



Produced by Marius Masi, Jonathan Ingram and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net





Transcriber's note:

The following typographical errors have been corrected:

  In page 58 "He was was an alien, he was supported by the guns of alien
  warships,..." 'was was' corrected to 'was'.

  In page 226 "I liked the end of that yarn no better than the
  begining." 'begining' amended to 'beginning'.




      THE WORKS OF
  ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

     SWANSTON EDITION
       VOLUME XVII

  _Of this SWANSTON EDITION in Twenty-five
  Volumes of the Works of ROBERT LOUIS
  STEVENSON Two Thousand and Sixty Copies
  have been printed, of which only Two Thousand
  Copies are for sale._

  _This is No._..........

[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF THE BEACH OF FALESA AND NEIGHBOURING
COUNTRY]

  THE WORKS OF
  ROBERT LOUIS
   STEVENSON

  VOLUME SEVENTEEN


  LONDON: PUBLISHED BY CHATTO AND
  WINDUS: IN ASSOCIATION WITH CASSELL
  AND COMPANY LIMITED: WILLIAM
  HEINEMANN: AND LONGMANS GREEN
  AND COMPANY MDCCCCXII


  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED




CONTENTS

  A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY


  EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLE IN SAMOA

   CHAPTER                                                    PAGE
      I. THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD: NATIVE                         5

     II. THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD: FOREIGN                       15

    III. THE SORROWS OF LAUPEPA (1883 _to September_ 1887)      27

     IV. BRANDEIS (_September_ 1887 _to August_ 1888)           53

      V. THE BATTLE OF MATAUTU (_September_ 1888)               70

     VI. LAST EXPLOITS OF BECKER (_September--November_ 1888)   83

    VII. THE SAMOAN CAMPS (_November_ 1888)                    103

   VIII. AFFAIRS OF LAULII AND FANGALII (_November--December_
           1888)                                               112

     IX. "FUROR CONSULARIS" (_December_ 1888 _to March_ 1889)  128

      X. THE HURRICANE (_March_ 1889)                          142

     XI. LAUPEPA AND MATAAFA (1889-1892)                       156


  ISLAND NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS

  The Beach of Falesa:

      I. A SOUTH SEA BRIDAL                                    193

     II. THE BAN                                               206

    III. THE MISSIONARY                                        228

     IV. DEVIL-WORK                                            240

      V. NIGHT IN THE BUSH                                     258


  THE BOTTLE IMP                                               275

  THE ISLE OF VOICES                                           311




A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY

EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLE IN SAMOA

PREFACE


An affair which might be deemed worthy of a note of a few lines in any
general history has been here expanded to the size of a volume or large
pamphlet. The smallness of the scale, and the singularity of the manners
and events and many of the characters, considered, it is hoped that, in
spite of its outlandish subject, the sketch may find readers. It has
been a task of difficulty. Speed was essential, or it might come too
late to be of any service to a distracted country. Truth, in the midst
of conflicting rumours and in the dearth of printed material, was often
hard to ascertain, and since most of those engaged were of my personal
acquaintance, it was often more than delicate to express. I must
certainly have erred often and much; it is not for want of trouble taken
nor of an impartial temper. And if my plain speaking shall cost me any
of the friends that I still count, I shall be sorry, but I need not be
ashamed.

In one particular the spelling of Samoan words has been altered; and the
characteristic nasal _n_ of the language written throughout _ng_ instead
of _g_. Thus I put Pango-Pango, instead of Pago-Pago; the sound being
that of soft _ng_ in English, as in _singer_, not as in _finger_.

      R.L.S.

  VAILIMA,
    UPOLU,
      SAMOA.




EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLE IN SAMOA

CHAPTER I

THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD: NATIVE


The story I have to tell is still going on as I write; the characters
are alive and active; it is a piece of contemporary history in the most
exact sense. And yet, for all its actuality and the part played in it by
mails and telegraphs and iron war-ships, the ideas and the manners of the
native actors date back before the Roman Empire. They are Christians,
church-goers, singers of hymns at family worship, hardy cricketers;
their books are printed in London by Spottiswoode, Truebner, or the Tract
Society; but in most other points they are the contemporaries of our
tattooed ancestors who drove their chariots on the wrong side of the
Roman wall. We have passed the feudal system; they are not yet clear of
the patriarchal. We are in the