Pacific Travel
Home Is The Sailor
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Vailima
Visit Vailima at the right time of the day, and you can imagine Robert
Louis Stevenson has just stepped out of his study for a walk around the
home's magnificent tropical gardens. The Scotsman arrived in Samoa in
1889 after a long journey that took him to Hawaii and Tahiti among many
other destinations.
He was already famous as the author of Kidnapped, The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Treasure Island. In Samoa he became famous as the au "Tusitala"--Teller of Tales. - ADVERTISEMENT - Stevenson had Vailima built on a spread of land at the base of Mount Vaea. He lived there with his American wife Fanny, stepdaughter Belle, her son Austin, and his mother, who was widely known as "Aunt Maggie." Fanny was known for her industriousness--Samoans dubbed her Aolele or flying cloud--for her white dress and haste. Fanny was also known for her mess: a drawing of her bedroom in its original state shows belongings strewn everywhere, a far cry from the pristine space it now appears to visitors. But she was house-proud. Her diaries relate her attention to detail at Vailima and provided inspiration for its restoration, "The dining room we have hung with a yellowish terracotta tapa, the window casings and door being a strong peacock blue, and the ceiling a sort of cream color…My own room is beginning to have the softly jewelled look that I am so fond of." Visitors to the house can now can imagine Robert Louis Stevenson stealing into her room to pin poems or a dedication to the curtains of her bed.
The restored Vailima also features examples of the dress of the time, now seemingly so incongruous for the tropical climate. A version of Aunt Maggie's widow's cap ("It made her look like Queen Victoria" chuckles our guide) hangs on a coat stand, and clothing and accessories of the style Fanny would have worn stand guard in her room. Austin's room is among the most evocative. Its walls bear a quiver of arrows and a trunk spills dominos, it is as if he had run off to the garden, to hide from Aunty Maggie and her poetry tuition. Stevenson immersed himself in Samoan politics. He was a vocal supporter of chief Mataafa, who was engaged in a complex power struggle with other Samoan leaders, and a critic of the German colonial administration. In his study with its commanding views of Apia and the sea, Stevenson wrote short stories, prayers, many letters to English newspapers on the local political situation, and began Weir of Herminston. Vailima was a house full of industrious people. RLS himself rose at dawn to begin writing. Breakfast was at 6 a.m. In his later years, Stevenson took to dictating his stories to his daughter Belle, sometimes for eight hours at a stretch. He told her of his last novel, "the story unfolds itself before me to its last detail--there is nothing left in doubt. I never felt so before in anything I ever wrote." But Stevenson was a sick man, a sufferer of chronic tuberculosis. The restored Vailima bears evidence of this illness-particularly in his sick room which includes an armoire containing a raft of medicines of the time.
Robert Louis Stevenson died in 1894, leaving Weir of Herminston unfinished. He was buried at the top of Mount Vaea, his body borne by 40 grieving men. His family left Samoa, never to return. Since then, Vailima has served as an official home for the heads of (then) Western Samoan administrations. After renovation, it was transformed into a museum. There is one original piece of the Stevenson's furniture in the home, and the rest has been faithfully recreated. When you visit, be sure to stand in a quiet corner of the house. The spirit of the place will transport you back over 100 years to the world of Tusitala. Vailima is open from Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. On Saturdays, it is open from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Vailima is closed on Sundays. There is an admission fee. For more information, visit www.visitsamoa.ws
|
