The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls

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AMATEUR EMIGRANT

 "Hope went before them
  And the world was wide."


In the summer of 1879 R.L.S. was once more seized with the desire to
roam and to roam farther than ever before. California had been beckoning
to him for some time, and in August he suddenly made up his mind, and
with scarcely a word of farewell to his family and friends he embarked
on the steamship _Devonia_, bound for New York.

Partly for the sake of economy, for he determined to pay his own way on
this venture, and partly because he was anxious to experience emigrant
life, he engaged passage in the second cabin, which in those days
differed very little from the steerage. The main advantages were a
trifle better food and a cabin to himself with a table where he could