaker 1: set up my sail, the wind being fair, with a
- 5:29:27Speaker 1: design to reach the nearest of those islands, which I
- 5:29:30Speaker 1: made a shift to do in.
- 5:29:31Speaker 2: About three hours.
- 5:29:34Speaker 1: It was all rocky, however, I got many birds, eggs,
- 5:29:39Speaker 1: and striking fire. I kindled some heath and dry seaweed,
- 5:29:43Speaker 1: by which I roasted my eggs. I ate no other supper,
- 5:29:49Speaker 1: being resolved to spare my provisions as much as I could.
- 5:29:52Speaker 1: I passed the night under the shelter of a rock,
- 5:29:55Speaker 1: stirring some heath under me, and slept pretty well. The
- 5:30:01Speaker 1: next day I sailed to another island, and thence to
- 5:30:04Speaker 1: a third and fourth, sometimes using my sail and sometimes
- 5:30:08Speaker 1: my paddles. But not to trouble the reader with a
- 5:30:13Speaker 1: particular account of my distresses, let it suffice that on
- 5:30:17Speaker 1: the fifth day I arrived at the last island at
- 5:30:20Speaker 1: my sight, which lay south southeast to the former. This
- 5:30:26Speaker 1: island was at a greater distance than I expected, and
- 5:30:30Speaker 1: I did not read it. In less than five hours.
- 5:30:33Speaker 1: I encompassed it almost round before I could find a
- 5:30:36Speaker 1: convenient place to land in, which was a small creek
- 5:30:41Speaker 1: about three times the wideness of my canoe. I found
- 5:30:45Speaker 1: the island to be all rocky, only a little intermingled
- 5:30:48Speaker 1: with tufts of grass and sweet smelling herbs. I took
- 5:30:54Speaker 1: out my small provisions, and after having refreshed myself, I
- 5:30:59Speaker 1: secured the remainder in a cave, whereof there were great numbers.
- 5:31:04Speaker 1: I gathered plenty of eggs upon the rocks, and got
- 5:31:07Speaker 1: a quantity of dry seaweed and parched grass, which I
- 5:31:11Speaker 1: designed to kindle the next day, And rosed my eggs
- 5:31:14Speaker 1: as well as I could, for I had about me
- 5:31:17Speaker 1: my flint, steel match, and burning glass. I lay all
- 5:31:23Speaker 1: night in the cave where I had lodged my provisions.
- 5:31:26Speaker 1: My bed was the same dry grass and seaweed which
- 5:31:29Speaker 1: I intended for fuel. I slept very little, for the
- 5:31:34Speaker 1: disquies of my mind prevailed over my weariness and kept
- 5:31:37Speaker 1: me awake. I considered how impossible it was to preserve
- 5:31:42Speaker 1: my life in so desolate a place, and how measurable
- 5:31:46Speaker 1: my end must be. Yet found myself so listless and
- 5:31:51Speaker 1: desponding that I had not the heart to rise. And
- 5:31:56Speaker 1: before I could get spirits enough to creep out of
- 5:31:59Speaker 1: my cave, the day was far advanced. I walked awhile
- 5:32:04Speaker 1: among the rocks. The sky was perfectly clear and the
- 5:32:08Speaker 1: sun so hot