It was not long before I started my next voyage, on 7th September,1710, as captain of my own ship this time. The owner of the ship wanted me to sail to the Indiano Ocean to do some business for him there, but I was very unlucky. On the way, I had to employ some new sailors from Barbados, but they were men of very bad character. I heard them whispering to the other sailors several times, but I did not suspect what they were planning. One morning, as we were sailing round the Cape of Good Hope, they attacked me and tied me up. They told me they were going to take control of the ship and become pirates. There was nothing I could do. They left me, alone, on the beach of a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

As the ship sailed away, I realized I had no idea where I was. I found a road away from the beach, and walked very quietly and carefully along, in case I was attacked. Several strange-looking animals were lying in a field, and some were sitting in a tree. Their heads and chests were covered in hair, and they had beards as well. They walked sometimes on two, and sometimes on four legs, and could climb trees. They were certainly the ugliest animals I had ever seen in all my travels.

Suddenly they all ran away. I noticed that a horse was coming along the road, so I supposed the animals were afraid of him. The horse stopped when he saw me, and seemed very surprised. He neighed several times in a very intelligent, gentle way, and I almost wondered if he was speaking in his own language. When another horse came along, the two horses walked up and down together, while neighing to each other. They seemed like two important people discussing a difficult problem. I watched this with astonishment, and decided that if the animals in this country seemed so sensible, the human beings must be the most intelligent in the world.

When I met one of these creatures on the road, his face showed great surprise and he lifted a foot high in the air. I did not know if he was going to attack me or not, but I hit him hard with the side of my sword. He screamed so loudly that all the other animals ran to help him. There were about forty of them around me. I kept them away by waving my sword in the air, but their wild cries frightened me, and the horrible smell from their bodies made me feel sick.

The two horses then came close to me, looking at my face and clothes with great interest. They talked to each other again, and then the first horse made clear signs for me to follow him.

He led me to a long, low building. Inside there were several lange airy rooms, with no furniture. Other horses were sitting or lying comfortably on the floor, on clean blankets. But where was the master of the house? Were these horses his servants? I began to wonder if I was going mad. Then I realized that the house did not belong to a human, but to the horse who had brought me here. In this country, horses, not people, were in control.

I started learning a little of their language. Their word Houyhnhnm means a horse, and the word itself sounds very like the noise a horse makes. I found it very difficult to say this word, and so I decided to shorten it and call them Houys. Their servants were the horrible-looking animals I had seen earlier. They did all the hard work, and lived in dirty! little rooms in another building, where they were tied to the walls. To my horror, these ugly animals, called Yahoos, had human faces which looked very similar to mine. I did not want anyone to think I was a Yahoo, so I tried to make it clear that my habits were very different from theirs. At least I was allowed to sleep in a separate room from them.

"But how is that possible?" he asked gently. "Your Houys surely wouldn't allow unintelligent creatures like Yahoos to control the country."

My Houy master was very interested in me, and as soon as I could speak the language, he asked me to explain where I had come from.

At first I thought I would die of hunger, as I could not eat the Yahoos' dirty meat or the Houys' grass and corn. But I soon learnt how to bake little cakes made of corn, which I ate with warm milk. Sometimes I caught a bird, an cooked it, or picked leaves of plants to eat with my bread.

My master looked quite worried. "What is lying?" he asked.

"Well, master," I neighed, "I've come from a country on the other side of the world. And you may not believe this, but in my country all the important people look like Yahoos."

"It may seem strange," I agreed, "but you see, I was surprised to find that in this country the Houys are the sensitive and intelligent creatures. And if I'm lucky enough to return home, I'll tell my friends all about it. But I'm afraid they may accuse me of lying."

"But tell me," he continued, "about your country."

In their language there is no word which means telling lies, and my master had great difficulty in understanding me. I tried to explain.

"Oh," he answered, still unsure. "But why does anyone tell a lie? There's no reason for doing it. We use language in this country in order to understand each other, and to give and receive information. If you don't tell the truth, how can people understand each other?"

I was delighted to describe recent English history to him, especially some of our most successful wars.

I began to see how different Houy life was from what I was used to.

"But why does one country attack another?" he asked.

"There are many reasons," I replied. "A king or his lords may want more land. Or there may be a difference of opinion between two countries: for example, whether uniforms should be black, white, red or grey. Sometimes we fight because the enemy's too strong, sometimes because he isn't strong enough. Sometimes our neighbours want the things we have, or have the things we want, so we both fight until they take ours or give us theirs. We often attack our best friend, if we want some of his land. There's always a war somewhere. For this reason, being a soldier is one of the best jobs you can have."

"A soldier is a Yahoo who works for his King and country. His orders are to kill as many people as he can," I answered.

"People who've never hurt him?" asked the Houy.

"That's right," I said, pleased that he seemed to understand at last. "Soldiers have killed thousands of people in recent history."

"A soldier," repeated my master. "I'm not quite sure what that is."

He shook his head and looked sad. "I think you must be -- what was your word? Ah yes -- lying to me. How could you and your countrymen kill so many other Yahoos? And why would you want to?"

I smiled as I replied proudly, "Sir, you don't know much about European war. With our guns and bullets and gunpowder we can destroy a thousand ships, a hundred cities, and twenty thousand men You see, --"

After these conversations I began to wonder whether the Houys were right. Why do we humans so often fight wars and tell lies? Peace and truth began to seem more important than making war or making money. I became more and more used to the Houys' ideas and way of life. As the Houys did, I hated the Yahoos for their dirty habits and unpleasant character. By the time I had been there a year, I walked and neighed like the Houys. I felt such a strong love for them that I planned to spend the rest of my life among them, and to try to become more like them. It is a great sadness to me, even today, that this was not possible.

"Be quiet!" he ordered. "I 've heard enough. I know Yahoos are bad, but I didn't realize they could possibly do such terrible things."

"No!" I cried desperately. "Don't send me away! How can I go back to England to live with those awful Yahoos!"

"How strange!" he replied. "We share everything here. No Houy needs -- what do you call it? -- money."

"I expect they've found pieces of gold or silver," I said. Because he did not seem to understand, I added, "We use them as money, to pay for things, you see."

One day my Houy master said, "Can you explain something to me? Why are the Yahoos so violently fond of those shining stones in the fields? They dig for days to get them out of the ground, and hide them jealously from other Yahoos."

Perhaps you can imagine how I felt. I knew I could be happy for ever with these sensible, gentle creatures, who never lied or stole, in a country which had no disease, no crime, no wars. But this perfect happiness did not last long.

"I'm sorry," said my master one day. "My friends and I have decided you can't stay here any longer. You see, you're neither one of us, nor a Yahoo."

"I'm afraid you must," he replied gently. "My servants will help you make a boat."

After several days travelling eastwards, I arrived in Australia, and from there managed to find a ship returning to Europe. I did not enjoy the voyage. The sailors all laughed at me because I walked and neighed like a horse. They looked just like those horrible Yahoos, and at first I could not let them touch me or come near me. Their ugly faces and unpleasant smell made me feel quite ill.

I will say no more. Clearly, there is no hope for human beings. I was stupid to think that I could bring reason and truth into their lives and thoughts Humans are all Yahoos, and Yahoos they will remain.

Even now, five years later, I do not let my children get close to me, although I sometimes allow my wife to sit with me while I eat. I try to accept my countrymen now, but the proud ones, who are so full of their own self-importance -- well, they had better not come near me. How sad that people cannot learn from the Houys! I was hoping that perhaps human beings would change their ways after reading the stories of my life with the Houys. But they accuse me of lying in my book. And now I realize that people still lie, steal, and fight, just as they have always done, and probably will always do.

And so, two months later, although I was very sad to leave, I said goodbye to my dear master and his family, and rowed away from the land of the Houys. I knew that I would never find happiness anywhere else.

And when I arrived home in England, after being away for five years, my wife and children were delighted to see me, because they had thought I was dead. But to my horror they looked and smelt like Yahoos too, and I told them to keep away from me.