t an hour
before high water. I waded with what haste I could, and swam in the
middle about thirty yards, till I felt ground. I arrived to the fleet
in less than half an hour. The enemy was so frightened 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 searches. 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, farther
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
boldest 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 above 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 cables, and thought my design was only to let the ships run
adrift, or fall foul on each other; but when they perceived the whole
fleet moving in order, and saw me pulling at the end, they set up such
a scream of grief and despair that it is almost impossible to describe
or conceive it. When I had got out of danger, I stopped awhile to pick
out the arrows that stuck in my hands and face; and rubbed on some of
the same ointment that was given me at my first arrival, as I have
formerly mentioned. I then took off my spectacles, and waiting about
an hour, till the tide