Fraser - In StevensonS Samoa

IN STEVENSONS SAMOA

A travellers tale set in the islands of Samoa with the legendary traveller Robert Louis Stevenson as guide, this book is valuable not only for its enjoyment as a tale of adventure, but also for its record of Stevenson himself a literary figure more commonly seen as author and not subject.

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Among the Tibetans: Isabella Bird

With the Empress Dowager of China: Katharine Augusta Carl

Island of Bali: Miguel Covarrubias

Mexico South: Miguel Covarrubias

Intimate Journals: Paul Gauguin

Home Life in Tokyo: Jukichi Inouye

Cruise of the Snark: Jack London

The House of Pride: Jack London

In Hawaii with Jack London: Jack London

Jack London in Aloha-Land: Charmian Kittredge London

Japan: Madame Chrysanthemum: Pierre Loti

Tahiti: The Marriage of Loti: Pierre Loti

Omoo: Herman Melville

Typee: Herman Melville

In the South Seas: Robert Louis Stevenson

Tahiti: George Calderon

Tales of the Samurai: James S. de Benneville

The Haunted House: James S. de Benneville

Around the World with a King: William N. Armstrong

Glimpses of China and Chinese Homes: Edward S. Morse

In Stevensons Samoa: Marie Fraser

AT VAILIMA

BY

MARIE FRHSER

First published in 2005 by

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Kegan Paul, 2005

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ISBN: 0-7103-0979-1

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Applied for.

I HAVE been asked to write a preface to this little book. This would seem a work of supererogation unless it were to point out that it is as it were a chance record, and therefore in some respects the more valuable, of the character of Robert Louis Stevenson. Slight as is the sketch of him, a more attractive portrait of a man of genius, whose end and aim was to promote the happiness of his fellow-creatures, has in my poor judgment seldom been presented to us.

In the frontispiece I recognise at once the commanding figure of my old friend standing by his horse. The last words I had from him reached me on the same day that the news of his death was known in London. Standing by the house are his wife and Mrs. Fraser. On the other side, on horseback, is Miss Fraser, for whom I am glad to act as literary godfather.

JAMES PAYN.

CHAPTER

You have taken your amber necklace? Thats right. You will find it most useful. Flowers also are greatly worn. So said a friend who had visited Samoa, as he bade us adieu on our departure from Sydney for those islands. Our spirits were further cheered by his brother saying, I hear any white people who are there live in the most simple manner. All eat out of one large bowl in the middle of the floor, and fight over bones in corners, gnashing their teeth and growling. Then, in a frenzy of hospitality, they rush out into the jungle, tear up roots with their teeth, and, bringing them in, lay them in front of you!

So right in the teeth of a N.E. gale we startedmy friend and I, the only women on board a little German ship, and, passing out between the Heads of Sydney Harbour, we plunged into the great Pacific Ocean. The hopes of our skipper that the gale we encountered was local, and that when fifty miles beyond the Australian coast we should sail out of it, were not realised, for as we proceeded on our voyage the storm increased, and the height of its fury was reached after we had passed Lord Howe and Norfolk islands. For three days and nights the tempest raged, and it would require a Clark Russell to describe the terrible hurricane that our little ship braved and weathered triumphantly. A marvellous feeling of luxury and peace pervaded our small world when, after about eight days, the winds and waters subsided and, the unholy noisesquite the worst part of a storm at seabeing silenced, our skipper beamingly announced he was going to have a bath. Poor man! he had not taken his clothes off during those three awful nights.

After several weeks of delightful cruising in the Pacific, visiting beautiful tropic islands, one morning the sun rose like a ball of fire, flooding the world with a golden lustre, and out of the ocean, regal in its colouring of purple and gold in the early light, we saw far away in the distance the rugged outline of the Samoan, or Navigator Islands, a complete contrast to the last group we had visitedthe Friendly Islands, with their smooth turf roads, so good for riding and driving, and innumerable atolls, showing only a few feet above the waves and fringed with a continuous line of cocoa palms that turned and ruffled, tossing their feathery branches in the breeze. The Samoan Islands, Savaii, Upolu and Tutuila, rise out of the sea to an altitude of from four to five thousand feet, the great undulating slopes of the mountains densely clothed with forest, which in many places crowns the very topmost ridges and waves clear against the blue sky, while round the base innumerable coral bays gleam white in the fierce light. By the time the sun was high in the heavens, blazing down on our white decks, where the pitch bubbled in the seams, we were skirting along the coast of Upolu ; and on the beach could be seen clusters of little brown houses, made of palm-leaves, and dark-coloured natives skimming over the water in outrigger canoes, fishing, or wading about with spears in their handsa favourite method of catching fish, in which they are experts. Soon one or two wooden houses, belonging to the owners of coffee and cacao plantations, began to appear, and after passing the charming-looking house which is used as a Mormon mission, we could see the flag at Matautu Point run up to announce our approach. From among the trees on the mountain above Apia gleamed the white walls of the Catholic College, characteristically placed on one of the most beautiful spots imaginable, and commanding a magnificent view ; for where are there more picturesque sites than those chosen by the Fathers in days gone by for their abbeys, priories, and monasteries?