``Peste, I will do nothing of the kind; the moment they come from government you would find them execrable.

``I am finishing the most execrable morning's work.''

That upon a quarrel among us, I was set on shore on this coast, where I walked forward, without knowing whither, till he delivered me from the persecution of those execrable _Yahoos_.” He asked me, “who made the ship, and how it was possible that the _Houyhnhnms_ of my country would leave it to the management of brutes?” My answer was, “that I durst proceed no further in my relation, unless he would give me his word and honour that he would not be offended, and then I would tell him the wonders I had so often promised.” He agreed; and I went on by assuring him, that the ship was made by creatures like myself; who, in all the countries I had travelled, as well as in my own, were the only governing rational animals; and that upon my arrival hither, I was as much astonished to see the _Houyhnhnms_ act like rational beings, as he, or his friends, could be, in finding some marks of reason in a creature he was pleased to call a _Yahoo_; to which I owned my resemblance in every part, but could not account for their degenerate and brutal nature.

Ships are sent with the first opportunity; the natives driven out or destroyed; their princes tortured to discover their gold; a free license 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 the subject is so low, it becomes disagreeable even to myself; give me leave, therefore, to propose a way to clear the streets of these vermin, and to substitute as many honest industrious persons in their stead, who are now starving for want of bread, while these execrable villains live, though in rags and nastiness, yet in plenty and luxury.

The preamble described the ubiquity of the "horrid, impious, and execrable vices of profane cursing and swearing" in the country, noting that this "may justly provoke the divine vengeance to increase the many calamities these nations now labour under", and that the existing laws designed to prevent this were ineffective.