01 The old seaman

Chapter 1 The old seaman

Squire Trelawney, Dr Livesey, and the others have asked me to write down all I know about Treasure Island. My name is Jim Hawkins, and I was in the story right from the start, back in 17-.

I was only a boy then, and it all began at the time my father owned the Admiral Benbow inn, at Black Hill Cove. I remember so clearly the day when the old seaman came to stay-I can almost see him in front of me as I write.

He arrived with his sea-chest, a tall, strong man with a cut across one cheek. He sang that old sea sang as he walked up to the inn door:

Fifteen men on the dead man's chest- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! The old seaman called for a glass of rum, and stood outside, drinking and looking around.

Our inn was on the cliffs above Black Hill Cove, and was a wild, lonely place. But the seaman seemed to like it.

" Do many people come here? " he asked. " No, " my father told him.

" Then it's the place for me, " said the seaman. " I'll stay here for a bit. You can call me Captain."

He threw down three or four gold coins. " Tell me when I've spent all that."

He was a silent man. All day he walked around the cove, or up on the cliffs; all evening he sat in a corner of the room, and drank rum and water.