entertained with Kindness, they give the Country a new Name, they take 
formal Possession of it for their King, they set up a rotten Plank or a Stone 
for a Memorial, they murder two or three Dozen of the Natives, bring 
away a couple more by Force for a Sample, return Home, and get their 
Pardon. Here commences a new Dominion acquired with a Title by Divine 
Right. Ships are sent with the first Opportunity, the Natives driven out or 
destroyed, their Princes tortured to discover their Gold; a free Licence 
given to all Acts of Inhumanity and Lust, the Earth reeking with the Blood 
of its Inhabitants: And this execrable Crew of Butchers employed in so 
pious an Expedition, is a modern Colony sent to convert and civilize an 
idolatrous and barbarous People. 

But this Description, I confess, doth by no Means affect the British Nation, 
who may be an Example to the whole World for their Wisdom, Care, and 
Justice in Planting Colonies; their liberal Endowments for the 
Advancement of Religion and Learning; their Choice of devout and able 
Pastors to propagate Christianity, their Caution in stocking their Provinces 
with People of sober Lives and Conversations from this the Mother 
Kingdom; their strict regard to the Distribution of Justice in supplying the 
Civil Administration through all their Colonies with Officers of the 
greatest Abilities, utter Strangers to Corruption; and to crown all, by 
sending the most Vigilant and Virtuous Governors, who have no other 
Views than the Happiness of the People over whom they preside, and the 
Honour of the King their Master. 

But, as those Countries which I have described do not appear to have any 
Desire of being conquered, and enslaved, murdered or driven out by 
Colonies, nor abound either in Gold, Silver, Sugar, or Tobacco; I did 
humbly conceive they were by no Means proper Objects of our Zeal, our 
Valour, or our Interest. However, if those whom it may concern, think fit 
to be of another Opinion, I am ready to depose, when I shall be lawfully 
called, That no European did ever visit these Countries before me. I mean, 
if the Inhabitants ought to be believed; unless a dispute may arise about the 
two Yahoos, said to have been seen many Ages ago on a Mountain in 
Houyhnhnm-land, from whence the Opinion is, that the Race of those 
Brutes hath descended; and these, for anything I know, may have been 
English, which indeed I was apt to suspect from the Lineaments of their 
Posterity's Countenances, although very much defaced. But, how far that 
will go to make out a Title, I leave to the Learned in Colony-Law. 

But as to the Formality of taking Possession in my Sovereign's Name, it 
never came once into my Thoughts; and if it had, yet as my Affairs then 
stood, I should perhaps in point of Prudence and Self-preservation have put 
it off to a better Opportunity. 

Having thus answered the only Objection that can ever be raised against me 
as a Traveller, I here take a final Leave of all my Courteous Readers, and 
return to enjoy my own Speculations in my little Garden at Redriff, to 
apply those excellent Lessons of Virtue which I learned among the 
Houyhnhnms, to instruct the Yahoos of my own Family as far as I shall 
find them docile Animals; to behold my Figure often in a Glass, and thus if 
possible habituate myself by time to tolerate the sight of a human Creature: 
To lament the Brutality of Houyhnhnms in my own Country, but always 
treat their Persons with respect, for the sake of my noble Master, his 
Family, his Friends, and the whole Houyhnhnm Race, whom these ours 
have the Honour to resemble in all their Lineaments, however their 
Intellectuals came to degenerate. 

I began last Week to permit my Wife to sit at Dinner with me, at the 
farthest End of a long Table, and to answer (but with the utmost Brevity) 
the few Questions I ask'd her. Yet the Smell of a Yahoo continuing very 
offensive, I always keep my Nose well stopt with Rue, Lavender, or 
Tobacco-leaves. And although it be hard for a Man late in Life to remove 
old Habits, I am not altogether out of Hopes in some time to suffer a 
Neighbour Yahoo in my Company without the Apprehensions I am yet 
under of his Teeth or his Claws. 

My Reconcilement to the Yahoo-kind in general might not be so difficult if 
they would be content with those Vices and Follies only, which Nature has 
entitled them to. I am not in the least provoked at the Sight of a Lawyer, a 
Pick-pocket, a Colonel, a Fool, a Lord, a Gamester, a Politician, a Whore-
Master, a Physician, an Evidence, a Suborner, an Attorney, a Traitor, or 
the like: This is all according to the due Course of Things: But when I 
behold a Lump of Deformity, and Diseases both in Body and Mind, smitten 
with Pride, it immediately breaks all the Measures of my Patience; neither 
shall I be ever able to comprehend how such an Animal and such a Vice 
could tally together. The wise and virtuous Houyhnhnms, who abound in 
all Excellencies that can adorn a Rational Creature, have no Name for this 
Vice in their Language, which has no Terms to express anything that is 
Evil, except those whereby they describe the detestable Qualities of their 
Yahoos, among which they were not able to distinguish this of Pride, for 
want of thoroughly understanding Human Nature, as it sheweth itself in 
other Countries, where that Animal presides. But I, who had more 
Experience, could plainly observe some Rudiments of it among the wild 
Yahoos. 

But the Houyhnhnms, who live under the Government of Reason, are no 
more proud of the good Qualities they possess, than I should be for not 
wanting a Leg or an Arm, which no Man in his Wits would boast of, 
although he must be miserable without them. I dwell the longer upon this 
Subject from the Desire I have to make the Society of an English Yahoo by 
any Means not insupportable, and therefore I here entreat those who have 
any Tincture of this absurd Vice, that they will not presume to come in my 
sight. 

FINIS.