Post #629876 by TikiTomD on Sat, Mar 24, 2012 1:30 PM

Sven, both the RLS and Robert Crumb graphic portraits indeed do look more alive than a photo... for me, it’s primarily in the eyes, though there is in each case something about the facial expression as well.

The Stevenson’s arrival in Sydney, Australia in February, 1890 was newsworthy. In the article below, it’s clear that Louis was already well attuned to Samoan rivalries and politics...

The Southland Times February 28, 1890

After the Stevensons arrived in Sydney, Louis got ill. There was just something about Sydney’s climate that didn’t agree with RLS, but he seemed to do especially well when at sea in the South Pacific, so Fanny and Louis aborted immediate plans to return to England, instead booking passage aboard the steamer Janet Nicol for a three-month plus cruise among the South Sea islands...

The Evening Post April 22, 1890

This was an enchanting adventure for the two of them, and it was captured in a 1914 book by Fanny Stevenson based upon her diary, The Cruise of the “Janet Nicol” Among the South Sea Islands. The book included some photos...

Here is one of my favorite photos of Louis and Fanny, taken on Butaritari in the Gilbert Islands...

On May 1, 1890, they anchored for a day or so in Apia Harbor, Samoa, just their second ever arrival there. While in Apia, they saw a friend, the injured old Samoan chief Sitione. It’s clear from this passage in the book that Louis and Fanny already knew Dr. Funk, presumably from their initial stay in Apia...

There’s no ambiguity about who Fanny is referring to as the doctor, for her diary published in the 1955 book edited by Charles Neider, Our Samoan Adventure, contains this entry from October 23, 1890...

It seems that our good doctor was considered a “clever physician” not without reason. While Fanny refers to a large Samoan bat (flying fox) in the passage above as a vampire bat, they are in fact fruit eaters, not vampires.

At the conclusion of their South Seas cruise on the Janet Nicol, Fanny and Louis disembarked back at Sydney. Louis again fell ill, so they headed back to Samoa on the steamship Lübeck.

To be continued...

-Tom