y
principal design was to inform, and not to amuse thee.

It is easy for us who travel into remote countries, which are seldom
visited by Englishmen or other Europeans, to form descriptions of
wonderful animals both at sea and land. Whereas a traveller's chief aim
should be to make men wiser and better, and to improve their minds by the
bad, as well as good, example of what they deliver concerning foreign
places.

I could heartily wish a law was enacted, that every traveller, before he
were permitted to publish his voyages, should be obliged to make oath
before the Lord High Chancellor, that all he intended to print was
absolutely true to the best of his knowledge; for then the world would no
longer be deceived, as it usually is, while some writers, to make their
works pass the better upon the public, impose the grossest falsities on
the unwary reader. I have perused several books of travels with great
delight in my younger days; but having since gone over most parts of the
globe, and been able to contradict many fabulous accounts from my own
observation, it has given me a great disgust against this part of
reading, and some indignation to see the credulity of mankind so
impudently abused. Therefore, since my acquaintance were pleased to
think my poor endeavours might not be unacceptable to my country, I
imposed on myself, as a maxim never to be swerved from, that I would
strictly adhere to truth; neither indeed can I be ever under the least
temptation to vary from it, while I retain in my mind the lectures and
example of my noble master and the other illustrious _Houyhnhnms_ of whom
I had so long the honour to be an humble hearer.

_--Nec si miserum Fortuna Sinonem_
_Finxit_, _vanum etiam_, _mendacemque improba finget_.

I know very well, how little reputation is to be got by writings which
require neither genius nor learning, nor indeed any other talent, except
a good memory, or an exact journal. I know likewise, that writers of
travels, like dictionary-makers, are sunk into oblivion by the weight and
bulk of those who come last, and therefore lie uppermost. And it is
highly probable, that such travellers, who shall hereafter visit the
countries described in this work of mine, may, by detecting my errors (if
there be any), and adding many new discoveries of their own, justle me
out of vogue, and stand in my place, making the world forget that ever I
was an author. This indeed would be too great a mor