_SS. Lübeck_, [_between Apia and Sydney_, _February_] 1890.
MY DEAR BURLINGAME,—I desire nothing better than to continue my relation
with the Magazine, to which it pleases me to hear I have been useful.
The only thing I have ready is the enclosed barbaric piece. As soon as I
have arrived in Sydney I shall send you some photographs, a portrait of
Tembinoka, perhaps a view of the palace or of the ‘matted men’ at their
singing; also T.’s flag, which my wife designed for him: in a word, what
I can do best for you. It will be thus a foretaste of my book of
travels. I shall ask you to let me have, if I wish it, the use of the
plates made, and to make up a little tract of the verses and
illustrations, of which you might send six copies to H. M. Tembinoka,
King of Apemama _via_ Butaritari, Gilbert Islands. It might be best to
send it by Crawford and Co., S. F. There is no postal service; and
schooners must take it, how they may and when. Perhaps some such note as
this might be prefixed:
_At my departure from the island of Apemama_, _for which you will look in
vain in most atlases_, _the king and I agreed_, _since we both set up to
be in the poetical way_, _that we should celebrate our separation in
verse_. _Whether or not his majesty has been true to his bargain_, _the
laggard posts of the Pacific may perhaps inform me in six months_,
_perhaps not before a year_. _The following lines represent my part of
the contract_, _and it is hoped_, _by their pictures of strange manners_,
_they may entertain a civilised audience_. _Nothing throughout has been
invented or exaggerated_; _the lady herein referred to as the author’s
Muse_, _has confined herself to stringing into rhyme facts and legends
that I saw or heard during two months’ residence upon the island_.