PART TWO: A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG

CHAPTER ONE

Left Behind

Although my life with my family was calm and peaceful, after a few years I began to miss my life of excitement and adventure on the ocean. With my wife's permission, I accepted a job on a ship that was going around Africa on June 20, 1702.

For the next year, I made a lot of money trading jewels and silk between India and England. This was interesting work, because I was able to see many strange and beautiful cities by the sea. Then, in the middle part of 1703, I was sailing around South Africa when our ship sailed into another terrible storm. For two weeks our ship was blown east by the strong winds. In all this time, we did not see any land or find any water shallow enough to drop our anchor and stop our movement.

Fifteen days later the wind finally stopped. We were nearly out of food and fresh water. The captain, no longer knowing where we were, decided to sail north in search of land. After three days we saw an island in the distance and sailed towards it as fast as we could. The island was surrounded by large, sharp rocks and there was no safe place to land. The captain decided to drop anchor and send ten of us off in a smaller boat to explore the island and search for fresh water.

When we were on the beach, we separated from each other and searched in different directions. After a few hours of walking alone, I still hadn't found any food or fresh water. I decided to return to the boat, where I was sure the men were waiting for me. "I don't know what we're going to do—we only have enough food and water for a few more days!" I thought. However, when I returned to the beach, I had a horrible surprise! The other men had gotten into the boat and were rowing as fast as they could back to our ship. "Wait! Stop!" I shouted, "What are you doing? You can't leave me here!"

Suddenly I felt the ground below me begin to shake. Before I had time to think, I saw an enormous giant come running out of the forest, yelling loudly! Now I knew why the men had left so quickly!

As I watched, the giant ran into the water after my friends. I saw that he was trying to get to their boat, and I didn't want to think about what would happen if he captured them! Fortunately, my friends had begun their escape just in time. They reached the ship and climbed aboard it quickly. The water was too deep for the giant to reach them. The giant returned to the beach, talking angrily to himself. He looked around, as if he was searching for more of these tiny people.

I had to escape. I ran as quickly and quietly as I could towards a large hill behind me. I climbed up the hill so that I could see the land around me. When I reached the top of the hill, I saw that the island was covered with farms. At first I thought that the island had many thick forests, but as I looked closer, I realized that what I saw were not trees, but giant corn plants! They were at least eighty feet tall. Many giant people were working on these farms. Amazed, I watched them collect giant carrots, potatoes, and other vegetables into boxes the size of buildings. Although the hill I stood on seemed large to me, I realized that it was no more than a small rock to these people. "What kind of country is this?" I thought, feeling very afraid.

Suddenly, I realized that one of the giants was walking in my direction! I was too afraid to wait and see what would happen. Quickly, I turned and ran towards a field of corn, which seemed like a good place to hide. I reached the corn plants and sat on the ground, trying not to breathe too loudly. Unfortunately, the giant decided to begin harvesting the corn plants. As he cut the corn, the giant vegetables fell all around me. I felt sure that I would be killed by one of them. "What's going to happen when the giant sees me? What if he's angry? What if he tries to eat me?" I thought. I could only sit quietly in the giant corn field, hoping that the giant would not notice me.

The giant's enormous feet came closer and closer to me. Each of his feet was as large as my house. I saw that if I did not move quickly, the giant's feet would crush me like a fly. However, the corn plants were much too tall for me to climb over. As the giant raised his feet over my head, I had no choice but to yell out to him. Quickly I screamed as loud as I could, "Stop! Stop! There's someone down here in the corn field!"

(end of section)