Preface to the First Edition
Baron Munnikhouson or Munchausen, of Bodenweder, near Hamelyn on the Weser, belongs to the noble family of that name. This family gave the King's German lands the late prime minister. It also gave them several other public men who were just as bright and famous.
The Baron is a man of great and original humour. He has found that you cannot reason people with prejudiced minds into common sense. He has also found that bold talkers often bully their listeners and talk them out of their common sense. So he never argues with either kind of person. Instead, he cleverly turns the conversation to some ordinary subject. Then he tells a story of his travels, his wars or his hunting adventures. He tells it in his own special way. His way is well planned to wake up the common sense of people who have lost it through prejudice or habit. It also makes them ashamed.
This method has often worked well. So we ask permission to put some of his stories before the public. Some readers will find them rather wild and close to the marvellous. To see this, they will need only a very small amount of common sense. We humbly ask these readers to use the same common sense on everything that happens in life. Above all, we ask them to use it on our English politics. There, fine speeches have dressed up old habits and bold assertions. Constitutional mobs, associations, volunteers and foreign influence have supported them. We fear that lately they have turned our brains far too successfully. They have made us the laughing-stock of Europe, and of France and Holland in particular.
TO THE PUBLIC
I have heard, for the first time, that people doubt my adventures and think they are jokes. So I feel I must come forward and defend my character for veracity. For this reason I have paid three shillings at the Mansion House of this great city for the affidavits below.
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I have been forced to do this for the sake of my own honour. I did it although I retired from public and private life many years ago. I hope that this, my last edition, will show me to my readers in a proper light.
AT THE CITY OF LONDON, ENGLAND.
We, the undersigned, are true believers in the profit. We most solemnly declare that all the adventures of our friend Baron Munchausen, in whatever country they may lie, are positive and simple facts. And people have believed us, though our adventures are ten times more wonderful. So we hope all true believers will give him their full faith and trust. GULLIVER. x SINBAD. x ALADDIN. x Sworn at the Mansion House 9th Nov. last, in the absence of the Lord Mayor. JOHN (the Porter).
Chapter I
[THE BARON IS SUPPOSED TO TELL THESE ADVENTURES TO HIS FRIENDS OVER A BOTTLE.]
The Baron tells the story of his first travels—The amazing effects of a storm—He arrives at Ceylon; he fights and beats two extraordinary enemies—He returns to Holland.
Some years before my beard showed that I was becoming a man, I was neither man nor boy, but between both. At that time I often said that I wanted very much to see the world. My parents tried to stop me. Yet my father had been a great traveller himself. You will see this before I reach the end of my strange and, I may add, interesting adventures. A cousin on my mother's side liked me. He often said I was a fine forward youth. He wanted to satisfy my curiosity. His words had more effect than mine. My father agreed that I could go with him on a voyage to the island of Ceylon. The cousin's uncle had lived there as governor for many years.
We sailed from Amsterdam with despatches from their High Mightinesses the States of Holland. Only one thing happened on our voyage that is worth telling. It was the wonderful effect of a storm. We had anchored at an island to take in wood and water. There the storm tore up a great number of huge, tall trees by the roots. Some of these trees weighed many tons. Yet the wind carried them so amazingly high that they looked like the feathers of small birds floating in the air. They were at least five miles above the earth. But as soon as the storm ended, they all fell straight down into their own places and took root again.
The largest tree was the only exception. When it was blown into the air, a man and his wife were on its branches. They were a very honest old couple, and they were gathering cucumbers. (In this part of the world that useful vegetable grows on trees.) As the tree came down, the couple's weight pulled the trunk over. It fell sideways, flat. It fell on the chief man of the island and killed him on the spot. He had left his house in the storm because he feared it would fall on him. He was walking back through his own garden when this fortunate accident happened.
The word "fortunate" here needs some explanation. This chief was a very greedy and cruel man. He had no family, yet the people of the island were half-starved by his cruel and shameful taxes. The very goods he had taken from them were rotting in his stores. Meanwhile the poor people he had robbed were suffering in poverty. The death of this tyrant was an accident. Even so, the people chose the cucumber-gatherers as their governors. They did it to show their thanks for destroying their old tyrant, even by accident.
We repaired the damage the storm had done to us. We said goodbye to the new governor and his lady. Then we sailed with a good wind towards the end of our voyage.
In about six weeks we arrived at Ceylon. There we were received with great friendship and true politeness. The following strange adventures may amuse you.