The author gives some account of himself and family. His first
inducements to travel. He is shipwrecked, and swims for his life, gets
safe on shore in the country of Lilliput; is made a prisoner, and
carried up the country.
My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the third of
five sons. He sent me to Emanuel College in Cambridge at fourteen years
old, where I resided three years, and applied myself close to my
studies; but the charge of maintaining me, although I had a very scanty
allowance, being too great for a narrow fortune, I was bound apprentice
to Mr. James Bates, an eminent surgeon in London, with whom I continued
four years. My father now and then sending me small sums of money, I
laid them out in learning navigation, and other parts of the
mathematics, useful to those who intend to travel, as I always believed
it would be, some time or other, my fortune to do. When I left Mr.
Bates, I went down to my father: where, by the assistance of him and my
uncle John, and some other relations, I got forty pounds, and a promise
of thirty pounds a year to maintain me at Leyden: there I studied
physic two years and seven months, knowing it would be useful in long
voyages.
Soon after my return from Leyden, I was recommended by my good master,
Mr. Bates, to be surgeon to the Swallow, Captain Abraham Pannel,
commander; with whom I continued three years and a half, making a
voyage or two into the Levant, and some other parts. When I came back I
resolved to settle in London; to which Mr. Bates, my master, encouraged
me, and by him I was recommended to several patients. I took part of a
small house in the Old Jewry; and being advised to alter my condition,
I married Mrs. Mary Burton, second daughter to Mr. Edmund Burton,
hosier, in Newgate-street, with whom I received four hundred pounds for
a portion.
But my good master Bates dying in two years after, and I having few
friends, my business began to fail; for my conscience would not suffer
me to imitate the bad practice of too many among my brethren. Having
therefore consulted with my wife, and some of my acquaintance, I
determined to go again to sea. I was surgeon successively in two ships,
and made several voyages, for six years, to the East and West Indies,
by which I got some addition to my fortune. My hours of leisure I spent
in reading the best authors, ancient and modern, being always provided
with a good number of books; and when I was ashore, in observing the
manners and dispositions of the people, as well as learning their
language; wherein I had a great facility, by the strength of my memory.
The last of these voyages not proving very fortunate, I grew weary of
the sea, and intended to stay at home with my wife and family. I
removed from the Old Jewry to Fetter Lane, and from thence to Wapping,
hoping to get business among the sailors; but it would not turn to
account. After three years expectation that things would mend, I
accepted an advantageous offer from Captain William Prichard, master of
the Antelope, who was making a voyage to the South Sea. We set sail
from Bristol, May 4, 1699, and our voyage was at first very prosperous.
It would not be proper, for some reasons, to trouble the reader with
the particulars of our adventures in those seas; let it suffice to
inform him, that in our passage from thence to the East Indies, we were
driven by a violent storm to the north-west of Van Diemen’s Land. By an
observation, we found ourselves in the latitude of 30 degrees 2 minutes
south. Twelve of our crew were dead by immoderate labour and ill food;
the rest were in a very weak condition. On the 5th of November, which
was the beginning of summer in those parts, the weather being very
hazy, the seamen spied a rock within half a cable’s length of the ship;
but the wind was so strong, that we were driven directly upon it, and
immediately split. Six of the crew, of whom I was one, having let down
the boat into the sea, made a shift to get clear of the ship and the
rock. We rowed, by my computation, about three leagues, till we were
able to work no longer, being already spent with labour while we were
in the ship. We therefore trusted ourselves to the mercy of the waves,
and in about half an hour the boat was overset by a sudden flurry from
the north. What became of my companions in the boat, as well as of
those who escaped on the rock, or were left in the vessel, I cannot
tell; but conclude they were all lost. For my own part, I swam as
fortune directed me, and was pushed forward by wind and tide. I often
let my legs drop, and could feel no bottom; but when I was almost gone,
and able to struggle no longer, I found myself within my depth; and by
this time the storm was much abated. The declivity was so small, that I
walked near a mile before I got to the shore, which I conjectured was
about eight o’clock in the evening. I then advanced forward near half a
mile, but could not discover any sign of houses or inhabitants; at
least I was in so weak a condition, that I did not observe them. I was
extremely tired, and with that, and the heat of the weather, and about
half a pint of brandy that I drank as I left the ship, I found myself
much inclined to sleep. I lay down on the grass, which was very short
and soft, where I slept sounder than ever I remembered to have done in
my life, and, as I reckoned, about nine hours; for when I awaked, it
was just day-light. I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir: for,
as I happened to lie on my back, I found my arms and legs were strongly
fastened on each side to the ground; and my hair, which was long and
thick, tied down in the same manner. I likewise felt several slender
ligatures across my body, from my arm-pits to my thighs. I could only
look upwards; the sun began to grow hot, and the light offended my
eyes. I heard a confused noise about me; but in the posture I lay,
could see nothing except the sky. In a little time I felt something
alive moving on my left leg, which advancing gently forward over my
breast, came almost up to my chin; when, bending my eyes downwards as
much as I could, I perceived it to be a human creature not six inches
high, with a bow and arrow in his hands, and a quiver at his back. In
the mean time, I felt at least forty more of the same kind (as I
conjectured) following the first. I was in the utmost astonishment, and
roared so loud, that they all ran back in a fright; and some of them,
as I was afterwards told, were hurt with the falls they got by leaping
from my sides upon the ground. However, they soon returned, and one of
them, who ventured so far as to get a full sight of my face, lifting up
his hands and eyes by way of admiration, cried out in a shrill but
distinct voice, Hekinah degul: the others repeated the same words
several times, but then I knew not what they meant. I lay all this
while, as the reader may believe, in great uneasiness. At length,
struggling to get loose, I had the fortune to break the strings, and
wrench out the pegs that fastened my left arm to the ground; for, by
lifting it up to my face, I discovered the methods they had taken to
bind me, and at the same time with a violent pull, which gave me
excessive pain, I a little loosened the strings that tied down my hair
on the left side, so that I was just able to turn my head about two
inches. But the creatures ran off a second time, before I could seize
them; whereupon there was a great shout in a very shrill accent, and
after it ceased I heard one of them cry aloud Tolgo phonac; when in
an instant I felt above a hundred arrows discharged on my left hand,
which, pricked me like so many needles; and besides, they shot another
flight into the air, as we do bombs in Europe, whereof many, I suppose,
fell on my body, (though I felt them not), and some on my face, which I
immediately covered with my left hand. When this shower of arrows was
over, I fell a groaning with grief and pain; and then striving again to
get loose, they discharged another vo