Here in the tropics he might hope to live and work years longer—­a return to a cold climate, he now knew, would be fatal.

Why not turn traders?  Often on starry nights, drifting among the low islands, he and Lloyd and the captain of the Equator had lain out on deck and planned what a lark it would be to buy a schooner, cruise among the islands, and trade with the natives.  They would write stories, too, about these strange island dwellers with their many weird superstitions and of the white men who drifted from all corners of the globe to make their home there.

Already Captain Reid had told them many such tales which Stevenson wove into stories.  The “Beach of Falesa” and the “Isle of Voices” are probably the two most famous, while “the strange story of the loss of the brigantine Wandering Minstrel and what men and ships do in that wild and beautiful world beyond the American continent” formed a plot for the story called “The Wrecker,” which he and Lloyd Osbourne wrote together later on.

Samoa was a place he was eager to visit.  King Kalakaua at Honolulu had already told him much of its troubled history.  The group of thirteen islands lay about four thousand two hundred miles southwest of San Francisco.  At that time they were under the control of England, Germany, and the United States according to a treaty entered into in 1889.  These countries appointed a chief justice, a president of the municipal council, three consuls, and three land commissioners.  A native king was likewise recognized on each island.

This triple control proved most unsatisfactory and for years past there had been constant friction among the officials and warlike outbreaks among the natives.

These complications interested Stevenson.  His first idea had been to stop there but a short time.  He now found he wanted to remain in Samoa long enough to write its history.

The Samoans are true Polynesians; a strong and handsome race whose reputation is high among all the people of the Pacific.  The large majority have become Christians, but in spite of the influence of the missionaries and the foreign powers who control them, they retain many of their old customs and habits.  They are naturally peace-loving in spite of their many wars.  Fighting does not appeal to them for its own sake, and they enjoy a good family life, treating their women with great respect and lavishing affection upon their children.

Stevenson wanted those at home to know these people better; his sympathy, which was ever with the weaker side, was instantly aroused in behalf of the natives, and he wanted to tell their side of the story.

If they were to make a home anywhere in the South Seas there could be no better spot than Apia, the principal port and capital of these islands, as it had a good mail service, a most important feature to a writer.  The monthly mail-steamers between San Francisco and Sydney, as well as other Australian mail-boats, stopped there.