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'-"""?"?"i THE KING'S EMPIRE j----------....."_.___"
; j SAMOA-"R.L.S." SLEEPS HERE I
AMONG the islands of the Samoan group is Upolu, |
which is British.- ... ,
. Perhaps the most attractive people of the Southern J
? Seas, the Samoans quickly learnt to love one of our J
¡ greatest and most heroic spirits. No Scotsman far from i
J .home-and few Britishers from any part of the Empire, !
i, we believe-could set foot within a few miles of Apia J
! without making a pilgrimage to Vailima, the last home of J
¡ Robert Louis Stevenson, who gave us "Treasure Island" .
¡ and "Kidnapped." !
! This was his treasure island. He used to say laugh- , i
J ingly that to get to his front door you took the boat at !
? San Francisco, and then his place was the second on the ¡
¡ left. It is certainly far from anywhere-and from-his-, j
', own dear Scotland. Hereabouts are beehive huts, and' i
¡ here the road goes up among the plantains and bread- !
i fruit trees and. palms, till, after a mile, it grows steeper, \
i and brings us to the grass track which the people bf,'the ?
, J island made for their honoured white man, calling it the .
J Road of Loving. Hearts. . At the ;top is the house where ' !
. "R.L.S." was happy. }
j "Very pleasant1 it is, with a garden and latticed win- !
. dows. Behind is the hill where he looked down on the |
! harbour with its ships. There are trees, and a sense of J
, { .peace; and here, when his brave life was done, he found ¡
1 rest. His heart had; always beat fiercely, and always he J
J had been a courageous soul. He triumphed gloriously at ¡
« the end. When he was dead, his friends did what he had i
! asked them to do-burying him in this place with the ¡
5 Pacific round about him,.and his own words on his stone: ¡
5 This be the verse you grave for me: J
¡, Here he lies where he long'd to be; j
i ' Home is the sailor, home from sea, ?
J And the hunter home from the hill. \
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