Robert Luis Stevenson's "In the South Seas"

I've started reading Robert Luis Stevenson's In the South Seas, which is not a rollicking adventure tale like Treasure Island nor a moralistic fable like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is a non-fiction travelogue of experiencing and falling hopelessly in love with the islands of the South Pacific. I can certainly relate! Stevenson writes at a masterful level and his evocative prose touches my spirit as much as the adventures  of young Jim Hawkins amongst the pirates did for me decades ago.

Here are two offerings from the Part I: The Marquesas:

"The first experience can never be repeated. The first love, the first sunrise, the first South Sea island, are memories apart..."

and

"Few men who come to the islands leave them; they grow grey where they alighted; the palm shades and the trade-wind fans them till they die, perhaps cherishing to the last the fancy of a visit home, which is rarely made, more rarely enjoyed, and yet more rarely repeated."