In Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins fnds a map, sealed in oilcloth, in a dead man's sea chest.

and there fell out the map of an island, with latitude and longitude, soundings,
names of hills and bays and inlets, and every particular that would be needed to
bring a ship to a safe anchorage upon its shores. It was about nine miles long and
fve across, shaped, you might say, like a fat dragon standing up, and had two fne
land-locked harbours, and a hill in the centre part marked “The Spy-glass.” There
were several additions of a later date, but above all, three crosses of red ink—two on
the north part of the island, one in the southwest—and beside this last, in the same
red ink, and in a small, neat hand, very different from the captain’s tottery characters,
these words: “Bulk of treasure here.”

Over on the back the same hand had written this further information:
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.
The bar silver is in the north cache; you can fnd it by the trend of the east hummock,
ten fathoms south of the black crag with the face on it.
The arms are easy found, in the sand-hill, N. point of north inlet cape, bearing E. and
a quarter N.
J.F.

Map of an Island is a drawing game. The object is to recreate a map from limited
information. (Perhaps it will help you fnd Captain Flint's treasure.)

A party game:

You need paper and pencils. Choose one person to read the above passage aloud to the
group. Draw the map, according to the description. Draw a compass rose in the corner of
your paper to help orient yourself.

When you’re fnished, share your maps with the group. Vote for which map you believe will
lead you to treasure.
A solitaire game:

You need graph paper, a pencil, and dice. Roll the dice—a combination of six-sided dice or
a D20, whatever you have on hand, whatever makes a nice big number. This number is
how many sides your island must have.

Draw an X in any square on graph paper. Draw an island to surround that X with as many
sides as the number you rolled. Lines may be orthogonal or diagonal, but each section can
only be as long as one square.

Play against yourself and a timer to fnd your best time.

A variation: play against a group of players using the same dice roll. First to fnish wins the
game.

Designed by Jess Driscoll. October 2017. jessdriscoll.com

Illustration by Louis Rhead from an early 20th C edition of Treasure Island.