Our hero, Lemuel Gulliver, starts out his adventures with a description of his origins: he's

from Nottinghamshire in England, and he has spent several years at college at Cambridge.
Sadly, Gulliver's father runs out of money for young Gulliver's education, so he sends
Gulliver as an apprentice (read: someone who works for a skilled tradesman in exchange
for first-hand, practical training in said trade) to Mr. James Bates, a London surgeon.
Gulliver also spends a lot of time studying math and navigation, because he wants to
travel.
Eventually, with the financial help of his uncle, his father, and some other relatives,
Gulliver travels to Leyden (now Leiden, a city in Holland), where there is a famous
university known for its teaching of medicine.
After studying at Leyden for a couple of years, Gulliver returns to England, where Mr.
Bates gives Gulliver a recommendation to join the crew of the ship the Swallow as a
surgeon.
Gulliver travels for three years on the Swallow and gets as far as the Levant (a.k.a. the
eastern portion of the Mediterranean and the areas that border it, including parts of
Egypt, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, and Turkey.)
He comes back to London and settles down to marry Mrs. Mary Burton, who comes with a
dowry (read: a certain amount of money settled on her by her family once she marries) of
400 pounds – nice for Gulliver!
Gulliver's former boss and current patron, Mr. Bates dies a couple of years later, and
Gulliver's business starts to go bad.
Gulliver decides to go to sea again, traveling this time to the Far East and the West Indies.
He spends a lot of time reading while he's at sea; when Gulliver is ashore, he enjoys
observing the customs of the people he meets.
But even the sea starts to lose its interest for Gulliver, and he decides to head home to
London to hang out with his wife.
Gulliver moves his business to various parts of London, but he continues to fail at making a
living, so he hits the sea once again three years later.
He sets sail with Captain William Prichard on the Antelope, heading to the South Seas (in
other words, the oceans south of the equator.)