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GulliversTravels
  • PART I A Voyage to Lilliput  --                                         chapter 1 - Gulliver Is Shipwrecked and Captured

  • Gulliver

    My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire.

    Profile Picture of Gulliver in GulliversTravels
  • I was the third of five sons.

  • When I was 14 years old, my father sent me to Emmanuel College in Cambridge, where I studied for three years.

  • But the cost of keeping me there was too great, so I was bound as an apprentice to Mr. James Bates, a highly respect­ed surgeon in London, and I continued with him four years.

  • My father now and then sent me small sums of money and I spent them on learning navigation and other parts of mathematics useful to those who travel, as I always believed it would be my fortune to do.

  • Gulliver

    When I left Mr. Bates, I went to Holland famous Leyden, where I studied medicine, knowing it would be useful to me on long voyages.

    Profile Picture of Gulliver in GulliversTravels
  • Soon after my return from Leyden, Mr. Bates rec­ommended me to be the ship’s doctor on the Swallow, a ship on which I stayed three years and a half, making voyages to the Levant and other parts.

  • The last of these voyages was not very profitable and I grew weary of the sea.

  • I intended to stay home with my wife and family, but after three years of little success in my practice, I accepted an offer to sail to the South Seas as the ship’s doctor on the Antelope.

  • We set sail from Bristol on May 4, 1699.

  • At first we fared well, but as we sailed into the East Indies we were driven by a violent storm to the northwest of Van Diemen’s Land.

  • Gulliver

    Twelve of our crew died from overwork and ill food;

    Profile Picture of Gulliver in GulliversTravels
  • the rest were in a very weak condition.

  • On the fifth of November, which is the beginning of summer in those parts, the weather was hazy.

  • Seamen spied a rock near the ship, but the wind was so strong it drove us directly onto it.

  • The ship immediately split.

  • Six of the crew, of whom I was one, let down a boat into the sea and rowed clear of the ship and the rock.

  • Gulliver

    We rowed about three leagues, till we were able to work no longer.

    Profile Picture of Gulliver in GulliversTravels
  • We trusted ourselves to the mercy of the waves.

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