In the South Seas

The author of Treasure Island shares true stories of his travels in the Pacific in these portraits of nineteenth-century Tahiti, New Zealand, and beyond.

Setting sail from San Francisco in June 1888, the author of Kidnapped and other classic adventure fiction embarked on a journey of his own. Having endured periods of illness and isolation in his earlier years, Robert Louis Stevenson was determined to see the far corners of the world.

His extensive travels took him to the Hawaiian Islands, the Gilbert Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Samoa, where he would eventually settle. This collection of Stevenson’s writings recounts these wondrous years of nineteenth-century South Seas exploration.