Long John Silver is clearly a master wordsmith. He can make nearly anybody believe nearly anything, at least for a while. But the spoken word is only one form of communication in Treasure Island. There's also the language of appearance, in which a sharp look demonstrates Captain Smollett's intelligence and a terrified shudder reveals a superstitious pirate's fear of ghosts. And then there is the language of the island itself: the map tells one story, but the shifting alliances and actions of the people on the island rewrite its geography (for more on this, see "Setting"). All of these languages – spoken, physical, and geographical – can also be deceptive. For a writer, Robert Louis Stevenson is surprisingly suspicious of the persuasive value of language.