I got her through my old friend , Blandly , who has proved himself throughout the most surprising trump . The admirable fellow literally slaved in my interest , and so , I may say , did everyone in Bristol , as soon as they got wind of the port we sailed for -- treasure , I mean . `` Redruth , '' said I , interrupting the letter , `` Dr. Livesey will not like that . The squire has been talking , after all . '' `` Well , who 's a better right ? '' growled the gamekeeper . `` A pretty rum go if squire ai n't to talk for Dr. Livesey , I should think . '' At that I gave up all attempts at commentary and read straight on : Blandly himself found the HISPANIOLA , and by the most admirable management got her for the merest trifle . There is a class of men in Bristol monstrously prejudiced against Blandly . They go the length of declaring that this honest creature would do anything for money , that the HISPANIOLA belonged to him , and that he sold it me absurdly high -- the most transparent calumnies . None of them dare , however , to deny the merits of the ship . So far there was not a hitch . The workpeople , to be sure -- riggers and what not -- were most annoyingly slow ; but time cured that . It was the crew that troubled me . I wished a round score of men -- in case of natives , buccaneers , or the odious French -- and I had the worry of the deuce itself to find so much as half a dozen , till the most remarkable stroke of fortune brought me the very man that I required . I was standing on the dock , when , by the merest accident , I fell in talk with him . I found he was an old sailor , kept a public-house , knew all the seafaring men in Bristol , had lost his health ashore , and wanted a good berth as cook to get to sea again . He had hobbled down there that morning , he said , to get a smell of the salt . I was monstrously touched -- so would you have been -- and , out of pure pity , I engaged him on the spot to be ship 's cook . Long John Silver , he is called , and has lost a leg ; but that I regarded as a recommendation , since he lost it in his country 's service , under the immortal Hawke .
He has no pension , XXXXX .
Bristol Livesey accident calumnies deuce gamekeeper morning public-house right workpeople