Captain Samuel Brunt - A Voyage to Cacklogallinia

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A VOYAGE TO CACKLOGALLINIA

With a Description of the Religion, Policy, Customs and Manners
of that Country

by

CAPTAIN SAMUEL BRUNT

Reproduced from the Original Edition, 1727,
with an Introduction by

MARJORIE NICOLSON

Published for
THE FACSIMILE TEXT SOCIETY
By Columbia University Press
New York: MCMXL

INTRODUCTION

_A Voyage to Cacklogallinia_ appeared in London, in 1727, from the pen
of a pseudonymous "Captain Samuel Brunt." Posterity has continued to
preserve the anonymity of the author, perhaps more jealously than he
would have wished. Whatever his real parentage, he must for the present
be referred only to the literary family of which his progenitor "Captain
Lemuel Gulliver" is the most distinguished member. Like so many other
works of that period, _A Voyage to Cacklogallinia_ has sometimes been
attributed to Swift; its similarities to the fourth book of _Gulliver's
Travels_ are unmistakable. Again, the work has sometimes been attributed
to Defoe. There is, however, no good reason to believe that either Defoe
or Swift was concerned in its authorship, except in so far as both gave
impetus to lesser writers in this form of composition.

Fortunately the authorship of the work is of little importance. It
lives, not because of anything remarkable in the style or anything
original in its author's point of view, but because of its satiric
reflection of the background of its age. It is republished both because
of its historical value and because of its peculiarly contemporary
appeal today. Its satire needs no learned paraphernalia of footnotes; it
can be readily understood and appreciated by readers in an age dominated
on the one hand by economics and on the other, by science. Its satire--
not too subtle--is as pertinent in our own period as it was two
hundred years ago. Its irony is concerned with stock exchanges and
feverish speculation. It is a tale of incredible inflation and abrupt
and devastating depression. Its "voyage to the moon" has not lost its
appeal to men and women who can still remember a period when human
flights seemed incredible and who have lived to see "flying chariots"
spanning oceans and continents and ascending into the stratosphere.

The first and most obvious interest of the tale is in its reflection
of economic conditions in the early eighteenth century. The period
following the Revolution of 1688 saw tremendous changes in attitudes
toward credit and speculation. A new and powerful economic instrument
was put into the hands of men who had not yet discovered its dangers.
With the natural confusion which ensued between "credit" and "wealth,"
with a new emphasis upon the possible values inherent in "expectations
of wealth" rather than immediate control over money, an unheard-of
speculative emphasis appeared in business. The rapid increase in new
trades and new industrial systems afforded possibilities of immediate
rise to affluence. The outside public engaged in speculation to a degree
not before known. Exaggerated gains, violent fluctuations in prices,
meteoric rises and collapses--these gave rein to a gambling spirit
perennial in man. The word "Projects" enters into literature as a
recurrent motif, strangely familiar to our present generation, which
needs only to turn Defoe's _Essay on Projects_ into contemporary
language to see the similarities between the year 1697 and the year
1939. That essay is filled with talk of "new Inventions, Engines, and I
know not what, which have rais'd the Fancies of Credulous People to such
height, that merely on the shadow of Expectation, they have form'd
Companies, chose Committees, appointed Officers, Shares, and Books,
rais'd great Stocks, and cri'd up an empty Notion to that degree that
People have been betray'd to part with their Money for Shares in a
New-Nothing."

Of the many speculative schemes of the early eighteenth century, none
is better known than the "South Sea Bubble." After a long period during
which English trade with the Spanish West Indies was carried on by
subterfuge, an Act of Parliament in 1710 incorporated into a joint-stock
company the state creditors, upon the basis of their loan of ten million
pounds to the Government and conferred upon them the monopoly of the
English trade with the Indies. In spite of these advantages, however,
the South Sea Company found itself so hampered and limited in credit
that it offered to convert the national debt into a "single redeemable
obligation" to the company in return for a monopoly of British foreign
trade outside England. The immediate and spectacular effect of that
offer is reflected in the many descriptions, both serious and satiric,
of an era of speculation which to many generations might seem
incredible--though not to this generation which has itself lived
through an orgy of speculation.

Clearly the South Sea Bubble, which reached its climax in 1720, was the
chief source of Captain Samuel Brunt's satire, which has an important
place in the minor literature called forth by the wild speculation
connected with the Bubble.[1] If the "Projects" proposed to Captain
Brunt[2] seem extreme to any modern reader, let him turn to the list of
"bubbles," still accessible in many places.[3] Nothing in Brunt is so
fantastic as many of the actual schemes suggested and acted upon in
the eighteenth century. The possibility of extracting gold from the
mountains of the moon is no more fanciful than several of the proposals
seriously received by Englishmen under the spell of speculation. As in
the kingdom of Cacklogallinia, so in London, men mortgaged their homes
and women sold their jewels [4] in order to purchase shares in wildcat
companies, born one day, only to die the next. As the anonymous author
of one of many South Sea Ballads wrote in his "Merry Remarks upon
Exchange Alley Bubbles":

Our greatest ladies hither come,
And ply in chariots daily;
Oft pawn their jewels for a sum
To venture in the Alley.

The meteoric rise in the price of shares in the moon-mountain project
of the Cacklogallinians is no greater than the actual rise in prices of
shares during the South Sea Bubble, when, between April and July, 1720,
shares rose from L120 to L1,020. The fluctuating market of the
Cacklogallinian 'Change, which responded to every rumor, follows
faithfully the actual situation in London in 1720; and the final crash
which shook Cacklogallinian foundations--subtly suggested by Brunt's
unwillingness to return and face the enraged multitude--is an echo of
the crash which shook England when the Bubble was pricked.

But its reflection of the economic background of the age is not the only
reason for the interest and importance of _A Voyage to Cacklogallinia_,
either in its generation or in our own. The little tale has its place in
the history of science, particularly in that movement of science which,
beginning with the "new astronomy" in the early seventeenth century,
was to produce one of the most important chapters in the history
of aviation.[5] So far as literature is concerned, _A Voyage to
Cacklogallinia_ belongs to the literary _genre_ of "voyages to the moon"
which from Lucian to H.G. Wells (even to modern "pulp magazines") have
enthralled human imagination. Yet while its fantasy looks back to
Lucian's Icaro-Menippus, who flew to the moon by using the wing of
a vulture and the wing of an eagle, its suggestion of the growing
scientific temper of modern times makes it much more than mere fantasy.
In the semilegendary history of Iran is to be found a tale, retold by
Firdausi in the _Shaknameh_, of Kavi Usan, who "essayed the sky To
outsoar angels" by fastening four eagles to his throne. The Iranian
motif was adopted in the romances of Alexander the Great and so passed
into European literature. The researches of Leonardo da Vinci upon the
muscles of birds and the principles of the flight of birds brought over
to the realm of science ideas long familiar in tale and legend. Francis
Bacon did not hesitate to suggest in his _Natural History_ (Experiment
886) that there are possibilities of human flight by the use of birds
and "advises others to think further upon this experiment as giving
some light to the invention of the art of flying."

John Wilkins, one of the most influential early members of the Royal
Society, in his _Mathematicall Magick_,[6] in 1648, suggested "four
several ways whereby this flying in the air hath been or may be
attempted." He listed, as the second, "By the help of fowls." Ten years
earlier there appeared in England during the same year two works which
were to have great influence in popularizing the theme of light:
Wilkins's _Discovery of a World in the Moone_,[7] a serious
semiscientific work on the nature of the moon and the possibility of
man's flying thither, and a prose romance by Francis Godwin, _The Man in
the Moone: or, A Discourse of a Voyage thither by D. Gonsales._[8] These
two works were largely responsible for the emergence of the old theme of
flight to the moon in imaginative literature; the English translation of
Lucian at almost the same time perhaps aided in advancing the popularity
of the idea.

The similarities between Brunt's romance and Godwin's tale a century
earlier are too striking to be fortuitous, and, indeed, there is no
question that Brunt used Godwin as one of his chief sources. An earlier
_Robinson Crusoe_, an idyllic _Gulliver's Travels_, Godwin's _The Man in
the Moone_ helped to establish in English literature the vogue of the
traveler's tale to strange countries. Domingo, like Captain Samuel
Brunt, draws from the "exotic" tradition. Both travelers find themselves
in strange lands; both experience many other adventures before they make
their way to the moon, drawn by birds.

But the century which elapsed between Godwin's fanciful tale and Brunt's
fantastic romance felt the impact of the new science. No matter how
clearly both tales draw from old traditions of legend and literature,
no matter how many elements of fantasy remain, there is a profound and
fundamental difference between them. Godwin's hero made his way to the
moon by mere chance; it happened that he harnessed himself to his gansas
during their period of hibernation. Too late, he discovered that gansas
hibernate in the moon! The earlier voyage took only "Eleven or Twelve
daies"--and that by gansa power! The earlier author did not suggest that
his hero encountered any particular difficulties of respiration, nor did
he pause to consider in detail the problem of the nature of the
intervening air through which his hero passed.

But a hundred years of science had intervened between Godwin's tale and
that of Captain Samuel Brunt. The later voyage to the moon is no less
fantastic in its outlines than is the earlier, yet it shows clearly the
impact of science upon popular imagination. The imagination of man had
expanded with the expanding universe. Brunt takes care to indicate the
vast distance between the earth and the moon by subtle mathematical
suggestion. Although both travelers flew "with incredible swiftness,"
the eighteenth-century flyers found that it was "about a Month before
we came into the Attraction of the Moon." Brunt's account of the
preparation for the ascent into the orb of the moon is almost as careful
as a modern account of an ascent into the stratosphere. His bird flyers
lay their plans deliberately and upon the basis of the most recent
scientific discoveries. There is nothing fortuitous about their final
ascent. Brunt was clearly aware of the work of many scientists, notably
Boyle, upon the nature and rarefaction of the air. His flyers proceed
by slow stages, accustoming themselves gradually to the rarefied air,
assisting their respiration by the use of wet sponges. They learn by
experience the answer to the problems with which Godwin's mind had
played but which many later scientific writers had considered more
definitely: what is the nature of gravity; how far beyond the confines
of the earth does it extend; what would happen to man could he "pass the
Atmosphere"? The generation to which Captain Samuel Brunt belonged might
still delight in the fantastic; but like our own generation, it insisted
that fantasy must rest upon that which is at least scientifically
possible, if not probable.

_A Voyage to Cacklogallinia_ is republished today because of its appeal
to many readers. It offers something to the student of economic history;
something to the student of early science. It is one of several
little-known "voyages to the moon," of which the most famous are
those of Cyrano de Bergerac, a form of reading in which our ancestors
delighted and which deserve to be collected. But apart from having a
not-inconsiderable historical interest, it remains the kind of tale
which may be read at any time because it appeals to the fundamental love
of adventure in human beings. Its author was undoubtedly only one of
many men who, under the influence of Godwin, Swift, and others, could
weave a tale in an accepted pattern. Yet there are elements which
make it unique; and it deserves at least this opportunity of rising
phoenix-like from the ashes of the past and being treasured by
posterity.

MARJORIE NICOLSON
Smith College
Northampton, Mass.
Nov. 3, 1939

[1: The best treatment of the South Sea Bubble for students of
literature will be found in Lewis Melville, _The South Sea Bubble_,
Boston, 1923. The author has also included in his volume extracts
from dozens of satires which appeared after 1720. He does not,
however, mention _A Voyage to Cacklogallinia_.]

[2: Pages 107 ff.]

[3: The list of "bubbles" may be found in Melville, _op. cit._,
chap, iv; Cobbett, _Parliamentary History_, VII, 656 ff., Somers,
_Tracts_ [ed. 1815], XIII, 818.]

[4: Contemporary letters indicating the interest of both men and
women in speculation may be found in _Historical Manuscripts
Commission_, XLV, 200, and CXXV, 288, 294-95, 349-50.]

[5: I have discussed the relationship between aviation and the "new
astronomy" in several articles dealing with voyages to the moon.
Bibliography may be found in two of these, "A World in the Moon,"
in _Smith College Studies in Modern Languages_, Vol. XVII (No. 2,
January, 1936), and "Swift's 'Flying Island' in the 'Voyage to
Laputa,'" _Annals of Science_, II (October, 1937), 405-31.]

[6: _Mathematicall Magick; or, The Wonders That May Be Performed
by Mechanicall Geometry_, London, 1648; in _Mathematical and
Philosophical Works_, London, 1802, II, 199.]

[7: _The Discovery of a World in the Moone; or, A Discourse Tending
to Prove, That 'Tis Probable There May Be Another Habitable World in
That Planet_, London, 1638.]

[8: _The Man in the Moone; or, A Discourse of a Voyage thither
by D. Gonsales_, [By F.G.], London, 1638. This has recently been
republished from the first edition by Grant McColley in _Smith
College Studies in Modern Languages_ XIX (1937).]

* * * * *

[Illustration]

* * * * *

A VOYAGE TO CACKLOGALLINIA:

With a Description of the Religion, Policy, Customs and Manners,
of that Country

by

CAPTAIN SAMUEL BRUNT

London:
Printed by J. WATSON in Black-Fryers, and
sold by the Booksellers of London and
Westminster. 1727

[Price Sticht, Two Shillings and Sixpence.]

Nothing is more common than a Traveller's beginning the Account of
his Voyages with one of his own Family; in which, if he can't boast
Antiquity, he is sure to make it up with the Probity of his Ancestors.
As it can no way interest my Reader, I shall decline following a Method,
which I can't but think ridiculous, as unnecessary. I shall only say,
that by the Death of my Father and Mother, which happen'd while I was
an Infant, I fell to the Care of my Grandfather by my Mother, who was a
Citizen of some Note in _Bristol_, and at the Age of Thirteen sent me to
Sea Prentice to a Master of a Merchant-man.

My two first Voyages were to _Jamaica_, in which nothing remarkable
happen'd. Our third Voyage was to _Guinea_ and _Jamaica_; we slaved, and
arrived happily at that Island; but it being Time of War, and our Men
fearing they should be press'd (for we were mann'd a-peak) Twelve,
and myself, went on Shore a little to the Eastward of _Port Morante_,
designing to foot it to _Port Royal_. We had taken no Arms, suspecting
no Danger; but I soon found we wanted Precaution: For we were, in less
than an Hour after our Landing, encompass'd by about Forty Run-away
Negroes, well arm'd, who, without a Word speaking, pour'd in upon us a
Volley of Shot, which laid Eight of our Company dead, and wounded the
rest. I was shot thro' the right Arm.

After this Discharge, they ran upon us with their Axes, and (tho' we
cried for Mercy) cruelly butcher'd my remaining four Companions.

I had shared their Fate, had not he who seemed to Head the Party,
interposed between me and the fatal Axe already lifted for my
Destruction. He seized the designed Executioner by the Arm, and said,
_No kill te Boy, me scavez him; me no have him make deady_. I knew not
to what I should attribute this Humanity, and was not less surprized
than pleas'd at my Escape.

They struck off the Heads of my Companions, which they carried with 'em
to the Mountains, putting me in the Center of the Company.

I march'd very pensively, lamenting the Murder of my Ship-mates, and
often wish'd the Negro who saved me had been less charitable; for I
began to doubt I was reserved for future Tortures, and to be made a
Spectacle to their Wives and Children; when my Protector coming up to
me, said, _No be sadd_, Sam, _you no scavez me?_ I look'd earnestly at
the Fellow, and remember'd he was a Slave of a Planter's, a distant
Relation of mine, who had been a long while settled in the Island: He
had twice before run from his Master, and while I was at the Plantation
my first Voyage, he was brought in, and his Feet ordered to be cut off
to the Instep (a common Punishment inflicted on run-away Slaves) by my
Intercession this was remitted, and he escaped with a Whipping.

I ask'd if his Name was not _Cuffey_, Mr. _Tenant_'s Negro?

"My Name _Cuffey_, said he, me no _*Baccararo_ Negro now; me Freeman.
[*_Baccararo_, the Name Negroes give the Whites.] You no let cutty
my Foot, so me no let cutty your Head; no be sadd, you have _bumby
grande *yam yam_. [*_Yam yam_, in Negroes Dialect, signifies
victuals.]"

He endeavoured to comfort me under my Afflictions in this barbarous
Dialect; but I was so possess'd with the Notion of my being reserv'd to
be murdered, that I received but little Consolation.

We marched very slowly, both on account of the Heat, and of the Plunder
they had got from some Plantations; for every one had his Load of Kidds,
Turkies, and other Provisions.

About Three in the Afternoon, we reach'd a Village of run-away Negroes,
and we were received by the Inhabitants with all possible Demonstrations
of Joy. The Women sung, danc'd, and clapp'd their Hands, and the Men
brought _Mobby_ (a sort of Drink) and Rum, to welcome the return'd
Party. One of the Negro Men ask'd _Cuffey_, why he did not bring my
Head, instead of bringing me alive? He gave his Reason, at which he
seem'd satisfied, but said it was dangerous to let a _Baccararo_ know
their Retreat; that he would tell Captain _Thomas_, and he must expect
his Orders concerning me.

_Cuffey_ said he would go to give Captain _Thomas_ an Account of what
had happen'd in this _Sortie_, and would carry me with him. As they
spoke in the Negroes _English_, I understood them perfectly well. My
Friend then went to Captain _Thomas_, who was the Chief of all the
run-away Blacks, and took me with him. This Chief of theirs was about
Seventy Five Years old, a hale, strong, well-proportion'd Man, about Six
Foot Three Inches high; the Wooll of his Head and his Beard were white
with Age, he sat upon a little Platform rais'd about a Foot from the
Ground, accompanied by Eight or Ten near his own Age, smoaking Segars,
which are Tobacco Leaves roll'd up hollow.

_Cuffey_, at his Entrance, threw himself on his Face, and clapp'd
his Hands over his Head; then rising, he, with a visible Awe in
his Countenance, drew nearer, and address'd the Captain in the
_Cholomantaean_ Language, in which he gave an Account, as I suppose, of
his Expedition; for when he had done speaking, my Comrades Heads were
brought in, and thrown at the Captain's Feet, who returned but a short
Answer to _Cuffey_, tho' he presented him with a Segar, made him sit
down, and drank to him in a Calabash of Rum.

After this Ceremony, Captain _Thomas_ address'd himself to me in perfect
good _English_.

Young Man, _said he,_ I would have you banish all Fear; you are not
fallen into the Hands of barbarous Christians, whose Practice and
Profession are as distant as the Country they came from, is from
this Island, which they have usurp'd from the original Natives.
Capt. _Cuffey_'s returning the Service you once did him, by saving
your Life, which we shall not, after the Example of your Country,
take in cold Blood, may give you a Specimen of our Morals. We
believe in, and fear a God, and whatever you may conclude from the
Slaughter of your Companions, yet we are far from thirsting after
the Blood of the Whites; and it's Necessity alone which obliges us
to what bears the face of Cruelty. Nothing is so dear to Man as
Liberty, and we have no way of avoiding Slavery, of which our Bodies
wear the inhuman Marks, but by a War, in which, if we give no
Quarter, the _English_ must blame themselves; since even, with a
shew of Justice, they put to the most cruel Deaths those among us,
who have the Misfortune to fall into their Hands; and make that a
Crime in us (the Desire of Liberty, I mean) which they look upon
as the distinguishing Mark of a great Soul. Your Wound shall be
dress'd; you shall want nothing necessary we have; and we will see
you safe to some Plantation the first Opportunity. All the Return we
expect, is, that you will not discover to the Whites our Place of
Retreat: I don't exact from you an Oath to keep the Secret; for who
will violate his Word, will not be bound down, by calling God for a
Witness. If you betray us, he will punish you; and the Fear of your
being a Villain shall not engage me to put it out of your Power to
hurt us, by taking the Life of one to whom any of us has promised
Security. Go and repose your self, Captain _Cuffey_ will shew you
his House.

I made an Answer full of Acknowledgments, and _Cuffey_ carried me home,
where my Hurt, which was a Flesh Wound, was dress'd: He saw me laid on a
Matrass, and left me. About Eight, a Negro Wench brought me some Kid
very well drest, and leaving me, bid me good Night. Notwithstanding my
Hurt, I slept tolerably well, being heartily fatigued with the Day's
Walk.

Next Morning, _Cuffey_ saw my Wound drest by a Negro sent for from
another Village, who had been Slave to a Surgeon several Years, and was
very expert in his Business. The Village where I was contained about Two
and Fifty Houses, made of wild Canes and Cabbage Trees; it was the
Residence of Captain _Thomas_. Here were all sorts of Handicrafts, as,
Joyners, Smiths, Gunsmiths, Taylors, _&c._ for in _Jamaica_ the Whites
teach their Slaves the Arts they severally exercise. The Houses were
furnished with all Necessaries, which they had plundered from the
Plantations; and they had great Quantities of Corn and Dunghill
Fowl.

Captain _Thomas_ sometimes sent for me, and endeavour'd, by his
Kindness, to make my Stay among 'em as little irksome as possible. He
often entertain'd me with the Cruelty of the _English_ to their Slaves,
and the Injustice of depriving Men of that Liberty they were born
to.

In about a Fortnight, my Wound was thoroughly cured, and I begg'd of
Captain _Thomas_ to let me be directed to the next Plantation. He
promis'd I shou'd, as, soon as he could do it with Safety. I waited with
Patience, for I did not think it just he should, for my sake, hazard his
own, and the Lives of his Followers.

About a Week after this Promise, I reminded him of it, and he told me,
that a Party from a Neighbour Village being out, he could not send me
away: For shou'd those Men miscarry, he might be suspected of having, by
my Means, betray'd 'em to make his own Peace with the Whites; for (said
he) the Treachery our People have observed among those of your Colour,
has made 'em extreamly suspicious. I was obliged to seem contented with
his Reason, and waited the Return of this Party, which in about ten Days
after, came back, laden with Provisions, Kitchen Furniture and Bedding;
but the most acceptable part of their Booty, was Two small Caggs of
Powder, of Eight Pound Weight each, and near Two Hundred of Lead. They
also brought with 'em the Heads of the Overseer, and the Distiller
belonging to _Littleton_'s Plantation, both white Men, whom they met
separately in the Woods.

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