IN THE SOUTH SEAS
In the South Seas is the story of Stevensons Pacific travels on the Casco and the Equator. It is a beautifully observed account of island peoples and their life; it is also the story of the beginning of his love affair with the Pacific, and of his growing commitment to the island cause. In the South Seas has been described as the most solid of Stevensons general writings; it is certainly his least known book as well as a unique gem of Pacific literature, and richly deserves to be rediscovered.
THE ROUTLEDGE TRAVELLERS SERIES
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
Six Months in Hawaii
Isabella Bird
Korea and Her Neighbours
Isabella Bird
First published in 2002 by
Kegan Paul International
This edition first published in 2011 by
Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Kegan Paul, 2002
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 10: 0-7103-0808-6 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-7103-0808-5 (hbk)
Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. The publisher has made every effort to contact original copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.
INTRODUCTION
R OBERT LOUIS Balfour Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on November 13, 1850, heir to a name that was already distinguished. His paternal grandfather, another Robert Stevenson, was one of Scotlands greatest engineers in an era when Scottish engineering was reckoned to be the finest in the world. Robert Stevenson had designed the famous Bell Rock lighthouse and the Stevenson family firm, into which his three engineer sons had followed him, built the Bell Rock and Skerryvore lighthouses and many other marine installations. It was expected that the younger Robert, called Louis by family and friends, would follow his talented father Thomas into the family profession, but it was soon apparent that the boys health would always be an obstacle to this plan. Bonny enough at birth, Louis grew into a frail child, highly strung and with a tendency to coughs and fevers, a delicate condition that was not improved by the damp, chill climate of Edinburgh. His mother, Margaret Balfour Stevenson, suffered from a weak chest and followed a semi-invalid regime, so the closest companion of Louiss young years was his nanny Alison Cunningham the much-loved Cummy a country girl from Fifeshire who tended his fevers, terrified him with Calvinist tales of sin and damnation, and gave him a life-long love of doggerel verse and Scots history.
The nursery world that Louis shared with Cummy later immortalised in A Childs Garden of Verses was a cosy Victorian kingdom full of all the toys and comforts his wealthy parents could provide, but for all its surface prettiness, the Land of Counterpane was not always a happy place. When Verses was published, some reviewers remarked that it seemed to be a book written about children, rather than for them This is not the child, but the grown-up speaking through the mouth of the child. Sometimes, , but the Verses are an accurate reflection of Louiss childhood. The loneliness of the only child, compounded by the isolation enforced by his frequent illnesses produced a youth who was older than his years in some respects, younger in others. He had an active fantasy life, reading much and writing early, and never lost his childhood sense of wonder and delight. But at the same time, the Verses depict a solitary child engaged in lonely pursuits, watching events from a distance, not really involved in the business of day to day life. This double-edged heritage of his early years would stand Louis in good stead in his writing, but would hinder him in life until the voyage of the Casco.
Thomas Stevenson persisted in his intention to make an engineer of his son, and in 1867 Louis entered Edinburgh University to read engineering. He had grown into a sensitive and bookish boy, more comfortable with his elders than with those of his own age, thin and pale, with striking eyes and a charm that could carry all before him when he wished. Disliking his studies, Louis took to absenting himself from lectures to wander through the more disreputable quarters of the town in search of those excitements and experiences that appeal to young men. Staid and rocky Edinburgh was not the easiest place in which to sow wild oats, especially while still living at home on a small weekly allowance of five shillings, but he managed to achieve a passably Bohemian pose and a number of raffish acquaintances. As he later recalled, I was the companion of seamen, chimney-sweeps and thieves; my circle was being continually changed by the action of the police magistrates. This double life was interrupted in the summer holidays by tours of the Stevenson firms works in progress, trips that did much to acquaint Louis with the rugged Scottish coastlines that figured in many of his later works, but did little to reconcile him to the family profession. He turned out to have more aptitude for engineering than interest in the subject, and after winning a silver medal from the Royal Scottish Society of Arts for a paper on intermittent light for lighthouses, he informed his father that he would not continue with engineering and intended to become a writer. In time a compromise was arrived at, and it was agreed that Louis should study law and cultivate his literary interests in his spare time. Louis began his legal studies at Edinburgh in the autumn of 1871 and was put to clerking to a local firm to learn conveyancing, but his heart was no more in law than it had been in lighthouses. He tried to transfer his studies to Cambridge, was denied parental approval, and was soon in open rebellion. Louiss reading of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer had led him temporarily to an agnostic point of view that horrified his devout parents. Their differences resulted in months of emotional family argument and finally precipitated a physical breakdown that ended in Louiss being sent to Menton in France to convalesce in the winter of 1873. The clear pattern of conflict and subsequent collapse had more of an effect on the Stevenson parents than on their son, for they were now caught on the horns of a dilemma, knowing they must in future largely go along with Louiss wishes, however harmful to him they felt them to be, or risk doing him even more harm by refusing.
