Billy Bones
Billy Bones, the brown old seaman with the sabre cut, is the catalyst of the entire Treasure Island story. His arrival as a lodger at the Admiral Benbow Inn, his secret terror of a one-legged seafaring man, his possession of the map to Captain Flint's buried treasure, and his sudden death after receiving the Black Spot set in motion the chain of events that leads Jim Hawkins, Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest to sail for the island. He is a figure of menace, decay, and buried secrets, whose past as Flint's first mate and whose hoard of papers define the quest.
Identity and Background
Billy Bones first appears plodding to the door of the Admiral Benbow Inn, a tall, strong, nut-brown man with a tarry pigtail, ragged and scarred hands, and a livid white sabre cut across one cheek. He carries a sea-chest and a brass telescope, and he calls himself "captain," though he has the look of a mate or skipper accustomed to being obeyed. The man who brings his chest reports that the mail coach set him down at the Royal George and that he chose the Admiral Benbow because it was spoken of as lonely. Bones is a very silent man by habit, spending his days on the cliffs with his telescope and his evenings in the parlour drinking strong rum and water. He never writes or receives a letter, and he never opens his great sea-chest in anyone's presence. His clothes are patched and shabby; he buys only a few stockings from a hawker and lets one cock of his hat hang down. He stays week after week, month after month, exhausting the money he first paid and never offering more, intimidating Jim's father into silence. The doctor later finds his arm tattooed with "Here's luck," "A fair wind," "Billy Bones his fancy," and a sketch of a gallows with a man hanging—a detail the doctor calls "prophetic."
Life at the Admiral Benbow and the Terror of the One-Legged Man
Bones is a silent, brooding presence by day, but when drunk on rum he becomes a tyrannical companion, forcing the terrified neighbours to listen to his dreadful stories of hanging, walking the plank, storms at sea, and wild deeds on the Spanish Main. He sings his eternal song, "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest—Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" and will not let anyone leave the inn until he has drunk himself to sleep. The neighbours are frightened but also excited; some of the younger men call him a "true sea-dog." Yet Bones lives in constant fear of a seafaring man with one leg. He takes Jim aside and promises him a silver fourpenny on the first of every month if Jim will keep his "weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg" and report the moment he appears. This figure haunts Jim's nightmares. Bones also asks every day whether any seafaring men have passed along the road, and it becomes clear that he is trying to avoid them, not seek their company. When a seaman does put up at the inn, Bones is silent as a mouse.
Confrontation with Dr. Livesey and the Arrival of Black Dog
Bones is only once crossed, and that is by Dr. Livesey. When the captain begins his song one evening, the doctor, who has come to see Jim's dying father, ignores his demand for silence. Bones threatens him with a sailor's clasp-knife, but the doctor, revealing that he is also a magistrate, calmly promises to have him hanged at the next assizes if he does not put the knife away. Bones knuckles under and resumes his seat, grumbling like a beaten dog. After this, he holds his peace for many evenings. Not long after, a pale, tallowy man missing two fingers of his left hand—Black Dog—appears at the inn and asks for "my mate Bill." When Bones returns, he turns pale and gasps "Black Dog!" The two sit down to talk, and soon a violent quarrel erupts; Bones pursues Black Dog with a cutlass, splitting the Admiral Benbow signboard. The exertion brings on a stroke, and Dr. Livesey bleeds him, warning that another glass of rum will kill him.
The Black Spot and Death
Despite the doctor's warning, Bones is desperate for rum and terrified of the Black Spot, a summons from his former shipmates. He tells Jim that if they "tip me the black spot," Jim must ride for Dr. Livesey and tell him to "pipe all hands—magistrates and sich" to capture "all old Flint's crew." He reveals that he was Flint's first mate and the only one who knows where the treasure is buried; Flint gave him the map at Savannah as he lay dying. After his father's death, Jim sees Bones grow weaker, more violent, and more wandering in his mind. One bitter afternoon, a blind beggar—Blind Pew—arrives, forces Jim to lead him to Bones, and passes something into the captain's hand. It is the Black Spot, a paper blackened on one side with the message "You have till ten tonight." Bones cries "Ten o'clock! Six hours. We'll do them yet," springs to his feet, reels, puts his hand to his throat, and falls dead of apoplexy. Jim, who had never liked the man but had begun to pity him, bursts into tears.
The Sea-Chest and the Treasure Map
After Bones's death, Jim and his mother open the sea-chest. It is like any other seaman's chest on the outside, with the initial "B" burned on the top and the corners smashed from rough usage. Inside, they find a suit of good clothes, a quadrant, a tin canikin, several sticks of tobacco, two brace of pistols, a piece of bar silver, an old Spanish watch, a pair of compasses, and five or six West Indian shells. Under an old boat-cloak lies a bundle tied in oilcloth containing papers and a canvas bag of gold. Jim's mother takes only the money due to her, and Jim takes the oilskin packet. The packet contains a book and a sealed paper. The book is an account-book with dates and sums of money, marked with crosses for ships or towns plundered, and a grand total labeled "Bones, his pile." The sealed paper is the map of an island, with latitude and longitude, soundings, names of hills and bays, and three red crosses, one marked "Bulk of treasure here." This map, which Bones had guarded with his life, becomes the object of the voyage.
Narrative Role and Significance
Billy Bones is the figure who bridges the ordinary world of the Admiral Benbow and the extraordinary world of piracy and treasure. His past as Flint's first mate, his terror of the one-legged man, his possession of the map, and his violent death all serve to introduce the central conflict and the quest. His account-book and the map are the material evidence that drives the plot. The doctor's prophetic remark about the gallows tattoo, the song "Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest," and the Black Spot all recur as motifs throughout the story. Bones himself is a study in decay—a once-formidable buccaneer reduced to a patched, drunken, terrified wreck, whose death is both a release and a beginning. His legacy, the treasure map, passes to Jim and sets the adventure in motion.
