The voyage to Proplopore

It was after above seven years since I had returned to England that my contempt for
the Yahoos I was surrounded with, including my wife and children, grew insurmountable and
I could not force myself any longer to tolerate their vices, for the memory of Houyhnhnms
was still strong and dear to me. I decided to leave my home again, having been deeply
affected by the death of one of my horses, and on the 5th of April, 1723, I boarded a ship
named „Adventure“, which was headed for Australia. Knowing the nature of life at sea, I
made acquaitance with the ship's captain, an Englishman 55 years of age, whose name was
Isaac Carter, and made an effort to consult him on matters of seafaring, for I was much
experienced in it. I do not wish for the reader to think I enjoyed his company, for he was just
as disagreable as the other Yahoos, of which there were about fifty on the ship. The reason
for me tolerating him was, I was granted better sleeping quarters with a bed, desk and a
chair, and even a chest was given to me, which was a great luxury. The captain became quite
endeared to me and sought my consultations when he was not sure what the right course of
action was with regards to navigation. I tried to keep our conversations as short as I could
without offending him, which I was quite adept at, and the voyage I was spending in a
tolerable manner, expect for the occassion when the seamen would drink a lot and get too
rowdy. After about 5 months at sea, on the 12th of September, we were finally nearing the
end of our voyage and I was much delighted to escape as early as I could from those men,
who were the foulest of the foul. However, the Providence would not have me return to my
beloved Houyhnhnms so soon, as, out of nowhere, early in the morning, a pirate ship
appeared and sailed towards us. To my great disbelief, I realised it was the same ship which
was taken from me by mutineers. My old ship was now equipped with a vast amount of
cannons, at least 14 on each side, and I advised the captain of our ship that we should
surrender, for we would all surely drown if attacked by the pirates. They were fast to board
our ship, walking over three broad wooden planks they placed between the two ships, and
they took government of the „Adventure“, chaining captain Carter to the mast and sending
those who foolishly fought back to the sea. I was not recognised by the pirates, but I saw
some faces I knew very well. The captain of the pirates was James Welch, and I recognised
him immediately, despite not seeing his face for some 12 years. The two ships changed
course and we were headed for the north part of Australia, which did not bode well for my
prospects of reaching the land of the Houyhnhnms.
The pirates were even worse then my previous company and I had to spend two
weeks surrounded by them, before a massive storm, the kind of which is frequent in that
part of the world, blew us from our course. We were seperated from the other ship, which
seemed to be sinking, but we could not tell for certain, as the sky was completely dark and
waves were greatly obstructing our view. The pirates bemoaned the loss of their ship, until
the mast of our own ship broke and water started to enter into the lower parts. I decided
that the prudent thing to do was to abandon the ship as fast as I could. Looking around to
detect land, I ran toward the two boats, which were suspended on the right side, and,
jumping into one of them, I lowered it into the sea and started rowing. I turned away from
the ship and rowed for above 5 minutes as fast as I could, before falling unconscious from
exhaustion, as I hadn't slept the night before. After about 8 hours, or so it seemed to me, I
awoke still in my boat on a beach. The storm had abated and the sky was dark and clear. I
looked about and found myself alone on the each, which seemed to strech above 2 miles in
every direction. Behind me, a tall forest stood. The trees were at least a 100 feet tall, and o
kinds not found in Europe. In my boat I had no food or water, so I decided to leave the boat
and search for fruit on the ground, since I could see some high in the trees. Not long ater I
entered the forest, I found some red fruit, very exotic-looking and bigget than my fist. While
I was sitting next to one of these trees and thinking about my luck, to my horror I realised I
was encircled by numerous Yahoos, who were standing behind tall bushes. Three of them
came out and started coming closer. They were of normal height, with olive skin and long,
slender limbs. I slowly got up, never letting them out of my sight. Great was my surprise
when, talking to me in a language of which I understood not a single syllable, the one who
seemed to me to be their leader presented me with a leather sack in which I found several
types of fruit, none of which I had seen before. I tried speaking with him in all the languages I
knew. However, he did not understand me at all, and often said to me „Shitha oon polpa.“ At
a later moment, I learned the meaning of those words. These people appeared to be well-
meaning and not agressive at all, but it was obvious they were Yahoos, which made my
situation that much worse. I will spare the reader the details of the next few hours, during
which I was often inspected and had my hair touched often. The Yahoos seemed to be
fascinated by my rough hair, for theirs were very smooth and shiny. In the morning, we
arrived in a city and I was taken through the city to a grand building, heavily decorated
inside. Every single one of the Yahoos was smiling and quietly discussing, but the did me no
harm. Even though they appeared to be quite rational and polite, I could easily tell they
were liable to doing wrong since they were, after all, just Yahoos. Because I detested their
false hospitality, which lead me to believe they were only mocking the great Houyhnhnms, I
tried, as much as I could, not to converse with them, in fear of being tainted by them. The
particular details of my stay in those lands, which its inhabitants refered to as Proplopore,
such as their customs, a bad immitation of Houyhnhnms, I discuss in another work, for I
deem it unnecessary, as well as detrimental, for the average person to be introduced to the
Proplopore people and their erroneous customs. I firmly believe that it will only help to
prolong this banal mentality, to which I had been exposed to during my voyage to the
Houyhnhnms.