[Dots between square brackets indicate cuts made by Sidney Colvin. For full, correct and critical edition of this letter, see Mehew 6, 1891.]
To Bob Stevenson [Colvin 1911, 3, pp. 10-12]
Saranac Lake, Adirondacks,
New York, U.S.A.
[Early October 1887]
My dear Bob,
The cold [of Colorado] was too rigorous for me; I could not risk the long railway voyage, and the season was too late to risk the Eastern, Cape Hatteras side of the steamer one; so here we stuck and stick.

Storm on the Outer Banks [www.outerbanksvacations.com]

Cape Hatteras is a thin, broken strand of islands that arch out into the Atlantic Ocean away from the US mainland, creating a series of sheltered islands between the Outer Banks and the mainland. RLS’s uncle, Dr John Balfour had previously recommended either Colorado or the Hymalayan foothills as a good place for RLS’s lungs.
We have a wooden house on a hill-top, overlooking a river,

Baker’s Cottage, Saranac Lake [https://i.pinimg.com]

Saranac Lake, late 19th century [https://localwiki.org]

Saranac Lake [https://en.wikipedia.org]
[…]

Furnace, Argyll and Bute,on the north shore of Loch Fyne, Scotland [https://2.bp.blogspot.com]

Kenmore, Perth and Kinross, Scotland [https://farm4.staticflickr.com]
I have got one good thing of my sea voyage: it is proved the sea agrees heartily with me, and my mother likes it; so if I get any better, or no worse, my mother will likely hire a yacht for a month or so in summer.
Margaret Isabella Balfour Stevenson (1829-1897) [www.capitalcollections.org.uk]

The yacht Casco, a fore–and–aft teak–hulled schooner (90’ x 25’ x 12’) built c. 1878 in California for Dr. Samuel Merritt of Oakland. It was to be chartered by RLS next year [https://minermark.files.wordpress.com]

Vilemina Norman Neruda leading a string quartet, c. 1880 [https://upload.wikimedia.org]
For these two I will sell my soul. Except for these I hold that £700 a year is as much as anybody can possibly want; and I have had more, so I know, for the extry coins were for no use, excepting for illness, which damns everything.
I was so happy on board that ship, I could not have believed it possible.

SS Ludgate Hill, on which RLS had sailed from Liverpool to Newport R.I. [www.clydeships.co.uk]
We had the beastliest weather, and many discomforts; but the mere fact of its being a tramp-ship gave us many comforts; we could cut about with the men and officers,

[http://penobscotmarinemuseum.org]

Wheelhouse of RMS Olympic, 1908 [www.titanicdiclaudiobossi.com]
discuss all manner of things, and really be a little at sea. And truly there is nothing else. I had literally forgotten what happiness was, and the full mind − full of external and physical things, not full of cares and labours and rot about a fellow’s behaviour. My heart literally sang; I truly care for nothing so much as for that. We took so north a course, that we saw Newfoundland;

Newfoundland [http://www.nfld.com]

Approaching Newfoundland [https://shearmadness72.files.wordpress.com]
no one in the ship had ever seen it before.
It was beyond belief to me how she rolled; in seemingly smooth water, the bell striking, the fittings bounding out of our state-room. It is worth having lived these last years, partly because I have written some better books, which is always pleasant, but chiefly to have had the joy of this voyage. I have been made a lot of here, and it is sometimes pleasant, sometimes the reverse; but I could give it all up, and agree that Gladstone was the author of my works, for a good seventy ton schooner and the coins to keep her on.

William Ewart Gladstone, 1887, and Liberal Prime Minister 1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, 1892-94 [https://upload.wikimedia.org]
And to think there are parties with yachts who would make the change! I know a little about fame now; it is no good compared to a yacht; and anyway there is more fame in a yacht, more genuine fame; to cross the Atlantic and come to anchor in Newport (say) with the Union Jack, and go ashore for your letters and hang about the pier, among the holiday yachtsmen − that’s fame, that’s glory, and nobody can take it away; they can’t say your book is bad; you have crossed the Atlantic.

Newport, Rhode Island, Yacht Dockage [www.destinationnewport.com]
I should do it south by the West Indies, to avoid the damned Banks; and probably come home by steamer, and leave the skipper to bring the yacht home.

The West Indies, 1898 [https://upload.wikimedia.org]

Southampton, Royal Pier railway station (closed in 1921) [www.davidstjohn.co.uk]

E. Boudin, The Port of Le Havre, 1888 [www.deartibus.it]

The Baltic [https://media.treehugger.com]

Marquesas Islands [https://beachtraveldestinations.com]
Love to you all − Ever your affectionate
Robert Louis Stevenson
Salva
“I do not say there is no character as well-drawn in Shakespeare,” R.L. Stevenson wrote of d’Artagnan. “I do say there is none that I love so wholly.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/alexandre-dumass-brotherly-love-1521235470?mod=djemMER#
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