imself and family. His first
inducements to travel. He is shipwrecked, and swims for his life. Gets
safe on shore in the country of 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 resided three years, and applied myself close to my studies; but
the charge of maintaining me, although I had a very scanty allowance,
being too great for a narrow fortune, I was bound apprentice to Mr. James
Bates, an eminent surgeon in London, with whom I continued four years.
My father now and then sending me small sums of money, 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 or
other, my fortune to do. When I left Mr. Bates, I went down to my
father: where, by the assistance of him and my uncle John, and some other
relations, I got forty pounds, and a promise of thirty pounds a year to
maintain me at Leyden: there I studied physic two years and seven months,
knowing it would be useful in long voyages.
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; with whom 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 which Mr. Bates, my master, encouraged
me, and by him I was recommended to several patients. I took part of a
small house in the Old Jewry; and being advised to alter my 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, my business began to fail; for my conscience would not suffer me
to imitate the bad practice 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 surgeon successively in two ships,
and made several voyages, for six years, to the East and West Indies, by
which I got some addition to my fortune. My hours of leisure I spent in
reading the best authors, ancient and modern, being always provided with
a good number of books; and when I was ashore, in observing the manners
and di
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