The other men were variously burthened , some carrying picks and shovels -- for that had been the very first necessary they brought ashore from the HISPANIOLA -- others laden with pork , bread , and brandy for the midday meal . All the stores , I observed , came from our stock , and I could see the truth of Silver 's words the night before . Had he not struck a bargain with the doctor , he and his mutineers , deserted by the ship , must have been driven to subsist on clear water and the proceeds of their hunting . Water would have been little to their taste ; a sailor is not usually a good shot ; and besides all that , when they were so short of eatables , it was not likely they would be very flush of powder . Well , thus equipped , we all set out -- even the fellow with the broken head , who should certainly have kept in shadow -- and straggled , one after another , to the beach , where the two gigs awaited us . Even these bore trace of the drunken folly of the pirates , one in a broken thwart , and both in their muddy and unbailed condition . Both were to be carried along with us for the sake of safety ; and so , with our numbers divided between them , we set forth upon the bosom of the anchorage . As we pulled over , there was some discussion on the chart . The red cross was , of course , far too large to be a guide ; and the terms of the note on the back , as you will hear , admitted of some ambiguity . They ran , the reader may remember , thus : Tall tree , Spy-glass shoulder , bearing a point to the N. of N.N.E. Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E. Ten feet . A tall tree was thus the principal mark . Now , right before us the anchorage was bounded by a plateau from two to three hundred feet high , adjoining on the north the sloping southern shoulder of the Spy-glass and rising again towards the south into the rough , cliffy eminence called the Mizzen-mast Hill . The top of the plateau was dotted thickly with pine-trees of varying height . Every here and there , one of a different species rose forty or fifty feet clear above its neighbours , and which of these was the particular `` tall tree '' of Captain Flint could only be decided on the spot , and by the readings of the compass . Yet , although that was the case , every man on board the boats had picked a favourite of his own ere we were half-way over , Long John alone shrugging his shoulders and bidding them wait till they were there . We pulled easily , by Silver 's directions , not to weary the hands prematurely , and after quite a long passage , landed at the mouth of the second river -- that which runs down a woody cleft of the Spy-glass . Thence , bending to our left , we began to ascend the slope towards the plateau . At the first outset , heavy , miry ground and a matted , marish vegetation greatly delayed our progress ; but by little and little the hill began to steepen and become stony under foot , and the wood to change its character and to grow in a more open order . It was , indeed , a most pleasant portion of the island that we were now approaching . A heavy-scented broom and many flowering shrubs had almost taken the place of grass .
Thickets of green nutmeg-trees were dotted here and there with the red columns and the broad shadow of the pines ; and the XXXXX mingled their spice with the aroma of the others .
E.S.E. Flint HISPANIOLA Hill John Silver before favourite first right