We made a curious figure , had anyone been there to see us -- all in soiled sailor clothes and all but me armed to the teeth . Silver had two guns slung about him -- one before and one behind -- besides the great cutlass at his waist and a pistol in each pocket of his square-tailed coat . To complete his strange appearance , Captain Flint sat perched upon his shoulder and gabbling odds and ends of purposeless sea-talk . I had a line about my waist and followed obediently after the sea-cook , who held the loose end of the rope , now in his free hand , now between his powerful teeth . For all the world , I was led like a dancing bear . The other men were variously burthened , some carrying picks and shovels -- for that had been the very first necessary they brought ashore from the HISPANIOLA -- others laden with pork , bread , and brandy for the midday meal . All the stores , I observed , came from our stock , and I could see the truth of Silver 's words the night before . Had he not struck a bargain with the doctor , he and his mutineers , deserted by the ship , must have been driven to subsist on clear water and the proceeds of their hunting . Water would have been little to their taste ; a sailor is not usually a good shot ; and besides all that , when they were so short of eatables , it was not likely they would be very flush of powder . Well , thus equipped , we all set out -- even the fellow with the broken head , who should certainly have kept in shadow -- and straggled , one after another , to the beach , where the two gigs awaited us . Even these bore trace of the drunken folly of the pirates , one in a broken thwart , and both in their muddy and unbailed condition . Both were to be carried along with us for the sake of safety ; and so , with our numbers divided between them , we set forth upon the bosom of the anchorage . As we pulled over , there was some discussion on the chart . The red cross was , of course , far too large to be a guide ; and the terms of the note on the back , as you will hear , admitted of some ambiguity . They ran , the reader may remember , thus : Tall tree , Spy-glass shoulder , bearing a point to the N. of N.N.E. Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E. Ten feet . A tall tree was thus the principal mark . Now , right before us the anchorage was bounded by a plateau from two to three hundred feet high , adjoining on the north the sloping southern shoulder of the Spy-glass and rising again towards the south into the rough , cliffy eminence called the Mizzen-mast Hill . The top of the plateau was dotted thickly with pine-trees of varying height . Every here and there , one of a different species rose forty or fifty feet clear above its neighbours , and which of these was the particular `` tall tree '' of Captain Flint could only be decided on the spot , and by the readings of the compass . Yet , although that was the case , every man on board the boats had picked a favourite of his own ere we were half-way over , Long John alone shrugging his shoulders and bidding them wait till they were there .
We XXXXX easily , by Silver 's directions , not to weary the hands prematurely , and after quite a long passage , landed at the mouth of the second river -- that which runs down a woody cleft of the Spy-glass .
Had awaited bore carried complete followed pulled slung varying wait