This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!
A Noble Race That Is Dying In Pacific Isles
Robert Louis Stevenson’s vivid account from Anaho details Marquesan life amid looming depopulation. He notes artistic beauty, daily labor, and the chilling certainty of extinction as smallpox, tuberculosis, and mortality reshape the population. He observes tapu laws governing behavior, death rituals, and superstitions, highlighting chiefs, social change, and the caste-like control of tradition under French influence.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Robert Louis Stevenson
Pacific Isles
Seaard
Ross
Bay
Anaho
Cove
Gilberts
Cordillon
Tai-o-hie
Stanislao Moanatini
Hapes
Herman Melville
Haper
Hapaa ix
Britain
the Hatihen
M. Russel
Erimstus
M. Nouveanu
Hapaa
Boro
Polynesia
Gladstone
Nestor
Taipi
Hauiheu
Tahiti
Mr. Regler
Tuipi
Hatihea
West End
Hira Oa
South Seas
Marquesas
Marquesan
Cesar
Wackeba
Kavanul
Anabo
Annho
Europe
Scotland
Rome
M. Ausgel
Tapus
Hawaii
Hatihne
Hoka
Ah Foo
Campbell
New Zealand
Scotland Yard
Ion
Regler
Mr. Kegler
Louis Stevenson
Anorna
Auorna
Vooron
Eavena
Ana