第5章 TREASURE ISLAND AND SOME REMINISCENCES(1)

WHEN I left Braemar, I carried with me a considerable portion of the MS.of TREASURE ISLAND, with an outline of the rest of the story.It originally bore the odd title of THE SEA-COOK, and, as I have told before, I showed it to Mr Henderson, the proprietor of the YOUNG FOLKS' PAPER, who came to an arrangement with Mr Stevenson, and the story duly appeared in its pages, as well as the two which succeeded it.

Stevenson himself in his article in THE IDLER for August 1894

(reprinted in MY FIRST BOOK volume and in a late volume of the EDINBURGH EDITION) has recalled some of the circumstances connected with this visit of mine to Braemar, as it bore on the destination of TREASURE ISLAND:

"And now, who should come dropping in, EX MACHINA, but Dr Japp, like the disguised prince, who is to bring down the curtain upon peace and happiness in the last act; for he carried in his pocket, not a horn or a talisman, but a publisher, in fact, ready to unearth new writers for my old friend Mr Henderson's YOUNG FOLKS.

Even the ruthlessness of a united family recoiled before the extreme measure of inflicting on our guest the mutilated members of THE SEA-COOK; at the same time, we would by no means stop our readings, and accordingly the tale was begun again at the beginning, and solemnly redelivered for the benefit of Dr Japp.

From that moment on, I have thought highly of his critical faculty;

for when he left us, he carried away the manuscript in his portmanteau.

"TREASURE ISLAND - it was Mr Henderson who deleted the first title, THE SEA-COOK - appeared duly in YOUNG FOLKS, where it figured in the ignoble midst without woodcuts, and attracted not the least attention.I did not care.I liked the tale myself, for much the same reason as my father liked the beginning: it was my kind of picturesque.I was not a little proud of John Silver also; and to this day rather admire that smooth and formidable adventurer.What was infinitely more exhilarating, I had passed a landmark.I had finished a tale and written The End upon my manuscript, as I had not done since THE PENTLAND RISING, when I was a boy of sixteen, not yet at college.In truth, it was so by a lucky set of accidents: had not Dr Japp come on his visit, had not the tale flowed from me with singular ease, it must have been laid aside, like its predecessors, and found a circuitous and unlamented way to the fire.Purists may suggest it would have been better so.I am not of that mind.The tale seems to have given much pleasure, and it brought (or was the means of bringing) fire, food, and wine to a deserving family in which I took an interest.I need scarcely say I mean my own."

He himself gives a goodly list of the predecessors which had found a circuitous and unlamented way to the fire "As soon as I was able to write, I became a good friend to the paper-makers.Reams upon reams must have gone to the making of RATHILLET, THE PENTLAND RISING, THE KING'S PARDON (otherwise PARK

WHITEHEAD), EDWARD DAVEN, A COUNTRY DANCE, and A VENDETTA IN THE

WEST.RATHILLET was attempted before fifteen, THE VENDETTA at twenty-nine, and the succession of defeats lasted unbroken till I was thirty-one."

Another thing I carried from Braemar with me which I greatly prize - this was a copy of CHRISTIANITY CONFIRMED BY JEWISH AND HEATHEN

TESTIMONY, by Mr Stevenson's father, with his autograph signature and many of his own marginal notes.He had thought deeply on many subjects - theological, scientific, and social - and had recorded, I am afraid, but the smaller half of his thoughts and speculations.

Several days in the mornings, before R.L.Stevenson was able to face the somewhat "snell" air of the hills, I had long walks with the old gentleman, when we also had long talks on many subjects -

the liberalising of the Scottish Church, educational reform, etc.;

and, on one occasion, a statement of his reason, because of the subscription, for never having become an elder.That he had in some small measure enjoyed my society, as I certainly had much enjoyed his, was borne out by a letter which I received from the son in reply to one I had written, saying that surely his father had never meant to present me at the last moment on my leaving by coach with that volume, with his name on it, and with pencilled notes here and there, but had merely given it me to read and return.In the circumstances I may perhaps be excused quoting from a letter dated Castleton of Braemar, September 1881, in illustration of what I have said -

"MY DEAR DR JAPP, - My father has gone, but I think I may take it upon me to ask you to keep the book.Of all things you could do to endear yourself to me you have done the best, for, from your letter, you have taken a fancy to my father.

"I do not know how to thank you for your kind trouble in the matter of THE SEA-COOK, but I am not unmindful.My health is still poorly, and I have added intercostal rheumatism - a new attraction, which sewed me up nearly double for two days, and still gives me 'a list to starboard' - let us be ever nautical....I do not think with the start I have, there will be any difficulty in letting Mr Henderson go ahead whenever he likes.I will write my story up to its legitimate conclusion, and then we shall be in a position to judge whether a sequel would be desirable, and I myself would then know better about its practicability from the story-telling point of view.- Yours very sincerely, ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON."

A little later came the following:-

"THE COTTAGE, CASTLETON OF BRAEMAR.(NO DATE.)

"MY DEAR DR JAPP, - Herewith go nine chapters.I have been a little seedy; and the two last that I have written seem to me on a false venue; hence the smallness of the batch.I have now, I hope, in the three last sent, turned the corner, with no great amount of dulness.

"The map, with all its names, notes, soundings, and things, should make, I believe, an admirable advertisement for the story.Eh?

"I hope you got a telegram and letter I forwarded after you to Dinnat.- Believe me, yours very sincerely, ROBERT LOUIS

STEVENSON."