He loved to have friends around him.
Over the dinner plates he entertained the
company with his anecdotes. But he never
monopolized the conversation; he was as
ready a listener as he was a ready talker.
After dinner, music, or more smoking and
more talking on the veranda — and coffee
par excellence — coffee the sugar in which
had first of all been soaked in burnt brandy 1
Mr. Sewall, the United States Consul,
was a frequent visitor at the house ; so, later,
was his successor, Mr. Mulligan. Two
other great friends were Judge Ide, later
Governor of the Philippines, and Mr. Bazett
Haggard, the Lands Commissioner, a



5 8 WITH STEVENSON IN SAMOA

brother of Rider Haggard. Mulligan ad-
mired Stevenson almost to the point of ad-
oration, and once he let it carry him so far
that he actually stole a book which Steven-
son had autographed. A few friends had
been spending the evening at Vailima and
among them was Jack Buckland, the orig-
inal of Tommy Haddon in The Wrecker.
He was a passenger on the Janet Ntcoll, an
iron screw steamer of about six hundred tons,
on which Stevenson voyaged from Sydney,
to the islands, and he was one of the trio
to whom Island Nights^ Entertainments
was afterwards dedicated, the other two
being Mr. Harry Henderson, part owner of
the vessel, and Ben Hird, the supercargo.
On the evening in question, Stevenson wrote
something in one of his books, I forget
which, and presented it to Buckland. The
latter returned to Apia in company with Mr.
Mulligan and my son-in-law, Mr. I. C.
