<Dl> <Dt> 5 August 1706--16 April 1710 </Dt> </Dl> <Dt> 5 August 1706--16 April 1710 </Dt> <P> Setting out again, Gulliver's ship is attacked by pirates and he is marooned close to a desolate rocky island near India . He is rescued by the flying island of Laputa, a kingdom devoted to the arts of music, mathematics, and astronomy but unable to use them for practical ends . Rather than use armies, Laputa has a custom of throwing rocks down at rebellious cities on the ground . </P> <P> Gulliver tours Balnibarbi, the kingdom ruled from Laputa, as the guest of a low - ranking courtier and sees the ruin brought about by the blind pursuit of science without practical results, in a satire on bureaucracy and on the Royal Society and its experiments . At the Grand Academy of Lagado in Balnibarbi, great resources and manpower are employed on researching completely preposterous schemes such as extracting sunbeams from cucumbers, softening marble for use in pillows, learning how to mix paint by smell, and uncovering political conspiracies by examining the excrement of suspicious persons (see muckraking). Gulliver is then taken to Maldonada, the main port of Balnibarbi, to await a trader who can take him on to Japan . </P>

Where does the story of gulliver travels take place