Treasure Island
By Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)
The quintessential adventure: Jim Hawkins at the Admiral Benbow inn, Billy Bones's sea chest, the Black Spot, Long John Silver, and Skeleton Island.
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Ch. 1: The Old Sea-dog at the Admiral Benbow
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 1
I The Old Sea-dog at the Admiral Benbow
Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17—, and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow inn and the brown old seaman with the sabre cut first took up his lodging under our roof.
I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow--a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cove and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:
“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”
in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he carried, and when my father appeared, called roughly for a glass of rum. This, when it was brought to him, he drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste and still looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard.
“This is a handy cove,” says he at length; “and a pleasant sittyated grog-shop. Much company, mate?”
My father told him no, very little company, the more was the pity.
“Well, then,” said he, “this is the berth for me. Here you, matey,” he cried to the man who trundled the barrow; “bring up alongside and help up my chest. I’ll stay here a bit,” he continued. “I’m a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch ships off. What you mought call me? You mought call me captain. Oh, I see what you’re at--there”; and he threw down three or four gold pieces on the threshold. “You can tell me when I’ve worked through that,” says he, looking as fierce as a commander.
And indeed bad as his clothes were and coarsely as he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a man who sailed before the mast, but seemed like a mate or skipper accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man who came with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the morning before at the Royal George, that he had inquired what inns there were along the coast, and hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and described as lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of residence. And that was all we could learn of our guest.
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Table of Contents
45 ChaptersEvery chapter below is pre-indexed for oral narration and easy 1-click scheduling into your weekly Charlotte Mason lesson plan.
Ch. 1: The Old Sea-dog at the Admiral Benbow
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 1
Chapter 1: The Old Sea-Dog at the Admiral Benbow
The scarred brown buccaneer with his tarry pigtail singing 'Fifteen men on the dead man's chest.'
Chapter 2: Black Dog and the Blind Pew
The tapping stick in the dark; the paper marked with the fatal Black Spot pressed into Bones's hand.
Ch. 2: Black Dog Appears and Disappears
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 2
Chapter 3: The Sea-Chest and the Oilskin Packet
Opening the chest; fleeing across the moor with the map showing three red crosses.
Ch. 3: The Black Spot
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 3
Chapter 4: To Bristol: The Schooner Hispaniola
Squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesey fit out the ship; hiring Long John Silver with his crutch and parrot.
Ch. 4: The Sea-chest
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 4
Ch. 5: The Last of the Blind Man
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 5
Chapter 5: What I Heard in the Apple Barrel
Hidden in the empty barrel, Jim overhears Silver planning the mutiny on the eve of land.
Chapter 6: The Island: The First Bloodshed
Landing on the swampy island; Jim runs alone into the woods and meets Ben Gunn, marooned three years.
Ch. 6: The Captain’s Papers
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 6
Chapter 7: The Stockade on the Hill
The loyal men seize the log blockhouse; the Union Jack flies beneath a hail of pirate musket balls.
Chapter 7: Go to Bristol
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 7
Ch. 8: At the Sign of the Spy-glass
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 8
Chapter 8: Silver's Embassy: The Flag of Truce
The one-legged pirate chief climbs the hill to propose surrender; the captain's scornful defiance.
Ch. 9: Powder and Arms
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 9
Chapter 9: How My Sea Adventure Began
Jim cuts the Hispaniola's anchor cable in Ben Gunn's coracle of goatskin and willow.
Ch. 10: The Voyage
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 10
Chapter 10: Israel Hands on the Deck
Trapped in the cross-trees of the rolling ship; the flying knife and the musket shot.
Ch. 11: What I Heard in the Apple-Barrel
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 11
Chapter 11: The Pirates Have the Map
Stumbling into the dark blockhouse by mistake; the green parrot screams: 'Pieces of eight!'
Chapter 12: The Skeleton Pointer and the Empty Cache
The compass bearing from Flint's skeleton; the pit already dug; the treasure carried home.
Ch. 12: Council of War
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 12
Ch. 13: How I Began My Shore Adventure
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 13
Ch. 14: The First Blow
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 14
Ch. 15: The Man of the Island
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 15
Ch. 16: Narrative Continued by the Doctor: How the Ship Was Abandoned
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 16
Ch. 17: Narrative Continued by the Doctor: The Jolly-boat’s Last Trip
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 17
Ch. 18: Narrative Continued by the Doctor: End of the First Day’s Fighting
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 18
Ch. 19: Narrative Resumed by Jim Hawkins: The Garrison in the Stockade
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 19
Ch. 20: Silver’s Embassy
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 20
Ch. 21: The Attack
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 21
Ch. 22: How I Began My Sea Adventure
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 22
Ch. 23: The Ebb-tide Runs
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 23
Ch. 24: The Cruise of the Coracle
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 24
Chapter 25: Strike the Jolly Roger
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 25
Ch. 26: Israel Hands
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 26
Ch. 27: In the Enemy’s Camp
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 27
Ch. 28: The Black Spot Again
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 28
Ch. 29: On Parole
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 29
Ch. 30: The Treasure-hunt--Flint’s Pointer
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 30
Ch. 31: The Treasure-hunt--The Voice Among the Trees
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 31
Ch. 32: The Fall of a Chieftain
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 32
Ch. 33: And Last
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — Chapter 33
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