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 (which is unlikely), and that Stevenson himself hinted an untruth. For, in a letter to Henley, dated August 25, 1881, R. L. S. makes the following statement about "The Sea Cook" (later called "Treasure Island"), which was then being written:

"It's all about … a sea song with a chorus, 'Yo-ho-ho and a Bottle of Rum,' (at the third 'ho' you heave at the capstan bars,) which is a real buccaneer's song, only known to the crew of the late Capt. Flint, who died of rum at Key West much regretted."

The italics, of course, are mine. In other words, then, the song was known only to the fictitious crew of a fictitious captain; the extraordinary puppets of an invincible invalid who invented and wrote about pirates because it was neither expedient nor possible to be one himself. In a letter to Colvin, in July, 1884, the invalid added: "'Treasure Island' came out of Kingsley's 'At Last,' where I got 'The Dead Man's Chest.'" That is, Stevenson had been reading Kingsley's intolerably dull account of a visit to the West Indies, once a scene of splendid pirate activity, and had run onto that single phrase, "the Dead Man's Chest," descriptive, I believe, of a dangerous reef. That would be enough for Stevenson, to whom