Gulliver reaches Lilliput by swimming ashore after a shipwreck. After being blown off course near "Van Diemen's Land" (Tasmania, an island south of Australia) his ship hits a rock, and the small boat he and several others attempt to use to escape is swamped by waves. He seems to be the only survivor, and is left to swim, which he does until he reaches a small island. "I swam as fortune directed me, and was pushed forward by wind and tide," Gulliver tells us, and he swam until the water was shallow enough to walk. After walking for nearly a mile in shallow water, he reaches a beach, where he lies down to rest in the grass. He wakes up to find himself tied to the ground by his limbs and by his hair, and he quickly discovers that the tiny Lilliputians, "not six inches high," have made him their prisoner. When he removes the ropes that secure him to the ground, they shoot him with tiny arrows. Eventually they relent and, after their leader greets him formally with a speech, they give him food and drink. He is briefly accepted into Lilliputian society, with the understanding that he will serve them in war against their mortal enemy Blefescu, but eventually angers them by putting out a fire with his urine, violating an imperial decree that "whoever shall make water within the precincts of the royal palace, shall be liable to the pains and penalties of high-treason." He escapes punishment by fleeing to Blefescu.
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