Tusitala

When Robert Louis Stevenson arrived at the northern shore of ‘Upolu, Samoa, in December of 1888, he was unimpressed by the island. Littered with half-sunken warships, the Samoan coast was underwhelming compared to that of Hawaii, Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands.

Already playing host to several-hundred onerous Europeans, the native population did not immediately embrace the Stevenson family and their shipmates. Only after Louis built his 315-acre estate on ‘Upolu–which he named Vailima, or Five Rivers–did the Samoans begin to trust him. Where most Europeans trod with irreverence, Louis exercised deference, proclaiming, “I have chosen this land to be my land, and these people to be my people, to live and die with.”

On ‘Upolu, Louis was dubbed Tusitala, or “Storyteller.” At Vailima he added to his body of work (already including such works as Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), penning The Beach of Falesa, The Ebb-Tide and A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa, a harsh criticism of colonial involvement on the islands.

On December 3, 1894, Robert Louis Stevenson died at home in Vailima of a brain hemorrhage–not the tuberculosis for which he had sought out the temperate climate of Samoa. Louis’ tomb can be found at the top of Mt. Vaea, near Vailima.

After Louis’ death, the Samoan chief Tu’imaleali’ifano said:

Talofa e i lo matou Tusitala. Ua tagi le fatu ma le ‘ele’ele.

“Our beloved Tusitala. The stones and the earth weep.”