The Unwilling Return to Humanity — Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver begins his desperate voyage on February 15, 1714, 15, with the sorrel nag crying farewell, "Take care of thyself, gentle Yahoo." He would rather find a solitary island than return to Yahoo society, and steers east toward New Holland, confirming his old suspicion that maps place the coast too far west. He lands unarmed, eats shellfish raw, and on the fourth day is wounded by a native arrow in the knee, a mark he says he shall carry to his grave. Fleeing both savages and Europeans, he hides by a brook until Portuguese seamen find his canoe, seize him, and carry him to Captain Pedro de Mendez, who feeds and beds him kindly while Gulliver faints at human smell, tries to leap overboard, and is chained until he promises not to harm his rescuer. They reach Lisbon on November 5, 1715; Don Pedro slowly coaxes him outdoors, then sends him home on an English merchantman. Gulliver arrives at Rotherhith on December 5 to a family who thought him dead, but their embrace fills him with hatred. His wife's kiss drops him into a swoon for almost an hour. Five years on he still cannot bear their touch, buys two stone, horses, favors the groom for the stable smell, and spends four hours daily talking to horses who live without bridle or saddle.