Robert Louis Stevenson The Samoans insisted on surrounding his body with a watch-guard during the night and on bearing him on their shoulders to nearby Mount Vaea, where they buried him on a spot overlooking the sea on land donated by British Acting Vice Consul Thomas Trood. Stevenson had always wanted his Requiem inscribed on his tomb: Stevenson was loved by the Samoans, and his tombstone epigraph was translated to a Samoan song of grief. Half of Stevenson's original manuscripts are lost, including those of "Treasure Island", "The Black Arrow," and "The Master of Ballantrae". His heirs sold his papers during World War
Robert Louis Stevenson in 1869, and for three weeks to the island of Erraid in 1870. He enjoyed the travels more for the material they gave for his writing than for any engineering interest. The voyage with his father pleased him because a similar journey of Walter Scott with Robert Stevenson had provided the inspiration for Scott's 1822 novel "The Pirate". In April 1871, Stevenson notified his father of his decision to pursue a life of letters. Though the elder Stevenson was naturally disappointed, the surprise cannot have been great, and Stevenson's mother reported that he was "wonderfully resigned" to his son's choice.