In the South Seas

by Robert Louis Stevenson, R L Stevenson, 1st World Library (Editor)

Overview

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - FOR nearly ten years my health had been declining; and for some while before I set forth upon my voyage, I believed I was come to the afterpiece of life, and had only the nurse and undertaker to expect. It was suggested that I should try the South Seas; and I was not unwilling to visit like a ghost, and be carried like a bale, among scenes that had attracted me in youth and health. I chartered accordingly Dr. Merrit's schooner yacht, the CASCO, seventy-four tons register; sailed from San Francisco towards the end of June 1888, visited the eastern islands, and was left early the next year at Honolulu. Hence, lacking courage to return to my old life of the house and sick-room, I set forth to leeward in a trading schooner, the EQUATOR, of a little over seventy tons, spent four months among the atolls (low coral islands) of the Gilbert group, and reached Samoa towards the close of '89. By that time gratitude and habit were beginning to attach me to the islands; I had gained a competency of strength; I had made friends; I had learned new interests; the time of my voyages had passed like days in fairyland; and I decided to remain. I began to prepare these pages at sea, on a third cruise, in the trading steamer JANET NICOLL. If more days are granted me, they shall be passed where I have found life most pleasant and man most interesting; the axes of my black boys are already clearing the foundations of my future house; and I must learn to address readers from the uttermost parts of the sea.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421808543
Publisher:	1st World Library
Publication date:	10/12/2005
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Robert Louis Stevenson (eigentlich Robert Levis Balfour Stevenson) wurde am 13.11.1850 in Edinburgh geboren. Der Vater war Leuchtturmbaumeister, das wollte auch der Sohn werden. Er hatte jedoch ein Lungenleiden und studierte daher Jura von 1871-1875. Er arbeitete jedoch nicht als Rechtsanwalt sondern wurde freier Schriftsteller, vergeblich ein Klima suchend, das sein Lungenleiden heilte. Seit 1888 lebte er auf Samoa, wo er bei den Eingeborenen in hohem Ansehen stand. Er starb am 03.12.1894 im Haus Vailima bei Apia (Westsamoa).

Date of Birth:

November 13, 1850

Date of Death:

December 3, 1894

Place of Birth:

Edinburgh, Scotland

Place of Death:

Vailima, Samoa

Education:

Edinburgh University, 1875

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgements	vii
	Introduction	viii
	Note on the Text	xxxvi
	Further Reading	xxxvii
	Map	xl
	In the South Seas
Part I	The Marquesas
I.	An Island Landfall	5
II.	Making Friends	10
III.	The Maroon	17
IV.	Death	23
V.	Depopulation	29
VI.	Chiefs and Tapus	36
VII.	Hatiheu	43
VIII.	The Port of Entry	49
IX.	The House of Temoana	55
X.	A Portrait and a Story	62
XI.	Long-Pig - A Cannibal High Place	68
XII.	The Story of a Plantation	77
XIII.	Characters	85
XIV.	In a Cannibal Valley	91
XV.	The Two Chiefs of Atuona	97
Part II	The Paumotus
I.	The Dangerous Archipelago - Atolls at a Distance	107
II.	Fakarava: An Atoll at Hand	113
III.	A House to Let in a Low Island	120
IV.	Traits and Sects in the Paumotus	127
V.	A Paumotuan Funeral	136
VI.	Graveyard Stories	139
Part III	The Gilberts
I.	Butaritari	155
II.	The Four Brothers	160
III.	Around Our House	166
IV.	A Tale of a Tapu	174
V.	A Tale of a Tapu - continued	180
VI.	The Five Days' Festival	189
VII.	Husband and Wife	199
Part IV	The Gilberts - Apemama
I.	The King of Apemama: The Royal Trader	209
II.	The King of Apemama: Foundation of Equator Town	215
III.	The King of Apemama: The Palace of Many Women	222
IV.	The King of Apemama: Equator Town and the Palace	228
V.	King and Commons	234
VI.	The King of Apemama: Devil-Work	242
VII.	The King of Apemama	252
	Notes	258
	Emendations	283