Long John Silver and Ben Gunn

Long John Silver and Ben Gunn are two men whose lives are knotted together by the buried treasure of Captain Flint, a shared history of piracy that neither can escape. Their relationship is not one of friendship but of mutual recognition and wary calculation, each knowing the other's capacity for treachery. From the moment Jim Hawkins first mentions Silver's name, Ben Gunn's terror is palpable, and this fear, mixed with a desperate hope for salvation, defines their interactions. Their bond is forged in the crucible of Flint's old crew, where Silver was quartermaster and Gunn a common sailor, and it is this past that makes their eventual alliance both possible and profoundly unstable.

Shared History Under Flint

Ben Gunn's account of his time on Flint's ship, the Walrus, establishes the deep roots of his relationship with Silver. He was present when Flint buried the treasure, one of six strong seamen who went ashore with the captain, only for Flint to return alone, having killed all six to keep the secret. Gunn recalls that Billy Bones was the mate and Long John was the quartermaster, and that when they asked Flint where the treasure was, he taunted them, saying they could go ashore and stay if they liked, but the ship would beat up for more. This story reveals that Silver and Gunn were both part of Flint's inner circle, privy to the violence and paranoia that surrounded the treasure's concealment. When Jim Hawkins first encounters Ben Gunn and tells him that some of Flint's hands are aboard the ship, Gunn immediately gasps, "Not a man--with one--leg?" and upon hearing the name Silver, he wrings Jim's wrist, declaring that if Jim was sent by Long John, he is "as good as pork." This reaction shows that Gunn's fear of Silver is not abstract but rooted in a lived knowledge of the man's ruthlessness, a fear that has festered during his three years of solitary marooning.

The Maroon's Fear and the Promise of Rescue

Ben Gunn's terror of Silver is matched only by his desperate desire to escape the island. When Jim tells him that Silver is the cook and the ringleader of the mutineers, Gunn's fear is confirmed, but he also sees an opportunity. He extracts from Jim a promise that the squire will be liberal with a reward, specifically a thousand pounds, and a passage home. Gunn's plan is to use Jim as an intermediary, instructing him to tell the squire that "Gunn is a good man" and that he puts "a precious sight more confidence in a gen'leman born than in these gen'leman of fortune, having been one hisself." This careful maneuvering shows that Gunn understands the social hierarchy that separates him from the gentlemen, and he is willing to betray his former shipmates, including Silver, to secure his own salvation. His fear of Silver is so great that he refuses to approach the stockade until he has the word of a born gentleman, and he makes Jim promise not to sell him out to Silver, even if he sees the pirate.

The Alliance of Convenience at the Treasure Pit

When the treasure hunt reaches its climax at the empty pit, Silver and Gunn are thrown together in a moment of crisis. As the mutineers turn on Silver, the doctor, Gray, and Ben Gunn emerge from the nutmeg-trees with smoking muskets, having ambushed the pirates. Silver, seeing his salvation, hails the doctor, and when he recognizes Gunn, he exclaims, "And so it's you, Ben Gunn!" to which the maroon, wriggling like an eel in his embarrassment, replies, "I'm Ben Gunn, I am... and how do, Mr. Silver? Pretty well, I thank ye, says you." This exchange is charged with irony, as Silver murmurs, "Ben, Ben... to think as you've done me!" The doctor then reveals that Ben Gunn is the hero of the entire affair: he had found the skeleton, rifled it, discovered the treasure, dug it up, and carried it to his cave on the two-pointed hill, all before the Hispaniola ever arrived. Gunn's secret labor, born of his three years of solitude, has made him the instrument of Silver's downfall, and the old quartermaster is forced to acknowledge the maroon's cunning.

Silver's Escape and Gunn's Complicity

After the treasure is secured and the party prepares to leave the island, the relationship between Silver and Gunn takes its final turn. Ben Gunn, who is still terribly afraid of his old quartermaster, is the one who connives at Silver's escape. He admits to the crew that he helped Silver get away in a shore boat some hours ago, claiming he did so to preserve their lives, which would certainly have been forfeit if "that man with the one leg had stayed aboard." This act of complicity is a final, ambiguous gesture: it is both an act of self-preservation and a strange, grudging loyalty to a man he fears. Silver does not leave empty-handed, having cut through a bulkhead to remove a sack of coin worth perhaps three or four hundred guineas. The crew is pleased to be so cheaply quit of him, and Gunn, having secured his own thousand pounds, is left to spend it in nineteen days and return to begging, a fate he had feared on the island. The relationship between Silver and Gunn thus ends not with confrontation but with a quiet, fearful accommodation, each man using the other to serve his own ends before going his separate way.