Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World
thing have preserved the windows, but the strong lattice wires placed
on the outside, against accidents in travelling. I saw the water ooze
in at several crannies, although the leaks were not considerable, and I
endeavoured to stop them as well as I could. I was not able to lift up
the roof of my closet, which otherwise I certainly should have done,
and sat on the top of it; where I might at least preserve myself some
hours longer, than by being shut up (as I may call it) in the hold. Or
if I escaped these dangers for a day or two, what could I expect but a
miserable death of cold and hunger? I was four hours under these
circumstances, expecting, and indeed wishing, every moment to be my
last.
I have already told the reader that there were two strong staples fixed
upon that side of my box which had no window, and into which the
servant, who used to carry me on horseback, would put a leathern belt,
and buckle it about his waist. Being in this disconsolate state, I
heard, or at least thought I heard, some kind of grating noise on that
side of my box where the staples were fixed; and soon after I began to
fancy that the box was pulled or towed along the sea; for I now and
then felt a sort of tugging, which made the waves rise near the tops of
my windows, leaving me almost in the dark. This gave me some faint
hopes of relief, although I was not able to imagine how it could be
brought about. I ventured to unscrew one of my chairs, which were
always fastened to the floor; and having made a hard shift to screw it
down again, directly under the slipping-board that I had lately opened,
I mounted on the chair, and putting my mouth as near as I could to the
hole, I called for help in a loud voice, and in all the languages I
understood. I then fastened my handkerchief to a stick I usually
carried, and thrusting it up the hole, waved it several times in the
air, that if any boat or ship were near, the seamen might conjecture
some unhappy mortal to be shut up in the box.
I found no effect from all I could do, but plainly perceived my closet
to be moved along; and in the space of an hour, or better, that side of
the box where the staples were, and had no windows, struck against
something that was hard. I apprehended it to be a rock, and found
myself tossed more than ever. I plainly heard a noise upon the cover of
my closet, like that of a cable, and the grating of it as it passed
through the ring. I then found myself hoisted up, by degrees, at least
three feet higher than I was before. Whereupon I again thrust up my
stick and handkerchief, calling for help till I was almost hoarse. In
return to which, I heard a great shout repeated three times, giving me
such transports of joy as are not to be conceived but by those who feel
them. I now heard a trampling over my head, and somebody calling
through the hole with a loud voice, in the English tongue, “If there be
any body below, let them speak.” I answered, “I was an Englishman,
drawn by ill fortune into the greatest calamity that ever any creature
underwent, and begged, by all that was moving, to be delivered out of
the dungeon I was in.” The voice replied, “I was safe, for my box was
fastened to their ship; and the carpenter should immediately come and
saw a hole in the cover, large enough to pull me out.” I answered,
“that was needless, and would take up too much time; for there was no
more to be done, but let one of the crew put his finger into the ring,
and take the box out of the sea into the ship, and so into the
captain’s cabin.” Some of them, upon hearing me talk so wildly, thought
I was mad: others laughed; for indeed it never came into my head, that
I was now got among people of my own stature and strength. The
carpenter came, and in a few minutes sawed a passage about four feet
square, then let down a small ladder, upon which I mounted, and thence
was taken into the ship in a very weak condition.
The sailors were all in amazement, and asked me a thousand questions,
which I had no inclination to answer. I was equally confounded at the
sight of so many pigmies, for such I took them to be, after having so
long accustomed my eyes to the monstrous objects I had left. But the
captain, Mr. Thomas Wilcocks, an honest worthy Shropshire man,
observing I was ready to faint, took me into his cabin, gave me a
cordial to comfort me, and made me turn in upon his own bed, advising
me to take a little rest, of which I had great need. Before I went to
sleep, I gave him to understand that I had some valuable furniture in
my box, too good to be lost: a fine hammock, a handsome field-bed, two
chairs, a table, and a cabinet; that my closet was hung on all sides,
or rather quilted, with silk and cotton; that if he would let one of
the crew bring my closet into his cabin, I would open it there before
him, and show him my goods. The captain, hearing me utter these
absurdities, concluded I was raving; however (I suppose to pacify me)
he promised to give order as I desired, and going upon deck, sent some
of his men down into my closet, whence (as I afterwards found) they
drew up all my goods, and stripped off the quilting; but the chairs,
cabinet, and bedstead, being screwed to the floor, were much damaged by
the ignorance of the seamen, who tore them up by force. Then they
knocked off some of the boards for the use of the ship, and when they
had got all they had a mind for, let the hull drop into the sea, which
by reason of many breaches made in the bottom and sides, sunk to
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 to 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