Chapter Five. I Visit Strange and Wonderful Places

On Balnibarbi. Inside the Academy.

The Magical Island. I meet Hannibal.

When I reached Balnibarbi, I was very happy. I walked to Lagado (I'm sure you remember that this is the capital city). I had the name of a man to visit in Lagado, Lord Munodi. He was a friend of my friend on Laputa. The man was very happy to meet me. I stayed in his house.

The next morning, he took me to visit the capital. It was about the same size as London. The houses were very strange and very badly built. The people in the streets walked fast. They looked a little wild. Their clothes were old. Then, we walked into the countryside. Again the people were poor. I was surprised, because the land was good. Lord Munodi's house was different from the others. His garden was also more beautiful than the others. I asked Lord Munodi why.

‘About forty years ago, the Laputan government built an academy here in Lagado. The academy studies building, agriculture and languages. The professors have some very strange ideas. They tell the Laputan government their ideas and the government makes stupid laws. They aren't practical. My house is different, because I break the laws.'

‘Can I visit the academy?' I asked.

‘Yes, but you must go alone,' he answered. ‘I hate the academy and I'll never, ever go there. You must take some money with you. They never have any money for their studies so they beg from visitors.

The following day, I visited the academy. The dean was very happy to meet me. The academy was very big with about five hundred rooms.

In the first room, there was an old man. He told me about his studies. ‘I'm working on a very important project. I'm trying to make sunlight from cucumbers. We take the sunlight out of the cucumbers, put it in a bottle and then we can use it on cold days.'

‘Very interesting,' I said. I gave him some money.

I went into another room. The smell was so bad that I left immediately.

In another room, there was a very clever engineer. He had a new way of building houses. He built the roof first and the walls second. At the end, he built the foundations.

In the next room, there was a man who couldn't see. His job was to mix colours for artists. He did this by smell and by touch.

I visited a lot of rooms in the academy, but I didn't see any practical ideas. The dean wanted to show me more rooms on the other side of the academy. There, I visited the school of languages. There were three professors there. Their job was to improve their language.

‘What exactly are you doing?' I asked one professor.

‘This is my language machine,' he answered. ‘It's making our words shorter. All words will soon be very, very short.'

‘Very interesting,' I said.

‘My job is more interesting,' said the second professor. ‘There's no need for words in our language. Speaking is very bad for people. Too much speaking makes people ill. In my system, we don't need words, we need things. People will soon communicate by carrying things in their pockets. For short conversations, you only need a few things. Of course, for long conversations, you need servants to carry your things. For very long conversations, you need a cart. My system has one great advantage – it's a universal language. You can communicate with people from all over the world.'

‘But my language machine is the best!' said the first professor.

‘No, yours is too complicated!' said the second.

I gave them some money and left quickly.

Next, I spent a very short time at the school of mathematics. There, the scientists wrote formulas on edible paper. They then ate them, immediately.

I now understood that all these professors were mad. Balnibarbi was poor and unhappy because of these professors and their silly ideas. I decided to leave the academy and Balnibarbi as soon as possible. I wanted to go back to Europe.

The next day, I spoke to Lord Munodi. ‘I want to go back to England,' I said.

‘I'm not surprised,' he answered. ‘Perhaps I can help. The King of Luggnagg is a good friend of the Emperor of Japan. It must be possible to get from there to Japan and from Japan to England. Why don't you go to Luggnagg? It's a small island and it's quite near.'

‘Thank you,' I said. ‘That's a very good idea.

I said goodbye to Lord Munodi and left Lagado. I travelled to the port of Maldonada. When I arrived, I spoke to a man at the port. ‘When's the next ship for Luggnagg?' I asked.

‘In five weeks,' he answered.

I decided to spend the time visiting a different island, Glubbdubdrib. Its other name is the Magical Island. It's a very small island. The king of the Magical Island is a magician. He has a very special power. He can call ghosts from the past to be his servants. They can only work for him for twenty-four hours. When I arrived at the Magical Island, I went immediately to see the king. He was very happy to see me and invited me to stay in the royal palace. It was a little strange at first, the servants were always different.

One evening, the king invited me to a special dinner. After dinner, we talked.

‘I like you, Gulliver,' he said. ‘I have an interesting idea. Do you want to meet some people from the past?'

‘Yes, please!' I answered.

‘Who?'

‘Let me think. Alexander the Great,' I answered.

‘Call him! Then he'll appear!' said the king.

‘Alexander the Great!' I called.

Two seconds later, Alexander appeared. It was difficult to understand his Greek at first.

‘Another!' said the king.

Soon, Hannibal appeared.

‘Look! He's crossing the Alps!' I shouted.

I then asked to see Caesar and Pompey. Then the whole Senate of Rome appeared. Caesar and Brutus came near to me. I spoke to Brutus, a very fine man.

The next day, I decided to call some more ghosts. Homer and Aristotle were interesting. I called Descartes and Gassendi. Aristotle was pleased to meet them. ‘Oh dear, I made some mistakes in my philosophy,' he said, after a long conversation.

The next day, I called some ghosts from modern history. They were very disappointing. I called people from the past and recent past. It was strange, all the people from the recent past were very disappointing. At the end of my stay on the Magical Island, I understood more about the problems of my country and the problems of Europe.

It was time for me to leave. I thanked the King of the Magical Island very much and went back to Maldonada. There, I found a ship for Luggnagg. The journey took a month.

It's easy to communicate with the people of Luggnagg, because many of them speak the language of Balnibarbi. The Luggnaggians are very polite, kind people. They all seem to be very happy.

Soon after I arrived, the king invited me to the royal palace. I wanted to be polite too, so I learned some words in Luggnaggian. When I arrived at the palace, I said these words to the king, ‘Ickpling gloffthrob squutserumm blhiop mlashnalt zwin modbalkguffh slhiophad gurdlubh asht.'

He was very pleased. He invited me to stay in the royal palace. I stayed for three months.

One day, a Luggnaggian asked me a strange question. ‘Would you like to meet an Immortal?'

‘What do you mean?'

‘Some people here are immortal – they live for ever.'

‘How wonderful,' I said. ‘Yes, I'd like to learn from an Immortal. They'll teach me a lot about life. Perhaps I can learn something special.'

Unfortunately, the Immortals aren't nice people. They're angry, horrible, jealous, miserable and talk a lot. Because they're different from other people, they don't have friends. They're also very ugly. They've a strange blue spot on their heads. The oldest Immortal I met was two hundred years old. He was very, very angry and very, very horrible.

I began to understand that the Luggnaggians don't like the Immortals. They don't want to live for ever. Perhaps that's why the Luggnaggians are so happy.

After three months at the royal palace, I decided to leave. It was time to go back to England and my family. The king was sorry. ‘Stay here,' he said. ‘You can work for my government.'

‘I'm sorry,' I answered, ‘I must go home. I must see my family again.'

The king was very kind. He gave me some gold and a beautiful red diamond.

In early May, I left Luggnagg. I arrived in Japan two weeks later. In Japan, I began to look for a ship to take me to Europe. It was very difficult to find a ship. After a few weeks, I found a Dutch ship. I spoke to the captain.

‘Where are you from?' he asked.

‘Holland,' I answered. The Dutch and the English weren't good friends at this time. It was better to be Dutch. Luckily, I knew the Dutch language very well.

Captain Theodorus Vangrult was happy to take me. He needed a ship's doctor. I invented some stories about my family in Guelderland. No-one knew I was English.

In June, we finally left Japan. The journey was long, but there were no adventures. We stopped at the Cape of Good Hope. This time, we only stayed for two days, because the weather was good. We got fresh water and sailed away immediately. On 6th April 1710, we arrived at Amsterdam. I immediately found another boat from Amsterdam to England. Four days later, I was home.

My wife was very happy to see me. She was very well and so were my children.

I stayed at home in England for five very happy months. Then, I started to think about travelling again. I spoke to some friends.

‘Didn't you sail on the Adventure, a few years ago?' one of them said.

‘Yes, why?'

‘Well, they need a new captain. Why don't you speak to the owner?'

I travelled to Portsmouth to meet the owner of the Adventure. After many years as a ship's doctor, I understood navigation very well. It was time for me to become the captain of a ship. The owner was happy, he remembered me from before.

‘The job is yours!' he said.

I was very pleased. Now I needed a ship's doctor. I found a young man: he was very good at his job. Then, I said goodbye to my wife and children. We left Portsmouth on 7th September 1710. Our destination? The South Seas, again.