Gulliver's Travels: A Voyage to Lilliput

My father had a small farm in Nottinghamshire, and I was the third of his five sons. When I was fourteen, he sent me to college at Cambridge. I studied there for three years, but it cost too much for my family. So I went to London and worked for four years with Mr. James Bates, a famous surgeon. With the little money my father sent me, I also studied maps and the science of sailing. I always believed that one day I would travel.

Later I studied medicine for nearly three years in Leyden, in Holland, because I knew it would be useful on long voyages. When I came back, Mr. Bates found me a job as ship's surgeon on the Swallow. I sailed with her for three and a half years. Then I decided to stay in London. I married Mary Burton, the daughter of a shopkeeper, and I started working as a doctor.