He has no plan for liberty and still wants it. The king has ordered that any later ship be hauled inland, and he would find Gulliver a woman of his size to propagate a breed kept in cages like canaries, perhaps sold to persons of quality. Kindness without even terms is a stall. On a progress to the sea near Flanflasnic, Glumdalclitch is ill; a page carries the twelve-foot travelling box; Gulliver feigns sleep with the roof slit. An eagle takes the ring, fights others that want the prey, and drops him. He compares the fall to Phaeton. The box hits the water louder than Niagara.
Iron plates keep the closet upright. For four hours he expects the glass to break. He thinks of Glumdalclitch's grief and the queen's displeasure. Captain Thomas Wilcocks of Shropshire tows the box, hoists it, and has a carpenter saw him out. The sailors look like pigmies. Gulliver talks of a quilted closet and furniture too good to lose. The captain concludes he is raving, and still gives the order.
The crew strips the quilting, tears up the screwed chairs, and lets the hull sink. Gulliver is glad not to watch. When he can speak plainly, a comb from the king's beard, wasp stings, a maid of honour's corn, mouse-skin breeches, and a footman's tooth do what the story could not. Wilcocks takes the tooth, wonders at Gulliver's loud voice, and asks him to publish. Gulliver says the world is already overstocked with voyages that consult vanity more than truth.
Nine months later he reaches the Downs on 3 June 1706. On the road he shouts at travellers to stand clear and nearly gets broken heads. At Redriff he stoops under his own gate, bends to his wife's knees, and tries to lift his daughter with one hand. The servants look like pigmies. The family concludes he has lost his wits, as the captain first did. Habit and prejudice loosen. His wife swears he shall never go to sea again. He records that his evil destiny will not let her keep the vow, and closes the second voyage.
Coming Up in Chapter 17
Just as Gulliver settles back into domestic life, his restless spirit and 'evil destiny' pull him toward another voyage. This time, his ship will encounter flying islands and inhabitants obsessed with mathematics and music, leading to discoveries about the dangers of pure intellectual pursuit divorced from practical wisdom.
