Robert Louis Stevenson started to write "In the South Seas" in 1889, sailing at the "Equator", during his second cruise on the Pacific. This trip was taken in the company of his wife, Fanny, his stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, his mother, Margaret Stevenson (Maggie) and a French nurse on service with the Stevensons, since 1887, Valentine Roch; His purpose was to engage in a serious work about the South Seas, based on his personal experience and on his collection of a lot of informations about the manners and habits os its native inhabitants.
Towards the end of the "Equator" cruise, Stevenson started trying to put together the material he had collected about South Seas culture, language, traditions and society: anthropology, history, sociology together with personal impressions. He had already agreed with S. S. McClure (in 1888) to sell him “letters” from the South Seas to be syndicated in newspapers and magazines. These he hoped to use for materials for the “big book” on the Pacific.
The volume published as In the South Seas was edited by Sidney Colvin and published after Robert Louis Stevenson’s death in 1896.
Many critics recognize "In the South Seas" as the best travel's book published in the 19th Century.
