ediately about him were ever the first in his eyes; and he
found himself drawn deeply into the complications of local politics, as
so active a spirit could not fail to be drawn, however little taste he
might have for the work.

He kept in the meantime at a fair level of health, and among the
multitude of new interests was faithful in the main business of his
life--that is, to literature. He did not cease to toil uphill at the
heavy task of preparing for serial publication the letters, or more
properly chapters, on the South Seas. He planned and began delightedly
his happiest tale of South Sea life, _The High Woods of Ulufanua_,
afterwards changed to _The Beach of Falesa_; conceived the scheme, which
was never carried out, of working two of his old conceptions into one
long genealogical novel or fictitious family history to be called _The
Shovels of Newton French_; and in the latter part of the year worked
hard in continuation of _The Wrecker_. Having completed this during
November, he turned at once, from a sense of duty rather than from any
literary inspiration, to the _Footnote to History_, a laboriously
prepared and minutely conscientious account of recent events in Samoa.

From his earliest days at Vailima, determined that our intimacy should
suffer no diminution by absence, Stevenson began, to my great pleasure,
the practice of writing me a monthly budget containing a full account of
his doings and interests. At first the pursuits of the enthusiastic
farmer, planter, and overseer filled these letters delightfully, to the
exclusion of almost everything else except references to his books
projected or in hand. Later these interests began to give place in his
letters to those of the local politician, immersed in affairs which
seemed to me exasperatingly petty and obscure, however grave the
potential European complications which lay behind them. At any rate,
they were hard to follow intelligently from the other side of the globe;
and it was a relief whenever his correspondence turned to matters
literary or domestic, or humours of his own mind and character. These
letters, or so much of them as seemed suitable for publication, were
originally printed separately, in the year following the writer's
death, under the title _Vailima Letters_. They are here placed, with
some additions, in chronological order among those addressed to other
friends or acquaintances. During this first year at Vailima his general
correspondence