south-east. I made all the sail I could, and in half an hour she espied
me and flung out her flag and fired a gun.

My heart leaped within me to see her English colours, and putting my
cows and sheep into my pockets, I soon got on board with all my
provisions.

The Captain, a very civil man, and an excellent sailor, treated me with
kindness, and we arrived in England with only one misfortune: the rats
carried off one of my sheep. The rest I got safely ashore, and made a
considerable profit in showing them to persons of quality, and before I
began my second voyage I sold them for six hundred pounds.

I stayed but two months with my wife and family, for my insatiable
desire of seeing foreign countries would suffer me to stay no longer. I
left fifteen hundred pounds with my wife; my uncle had left me a small
estate near Epping of about thirty pounds a year, and I had a long lease
of the Black Bull in Fetter Lane; so that I was in no danger of leaving
my wife and family upon the parish. My son Johnny was at the grammar
school, and a towardly child. My daughter Betty (who is now well
married) was then at her needlework.

I took leave of them with tears on both sides, and went on board the
Adventure, a merchant ship of 300 tons, bound for Surat.


_III.--A Voyage to Brobdingnag_


We made a good voyage, until we had passed the Straits of Madagascar,