Gulliver's Reis Naar Liliput

A learned young man, trained as a surgeon and seasoned by years at sea, sets out hoping to turn his lifelong dream of circumnavigation into reality. After studying at Cambridge and Leiden, he spends six years sailing the world, picking up languages and customs wherever the tide carries him. When finances run thin, he returns to London, yet the call of the ocean proves too strong and he soon signs on as ship’s doctor for another long voyage.

In May 1699 his vessel, the Antelope, is battered by a sudden tempest and driven far off course until it smashes against hidden rocks near an uncharted land. The crew escapes in a small boat, only to be capsized by a sudden sea surge that throws them into the waves, leaving the narrator clinging to life as the others disappear. He washes ashore on an island inhabited by tiny, meticulous people who seize him, escort him to their palace and begin to display him as a marvel of their world.