side
From his hide,
Safe from wound
Darts rebound;
From his nose
Clouds he blows;
When he speaks,
Thunder breaks!
When he eats,
Famine threats;
When he drinks,
Neptune shrinks!
Nigh thy ear,
In mid air,
On thy hand
Let me stand;
So shall I,
Lofty poet, touch the sky.

AMONG THE BROBDINGNAGIAN GIANTS

_By Jonathan Swift_

Having been condemned by nature and fortune to an active and restless
life, in two months after my return I again left my native country,
and took shipping in the Downs, on the 20th day of June, 1702, in the
Adventure, Captain John Nicholas, a Cornishman, commander, bound for
Surat. We had a very prosperous gale till we arrived at the Cape of
Good Hope, where we landed for fresh water; but discovering a leak, we
unshipped our goods, and wintered there; for the captain falling sick
of an ague, we could not leave the Cape till the end of March. We then
set sail, and had a good voyage till we passed the Straits of
Madagascar; but having got northward of that island, and to about five
degrees south latitude, the winds, which in those seas were observed
to blow a constant equal gale between the north and west, from the
beginning of December to the beginning of May, on the 9th of April
began to blow with much greater violence, and more westerly than
usual, continuing so for twenty days together: during which time we
were driven a little to the east of the Molucca Islands, and about
three degrees northward of the line, as our captain found by an
observation he took the 2d of May, at which time the wind ceased, and
it was a perfect calm; whereat I was not a little rejoiced. But he,
being a man experienced in the navigation of those seas, bid us all
prepare against a storm, which accordingly happened the day following;
for a southern wind, called the southern monsoon, began to set in.

Finding it was like to overblow, we took in our sprit-sail, and stood
by to hand the foresail; but, making foul weather, we looked the guns
were all fast, and handed the mizzen. The ship lay very broad off, so
we thought it better spooning before the sea than trying or hulling.
We reefed the foresail and set him, and hauled aft the fore sheet; the
helm was hard-a-weather. The ship wore bravely. We belayed the fore
downhaul; but the sail was split, and we hauled down the yard, and got
the sail into the ship, and unbound all the t