Stevenson's letter to Fiji governor to fetch £8000

A 118-YEAR-OLD "lost letter" from Robert Louis Stevenson to the English Governor of Fiji, who had threatened to deport the Scot from his Samoan home, is set to fetch thousands of pounds at auction next week.

The Treasure Island novelist wrote the recently discovered letter on December 27, 1893, a year before his death at the age of 44.

He settled in the South Seas in search of a climate more suited to his delicate health than that of Edinburgh.

He became embroiled in local politics and championed the cause of the people of the Western Pacific against European exploitation and administrative incompetence.

The letter is to be sold at Bonhams' sale of printed books and manuscripts in London on Tuesday. It is estimated to fetch up to 8000.