well married, and has children) was then at her needlework. I took leave of my wife, and boy, and girl, with tears on both fides, and went on board the Adventure, a merchant-fhip of 300 tons, bound for Surat, Capt. John Nicholas of Liverpool commander. But my account of this voyage must be referred to the fecond part of my travels.

A

A

VOYAGE

то

BROBDING NA G.

CHAP. I.

A great form defcribed; the long-boat fent to fetch water; the author goes with it to discover the country. He is left on fhore, is feized by one of the natives, and carried to a farmer's boufe. His reception, with Jeveral accidents that happened there. A defcription of the inhabitants.

AVING been condemned by nature and fortune to an active and restless life, in two months

after my return I again left my native country, and took shipping in the Downs on the 20th day of June 1702, in the Adventure, Capt. John Nicholas a Cornish man commander, bound for Surat. We had a very profperous gale till we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, where we landed for fresh water, but difcovering a leak, we unfhipped our goods, and wintered there; for, the captain falling fick of an ague, we could not leave the Cape till the end of March. We then fet fail, and had a good voyage till we paffed the Streights of Madagascar ; but having got northward of that ifland, and to about five degrees fouth latitude, the winds, which in those feas are obferved to blow a conftant equal gale between the north and weft, from the beginning of December to the beginning of May, on the 19th of April began to blow with much greater violence, and more wefterly than usual, continuing fo for twenty days together, during which time we were driven a little to the east of the Molucca iflands, and about three degrees northward of the line, as our captain found by an obferyation he took the 2d

of

of May, at which time the wind ceased, and it was a perfect calm, whereat I was not a little rejoiced. But he, being a man well experienced in the navigation of thofe feas, bid us all prepare against a ftorm, which accordingly happened the day following: for a fouthern wind, called the fouthern monsoon, began to fet in.

FINDING it was like to overblow, we took in our spritfail, and ftood by to hand the fore-fail; but, making foul weather, we looked the guns were all faft, and handed the miffen. The hip lay very broad off, so we thought it better spooning before the fea, than trying or hulling. We reft the fore-fail and fet him, and hawled aft the fore-fheet; the helm was hard a weather. The ship wore bravely. We belaid the fore-down-hall; but the fail was split, and we hawled down the yard, and got the fail into the fhip, and unbound all the things clear of it. It was a very fierce ftorm; the fea broke ftrange and dangerous. We hawled off upon the lanniard of the whip-staff, and helped the man at the helm. We would not get down our top-maft, but let all stand, because she fcudded before the fea very well, and we knew that, the top-mast being aloft, the hip was the wholfomer, and made better way through the fea, feeing we had fea-room. When the ftorm was over, we fet fore-fail and main-fail, and brought the ship to. Then we fet the miffen, main-topfail, and the fore-top-fail. Our courfe was east-northeaft, the wind was at fouth-west. We got the ftar-board tacks a-board, we caft off our weather braces and lifts; we fet in the lee-braces, and hawled forward by the weather-bowlings, and hawled them tight, and belaid them, and hawled over the missen-tack to windward, and kept her full and by as near as she would lie.

DURING this form, which was followed by a ftrong wind west-south-weft, we were carried by my computation about five hundred leagues to the east, fo that the oldest failor on board could not tell in what part of the world we were. Our provifions held out well, our ship was ftaunch, and our crew all in good health; but we lay in the utmoft diftrefs for water. We thought it best to hold on the fame course, rather than turn more northerly, which might have brought us to the north-weft parts of great Tartary, and into the frozen fea. G

VOL. II.

ON

On the 16th day of June, 1703, a boy on the top-maft difcovered land. On the 17th, we came in full view of a great island or continent (for we knew not whether) on the fouth-fide whereof was a small neck of land jutting out into the fea, and a creek too fhallow to hold a ship of above one hundred tons. We caft anchor within a league of this creek, and our captain fent a dozen of his men well armed in the long-boat, with veffels for water, if any could be found. I defired his leave to go with them, that I might fee the country, and make what difcoveries I could. When we came to land, we faw no river or fpring, nor any fign of inhabitants. Our men therefore wandered on the fhore to find out fome fresh water near the fea, and I walked alone about a mile on the other fide, where I obferved the country all barren and rocky. I now began to be,weary, and feeing nothing to entertain my curiofity, I returned gently down towards the creek; and the fea being (full in my view, I faw our men already got into the boat, and rowing for life to the fhip. I was going to hollow after them, altho' it had been to little purpose, when I observed a huge creature walking after them in the fea, as fast as he could; he waded not much deeper than his knees, and took prodigious ftrides: but our men had the start of him half a league, and, the fea thereabouts being full of fharp-pointed rocks, the monster was not able to overtake the boat. This I was afterwards told, for I durft not ftay to fee the issue of the adventure; but ran as fast as I could the way I first went, and then climbed up a fleep hill, which gave me fome profpect of the country. I found it fully cultivated; but that which first surprised me was the length of the grafs, which, in those grounds that seemed to be kept for hay, was about twenty feet high.

I fell into a high road, for fo I took it to be, tho' it ferved to the inhabitants only as a foot-path through a field of barley. Here I walked on for fome time, but could fee little on either fide, it being now near harvest, and the corn rifing at least forty feet. I was an hour walking to the end of this field, which was fenced in with a hedge of at least one hundred and twenty feet high, and the trees fo lofty that I could make no com

putation

putation of their altitude. There was a stile to pass from this field into the next. It had four steps, and a ftone to

:

cross over when you came to the uppermoft. It was impoffible for me to climb this ftile, because every step was fix feet high, and the upper ftone above twenty. I was endeavouring to find fome gap in the hedge, when I difcovered one of the inhabitants in the next field advaneing towards the file, of the fame fize with him whom I faw in the fea purfuing our boat. He appeared as tall as an ordinary fpire-fteeple, and took about ten yards at every ftride, as near as I could guess. I was ftruck with the utmost fear and astonishment, and ran to hide myself. in the corn, from whence I saw him at the top of the ftile looking back into the next field on the right hand, and heard him call in a voice many degrees louder than a fpeaking trumpet; but the noife was fo high in the air, that at first I certainly thought it was thunder. Whereupon seven monfters, like himself, came towards him with reaping-hooks in their hands, each hook about the largeness of fix fcythes. Thefe people were not fo well clad as the firft, whofe fervants or labourers they seemed to be for, upon fome words he spoke, they went to reap the corn in the field where I lay. I kept from them at as great a distance as I could, but was forced to move with extreme difficulty; for the ftalks of the corn were fometimes not above a foot diftant, fo that I could hardly fqueefe my body betwixt them. However I made a shift to go forward, till I came to a part of the field where the corn had been laid by the rain and wind. Here it was impoffible for me to advance a step; for the stalks were fo interwoven that I could not creep through, and the beards of the fallen ears fo ftrong and pointed, that they pierced through my cloaths into my flesh. At the fame time I heard the reapers not above an hundred yards behind me. Being quite difpirited with toil, and wholly overcome by grief and despair, I lay down between two ridges, and heartily wished I might there end my days. I bemoaned my defolate widow, and fatherless children. I lamented my own folly and wilfulness in attempting a fecond voyage against the advice of all my friends and relations. In this terrible agitation of mind I could not forbear thinking of Lilliput, whofe inhabitants

G. 2.

looked