Hello Ann! This is correct English, but because of the age it sounds very extravagant to a modern speaker. The sentence continues, "...my business began to fail." This structure, where the first parts of the sentence use only the gerund (-ing) verb without 'to be,' is correct if the next part of the sentence follows normal conjugation rules. For example: "My clothes dripping from rain and my car sitting beside the road, I was a sad sight." "Seeing none of my friends, and recognizing none of the landmarks around me, I start to think I am completely lost." This structure is pretty old! You probably won't use it personally, but if you are reading classics you will encounter it frequently, so it's good to know. Tell me if you have any questions! Regards, Lee

It is archaic English Ann. I would suggest that you do not learn from this book if you are trying to learn grammar or increase your vocabulary.

Hello again Ann. You're correct, be/was/is should come before a verb, but keep in mind that Gulliver's Travels was written 300 years ago and the English language has changed quite a bit since then.