The empire of Blefuscu is an island situated to the northeast side of Lilliput, from whence it is parted only by a channel of eight hundred yards wide.  I had not yet seen it, and upon this notice of an intended invasion I avoided appearing on that side of the coast, for fear of being discovered by some of the enemy’s ships, who had received no intelligence of me; all intercourse between the two empires having been strictly forbidden during the war, upon pain of death, and an embargo laid by our emperor upon all vessels whatsoever.  I communicated to his majesty a project I had formed of seizing the enemy’s whole fleet; which, as our scouts assured us, lay at anchor in the harbor, ready to sail with the first fair wind.  I consulted the most experienced seamen upon the depth of the channel, which they had often plumbed; who told me that in the middle, at high water, it was seventy glumgluffs deep, which is about six feet of European measure; and the rest of it fifty glumgluffs at most.  I walked towards the northeast coast, over against Blefuscu; where, lying down behind a hillock, I took out my small perspective glass, and viewed the enemy’s fleet at anchor, consisting of about fifty men-of-war and a great number of transports.  I then came back to my house, and gave order (for which I had a warrant) for a great quantity of the strongest cable and bars of iron.  The cable was about as thick as pack-thread, and the bars of the length and size of a knitting-needle.  I trebled the cable to make it stronger, and for the same reason I twisted three of the iron bars together, binding the extremities into a hook.  Having thus fixed fifty hooks to as many cables, I went back to the northeast coast, and, putting off my coat, shoes, and stockings, walked into the sea in my leathern jerkin, about an hour before high water.  I waded with what haste I could, and swam in the middle about thirty yards, till I felt ground.  I arrived to the fleet in less than half an hour.  The enemy was so frightened when they saw me, that they leaped out of their ships and swam to shore, where there could not be fewer than thirty thousand souls.  I then took my tackling, and fastening a hook to the hole at the prow of each, I tied all the cords together at the end.  While I was thus employed, the enemy discharged several thousand arrows, many of which stuck in my hands and face; and, besides the excessive smart, gave me much disturbance in my work.  My greatest apprehension was for mine eyes, which I should have infallibly lost, if I had not suddenly thought of an expedient.  I kept, among other little necessaries, a pair of spectacles in a private pocket, which, as I observed before, had escaped the emperor’s searches.  These I took out and fastened as strongly as I could upon my nose, and thus armed, went on boldly with my work, in spite of the enemy’s arrows, many of which struck against the glasses of my spectacles, but without any other effect, farther than a little