Chapter I: Marine (8)

{83} The secretary was really, I believe, Lord Pollington.

{86} ‘Smith opens out his cauld harangues On practice and on morals.’

The Rev. George Smith of Galston, the minister thus referred to by Burns (in the _Holy Fair_), was a great-grandfather of Stevenson on the mother’s side; and against Stevenson himself, in his didactic moods, the passage was often quoted by his friends when they wished to tease him.

{114} The French; the Marquesas, Paumotus, and Tahiti being all dependencies of France.

{132} King Kalakaua.

{133} This is the Canadian poet Mr. Archibald Lampman, the news of whose death reaches England as these sheets are preparing for the press.

{137} Stevenson’s stepdaughter, Mrs. Strong, who was at this time living at Honolulu, and joined his party and family for good when they continued their voyage from thence in the following June.

{141} The following is the letter in question:—

‘I make you to know my great affection. At the hour when you left
us, I was filled with tears; my wife, Rui Telime, also, and all of my
household. When you embarked I felt a great sorrow. It is for this
that I went upon the road, and you looked from that ship, and I
looked at you on the ship with great grief until you had raised the
anchor and hoisted the sails. When the ship started I ran along the
beach to see you still; and when you were on the open sea I cried out
to you, “Farewell Louis”; and when I was coming back to my house I
seemed to hear your voice crying “Rui farewell.” Afterwards I
watched the ship as long as I could until the night fell; and when it
was dark I said to myself, “If I had wings I should fly to the ship
to meet you, and to sleep amongst you, so that I might be able to
come back to shore and to tell Rui Telime, ‘I have slept upon the
ship of Teriitera.’” After that we passed that night in the
impatience of grief. Towards eight o’clock I seemed to hear your
voice, “Teriitera—Rui—here is the hour for _putter_ and _tiro_”
(cheese and syrup). I did not sleep that night, thinking continually
of you, my very dear friend, until the morning; being then still
awake, I went to see Tapina Tutu on her bed, and alas, she was not
there. Afterwards I looked into your rooms; they did not please me
as they used to do. I did not hear your voice saying, “Hail Rui”; I
thought then that you had gone, and that you had left me. Rising up,
I went to the beach to see your ship, and I could not see it. I
wept, then, until the night, telling myself continually, “Teriitera
returns into his own country and leaves his dear Rui in grief, so
that I suffer for him, and weep for him.” I will not forget you in
my memory. Here is the thought: I desire to meet you again. It is
my dear Teriitera makes the only riches I desire in this world. It
is your eyes that I desire to see again. It must be that your body
and my body shall eat together at one table: there is what would make
my heart content. But now we are separated. May God be with you
all. May His word and His mercy go with you, so that you may be well
and we also, according to the words of Paul.

ORI A ORI, that is to say, RUI.’

{152} The Polynesian name for white men.

{170} Table of chapter headings follows.

{187} French _bâtons rompus_: disconnected thoughts or studies.

{190} The Rev. Dr. Hyde, of Honolulu: in reference to Stevenson’s letter on Father Damien.

{198} Afterwards re-named _The Ebb Tide_.

{201} His letters.

{220} _The Misadventures of John Nicholson_.

{245} _i.e._ On the stage.

{271} A character in _The Wrecker_.

{272} The lad Austin Strong.

{292} John Addington Symonds.

{298a} _Across the Plains_.

{298b} Volume of Sonnets by José Maria de Hérédia.

{311} _The Window in Thrums_, with illustrations by W. Hole, R.S.A. Hodder and Stoughton. 1892.

{320} This question is with a view to the adventures of the hero in _St. Ives_, who, according to Stevenson’s original plan, was to have been picked up from his foundered balloon by an American privateer.

{323} As to admire _The Black Arrow_.

{332} In the book the genealogy is given as a diagram. It has been converted to text for this transcription so it’s available for everyone, with the original diagram below.—DP.

[Picture: The Genealogy]

{337} Word omitted in MS.

{347} _Sentimental Tommy_: whose chief likeness to R. L. S. was meant to be in the literary temperament and passion for the _mot propre_.

{350} _Sic_: query ‘least’?

{359} Of _The Wrecker_.

{361} _Trieb_, impulse