gulliver's travels in lilliput and brobdingnag,told to the children by john lang to my friend harry my dear harry,when you are a big man, perhaps you will go out into the world, and see many strange things.i cannot promise that you will find any people so little as the lilliputians, nor any quiteso tall as those that mr. lemuel gulliver found in brobdingnag. but undoubtedly thereare yet many small folks in the world, and a few great ones. did not mr. stanley himselffind in africa a race of dwarfs so little that he called them pigmies? who knows, then,what you may discover when you are grown up?
affectionately yours, john lang part i: voyage to lilliputgulliver's birth and early voyages two hundred years ago, a great deal of theworld as we now know it was still undiscovered; there were yet very many islands, small andgreat, on which the eyes of white men had never looked, seas in which nothing biggerthan an indian canoe had ever sailed. a voyage in those days was not often a pleasantthing, for ships then were very bluff-bowed and slow-sailing, and, for a long voyage,very ill-provided with food. there were no tinned meats two hundred years ago, no luxuriesfor use even in the cabin. sailors lived chiefly on salt junk, as hard as leather, on biscuitthat was generally as much weevil as biscuit,
and the water that they drank was evil-smellingand bad when it had been long in the ship's casks.so, when a man said good-bye to his friends and sailed away into the unknown, generallyvery many years passed before he came back,—if ever he came back at all. for the dangersof the seas were then far greater than they now are, and if a ship was not wrecked somedark night on an unknown island or uncharted reef, there was always the probability ofmeeting a pirate vessel and of having to fight for life and liberty. steam has nowadays nearlydone away with pirates, except on the china coast and in a few other out of the way places.but things were different long ago, before steamers were, invented; and sailors then,when they came home, had many very surprising
things to tell their friends, many astonishingadventures to speak of, amongst the strange peoples that they said they had met in far-offlands. one man, who saw more wonderful things than any one else, was named lemuel gulliver,and i will try to tell you a little about two of his voyages.gulliver was born in nottinghamshire, and when he was only fourteen years old he wassent to emanuel college, cambridge. there he remained till he was seventeen, but hisfather had not money enough to keep him any longer at the university. so, as was thenthe custom for those who meant to become doctors, he was bound apprentice to a surgeon in london,under whom he studied for four years. but all the time, as often as his father senthim money, he spent some of it in learning
navigation (which means the art of findingyour way across the sea, far from land). he had always had a great longing to travel,and he thought that a knowledge of navigation would be of use to him if he should happento go a voyage. after leaving london, he went to germany,and there studied medicine for some years, with the view of being appointed surgeon ofa ship. and by the help of his late master in london, such a post he did get on boardthe swallow, on which vessel he made several voyages. but tiring of this, he settled inlondon, and, having married, began practice as a doctor.he did not, however, make much money at that, and so for six years he again went to seaas a surgeon, sailing both to the east and
to the west indies.again tiring of the sea, he once more settled on shore, this time at wapping, because inthat place there are always many sailors, and he hoped to make money by doctoring them.but this turned out badly, and on may 4, 1699, he sailed from bristol for the south seasas surgeon of a ship named the antelope. end of part 1, chapter 1 chapter 2gulliver sails for the south seas, and is wrecked on the coast of lilliputat first, everything went well, but after leaving the south seas, when steering forthe east indies, the ship was driven by a great storm far to the south. the gale lastedso long that twelve of the crew died from
the effects of the hard work and the bad food,and all the others were worn out and weak. on a sailing ship, when the weather is veryheavy, all hands have to be constantly on deck, and there is little rest for the men.perhaps a sail, one of the few that can still be carried in such a gale, may be blown toribbons by the furious wind, and a new one has to be bent on.the night, perhaps, is dark, the tattered canvas is thrashing with a noise like thunder,the ship burying her decks under angry black seas every few minutes. the men's hands arenumb with the cold and the wet, and the hard, dangerous work aloft. there is no chance ofgoing below when their job is done, to "turn in" between warm, dry blankets in a snug berth.possibly even those who belong to the "watch
below" may have to remain on deck. or, ifthey have the good fortune to be allowed to go below, they may no sooner have droppedoff asleep (rolled round in blankets which perhaps have been wet ever since the galebegan) than there is a thump, thump overhead, and one of the watch on deck bellows downthe forecastle-hatch, "all hands shorten sail." and out they must tumble again, once moreto battle with the hungry, roaring seas and the raging wind. so, when there has been along spell of bad weather, it is no wonder that the men are worn out. and when, as wasthe case in gulliver's ship, the food also is bad, it is easy to understand why so manyof the crew had died. it was on the 5th of november, the beginningof summer in latitudes south of the equator.
the storm had not yet cleared off, and theweather was very thick, the wind coming in furious squalls that drove the ship alongat great speed, when suddenly from the lookout man came a wild cry—"breakers ahead!"but so close had the vessel come to the rocks before they were seen through the thick drivingspray, that immediately, with a heavy plunge, she crashed into the reef, and split her bows.gulliver and six of the crew lowered a boat and got clear of the wreck and of the breakers.but the men were so weak from overwork that they could not handle the boat in such a sea,and very soon, during a fierce squall, she sank. what became of the men gulliver neverknew, for he saw none of them ever again. probably they were drowned at once, for theywere too weak to keep long afloat in a sea
breaking so heavily.and indeed, gulliver himself was like to have been lost. he swam till no strength or feelingwas left in his arms and legs, swam bravely, his breath coming in great sobs, his eyesblinded with the salt seas that broke over his head. still he struggled on, utterly spent,until at last, in a part where the wind seemed to have less force, and the seas swept overhim less furiously, on letting down his legs he found that he was within his depth. butthe shore shelved so gradually that for nearly a mile he had to wade wearily through theshallow water, till, fainting almost with fatigue, he reached dry land.by this time darkness was coming on, and there were no signs of houses or of people. he staggeredforward but a little distance, and then, on
the short, soft turf, sank down exhausted.before leaving the ship, gulliver had drunk a large quantity of brandy. perhaps that causedhim to sleep more than usually sound. when he woke, the sun was shining, and hetried to rise; but not by any means could he stir hand or foot. gulliver had fallenasleep lying on his back, and now he found that his arms and legs were tightly fastenedto the ground. across his body were numbers of thin but strong cords, and even his hair,which was very long, was pegged down so securely that he could not turn his head.all round about him there was a confused sound of voices, but he could see nothing exceptthe sky, and the sun shone so hot and fierce into his eyes that he could scarcely keepthem open.
soon he felt something come gently up hisleft leg, and forward on to his breast almost to his chin. looking down as much as possible,he saw standing there a very little man, not more than six inches high, armed with a bowand arrows. then many more small men began to swarm overhim. gulliver let out such a roar of wonder and fright that they all turned and ran, manyof them getting bad falls in their hurry to get out of danger. but very quickly the littlepeople came back again. this time, with a great struggle gullivermanaged to break the cords that fastened his left arm, and at the same time, by a violentwrench that hurt him dreadfully, he slightly loosened the strings that fastened his hair,so that he was able to turn his head a little
to one side. but the little men were too quickfor him, and got out of reach before he could catch any of them.then he heard a great shouting, followed by a shrill little voice that called sharply,—"tolgophonac." immediately, arrows like needles were shot into his hand, and another volleystruck him in the face. poor gulliver covered his face with his hand, and lay groaning withpain. his arms and legs were tightly fastened tothe ground. again he struggled to get loose. but the harderhe fought for freedom, the more the little men shot arrows into him, and some of themeven tried to run their spears into his sides. when he found that the more he struggled themore he was hurt, gulliver lay still, thinking
to himself that at night at least, now thathis left hand was free, he could easily get rid of the rest of his bonds. as soon as thelittle people saw that he struggled no more, they ceased shooting at him; but he knew fromthe increasing sound of voices that more and more of the little soldiers were coming roundhim. soon, a few yards from him, on the right,he heard a continued sound of hammering, and on turning his head to that side as far asthe strings would let him, he saw that a small wooden stage was being built. on to this,when it was finished, there climbed by ladders four men, and one of them (who seemed to bea very important person, for a little page boy attended to hold up his train) immediatelygave an order. at once about fifty of the
soldiers ran forward and cut the strings thattied gulliver's hair on the left side, so that he could turn his head easily to theright. then the person began to make a long speech,not one word of which could gulliver understand, but it seemed to him that sometimes the littleman threatened, and sometimes made offers of kindness.as well as he could, gulliver made signs that he submitted. then, feeling by this time faintwith hunger, he pointed with his fingers many times to his mouth, to show that he wantedsomething to eat. they understood him very well. several ladderswere put against gulliver's sides, and about a hundred little people climbed up and carriedto his mouth all kinds of bread and meat.
there were things shaped like legs, and shoulders,and saddles of mutton. very good they were, gulliver thought, but very small, no biggerthan a lark's wings; and the loaves of bread were about the size of bullets, so that hecould take several at a mouthful. the people wondered greatly at the amount that he ate.when he signed that he was thirsty, they slung up on to his body two of their biggest casksof wine, and having rolled them forward to his hand they knocked out the heads of thecasks. gulliver drank them both off at a draught, and asked for more, for they held only abouta small tumblerful each. but there was no more to be had.as the small people walked to and fro over his body, gulliver was sorely tempted to seizeforty or fifty of them and dash them on the
ground, and then to make a further strugglefor liberty. but the pain he had already suffered from their arrows made him think better ofit, and he wisely lay quiet. soon another small man, who from his brilliantuniform seemed to be an officer of very high rank, marched with some others on to gulliver'schest and held up to his eyes a paper which gulliver understood to be an order from theking of the country. the officer made a long speech, often pointing towards something along way off, and (as gulliver afterwards learned) told him that he was to be takenas a prisoner to the city, the capital of the country.gulliver asked, by signs, that his bonds might be loosed. the officer shook his head andrefused, but he allowed some of his soldiers
to slack the cords on one side, whereby gulliverwas able to feel more comfortable. after this, the little people drew out the arrows thatstill stuck in his hands and face, and rubbed the wounds with some pleasant-smelling ointment,which so soothed his pain that very soon he fell sound asleep. and this was no great wonder,for, as he afterwards understood, the king's physicians had mixed a very strong sleepingdraught with the wine that had been given him.gulliver awoke with a violent fit of sneezing, and with the feeling of small feet runningaway from off his chest. where was he? bound still, without doubt,but no longer did he find himself lying on the ground. it puzzled him greatly that nowhe lay on a sort of platform. how had he got
there?soon he began to realise what had happened; and later, when he understood the language,he learned all that had been done to him whilst he slept. before he dropped asleep, he hadheard a rumbling as of wheels, and the shouts of many drivers. this, it seemed, was causedby the arrival of a huge kind of trolly, a few inches high, but nearly seven feet long,drawn by fifteen hundred of the king's largest horses.on this it was meant that he should be taken to the city. by the use of strong poles fixedin the ground, to which were attached many pulleys, and the strongest ropes to be foundin the country, nine hundred men managed to hoist him as he slept. they then put him onthe trolly, where they again tied him fast.
it was when they were far on their way tothe city that gulliver awoke. the trolly had stopped for a little to breathe the horses,and one of the officers of the king's guard who had not before seen gulliver, climbedwith some friends up his body. whilst looking at his face, the officer could not resistthe temptation of putting the point of his sword up gulliver's nose, which so tickledhim that he woke, sneezing violently. end of chapter 2 chapter 3gulliver is taken as a prisoner to the capital of lilliputthe city was not reached till the following day, and gulliver had to spend the night lyingwhere he was, guarded on each side by five
hundred men with torches and bows and arrows,ready to shoot him if he should attempt to move.in the morning, the king and all his court, and thousands of the people, came out to gazeon the wonderful sight. the trolly, with gulliver on it, stopped outside the walls, alongsidea very large building which had once been used as a temple, but the use of which hadbeen given up owing to a murder having been committed in it.the door of this temple was quite four feet high and about two feet wide, and on eachside, about six inches from the ground, was a small window. inside the building the king'sblacksmiths fastened many chains, which they then brought through one of these little windowsand padlocked round gulliver's left ankle.
then his bonds were cut, and he was allowedto get up. he found that he could easily creep through the door, and that there was roominside to lie down. his chains were nearly six feet long, so thathe could get a little exercise by walking backwards and forwards outside. always whenhe walked, thousands of people thronged around to look at him; even the king himself usedto come and gaze by the hour from a high tower which stood opposite.one day, just as gulliver had crept out from his house and had got on his feet, it chancedthat the king, who was a very fine-looking man, taller than any of his people, came ridingalong on his great white charger. when the horse saw gulliver move it was terrified,and plunged and reared so madly that the people
feared that a terrible accident was goingto happen, and several of the king's guards ran in to seize the horse by the head. butthe king was a good horseman, and managed the animal so well that very soon it got overits fright, and he was able to dismount. several of the king's guards ran in to seizethe horse by the head. then he gave orders that food should be broughtfor gulliver,—twenty little carts full, and ten of wine; and he and his courtiers,all covered with gold and silver, stood around and watched him eating. after the king hadgone away the people of the city crowded round, and some of them began to behave very badly,one man even going so far as to shoot an arrow at gulliver which was not far from puttingout one of his eyes. but the officer in command
of the soldiers who were on guard orderedhis men to bind and push six of the worst behaved of the crowd within reach of gulliver,who at once seized five of them and put them in his coat pocket. the sixth he held up tohis mouth and made as if he meant to eat him, whereupon the wretched little creature shriekedaloud with terror, and when gulliver took out his knife, all the people, even the soldiers,were dreadfully alarmed. but gulliver only cut the man's bonds, and let him run away,which he did in a very great hurry. and when he took the others out of his pocket, oneby one, and treated them in the same way, the crowd began to laugh. after that the peoplealways behaved very well to gulliver, and he became a great favourite. from all overthe kingdom crowds flocked to see the great
man mountain.in the meantime, as gulliver learned later, there were frequent meetings of the king'scouncil to discuss the question of what was to be done with him. some of the councillorsfeared lest he might break loose and cause great damage in the city. some were of opinionthat to keep and feed so huge a creature would cause a famine in the land, or, at the least,that the expense would be greater than the public funds could bear; they advised, therefore,that he should be killed—shot in the hands and face with poisoned arrows. others, however,argued that if this were done it would be a very difficult thing to get rid of so largea dead body, which might cause a pestilence to break out if it lay long unburied so nearthe city.
finally, the king and his council gave ordersthat each morning the surrounding villages should send into the city for gulliver's dailyuse six oxen, forty sheep, and a sufficient quantity of bread and wine.it was also commanded that six hundred persons should act as his servants; that three hundredtailors were to make for him a suit of clothes; and that six professors from the universitywere to teach him the language of the country. when gulliver could speak the language, helearned a great deal about the land in which he now found himself. it was called lilliput,and the people, lilliputians. these lilliputians believed that their kingdom and the neighbouringcountry of blefuscu were the whole world. blefuscu lay far over the sea, to these littlepeople dim and blue on the horizon, though
to gulliver the distance did not seem to bemore than a mile. the lilliputians knew of no land beyond blefuscu. and as for gulliverhimself, they believed that he had fallen from the moon, or from one of the stars; itwas impossible, they said, that so big a race of men could live on the earth. it was quitecertain that there could not be food enough for them. they did not believe gulliver'sstory. he must have fallen from the moon! almost the first thing that gulliver did whenhe knew the language fairly well, was to send a petition to the king, praying that his chainsmight be taken off and that he might be free to walk about. but this he was told couldnot then be granted. he must first, the king's council said, "swear a peace" with the kingdomof lilliput, and afterwards, if by continued
good behaviour he gained their confidence,he might be freed. meantime, by the king's orders, two high officersof state were sent to search him. gulliver lifted up these officers in his hand and putthem into each of his pockets, one after the other, and they made for the king a carefullist of everything found there. gulliver afterward saw this inventory. hissnuff-box they had described as a "huge silver chest, full of a sort of dust." into thatdust one of them stepped, and the snuff, flying up in his face, caused him nearly to sneezehis head off. his pistols they called "hollow pillars of iron, fastened to strong piecesof timber," and the use of his bullets, and of his powder (which he had been lucky enoughto bring ashore dry, owing to his pouch being
water-tight), they could not understand, whilstof his watch they could make nothing. they called it "a wonderful kind of engine, whichmakes an incessant noise like a water-wheel." but some fancied that it was perhaps a kindof animal. certainly it was alive. all these things, together with his sword,which he carried slung to a belt round his waist, gulliver had to give up, first, aswell as he could, explaining the use of them. the lilliputians could not understand thepistols, and to show his meaning, gulliver was obliged to fire one of them. at once hundredsof the little people fell down as if they had been struck dead by the noise. even theking, though he stood his ground, was sorely frightened. most of gulliver's property wasreturned to him, but the pistols and powder
and bullets, and his sword, were taken awayand put, for safety, under strict guard. as the king and his courtiers gained morefaith in gulliver, and became less afraid of his breaking loose and doing some mischief,they began to treat him in a more friendly way than they had hitherto done, and showedhim more of the manners and customs of the country. some of these were very curious.one of the sports of which they were most fond was rope dancing, and there was no morecertain means of being promoted to high office and power in the state than to possess greatcleverness in that art. indeed, it was said that the lord high treasurer had gained andkept his post chiefly through his great skill in turning somersaults on the tight rope.the chief secretary for private affairs ran
him very close, and there was hardly a ministerof state who did not owe his position to such successes. few of them, indeed, had escapedwithout severe accidents at one time or another, whilst trying some specially difficult feat,and many had been lamed for life. but however many and bad the falls, there were alwaysplenty of other persons to attempt the same or some more difficult jump.taught by his narrow escape from a serious accident when his horse first saw gulliver,the king now gave orders that the horses of his army, as well as those from the royalstables, should be exercised daily close to the man mountain. soon they became so usedto the sight of him that they would come right up to his foot without starting or shying.often the riders would jump their chargers
over gulliver's hand as he held it on theground, and once the king's hunts-man, better mounted than most of the others, actuallyjumped over his foot, shoe and all,—a wonderful leap.gulliver saw that it was wise to amuse the king in this and other ways, because the morehis majesty was pleased with him the sooner was it likely that his liberty would be granted.so he asked one day that some strong sticks, about two feet in height, should be broughtto him. several of these he fixed firmly in the ground, and across them, near the top,he lashed four other sticks, enclosing a square space of about two and a half feet. then tothe uprights, about five inches lower than the crossed sticks, he tied his pocket handkerchief,and stretched it tight as a drum.
when the work was finished, he asked the kingto let a troop of cavalry exercise on this stage. his majesty was delighted with theidea, and for several days nothing pleased him more than to see gulliver lift up themen and horses, and to watch them go through their drill on this platform. sometimes hewould even be lifted up himself and give the words of command; and once he persuaded thequeen, who was rather timid, to let herself be held up in her chair within full view ofthe scene. but a fiery horse one day, pawing with his hoof, wore a hole in the handkerchief,and came down heavily on its side, and after this gulliver could no longer trust the strengthof his stage. end of chapter 3
gulliver is freed, and captures the blefuscanfleet by this time gulliver's clothes were almostin rags. the three hundred tailors had not yet been able to finish his new suit, andhe had no hat at all, for that had been lost as he came ashore from the wreck. so he wasgreatly pleased one day when an express message came to the king from the coast, saying thatsome men had found on the shore a great black, strangely-shaped mass, as high as a man; itwas not alive, they were certain. it had never moved, though for a time they had watched,before going closer. after making certain that it was not likely to injure them, bymounting on each other's shoulders they had got on the top, which they found was flatand smooth, and, by the sound when stamped
upon, they judged that it was hollow. it wasthought that the object might possibly be something belonging to the man mountain, andthey proposed by the help of five horses to bring it to the city.gulliver was sure that it must be his hat, and so it turned out. nor was it very greatlydamaged, either by the sea, or by being drawn by the horses over the ground all the wayfrom the coast, except that two holes had been bored in the brim, to which a long cordhad been fixed by hooks. gulliver was much pleased to have it once more.two days after this the king took into his head a curious fancy. he ordered a reviewof troops to be held, and he directed that gulliver should stand with his legs very wideapart, whilst under him both horse and foot
were commanded to march. over three thousandinfantry and one thousand cavalry passed through the great arch made by his legs, colours flyingand bands playing. the king and queen themselves sat in their state coach at the saluting point,near to his left leg, and all the while gulliver dared not move a hairsbreadth, lest he shouldinjure some of the soldiers. the troops marched through the great archmade by his legs. shortly after this, gulliver was set free.there had been a meeting of the king's council on the subject, and the lord high admiralwas the only member in favour of still keeping him chained. this great officer to the endwas gulliver's bitter enemy, and though on this occasion he was out-voted, yet he wasallowed to draw up the conditions which gulliver
was to sign before his chains were struckoff. the conditions were:first, that he was not to quit the country without leave granted under the king's greatseal. second, that he was not to come into the citywithout orders; at which times the people were to have two hours" notice to keep indoors,third, that he should keep to the high roads, and not walk or lie down in a meadow.fourth, that he was to take the utmost care not to trample on anybody, or on any horsesor carriages, and that he was not to lift any persons in his hand against their will.fifth, that if at any time an express had to be sent in great haste, he was to carrythe messenger and his horse in his pocket
a six days" journey, and to bring them safelyback. sixth, that he should be the king's ally againstthe blefuscans, and that he should try to destroy their fleet, which was said to bepreparing to invade lilliput. seventh, that he should help the workmen tomove certain great stones which were needed to repair some of the public buildings.eighth, that he should in "two moons" time" make an exact survey of the kingdom, by countinghow many of his own paces it took him to go all round the coast.lastly, on his swearing to the above conditions, it was promised that he should have a dailyallowance of meat and drink equal to the amount consumed by seventeen hundred and twenty-fourof the lilliputians, for they estimated that
gulliver's size was about equal to that numberof their own people. though one or two of the conditions did notplease him, especially that about helping the workmen (which he thought was making himtoo much a servant), yet gulliver signed the document at once, and swore to observe itsconditions. after having done so, and having had his chainsremoved, the first thing he asked was to be allowed to see the city (which was calledmildendo). he found that it was surrounded by a great wall of about two and a half feethigh, broad enough for one of their coaches-and-four to be driven along, and at every ten feetthere were strong flanking towers. gulliver took off his coat, lest the tailsmight do damage to the roofs or chimneys of
the houses, and he then stepped over the walland very carefully walked down the finest of the streets, one quite five feet wide.wherever he went, the tops of the houses and the attic windows were packed with wonderingspectators, and he reckoned that the town must hold quite half a million of people.in the centre of the city, where the two chief streets met, stood the king's palace, a veryfine building surrounded by a wall. but he was not able to see the whole palace thatday, because the part in which were the royal apartments was shut off by another wall nearlyfive feet in height, which he could not get over without risk of doing damage.some days later he climbed over by the help of two stools which he made from some of thelargest trees in the royal park, trees nearly
seven feet high, which he was allowed to cutdown for the purpose. by putting one of the stools at each side of the wall, gulliverwas able to step across. then, lying down on his side, and putting his face close tothe open windows, he looked in and saw the queen and all the young princes. the queensmiled, and held her hand out of one of the windows, that he might kiss it. she was verypleasant and friendly. one day, about a fortnight after this, therecame to call on him, reldresal, the king's chief secretary, a very great man, one whohad always been gulliver's very good friend. this person had a long and serious talk withgulliver about the state of the country. he said that though to the outward eye thingsin lilliput seemed very settled and prosperous,
yet in reality there were troubles, both internaland external, that threatened the safety of the kingdom.there had been in lilliput for a very long time two parties at bitter enmity with eachother, so bitter that they would neither eat, drink, nor talk together, and what one partydid, the other would always try to undo. each professed to believe that nothing good couldcome from the other. any measure proposed by the party in power was by the other alwayslooked upon as foolish or evil. and any new law passed by the government party was saidby the opposition to be either a wicked attack on the liberties of the people, or somethingundertaken solely for the purpose of keeping that party in, and the opposition out, ofpower. to such a pitch had things now come,
said the chief secretary, entirely owing tothe folly of the opposition, that the business of the kingdom was almost at a standstill.meantime the country was in danger of an invasion by the blefuscans, who were now fitting outa great fleet, which was almost ready to sail to attack lilliput. the war with blefuscuhad been raging for some years, and the losses by both nations of ships and of men had beenvery heavy. this war had broken out in the following way.it had always been the custom in lilliput, as far back as history went, for people whenbreaking an egg at breakfast to do so at the big end. but it had happened, said the chiefsecretary, that the present king's grandfather, when a boy, had once when breaking his eggin the usual way, severely cut his finger.
whereupon his father at once gave strict commandsthat in future all his subjects should break their eggs at the small end.this greatly angered the people, who thought that the king had no right to give such anorder, and they refused to obey. as a consequence no less than six rebellions had taken place:thousands of the lilliputians had had their heads cut off, or had been cast into prison,and thousands had fled for refuge to blefuscu, rather than obey the hated order.these "big-endians," as they were called, had been very well received at the court ofblefuscu, and finally the emperor of that country had taken upon himself to interferein the affairs of lilliput, thus bringing on war.the chief secretary ended the talk by saying
that the king, having great faith in gulliver'sstrength, and depending on the oath which he had sworn before being released, expectedhim now to help in defeating the blefuscan fleet.gulliver was very ready to do what he could, and he at once thought of a plan whereby hemight destroy the whole fleet at one blow. he told all his ideas on the subject to theking, who gave orders that everything he might need should be supplied without delay. thengulliver went to the oldest seamen in the navy, and learned from them the depth of waterbetween lilliput and blefuscu. it was, they said, nowhere deeper than seventy glumgluffs(which is equal to about six feet) at high water, and there was no great extent so deep.after this he walked to the coast opposite
blefuscu, and lying down there behind a hillock,so that he might not be seen should any of the enemy's ships happen to be cruising near,he looked long through a small pocket telescope across the channel. with the naked eye hecould easily see the cliffs of blefuscu, and soon with his telescope he made out wherethe fleet lay—fifty great men-of-war, and many transports, waiting for a fair wind.coming back to the city, he gave orders for a great length of the strongest cable, anda quantity of bars of iron. the cable was little thicker than ordinary pack-thread,and the bars of iron much about the length and size of knitting-needles. gulliver twistedthree of the iron bars together and bent them to a hook at one end. he trebled the cablefor greater strength, and thus made fifty
shorter cables, to which he fastened the hooks.then, carrying these in his hand, he walked back to the coast and waded into the sea,a little before high water. when he came to mid-channel, he had to swim, but for no greatdistance. as soon as they noticed gulliver coming wadingthrough the water towards their ships, the blefuscan sailors all jumped over-board andswam ashore in a terrible fright. never before had any of them seen or dreamt of so monstrousa giant, nor had they heard of his being in lilliput.gulliver then quietly took his cables and fixed one securely in the bows of each ofthe ships of war, and finally he tied the cables together at his end. but whilst hewas doing this the blefuscan soldiers on the
shore plucked up courage and began to shootarrows at him, many of which stuck in his hands and face. he was very much afraid lestsome of these might put out his eyes; but he remembered, luckily, that in his innerpocket were his spectacles, which he put on, and then finished his work without risk tohis eyes. on pulling at the cables, however, not a shipcould he move. he had forgotten that their anchors were all down. so he was forced togo in closer and with his knife to cut the vessels free. whilst doing this he was ofcourse exposed to a furious fire from the enemy, and hundreds of arrows struck him,some almost knocking off his spectacles. but again he hauled, and this time drew the wholefifty vessels after him.
the blefuscans had thought that it was hisintention merely to cast the vessels adrift, so that they might run aground, but when theysaw their great fleet being steadily drawn out to sea, their grief was terrible. fora great distance gulliver could hear their cries of despair.when he had got well away from the land, he stopped in order to pick the arrows from hisface and hands, and to put on some of the ointment that had been rubbed on his woundswhen first the lilliputians fired into him. by this time the tide had fallen a little,and he was able to wade all the way across the channel.the king and his courtiers stood waiting on the shore. they could see the vessels steadilydrawing nearer, but they could not for some
time see gulliver, because only his head wasabove water. at first some imagined that he had been drowned, and that the fleet was nowon its way to attack lilliput. there was great joy when gulliver was seenhauling the vessels; and when he landed, the king was so pleased that on the spot he createdhim a nardac, the highest honour that it was in his power to bestow.his great success over the blefuscans, however, turned out to be but the beginning of troublefor gulliver. the king was so puffed up by the victory that he formed plans for capturingin the same way the whole of the enemy's ships of every kind. and it was now his wish tocrush blefuscu utterly, and to make it nothing but a province depending on lilliput. thus,he thought, he himself would then be monarch
of the whole world.in this scheme gulliver refused to take any part, and he very plainly said that he wouldgive no help in making slaves of the blefuscans. this refusal angered the king very much, andmore than once he artfully brought the matter up at a state council. now, several of thecouncillors, though they pretended to be gulliver's friends so long as he was in favour with theking, were really his secret enemies, and nothing pleased these persons better thanto see that the king was no longer pleased with him. so they did all in their power tonurse and increase the king's anger, and to make him believe that gulliver was a traitor.about this time there came to lilliput ambassadors from blefuscu, suing for peace. when a treatyhad been made and signed (very greatly to
the advantage of lilliput), the blefuscanambassadors asked to see the great man mountain, of whom they had heard so much, and they paidgulliver a formal call. after asking him to give them some proofs of his strength, theyinvited him to visit their emperor, which gulliver promised to do.accordingly, the next time that he met the king, he asked, as he was bound to do by thepaper he had signed, for permission to leave the country for a time, in order to visitblefuscu. the king did not refuse, but his manner was so cold that gulliver could nothelp noticing it. afterwards he learned from a friend that his enemies in the council hadtold the king lying tales of his meetings with the blefuscan ambassadors, which hadhad the effect of still further rousing his
anger.it happened too, most unfortunately, at this time, that gulliver had offended the queenby a well-meant, but badly-managed, effort to do her a service, and thus he lost alsoher friendship. but though he was now out of favour at court, he was still an objectof great interest to every one. end of part 1, chapter 4 gulliver's escape from lilliput and returnto england gulliver had three hundred cooks to dresshis food, and these men, with their families, lived in small huts which had been built forthem near his house. he had made for himself a chair and a table.on to this table it was his custom to lift
twenty waiters, and these men then drew upby ropes and pulleys all his food, and his wine in casks, which one hundred other servantshad in readiness on the ground. gulliver would often eat his meal with many hundreds of peoplelooking on. one day the king, who had not seen him eatsince this table had been built, sent a message that he and the queen desired to be presentthat day whilst gulliver dined. they arrived just before his dinner hour, and he at oncelifted the king and queen and the princes, with their attendants and guards, on to thetable. their majesties sat in their chairs of stateall the time, watching with deep interest the roasts of beef and mutton, and whole flocksof geese and turkeys and fowls disappear into
gulliver's mouth. a roast of beef of whichhe had to make more than two mouthfuls was seldom seen, and he ate them bones and all.a goose or a turkey was but one bite. certainly, on this occasion, gulliver atemore than usual, thinking by so doing to amuse and please the court.but in this he erred, for it was turned against him. flimnap, the lord high treasurer, whohad always been one of his enemies, pointed out to the king the great daily expense ofsuch meals, and told how this huge man had already cost the country over a million anda half ofsprugs (the largest lilliputian gold coin). things, indeed, were beginning to govery ill with gulliver. now it happened about this time that one ofthe king's courtiers, to whom gulliver had
been very kind, came to him by night veryprivately in a closed chair, and asked to have a talk, without any one else being present.gulliver gave to a servant whom he could trust orders that no one else was to be admitted,and having put the courtier and his chair upon the table, so that he might better hearall that was said, he sat down to listen. their majesties watched the roasts of beefand mutton disappear into gulliver's mouth. gulliver was told that there had lately beenseveral secret meetings of the king's privy council, on his account. the lord high admiral(who now hated him because of his success against the blefuscan fleet), flimnap, thehigh treasurer, and others of his enemies, had drawn up against him charges of treasonand other crimes. the courtier had brought
with him a copy of these charges, and gullivernow read them. it was made a point against him that, whenordered to do so by the king, he had refused to seize all the other blefuscan ships. itwas also said that he would not join in utterly crushing the empire of blefuscu, nor giveaid when it was proposed to put to death not only all the bigendians who had fled for refugeto that country, but all the blefuscans themselves who were friends of the bigendians. for thishe was said to be a traitor. he was also accused of being over-friendlywith the blefuscan ambassadors; and it was made a grave charge against him that thoughhis majesty had not given him written leave to visit blefuscu, he yet was getting readyto go to that country, in order to give help
to the emperor against lilliput.there had been many debates on these charges, said the courtier, and the lord high admiralhad made violent speeches, strongly advising that the great man mountain should be putto death. in this he was joined by flimnap, and by others, so that actually the greaterpart of the council was in favour of instant death by the most painful means that couldbe used. the less unfriendly members of the council,however, whilst saying that they had no doubt of gulliver's guilt, were yet of opinion that,as his services to the kingdom of lilliput had been great, the punishment of death wastoo severe. they thought it would be enough if his eyes were put out. this, they said,would not prevent him from still being made
useful.then began a most excited argument, the admiral and those who sided with him insisting thatgulliver should be killed at once. at last the secretary rose and said that hehad a middle course to suggest. this was, that gulliver's eyes should be put out, andthat thereafter his food should be gradually so reduced in quantity that in the courseof two or three months he would die of starvation. by which time, said the secretary, his bodywould be wasted to an extent that would make it easy for five or six thousand men, in afew days, to cut off the flesh and take it away in cart loads to be buried at a distance.thus there would be no danger of a pestilence breaking out from the dead body lying nearthe city. the skeleton, he said, could then
be put in the national museum.it was finally decided that this sentence should be carried out, and twenty of the king'ssurgeons were ordered to be present in three days" time to see the operation of puttingout gulliver's eyes properly done. sharp pointed arrows were to be shot into the balls of hiseyes. the courtier now left the house, as privatelyas he had come, and gulliver was left to decide what he should do.at first he thought of attacking the city, and destroying it. but by doing this he musthave destroyed, with the city, a great many thousands of innocent people, which he couldnot make up his mind to do. at last he wrote a letter to the chief secretary,saying that as the king had himself told him
that he might visit blefuscu, he had decidedto do so that morning. without waiting for an answer, he set outfor the coast, where he seized a large man-of-war which was at anchor there, tied a cable toher bow, and then putting his clothes and his blanket on board, he drew the ship afterhim to blefuscu. there he was well received by the emperor. but as there happened to beno house big enough for him, he was forced, during his stay, to sleep each night on theground, wrapped in his blanket. three days after his arrival, when walkingalong the sea-shore, he noticed something in the water which looked not unlike a boatfloating bottom up. gulliver waded and swam out, and found that he was right. it was aboat. by the help of some of the blefuscan
ships, with much difficulty he got it ashore.when the tide had fallen, two thousand of the emperor's dockyard men helped him to turnit over, and gulliver found that but little damage had been done.he now set to work to make oars and mast and sail for the boat, and to fit it out and provisionit for a voyage. whilst this work was going on, there camefrom lilliput a message demanding that gulliver should be bound hand prisoner, foot and returnedto that country as a there to be punished as a traitor. to this message the emperorreplied that it was not possible to bind him; that moreover the great man mountain had founda vessel of size great enough to carry him over the sea, and that it was his purposeto leave the empire of blefuscu in the course
of a few weeks.gulliver did not delay his work, and in less than a month he was ready to sail.he put on board the boat the carcasses of one hundred oxen and three hundred sheep,with a quantity of bread and wine, and as much meat ready cooked as four hundred cookscould prepare. he also tools with him a herd of six liveblack cows acid two bulls, and a flock of sheep, meaning to take them with him to england,if ever he should get there. as food for these animals he took a quantity of hay and corn.gulliver would have liked to take with him some of the people, but this the emperor wouldnot permit. everything being ready, he sailed from blefuscuon 24th september 1701, and the same night
anchored on the lee side of an island whichseemed to be uninhabited. leaving this island on the following morning, he sailed to theeastward for two days. on the evening of the second day he sighted a ship, on reachingwhich, to his great joy, he found that she was an english vessel on her way home fromjapan. putting his cattle and sheep in his coat pockets,he went on board with all his cargo of provisions. the captain received him very kindly, andasked him from whence he had come, and how he happened to be at sea in an open boat.gulliver told his tale in as few words as possible. the captain stared with wonder,and would not believe his story. but gulliver then took from his pockets the black cattleand the sheep, which of course clearly showed
that he had been speaking truth. he also showedgold coins which the emperor of blefuscu had given to him, some of which he presented tothe captain. the vessel did not arrive at the port of londontill april 1702, but without loss of any of the live stock, excepting that the rats onboard carried off and ate one of the sheep. all the others were got safely ashore, andwere put to graze on a bowling-green at greenwich, where they throve very well.end of part 1, chapter 5 part ii: voyage to brobdingnabchapter 1 gulliver is left ashore in a strange land,and is captured by a giant gulliver was not a man who liked to stop athome, or in one place, for any length of time,
and he had been but little more than two monthsin england with his wife and family, when the old longing to travel in far-away landsagain came over him. he had made money by showing the cattle andsheep which he had brought from blefuscu, and he now sold them for six hundred pounds.he had also, through the death of an uncle, received some other property, and was ableto leave with his wife a sum of about fifteen hundred pounds, besides a small yearly amount.his mind being thus free from care as to the well-being of his family, he said good-byeto them, and went on board the adventure, a small ship which was about to sail for surat,in the east indies. from the time of leaving england until theyreached the cape of good hope, the wind was
almost constantly fair, and the vessel madea very good passage. at the cape, however, the ship's casks needed to be filled withfresh water, and whilst this was being done it was found that the vessel was leaking sobadly that most of the cargo had to be taken out of her. before the leak could be stoppedand the cargo re-shipped, the captain fell ill. thus many months passed before the shipcould continue her voyage. leaving the cape of good hope, they sailedthrough the straits of madagascar on their way to india, and a few days after passingthe straits a wind which is called the south-west monsoon sprang up. this wind each year beginsto blow in the indian ocean in may, and it blows with- out ceasing for several months.the time when gulliver's ship was there, was
at what is called the break of the monsoon,when the wind is very furious, and the rain falls in blinding sheets, such as are neverseen in england. the storm struck the adventure very severely,and raised a most dangerous sea. for weeks this continued, and never a sight of the suncould be got. the vessel drove before the wind until no man on board could guess inwhat part of the world they were. every day the captain sent a man up to the fore topmastto look out for land, and every night sail was taken off the ship, so that she shouldgo more slowly, lest in the dark she might run on some unknown rock.one morning, very early, the lookout man spied land far off, and the adventure ran in towardsit as close as the captain dared, and cast
anchor. then a boat with twelve men was sentto the shore, which was about three miles away, to try to get water to fill the ship'scasks. gulliver asked that he might be allowed to go ashore with the men. when they reachedthe land, no river or spring of water was to be seen, and the sailors went a great wayalong the beach looking for it. gulliver went by himself, inland, thinking that from a hillhe might discover some signs of people or of houses. but all the country within sightwas rocky and bare, without trees or grass. he was soon weary, and began to return towardsthe place where the boat had been left. when at last he came in sight of the sea,to his horror, already far from the shore, he beheld the boat, the men rowing with frantichaste towards the adventure. on the ship herself,
the anchor was being got up, sails let fall,and everything made ready to be off in a hurry as soon as the boat should join her. wading through the waves was an enormous man. nearer land, wading knee-deep through thewaves, with great strides that set the water foaming, stumbling sometimes as his feet cameagainst the sharp pointed rocks, but always gaining on the boat, was an enormous man,bigger even than a giant in a fairy tale. gulliver looked for a moment, his knees givingway with fear. then he turned and ran for his life. it seemed to him as if his feetwere weighted with lead; as if at every step something were dragging him back. it mustbe a dream, sometimes he thought, and he would
wake presently to find himself snug in hishammock on board ship. but it was no dream, and ever as he ran, overhis shoulder he could see the head of the monster showing above the cliff, as he stillkept up his chase of the boat. at length, with hard-drawn breath and thumpingheart, gulliver scrambled up and over a high and very steep hill. on the side farthestfrom the sea, to his great surprise he found cultivated fields, fields of huge size, andthe grass in them, which looked as if it were meant for hay, was fully twenty feet high.presently he came to what seemed to be a wide road, though afterwards he found that it wasbut a footpath which the people used, through a field of barley. along this he walked forquite an hour. on each side the ripe crop
rose above his head between thirty and fortyfeet, and he could see nothing else but the sky overhead. it was like walking along acutting in a dense forest. at last he came to the end of the field, whichwas fenced with a hedge near one hundred and twenty feet in height. the trees by the hedgerowwere taller than anything he had ever seen or imagined. between this field and the nextwas a stile with four steps, each step six feet high, and on top a stone of over twentyfeet. gulliver could not get over, and he beganto look for a gap in the hedge through which to creep. but as he looked he heard a noise.coming through the other field towards the stile was a monstrous man, as tall as thatone from whom he had just fled. to gulliver's
eyes he seemed to be as high as a steeple,and he stepped about ten yards at every stride. sick with fear, and with sinking heart, gulliverran and hid in the corn. from there he watched the giant come to the top of the stile, turnround, and in a gruff, roaring voice that filled the air like thunder, call back tosome one in the other field. at his call there came seven other great men,each with a gigantic reaping-hook, as big as half a dozen scythes, in his hand. thesemen seemed to be farm labourers, for presently, having sharpened their hooks, they began toreap the corn in which gulliver lay hid. this frightened him still more, and he creptas far as he possibly could from the reapers. but the stalks of corn were so close together,seldom more than a foot apart, that sometimes
it was with great difficulty that he couldsqueeze his body between them. soon he came to a place where the crop hadbeen laid by wind and rain, and now he could go forward no farther, whilst on either sidewas the same tangled jungle. the stalks of the corn were so twisted together that itwas not possible to force his way through, and the heads of the fallen barley-ears ranthrough his clothes and pierced his body like thorns. and ever the swish of the reapers"hooks drew nearer. now truly the fear of death was on him, andtoo late he wished that he had listened to his wife and to his friends when they advisedhim to stop at home. swish, swish, came the hooks; and the footof one of the reapers was so close to him
that in one other stride he must be crushed,like a frog under the hoof of an ox. or, maybe, the hook would cut him in two. gulliver crouchedclose to the ground, but as the great foot began to move, fear overcame him, and in hisagony of mind he cried aloud, a shrill, long-drawn yell. the huge foot stopped short. everywhereround about him the giant peered in wonder, and at last spied gulliver.very cautiously, and as if he feared to be bitten, the giant seized him behind, underthe arms, and held him up, the better to look at him. it was useless to struggle, and thoughhis ribs were pinched so that it was hardly possible to breathe, gulliver kept quite still,feeling indeed as helpless and despairing as a rabbit in the fangs of a weasel.every second he expected to be dashed to the
ground, as one might throw down some reptileor noxious beast that one wished to destroy. and as he was held at a height from the groundof nearly sixty feet, he knew that even if by accident he were to slip through the giant'sfingers, and fall that distance, he must be killed.so, though gulliver could breathe only with great difficulty, he kept still. but the painof the squeezing of his ribs caused him to groan piteously, and even at last to weep.he could only clasp his hands together and gasp out a few humble words. to his wonderand relief, the giant seemed to understand that he was being hurt, and appeared pleasedand interested to find that so small a creature could speak, even though it was not possibleto make any meaning out of the little thing's
words. handling him now more gently, the giantran and showed gulliver to his master. the farmer looked long and with great interestat him, lifting up the lappets of his coat with a straw, and with his breath blowingaside gulliver's hair, which had fallen over his face, that he might better examine him.then putting him on the ground, the farmer and his men sat round in a circle, laughinglywatching his movements, and all loudly talking at the same time.it was best to put a bold face on the matter, thought gulliver, and he marched backwardsand forwards very bravely. then going up to the farmer and making a low bow, he offeredhim his purse, in which were some spanish gold coins.the man took the purse in the palm of his
hand, and turned it over two or three timeswith the point of a pin which he took out of his sleeve; then he shook his head, asif to say that this was beyond him, and handed it back. gulliver thereupon opened the purse,and making a sign to the farmer to put his hand on the ground, poured into his palm allthe gold. but it was no use. the farmer wet the tipof his little finger on his tongue, picked up one coin after the other, and looked atthem, shook his head with a puzzled look, and gave them back.presently the farmer sent his men back to their work, and taking his handkerchief outof his pocket, spread it, doubled, on his hand, which he held on the ground so thatgulliver might step on to it. gulliver walked
on, and for greater safety lay down, whenthe farmer covered him up all but his head, and carried him home."look!" said he to his wife, "see what i"ve brought you!" but the woman screamed, andjumped back as if her husband had offered to put an ugly spider on her neck. this hurtgulliver's feelings a good deal, for he had always thought himself to be a man pleasingto look at. however, when dinner was brought in, the womanminced up some meat and crumbled a little bread for him, and soon with the greatestdelight she was watching him eat. so pleased was she that presently she got for him hersmallest wine-glass, and filled it with a kind of cider.with difficulty gulliver raised the glass
(for it held nearly as much as a horse coulddrink in england), and drank the woman's health, making her a low bow as he set the glass down.thereat everybody at table laughed so loud that gulliver's ears rang with the sound,and he was almost deafened. the table was of great height from the ground,nearly thirty feet, and gulliver kept well away from the edge, in fear that he mightfall over. but one of the children, seeing this, seized him by the legs and held himhigh in air, whereat poor gulliver trembled with fright, lest by accident he should bedropped. but to this sort of play the farmer put a speedy stop by soundly boxing his son'sears. presently gulliver heard behind him a curiousrumbling noise, very loud and disagreeable.
turning round, he found that this was causedby a huge cat, which sat purring in its mistress's lap. its great yellow eyes were watching him,and from the size of its head he judged that the animal must be at least three times asbig as a bullock. this upset gulliver's nerves somewhat, butthinking it wise to pretend that he felt no fear, he walked steadily up to the cat's head.it was a relief to find that she shrank from him, and seemed to be much more afraid ofhim than he of her. dogs too there were in the room, great beasts many times larger thanan elephant, but of them he did not have the same distrust as of the cat.after dinner, a nurse brought in the youngest child, one not more than a year old. no soonerdid the infant set eyes on gulliver than it
began to bawl to have him as a plaything.the mother very foolishly put him into its hand, whereupon the baby at once crammed gulliver'shead into its mouth, which caused him to let out such a yell of dismay that the frightenedinfant dropped him. this was a very narrow escape, for had it not chanced that the mothercaught him in her apron, gulliver would most certainly have had his neck broken in thefall. end of part 2, chapter 1 gulliver is shown all over the country, andat last is bought by the queen the farmer now went back to his fields, tolook after the workmen, and left gulliver to the care of his wife. by this time, whatwith the excitement he had undergone, and
the amount of running he had done when tryingto escape, gulliver was very tired and sleepy. the woman, noticing that he yawned a greatdeal, put him in her own bed, a huge thing nearly sixty feet wide and over twenty feetfrom the floor. on this she left him, and he lay alone in the vast room, covered upby one of the woman's handkerchiefs. soon he fell asleep, and dreamt of home andof his wife, which but made his grief the greater when he awoke.as he lay there, longing for home, and very wretched, a movement of the curtains disturbedhim. raising himself on his elbow, he saw two enormous rats, as big as mastiffs, whichhad run up the curtains, and were hunting about over the bed. soon one of them cameup to him, and as gulliver jumped up, placed
its paws on his shoulders, and made a dashto seize him by the throat with its teeth. fortunately gulliver still had his sword byhis side, and drawing it he struck with all his strength. by great good luck the swordripped up the brute's stomach, and it fell helpless and bleeding. the other rat, seeingits companion fall, fled with a loud squeak of fear, but before it got out of reach gullivergave it a tremendous slash on the back, which brought torrents of blood. gulliver measuredthe dead rat's tail. it was two yards long all but one inch. gulliver gave the rat a tremendous slash onthe back. as he walked about on the bed, rather shortof breath after this fight, and not a little
nervous lest the other rat should return,the farmer's wife came in, and seeing him splashed all over with blood, she screamedloudly and took him in her hand, expecting to find that he had been badly hurt. but gulliver,smiling, made signs that no harm had come to him, and pointed to the dead rat. the womanwas greatly pleased to find him safe and unhurt, and one of the maids took up the rat witha pair of tongs and threw it out of the window. amongst the farmer's children was a girl ofabout nine years of age. this child took so great a fancy for gulliver that she was neverhappy except when playing with him; indeed she treated him very much as if he were alive doll. the first night that he passed in the farmer's house, the girl fitted upfor him the baby's cradle. this she put on
a hanging shelf, in order to keep him safefrom the rats, with which the place swarmed. after a few alterations had been made in it,this was gulliver's bed as long as he remained with that family.the girl also took great pleasure in making clothes for him, being very clever with herneedle, and she constantly used to wash these clothes, and even sometimes insisted on puttingthem on him with her own hands. from her, too, he quickly learnt enough of the languageto make himself understood. gulliver always called the child "glumdalclitch," which inthe tongue of the country means "little nurse." as long as he remained in that land she hadthe care of him. amongst his neighbours there was much talkabout the strange little creature that the
farmer had found in his fields. gulliver wasto them a never-ending wonder. they were never weary of telling each other the latest newsof him,—how tame he was; how he never attempted to bite nor to run away; how he certainlyhad a language of his own, and had even learned already to speak a few words in their tongue;how beautifully made he was, just, in fact, like a human being, though he was so ridiculouslysmall. one of those neighbours was an old man, amiser, who one night came to look at gulliver. to this man nothing was of any interest unlessmoney could be made out of it, and he was the cause of much future misery and troubleto gulliver. no sooner did the old man set eyes on him, peering in a short-sighted waythrough his spectacles, than it was easy to
see that some scheme was in his mind.presently said he to gulliver's master—"now, here is a great chance. if you were to showthis little creature next market-day, and make each person pay to look at him, you wouldcertainly get a lot of money. hundreds of people would be willing to pay to see him."gulliver could see that the farmer and the old man were talking about him, and next morningglumdalclitch told him all her father's plans. she was very angry, for she wanted to keepgulliver all to herself. but her father had been greatly taken by the old miser's ideaof thus making money. "tut! tut! tut!" said he, "run away, likea good little girl, and don't bother me. you don't understand such things."glumdalclitch wept so much at this that gulliver
was made almost as wet as if he had been outin a heavy thunderstorm. it was very uncomfortable and damp. even his shoes were wet.the idea that he was to be made a peep-show was most distressing to gulliver, but it wasquite useless to say anything. the farmer lived not far from a big town,and next market-day off he set on horseback, with glumdalclitch sitting behind him on apillion (which is a sort of pad fixed behind the saddle).glumdalclitch carried gulliver with her in a box, which she had lined with a thick quiltfrom the baby's bed. there was a little door for him to go in and out by, and there wereholes bored for air; but it was a most uncomfortable journey. the horse went nearly forty feetat each step, and gulliver was dreadfully
bumped about and shaken in his box, and hefelt very sick. it was worse than going to sea for the first time.at the inn where they stopped, the farmer hired a large room. then he sent the towncrier round with his bell to give notice to the people that "a most wonderful little creaturehad been picked up, and was to be seen at the "green eagle" inn, a creature lookinglike a human being and able to speak a few words, and which could perform a hundred funnytricks." gulliver felt that he was being treated with as little respect as if he had been amonkey. the old miser was right. people flocked inhundreds to see him, and the crowd became so large that the farmer refused at last toallow more than thirty people in the room
at one time. even then, their curiosity wasso great that he had to make with benches a kind of fence round the table on which gulliverwent through his performances. over and over, hour after hour, he had to let the spectatorssee him go through cutlass drill with his hanger, till he was almost dead from fatigue.but there was little rest now for gulliver, even when at the farmer's house. people, withtheir families, came from hundreds of miles around to see him, and for each set of peoplethere was the same weary performance, bowing to the audience, saying in their own tongue,"ladies and gentlemen you are very welcome," then drawing his hanger, and going throughhis cutlass drill. it was very weary work, and the close air of the crowded rooms beganto tell on gulliver's health.
but so much money did his master make by theseperformances, and by those on market-days, that he now made up his mind to take gulliverto the capital of the country, a city three thousand miles away, to exhibit him there.they started on horseback in the same way they had gone to the market town, glumdalclitchsitting on a pillion behind her father. but this time she had a better box for gulliver,comfortably padded inside, and with a bed in it for him to lie on. this she strappedround her waist. at every town and village that they passedthrough, gulliver had to give an exhibition, so that by the time the city was reached hewas little better than a skeleton, quite worn out with the hard work and the constant bumpingabout whilst they travelled.
but the more money the fanner made out ofhim, the more he wanted to get. at last gulliver grew so thin that his master feared that hewas certainly going to die. this would be a very serious loss, and the man began towonder if it might not be possible to sell him to some one else whilst he was not yettoo ill to move about. it happened just at this time, after gulliverhad been shown a few times in the city, that the queen of the country, having heard ofhim from some of the court ladies, sent a message commanding the farmer to bring himto the palace. her majesty, when she saw him, was charmed with his looks and manners, andasked him if he would be content to live at court.gulliver bowed very low, and most politely
answered that if it were left to himself,nothing could make him more proud than to devote his life to the service of so beautifula lady. the queen was greatly pleased, and at once asked his master if he would careto sell. the farmer cunningly replied that he was avery poor man, as her majesty could see, and that to part with gulliver would mean theloss of his chief means of living. if, however, her most gracious majesty wanted to buy, hewould sell, to her, for no more than one thousand pieces of gold.the bargain was quickly made, and it was also arranged that glumdalclitch was to remainin the queen's service, in order to take care of gulliver. then the farmer, thinking thatgulliver could not live a month, went away
full of joy at having made so good a bargain.after this there was rest, and gulliver very quickly regained his health.many were the disputes between the learned men of the country as to what gulliver reallywas, and how he had lived before being picked up by the farmer. he was too feeble, theysaid, to defend himself against the attacks of wild animals; too slow of foot to catcheven field-mice for his food. yet his teeth showed that he was a flesh-eating animal.how then had he lived? some argued that his chief food had been snails,and various insects. but this idea was rejected with scorn by other scholars, and the quarreldid not seem likely soon to end. each side thought the arguments of the otherto be hardly worth answering, and their own
side of the question to be unanswerable. onbut one point could they agree, and this was that certainly gulliver was not a dwarf, becausethe queen's favourite dwarf, who was by far the smallest that had ever been known in thecountry, was quite thirty feet in height, whilst this little creature was barely six.to gulliver's own explanation of where he came from, they scarcely listened; they onlysmiled with contempt. "it was absurd," they said; "quite impossible." finally, they gaveit as their opinion that he was a freak of nature. end of chapter 2 of part 2chapter 3 gulliver's life at court, and some of theaccidents that befell him
the king, however, was inclined to believethat what gulliver said might have some truth in it. he had begun to take much interestin the little creature that the queen had bought, and he requested her majesty to giveorders that the greatest care should be taken in attending to all his wants.the queen's cabinet-maker was set to make a box for him to live in, and in three weekshe finished a very neat little affair, with two windows and a door. the ceiling, or roof,could be raised on hinges. into this little room were put a bed, some chairs, a table,and a little cabinet for his clothes, all so small as to be looked on as toys. the roomwas quilted all over, ceiling and floor and walls, so that there might be no danger ofan accident when he was carried about in it.
from this time onward, gulliver was a greatfavourite with all the members of the royal family, and at meals his little table andchair were always set on the queen's own table, near her left hand.but for all these marks of favour he had to pay. the queen's dwarf became jealous of theattention that was shown to gulliver, and constantly played spiteful and nasty trickson him, for which, of course, gulliver was too small to take any revenge, except by meansof his tongue. often he made the dwarf perfectly furious by the things he said, for, like mostdwarfs, this one had a very irritable temper, which was easily roused. he could not bearto be laughed at. one day, at dinner, the dwarf was so angeredby some remark made by gulliver that he jumped
up on the frame of the queen's chair, seizedgulliver by the middle, before any one could interfere, dropped him into a bowl of cream,and then ran away. gulliver struck out, but the cream was so thick that it was hardlypossible for him to swim in it, and when he struggled to the side, choking and spitting,the bowl was so smooth and slippery that there was nothing to hold on by, and he was liketo drown. for the queen was so frightened that she lost her head, and instead of snatchinghim out, only screamed. luckily, glumdalclitch was not far off, and she saved him, but notbefore he had swallowed nearly a quart of cream. for this trick the dwarf got a soundthrashing, and was made to drink up all the cream in which gulliver had swum.another day the dwarf played him a particularly
nasty trick. the queen was very fond of marrow-bones,and had had one for supper. she knocked out the marrow, and had stood the bone on itsend in her plate. the dwarf watched his chance. when no one was looking, and glumdalclitchhad gone to the sideboard, he jumped on to the stool on which she usually stood whenattending gulliver at meals, took him up in both hands, and squeezing his feet together,thrust him into the marrow-bone as far as he could go, and there left him.at the moment no one noticed, and gulliver was too proud to cry out. there he stuck inthe bone for some time, struggling vainly to get out. luckily the marrow that remainedwas not very hot, but his clothes were completely spoiled. what hurt him, however, was the factthat everybody laughed loud and long at this
trick, because he looked so ridiculous stickingout at the end of the bone. after this the queen got rid of the dwarf.it was feared that he might some time really injure gulliver.as summer drew on, the flies, always troublesome in that country, became a perfect pest togulliver, especially when he was at meals. these flies were nearly as big as larks, andthey swarmed over his food, buzzed about his ears till they nearly drove him crazy, andsometimes they bit him. he was for ever slashing at them with his knife, till the queen madejokes on the subject, and asked if all his countrymen were afraid of flies.one fine hot morning, it chanced that glumdalclitch had put gulliver's box on the window-sill,in order that he might have more air. he had
opened the windows of his room, and it happenedthat on a plate on his table there was a large piece of sweet cake. this attracted wasps,and they came swarming in by the open window, as big as partridges, and humming louder thanbag-pipes. some carried off lumps of his cake, whilst others buzzed around his head tillhe was terrified lest they should sting. four dead wasps he cut down and stamped ontill they were dead. at last, in a sort of frenzy, he drew hissword and attacked them. four he cut down, and stamped on till they were dead; the otherswere driven out by the windows. gulliver had the curiosity to take out the stings of thesewasps and measure them. they were nearly one and a half inches in length. some of themhe afterwards brought home to england, where
they were long preserved in a museum at cambridgeuniversity. whilst he was attached to the court, gulliversaw much of the country in which he now found himself. it was called brobdingnag, and thecapital of the kingdom, the city in which he lived, lorbrulgrud.it was the custom of the king to visit even the most distant parts of his dominions, butthe queen, whom gulliver always attended, never went further with the king than abouttwo thousand miles from the capital. brobdingnag, gulliver learned, is a greatpeninsula, whose communication with the rest of the world is cut off by a range of mightymountains, many miles high, and which are impossible to cross because of terrible volcanoes.as there are in the kingdom no seaports, the
people of brobdingnag had no dealings withthe outside world, and were ignorant that any other nations lived on the earth.there are many great rivers in this country, but outside the mouth of each river is a barof sand, which prevents vessels from ever coming nearer this land than gulliver's shiphad come. these rivers are full of huge fish, whichthe people eat, but they do not trouble to catch the fishes of the sea, for these arebut similar in size to european fish, and are thought to be too small to be fit forfood. sometimes, indeed, gulliver knew them to eata whale which had been cast ashore, but this was considered a coarse fish, and was seldomeaten except by the poorer people. hampers
of the smaller kinds of whale were sometimesbrought to market, but there was no great sale for them.for use on these journeys that he went with the queen, gulliver had another box built,somewhat smaller than the one in which he lived. he called it his travelling closet.it was square, with a window on each of three sides latticed with iron wire outside to preventthe risk of accident on a journey. on the fourth side two iron staples were fixed, throughwhich a belt was passed so that the box could be fastened round the waist of a person onhorseback. all his furniture in this room was screwed to the floor, and when in it atnight, he slept in a hammock slung between two of the sides.but travelling thus at its best was not a
great pleasure, though as long as there wasnot too much of it, his life was happy and contented enough, except for the fact thathis smallness, in that country of giant people and giant things, continually exposed himto accidents. many of these mishaps were absurd enough,though at the time to him they were very serious. there was one occasion when the dwarf, beforehe was sent away from court, seeing glumdalclitch carry gulliver into the garden, followed them.gulliver had been set down to have a walk, and the dwarf joined him.they were walking near some dwarf apple trees, and gulliver was foolish enough to make somesilly joke about these trees, which made the dwarf very angry. he said nothing, however,but watched his chance, and when gulliver
happened to be right under one of the trees,the dwarf seized hold of it and shook down a shower of the ripe fruit. one huge apple,as big as half a dozen foot-balls, struck gulliver between the shoulders and dashedhim violently to the ground, knocking all the breath out of his body. he was not badlyhurt, but had the apple struck him fair on the head the result must have been serious.another day, glumdalclitch left gulliver on a lawn in the garden, whilst she herself wentfor a walk with her governess. he was strolling about, thinking of home, and wondering ifever again he should see his wife and family, and he did not notice that the sky had darkenedand that clouds were breaking up. suddenly it began to hail, and before he couldget to shelter he was beaten to the earth
and badly bruised. for a time he lay wherehe had fallen, the hail scourging down, and cruelly hurting him. at last, with great difficultyhe crawled to the sheltered side of a border of lemon thyme, where he lay till glumdalclitchfound him. for many days after this gulliver had to stayin bed, so battered and bruised was he by the huge hailstones. in that country everythingis big in proportion, and hail-stones there are more than a thousand times the size ofhailstones in england. to be quite sure of this, gulliver measured and weighed some thatfell in another storm. many, indeed, were the accidents that befellhim. once when walking alone, he tripped and broke his shins badly over the shell of asnail, which he had not noticed in the grass.
and another day, having climbed to the topof a freshly-cast mole-hill, it suddenly gave way with him and he sank to his chin throughthe soft earth into the hole the mole had left. it was with difficulty that he scrambledout, with earth down his neck, and in all his pockets.even the thrushes and robins and linnets of brobdingnag were so large that they had nofear of gulliver, but would hop about within a yard of him, looking for worms and otherfood. once a thrush snatched a piece of cake out of his hand; and if ever he tried to catchany of the birds, even the smallest of them would turn and peck at his fingers.one day, however, with a thick stick he made a good shot at a linnet, and knocked it over.rushing up, he seized it round the neck and
dragged it off in triumph to glumdalclitch.but the bird was only stunned. quickly it recovered and began to struggle, buffetinghim on the head and body with its wings till he could not see, and held on to it only withgreat difficulty. he stuck to it, however, and one of the servants seeing the struggle,came up and wrung the linnet's neck. gulliver had it for dinner and supper next day andfound it very good eating. it was rather larger than an english swan.but one of the most unpleasant accidents that befell him, one which caused glumdalclitchto vow that never again would she allow him to go out of her sight, was this.the head gardener owned a small spaniel. though dogs were never allowed in the gardens, thisanimal one day managed to follow its master
in, unknown to him. gulliver had been carriedat that very time into the garden by glumdalclitch, and left by her where she imagined that hewould be perfectly safe. the dog, however, hunting about, came on hisscent, and following it up, soon pounced on him. luckily, it was a very well-broken andsoft-mouthed dog, and it carried him straight to its master, wagging its little stump ofa tail, and greatly pleased with itself. when the gardener saw gulliver set gentlyat his feet by the dog, he was horrified, for gulliver had lost all his breath, andfor some time could not stand up nor speak a word. the gardener feared that he must havebeen badly hurt by the dog's teeth, and that he himself would certainly lose his positionas head gardener.
the dog carried gulliver to its master. but there was no damage done whatever, evento his clothes, and for the sake of the gardener, who was his very good friend, gulliver askedglumdalclitch to say nothing about the matter. besides, to tell the truth, gulliver did notcare to be humiliated by hearing people laugh at him for having been carried about in adog's mouth. these are a few of the little accidents thathappened to him, but gulliver never told glumdalclitch how very narrow an escape he had from beingcaught by a large hawk, which one day swooped at him. if he had not struck at it with hissword, and then run under a tree, he would certainly have been carried off and eaten.end of part 2, chapter 3
gulliver is carried off by a monkey and hasa very narrow escape. he plays on the spinet to the king and queenit happened that the queen, who liked to hear gulliver talk about the sea, and about hisvoyages, one day asked him if he understood boat sailing, and if he did not think thata little rowing exercise would be good for his health. gulliver replied that he understoodboats very well, and that if such a thing were possible nothing would please him morethan to take boating exercise. but, he said, even if a boat small enoughfor him could be got, he did not think that she could live in the rushing rivers of brobdingnag.the queen replied that she could very easily find a place for him to sail in, if he wouldgive one of her workmen instructions how to
build the boat.in about ten days a most excellent skiff was finished, and fitted with mast and sail, andwith everything necessary for a pleasure boat. the queen was charmed when she saw it, andran with it in her lap to the king, who ordered it to be tried in a big cistern of water.but the tank was much too small; gulliver could not use his oars in it.the queen, however, had made her own plans. she had ordered a carpenter to make a woodentrough of over one hundred yards long, and nearly twenty broad. this was placed on thefloor, along one of the walls of an outer room in the palace, and two servants couldfill it in less than half an hour. the trough had a tap at one end by which it could bequickly emptied, so that the water need never
be allowed to grow dirty or stale.in this gulliver used to row about daily, to the great delight of the queen and theladies of the court, who often came to watch him. sometimes they would get him to hoisthis sail, and then with their fans they would make a breeze by means of which he could sailabout very pleasantly. but here, too, he was not free from accident.once when one of the court pages had put the boat in the water, glumdalclitch's governess,who was rather a clumsy-handed woman, lifted him up to put him on board, and by accidentdropped him. by the greatest good luck, as he fell, his waistband caught on a large-headedpin which stuck out from this lady's dress. otherwise he must have fallen forty feet onto the floor, and would probably have been
killed.another day, it chanced that one of the servants, when filling the trough, poured in with oneof the buckets of water a large frog. the animal was not seen by any one till gulliverwas sailing about in his boat, when the beast, wanting something to rest on (after the mannerof frogs), climbed up over one side of the boat, and would have certainly upset it ifgulliver had not thrown all his weight on to the other side. the frog jumped backwardsand forwards over gulliver several times, nearly smothering him, but with an oar hebanged it over the head till it jumped overboard. but perhaps the very narrowest of all gulliver'smany escapes was from a tame monkey which had escaped from its master. glumdalclitchhad left him in her room, sitting in the big
box in which he generally lived, and for greatersafety she had locked the door of her room. the day was very hot, and the windows of theroom were all open. gulliver was sitting thinking, when he hearda sound as if something had come through the window and was jumping about the room. cautiouslylooking out of the door of his box, he saw the brute, a huge monkey almost as bulky asan elephant, pulling things about, tearing to pieces everything it could lay its pawson, and skipping over tables and chairs, chattering to itself the while.at last it spied gulliver's box, and came and peeped in. gulliver hid behind the table,but his fright when the monkey put in its hand caused him to move, and the animal sawhim. had he hid at first under the bed, and
lain quite still, probably he would have escapedaltogether. but now the monkey made repeated snatches at him as he darted from place toplace in the room, at last catching him by the coat tails and dragging him out, strugglingvainly to escape, and clinging to everything that he could grasp.evidently the monkey imagined that gulliver was a young one of its own kind, for it beganto nurse him quite tenderly, gently stroking his face. but gulliver struggled, and thenthe monkey squeezed him so hard that he thought his ribs were breaking.whilst this was going on, there came a noise at the door as if some one were coming in;whereupon the monkey at once jumped out of the window, carrying gulliver with it in oneof its paws. the noise at the door was caused
by glumdalclitch coming in. no sooner didshe see what had happened than she set up such a screaming that soon the whole palacewas in an uproar. everybody rushed this way and that, bawlingout directions how best to catch the monkey. meanwhile the animal fled to the roof, whereit sat on the very highest part, stuffing gulliver's mouth full of nuts and all kindsof food which it took out of the bags inside its cheeks, patting him gently when it foundthat he did not eat. at this the people who were standing below in the court-yard watching,shrieked with laughter, though it was anything but funny for gulliver, who was nearly chokedwith the rubbish that the brute crammed into his mouth.presently some men got ladders long enough
to reach the roof, and as soon as the monkeysaw that it was likely to be caught, it dropped gulliver on the ridge tiles and fled, chattering.gulliver was now in a very terrifying position. the place to which he clung was not easy forthe men to reach, and the height from the ground was so great (almost nine hundred feet)that it made him giddy. the wind was blowing in strong gusts, and sometimes he feared thathe must let go and come rolling over and over, to be dashed to pieces on the flags of thecourtyard. one of the footmen, however, managed to climbup, and putting gulliver in his pocket, got him down in safety. but so badly bruised washe by the squeezing the monkey had given him that he was forced to lie in bed for someweeks. by the queen's orders the animal was
killed.great sympathy was shown to gulliver by every one at court, and many were the inquiriesmade during his illness. but when he was again well, the king was quite unable to keep fromasking him sly questions:—how he liked the monkey's way of feeding; what he thought ofthe food that monkeys ate; and whether the fresh air on the roof had not given him agood appetite. gulliver did not take this kind of fun verywell. clapping his hand on the hilt of his sword, and looking very fierce, and, as heimagined, very dignified, he answered that if he had had that sword by his side at thetime, he would soon have taught the monkey a lesson that it would not readily have for-gotten.this he said in a very loud and determined
tone, thinking to show how brave he reallywas, but with the sole result that everybody, from the king downward, roared with laughter.the royal family of brobdingnag were great patrons of music, and frequent concerts weregiven at court by the king's band. to gulliver the noise was so great as to be quite deafening,and he found it impossible to follow the tunes. the only way in which he could listen withany degree of pleasure was to have his box placed at the far end of the great concertroom, then to get inside, close the door and windows, and draw the curtains. in this waythe noise was tolerable. but he often wished that he could treat the king and queen tosome real english music. it happened that in glumdalclitch's room therewas a spinet (which is a kind of old-fashioned
piano), on which her governess used dailyto give glumdalclitch lessons. gulliver had learned in his boyhood to play upon an englishspinet, and it struck him that he might manage to knock out a tune on the instrument in glumdalclitch'sroom. but the difficulty was great, for the spinetwas sixty feet in length, and each key was a foot wide, so that gulliver could not, fromone place cover more than five keys. moreover, to get any sound out of them, it was necessaryto give a hard bang with his fist. this meant much work, with little result, and he setabout planning how he might get over the difficulty. he made a couple of strong and very heavydrumsticks, the thick ends of which he covered with the skin of a mouse, so that he mightthump the keys without damaging them. then
he had a bench fixed along the front of thespinet, about four feet below the keys. on this bench he was placed, and by running asfast as he could from side to side, banging on the keys with his drumsticks, he was ableafter some practice to play something that he told the king was an english jig. the kingand queen were polite enough to say that they enjoyed it very much.but gulliver found that the exercise was too violent and exhausting, and he did not givemany performances, which, perhaps, was fortunate. the king might have got tired if he had goneon too long. the people of brobdingnag were not great readers,though the art of printing was known to them. even the king's library, which was the largestin the country, did not hold more than a thousand
volumes. after gulliver had learned the language,he used to go very often to this library, where a carpenter had made for him a widekind of step-ladder, about twenty-five feet high, on which he could stand at any levelhe pleased, and on which there was room to walk backwards and forwards eight or ten paces.when gulliver wished to read one of the books, the librarian had orders to prop it againstthe wall, and place the step-ladder so that the lowest step was about ten feet distantfrom the book. then gulliver would mount to the top of his ladder, and so, walking backwardsand forwards and coming gradually down, he would read a page. with both hands he wouldthen turn the leaf. this was easy to do even when the book was as high as twenty feet,for the paper was not much thicker than paste-board.
then he would again mount to the top stepof his ladder, and so continue his studies. in this way he got through a great deal ofreading. thus he learned much of the history of brobdingnag,and made acquaintance with their traditions. of these, one, he found, was that the presentinhabitants of the country, big as they were in his eyes, were but pigmies compared towhat they had been in former ages. this was proved, said the books by the huge bones andskulls which were constantly being dug up in various parts of the kingdom.about this time gulliver had broken his pocket-comb, and he had nothing wherewith to comb his hair,nor could he find anything with which to repair the comb. at last he went to the king's barberone day after the man had shaved his majesty,
and he asked for some of the lather whichthe barber had scraped off the king's face. from this he picked out about forty of thestrongest bristles. these were both long and strong, for the king did not shave oftenerthan twice a week. gulliver then took a bit of fine wood, and shaped it like the backof a comb. in this he bored holes with a needle that glumdalclitch lent him, and in the holeshe fixed the stumps of the king's beard. when they had been whittled and scraped to a point,this made a most useful comb, which he used during all the time he remained in brobdingnag.afterwards he took it back with him to england. end of part 2, chapter 4 gulliver's last days in brobdingnag, and howhe got away
gulliver had now been in brobdingnag for nearlytwo years, and he had become quite used to the people and to their ways. nor was he oftenunhappy. yet he did not quite give up hope that someday he should again see england, though how this great good fortune was to come to himhe could not foresee. the ship in which he had come was the first that had ever beenknown to be driven within sight of that coast, and it was not likely that another would soonappear. moreover, if one should ever be seen, the king had given strict orders that it wasat once to be taken out of the water, and, with all its crew and passengers, broughtto him. he was most anxious that gulliver should,if possible, marry some woman of his own size
and nation, and should settle in brobdingnag,and it did not seem to concern the king that gulliver already had a wife at home.gulliver, however, felt that he would rather die than leave children to be carried aboutthe country in cages, like so many canary-birds, or perhaps to be sold to rich persons as curiosities.so he began again to weary for a chance of escape, and a great yearning to see the wifeand children he had left in england came over him. he longed to see, and once more to speakto, people of his own size; to walk in fields or streets without fear of being trodden underfoot by some huge mountain of a man. and at last there came deliverance from hisbondage in a very surprising way. the king and queen made a journey to the southcoast of the country, and as was always the
case in their shorter journeys, gulliver andglumdalclitch were taken with them. in preparation for this journey, gulliver had some alterationsand improvements made in his box, one of which was a sliding window in the roof, which hecould open at pleasure, so as to give him more air when the weather was hot. he hadalso had a silken hammock slung from corner to corner, so that he might sleep with lessdiscomfort when his box was strapped to a servant's waist during a journey.but in spite of these improvements, when the end of their journey to the coast was reached,gulliver was very tired, and he had, besides, caught a feverish cold.a great longing came over him once more to look on the ocean, for that way lay home.he pretended that his cold was worse than
it really was, and he said that if they wouldbut carry him down to the sea-shore he thought the air would do him good.glumdalclitch at this time was also unwell, and was thus unable herself to carry him,so she handed him and his box to a page, telling him, with tears, to be very careful. the boycarried him to the shore and set the box down. there gulliver sat, gazing wistfully acrossthe yellow sand and over the rocks to the great cape that lay dim in the distance, whilsthis thoughts travelled far over the sea to his home and all that he feared he had lostfor ever. feeling very depressed and out of spirits,he told the page that he meant to have a sleep in his hammock, and as soon as he had goneinto his box the boy shut down the window
in the roof, and probably went off bird-nesting.gulliver never knew exactly what happened. he had not been long asleep when he was awakenedby a violent jerk at his box, followed by the feeling that he was being carried throughthe air at great speed. there was no bumping, after the first jerk; the motion was quitesmooth. gulliver called out at the top of his voice,several times, but got no answer. he rushed to one of the windows, but from there couldsee nothing but clouds and sky. overhead there was the continual sound ofthe beat of wings. then he guessed that whilst the page was away, some huge eagle must haveswooped down and picked up his box by the ring on top.soon the noise of the wings became louder
and quicker, and the box began to be tossedup and down so violently that he had to cling to his hammock. then two or three furiousbangs, as if the eagle that had carried him off were being attacked by another, and suddenlyhe felt himself falling, falling, down, down, down. a minute of horrible suspense, a sickeningcrash; then darkness. after a few seconds, the light came back,and he found that his box was floating in the sea, right side up. the iron plates onthe bottom, and the weight of his body and of the various things in his room, kept thebox floating at a depth sufficient to prevent it upsetting. but the woodwork had been strainedwhen the box pitched in the sea from so great a height, and the water began to ooze in.gulliver stopped the leaks in the sides and
bottom of the box fairly well, and the waternever got very deep inside. he slid open the window in the roof, to give himself more air,but try as he might, he could not climb out of the box on to the roof, and for hours hesat, feeling that in a very little time he must certainly be drowned, like a rat in acage. how he longed for glumdalclitch to come to his rescue.after many hours, when he had come almost to wish that the worst might happen, and anend be put to his misery and suspense, he heard a kind of grating noise on the sideof the box where the staples were fixed. this was followed by a tugging and a heeling overof the box, so that sometimes the water reached nearly to the top of the windows. what couldbe the reason, he wondered!
gulliver mounted on a chair, and having puthis handkerchief on the end of a stick, waved it out of the window in the roof, and shoutedas loud as he could. but all to no purpose. still the feeling continued that the box wasmoving. the water seemed to slide slowly past the windows, and presently the box bumpedagainst something hard, and was tossed about a good deal. then again came the sound asof a cable being passed through an iron ring, and gulliver felt as if his house was beingraised out of the water; the sea no longer washed against the windows."help!" shouted gulliver, and again waved his handkerchief through the hole in the roof.this time there was an answer. "below! ahoy!" roared a voice. it was a joyful sound to gulliver.english words met his ears once more!
the owner of the voice told him that he wasquite safe, and alongside a british ship. the carpenter was coming to saw a hole bywhich he could be got out. "there is no need for that," said gulliver."just tell one of your crew to put his finger in the ring at top, and lift the box out ofthe sea, and carry it into the captain's cabin. it will be quite easy to raise the lid then."it never occurred to gulliver that he was no longer in brobdingnag; that he was nowamongst people of his own size. presently the carpenter came and cut a largehole in the roof, down which a ladder was put. gulliver climbed out, feeling very weakand shaken. his box was alongside a large ship, the crew of which had been trying, bymeans of the capstan and a hawser rove from
the end of one of the yard-arms, to hoistthe box on deck. he was taken on board, and the captain seeinghis condition, and, like all the crew, believing from his way of speaking that he was mad,gave him brandy and made him lie down in his own cabin.after a long sleep, gulliver went on deck, where he found that the crew of the ship hadgot all his property out of the box, and after breaking up as many of its timbers as theycould use on board, had let the remainder float astern, where it had now sunk.a good supper did much to improve gulliver's condition. whey they were alone, the captainasked him by what accident he came to be adrift at sea in that huge chest. he also said thatabout noon that day he had noticed something
floating in the sea a long way from the ship,and that he had sent a boat to discover what it was. the men, however, when they foundthat it was a floating house, were afraid to touch it, and had returned to ship.the captain had then himself gone in the boat, and had been rowed several times round thebox, and had finally ordered the men to pass a hawser through the staples in the side andtow it alongside his ship. there they had noticed his handkerchief waved from the holein the roof and had heard his shout. gulliver asked whether he or any of the crewhad seen one or more enormous birds flying in the air about the time that the box wasfirst sighted. three eagles, the captain said, had been seen by one of the crew, but theywere no larger than is usual.
"how far are we from land?" then asked gulliver.to which the captain replied that to the best of his reckoning they were at least threehundred miles from the nearest coast. gulliver assured him that this must be a mistake, forwhen he dropped into the sea it was not more than two hours from the time when he leftthe land. whereupon the captain looked very gravely at him, and advised him to go backto bed. he thought gulliver was raving. then gulliver told the captain all his story,from the time he had last left england. the captain stared very hard, without saying anything.but when gulliver showed him various things that he had brought away from brobdingnag,—thecomb made from the bristles of the king's beard; a collection of pins, each about afoot long; some wasps" stings; combings from
the queen's hair; a gold ring from her fingerwhich she had one day thrown over gulliver's neck; and other things (including his breeches,which were made from the skin of a mouse), the captain could no longer help believingthat he heard only the truth. gulliver offered him the gold ring, but thecaptain would accept nothing but a tooth which a doctor had drawn from the jaw of one ofthe queen's footmen in mistake for a decayed one in which the man had toothache. the captainhad taken a great fancy to this tooth, which was about a foot long and four inches in thickness.nine months after gulliver came on board, the ship reached england. but it was longere he became accustomed to the small size of the people at home. indeed, when firsthe landed, more than once he got into serious
quarrels by calling out to persons whom hesaw coming towards him, "hi! get out of the way!""get out of the way yourself," they answered. and then there was trouble.to gulliver they looked so small, after being for years used to see only brobdingnagians,that he could not rid his mind of the fear that he might crush them under his feet.his whole conduct was so strange, that at first even his wife and daughter thought thathe was mad. but soon he fell into his old ways, and beforehe went away again from home he was quite like other people.these are not the only voyages that gulliver made. he saw afterwards many other surprisingthings, but about these you may learn later.
end of part 2, chapter 5end of gulliver's travels in lilliput and brobdingnag, told to the childrenby john lang
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