A student of medicine

My father had five sons. I was the third. When I was fourteen he sent me to Cambridge to study. I was there for three years. Then he did not have enough money to pay my teachers any longer, so I went to London.

I wanted to be a doctor. In London I studied medicine with a famous doctor. Dr James Bates. While I was studying I worked for him, too, so my father did not have to pay him any money. There was one other thing I wanted to do very much. I hoped to travel and visit foreign lands some day.

I loved reading. Of course, I liked to read about being a doctor.But I also read about science, mathematics,and engineering, which means knowing how to build machines. Best of all, I liked reading about foreign countries, and the way people lived in other lands. When I had enough money, I bought books. But Dr Bates did not pay me much, so I could not buy many!

After four years I went home to see my family. I had a pleasant surprise. My father and my uncle gave me forty pounds. Also they promised to send me thirty pounds each year while I learnt about medicine. That does not seem to be much money these days, but in those days it was a lot.

So, at last, I had enough money to do what I wanted. I left Dr Bates and went to study at Leyden in Holland for two years. I still wanted to travel, so I learnt many things which I could use on long sea journeys, or ' voyages ' as they are called.