“I was busy copying David Balfour with my left hand – a most laborious task”

[Dots between square brackets indicate cuts made by Sidney Colvin. For full, correct and critical edition of this letter see Mehew 7, 2428.]

To Sideney Colvin [Colvin 1911, 4, pp. 86-7]

 [Vailima] Saturday, 2^nd July 1892

[…]

The character of my handwriting is explained, alas! by scrivener’s cramp. This also explains how long I have let the paper lie plain.

RLS, Vailima 11 May 1892.

1 P.M. – […] I was busy copying David Balfour with my left hand – a most laborious task – Fanny was down at the native house superintending the floor, Lloyd down in Apia, and Belle in her own house cleaning, when I heard the latter calling on my name. I ran out on the verandah;

RLS leaning over front first floor balcony, Vailima 11 May 1892; on ground floor: Mary Carter, Margaret Stevenson, Lloyd, Joe Strong, Talolo, Fanny, Tomasi, Belle.

and there on the lawn beheld my crazy boy with an axe in his hand and dressed out, in green ferns, dancing. I ran downstairs and found all my house boys on the back verandah, watching him through the dining-room. I asked what it meant? – ‘Dance belong his place,’ they said. ‘I think this no time to dance,’ said I. ‘Has he done his work?’ ‘No,’ they told me, ‘away bush all morning.’ But there they all stayed on the back verandah. I went on alone through the dining-room, and bade him stop. He did so, shouldered the axe, and began to walk away; but I called him back, walked up to him, and took the axe out of his unresisting hands. The boy is in all things so good, that I can scarce say I was afraid; only I felt it had to be stopped ere he could work himself up by dancing to some craziness. Our house boys protested they were not afraid; all I know is they were all watching him round the back door and did not follow me till I had the axe.

Samoan chief holding a nifo oti axe, late 19th century [/www.ashokaarts.com]

As for the out boys, who were working with Fanny in the native house, they thought it a very bad business, and made no secret of their fears.

[…]

Wednesday, 6^th [July] – I have no account to give of my stewardship these days, and there’s a day more to account for than mere arithmetic would tell you. For we have had two Monday Fourths, to bring us at last on the right side of the meridian, having hitherto been an exception in the world and kept our private date.

Samoa had followed the Australian calendar, but on 4 June 1892 the Three Powers decided to adopt the date of San Francisco. So they were ordered to keep two Mondays 4 June to get straight. In 2011 the Samoan government has decided to jump the International Date Line 24 hours into the future, joining Australia again. The way it works now, when it’s 8 a.m. Sunday in Samoa, it’s 8 a.m. Monday in neighboring Tonga.

Business has filled my hours sans intermission. […]

Tuesday, 12^th.

[…] I am doing no work and my mind is in abeyance. Fanny and Belle are sewing-machining in the next room;

Fanny’s room and sewing-machine, Vailima [www.tripadvisor.com]

Fanny’s sewing-machine, Vailima [www.tripadvisor.com]

I have been pulling down their hair, and Fanny has been kicking me, and now I am driven out.

RLS and Fanny, Vailima c. 1890.

Austin I have been chasing about the verandah;

RLS and Austin, Vailima. Sketch by Isobel Strong (Austin’s mother) [www.robert-louis-stevenson.org/]

now he has gone to his lessons, and I make believe to write to you in despair. But there is nothing in my mind; I swim in mere vacancy, my head is like a rotten nut; I shall soon have to begin to work again or I shall carry away some part of the machinery. […] I have got your insufficient letter, for which I scorn to thank you. I have had no review by Gosse, none by Birrell;

Augustine Birrell (1850-1933) contributed a highly favourable unsigned review of Across the Plains to the Speaker of 28 May 1892. He was at this time a barrister, Liberal MP and essayist; later he became a leading politician and was Chief Secretary for Ireland 1907-16 (Cf. Mehew 7, p. 326 n. 10) [https://en.wikipedia.org]

Augustine Birrell’s unsigned review of Across the Plains in The Speaker, 28 May 1892.

Edmund Gosse (1849-1928), RLS’s friend, presumably wrote a less favourable review of Across the Plains in The Saturday Review of 28 May 1892 (Cf. Mehew 7, p. 326 n. 10)[www.silksoundbooks.com/]

Presumably Edmund Gosse’s review of Across the Plains in THe Saturday Review, 28 May 1892.

another time, if I have a letter in The Times, you might send me the text as well; also please send me a cricket bat and a cake, and when I come home for the holidays, I should like to have a pony. – I am, sir, your obedient servant,

Jacob Tonson

P. S. – I am quite well; I hope you are quite well. The world is too much with us, and my mother bids me bind my hair and lace my bodice blue.

[…]

My Mother bids me bind my hair is one of Haydn’s Canzonettas (1794) dedicated to the author of the lyrics, Mrs Anne Hume Hunter (1742-1821). When she was 29, she married John Hunter, one of the most distinguished scientists and surgeons of his day. They lived in London and the couple entertained many of the main literary giants of the day and Mrs Hunter was gained a reputation for her talents and intelligence. She wrote some verses of distinction herself, but was modest about her output. Following the death of her husband in 1793, she turned even more to song-writing [https://musicb3.files.wordpress.com]