A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa

In search of warmer climes and better health, Robert Louis Stevenson and his family toured the Pacific, finally settling in Samoa in 1890. Here he gives an eyewitness account of the battle of three Western nations (Britain, the United States, and Germany) for control of Samoa. Not only is this a fine analysis of late-nineteenth-century colonialism, it is also a rollicking good yarn in the best Stevenson tradition.