Treasure Island - Introdução

Treasure Island

Introduction

Robert Louis Stevenson was Born in 1850, in Edinburgh, Scotland. After studying law at Edinburgh University, he decides to earn his living as a writer. Unfortunately, he became ill with tuberculosis, a disease of the lungs, and he had to travel to warmer countries to improve his health. However, he did earn some money by writing about his travels.

In 1880, Robert Louis Stevenson married Fanny Osborne and, a year later, he wrote Treasure Island for her young son. In 1886, Kidnapped was published. Both these books were very popular, but they did not make much money. So, in 1886 Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. This story made Stevenson well-known, and made him more money, because it was bought by adults.

Treasure Island is an exciting adventure story in which a young boy, Jim Hawkins, tells us of his hunt for buried treasure and his fight with pirates led by the one-legged Long John Silver. It is still one of the best-loved stories for children.

In 1887, Stevenson’s father died. With the money that he left, Robert Louis Stevenson and his family were able to live in Samoa, an Island in the Pacific Ocean. The warm climate improved his health an he wrote there until his death in 1894.

My name is Jim Hawkins. My friends have asked me to write down my adventures, from beginning to end. I shall tell you the story of Treasure Island; but I shall not tell you where the island is, because there is still some treasure there.

Let me go back to the very beginning when I was living in Black Hill Cove, at the Admiral Benbow Inn.

My father was the landlord there. One day, as sun-burned old seaman, with a scar across his cheek, knocked on our door. I remember him as if it were yesterday…

Chapter One – The Black Spot

I watched the old sailor from the window. He dragged a seachest to the door, looked out to sea for a while, then started to sing:

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest –

Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”

He rapped on the door with a piece of wood.

“Is it quiet here, mate? He asked my father.

My father nodded.

“Well, then” the old man cried, “this is the ship for me! I’ll stay here a bit. I’m a simple man – rum and a bacon and eggs is all I want. You can me captain.”

He threw three or four gold coins onto the counter. And a few days later, he called me over to his seat in the window and held up a silver coin.

“Keep your eyes open, boy,” he said, “for a sailor with one leg and I’ll give you one of these on the first day of every month.”

How I watched and waited for that one-legged man to come to the inn! He even began to haunt my dreams. On stormy nights, when the wind shook the house, and the waves roared, I would see him in my sleep. Sometimes, his leg would be cut off at the knee, sometimes at the hip.

Sometimes he chases me over hedges and ditches. Yes, I earned my money well.

“That man will be the ruin of us,” my father complained one day. “I have uses up all his gold already. When I ask for more, he snorts like a fog-horn.”

One bitterly cold January day, I was laying the table for the captain’s breakfast when a tall stranger stepped into the room. Two fingers were missing from his left hand.

“Is this here table for my mate Bill?” he asked.

“I do not know your mate Bill,” I replied.

“Well,” he saind, “my mate Bill would be called the captain.

He has a long scar on his cheek…and a very pleasant manner when he’s had a drink of rum.”

He stared at me.

“Now, is my mate Bill here in this house?”

“He’s out walking,” I told him.

I hoped that the stranger would go away. But he waited by the inn door, peering round the corner like a cat waiting for a mouse. At last, the captain came in, and, without looking to the right or left, walked straight to his table.

“Bill,” boomed the stranger.

The captain spun round. The colour drained from his face, and even his nose was blue. He looked like a man who had seen a ghost.

“Black Dog!” he gasped.

“We’ll sit down, if you like,” said Black Dog, “and talk like old shipmates.”

I