We've got rules -- and maps! -- and guns

We've already blogged a bit about rules and guns, and now Strange Maps has an interesting post about the possible origins of Robert Louis' Stevenson's Treasure Island, apparently sparked by a fanciful map similar to the one above (a more legible version is available here). They also make the now familiar contrast between Somali pirates and the Treasure Island variety, while tracing the origins of the "treasure map" symbolism associated with pirates:

Despite recent outbreaks off the Horn of Africa, piracy still conjures up other images than freebooting Somali fishermen.Your standard-issue pirate from Central Casting will have an eyepatch, an earring, a parrot on his shoulder or a wooden leg – or any combination of the above. He will almost inevitably have the accent of the English West Country (which explains all the Aarrrh-ing), and will surely be on a quest for treasure.

We owe this persistent stereotype to, and can blame its most recent incarnation in the increasingly awful Pirates of the Caribbean-franchise, on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1883), the classic adventure novel about pirates and buried treasure. Stevenson’s book also spawned, in later derivations and imitations, the trope of the treasure map as an essential part of the story.

Treasure Island introduced or popularized a lot of common piratical themes, including the peg legged sailor with a parrot on his shoulder, so we'll certainly be looking at it more closely in the future.