I waded with what haste I could, and swam in the middle, about thirty
yards, till I felt ground. I arrived at the fleet in less than half an
hour. The enemy was so frighted when they saw me that they leaped out of
their ships, and swam to shore, where there could not be fewer than
thirty thousand souls: I then took my tackling, and, fastening a hook to
the hole at the prow of each, I tied all the cords together at the end.
While I was thus employed the enemy discharged several thousand arrows,
many of which stuck in my hands and face; and, besides the excessive
smart, gave me much disturbance in my work. My greatest apprehension was
for mine eyes, which I should have infallibly lost, if I had not
suddenly thought of an expedient. I kept, among other little
necessaries, a pair of spectacles in a private pocket, which, as I
observed before, had escaped the emperor's searchers. These I took out,
and fastened as strongly as I could upon my nose, and, thus armed, went
on boldly with my work, in spite of the enemy's arrows, many of which
struck against the glasses of my spectacles, but without any other
effect further than a little to discompose them.

I had now fastened all the hooks, and, taking the knot in my hand, began
to pull; but not a ship would stir, for they were all too fast held by
their anchors, so that the bold part of my enterprise remained. I
therefore let go the cord, and, leaving the hooks fixed to the ships, I
resolutely cut with my knife the cables that fastened the anchors,
receiving about two hundred shots in my face and hands; then I took up
the knotted end of the cables, to which my hooks were tied, and with
great ease drew fifty of the enemy's largest men-of-war after me.

The Blefuscudians, who had not the least imagination of what I intended,
were at first confounded with astonishment. They had seen me cut the