to Sidney Colvin

Yacht ‘Casco,’ Anaho Bay, Nukahiva,
Marquesas Islands [July 1888].

MY DEAR COLVIN,—From this somewhat (ahem) out of the way place, I write to say how d’ye do.  It is all a swindle: I chose these isles as having the most beastly population, and they are far better, and far more civilised than we.  I know one old chief Ko-o-amua, a great cannibal in his day, who ate his enemies even as he walked home from killing ’em, and he is a perfect gentleman and exceedingly amiable and simple-minded: no fool, though.

The climate is delightful; and the harbour where we lie one of the loveliest spots imaginable.  Yesterday evening we had near a score natives on board; lovely parties.  We have a native god; very rare now.  Very rare and equally absurd to view.

This sort of work is not favourable to correspondence: it takes me all the little strength I have to go about and see, and then come home and note, the strangeness around us.  I shouldn’t wonder if there came trouble here some day, all the same.  I could name a nation that is not beloved in certain islands—and it does not know it! [114]  Strange: like ourselves, perhaps, in India!  Love to all and much to yourself.

R. L. S.