The man-of-war doctor came up to-day, gave us a strait-
waistcoat, taught us to bandage, examined the boy and saw he
was apparently well - he insisted on doing his work all
morning, poor lad, and when he first came down kissed all the
family at breakfast! The Doctor was greatly excited, as may
be supposed, about Lafaele's medicine.
TUESDAY.
All yesterday writing my mail by the hand of Belle, to save
my wrist. This is a great invention, to which I shall stick,
if it can be managed. We had some alarm about Paatalise, but
he slept well all night for a benediction. This lunatic
asylum exercise has no attractions for any of us.
I don't know if I remembered to say how much pleased I was
with ACROSS THE PLAINS in every way, inside and out, and you
and me. The critics seem to taste it, too, as well as could
be hoped, and I believe it will continue to bring me in a few
shillings a year for a while. But such books pay only
indirectly.
To understand the full horror of the mad scene, and how well
my boys behaved, remember that THEY BELIEVED P.'S RAVINGS,
they KNEW that his dead family, thirty strong, crowded the
front verandah and called on him to come to the other world.
They KNEW that his dead brother had met him that afternoon in
the bush and struck him on both temples. And remember! we
are fighting the dead, and they had to go out again in the
black night, which is the dead man's empire. Yet last
evening, when I thought P. was going to repeat the
performance, I sent down for Lafaele, who had leave of
absence, and he and his wife came up about eight o'clock with
a lighted brand. These are the things for which I have to
forgive my old cattle-man his manifold shortcomings; they are
heroic - so are the shortcomings, to be sure.
It came over me the other day suddenly that this diary of
mine to you would make good pickings after I am dead, and a
man could make some kind of a book out of it without much
trouble. So, for God's sake, don't lose them, and they will
prove a piece of provision for my 'poor old family,' as
Simele calls it.
About my coming to Europe, I get more and more doubtful, and
rather incline to Ceylon again as place of meeting. I am so
absurdly well here in the tropics, that it seems like
affectation. Yet remember I have never once stood Sydney.
Anyway, I shall have the money for it all ahead, before I
think of such a thing.
We had a bowl of Punch on your birthday, which my incredible
mother somehow knew and remembered.
I sometimes sit and yearn for anything in the nature of an
income that would come in - mine has all got to be gone and
fished for with the immortal mind of man. What I want is the
income that really comes in of itself while all you have to
do is just to blossom and exist and sit on chairs. Think how
beautiful it would be not to have to mind the critics, and
not even the darkest of the crowd - Sidney Colvin. I should
probably amuse myself with works that would make your hair
curl, if you had any left.
R. L S.
CHAPTER XX
SATURDAY, 2ND JULY 1892.
THE character of my handwriting is explained, alas! by
scrivener's cramp. This also explains how long I have let
the paper lie plain.
1 P. M.
I was busy copying David Balfour with my left hand - a most
laborious task - Fanny was down at the native house
superintending the floor, Lloyd down in Apia, and Belle in
her own house cleaning, when I heard the latter calling on my
name. I ran out on the verandah; and there on the lawn
beheld my crazy boy with an axe in his hand and dressed out
in green ferns, dancing. I ran downstairs and found all my
house boys on the back verandah, watching him through the
dining-room. I asked what it meant? - 'Dance belong his
place,' they said. - 'I think this no time to dance,' said I.
'Has he done his work?' - 'No,' they told me, 'away bush all
morning.' But there they all stayed on the back verandah. I
went on alone through the dining-room, and bade him stop. He
did so, shouldered the axe, and began to walk away; but I
called him back, walked up to him, and took the axe out of
his unresisting hands. The boy is in all things so good,
that I can scarce say I was afraid; only I felt it had to be
stopped ere he could work himself up by dancing to some
craziness. Our house boys protested they were not afraid;
all I know is they were all watching him round the back door
and did not follow me till I had the axe. As for the out
boys, who were working with Fanny in the native house, they
thought it a very bad business, and made no secret of their
fears.
WEDNESDAY, 6TH.
I have no account to give of my stewardship these days, and
there's a day more to account for than mere arithmetic would
tell you. For we have had two Monday Fourths, to bring us at
last on the right side of the meridian, having hitherto been
an exception in the world and kept our private date.
Business has filled my hours sans intermission.
TUESDAY, 12TH
I am doing no work and my mind is in abeyance. Fanny and
Belle are sewing-machining in the next room; I have been
pulling down their hair, and Fanny has been kicking me, and
now I am driven out. Austin I have been chasing about the
verandah; now he has gone to his lessons, and I make believe
to write to you in despair. But there is nothing in my mind;
I swim in mere vacancy, my head is like a rotten nut; I shall
soon have to begin to work again or I shall carry away some
part of the machinery. I have got your insufficient letter,
for which I scorn to thank you. I have had no review by
Gosse, none by Birrell; another time if I have a letter in
the TIMES, you might send me the text as well; also please
send me a cricket bat and a cake, and when I come home for
the holidays, I should like to have a pony.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
JACOB TONSON.
P.S. I am quite well; I hope you are quite well. The world
is too much with us, and my mother bids me bind my hair and
lace my bodice blue.
CHAPTER XXI
MY DEAR COLVIN, - This is Friday night, the (I believe) 18th
or 20th August or September. I shall probably regret to-
morrow having written you with my own hand like the Apostle
Paul. But I am alone over here in the workman's house, where
I and Belle and Lloyd and Austin are pigging; the rest are at
cards in the main residence. I have not joined them because
'belly belong me' has been kicking up, and I have just taken
15 drops of laudanum.
On Tuesday, the party set out - self in white cap, velvet
coat, cords and yellow half boots, Belle in a white kind of
suit and white cap to match mine, Lloyd in white clothes and
long yellow boots and a straw hat, Graham in khakis and
gaiters, Henry (my old overseer) in blue coat and black kilt,
and the great Lafaele with a big ship-bag on his saddle-bow.
We left the mail at the P. O., had lunch at the hotel, and
about 1.50 set out westward to the place of tryst. This was
by a little shrunken brook in a deep channel of mud on the
far side of which, in a thicket of low trees, all full of
moths of shadow and butterflies of sun, we lay down to await
her ladyship. Whiskey and water, then a sketch of the
encampment for which we all posed to Belle, passed off the
time until 3.30. Then I could hold on no longer. 30 minutes
late. Had the secret oozed out? Were they arrested? I got
my horse, crossed the brook again, and rode hard back to the
Vaea cross roads, whence I was aware of white clothes
glancing in the other long straight radius of the quadrant.
I turned at once to return to the place of tryst; but D.
overtook me, and almost bore me down, shouting 'Ride, ride!'
like a hero in a ballad. Lady Margaret and he were only come
to shew the place; they returned, and the rest of our party,
reinforced by Captain Leigh and Lady Jersey, set on for
Malie. The delay was due to D.'s infinite precautions,
leading them up lanes, by back ways, and then down again to
the beach road a hundred yards further on.
It was agreed that Lady Jersey existed no more; she was now
my cousin Amelia Balfour. That relative and I headed the
march; she is a charming woman, all of us like her extremely
after trial on this somewhat rude and absurd excursion. And
we Amelia'd or Miss Balfour'd her with great but intermittent
fidelity. When we came to the last village, I sent Henry on
ahead to warn the King of our approach and amend his
discretion, if that might be. As he left I heard the
villagers asking WHICH WAS THE GREAT LADY? And a little
further, at the borders of Malie itself, we found the guard
making a music of bugles and conches. Then I knew the game
was up and the secret out. A considerable guard of honour,
mostly children, accompanied us; but, for our good fortune,
we had been looked for earlier, and the crowd was gone.
Dinner at the King's; he asked me to say grace, I could think
of none - never could; Graham suggested BENEDICTUS BENEDICAT,
at which I leaped. We were nearly done, when old Popo
inflicted the Atua howl (of which you have heard already)
right at Lady Jersey's shoulder. She started in fine style.
- 'There,' I said, 'we have been giving you a chapter of
Scott, but this goes beyond the Waverley Novels.' After
dinner, kava. Lady J. was served before me, and the King
DRANK LAST; it was the least formal kava I ever saw in that
house, - no names called, no show of ceremony. All my ladies
are well trained, and when Belle drained her bowl, the King
was pleased to clap his hands. Then he and I must retire for
our private interview, to another house. He gave me his own
staff and made me pass before him; and in the interview,
which was long and delicate, he twice called me AFIOGA. Ah,
that leaves you cold, but I am Samoan enough to have been
moved. SUSUGA is my accepted rank; to be called AFIOGA -
Heavens! what an advance - and it leaves Europe cold. But it
staggered my Henry. The first time it was complicated 'lana
susuga MA lana afioga - his excellency AND his majesty' - the
next time plain Majesty. Henry then begged to interrupt the
interview and tell who he was - he is a small family chief in
Sawaii, not very small - 'I do not wish the King,' says he,
'to think me a boy from Apia.' On our return to the palace,
we separated. I had asked for the ladies to sleep alone -
that was understood; but that Tusitala - his afioga Tusitala
- should go out with the other young men, and not sleep with
the highborn females of his family - was a doctrine received
with difficulty. Lloyd and I had one screen, Graham and
Leigh another, and we slept well.
In the morning I was first abroad before dawn; not very long,
already there was a stir of birds. A little after, I heard
singing from the King's chapel - exceeding good - and went
across in the hour when the east is yellow and the morning
bank is breaking up, to hear it nearer. All about the
chapel, the guards were posted, and all saluted Tusitala. I
could not refrain from smiling: 'So there is a place too,' I
thought, 'where sentinels salute me.' Mine has been a queer
life.
[Drawing in book reproduced here in characters...]
y2
X X X
H X
G X
F X
E The X
D i Kava X
A X
B X
C X
T X
X X
W
Breakfast was rather a protracted business. And that was
scarce over when we were called to the great house (now
finished - recall your earlier letters) to see a royal kava.
This function is of rare use; I know grown Samoans who have
never witnessed it. It is, besides, as you are to hear, a
piece of prehistoric history, crystallised in figures, and
the facts largely forgotten; an acted hieroglyph. The house
is really splendid; in the rafters in the midst, two carved
and coloured model birds are posted; the only thing of the
sort I have ever remarked in Samoa, the Samoans being literal
observers of the second commandment. At one side of the egg
our party sat. a=Mataafa, b=Lady J., c=Belle, d=Tusitala,
e=Graham, f=Lloyd, g=Captain Leigh, h=Henry, i=Popo. The x's
round are the high chiefs, each man in his historical
position. One side of the house is set apart for the King
alone; we were allowed there as his guests and Henry as our
interpreter. It was a huge trial to the lad, when a speech
was made to me which he must translate, and I made a speech
in answer which he had to orate, full-breathed, to that big
circle; he blushed through his dark skin, but looked and
acted like a gentleman and a young fellow of sense; then the
kava came to the King; he poured one drop in libation, drank
another, and flung the remainder outside the house behind
him. Next came the turn of the old shapeless stone marked T.
It stands for one of the King's titles, Tamasoalii; Mataafa
is Tamasoalii this day, but cannot drink for it; and the
stone must first be washed with water, and then have the bowl
emptied on it. Then - the order I cannot recall - came the
turn of y and z, two orators of the name of Malietoa; the
first took his kava down plain, like an ordinary man; the
second must be packed to bed under a big sheet of tapa, and
be massaged by anxious assistants and rise on his elbow
groaning to drink his cup. W., a great hereditary war man,
came next; five times the cup-bearers marched up and down the
house and passed the cup on, five times it was filled and the
General's name and titles heralded at the bowl, and five
times he refused it (after examination) as too small. It is
said this commemorates a time when Malietoa at the head of
his army suffered much for want of supplies. Then this same
military gentleman must DRINK five cups, one from each of the
great names: all which took a precious long time. He acted
very well, haughtily and in a society tone OUTLINING THE
part. The difference was marked when he subsequently made a
speech in his own character as a plain God-fearing chief. A
few more high chiefs, then Tusitala; one more, and then Lady
Jersey; one more, and then Captain Leigh, and so on with the
rest of our party - Henry of course excepted. You see in
public, Lady Jersey followed me - just so far was the secret
kept.
Then we came home; Belle, Graham and Lloyd to the Chinaman's,
I with Lady Jersey, to lunch; so severally home. Thursday I
have forgotten: Saturday, I began again on Davie; on Sunday,
the Jersey party came up to call and carried me to dinner.
As I came out, to ride home, the search-lights of the CURACOA
were lightening on the horizon from many miles away, and next
morning she came in. Tuesday was huge fun: a reception at
Haggard's. All our party dined there; Lloyd and I, in the
absence of Haggard and Leigh, had to play aide-de-camp and
host for about twenty minutes, and I presented the population
of Apia at random but (luck helping) without one mistake.
Wednesday we had two middies to lunch. Thursday we had Eeles
and Hoskyn (lieutenant and doctor - very, very nice fellows -
simple, good and not the least dull) to dinner. Saturday,
Graham and I lunched on board; Graham, Belle, Lloyd dined at
the G.'s; and Austin and the WHOLE of our servants went with
them to an evening entertainment; the more bold returning by
lantern-light. Yesterday, Sunday, Belle and I were off by
about half past eight, left our horses at a public house, and
went on board the CURACOA in the wardroom skiff; were
entertained in the wardroom; thence on deck to the service,
which was a great treat; three fiddles and a harmonium and
excellent choir, and the great ship's company joining: on
shore in Haggard's big boat to lunch with the party. Thence
all together to Vailima, where we read aloud a Ouida Romance
we have been secretly writing; in which Haggard was the hero,
and each one of the authors had to draw a portrait of him or
herself in a Ouida light. Leigh, Lady J., Fanny, R.L.S.,
Belle and Graham were the authors.
In the midst of this gay life, I have finally recopied two
chapters, and drafted for the first time three of Davie
Balfour. But it is not a life that would continue to suit
me, and if I have not continued to write to you, you will
scarce wonder. And to-day we all go down again to dinner,
and to-morrow they all come up to lunch! The world is too
much with us. But it now nears an end, to-day already the
CURACOA has sailed; and on Saturday or Sunday Lady Jersey
will follow them in the mail steamer. I am sending you a
wire by her hands as far as Sydney, that is to say either you
or Cassell, about FALESA: I will not allow it to be called
UMA in book form, that is not the logical name of the story.
Nor can I have the marriage contract omitted; and the thing
is full of misprints abominable. In the picture, Uma is rot;
so is the old man and the negro; but Wiltshire is splendid,
and Case will do. It seems badly illuminated, but this may
be printing. How have I seen this first number? Not through
your attention, guilty one! Lady Jersey had it, and only
mentioned it yesterday.
I ought to say how much we all like the Jersey party. My boy
Henry was enraptured with the manners of the TAWAITAI SILI
(chief lady). Among our other occupations, I did a bit of a
supposed epic describing our tryst at the ford of the
Gasegase; and Belle and I made a little book of caricatures
and verses about incidents on the visit.
TUESDAY.
The wild round of gaiety continues. After I had written to
you yesterday, the brain being wholly extinct, I played
piquet all morning with Graham. After lunch down to call on
the U.S. Consul, hurt in a steeple-chase; thence back to the
new girls' school which Lady J. was to open, and where my
ladies met me. Lady J. is really an orator, with a voice of
gold; the rest of us played our unremarked parts;
missionaries, Haggard, myself, a Samoan chief, holding forth
in turn; myself with (at least) a golden brevity. Thence,
Fanny, Belle, and I to town, to our billiard room in
Haggard's back garden, where we found Lloyd and where Graham
joined us. The three men first dressed, with the ladies in a
corner; and then, to leave them a free field, we went off to
Haggard and Leigh's quarters, where - after all to dinner,
where our two parties, a brother of Colonel Kitchener's, a
passing globe-trotter, and Clarke the missionary. A very gay
evening, with all sorts of chaff and mirth, and a moonlit
ride home, and to bed before 12.30. And now to-day, we have
the Jersey-Haggard troupe to lunch, and I must pass the
morning dressing ship.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 1ST.
I sit to write to you now, 7.15, all the world in bed except
myself, accounted for, and Belle and Graham, down at
Haggard's at dinner. Not a leaf is stirring here; but the
moon overhead (now of a good bigness) is obscured and partly
revealed in a whirling covey of thin storm-clouds. By Jove,
it blows above.
From 8 till 11.15 on Tuesday, I dressed ship, and in
particular cleaned crystal, my specially. About 11.30 the
guests began to arrive before I was dressed, and between
while I had written a parody for Lloyd to sing. Yesterday,
Wednesday, I had to start out about 3 for town, had a long
interview with the head of the German Firm about some work in
my new house, got over to Lloyd's billiard-room about six, on
the way whither I met Fanny and Belle coming down with one
Kitchener, a brother of the Colonel's. Dined in the
billiard-room, discovered we had forgot to order oatmeal;
whereupon, in the moonlit evening, I set forth in my tropical
array, mess jacket and such, to get the oatmeal, and meet a
young fellow C. - and not a bad young fellow either, only an
idiot - as drunk as Croesus. He wept with me, he wept for
me; he talked like a bad character in an impudently bad
farce; I could have laughed aloud to hear, and could make you
laugh by repeating, but laughter was not uppermost.
This morning at about seven, I set off after the lost sheep.
I could have no horse; all that could be mounted - we have
one girth-sore and one dead-lame in the establishment - were
due at a picnic about 10.30. The morning was very wet, and I
set off barefoot, with my trousers over my knees, and a
macintosh. Presently I had to take a side path in the bush;
missed it; came forth in a great oblong patch of taro
solemnly surrounded by forest - no soul, no sign, no sound -
and as I stood there at a loss, suddenly between the showers
out broke the note of a harmonium and a woman's voice singing
an air that I know very well, but have (as usual) forgot the
name of. 'Twas from a great way off, but seemed to fill the
world. It was strongly romantic, and gave me a point which
brought me, by all sorts of forest wading, to an open space
of palms. These were of all ages, but mostly at that age
when the branches arch from the ground level, range
themselves, with leaves exquisitely green. The whole
interspace was overgrown with convolvulus, purple, yellow and
white, often as deep as to my waist, in which I floundered
aimlessly. The very mountain was invisible from here. The
rain came and went; now in sunlit April showers, now with the
proper tramp and rattle of the tropics. All this while I met
no sight or sound of man, except the voice which was now
silent, and a damned pig-fence that headed me off at every
corner. Do you know barbed wire? Think of a fence of it on
rotten posts, and you barefoot. But I crossed it at last
with my heart in my mouth and no harm done. Thence at last
to C's.: no C. Next place I came to was in the zone of
woods. They offered me a buggy and set a black boy to wash
my legs and feet. 'Washum legs belong that fellow white-man'
was the command. So at last I ran down my son of a gun in
the hotel, sober, and with no story to tell; penitent, I
think. Home, by buggy and my poor feet, up three miles of
root, boulder, gravel and liquid mud, slipping back at every
step.
SUNDAY, SEPT. 4TH.
Hope you will be able to read a word of the last, no joke
writing by a bad lantern with a groggy hand and your glasses
mislaid. Not that the hand is not better, as you see by the
absence of the amanuensis hitherto. Mail came Friday, and a
communication from yourself much more decent than usual, for
which I thank you. Glad the WRECKER should so hum; but Lord,
what fools these mortals be!
So far yesterday, the citation being wrung from me by
remembrance of many reviews. I have now received all FALESA,
and my admiration for that tale rises; I believe it is in
some ways my best work; I am pretty sure, at least, I have
never done anything better than Wiltshire.
MONDAY, 13TH SEPTEMBER 1892.
On Wednesday the Spinsters of Apia gave a ball to a select
crowd. Fanny, Belle, Lloyd and I rode down, met Haggard by
the way and joined company with him. Dinner with Haggard,
and thence to the ball. The Chief Justice appeared; it was
immediately remarked, and whispered from one to another, that
he and I had the only red sashes in the room, - and they were
both of the hue of blood, sir, blood. He shook hands with
myself and all the members of my family. Then the cream
came, and I found myself in the same set of a quadrille with
his honour. We dance here in Apia a most fearful and
wonderful quadrille, I don't know where the devil they fished
it from; but it is rackety and prancing and embraceatory
beyond words; perhaps it is best defined in Haggard's
expression of a gambado. When I and my great enemy found
ourselves involved in this gambol, and crossing hands, and
kicking up, and being embraced almost in common by large and
quite respectable females, we - or I - tried to preserve some
rags of dignity, but not for long. The deuce of it is that,
personally, I love this man; his eye speaks to me, I am
pleased in his society. We exchanged a glance, and then a
grin; the man took me in his confidence; and through the
remainder of that prance we pranced for each other. Hard to
imagine any position more ridiculous; a week before he had
been trying to rake up evidence against me by brow-beating
and threatening a half-white interpreter; that very morning I
had been writing most villainous attacks upon him for the
TIMES; and we meet and smile, and - damn it! - like each
other. I do my best to damn the man and drive him from these
islands; but the weakness endures - I love him. This is a
thing I would despise in anybody else; but he is so jolly
insidious and ingratiating! No, sir, I can't dislike him;
but if I don't make hay of him, it shall not be for want of
trying.
Yesterday, we had two Germans and a young American boy to
lunch; and in the afternoon, Vailima was in a state of siege;
ten white people on the front verandah, at least as many
brown in the cook house, and countless blacks to see the
black boy Arrick.
Which reminds me, Arrick was sent Friday was a week to the
German Firm with a note, and was not home on time. Lloyd and
I were going bedward, it was late with a bright moon - ah,
poor dog, you know no such moons as these! - when home came
Arrick with his head in a white bandage and his eyes shining.
He had had a fight with other blacks, Malaita boys; many
against one, and one with a knife: 'I KNICKED 'EM DOWN, three
four!' he cried; and had himself to be taken to the doctor's
and bandaged. Next day, he could not work, glory of battle
swelled too high in his threadpaper breast; he had made a
one-stringed harp for Austin, borrowed it, came to Fanny's
room, and sang war-songs and danced a war dance in honour of
his victory. And it appears, by subsequent advices, that it
was a serious victory enough; four of his assailants went to
hospital, and one is thought in danger. All Vailima rejoiced
at this news.
Five more chapters of David, 22 to 27, go to Baxter. All
love affair; seems pretty good to me. Will it do for the
young person? I don't know: since the Beach, I know nothing,
except that men are fools and hypocrites, and I know less of
them than I was fond enough to fancy.
CHAPTER XXII
THURSDAY, 15TH SEPTEMBER.
MY DEAR COLVIN, - On Tuesday, we had our young adventurer
ready, and Fanny, Belle, he and I set out about three of a
dark, deadly hot, and deeply unwholesome afternoon. Belle
had the lad behind her; I had a pint of champagne in either
pocket, a parcel in my hands, and as Jack had a girth sore
and I rode without a girth, I might be said to occupy a very
unstrategic position. On the way down, a little dreary,
beastly drizzle beginning to come out of the darkness, Fanny
put up an umbrella, her horse bounded, reared, cannoned into
me, cannoned into Belle and the lad, and bolted for home. It
really might and ought to have been an A1 catastrophe; but
nothing happened beyond Fanny's nerves being a good deal
shattered; of course, she could not tell what had happened to
us until she got her horse mastered.
Next day, Haggard went off to the Commission and left us in
charge of his house; all our people came down in wreaths of
flowers; we had a boat for them; Haggard had a flag in the
Commission boat for us; and when at last the steamer turned
up, the young adventurer was carried on board in great style,
with a new watch and chain, and about three pound ten of
tips, and five big baskets of fruit as free-will offerings to
the captain. Captain Morse had us all to lunch; champagne
flowed, so did compliments; and I did the affable celebrity
life-sized. It made a great send-off for the young
adventurer. As the boat drew off, he was standing at the
head of the gangway, supported by three handsome ladies - one
of them a real full-blown beauty, Madame Green, the singer -
and looking very engaging himself, between smiles and tears.
Not that he cried in public.
My, but we were a tired crowd! However, it is always a
blessing to get home, and this time it was a sort of wonder
to ourselves that we got back alive. Casualties: Fanny's
back jarred, horse incident; Belle, bad headache, tears and
champagne; self, idiocy, champagne, fatigue; Lloyd, ditto,
ditto. As for the adventurer, I believe he will have a
delightful voyage for his little start in life. But there is
always something touching in a mite's first launch.
DATE UNKNOWN.
I am now well on with the third part of the DEBACLE. The two
first I liked much; the second completely knocking me; so far
as it has gone, this third part appears the ramblings of a
dull man who has forgotten what he has to say - he reminds me
of an M.P. But Sedan was really great, and I will pick no
holes. The batteries under fire, the red-cross folk, the
county charge - perhaps, above all, Major Bouroche and the
operations, all beyond discussion; and every word about the
Emperor splendid.
SEPTEMBER 30TH.
David Balfour done, and its author along with it, or nearly
so. Strange to think of even our doctor here repeating his
nonsense about debilitating climate. Why, the work I have
been doing the last twelve months, in one continuous spate,
mostly with annoying interruptions and without any collapse
to mention, would be incredible in Norway. But I HAVE broken
down now, and will do nothing as long as I possibly can.
With David Balfour I am very well pleased; in fact these
labours of the last year - I mean FALESA AND D. B., not
Samoa, of course - seem to me to be nearer what I mean than
anything I have ever done; nearer what I mean by fiction; the
nearest thing before was KIDNAPPED. I am not forgetting the
MASTER OF BALLANTRAE, but that lacked all pleasurableness,
and hence was imperfect in essence. So you see, if I am a
little tired, I do not repent.
The third part of the DEBACLE may be all very fine; but I
cannot read it. It suffers from IMPAIRED VITALITY, and
UNCERTAIN AIM; two deadly sicknesses. Vital - that's what I
am at, first: wholly vital, with a buoyancy of life. Then
lyrical, if it may be, and picturesque, always with an epic
value of scenes, so that the figures remain in the mind's eye
for ever.
OCTOBER 8TH.
Suppose you sent us some of the catalogues of the parties
what vends statutes? I don't want colossal Herculeses, but
about quarter size and less. If the catalogues were
illustrated it would probably be found a help to weak
memories. These may be found to alleviate spare moments,
when we sometimes amuse ourselves by thinking how fine we
shall make the palace if we do not go pop. Perhaps in the
same way it might amuse you to send us any pattern of wall
paper that might strike you as cheap, pretty and suitable for
a room in a hot and extremely bright climate. It should be
borne in mind that our climate can be extremely dark too.
Our sitting-room is to be in varnished wood. The room I have
particularly in mind is a sort of bed and sitting-room,
pretty large, lit on three sides, and the colour in favour of
its proprietor at present is a topazy yellow. But then with
what colour to relieve it? For a little work-room of my own
at the back. I should rather like to see some patterns of
unglossy - well, I'll be hanged if I can describe this red -
it's not Turkish and it's not Roman and it's not Indian, but
it seems to partake of the two last, and yet it can't be
either of them, because it ought to be able to go with
vermilion. Ah, what a tangled web we weave - anyway, with
what brains you have left choose me and send me some - many -
patterns of this exact shade.
A few days ago it was Haggard's birthday and we had him and
his cousin to dinner - bless me if I ever told you of his
cousin! - he is here anyway, and a fine, pleasing specimen,
so that we have concluded (after our own happy experience)
that the climate of Samoa must be favourable to cousins.
Then we went out on the verandah in a lovely moonlight,
drinking port, hearing the cousin play and sing, till
presently we were informed that our boys had got up a siva in
Lafaele's house to which we were invited. It was entirely
their own idea. The house, you must understand, is one-half
floored, and one-half bare earth, and the dais stands a
little over knee high above the level of the soil. The dais
was the stage, with three footlights. We audience sat on
mats on the floor, and the cook and three of our work-boys,
sometimes assisted by our two ladies, took their places
behind the footlights and began a topical Vailima song. The
burden was of course that of a Samoan popular song about a
white man who objects to all that he sees in Samoa. And
there was of course a special verse for each one of the party
- Lloyd was called the dancing man (practically the Chief's
handsome son) of Vailima; he was also, in his character I
suppose of overseer, compared to a policeman - Belle had that
day been the almoner in a semi-comic distribution of wedding
rings and thimbles (bought cheap at an auction) to the whole
plantation company, fitting a ring on every man's finger, and
a ring and a thimble on both the women's. This was very much
in character with her native name TEUILA, the adorner of the
ugly - so of course this was the point of her verse and at a
given moment all the performers displayed the rings upon
their fingers. Pelema (the cousin - OUR cousin) was
described as watching from the house and whenever he saw any
boy not doing anything, running and doing it himself.
Fanny's verse was less intelligible, but it was accompanied
in the dance with a pantomime of terror well-fitted to call
up her haunting, indefatigable and diminutive presence in a
blue gown.
CHAPTER XXIII
VAILIMA, OCTOBER 28TH, 1892.
MY DEAR COLVIN, - This is very late to begin the monthly
budget, but I have a good excuse this time, for I have had a
very annoying fever with symptoms of sore arm, and in the
midst of it a very annoying piece of business which suffered
no delay or idleness. . . . The consequence of all this was
that my fever got very much worse and your letter has not
been hitherto written. But, my dear fellow, do compare these
little larky fevers with the fine, healthy, prostrating colds
of the dear old dead days at home. Here was I, in the middle
of a pretty bad one, and I was able to put it in my pocket,
and go down day after day, and attend to and put my strength
into this beastly business. Do you see me doing that with a
catarrh? And if I had done so, what would have been the
result?
Last night, about four o'clock, Belle and I set off to Apia,
whither my mother had preceded us. She was at the Mission;
we went to Haggard's. There we had to wait the most
unconscionable time for dinner. I do not wish to speak
lightly of the Amanuensis, who is unavoidably present, but I
may at least say for myself that I was as cross as two
sticks. Dinner came at last, we had the tinned soup which is
usually the PIECE DE RESISTANCE in the halls of Haggard, and
we pitched into it. Followed an excellent salad of tomatoes
and cray-fish, a good Indian curry, a tender joint of beef, a
dish of pigeons, a pudding, cheese and coffee. I was so
over-eaten after this 'hunger and burst' that I could
scarcely move; and it was my sad fate that night in the
character of the local author to eloquute before the public -
'Mr. Stevenson will read a selection from his own works' - a
degrading picture. I had determined to read them the account
of the hurricane; I do not know if I told you that my book
has never turned up here, or rather only one copy has, and
that in the unfriendly hands of -. It has therefore only
been seen by enemies; and this combination of mystery and
evil report has been greatly envenomed by some ill-judged
newspaper articles from the States. Altogether this specimen
was listened to with a good deal of uncomfortable expectation
on the part of the Germans, and when it was over was
applauded with unmistakable relief. The public hall where
these revels came off seems to be unlucky for me; I never go
there but to some stone-breaking job. Last time it was the
public meeting of which I must have written you; this time it
was this uneasy but not on the whole unsuccessful experiment.
Belle, my mother, and I rode home about midnight in a fine
display of lightning and witch-fires. My mother is absent,
so that I may dare to say that she struck me as voluble. The
Amanuensis did not strike me the same way; she was probably
thinking, but it was really rather a weird business, and I
saw what I have never seen before, the witch-fires gathered
into little bright blue points almost as bright as a night-
light.
SATURDAY
This is the day that should bring your letter; it is gray and
cloudy and windless; thunder rolls in the mountain; it is a
quarter past six, and I am alone, sir, alone in this
workman's house, Belle and Lloyd having been down all
yesterday to meet the steamer; they were scarce gone with
most of the horses and all the saddles, than there began a
perfect picnic of the sick and maim; Iopu with a bad foot,
Faauma with a bad shoulder, Fanny with yellow spots. It was
at first proposed to carry all these to the doctor,
particularly Faauma, whose shoulder bore an appearance of
erysipelas, that sent the amateur below. No horses, no
saddle. Now I had my horse and I could borrow Lafaele's
saddle; and if I went alone I could do a job that had long
been waiting; and that was to interview the doctor on another
matter. Off I set in a hazy moonlight night; windless, like
to-day; the thunder rolling in the mountain, as to-day; in
the still groves, these little mushroom lamps glowing blue
and steady, singly or in pairs. Well, I had my interview,
said everything as I had meant, and with just the result I
hoped for. The doctor and I drank beer together and
discussed German literature until nine, and we parted the
best of friends. I got home to a silent house of sleepers,
only Fanny awaiting me; we talked awhile, in whispers, on the
interview; then, I got a lantern and went across to the
workman's house, now empty and silent, myself sole occupant.
So to bed, prodigious tired but mighty content with my
night's work, and to-day, with a headache and a chill, have
written you this page, while my new novel waits. Of this I
will tell you nothing, except the various names under
consideration. First, it ought to be called - but of course
that is impossible -
BRAXFIELD.
Then it IS to be called either
WEIR OF HERMISTON,
THE LORD-JUSTICE CLERK,
THE TWO KIRSTIES OF THE CAULDSTANESLAP,
or
FOUR BLACK BROTHERS.
Characters:
Adam Weir, Lord-Justice Clerk, called Lord Hermiston.
Archie, his son.
Aunt Kirstie Elliott, his housekeeper at Hermiston.
Elliott of the Cauldstaneslap, her brother.
Kirstie Elliott, his daughter.
Jim, }
Gib, }
Hob } his sons.
& }
Dandie, }
Patrick Innes, a young advocate.
The Lord-Justice General.
Scene, about Hermiston in the Lammermuirs and in Edinburgh.
Temp. 1812. So you see you are to have another holiday from
copra! The rain begins softly on the iron roof, and I will
do the reverse and - dry up.
SUNDAY.
Yours with the diplomatic private opinion received. It is
just what I should have supposed. CA M'EST BIEN EGAL. - The
name is to be
THE LORD-JUSTICE CLERK.
None others are genuine. Unless it be
LORD-JUSTICE CLERK HERMISTON.
NOV. 2ND.
On Saturday we expected Captain Morse of the Alameda to come
up to lunch, and on Friday with genuine South Sea hospitality
had a pig killed. On the Saturday morning no pig. Some of
the boys seemed to give a doubtful account of themselves; our
next neighbour below in the wood is a bad fellow and very
intimate with some of our boys, for whom his confounded house
is like a fly-paper for flies. To add to all this, there was
on the Saturday a great public presentation of food to the
King and Parliament men, an occasion on which it is almost
dignified for a Samoan to steal anything, and entirely
dignified for him to steal a pig.
(The Amanuensis went to the TALOLO, as it is called, and saw
something so very pleasing she begs to interrupt the letter
to tell it. The different villagers came in in bands - led
by the maid of the village, followed by the young warriors.
It was a very fine sight, for some three thousand people are
said to have assembled. The men wore nothing but magnificent
head-dresses and a bunch of leaves, and were oiled and
glistening in the sunlight. One band had no maid but was led
by a tiny child of about five - a serious little creature
clad in a ribbon of grass and a fine head-dress, who skipped
with elaborate leaps in front of the warriors, like a little
kid leading a band of lions. A.M.)
The A.M. being done, I go on again. All this made it very
possible that even if none of our boys had stolen the pig,
some of them might know the thief. Besides, the theft, as it
was a theft of meat prepared for a guest, had something of
the nature of an insult, and 'my face,' in native phrase,
'was ashamed.' Accordingly, we determined to hold a bed of
justice. It was done last night after dinner. I sat at the
head of the table, Graham on my right hand, Henry Simele at
my left, Lloyd behind him. The house company sat on the
floor around the walls - twelve all told. I am described as
looking as like Braxfield as I could manage with my
appearance; Graham, who is of a severe countenance, looked
like Rhadamanthus; Lloyd was hideous to the view; and Simele
had all the fine solemnity of a Samoan chief. The
proceedings opened by my delivering a Samoan prayer, which
may be translated thus - 'Our God, look down upon us and
shine into our hearts. Help us to be far from falsehood so
that each one of us may stand before Thy Face in his
integrity.' - Then, beginning with Simele, every one came up
to the table, laid his hand on the Bible, and repeated clause
by clause after me the following oath - I fear it may sound
even comic in English, but it is a very pretty piece of
Samoan, and struck direct at the most lively superstitions of
the race. 'This is the Holy Bible here that I am touching.
Behold me, O God! If I know who it was that took away the
pig, or the place to which it was taken, or have heard
anything relating to it, and shall not declare the same - be
made an end of by God this life of mine!' They all took it
with so much seriousness and firmness that (as Graham said)
if they were not innocent they would make invaluable
witnesses. I was so far impressed by their bearing that I
went no further, and the funny and yet strangely solemn scene
came to an end.
SUNDAY, NO. 6th.
Here is a long story to go back upon, and I wonder if I have
either time or patience for the task?
Wednesday I had a great idea of match-making, and proposed to
Henry that Faale would make a good wife for him. I wish I
had put this down when it was fresher in my mind, it was so
interesting an interview. My gentleman would not tell if I
were on or not. 'I do not know yet; I will tell you next
week. May I tell the sister of my father? No, better not,
tell her when it is done.' - 'But will not your family be
angry if you marry without asking them?' - 'My village? What
does my village want? Mats!' I said I thought the girl
would grow up to have a great deal of sense, and my gentleman
flew out upon me; she had sense now, he said.
Thursday, we were startled by the note of guns, and presently
after heard it was an English war ship. Graham and I set off
at once, and as soon as we met any townsfolk they began
crying to me that I was to be arrested. It was the VOSSISCHE
ZEITUNG article which had been quoted in a paper. Went on
board and saw Captain Bourke; he did not even know - not even
guess - why he was here; having been sent off by cablegram
from Auckland. It is hoped the same ship that takes this off
Europewards may bring his orders and our news. But which is
it to be? Heads or tails? If it is to be German, I hope
they will deport me; I should prefer it so; I do not think
that I could bear a German officialdom, and should probably
have to leave SPONTE MEA, which is only less picturesque and
more expensive.
8TH.
Mail day. All well, not yet put in prison, whatever may be
in store for me. No time even to sign this lame letter.
CHAPTER XXIV
DEC. 1ST.
MY DEAR COLVIN, - Another grimy little odd and end of paper,
for which you shall be this month repaid in kind, and serve
you jolly well right. . . The new house is roofed; it will
be a braw house, and what is better, I have my yearly bill
in, and I find I can pay for it. For all which mercies, etc.
I must have made close on 4,000 pounds this year all told;
but, what is not so pleasant, I seem to have come near to
spending them. I have been in great alarm, with this new
house on the cards, all summer, and came very near to taking
in sail, but I live here so entirely on credit, that I
determined to hang on.
DEC. 1ST.
I was saying yesterday that my life was strange and did not
think how well I spoke. Yesterday evening I was briefed to
defend a political prisoner before the Deputy Commissioner.
What do you think of that for a vicissitude?
DEC. 3RD.
Now for a confession. When I heard you and Cassells had
decided to print THE BOTTLE IMP along with FALESA, I was too
much disappointed to answer. THE BOTTLE IMP was the PIECE DE
RESISTANCE for my volume, ISLAND NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS.
However, that volume might have never got done; and I send
you two others in case they should be in time.
First have the BEACH OF FALESA.
Then a fresh false title: ISLAND NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS; and
then
THE BOTTLE IMP: a cue from an old melodrama.
THE ISLE OF VOICES.
THE WAIF WOMAN; a cue from a SAGA.
Of course these two others are not up to the mark of THE
BOTTLE IMP; but they each have a certain merit, and they fit
in style. By saying 'a cue from an old melodrama' after the
B. I., you can get rid of my note. If this is in time, it
will be splendid, and will make quite a volume.
Should you and Cassells prefer, you can call the whole volume
I. N. E. - though the BEACH OF FALESA is the child of a quite
different inspiration. They all have a queer realism, even
the most extravagant, even the ISLE OF VOICES; the manners
are exact.
Should they come too late, have them type-written, and return
to me here the type-written copies.
SUNDAY, DEC. 4TH.
3rd start, - But now more humbly and with the aid of an
Amanuensis. First one word about page 2. My wife protests
against the Waif-woman and I am instructed to report the same
to you. . . .
DEC. 5TH.
A horrid alarm rises that our October mail was burned
crossing the Plains. If so, you lost a beautiful long letter
- I am sure it was beautiful though I remember nothing about
it - and I must say I think it serves you properly well.
That I should continue writing to you at such length is
simply a vicious habit for which I blush. At the same time,
please communicate at once with Charles Baxter whether you
have or have not received a letter posted here Oct 12th, as
he is going to cable me the fate of my mail.
Now to conclude my news. The German Firm have taken my book
like angels, and the result is that Lloyd and I were down
there at dinner on Saturday, where we partook of fifteen
several dishes and eight distinct forms of intoxicating
drink. To the credit of Germany, I must say there was not a
shadow of a headache the next morning. I seem to have done
as well as my neighbours, for I hear one of the clerks
expressed the next morning a gratified surprise that Mr.
Stevenson stood his drink so well. It is a strange thing
that any race can still find joy in such athletic exercises.
I may remark in passing that the mail is due and you have had
far more than you deserve.
R. L. S.
CHAPTER XXV
JANUARY 1893.
MY DEAR COLVIN, - You are properly paid at last, and it is
like you will have but a shadow of a letter. I have been
pretty thoroughly out of kilter; first a fever that would
neither come on nor go off, then acute dyspepsia, in the
weakening grasp of which I get wandering between the waking
state and one of nightmare. Why the devil does no one send
me ATALANTA? And why are there no proofs of D. Balfour?
Sure I should have had the whole, at least the half, of them
by now; and it would be all for the advantage of the
Atalantans. I have written to Cassell & Co. (matter of
FALESA) 'you will please arrange with him' (meaning you).
'What he may decide I shall abide.' So consider your hand
free, and act for me without fear or favour. I am greatly
pleased with the illustrations. It is very strange to a
South-Seayer to see Hawaiian women dressed like Samoans, but
I guess that's all one to you in Middlesex. It's about the
same as if London city men were shown going to the Stock
Exchange as PIFFERARI; but no matter, none will sleep worse
for it. I have accepted Cassell's proposal as an amendment
to one of mine; that D. B. is to be brought out first under
the title CATRIONA without pictures; and, when the hour
strikes, KIDNAPPED and CATRIONA are to form vols. I. and II.
of the heavily illustrated 'Adventures of David Balfour' at
7s. 6d. each, sold separately.
-'s letter was vastly sly and dry and shy. I am not afraid
now. Two attempts have been made, both have failed, and I
imagine these failures strengthen me. Above all this is true
of the last, where my weak point was attempted. On every
other, I am strong. Only force can dislodge me, for public
opinion is wholly on my side. All races and degrees are
united in heartfelt opposition to the Men of Mulinuu. The
news of the fighting was of no concern to mortal man; it was
made much of because men love talk of battles, and because
the Government pray God daily for some scandal not their own;
but it was only a brisk episode in a clan fight which has
grown apparently endemic in the west of Tutuila. At the best
it was a twopenny affair, and never occupied my mind five
minutes.
