726 



STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS (BALFOUR). 



he published also " The Wrong Box," the first 

 of several stories written in collaboration with 

 his stepson. Lloyd Osbourne ; and in 1890 a vol- 

 ume of ballads, chiefly of the South Seas, but 

 including one, " Ticonderoga,'' which was cer- 

 tainly his masterpiece in this field. In this 

 year was privately printed, too, a letter to Mr. 

 Hyde, a missionary in the Hawaiian Islands, 

 called out by the latter's disparaging reference 

 to Father Damien, the Catholic volunteer mis- 

 sionary to the leper colony at Molokai a ref- 

 erence which strongly aroused Stevenson, and 

 prompted a rebuke which stands alone among 

 his writings, unless, indeed, the little poem 



supporters of the existing order in Samoa ; but 

 it strengthened rather than impaired his in- 

 fluence, arid comments made at the time of his 

 death show that he had come to be reckoned 

 with as a serious force in these questions. Poli- 

 tics interfered but little with his other activi- 

 ties. In 1892 he began in " Scribner's Maga- 

 zine" the serial publication of "The Wrecker," 

 written in renewed collaboration with Lloyd 

 Osbourne, and almost simultaneously with its 

 issue in book form, in 1893, appeared another 

 volume of collected stories, " Island Nights' En- 

 tertainments." Later in the same year was pub- 

 lished also the long-looked-1'or sequel to " Kid- 





ROBERT LOTTIS STEVENSON'S HOUSE IN SAMOA. 



called "A Portrait" be compared with it in 

 stinging effect. 



In Samoa Stevenson became deeply interested 

 in the native race, and in native and foreign 

 politics. The Samoans attracted him strongly, 

 and he entered into their problems and the 

 question of their future with characteristic en- 

 thusiasm, which they quickly recognized and 

 repaid with confidence and warm attachment. 

 In 1892 he published "A Footnote to History: 

 Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa," in which, in 

 his customary outspoken fashion, he discussed 

 Samoan politics, taking a strong stand against 

 the present order and against what lie saw to be 

 the force most threatening to the Samoans, the 

 German influence. The book provoked much 

 hostility in Germany, and, of course, among the 



napped," under the title of " David Balfour,' 

 in America and of " Catriona " in England 

 (where it was intended later to issue " Kid- 

 napped " and " Catriona " as first and second 

 parts under the general title of " David Bal- 

 four "). In the last year of his life but one vol- 

 ume had appeared, " The Ebb Tide," another 

 collaboration with his stepson ; but he was under-' 

 stood to have been at work upon, and to have 

 left nearly ready for publication, a novel of hi 

 own, " St. Ives," and possibly portions of his stor, 

 of the work of his grandfather and father under 

 the title of " The Northern Lights." 



Stevenson died very suddenly of apoplexy, after 

 a day spent in his usual occupations and appar- 

 ently in his usual health. In accordance with an 

 often expressed wish, he was buried (Dec. 4) on the 



