The author tells us about himself and family. When he travels, the bad weather finds their ship: he has to swim in the open ocean for his life. That's how he comes to the country of Lilliput.
My father had a small house in Nottinghamshire; I was the third of five sons. At fourteen years old, I went to Emmanuel College in Cambridge, where I lived for three years. To make money for my life, I had to become an assistant of Mr. James Bates, a famous doctor in London, with whom I worked for four years. When my father sent me money, I mostly spent it learning navigation, which I believed could be good for my future journeys.
After working with Mr. Bates, I went back to my father: with his and my family's help, I got some money for my life in Leyden, where I continued studying.
Just after I came back from Leyden, Mr. Bates helped me to find a job as a doctor to the ship called Swallow, Captain Abraham Pannel, on which I made a journey or two into the Levant, and some other parts.
When I came back, I decided to stay in London; and it was Mr. Bates, who told some of his patients about me. I got part of a small house in the Old Jewry; and married Mrs. Mary Burton, getting four hundred pounds from her father.
When Mr. Bates died, I got a big problem; I didn't have a good example anymore. I spoke to my wife and some friends, and decided to go to sea again. I worked on two ships for six years, going to the East and West Indies, which helped me to make some extra money. In my free time, I read the best authors, ancient and modern, paying attention to their manners, as well as learning their language; it was easy for me, thanks to my good memory.
The last of these journeys, I already felt tired of the sea and couldn't wait to stay at home with my wife and family. I moved from the Old Jewry to Fetter Lane, and after to Wapping, hoping to find another job; but it didn't give any result. Only after three years, I found Captain William Prichard, who planned to go to the South Sea. We started from Bristol, May 4, 1699, and our journey was at first very good.
The reason was that there was a strong storm in Van Diemen's Land. Twelve of us were dead because of hard work and bad food; others were very weak. On the 5th of November, the beginning of summer in that region, the weather was very bad, the wind was so strong, that our ship crashed into the stone. Six of us tried to use a boat to save our lives. When we were in the open ocean, we were very tired; in about half an hour our boat was upside down.
I cannot tell what happened to other people in the group; they were all lost. Speaking about myself, I decided to trust the ocean; when I almost died, I saw that the storm had finished. I was finally on the ground at about eight o'clock in the evening. There I did not find any people; or maybe I was so weak that I could not see them. I was extremely tired. After that, I lay down and slept for about nine hours; when I woke up, the sun was shining brightly. I felt that I couldn't move my body: something kept me on the ground. The sun began to be hot, and I opened my eyes because of its light.
When I looked down, I saw a small man not higher than six inches; there were at least forty more of them. I was shocked and started screaming and they all got scared. However, they were back soon, and the bravest one of them looked at my face and said, Hekinah degul: the others repeated the same words several times. I didn't know what it meant, I only wanted to be free.
For a long time, I felt very uncomfortable: I saw that they had tied me up. I could only move my head a little bit. These people ran away again, and one of them screamedTolgo phonac, and I felt a hundred arrows in my hand and a terrible pain.
I decided to lie down and not move till night, so I could free myself easily when they would go to sleep. When they saw that I didn't scream, there were no arrows anymore. Then, one man, who was older and taller than the others, came closer and spoke to me, but I couldn't understand him. He repeated the same thing several times; after that about fifty people ran closer and I was free.
I showed him that I really needed to eat because I hadn't done it since the ship. He understood and told everyone to give me food. They used ladders to do it. I ate a lot and was surprised at how hungry I was. Then I showed them I wanted to drink. They gave me a big bottle of some drink, same as the wine of Burgundy, but much better. I drank it all and asked for more, but they didn't have any. After eating and drinking, they danced on me, repeating Hekinah degul some times.
I can tell you that as they were moving on my body, I wanted to throw them on the ground; but I felt that I needed to be polite with them, as they were good to me and spent so much on me. I was surprised by the fact how brave they are: they were not afraid to do that to such a big man as I was for them.
After some time, they saw that I didn't eat meat anymore and they asked some important person to visit me. He
