On November 13, 1850, author Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Stevenson became a very famous writer in his own lifetime, and today is one of the most well-known British authors in the world. Stevenson is famous for his travel and adventure stories. His first book, An Inland Voyage, was a record of his own canoe trip on the Oise River, from Belgium to France. Throughout his life, he wrote about his travels in Europe and the United States, and his many years on the island of Samoa in the South Pacific. The Caribbean Sea is the setting for Treasure Island, Stevenson’s most popular novel. The book introduced thousands of readers to the region’s isolated tropical islands, as well as the character of the pirate Long John Silver. Long John Silver had many characteristics we now associate with pirates—his generally likable nature despite his position as a villain, his pet parrot perched on his shoulder, his peg leg, and his search for buried treasure—using a secret map where “X marks the spot.”