Mount Vaea

Mount Vaea is best known as the burial place of the Scottish writer and poet Robert Louis Stevenson, who lived the last four years of his life in Samoa before his death on 3 December 1894. Stevenson, who had lived on the east side of Mount Vaea, had chosen the mountain top as his final resting place. The day following his death, his coffin was carried by Samoans to the summit for burial.{{cite book| last = Albert Wendt| first = Robert Louis Stevenson, Roger Robertson| title = Robert Louis Stevenson; his best Pacific writings| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lhOcOJNZuDUC&pg=PA318| accessdate = 1 July 2010| year = 2004| publisher = University of Queensland Press| isbn = 978-0-7022-3429-3| page = 318 }} The steep path to his grave is called the 'Road of Loving Hearts.' It takes about an hour to ascend by foot. Stevenson was called Tusitala (Samoan language: tusi 'book', tala 'writer') by the people of Samoa.Samoan Dictionary, G.B.Milner

Inscribed on Stevenson's tomb is his epitaph:

Under the wide and starry sky,

Dig the grave and let me lie.

Glad did I live and gladly die,

And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:

Here he lies where he longed to be;

Home is the sailor, home from the sea,While published versions of the poem typically render this phrase as "home from sea," the actual gravestone includes the definite article. See, for example, this {{cite web|title=Robert Louis Stevenson grave photo|url=https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/details-photo/the-grave-of-robert-louis-stevenson-1850-1894-on-mount-vaea-in-western-samoa-bearing-a-self-penned-engraved-epitaph/MEV-10547459}}

And the hunter home from the hill.

The ashes of his wife Fanny Stevenson, who died in California in 1914, were taken back by her daughter to Samoa in 1915 and buried beside her husband.{{cite book| last = Terry| first = Reginald Charles| title = Robert Louis Stevenson interviews and recollections| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EE29rkc7DM0C&pg=PA207| accessdate = 1 July 2010| year = 1996| publisher = University of Iowa Press| isbn = 978-0-87745-512-7| page = 207 }} The bronze plaque for Fanny bears her Samoan name 'Aolele' (Flying Cloud in Samoan).

Stevenson's estate and colonial home, Villa Vailima, is now the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum in his honour. It is situated in the village of Vailima at the eastern foot of Mount Vaea.{{Cite web|title=Robert Louis Stevenson Museum|url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/robert-louis-stevenson-museum|access-date=2021-05-16|website=Atlas Obscura|language=en}}

File:Burial and grave of Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa, 1894.jpg.]]

Stevenson's memorial on Mount Vaea and more than {{convert|100|acre|km2}} from the estate are protected by law in Samoa through the Stevenson Memorial Reserve and Mount Vaea Scenic Reserve Ordinance 1958.{{cite web|url=http://www.paclii.org/ws/legis/consol_act/smramvsro1958612/|work=Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute|title=Stevenson Memorial Reserve and Mount Vaea Scenic Reserve Ordinance 1958|accessdate=1 July 2010}}

Part of the 1958 Law states;

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• Certain lands on Mount Vaea which is the resting place of Robert Louis Stevenson formerly of Vailima (known to the people of Samoa as Tusitala), and of Fanny Stevenson, his wife, has been given to the Government of Samoa by the heir of the said Fanny Stevenson as a memorial to Robert Louis Stevenson.
• The lands described...shall be known as the Stevenson Memorial Reserve and shall be maintained in perpetuity by the Government of Samoa in memory of Robert Louis Stevenson and his love for the people of Samoa.
• ....the Mount Vaea Scenic Reserve shall be maintained in perpetuity by the Government of Samoa as a scenic reserve.}}

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• Chanel College, Moamoa

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Category:Mountains of Samoa

Category:Robert Louis Stevenson

Category:Populated places in Tuamasaga

Category:Nature conservation in Samoa

Category:Protected areas of Samoa