Chapter Three. My Journey to Brobdingnag

I go back to sea. I arrive at the land of giants.

I become a tourist attraction.

I live with the king and queen.

On 20th June, 1702, I left England on the Adventure. We had a very good journey south and stopped for the winter at the Cape of Good Hope. In the spring, we sailed again. We saw Madagascar and sailed towards the Molucca Islands. The weather was very good. Too good. Captain Nicholas was a very good sailor. He understood weather. ‘There will be a terrible storm tomorrow. A monsoon,' he said one day.

He was right. It was stormy for many days. No-one knew where we were. We had lots of food, but we didn't have much water. We started to look for land.

On 16th June, 1703, we saw land. Some of us got into a small boat and went towards the shore. When we arrived, we started to look for water. Some of us went left and others went right. I didn't see any people and I didn't find any water. I was tired, so I started to go back to the boat. When I got back to the shore, I couldn't see the boat. Then, I saw it. At sea, moving quickly. Behind it, there was a very tall man. A giant. He tried but couldn't catch the boat. I ran away. I ran for miles. I arrived at a field. The field was full of wheat, but it was very, very tall. Suddenly, another giant man appeared, then another, then a woman. There were seven of them.

‘What are they doing?' I thought. ‘They're farmers. Oh, no! They're cutting the wheat!'

I ran and ran, but the farmers came nearer. I stopped, very tired. ‘My wife,' I thought. ‘My poor wife and my poor children. Why did I leave England? I don't want to die here!'

I thought about Lilliput and the little people. They were scared of me. Now I was scared of someone much bigger than me. At that very moment, I saw a foot. ‘No! Help! Stop!' I shouted, loudly.

The farmer stopped. He looked at the ground in front of him. Then he saw me. He looked at me for a while. I understood his thoughts. I look like this when I see a strange animal. ‘Will it hurt me?' I think.

After a while, he picked me up, carefully. He held me between his thumb and a finger. I was scared. I was very high in the air. ‘Don't drop me!' I shouted. ‘Ouch! You're hurting me!'

He seemed to understand. The farmer put me into his pocket. He walked towards his friends. ‘Look at this!' I think he said. I didn't understand the language, but I could guess. The farmer put me on the ground. His friends sat down in a circle. They watched me. I tried to talk to them. I tried many different languages. They couldn't really hear me and they couldn't understand. The farmers tried to talk to me, but the noise was very loud. It hurt my ears.

After a while, the farmer carried me to his house. He was very careful. He called his wife. She was scared and ran away. She came back after a minute or two and was very kind to me. It was lunchtime and she put a very big plate onto the table. The family came to eat. They were very curious. In total, there were the farmer and his wife, their three children and an old grandmother. The farmer's wife gave me some food and drink. Suddenly, a giant cat jumped up to sit on the wife's knees. I was scared for a moment, but I think the cat was more afraid of me.

After lunch, the nurse came into the room with the farmer's enormous baby. This was a terrible moment. The baby saw me and immediately picked me up. He put me into his mouth. I was very lucky: the farmer's wife pulled my legs and I was free. Then, the farmer's wife took me upstairs and put me into a bedroom. She locked the door. I slept for about two hours. When I woke up, I looked around the room. Then I saw them, two enormous rats. They wanted to eat me! I took out my sword and killed the first one. The second ran away. The farmer's wife came in at that moment and saved me.

I liked the farmer's daughter very much. She was nine years old and about forty feet tall. She made a little bed for me. She also made seven little shirts for me. She was my teacher, too. Very quickly, I began to understand their language. She called me Grildrig – little man. Everyone in the family then called me Grildrig. Soon, everyone in the country called me Grildrig. Her name was Glumdalclitch and she was very, very kind to me. Glumdalclitch stayed with me all the time I was in Brobdingnag.

Everyone in the village knew about me. I was a strange animal, just like a human but very small. When visitors came to the house, the farmer put me on the table. I spoke to the people in their language. One visitor said to the farmer. ‘Put him in a box and take him to the market. People will pay to see him,' he said.

Glumdalclitch was afraid. ‘Don't hurt him!' she said.

The next day, the farmer put me in a box to take me to the market. Glumdalclitch came with us. The journey was uncomfortable in my little box. When we arrived at the village, the farmer found a room at a hotel. He brought people to see me. Glumdalclitch asked me questions and I answered in their language. A schoolboy threw a peanut at me. It didn't hit me: I was very lucky.

The farmer was very happy. He decided to take me to all the markets in Brobdingnag.

Travelling was very difficult for me and very uncomfortable. I became ill. The farmer wasn't worried. ‘Someone must buy him before he dies,' he thought.

Luckily, a message came from the queen. She wanted to see me immediately, so we went to the palace. She was very kind. ‘Where are you from?' she asked.

‘England,' I answered.

‘And why did you come to Brobdingnag?'

I told her about my travels. The queen was very interested. She decided to buy me. ‘How much must I give you?' she asked the farmer.

‘A thousand gold pieces,' he answered.

‘Your Majesty,' I said.

‘Yes, Grildrig?'

‘I have one question. Can Glumdalclitch come too? She's my nurse and my teacher.'

Glumdalclitch was happy, the queen was happy and the farmer was happy. He was rich and his daughter lived in the royal palace.

One day, the queen took me to see her husband, the king. He was surprised. ‘Is that your new pet?' he asked. ‘What is it?'

‘He's not an animal!' she answered. ‘Listen.'

The queen asked me some questions and I answered in her language. The king was interested in my story, too. He called Glumdalclitch. ‘Is his story true?' he asked.

‘Yes,' she answered.

At first the king wasn't sure. Perhaps I was a clockwork toy. So he called the three most intelligent people in Brobdingnag. They looked at me and they talked to me.

‘He isn't an animal. He isn't fast and he can't climb trees,' one said.

‘He isn't a man,' said another. ‘He's too small.'

‘He's a freak. A freak of nature,' they all said.

‘Your Majesty!' I shouted. ‘I'm a man. I come from a country called England. In England there are millions of men and women like me. In my country, the trees and the animals are in proportion to us.'

The three intelligent people laughed at me.

The king was a fair man. He was still interested in my story. ‘Look after him,' he said to the queen. ‘Give him food, build a house for him. I like him.'

The queen called a carpenter. ‘Make a beautiful house for this man,' she said.

The carpenter was very clever. He made a very comfortable box for me. It had windows, a bed, chairs, a table and a wardrobe. It was perfect for travelling and for living.

The queen liked me. I always had dinner with her. She found toy silver plates, knives and forks for me and she cut my food for me.

Every Wednesday (Wednesdays were holidays), the king and queen had lunch together. The king liked talking to me. He talked about my country and Europe. He asked about government, laws, religion and education. Sometimes he laughed, but he always listened.

Sometimes life in Brobdingnag was dangerous for a little man. One day, I opened my window and there were twenty giant wasps outside. Luckily, I had my sword. They attacked me, so I killed them all – one by one. I kept some wasp stings as souvenirs. I had problems with giant flies too.

I often travelled with the king and queen. Brobdingnag was a very big country. European map-makers are very bad: they think there is no big country between Japan and California! ‘When I return to England, I'll correct their maps,' I thought.

The mountains in the north of Brobdingnag are thirty miles high. People catch fish in the rivers not in the sea. Why? Because the fish in the sea are too small. In fact, they're just like ours in England. There are fifty-one cities in Brobdingnag and lots of villages. The cities are very beautiful and there are a lot of royal palaces and temples.

The king began to trust me. He often asked questions about England.

‘We have two islands. And we have some land in another country – America,' I said. ‘We have a king and a Parliament. Parliament has two houses; the House of Lords and the House of Commons. We also have judges. We pay tax to the government. We have very good soldiers and very good sailors.'

‘Why do you need soldiers?' he asked. ‘Soldiers are very expensive. Farmers are better for the country.'

‘We're a very powerful country,' I said. ‘We have very good guns. We can kill a lot of people in a very short time. So, we stay powerful. I can help you make guns like ours.'

The king was very angry. ‘No!' he shouted. ‘I love science and I love art. My people study mathematics, philosophy, history and poetry. I think you're horrible people. You make war on other countries for power. I don't make war on other countries. I don't need big guns to kill other people. I need farmers to grow food for them.'

We didn't speak about England again.