The Robert Louis Stevenson Museum is set in the Scottish author's beautifully restored former residence, Villa Vailima. Stevenson had the mansion built in 1890 after deciding the climate of 'Upolu might ameliorate his tuberculosis, but he died there a mere four years later. Stevenson and his wife Fanny Osborne are buried in the adjacent Mt Vaea Scenic Reserve.
His gravesite looks out over the 'Upolu's white fringe of reef and the distant horizon. After he died the people of Upolu worked 24 hours non-stop to hack a path to the top of the hill so that the body of their beloved tusitala ('storyteller') could be buried the next day with full ceremonial privileges.
On the tombstone is inscribed RL Stevenson's elegy with its famous last two lines: Home is the sailor, home from the sea/ And the hunter home from the hill.
