Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift | Part 4, Chapter 11

In Part 4, Chapter 11 of Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver commences his voyage, and he plans to find an island where he can survive in solitude, rather than return to the yahoos of Europe. He calculates that he's near the Cape of Good Hope. He lands on an uninhabited shore in New Holland, modern South Africa, but encounters hostile natives on his third day in his spot on the beach. He hastily retreats in his boat. While he searches for a new place to land, he encounters a Portuguese ship. Some crewmen board Gulliver's boat and find him hiding from them. They're confused by Gulliver's use of the Huwennam language and his clothing of animal skins from the island. Gulliver explains his circumstances to them in Portuguese. The crewmen offer to take Gulliver to the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. Gulliver agrees. They tie him up anyway and take him to their captain. The captain feeds Gulliver and gives him a cabin, where he is restrained after a crewman catches him trying to jump overboard. The captain questions Gulliver about his escape attempt, and Gulliver gives a short account of his story. Eventually, the captain accepts Gulliver's honesty and releases him on the condition that he will not try to harm himself again. After they arrive in Lisbon, the captain convinces Gulliver to return to his family in England. Gulliver's wife and children greet him warmly, but he has little tolerance for them and prefers the company of his horses. At this point, Gulliver has become a full-throttle yahoo-hater. The human race is just not his thing anymore. Gulliver's self-loathing as a yahoo continues, even after the Huenems have expelled him from their island. Such is his conviction in their superiority that he cannot reproach them for sending him away, nor does he consider that this type of treatment may have made the island's yahoos behave as they do. And the Portuguese crew's treatment of Gulliver does little to help his opinions of yahoos, when they restrain him, which they do for his own protection. The kindness of the captain has some effect on Gulliver when he's convinced to return to his family. Yet, even when Gulliver is reunited with his wife and children, he carries the Huenem prejudice against yahoos with him, essentially rejecting his family, who now disgust him.