_At my departure from the island of Apemama_, _for which you will look in vain in most atlases_, _the king and I agreed_, _since we both set up to be in the poetical way_, _that we should celebrate our separation in verse_. _Whether or not his majesty has been true to his bargain_, _the laggard posts of the Pacific may perhaps inform me in six months_, _perhaps not before a year_. _The following lines represent my part of the contract_, _and it is hoped_, _by their pictures of strange manners_, _they may entertain a civilised audience_. _Nothing throughout has been invented or exaggerated_; _the lady herein referred to as the author’s Muse_, _has confined herself to stringing into rhyme facts and legends that I saw or heard during two months’ residence upon the island_. R. L. S. You will have received from me a letter about _The Wrecker_. No doubt it is a new experiment for me, being disguised so much as a study of manners, and the interest turning on a mystery of the detective sort, I think there need be no hesitation about beginning it in the fall of the year. Lloyd has nearly finished his part, and I shall hope to send you very soon the MS. of about the first four-sevenths. At the same time, I have been employing myself in Samoa, collecting facts about the recent war; and I propose to write almost at once and to publish shortly a small volume, called I know not what—the War In Samoa, the Samoa Trouble, an Island War, the War of the Three Consuls, I know not—perhaps you can suggest. It was meant to be a part of my travel book; but material has accumulated on my hands until I see myself forced into volume form, and I hope it may be of use, if it come soon. I have a few photographs of the war, which will do for illustrations. It is conceivable you might wish to handle this in the Magazine, although I am inclined to think you won’t, and to agree with you. But if you think otherwise, there it is. The travel letters (fifty of them) are already contracted for in papers; these I was quite bound to let M’Clure handle, as the idea was of his suggestion, and I always felt a little sore as to one trick I played him in the matter of the end-papers. The war-volume will contain some very interesting and picturesque details: more I can’t promise for it. Of course the fifty newspaper letters will be simply patches chosen from the travel volume (or volumes) as it gets written. But you see I have in hand:—