Chapter: I GO TO BRISTOL


It was longer than the squire imagined ere we were ready for the sea,
and none of our first plans--not even Doctor Livesey's, of keeping me
beside him--could be carried out as we intended. The doctor had to go to
London for a physician to take charge of his practice; the squire was
hard at work at Bristol; and I lived on at the Hall under the charge of
old Redruth, the gamekeeper, almost a prisoner, but full of sea-dreams
and the most charming anticipations of strange islands and adventures. I
brooded by the hour together over the map, all the details of which I
well remembered. Sitting by the fire in the housekeeper's room, I
approached that island, in my fancy, from every possible direction; I
explored every acre of its surface; I climbed a thousand times to that
tall hill they call the Spy-glass, and from the top enjoyed the most
wonderful and changing prospects. Sometimes the isle was thick with
savages, with whom we fought; sometimes full of dangerous animals that
hunted us; but in all my fancies nothing occurred to me so strange and
tragic as our actual adventures.

So the weeks passed on, till one fine day there came a letter addressed
to Doctor Livesey, with this addition, "To be opened in the case of his
absence, by Tom Redruth or Young Hawkins." Obeying this order, we found,
or rather I found--for the gamekeeper was a poor hand at reading
anything but print--the following important news:

                              "_Old Anchor Inn, Bristol, March 1, 17--._

    "DEAR LIVESEY: As I do not know whether you are at the Hall or still
    in London, I send this in double to both places.

    "The ship is bought and fitted. She lies at anchor, ready for sea.
    You never imagined a sweeter schooner--a child might sail her--two
    hundred tons; name, _Hispaniola_.

    "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 every one in Bristol,
    as soon as they got wind of the port we sailed for--treasure, I
    mean."

"Redruth," said I, interrupting the letter, "Doctor 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 ain't to talk for Doctor Livesey, I should think."

At that I gave up all attempt 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 to 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, Livesey. Imagine the abominable
    age we live in!

    "Well, sir, I thought I had only found a cook, but it was a crew I
    had discovered. Between Silver and myself we got together in a few
    days a company of the toughest old salts imaginable--not pretty to
    look at, but fellows, by their faces, of the most indomitable
    spirit. I declare we could fight a frigate.

    "Long John even got rid of two out of the six or seven I had already
    engaged. He showed me in a moment that they were just the sort of
    fresh-water swabs we had to fear in an adventure of importance.

    "I am in the most magnificent health and spirits, eating like a
    bull, sleeping like a tree, yet I shall not enjoy a moment till I
    hear my old tarpaulins tramping round the capstan. Seaward ho! Hang
    the treasure! It's the glory of the sea that has turned my head. So
    now, Livesey, come post; do not lose an hour, if you respect me.

    "Let young Hawkins go at once to see his mother, with Redruth for a
    guard, and then both come full speed to Bristol.

                                                        "JOHN TRELAWNEY.

    "P.S.--I did not tell you that Blandly, who, by the way, is to send
    a consort after us if we don't turn up by the end of August, had
    found an admirable fellow for sailing-master--a stiff man, which I
    regret, but, in all other respects, a treasure. Long John Silver
    unearthed a very competent man for a mate, a man named Arrow. I have
    a boatswain who pipes, Livesey; so things shall go man-o'-war
    fashion on board the good ship _Hispaniola_.

    "I forgot to tell you that Silver is a man of substance; I know of
    my own knowledge that he has a banker's account, which has never
    been overdrawn. He leaves his wife to manage the inn; and as she is
    a woman of color, a pair of old bachelors like you and I may be
    excused for guessing that it is the wife, quite as much as the
    health, that sends him back to roving.

                                                                  "J. T.

    "P.P.S.--Hawkins may stay one night with his mother.

                                                                 "J. T."

You can fancy the excitement into which that letter put me. I was half
beside myself with glee, and if ever I despised a man, it was old Tom
Redruth, who could do nothing but grumble and lament. Any of the
under-gamekeepers would gladly have changed places with him; but such
was not the squire's pleasure, and the squire's pleasure was like law
among them all. Nobody but old Redruth would have dared so much as even
to grumble.

The next morning he and I set out on foot for the "Admiral Benbow," and
there I found my mother in good health and spirits. The captain, who had
so long been a cause of so much discomfort, was gone where the wicked
cease from troubling. The squire had had everything repaired, and the
public rooms and the sign repainted, and had added some furniture--above
all a beautiful armchair for mother in the bar. He had found her a boy
as an apprentice also, so that she should not want help while I was
gone.

It was on seeing that boy that I understood, for the first time, my
situation. I had thought up to that moment of the adventures before me,
not at all of the home that I was leaving; and now at sight of this
clumsy stranger, who was to stay here in my place beside my mother, I
had my first attack of tears. I am afraid I led that boy a dog's life;
for as he was new to the work, I had a hundred opportunities of setting
him right and putting him down, and I was not slow to profit by them.

The night passed, and the next day, after dinner, Redruth and I were
afoot again and on the road. I said good-by to mother and the cove where
I had lived since I was born, and the dear old "Admiral Benbow"--since
he was repainted, no longer quite so dear. One of my last thoughts was
of the captain, who had so often strode along the beach with his cocked
hat, his saber-cut cheek, and his old brass telescope. Next moment we
had turned the corner, and my home was out of sight.

The mail picked us up about dusk at the "Royal George" on the heath. I
was wedged in between Redruth and a stout old gentleman, and in spite of
the swift motion and the cold night air, I must have dozed a great deal
from the very first, and then slept like a log up hill and down dale,
through stage after stage; for when I was awakened at last, it was by a
punch in the ribs, and I opened my eyes to find that we were standing
still before a large building in a city street, and that the day had
already broken a long time.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Bristol," said Tom. "Get down."

Mr. Trelawney had taken up his residence at an inn far down the docks,
to superintend the work upon the schooner. Thither we had now to walk,
and our way, to my great delight, lay along the quays and beside the
great multitude of ships of all sizes and rigs and nations. In one,
sailors were singing at their work; in another, there were men aloft,
high over my head, hanging to threads that seemed no thicker than a
spider's. Though I had lived by the shore all my life, I seemed never to
have been near the sea till then. The smell of tar and salt was
something new. I saw the most wonderful figureheads, that had all been
far over the ocean. I saw, besides, many old sailors, with rings in
their ears, and whiskers curled in ringlets, and tarry pig-tails, and
their swaggering, clumsy sea-walk; and if I had seen as many kings or
archbishops I could not have been more delighted.

And I was going to sea myself; to sea in a schooner, with a piping
boatswain, and pig-tailed singing seamen; to sea, bound for an unknown
island, and to seek for buried treasure.

While I was still in this delightful dream, we came suddenly in front of
a large inn, and met Squire Trelawney, all dressed out like a sea
officer, in stout blue cloth, coming out of the door with a smile on his
face, and a capital imitation of a sailor's walk.

"Here you are!" he cried; "and the doctor came last night from London.
Bravo!--the ship's company complete."

"Oh, sir," cried I, "when do we sail?"

"Sail!" says he. "We sail to-morrow."

 So preparations begin for their sea voyage, but nothing goes quite as planned. Doctor Livesey goes to London to find another doctor to cover for him while he's away, and Squire Trelawney goes to Bristol to arrange for their ship. Jim is left behind to imagine what the map is going to lead them to. Finally he gets a letter from Squire Trelawney. The letter is addressed to Doctor Livesey, but there's a note that says Jim can open it if Doctor Livesey is away. Squire Trelawney has found them a ship. It's called the Hispaniola, named after the Caribbean island that's home to the modern states of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Unfortunately, in hiring this ship, Squire Trelawney has also told everyone in Bristol that he's on a treasure hunt. Jim knows that Squire Trelawney's chattiness won't make Doctor Livesey happy. Tom Redruth, one of the squire's servants, who is reading the letter alongside Jim, thinks Squire Trelawney should be allowed to do whatever he wants since he's a squire. Jim reads on: Squire Trelawney has had some trouble finding a crew for the ship. One day, Squire Trelawney got lucky: an elderly sailor with one leg approached him. The man is a cook and wants to go out on one last sea voyage. The man tells Squire Trelawney that his name is Long John Silver. Squire Trelawney is impressed that the sailor has lost his leg in a British naval battle. He's sure that Long John Silver is honest. Long John Silver helps Squire Trelawney find the rest of the necessary crew, all tough-looking guys. In fact, Long John Silver is so very helpful that he convinces Squire Trelawney to fire two of the guys he had already hired because they seem to be "fresh-water swabs" - in other words, bad sailors. Squire Trelawney seems to be in a great mood. He encourages Doctor Livesey to come down to Bristol as soon as possible, along with Jim and Tom Redruth, the servant. Squire Trelawney adds one small detail: his servant Blandly is going to send a search party after the Hispaniola if he doesn't hear from the squire and Doctor Livesey by August. It's now March. All in all, Squire Trelawney seems to be regarding this whole thing as a kind of game on the high seas, and he's very excited to get going. Finishing the letter, Jim is also thrilled. He's so excited that he despises the servant, Tom Redruth, for grumbling next to him. The next morning, Jim goes to the Admiral Benbow Inn to visit his mother one last time. Squire Trelawney has had the whole inn repainted, and his mother looks happy and comfortable. The next morning, Jim sets out on his first real trip away from home. Tom and Jim arrive at Bristol the following morning. Squire Trelawney is staying at an inn near the docks. The smell of the sea fills Jim with exciting dreams of sailors and voyages and distant places. Squire Trelawney appears in front of Jim all dressed up like a naval officer. He announces that they are going to set sail the next day.

