to Low, and it has brought him to his knees; he was _amazed_ at the
first part of Georgina's Reasons, although (like me) not so well
satisfied with Part II. It is annoying to find the American public as
stupid as the English, but they will waken up in time: I wonder what
they will think of _Two Nations_?...

This, dear James, is a valedictory. On June 15th the schooner yacht
_Casco_ will (weather and a jealous providence permitting) steam through
the Golden Gates for Honolulu, Tahiti, the Galapagos, Guayaquil, and--I
hope _not_ the bottom of the Pacific. It will contain your obedient
'umble servant and party. It seems too good to be true, and is a very
good way of getting through the green-sickness of maturity which, with
all its accompanying ills, is now declaring itself in my mind and life.
They tell me it is not so severe as that of youth; if I (and the
_Casco_) are spared, I shall tell you more exactly, as I am one of the
few people in the world who do not forget their own lives.

Good-bye, then, my dear fellow, and please write us a word; we expect to
have three mails in the next two months: Honolulu, Tahiti, and
Guayaquil. But letters will be forwarded from Scribner's, if you hear
nothing more definite directly. In 3 (three) days I leave for San
Francisco.--Ever yours most cordially,

R. L. S.

FOOTNOTES:

[21] For the actual sum, see below, p. 243.

[22] "But she was more than usual calm,
She did not give a single dam."

_Marjorie Fleming._

[23] Of the play _Deacon Brodie_.

[24] "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.

[25] Afterwards changed to Alison.

[26] Alluding to a kind of lofty, posturing manner of G. M.'s in mind
and speech, quite different from any real insincerity.

X

PACIFIC VOYAGES

YACHT _CASCO_--SCHOONER _EQUATOR_--S.S. _JANET NICOLL_

JUNE 1888-OCTOBER 1890

In the following section are printed nearly all the letters which
reached Stevenson's correspondents in England and the United States, at
intervals necessarily somewhat rare, during the eighteen months of his
Pacific voyages. It was on the 2