Balnibarbi is a fictional land in

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dubl ...

's 1726 satirical novel '' Gulliver's Travels''. it was visited by

Lemuel Gulliver Lemuel Gulliver () is the fictional protagonist and narrator of ''Gulliver's Travels'', a novel written by Jonathan Swift, first published in 1726. In ''Gulliver's Travels'' According to Swift's novel, Gulliver was born in Nottinghamshire c. ...

after he was rescued by the people of the flying island of Laputa.

Location

The location of Balnibarbi is illustrated in both the text and the map at the beginning of part III of ''Gulliver's Travels'', though they are not consistent with each other. The map shows Balnibarbi to be an island to the east of Japan and to the northeast of Luggnagg. The text states that the kingdom of Balnibarbi is part of a continent which extends itself "eastward to that unknown tract of America westward of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and northward of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

", and places it southeast of Luggnagg, which is "situated to the North-West" Gulliver gives his last known position (taken the morning “an hour before” he was captured by the pirates who set him adrift) as 46°N 183°(E) (i.e. east of Japan, south of the Aleutian Islands) and was picked up by the inhabitants of Laputa just 5 days later, having drifted south-south-east down a chain of small rocky islands Gulliver also tells us that the island of Laputa flies by the “magnetick virtue” of certain minerals in the ground of Balnibarbi and does not extend more than four miles above, and six leagues beyond the limit of the kingdom. He states the Pacific coast, where lies the port of Maldonada, is not above one hundred and fifty miles from the capital,

Lagado Lagado is a fictional city from the 1726 satirical novel '' Gulliver's Travels'' by Jonathan Swift. Location Lagado is the capital of the nation Balnibarbi, which is ruled by a tyrannical king from a flying island called Laputa. Lagado is on th ...

Description

Gulliver describes the land of Balnibarbi as "a land unhappily cultivated, with houses ill-contrived and ruinous, and its people’s countenances expressing misery and want". He found its method of farming "unaccountable". The exception to this was the estate of his guide, the Lord Munodi, a person of the first rank who had been governor of

, but had been dismissed for insufficiency by a

cabal A cabal is a group of people who are united in some close design, usually to promote their private views or interests in an ideology, a state, or another community, often by intrigue and usually unbeknownst to those who are outside their group. T ...

of ministers. He had been treated with tenderness by the king, but held in low understanding. These estates were wholly different to the land as a whole, being "a most beautiful country, with houses neatly built, fields enclosed, containing vineyards, corn-grounds and meadows". However Munodi reported that he was under pressure to tear down his house and tenant farms and rebuild them in the modern manner, or be censured for pride and incur the wrath of his majesty. Munodi explained that some forty years previously, some persons from the land had travelled to the flying island, and having come back with ”a very little smattering of mathematicks” but full of “volatile spirits” acquired in that region, had come to dislike the management of all things below, and fell to forming schemes to put “all arts, sciences, languages and mechanicks” on a new footing. To this end they had created an Academy of Projectors, from which a steady stream of projects, designed to let “one man do the works of ten” and “let the fruits of the earth come to maturity at whatever season” thought fit, and to increase production “an hundred-fold”, to “let a palace be built in a week”, and to create materials “so durable as to last forever”. Unfortunately, the only inconvenience being that none of these projects were yet brought to perfection, and in the meantime the whole country lay waste.

Maldonada

Maldonada is a fictional city described as the main port of Balnibarbi. Its location is illustrated in both the text and the maps in Part III of ''Gulliver's Travels'', though they are not consistent with each other. Maldonada is described in the text as being 150 miles from the capital,

, on the kingdom's

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

coast (i.e., to the south) and that the island of Luggnagg, which is 100 leagues distant to the north-west. and is said to be 5 leagues distant from the island of Glubdubdrib, to the southwest. However, the map at the beginning of Pt III places Maldonada on the south-west coast of Luggnagg, with Glubdubdrib to the southwest of that island. A further map, of the kingdom of Balnibarbi shows the port again, on the kingdom's south-east coast, but names it “Malonada”. Maldonada is described as being “a good port, with much commerce with the great kingdom of Luggnagg”. Gulliver tells us it is “about as large as Portsmouth”.GT, pt III, ch 7: OWC p180 Maldonada was Gulliver's departure point for his visit to Glubdubdrib, and later, on his return, for his voyage to Luggnagg.

Satire

The target of Swift's satire in Balnibarbi is its “Projectors” (who are described as "inventors or planners of political, social, financial or scientific schemes... which are wild or impractical") rather than science per se, which is generally commended: He also “aim(s) to discredit the Newtonian Whig intelligentsia...and to ridicule anything remotely connected to the Dutch”: Higgins reports scholars have identified the Academy as referring to the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in London, the Dublin Philosophical Society, and the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

. Higgins further states that Swift's satire “describes or is based on actual contemporary experiments reported (by) the Royal Society”.GT Notes p327

Notes

References

*Jonathan Swift: ''Guliver's Travels'' Oxford World Classics (1986, reprint 2008) introduction by Claude Rawson, explanatory notes by Ian Higgins {{Gulliver's Travels Fictional elements introduced in 1726 Fictional countries Fictional islands Gulliver's Travels locations Fictional kingdoms