made sure was sure; Jim uses the phrase in this sense, rather than in the more modern sense of "took action to ensure."
magistrate a civil officer empowered to administer the law.
mail a vehicle by which mail is delivered (in this case, a stage coach).
malaria an infectious disease transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito; while malaria and yellow fever are two different diseases, their symptoms at the outset are similar, and the sailors would likely call either or both Yellow Jack.
manufactory factory; manufacturing plant. (The sort of factory Jim may have had in mind, in the eighteenth century, would have been something like a fabric mill, whose heavy looms operated with much noise and shaking.)
marish an archaic term for marshy, swamp-like.
Master Pew's dead . . . if make it out they can The revenue officer (tax collector) is unpopular and knows it; he wants to report Pew's accidental death (which he caused) to the magistrate (Livesey) before someone else misreports it as deliberate.
mizzen shrouds the ropes stretched from the ship's side to the head of the mizzenmast to offset lateral strain on the mast.
mizzentop the top of the mizzenmast, which is the mast third from the bow of a ship with three or more masts.
musket a smoothbore, long-barreled firearm, used before the invention of the rifle.
my cock my fine young man; the cock is the male of the chicken (in modern American usage, the rooster) and certain other birds, and in another sense the word can mean leader or chief, especially one with some boldness or arrogance. Silver is addressing Jim with a semi-affectionate, semi-ironical pet name, probably in reference to Jim's having just admitted that he hid the ship and did away with Silver's old shipmate Hands.
my davy Silver means "my affidavit" or statement made under oath; later he will say "my affy-davy."
my long home the grave; a euphemism for death.
my officer my first mate; next in rank to the captain.
my score my take; the man did not pay for his rum.
narrow and shoal narrow and shallow.
