The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson (Volume IV)
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The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson (Volume IV) by Robert Louis Stevenson CONTENTS CHAPTER X .........................................................................................1 PACIFIC VOYAGES, JUNE 1888 NOVEMBER 1890 ................1 CHAPTER XI....................................................................................155 ★ The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson ★ CHAPTER X PACI FI C VOYAGES, JUNE 1888 NOVEMBER 1890 TO SI DNEY COLVI N YACHT ’CASCO,’ ANAHO BAY, NUKAHIVA, MARQUESAS ISLANDS JULY 1888. MY DEAR COLVIN, From this somewhat (ahem) out of the way place, I write to say how d’ye do. It is all a swindle: I chose these isles as having the most beastly population, and they are far better, and far more civilised than we. I know one old chief Ko o amua, a great cannibal in his day, who ate his enemies even as he walked home from killing ’em, and he is a perfect gentleman and exceedingly amiable and simple minded: no fool, though. The climate is delightful; and the harbour where we lie one of the loveliest spots imaginable. Yesterday evening we had near a score natives on board; lovely parties. We have a native god; very rare now. Very rare and equally absurd to Page 1 ★ The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson ★ view. This sort of work is not favourable to correspondence: it takes me all the little strength I have to go about and see, and then come home and note, the strangeness around us. I shouldn’t wonder if there came trouble here some day, all the same. I could name a nation that is not beloved in certain islands and it does not know it! Strange: like ourselves, perhaps, in India! Love to all and much to yourself. R. L. S. Let t er : TO CHARLES BAXTER YACHT ’CASCO,’ AT SEA, NEAR THE PAUMOTUS, 7 A.M., SEPTEMBER 6TH, 1888, WITH A DREADFUL PEN. MY DEAR CHARLES, Last night as I lay under my blanket in the cockpit, courting sleep, I had a comic seizure. There was nothing visible but the southern stars, and the steersman there out by the binnacle lamp; we were all looking forward to a most deplorable landfall on the morrow, Page 2 ★ The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson ★ praying God we should fetch a tuft of palms which are to indicate the Dangerous Archipelago; the night was as warm as milk, and all of a sudden I had a vision of Drummond Street. It came on me like a flash of lightning: I simply returned thither, and into the past. And when I remember all I hoped and feared as I pickled about Rutherford’s in the rain and the east wind; how I feared I should make a mere shipwreck, and yet timidly hoped not; how I feared I should never have a friend, far less a wife, and yet passionately hoped I might; how I hoped (if I did not take to drink) I should possibly write one little book, etc. etc. And then now what a change! I feel somehow as if I should like the incident set upon a brass plate at the corner of that dreary thoroughfare for all students to read, poor devils, when their hearts are down. And I felt I must write one word to you. Excuse me if I write little: when I am at sea, it gives me a headache; when I am in port, I have my diary crying ’Give, give.’ I shall have a fine book of travels, I feel sure; and will tell you more of the South Seas after very few months than Page 3 ★ The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson ★ any other writer has done except Herman Melville perhaps, who is a howling cheese. Good luck to you, God bless you. Your affectionate friend, R. L. S. Let t er : TO SI DNEY COLVI N FAKARAVA, LOW ARCHIPELAGO, SEPTEMBER 21ST, 1888. MY DEAR COLVIN, Only a word. Get out your big atlas, and imagine a straight line from San Francisco to Anaho, the N.E. corner of Nukahiva, one of the Marquesas Islands; imagine three weeks there: imagine a day’s sail on August 12th round the eastern end of the island to Tai o hae, the capital; imagine us there till August 22nd: imagine us skirt the east side of Ua pu perhaps Rona Poa on your atlas and through the Bondelais straits to Taaka uku in Hiva Oa, where we arrive on the 23rd; imagine us there until September 4th, when we sailed for Fakarava, which we reached on the 9th, after a very difficult and dangerous Page 4 ★ The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson ★ passage among these isles. Tuesday, we shall leave for Taiti, where I shall knock off and do some necessary work ashore. It looks pretty bald in the atlas; not in fact; nor I trust in the 130 odd pages of diary which I have just been looking up for these dates: the interest, indeed, has been INCREDIBLE: I did not dream there were such places or such races. My health has stood me splendidly; I am in for hours wading over the knees for shells; I have been five hours on horseback: I have been up pretty near all night waiting to see where the CASCO would go ashore, and with my diary all ready simply the most entertaining night of my life. Withal I still have colds; I have one now, and feel pretty sick too; but not as at home: instead of being in bed, for instance, I am at this moment sitting snuffling and writing in an undershirt and trousers; and as for colour, hands, arms, feet, legs, and face, I am browner than the berry: only my trunk and the aristocratic spot on which I sit retain the vile whiteness of the north. Please give my news and kind love to Henley, Henry James, and any whom you see of well wishers. Accept from Page 5 ★ The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson ★ me the very best of my affection: and believe me ever yours, THE OLD MAN VIRULENT. TAITI, OCTOBER 7TH, 1888. Never having found a chance to send this off, I may add more of my news. My cold took a very bad turn, and I am pretty much out of sorts at this particular, living in a little bare one twentieth furnished house, surrounded by mangoes, etc. All the rest are well, and I mean to be soon. But these Taiti colds are very severe and, to children, often fatal; so they were not the thing for me. Yesterday the brigantine came in from San Francisco, so we can get our letters off soon. There are in Papeete at this moment, in a little wooden house with grated verandahs, two people who love you very much, and one of them is ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. Page 6 ★ The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson ★ Let t er : TO CHARLES BAXTER TAITI, AS EVER WAS, 6TH OCTOBER 1888. MY DEAR CHARLES,... You will receive a lot of mostly very bad proofs of photographs: the paper was so bad. Please keep them very private, as they are for the book. We send them, having learned so dread a fear of the sea, that we wish to put our eggs in different baskets. We have been thrice within an ace of being ashore: we were lost (!) for about twelve hours in the Low Archipelago, but by God’s blessing had quiet weather all the time; and once, in a squall, we cam’ so near gaun heels ower hurdies, that I really dinnae ken why we didnae athegither. Hence, as I say, a great desire to put our eggs in different baskets, particularly on the Pacific (aw haw haw) Pacific Ocean. You can have no idea what a mean time we have had, owing to incidental beastlinesses, nor what a glorious, owing to the intrinsic interest of these isles. I hope the book will be a good one; nor do I really very much doubt that the stuff is Page 7 ★ The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson ★ so curious; what I wonder is, if the public will rise to it. A copy of my journal, or as much of it as is made, shall go to you also; it is, of course, quite imperfect, much being to be added and corrected; but O, for the eggs in the different baskets. All the rest are well enough, and all have enjoyed the cruise so far, in spite of its drawbacks. We have had an awfae time in some ways, Mr. Baxter; and if I wasnae sic a verra patient man (when I ken that I HAVE to be) there wad hae been a braw row; and ance if I hadnae happened to be on deck about three in the marnin’, I THINK there would have been MURDER done. The American Mairchant Marine is a kent service; ye’ll have heard its praise, I’m thinkin’; an’ if ye never did, ye can get TWA YEARS BEFORE THE MAST, by Dana, whaur forbye a great deal o’ pleisure, ye’ll get a’ the needcessary information. Love to your father and all the family. Ever your affectionate friend, ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. Page 8 ★ The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson ★ Let t er : TO MI SS ADELAI DE BOODLE TAITI, OCTOBER 10TH, 1888. DEAR GIVER, I am at a loss to conceive your object in giving me to a person so locomotory as my proprietor. The number of thousand miles that I have travelled, the strange bed fellows with which I have been made acquainted, I lack the requisite literary talent to make clear to your imagination.