friendly criticisms from yourself.

I believe that this is the most of our business. As for my health, I got
over my cold in a fine style, but have not been very well of late. To my
unaffected annoyance, the blood-spitting has started again. I find the
heat of a steamer decidedly wearing and trying in these latitudes, and I
am inclined to think the superior expedition rather dearly paid for.
Still, the fact that one does not even remark the coming of a squall,
nor feel relief on its departure, is a mercy not to be acknowledged
without gratitude. The rest of the family seem to be doing fairly well;
both seem less run down than they were on the _Equator_, and Mrs.
Stevenson very much less so. We have now been three months away, have
visited about thirty-five islands, many of which were novel to us, and
some extremely entertaining; some also were old acquaintances, and
pleasant to revisit. In the meantime, we have really a capital time
aboard ship, in the most pleasant and interesting society, and with
(considering the length and nature of the voyage) an excellent table.
Please remember us all to Mr. Scribner, the young chieftain of the
house, and the lady, whose health I trust is better. To Mrs. Burlingame
we all desire to be remembered, and I hope you will give our news to
Low, St. Gaudens, Faxon, and others of the faithful in the city. I shall
probably return to Samoa direct, having given up all idea of returning
to civilisation in the meanwhile. There, on my ancestral acres, which I
purchased six months ago from a blind Scots blacksmith, you will please
address me until further notice. The name of the ancestral acres is
going to be Vailima; but as at the present moment nobody else knows the
name, except myself and the co-patentees, it will be safer, if less
ambitious, to address R. L. S., Apia, Samoa. The ancestral acres run to
upwards of three hundred; they enjoy the ministrations of five streams,
whence the name. They are all at the present moment under a trackless
covering of magnificent forest, which would be worth a great deal if it
grew beside a railway terminus. To me, as it stands, it represents a
handsome deficit. Obliging natives from the Cannibal Islands are now
cutting it down at my expense. You would be able to run your magazine to
much greater advantage if the terms of authors were on the same scale
with those of my cannibals. We have also a house about the size of a
manufacturer's lodge. 'Tis but the egg