nhabitants, and their manner of coming
into the lunarian world--Animals, customs, weapons of war, wine,
vegetables, &c._

I have already informed you of one trip I made to the moon, in search
of my silver hatchet; I afterwards made another in a much pleasanter
manner, and stayed in it long enough to take notice of several things,
which I will endeavour to describe as accurately as my memory will
permit.

I went on a voyage of discovery at the request of a distant relation,
who had a strange notion that there were people to be found equal in
magnitude to those described by Gulliver in the empire of BROBDIGNAG.
For my part I always treated that account as fabulous: however, to
oblige him, for he had made me his heir, I undertook it, and sailed
for the South seas, where we arrived without meeting with anything
remarkable, except some flying men and women who were playing at
leap-frog, and dancing minuets in the air.

On the eighteenth day after we had passed the Island of Otaheite,
mentioned by Captain Cook as the place from whence they brought Omai, a
hurricane blew our ship at least one thousand leagues above the surface
of the water, and kept it at the height till a fresh gale arising filled
the sails in every part, and onwards we travelled at a prodigious rate;
thus we proceeded above the clouds for six weeks. At last we discovered
a great land in the sky, like a shining island, round and bright, where,
coming into a convenient harbour, we went on shore, and soon found it
was inhabited. Below us we saw another earth, containing cities, trees,
mountains, rivers, seas, &c., which we conjectured was this world
which we had left. Here we saw huge figures riding upon vultures of a
prodigious size, and each of them having three heads. To form some idea
of the magnitude of these birds, I must inform you that each of their
wings is as wide and six times the length of the main sheet of our
vessel, which was about six hundred tons burthen. Thus, instead of
riding upon horses, as we do in this world, the inhabitants of the moon
(for we now found we were in Madam Luna) fly about on these birds. The
king, we found, was engaged in a war with the sun, and he offered me
a commission, but I declined the honour his majesty intended me.
Everything in _this_ world is of extraordinary magnitude! a common flea
being much larger than one of our sheep: in making war, their principal
weapons are radishes, which are used as darts: those who