FAR OVER SEAS AN ISLAND IS
(1889?)
The date of the manuscript is uncertain, but the contents would seem to indicate that it was written prior to Stevenson's setting forth upon his voyage to the islands of the Pacific. "Tossing palms" belong to the Southern Seas,[1] and Stevenson was indeed "done with all," when he took up his abode in the far off island of Samoa. His recognition of the modes of restlessness which would assail him in a place so distant from all the friends and scenes of his past life, here leads him to call upon those resources of the spirit and of the imagination that are the mainstay of man in whatever abode. And so, after asking himself,—
Have I no castle then in Spain,
No island of the mind?
he charges his soul to seek those enchanted islands and streams of desire that are not charted on any map.
- ↑ In Stevenson's description of the South Sea Island of Tutuila he says: "Groves of cocoanut run high on the hills;" and on entering the bay of Oa, he exclaims, "At the first sight, my mind was made up; the bay of Oa was the place for me!"
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