In Chapter XIII (“How My Shore Adventure Began”) Jim recalls waking in the morning to find the ship becalmed southeast of what he now begins to call Treasure Island, a place of dismal-looking woods and oddly shaped hills, whose appearance he finds unpleasant. There is no wind, so the men must get in boats and row, hauling the ship several miles up the island’s eastern coast and into a narrow strait between it and a smaller island (Skeleton Island) to be anchored in this haven. Jim, in the boat commanded by the boatswain Anderson, sees that the men are in a surly mood. It’s a breezeless, hot day, and after all have returned to the ship, Livesey says the air smells of fever.
In the cabin, Trelawney’s party holds a council, and Smollett says the crew will mutiny immediately if something is not done, but that Silver will keep them from it if he is allowed to take the men ashore for the afternoon. They call in Trelawney’s servants, Hunter, Joyce, and Redruth, tell them what’s going on, and all seven, including Jim, are armed with pistols. Silver arranges a shore party of thirteen in two boats, leaving six men (along with the squire’s group) on board, and at the last minute Jim, on impulse, gets into one of the boats. This boat reaches shore before Silver’s boat, and although Jim hears Silver calling to him, he jumps out and runs through a thicket, away from the group on shore.
Chapter XIV (“The First Blow”) begins with Jim, on his own, exploring the part of the island on which he finds himself. He encounters vegetation, birds, and snakes that are unfamiliar to him. (The island seems to be located somewhere in or near the Caribbean; the snake Jim sees and hears is a rattlesnake, a native to America as Stevenson, who had spent some time in California and Nevada, would have known. Jim also identifies some of the trees he sees as live oaks, a sort of evergreen oak native to the southeastern U.S. and presumably to Caribbean islands as well.) Then, hearing voices approach, Jim crouches hidden and still, and then creeps to where he can overhear the conversation. There are two men, Silver and another called Tom. Tom is arguing with Silver against the pirates’ enterprise, and Silver is trying to convince him to go along with them. But then all hear a loud, terrible scream, obviously a death-cry, and Silver tells Tom that it was Alan, apparently another who has tried to resist the pirates’ business. Tom refuses Silver’s advice and turns to walk away. Silver throws his walking crutch and knocks Tom down, then falls on him and stabs him to death. Jim, horrified, backs away and runs from the sound of the other approaching men, whom Silver has summoned with a whistle.
In his flight from the pirates (Chapter XV, “The Man of the Island”) Jim encounters a wild, ragged Englishman, half-crazy, who says he is Ben Gunn, marooned on the island for three years. He has been living on goats, berries, and oysters; he asks for a piece of cheese. Speaking knowingly of the pirates, Ben Gunn convinces Jim (almost) that he wants to be of help to the squire’s party in return for passage back to England—and that he’ll be able to help. He tells Jim that he was part of Flint’s crew when the treasure was buried, and was marooned by later shipmates, to whom he had told the story, when they were unable to find the treasure. Gunn also says that he is rich, a statement he does not explain and which Jim apparently takes as more of the man’s almost incomprehensible raving. But just as Gunn has told Jim where his boat is hidden, by which he says they may make their way to the ship after dark, they hear cannon fire from the ship, then small arms fire, and then, soon, Jim sees the British flag flying on the island over the tops of trees.
