NCERT Textbook (Part - 1) - Chapter 1, Voyage to Lilliput

Table of Contents
1. Early life, education and training
2. Early professional life and marriage
3. Voyages, further education in observation, and last voyage before the shipwreck
4. The storm, shipwreck and landing
5. Capture by the people of Lilliput and first impressions
6. The ruler, his attendants, and the king's provisions
7. Notes on some terms and details
8. Summary
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[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.]

Early life, education and training

My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire. I was the third of five sons. At fourteen years of age I was sent to Emanuel College, Cambridge, where I resided three years and applied myself closely to my studies. The expense of keeping me, however, was more than my father's narrow fortune could bear. Because my allowance was very scanty, I was bound apprentice to Mr James Bates, an eminent surgeon in London, with whom I continued four years. From time to time my father sent me small sums of money; with these I purchased instruction in navigation and other parts of mathematics which are useful to travellers-studies I believed would be advantageous when I should have occasion to go abroad.

When I left Mr Bates I went down to my father. By the assistance of him, my uncle John, and some other relations, I obtained forty pounds and a promise of thirty pounds a year to maintain me at Leyden, where I studied physic for two years and seven months. I undertook this course because I expected medical knowledge would be especially useful on long voyages.

Early professional life and marriage

Soon after my return from Leyden, my good master Mr Bates recommended me for the post of surgeon to the Swallow, under the command of Captain Abraham Pannel; with him I remained three years and a half and made a voyage or two to the Levant and to other parts. On my return I resolved to settle in London. Mr Bates encouraged me, and through his recommendation I obtained several patients. I took part of a small house in the Old Jewry. I was advised to better my condition, and in consequence I married Mrs Mary Burton, the second daughter of Mr Edmund Burton, a hosier in Newgate Street.

Two years after our marriage my good master Mr Bates died. Having few friends and a conscience that would not allow me to practise the dishonest methods of some practitioners, my business began to fail. After consulting with my wife and some acquaintances, I determined to go again to sea.

Voyages, further education in observation, and last voyage before the shipwreck

I served as surgeon in two different ships and made several voyages during six years to the East and West Indies, by which I added somewhat to my fortune. In my leisure hours I read the best ancient and modern authors and always carried a good number of books on board. When ashore I observed the manners and dispositions of the people, and learned their languages readily, owing much to the strength of my memory.

After one of these voyages proved not very fortunate, I grew weary of the sea and intended to remain at home with my wife and family. I removed from the Old Jewry to Fetter Lane, and afterwards to Wapping, hoping to obtain business among sailors; but this did not succeed. After three years of expecting improvement without success, I accepted an advantageous offer from Captain William Prichard, master of the Antelope, which was making a voyage to the South Sea. We set sail from Bristol on 4 May 1699, and at first our voyage was very prosperous.

The storm, shipwreck and landing

I shall not trouble the reader with many particulars of our adventures in those seas; it is sufficient to say that in our passage from the South Sea to the East Indies we were driven by a violent storm to the north-west of Van Diemen's Land (the name historically used for what is now called Tasmania). By observation we found ourselves in the latitude of 30° 2′ south. Twelve of the crew died from immoderate labour and ill food; the rest were in very weak condition. On 5 November-which was the beginning of summer in those parts-the weather was very hazy. The seamen soon spied a rock within half a cable's length of the ship; the wind was so strong that we were driven directly upon it, and the vessel immediately split.

Six of the crew, of whom I was one, lowered the boat into the sea and managed to get clear of the ship and the rock. We rowed, as near as I could compute, about three leagues, until we were unable to work any longer, having been already worn out from labour while aboard the ship. We then committed ourselves to the mercy of the waves. In about half an hour a sudden gust from the north upset the boat. What became of the companions who had rowed with me, or of those who had escaped to the rock or remained in the vessel, I cannot say; I conclude they were all lost. For my own part, I swam as fortune directed me and was carried forward by wind and tide.

When I first felt the ground beneath me I often let my legs drop and could find no bottom; but when I could hardly struggle any longer I found myself within my depth. By then the storm had abated considerably. The declivity from the sea to the shore was so gentle that I walked nearly a mile before I reached dry land, which I suppose was near eight o'clock in the evening. I advanced about half a mile inland but could discover no sign of houses or inhabitants; I was in so weak a state that I did not observe them in any case. Extremely tired and oppressed by the heat, I lay down on very short, soft grass and slept sounder than I had ever done in my life, and for, as I reckoned, about nine hours. When I awoke it was just daylight.

Capture by the people of Lilliput and first impressions

I attempted to rise but could not stir, for, lying on my back, I found my arms and legs were strongly fastened to the ground; my long thick hair was tied down in the same manner, and there were several slender ligatures across my body from my armpits to my thighs. I could only look upwards; the sun began to grow warm and the light offended my eyes. I heard a confused noise around me but, in my position, could see nothing except the sky.

Presently I felt something alive moving on my left leg; it advanced gently over my breast and almost reached my chin. When, as much as my position allowed, I bent my eyes downwards I perceived a human creature not six inches high, with a bow and arrow in his hands and a quiver at his back. I judged at once there were several more behind him, and I felt at least forty such creatures following the first. I was in the utmost astonishment and roared so loudly that they all ran back in a fright; some were hurt by their falls as they leapt from my sides onto the ground.

They soon returned and one of them, who ventured near enough for a full view of my face, lifted up his hands and eyes in admiration and cried in a shrill but distinct voice, HEKINAH DEGUL. The others repeated the same words several times; I did not then know what they meant. I lay in great uneasiness while this passed. Struggling to get loose, I had the fortune to break the strings and wrench out some pegs that fastened my left arm to the ground. By lifting my arm I discovered the methods they had used to bind me, and with a violent pull-though it gave me excessive pain-I partially loosened the ligatures that tied down the hair on the left side of my head so that I could turn it about two inches. The creatures ran off again before I could seize any of them; there was a great shriek and one of them cried aloud TOLGO PHONAC.

In an instant I felt above a hundred arrows discharged upon my left hand, which pricked me like so many needles. They also shot another flight of projectiles into the air-similar, in their effect, to small bombs of our Europe-many of which, I suppose, fell upon my body though I did not feel them; some struck my face, which I immediately covered with my left hand. When this shower of arrows was over I groaned with pain and then, striving again to free myself, they discharged another, larger volley. Some of them attempted with spears to stick me in the sides; but happily I wore a buff jerkin (a coarse leather doublet) which they could not pierce.

I judged it most prudent to lie still; I resolved to remain so until night, when, with my left hand already loosened, I expected to be easily able to free myself. Moreover, I thought that were all their numbers equal to that first creature I had seen, I might still be a match for their greatest army; but fortune disposed otherwise. When the people observed I remained quiet they fired no more arrows; by the rising noise I knew their numbers increased. About four yards from my right ear I heard hammering and knocking for more than an hour, like people at work. When I turned my head as far as the pegs and strings permitted, I saw a stage erected about a foot and a half from the ground, capable of holding four of the inhabitants, with two or three ladders to mount it. From this stage one of them, who appeared to be a person of distinction, made me a long speech, of which at first I understood not a syllable.

I should have mentioned that before the principal person began his oration he cried out three times LANGRO DEHUL SAN-these words and those formerly uttered were afterwards repeated and explained to me. Immediately about fifty of the inhabitants came and cut the strings fastening the left side of my head, which allowed me to turn it to the right and observe the orator's person and gestures more fully.

The ruler, his attendants, and the king's provisions

The speaker seemed to be of middle age and was taller than the three who attended him; one of these attendants was a page who held up the orator's train and appeared somewhat longer than my middle finger. The other two stood on either side to support him. He acted every part of an orator: his speech displayed alternations of threatenings and promises, of pity and of kindness.

I answered in a few submissive gestures, lifting my left hand and both eyes to the sun as if to call it to witness. Being almost famished-having eaten nothing for some hours before our shipwreck-I could not conceal my impatience; I frequently put my finger to my mouth to indicate that I wanted food. The HURGO (for so they call a great lord, as I afterwards learned) understood my signs perfectly. He descended from the stage and ordered that several ladders be applied to my sides.

Above a hundred of the inhabitants mounted the ladders and walked towards my mouth bearing baskets full of meat which had been provided by the king's orders upon the first intelligence of my arrival. I observed several different kinds of flesh though I could not always distinguish them by taste. There were shoulders, legs and loins shaped like those of mutton and very well dressed, but each piece was smaller than the wings of a lark. I ate two or three at a time and took three loaves at once, each about the size of a musket bullet.

Notes on some terms and details

The text uses several period terms that may be unfamiliar. A buff jerkin is a short leather jacket worn for protection. The mention of a musket bullet gives a sense of the small size of provisions in that country: the loaves and pieces of meat are minute compared with what we consider normal portions. Van Diemen's Land is the historical name used by early European navigators for the large island south of the Australian mainland (now called Tasmania). The Lilliputian words such as HEKINAH DEGUL, TOLGO PHONAC and LANGRO DEHUL SAN are presented as sounds and phrases the narrator could not initially understand; these are later explained to him by interpreters, but here they signal astonishment, commands and ceremony.

Summary

The narrator gives a brief account of his early education, apprenticeship and medical training, his voyages and marriage, and how circumstances and conscience led him back to sea. On a later voyage in the Antelope under Captain William Prichard, a violent storm wrecks the ship near Van Diemen's Land. After swimming ashore, he falls asleep and awakens bound to the ground by very small ligatures. He is discovered by tiny people not six inches high, who at first attack him with arrows but then bring him provisions by order of their king. The scene introduces the Lilliputians-their language, social order and customs-and sets the stage for the narrator's further experiences among them.