When Robert Louis Stevenson traveled to Samoa (Pacific island) in 1889, he was already a famous and respected writer.  Best known for the novel Treasure Island, Stevenson went from Scotland to Hawaii, and then to Samoa in search of a comfortable climate to help ease his health problems (he suffered from tuberculosis).  The Pacific-Islanders, proud of their rich culture, came to appreciate the writer and called him Tusitala, or “teller of tales.”