ason. Lloyd leaves along with this letter on a
change to San Francisco; he had much need of it, but I think this will
brace him up. I am, as you see, a tower of strength. I can remember
riding not so far and not near so fast when I first came to Samoa, and
being shattered next day with fatigue; now I could not tell I have done
anything; have re-handled my battle of Fangalii according to yesterday's
information--four pages rewritten; and written already some half-dozen
pages of letters.

I observe with disgust that while of yore, when I own I was guilty, you
never spared me abuse--but now, when I am so virtuous, where is the
praise? Do admit that I have become an excellent letter-writer--at least
to you, and that your ingratitude is imbecile.--Yours ever,

R. L. S.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "In the missionary work which is being done among the Samoans,
Mr. Stevenson was especially interested. He was an observant,
shrewd, yet ever generous critic of all our religious and
educational organisations. His knowledge of native character and
life enabled him to understand missionary difficulties, while his
genial contact with all sorts and conditions of men made him keen to
detect deficiencies in men and methods, and apt in useful
suggestion." The above is the testimony of the Mr. Clarke here
mentioned (Rev. W. E. Clarke of the London Missionary Society). This
gentleman was from the first one of the most valued friends of Mr.
Stevenson and his family in Samoa, and, when the end came, read the
funeral service beside his grave on Mount Vaea.

[2] The lady in the _Vicar of Wakefield_ who declares herself "all
in a muck of sweat."

[3] First published in the New Review, January 1895.

[4] Afterwards changed into _The Beach of Falesa_.

[5] Mr. Lloyd Osbourne had come to England to pack and wind up affairs
at Skerryvore.

[6] The lines beginning "I heard the pulse of the besieging sea"; see
Vol. xxiv., p. 366.

[7] "The Monument" was his name for my house at the British Museum,
and George was my old faithful servant, George Went.

[8] The late Mr. John Lafarge, long an honoured _doyen_ among New
York artists, whose record of his holiday in the South Seas, in the
shape of a series of water-colour sketches of the scenery and people
(with a catalogue full of interesting notes and observations), was
one of the features of the Champ de