ne
together.

I entreated this illustrious person, to intercede in my behalf with his
majesty, for leave to depart; which he accordingly did, as he was pleased
to tell me, with regret: for indeed he had made me several offers very
advantageous, which, however, I refused, with expressions of the highest
acknowledgment.

On the 16th of February I took leave of his majesty and the court. The
king made me a present to the value of about two hundred pounds English,
and my protector, his kinsman, as much more, together with a letter of
recommendation to a friend of his in Lagado, the metropolis. The island
being then hovering over a mountain about two miles from it, I was let
down from the lowest gallery, in the same manner as I had been taken up.

The continent, as far as it is subject to the monarch of the flying
island, passes under the general name of _Balnibarbi_; and the
metropolis, as I said before, is called _Lagado_. I felt some little
satisfaction in finding myself on firm ground. I walked to the city
without any concern, being clad like one of the natives, and sufficiently
instructed to converse with them. I soon found out the person's house to
whom I was recommended, presented my letter from his friend the grandee
in the island, and was received with much kindness. This great lord,
whose name was Munodi, ordered me an apartment in his own house, where I
continued during my stay, and was entertained in a most hospitable
manner.

The next morning after my arrival, he took me in his chariot to see the
town, which is about half the bigness of London; but the houses very
strangely built, and most of them out of repair. The people in the
streets walked fast, looked wild, their eyes fixed, and were generally in
rags. We passed through one of the town gates, and went about three
miles into the country, where I saw many labourers working with several
sorts of tools in the ground, but was not able to conjecture what they
were about: neither did observe any expectation either of corn or grass,
although the soil appeared to be excellent. I could not forbear admiring
at these odd appearances, both in town and country; and I made bold to
desire my conductor, that he would be pleased to explain to me, what
could be meant by so many busy heads, hands, and faces, both in the
streets and the fields, because I did not discover any good effects they
produced; but, on the contrary, I never knew a soil so unhappily
cultiv