Gulliver's Travels (Swift)/Part 4/Chapter 1
from the Collection âGulliver's Travels. Part 4â
The division of this summary into sections is editorial.
After five happy months at home with his wife and children, Gulliver accepted command of the merchant ship Adventurer. He left his wife pregnant and sailed from Portsmouth on 7 September 1710, having grown tired of working as a shipâs surgeon.
A mutiny aboard the Adventurer
After several sailors died of fever, Gulliver recruited replacements in Barbados and the Leeward Islands. He later discovered that most had been pirates. His employers had ordered him to trade with Indigenous peoples in the South Sea and make discoveries, but the recruits persuaded the rest of the crew to seize the ship.
The mutineers bound Gulliver in his cabin and threatened to throw him overboard. When he swore to submit, they released his hands but chained one leg and stationed an armed guard at his door. They planned to sell the cargo, recruit more men in Madagascar and plunder Spanish ships. For many weeks Gulliver remained confined, unaware of their course and fearing murder.
On 9 May 1711, a crewman told Gulliver that he was to be put ashore. His protests were useless. The men allowed him good clothes, some linen and a short sword; because they did not search his pockets, he also kept his money and a few necessities. They rowed him to an unknown shore and left him there after selling the cargo.
Strange creatures attack on shore
Gulliver rested above the beach and went inland, hoping to buy his safety from the inhabitants with small ornaments he carried. He found grass, fields of oats and a road marked by human, cattle and horse tracks. In a field and among the trees he saw creatures whose partly bare bodies, long hair, beards and sharp claws filled him with disgust. They climbed and leapt with great agility.
One creature approached and raised a forepaw. Unsure of its intention, Gulliver struck it with the flat of his sword, fearing that killing it might anger its owners. Its roar brought a herd around him. He backed against a tree and waved his sword to hold them off, while some climbed overhead and dropped excrement around him.
The herd suddenly fled. Gulliver saw that a horse approaching through the field had frightened them away.
The horses examine Gulliver
The dapple-grey horse studied Gulliverâs face, hands and feet, then gently blocked his path. When Gulliver tried to stroke its neck, it moved his hand away and neighed in varied sounds that seemed almost like speech.
A brown bay horse joined the grey. They touched right forehooves, exchanged sounds and walked together as if discussing Gulliver. When he tried to leave, the grey called him back. Both horses examined his clothes and hands with evident surprise; after the bay squeezed his hand painfully, they touched him more gently.
Their orderly behaviour led Gulliver to suspect that they were magicians who had taken the shape of horses. He addressed them as gentlemen, explained that he was a distressed Englishman and offered a knife and bracelet if one would carry him to a house or village. They listened, then resumed their exchange.
Gulliver heard them repeat the word âYahooâ and tried to pronounce it, though he did not know its meaning. The grey repeated it for him, and the bay then tried him with âHouyhnhnmâ, a harder word. Both horses appeared astonished when he managed it. Gulliver had already been struck by how expressive their sounds were:
I plainly observed, that their language expressed the passions very well, and the words might with little pains be resolved into an alphabet more easily than the Chinese.
The horses parted with another touch of their forehooves. The grey signalled Gulliver to walk ahead, and he complied. When Gulliver slowed, the horse urged him on, but stopped to let him rest after he made it understood that he was tired.