     My name is Lemuel Gulliver and my father was a land-owner in England.  
His estate was not a large one and as he had five sons there was little 
money for our education.  My own ambition was to travel and in order to 
make this possible I persuaded my father to have me trained as a doctor.  
When I was young doctors were not thought very important, but the work 
suited me because at the end of my training I was able to become a ship's 
doctor and to travel all over the world.  Even when I married and had a 
family I did not stay on land for long and there are many tales I could 
tell you of the strange things I saw abroad.  But the strangest story of 
all began in May, 1699, when the voyage began which I shall now describe 
to you.
     The journey started well and our sailing ship had traveled many 
months and half way round the world before anything unusual happened.  
It was near the coast of Sumatra that our luck changed.  A terrible storm 
arose and for many days the ship was driven through seas which were unknown 
to our captain.  Many of the crew died.  At last the strong wind drove the 
ship on to a rock where it was broken to pieces by the waves.  Only six of 
the crew were able to escape in a small boat.  I was one of them.  We 
managed to row three miles but our efforts were in vain.  The boat was 
turned over by a mountainous wave and I was the only man who was able to 
swim to land.  It was a strange and lonely place in which I found myself.  
There was no sign of any people and, after looking in vain for a house 
where I could get help, I lay down to rest.  My struggles had made me so 
tired that very soon I was fast asleep on the grass.
     It was morning when I woke and tried to get up.  But some thing 
strange had happened while I was asleep.  I could not move an inch.  
My arms and legs were now tied down to the ground and even my hair, 
which was long and thick, had been tied down with string so that I could 
not move my head to see what had happened to me.  All around me was the 
hum of little voices--but I could see nothing except the empty sky.  I 
knew there were people around me, but as far as my eyes could reach 
there was no one to see.
     As I lay there, frightened and puzzled, there was a movement on my 
left leg.  Something alive was moving up my body towards my chin.  It 
felt like a large insect and I looked anxiously down to see what was 
coming.  It came into sight and there I could see a tiny man, less than 
six inches high, marching up my chest with a bow and arrow in his hand.  
I could hardly believe my eyes.  But after him came forty more little 
men who marched up my body as though it was a battlefield.
     In my fright at seeing these astonishing people I cried out so 
loudly that all the little men ran away.  Many of them were hurt jumping 
from my side down to the ground; but soon the others came back and climbed 
over me again.  One of the bravest came far enough to see my face and 
called out to his friends with admiration.  I could not understand his 
language, however, and my fright increased.  Struggling hard, I was able 
to free my left arm and to loosen my hair a little so that I could turn 
my head.  Before I could seize them, all the little people ran away and a 
hundred arrows hit my hand like needles.  Others fell on my face so that I 
cried out with pain and fought to get free.  More arrows came, however, 
and at last I decided it was safer to lie still.
     As soon as I was quiet the soldiers stopped shooting arrows at me, 
but more and more little people were joining the crowded around me.  
Now that I could move my head a little I could see hundreds of workmen 
building a stage about eighteen inches high, near my right ear.  I watched 
them working and was amazed by their skill and speed.  Though they were no 
bigger than my thumb these people seemed able to do everything that men of 
our own size can do.
     When the stage was finished a well dressed man, who seemed to be an 
important officer, climbed to the top with three servants.  From there he 
was able to speak directly into my ear and leaning towards me he made a 
long speech.  I could not understand one word, of course, but from the 
repetition of the name "Lilliput" I guessed that this must be the name of 
the country to which I had come.  Later I learned that this was correct.
     The officer's manner seemed friendly and when he had finished I felt 
less frightened.  I was very hungry, however, and I put my finger in my 
mouth to show that I needed food.  At once the officer understood me and 
shouted orders to his men.  Soon ladders were placed at my side and a 
hundred little men climbed up to my mouth with baskets of food.  The 
meat and the vegetables looked much like our own food, but everything 
was very small.  I took two or three baskets at a mouthful and then ate 
some loaves of bread which were smaller than marbles.  They brought me 
barrels of water which were no larger than nuts and the little people 
were so amazed at the number of barrels that I drank that they danced 
on my chest with excitement.
     It would have been easy now to seize forty or fifty men and throw 
them to the ground, but as I had tasted their food and drink I felt I 
was now their guest.  More and more I admire bravery in coming so close 
to me.  Now another official came up my chest and showed me a piece of 
paper smaller than my thumb nail.  It seemed to be important, but I did 
not understand then that it was an order from the King of Lilliput that 
I should be taken to his capital city, which was called Mildendo.  As I 
did not know of this plan I did not worry about it.  Instead I began to 
feel very sleepy because the little people had put in my water a medicine 
to make me sleep.  Now they loosened a little the ropes that me and they 
put more medicine on the places where their poisoned arrows had hurt me.  
I felt more comfortable when this had been done and soon I fell asleep 
again.
     While I was asleep five hundred carpenters and engineers set to work 
building a car big enough to carry me to Mildendo.  Can you imagine a 
wooden cart strong enough to carry two elephants?  We would find this 
difficult to build, but the Lilliputians found it just as difficult to 
build a cart to carry me.  Some of them were skilled engineers, however, 
and even before I had fallen asleep they had almost finished building 
the biggest cart ever known in Lilliput.  It was seven feet long and four 
feet wide and had twenty-two wheels.
     The cart was brought by my side and then, while I was fast asleep, 
nine hundred of the strongest men in the country lifted me on to the 
cart with ropes.  Fifteen hundred horses, each about four inches high, 
were fastened to the cart and we started on our way to Mildendo.
     I slept while all this noise and activity went on around me.  It 
was not until after we started that I was woken in the following way.  
One or two young men were anxious to see what I looked like when I was 
asleep and they climbed up on to the car to look at me.  They were very 
bold and one of them put the sharp end of his spear up my nose to see 
what would happen.  This made me sneeze violently and I woke up at once 
-- while the young men crept away feeling very brave and successful.
     We traveled for two days.  At night when we rested, five hundred 
guards stood on either side of me ready to shoot if I tried to escape.  
But I saw no reason to be violent and lay quietly on my cart until we 
reached the gates of Mildendo.
     The news of my arrival had spread quickly and everyone had come 
out of the city to see the marvelous "Man-Mountain" as they called me.  
First of all came the King himself, with all his family and servants.  
But until I was securely fastened the King's advisers would not let him 
come near me.
     A house was ready for me.  It was one of the biggest buildings in 
the city--an old temple into which I was just able to creep and to lie 
down on the floor.  The walls were very thick and there were two windows 
through which the King's workmen had tied more than ninety chains.  These 
were fastened to my leg with thirty-six locks.  When everything had been 
tested then, at last, the ropes which tied me to my cart were out.  While 
all the people shouted with astonishment I was able to get slowly to my 
feet and to look around me.
     I never saw a prettier sight.  The country was like a garden, with 
green fields of grass surrounding fields of wheat and vegetables which 
looked like flower beds.  The roads were no wider than garden paths and 
the tallest trees were just seven feet high.  At my feet lay the great 
city of Mildendo, like the painted scene in a doll's theatre.  Thousands 
of handsome little people crowded round me.  They were all less than six 
inches high and the animals were even smaller.  Horses and cows were four 
inches high, sheep only an inch high and the hens and geese looked like 
many-coloured flies.
     The King and his family had been watching me from a tower nearby.  
Now the King came down by himself to look at me more closely.  At first 
he approached on horseback, but the horse was so frightened that the royal 
rider was almost thrown to the ground.  At last the King got down from his 
horse and walked round me at a safe distance to examine me on all sides.  
I was as interested in him as he was in me and lay down in order to see 
him better.  Putting my face three yards from him I was able to get a good 
view.  The King was half an inch taller than any of his people and his 
face was strong and manly.  His complexion was fair and he held himself 
very straight while walking with graceful and kingly movements.
     The uniform he wore was very plain, but his head-dress was made of 
gold and ornamented with jewels and feathers.  The sword, which he held 
ready to defend himself if I should escape, was almost three inches long 
and rich with gold and jewels.
     The King spoke to me several times while we examined each other--and 
I replied--but neither of us could understand the other.  Several of his 
priests and lawyers then tried to speak to me, but although I answered in 
all the many languages I knew, they did not know one of them.
     After several hours the King and his servants went home, leaving me 
with a strong guard.  Some of the great crowd of citizens which remained 
were foolish enough to shoot arrows at me, when they thought I could not 
defend myself because of my chains.  The Captain of the Guard, however, 
was quick to prevent this and he seized six of the leaders.  As a punish-
ment he bound the prisoners and gave them to me.  While the crowded 
watched fearfully I took them all in my right hand and put five of them 
in my coat pocket.  Then I made a terrible face at the sixth as if I meant 
to eat him alive.  The poor man shouted with fear and even the guard 
pitied him--especially when I took out my penknife.  But I soon relieved 
them when, cutting the ropes which bound him, I put him gently on the 
ground and let him run away.  One by one I treated the other five 
prisoners in the same way and I could see that the soldiers and people 
were all pleased by my kindness.  After that no one else tried to hurt me.
     When the news of my arrival spread through the kingdom of Lilliput 
great crowds of people came to see me from every corner of the island.  
Villages were almost emptied and the farms would have been completely 
neglected if the King had not made a law that no one could visit me more 
than once.  Meanwhile the King himself could not decide what to do with 
me.  Many of his advisers warned him of the danger of keeping me alive.  
They said I might escape and destroy the kingdom with my great strength.  
Even if I did not escape I would ruin Lilliput if the people had to 
provide the amount of food I needed.  These advisers wanted to starve me 
or to kill me at once with poisoned arrows.