owever, 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.

"_Postscript._--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 ma