This, dear James, is a valedictory. On June 15th the schooner yacht _Casco_ will (weather and a jealous providence permitting) steam through the Golden Gates for Honolulu, Tahiti, the Galapagos, Guayaquil, and--I hope _not_ the bottom of the Pacific. It will contain your obedient 'umble servant and party. It seems too good to be true, and is a very good way of getting through the green-sickness of maturity which, with all its accompanying ills, is now declaring itself in my mind and life. They tell me it is not so severe as that of youth; if I (and the _Casco_) are spared, I shall tell you more exactly, as I am one of the few people in the world who do not forget their own lives. Good-bye, then, my dear fellow, and please write us a word; we expect to have three mails in the next two months: Honolulu, Tahiti, and Guayaquil. But letters will be forwarded from Scribner's, if you hear nothing more definite directly. In 3 (three) days I leave for San Francisco.--Ever yours most cordially, R. L. S. FOOTNOTES: [21] For the actual sum, see below, p. 243. [22] "But she was more than usual calm, She did not give a single dam." _Marjorie Fleming._ [23] Of the play _Deacon Brodie_. [24] "Smith opens out his cauld harangues On practice and on morals." The Rev. George Smith of Galston, the minister thus referred to by Burns (in the _Holy Fair_), was a great-grandfather of Stevenson on the mother's side; and against Stevenson himself, in his didactic moods, the passage was often quoted by his friends when they wished to tease him. [25] Afterwards changed to Alison. [26] Alluding to a kind of lofty, posturing manner of G. M.'s in mind and speech, quite different from any real insincerity. X PACIFIC VOYAGES YACHT _CASCO_--SCHOONER _EQUATOR_--S.S. _JANET NICOLL_ JUNE 1888-OCTOBER 1890