Gulliver's Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World

PART I. A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUTCHAPTER I.The author gives some account of himself and family. His first inducements totravel. He is shipwrecked, and swims for his life. Gets safe on shore in the countryof Lilliput; is made a prisoner, and carried up the country.My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire: I was the third of five sons. He sent me to Emanuel College in Cambridge at fourteen years old, where I residedthree years, and applied myself close to my studies; but the charge of maintainingme, although I had a very scanty allowance, being too great for a narrow fortune, Iwas bound apprentice to Mr. James Bates, an eminent surgeon in London, withwhom I continued four years. My father now and then sending me small sums ofmoney, I laid them out in learning navigation, and other parts of the mathematics,useful to those who intend to travel, as I always believed it would be, some time orother, my fortune to do. When I left Mr. Bates, I went down to my father: where, bythe assistance of him and my uncle John, and some other relations, I got fortypounds, and a promise of thirty pounds a year to maintain me at Leyden: there Istudied physic two years and seven months, knowing it would be useful in longvoyages.Soon after my return from Leyden, I was recommended by my good master, Mr.Bates, to be surgeon to the Swallow, Captain Abraham Pannel, commander; withwhom I continued three years and a half, making a voyage or two into the Levant,and some other parts. When I came back I resolved to settle in London; to whichMr. Bates, my master, encouraged me, and by him I was recommended to severalpatients. I took part of a small house in the Old Jewry; and being advised to altermy condition, I married Mrs. Mary Burton, second daughter to Mr. Edmund Burton,hosier, in Newgate-street, with whom I received four hundred pounds for a portion.But my good master Bates dying in two years after, and I having few friends, mybusiness began to fail; for my conscience would not suffer me to imitate the badpractice of too many among my brethren. Having therefore consulted with my wife,and some of my acquaintance, I determined to go again to sea. I was surgeonsuccessively in two ships, and made several voyages, for six years, to the East andWest Indies, by which I got some addition to my fortune. My hours of leisure Ispent in reading the best authors, ancient and modern, being always provided witha good number of books; and when I was ashore, in observing the manners anddispositions of the people, as well as learning their language; wherein I had a greatfacility, by the strength of my memory.The last of these voyages not proving very fortunate, I grew weary of the sea,and intended to stay at home with my wife and family. I removed from the OldJewry to Fetter Lane, and from thence to Wapping, hoping to get business amongthe sailors; but it would not turn to account. After three years expectation thatthings would mend, I accepted an advantageous offer from Captain WilliamPrichard, master of the Antelope, who was making a voyage to the South Sea. Weset sail from Bristol, May 4, 1699, and our voyage was at first very prosperous.It would not be proper, for some reasons, to trouble the reader with theparticulars of our adventures in those seas; let it suffice to inform him, that in ourpassage from thence to the East Indies, we were driven by a violent storm to thenorth-west of Van Diemen's Land. By an observation, we found ourselves in thelatitude of 30 degrees 2 minutes south. Twelve of our crew were dead byimmoderate labour and ill food; the rest were in a very weak condition. On the 5thof November, which was the beginning of summer in those parts, the weatherbeing very hazy, the seamen spied a rock within half a cable's length of the ship;but the wind was so strong, that we were driven directly upon it, and immediatelysplit.