Attack on the Stockade

The Attack on the Stockade is the pivotal armed confrontation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, the moment when the mutiny aboard the Hispaniola erupts into open warfare on the island. After days of mounting tension, the pirates under Long John Silver launch a full-scale assault on the log-house fortification held by Captain Smollett, Dr. Livesey, Squire Trelawney, and their handful of loyal men. The battle is a brutal, close-quarters struggle that tests the discipline of the defenders against the reckless courage of the attackers, and its outcome permanently alters the course of the treasure hunt.

Prelude and Defensive Preparations

In the hours before the attack, Captain Smollett, having just dismissed Silver's embassy with a blunt refusal and a threat to shoot him on sight, prepares his small garrison for the inevitable assault. He had earlier predicted that the mutineers would board the stockade within the hour, and he now organizes the defense with meticulous care. The log-house, built of unsquared pine trunks, is loopholed for musketry on all sides, with two loopholes on the east and west sides, two on the south where the porch stands, and five on the north, the side he judges most vulnerable. A round score of muskets is distributed among the seven defenders, and firewood is piled into four tables, one at the middle of each side, each bearing ammunition and four loaded muskets ready to hand, with cutlasses ranged in the center. The captain orders the fire basket carried out and the embers smothered in sand to avoid smoke in the defenders' eyes, and he serves out a round of brandy to steady the men. He assigns posts with precision: Dr. Livesey takes the door, Hunter the east side, Joyce the west, while Squire Trelawney and Abraham Gray, the best shots, cover the long north side with its five loopholes. Jim Hawkins and the captain himself, neither being much account at shooting, stand by to load muskets and lend a hand.

The captain's plan reflects his professional judgment and his distrust of the enemy's tactics. He had earlier told the men that they were outnumbered but fought in shelter, and that with discipline they could drub the mutineers. As the sun climbed above the girdle of trees, the clearing grew baking hot, the resin melting in the logs, and the defenders stood at their posts in a fever of heat and anxiety. An hour passed in oppressive silence, broken only by the captain's impatient remark, "Hang them! This is as dull as the doldrums. Gray, whistle for a wind." The stillness was shattered when Joyce, on the west side, asked if he should fire at a sighting, and without waiting for an answer, he discharged his musket. The report was immediately answered by a scattering volley from every side of the enclosure, shot behind shot like a string of geese, though several bullets struck the log-house without entering. The smoke cleared to reveal the woods as quiet and empty as before, with not a bough waving or a musket-barrel gleaming.

The Assault and the Breach

The initial volley was a feint, designed to probe the defenses and draw fire. Captain Smollett, analyzing the shots, determined that the real attack would come from the north, where seven or eight shots had been fired, while the other sides were only to be annoyed by a show of hostilities. He made no change in his arrangements, arguing that if the mutineers crossed the stockade they would seize any unprotected loophole and shoot the defenders down like rats in their own stronghold. His reasoning proved sound, for suddenly, with a loud huzza, a little cloud of pirates leaped from the woods on the north side and ran straight for the stockade. At the same moment, the fire from the woods reopened, and a rifle ball sang through the doorway, knocking Dr. Livesey's musket into bits.

The boarders swarmed over the fence like monkeys. Squire Trelawney and Gray fired again and yet again, bringing down three men—one falling forward into the enclosure, two back on the outside—though one of these, more frightened than hurt, was on his feet in a crack and disappeared among the trees. Four pirates made good their footing inside the defenses, while from the shelter of the woods seven or eight men, each supplied with several muskets, kept up a hot though useless fire on the log-house. The four who had boarded made straight for the building, shouting as they ran, and in a moment they had swarmed up the mound and were upon the defenders.

The fight became a desperate melee. Job Anderson, the boatswain, appeared at the middle loophole, roaring "At 'em, all hands—all hands!" in a voice of thunder. Another pirate grasped Hunter's musket by the muzzle, wrenched it from his hands, plucked it through the loophole, and with one stunning blow laid the poor fellow senseless on the floor. A third, running unharmed around the house, appeared suddenly in the doorway and fell with his cutlass on the doctor. The position of the defenders was utterly reversed: a moment before they had been firing under cover at an exposed enemy; now they lay uncovered and could not return a blow. The log-house was full of smoke, which afforded them some comparative safety, but cries and confusion, the flashes and reports of pistol-shots, and one loud groan filled the air.

The Counterattack and Victory

Captain Smollett, seeing the crisis, cried out, "Out, lads, out, and fight 'em in the open! Cutlasses!" Jim Hawkins snatched a cutlass from the pile and dashed out of the door into the clear sunlight, someone close behind him. Right in front, the doctor was pursuing his assailant down the hill, and just as Jim's eyes fell upon him, he beat down the pirate's guard and sent him sprawling on his back with a great slash across the face. The captain shouted, "Round the house, lads! Round the house!" and Jim, obeying mechanically, ran round the corner of the house, only to find himself face to face with Job Anderson. The boatswain roared aloud, his hanger flashing in the sunlight, but Jim, with no time to be afraid, leaped aside as the blow hung impending, missed his foot in the soft sand, and rolled headlong down the slope.

When Jim regained his feet, the fight was already over. Gray, following close behind him, had cut down the big boatswain ere he had time to recover from his last blow. Another pirate had been shot at a loophole in the very act of firing into the house and now lay in agony, the pistol still smoking in his hand. A third, as Jim had seen, the doctor had disposed of at a blow. Of the four who had scaled the palisade, only one remained unaccounted for, and he, having left his cutlass on the field, was now clambering out again with the fear of death upon him. The doctor cried, "Fire—fire from the house! And you, lads, back into cover," but his words were unheeded, no shot was fired, and the last boarder made good his escape and disappeared with the rest into the wood. In three seconds nothing remained of the attacking party but the five who had fallen, four on the inside and one on the outside of the palisade.

The defenders ran full speed for shelter, knowing the survivors would soon return for their muskets. Inside the house, the price of victory was starkly visible: Hunter lay beside his loophole, stunned; Joyce lay by his, shot through the head, never to move again; and in the center, the squire was supporting the captain, one as pale as the other. "The captain's wounded," said Mr. Trelawney. "Have they run?" asked Mr. Smollett. "All that could, you may be bound," returned the doctor, "but there's five of them will never run again." The captain, counting the cost, observed, "Five! Come, that's better. Five against three leaves us four to nine. That's better odds than we had at starting. We were seven to nineteen then, or thought we were, and that's as bad to bear." The mutineers were soon only eight in number, for the man shot by Mr. Trelawney on board the schooner died that same evening of his wound, though this was not known to the faithful party until later.

Aftermath and Significance

The attack was a decisive victory for the loyal party, but it came at a heavy price. Captain Smollett's wounds, though grievous, were not dangerous: Anderson's ball had broken his shoulder-blade and touched the lung, and a second shot had torn muscles in the calf, leaving him unable to walk or move his arm for weeks. Hunter, his chest crushed and skull fractured, lingered all day and died in the night without recovering consciousness. Joyce was killed outright. The mutineers, having "got their rations for that day," as the captain put it, made no further move that day, and the defenders were left to overhaul the wounded and get dinner in peace. The battle demonstrated the superiority of disciplined defense over reckless assault, and it reduced the pirates' numerical advantage from nineteen to nine, a shift that would prove crucial in the subsequent struggle for the treasure. It also set the stage for Jim Hawkins's later adventures, as the captain's incapacitation and the garrison's reduced strength would lead Jim to undertake his own risky ventures, including the recapture of the Hispaniola.