six copies to H.M. Tembinoka,
King of Apemama, via Butaritari, Gilbert Islands. It might be best to
send it by Crawford & Co., S.F. There is no postal service; and
schooners must take it, how they may and when. Perhaps some such note as
this might be prefixed:

_At my departure from the island of Apemama, for which you will look in
vain in most atlases, the king and I agreed, since we both set up to be
in the poetical way, that we should celebrate our separation in verse.
Whether or not his majesty has been true to his bargain, the laggard
posts of the Pacific may perhaps inform me in six months, perhaps not
before a year. The following lines represent my part of the contract,
and it is hoped, by their pictures of strange manners, they may
entertain a civilised audience. Nothing throughout has been invented or
exaggerated; the lady herein referred to as the author's Muse, has
confined herself to stringing into rhyme facts and legends that I saw or
heard during two months' residence upon the island._

R. L. S.

You will have received from me a letter about _The Wrecker_. No doubt
it is a new experiment for me, being disguised so much as a study of
manners, and the interest turning on a mystery of the detective sort. I
think there need be no hesitation about beginning it in the fall of the
year. Lloyd has nearly finished his part, and I shall hope to send you
very soon the MS. of about the first four-sevenths. At the same time, I
have been employing myself in Samoa, collecting facts about the recent
war; and I propose to write almost at once and to publish shortly a
small volume, called I know not what--the War in Samoa, the Samoa
Trouble, an Island War, the War of the Three Consuls, I know
not--perhaps you can suggest. It was meant to be a part of my travel
book; but material has accumulated on my hands until I see myself forced
into volume form, and I hope it may be of use, if it come soon. I have a
few photographs of the war, which will do for illustrations. It is
conceivable you might wish to handle this in the Magazine, although I am
inclined to think you won't, and to agree with you. But if you think
otherwise, there it is. The travel letters (fifty of them) are already
contracted for in papers; these I was quite bound to let M'Clure handle,
as the idea was of his suggestion, and I always felt a little sore as to
one trick I played him in the matter of the end-papers. The war-volume
will contain some very