Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa
by Fiona McFarlane It’s family lore that, on my paternal grandmother’s side, we had an ancestor who lived in Samoa at the same time as Robert Louis Stevenson. The name of this ancestor – my great, great, great grandfather – was George Pratt. Or, more correctly, the Reverend George Pratt, who was born in Portsea, England, trained with the London Missionary Society and, with his wife Mary, set out for Samoa in 1838, calling at Hobart, Sydney and Tahiti along the way. Pratt lived at a mission station in Matautu on Savai’i Island. Mary died five years after their arrival…