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Bristol - Treasure Island
One of the most famous references to Bristol as a busy port is in Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic pirate novel, "Treasure Island".

Pirate Flag

""
Chapter 7 - ‘I Go To Bristol’

......Jim Hawkins falls asleep on the stagecoach....

"I must have dozed a great deal from the very first, and then slept like a log up hill and down dale through stage after stage; Treasure mapfor when I was awakened at last, it was by a punch in the ribs, and I opened my eyes to find that we were standing still before a large building in a city street, and the day had already broken a long time. "Where are we?" I asked. "Bristol", said Tom. "Get down." Mr Trelawney had taken up his residence in an inn far down the docks, to superintend the work upon thePirate ship schooner. Thither we now had to walk, and our way, to my great delight, lay along the quays and beside the great multitude of ships of all sizes and rigs and nations. In one, sailors were singing at their work; in another, there were men aloft, high over my head, hanging to threads that seemed no thicker than a spider’s. Though I had lived by the shore all my life, I seemed never to have been near the sea till then. The smell of tar and salt was something new.Buried treasure I saw the most wonderful figureheads, that had all been far over the ocean. I saw, besides, many old sailors with rings in their ears, and whiskers curled in ringlets, and tarry pigtails, and their swaggering, clumsy sea-walk; and if I had seen as many kings or archbishops, I could not have been more delighted. And I was going to sea....bound for an unknown island, to seek for buried treasure."


Vocabulary Check

Look at the definitions below. Each one is for a word in bold in the text. Choose the word or expression from the list which you think matches the definition.
1: a kind of ship
2: facial hair
3: seaside
4: where the ships stop in a port
5: heading in the direction of
6: to supervise, control
7: up above
8: carved designs on the front of ships
Use the Score button to check your answers. The Answers button shows the correct words, but if you use it, you won't be able to get a score.
Click for ScoreClick for Answers
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Slave trade
Wine trade
Bristol
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