PART THREE: A VOYAGE TO THE COUNTRY OF THE HOUYHNHNMS

CHAPTER ONE

The Mysterious Horses

For the next few years, I lived with my wife and children. Our lives were very happy, and I felt content living in England. It was a joy to watch my children growing older. Soon, my wife was pregnant with a third child. I was very excited; I hoped that my child would be a boy so that I could name him "Gulliver". However, I did not get the chance to see my new baby. I was offered a job as the captain of a ship that would trade between England and the South Seas. The thought of leaving my family made me sad, of course, but I decided to take the job because the pay was high.

My work on this ship as its captain was not easy. While traveling to the South Seas, many of my men became sick and died. Because of this, I had to find some new men to work for me. When we landed on the island of Barbados, I found some strong men who wanted to go to sea. Unfortunately, when we were at sea again, I learned that these men were criminals who were escaping from the police! One night while I slept, these men told my other sailors that if they could control the ship, then they would pay them all a lot of money.

When I woke up the next morning, I found that my door was locked from the outside. I was a prisoner on my own ship! For two days no one spoke to me, and I was not given any food. Finally, on the third day, my door was opened and one of the criminals entered. He told me that everyone had decided that I must leave the ship. I was put on one of our small boats and left near a small island. Luckily, the criminals allowed me to keep certain things, so that I still had my knife and some gold coins. Since I had no food or water, I had no choice but to row to the island.

When I reached the island's beach, I rested for a short time and then began to search for any people who might live on the island. I hoped they would give me some food to eat and fresh water to drink. As I walked around the island, I saw some human footprints and many prints of horses' feet. There was no farmland, but only natural fields with tall green grasses. I followed some of the footprints until I arrived in an open field.

Suddenly I saw a group of animals in the distance. Some were standing on the ground, while others were sitting in the trees like monkeys. These animals were not like the any animals I had seen before, and they were as large as people. I thought they were ugly and strange looking, and they frightened me, so I hid in the grass and watched them for a while.

These animals walked on four legs, yet their bodies looked quite like humans'. However, their backs and chests were covered with very thick hair like a monkey's or a bear's. Two of these animals began walking towards me, and I was afraid they would see me. All of a sudden, however, the whole group of animals turned and ran into a large forest nearby.

I wondered what had scared them away so quickly. I stood up to look around, but I did not see anything except a horse walking slowly through the grass. When I stood up, the horse seemed surprised to see me. After a moment, he walked towards me and did not stop until he had come very close. He stared at me, and walked around me three times. "This horse is acting very strangely—he seems almost intelligent," I thought. When I tried to step around him and walk away, the animal put himself in my way and would not let me pass. All the time his large, gentle eyes looked at me calmly. I reached out to try and touch the horse, but it stepped back and shook its head as if telling me not to do this. Then the horse began to neigh, and the sounds almost seemed like a kind of language.

Suddenly the horse gave an especially loud neigh, and immediately another horse came running over to us. I knew that these horses were not common because the two of them gently hit each other's hooves together, as if they were shaking hands! "This is amazing! The man who trained these horses must be the best animal trainer in the world!" I thought.

The horses continued to neigh to each other for a few more minutes. I decided that they were definitely communicating with each other. Then they hit each other's hooves again. The first horse I had seen, who was gray, moved his head to show me that I should walk in with him. Since I had no other place to go, I decided I might as well follow the strange animals.

I was very tired from the adventures of the last few days, so I could not walk very quickly. The horses were looking closely at me all the time. They seemed to understand that I was tired, so they walked slowly. A few times we stopped so that I could rest. I had no idea where these animals could possibly want me to go. "I wonder if these fine horses are taking me to meet their master?" I thought.

(end of section)