Mrs. Strong, Stevenson's stepdaughter, and her family were waiting in
Honolulu and gave them a warm welcome. The travellers soon found
themselves the centre of interest among Mrs. Strong's large circle of
friends and it was with difficulty Stevenson found time to finish the
last chapters of "The Master of Ballantrae," which he had been working
on since leaving Saranac.
Honolulu, with its street-cars, shops, electric lights, and mixture of
native and foreign population, seemed strangely crowded and modern after
the scenes they had recently left; too modern by far to suit Stevenson,
who preferred the unconventional wild life of the islands they had come
from.
At the Royal Palace in Honolulu, Kalakaua, the last of the Hawaiian
kings, still held court. He enjoyed R.L.S. and invited him often to the
palace and told him the history and legends of many of the islands of
the South Seas. It was from Kalakaua he first learned to know the
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