The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1889-01-30
mR, R, [, STEVENSON,

ested in the following extracts from
q letter Clearing the postmark of .
9th October), written by one of Mr.. |,
Stevenson's party on board the
Casco:--
"Papeete, Tahiti, (date unknown).
II wrote you last, l believe, from
Anaho Bay. We left that delightful
little savage bay after stay of %
days, after having shaved getting on
the reef in our attempt to get out
under too light a breeze. We sailed
round to Tioh,p, tue capital, from
thence TO the windward island of
the group, Hiva-Oa, where we lay q
dozen days in Taaeuku Bay We
had not been there six days, the
'yaisseau aller promener' being the
curiosity of the whole island, who
had never heard of yacht before,
when one morning, q large, lofty,
ugly schooner swept around the
point, made running mooring, and
broke out the Blue Ensign. 1t was
the "Nyanza," thirteen months out
of Plymouth, and belonging to
Scotsman, one Captain Dewar,
bound around the world. 1t was
the FUNNIEST thing that ever hap
pened TO family travelling alone
if such coincidence were placed in
a novel the public would spew you
out OF their mouth. From Ta@uku
we sailed or rather drlfted at the
mercy of unknown and violent cur
rents, passing low and surfy islands
whose positions we could not deter
mine, through the low or dangerous
Archipelago, and after three ner-
vous nights cast anchor in the old
pearl island of Fakarava, the first
yacht that had ever been there.
Fakarava is place to have seen;
three hundred yards wide, it is
more than eighty miles in circumfer-
ence, and standing in the centre you
can see the crashing breakers seaside
and the clear, unbroken, impid
lagoon on the other. There we had
delightful time.
Gas for the cruise, it has indeed
been dream of pleasure. Nut
brown natives, handsome, naked,
tattooed, and Of canibalistic reputa-
tions, have adopted US into their
hearts and homes, and have eX-
changed names with us; beach
combers we have met and chummed
with, and they have written us
verses; chiefs and kings are our
daily visitors; we have feasted
whole populations, and they have
laden us with gifts; we have eaten
kaku, popoy sucking pigs galore,
and made acquaintance with the
juice Of the cor"anut; sweated
under Photographic tents (with q
magnificent haul of negatiyes) !;
once nearly went q the bottom, twice
nigh ashore: have been through the
dangerous Archipelago, have skirt
ed the Perncious Islands (and seen
'em too, by George, have had
pearls given us fresh from the mint,
and tons of lridesccnt pearl shell
from pearling schooners we have
danced with iulI-rigged governors
to the music of concertinas: collect
ed sinking shells Of fantastic shapes
and political economies, tishcd the
gorgeous and poisonous fisher of the
tropic deep, and ate one, once, by
mistake; have been in goal have
J accumulated q competency of sand
; atwood, tikis Gdols), weapons Gone
of which was used twelve years age
at my "brother's" place in Alta.
} wons, before he was degraded from
the chiettaincy, in killing long-pigs),
old mems boards, ornaments OF
human hair from the polls of female
} long-pigs who have joined the ma.
iority, precious woods; and / may
, say we have been popular and be-
= loved wherever the Casco has dropp'
) ed anchor.
"Our plans are highly and sub
stantially vague, but / fancy tha
D after leaving here we shall make fo
Riatea (wherc the French anC
0 native war is adding to history), tt
Borabora, and then to the Sand
0 wiches, sending the yacht back t,
q Frisco from there and getting ;
house and remaing OH.
0 ~ have taken lot of photo
graphs, and have printed them her,
0 on the vilcst paper in Christendom
please keep them, for if anything
> happened to the yacht and we los
our negatives, Louis book woul,
D be in rather box"
U The Captain Dewar referred t,
O is no doubt the proprietor of Vogrie
in the neighbourhood of Edinburg
% - The Scotsman, Saturday, De
cember g, 1888.