rights. And, indeed, I was glad not to have been a spectator of the
havoc they made, because I am confident it would have sensibly
touched me, by bringing former passages into my mind, which I
would rather have forgot.
I slept some hours, but perpetually disturbed with dreams of the
place I had left, and the dangers I had escaped. However, upon
waking, I found myself much recovered. It was now about eight
o'clock at night, and the captain ordered supper immediately,
thinking I had already fasted too long. He entertained me with
great kindness, observing me not to look wildly, or talk
inconsistently: and, when we were left alone, desired I would give
him a relation of my travels, and by what accident I came to be set
adrift, in that monstrous wooden chest. He said "that about twelve
o'clock at noon, as he was looking through his glass, he spied it at
a distance, and thought it was a sail, which he had a mind to make,
being not much out of his course, in hopes of buying some biscuit,.
his own beginning to fall short. That upon coming nearer, and
finding his error, he sent out his long-boat to discover what it was;
that his men came back in a fright, swearing they had seen a
swimming house. That he laughed at their folly, and went himself
in the boat, ordering his men to take a strong cable along with
them. That the weather being calm, he rowed round me several
times, observed my windows and wire lattices that defended
them. That he discovered two staples upon one side, which was all
of boards, without any passage for light. He then commanded his
men to row up to that side, and fastening a cable to one of the
staples, ordered them to tow my chest, as they called it, toward the
ship. When it was there, he gave directions to fasten another cable
to the ring fixed in the cover, and to raise up my chest with
pulleys, which all the sailors were not able to do above two or
three feet." He said, "they saw my stick and handkerchief thrust
out of the hole, and concluded that some unhappy man must be
shut up in the cavity." I asked, "whether he or the crew had seen
any prodigious birds in the air, about the time he first discovered
me." To which he answered, that discoursing this matter with the
sailors while I was asleep, one of them said, he had observed three
eagles flying towards the north, but remarked nothing of their
being larger than the usual size:" which I suppose must be
imputed to the great height they were at; and he could not guess
the reason of my question. I then asked the captain, "how far he
reckoned we might be from land?" He said, "by the best
computation he could make, we were at least a hundred leagues."
I assured him, "that he must be mistaken by almost half, for I had
not left the country whence I came above two hours before I
dropped into the sea." Whereupon he began again to think that my.
brain was disturbed, of which he gave me a hint, and advised me
to go to bed in a cabin he had provided. I assured him, "I was well
refreshed with his good entertainment and company, and as much
in my senses as ever I was in my life." He then grew serious, and
desired to ask me freely, "whether I were not troubled in my mind
by the consciousness of some enormous crime, for which I was
punished, at the command of some prince, by exposing me in that
chest; as great criminals, in other countries, have been forced to
sea in a leaky vessel, without provisions: for although he should
be sorry to have taken so ill a man into his ship, yet he would
engage his word to set me safe ashore, in the first port where we
arrived." He added, "that his suspicions were much increased by
some very absurd speeches I had delivered at first to his sailors,
and afterwards to himself, in relation to my closet or chest, as well
as by my odd looks and behaviour while I was at supper."
I begged his patience to hear me tell my story, which I faithfully
did, from the last time I left England, to the moment he first
discovered me. And, as truth always forces its way into rational
minds, so this honest worthy gentleman, who had some tincture of
learning, and very good sense, was immediately convinced of my
candour and veracity. But further to confirm all I had said, I
entreated him to give order that my cabinet should be brought, of
which I had the key in my pocket; for he had already informed me
how the seamen disposed of my closet. I opened it in his own
presence, and showed him the small collection of rarities I made
in the country from which I had been so strangely delivered.
There was the comb I had contrived out of the stumps of the king's
beard, and another of the same materials, but fixed into a paring of.
her majesty's thumb-nail, which served for the back. There was a
collection of needles and pins, from a foot to half a yard long; four
wasp stings, like joiner's tacks; some combings of the queen's
hair; a gold ring, which one day she made me a present of, in a
most obliging manner, taking it from her little finger, and
throwing it over my head like a collar. I desired the captain would
please to accept this ring in return for his civilities; which he
absolutely refused. I showed him a corn that I had cut off with my
own hand, from a maid of honour's toe; it was about the bigness of
Kentish pippin, and grown so hard, that when I returned England,
I got it hollowed into a cup, and set in silver. Lastly, I desired him
to see the breeches I had then on, which were made of a mouse's
skin.
I could force nothing on him but a footman's tooth, which I
observed him to examine with great curiosity, and found he had a
fancy for it. He received it with abundance of thanks, more than
such a trifle could deserve. It was drawn by an unskilful surgeon,
in a mistake, from one of Glumdalclitch's men, who was afflicted
with the tooth-ache, but it was as sound as any in his head. I got it
cleaned, and put it into my cabinet. It was about a foot long, and
four inches in diameter.
The captain was very well satisfied with this plain relation I had
given him, and said, "he hoped, when we returned to England, I
would oblige the world by putting it on paper, and making it
public." My answer was, "that we were overstocked with books of
travels: that nothing could now pass which was not extraordinary;
wherein I doubted some authors less consulted truth, than their.
own vanity, or interest, or the diversion of ignorant readers; that
my story could contain little beside common events, without those
ornamental descriptions of strange plants, trees, birds, and other
animals; or of the barbarous customs and idolatry of savage
people, with which most writers abound. However, I thanked him
for his good opinion, and promised to take the matter into my
thoughts."
He said "he wondered at one thing very much, which was, to hear
me speak so loud;" asking me "whether the king or queen of that
country were thick of hearing?" I told him, "it was what I had
been used to for above two years past, and that I admired as much
at the voices of him and his men, who seemed to me only to
whisper, and yet I could hear them well enough. But, when I
spoke in that country, it was like a man talking in the streets, to
another looking out from the top of a steeple, unless when I was
placed on a table, or held in any person's hand." I told him, "I had
likewise observed another thing, that, when I first got into the
ship, and the sailors stood all about me, I thought they were the
most little contemptible creatures I had ever beheld." For indeed,
while I was in that prince's country, I could never endure to look
in a glass, after mine eyes had been accustomed to such
prodigious objects, because the comparison gave me so
despicable a conceit of myself. The captain said, "that while we
were at supper, he observed me to look at every thing with a sort
of wonder, and that I often seemed hardly able to contain my
laughter, which he knew not well how to take, but imputed it to
some disorder in my brain." I answered, "it was very true; and I
wondered how I could forbear, when I saw his dishes of the size.
of a silver three-pence, a leg of pork hardly a mouthful, a cup not
so big as a nut-shell;" and so I went on, describing the rest of his
household-stuff and provisions, after the same manner. For,
although he queen had ordered a little equipage of all things
necessary for me, while I was in her service, yet my ideas were
wholly taken up with what I saw on every side of me, and I
winked at my own littleness, as people do at their own faults. The
captain understood my raillery very well, and merrily replied with
the old English proverb, "that he doubted mine eyes were bigger
than my belly, for he did not observe my stomach so good,
although I had fasted all day;" and, continuing in his mirth,
protested "he would have gladly given a hundred pounds, to have
seen my closet in the eagle's bill, and afterwards in its fall from so
great a height into the sea; which would certainly have been a
most astonishing object, worthy to have the description of it
transmitted to future ages:" and the comparison of Phaeton was so
obvious, that he could not forbear applying it, although I did not
much admire the conceit.
The captain having been at Tonquin, was, in his return to England,
driven north-eastward to the latitude of 44 degrees, and longitude
of 143. But meeting a trade-wind two days after I came on board
him, we sailed southward a long time, and coasting New Holland,
kept our course west-south-west, and then south-south-west, till
we doubled the Cape of Good Hope. Our voyage was very
prosperous, but I shall not trouble the reader with a journal of it.
The captain called in at one or two ports, and sent in his long-boat
for provisions and fresh water; but I never went out of the ship till
we came into the Downs, which was on the third day of June,.
1706, about nine months after my escape. I offered to leave my
goods in security for payment of my freight: but the captain
protested he would not receive one farthing. We took a kind leave
of each other, and I made him promise he would come to see me
at my house in Redriff. I hired a horse and guide for five shillings,
which I borrowed of the captain.
As I was on the road, observing the littleness of the houses, the
trees, the cattle, and the people, I began to think myself in Lilliput.
I was afraid of trampling on every traveller I met, and often called
aloud to have them stand out of the way, so that I had like to have
gotten one or two broken heads for my impertinence.
When I came to my own house, for which I was forced to inquire,
one of the servants opening the door, I bent down to go in, (like a
goose under a gate,) for fear of striking my head. My wife run out
to embrace me, but I stooped lower than her knees, thinking she
could otherwise never be able to reach my mouth. My daughter
kneeled to ask my blessing, but I could not see her till she arose,
having been so long used to stand with my head and eyes erect to
above sixty feet; and then I went to take her up with one hand by
the waist. I looked down upon the servants, and one or two friends
who were in the house, as if they had been pigmies and I a giant. I
told my wife, "she had been too thrifty, for I found she had starved
herself and her daughter to nothing." In short, I behaved myself so
unaccountably, that they were all of the captain's opinion when he
first saw me, and concluded I had lost my wits. This I mention as
an instance of the great power of habit and prejudice..
In a little time, I and my family and friends came to a right
understanding: but my wife protested "I should never go to sea
any more;" although my evil destiny so ordered, that she had not
power to hinder me, as the reader may know hereafter. In the
mean time, I here conclude the second part of my unfortunate
voyages..
[The author sets out on his third voyage. Is taken by pirates. The
malice of a Dutchman. His arrival at an island. He is received into
Laputa.]
I had not been at home above ten days, when Captain William
Robinson, a Cornish man, commander of the Hopewell, a stout
ship of three hundred tons, came to my house. I had formerly been
surgeon of another ship where he was master, and a fourth part
owner, in a voyage to the Levant. He had always treated me more
like a brother, than an inferior officer; and, hearing of my arrival,
made me a visit, as I apprehended only out of friendship, for
nothing passed more than what is usual after long absences. But
repeating his visits often, expressing his joy to find I me in good
health, asking, "whether I were now settled for life?" adding, "that
he intended a voyage to the East Indies in two months," at last he
plainly invited me, though with some apologies, to be surgeon of
the ship; "that I should have another surgeon under me, beside our
two mates; that my salary should be double to the usual pay; and
that having experienced my knowledge in sea-affairs to be at least
equal to his, he would enter into any engagement to follow my
advice, as much as if I had shared in the command.".
He said so many other obliging things, and I knew him to be so
honest a man, that I could not reject this proposal; the thirst I had
of seeing the world, notwithstanding my past misfortunes,
continuing as violent as ever. The only difficulty that remained,
was to persuade my wife, whose consent however I at last
obtained, by the prospect of advantage she proposed to her
children.
We set out the 5th day of August, 1706, and arrived at Fort St.
George the 11th of April, 1707. We staid there three weeks to
refresh our crew, many of whom were sick. From thence we went
to Tonquin, where the captain resolved to continue some time,
because many of the goods he intended to buy were not ready, nor
could he expect to be dispatched in several months. Therefore, in
hopes to defray some of the charges he must be at, he bought a
sloop, loaded it with several sorts of goods, wherewith the
Tonquinese usually trade to the neighbouring islands, and putting
fourteen men on board, whereof three were of the country, he
appointed me master of the sloop, and gave me power to traffic,
while he transacted his affairs at Tonquin.
We had not sailed above three days, when a great storm arising,
we were driven five days to the north-north-east, and then to the
east: after which we had fair weather, but still with a pretty strong
gale from the west. Upon the tenth day we were chased by two
pirates, who soon overtook us; for my sloop was so deep laden,
that she sailed very slow, neither were we in a condition to defend
ourselves..
We were boarded about the same time by both the pirates, who
entered furiously at the head of their men; but finding us all
prostrate upon our faces (for so I gave order), they pinioned us
with strong ropes, and setting guard upon us, went to search the
sloop.
I observed among them a Dutchman, who seemed to be of some
authority, though he was not commander of either ship. He knew
us by our countenances to be Englishmen, and jabbering to us in
his own language, swore we should be tied back to back and
thrown into the sea. I spoken Dutch tolerably well; I told him who
we were, and begged him, in consideration of our being Christians
and Protestants, of neighbouring countries in strict alliance, that
he would move the captains to take some pity on us. This
inflamed his rage; he repeated his threatenings, and turning to his
companions, spoke with great vehemence in the Japanese
language, as I suppose, often using the word CHRISTIANOS.
The largest of the two pirate ships was commanded by a Japanese
captain, who spoke a little Dutch, but very imperfectly. He came
up to me, and after several questions, which I answered in great
humility, he said, "we should not die." I made the captain a very
low bow, and then, turning to the Dutchman, said, "I was sorry to
find more mercy in a heathen, than in a brother christian." But I
had soon reason to repent those foolish words:
for that malicious reprobate, having often endeavoured in vain to
persuade both the captains that I might be thrown into the sea
(which they would not yield to, after the promise made me that I.
should not die), however, prevailed so far, as to have a
punishment inflicted on me, worse, in all human appearance, than
death itself. My men were sent by an equal division into both the
pirate ships, and my sloop new manned. As to myself, it was
determined that I should be set adrift in a small canoe, with
paddles and a sail, and four days' provisions; which last, the
Japanese captain was so kind to double out of his own stores, and
would permit no man to search me. I got down into the canoe,
while the Dutchman, standing upon the deck, loaded me with all
the curses and injurious terms his language could afford.
About an hour before we saw the pirates I had taken an
observation, and found we were in the latitude of 46 N. and
longitude of 183. When I was at some distance from the pirates, I
discovered, by my pocket-glass, several islands to the south-east. I
set up my sail, the wind being fair, with a design to reach the
nearest of those islands, which I made a shift to do, in about three
hours. It was all rocky: however I got many birds' eggs; and,
striking fire, I kindled some heath and dry sea-weed, by which I
roasted my eggs. I ate no other supper, being resolved to spare my
provisions as much as I could. I passed the night under the shelter
of a rock, strewing some heath under me, and slept pretty well.
The next day I sailed to another island, and thence to a third and
fourth, sometimes using my sail, and sometimes my paddles. But,
not to trouble the reader with a particular account of my
distresses, let it suffice, that on the fifth day I arrived at the last
island in my sight, which lay south-south-east to the former..
This island was at a greater distance than I expected, and I did not
reach it in less than five hours. I encompassed it almost round,
before I could find a convenient place to land in; which was a
small creek, about three times the wideness of my canoe. I found
the island to be all rocky, only a little intermingled with tufts of
grass, and sweet-smelling herbs. I took out my small provisions
and after having refreshed myself, I secured the remainder in a
cave, whereof there were great numbers; I gathered plenty of eggs
upon the rocks, and got a quantity of dry sea-weed, and parched
grass, which I designed to kindle the next day, and roast my eggs
as well as I could, for I had about me my flint, steel, match, and
burning-glass. I lay all night in the cave where I had lodged my
provisions. My bed was the same dry grass and sea-weed which I
intended for fuel. I slept very little, for the disquiets of my mind
prevailed over my weariness, and kept me awake. I considered
how impossible it was to preserve my life in so desolate a place,
and how miserable my end must be: yet found myself so listless
and desponding, that I had not the heart to rise; and before I could
get spirits enough to creep out of my cave, the day was far
advanced. I walked awhile among the rocks: the sky was perfectly
clear, and the sun so hot, that I was forced to turn my face from it:
when all on a sudden it became obscure, as I thought, in a manner
very different from what happens by the interposition of a cloud. I
turned back, and perceived a vast opaque body between me and
the sun moving forwards towards the island: it seemed to be about
two miles high, and hid the sun six or seven minutes; but I did not
observe the air to be much colder, or the sky more darkened, than
if I had stood under the shade of a mountain. As it approached
nearer over the place where I was, it appeared to be a firm.
substance, the bottom flat, smooth, and shining very bright, from
the reflection of the sea below. I stood upon a height about two
hundred yards from the shore, and saw this vast body descending
almost to a parallel with me, at less than an English mile distance.
I took out my pocket perspective, and could plainly discover
numbers of people moving up and down the sides of it, which
appeared to be sloping; but what those people where doing I was
not able to distinguish.
The natural love of life gave me some inward motion of joy, and I
was ready to entertain a hope that this adventure might, some way
or other, help to deliver me from the desolate place and condition
I was in. But at the same time the reader can hardly conceive my
astonishment, to behold an island in the air, inhabited by men,
who were able (as it should seem) to raise or sink, or put it into
progressive motion, as they pleased. But not being at that time in a
disposition to philosophise upon this phenomenon, I rather chose
to observe what course the island would take, because it seemed
for awhile to stand still. Yet soon after, it advanced nearer, and I
could see the sides of it encompassed with several gradations of
galleries, and stairs, at certain intervals, to descend from one to
the other. In the lowest gallery, I beheld some people fishing with
long angling rods, and others looking on. I waved my cap (for my
hat was long since worn out) and my handkerchief toward the
island; and upon its nearer approach, I called and shouted with the
utmost strength of my voice; and then looking circumspectly, I
beheld a crowd gather to that side which was most in my view. I
found by their pointing towards me and to each other, that they
plainly discovered me, although they made no return to my.
shouting. But I could see four or five men running in great haste,
up the stairs, to the top of the island, who then disappeared. I
happened rightly to conjecture, that these were sent for orders to
some person in authority upon this occasion.
The number of people increased, and, in less than half all hour, the
island was moved and raised in such a manner, that the lowest
gallery appeared in a parallel of less then a hundred yards distance
from the height where I stood. I then put myself in the most
supplicating posture, and spoke in the humblest accent, but
received no answer. Those who stood nearest over against me,
seemed to be persons of distinction, as I supposed by their habit.
They conferred earnestly with each other, looking often upon me.
At length one of them called out in a clear, polite, smooth dialect,
not unlike in sound to the Italian: and therefore I returned an
answer in that language, hoping at least that the cadence might be
more agreeable to his ears. Although neither of us understood the
other, yet my meaning was easily known, for the people saw the
distress I was in.
They made signs for me to come down from the rock, and go
towards the shore, which I accordingly did; and the flying island
being raised to a convenient height, the verge directly over me, a
chain was let down from the lowest gallery, with a seat fastened to
the bottom, to which I fixed myself, and was drawn up by pulleys..
[The humours and dispositions of the Laputians described. An
account of their learning. Of the king and his court. The author's
reception there. The inhabitants subject to fear and disquietudes.
An account of the women.]
Ay my alighting, I was surrounded with a crowd of people, but
those who stood nearest seemed to be of better quality. They
beheld me with all the marks and circumstances of wonder;
neither indeed was I much in their debt, having never till then seen
a race of mortals so singular in their shapes, habits, and
countenances. Their heads were all reclined, either to the right, or
the left; one of their eyes turned inward, and the other directly up
to the zenith. Their outward garments were adorned with the
figures of suns, moons, and stars; interwoven with those of
fiddles, flutes, harps, trumpets, guitars, harpsichords, and many
other instruments of music, unknown to us in Europe. I observed,
here and there, many in the habit of servants, with a blown
bladder, fastened like a flail to the end of a stick, which they
carried in their hands. In each bladder was a small quantity of
dried peas, or little pebbles, as I was afterwards informed. With
these bladders, they now and then flapped the mouths and ears of
those who stood near them, of which practice I could not then
conceive the meaning. It seems the minds of these people are so.
taken up with intense speculations, that they neither can speak,
nor attend to the discourses of others, without being roused by
some external taction upon the organs of speech and hearing; for
which reason, those persons who are able to afford it always keep
a flapper (the original is CLIMENOLE) in their family, as one of
their domestics; nor ever walk abroad, or make visits, without
him. And the business of this officer is, when two, three, or more
persons are in company, gently to strike with his bladder the
mouth of him who is to speak, and the right ear of him or them to
whom the speaker addresses himself. This flapper is likewise
employed diligently to attend his master in his walks, and upon
occasion to give him a soft flap on his eyes; because he is always
so wrapped up in cogitation, that he is in manifest danger of
falling down every precipice, and bouncing his head against every
post; and in the streets, of justling others, or being justled himself
into the kennel.
It was necessary to give the reader this information, without
which he would be at the same loss with me to understand the
proceedings of these people, as they conducted me up the stairs to
the top of the island, and from thence to the royal palace. While
we were ascending, they forgot several times what they were
about, and left me to myself, till their memories were again roused
by their flappers; for they appeared altogether unmoved by the
sight of my foreign habit and countenance, and by the shouts of
the vulgar, whose thoughts and minds were more disengaged..
At last we entered the palace, and proceeded into the chamber of
presence, where I saw the king seated on his throne, attended on
each side by persons of prime quality. Before the throne, was a
large table filled with globes and spheres, and mathematical
instruments of all kinds. His majesty took not the least notice of
us, although our entrance was not without sufficient noise, by the
concourse of all persons belonging to the court. But he was then
deep in a problem; and we attended at least an hour, before he
could solve it. There stood by him, on each side, a young page
with flaps in their hands, and when they saw he was at leisure, one
of them gently struck his mouth, and the other his right ear; at
which he startled like one awaked on the sudden, and looking
towards me and the company I was in, recollected the occasion of
our coming, whereof he had been informed before. He spoke
some words, whereupon immediately a young man with a flap
came up to my side, and flapped me gently on the right ear; but I
made signs, as well as I could, that I had no occasion for such an
instrument; which, as I afterwards found, gave his majesty, and
the whole court, a very mean opinion of my understanding. The
king, as far as I could conjecture, asked me several questions, and
I addressed myself to him in all the languages I had. When it was
found I could neither understand nor be understood, I was
conducted by his order to an apartment in his palace (this prince
being distinguished above all his predecessors for his hospitality
to strangers), where two servants were appointed to attend me.
My dinner was brought, and four persons of quality, whom I
remembered to have seen very near the king's person, did me the
honour to dine with me. We had two courses, of three dishes each.
In the first course, there was a shoulder of mutton cut into an.
equilateral triangle, a piece of beef into a rhomboides, and a
pudding into a cycloid. The second course was two ducks trussed
up in the form of fiddles; sausages and puddings resembling flutes
and hautboys, and a breast of veal in the shape of a harp. The
servants cut our bread into cones, cylinders, parallelograms, and
several other mathematical figures.
While we were at dinner, I made bold to ask the names of several
things in their language, and those noble persons, by the
assistance of their flappers, delighted to give me answers, hoping
to raise my admiration of their great abilities if I could be brought
to converse with them. I was soon able to call for bread and drink,
or whatever else I wanted.
After dinner my company withdrew, and a person was sent to me
by the king's order, attended by a flapper. He brought with him
pen, ink, and paper, and three or four books, giving me to
understand by signs, that he was sent to teach me the language.
We sat together four hours, in which time I wrote down a great
number of words in columns, with the translations over against
them; I likewise made a shift to learn several short sentences; for
my tutor would order one of my servants to fetch something, to
turn about, to make a bow, to sit, or to stand, or walk, and the like.
Then I took down the sentence in writing. He showed me also, in
one of his books, the figures of the sun, moon, and stars, the
zodiac, the tropics, and polar circles, together with the
denominations of many plains and solids. He gave me the names
and descriptions of all the musical instruments, and the general
terms of art in playing on each of them. After he had left me, I.
placed all my words, with their interpretations, in alphabetical
order. And thus, in a few days, by the help of a very faithful
memory, I got some insight into their language. The word, which
I interpret the flying or floating island, is in the original LAPUTA,
whereof I could never learn the true etymology. LAP, in the old
obsolete language, signifies high; and UNTUH, a governor; from
which they say, by corruption, was derived LAPUTA, from
LAPUNTUH. But I do not approve of this derivation, which
seems to be a little strained. I ventured to offer to the learned
among them a conjecture of my own, that Laputa was QUASI
LAP OUTED; LAP, signifying properly, the dancing of the
sunbeams in the sea, and OUTED, a wing; which, however, I shall
not obtrude, but submit to the judicious reader.
Those to whom the king had entrusted me, observing how ill I was
clad, ordered a tailor to come next morning, and take measure for
a suit of clothes. This operator did his office after a different
manner from those of his trade in Europe. He first took my
altitude by a quadrant, and then, with a rule and compasses,
described the dimensions and outlines of my whole body, all
which he entered upon paper; and in six days brought my clothes
very ill made, and quite out of shape, by happening to mistake a
figure in the calculation. But my comfort was, that I observed
such accidents very frequent, and little regarded.
During my confinement for want of clothes, and by an
indisposition that held me some days longer, I much enlarged my
dictionary; and when I went next to court, was able to understand
many things the king spoke, and to return him some kind of.
answers. His majesty had given orders, that the island should
move north-east and by east, to the vertical point over Lagado, the
metropolis of the whole kingdom below, upon the firm earth. It
was about ninety leagues distant, and our voyage lasted four days
and a half. I was not in the least sensible of the progressive motion
made in the air by the island. On the second morning, about
eleven o'clock, the king himself in person, attended by his
nobility, courtiers, and officers, having prepared all their musical
instruments, played on them for three hours without intermission,
so that I was quite stunned with the noise; neither could I possibly
guess the meaning, till my tutor informed me. He said that, the
people of their island had their ears adapted to hear "the music of
the spheres, which always played at certain periods, and the court
was now prepared to bear their part, in whatever instrument they
most excelled."
In our journey towards Lagado, the capital city, his majesty
ordered that the island should stop over certain towns and
villages, from whence he might receive the petitions of his
subjects. And to this purpose, several packthreads were let down,
with small weights at the bottom. On these packthreads the people
strung their petitions, which mounted up directly, like the scraps
of paper fastened by school boys at the end of the string that holds
their kite. Sometimes we received wine and victuals from below,
which were drawn up by pulleys.
The knowledge I had in mathematics, gave me great assistance in
acquiring their phraseology, which depended much upon that
science, and music; and in the latter I was not unskilled. Their.
ideas are perpetually conversant in lines and figures. If they
would, for example, praise the beauty of a woman, or any other
animal, they describe it by rhombs, circles, parallelograms,
ellipses, and other geometrical terms, or by words of art drawn
from music, needless here to repeat. I observed in the king's
kitchen all sorts of mathematical and musical instruments, after
the figures of which they cut up the joints that were served to his
majesty's table.
Their houses are very ill built, the walls bevil, without one right
angle in any apartment; and this defect arises from the contempt
they bear to practical geometry, which they despise as vulgar and
mechanic; those instructions they give being too refined for the
intellects of their workmen, which occasions perpetual mistakes.
And although they are dexterous enough upon a piece of paper, in
the management of the rule, the pencil, and the divider, yet in the
common actions and behaviour of life, I have not seen a more
clumsy, awkward, and unhandy people, nor so slow and perplexed
in their conceptions upon all other subjects, except those of
mathematics and music. They are very bad reasoners, and
vehemently given to opposition, unless when they happen to be of
the right opinion, which is seldom their case. Imagination, fancy,
and invention, they are wholly strangers to, nor have any words in
their language, by which those ideas can be expressed; the whole
compass of their thoughts and mind being shut up within the two
forementioned sciences..
Most of them, and especially those who deal in the astronomical
part, have great faith in judicial astrology, although they are
ashamed to own it publicly. But what I chiefly admired, and
thought altogether unaccountable, was the strong disposition I
observed in them towards news and politics, perpetually inquiring
into public affairs, giving their judgments in matters of state, and
passionately disputing every inch of a party opinion. I have indeed
observed the same disposition among most of the mathematicians
I have known in Europe, although I could never discover the least
analogy between the two sciences; unless those people suppose,
that because the smallest circle has as many degrees as the largest,
therefore the regulation and management of the world require no
more abilities than the handling and turning of a globe; but I
rather take this quality to spring from a very common infirmity of
human nature, inclining us to be most curious and conceited in
matters where we have least concern, and for which we are least
adapted by study or nature.
These people are under continual disquietudes, never enjoying a
minutes peace of mind; and their disturbances proceed from
causes which very little affect the rest of mortals. Their
apprehensions arise from several changes they dread in the
celestial bodies: for instance, that the earth, by the continual
approaches of the sun towards it, must, in course of time, be
absorbed, or swallowed up; that the face of the sun, will, by
degrees, be encrusted with its own effluvia, and give no more light
to the world; that the earth very narrowly escaped a brush from
the tail of the last comet, which would have infallibly reduced it to
ashes; and that the next, which they have calculated for one-and-.
thirty years hence, will probably destroy us. For if, in its
perihelion, it should approach within a certain degree of the sun
(as by their calculations they have reason to dread) it will receive
a degree of heat ten thousand times more intense than that of red
hot glowing iron, and in its absence from the sun, carry a blazing
tail ten hundred thousand and fourteen miles long, through which,
if the earth should pass at the distance of one hundred thousand
miles from the nucleus, or main body of the comet, it must in its
passage be set on fire, and reduced to ashes: that the sun, daily
spending its rays without any nutriment to supply them, will at
last be wholly consumed and annihilated; which must be attended
with the destruction of this earth, and of all the planets that receive
their light from it.
They are so perpetually alarmed with the apprehensions of these,
and the like impending dangers, that they can neither sleep quietly
in their beds, nor have any relish for the common pleasures and
amusements of life. When they meet an acquaintance in the
morning, the first question is about the sun's health, how he
looked at his setting and rising, and what hopes they have to avoid
the stroke of the approaching comet. This conversation they are
apt to run into with the same temper that boys discover in
delighting to hear terrible stories of spirits and hobgoblins, which
they greedily listen to, and dare not go to bed for fear.
The women of the island have abundance of vivacity: they,
contemn their husbands, and are exceedingly fond of strangers,
whereof there is always a considerable number from the continent
below, attending at court, either upon affairs of the several towns.
and corporations, or their own particular occasions, but are much
despised, because they want the same endowments. Among these
the ladies choose their gallants: but the vexation is, that they act
with too much ease and security; for the husband is always so rapt
in speculation, that the mistress and lover may proceed to the
greatest familiarities before his face, if he be but provided with
paper and implements, and without his flapper at his side.
The wives and daughters lament their confinement to the island,
although I think it the most delicious spot of ground in the world;
and although they live here in the greatest plenty and
magnificence, and are allowed to do whatever they please, they
long to see the world, and take the diversions of the metropolis,
which they are not allowed to do without a particular license from
the king; and this is not easy to be obtained, because the people of
quality have found, by frequent experience, how hard it is to
persuade their women to return from below. I was told that a great
court lady, who had several children,--is married to the prime
minister, the richest subject in the kingdom, a very graceful
person, extremely fond of her, and lives in the finest palace of the
island,--went down to Lagado on the pretence of health, there hid
herself for several months, till the king sent a warrant to search for
her; and she was found in an obscure eating-house all in rags,
having pawned her clothes to maintain an old deformed footman,
who beat her every day, and in whose company she was taken,
much against her will. And although her husband received her
with all possible kindness, and without the least reproach, she
soon after contrived to steal down again, with all her jewels, to the
same gallant, and has not been heard of since..
This may perhaps pass with the reader rather for an European or
English story, than for one of a country so remote. But he may
please to consider, that the caprices of womankind are not limited
by any climate or nation, and that they are much more uniform,
than can be easily imagined.
In about a month's time, I had made a tolerable proficiency in
their language, and was able to answer most of the king's
questions, when I had the honour to attend him. His majesty
discovered not the least curiosity to inquire into the laws,
government, history, religion, or manners of the countries where I
had been; but confined his questions to the state of mathematics,
and received the account I gave him with great contempt and
indifference, though often roused by his flapper on each side..
[A phenomenon solved by modern philosophy and astronomy.
The Laputians' great improvements in the latter. The king's
method of suppressing insurrections.]
I desired leave of this prince to see the curiosities of the island,
which he was graciously pleased to grant, and ordered my tutor to
attend me. I chiefly wanted to know, to what cause, in art or in
nature, it owed its several motions, whereof I will now give a
philosophical account to the reader.
The flying or floating island is exactly circular, its diameter 7837
yards, or about four miles and a half, and consequently contains
ten thousand acres. It is three hundred yards thick. The bottom, or
under surface, which appears to those who view it below, is one
even regular plate of adamant, shooting up to the height of about
two hundred yards. Above it lie the several minerals in their usual
order, and over all is a coat of rich mould, ten or twelve feet deep.
The declivity of the upper surface, from the circumference to the
centre, is the natural cause why all the dews and rains, which fall
upon the island, are conveyed in small rivulets toward the middle,
where they are emptied into four large basins, each of about half a
mile in circuit, and two hundred yards distant from the centre.
From these basins the water is continually exhaled by the sun in.
the daytime, which effectually prevents their overflowing.
Besides, as it is in the power of the monarch to raise the island
above the region of clouds and vapours, he can prevent the falling
of dews and rain whenever he pleases. For the highest clouds
cannot rise above two miles, as naturalists agree, at least they
were never known to do so in that country.
At the centre of the island there is a chasm about fifty yards in
diameter, whence the astronomers descend into a large dome,
which is therefore called FLANDONA GAGNOLE, or the
astronomer's cave, situated at the depth of a hundred yards
beneath the upper surface of the adamant. In this cave are twenty
lamps continually burning, which, from the reflection of the
adamant, cast a strong light into every part. The place is stored
with great variety of sextants, quadrants, telescopes, astrolabes,
and other astronomical instruments. But the greatest curiosity,
upon which the fate of the island depends, is a loadstone of a
prodigious size, in shape resembling a weaver's shuttle. It is in
length six yards, and in the thickest part at least three yards over.
This magnet is sustained by a very strong axle of adamant passing
through its middle, upon which it plays, and is poised so exactly
that the weakest hand can turn it. It is hooped round with a hollow
cylinder of adamant, four feet yards in diameter, placed
horizontally, and supported by eight adamantine feet, each six
yards high. In the middle of the concave side, there is a groove
twelve inches deep, in which the extremities of the axle are
lodged, and turned round as there is occasion..
The stone cannot be removed from its place by any force, because
the hoop and its feet are one continued piece with that body of
adamant which constitutes the bottom of the island.
By means of this loadstone, the island is made to rise and fall, and
move from one place to another. For, with respect to that part of
the earth over which the monarch presides, the stone is endued at
one of its sides with an attractive power, and at the other with a
repulsive. Upon placing the magnet erect, with its attracting end
towards the earth, the island descends; but when the repelling
extremity points downwards, the island mounts directly upwards.
When the position of the stone is oblique, the motion of the island
is so too: for in this magnet, the forces always act in lines parallel
to its direction.
By this oblique motion, the island is conveyed to different parts of
the monarch's dominions. To explain the manner of its progress,
let A B represent a line drawn across the dominions of Balnibarbi,
let the line C D represent the loadstone, of which let D be the
repelling end, and C the attracting end, the island being over C: let
the stone be placed in position C D, with its repelling end
downwards; then the island will be driven upwards obliquely
towards D. When it is arrived at D, let the stone be turned upon its
axle, till its attracting end points towards E, and then the island
will be carried obliquely towards E; where, if the stone be again
turned upon its axle till it stands in the position E F, with its
repelling point downwards, the island will rise obliquely towards
F, where, by directing the attracting end towards G, the island may
be carried to G, and from G to H, by turning the stone, so as to.
make its repelling extremity to point directly downward. And
thus, by changing the situation of the stone, as often as there is
occasion, the island is made to rise and fall by turns in an oblique
direction, and by those alternate risings and fallings (the obliquity
being not considerable) is conveyed from one part of the
dominions to the other.
But it must be observed, that this island cannot move beyond the
extent of the dominions below, nor can it rise above the height of
four miles. For which the astronomers (who have written large
systems concerning the stone) assign the following reason: that
the magnetic virtue does not extend beyond the distance of four
miles, and that the mineral, which acts upon the stone in the
bowels of the earth, and in the sea about six leagues distant from
the shore, is not diffused through the whole globe, but terminated
with the limits of the king's dominions; and it was easy, from the
havoc they made, because I am confident it would have sensibly
touched me, by bringing former passages into my mind, which I
would rather have forgot.
I slept some hours, but perpetually disturbed with dreams of the
place I had left, and the dangers I had escaped. However, upon
waking, I found myself much recovered. It was now about eight
o'clock at night, and the captain ordered supper immediately,
thinking I had already fasted too long. He entertained me with
great kindness, observing me not to look wildly, or talk
inconsistently: and, when we were left alone, desired I would give
him a relation of my travels, and by what accident I came to be set
adrift, in that monstrous wooden chest. He said "that about twelve
o'clock at noon, as he was looking through his glass, he spied it at
a distance, and thought it was a sail, which he had a mind to make,
being not much out of his course, in hopes of buying some biscuit,.
his own beginning to fall short. That upon coming nearer, and
finding his error, he sent out his long-boat to discover what it was;
that his men came back in a fright, swearing they had seen a
swimming house. That he laughed at their folly, and went himself
in the boat, ordering his men to take a strong cable along with
them. That the weather being calm, he rowed round me several
times, observed my windows and wire lattices that defended
them. That he discovered two staples upon one side, which was all
of boards, without any passage for light. He then commanded his
men to row up to that side, and fastening a cable to one of the
staples, ordered them to tow my chest, as they called it, toward the
ship. When it was there, he gave directions to fasten another cable
to the ring fixed in the cover, and to raise up my chest with
pulleys, which all the sailors were not able to do above two or
three feet." He said, "they saw my stick and handkerchief thrust
out of the hole, and concluded that some unhappy man must be
shut up in the cavity." I asked, "whether he or the crew had seen
any prodigious birds in the air, about the time he first discovered
me." To which he answered, that discoursing this matter with the
sailors while I was asleep, one of them said, he had observed three
eagles flying towards the north, but remarked nothing of their
being larger than the usual size:" which I suppose must be
imputed to the great height they were at; and he could not guess
the reason of my question. I then asked the captain, "how far he
reckoned we might be from land?" He said, "by the best
computation he could make, we were at least a hundred leagues."
I assured him, "that he must be mistaken by almost half, for I had
not left the country whence I came above two hours before I
dropped into the sea." Whereupon he began again to think that my.
brain was disturbed, of which he gave me a hint, and advised me
to go to bed in a cabin he had provided. I assured him, "I was well
refreshed with his good entertainment and company, and as much
in my senses as ever I was in my life." He then grew serious, and
desired to ask me freely, "whether I were not troubled in my mind
by the consciousness of some enormous crime, for which I was
punished, at the command of some prince, by exposing me in that
chest; as great criminals, in other countries, have been forced to
sea in a leaky vessel, without provisions: for although he should
be sorry to have taken so ill a man into his ship, yet he would
engage his word to set me safe ashore, in the first port where we
arrived." He added, "that his suspicions were much increased by
some very absurd speeches I had delivered at first to his sailors,
and afterwards to himself, in relation to my closet or chest, as well
as by my odd looks and behaviour while I was at supper."
I begged his patience to hear me tell my story, which I faithfully
did, from the last time I left England, to the moment he first
discovered me. And, as truth always forces its way into rational
minds, so this honest worthy gentleman, who had some tincture of
learning, and very good sense, was immediately convinced of my
candour and veracity. But further to confirm all I had said, I
entreated him to give order that my cabinet should be brought, of
which I had the key in my pocket; for he had already informed me
how the seamen disposed of my closet. I opened it in his own
presence, and showed him the small collection of rarities I made
in the country from which I had been so strangely delivered.
There was the comb I had contrived out of the stumps of the king's
beard, and another of the same materials, but fixed into a paring of.
her majesty's thumb-nail, which served for the back. There was a
collection of needles and pins, from a foot to half a yard long; four
wasp stings, like joiner's tacks; some combings of the queen's
hair; a gold ring, which one day she made me a present of, in a
most obliging manner, taking it from her little finger, and
throwing it over my head like a collar. I desired the captain would
please to accept this ring in return for his civilities; which he
absolutely refused. I showed him a corn that I had cut off with my
own hand, from a maid of honour's toe; it was about the bigness of
Kentish pippin, and grown so hard, that when I returned England,
I got it hollowed into a cup, and set in silver. Lastly, I desired him
to see the breeches I had then on, which were made of a mouse's
skin.
I could force nothing on him but a footman's tooth, which I
observed him to examine with great curiosity, and found he had a
fancy for it. He received it with abundance of thanks, more than
such a trifle could deserve. It was drawn by an unskilful surgeon,
in a mistake, from one of Glumdalclitch's men, who was afflicted
with the tooth-ache, but it was as sound as any in his head. I got it
cleaned, and put it into my cabinet. It was about a foot long, and
four inches in diameter.
The captain was very well satisfied with this plain relation I had
given him, and said, "he hoped, when we returned to England, I
would oblige the world by putting it on paper, and making it
public." My answer was, "that we were overstocked with books of
travels: that nothing could now pass which was not extraordinary;
wherein I doubted some authors less consulted truth, than their.
own vanity, or interest, or the diversion of ignorant readers; that
my story could contain little beside common events, without those
ornamental descriptions of strange plants, trees, birds, and other
animals; or of the barbarous customs and idolatry of savage
people, with which most writers abound. However, I thanked him
for his good opinion, and promised to take the matter into my
thoughts."
He said "he wondered at one thing very much, which was, to hear
me speak so loud;" asking me "whether the king or queen of that
country were thick of hearing?" I told him, "it was what I had
been used to for above two years past, and that I admired as much
at the voices of him and his men, who seemed to me only to
whisper, and yet I could hear them well enough. But, when I
spoke in that country, it was like a man talking in the streets, to
another looking out from the top of a steeple, unless when I was
placed on a table, or held in any person's hand." I told him, "I had
likewise observed another thing, that, when I first got into the
ship, and the sailors stood all about me, I thought they were the
most little contemptible creatures I had ever beheld." For indeed,
while I was in that prince's country, I could never endure to look
in a glass, after mine eyes had been accustomed to such
prodigious objects, because the comparison gave me so
despicable a conceit of myself. The captain said, "that while we
were at supper, he observed me to look at every thing with a sort
of wonder, and that I often seemed hardly able to contain my
laughter, which he knew not well how to take, but imputed it to
some disorder in my brain." I answered, "it was very true; and I
wondered how I could forbear, when I saw his dishes of the size.
of a silver three-pence, a leg of pork hardly a mouthful, a cup not
so big as a nut-shell;" and so I went on, describing the rest of his
household-stuff and provisions, after the same manner. For,
although he queen had ordered a little equipage of all things
necessary for me, while I was in her service, yet my ideas were
wholly taken up with what I saw on every side of me, and I
winked at my own littleness, as people do at their own faults. The
captain understood my raillery very well, and merrily replied with
the old English proverb, "that he doubted mine eyes were bigger
than my belly, for he did not observe my stomach so good,
although I had fasted all day;" and, continuing in his mirth,
protested "he would have gladly given a hundred pounds, to have
seen my closet in the eagle's bill, and afterwards in its fall from so
great a height into the sea; which would certainly have been a
most astonishing object, worthy to have the description of it
transmitted to future ages:" and the comparison of Phaeton was so
obvious, that he could not forbear applying it, although I did not
much admire the conceit.
The captain having been at Tonquin, was, in his return to England,
driven north-eastward to the latitude of 44 degrees, and longitude
of 143. But meeting a trade-wind two days after I came on board
him, we sailed southward a long time, and coasting New Holland,
kept our course west-south-west, and then south-south-west, till
we doubled the Cape of Good Hope. Our voyage was very
prosperous, but I shall not trouble the reader with a journal of it.
The captain called in at one or two ports, and sent in his long-boat
for provisions and fresh water; but I never went out of the ship till
we came into the Downs, which was on the third day of June,.
1706, about nine months after my escape. I offered to leave my
goods in security for payment of my freight: but the captain
protested he would not receive one farthing. We took a kind leave
of each other, and I made him promise he would come to see me
at my house in Redriff. I hired a horse and guide for five shillings,
which I borrowed of the captain.
As I was on the road, observing the littleness of the houses, the
trees, the cattle, and the people, I began to think myself in Lilliput.
I was afraid of trampling on every traveller I met, and often called
aloud to have them stand out of the way, so that I had like to have
gotten one or two broken heads for my impertinence.
When I came to my own house, for which I was forced to inquire,
one of the servants opening the door, I bent down to go in, (like a
goose under a gate,) for fear of striking my head. My wife run out
to embrace me, but I stooped lower than her knees, thinking she
could otherwise never be able to reach my mouth. My daughter
kneeled to ask my blessing, but I could not see her till she arose,
having been so long used to stand with my head and eyes erect to
above sixty feet; and then I went to take her up with one hand by
the waist. I looked down upon the servants, and one or two friends
who were in the house, as if they had been pigmies and I a giant. I
told my wife, "she had been too thrifty, for I found she had starved
herself and her daughter to nothing." In short, I behaved myself so
unaccountably, that they were all of the captain's opinion when he
first saw me, and concluded I had lost my wits. This I mention as
an instance of the great power of habit and prejudice..
In a little time, I and my family and friends came to a right
understanding: but my wife protested "I should never go to sea
any more;" although my evil destiny so ordered, that she had not
power to hinder me, as the reader may know hereafter. In the
mean time, I here conclude the second part of my unfortunate
voyages..
[The author sets out on his third voyage. Is taken by pirates. The
malice of a Dutchman. His arrival at an island. He is received into
Laputa.]
I had not been at home above ten days, when Captain William
Robinson, a Cornish man, commander of the Hopewell, a stout
ship of three hundred tons, came to my house. I had formerly been
surgeon of another ship where he was master, and a fourth part
owner, in a voyage to the Levant. He had always treated me more
like a brother, than an inferior officer; and, hearing of my arrival,
made me a visit, as I apprehended only out of friendship, for
nothing passed more than what is usual after long absences. But
repeating his visits often, expressing his joy to find I me in good
health, asking, "whether I were now settled for life?" adding, "that
he intended a voyage to the East Indies in two months," at last he
plainly invited me, though with some apologies, to be surgeon of
the ship; "that I should have another surgeon under me, beside our
two mates; that my salary should be double to the usual pay; and
that having experienced my knowledge in sea-affairs to be at least
equal to his, he would enter into any engagement to follow my
advice, as much as if I had shared in the command.".
He said so many other obliging things, and I knew him to be so
honest a man, that I could not reject this proposal; the thirst I had
of seeing the world, notwithstanding my past misfortunes,
continuing as violent as ever. The only difficulty that remained,
was to persuade my wife, whose consent however I at last
obtained, by the prospect of advantage she proposed to her
children.
We set out the 5th day of August, 1706, and arrived at Fort St.
George the 11th of April, 1707. We staid there three weeks to
refresh our crew, many of whom were sick. From thence we went
to Tonquin, where the captain resolved to continue some time,
because many of the goods he intended to buy were not ready, nor
could he expect to be dispatched in several months. Therefore, in
hopes to defray some of the charges he must be at, he bought a
sloop, loaded it with several sorts of goods, wherewith the
Tonquinese usually trade to the neighbouring islands, and putting
fourteen men on board, whereof three were of the country, he
appointed me master of the sloop, and gave me power to traffic,
while he transacted his affairs at Tonquin.
We had not sailed above three days, when a great storm arising,
we were driven five days to the north-north-east, and then to the
east: after which we had fair weather, but still with a pretty strong
gale from the west. Upon the tenth day we were chased by two
pirates, who soon overtook us; for my sloop was so deep laden,
that she sailed very slow, neither were we in a condition to defend
ourselves..
We were boarded about the same time by both the pirates, who
entered furiously at the head of their men; but finding us all
prostrate upon our faces (for so I gave order), they pinioned us
with strong ropes, and setting guard upon us, went to search the
sloop.
I observed among them a Dutchman, who seemed to be of some
authority, though he was not commander of either ship. He knew
us by our countenances to be Englishmen, and jabbering to us in
his own language, swore we should be tied back to back and
thrown into the sea. I spoken Dutch tolerably well; I told him who
we were, and begged him, in consideration of our being Christians
and Protestants, of neighbouring countries in strict alliance, that
he would move the captains to take some pity on us. This
inflamed his rage; he repeated his threatenings, and turning to his
companions, spoke with great vehemence in the Japanese
language, as I suppose, often using the word CHRISTIANOS.
The largest of the two pirate ships was commanded by a Japanese
captain, who spoke a little Dutch, but very imperfectly. He came
up to me, and after several questions, which I answered in great
humility, he said, "we should not die." I made the captain a very
low bow, and then, turning to the Dutchman, said, "I was sorry to
find more mercy in a heathen, than in a brother christian." But I
had soon reason to repent those foolish words:
for that malicious reprobate, having often endeavoured in vain to
persuade both the captains that I might be thrown into the sea
(which they would not yield to, after the promise made me that I.
should not die), however, prevailed so far, as to have a
punishment inflicted on me, worse, in all human appearance, than
death itself. My men were sent by an equal division into both the
pirate ships, and my sloop new manned. As to myself, it was
determined that I should be set adrift in a small canoe, with
paddles and a sail, and four days' provisions; which last, the
Japanese captain was so kind to double out of his own stores, and
would permit no man to search me. I got down into the canoe,
while the Dutchman, standing upon the deck, loaded me with all
the curses and injurious terms his language could afford.
About an hour before we saw the pirates I had taken an
observation, and found we were in the latitude of 46 N. and
longitude of 183. When I was at some distance from the pirates, I
discovered, by my pocket-glass, several islands to the south-east. I
set up my sail, the wind being fair, with a design to reach the
nearest of those islands, which I made a shift to do, in about three
hours. It was all rocky: however I got many birds' eggs; and,
striking fire, I kindled some heath and dry sea-weed, by which I
roasted my eggs. I ate no other supper, being resolved to spare my
provisions as much as I could. I passed the night under the shelter
of a rock, strewing some heath under me, and slept pretty well.
The next day I sailed to another island, and thence to a third and
fourth, sometimes using my sail, and sometimes my paddles. But,
not to trouble the reader with a particular account of my
distresses, let it suffice, that on the fifth day I arrived at the last
island in my sight, which lay south-south-east to the former..
This island was at a greater distance than I expected, and I did not
reach it in less than five hours. I encompassed it almost round,
before I could find a convenient place to land in; which was a
small creek, about three times the wideness of my canoe. I found
the island to be all rocky, only a little intermingled with tufts of
grass, and sweet-smelling herbs. I took out my small provisions
and after having refreshed myself, I secured the remainder in a
cave, whereof there were great numbers; I gathered plenty of eggs
upon the rocks, and got a quantity of dry sea-weed, and parched
grass, which I designed to kindle the next day, and roast my eggs
as well as I could, for I had about me my flint, steel, match, and
burning-glass. I lay all night in the cave where I had lodged my
provisions. My bed was the same dry grass and sea-weed which I
intended for fuel. I slept very little, for the disquiets of my mind
prevailed over my weariness, and kept me awake. I considered
how impossible it was to preserve my life in so desolate a place,
and how miserable my end must be: yet found myself so listless
and desponding, that I had not the heart to rise; and before I could
get spirits enough to creep out of my cave, the day was far
advanced. I walked awhile among the rocks: the sky was perfectly
clear, and the sun so hot, that I was forced to turn my face from it:
when all on a sudden it became obscure, as I thought, in a manner
very different from what happens by the interposition of a cloud. I
turned back, and perceived a vast opaque body between me and
the sun moving forwards towards the island: it seemed to be about
two miles high, and hid the sun six or seven minutes; but I did not
observe the air to be much colder, or the sky more darkened, than
if I had stood under the shade of a mountain. As it approached
nearer over the place where I was, it appeared to be a firm.
substance, the bottom flat, smooth, and shining very bright, from
the reflection of the sea below. I stood upon a height about two
hundred yards from the shore, and saw this vast body descending
almost to a parallel with me, at less than an English mile distance.
I took out my pocket perspective, and could plainly discover
numbers of people moving up and down the sides of it, which
appeared to be sloping; but what those people where doing I was
not able to distinguish.
The natural love of life gave me some inward motion of joy, and I
was ready to entertain a hope that this adventure might, some way
or other, help to deliver me from the desolate place and condition
I was in. But at the same time the reader can hardly conceive my
astonishment, to behold an island in the air, inhabited by men,
who were able (as it should seem) to raise or sink, or put it into
progressive motion, as they pleased. But not being at that time in a
disposition to philosophise upon this phenomenon, I rather chose
to observe what course the island would take, because it seemed
for awhile to stand still. Yet soon after, it advanced nearer, and I
could see the sides of it encompassed with several gradations of
galleries, and stairs, at certain intervals, to descend from one to
the other. In the lowest gallery, I beheld some people fishing with
long angling rods, and others looking on. I waved my cap (for my
hat was long since worn out) and my handkerchief toward the
island; and upon its nearer approach, I called and shouted with the
utmost strength of my voice; and then looking circumspectly, I
beheld a crowd gather to that side which was most in my view. I
found by their pointing towards me and to each other, that they
plainly discovered me, although they made no return to my.
shouting. But I could see four or five men running in great haste,
up the stairs, to the top of the island, who then disappeared. I
happened rightly to conjecture, that these were sent for orders to
some person in authority upon this occasion.
The number of people increased, and, in less than half all hour, the
island was moved and raised in such a manner, that the lowest
gallery appeared in a parallel of less then a hundred yards distance
from the height where I stood. I then put myself in the most
supplicating posture, and spoke in the humblest accent, but
received no answer. Those who stood nearest over against me,
seemed to be persons of distinction, as I supposed by their habit.
They conferred earnestly with each other, looking often upon me.
At length one of them called out in a clear, polite, smooth dialect,
not unlike in sound to the Italian: and therefore I returned an
answer in that language, hoping at least that the cadence might be
more agreeable to his ears. Although neither of us understood the
other, yet my meaning was easily known, for the people saw the
distress I was in.
They made signs for me to come down from the rock, and go
towards the shore, which I accordingly did; and the flying island
being raised to a convenient height, the verge directly over me, a
chain was let down from the lowest gallery, with a seat fastened to
the bottom, to which I fixed myself, and was drawn up by pulleys..
[The humours and dispositions of the Laputians described. An
account of their learning. Of the king and his court. The author's
reception there. The inhabitants subject to fear and disquietudes.
An account of the women.]
Ay my alighting, I was surrounded with a crowd of people, but
those who stood nearest seemed to be of better quality. They
beheld me with all the marks and circumstances of wonder;
neither indeed was I much in their debt, having never till then seen
a race of mortals so singular in their shapes, habits, and
countenances. Their heads were all reclined, either to the right, or
the left; one of their eyes turned inward, and the other directly up
to the zenith. Their outward garments were adorned with the
figures of suns, moons, and stars; interwoven with those of
fiddles, flutes, harps, trumpets, guitars, harpsichords, and many
other instruments of music, unknown to us in Europe. I observed,
here and there, many in the habit of servants, with a blown
bladder, fastened like a flail to the end of a stick, which they
carried in their hands. In each bladder was a small quantity of
dried peas, or little pebbles, as I was afterwards informed. With
these bladders, they now and then flapped the mouths and ears of
those who stood near them, of which practice I could not then
conceive the meaning. It seems the minds of these people are so.
taken up with intense speculations, that they neither can speak,
nor attend to the discourses of others, without being roused by
some external taction upon the organs of speech and hearing; for
which reason, those persons who are able to afford it always keep
a flapper (the original is CLIMENOLE) in their family, as one of
their domestics; nor ever walk abroad, or make visits, without
him. And the business of this officer is, when two, three, or more
persons are in company, gently to strike with his bladder the
mouth of him who is to speak, and the right ear of him or them to
whom the speaker addresses himself. This flapper is likewise
employed diligently to attend his master in his walks, and upon
occasion to give him a soft flap on his eyes; because he is always
so wrapped up in cogitation, that he is in manifest danger of
falling down every precipice, and bouncing his head against every
post; and in the streets, of justling others, or being justled himself
into the kennel.
It was necessary to give the reader this information, without
which he would be at the same loss with me to understand the
proceedings of these people, as they conducted me up the stairs to
the top of the island, and from thence to the royal palace. While
we were ascending, they forgot several times what they were
about, and left me to myself, till their memories were again roused
by their flappers; for they appeared altogether unmoved by the
sight of my foreign habit and countenance, and by the shouts of
the vulgar, whose thoughts and minds were more disengaged..
At last we entered the palace, and proceeded into the chamber of
presence, where I saw the king seated on his throne, attended on
each side by persons of prime quality. Before the throne, was a
large table filled with globes and spheres, and mathematical
instruments of all kinds. His majesty took not the least notice of
us, although our entrance was not without sufficient noise, by the
concourse of all persons belonging to the court. But he was then
deep in a problem; and we attended at least an hour, before he
could solve it. There stood by him, on each side, a young page
with flaps in their hands, and when they saw he was at leisure, one
of them gently struck his mouth, and the other his right ear; at
which he startled like one awaked on the sudden, and looking
towards me and the company I was in, recollected the occasion of
our coming, whereof he had been informed before. He spoke
some words, whereupon immediately a young man with a flap
came up to my side, and flapped me gently on the right ear; but I
made signs, as well as I could, that I had no occasion for such an
instrument; which, as I afterwards found, gave his majesty, and
the whole court, a very mean opinion of my understanding. The
king, as far as I could conjecture, asked me several questions, and
I addressed myself to him in all the languages I had. When it was
found I could neither understand nor be understood, I was
conducted by his order to an apartment in his palace (this prince
being distinguished above all his predecessors for his hospitality
to strangers), where two servants were appointed to attend me.
My dinner was brought, and four persons of quality, whom I
remembered to have seen very near the king's person, did me the
honour to dine with me. We had two courses, of three dishes each.
In the first course, there was a shoulder of mutton cut into an.
equilateral triangle, a piece of beef into a rhomboides, and a
pudding into a cycloid. The second course was two ducks trussed
up in the form of fiddles; sausages and puddings resembling flutes
and hautboys, and a breast of veal in the shape of a harp. The
servants cut our bread into cones, cylinders, parallelograms, and
several other mathematical figures.
While we were at dinner, I made bold to ask the names of several
things in their language, and those noble persons, by the
assistance of their flappers, delighted to give me answers, hoping
to raise my admiration of their great abilities if I could be brought
to converse with them. I was soon able to call for bread and drink,
or whatever else I wanted.
After dinner my company withdrew, and a person was sent to me
by the king's order, attended by a flapper. He brought with him
pen, ink, and paper, and three or four books, giving me to
understand by signs, that he was sent to teach me the language.
We sat together four hours, in which time I wrote down a great
number of words in columns, with the translations over against
them; I likewise made a shift to learn several short sentences; for
my tutor would order one of my servants to fetch something, to
turn about, to make a bow, to sit, or to stand, or walk, and the like.
Then I took down the sentence in writing. He showed me also, in
one of his books, the figures of the sun, moon, and stars, the
zodiac, the tropics, and polar circles, together with the
denominations of many plains and solids. He gave me the names
and descriptions of all the musical instruments, and the general
terms of art in playing on each of them. After he had left me, I.
placed all my words, with their interpretations, in alphabetical
order. And thus, in a few days, by the help of a very faithful
memory, I got some insight into their language. The word, which
I interpret the flying or floating island, is in the original LAPUTA,
whereof I could never learn the true etymology. LAP, in the old
obsolete language, signifies high; and UNTUH, a governor; from
which they say, by corruption, was derived LAPUTA, from
LAPUNTUH. But I do not approve of this derivation, which
seems to be a little strained. I ventured to offer to the learned
among them a conjecture of my own, that Laputa was QUASI
LAP OUTED; LAP, signifying properly, the dancing of the
sunbeams in the sea, and OUTED, a wing; which, however, I shall
not obtrude, but submit to the judicious reader.
Those to whom the king had entrusted me, observing how ill I was
clad, ordered a tailor to come next morning, and take measure for
a suit of clothes. This operator did his office after a different
manner from those of his trade in Europe. He first took my
altitude by a quadrant, and then, with a rule and compasses,
described the dimensions and outlines of my whole body, all
which he entered upon paper; and in six days brought my clothes
very ill made, and quite out of shape, by happening to mistake a
figure in the calculation. But my comfort was, that I observed
such accidents very frequent, and little regarded.
During my confinement for want of clothes, and by an
indisposition that held me some days longer, I much enlarged my
dictionary; and when I went next to court, was able to understand
many things the king spoke, and to return him some kind of.
answers. His majesty had given orders, that the island should
move north-east and by east, to the vertical point over Lagado, the
metropolis of the whole kingdom below, upon the firm earth. It
was about ninety leagues distant, and our voyage lasted four days
and a half. I was not in the least sensible of the progressive motion
made in the air by the island. On the second morning, about
eleven o'clock, the king himself in person, attended by his
nobility, courtiers, and officers, having prepared all their musical
instruments, played on them for three hours without intermission,
so that I was quite stunned with the noise; neither could I possibly
guess the meaning, till my tutor informed me. He said that, the
people of their island had their ears adapted to hear "the music of
the spheres, which always played at certain periods, and the court
was now prepared to bear their part, in whatever instrument they
most excelled."
In our journey towards Lagado, the capital city, his majesty
ordered that the island should stop over certain towns and
villages, from whence he might receive the petitions of his
subjects. And to this purpose, several packthreads were let down,
with small weights at the bottom. On these packthreads the people
strung their petitions, which mounted up directly, like the scraps
of paper fastened by school boys at the end of the string that holds
their kite. Sometimes we received wine and victuals from below,
which were drawn up by pulleys.
The knowledge I had in mathematics, gave me great assistance in
acquiring their phraseology, which depended much upon that
science, and music; and in the latter I was not unskilled. Their.
ideas are perpetually conversant in lines and figures. If they
would, for example, praise the beauty of a woman, or any other
animal, they describe it by rhombs, circles, parallelograms,
ellipses, and other geometrical terms, or by words of art drawn
from music, needless here to repeat. I observed in the king's
kitchen all sorts of mathematical and musical instruments, after
the figures of which they cut up the joints that were served to his
majesty's table.
Their houses are very ill built, the walls bevil, without one right
angle in any apartment; and this defect arises from the contempt
they bear to practical geometry, which they despise as vulgar and
mechanic; those instructions they give being too refined for the
intellects of their workmen, which occasions perpetual mistakes.
And although they are dexterous enough upon a piece of paper, in
the management of the rule, the pencil, and the divider, yet in the
common actions and behaviour of life, I have not seen a more
clumsy, awkward, and unhandy people, nor so slow and perplexed
in their conceptions upon all other subjects, except those of
mathematics and music. They are very bad reasoners, and
vehemently given to opposition, unless when they happen to be of
the right opinion, which is seldom their case. Imagination, fancy,
and invention, they are wholly strangers to, nor have any words in
their language, by which those ideas can be expressed; the whole
compass of their thoughts and mind being shut up within the two
forementioned sciences..
Most of them, and especially those who deal in the astronomical
part, have great faith in judicial astrology, although they are
ashamed to own it publicly. But what I chiefly admired, and
thought altogether unaccountable, was the strong disposition I
observed in them towards news and politics, perpetually inquiring
into public affairs, giving their judgments in matters of state, and
passionately disputing every inch of a party opinion. I have indeed
observed the same disposition among most of the mathematicians
I have known in Europe, although I could never discover the least
analogy between the two sciences; unless those people suppose,
that because the smallest circle has as many degrees as the largest,
therefore the regulation and management of the world require no
more abilities than the handling and turning of a globe; but I
rather take this quality to spring from a very common infirmity of
human nature, inclining us to be most curious and conceited in
matters where we have least concern, and for which we are least
adapted by study or nature.
These people are under continual disquietudes, never enjoying a
minutes peace of mind; and their disturbances proceed from
causes which very little affect the rest of mortals. Their
apprehensions arise from several changes they dread in the
celestial bodies: for instance, that the earth, by the continual
approaches of the sun towards it, must, in course of time, be
absorbed, or swallowed up; that the face of the sun, will, by
degrees, be encrusted with its own effluvia, and give no more light
to the world; that the earth very narrowly escaped a brush from
the tail of the last comet, which would have infallibly reduced it to
ashes; and that the next, which they have calculated for one-and-.
thirty years hence, will probably destroy us. For if, in its
perihelion, it should approach within a certain degree of the sun
(as by their calculations they have reason to dread) it will receive
a degree of heat ten thousand times more intense than that of red
hot glowing iron, and in its absence from the sun, carry a blazing
tail ten hundred thousand and fourteen miles long, through which,
if the earth should pass at the distance of one hundred thousand
miles from the nucleus, or main body of the comet, it must in its
passage be set on fire, and reduced to ashes: that the sun, daily
spending its rays without any nutriment to supply them, will at
last be wholly consumed and annihilated; which must be attended
with the destruction of this earth, and of all the planets that receive
their light from it.
They are so perpetually alarmed with the apprehensions of these,
and the like impending dangers, that they can neither sleep quietly
in their beds, nor have any relish for the common pleasures and
amusements of life. When they meet an acquaintance in the
morning, the first question is about the sun's health, how he
looked at his setting and rising, and what hopes they have to avoid
the stroke of the approaching comet. This conversation they are
apt to run into with the same temper that boys discover in
delighting to hear terrible stories of spirits and hobgoblins, which
they greedily listen to, and dare not go to bed for fear.
The women of the island have abundance of vivacity: they,
contemn their husbands, and are exceedingly fond of strangers,
whereof there is always a considerable number from the continent
below, attending at court, either upon affairs of the several towns.
and corporations, or their own particular occasions, but are much
despised, because they want the same endowments. Among these
the ladies choose their gallants: but the vexation is, that they act
with too much ease and security; for the husband is always so rapt
in speculation, that the mistress and lover may proceed to the
greatest familiarities before his face, if he be but provided with
paper and implements, and without his flapper at his side.
The wives and daughters lament their confinement to the island,
although I think it the most delicious spot of ground in the world;
and although they live here in the greatest plenty and
magnificence, and are allowed to do whatever they please, they
long to see the world, and take the diversions of the metropolis,
which they are not allowed to do without a particular license from
the king; and this is not easy to be obtained, because the people of
quality have found, by frequent experience, how hard it is to
persuade their women to return from below. I was told that a great
court lady, who had several children,--is married to the prime
minister, the richest subject in the kingdom, a very graceful
person, extremely fond of her, and lives in the finest palace of the
island,--went down to Lagado on the pretence of health, there hid
herself for several months, till the king sent a warrant to search for
her; and she was found in an obscure eating-house all in rags,
having pawned her clothes to maintain an old deformed footman,
who beat her every day, and in whose company she was taken,
much against her will. And although her husband received her
with all possible kindness, and without the least reproach, she
soon after contrived to steal down again, with all her jewels, to the
same gallant, and has not been heard of since..
This may perhaps pass with the reader rather for an European or
English story, than for one of a country so remote. But he may
please to consider, that the caprices of womankind are not limited
by any climate or nation, and that they are much more uniform,
than can be easily imagined.
In about a month's time, I had made a tolerable proficiency in
their language, and was able to answer most of the king's
questions, when I had the honour to attend him. His majesty
discovered not the least curiosity to inquire into the laws,
government, history, religion, or manners of the countries where I
had been; but confined his questions to the state of mathematics,
and received the account I gave him with great contempt and
indifference, though often roused by his flapper on each side..
[A phenomenon solved by modern philosophy and astronomy.
The Laputians' great improvements in the latter. The king's
method of suppressing insurrections.]
I desired leave of this prince to see the curiosities of the island,
which he was graciously pleased to grant, and ordered my tutor to
attend me. I chiefly wanted to know, to what cause, in art or in
nature, it owed its several motions, whereof I will now give a
philosophical account to the reader.
The flying or floating island is exactly circular, its diameter 7837
yards, or about four miles and a half, and consequently contains
ten thousand acres. It is three hundred yards thick. The bottom, or
under surface, which appears to those who view it below, is one
even regular plate of adamant, shooting up to the height of about
two hundred yards. Above it lie the several minerals in their usual
order, and over all is a coat of rich mould, ten or twelve feet deep.
The declivity of the upper surface, from the circumference to the
centre, is the natural cause why all the dews and rains, which fall
upon the island, are conveyed in small rivulets toward the middle,
where they are emptied into four large basins, each of about half a
mile in circuit, and two hundred yards distant from the centre.
From these basins the water is continually exhaled by the sun in.
the daytime, which effectually prevents their overflowing.
Besides, as it is in the power of the monarch to raise the island
above the region of clouds and vapours, he can prevent the falling
of dews and rain whenever he pleases. For the highest clouds
cannot rise above two miles, as naturalists agree, at least they
were never known to do so in that country.
At the centre of the island there is a chasm about fifty yards in
diameter, whence the astronomers descend into a large dome,
which is therefore called FLANDONA GAGNOLE, or the
astronomer's cave, situated at the depth of a hundred yards
beneath the upper surface of the adamant. In this cave are twenty
lamps continually burning, which, from the reflection of the
adamant, cast a strong light into every part. The place is stored
with great variety of sextants, quadrants, telescopes, astrolabes,
and other astronomical instruments. But the greatest curiosity,
upon which the fate of the island depends, is a loadstone of a
prodigious size, in shape resembling a weaver's shuttle. It is in
length six yards, and in the thickest part at least three yards over.
This magnet is sustained by a very strong axle of adamant passing
through its middle, upon which it plays, and is poised so exactly
that the weakest hand can turn it. It is hooped round with a hollow
cylinder of adamant, four feet yards in diameter, placed
horizontally, and supported by eight adamantine feet, each six
yards high. In the middle of the concave side, there is a groove
twelve inches deep, in which the extremities of the axle are
lodged, and turned round as there is occasion..
The stone cannot be removed from its place by any force, because
the hoop and its feet are one continued piece with that body of
adamant which constitutes the bottom of the island.
By means of this loadstone, the island is made to rise and fall, and
move from one place to another. For, with respect to that part of
the earth over which the monarch presides, the stone is endued at
one of its sides with an attractive power, and at the other with a
repulsive. Upon placing the magnet erect, with its attracting end
towards the earth, the island descends; but when the repelling
extremity points downwards, the island mounts directly upwards.
When the position of the stone is oblique, the motion of the island
is so too: for in this magnet, the forces always act in lines parallel
to its direction.
By this oblique motion, the island is conveyed to different parts of
the monarch's dominions. To explain the manner of its progress,
let A B represent a line drawn across the dominions of Balnibarbi,
let the line C D represent the loadstone, of which let D be the
repelling end, and C the attracting end, the island being over C: let
the stone be placed in position C D, with its repelling end
downwards; then the island will be driven upwards obliquely
towards D. When it is arrived at D, let the stone be turned upon its
axle, till its attracting end points towards E, and then the island
will be carried obliquely towards E; where, if the stone be again
turned upon its axle till it stands in the position E F, with its
repelling point downwards, the island will rise obliquely towards
F, where, by directing the attracting end towards G, the island may
be carried to G, and from G to H, by turning the stone, so as to.
make its repelling extremity to point directly downward. And
thus, by changing the situation of the stone, as often as there is
occasion, the island is made to rise and fall by turns in an oblique
direction, and by those alternate risings and fallings (the obliquity
being not considerable) is conveyed from one part of the
dominions to the other.
But it must be observed, that this island cannot move beyond the
extent of the dominions below, nor can it rise above the height of
four miles. For which the astronomers (who have written large
systems concerning the stone) assign the following reason: that
the magnetic virtue does not extend beyond the distance of four
miles, and that the mineral, which acts upon the stone in the
bowels of the earth, and in the sea about six leagues distant from
the shore, is not diffused through the whole globe, but terminated
with the limits of the king's dominions; and it was easy, from the