FOOTNOTES:
[1] Redriff = Rotherhithe: then a Thames side village, now part of London.
[2] Pound: nearly five dollars.
[3] Levant: the point where the sun rises. The countries about the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea and its adjoining waters.
[4] Mrs.: it was formerly the custom to call unmarried women Mrs.
[5] The South Sea: the Pacific Ocean.
[6] Van Diemen's Land: N.W. from Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and in latitude 30 degrees 2 minutes would be in Australia or off the West Coast
[7] Cable's length: about six hundred or seven hundred feet.
[8] Buff jerkin a leather jacket or waistcoat.
[9] Small: weak, thin.
[10] Signet-royal: the king's seal.
[11] Half-pike a short wooden staff, upon one end of which was a steel head.
[12] Stang: an old word for a perch, sixteen feet and a half, also for a rood of ground.
[13] Chairs: a sedan chair is here meant. It held one person, and was carried by two men by means of projecting poles.
[14] Crest: a decoration to denote rank.
[15] Lingua Franca: a language—Italian mixed with Arabic, Greek, and Turkish—used by Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Italians trading with Arabs, Turks, and Greeks. It is the commercial language of Constantinople.
[16] Fobs: small pockets in the waistband of trousers to receive a watch.
[17] Imprimis: in the first place, (pr.) im pri' mis.
[18] Lucid: shining, transparent.
[19] Yeomen of the guards: freemen forming the bodyguard of the sovereign.
[20] Pocket perspective: a small spy-glass or telescope.
[21] Trencher: a wooden plate or platter.
[22] Corn: such grains as wheat, rye, barley, oats.
[23] Quadrant: an instrument long used for measuring altitudes.
[24] Skirt: coat-tail.
[25] Alcoran the Koran or Mohammedan Bible.
[26] Embargo: an order not to sail.
[27] Discompose them: displace them.
[28] Puissant: powerful.
[29] Junto: a body of men secretly united to gain some political end.
[30] Pulling: plucking and drawing, preparatory to cooking,
[31] Meaner: of lower rank.
[32] Portion: the part of an estate given to a child.
[33] Domestic: the household and all pertaining thereto.
[34] Exchequer bills: bills of credit issued from the exchequer by authority of parliament.
[35] Close chair: sedan chair.
[36] Cabal: a body of men united for some sinister purpose.
[37] Lee side: side sheltered from the wind.
[38] Ancient: flag, corrupted from ensign.
[39] Downs: A famous natural roadstead off the southeast coast of Kent, between Goodwin Sands and the mainland, south of the Thames entrance
[40] Black Bull: inns in England are often named after animals with an adjective descriptive of the color of the sign; as, The Golden Lion, The White Horse.
[41] Towardly: apt, docile.
[42] Straits of Madagascar: Mozambique Channel.
[43] The line: the equator.
[44] Hinds: peasants; rustics.
[45] Pistoles: about three dollars and sixty cents.
[46] Trencher-side: up to his trencher or wooden plate.
[47] Discovering: Showing.
[48] From London Bridge to Chelsea: about three miles as the birds fly.
[49] Pillion: a cushion for a woman to ride on behind a person on horseback. From London to St. Alban's: about twenty miles.
[50] Pumpion: pumpkin.
[51] Parts: accomplishments.
[52] Sanson's Atlas: a very large atlas by a French geographer in use in Swift's time.
[53] As good a hand of me: as much money of me.
[54] Moidore: a Portuguese gold piece worth about six dollars.
[55] Guineas: an obsolete English gold coin, of the value of five dollars.
[56] Phoenix: a bird of fable said to live for a long time and rise anew from its own ashes.
[57] Cabinet: a private room.
[58] Scrutoire: a writing-desk.
[59] Waiting: attendance on the king.
[60] Lusus naturae: a freak of nature.
[61] Royal Sovereign: one of the great ships of Swift's time.
[62] Dunstable lark: large larks are caught on the downs near Dunstable between September and February, and sent to London for luxurious tables.
[63] Drone: the largest tube of a bag-pipe, giving forth a dull heavy tone.
[64] Gresham College, in London, is named after the founder, an English merchant, who died in 1580.
[65] The square of: as large as the square of.
[66] Salisbury Steeple: this is about four hundred feet high.
[67] Battalia: the order of battle.
[68] Espalier: a lattice upon which fruit-trees or shrubs are trained.
[69] Scull: a short oar.
[70] Starboard or larboard: right or left.
[71] Corking-pin: a larger-sized pin.
[72] Stomacher: a broad belt.
[73] Varlet: knave.
[74] Levee: a ceremonious visit received by a distinguished person in the morning.
[75] Spinet: a stringed instrument, a forerunner of our piano.
[76] Closet: private room.
[77] Signal: memorable.
[78] Chancery: a high court of equity.
[79] Glossing: commenting.
[80] Dionysius of Halicarnassus was born about the middle of the first century, B.C.; he endeavored in his history to relieve his Greek countrymen from the mortification they had felt in their subjection to the Romans, and patched up an old legend about Rome being of Greek origin and therefore their "political mother."
[81] Ideas, entities, abstractions, transcendentals, words used in that philosophy which deals with thinking, existence, and things beyond the senses.
[82] Mercurial: active, spirited.
[83] Composition: compact, agreement.
[84] Progress: an old term for the travelling of the sovereign to different parts of his country.
[85] Tumbrel: a rough cart.
[86] Page: a serving-boy, and especially one who waits on a person of rank.
[87] Quarry: prey.
[88] Squash: shock, concussion.
[89] To rights speedily.
[90] To make To get alongside.
[91] Phaeton a son of Apollo who was dashed into the river Endanus for his foolhardiness in attempting to drive the steeds of the sun for one day.
