Known locally as Tusitala (“storyteller”) Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson (RLS) spent most of 1899-1894, the last few years of his short life, in Sāmoa. Villa Vailima that he had built at the base of Apia’s Mt Vaea was his final home.
Robert Louis Stevenson Museum
Cross Island Road, Vailima
Open Monday – Friday: 9am to 4:30pm and Saturday: 9am to Noon.
Admission $20 for adults; $10 for students and $5 for children under 12
The ticket price includes a guided tour. Group rates are available
Photography, without flash, is allowed
http://rlsmuseum.org/
Robert Louis Stevenson was one of the most popular authors of his time. Having achieved fame and wealth through the success of his novels Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped (1886) and the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), written while at times bedridden suffering from haemorrhaging lungs (likely caused by undiagnosed tuberculosis); he set sail for a warmer climate that he felt would help his poor health. Before deciding on Apia, Sāmoa, he and his wife Fanny first spend two years wandering about in a variety of ships to Tahiti, the Marquesas, Hawai’i, the Cook Islands, Tonga, the Gilbert Islands, New Caledonia, Tokelau and Australia.
In 1890 the Stevensons paid $US 4,000 for a 314 acre jungle clad property at the foot of Mt. Vaea. This location is one cooler than those at sea level, and has a nearby a waterfall and a stream. They built a two-storey, red-rooved, timber house with two verandas, one upstairs, one down and dubbed it Villa Vailima. Vailima became a sort of Mecca for, not only Sāmoans but for the small expatriate community of Apia: Germans, English, a few Americans, along with numbers of overseas visitors who appeared from time to time. Here dinner parties, dances, and picnics were held.
However, these social events were not allowed to interfere with Stevenson’s closely guarded writing discipline, done in a room with a view of Mt. Vaea. There he wrote prolifically among which were several stories about the Pacific Isles such as The Wrecker (1892), the short story collection Island Nights' Entertainments (1893), The Ebb-Tide (1894) and In the South Seas (1896). He also wrote about the current political situation in Sāmoa. His 1892 historical non-fiction work “A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Sāmoa” describes the contemporary Sāmoan Civil War, from a position criticising the American, German and British colonial powers’ battle for control of Sāmoa and its detrimental effect on the Sāmoan community. Convinced that the European officials appointed to rule the Sāmoans were incompetent, he further wrote many letters published in the Times Newspaper in London, firmly in support of the majority of Sāmoans led by Mata’afa Iosefo, bringing international attention to the Sāmoans’ situation.
When he passed away suddenly, by a brain haemorrhage, at the end of 1894 many people mourned his death. 200 Sāmoans cut a track that has become known as the “Road of the Loving Hearts”. It ascends steeply through the dense rainforest, up to a knoll near the summit of Mt Vaea. Here he was laid to rest, overlooking the sea.
Villa Vailima was purchased in 1900 as the residence of the Governor of German Sāmoa Wolfgang Solf and an additional wing was constructed. It remained the premiere residence throughout Sāmoa’s political changes also being the home of various Administrators of the New Zealand mandatory authority and later, the Sāmoan Head of State.
In 1992, the Villa was seriously damaged by cyclone Val. The Robert Louis Stevenson Museum/Preservation Foundation approached the Government of Sāmoa and took on management and reconstruction of the building. On 5 December 1994, one hundred years after the death and burial of RLS, they opened the completely restored building of Vailima to the public. Three chairs from the Stevenson’s original furnishings, shipped from their home in Scotland are in the Museum. Other furniture and objects are period antiques chosen and placed according to photos and other sources such as descriptions from letters and biographies; some items being donated by RLS fans abroad.
Today the village of Vailima and surrounds are where many expatriates live in Apia, and a local beer shares the same name.
VISITOR HIGHLIGHTS
- Take a tour!
- Supplement your visit by reading some (or all!) of RLS’s works. This list includes his literary stories, along with non-fiction writings, essays and personal letters – http://robert-louis-stevenson.org/rlsworks/.
