ke the
inhabitants, except that it sprouted from between the eyes of these
animals; we were afterwards concerned at having destroyed them, as we
found, by inquiry, they tamed these creatures, and used them as we do
horses, to ride upon and draw their carriages; their flesh, we were
informed, is excellent, but useless where people live upon cheese
and milk. When we had reached within two days' journey of the ship we
observed three men hanging to a tall tree by their heels; upon inquiring
the cause of their punishment, I found they had all been travellers, and
upon their return home had deceived their friends by describing places
they never saw, and relating things that never happened: this gave me no
concern, _as I have ever confined myself to facts_.

As soon as we arrived at the ship we unmoored, and set sail from this
extraordinary country, when, to our astonishment, all the trees upon
shore, of which there were a great number very tall and large, paid
their respects to us twice, bowing to exact time, and immediately
recovered their former posture, which was quite erect.

By what we could learn of this CHEESE, it was considerably larger than
the continent of all Europe!

After sailing three months we knew not where, being still without
compass, we arrived in a sea which appeared to be almost black: upon
tasting it we found it most excellent wine, and had great difficulty to
keep the sailors from getting drunk with it: however, in a few hours
we found ourselves surrounded by whales and other animals of an immense
magnitude, one of which appeared to be too large for the eye to form a
judgment of: we did not see him till we were close to him. This monster
drew our ship, with all her masts standing, and sails bent, by suction
into his mouth, between his teeth, which were much larger and taller
than the mast of a first-rate man-of-war. After we had been in his
mouth some time he opened it pretty wide, took in an immense quantity of
water, and floated our vessel, which was at least 500 tons burthen, into
his stomach; here we lay as quiet as at anchor in a dead calm. The
air, to be sure, was rather warm, and very offensive. We found anchors,
cables, boats, and barges in abundance, and a considerable number of
ships, some laden and some not, which this creature had swallowed.
Everything was transacted by torch-light; no sun, no moon, no planet, to
make observations from. We were all generally afloat and aground twice
a-day