ISLAND NIGHTS
ENTERTAINMENTS
A collection of three delightful South Sea tales by Robert Louis Stevenson, this book will be of interest to anyone with a penchant for travel and adventure. First published in 1893, The Beach of Falesa, The Bottle Imp and The Isle of Voices are among the best of Stevenson's works. Beautiful illustrations add to the appeal of this classic book.
THE KEGAN PAUL
TRAVELLERS SERIES
EDITORIAL ADVISOR
PETER HOPKINS
A Journey Through Persia and Turkish Armenia Gerald Reitlinger
A Summer in Touraine Frederic Lees
George Sand & Frederick Chopin in Majorca George Sand
A Woman in the Balkans Winifred Gordon
Adventure in Hawaii and Tahiti Edward T. Perkins
Alexandria: The Ancient and Modern Town E. Breccia
Autobiography of a Chinese Girl Hsieh Ping-Ying
Two Vagabonds in Languedoc Jan Gordon and Cora J. Gordon
Burma R. Talbot Kelly
Chinese Pictures J. F. Bishop
Egypt and Nubia J. A. St. John
Fifty Years in Maoriland James T. Pinfold
Island Nights Entertainments Robert Louis Stevenson
Man and Animals in the New Hebrides John R. Baker
Mongolia N. Prejevalsky
My Consulate in Samoa William B. Churchward
Pacific Shores Oliver Optic
Oceania Frank Fox
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan Isabella Lucy Bird
Old Touraine Theodore Andrea Cook
The Discovery of Tahiti George Robertson
The French Riviera Pierre Devoluy and Pierre Borel
The Golden Chersonese Isabella Lucy Bird
The Heart of the Orient Michael Myers Shoemaker
The Riviera Hugh Macmillan
The Romance of Treasure Trove Charles R. Beard
To Lhasa in Disguise William Montgomery McGovern
Treasure of Ophir C. E. V. Craufurd
A Year Amongst the Persians Edward Granville Browne
Constantinople and Istanbul Old and New H. G. Dwight
Tahiti George Calderon
Cruise of the Snark Jack London
In the South Seas Robert Louis Stevenson
Island Nights Entertainments Robert Louis Stevenson
Six Months in Hawaii Isabella Bird
Strolling Through Istanbul H. Sumner-Boyd and J. Freely
South Sea Reminiscences T.R. St.-Johnston
South Sea Idyls Charles Warren Stoddard
In Borneo Jungles William O. Krohn
A Vagabond in the Caucasus Stephen Graham
Peking Juliet Bredon
The Moon Year Juliet Bredon and Igor Mitroph
Brazil and the Brazilians Rev. James C. Fletcher
ISLAND NIGHTS
ENTERTAINMENTS
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
First published 2005 by
Kegan Paul Limited
Published 2013 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Kegan Paul, 2005
All Rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electric, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying or recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
ISBN 978-0-710-31056-9 (hbk)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Applied for.
TO THREE OLD SHIPMATES AMONG THE ISLANDS
HARRY HENDERSON
BEN HIRD
JACK BUCKLAND
THEIR FRIEND,
R.L.S.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
THE BEACH OF FALES.
UMA
THE BOTTLE IMP.
THE ISLE OF VOICES.
THE BEACH OF FALES.
(BEING THE NARRATIVE OF A SOUTH SEA TRADER)
CHAPTER I.
A SOUTH SEA BRIDAL.
I SAW that island first when it was neither night nor morning. The moon was to the west, setting, but still broad and bright. To the east, and right amidships of the dawn, which was all pink, the daystar sparkled like a diamond. The land breeze blew in our faces, and smelt strong of wild lime and vanilla: other things besides, but these were the most plain; and the chill of it set me sneeziug. I should say I had been for years on a low island near the line, living for the most part solitary among natives. Here was a fresh experience: even the tongue would be quite strange to me; and the look of these woods and mountains, and the rare smell of them, renewed my blood.
The captain blew out the binnacle lamp.
There! said he, there goes a bit of smoke, Mr. Wiltshire, behind the break of the reef. Thats Fales, where your station is, the last village to the east; nobody lives to windwardI dont know why. Take my glass, and you can make the houses out.
I took the glass; and the shores leaped nearer, and I saw the tangle of the woods and the breach of the surf, and the brown roofs and the black insides of houses peeped among the trees.
Do you catch a bit of white there to the eastard? the captain continued. Thats your house. Coral built, stands high, verandah you could walk on three abreast; best station in the South Pacific. When old Adams saw it, he took and shook me by the hand. Ive dropped into a soft thing here, says he.So you have, says I, and time too! Poor Johnny! I never saw him again but the once, and then he had changed his tunewouldnt get on with the natives, or the whites, or something; and the next time we came round there he was dead and buried. I took and put up a bit of a stick to him: John Adams, obit eighteen and sixty-eight. Go thou and do likewise. I missed that man. I never could see much harm in Johnny.
What did he die of? I inquired.
Some kind of sickness, says the captain.
It appears it took him sudden. Seems lie got up in the night, and tilled up on Pain-Killer and Kennedys Discovery. No go: he was booked beyond Kennedy. Then he had tried to open a case of gin. No go again: not strong enough. Then he must have turned to and run out on the verandah, and capsized over the rail. When they found him, the next day, he was clean crazycarried on all the time about somebody watering his copra, Poor John!
Was it thought to be the island? I asked.
Well, it was thought to be the island, or the trouble, or something, he replied. I never could hear but what it was a healthy place. Our last man, Vigours, never turned a hair. He left because of the beachsaid he was afraid of Black Jack and Case and Whistling Jimmie, who was still alive at the time, but got drowned soon afterward when drunk. As for old Captain Randall, hes been here any time since eighteen-forty, forty-five. I never could see much harm in Billy, nor much change. Seems as if he might live to be Old Kafoozleum. No, I guess its healthy.
