Editing Brobdingnag (section)

==Location==
Brobdingnag is placed by Swift into the real world,{{sfn | Lee | 1998 | p=116}} he describes its location and geography in Part II of ''Gullivers Travels'' and provides a map showing where it is. However, the accounts are somewhat contradictory.

The map printed at the beginning of Part II indicates that Brobdingnag is located on the northwest coast of North America, in probably what is now [[British Columbia]]. The map shows (from south to north) [[Monterey Bay|Point Monterey]], [[Point Reyes#Sir Francis Drake|Port Sir Francis Drake]], [[Cape Mendocino]], Cape St. Sebastian, [[Cape Blanco (Oregon)|Cape Blanco]] and the semi-mythical [[Strait of Anián]], all locations on the Pacific coast of North America, and depicts Brobdingnag as a peninsula extending west into the Pacific to the north of the Straits.

In the book, Gulliver describes his voyage from England. After wintering at the [[Cape of Good Hope]], the ship reached a latitude of five degrees south, northward of [[Madagascar]] in March 1703, and the [[Moluccas]], "about three degrees northwards of the [[equator|line]]" in April. From there, a storm drives the ship "about five hundred [[League (unit)|leagues]] to the east" (this would place the ship still in [[Micronesia]]), after which the crew determine to "hold on the same course rather than turn more northerly, which might have brought us to the north-west parts of Great [[Tartary]]". They sighted land, which Gulliver later discovers is Brobdingnag, on 16 June 1703.

Brobdingnag is claimed to be a continent-sized [[peninsula]] {{convert|6000|mi|km}} long and {{convert|3000–5,000|mi|km}} miles wide, which based on the location given by Gulliver would suggest that it covers most of the [[North Pacific]]. Contrariwise, his map shows Brobdingnag to be of a similar size and extent as the present-day [[Washington (state)|Washington]], and his description of the voyage puts it at a six-week voyage from the [[Moluccas]].

Swift was highly sceptical about the reliability of [[travel writing]]s, and the unlikely geographic descriptions parody many unreliable travel books published at the time which Percy Adams describes as "travel lies".<ref>Percy Adams cited in ''Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography Volume 2''</ref>